700 Club

700 posts…as usual, reaching such a milestone makes me a bit reflective on the whole blogging thing in general. With more than 2000 pages of writing, I’ve got to think…um…why am I not churning out novels or something? Lack of inspiration? Lack of discipline? Lack of training?

Probably all of it…I never intended to be a “writer” and used to make fun of English majors back in college (not that majoring in Drama was any better, I suppose). Or perhaps, I thought it would be cool to be a writer, but it wasn’t something one had to LEARN about so much as just DO. This is similar to my take on the craft of acting; however, with acting there is a certain “knack” that very few people seem to actually have in their base genetics, and training (coupled with “doing”) can help develop this knack…at least sometimes (I’ve known some who had tons of passion, enthusiasm, AND training and could simply never find a way to be believable on stage).

But that’s acting. Writing…well, it just seems so EASY. Not that is (look at that recent Clash of the Titans mess…talk about terrible writing!), but you come across all sorts of people (including myself) who walk around thinking, yeah, I could probably write a novel or screenplay some day…

Just browsing at the old Barnes & Nobles the other day, I saw at least two or three auto-biographies of various ex-80’s rock stars. I suppose, if you’re famous AND have lived an interesting life, than people may be willing to shell out money to read about you. But I have a hard time believing that just anyone can cough out a book. My game book was a lot tougher to write than this schizophrenic blog…and I was working from a template (i.e. the original B/X books)!

However, having the ability (or “chops”) and having the aspiration are two different things. A lot of people ‘round about my generation have the astrological North Node in the sign of Sagittarius. For these folks, writing feels like it comes easy (boring even) and publishing feels like the thing that they really need to do to feel complete in their lives. And by “publishing” I mean “disseminating one’s ideas to the masses.” The great desire to spread…well, whatever half-baked thoughts are in your head…to folks far and wide.

Whoever came up with this blogging thing is a genius.

As are the print-on-demand folks, AND the .pdf and E-Books folks, AND the kindle people, AND the on-line forum designers…these people have made an entire generations dreams of self-publishing possible.

Regardless of whether or not we have any real talent for it.

And I don’t mean to sound like a “downer” today…I sat through a very cold, very wet, very windy Seahawks game for four quarters yesterday to root for the home team (a nice, crushing defeat of last year’s NFC West champs). A win is a win is a win…ugly, miserable conditions, or whatnot. And just to draw a weak parallel (‘after all, I am a hack writer), it feels pretty good to look back at one’s stack of writing, or typo-ridden (but published-and-sold!) book and not feel a sense of satisfaction. Satisfaction that you got SOMEthing done. And that SOMEone is willing to read it.

Okay, okay…that’s enough reflection. We shall now return to our usual gaming-oriented stuff.
: )

Am I the Only One that thinks Hawkeye is a Wuss?

Things don't always have to be complicated. I can appreciate the simplicity of hitting someone in the torso with an axe, or crushing an opponent's helmed skull with the over-hand swing of a warhammer...it doesn't always have to be elaborate sword-play or intricate ambushes. Heck, simplicity is a good eight-tenths of my reason for playing B/X these days.

Green Arrow is nothing if not un-complicated.

At least, the Longbow Hunter version, which is where I really started to appreciate the guy. Oh, I suppose I first gained a bit of a crush (is that the right term?) on him with Frank Miller's Dark Knight graphic novel, in which he manages to help bring Superman down despite only having one arm. However, even as a young kid I always dug it when the emerald archer made an appearance on the Justice League cartoon, and there was a time when I really wanted a Green Arrow "action figure," even though I never really collected action figures (well, aside from Star Wars action figures, of which I had an extensive collection).

I could say it goes back to a love of the Errol Flynn Robin Hood, probably my 2nd favorite "medieval movie" of all time (my favorite medieval film is the 1959 version of Ivanhoe, hands down). But really, I've been into archery for a long time. As a kid, playing "ElfQuest" in the woods, I always got to be Strongbow, my favorite character from that particular comic (Cutter was such a doofus). I've been trying to get my wife to let me invest in an archery set for years...she gave on the knife-throwing, but not the compound bow.

