March 2011
145 posts
February 2011
77 posts
“In my tortured ears there sounds unceasingly a nightmare whirring and flapping, and a faint distant baying as of some gigantic hound. It is not dream – it is not, I fear, even madness – for too much has already happened to give me these merciful doubts.”
—HP Lovecraft The Hound
DunDraCon
A couple days ago I returned from the gaming convention, DunDraCon. I had a lot of fun! Even when I didn’t get picked for games, I was pretty successful at crashing.
Three of the games I played used game systems I was unfamiliar with. One was called Miracle Max’s Mansion and was a blend of systems: 7th Sea/Risus/In Nomine. None of which I’d played before. It was based partially on the Princess Bride, Sesame Street, Ghost Busters, Westworld, some of the more recent Disney films and Clue (the board game). Lots of problem solving and puzzles. Very little die rolling. Very creative and a lot of fun. It was created and GMed by Kaaren Bock. From her description, “And there’s something about this house that’s strangely familiar. Is it the rooms: hall, lounge, study, kitchen, dining, library, conservatory, ballroom? Or is it some of the characters and problems you face: disdainful door knockers, frustrated appliances, animated animal rugs, cunning library ladders, clockwork gunslingers and optical puzzles?”
Another, The Putrescent Seven, used the Shambles game system. It was a zombified Seven Samurai/Magnificent 7 game. From the description by the GM/creator, Duane O’Brien, “What do you do if you’re a poor farm village being harassed by heartless bandits? Obviously, you hire the toughest, hungriest zombie gunman you can find and have a showdown. We’re going to have a little fun with The Magnificent Seven, zombie style.” Excellent game! Duane is a fab GM; in fact, my favorite at DunDraCon.
Then there was The Guild of Irascible Scoundrels. It used a system called Dragoons 20, which is based on Microlite 20. You can download the whole thing for free. From the description by the GM/creator, Randy Angle, ”What could go wrong when nefarious nogoodniks form a group to pull off an incredible heist in this comedy fantasy steampunk setting?” I got to play a rascally bipedal reptile. His pet dragoon, Tusker, was about 10x his size. Good ol’ Tusker, a huge warthog-type critter with an adorable high pitched growl. Totally fun game!
“And at last I resolved to scale that tower, fall though I might; since it were better to glimpse the sky and perish, than to live without ever beholding day.”
—
“The Outsider” by H. P. Lovecraft
Spanish jumping spider →
1x.com
Portrait of a rare Spanish jumping spider, Saitis Barbipes, by Tomas Rak.
Tourist photo art →
mymodernmet.com
Corinne Vionnet combines hundreds of typical tourist destination pics into one. Each contains 200-300 photos. Some of my favorites below. Check out all eighteen here.
