News Archives: February 2008

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Carry On at Camp David

Carry On at Camp David ran at Scotscon a few years back, and was one of those games people talked about for ages afterwards. It's a light-hearted, vaguely political freeform, full of great characters for roleplayers. I've just got my hands on a full copy of the game.

Looks like Saturday, 12th April is free, so I'm tentatively planning to run the game then. I can change this if people suggest a better date. The game will run in the afternoon, so as not to interfere with parties or pubbing in the evening.

I'll probably run it at Heriot Watt, assuming the committee can sort me out a suitable room. (The main room in management will be fine; the night club in the union is where we ran last time.)

All I need now are 18 players (at least 5 women, at least 5 men), and an extra GM or two (Ben? Andy?) If you're interested in playing, please e-mail the casting questionaire below to camp@albionsoft.com. As always, feel free to pass this on to friends who might be interested.

***

You are cordially invited to a

Carry On at Camp David

A 3 hr Freeform

On the Afternoon of Saturday 12th April (tentative)

It is the 17th November 1962, and the Cold War is at its height. Throughout the USA, rumours of communist conspiracies abound.

The setting is Camp David, the US President’s official rural retreat. President David Nixody has broken off trade negotiations to hold a reception in honour of astronaut Buzz Leapyear who is to be presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor. It is a relaxed, informal occasion, and the speeches are expected to be kept short.

The President is also expected to make an announcement about the Statue of Liberty replacement project, which has received much media coverage of late.

The reception officially starts at 6.30pm with a brief welcome from the president, and will end at 8pm when dinner will be served. The game starts a few minutes before 6.30, with the guests gathered in the ballroom.

Casting Questionaire

Name :
Male or Female :

Have you played Carry On at Camp David before?
Have you heard stories about the game?
If "yes" to either, what secrets can you remember?

Style of play (indicate what you're interested in, with some guide as to which are most important to you)

Do you want to solve mysteries?
Do you want to role play a colourful character?
Do you want to trade with other players?
Do you want a position of power?
Do you want romantic complications and/or a seductive role?

Anyone you particularly want to be paired up with in game?

Is the suggested date okay for you?
Are there any other dates which are particularly good/bad for you?

***

For the uninitiated.

What is a Freeform?

Freeforms are sometimes referred to as LARP or live-action role-playing, but that term is confusingly also used for the noble art of hitting each other with rubber swords.

A freeform is a type of role-playing game, but instead of sitting round a table, the players talk and act in character, as far as possible. Freeforms are normally self-contained games, with pre-written characters that are linked together to form the plot. They normally have very simple rules, and players can normally resolve situations themselves with minimal GM involvement.

Freeforms are strictly non-contact, with combat and other physical activity being handled by simple rules - often rock-paper-scissors.

Freeform plots tend to emphasise character, and interactions like romance, mystery, politics, trade, and magic.

Posted by graham @ 08:45 pm

Monday, February 25, 2008

Where is my head?

I keep putting off talking about this. But for those who wish to know, this is where my head's at.

In July 2006, my father was diagnosed as having bowel cancer. About six weeks later, tests showed the cancer had already spread to his liver, and was inoperable. At first he responded well to chemotherapy, but the last few months have been less hopeful. There's also been problems caused by an adverse reaction between the chemo and the heart drugs he was on.

On Friday we got the news that not only is the chemo not working, but the cancer has now spread to his lungs. He was in the hospital over the weekend, getting blood transfusions and hourly check ups. When Claire and I visited on Sunday he was looking brighter than he has for a while, so maybe that's doing him some good. Today, the consultant has admitted they've pretty much run out of conventional treatments to try, and are now looking at some of the more experimental approaches. He's home now, and off treatments for a few weeks, as they think the chemo may be worse for him than the cancer. The plan seems to be to try "something else", starting in about six to eight weeks.

I've not been talking about all this, partly because I'm in denial. Cancer terrifies me, and not talking about it means not thinking about it. The other reason for not talking about this is that I don't want to have the earnest, sincere, "how's your father" conversation every time I meet someone. I know friends are going to sympathise - I'm just not sure I can cope with it everytime I see people. I'd be really grateful if people talk to me about other stuff in person, and keep sympathy and so forth to online.

