Geek Girls Rule! #101 – PAX

PAX was interesting.  Our friends Kate and Aron who run the Dreaming here in Seattle had secured some tables for RPG demos.  I only ran one game, because after my game I did a turn through the expo hall and came back sort of stunned. 

People were, for the most part, very well-behaved and polite at PAX.   There were a few cos-players, but not as many as I’d feared, and mostly young guys showing off their HALO armor.  There were a couple of Waldos (of Where’s Waldo? fame), several Mario and Luigis, and a scattering of Moogles, I think someone called them, from Final Fantasy.  For having 75,000 nerds crowded into a four block radius, the crowds were exceptionally well-mannered. 

So, after running a game of 1,001 Nights, which went very well, and having lunch with some friends, I decide that I need to check out this here expo hall I keep hearing about.

The expo hall is like a cross between a nightclub and a battlefield.  It’s dark.  There’s loud music and flashing lights, and the press of many, many bodies, and, periodically as you pass certain booths (and calling some of these set-ups booths is a vast understatement) gunfire sounds right next to your ear.  I wandered up to Kate at the Dreaming’s table, and I must have looked absolutely stunned.  She laughed and said, “What do you think?”
“I think this is an ADD nightmare,” I answered.  “I can’t fucking think.”

The majority of the booths were for videogames, videogame consoles, or computer game companies.  I did get to see Diablo III.  Eeeeeeeee!!!  Didn’t play the demo, the lines were kind of long.  I also got to play around with the Warhammer MMORPG a bit.  Thought very seriously about picking up a PacMan necklace from the Namco booth.  But mostly I just wandered around in a daze.  I did get a demo of the Hello Kitty MMO, which I am so very, very tempted to load up and play, just for the sheer absurdity.  A friend of mine was one of the beta testers for it, and she says it’s actually pretty fun. 

My friend Rachel, who goes to San Diego Comic Con, said that PAX was far nicer.  People were more polite.  There were far fewer booth babes.  She didn’t fear being sexually harassed.  And PAX has an anti-harassment policy printed in big letters in their programs. 

 The PAX Enforcers, who act as security and guides for the clueless, are all very able, polite people.  They are incredibly helpful and have a surprising amount of agency.  They are encouraged to act first, and ask for forgiveness from management after defusing a situation or resolving a problem, rather than having to track someone down first.  In fact, as we packed up the gaming stuff from the room the Dreaming ran demos in, we just flagged down a random Enforcer who helped us load stuff into the storage closet across the way. 

I only went the one day, because I do not have a temperament that can handle those kinds of numbers for more than one day in a row.  The Husband What Rules, however, went back on Sunday and ran Mouse Guard and Lady Blackbird all day.  Oh, and I finally got to meet Luke Crane, the creator of Burning Wheel and the Mouse Guard game. 

I’d like to congratulate the Penny Arcade guys for running a damn fine convention, particularly considering the scope of it.  And to congratulate the Enforcers for being genuinely nice, helpful people. 

Oh yeah, I did find time for one round of Rock Band, in the Rock Band lounge.  A group of us did Ratt – Round and Round.  It was kind of fun, if nerve-wracking.

An update of Sorts.

I’m sorry for the dearth of GGR posts here recently, but between NorWesCon, the deaths of two pets, our fifteenth anniversary, my birthday, and the subsequent birthday purchase of “Animal Crossing:  City Folk,” I’ve been a little preoccupied.  I’ve only played City Folk for about two hours, and haven’t actually gone to the city yet, but I’m liking it.  The Geek Husband What Rules has already stated that he’s moving the Wii and the spare television into the computer room so he can shut me and my chatty little animals away from him before he goes insane. 

We’ve also had a guest hedgehog for the past two weeks while her mom was lecturing in Chicago.  Jasmine is much larger than Kaylee is and Wash was, but she is very sweet and even came out to say hi to Tammy who came to visit on Monday. 

Hopefully this weekend we’ll get a chance to play some D&D 4e, so I can give you a review of that.  I love the character building software my buddy Alex has on his laptop, so we could just plug stuff in and not have to worry about screwing up the math.  I’m playing a Tiefling Swordmage.  Eeeeeeeee!!!!  The Geek Husband is playing an Eldarin Warlord, and I’m trying to bully him into using the voice that Will Wheaton used in the game he played with the PVP and PennyArcade guys. 

