Continuing...

Hey there, friends, most of my blogging energy is going into my newish gaming blog, Continuing Clockwise. You should go there and read!

Long Weekend

I’ve posted some pictures to Facebook, and lots more to Flickr. If I know you, and you want to see them, let me know.

Travel:

I got a speeding ticket just outside of Ritzville. The officer was very polite; I didn’t try to explain anything. I knew I was guilty, I knew he’d caught me. On a whole, the experience was pleasant enough, aside from the bill at the end.

It snowed while we were at the birthday / Super Bowl party, which added some adventure for the five mile drive back to Colville. I got to practice my snow skills, and realized that my motorcycle experience has helped develop my sense of angles and friction. I had to double back at one point, because I slide through the intersection I was supposed to turn at. Overall, it wasn’t a sweat though.

The lingering snow kept me cautious from Colville to Spokane, but didn’t hinder much. It probably did contribute, however, to a hole in my rental car’s tire. The car had a little light that warned me of low tire pressure, and I heard the hissing when I stopped for supplies.

As we’ve all probably noticed, pay phones are becoming rare; what’s even rarer are phone books. It was easy to get instructions with a phone call or two, but 411 left me on hold for quite awhile, and I was very much at their mercy. Then I had to call the tire place for directions. All while the air continued to hiss out of the tire. I did kind of wish I had a more advanced cel phone. Google Maps sure would have been handy.

Gaming:

We played a very odd and super fun game of BSG. Humans won, and the player with Tom Zarek was President, Admiral and the only human not in the brig at the game’s end. If the Cylon player had been more familiar with the game, the outcome may have changed. I am sure, however, that my strategy of early jumps, with dice adjusting cards, and Helo’s re-roll ability is the key to success. The game took nearly four hours; I think it could take less time with all experienced players. It always takes four hours with newbies though.

The next night we played a hand of Space Munchkin. This game took about an hour and was also lots of fun.

Alcohol:

We went out for beers and dinner the first night, but then pretty much quit drinking. Even though we were up late, no one suffered from a hangover, and no one was really ‘drunk.’ We didn’t have any alcohol at the Super Bowl / Birthday Party. While I can hardly imagine not drinking for my birthday, our fun was not at all impinged. After all, there was a puppy... and football. How we’ve changed…

Duration:
Two nights and two days seem just about right. I would have liked a few more hours on that first day, but I had to get my long run in, and the travel (see above) takes several hours.

BSG the Board Game; Humans Win!

My wife and I played The Game again on Saturday, and I have a few observations.

The playing time is listed as 2 - 3 hours.  So far, I don't think we've finished in anything less than 4 hours.  Our playing times have probably been stretched for two reasons:  we're all still negotiating the learning curve, and every game has included at least one new person.  Similarly, we're still working out the best strategy for both humans and Cylons.  Thus, games take longer as we flail around trying to kill each other.

Again, the Cylons nearly manged to get all the humans into the brig.  This time, there were two humans, one cylon and one cylon sympathizer.  The unrevealed cylon was loaded with skill cards and nearly pulled it off.  I was playing Bill Adama, and even as I saw it happening, I couldn't even try to put him in the brig via the Admiral's quarters.  Instead, I managed to grab the presidency (through sheer luck of a crisis card), and found the Quorum card that allowed me to imprison the 'unrevealed' cylon.  The Quorum deck also allowed me to release my cohort so I didn't have to lead the fleet alone.

On reflection, I think the unrevealed Cylon player's strategy was valid, and came damned close to working.

The fleet also jumped early several times.  This underscores the fact that humnas must use the 'add 2 to dice roll' cards on all important die rolls.  We lost 3 population at least once, but we also caught a break at least once, which allowed us to keep jumping.  I also used the 'Motivational Speech' Quorum card in conjunction with the +2 roll card at a crucial point.  We had 1 motivation and 1 fuel at the time, near the end of the game, and would have later lost.

The last thing that helped us win was the not particularly focused strategy by the revealed Cylon at the end.  Had he focused on getting the Centurian boarding party to the end of the track, again, I think we would have lost.  Instead, he barraged the Galactica with the basestars. 

We're all looking forward to play with more experienced players.  Can the humans win throughthe  optimal play of equally experienced players?

Battlestar Galactica, the Board Game

I first caught sight of the Battlestar Galactica Board game at the Fantasy Flight Games booth during PAX. I kibitzed for awhile, wandered the hall awhile, then checked back; the table was still full, so I wandered some more, and returned again. This time, a game was wrapping up, so I was able to reserve my spot for the next round.