Posted by graham @ 08:56 pm

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Tara's Knee - the Final Update

Tara visited the vet yet again, yesterday, with the good news that her bones are now fully healed, and there's no sign of infection. In other words, Tara has made a full recovery. She still needs to build her muscles back up, and we've been given some agility to exercises for her, to encourage her to use that leg properly. We also need to not over-exercise her until she is back to full strength. But now it's just a matter of time and exercise.

Tara's recovery is the one bit of good news in an otherwise pretty shitty weekend so far, but I suspect no one wants to hear about the bad stuff.

Posted by graham @ 03:22 pm

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

From the Dept of "If you give 'em a posh job title they won't want a pay rise"

Today's contact with a call centre (this time for Tesco) went rather better. Admittedly, I still had to talk to three different people, but all were polite and helpful, and merely passed me on to someone more likely to be able to sort the problem.

I'm not sure about Tesco's terminology for the people who answer phones. Being told to hold for a "customer service manager" was bad enough. (I asked once, and apparently they're managers because they "manage their own time".) Tonight, I was told my call would be answered by a "club card deals executive". I'd have thought that the Tesco board would have better things to do than answer my queries...

Posted by graham @ 09:27 pm

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Bloody Call Centres

We decided to move our home insurance, not only saving us some £20 per month, but meaning we no longer have to deal with the muppets who have now failed to send us a renewal notice three years in a row. (If that isn't illegal, it bloody well should be.) Signing up with the new guys was easy - fill out form online, click go. Ending the old insurance should have been similarly straight-forward. We put it in writing, and I handed the letter in to the local branch. That was middle of last week.

By today's post, there was no sign of confirmation, so I get on the phone. It is now an hour later...

The branch, apparently, didn't bother telling anyone else about the letter, so nothing was done with it. The third guy I talked to - the one who got the shuddering, shouting, vein-popping me - was the first to give the correct response. Which is "I'll cancel your insurance as of the renewal date immediately, and refund the premium payment we shouldn't have taken, please accept my apologies". I thanked him, I just wish I'd spoken to him first. The less said about the other two, the better. They were Miss "you'll need to get the branch to find the letter they've lost" and her close relative Miss "I can't do anything about this, but won't transfer you to someone who can until you've asked seventeen times".

Off to snuggle doggies now. I need fuzz therapy.

Posted by graham @ 03:58 pm

Monday, February 18, 2008

Blogging Gumbo

So, that weekend went too quickly, didn't it?

Friday's ceilidh was fun, even if they did play four of my favourite dances one after another, including Strip the Willow. I managed three, but had to sit out the Cumberland Square 8. Damn it, I want to sweep two young ladies off their feet at the same time! Looks like we're going to be doing the ceilidh most months now - so far, there's about 10 of us heading for the next one.

***

Zak got an exhausting walk on Saturday, so Sunday morning we decided to try walking him and Tara together. Another milestone - we haven't walked them together in the morning since Tara's op, and it was also the longest walk Tara's had since then. Tara went a bit loopy when Zak got off the lead, and the first couple of times we met other dogs. She so wants to play, but she's not up to it yet. Still, she was friendly with the dogs who came up to see her, with none of the grumping she's been a bit prone to recently. By the time we got home, Tara was exhausted. (So was Zak, but that's because he ran about ten times as far as the rest of us walked.) Hopefully by next weekend Tara will be fit enough to manage the same walk without needing to collapse afterwards.

***

After lunch, Claire and I headed to Five Sisters Zoo, near West Calder. It's a small zoo, but well worth a visit. The reptile/nocturnal house was probably the high point, with an egyptian monitor, iguanas, water dragons, marbled ferrets, a curious honey bear, and a variety of small squeakies. Outside, I spent a while talking to the lemurs, of course, and admiring a particularly punk porcupine. In addition to the usual tamarins and marmosets, the monkey house had a couple of parrots, one quite offensive. A group of young guys were teasing it and being loud. You'd have said they were drunk, but at 3pm on a Sunday? Okay, maybe. Anyway, when they wandered off, the parrot looked straight at their retreating backs and called after them "dickhead". Hard to argue with the bird.

