Trip Postponed

Well, it turns out the air conditioning in the truck is broken and only works when the truck is in Drive, and since it also happened but to a more severe degree on other new trucks that were issued by the company, it may not get fixed until after he's already been here and gone on the next run. And unfortunately, taking a later trip this summer would conflict with either me going to ConnectiCon or to the start of Fall Classes, so it looks like this trip is postponed until next year or something.

EDIT: Now I'm told there's actually a real possibility it will be fixed in time. Stay tuned for updates. :p

FINAL EDIT: Ok, it's not happening this year. Oh well.

Caltak Hits The Road

Starting Tuesday, July 7th, I will be on the road for 17 days with my step-dad. He's a trucker, you see, and he recently received a new truck from his company which has 2 bunks. We only see each other when he's home for a weekend between each of his 17-day trips or when he takes a week off, and since I'm currently unemployed (by choice) and on summer vacation from college, he offered to take me on a trip. Since I like an excuse to see more of the country for free, I accepted. Now, I hopefully won't be entirely incommunicado during that time, since I'll be bringing my netbook and a few other electronic entertainments, but I can't ensure I'll always be within range of an unsecured wireless network. So, while I'll attempt to be on IRC whenever I can, it may be spotty at best for that time period.

Task Force C: Session 01 thoughts

Had the requisite three PCs, so that part went well. Some quick thoughts:

Having PCs get to know each other when they're all in a job for various dubious reasons never quite works. Gar tried, though.

The PCs are pretty well-made, in terms of diversity, for dealing with many problems.

Mya turned out a bit odd. She genuinely cares for Merlyn, but finds the idea the boy might be lonely to be surprising, having never consciously considered that. The police know of her, according to Constable Rogers, as "the crazy woman" for reasons not yet specified. She tends to talk formally, not notice when she is being patronized, and is very keen to protect Merlyn, even going as far as finding files in the basement.

The filing and bureaucracy aspect does come from actual policing. To an extent, it's a fail-safe to prevent future scrutiny. In most police forces it's gone further than that -- in the UK, modern tech. is being used to reduce the amount of time spent per shift on paperwork to 1.5 hours. This is the reduced rate on an eight-hour shift. Factor in the PCs making to do paperwork for the police and FBI and things get more than staggering and verge into Paranoia-level absurdity. Shall be fun :)

And, as an added bonus, PCs who miss a session will spend the entire time doing paperwork instead.

Fun searches that found game1 (fennec's archive, that is)

Sparkie would like everyone to know that he made #9 for 'Sparkie' on google, and this should terrify you all.

Odd searches:

• this can be the most difficult emotion to modify, because when you get mad you will be like a furious bulldog, and persuading you to stop sinking your teeth into the other person's leg can be extremely tough.
  
• airheads bubble dog's crazy mission teletoon game
  
• good stalker names
  
• Slut lolad
  
• zacharel funeral
  
• i think there's a dragon on my roof. a fucking dragon. i thought only montana had dragons, what gives? brb potty break rofl
  
• "you were given a sex change"
  
• caltak university
  
• "there are good reasons to be afraid of the dark"
  
• torture game1
  
• lords of death sunglasses
  
• antichrist can't "enter a church" omen
  
• he's gotta be strong, and he’s gotta be fast, and he’s gotta be larger than life: investigating the engendered superhero body
  
• sparkly rainbow thong detachable penis
  
• snailslug's touch response
  
• rule34 faline [!]
  
• vampires 6501
  
• goddess of despair
  

And as far as images went, 'cycle of rebirth' wins out.

Games: they are fun.

aka: where we're at.

Currently, Alcar is running Spirit of the Century on Mondays. Ken is doing nobilis and a besm mecha game in the future.

After this, Alcar plans to do a fantasy quest game, somewhat as a break from the mystery-style games of late. Prophecied heroes, magical items, and all that fun. Probably vanilla Risus, for the sanity of all involved.

Ken may be running a besm game set in the kbesmu universe after the current games.

Alcar also has an odd game going through his head that won't go away, but it'll probably just be a side one-player game at some point.

Unforgiven, the side Alcar/Chaos game, continues.

