Linux Conf, Unitarians, Gaming

[tcpip]

The past week and a bit has been dominated by Linux Conf AU where I spent several mornings working as a volunteer on the rego desk. I managed to attend Bruce Schneier's keynote address on 'reconceptualising security', anthonybaxter's keynote on changes to the Python programming language, and two BOF presentations; Anthony David on Linux for High Performance Computing, and Hugh Blemings' presentation introducing a PowerPC box for developers (nice!). Schneier was a bit of a dud; lightweight management speak to a technical crowd, the "reconceptualization" seemed trivial and obvious and the one potentially interesting part of his presentation (asymmetric markets was insufficiently developed. In contrast Baxter's presentation was deeply informative, interesting, and with a requisite quantity of humour. Finally, much kudos are due to kattekrab for organising this internationally significant conference. Well done.

The following day after the conference was Linux Open Day, where I also attended the Joomla Day which was being held concurrently. Apart from being largely unimpressed with the quality and substance of the presentations (Norm Douglas' introductory presentation being an exception), the administration of the event was quite amateur. In summary, I'll be sticking to Drupal, which seems to me to have more features, makes better use of resources and a larger community of active developers.

In Unitarian news I took the opportunity a couple of weeks back to express my concerns at a presentation. To say the least, I have received extremely positive feedback on the presentation (with the exception of one person, who I knew wouldn't be happy anyway). A presentation last Sunday which concurs with the direction I think the church should be heading, Dr. John Perkins of the Secular Party of Australia, on "Atheism and Secularism", was very well attended. Next week I'm giving a presentation to the Philosophy Forum on "Biological Taxonomy: An Example of the Philosophy of Science".

Gaming over the past few weeks has quite fun. D&D Fantasy Australia went very well last week and my Legend of the Five Rings game continues its journey in ghostly island off the coast of Noto Province (now the Ishikawa Prefecture. I've recently had reviews of D3: The Vault of the Drow and Kill Puppies for Satan published. My HeroQuest Glorantha game bubbles along quite nicely with the game reaching the milestone of one year of play with a dramatic scene (in Gloranthan terms anyway).

Comments

[ytterbius.livejournal.com]

I loved the Drow (and Giant) Series. As a kid I spent alot of time imagining those caves. I was less a fan of Q1, though I did run through part of it as a Mage.

Those old modules really were magical, though maybe alot of that has to do with my age at the time of reading and playing with them.

Something about caves, I suppose. Moria was always my favorite part of Middle Earth, though it certainly had a different feel from the Drow caves.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Many of the old modules don't feel or read so magical in retrospect. It is first-time 'actual play' that generates the magic and by that criteria new gamers should be getting more of a hit than we did. Although that caveat is somewhat suppressed by the exposure to FRPG computer games, I suppose.

Did you ever read the ICE Moria module?

[ytterbius.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I haven't seen that module, though I have played Rolemaster. It's been a long time, but I remember it being a great system.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

The core mechanics were pretty good although the implementation could have been much better. The real strength came from the opportunity in various Companions to build a set of rules which suited a group of players and still remain within the same game system as a whole.

[ytterbius.livejournal.com]

I liked the consistancy. Everything using 2d10 was great, though it required a very sharp GM to keep up with all of the charts. Thanksfully we had a masterful GM, and a very solid group, so it was almost as if the actual rules were invisible, just choose an action, roll the dice, and go from there. Of course there was that one guy in the party renowned for his luck with heroic open ended rolls. :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

The consistency of d100 was extremely good and something which all games should aspire to (god, remember all the variant resolution systems in AD&D1e?). Although the "roll high" method and chart references could slow things down a little.

One other thing I really liked about Rolemaster was the neat demarcations in the spell system...

What can I say tho'? There's always going to be a special spot for Rolemaster in my memory. Running a game for three years during uni and writing a Companion will do that.

[gillan.livejournal.com]

Someday I'll have a Glorantha game of my very own.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

I had several bites of the cherry over a number of years, but this is the first fully-fledged Glorantha game I've run. It's a very rich environment, plenty of opportunities.

[tzunder.livejournal.com]

D&D Fantasy Austrlia? Tell us more..

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Oh pretty much as it sounds. It started with the players simply picking a map of Australia as an easy way to deal with climate, resources and the like. Then there was a few mythic stories, like how the Barrier Mountains were raised by wizards to keep various monsters out of civilised lands, how Perth is a fortified town, Queensland is overrun by barbarians, elves rule Tasmania..

That sort of thing. Although before I joined the group apparently there was an epic conflict with a druid with giant wombats, drop bears and the like...

I'm hoping to push it more in a fantasy Australia direction rather than a standard D&D game..