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.... I want to like you, but if you keep this up, we'll never be friends. I want you to know that. I keep trying, it's just...these Contracts. They're destroying this relationship.
Ok, first of all, it's cold up here. I kind of want that to sink in, because I'm pretty sure it's roasting in the midwest right now. I don't really have much trouble with heat, but I don't miss temperatures so hot it just makes you want to sit around until evening. Brent and Val have this mini-AC unit which they hardly ever have to turn on, but even when they do, they turn it on for temperatures that we'd of just opened up the windows and turned the fan on for my Dad's house. So that's something.
Over here, besides looking for gainful employment and maybe combing Craigslist for roomies or something*, I've been combining my notes and working on gaming stuff. I spent about an hour looking into ghost rules for NWoD and finding them pretty good. I doubt we'll ever see a Wraith expansion for NWoD, but I'll try to deal.** I also spent, like, four fucking hours with the Changeling books again trying to puzzle out the mechanics to embody my character concepts for the Cam with Brent.
My disinterest for Contracts has found itself transformed into outright ire. What's up with that? One - I don't like their format. They're a bunch of individual paths, none of which simply scale up in scope, but offer a multitude of different abilities at scaling xp costs. So, if the only power I want is ***, then I have to buy * and ** before I can get it, nevermind that those are likely to actually be useless to me if I don't have the relevant Skill. The answer is to buy that skill up, but if it doesn't make a lot of sense to the concept, something's got to give. And either way, it kind of creates a cascading xp requirement that I like on one hand but the inefficiency of it I dislike on the other.
In addition, many contracts are a two-dicepool where one of those pools is Wyrd. Wyrd is just one pool because it goes up to ten, but it's the power stat, so it's hands down the most expensive ability on the list. Because you're not rolling dice, you're really forced to buy it up high if you want certain abilities to get past one success, which I feel is a real issue. OTOH, once it's up there, someone with a high Wyrd is really versitile in terms on Contracts, but it really favors high XP characters more then usual. At least in Mage, a focused younger Mage who picks his Rotes well is still going to be able to compete (or aid) the big boys with high Gnosis. So, that's thematic, it can go either way, I guess. You can either be mostly mundane and rely more on your skills and low-impact Contracts (Hearth is great for this) or just up your Wyrd and go batshit.
Still, if you don't have the XP to buy Contracts and Wyrd, you're looking at a prolonged period of time where you don't really actually do anything. Have fun being scenery again.
In addition, I was considering that I might not have the XP chops to pull off my first, favored character concept, so I decided to go with something low-key. Kind of an agrophobe who came out fairly rarely (which would explain if I didn't come to game often) who didn't need to be that powerful, but was a bit of an information broker and blackmarketeer who assisted his private eye partner. Autumn Court gets a neat Mantle that adds dice to Occult pulls/rolls revolving around Contracts. I don't like many of the Contracts, actually (I chalk this up to being a gaming curmudgeon a bit and decided to just roll with it), and figured I'd just take what I was given and look through the book to find out what Contracts had a fair number of Occult in the die pools.
Good God. Almost friggin' none. I need Summer 4 to get some, or 5's in the other seasonal courts. The only one that's going to apply to me, at least at first, is Autumn, which means I can summon a hailstorm. Which is neither in character nor of any goddamn interest to me at all. I had to have Brent look into the Summer Court book to find alternate Seasonal court Contracts before I found something thematic and Occult related in their Autumn alt.
Summer isn't vetted for play yet. OK. Great. So, I'm basically just going Fleeting Autumn 3, Hearth 2, Mantle 4, and just buying skills and merits, it looks like, on this one guys. What are the rules for mortal thaumaturgy in Changeling, because that's what I want.
Actually, here's what I'd of wanted over their power setup. Exalted style charmlists where the powers are tied to a concept and have pre-requisites but are paid for modularly because they're often unrelated. Problem - high XP characters are just going to buy record numbers of modular charms because they don't scale in XP. Not a problem in Exalted. Might be a problem in Cam Changeling because XP totals are so amazingly high.