Current games

aka: "because I am too lazy to alter the template"
subtitled: "and posting here will make it seem less ill-used."

Currently, we have aBesm Tuesday nights.

kNobilis is running ... Thursdays, I think?

Alcar is running a one-player game with Chaos (Unforgiven) some nights, and Ken is doing the same with Alcar (Zeitgeist). Aside from those, nothing is currently in planning though Alcar is soliciting player ideas for the post-abesm game starting, oh, now.

game and nano2008

cross-posting to the forum:

Abesm WILL run as scheduled during November. Side sessions are very unlikely, and summaries of sessions likely to be pretty short and to the point. I shall try and make all BESM sessions (their may be a conflict; not sure yet). All other games -- and their are some ideas in the works and such -- will be on hold until December. possibly January, since December is a tricksy month for most.

Sparkie is liable to complain :p

cross-game amusement

for those who don't know; players wanted two campaigns to continue. Mine was lolad, ken's was bemu(u). We'd both burned out on them, and someone jokingly suggested we switch worlds. Which we laughed about, and the found made more and more sense.

End result: I am playing his former PC (Cameron) in what is now klolad, and he is playing Drew in abesm.

Hence, this bit of minor amusement...
<kenGM> not many people here use the word wino
<kenGM> :P
<Cameron> I don't think it's too common anymore.
<Cameron> rofl!
<Cameron> I saw the line, and Cameron, and wasabout to type:' Damn,ken, I was about to write that"
<Cameron> and then I recalled *I* am playing Cameron :P
<kenGM> ;P
<kenGM> amazing

Searches that find game1

This may amuse no one else, but here are the top searches for images for the game1 site going by month.

December 2007: wallpaper cthulhu parchment
Jan. 2008: twin blades of azaroth
Feb.2008: fennec foxes keeping warm in cold places
March 2008: pictures of types of freash water turtles
April 2008: velsa dog
May 2008: "austin powers" burrow llama
2 weeks ago: incubus paranormal wheels on suv
1 week ago: redneck pictures of the armpit serenade (This was actually #2, but#1 was a more mundane search of 'unknown armies')

random thoughts on D&D fourth edition

This is just as I go through it...

- Eladrin? Why DO we need 2 races of elves?
- Clerics can follow philosophies... Nietzsche anyone?
- "astral sea"? Really?
- Warlocks rock; they finally gave the sorcerer balls.

Overall, I'm liking the classes a lot. (I still don't see the point to keeping the ranger; and throwing the monk etc. into another book is irksome, money wise.)But on the whole they seem quite nice, with multiple options for a character ensuring, I hope, that things don't get too stale if you have two of the same class in one group.

- Warlords at first level would be damn odd; "Yes, I AM a natural leader. I was king of the hill SIX times and captured the flag for Pelor!"
- The epic levels look like crazy, awesome fun. And finally SOUND epic.

More later.

More:

- Why does it take so long to find out what 2[w] and such are? Glossaries are GOOD to have in the front as references.
- Rituals seem both interesting and fun.
- Also: lots more HP. Which is probably a very good thing.
- Alignment is better; they added 'if you choose one' for one thing.
- However, the gods are not. Most campaigns - the vast majority, I imagine - will either be a) homebrew or b) a different setting. Which means inserting things like Feywild and such are a pain in the arse, to say nothing of wasting space detailing the gods (and only the good ones at that).
- Races: why ARE humans the only one whose flavour text emphasized both the good and evil?

Final thought:

I will NOT be using stupid maps. I don't care if WOTC tries to ram the goddamned things down our throats (like, say, now). When - make this if, at this rate - I run 4e, there will be no maps and gametables and virtual tabletop crap. We never needed it before, and I am not planning to use it now.

Oh, and this should explain enough:
<gemm> this has been what, an hour, hour and a half of trying to find something that works?
<alcar> 'xactly :PO
* alcar can flat out guarentee I won't be using such things when I run 4e
<Chaos`^> fuck it... we'll do it live =p
<gemm> now you can't get a program to work, huh? :P
<Chaos`^> oh
<Chaos`^> i'll get it to work
<Chaos`^> it's just that my windows on this computer is broken
<Chaos`^> so...
<Chaos`^> i'm going to use another computer
<Chaos`^> brb
<gemm> ...
<gemm> I just want to start...
<kentari> wow. :P

Apotheosis: 10 sessions in.