Claire took some photos, so hopefully she'll post those soon. I'm not sure how quickly we'll go back, but the zoo's worth a visit. Six quid and a couple of hours will let you see most things, and their animals seem to be mainly rescues or part of captive breeding programs, so they're worth supporting.

***

It's no Sinister Ducks, but Neil Gaiman linked to a video of a song about Alan Moore, which is well worth listening to.

***

Anyone else read today's "Iraq WMD" story? The media seems a bit over-excited about a first draft of a report that bares little relation to the one that eventually came out. I suppose it keeps the conspiracy theorists happy. The first paragraph is a pretty good guide to why the government wanted this kept buried. Would be funny, if this wasn't aimed at convincing the public to support a war that's killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Sample nonsense - "No other country [than Iraq] has twice launched wars of aggression against neighbours." Germany attacked neighbours in 1914, 1936, 1939, 1940, 1941, etc. Maybe it doesn't count because that's more than twice.

"Since the Geneva Convention against chemical weapons was signed, Iraq is the only country to have broken it." There may be some legal loophole that "allowed" America's use of irritants, defoliants, and napalm in Vietnam, but it's hardly a great moral argument. And what about our own use of depleted uranium, which has hospitalised many of our own troops, let alone the other side's?

"No other country has flouted the United Nations' authority ... in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction." Well, Israel springs to mind. And, of course, we've just decided to upgrade our own WMDs, despite being signatories of the non-proliferation treaty...

The sad thing is that the guy who wrote this was pulling a large, public salary while not only telling lies, but doing it so blatantly.

Posted by graham @ 07:08 pm

Friday, February 15, 2008

Valentine's Facebook (Scotland's Oldest)

Valentine's was fun. I cooked chicken in tomato sauce for Claire, one of her favorites, and we ate by candlelight, with the dogs shut in a different room. I know some people are a bit down on the day as overly commercial, but for me it's just an excuse to be romantic, and that's never a bad thing. And the mystery present is definitely from Claire, which is so much better than finding I've picked up a stalker!

***

Facebook is starting to make sense. Treating it as Friends Reunited without the fees makes sense, and I've made contact with someone I haven't seen in about a decade. (So, once again, Jane is right. Jane is always right. I will listen to Jane. I will not ignore Jane...) I'm also quite enjoying the Knighthood game, even if it is obviously a pyramid scheme where I'm getting in at the bottom rung. Jane's pointed me at another game that looks fun, and I'll probably sign up for when I think I can spare the time. (Ha!)

I've also decided it's a bit silly not to give my real name, given that I link to this site, where I use my real name... It's not like I'm invisible on the 'net anyway. Don't know how quickly they change these things, or whether there's some complex "prove your first name isn't 'Gamer'" process to go through.

Just wish I could figure out how to set up RSS feeds for everything on Facebook, so I only need to visit the site itself when I actually want to do something. Pull technology just feels so 1982...

***

According to the BBC News story, I live in the same town as Scotland's oldest purpose-built cinema, which will soon be working again. It's a lovely old building, right in the heart of the town, and obviously I knew it was being restored. From what little I can see from outside, the restoration has been sympathetic, and well up to the standard of similar projects that have recently been completed. I suspect we'll go be nosey as soon as we're allowed inside.

The work on the old customs house is less impressive - they're taking forever, and seem to be aiming for Barrett chic. Still, they're not touching the facade, so maybe someone else can rescue the interior later. I'd also like to see something done about access to Kinneil House, which has some of Scotland's most impressive medieval wall paintings and wooden vaulting, but is currently only open to the public for about two hours a year. Maybe the next project?

Posted by graham @ 12:19 pm

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Surprises

A package arrived for me today, which was odd as I wasn't expecting anything. Inside the padded envelope was a wrapped present, labelled simply "Happy Valentines". I'm going to leave opening the present till Thursday, but I don't recognise the handwriting. Now, either my wife is being playful and worryingly organised, or I have a secret admirer in Kettering. Very secret, given I didn't think I knew anyone in Kettering. In either case, I suspect that I need to get Claire something more than a bunch of roses for Valentine's day...