Suggestion 2: Use Vampire magics as a template. Buy the Contract stat up from 1-5, but have powers purchased seperate, rated from 1-5, giving one power of the appropriate level to the character every time they increase the rank of their contract, but allow additional thematic powers to be purchased for a modular cost. This is my favorite suggestion because every time you want to come up with a new goddamn power, you don't have to make up four more just to justify creating a new contract, and you wouldn't feel obligated to add a whole new Contract list in every published splat. OTOH, it's a limited run that's already way, way past production, so it's not like these suggestions are useful now. They're just where I would have taken it. I just think this is, by far, the more elegant way to go. It also stops characters from having a bunch of grab-bag Contracts. You've just got the Corebook, plus a few others, so you can give the nod or stop seperate powers from being allowed into the Cam as they're released instead of having to ok or axe a whole Contract list.
Also, there arn't a lot of ass-beating Contracts. I guess this is on purpose, but I'd of liked a few more obviously helpful contracts for combat. I keep seeing all these, "Let's beat the Gentry's ass if they show back up again." in the books, but shit. They're better off just paying Mages or Vampires to do their ass-beating for them. Changeling gonna get his ass kicked.
*If you want to move up, now's a good time. I'm housetrained and I like doing laundry and dishes.
** Probably no Kindred of the East expansion either. That was a cultural artifact of when it appeared, no doubt.
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| 2008-07-09 23:58 |
| [Cam] Legacy? |
| Public |
| camarilla |
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Brent has me convinced. A Rasta Legacy is needed.
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Yesterday was fairly action packed, with us leaving around noon to go to the Seattle beer fest. It was kind of pricey, and I joked that my initial plan was just to drink beer until I got tanked, but the 10 tickets were quite enough to get a pretty hefty buzz by the end, even with me spending 3 at a time at the end for meads and other tasty drinks. I also finally got a good hot dog, which is nice. The event was really close to the Space Needle, and I took a few shots, so maybe they'll come out and whatnot.
Afterwards, Brent and Val went out to what sounds like a really decent Mexican place, and I hung out playing Rock Band (my strummin' arm was sore) and going over Mage character creation with a friend. Since the system is kind of new to her, I went over the mechanical issues instead of the character ones, since we already made is fairly clear that character and story come first. In my case, I really believe that because anything else really makes for a boring time. You can't talk about your pull for Mage Sight in character, and even if you could, the fact that you can hit three successes 75% of the time makes for fairly dry conversation.
"So, what do you do?"
"Oh, me? I'm a double master in Prime and Forces."
"Yeah.... that's great. But what I meant was, what do you do professionally?"
"I.... wizard?"
"....Ok. How much does that pay, anyhow?"
"Oh! Well! I've got Resources 4."
".... I'm going to go hang out with the Tremere. You have a nice time."
But seriously. Half the Matter rotes up to 3 require "Occult or Science" and just about all the others want Craft. And if you're going to be big into Matter and Forces, you could do worse then to study basic chemistry and physics in PC high school.
Other then that, no good leads yet, so I'm going to make that my new goal. I want 3 good leads by the end of the week. Is that possible? I don't know. I'll go out of my way to make it work though.
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| 2008-06-30 13:51 |
| Should Have Predicted This. |
| Public |
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| camarilla, work |
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I have a few blind-spots when it comes to predicting what people will do, and one of them is that I regularly believe my family members even when I have good reasons not to.
Good reasons like precedent.
So when my mother told me she'd get the professionally done version of my resume sent to me in short-order, I believed her, and when she kept assuring me that I should just let her do it, and she'd have it up to me in no time, I believed that too. This was a bad idea. I did my own resume again from scratch days ago and submitted it already and I still have yet to see a resume in my box and my calls go unanswered. I think this has less to do with any kind of purposeful decision and more to do with her general anxiety levels and inability to meet deadlines. It takes me practically forever to do a resume from scratch, so I didn't want to, and I knew she had my copies on file. I'm not taking it personally, but I've decided I really can't trust her for any sensitive work, so. There's a good chance I won't get so much as an interview at my first attempt because I didn't get the resume in on time. This is basically my fault, but I wish things had gone better.
Um. So. I haven't been online as much. Some, a little daily, and stuff has been happening, but not a massive amount of anything life changing. It's 90+ degrees here now, and nobody really seems to have A/C, so either all the windows end up open or portable units get plugged in. Portable units are only moderately effective and they're expensive, so it's not good to have those on all the time.
