![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Gothcamp (it's not really a camp) in Walhalla, a very enjoyable experience. An excellent summary of events has been provided, including the enormous opening lunch, afternoon cemetery tour, evening ghost tour and 4WD tour the following day. I was particularly impressed by the unexpected presence of the Wolseley Car Club, which suited the town a great deal. I also took the opportunity to visit the monthly Anglican service, conducted by Reverend Neil Thompson on the theme of "Christianity and Sex". It was a far too theistic and conservative for my tastes, condemning pornography, homosexuality etc and the like as sins. In my youth I probably would have been quite angry at the presentation. Instead I felt a little sorry for the tiny congregation with their hopelessly out-of-date absolutist moral code.
It is rare moment that one can correlate gaming and politics; but an opportunity has arisen. Many months ago I started a story-game based based on a fantastic version of the Ainu in medieval Japan, with a great deal of the thematic content around the daimyo wars, Japanese imperialism and the conflicts within the indigenous Ainu. Back in the real world however I am very pleased to see that after over a hundreds years of official assimilationist policies ("there are no other ethnic groups in Japan") and cultural destruction (including invasion, suppression, acquisition of their lands, legal prohibition on the use of their language etc), the Ainu are now finally recognised as the indigenous people of the land, with a unique culture, language and religion. Much of this victory, no doubt, is at least partially based on the lifelong work of the now deceased Shigeru Kayano.
In a related topic my review of Legend of the Five Rings has been published. Appropriately, I've made a start on a Bushido review as well. In the meantime however, I have reviewed a rare gem, Swordbearer, which should be available next week and have started the only mailing list in existence for rules development and actual play threads for this old game. Perhaps not surprising, I am also going to Gencon Oz in Queensland in a couple of weeks which includes the official launch of D&D 4th edition.
Saturday was a journey to Knox with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
caseopaya for a work social function; ten-pin bowling no less. The train journey back from Boronia onwards reminded why I so dislike the outer suburbs; Boronia has all the architectural appeal of Dachau concentration camp, people stumbling around hammered out of their brain at Ringwood, a punch-up in progress as the train pulled in to Bayswater Station etc. Later in the evening we joined a collection of people for the Winter Solstice tour of the St. Kilda Cemetery, which has its share of famous Australians. The tour was of mixed quality; a group of 19th century-style actors were very good, but the group was too large and our tour guide did not speak to the crowd effectively. Audience contributions were invited however, and I gave a couple of additional facts which were well received. In the course of the proceedings I took the opportunity to escape the crowd and pay my respects to Alfred Deakin. It reminded me that I really should attend some of the Deakin Lectures next year.
It is rare moment that one can correlate gaming and politics; but an opportunity has arisen. Many months ago I started a story-game based based on a fantastic version of the Ainu in medieval Japan, with a great deal of the thematic content around the daimyo wars, Japanese imperialism and the conflicts within the indigenous Ainu. Back in the real world however I am very pleased to see that after over a hundreds years of official assimilationist policies ("there are no other ethnic groups in Japan") and cultural destruction (including invasion, suppression, acquisition of their lands, legal prohibition on the use of their language etc), the Ainu are now finally recognised as the indigenous people of the land, with a unique culture, language and religion. Much of this victory, no doubt, is at least partially based on the lifelong work of the now deceased Shigeru Kayano.
In a related topic my review of Legend of the Five Rings has been published. Appropriately, I've made a start on a Bushido review as well. In the meantime however, I have reviewed a rare gem, Swordbearer, which should be available next week and have started the only mailing list in existence for rules development and actual play threads for this old game. Perhaps not surprising, I am also going to Gencon Oz in Queensland in a couple of weeks which includes the official launch of D&D 4th edition.
Saturday was a journey to Knox with
caseopaya for a work social function; ten-pin bowling no less. The train journey back from Boronia onwards reminded why I so dislike the outer suburbs; Boronia has all the architectural appeal of Dachau concentration camp, people stumbling around hammered out of their brain at Ringwood, a punch-up in progress as the train pulled in to Bayswater Station etc. Later in the evening we joined a collection of people for the Winter Solstice tour of the St. Kilda Cemetery, which has its share of famous Australians. The tour was of mixed quality; a group of 19th century-style actors were very good, but the group was too large and our tour guide did not speak to the crowd effectively. Audience contributions were invited however, and I gave a couple of additional facts which were well received. In the course of the proceedings I took the opportunity to escape the crowd and pay my respects to Alfred Deakin. It reminded me that I really should attend some of the Deakin Lectures next year.