Nightbane

Weregamer 003

   Next thing you'll need is a character to play.  Characters are also known as Player Characters or PCs.  You my use a pre-oprinted character sheet or you may draw your won.  I prefer the latter method as the pre-printed lot rarely arrange the information in an order that is useful TO ME.
   There are methods for character generation outlined in every Player's rule set for every game in existence ( so far as I'm aware. )  Your referee will indicate the method it desires for making your character.  This is the first thing for which you will use the dice.  You'll roll a selection of dice a specified number of times and record the values on scratch paper.  From these you will select/ arrange the numbers to the six to nine or so attributes that make up your character's base abilities.  These go in boxes or spaces marked with things like but not limited to:
 Strength
 Dexterity
 Brains
 Charm
 Mental Endurance
 Karma
 Physical Prowess
( The Weregamers amonst us will note I've used terms from several different game systems, it was deliberate. )
   In some game systems you won't need to do anything else with those numbers until it comes time to adjudicate actions you make or the effects of actions taken near/upon you.  In most systems you will subsequently modify the base numbers by the skills and/or occupation you choose and/or with modifiers that come from armour, weapons, magic, mutant or psychic powers and/or Divine Grace.  which takes us to:
   Choose your occupation and/or skills.  Are you a warrior, priest, psychic, mutant?  Do you know first aid or do you swim?  Can you use antique slug throwers, rail guns or siege weaponry?  I always require a domestic skill such as cooking, sewing, gardening and suggest at least one employable skill to help keep your charatcer should it find itself with a long recovery time or stranded somewhere out there....
   You will also need to choose or roll for personal details  ( if in use ) such as race, gender, family members, education level, etc.  The lists vary from game to game as do the methods but the idea is have a bit of info to sketch a background for the character and something for the referee to use for placing you in the game world.
   Your referee will have informed you before and likely during character genration what type of world your character will be in.  To give you some idea, assuming all can relate to the references would be anything from Middle Earth to the world in The Golden Compass to the high tech space faring world of Babylon 5.  Games like this are not limited feudal European settings or Arthurian legend by any means.
   Character generation can take as little as twenty minutes or as long as an hour and a half depending on the system and the refereee's preference.  As a referee of nearly thirty years, I prefer this part of it not take more than an hour with experienced players but allow about twice that for new players as there will be questions and explanations.
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   Now, at the end of that hour ( or two ) you will have a character.  You will have rattled dice, collected numbers, chosen race, occupation, skills, equipment and arms.  You may have powers or spells.  You will likely have a little cash.  So who are you?  Or, a bit more accurately, who is the new being that you will be portraying?  What kind of personality is this one?  Is it  sunny, moody, irreverant, possessed of overweening pride, secretly still mad at the world because of ( insert reason from past, ) is it a slut, is it parsimonious, sanctimonious or a self blinded biggot with a shoe fetish?  Is it Human, Leonid, Naruni, Dwarven, Werefox or a crystalloid intelligence?  When not adventuring, where does it live, what does it do and what is it's native culture/homeworld like?
   Now take on that character, that persona you have loving given a very strange and labourious birth.  Your job is to portray your character faithfully.  The referee will present you all else momentarily....
 

Haiku Trio

      Cut from Mindlesse Monday and reposted here as I felt they deserved more attention
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   golden summer days                      bathe now in moonlight                  greet the rising sun
shimmering, velvet evenings            hear the night symphony             breakfast in the rosy glow
   sterling moon smiling                          dance until dawn                         lose yourself in me

Sexy Tuesday

  In honour of our first Sexy Tuesday here I have changed my avatar for the day.

Weregamer 002

Place the following items into a bag, pack or wheeeled suitcase with pop out handle:
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Dice
Player's rule set for the game in question
Three ring binder
Plastic sheet protectors that accept your paper and are fitted to go in the ring binder
Paper
Pen, pencil and eraser
Snacks
Light wrap such as a fleece throw or a " hoodie "
Clean shirt and undergarments
Deodourant stick
Toothbrush
Taxi fare
Lunch/dinner/coffee house money
ALL meds you may need over a 4 to 8 or more hour time period.
Music CDs
Anything else you reasonably need for the duration of the session.
Anything else instructed by referee.
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You are now equipped in basic for your first Weregaming session.