Also, I’m hoping to get the Girl Game together once schedules settle down, and one member gets back from a family emergency.  Maybe I should do a post on gaming as a really freaking busy adult.  Scheduling is probably the hardest thing about gaming for me anymore. 

We’ve finally started our Spirit of the Century “Girl Genius” campaign, which is a blast.  I love my female Jagr character.  We’re also very much looking forward to Go Play NW.

Geek Girls Rule! #82 – R.I.P. Dave Arneson 1947-2009

Mr. Dave Arneson created Dungeons and Dragons with Gary Gygax, yet many geeks do not know his name.  Mr. Gygax was by far the more, ahem, vocal of the two.  Yet, according to sources, the whole idea of playing a single character instead of, say, an army or unit, was Mr. Arneson’s.  I am sad to say that I really don’t know a whole lot about Mr. Arneson, mostly just that, unlike Mr. Gygax, he hasn’t been credited with saying anything egregiously sexist. 

However, I do thank Mr. Arneson for his contribution to creating my favorite hobby.  Thank you, Sir.  You will be missed. 

For those of you in the Pacific Northwest, I am doing an absurd amount of panelling at NorWesCon this weekend in SeaTac.  I’m primarily on the Goth and Alternate Lifestyles panelling, so if you’ve ever wanted to hear me say “Dildo” in person, track me down.  I will also be doing a panel on getting tween girls interested in gaming.  Hopefully I’ll have a chance to run into a few of you as I race between panels.

Geek Girls Rule! #56 – Probably the only openly political post you’ll ever see here.

Ok, cats and kittens, I don’t usually post about politics here, because that’s real world stuff and I geek to get away from that shit.  But this, being geek-related as it is, and both appalling me and making me laugh out loud, bore special mention.

From John McCain’s Website:
“It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others.”

Ok, first, this made me laugh because gamers have been some of the most conservative mother fuckers I’ve ever met.  Seriously, why do you think they want to pretend to be knights and paladins slaying dragons and rescuing damsels?  Not to mention that most of my pals who are obsessed with the military and military service, history, etc… are gamers. So, yeah, way to NOT know who the fuck you’re talking about, assholes. 

Then, there’s the “mom’s basement” comment.  Sigh.  This kind of ignorant generalizing does no one any favors.  Least of all someone who doesn’t expect his constituency to be literate enough to realize when he’s swiped a story from a world-reknowned author. 

And to be honest, it may well be true.  I don’t know.  I’m not a Christian, so I don’t know how prevalent drawing crosses in the dirt is for interred Christians.  But the similarities to Solzhenitsyn’s anecdote are incredibly striking, and well, McCain’s a politician, so I wouldn’t trust him with… anything. And the McCain camp could have handled the cries of plagiarism with a touch more aplomb.  Resorting to “name-calling” right off the bat, let alone stupid, ill-informed name calling, really just makes them look guilty. 

Seriously, and before anyone starts screeching about me and my Obama-loving ways, I’m not particularly thrilled with HIM either.  The fact that he seems perfectly fine with throwing reproductive rights under the bus to try to win over a voting population that will never vote for him does not sit well with me.  Not at all.  I’m really getting sick of the Democrats ignoring women because, “where else are you gonna go?”

There was a time when McCain was the only Republican I had ever actually considered voting for, when he was running against Bush Jr. the first time, and actually behaved with some fucking integrity.  You know, before he sold out and started towing the party line with his tongue buried so far up W’s ass he can taste his tonsils. 

Do I think that this is going to drive conservative gamers into the arms of the Democrats?  Nah, probably not.  Do I think it’s an incredibly stupid way to respond to accusations of plagiarism (i.e. lack of integrity)?  Yup, I sure do.  Am I going to enjoy watching my conservative gaming buddies try to rationalize voting for someone who so utterly disregards them as part of his constituency?  I’d probably enjoy it more if I didn’t feel the same way about the Democratic party right now.

