Ravings of a Textual Deviant

Congratulations! You’re Faramir!

Which Lord of the Rings character and personality problem are you?
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Skyfall, by Catherine Asaro, is exactly what you would expect from her. It’s a bit light on space combat, but there’s more than enough action on the ground to make up for it. Skyfall goes back up the Ruby Dynasty family tree a bit, and focuses on the relationship between two characters who have been popping up here and there in other stories and novels. If you already like Asaro’s work, you’ll like Skyfall. If you’re not familiar with her work, go back and read one of her one-offs first. (The Veiled Web is a good place to start, or The Phoenix Code.)

Hybrids, (Final book in the Neanderthal Parallax trilogy) by Robert J. Sawyer, is a reasonably satisfying ending to the trilogy, but not the best of three. I would have liked to see more emphasis on the problem posed at the end of Humans, and less on one of the minor characters who becomes more important. The trilogy overall is very strong, and I am glad that Sawyer finally won a Hugo. The best aspect of the Hybrids is the way Sawyer goes further into the Neanderthal culture, and how it affects interpersonal relationships…when personal refers to both species. The chapter-heading quotes are a bit of a distraction individually, so I highly recommend that you read them in sequence, rather than in bits.

Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. My favorite thing about this book is the world that it’s in. Humans are trying to carve out haven of safety from the Others, which include demons, weres, and the Darkest Others–vampires. One such haven is the coffeeshop at which the main character is a baker. Unfortunately, the humans are fighting a losing battle–losing slowly, mind you, but losing nonetheless. It’s a little bit Buffy, a little bit Deerskin, and deliciously dark.

Grass for His Pillow, (Tales of the Otori, Books 2) by Lian Hearn. Hearn (not the author’s real name) is a longtime Japanophile, and her work is notable for having captured the feel of medieval Japan, the way a really good translation of The Tale of Genji does. Grass for His Pillow is so packed full of plot, I can’t imagine what she’s got left for the final installment of the trilogy (The Brilliance of the Moon, due out in summer of 2004). As enjoyable as Grass is, don’t try and read it without first picking up Book 1, Across the Nightingale Floor. Hearn’s series work is what I describe as anti-Pratchettian–with Terry Pratchett’s work, you can pick up any Discworld novel and have a good time without feeling lost. Reminiscent of Kara Dalkey’s Genpei, only with an ensemble cast.

You are Dr. Bunson Honeydew.
You love to analyse things and further the cause of
science, even if you do tend to blow things up
more often than not.

HOBBIES:
Scientific inquiry, Looking through microscopes,
Recombining DNA to create decorative art.
QUOTE:
“Now, Beakie, we’ll just flip this switch and
60,000 refreshing volts of electricity will
surge through your body. Ready?”

FAVORITE MUSICAL ARTIST:
John Cougar Melonhead

LAST BOOK READ:
“Quantum Physics: 101 Easy Microwave
Recipes”

NEVER LEAVES HOME WITHOUT:
An atom smasher and plenty of extra atoms.

What Muppet are you?
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Ed has spoken to his soon-to-be-ex-employer about the rubber paycheck problem (it failed to clear again this morning). The employer is going to write a replacement check from the “good” account. We’ll see…but I’m not holding my breath.

In just over an hour, I have an interview…and I’m a nervous wreck. Never mind that this is a formality; the potential client saw my resume and already wants me to start tomorrow. They probably just want to make sure that I actually exist and have a minimum level of social skills. The last few months have been so whacked that I can’t take anything for granted right now.

Update: The client is happy. The account rep from my company is happy. I am relieved.

Ed’s soon-to-be-ex-employer may have more than one soon-to-be-ex-employee. The paychecks have bounced again–the second time in six weeks. I’m ever so relieved that we’re not going to have to deal with this nonsense much longer. And triple damages would make a lovely parting gift.

Which Survivor of the Impending Nuclear Apocalypse Are You?
A Rum and Monkey joint.

I got more than a bit behind when I involuntary quit gaming on Fridays, and then dropped out of the Thursday game as a pre-emptive measure. I’m going to skip #72 for the abovelinked reason.

Game WISH #73

What?s the biggest PC-driven shift you?ve ever experienced in a campaign? If you were a player, what made you feel like you could successfully change the GM?s world? If you were a GM, was this planned or something the PCs surprised you with?

Back in the undergraduate days, I think that we used to drive Rob absolutely around the bend with the wacky, off-the-wall plot shifts that came up. There are too many incidents for me to single out one–maybe Dorothea remembers something.

In Doug’s games, the big, player-driven plot shifts tend to come about as the result of badly failed (or excessively successful) die rolls, though I don’t know that you’d call those player-driven, really. Somehow or other, Doug manages to manipulate the situation enough so that even when it looks like we’re off track, we’re actually just on a different track to the same place.

