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May 23, 2005 /

So I already put my bragging rights at stake in the Iron Game Chef contest, which means I need to design a game. This year involves not only the standard time limit and ingredient requirements, but a set of rules limitations as well. It’s a timed constrained game writing exercise! It’s a good thing those all make me gasp with excitement, because I’ve only got six days left and I haven’t so much “started.”

So here’s where I’m thinking of going. This isn’t an opinion poll–I’m going to make the game that I believe in the most; I just want to have a sketch-record in case I come back to some of these later. You’re welcome to steal anything here and make your own game, of course.

  • Enemy of the People: Two groups of players work in tandem, able to communicate only via a shared map. One plays a group of Navajo scouts in 1360 AD, the other a modern-day group of archaeologists, both trying to unravel the mystery of the abandonment of Mesa Verde–the former group via the spirit world, the latter via science. The game is played on a strict time limit, because once the sun goes down, the mystery starts to reveal itself in a supernatural, lethal fashion…

    Ingredients: Anasazi disappearance, 1300s. “Entomology,” “Accuser” and “Companion.” Multi-meaning die rolls and pregenerated characters.

    Problems: Huge and clunky. Not sure I can do this without a very coordinated pair of GMs, which I don’t want.

  • We Are Rock Stars: 1998, California. Brilliant geeks search for identity and social acceptance while struggling not to let their offbeat interweb startup get washed away in the tide of venture capital–or see the tide recede.

    Ingredients: Dot-com boom, late 1990s. “Entomology,” “Wine” and “Invincible.” Multi-meaning die rolls.

    Problems: InSpectres probably does this as a subsystem, and better.

  • Alexandretta: Merchant caravans roam the highways and seaways of a young and exotic island empire, racing to clinch deals, watching (and affecting) the wash of supply and demand to maximize their profits.

    Ingredients: Loosely based on the heyday of the Silk Road. “Wine,” “Companion” and “Accuser.” Color-based resolution and custom card deck.

    Problems: I don’t know anything about economics. Also, not sure this is actually a role-playing game.

  • Welcome to the New World: Accused criminals are denied trials and sentenced to hard labor at a lunar prison colony where all light is blue, and visible colors a jealously guarded luxury. The prisoners’ desperate secret is that only they can produce the physically inexplicable property of color–and only by their suffering and death. Lethal, oppressive horror.

    Ingredients: “Wine,” “Companion” and “Accuser.” Color-based resolution, obviously. Historical basis: pick one.

    Problems: I’m not sure I have the balls for this, and I don’t know anybody who would actually want to play it.

I’m kind of scaring myself, right now, by leaning toward the last one. I’ll pick for real tonight.

An answer, for some of you

May 20, 2005 /

In some genres there’s never really a question of whether the protagonist will get what she wants. Stories are often about emotional fulfillment, after all, so when you start watching (say) a romantic comedy, you’re not really wondering whether they’ll end up together. You’re wondering what it will cost.

I asked myself: What does it cost?

  • A finger
  • Your innocence
  • Fifty cents
  • Your honor
  • Your life

Wanna see how?

The Good Girls

An Anacrusis Exclusive

Starting Monday

May 19, 2005 /

The division between “bland attempt at humor” and “disturbing suggestion of existential despair” is not always strong in Beetle Bailey.

The Notebook, Spanglish and Monster were the exceptions

May 19, 2005 /

I like Netflix a lot, and Maria and I have used it to power through almost four seasons of CSI in a matter of weeks. I suppose now I should start renting some “movies” with it, although, man, there’s a lot of Next Generation and Six Feet Under sitting in my “Q.”

I have three Netflix “friends” registered: Ken Moore, David Clark and Garrett Sparks. Today, bored, I was scrolling through the Netflix Top 100 when I noticed that almost every single one of them had a little purple person icon next to it.

Between the three of them, they had watched ninety-seven of the all-time most-rented Netflix movies.

Listen: going to see it early is like quicker and easier HAVE YOU NOT FIGURED THIS OUT YET

May 19, 2005 /

Come, Internet, see for yourself. From here, you will witness the final destruction of the trilogy.

You want this, don’t you? The hate is swelling in you now. Take your keyboard. Use it. I am unarmed. Strike me down with it! Give in to your anger. With each passing moment you make yourself more my servant.

It is unavoidable. It is your destiny.

Oh no, my young Internet! You will find it is you who are mistaken, about a great many things.

The new movie… will suck.

Good, I can feel your anger. I am unarmed. Take your weapon. Strike me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the Dark Side will be complete!

May 18, 2005 /

I keep meaning to talk about Vocabulary Notebook! Why haven’t I talked about Vocabulary Notebook yet! Ack!

So basically Jeiel (and, sometimes, his cousin Mia) checks the Word-of-the-Day lists at MW or NYT or wherever and finds a cool word, and writes a story using it. I think this is a fantastic illustration of an inspiring constraint–he starts every story with a limitation and the seed of an idea, and they’re different every time.

Jeiel’s stated that VN was inspired by Anacrusis, which is very flattering (and is how I found the site in the first place). This isn’t a sneaky back-pat loop, though; the stories he writes are good, and they’re getting better.

May 17, 2005 /

I’ve written about talking on the phone to Sumana before, but now you can experience it vicariously yourself: her interview with Diana Abu-Jaber resembles my own conversations with her. Ms. Abu-Jaber is much quicker on her feet than I, of course–even the moment when she belatedly realizes that she and Sumana have met before is graceful. (Oh, spoilers!)

I would have said “priceless” for “graceful” there, but Mastercard has ruined that word forever. I wish they’d make that campaign die, but this is unlikely as long as I keep pouring money into them.

Sumana also has a brand-new permalink to her column, MC Masala. It is an excellent column!