My uncles in Montana all got into bow-hunting back in the 80's, as they found hunting deer and elk with a bow was much more "sporting" (I suppose after 20 years of hunting with a rifle, it is). I don't hunt myself (despite owning a pair of excellent beagle hounds)...as a real life pacifist, I don't even like to kill spiders...but if I did hunt, I wouldn't mind trying it with a bow.

[Of course, the one time I tried my 60-some year old grandfather's hunting compound, I couldn't get the string back more than a couple inches...I was 13 or 14 at the time]

Anyway, it seems like every "comic universe" as some form of archer in it: Green Arrow, Arsenal/Red Arrow, Hawkeye, the Bowman, Manticore...whatever. Like most folks of my generation, I have my North Node in the sign of Sagittarius...astrologically, that would say I aspire to be an archer (or a book publisher...go figure). That may account for people's interest in superhero archery (age and interest coinciding)...but it may just be that Robin Hood/vigilante hero tie-in.

Though if the latter were the case, wouldn't we expect to see more swordsmen/fencers in comics? A la Zorro? The sword is (generally speaking) just as deadly as the bow and arrow when wielded with skill.

Well, regardless, I am a fan of Green Arrow...and NOT a fan of Marvel's Hawkeye.

His "make-over" in the Ultimate comics was fairly cool...until he somehow got turned into a "Bullseye-Hawkeye" combo. I've said before that the writers of the Ultimates comic series appear to be familiar with the Heroes Unlimited RPG, as all their versions of classic superheroes could be made using the HU rules. "Ultimate Hawkeye" is a perfect example of the Ancient Weapon Master class (available in the Powers Unlimited 2 book). But killing people with one's own ripped-off fingernails is a little over-the-top...even for a Palladium game!

: )

The Welshman is a character I created for the City of Heroes MMORPG...a game I spent a couple weeks trying out a couple years ago. A Green Lantern knock-off, I decided on the name after having a couple dozen bow and arrow related names rejected by the computer game. Since then, the name (and the character concept) has grown on me. Part of my design goals for my B/X Supers game is having a rule system that allows for the design of both a long bow toting Welshman as well as the incredible Hulk and the invincible Iron Man...and still be able to compete on a semi-even playing field. I'm working on it.

; )

All My Single Ladies, All My Single Ladies…

So I ran into Cyclopeatron’s niece’s new blog Dragon Mistress (although it was actually Dungeonmum that pointed me to the site). I’m giving her a “shout out” not just because she bothered to answer my request for more information on her group, but because of what she represents: a different perspective from the usual cranky Grog-Blog.

She’s a 17 year old student running a (large) all-girl, face-to-face group with her friends using an eclectic mix of various editions, apparently based around a D20 core.

Not to put too much pressure on her (I hope blogging doesn’t interfere with her studies!), I find her potential insights more fascinating than a lot of the other video blogs around the ‘sphere. Here’s why:

- A group of 17 year olds? This would seem to indicate high school (a trying time for kids anyway) or 1st year college (perhaps a tougher adjustment…after all, upper classmen have it easier than 1st years). Either way, it means she was born circa 1993…POST-2nd edition, POST-White Wolf, POST-WW knock offs. They completely bypassed the whole “classic” era…what are they using to interpret game play? Their parents’ campaigns?

- 17 year olds are young enough to know what’s up with the latest youth craze (whether we’re talking "tweeting" or the Twilight Saga)…while being more articulate than younger teens (and generally more precocious, i.e. willing to talk, as well).

- An all girl gamer group, directed by a female DM is going to be different from a group organized by a dude, no matter how “gender neutral” he may be. The fact that she’s running one game, while PLAYING in another (run by a male DM), gives her the opportunity to compare and contrast the differences.

- From a design perspective, I am extremely interested in what works and what doesn’t work for these (let’s face it) 3rd Generation gamers.

- ...ESPECIALLY considering they’re mix-matching their editions. Whoa! What brought THAT about? What works for ‘em in one edition versus another? Is this just a passing fad for ‘em or a hobby they intend to participate in for the next ten years?

Anyhoo, she’s a Sagittarius so (stereotyping) one could expect she’d have a lot to say and would be pretty direct about it.

[hmmm…as I read over this post prior to throwing it up on Ye Old Blog, it occurs to me that I am totally putting more into this basket than necessary: one person (or half a dozen) does NOT a “demographic” make…for all I know, the kid’s “just weird.” Still, it should be interesting reading!]