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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
William Timmins' LiveJournal:
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| Sunday, May 24th, 2009 | | 4:37 pm |
Star Trek thoughts
Finally saw Star Trek, thanks to Amy's boss, who offered to babysit for the kids so we could see the movie. Yay! There were elements to the movie I had figured out before, and it triggered an interesting realization that I will place behind a cut for (mild) spoiler reasons... ( Thoughts on Star Trek ) | | Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 | | 7:33 am |
| | Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 | | 4:36 pm |
| | 10:15 am |
Ok, now it's bugging me...
I was watching, off and on, a really cool program on one of those specialty channels (History, Discovery, NatGeo, Science, Warfare... I don't frickin know). The basic theme was 'tech is allowing us to achieve superpowers.' Examples included general prosthetics, that guy who's been experimenting with RFID chips in his body to control stuff, special boots that let you jump really high, a dolphin-shaped fin that lets you swim like a dolphin significantly faster/easier than with conventional flippers, the Army's experimental exosuit which can let a man maneuver easily and lift huge weights without much effort (though needs batteries), a skydiving gliding suit that lets you cover miles before needing your chute, and so on. Oh, also apparently they've developed a muscle-like fiber that can exert orders of magnitude more force than regular muscle. Really nifty show, but I can't for the life of me either remember what the show was called, or what channel it was on. And I know I missed a few bits. Anyone know? | | Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 | | 1:05 pm |
| | 9:56 am |
| | Sunday, March 8th, 2009 | | 5:44 pm |
Watchmen
Nothing fancy, but I saw it, enjoyed it thoroughly. While maybe it could have been tightened up and directed more smoothly... as someone who's read the story, I just found it so fun grinning as I watched that I didn't really find it lacking. While not everything made it to the screen, there was usually a quick appearance or reference so fans can go 'oh hey, there's that guy!' I expected the ending to piss me off, but was pleasantly surprised -- I thought it fit seamlessly into the narrative and made at least as much sense as the original, and just possibly more. (And here I put myself firmly on Alan Moore's shitlist) I find the complaints about blue wang funny; I thought it was uncompromising and simply RIGHT. Same with the long sex scene. | | Saturday, March 7th, 2009 | | 3:00 pm |
The Google Image Search Notporn game
The rules: Turn off safesearch on google. Completely off. Enter a search term that is relatively brief and somewhat flexible (but isn't porn related) See if you can go 20 pages without naked bodies appearing! (female nipples/topless counts unless it's something like natives in New Guinea, same with bare asses) Do so five times and tally score! Scores: Orbital Insertion - 20 I really thought the 'insertion' part would trigger porn, but not in 20 pages! Heavenly Bodies - 0.0 First image was a pussy. Heh. Hard Worker - 3 Some pinups earlier, but first actual nipplage was on page 3. Torque - 20 I thought I was a goner with some pinups early on, but no porn! Ha! Heavy Load - 3 Painting of a naked man from behind. Technically counts, though I was surprised there was no gay porn in 20 pages. Total score: 46 | | Friday, March 6th, 2009 | | 2:36 pm |
| | 2:09 pm |
Politics
It occurred to me the other day that I don't ascribe to two of the common models of economic development: trickle-down, and seep up. I don't favor big bonuses and advantages given to the wealthy and big business. I also don't favor a lot of extra service, funding, and welfare to the poor. I favor what I'd call 'lateral diffusion'; work on improving infrastructure at all levels, and let the benefits diffuse to the rest of the market and economy. That is, fix the freakin' bridges, roads, public utilities, and all that stuff. I'll pass on the stimulus package if I didn't have to wonder who's going to die next when a bridge collapses, thanks. | | Thursday, March 5th, 2009 | | 11:19 am |
SotC: Thoughts on failure
One of the points made in the GM advice in Spirit of the Century is that you should only call for rolls when failure is interesting and doesn't end the game. Thinking from the standpoint of traditional fantasy gaming, it occurs to me that certain failure results can be used by the GM to create scene aspects or tags by enemies. For example: Alfyrd is picking a lock in an orc-infested dungeon. If he fails, he can simply take more time until he succeeds (generally). However, say there are orcs on the other side; you could judge that a failure means the orcs can make an Alertness check. Success, and they are armed and ready. Failure by 3+ generates spin, and the orcs can add a 'Prepared for trouble' aspect to their group and get a free tag. (If they failed the Alertness, instead they turn the failure into success automatically). Failure by 5, and perhaps they get some other advantage (or may open the door early, flank the group, whatever). Searching an area or other preparations may also apply, social interactions (terrible performance, your enemies in scene get to Make comments), and so on. | | Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 | | 3:54 am |