By the end of the hour long demo, I’d fallen in love. Unfortunately, aside from about 300 copies between Gen-Con and PAX, the game hadn’t really been released yet. October, they said.

October came, I asked my game shop to hold a copy for me, but the game didn’t arrive. I even scheduled a party with some of my closest friends for mid November.

Finally, on November 11th (Veteran’s Day), four days before my party, the Fantasy Flight website announced the game’s release. I called my normal game shop: no luck. Their games arrive on Friday. That was okay, I thought. The party was scheduled for Saturday.

I stopped in on Friday, and they hadn’t received the game: it was looking bleak for Saturday’s event. We might wind up playing Munchkin, I thought.

I hadn’t quite given up home, however, and earlyish Saturday, I got my phone, sat down at the computer, and started calling game stores. I’d already scouted Borders and Barnes and Noble; both had board games, but neither could help me.

Immediately, I struck gold: Gary’s Games in Greenwood had a copy. Yes, she would hold it, yes it may be the last copy. Please bring cash because our machine is broken.

After a few stop hunt to find some soundtrack accompaniment (I’d resisted the day prior because of the theme’s uncertainty), I returned home around 3 p.m.; I had just enough time to glance at the rules before guests started to arrive.

The game has many elements and can be confusing to new players. No single element is particularly complex, and for the most part, a player doesn’t need to know the details of each piece.

Early in our inaugural game, we discovered the first Cylon. That’s when it started getting good. We had strong suspicions about the second, but had some trouble getting her into the brig. She proclaimed her innocence, but then, any sleeper Cylon would plead innocent.

With both suspected Cylons (Baltar and Helo) in the brig, we reached the half way point; by rule Boomer was sent to the brig. Otherwise, space was quiet; unfortunately we weren’t spooling our FTL very quickly, but we saw no cause for alarm.

We freed Boomer, and by a twist of fate, Tyrol was thereafter imprisoned. That’s when the dirty Cylon spy struck: it was Boomer, and we had freed her. Through her dirty machinations, my character, Saul Tigh (the commander of the fleet) was imprisoned as well. At this point, every character aboard Galactica was in the brig. Lucky for us, Laura Roslin was on Colonial One. Helo was righteously indignant.

Even though I was on the wrong end of it, this was a moment of pure gaming beauty. My team, the human team, thought we had control, and suddenly BAM! virtually everyone was in the brig.

A few turns later, the brig was empty. Baltar left Galactica to join his partner in the Cylon fleet, and the rest of us were pardoned. Slowly, the fleet jumped closer to Kobol, as our resources dwindled.

We reached a point where the FTL was nearly ready; on my turn I would take us home; I would lead us to victory.

That’s when Baltar struck again: there was an explosion in our food stores. It was worse than a crisis. It was, the end. The human fleet starved in space, mere moments from freedom.

I had heard that it was difficult for the humans to win; at first I didn’t believe it. We seemed to be cruising along with little difficulty. However, now I understand. We had even overlooked a few rules and strategies that may have helped the Cylons even more: we didn’t know to launch Raiders during their activation step, if none were on the board, and Baltar probably would have been better off if he’d joined the Cylon fleet sooner.

I also forgot to abdicate military control of the fleet when I was thrown in the brig, but that probably didn’t affect the game’s outcome.

Next time, I want to play a pilot, or the president. Next time, maybe I’ll get to be a Cylon...

PAX 2008

PAX, short for Penny Arcade Expo, is this weekend in Seattle's convention center. Since it's the largest video game convention in the country (possibly the world?), I figured I ought to go, at least for a day.

There were many many systems set up for demo play. All the big dealers (EA, Blizzard, Bungie etc...) had either consoles or PC's with high def monitors littered around, loaded with the newest upcoming games.

These spots were awfully crowded, so I generally stayed away. I did play some of the Penny Arcade game. I tried to load the demo online when it was first released, but my computer won't handle it. The game itself was pretty sweet, but I was most impressed by the monitor. I had suspicions that a high quality, high definition screen would be the first big purchase, post debt pay-off, and this confirmed it. New games are designed to be played on quality screens, so there's not much point in upgrading systems without a proper screen to play on.