 

ETA:  Apparently there’s been an “apology” of sorts, but not one that can actually be referenced back to the offical McCain site, as opposed to the original quote, which is still up there for all the world to see.  Not to mention, “Too late, assholes.”  It’s all over the interwebz now.  It’s not ever going away. 

Geek Girls Rule! 54.5 – Saturday’s Game.

So, Saturday I ran the game where all the characters were the children of adults who had been killed in a medieval fortress.  Up until I started running it I hadn’t decided what had killed them, but I had ideas.  So, after my grilling plans were torpedoed by the stupid weather, we moved everything inside.  Chronivore and Lesleymac played the children of the local hedgewitch, who was a “widow,” being as she was single and had children.  Lesley played the 16 year old elder daughter, Alice, and Chronivore played her 12 year old brother, Martin.  Chronivore’s son played the 15 year old Blacksmith’s son, Draan Stag.  Marcy played Suza, the large daughter of the local Butcher.  And GeekAlpha played the 12 year old, scaredy cat son of the head liveryman, Milo. 

I have not laughed so hard in a game filled with death, blood and dismembered body parts in a long time.  They came out of a hidey-hole, after being wedged in there for two days, and found no bodies, except for a stray head, blood everywhere, and all the meat gone.  Shortly thereafter the bickering started, and never stopped.

They found the commander of the garrison, barricaded in his offices, barely alive, one arm missing.  He ordered them to kill him, and then told them the fortress had been attacked by werewolves, and that they would have to burn his body to be sure.  They killed him, per his orders, and then closed the gates.  They then tried to poison the werewolves by lacing the head they’d found with wolfsbane, and tossing it over the wall. Then they tried setting fire to the forest.  There were multiple squabbles about who was going to do what, when.  Alice kept beating the crap out of Draan. 

The werewolves pulled Alice and Martin’s mom out as a hostage, they were keeping her human and alive to deal with their injuries.  The kids decided they couldn’t risk trying to rescue her and sat tight.  When a caravan approached, they rang the warning bell, which, coupled with the smoke from the smoldering forest, only made them hurry and get destroyed by werewolves right outside the gate.  So, they found blankets, and Alice, who could write, wrote “Werewolves Flee!” on them.  The werewolves snickered at this, but I was not mean enough to have them utilize them as a means to get into the fortress. 

Finally the army showed up to rescue them, and they refused to open the gate until after they’d killed all the werewolves across the road.  About half the army died, but they won.  Then went into the forest after survivors of the Keep.  I let each of them find a parent.  Draan’s dad had to be put down, as he’d been bitten.  But Draan’s older brother survived, and Alice married him, mostly to make Draan miserable. 

I really cannot begin to capture the hilarity of the dialogue this game engendered.  Oh my Lord.  Several times we had to stop so I could quit laughing long enough to set up the next scene, and let them go at it again.  Alice taking Draan’s sword away from him and smacking him in the face with the flat is really one of my favorite moments.  That and the following exchange. 

GeekAlpha:  “So, I know this castle really well.  Is there some way we could escape if the werewolves get in?”
Me:  “Well, there’s the shoot used to jettison the manure from the stables.”
GA:  “How big is it?”
Me:  “It’s big enough for most of you.  Suza might have some trouble with it.”
GA:  “Is there any lard left?”
Marcy (as Suza):  “I know I am large.”

There were more lines like that through the night.  Chronivore’s “unwitting” commentary on his mother’s secondary profession:  (to Draan):  “I don’t know what you’re so proud of.  My mom says your dad isn’t very good with his tool.”

It was a total blast.  I can’t wait to run that scenario again with a different group to see how it turns out.  I was kind of hoping for darker or grittier, but then the 13 year old showed up and I just didn’t want to push those buttons with him there. 

The game was fantastic, and I can’t thank my players enough.

Geek Girls Rule! #54 – I Run Games

I GM fairly frequently, well at least once a month with the Girl Game, but pretty often outside of that.  This weekend, I’ve set myself up to run two games.  Tonight (Friday) I’ll be running up to Stax’s place to run one of three choices I emailed her earlier today, all fantasy-based, for her and one or two others.  Tomorrow, I’ve issued an open invite for anyone who wants to swing by, grill stuff and game out on my lawn.