(Technically, 9.5. But what the hell, 10 sounds better.)

At present, we have... a cabal!

Current goal: Defeat Ms. Whitman, the psych teacher who claims to be a Bodhisattva and has survived being beaten with a crowbar, removal of her spine and being dumped into a sewer. She's connected to some other world accessible through a suitcase (at the least) and a mysterious Key they've yet to find or locate. The nature of Ms. Whitman and her goals remains a mystery at present, though she claims to want to either enlighten or kill those who killed her in the first place and seems to have returned with preternatural healing, though whether the spider-thing inside her remains is unknown at present.


Members:

Adella: Avatar of the Flying Woman, psychology student, and has an 'in' with a dealer in rituals and occult rumors and lore. Avatars may lack power in the observable sense, but the universe is on her side -- she's once felt infinity itself watch her,and worked a ritual and had it come true.

Delilah: Physics professor and wife to Marcus. She knows a little of the OU, enough to have her own minor trick and to have seen tenebrae before (she believes they're dark matter, and than quantum physics is a lie -- which makes her teaching it quite an interesting experience). She's worried she's in over her head, but the lure of answers to her questions drives her ever onwards.

Marcus: Del's husband; he's mostly playing it cool and keeping cards close to his chest, owing to run-ins with Sleepers and his wife's memory lapse once. Despite having committed no real crime beyond being a drive for a marijuana pickup while demon-possessed, he's the one member of the cabal the police are currently watching.

Nate: A friend with benefits to Adella (one of many). he's still coming to terms with discovering he wasn't ever human and his mechanomancer grandfather seems to have given up most of his memories that could explain why Nate was made, and how he's the product of cbyermancy. So far he's removed one person's spine - by accident - and is trying as hard as he can to act human.

Talnish - mechanical engineering professor and mechanomancer, who has beaten one person with a crowbar (self defense, he says, but whatever makes you sleep at night...) and buried one body dropped on his property outside the city limits as well as seen his dean turn into a giant pig after eating McDonalds. Somehow he's kept his his professorship, but how long that lasts is anyone's guess...

Apotheosis: some news

Your character can discover this in the radio, via the newspaper, on the net, by TV: doesn't really matter how. (They might not even at all; your choice.)

Radio Free Essex:

"This is DJ Arnold, who has never been a DJ but it sounds pretty sweet, on 999 AM. Essex University is the top of the news for the hour, on the hour. Or under it, as the case may be! The top story -- who am I kidding? it's the only one! -- some psych students weren't able to get into a lecture hall so they had a mass orgy outside. Witnesses reported it, and several joined in because it "felt right" according to one witness who did not want to be named. I'd be more worried about STDS, but hey!

"The teacher for the class remains unaccounted for, but if I was Ms. Whitman, I'd be flattered: most students just leave when the teacher isn't present! One teacher, who asked not to be named (this is sort of theme of the news today) said that, while he welcomed a return of 60s style protest activism, campus-wide orgies were a bit much. Students seem divided according to my unofficial poll. A good 50% think it was drugs, like a date rape one or LSD. 25% think it was a protest, or possibly an art piece, and the rest think it is a sign from Satan about the whore of Bablyon and the end times. Well, I guess we all know who they're talking about, even if oficialdom is remaining mum!

"Now it's time for a break with Right Said Fred, and "I"m Too Sexy For My Campus!"


Wessex TV:

"The top story of the morning is the unexplained sexual activity at the university yesterday afternoon. Opinions range widely, but there has been no official report on the cause of the event, nor why a psych class would engage in that kind of experiments. The head of the psychology department, Dr. Robert Dickinson, stated that Professor Whitman had been under a lot of stress lately and that perhaps her dissertation on William Masters had begun to cloud her judgment.

"He further cited a possibly apocryphal story about her teaching practices coming under question since she was rumored to improve grades for studies who would consent to be subjects in her studies and give in-depth accounts of their sexual experiences to date. This no doubt influenced her other classes and led her to have students believe she would give them all at least a B if they engaged in group sex.