Mindlesse Monday

   Now and then I have that peculiar sensation of having a dozen things I want to speak to and then, once I'm in front of the blank page, having all evaporate in an instant.  It is the same as in the past when I closed and returned a journal to the shelf or put the cover on the typewriter and tidied the desk around it.  The act of preparing to write later on disrupted the actual writing process.
   I hate when that happens.
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   Sumatra has a volcano just erupted for the first time in four centuries.  Wonder what that will do to global weather dysfunction?  I am also reminded volcanos erupting are often accompanied by, or are the product of, tectonic activity.  I don't know about you but I want nowhere near the Ring of Fire just now.
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   I seem to be waking for about twelve to sixteen hours, sleeping for two and repeating the cycle.  Rough but not as bad as it might be.  I prefer it to awake three days, sleep five or six hours and repeat.
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   Roses, berries, tomatoes, pomegranates, gladiolii...  this is such fragrant and delicious time of year.  It is also the time of year for fairs, fireworks, ice cream socials and long evenings listening to live jazz in open air coffee bars and bistros.  I'll be running about this week visiting and photographing a number of these for a regional publication.  For me it is a series of entertaining daytrips/nightflights.  For those who see what is ultimately chosen from the pictures it will be a summary of recent local events and partial listing of seasonal night life.  I still find it incredible after all these years I actually get paid to do this  Happy, prowling Nightbane.
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   I've got Ahn for bit.  His dad ate something made him swell and had to go to hospital, his mum dropped him off with Mrs Q.  Mrs Q only got back from the dentist a little while before.  She came to the fence and told today was a good day to work on my karma.  I'm delighted to have Ahn.  We like playing with blocks and finger paints.  He also likes playing in the inflatable pool S brought home for him.  We have quite the flotilla for him to command including three yellow ducks.  He still prefers the red blocks to all.  Good thing the blocks float.
   Ahn's dad will be alright.  I get to keep Ahn for a while until his Auntie comes in from the port city and can take him until his parents are settled again.
   For those of you who aren't aware, Ahn is the seven month old great grandson of my neighbour directly behind us called Mrs. Q.  Ahn is Chinese, not yet walking, very round and the epitomé of cuteness.  His nickname is Baby Hatpin.

Weregamer 001

  
                                      The first thing all Weregamers need is dice.

 

Referee's Golden Dice

Prince Poppycock

He's American.
His real name is John Quale.
He has the voice of an angel.
He could not present Sharon Osbourne with this version of the Figaro aria but I can put the link to it here.
WARNING:  While there is no nudity, he does strip from a sort of dinner dress to a thong during the aria.
If this will offend you, go away now.
To the Creatrix, this is my penance to Thee for missing the last two offerings.

Prince Poppycock

I Am a Voxer

   Two more intervals of sleep have graced me since last I poted.  The first was a bare hour that left me in time for me to watch the sky become light in the hour before sunrise.  As the sun came up it made my over tired eyes hurt.  I closed them against the gritty burn for a time and slept nearly three more hours.  this time when sleep departed,it ws for the duration.  I have been quite awake ever since.  For what it's worth, my eyes had sufficient rest to behave normally again.
   I attended my ablutions, went out to market and called the next Watcher on the list ( I can see the list now to make the call ) to let him know I am meself again.  Friend Artist appeared and we have been sitting amicably in this courtyard for about three hours now, drinking coffee and tea, working on our respective projects and exchanging a few half finished sentences now and again.  She is making art and working on Weregaming stuff simultaneous, a normal state of affairs for her.  I have been working on something I've got to print stage just now and reading mail and blogs simultaneous, a normal state of affairs for me.  The delicate and seductive scent of Pink Slipper is wafting from the hookah, a brilliant choice for the morning on her part.
   I went to the other place to try and catch up with a very few now who were either not aware or nly partially aware of the state of affairs in our shared blog lives.  I discovered some misconceptions for the migration and stopped to clear these up, at least for my own part and for my own self.
  One misconception is that is that I do not like change.  Utterly false, I view change as an adventure.  An adventure can be good or bad but it is ever an adventure.  Another was that I ran away from the abusive drama of the Village Idiots. Also untrue.  I was peripherally aware of them, kept an eye on the antics and simply did not join the fray.  I can co-exist with either of them inasmuch as neither address me and stays well away from me.  After all, I've been doing so quit handily for nearly half a year now.  It is not the Village Idiots.  Since one of them is now here, I would have left this place, too, had that been the case.  As I've posted my actual reasons both in that other place and here, I won't belabour them at this writing.  Suffice it to say the Village Idiots aren't among them.
   I also addresed an accusation of inciting drama by saying I was leaving and not immediately deleting the account in that other place.  I had state deletion of that the final that account is quite imminent.  I also assured more than one I would not close it until the upgrade had been implemented and it was clear the troubles were not addressed.  I may not have said," I, Nightbane, do hereby and most solemnly affirm and agree to do this thing in under X,Y and Z conditions before all witnesses, so help me upon pain of (per)prosecution,"  but I did say I would wait a bit.  A being is as good as its word and so I will.  There has never been any question it will be deleted a some point in the foreseeable future.
   So what do I find here in my new and lovely home today?  A few more familiar faces, hurrah!  Old and new neighbours getting to know one another, hurrah!  Two disparate groups becoming a wonderful whole, HURRAH!  It is wonderful to be in a place where we can work and play well with all the nice neighbours.  It is wonderful to have such a nice place to be.  I previously had a cramped niche.  Now I have whole bloody townhouse!  I am a happy, purring Nightbane.
   

My Gods, They Found It!

   This may be of no interest whatsoever to any but film historians but the 25 minute segment of Metropolis has been found!

