State Politics, Gaming, Odds and Ends

[tcpip]

Labor wins the NSW state election; whilst the conservative Coalition didn't have a snowflake's chance in hell, I was a little surprised by how minimal the swing was. Much apparently due to the Federal governments unpopular workplace relations laws (despite being a Federal issue). On the other side of the planet, massive swing to conservative separatists in the Quebec elections, but the liberal federalists (Parti libéral du Québec) retains power, albeit with their worst ever result. The social democratic Parti Québécois came in third; leading to three-way split with each major party holding about 1/3 of the votes.

In gaming news have run two games of RuneQuest, one of Traveller: TNE, and the notorious AD&D1e module "Tomb of Horrors" since my last post. Recent reviews include Deities and Demigods (genius and idiocy in one package), Gods of Glorantha (solid content, average production), Spell Law (clear, balanced, but not beautiful) and the AD&D module In the Dungeons of the Slavelords. Oh, and remember the RPGPundit? Get a hold of these comments; Goth women are to be fucked and then mocked, and teenaged goths should be sent to therapists as punishment.

Visited recumbenteer and partner for their Parkville housewarming; most enjoyable, must have them over dinner soon. caseopaya is on a loose end, employment-wise (although I'm sure this will be a very temporary situation); she found a job where the pay, hours, work and people were good but the company wouldn't shell out the $6K that the agency wanted as a finders fee. Today we had an annual house inspection; the estate agents took (literally) thirty seconds. Rogue the rat hurt his foot during the week and spent a couple of days hopping around on three paws; all better now. LUV meeting next week with an emphasis on beginner's talks (new features of OpenOffice and an Introduction to DNS). Gave an introduction to philosophy talk (doc file, will convert later) at the Melbourne Unitarian Church on Sunday; was extremely well received and will be expanded to further discussion topics.

Comments

[greylock.livejournal.com]

"Hastur the Unspeakable is described as being some 600' tall, but because the scale tops out at such a low level, he still has a 10% of failing to open a stuck dungeon door."

Heh.
Sometimes, I miss gaming.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

For more amusement you should read How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love D&D.

And really. Order of the Stick. You will laugh and laugh and laugh.

What the fuc..

[imajica-lj.livejournal.com]

RPGPundit == professional troll.
The human that wrote that bot has serious issues.

Re: What the fuc..

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

The Pundit is just one of those people who gets his rocks off by abusing others. He's hardly the first or the last of the breed and that sort of behaviour is fairly common and unsophisticated.

Settembrini was the character that really caught my attention on the thread however; the claim of being more righteous by refusing to stand up against such comments was simply bizarre.

It was one of those rare occassions I felt thoroughly justified in invoking Godwin's Law.

Re: What the fuc..

[imajica-lj.livejournal.com]

Indeed, we both know the only dignified response to such barbarism is to send his face to the pavement. :)

Point by point:

[dandelionclock.livejournal.com]

1. I have an itchy trigger finger with the Ignore Button on RPG.net, and avoid the RPGsite like the plague, since it seems to be wholly populated with the inadequates who remind me why I am often embarrassed to get so much of my income from writing RPGs ("who do you write for?" "Oh, er, well, I did a book for the Student Christian Movement..."). Every so often, I get validation for those feelings. That is all.

2. Good solid philosophy outline.

3. As for loving D&D, well. Me and AD&D had a tempestuous, passionate relationship when I was a kid. We broke up when I was 18. I had been conducting an affair with Vampire: the Masquerade for some time, and AD&D and me didn't part on the best of terms. Recently, I've effected a reconciliation of sorts, and I'm seriously intending to go play D&D again. One of the things that changed my mind about it was the affectionate series of articles entitled I Was a Goblin on pop culture site Freakytrigger, particularly the one about levels and why they're a good thing. Recommended.

Re: Point by point:

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

1) I have mixed feelings various Internet denizens and the 'ignore' option. There is a sense that they can all hang out together in the pit of depair together proclaiming their love of free and abusive speech. OTOH, I have a sense of wanting to respond with a "please stop being a dickhead" in the wild hope that it might actually happen.

I remember the SCM very fondly from my early undergraduate days; they didn't engaging in biblical preaching they were just nice people. Once organised a dual meeting with the young socialists and the SCM on liberation theology. The striking poster included a crossed sickle and crucifix!

2) Thanks. There's a couple of typos as well, but I'll clear them up.

3) Like the links; I do like the argumentation of "renegotiating the game" with level systems. I have noticed however that there's just a hint of narrative-based systems beginning to do the same thing. This will, I suppose, within several years find itself in computer-game design as well..

Re: Point by point:

[dandelionclock.livejournal.com]

I think I decided long ago that the "please stop being a dickhead" thing never, ever worked.

I like SCM. They're good, liberal, gay-rights-supporting, peace-campaigning, social-justice-advocating people. They're also my mates. Hell, if the right job came up, I'd work for them in a shot.