"The police are still investigating the situation and Sergeant Leatherwood only said that they had called in the FBI to check for drugs or contaminants in the local water supply. Asked about the possible sightings of Delaware police cruisers, Leatherwood only said that the county had asked for aid and refused to comment further on the matter."


The Rutherford Daily Independent Standard:

Top Story: UNIVERSITY PROTEST
While officials remain silent, rumors about that yesterday afternoon a mass orgy that took place outside a lecture hall abound. Surprisingly, few pictures of it surfaced, and those that were turned into our office were too grainy to be of use.
When questioned, students claimed "The Man" had taken it from them, but refused to explain further, leading to increased worries about drug abuse and immorality on campus. The police have to far refused to comment, but locals have been picketing the university campus and MAGS, an organization claiming to be Mothers Against Group Sex, has taken up emailing the university to demand an explanation. Until one is forthcoming, the story will likely not die.

Other News
Walter McDermott, a janitor at the university, was found murdered in a room at the Super 8 Motel approximately 3 am last night. The police are not releasing details at this time but are requesting anyone with information to come forward at this time.

Barnes & Noble wishes to apologize for their recent promotion of a new book "The True History of Magick by James Randi". Like their recent 'press releases' of "The Cruel Ones and You by Dr Seuss" and "Shattering of the Glass Family by J D Salinger" and "How I loved My Mother by Sigmund Freud" it seems to be the work of a very bored staff member. Strangely, the only titles that were recognized as actual fakes were "The History of Psychology by Tom Cruise" and "Why Hitler Was a Boddhisatva by the Dalai Lama".

A fire in the Walmart photo lab left one staff member hospitalized but no one else harmed this morning. The company and fire marshal are currently investigating.

In more pleasant news, a remake of the Flying Nun is scheduled to begin filming in one of the ghost towns south of Elysium. Since it's still pre-production there is no word on if they're hiring locals.


On the net:
LOL! Did you hear about Sara and the other students??? That's so awesome!! I wish I'd been there!! I bet someone got pictures!!!!

u r all going to burn in hell!

Obviously, there was no 'orgy'. We are university students, and well aware of safe-sex. It's clear that the university is in cahoots with the government in covering up something important. See: the 'police cars', the amount of junk mail everyone gets, the new Tiki Bar at the south end of campus, and economics departments refusal to have a stated opinion on FDR and the conspiracy to bring down his government as all the proof you need that something Big is going down and our corporate masters wish to hide it from us.

You're so full of it. Everyone knows the CFR is connected to at least 6 deans, and they're the ones who really call the shots. And if you believe that, I have an alien corpse to sell you.

Come on you guys! Lets' not fight! INTERNET ORGY EVERYONE!

Apotheosis: 5 sessions in.

So far things are moving ahead at a brisk clip. People have been put into paintings, Sleepers arrived (Well, he was on vacation, but even so), Holes in the fabric of reality leading Somewhere Else creating magickal briefcases and turning professors into monsters of some kind, a magical Key having been discovered, demonic possession, the murder of said professor by two students, a clockwork, and another professor. Oh, and an orgy on a mundane level, along with Marcus proving his love to Delilah by not having sex with Sara.

Characters So Far

PCs
Adella - Free spirited college student who has, of recently, been able to float in the air after sex.
Marcus - husband to Delilah, a mail-order husband with skills he never wants to use again and a Key whose provenance he doesn't understand
Talnish - mechanical engineering professor and Mechanomancer

NPCs
Delilah - Physics professor and wife to Marcus, locally considered a 'witch'.
Nate - Friend with benefits for Adella who seems to be a post-post modern automaton who was entirely unaware of that until recently.
Sara - Sex-loving room mate to Adella whose life seems to revolve entirely around sex. Also, apparently hunted by Sleepers.

Other Cast
Martin Caidin Sr. - Nate's grandfather. Known to Talnish as a reclusive mechanomancer outside town.
Father Karl Horne - The priest at St. Jude's, the local Catholic church.
Edith Kilmore - the old lady who runs the heritage house and has apparently met Marcus before, though the latter has no memory of it.
Suzy Quimby - the girl who accidentally painted Sara into a painting. hasn't gone insane quite yet.
Ramona Whitman - the former psych prof turned into some kind of 'thing' by the Other Place. Currently deceased.