The other high point was getting to demo the Battlestar Galactica board game. Apparently it was released at Gen-Con, where they brought 200 copies. Someone had the foresight to save 30 of those for PAX, and it will be released to mass markets in mid October. The BSG boardgame plays a little like Munchkin: the players are divided up into factions as the game plays out, and those factions can shift. Like Munchkin, there are waves of conflict between the factions, where one faction succeeds by spending all its resources. The next faction then might have an advantage for the next turn. Unlike Munchkin, the tone is very Battlestar. In our game, I played Chief Tyrol, who had been outed as a Cylon and thrown in the brig. Now, I happened to be a human sympathizer, but I still was stuck in the brig. Meanwhile, two groups of heavy raiders landed aboard the Galactica and cylon centurian boarding parties ran amock. The FTL drive was damaged, as was the viper bay and admiral's quarters. Who could fix that damage? The chief, who was stuck in the brig. Oh, and two basestars and a small fleet of raiders were in stricking distance. It was awesome. As we ran out of time (it was a demo, so we didn't get a complete game), I was finally released and made my way to fix the FTL drive. As far as I could tell, no individual can win the game. If the fleet runs out of food, fuel, morale, population (eek!), or if the Galactica is destroyed, the Cylons win. If the fleet jumps far enough away, they escape and the humans win.

Break the Stereotype

So, I played Dungeons and Dragons, 4th editon for the first time today, DM'd by a 14 year old girl, with three other thirty something players and another teenager player. We had great fun.

I will admit, I would have enjoyed a bit more in-character role-playing. I don't like it when DM's read background information from their documents; I'd rather play it out.

I played a pre-generated female dwarven fighter. I never play dwarves, and I never play females. It was a good change for me.

One offs are a great opportunity to experiment with different types of characters.

I also met a couple guys who are starting a campaign in Greenlake soon. The thing is, I have someone in Ballard who I've been emailing, who will also be starting a campaign. I'll probably play with both at first. When two games gets to be too much, I'll pick my favorite (or most convenient).

Marvel Game

I'd better start writing about the Marvel session we had, or I'll start forgetting details.

Nora and Dean were particularly strong role-players. David and Nick score highly on the entertainment scale.

One problem with the game is the length of battle. With a handful or robots versus relatively inexperienced players, it took quite awhile to resolve. I think if we played more, the players would get better at using basic tactics. I'll probably stop using antagonists with body armor too.

I had a few missed opportunities, as the game master: one character was separated from the rest of the group, alone with a mysterious NPC who they'd just met. I was playing that NPC down the middle, and generally prepared for him to be either an allie or an enemy. That would have been a perfect opportunity for the NPC to turn crazy and try to capture or subdue the Player Character.

Later in the session, a player activated a summoning ritual during the climactic battle. First off, I probably shouldn't have allowed that ability during combat. Then, when the player rolled a moderate success, a creature was summoned. That was sorta cool: I introduced a magic wielding mind flayer (inspired by Cthulu). The problem was, he wasn't that powerful compared with the player characters and robots. He had an Amazing level magic bolt, which is really pretty good, but so does the character who summoned him. Except, it took that player three rounds to complete the summoning. Then, the creature was killed a few rounds later. All in all, it wasn't very satisfying. It was amusing though, when Nick started doing Dr. Zoidberg impressions.

My players were a little reluctant to take action early on; in retrospect it was kinda funny. I nearly had to order them to go save the 10 year old from the Sentinels.

Vacation, Phase II

We didn't know what to expect when we registered at the Lazy Daze. I, for one, was unclear about how much of our own space we would have, and how divided our area would be from the rest of the house. Much of this comes from never having stayed at a bed and breakfast before.

It turns out that the house was very large, and technically not divided up at all. In essence, we stayed right in and amongst our hosts. For the most part, however, we camped out in their very nice basement / game room. They did a fabulous job of giving us room and privacy while also making us feel welcome, and going out of their way to add to our experience. Now, for a list of events:

• The last of us arrived around 7:30 (one had to put in a full day's work). There was dinner (mostly engineered, I believe, by Nora. There was then much drinking and settling in and eventually, we started Munchkin Cthulu around the inactive gas firepit, this time with the full complement of six players. The game went long into the night; afterwards, most of us took our first dip into the wonderful hot tub. Two of us even took a foray down the hill to the river; apparently one even hopped in.
• The next morning's breakfast was amazing and served at 9 a.m. Most of us had mimosas. Remarkably, no one was severely hung over.
• Our hosts then kindly boated us (along with some of their other friends) down to the China Bend Winery. After much wine tasting and purchasing, we headed home.
• We stopped off in a small bay to swim. Initially I had no intention of getting in the water... After a few minutes the sun's warmth really set in, and a handfull of us started jumping in and swimming around. After all the women went in (Nora was the second one over all!), I knew I had to go. I shucked off my shirt, tucked my hat and wallet safely beside and hopped off the end of the dock. I was wearing sunglasses at the time. They're gone now. David swims like a fish.
• That evening, Nora engineered dinner for the group, including our hosts. It was super tasty. There was more hot tubbing (I think only Nora and I this time around), and we tried a game called Spite. We were tired and the game was not a hit.
• We had waffles the next morning!
• Then began the day of Marvel Super Heroes. Unfortunately, Tony was pulled away due to family commitments. We can't complain about that, he did a great job of keeping it all balanced throughout the week. We played for 10ish hours, which was probably too much. I'll write more about the game later. It was definitely fun, and there were some take away lessons on all sides.
• At some point, the beer ran out.
• Nick, Dave and Nora prepared dinner for us, thankfully. We had eaten crap all day long.
• We got a late start and were walking along a dark country road when the fireworks started. We pretty much missed the whole show, and I don't think anyone really cared.
• After we got back, Art fixed the pinball machines, and we had a final flurry of pinball and video gaming. I packed.
• We said advanced good-byes.
• The next morning, Nick helped us load our car; everyone else was still in bed. After all, it was only 7 a.m.
• We stopped off for the volunteer firefighter's pancake breakfast in Northport, and headed home.
• We made great time, and were able to pick up our cats a couple days earlier than expected. Greycat seems to have taken the boarding more in stride, but both are doing well now.

Moderate Excess

So far, the vacation is predictably fabulous. I've introduced my wife and other friends to Munchkin Cthulu, which is a great game for this group. Few of us have read much Lovecraft, but it's easy enough to understand Victorian era horrible monster hunting. My friends and I were weaned on 1st edition Advanced D&D, and had a few copies of Deities and Demigods floating around. That book included a whole chapter on the Cthulu mythos. Then they discovered that those characters were copyright protected and had to go away (along with Moorcock's Melnibone' set) from later editions.

Yesterday we also played a few rounds of Clue. It had been years since any of us had played it, so we were all on equal footing. The strength of Clue is that it demands a different kind of game play than most board games: you have to work out the logic, plus try and read your opponents' mannerisms. Almost oddly, I'm not a huge fan of it. This shouldn't be interpreted as a judgment of the game itself. Rather, it's a very personal preference because the game doesn't directly line up with my own strengths. As I told the group, "I'll enjoy it when we play, but I probably won't ever suggest it."

The food in Colville is hit and miss. We discovered a great place for breakfast and lunch called The Courthouse Cafe. Unfortunately it doesn't have beer or wine, and isn't open for dinner. It did remind me that not all tasty beverages require alcohol. The service is also quick and friendly, and all the food has been top notch.

On the other side of things, in other places, we've encountered some lazy food (chile rellenos that really weren't, grilled cheese with good bread but yucky American cheese, and a generally dissatisfying set of omelets for brunch).

It's fairly easy to get good beer in Colville now. That's an improvement. During my last trip, I discovered a local brewery called 'Lost Falls' that I enjoyed, but I can't find it anywhere anymore.

Another high point of the trip so far was running 10 miles yesterday morning with Tony. We kept tight to my comfortable but not too comfortable 8 minute mile. I don't believe I've ever run that far before. Since I don't think I had ever run 9 miles before doing so last month, these mileage personal records aren't so novel anymore.

Mage Game... RIP?

The gaming group is still in pretty good shape, though we don't play as often as we'd like, and we could probably use another member. However, we're rebooting our system again and starting new characters.

The last time we did this, we stayed in the World of Darkness setting, playing as magi, but hacked the rules notably.

I was growing tired of urban fantasy, and had lost my love for my transvestite Ayn Randian artist character. Other members of the group also have some itch for variety.

My new character concept is of a semi-retired businessman, probably not human, who has piles of money, contacts and charm. He just bought (or had constructed) his dream spaceship. While he knows how to operate everything on the ship on the level of an accomplished amateur, he's no professional captain, navigator, pilot, engineer, etc...

I'm playing with the idea of giving him low level telepathy and/or some racial semi-monstrous body transformation abilities.