Frequently, usually on messageboards, people will tell me I’m the only Female GM they know.  And I find this bizarre.  I mean, I know more girls are getting into games every day.  But even in the Story Games community, women who run games are a definite minority.  Now, AmberConNW does have quite a few female GMs, seeing as it’s about a 50/50 split along gender lines, ok, maybe 60/40, and everyone is encouraged to run at least one game.  I usually run two.

Now, I have to say that as a Female GM, regardless of where I’ve been running, I don’t think I’ve run into problems any different from my male GM-ing friends.  I don’t find that the players are any less respectful of me, or my rules-modding, than they are to male GMs at all.  Maybe it’s the company I keep, I don’t know.  I highly encourage women to GM if it interests them.  It may not, I mean, not everyone wants to run games, regardless of gender.  It can be a lot of work. 

In the past I’ve run several games in the Harry Potter universe, both at AmberconNW and for local groups.  I’ve run GURPS vampire games, GURPS Fantasy.  I’ve run Little Fears, both locally and for ACNW.  I’ve run Teenagers from Outer Space.  And oodles of Bridge System games for people just on a pick-up basis.  And, of course, Amber.    The Mister is also trying to convince me that I need to run a Harry Potter LARP for the kids of people we know.  I say that I have no especially deep self-destructive urges right now, but will take it under advisement.

Tomorrow, I’m hoping to have enough people to run a game I’ve been itching to run for months.  Essentially, the players will be the children of people in a Medieval Keep out in the middle of nowhere, a way station in the wilderness, if you will.  The game starts after they come out of hiding after an attack of some sort, and realize that all the adults are dead.  I’m going to have them playing kids ages 9-16, and their character concepts will be built around what their parents/foster parents/trades masters did.  You know, concepts like “Son of the Blacksmith,” or “Daughter of the Brewer” or vice versa.  I figure in a small environment like that, gender lines do tend to break down, because you don’t have the luxury of gender segregation, every hand is needed.  Historical accounts of medieval villages tend to support this.  Gender segregation has, in western lands, largely been a trait of the upper classes.  I’m considering there may have been a very minor noble in attendance, and allowing someone to play his child.  But we’ll see what people want.

I can’t remember when this concept first started percolating in my brain, but I’m very excited about it.  I could have sworn I’d discussed it with Mr. Geek Girl What Rules, but he swears that last night’s drive home was the first time he’d heard mention of it.  I’m pretty sure I discussed it with someone previously.  If it goes well this weekend, I’ll probably run it at AmberconNW this fall. 

For tonight, two of the choices take place in a world I’ve been writing stories in for a while.  In this world, a civil war in the Summerlands leads to a Fae Diaspora into our world, and the Fae become the new immigrants, everywhere.  During a PTA game at a Story Games meet-up we explored the possibility of Fae Enforcers for Al Capone in prohibition era Chicago.  That game, “Guns & Glamour” was so freaking much fun.  Hopefully we can get those same folks again for another episode.  We left with some pretty hefty cliff-hangers going on.  Tonight’s options are, again, a Gangster-Fae sort of thing, or the Fae in Weimar Germany.  Can you just imagine? 

EEEEEEEEEE!!!!

So, other girls who run, share your stories with me.  Have you had any difficulties with gamers of either gender because of YOUR gender?  What’s your favorite system?  Your favorite game?

Geek Girls Rule Greatest Hits #13 – Why I hate D20

Geek Girls Rule! #13

Look, it’s not whining about comics! I promise!

Okay, look, I know D&D is the grand dame of gaming. It is the Progenitor. Blah blah blah…

I don’t like it.

I have always found the rules system clunky, difficult and far too much work for something that is supposed to be fun. And I know D20 D&D is supposed to have streamlined the whole process. I still found character creation tedious, the character sheets confusing and crowded, and WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH ARMOR MAKING YOU HARDER TO HIT???

That aside, I thought it was really telling that of the several people with whom a friend was trying to set up a new gaming group, the majority of us outright vetoed anything with a D20 system. Some of them regularly play and run D20, but the over-riding consensus was still, “No D20.” In fact, several of us offered to learn an entirely new (to us) system for Unknown Armies, rather than play D20 anything.