Minor Cast
Leon Debran - owner of the Bleeding Crow, never seen yet.
The Bartender - surly 20 going on 40 something bartender at the Bleeding Crow.
Milk Delivery Man - a man who delivers milk, with live cow, to Delilah's house.
Paper boy - the pre-dawn paperboy who delivers papers.

Apotheosis Notes

So, we have a mail-order husband of a physics prof and a free-spirited college girl as the PCs (so far).

The town of Elysium, Kansas, is a small university city in the county of Rutherford. 3000 students, 1300 other residents and then assorted staff and such. It's bracketed by ghost towns, like munch of Kansas, and the locals claim the New Deal destroyed it, though there's almost no one left who can provide specifics to that beyond generic bitterness.

Essex University is the centre of the city, for all intents. What this means is the bars are little more lenient with students and the three police officers sometimes let things slide they shouldn't. Sergeant Jerry Letherwood runs the small police station along with constable's Oki Oki and Lance Christensen.

Aside from this, the city has two hotels - a Day's Inn and a Super 8. There's the usual bars, Denny's, Starbucks, McPlaces and so on. Stuff can be added and such as players want.

Unknown Armies campaign idea

Apotheosis

There are so few left, so terribly few. Every few years the old gods put on new faces, ripping them from the flesh of the living, standing over the bones of the dead. These are only metaphors: but the gods change. All things change, or perish. One pursues novelty or clings to habits. Both ends may be destructive. All things change, and move towards their end.

Every year new gods are born, despite all the old gods do and be and every effort of will and desire. Things happen, despite our most feverent prayers, our most profound hopes. The world gives birth to new gods in this age of change and wildness where all the terrible power of old traditions breaks down and in the centre of the world the world discovers that the centre does not hold.


You've heard whispers, or rumours of them. Read graffito visible only under a new moon. Saw the homeless bum who told people The End was coming get bundled off by men in white suits when he tried to tell people the truth, screamed: "You did it!" to everyone he met, weeping whiskey tears all the while.

Something is changing, has changed, is coming. There is something in the air, the hint of a storm, the knowledge that the calm is over. The world is changing. You feel it in your pineal gland, see it in strange news items, read about it in the gossip section of the paper. Somewhere, out there, men who are far more than men are gathering, and men who are terribly less gather as well. Their are armies moving through shadows, down paths known only to small children and cats, and though they are unknown, they are still armies, and there is still a war.

Because the rumours say that we made the gods, and that the universe will remake itself once we've made so many. That they will make a new one. A better one. Or they did yesterday, and there are those who want the old one back -- it doesn't matter, not really. All that matters, all that is known, is that there are over 330 gods walking the world, and that unless we are terrible or clever or very lucky, soon there will be more and there will no longer be a world.


So, this is what popped out of my head for an Unknown Armies campaign. The PCs can be In The Know (as much as anyone is), or only some, or be thrown off the deep end to tread water and drown beautifully. Entirely up to the players, as is the PC.

Standard UA PC (220 points). Each PC has a Dark Secret, something horrible they've done and never want anyone to learn. And a Trigger, which is something Weird you saw (or the first weird thing you saw) that told you the world was even stranger than advertised on cheap talk shows during ratings week.

The PCs should be connect somehow. This can be an ally, an organization, them being neighbours in the same apartment complex -- it's up to you all, but your PCs should know each other before the game, at some level.

Where it's going: This is unknown armies. Surreal urban fantasy, sprinkled with horror. It's about power and consequences, and what you'd do to change the world. It's about having the guts to see the world as it is, not as we desire it to be -- and maybe, just maybe, finding a way to make the desire come true, or learn why it can never be. It's about being as hard as you have to be, as kind as you can afford to be, and doing what has to be done.

Because the heart of the world has a secret, and everyone knows it even if no one can really believe it. And it means everything, and nothing. You find it scrawled in bathrooms, written on your bed sheets when you wake up, replacing texts in a newspaper. Truth so old no one believes it. Magic so old no one understands it.

You Did It.

.... Now what are you going to do about it?