This concept is influenced by the Dallas Cowboys owner, Jerry Jones, that red squid guy form Futurama, and the Jurassic Park owner, John Hammond.

I need to figure out his race, so it can be worked into the game setting.

Below I'll paste in some of our other discussions:

***********

If what makes the modern earth setting world 'special' is simply a widget that protects it from invasion, I'm cool with that. In that sense, every world probably has something 'special' about them. For example, perhaps there is a ley line conjunction on Earth, which allows some limited magic use. From there, a cabal of mages might cast some spells of protection to keep the baddies away. Perhaps the science fiction world has vast dilithium deposits which powers their ships and allows advanced weaponry and shielding. Another has a large werewolf population, and everyone who lands there gets converted or eaten.

My thought too is that the modern Earth would be similar to WOD, but the vampires and werewolves would probably originate elsewhere.

I'd like to keep the 'awakened' vs 'sleeper' concept non-central to the overall universe. While it may be important in some realities, for others, it's a very slim line between civilian and hero. It makes sense for Force users, Mages and Superheroes, but for lower powered characters I don't see the advantage.

Maybe we should also start a discussion on power levels for our PC's. I think there's room for a broad range (ROTJ Luke Skywalker and C-3P0 in the same group, Thor and Captain America working together) within reason.

-Chad

Things I know I think and things I want to remember.

----- Original Message ----
From: jumpup7jam
To: emeraldeye@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 5:40:27 AM
Subject: [emeraldeye] Re: SETTING: Meta-setting discussion

Oooh, Craig, I like it! That is, save for a couple of points. I
think it ought to be unspecified as to whether or not the number of
realities are infinite. Perhaps there is a finite number of known or
easily reached realities, thus making them effectively finite, but I
don't think there's any reason for that door to remain permanently
closed. Plus, it's more fun not knowing. That way there can be
philosophers.
Personally, I'd rather "our" reality weren't special. In so much
fiction and thought, there's a sort of blown-up (in terms of scale)
self-importance. Humans are so great. Earth is a wondrous place.
America. Yah-da-da. Don't get me wrong, I do like earth and humans
and The United States of America, but in a setting with lots of other
worlds, I don't see why they need to be special, unless it's to
prevent us from taking our flight of fancy so far as to lead us to
disparage our own lives. We witness fantastic realms and events and
find our own lives wanting if we don't include the caveat that our
place is special, even though we don't have super powers.
I'm babbling.
Anyway, I love the rest of it. Are you thinking of a way to systemize
the mixing of realities, or are the characters so unaffected that such
a thing would be superfluous?
All have great days!

--- In emeraldeye@yahoogro ups.com, "james craig" wrote:
>
> Let's start off the setting discussion by talking about the multi-genre
> setting as a whole. As we get into specific realities we might
spawn more
> threads. Here's what I'm thinking about the multi-verse (much
borrowed from
> Torg, Mage, Rifts and other places):
>
>
> - There are multiple realities (but not infinite) that are
effectively
> different dimensions/universe s, in that getting from one world to
another is
> more than just traveling distance (but it may be part of the
journey). Each
> reality has it's own theme/genre and own laws of physics. For
example, in
> Etherspace people can breath in space (either it is filled with
air or each
> person's personal gravitational field keeps a personal atmosphere
around
> them), in Fairy-tale land magic can alter reality if done within
the proper
> ritual/spell format, in space wars universe the theory of
relativity doesn't
> apply, so ships can rocket through interstellar space at absurd
speeds
> (giving Einstein the finger).
> - I like Torg's idea that each reality has some sort of overlord
(but not
> necessarily evil or good), and this being's will/belief is what
sets the
> genre of that reality. This is in turn supplemented by the
collective
> belief of the inhabitants. The realm's overlord may need their
belief to
> empower him/her/it.
> - Everyone from each reality keeps some of it with them if they
go to a
> different reality (like a personal aura). The more powerful the
character,
> the bigger/stronger the aura. Over time it would degrade.
Awakened beings
> (like the PCs) have enough energy in their auras to do cool crazy
stuff
> (like magic in a non-magic world, epic action stunts, super
powers, etc.).
> - Our earth/WoD is of some special significance, probably because
of an
> abundance of metaphysical energy, like Possibility energy from Torg,
> Quintessence, Ether, Chi, Mana; either way the fundamental energy of
> reality/life. This same abundance of energy makes it a great
target as well
> as prevents the bad guys from invading en masse.
>
> more later

Emerald City Comicon

Nora and I went down to the Emerald City Comicon yesterday.