I met up with the area Camarilla group, and joined them with ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) brantai for the Requiem game with NPCs. We wanted to sight-see a bit, and we'd come for the Mage venue, so we were caught with our pants down just a bit and didn't get to play Cornelius and Covington. Instead, we literally ended up playing Dante and Randall, so now a pair of gas-station clerks are on the record as living in scenic Goldbarr, WA in the middle of nowhere. Easily the most animated of all the players there, we had multiple checks to make sure we were actually vampires (mostly people asking "Are you a vampire?" IC , which struck me as hilarious both IC and out). Since we were supposed to be representing at a party, we tried to make smalltalk by discussing music and movies (two things that seem to work pretty well IRL, you know?) which really kind of fell flat.
I guess most vampires have never seen Indiana Jones or Star Wars? No. Man. If I were a vampire, I would spend most of my downtime reading and watching movies. You've got forever to kill! Eventually clubbing is going to get old, and you'll want to spend some time indoors catching flicks, right? I think my opinion of what vampires do is dramatically skewed, so I'm taking it in for consideration. Same with Mage, I guess, though the opposite things seem to go on. Everyone wants to make Lost references, so I spend my time trying to figure out when they got Gnosis 5. I need to work on my perspective.
Anyway! I recalibrated my job-search engines for the Seattle area, and hopefully that'll go well. At least all the grocery stores and stuff seem to be hiring. They don't seem to be able to find enough help from the local population, so if things don't go great, I might get a part-time job there and consider the Korea option.
EDIT: Crap. I want to talk about Sidereals, and I've already posted. Tomorrow, then. Better watch out, suckers!
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I had a good evening last night. Really unhealthy food, but hey, I was dying for something with chili on it for a long time. I don't know if you're been privy to this rant yet, but in short, if I order something with chili on it, chili needs to cover it. No lame cups of chili. Still, man, that chiliburger was massive. You know what that means.
Lunch tomorrow. Or, rather, today. I totally ate the rest of that burger, so it's healthy eating for the rest of the week right?
Oh snap. It's Friday. So let's reset that timer, shall we? ^_^
Still, I lost some muscle weight and gained some fat weight, so I shouldn't take that too far. Walking and various exercises should clear up some of the lost muscle weight. I'm not going to worry too much about having put on weight though. I'm more concerned about the sedentary lifestyle I'd been working on for several months. Activity is definitely increasing my energy level.
Anyhow, it was my first trip into the city, which was fun. I mean, there's a subtle difference between Seattle and St. Louis besides hills and trees, and it's heavily dependent on the area. The truth is, I like a lot of areas in downtown St. Louis and the like, but crossing the floating bridge but day and night was pretty.
I finally got around to ironing out Atol on the spreadsheet, spending the banked xp that I'd earned from games and the bump to MC 3. The results are really pretty stunning with just a few bumps. Still, I had a few things go from 3 to 4, and a level 3 Rote, so I'm going to need to ask around and do a little OOC legwork to make sure its kosher. Nothing seems off about it, and the only thing I did that might surprise anyone is totally forgoing the Fame merit at all, since part of the IC dialog I had last game revolved around how Atol was leaving on a musical pilgrimage of sorts because he couldn't get his sound right and his band never took off. (Several band members left, in game, so.)
I'm doing the NPCs for the Exalted game, and kind of like how straight-forward the Dragonblooded Charms are compared to Solar or, especially, Sidereal Charms. They have the smallest Essence pools, so over a long period, their Charms are designed to be as efficient as possible, so you see a lot of '1 Mote per X' costs in their Charm trees. Without looking harder at the overall mechanics, I think the DB book is one of the best and most flavorful.
After working with the Mage and Camarillia spreadsheets, though, I kind of wish someone had done the same thing for 1st Ed. Exalted but since there never was a LARP for Exalted, there's not a lot of call for it.
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| 2008-06-22 13:56 |
| I Am Running, Like, All The Time. |
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| camarilla, ratties |
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No, I'm not complaining. In fact, my energy level has generally gone way up. I find myself with a greater appetite* and in a better mood. If you've commented that I look better or healthier then I have in a long time, you arn't the only one it seems. I feel better, too, so. That isn't to say I don't have anxious or lonely moments these days, because I absolutely do, including the occasional feeling of vertigo still. But it's not constant anymore, and that makes a huge difference.
Ok, party yesterday. Good times! It had been way too long since I'd played Mage at all. I really enjoy the character interaction, and I just wish there were more people willing to play in the venue. I kinda scuff my feet when I think about having tried to get other friends to play and not really succeeding on that part. Vampire was good too, but the way I explain my inevitable participation, I just don't think I'm as good at Vampire as I am at Mage. Talking about quality in rp'ing... I think about Vampire a lot because I think I'm missing something key and if I understood it, I'd be able to play better. Anyhow, thoughts about that can wait for another day.
