Linux and HPC Education, Gaming Updates

[tcpip]

Spent the first three days of the week running the usual trilogy of courses in Linux and High Performance Computing for researchers, including a head of department. It was a difficult group in some ways with highly disparate background abilities and my tiredness didn't help. Following this spent some time putting the finishing touches on my up-coming presentation in Cairns next week at the International Conference on Computer Science as well as putting together a related paper for eResearch Australasia, as well as an initial investigation for the education workshop for the world supercomputing conference. In between all convened an excellent meeting of Linux Users Victoria on OpenStack and Docker.

Last Sunday played in Karl's Space 1889 Ubuquity game which involved some fine stealth by the good British imperialists against the dastardly Hun imperialists in the Victorian-fantasy concept of Venus. The game is going quite well, especially for an episodic story that lacks an overarching narrative. Despite the setting-centered orientation the Ubiquity component has added a lot for character focus as well. On Thursday night ran Masks of Nyarlathotep (excellent fan trailer linked) which featured a classic set-piece scene in the Egyptian scenario, involving a grand rescue of NPCs from the midst of massive cultist ritual (think of the Indianna Jones Kali Ma scene), followed by a chase scene underneath the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx. This rather epic set piece is derived from H.P. Lovecraft's Underneath the Pyramids, and despite a little bit of help from the Goddess Bast, it really was their own bravado, planning, and luck. Lovecraft's story describes well the "Children of the Sphinx" who gave chase:

I would not look at the marching things. That I desperately resolved as I heard their creaking joints and nitrous wheezing above the dead music and the dead tramping. It was merciful that they did not speak . . . but God! their crazy torches began to cast shadows on the surface of those stupendous columns. Heaven take it away! Hippopotami should not have human hands and carry torches . . . men should not have the heads of crocodiles. . . .

Comments

[tzunder.livejournal.com]

But I am now running a game that is all narrative and no episode and frankly I am drowining in player led storylines that diverge further each time we play!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Now that sort of stuff really is herding cats, although I am impressed by those games where the players work out some narrative consistency - although then I find it is hard to bring out a standard plot development.