Muy Anti-Bueno

I haven't been to an SCA event in quite a while, but we couldn't have picked one better than Tryggvy's War. Except for forgetting to bring any non-social activities for downtime, it was great.

The site for the event had been changed at the last moment (speculation about leet-haxorring of the park registry abounds), but the new site was a pleasant one we'd been to before (Cheagle Lake Park, in Lebanon). The scenery there is wonderful, if you ignore the roving septic tank trunks, lumber mill (which I didn't mind), and occasional chainlink fence.

The highlight was the actual war, which was everything but conventional. Games involved longboat battles (the "longboats", unfortunately, broke pretty quickly), resource-gathering, and a soccer-like game played with a big box that was drug around the field. The Hospitalers fought valiantly, with Larry acting very much like Lord Francesco.

The rapier fights on the side were very interesting for me. The rapier fighters, while a smaller bunch, I think are also a nicer and more entertaining bunch. Rapier tends to be less competitive. They were also demonstrating a cut-and-thrust style of rapier fighting that's pending approval in An Tir.

The Iron Viking competition involved both heavy combat participation and wrestling in three different styles (the first two relatively conventional, the last involving both contestants hanging onto the same wooden pole and trying to force each other off a wooden platform). For fun, the Prince of the Summits also joined in (alongside a Duke who was doing the whole of the Iron Viking). The women of our camp were much appeased when I notified them to half-naked men grappling.

The Sundown Tourney was delayed into becoming the low-participant-count-dim-Torchlight
Tourney, due to far too many pointy hats being present at Court (which dragged on for hours). Beforehand I, personally, got a bit of entertainment by being sold into slavery by my mother and Jan in exchange for a bota bag.

The most vital thing to my pleasurable experience at this event was good garb. Instead of the 12th Century Irish tunics, which were made for a period of time and place that was much colder than late July in Oregon, I had a 16th Century ruffle-necked-and-collared shirt and pantaloons. The Renaissance has much more comfortable summer clothing (for men).

In August there's two other interesting events (The Blade and Bow rapier and archery college, and the Long and the Short of It), so I'll likely be spending the closing days of my summer in the Current Middle Ages.

http://www.scifi.com/amazingscrewonhead/

You can see the pilot there, and it's awesome.

Labels: epic, geekery, vids

http://s-p-o-n-g-e.com/index.php3

A fun Cthulian site I remembered from a few years back. Unfortunately, it doesn't look to have had anything done to it for those few years. Still very fun to poke around, and a SPONGEsque CoC campaign could be very fun.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3382491587979249836

David Hasselhoff's car is a cylon.

"In 1972, a crack commando unit botched their fast-talk rolls and were railroaded by the GM into prison for a crime they did not commit. They promptly killed all the guards, took their stuff, and escaped into the Los Angeles underground. Today, still wanted by the government, they survive as a party of soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if the GM needs a quick plot, and if you make your streetwise roll...then maybe you can hire...the A-Team. "

Japanese television can be very interesting.

Today was July the Fourth, during which we celebrate flipping the political birdie to King George by setting fire to packs of colored gunpowder. All in all, a truly fantastic holiday.

It struck me this morning (by which I mean 2 p.m.) that if we could appeal to the same sense of quasi-spiritual nationalism that imperialists did with Manifest Destiny, America could really become a real force of good in the world. The Great Society and other projects of the 20th Century were a step in the right direction, but naturally it's harder to get people enthusiastic about being altruistic than it is to convince them that taking a lot of land by force is a good idea.



Now that it's summer and I have huge amounts of time, I've decided that I shall sometime make a 24-Hour RPG. I know you're not supposed to brainstorm ahead of time, but it's nigh-impossible not to occasionally kick around an idea or two.

Initially, I thought I'd do something silly with an alliterative title, like Vikings and Vampires. Then, I had the idea of doing (what would likely not end up being a 24-Hour RPG, since I'd want to refine it down) a NationStates: the RPG type game. Quite a challenge, naturally, but with great potential. You could either do it in a PvP form (in which case it'd be like highly detailed Risk), or in traditional Players-and-a-GM form (the 'party' being an alliance like NATO or the Allies, and the GM's 'NPCs' being a BBEG like the Axis and various rogue states).

The main obstacle to me doing any sort of RPG-making would be mathematical incompetence (I'm baffled at how people start from scratch and make a balanced game), and possibly a fundamental unwillingness to think in high-falutin' Forge-like terms. I think for now I'll just stick to the NS site and hopefully some Striker in the future.



And thus ends the first segment of my unintentionally steam-of-conciousness bombasticity.

Could it be? Maybe I'll actually post with regularity in this one?