Late night, into the morning party. I'm glad I went. I feel that I would have really missed out on a few really critical things if I had gone to a different venue yesterday. Everyone was great, and I have no complaints, even though when it got really late I felt it was clear that old groups gelled into talking circles and after a certain point in the evening, I was just kind of watching everyone talk. There were certain social interactions that were just stunningly apparent, but that you don't get to see so obviously every day. Basically, I thought it was fun and a little weird to think that I was learning more about my friends in this fun, relaxed atmosphere, and then I'm leaving so soon! But, of course, I'll be back, too. I have to because, as I said to drbuzzkill, I have to come back to drink properly with everyone. And game. Right! Of course, game.
So, I'd love to chat about my reflections more, since I got a lot out of last night. But I need to ship my poor, adorable ratties off and demonstrate the care and feeding of their tiny, furred selves to Brian, who is thoughtfully making sure they don't perish in my absence. I have little money, which is why I have lavished their apartment in gaming systems, rpg books, and games. ^_^; I've got a fairly busy day ahead, and tomorrow, and Tuesday is my flight.
* Still pretty small, in general. But eating multiple meals a day! Gasp!
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I'd gotten an invitation to go to a birthday party movie night, but it's a really confusing invitation, honestly. I know the person through someone else, and so she's really more of an acquaintance then anything else. I'd agreed to go because I had assumed there'd be people I knew attending, but I can't seem to find a guest list on her Facebook, which is primarily populated that I don't know well or don't live here anymore. Of all the outings I intend to attend before I go, this one as the potential to be the dullest or the weirdest, so I guess if things go poorly, I'll either excuse myself early or see if Matt is doing anything.
And then invite him. Because that's an easy way of making a party more interesting.
I was also invited to go camping, but I think that got canceled and I think it'd also run dangerously close to interfering with my Saturday plans. Of which I wanted to be more prepared for, but much of the interesting stuff is located on a thumb drive in Edwardsville, which I just don't have the energy to drive out and get right now. Instead, I'm making sure my character logs are correct and reconciled with the character sheets I have, since I need to spend somewhere around 60 points for at least one by tomorrow. Father Collin is irritating, too, because I've just got the sheet and have to re-figure where I spent the points for him. In at least one place, I'm having trouble reconciling exp with stats, which means I need to do math.
I don't mind though. The only thing I'm irritated about is how I already loaned out my Mage book, so I have to settle for my back up .pdf, since I don't want to go out to Edwardsville today. Also, 60 xp is a lot, and it still goes fast. I'm sitting around with a little tally sheet that says "Needs: 1 dot of Fame. Needs: ??? "
I assume I need Rotes and Arcana, since I'm a magical wuss. I also need Skills, since Atol arguably a better Mysterium mage then a Free Council by virtue of what he's good at. That's why I love him so much, though. He's really pretty out of place, and magical society doesn't make much sense to him, but he still keeps trying. At some point, though, I'm assuming I'll want another primary, because I've been playing Atol for a while and what he does is fun but doing it all the time is starting to drag on a bit. I certainly don't plan on retiring him, because the growth of a young mage into something else is an interesting concept to me. He's gotten much more cynical as time goes on, but I haven't gotten to play much lately, so a little of that growth is lost.
So, some homework, then some writing today.
Addition: Sigh. Nothing like a ton of cutting and pasting. At least I don't have to do it from scratch.
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Anxiety has been keeping me awake lately. I try to go to bed, and I really just can't. I'm ok as long as I'm supposed to be awake, but I can't seem to get any rest. I think I'm just really stressed with all that's going on in my life. I'm really glad I'm not working so I can readjust and take this time for myself, because going through this after I leave or while I'm working would be a nightmare.
Despite my exhaustion, and that's what it is, my schedule is much saner then before. I've been going to bed far, far, too late, but I've been getting about 6 hours, taking naps to deal with my situation, and getting up at noon isn't too bad, though about 10 AM is my target these days. But to feel relaxed, I might have to resort to falling asleep in my chair or something. >_>
Today was kind of neat. I'm trying to give stressed friends space to breathe, but I got a call from my friend Paul and we went out for coffee and Thai. Turns out that they showed up late, so only I got coffee, and we just chatted for about an hour. He was really interested in how I felt about work, which I didn't really want to rehash anymore, but he wanted to know how things had been so I went ahead. They ended up going strawberry picking, and I didn't get invited, so I went home and took a brief nap. Later on, it was dinner and then out to chat with Matt, Anthony and Brian C. about politics and light rail systems. We're all huge Obama fans, so this latest campaign fills us with a lot of optimism. The last campaign was a real blow to my sense of justice in the political system, but I'm really positive about this one.
