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| Friday, April 1, 2005 11:09 PM |
| Rock and Roll |
 by Fëanor |
- Thursday night (which is still yesterday, actually, as strange as that seems to me right now) dje2004, yagathai, TrackerNeil, ST, peccable and I all started a short RPG campaign using a system called octaNe. dje2004 ran the session; he was pretty much testing it out on us in preperation for running a campaign at a convention soon.
I have to say, I was expecting not to like it that much. dje2004 was kind of expecting me not to like it, either. I'm not so into the performing and improvisation parts of role playing. And by "not so into" I mean "not good at." I'm really not very good at role playing, actually. I still feel silly trying to speak and act as if I'm another person.
Despite this, I had a fantastic time, and I think did pretty well for myself. The game is very flexible, with loads of style and a really simple, fun mechanic. It has none of the constant rule-checking and stat-copying of D&D. There's a list of starting gear and skills for your character, but then you can just make up another large piece of gear for your character to have, and make up three other skills, and you're encouraged to be as outrageous as possible. Then, as the game progresses, if you get good die rolls (which you can make more likely by spending the style points that you acquire along the way), you get to take control of the story and describe the fantastically awesome things your character does. It's very cool. I love a lot of the character archetypes that were available, too. I went with the Highplains Drifter (who's sort of a Clint Eastwood, gunslinger type), but I loved the Metallurgist character that Yagathai chose--it's a heavy metal wizard, and Yagathai played him well.
- While waiting for dje2004 to arrive, Yagathai and I played a quick game of Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation, by superstar game designer Reiner Knizia. It's a fast two player game of strategy and tactics, vaguely similar to Stratego. The mechanics are deceptively simple, but the game seems to be quite deep. I'd definitely like to play it again.
- Sadly, also during game night I learned of the tragic news of the death of Bass Wolf of the Japanese punk rock trio Guitar Wolf. I just saw them play not so long ago, and now it turns out that was probably one of the band's last shows, and certainly one of the last for Bass Wolf. I feel honored, lucky, and saddened by this fact.
According to the story on this page (scroll down a bit to find it), Bass Wolf's heart stopped in his sleep. It says he had no prior history of heart problems. But he did have a prior history of hard living and hard drinking, and I suspect that's what did him in.
- In happier news, I'll be attending a baby shower tomorrow for my sister-in-law, and then checking out Sin City and going to a hockey game the next day. And I'm currently taping the "Battlestar Galactica" season finale, which I'm certain will be fantastic when I view it later on, when poppy's not around.
- And speaking of TV shows, I've finally taken it upon myself to try out this show "Lost" that everybody keeps telling me is so good. And you know what? Turns out...it's pretty darn good. Very interesting characters, engaging drama, and plenty of eerie mysteries to keep you guessing. It's easy for me to remember to watch it, too; I just have to set my usual tape for "Alias" to start an hour earlier.
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