| Graham Robinson | ||
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News Archives: May 2008 Thursday, May 29, 2008 Monday Game Notes I've put up my notes from the Monday night game, primarily to make it easier for me to keep track of what's going on. Should be of some interest to the players, and maybe someone else wants to be nosey. Posted by graham @ 09:00 pm Wednesday, May 28, 2008 Murder at the Greydog Inn This evening, I'll be working on my second murder mystery of the week. The first was for my Monday night game, this one is a freeform I'm running at Continuum in August. I've just written the advertising blurb for their website : MURDER AT THE GREYDOG INN The Greydog Inn is heaving. Couples flirt, warriors boast, merchants barter, Lunars and Orlanthi glower at each other over their mead. Just another typical night. But death walks the darkness, and foul murder is uncovered. The clan honour has been tarnished, and the guilty must be found before the killer strikes again... "Murder at the Greydog Inn" is a 16 player, 3 hour freeform. Written by Graham Robinson, based on characters and setting from "Tales of the Reaching Moon #18". *** Writing mysteries for a freeform is so much harder than for a tabletop. Monday night's game went pretty well, but all I needed was a crime scene and three plausible suspects. After that, the players' reactions and choices guided the story to a satisfying conclusion. You can't really improvise with a freeform. Everything needs to be decided in advance, including who did the murder, and why. Worse, the mystery needs to be hard enough that no one will solve it within ten minutes, but easy enough that someone WILL solve it within three hours. There's some nudging that you can do - if nothing else, Glorantha allows for divine guidance - but on the whole, freeforms work by setting the players loose and hoping for the best. Still, I think the central mystery is solid, and I'm more concentrating on other plot lines for those who don't want to spend their whole afternoon hunting for a killer. Current plan is to finish the bulk of the writing in the next two weeks, then hold a test run late June/early July. Anyone know what weekends are free around then? Probably will run on an afternoon, so as not to clash with parties in the evening. Right, enough of that. Off to walk the dogs in the rain now. Posted by graham @ 12:12 pm Monday, May 26, 2008 Bloody Good Weekend I should be spending my spare time working on a scenario for tonight and a freeform for Continuum, so I guess I should keep this short. High points of the weekend : Bo'ness Victorian Street Fair, Alexia's pub night, both on Sunday. Low points of the weekend : Discovering we'd wandered into the middle of a horse carriage driving trial (there were no signs!), Zak cutting his foot in the garden, me cutting my hand in the garden, all on Saturday. So, in summary, Saturday blood and danger; Sunday tiffin, friends, and beer. And since I've been playing this game for other people, see what you make of this. I found it nearly impossible, mainly because I don't actually think of words when I think of people, but images, sounds, and incidents. I ended up having to come up with one word descriptions of the scene I'd thought of, and on the whole the results were somewhat random... Image Association Game 1. Think of the first word that comes to mind when you think of me. 2. Go to Google Images and search for that word. 3. Reply to this post with one of the pictures on the first page of results - don't tell me the word. Handy link to lj for comments. Posted by graham @ 12:26 pm Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Dr Who As the news spread, hordes of Doctor Who fans and supporters* cheered! Everyone else went "huh? Why are you so pleased?" and we went "because the new producer and chief writer is Stephen Moffat, the author of every single truly excellent Doctor Who episode since 1989**" to which everyone else went "what even the one with the stone angels?" and we went "yes!" and "what, even the one with the kid with the gas mask?" and we went "yes!" and "what about the one with the horse and the fireplace and the clockwork robots and Madame Pompadour?" and we said "yes, exactly". And then everyone cheered. Fantastic. Even more fantastic, we get a Moffat two-parter this year. * - I've long thought there needs to be a different word for people who just like something, without feeling any need to claim ownership or stalk the people involved or whinge that their childhood has been retroactively ruined because a film got re-editted. "Supporter" seemed good to me. This is in no way specific to Dr Who, which is probably the program that I'm most fannish about. ** - Since Ghostlight, to be precise. *** Last night I discovered that while fuzz therapy is great for relieving stress and loud King Crimson is great for relieving stress, combining the two is a bad idea. Tara objected to Larks 2, and woofed at the speaker till I turned it off. She does the same if I listen to Motorhead. Bloody music critics. She does like the Who, though, and has been known to sing along to the end section of Baba O'Reilly. Actually, now I think about it, maybe she was trying to sing along with Larks, and thought that arhythmic, loud barking was the way to do it... Posted by graham @ 09:31 pm Monday, May 19, 2008 Fuzz Therapy (In Aspic) The weekend turned out to be pretty good. Caught up with many people I haven't seen in ages at Gary's leaving do, and spent lots of time walking the dogs, wandering round shops, and generally not thinking about GAL crap. Even finally picked up the last of Moorcock's Pyat novels, so I now just need to find time to read it... GAL nonsense did show up a bit too much. After my last, angsty post, I settled down to stock take the merchandise we've been storing for the GAL shop. Strangely made me feel much better. Something about mindless tasks, or possibly Larks Tongues blaring out of the stereo. Claire helped me finish that job on Saturday, so everything's ready for them to take it all away Wednesday evening. I'll be able to get in the front room again! The most amusing bit of nonsense started on Friday :
Me : I'd like the web site, etc. off my servers within a month.