I'm having a lot of second thoughts about the permanency of this move, though. I haven't been in a real stable, comfortable place prior, and even though I'm going, the situation isn't what I expected. I feel most confident about this when I'm around others, but when I'm by myself and it's late, I get some pretty intense second thoughts and when they hit, I'm convinced that I'm screwing myself. Rationally, though, I try to remember that if things go poorly and I can't hack it up there, I've got ways back, so I'm trying to think of it as a vacation with possible long term possibilities. In a way, though, it's just weird to find something I was so sure about not too long ago flip over on me, like a canoe in the rapids.
It's frustrating to get so neurotic! Feels just like when I was switching to nights, except my life sucks so... much... less. In fact, day to day, it's much, much better. I don't even know where to begin. It's so amazing. The switch to days is taking longer then I expected, and it's more stressful then I thought it would be (if I had gone back to days sooner, it would be a much simpler process. Initially, I'd automatically switch back because I was staying with Vi who was a calming influence and I wasn't fully acclimated, so it was easy to go to bed at midnight) but my quality of life is dramatically improved and I even feel better about myself. If it wasn't for the stress and lack of sleep, I'd almost say it was miraculous.
So, I guess the Vampire game is gonna be at the Ethical Society. I plan on being at Vampire and Mage, and going for afters, so while I'd be ok with driving, I'd also be down with carpooling. I'm not sure where Mage is going to be though, or if everyone who's going to Vampire is going to Mage too, so I'll do what it takes. I want to say bye as much as play, so I won't miss this even if I'm as exhausted then as I am now. I forgot where Mage was going to be held at, so I'll try to get that before Saturday even happens.
Props for awesome friends. I'm not so hot on the awful beer lately, though. Why does everyone insist on Miller Light? It's so bad! >.<;;
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I'm pretty stoked. My ticket is ordered for the 24th, and I should be arriving at Seattle airport at 9:35 pm there. I originally wanted to depart on the 26th, but tickets were ridiculously priced. Those couple of days seem like an issue now, but I probably won't notice the difference overall. My plan is still to quit on the 19th, but depending on how I feel, and how convenient things are, I might leave sooner. Since I'm not under contract, giving forewarning of my intentions to leave is a polite formality it doesn't hurt to abandon. It's not like I've not been screwed by my job before, eh? So, total freedom.
I'm penning my resignation letter. It's so hard! I'm of the opinion that a resignation letter is really a chance to delve into corporate art. The urge to write "While I am leaving the company, I'd like to thank you for your constant generosity as an employer. The raise in pay to a minimum wage hourly equivalent meant a lot to me as a worker, and I'll always treasure the $25 gas gift card I received as my Christmas bonus." is pretty overwhelming. I've been told that I'm the only person people know who will wait a week to leave a job because he's trying to decide just how he wants to quit. I'm not a creature of impulse, people. I play a blue Magic: the Gathering deck.
The one thing I'm going to miss about the area, besides the really great peeps has got to be the gaming. Not only has the Camarilla been really kind to me here, but I've got a really great personal gaming life as well. I kind of have to abandon the OWoD Vampire finale that's been brewing in the area, which is a drag and I was really hoping to get back into Mage in a big way here. The one really big upside is that Covington has a real reason to get back into the action again. As much as I loved him as a character, the reasons for him to stick around were really starting to dwindle because I can really only justify him being in the area for so long. Plus, as Violca's Humanity drops, he becomes increasingly uncomfortable around her. Ironically, it might be noted that his Humanity started off as lower then hers, not that the situation remained there for long. ^_^;
In addition, I'll be updating Atol's myspace more often, checking his mail account more frequently, and the news of his second record should be coming soon. I know I still haven't gotten my CD case to people, so I'll bring it on the 21st, and you might be able to expect me to upload everything to a website soon, depending. It's a lot of additional work and it's just for grins, so it's not really high on my priority list (somewhere around me playing an MMO, actually). I might update tonight if I think of anything clever, but I don't want to write a lot without a reason. Let's just see if anything comes up.