Discovery

http://www.vox.com/reader/recent-activity/

Expedition Leader

   What, precisely, are we here?  Are we Voxians, Voxers, Voxites or ( gag) Voxsters?  For the record I prefer Voxians but I would like to know what name, if any, those who were resident prior to 22 August 2010 gave themselves.
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   I came from another place because it has changed over the past few months from a nice blog site to mediocre social networking site with an increasingly toxic and teens-only atmosphere.  To use the local metaphor, the neighbourhood went bad, right down the hopper.
   The discovery of this place, as outlined in a previous post, was serendipitous.  The first person I read was scorpio1116.  I had a lovely read while waiting for seat in the dining room at my hotel.  I noted this lovely lady had several people listed in her side bar and so went off to read them.  By the time seating was found I had come to the conclusion Vox contained what had initially attracted me to the previous place.  There were nice people, real writers, intelligence and lively community of lovely, thinking, writing people. There seem none of a short list of negatives, some of which are mentioned above.
  It occurred to me the two small communities might conjoin.  I moved in.  I said in that other place, I am here now, come and see.  I think this is the happy place we want and no longer have.  They have come, some of them.  More than I had thought might, actually.  I am surprised and delighted.  I hope those who have come will be happy.  I hope a few more will come and be happy, here, too, but only time will tell.
   I am also delighted the long term residents of this place are communicating, making us welcome.  I do understand a natural reserve where so many of us came in over a short time and hesitancy to approach such a large and, at times, boisterous clan.  I'd be a bit careful with us, too, we can be daunting at times.
  Which brings me to this:  If ever the residents prior to 22 August 2010 find themselves wondering what the 'ell happened or upon whom the blame for it is to be laid, I am the one.  I led the expedition ( Skip and Tim, read that as invasion) to this place.  I cannot and will not be responsible for all who follow but I will say those I personally invited are good, intelligent, polite, thinking and articulate people whom I would invite into my home.  It is my hope the two sets of residents, old and new, will come to be a single community in short order.  Indeed, the process has already begun.
   Why?  The Universe sent me here. My Zen likes it.  It seems logical.   It feels right.
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   There are two additions I would like to see to this place.  One is a few more fonts.  My personal top three preferences are Tahoma, Papyrus and Bookplate.
   The other, and more important, is a sub-folder or Category feature.  This would allow me to put my writing in the sub-folder(s) such as poetry in this one, swords and sorcery in that one, short horror stories in another, private posts in yet another.  It would be much easier to find 14-of-33-and-counting in the sub-folder without having to go back through days/weeks/months of posts to find it.
   I'm thinking it might be a bit easier on staff if a petition for additions were started so it could be presented with all requests in one place?  That way they wouldn't have to sort through a flood of identical requests and could get right to implementation...
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    The nap I had earlier is wearing off and I become unclear and scattered again.   I'll leave off here and return later when I am requalified to use a mind.
 

Patience!

   I could not work out why the Mixpod code didn't work when I simply pasted it to the post.  I tried letting this place convert it but that failed, too.  I wanted badly to know how to get music into my blog but was long past the point of reading well enough to locate the help files and look it up therein.
   I asked my Watcher of the moment to take her less tired eyes and locate and read the directions.  In three minutes, there was music.  Mind you, she located the item in the knowledge base, read it back to me as I fumbled with making the post in a very sleep deprived state . She says it took no more than three minutes and we both learnt how to do it.
   Most blog scripts are VERY similar.  Indeed, many are the same basic script that has just been decorated to taste.  Where and how the functions are listed can only vary so much.
   I was pushed in here by the Universe on a mad champagne drunk and I thank the Universe for it.  I was actually able, fully inebriated, to make and post to an account.  I am told I had to have assistance with proofreading and a couple of words were edited to more socially correct choices but I did the rest meself.  I'd say that's a testament to ease of use.  For the record, I don't recall much of the weekend of 21 and 22 August.  Had the place been that difficult to master I most certainly would not be here now, I would still be writing an Email newsletter as those who were on the mailing list well know.
   Perhaps it's just my age telling tales.... My dear Gentlebeings, there is a Help link that attaches to the knowledge base.  It isn't organsied alphabetically or by subject but nearly anything you could want to know about how this place works is in it.  Some of it is very technical, too.  May I suggest trying that good resource?
  And, since there is a Group function here, may I suggest someone start a group for helping those with questions?  A sort of Neighbour Helping Neighbour group?  I am too inconstant to be the one administers the group but I would certainly join it and do as much as I may for it.  I will likely have a question or two meself...
   Keep in mind none of us was born knowing how to use a computer. I'd guess the larger bulk of us were born long before the personal computer was invented.  ( Where were you in 1981? )  We had to learn how to use one.  So did those born after the advent of the PC, the knowledge isn't automatic, you know.  Look at different blog sites much as different cars.  You can drive just about any car but you won't drive a sports car well AT FIRST if you only ever drove a station wagon previously.  You'll have an adjustment period if you previously had ordinary steering and then went to the absolute heaven of rack and pinion.  So, too, the adjustment period when moving from blog to blog.
  And I ask you, those who came from that other place, is it not better to have a slight adjustment period here than to be lost in an increasingly toxic swamp over there?

So Good To See You

   It is gratifying to see more of the old neighbourhood have found quarters here in the new neighbourhood...