Sam's L33t Journal

Intercon was this past weekend. My games were pretty fun (save for one which was cancelled on account of a cancelled flight). Plans gone wrong, angst IN SPACE, and one game set in a corporate-cyberpunk-dystopia version of the world of Game of Thrones. Plus an Iron GM game that seemed very put-together for having been written in a single weekend.

Next weekend is PAX East, which I managed to get passes to after all.

In only somewhat related news, Roll for the Galaxy (the dice game variant of the card game Race for the Galaxy) is at least as fun as its predecessor, maybe more. Good stuff!

Intercon was fun. Hiterby Dragons is one heck of a setting.

Speaking of games and settings, I'm excited to see that Shadowrun Returns has completed their Kickstarter and is well underway with the development of their game. Shadowrun is a great setting, the tabletop game had mechanics that really worked well with that setting, and the developers of this game really seem to get that. Does that mean the game will be good? Don't know, but early footage is promising.

Another thing I want to point out of definite interest to computer RPG fans, this Kickstarter for a Planescape: Torment sequel. Now, I can provide even less confidence that this one will be good; Planescape: Torment continually comes up on lists of the best RPGs, the setting is interesting and fantastic and the writing is superb, it won't be easy to match. I would have been glad to see another game in the Planescape setting, certainly Torment explored only a tiny fraction of that. But the developers of this game are taking a different approach, taking another deep setting (Monte Cook's Numenera, an as of yet unreleased and vastly overfunded tabletop setting from game designer Monte Cook) and creating a game with similar plot and themes to Torment, with a focus on writing that develops the character and setting in interesting ways, focusing on exploration and choice. Worth taking a look at the Kickstarter if you were a fan of the original, they seem to have a good team (including some of the people who worked on Torment at Interplay) and certainly enough funds to make a good attempt. (Plus the intro to their Kickstarter video is pretty funny.)

This trend of Kickstarter as an indie game publishing platform is pretty interesting. The obvious interesting thing is that Kickstarter has been successful at funding projects that major publishers might find too small / risky / unprofitable. What's struck me lately is that there are a lot of different sorts of Kickstarter projects. These two feature old, established game developers returning to beloved projects that they couldn't return to in a big-company context, collaborating with young indie devs. That's pretty different from an established game company choosing crowd-funding over a publisher. Or from two people with a new-IP prototype seeking to complete their game.


On an entirely different topic: I've been thinking about cookbooks. Lately, I've been mostly cooking from recipes found on the internet or just winging it. But in the past, I enjoyed browsing through cookbooks and planning elaborate meals. It's also pleasant to idly thumb through cookbooks, too, they're nice to have around. They can be beautiful and interesting art objects in addition to culinary references and containers of delicious recipes. So I thought I'd ask, oh readers of this journal, what are your favorite cookbooks?

Intercon: Was good. The new hotel was expensive and less conducive to socializing with other con-goers. On the other hand, the venue space was huge, which was a plus. Managed to get myself into a game Friday night despite being stuck on waitlist for the game I'd most wanted to play. Highlights included a very long tales-format (with flashbacks done as separate scenes, sort of games within the game) post-apocalyptic amnesia game, and getting to play the Borg (basically) in a game involving interstellar diplomacy.

Enjoyed this week, though it's going far too quickly. Work is crazy. I'm on the trail of a bug that's hard to replicate and is going to be terrible to test, but I'm just beginning to wrap my head around the issue, so it's fairly satisfying.

Looking forward to PAX East this weekend. Taking tomorrow off, but don't figure I'll wake up early to make the start of the day. Will be more fun if I'm rested, probably.

I'm at Intercon this weekend. Horribly nerdy, but fun. I've greatly enjoyed all the games I've played in so far (my favorite being this evening's, a story of the Last Supper (passover seder and all) set in an environmental-apocalyptic not-far-future, with elements of space colonization and time travel).

It's a relaxing break, although I really can't afford to take this much time off...