Seriously, I have played maybe five D20 campaigns. One was bearable because the GM bent it to suit him, and used minimal die rolls anyway, as well as doling out prodigious amounts of player hand-jobs. The others devolved into a bunch of surly growling and a lot of shouting, “Because it’s fucking BROKEN, that’s why!”

And this is too bad, because there are a lot of nifty game worlds built for D20 and the OGL. However, if I use them at all, it’s going to mean a lot of homework for me to convert what I want into GURPS or just playing so fast and loose with the rules that it may as well be a diceless campaign.

Granted, there are going to be those out there who will argue, “Well, if you had a GOOD GM, who KNEW the system…” Okay, a good game should not be dependent on a GM spending years to master a system. We do this for fun, may I remind you. Sure, when I get a new system I expect to spend some time learning it and working out the bugs (cough, the new Warhammer Fantasy, cough). I do not expect to have to spend more time studying it than I did for any graduate level history class I ever attended.

So, there you go. I hate D20 (particularly D&D D20) because its clunky, awkward, and exactly why the fuck DOES armor make you harder to hit instead of soaking damage like it does in any SANE game system?

Geek Girls Rule! #26 – Unhallowed Metropolis Part II

Okay, it looks like the review is going to turn into a three-parter, mostly because it is absolutely impossible to create characters for seven people, using only two books, with a wholly unknown gaming system in anything even approximating a reasonable amount of time. 

Last Thursday Loree from the Girl Game came over and we sat down to make her character for Unhallowed Metropolis. It took us about an hour and a half, mostly because I had to keep looking stuff up. The point system for Attributes, Skills and Qualities is pretty straight forward. In feel, it is quite similar to GURPS, where you have Impediments you can take in order to give you more points for Qualities. These read much like Advantages and Disadvantages. The main difference from GURPS being that you may not use the points from Impediments for anything other than Qualities. 

To begin with, everyone has one level in every Attribute. You get 25 points for raising your Attributes and they are spent like this: To raise an Attribute from 1 to 2 costs 2 points; to raise an Attribute from 2 to 3 costs 3 points. Basically, it costs the amount of the level you hope to attain to increase the level. Human Attributes top out at 5. Any points you have left over can be doubled and spent on Qualities.

Skills are bought from a pool of 25 points as well, and they are spent the same way. It costs the amount of the level you hope to attain to buy the Skill up. The pre-established character concepts have Skills that you get automatically at certain levels. And for some Skills, for each level you have it, you also get a Stunt in that Skill. It sounds rather more complicated than it really is. Basically for every level you have in, say, Pistol you get a nifty thing you can do with pistols. 

Human characters begin with a point of Corruption in one of the Paths.  

Then you spend points on Qualities and Impediments to round out your character, buy stuff with the money that comes with your character concept, and come up with backstory.

Friday, everyone showed up and after a flurry of gift-exchanging (we have a tendency to buy each other stuff just because it reminds us of the person in question) and food prep (roast chicken, cheese-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon, Dal (probably spelling it wrong), potato-leek soup, calamata olive and whole wheat breads, gingerbread cupckakes and a pumpkin trifle… oh, and fresh guacamole and chips) we got down to making characters for everyone else. On a side note, we welcomed the newest member of the group, Lisa. The kitties thank her for the hand-knitted kitty toys. 

There are six character type templates: Aristocrat, Criminal, Dhampir, Doctor, Mourner and Undertaker. In our group we have one Dhampir (half-vampire), two Mourners, one ex-Mourner/Aristocrat, one Doctor, one Undertaker, and one Criminal/Manservant. One of the girls was out sick, so we’ll add her later. Currently everyone except Jilli and I have their books on order. We got most of the characters, or at least the concepts, fleshed out pretty well. Or at least they know what they want to be and where in the book they need to look to figure it out. There’s going to be a bit of Skill and Trait-juggling at the beginning of the next session to round everyone out.   

The character generation isn’t difficult, but I think most of us were struck by a great big case of “Oooooo, shiny!” while trying to figure out what we were going to do. Or rather they were; I was just struck by shiny every time I happened upon something else really neat while looking for applicable rules. This gamebook is not for the easily-distractable.  