| | Monday, March 2nd, 2009 | | 11:37 am |
FATE 3 thoughts
So I finally have a copy of Spirit of the Century and am reading through. And I see what people mean about stunts being a bit meh. Given my love of how well the system does a lot of things comprehensively and very simply, the stunts break with both design principles. ( SotC Neep )I'd appreciate feedback. | | Friday, February 27th, 2009 | | 10:57 am |
Living the dream
So I was venting a bit about the kids and I had to laugh, because before we had them I used to be somewhat jealously snippy about people complaining about their kids. 'Don't they realize how lucky they are??' I'd think. Sure, at some level I knew better, but still... And it's something I've really come to appreciate over the years. There have been times my wife or I have had the perfect job. I, for example, had leave to do freelance writing for over two years. Recently, I had a job testing Xbox games. But there's still bad days and frustrations, no matter how much you prefer it to some other situation. I imagine the same thing would happen in, say, Heaven... 'Hey, Frank! How are you, man?' "Ugh. Don't ask." '... That bad?' "Eh. It's the damn bugling." 'What?' "The bugling. You know that bungalow I got?" 'Yeah?' "Well, it's only ten blocks from the Gate, and every flippin' hour the angels belt out a chorus with however many souls have entered, and a mighty toot of their freakin' horn. It's not so bad when I'm awake, I can turn up the TV. But when I'm trying to sleep? Bad enough it's bright all the time and I have to get thick curtains." 'Huh. That must be rough, so soon after you died. All that adjustment.' "Yeah." 'Me, I had 300 years in Purgatory to get used to it, and I find the snoring in the big dorm I share with 500 other people pretty soothing. Must be rough in that big echoey place all by yourself.' "... Fuck you." 'Love you, man!' And on that note... | | 10:19 am |
| | Thursday, February 26th, 2009 | | 2:36 pm |
FATE 3 games I'd love to write
Someday, if I ever had the time: Stone Age game I've had a d20 Stone Age game kicking around in my head for years, but never sufficiently motivated to pull it off. At one point I actually had written down some sort of 'random resource mapper,' to place flint (vital for neanderthal), usable wood, fresh water, migration patterns, terrain, etc. I also wanted to do some sorts of 'community as character resource the players share,' with adventures mapping to influence on the community's well-being. So hunting a particular tiger might add to the 'thriving' element of the community, or finding fresh water to improve health, etc. And possibly having children as, essentially, spare lives... Additionally, the concept of 'dances,' where the PCs take on roles (another layer!) and performed a fantasy. But it's magic, so the way the dance evolved affected the real world. Now that I'm familiar with Fate 3, I think this would work even better. What I'd probably do is have players have a few personal Aspects, then the tribe has Aspects, that the players can have permutations of. So, for example, the Tribe might have 'Skilled Artisans,' and a player might then take 'Trusts in his boomerang.' During Dances, players would take on additional Aspects that could be used during the dance, reflecting their role. Weird West Been done before, but I'd love to tweak it to Fate. The 1890s are such an amazingly diverse time; you could have gunslingers, railroad pioneers, inventors, Golden Dawn acolytes, ronin, Indian trackers, etc. Dreamworlds game Essentially a multiverse game where players are immortal spirits, popping into worlds to strengthen the nature of their being (to either rob the worlds of energy to build/strengthen their own, protect worlds against others, and other reasons). Characters would translate into a new world; Aspects would have a simple root quality that helps generate a new, world appropriate Aspect. So a character might have Tough. In a Weird West world, she has 'Too old to die.' In a robotic post-apocalypse world, she might have 'Heavy armor plating.' Etc. Low fantasy I'd love to see how well Fate would work to support a fantasy world where magic and supernatural elements are more restrained, but with the same pulp aesthetic. I suppose in a lot of ways it would be a traditional pulp game with a different setting. | | 10:34 am |
| | Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 | | 8:47 am |
| | 4:47 am |
| | Monday, February 23rd, 2009 | | 6:25 pm |
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