[mikey-ob.livejournal.com]

What Traveller rules set do you use? I have been a TAS member for over 20 years now and I would love to run the game again.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Started with Megatraveller, but PC actions led that game to come to a screaming halt (total mission failure).

One of the neat side-effects of the mission failure is because the PCs failed to get the super-class spaceships for the Spinward Marches rebels (the Nail campaign in the Rebellion sourcebook) I was able to use that as a plot device on why the Marches weren't as badly affected by the Virus .... Thus we're now playing Traveller: The New Era.

[bodgirl.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

I miss you .....

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Awww! *hugs* Come visit us!

[bodgirl.livejournal.com]

I want to and had planned to earlier in the year but then I just didnt have enough money.

but soon maybe....in the next several months kinda maybe :)

Have you signed up to my friend beeefcake's journal, I think you two would get along.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

whilst the conservative Coalition didn't have a snowflake's chance in hell

Not on the night, anyway. IMHO, as of two years ago they stood a very good chance of winning before they threw it away on factional infighting. I didn't have much time for Brogden, but the way the Right knifed him was ugly enough to hurt the Liberals' chances, and Debnam was hopeless - he should have been able to maul Labor when Orkopoulos and Scully came to grief, and instead he overreached and made allegations against Bob Debus that he couldn't back up. And so on.

I will be interested to see how O'Farrell goes. He's been gearing up for this for a long time; I get the impression he decided to let the Right burn themselves out before taking a run at leadership.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they need something like 12% to win? That's a hell of a margin in anyone's business.

The article in the SMH seems to suggest that O'Farrell will walk it in, although he's also being very clever on how he hands out his deputy positions.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

12% to govern in their own right, 9% to deny Labor a majority.

Yes, it's a lot, but in the last couple of years we've had Carr's resignation, a water crisis, serious public transport and healthcare problems (with major PT outages days before the election), the Cronulla riots, one minister sacked for misleading parliament, another charged with using taxpayers' money to buy drugs and child prostitutes, another MP convicted of assaulting his partner, and an assortment of lesser embarrassments. How much more ammunition could the Coalition want?

[mrteufel.livejournal.com]

Someone recently pointed out that Debnam looks just like Frank Spencer*; now I can't help laughing whenever I see him.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Spencer

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Re. Deities and Demigods:

I did notice straight away that Dagon and Hydra were absent in the Cthulhu section, but Deep Ones, whom they rule, were included.

That's canon for Call of Cthulhu, but I don't think it's specified in Lovecraft's own work. As best I can remember, the name 'Dagon' appears in two places in Lovecraft's stories: as the title of a story where a shipwrecked sailor sees a very big marine monster, and the 'Esoteric Order of Dagon' in Shadow over Innsmouth. Making Dagon a god of the Deep Ones is fairly consistent with that, but it's not something HPL really spelled out. I don't recall Hydra appearing at all in his stories, though I may have missed something.

But like I noted a while back, the Cthulhu mythos neither began nor ended with Lovecraft; there really is no definitive version on this, and Lovecraft's own stuff was vague enough that RPGs looking to detail mythos beasties and their stats often add in a lot of the later stuff.

BTW, you might be amused to know that Dagon has resurfaced in last year's Hordes of the Abyss as a demon prince (obyrith, which basically translates to 'old fogey demon that drives men insane').

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

but I don't think it's specified in Lovecraft's own work

No, I don't think it's specified. Like most things in the mythos it's ambigious at best. Dagon might be an extremely big, powerful and nasty Deep One; and he's certainly a deity and the deep one's certainly worship Dagon (c.f., The Shadow Over Innsmouth).

But like I noted a while back, the Cthulhu mythos neither began nor ended with Lovecraft

Which is one of the best aspects of it...

[phasmaphobic.livejournal.com]

Jesus Christ, that Pundit fellow is a douchebag.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

There was an interview with him recently where he stated he wouldn't be as well known if it wasn't for the way that he presents himself. Now sometimes, among the failed gonzo style, he actually has a point. If only he wasn't so deliberatly abrasive the worthwhile elements of his posts would actually be better known; of course it would also mean that he'd be posting only 1/10th of as much....

[beagl.livejournal.com]

Everything I learnt about gods was from Deities and Demigods.... just kidding.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

On topic, one thing I don't recall on your journeys was many visits to archeological sites... I mean you're in the lands of the Aztecs and the Mayans... (although I really like the
Honduras set)

[mr-figgy.livejournal.com]

The PQ is also often associated with separatism, particularly in whatever affiliation they have with the federal party Bloc Quebecois. However, they do seem to be more attuned to the social and environmental side of things, and are often seen as holding off on another referendum until the poll numbers look better for it. I haven't read enough about the ADQ, unfortunately...

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

PQ has trade union links and a social-democratic slant. ADQ are liberal conservatives. This is the first time they've made any real showing; for the past thirty plus years power in Quebec has been between the centre-left separatists and the centre-left federalists.