We first attended the show during its inaugural year, and I think we had only been dating for less than a year. It was TINY back then. There weren't any panels, no real celebrities, and only a handful of top creators and a few of the moderately sized companies were represented.

It feels very much like a grown-up convention now. It still can't compare to San Diego's convention, but now, at least, it's the same order of magnitude, if not quite in the same league.

We went to three panels, "FRAUGHT WITH PERIL: MAKING COMICS INTO GAMES," "WIL WHEATON PERFORMS THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES" and "SPOTLIGHT ON JAMIE BAMBER." All were great. Matt Turnbull and John Feil broke down the challenges and rewards of converting comics into video games. Wil read three stories from his book (probably from a couple different books of his), and Jamie answered questions. All were charming, engaging and smart.

The floor of dealers and artist spaces was as chaotic and intense as San Diego ever is, only with much less total space.

Another high point was in the gaming area where I was able to demo Marvel Heroscape. The game is quick to learn, fast to play and pretty fun overall. From the website, "Heroscape is a fully-customizable game system that lets you build your own battlefields, create your own armies, and battle the enemy using your own strategies." While I don't quite see myself rushing out to buy the game, it definitely activated my gamer hunger. My tastes run less toward the wargaming type, even though Heroscape is relatively simple.

I do think I will attend Go Play Northwest in a few weeks to try and get my gaming itch scratched.

Expanded Universes

The quality of novel franchises, as a rule, varies immensely. I’m intrigued to venture into World of Warcraft based fiction, but wouldn’t dare without a recommendation of some kind. I’ve heard through one podcast or other (probably the WoW Insider, could be the Instance) that Tides of Darkness by xxx Rosenberg and Rise of the Horde by Christie Golden are the best. I’ve been considering dipping my toe back into the Star Wars expanded universe of fiction, but I didn’t care much for the first round of novels written by Timothy Zahn.

On that note, I downloaded the 14 day trial version of Star Wars: Galaxies yesterday. I’ve been playing WoW almost exclusively for around 6 months, and have been longing for some science fiction gaming. The character modeling impresses me; unlike WoW, you can control your character’s height, and you have some more freedom of camera movement during character creation. I’ve always wished that WoW had a more Simsesque character personalization.

Ultima III - Geekalicious!

Yay! Thanks to DosBox I was able to make my copy of Utima III playable. This game has been in my life for over 20 years, and finally it is complete. I played the heck out of Ultima IV when it came out, and finished it a few times. I also played a lot of Ultima V, but couldn't find British at the end. Ultima III really started the love, and I'm finally able to say I killed that darned Exodus!

Gaming update

The guy who's been running the Mage: Ascension game I've been playing in is moving to Poland in March. Sigh. I was finally getting the hang of the system, and I've become very attached to my character ("Harvey Campbell"). He just improved one of his magic spheres, which is kinda difficult in this game.

Some of the other guys think they'll be able to find someone else to run the game, but finding a location is the other challenge. I could probably host once a month or so, but no more than that.

And so, our games now have a 'there's no tomorrow' feel. We're trying to wring every drip out of the remaining time, and our sessions are running longer. It's amazing to me how quickly 5 or 8 hours pass when a person is gaming.

RPG

I've done it. I've joined a role playing group. I watched Craigslist until I found a group that sounded close to my wavelength. We meet on Sunday afternoons (if the Hawks aren't playing), and so far it's going really well. We're playing Mage: the Ascension, and I'm really enjoying myself. Role playing does seem a bit odd, since the emphasis is on the storytelling rather than the 'game' part, but there is enough game to keep the whole thing honest.

I got mixed up and bought the wrong books initially. There's a new edition this year, and those books ran me about $50 for the pair. The right ones were about $10 for two, since I found them used. That was pleasant.

My character is a "Son of Ether" which means 'mad scientist' in this system. All the characters use magic, but they need some way focus it, because their ability to change reality is rooted in their belief. My character requires gadgets as foci for his hocus pocus. "Harvey Campbell" is his name, and he's part Elijah Snow, part Buckaroo Banzai, part Mr. Fantastic and part Agent Cooper.

I'm amazed at how fast time flows while gaming. Our sessions have lasted about 5 1/2 hours each so far, and that seems about right. I can see how it could last longer, but really enough is enough.