Saturday Morning
Saturday Evening Really, it sums up the problem with the current committee. They're so worried about what I might do, that they don't think about what will happen if they take certain actions. Would be almost funny if there weren't lives at risk. Thanks to those who posted comments on my last entry. Since Friday I've got confirmation that they've received enough letters to force an EGM, so we'll still go down the "fix this internally" route. I don't see myself invoking OSCR or anything. As I said, there are lives at stake here, and I'm not sure closing down the charity is more helpful than walking away. And to be honest I do think most of the committee have their hearts in the right place. (There's one exception...) Some of the people who left last spring's argument went down the "vicious personal attacks" route, and it's left the committee paranoid. Unfortunately, pointing out they're being paranoid just makes them paranoid about you... In general, the problem isn't that they're power hungry or nasty people, just that they're out of their depth, don't trust anyone else, and won't listen to criticism. Anyway, enough of this. Claire's away with work, and the sun is still shining. I'm off to play with the puppies. Fuzz therapy! Posted by graham @ 08:20 pm Friday, May 16, 2008 ...A Good Man Says Nothing The last few days have been hell. Monday night's game went well, but since then... Tuesday evening I got a phone call from one of the Greyhound Awareness League committee members.
"We're worried about you Graham. You seem to have a problem with GAL." That's the basic gist - the actual phonecall went on for over an hour and a half. Wednesday was quieter. Claire sent an e-mail addressing her concerns - basically how the lack of communication effected her running the shop. After all, it is very difficult to run a shop when the committee wants all purchasing decisions approved by them, but when e-mailled a list of what needs bought, they don't answer... Thursday morning we got an e-mail firing us both. Apparently if we don't think the sun shines out of the committee's arses, we can't be trusted and they need to replace us. This isn't the first time this has happened - I've put those details on a seperate page since this is getting long enough as it is. Those who really want to dig should look at the GAL forum where most of the relevant threads are under GAL News. I'm really very wound up by this. This isn't the first time I've worked hard as a volunteer, only to find something questionable occurring. And this isn't the first time that I've been told to "F*** Off" when I voiced my concerns. I'm seeing a pattern here. Apparently my help is only wanted where it isn't accompanied by troublesome principles. Yet without principles who am I? I guess I'd rather be on the losing side and right than win at any costs. Sure, I know about picking your battles. But this one is important, and it ain't over. There'll be a general meeting sooner or later, and I'll be there. Just wish I didn't feel like shit right now. Posted by graham @ 10:34 am Monday, May 12, 2008 Birthday Weekend Saturday's birthday celebrations went well, despite having the worst weather of the week. Parents-in-law took us out to the pub for lunch. I had planned to stick to something light, but meatball linguini was too tempting, and you just have to eat fruit crumble and custard... Thankfully the rain pretty much cleared up around 7:30, so everyone could enjoy the fires. I think there were less people than some years (I wasn't exactly counting) but everyone who showed up was delightful and charming, so that's okay. Special thanks to Nick for manning the BBQ, and to Sarah for womanning the bonfire. As a special reward, you can both do the same next year... Twas also nice to see Mum chatting happily. Coming to a party without Dad doesn't seem to have been too stressful. Finally got rid of the last few around 1pm on Sunday, all of whom have just re-appeared for the Monday night game. I'd better get back to thinking up a plot... Posted by graham @ 06:47 pm Friday, May 9, 2008 Probably only for Simon Anyone fancy a trip to London at the end of August? no-man's first live gig in fifteen years... Posted by graham @ 09:22 pm Thursday, May 8, 2008 BBQ Starting a Little Early We might be lighting the BBQ a bit earlier than I'd thought. Small person commitments means some guests might need to head off early, so we'll probably set the coals alight somewhere between 5 and 6. There'll be enough charcoal to keep it burning all night, so don't feel you need to get here early unless you absolutely have to see every match that's struck. Posted by graham @ 09:29 pm Tuesday, May 6, 2008 Since you asked... On Saturday, we're going out for lunch with Mum and Claire's parents. We should be back by 2pm, so if people want to turn up any time after three, that'll be fine. I'll warn you, though - anyone turning up too early might get stuck with cooking, cleaning, gardening, or pet care jobs to do. I think Kim's got dibs on the dogs... Posted by graham @ 12:31 pm |
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