Another plus that is a minus to creating characters in a timely fashion is that the creators urge you to come up with your own skills and qualities to fit your characters. This can be a problem with some people. It can be a little too much freedom. Sometimes too many choices are as bad as not enough choices, although we did appreciate the freedom to come up with concepts like Jilli’s ex-Mourner/Aristocrat, or Kate’s Criminal/Manservant. And I think those two character concepts are brilliant, with a phenomenal amount of potential. 

This group is big on backstory for their characters. Seriously, if you ask any one of them why their character behaves, thinks, or dresses some way, they will have an answer for you right off the bat. And the setting for this game, coupled with the fact that most of us really dig on Victoriana in the first place, means I’m going to be seeing some in-fucking-credible backstories and character histories. Have I mentioned lately how lucky I am to have these girls? Seriously, Jilli showed up with no idea what she wanted to play at all and, within about half an hour, had come up with an ex-Mourner who had had to leave the order because the rest of her family had died off and she needed to remarry to continue the family line. 

So, that’s my basic review of the character gen process: it can be a little involved when dealing with the “ooh, shiny” syndrome, but it’s fairly straightforward, and not at all difficult for my rule-challenged ass to figure out with just the book to guide me. And you also get a look at what sort of spread we put on for gaming around my place. 

The next Girl Game is November 9th, so hopefully after that I’ll be able to tell you how it plays and how well the combat mechanics work. 

Also, next weekend is AmberCon NW in Portland, OR. Odds are good this column will be late as I intend to be drunk and/or gaming for five days. I can’t wait. I’m running two games and playing in four or five others.  

Geek Girls Rule! #23 – My Girl Game

After years of having female friends tell me things like “You know, I like gaming, but I can’t find a group I’m comfortable with” or “I’ve always wanted to game but I’m kind of intimidated by a lot of the gamer guys I know,” I decided to put out a call for an all girl gaming group on my LiveJournal.

I had about fifteen women respond immediately. As a new-ish GM at that time, I was fortunate that scheduling difficulties weeded out all but seven, which was about what I thought I could handle. After some personnel reshuffling we’ve wound up with a really good group. We usually meet at my house about once a month, and we eat better than any other gaming group I’ve ever seen. Granted, you can always tell when we’re all PMS-ing, because the table is cupcakes as far as the eyes can see.

In the Girl Game, we have my friend Jilli (who writes Gothic Charm School), Dominique, Julz (who works for Sandlot Games), Loree, Tammy, Stax, and Kate (who happens to be married to one of the founders of EOS Press). They are one hell of a gaming group. They’re incredibly character driven and, honestly, I’m getting sort of spoiled as a GM. And I’ve learned a few things about them both in and out of character: 

1.  It is really, really easy to get a bunch of Victorian vampire whores into the basement of the British Museum, but incredibly difficult to get them back out again.

2. They are perfectly content to have me describe them wandering around Oz without anything actually happening.

3.  Teenagers From Outer Space is about the funniest god damned game on the planet when played by a cohort of sexually sophisticated Geek Girls.

4.  It may sound like a good idea, but gaming after eating nothing but a few bites of salad and several cupcakes is anything but. On all sides. 

Now, we have allowed guys into the group a couple of times. Once when we were missing some players due to the ludicrously busy schedules we all keep, we allowed my husband and Jilli’s to join in for a one off. We also decided that we could have a male player, if he wore a dress and a tiara. We had a taker. We supplied the dress, tiara and did his make-up. He showed up for one game then wound up moving back to Rhode Island. (The moving and the gaming were completely unrelated, I swear.) Now, I’ve mentioned the possibility of opening it up to another guy, same conditions, and had several guys volunteer. Some have said they’d come naked and covered in BBQ sauce if it meant a good gaming group, others are pretty obviously drawn to the idea of gaming with a bunch of Hawt Geeky Girls of varying degrees of availability. We’re still considering. We may have to request gaming references and resumes. 

Seriously, I am incredibly lucky in this group. They are amazingly inventive, intelligent and just plain fun and they’re all mine. Eat your heart out, Boys.