A Gaming Update: Laundry Files, Oktoberfest, CheeseQuest

[tcpip]

Again in an attempt to bring my outstanding leave down to a somewhat manageable level took two days off work this week leading into an additional day with the Grand Final public holiday. A buyer visited to pick up some items from the Quicksales RPG store, specifically a small moutain of Spacemaster material and added some Rolemaster to his haul. I was pleasantly surprised to discover they still have an active game of the former running. I had a blast with it in the 80s and early 90s, but doesn't seem to get much coverage these days. In more actual play, Thursday night was our regular Laundry Files game, which involved an investigation into a chicken farm fire. Hardly the stuff of agenst to prevent Elder horrors? Well, it turned out that one of the chickens fired electrolasers from its eyes. Yep, a cockatrice, albeit developed in the Laundry Files style. The agency is very concerned about the fire, it is threatening Service Level Agreements. Overall, a great session combining the best elements of off-beat science fiction with a lurking fear of an insane bureaucracy in the background.

Today hosted an Oktoberfest and CheeseQuest today with caseopaya, ser_pounce, and hathhalla in attendance. There was a variety of Munich imported beers to drink, and the delights of German cuisine (rotkohl, kohlroulden, spargel, rollmops etc). I made a kartoffelpuffer and kirschenmichel, and we made our way through a selection of Germanic cheese (jarlsberg, Danish blue, smoked handkase (substitute for smoked Austrian) that were included in the famous sketch. Also took the opportunity to play some first edition Tailisman (which, incidentally, I also have as a German edition).

I've been tinkering around with a few computer systems around the house as well. A recommended upgrade path for my aged Debian Mint laptop did not go well, so I've decided to give CentOS a go on that particular machine. In my continuing exploration of retrospective computer games in my closet have also been playing a little bit of American McGee's Alice - another classic from the past. All of this was interspersed with hanging out with the pets whilst given the house a bit of well-needed scrub.

These have been a very pleasant past few days. The weather has been fine and I've taken several ventures outdoors for pretty much any excuse possible. The social activities have come with fine and imaginative conversation. I have been able to delve into some technical activities both familiar and relatively new (at least in part). The house is somewhat cleaner and somewhat which the fastidious part of me derives some pleasure from. Life here is good but my thoughts turn to horrors in Syria and my thoughts darken; There but for the grace of God go I.

Comments

[castleclear.livejournal.com]

It does sound like a very pleasant past few days, indeed! A chicken firing electrolasers from its eyes! BWahahahaha! That sounds like my kind of gaming. Are sonic screwdrivers allowed in Laundry Files?

Re: your thoughts re: Syria, yes. Thee and me and everyone else. I feel like I am waiting for humanity/society/civilization to grow up. Somehow I bet various people have been waiting for that throughout the centuries, if not millennia.

Well enough of my happy thoughts. In attempting to decipher/translate the meaning of ton bion lampron poleisthai, which now I think means The Enlightened Free Life, I came across your address to the Melbourne Existential Society on Hannah Arendt. This was excellent to read: http://levlafayette.com/node/288 I truly admire your scholarship and facility with language.

Smiles and such from this side of the Pacific.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Not sure about sonic screwdrivers, but they do have a range of other interesting magics.

The general idea is that once upon a time magical invocations were carried out by reciting and ritualising complex mathematic formulae, which of course was quite error prone. But along come computers and all of a sudden magical spells are almost trivial (and therefore very dangerous). So agents of The Laundry Files typically have a few tucked away as applications on their mobile phones!

> I feel like I am waiting for humanity/society/civilization to grow up.

Many human beings don't have a sufficient cosmological view. They do not realise that they are nothing but a speck of dust in a flicker of moment and they don't realise that we're all in this together.

> This was excellent to read: http://levlafayette.com/node/288 I truly admire your scholarship and facility with language.

Thank you for the very kind words; I think I have a little bit of intellectual love for Ms. Arendt. She writes beautifully, her works are like a detective novel.

[castleclear.livejournal.com]

>Many human beings don't have a sufficient cosmological view. They do not realise that they are nothing but a speck of dust in a flicker of moment and they don't realise that we're all in this together.

Well, no. It's Mote against Mote, isn't it? With the Mote with the most toys at the end who wins? Survival of the Mote-est?

Okay, I've run out of lame jokes--but only for the moment.

Thank you for recommending Hannah Arendt (or so I am inferring.)

Wishing you & yours & our one shared world very well indeed.

[castleclear.livejournal.com]

>The general idea is that once upon a time magical invocations were carried out by reciting and ritualising complex mathematic formulae...

I can see how that would appeal to a B+ Grade Polymath... (grin)

May your incantations and equations
Never fail to save the nations.

Happy gaming!