News Archives: June 2006

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Blank Sheet Full!

Unless someone drops out, the Blank Sheet PBEM is now full. Sorry if you were hoping to play - let me know, and I'll give you first refusal next time. (The one exception is the person who I've invited to play - there's space for you if you want it...)

Posted by graham @ 12:35 pm

The Blank Sheet PBEM

I've now got enough players to start the PBEM, though I'll take on one or two more if people still want to join - let me know soon, please. The mailing list has been set up, although by request the archives are being kept private. I suspect if anyone really wants to watch that would be okay - you will need to ask first, though. My brain has randomly decided that "The Blank Sheet" is an appropriate title for the game.

I'll doubtless let everyone know how we get on. If it works okay I may run similar games at cons or by e-mail in the future.

Posted by graham @ 12:25 pm

PBEM Update

I've now got four players interested in the play by e-mail I mentioned yesterday. I'd like at least a couple more before I start - not sure if there's an upper limit. If you want to join in, let me know - everyone welcome!

So far its an even split male-female, with a range from people I've regularly gamed with in the past, to people I don't think I've ever met before.

I'm going to set up an e-mail list to run the game on. I'll e-mail the players details when I'm ready to start.

EDIT : So as soon as I hit "post", someone else signed up... One more and I'll look at starting. I'll probably limit this run to eight in total.

Posted by graham @ 10:31 am

A Game of Two Halves

Where do they find football commentators? I can just about put up with the endless recital of dull cliches and lists of players names. But why don't they find people who know a little bit about the game?

Towards the end of yesterday's Brazil-Croatia game, a spectator invaded the pitch. The ref stopped the match while he was removed, then restarted the match with a dropped ball. Motson correctly identified this event, at least twice. Croatia ended up with the ball, and fairly obviously thought "Brazil had possession when play was stopped, maybe we should give the ball back" and sportingly kicked it in to touch. At this point the other commentator opined that the ref should have restarted with a "bounce up", which is, of course, a slang term for a dropped ball.

This prat is probably going to get paid a large sum of money for watching the world cup final, live, in the ground. Is it really too much to expect him to have some vague idea what's actually going on on the pitch?

Posted by graham @ 10:25 am

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Improvised PBEM RPG, Anyone?

I'm currently inspired to run an experimental play-by-e-mail rpg. Anyone interested? You'll need to be able to read e-mail every day or two. Drop me an e-mail if you want to join in.

The aim is to produce a game where the desires and imagination of the players have more impact on the game than is often the case.

The Rules :

When it is your turn, you may ask the GM one yes/no question. You may also make an in-character comment.

If your comment mentions another player, it is now that player's turn. Otherwise, the player who hasn't had a turn for longest now takes a turn. (Don't worry about that - I'll make sure it is always clear who that player is.)

There will be a GM post between each player post, to answer questions, add minor details, and confirm whose turn is next.

You cannot directly contradict someone. So if Bob says "Hey, it's alright. John's a doctor!" John cannot respond with "No, I'm not, I'm an Engineer." However he can say, "To be honest, I dropped out of medical school after second year" or "Yeah, but I'm not sure how my PhD in Astrophysics is going to help."

The direct contradiction rule applies to the GM as well.

Players should try not to pass control to either the person who had a turn directly before them, or the player they passed control to last time.

Characters are assumed to be competent - so Doctors won't muck up first aid attempts, etc.

The Setting :

Everyone knows everyone else.

For ease, everyone's character will have the same name as the player. However, you are NOT playing yourself.

Everyone has their memory.

"You are in the drawing room of a large, country house; furnished with eighteenth century antiques. Outside it is dark. All the men are in dinner jackets, the women in cocktail dresses. Most people are sipping champagne."

How This Should Work :

This is an experiment - I don't *know* how this will work.

I expect that the first few turns will consist of people asking questions, until people get a handle on the setting and their character. Then, players will probably start using their turn to try actions. (Either "GM Question : Can I go to the bar and pour brandys for everyone?" or "IC : Hey guys, who fancies a brandy? I'll pour.")

Plot should start to emerge, possibly with some of the player characters appearing as villains, others as heroes.

If necessary, I'll play minor NPCs. They shouldn't be the focus of the game, though.

Posted by graham @ 08:27 pm

A Three-Day Weekend : Sunday

Sunday was another doggy day - an unofficial walk with GAL. We walked round the beach at John Muir country park, just outside Dunbar. There were enough big dogs that Tara got to spend most of the time off the lead, running and chasing sticks with willing friends. By the end of the walk we had one more dog than we started with - a collie who apparently decided we looked more fun than his owners. Luckily we found the owner back at the car park.

Claire has some photos, linked from her blog.

