The Keepers

Don't you just love it when you're running a game, and you make a snap decision that turns out to dovetail nicely with the themes you wanted to use in the story from the beginning?

Maybe it's just me. :)

( Snowblind session. )

Here's the thing about Savage Worlds setting: There's not really any focus on theme. It's basically action-movie gaming, but there's no irony to it, no deeper implications. I'm not saying that to complain, mind, because I really like the SW settings I've read, Necessary Evil especially. It's just odd to me because I'm used to World of Darkness games, which pride themselves on those deeper thematic components (whether or not they work is up to the reader).

That said, I've got a game setting in mind that I think SW would be perfect for, that I'd actually consider licensing the system to use if I could put the money together to publish. And that's precisely because the system does what it does so well.

But for now, I just finished reading Rippers. It's an interesting setting; Victorian monster-hunting, which by itself seems pretty straightforward, but the founders of the organization you're working for were John Dee, now Jack the Ripper (I know, right?) and Abraham Van Helsing. Reading the book makes me think of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or Anno Dracula; everybody shows up, at least as a mention. Running it would take some work not to drift whole-hog into pulp, but it would be a fun game to play, I think.

So let's rock!

The Game: Rippers
The Publisher: Great White Games.
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game, some with Savage Worlds.
Books Required: The Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition and the Rippers book.

( Killin' vampires in gaslit streets...it's like old times! )

Some background: Teagan's been wanting a chinchilla for some time now. We keep telling her that she can have one when she's eight, but it's a conversation she enjoys having. Here's the latest twist.

The scene: Heather and Teagan in the car, Teagan asking for a chinchilla. Heather tells her, "When you're eight," Teagan asks how long that will be. With Heather's help, she counts from five fingers to eight and figures out the difference is three.

TEAGAN: Yippee-yahoo! Three years! (pause) Mama, what's a year?

HEATHER: 365 days, or 52 weeks, or 12 months.

TEAGAN: Oh. I just lost my yippee-yahoo.

It'll go faster than you think, baby.

Today, I am staying home with my sick child (that'd be Cael) while Heather and Andrea go to Columbus to buy dresses and Teagan hangs out with Nana. My immediate plan is to work on my various chronicles. I'm running Changeling, of course, but I'm also about ready to start a Vampire game (using the same setup as I was going to use for this game before it died), I'm running Promethean on Friday and I'm running a one-story Hunter game. Lots of WoD going on.

OK, so you've all seen the music meme that goes something like, "shuffle your iPod or whatever, pick the first X songs, post a lyric, NO PEEKING NOW!, tell me what songs they're from!" Yeah, I like that meme, too, but I'm doing a little variation.

See, anaka and I have been trading mix CDs for a while now (which has led to me purchasing some truly awesome music). I just mailed her a new one, but I didn't have time to put in the song list with it, so below are some lyrics from each song. You tell her what songs they are. No Googling, now; she could do that herself.

1) "We fight their battles, then they deceive us."
2) "All day, staring at the ceiling making friends with shadows on my wall..."
3) "The dreams in which I'm dying are the best I've ever had."
4) "People will come together, people will fall apart, nothing can stop us now..."
5) "Tried to say hello at the high school dance, then I wet my pants."
6) "How can I wash my sins away with the water from this poison stream?"
7) "And I won't call your name in the darkness, honey."
8) "So we choose between reality and madness, it's either sadness or euphoria."
9) "I've heard the rattle in my bronchii."
10) "Can't you see it's misery and torture for me, when I'm misunderstood..."
11) "Just a name on the map, sounds like Heaven to me."
12) "Age does not wither her!"
13) "When I die, hallelujah, by and by..."
14) "Oil and water, lust and sympathy..."
15) "There's something going on that's not quite right..."
16) "Can't accept that what's happening is just a case of others suffering..."

All right, enough of this emo bullshit.

Actually, Heather asked me today if I always get depressed on holidays. She said that I did; I really didn't remember, but Mom says I do, too. How odd. I wonder what the source of that is?

Anyway, I'm feeling better now (like, right now, this moment, though I make no assumptions about later) and today we're going to Miss Molly's Tea Room for brunch (the scones alone are worth the trip). So I'd like to make a character and go have some breakfast.

The Game: CthulhuTech
The Publisher: Wildfire LLC.
Degree of Familiarity: None. I read it a couple weeks back whilst getting my tires fixed.
Books Required: Just the core.

( Horrors from the beyond the stars - and powered armor! )

There ya go. Happy Black Friday!

This is approaching intermittent depression. I know that some of you reading this know how much that sucks. I truly wish I could pin it down to something. Generally when I'm depressed it's a tier-one thing on good ol' Maslow's hierarchy, but aside from being a little tired, I'm OK there. I just can't seem to maintain a good mood.

Well, rather than whinge about that, I'll whinge about this. In brief, conservative Christians are urging civil disobedience against laws that they find objectionable. So far, so good; I'm fully in favor of not following immoral laws, I just take issue with which laws we're talking about.

Specifically, laws that "laws forcing them to accept abortion, same-sex marriage and other ideals that go against their religious doctrines." How, exactly, would you civilly disobey those laws? Not get abortions? Not get gay married? Just be assholes to folks who are pro-choice or gay (which many Christians seem to excel at in the first place, and isn't exactly civil or disobedient)?

Or is this just more of "we're being oppressed!" bullshit that this particular stripe of Christian likes to sling around? Fuck it, I say we start oppressing them. Clearly it's been far too long since someone was told, "no, you can't work here, you're a Christian."

Wait, was there a time in this country's history when that was ever the case? Help me out, here, danieltallon, you're more history-minded than I am.

Anyway, everyone have a happy turkey day. I'm going to go watch a kid's movie with my family and hopefully cheer the fuck up, because frankly this malaise is starting to annoy me.