Sun
26-Nov-2006

executive decision

After Michal's flat yesterday, I headed to Tom P's place, while Matt went into town to see David F and his boyfriend. Andy, Jim and Alex were at Tom's flat, and we played a cool roleplaying game called Executive Decision, where the President of the US and his cabinet debate and deal with a political crisis as it unfolds over an hour of play.

It's fun - each of us was a cabinet member, Tom was the president, and we all had our own open and secret agendas we were trying to pursue as we debated a health bill with an unwanted anti-abortion rider attached to it, deciding whether or not to veto the bill, and how to do so. We're looking forwards to trying out some other scenarios.

Mon
09-Oct-2006

airship to karrnath!

Henry and Adam came round to my flat on Sunday morning, along with Al, and we played a long awaited installment of D&D, with Regiment 66 being asked to take an airship to deliver a cargo of medicine to a mysterious plague in eastern Karrnath. Their cargo was attached by a rakshasa riding a nightmare one night, and then a ship of mercenaries, apparently hired by Aundair, assaulted their ship, forcing them to land quickly near Korth, as their ship's fire elemental escaped from its bindings and rampaged across the deck, while Regiment 66 tried to get the medicine cargo off the ship to safety.

Hmmm, D&D always sounds more absurd when you write out the game plot. Great session though. Matt put up with us playing in the flat, though he was asleep for much of the morning, as he'd been out the night before and had returned at 4am without any keys, phoning me eleven times and sending me multiple text messages, none of which I heard, before resigning himself to sleeping outside our front door till I woke up. Luckily, Phil responded to a text message and came and let him in.

Alex and I watched the first episode of the new Robin Hood series afterwards, which is mildly entertaining BBC drama stuff. Not nearly as good as Doctor Who, but I'll keep watching it. I like all the northern English accents. Keith Allen plays the really over the top Sheriff of Nottingham – there's a scene when he walks angrily into his private rooms and there's bird cages everywhere and you just know he's going to kill or eat one of these birds. Sure enough, he takes one out of the cage, strokes it, and then camply crushes it to death.

After that, we started watching the DVDs of the complete five seasons of Ally McBeal which he gave me for my birthday recently. I hadn't seen all the early episodes before and they are quite glorious. It's all so eccentric and amoral!

Mon
11-Sep-2006

gay bingo!

Guaranteed myself a mild Monday morning hangover when we visited Gay Bingo at T Bar, Tea Building near Liverpool Street last night. Pierre and Peter were there, and Alex came with me and Matt. We also bumped into Juicy, who headed off later to DTPM, the crazy clubbing fiend.

Gay bingo - drag queen Jonny Woo reads out the numbers, weaving stories around them, dancing, getting undressed, making members of the audience perform a 69 position - it's all great camp fun! The atmosphere is fantastic - a drunken slap in the face to Sunday evening blues, drunken big leather sofa frantic bingo cross dressing glory!

Highly recommended.

Sun
04-Jun-2006

sunny diplomacy

Tom, Alex, Neil, James, Kal and Tom's friend Simon all came round to the flat yesterday, and we sat on the roof terrace in the hot sun all afternoon playing Diplomacy. With seven players it was an excellent, tight and tense game. Tom as Russia was doing pretty well, but was suddenly attacked from all sides and fell mightily around the seventh year. James and Alex as Italy and Austria-Hungary had a loose alliance going, but began to backstab each other as Neil, playing Turkey, began to overrun them both. Kal was France and forged an early deal with England, which was soon broken. He held his own for most of the game though. Simon, as England, and me as Germany had a long term alliance which worked very well, though probably more to my advantage than his, until he stabbed me and took Belgium around the fifth year. The bastard! It was looking like Germany and Turkey were heading for a big battle between them for the ultimate prize when we wrapped up the game after five hours of solid play...

Wed
11-Jan-2006

dogs in the vineyard

Last night me, Andy R and Brother Al had our second session of a new roleplaying game we've undertaken with Alex F called Dogs in the Vineyard. This is an excellent game set in pre-statehood Utah, where the players are "God's Watchdogs" – the Dogs! – who travel from remote town to town helping out troubled communities by dispensing the King of Life's righteous judgement. The religion of the King of Life is basically modelled on Christianity, though it is up to the GM and players as to the details. We are playing it like an Old Testament Judeo-Christian Monster God - patriarchal and stern!

It is very heavy on the narration compared to D&D, and the executive authority in the game is spread amongst the players, rather than concentrated in the GM. All dice rolling is focused on periodic conflicts, which can range from verbal theological debates, to physical contests, to brawls, to gunfights. Having a plausible narrative is the key to the game, and all players and GM have to agree that situations have unfolded believably. It is collaborative storytelling at its best.

Sun
09-Oct-2005

civilisation and flapjack

Images

Alex A, Alex F, Jim, Kal, Steve and Andy all came round this afternoon, and joined me and Matt for a long game of Civilisation. I took some pictures in order to display the cheesy glory of it all...