Posted by graham @ 01:56 pm

Monday, February 11, 2008

Cake and Dogs and a New First Name

Our plan to get rid of the last of the Christmas food by inviting friends round on Saturday has failed miserably. Only two pieces of cake were eaten, and we gained a quarter of a Christmas pud to replace those. Otherwise, it was a great success. Pizza was eaten, punch was drunk, chatting happened. The men played games while the women sewed. We will do this again soon.

***

This evening we walked Tara and Zak together, for the first time since Tara's operation. She's still on antibiotics, but has otherwise reached the stage of slowly building up her strength. She doesn't get off the lead yet - that's several weeks away - but is allowed longer walks. 15 minutes twice a day this week, 20 next week, 25 the week after. We're expecting her to make a full recovery in around 10 to 12 weeks time.

***

I've finally signed up to Facebook, though not with my real name. (If you want to find me, I'm using "Gamer Graham".) So far, I don't see the point. I can't see what you can do with Facebook that you couldn't do just as easily without it. I've only been on for a couple of days, so maybe I'll figure it out.

I'm also flabberghasted at the amount of information that people willingly give Facebook. Not only is that information freely available to anyone who wants it - the writers of every app you use have access to all your info - but also to the owners of Facebook. Given the recent sale of MySpace to Murdoch and LiveJournal to a Russian company*, who knows what undesirable will end up with your personal data?

* - I have no idea if the new owners of LiveJournal are dodgy or not. But currently Russia is hardly a place where the rule of law keeps corporations under control, even by poor Western standards. How do I tell whether LiveJournal is owned by saints or the Russian Mafia?

Posted by graham @ 09:01 pm

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

The Great Christmas Cake and Games Day Party

Saturday seems to be free of other events, and we've got all this Christmas Cake and games and such, so...

This Saturday (9th Feb), from around 2pm, Claire and Graham invite you to a gathering at their home. We will be eating Christmas Cake, chatting, maybe playing some games, and generally being sociable. We'll provide some pizza, etc. but ask people to bring some booze and/or snacks. As always, lifts to/from Linlithgow station will be available. Let me know if there's anything else you need to know.

Hope to see you then.

Posted by graham @ 03:08 pm

Saturday, February 2, 2008

New Game Anyone?

If there's enough interest, I'm going to run a new RPG campaign at mine. It'll run Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday evenings, depending on player preferences. There's likely to be lifts available back to Edinburgh, though depending on who signs up, people might need to make their own way out.

If you're interested, let me know which day(s) you prefer.

The setting is likely to be "made up as we go along". It'll be epic, high fantasy, with a complex mythology, and all PCs having access to magic, some of it powerful. Basically, 'cos that's what I prefer. Beyond that, I'm going to ask the players to have a bit of input. Therefore, I'd like each potential player to suggest a theme they'd be interested in. Something like "Buddhism", "violence is always an option", "the rise of technology". Whatever you fancy. I'll then try and combine as many as I can into a hopefully quite unique but coherent setting.

Not sure what rules I'll use, but it'll be something simple and flexible. Perhaps Heroquest...

Posted by graham @ 07:56 pm

Tara's Knee Update

With the panic over Cisco, I haven't been keeping people up to date on Tara's Knee. After the operation to correct her kneecap slipping out, we had a few scary days where she wouldn't use that leg at all, and fluid kept seeping out of the operation scar. The fluid turned out to be from the fluid sack in the knee, so less scary than we at first thought, if still very icky. That's the bad news.

The good news is that in the last couple of days, Tara's been using the leg pretty normally, and the leak from her knee is almost gone. The kneecap is staying put, and she's also getting her energy back. Now, the biggest problem is keeping her calm, and dealing with her boredom. Tara's stitches should come out on Tuesday, after which we can start building up the strength in her leg. With a little luck, the end is in sight...

***

Cisco's returned to being an outdoors cat. He's not been out for long. To me, he seems less keen on being away from the house than normal. Whether that's a result of getting trapped somewhere for three days, or just the lousy weather I don't know. I'm still a bit panicky until he reappears. I think I'm getting over it, helped by Cisco trying to bring a dead bird into the house earlier. If he's going to kill, I'd rather he ate what he catches, but he's not bloody doing it on my carpets!

Posted by graham @ 07:55 pm

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