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Whoo! Two-day weekend!
So, that's lame, but there's still something to be said for getting all the days you actually want off, off. I think even if I knew tonight was going to be a living hell, which it has been, then I'd still suck it up so that I could fulfill the past says endeavors. Not, I suppose, because every moment was fun in the traditional sense but I felt I had a lot invested in them.
It was my opinion that the yard sale went fairly well, but I'm substantially more proud of writer_lynnfor doing the heavy lifting then I am of my ADCship. I think that in time, I'd get pretty good at it, but not only did I feel pretty irresponsible for not sleeping the night before, but by and large, we just didn't end up with all that much stuff. I wanted the sale to do better, and I think I could have worked harder on it. Still, the work's not totally done. Money and donations still have to make it over to the pickup site. Depending on what's left, it might all actually fit in my car. We'll have to see.
Anyhow, my Xanga (as always) gets a different batch of data. Since I'm beat, and likely to be busy, I probably ought to make things short and go long tomorrow (providing things are better), but the gist of it is that it looks like I'll be needing to cut my leave date back to the 23rd because I foolishly waited too long to procure my tickets. That means I'll be officially leaving my job on the 19th and leaving four days later instead of 7 in order to save 80 bucks. Between now and tomorrow morning, I might change my mind, but the money difference is substantial and leaving on Thursday doesn't gain me that much more.
I found the 4e trial interesting, but would have enjoyed some non-combat scenes. It didn't feel like the D&Ds of my past, which is a good thing in AD&Ds case, but about break even with 3rd. If I ever begin playing 4e, it'll be in addition to 3.5, and not instead, if my hunch is right. I like 3.5 but 4e combat was fun, too. Also, I'm a Wizard!
Before I'd realized the yardsale was on this Saturday instead of the 28th (the date I originally recalled), I'd made an obligation to do a petition against the Granite City Wal-Mart with a friend so he wouldn't have to go alone. I basically planned on making the rounds on no sleep, but the game was called on account of sudden rain, so I mostly just dozed in his car until he made his way over to his girlfriends graduation party at which point, I actually ended up crashing in his car for a few hours until I was a functioning human being again.
The party itself was alright. I told everyone I'd go, but it was mostly filled with people I'd never met with guest starts from people I did know, and totally didn't expect to show up. It made me all nostalgic for a graduation party of my own, which I'm pretty dubious about fitting in with my schedule. I made vague plans for a few get togethers, but if I do something (and I'd kind of like to) it's going to have to be altered because time and budget issues are looking rather imposing.
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Man alive! It's actually pretty busy tonight, with one hospital call after another. I'm not really sure what's going around out there this Thursday, but if it's not sickness, these calls indicate injury. Remember- if it happens to be zombie bites and plague, aim for the brain and run, don't fight - don't risk a bite!
On a totally different side note, my wrists have been acting really oddly lately. They don't hurt, but they're prone to popping and feel really stiff. I'm wondering if there's something about the keyboard angle and desk/chair height that's doing something to them.
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I was talking with some fellow roleplayers as I went to see Narnia the other night, while we waited for the rest of the group to show up. Personally, if I didn't see some value in the organization I would, not being partial to joining formal organizations in the past, simple allow my membership to lapse feeling that I would, hopefully, at least have the friends I've made to show for my time. So, besides the friendships I've made, which I consider to be very important to me, the group has a lot going for it. I've enjoyed my time spent playing games in the Camarilla thus far.
I may have mentioned in the past, though, that not all my friends hold the same view. Besides the fact that they already have gaming groups and a healthy social lives/networks*, one of the things I keep hearing generally revolves around exp. I'm asked how experience is handled and how characters interact (and occasionally about system issues), and I generally inform them that there's an MC system plus a series of long-term characters that have been accumulating experience for a few years. Even my mage character, whos sheet is getting a little dusty in its binder, has a substantial amount of experience sitting on it, and I'm one of the weaker characters in the chronicle.
The amount of exp in the setting is a little hard for the gaming vets to swallow. Now, I'm not really sure it's a bad thing, because honestly, even a tough bugger of a character will go down under a hail of enough bullets/teeth/knives/whatever. Generally, I've seen a lot of that exp go to very reasonable things to flesh out character concepts, which is probably how it should be.