After the walk, Claire produced our picnic. We swapped stories and pork pies, surrounded by a sea of begging dogs.

On the way home, we stopped at Toys R Us to pick up a birthday present for my nephew (pirates, naturally) and Makro for nappy sacks. You can tell you're a responsible dog owner when you buy such things by the thousand...

The remainder of the day I spent being lazy.

Hope your weekend was as good!

Posted by graham @ 07:42 pm

Monday, June 12, 2006

A Three-Day Weekend : Saturday

Saturday was a bit quieter. We started by walking Tara at Blackness. There's woods just behind the castle which she loves, darting in and out of the undergrowth.

On the way back, we stopped off to do some shopping, and decided to actually put a bet on the World Cup. In the past we've picked winners a couple of times (France for me, Greece by Claire) purely by looking for the value bet. But we've never put the money on. In fact, despite working for Ladbrokes, I've never even set foot in a bookies before! My pick this time was Germany at 7:1. Ridiculous odds for the home nation, especially with a pedigree as good as Germany's. We also risked a quid on my Dad's pick - Mexico, at 50:1. I don't see them winning, especially not in Europe, but for the sixth ranked in the world, with a decent run up to the tournament, it's hard to deny the value.

Good value bets often turn up, because you never bet against the bookie. He's just the middle man, taking a cut off every bet between you and other punters. As usual, this means England's odds are far too short - 6:1. Anyone who genuinely believed that England are the second most likely to win the tournament (which is what their odds show...) will have been rudely awakened by their performance Saturday afternoon. In the first half, the mid-field was decent, with Lampard tested the keeper a few times, Cole and Gerrard both had a decent game, and even Beckham managed some accurate kicks from set pieces. But while chances were created, no one was capitalising. Owen was consistently two yards too slow, and Crouch will be more useful when he calms down, and learns not to lean on opponents at headers. In the second half, the mid-field looked exhausted. Overall, we were lucky.

Before the match, I washed, topped and tailed, the rhubarb we picked on Friday at my parents. So I could distract myself from idiotic commentary and worse refereeing by trying to avoid slicing my thumb open while I chopped ten pounds of rhubard into a large, plastic bucket. (Last word on the football - but stopping Paraquay's first real attack because their keeper held on to the ball a few seconds too long may just be the most pathetic decision I've ever seen...) Those ten pounds are currently turning into two gallons of wine, and we had enough left over for a couple of crumbles as well.

The rest of the day was spent gardening, cleaning, and a bit of cooking.

Posted by graham @ 07:08 pm

Sunday, June 11, 2006

A Three-Day Weekend : Friday

We're now doing the odd bit of volunteer work for the Greyhound Awareness League (GAL). At the moment this looks like mainly involving holding leads at doggy events, and driving needy greyhounds from place to place. The first of these was an ex-racer that needed to be collected from the owner in Edinburgh and dropped off at the kennels near Greenock, from where he will be re-homed.

Since this was our first, Claire took the day off work, and we collected the dog early afternoon. Back home to introduce him to Tara, and then both dogs in the back of the car, drive to kennels. Both were surprisingly well-behaved. Dropped greyhound at kennel, chatted for a while, then drove over to my parents, who live nearby.

Tara was fairly calm until my niece and nephew arrived, halfway through dinner. She then spent most of the rest of the evening delightedly chasing balls and chewing sticks in the garden. Her obedience is improving - any eleven month old dog who will do as she's told by a ten year old a third her weight isn't too bad.

Other than doggy-distractions, time was spent chatting and picking twelve pounds of rhubarb. My niece is still obsessed with Doctor Who (although she wasn't impressed by the Cybermen - heresy!) while her younger brother prefers pirates.

More later...

Posted by graham @ 08:32 pm

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

LiveJournal Weirdnesses

Just a note that livejournal.com is acting up at the moment. Ask for one file, you'll sometimes get something... random. For instance, one of my friends has apparently just decided he might be bisexual because he likes women too. Which may come as a surprise to his girlfriend.

I've seen this on RSS feeds, but apparently it's happening on links to html pages as well.

What this means for all the security of all those lovely friends-locked posts people love, I don't know.

Posted by graham @ 08:00 pm

Meeting Doggies

At the weekend, we attended an awareness-raising/fun walk for the Greyhound Awareness League (GAL). As well as the dozens of greyhounds, there were a number of other dogs, including someone more Tara's size. Guess what Claire decided to take photos of?

"Tara, meet Pilgrim." He's five months older, and a pure deerhound.

"Would you like to play?"

"I'm winning!"

"And if all else fails... I'll give your ear a sly nip!"

Posted by graham @ 07:28 pm

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