As a player, I don’t intentionally derail the GM’s carefully thought-out plans…but the plots I often find myself in are so deep and twisty that there are a lot of options and decision points. On the other side of the table, I like to set up a plot outline and let the players wander at will within it. In the Grand Ellipse, the entire Jimmy Pilkington plotline blindsided me, but I liked it, so I went with it. It turned out to drive some of Shirley’s actions later on, and the player–as far as I could tell at the time–never knew the difference.

Game WISH #74

Name three or more supplements (or core books, for that matter) for existing game systems that you?d like to see. Why? What inspires your interest in these supplement? What existing supplements or materials are you using instead?

GURPS has a supplement for darned near everything, but I am always up for another volume of Alternate Earths, total alternate-history fangirl that I am. (I’d also like to see a GURPS supplement for the Mongol Conquest, but only because I want to write it.) AE 1 & 2 are more than adequate, though, so I am not feeling any lack of material as yet. At the moment, I’m (intermittently) working on a FTF campaign called Fimbulwinter, using the Miklaagard word in AE2. A GURPS Kalevala would be useful, though not strictly necessary, but I’m not holding my breath for that.

I’m also very fond of Palladium’s Beyond the Supernatural, even though I rarely get to play it. I can’t get enough weird, freaky stuff, I suppose. I’m not really using it at the moment, though, so there aren’t any substitutes.

Finally, I could use some more goodies, gadgets, and background material for my old favorite, first edition (not manga-fied) Teenagers From Outer Space. Fortunately, my players, $DEITY love ‘em, are sufficiently inventive on their own to keep things interesting. In an emergency, I’ve been known to pull out my Acme Catalog from ‘Toon (another old favorite).

Game WISH #75

A lot of neogamers I play with are uncomfortable with taking real religions and putting them into play. With all the ?Satanist? backlash against D&D that there?s been, do you feel comfortable having any religion in your games? Do you scrub it of anything controversial?

The only time I scrub anything controversial is if I risk mortally offending a player. So far, this hasn’t come up–at least, not that I am aware of. (I wouldn’t scrub content for a character’s mental comfort, however. Characters should be mortally offended on occasion; it’s good for them.) Personally, I’m very comfortable having religions, real and imagined, in my games as either a player or a GM. Also, not being Christian–and especially, coming from a non-proselytizing religious tradition–I’m not of a mind to tell anyone that their beliefs are right or wrong, in game or out. (Personally, I find Satanism largely irrelevant and faintly silly, but that’s my opinion.) Like so many other elements of gaming, religion in the fictional narrative may resemble its counterpart in the real world, but it’s not the real thing. If everyone in a gaming group has a firm grasp the difference between the game and the real world, then bringing religion into a campaign makes the campaign world ever so much richer. (Though the absence of religion could be very interestng too; Robert J. Sawyer does this extremely well in his Parallax trilogy.)

Game WISH #76

A lot is made of the role of the GM in a game, but what is the role of the player?

Without players, you don’t have a game. I tend to see a gaming group as an improv theater-of-the-mind company. The GM is the director and often, but not always, the playwright. The players are actors and contributing authors.

My brother has always had a talent for description. We were discussing magazines, and his take on Mother Earth News is so quintessentially Ari that I felt compelled to share.

it’s kinda a compromise between kim’s sense of style and aesthetic and my desire for overambitious do-it-yourself projects

Reposted (with slight modifications) from Food, Cooking, and Tales of Culinary Disaster…

Ed is an extremely picky eater, and even he likes this. The recipe is originally from my great-grandmother. My mom insists that you have to use extra sharp colby cheese, or it simply won’t taste right. However, if you don’t, she’s highly unlikely to find out about it, so substitute as you like. I’ve used cheddar, and a combination of cheddar and Monterey jack. It does taste better with a really sharp cheese.

The ingredients are very simple–macaroni or similar pasta, plain tomato sauce, and extra sharp colby cheese. (I’ve been known to thin out tomato paste with water in an emergency, which works fairly well if you whisk it thoroughly.) Amounts vary with the size of the casserole dish you’re using. I usually use about 1 to 1 1/2 cups of cooked and drained pasta, 6 ounces of tomato sauce, and 1/2 to 3/4 cup of shredded cheese per layer (you can use less; Ed likes it extra-cheesy, so my estimate is high).

Put the pasta in first, then the cheese, and cover with tomato sauce. You can pour it over and spread it around a bit, but don’t worry if it’s not even. Repeat for every layer except the top one. (I’ve found that most large casserole dishes hold three layers.) For the top layer, put the tomato sauce in before the cheese, so that the cheese will form a crust on top of the casserole. If you’re feeling extravagant and have no fear of fat, you can dot the top of the casserole with butter or margarine. I usually don’t bother.

Bake at 350?F for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how brown and crisp you want the crust to be. It’s supposed to be gooey inside, so don’t leave it in so long that it dries out. Not vegan. Not low-fat. Not low-carb. But very, very good.