It think it's a perceptual hurdle, though. There are a lot of players who don't distinguish between table top and LARP when it comes to rules, for example, and only a long term role-playing session under an exceptionally generous Storyteller is going to aquire the kind of exp that a Cam larper can expect to see on even a year-old character whose player has moderate MC. The proportions between player characters is totally different, too, because NPCs are harder to field, a lot of the smaller or more peripheral characters (though they should have their chances to shine) are just going to come from newer players.
It's the proportions between newer and older players that create the different play experience when it comes to power, though. Not only is exp granted for MC, but it's also the standard reward for good play, for showing up to events, et al. I don't think I have a problem with it (in a lot of ways, because I haven't seen a lot of negative fallout from this effect, meaning I'm not even sure how profound it is), but it's certainly in the mind of certain savvy prospective members.
So, like I said. I'm not sure if it's a problem, and if it is, what the solution would be. It's just come up a lot when I query people I know about joining, or am asked about the organizations play.
*not the same thing, I know.
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| 2008-05-17 14:16 |
| [Schedule] A Little Boring, But... |
| Public |
 apathetic |
| camarilla, work |
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...practical, anyhow. I discovered that just taking a day off of work flubs things rather badly, because you don't lose a day, you have to make it up. That means since I took one day off, I have to work four in a row, ect. Having one other person to work kind of messes things up like that.
Gaming is today, but it's the day I can't make. Since there arn't any other days this month for gaming, the next game ought to be Requiem on the 6th and Changeling on the 7th. Work interferes with both of those unless the other op calls in sick, unless my schedule changes (it might), and unless I'm not moved to days.
That's a lot of unlesses. My schedule changes about as often as it doesn't. But right now, I'm missing the 6th-8th.
I *am* off Saturday the 27th. That's Mage and Vampire, unless I miss my guess. *If* my schedule holds, I will prioritize that extremely heavily.
One of my problems is that I can get lucky and have lots of games off, or I can get unlucky and have my weekends off never fall on days when I'm not working. It's been the latter a lot, I'll admit, and I'm not keen on it. There's only one other person to ask to work for me, and it always messes things up for future plans, so it takes a lot of work to make that happen. I could try to weasel the 6th in and I might, but because I know I have the 27th off, I'm dubious of doing so. But I'd like to make Cam games again, since I miss playing.
Right now, I work from this evening to Tuesday evening, but I'm free during days.
EDIT: My schedule has changed again, drastically. I'm really not sure what to make of this. After I did all that scheduling work. Stuff like this is why I look for new work.
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| 2008-05-16 13:42 |
| Misc. |
| Public |
 worried |
| Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness |
| camarilla, ratties, work |
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I don't mention them very often, maybe because they're so low maintenance, but I've become the caretaker for a pair of little girl rats. I love 'em, but lately the Momma Rat seems to have acquired a tumor. I'm told that this isn't uncommon and, in fact, I'm pretty sure that Baby Rat needed an operation for a minor one before Vi and I were able to adopt her. I'm increasingly convinced that they need to see a vet though, because I'm starting to suspect Momma might have another one. There's a vet not too far away, and I'll be trying to set up an appointment probably tomorrow, but until then, I'm a little worried. Honestly, I've never been the pet caretaker, so this kind of thing is a little foreign to me. I'm also a little worried about costs. Rats are tiny, but that won't stop the vet bill from being large.
I called work from Edwardsville to let them know I wouldn't be in today. Of course, I'm having trouble getting the other op to pick up, but that's not really unreasonable considering I woke up really early today to get my day started... at 11 AM. There's a good chance she's just sleeping and'll return my call later this afternoon, but it's not something I want to fool around on. So I called my father to let him know I was ill, and let Boss Jr. know, too.
Ended up renewing my Cam membership despite my irritating hours lately. I've noticed a kind of one good month, one bad month cycle to what weekends I have available right now, which is enough to make me think I can handle showing up fairly regularly. I've made what I'd consider a token effort at least to convince Wormtongue to join as long as games didn't interfere with their normal plans. Vampire has never been their favorite game line, though, and time is a real issue for all of us, so while it's possible it could happen in the future, I don't think I'd be able to expect any more cabal members for poor Atol any time soon. I admit my selfish motives! I require more band members! Also, a second Mage game a month would make my heart pitter-patter, but honestly, it's difficult enough to show up right now. So, I'm making a sad face, neow.
My rats really are adorable. If you've never met them, they're really sweet. So, I hope they're ok, but I'd better stop hanging out with them and get a move on if I want to be timely.
EDIT: Update.
I didn't end up going to the spa party for a few reasons, some lesser ones being that it would have ended up a logistical nightmare. I'm tempted to call tonight to ask how it went, but in the event that it ran long or turned into your default slumber party, I've held off. So let me know how it went! =D
Instead of trying to make it the long way to St. Peter's then, today, I opted into the showing of the Chronicles of Narnia. It was supposed to be an event with a group, because a lot of people showed up for it, even in from St. Louis. Sadly, it was kind of lame. The pre-show get together was supper at a bar where we couldn't hear ourselves talk and the beer was too pricy. We were supposed to head out for drinks after, but the movie was longer then a lot of people figured it would be and most people went home. Specifically, I blame the nightlife scene in the area, since I think the closest good places to hang out in the evenings are in St. Louis or maybe Edwardsville. Otherwise, it's houseparties all the way, but nobody really was offering.
How was the movie? Eh. Some good scenes, but overall it felt really shallow. Maybe it was because I missed the first movie, but I suspect it was mostly because it was a big-budget kids movie with some Christian allegory for good measure. It certainly wasn't a bust of an evening, though, but I'm not sure that I'd skip work for it again.
Turns out that anyone taking a day off anywhere will mess up the schedule a little bit. It was already bad, and now it's moved a little again. I'm going to re-check my next few months on Google calender at work tomorrow and see when I'm good to play. I think I get a few available days, and some that I didn't have before.
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They moved the whole friggin' schedule a single day, which means that even though I thought I was clear for the Cam game on the 24th, now I'm not. This is basically the irritation I knew I'd be packing during the schedule change, so I know that i'm going to be sending another e-mail over to Vi with the heading of, "Pls do my work for me, kthxbai". At the moment, this is super frustrating, because I really intended to be at most of these functions. Luckily, I checked ahead, and I'm pretty sure I don't lose any of the post-May functions I intended to show up at. It could have been a lot worse, since my weekends off alternate, and I could easily have gotten the wrong schedule.
Generally speaking, things are looking up. I'm still considering the logistics of a potential Seattle move, if only because I've wanted to for a long time, and it's a distinct possibility. There are a lot of little issues I'd want to resolve before they ever came up. Like, plane tickets cost in a certain range, I have rats in my care (so I guess the title is a little literal), my host is fully intending to come back to the area for a period in the summer (so I might want to hold off a bit), ect. Even if I don't end up going, planning like this seems like good practice for other potential moves.
Anyhow, I haven't spent a lot of time at Casa de Thanatos lately, since even if I didn't have plans for myself this week, there was a good chance someone else did. Often, I'd come over only to discover a lot of guys sitting around whose plans sounded more like, "Let's buy beer, followed by drinking all of that beer." At first, I kind of thought they were trying the old, "Cheer him up by getting him smashed." routine, but I recently discovered that this is SOP. Frank, because he easily trumps everyone else in the finances department at the moment, is generally the buyer, and they've been drinking in lieu of any better ideas to which I responded that even if they were all already playing another game, we could have spent all this time playing another game. And as much as I like Scrabble, there's nothing like role-playing to make an evening interesting.
That, or clubbing, but it took me a second to remember I didn't know any nearby clubs.
Me: "Anyone know any good clubs around? I know Fairview's shot on that scene. How about Edwardsville?"
Wormtongue Associate: "This isn't such a great town for anything with electronic music."
Me: "Fuck."
Of course, I could just be in the dark. But anyhow, that discussion pretty much lead to the rapid appropriation of cheap, OOP gaming suppliments. As much as I love NWoD mechanics and settings, I think Wormtongue as a gaming organization is strongly supportive of the older edition based purely on how many books they can pick up for under 5 dollars, basically turning such excellent licences as Hunter and Wraith into the gaming equivilent of Value Meals. I had a friend who didn't like Hunter based purely on the fact that, on the meta-plot level, it functionally ended Wraith, which was his all time favorite line. Considering that they pretty much exist on a continuity, though, I like to think of them as two different sides of the same game. Both of them really had everything they needed to be harrowing and potent gaming experiance, and even though I typically had the most fun with Mage, it's hard to say that Mage is better then either of these two lines.
So, I'm not sure if I'll be playing Hunter soon, but I may, which is enough to get me stoked. But I remember having problems with playing it with others in the past, so I'm not sure if that'll come up again.
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aggravated
calm
exhausted
cranky
curious