(Another temporary post, sadly, as I'm feeling really sick from some kind of cold thingy.)
Great turnout for 8 AM CE: 15 people! Thanks again to Derek for bringing his EON set and I hope everyone had a good time.
Dungeonquest was a first: all 8 players (the full event) turned in actual event tickets. I promise I'll have the two sets tuned up for next year.
I had two interested people show up to play Return of the Heroes, and I stepped in as a third. We all maxed out our main combat ability cubes and the luck of the Guard draw had me winning the game. I can agree with the assessment of the table: a fun game, but if you have something similar (Talisman, Runebound, Prophecy, etc.) then probably not one you need to pick up. Still, I like its limitations now that I know how it works.
I was tired and sniffling all day from a cold and lack of sleep. Hopefully this will blow over quickly.
More and a wrapup when I get the chance.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Gen Con Indy 2008 Saturday
(This one is going to be a quick summary as I'm running games early tomorrow morning. I'll flesh it out later.)
I spent most of my day in the Dealer's Room. Normally this is an exercise in both fun and henchman ability tests as I watch my money flow from my wallet to the various vendors. This year, though, there wasn't nearly as much stuff that I wanted. No new comics, no Paranoia releases, and so on.
I did pick up some cool art from a number of artists, some books to read from the $5 per book places, and one of the Lost Worlds books I didn't have already.
One cool person I ran into while wandering around was Clinton Boomer from the PHB PSA series on YouTube (among other things). Cool guy, cool series, and nice Presto costume.
I watched part of a Journey to Jupiter game (because I got there late. :( It's pretty much Killer Bunnies with the addition of a map where you fly around and get shot while trying to collect carrots in space. It looks like an additional layer of chaos on an already chaotic game, and I don't think I'll be picking it up.
I won the game of OotS: the Shortening I played tonight; I chose Elan and helped everyone I could. The new rules both sound pretty good and the cards are fun, but there's still some tweaking to do.
OK, have to run games in less than 8 hours. Be back later.
I spent most of my day in the Dealer's Room. Normally this is an exercise in both fun and henchman ability tests as I watch my money flow from my wallet to the various vendors. This year, though, there wasn't nearly as much stuff that I wanted. No new comics, no Paranoia releases, and so on.
I did pick up some cool art from a number of artists, some books to read from the $5 per book places, and one of the Lost Worlds books I didn't have already.
One cool person I ran into while wandering around was Clinton Boomer from the PHB PSA series on YouTube (among other things). Cool guy, cool series, and nice Presto costume.
I watched part of a Journey to Jupiter game (because I got there late. :( It's pretty much Killer Bunnies with the addition of a map where you fly around and get shot while trying to collect carrots in space. It looks like an additional layer of chaos on an already chaotic game, and I don't think I'll be picking it up.
I won the game of OotS: the Shortening I played tonight; I chose Elan and helped everyone I could. The new rules both sound pretty good and the cards are fun, but there's still some tweaking to do.
OK, have to run games in less than 8 hours. Be back later.
Gen Con 2008 Friday
Today was our big game: Drivin' and Killin' with Jimbo and Ned, pitting the players as the South Park folks vs. the GMs as Jimbo and Ned. The map tiles worked wonderfully, the vehicles all worked out well (especially since Brian, who made the military vehicle, didn't know the specifics of the cars being used against us). We had 6 players who did a bunch of damage to each other as well as Jimbo and Ned. Our TIMMY! wound up taking out the engine of Jimbo and Ned's car and won the event, while our Chef was given the roleplaying award, donated by SJG's MIBs. (Thanks guys!)
Before that, I hit the Dealer's Room and picked up a copy (one of about 5 sold today!) of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries. Can't wait to try it! Also picked up a copy of Red Dragon Inn 2 and some 3.5 books. My last purchase was The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising. A bunch of the actors and actresses were there signing, which was cool. (As it turns out, the Chainmail Girl loves Nordic Countries!) Last but not least, I stopped by the FFG booth and checked out a playtest demo of Cosmic Encounter. I like their selection of powers, including the changes I got to see (like the common single Macron tokens on the cone are worth 2 points for rewards). It should be a good set.
I was pretty tired and wound up napping through the Roborally game I was going to play, but I woke up in time for "Now We're Troubleshooting with Portals", a Paranoia event. This was one of those silly games that could have been run in any system, but Paranoia makes it easier since you can't argue with the railroading. Dying while playing with the portal physics was fun, though, and we had a good time. At the end we all sang along to the Portal song.
All in all a good day. Tomorrow, more dealer's room and licensed games!
Before that, I hit the Dealer's Room and picked up a copy (one of about 5 sold today!) of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries. Can't wait to try it! Also picked up a copy of Red Dragon Inn 2 and some 3.5 books. My last purchase was The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising. A bunch of the actors and actresses were there signing, which was cool. (As it turns out, the Chainmail Girl loves Nordic Countries!) Last but not least, I stopped by the FFG booth and checked out a playtest demo of Cosmic Encounter. I like their selection of powers, including the changes I got to see (like the common single Macron tokens on the cone are worth 2 points for rewards). It should be a good set.
I was pretty tired and wound up napping through the Roborally game I was going to play, but I woke up in time for "Now We're Troubleshooting with Portals", a Paranoia event. This was one of those silly games that could have been run in any system, but Paranoia makes it easier since you can't argue with the railroading. Dying while playing with the portal physics was fun, though, and we had a good time. At the end we all sang along to the Portal song.
All in all a good day. Tomorrow, more dealer's room and licensed games!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Gen Con 2008 Thursday
Today was my long day of running Commodore games and Cosmic Encounter. Had a bit of a hiccup finding my tables and getting set up; I had missed the location of an outlet that was behind the Train gamers' booth, partially because they had run their power over to the Rogue Judges' area and partially because I didn't search hard enough.
After that, though, everything went swimmingly. For M.U.L.E. I had 6 players and an observer in the early session and 7 players and an observer in the afternoon. Everyone seemed to have a good time, even the player who accidentally lost a M.U.L.E. in round 1 and was pretty much out of the game afterwards. I need to work on my instructions a bit. (I think an intro video would be cool.)
Sadly, nobody came to play Oil Barons. I may have to leave it out next year in favor of something like Archon.
CE Thursday was a reasonable success, but only 9 of my 16 players showed up for it. One of them brought his EON set, which was very cool. I played with three other guys on my half-built Mayfair set.
The only blemish on the day was that I was scheduled to play in this year's edition of Paranoia Trek after running all of these events but fell asleep back in the room after getting some dinner. I missed one of my favorite ongoing Gen Con events! :(
New Rule: No gaming after running eight hours, even if it's just board and computer games.
Big thanks to Odie and Brian for helping me haul stuff to and from the con. I think it's time to look into a sturdier folding dolly, though. And more bungees/straps.
Tomorrow: A glimpse of the Dealer's Room, Car Wars, Robo Rally, and perhaps some actual Paranoia...?
After that, though, everything went swimmingly. For M.U.L.E. I had 6 players and an observer in the early session and 7 players and an observer in the afternoon. Everyone seemed to have a good time, even the player who accidentally lost a M.U.L.E. in round 1 and was pretty much out of the game afterwards. I need to work on my instructions a bit. (I think an intro video would be cool.)
Sadly, nobody came to play Oil Barons. I may have to leave it out next year in favor of something like Archon.
CE Thursday was a reasonable success, but only 9 of my 16 players showed up for it. One of them brought his EON set, which was very cool. I played with three other guys on my half-built Mayfair set.
The only blemish on the day was that I was scheduled to play in this year's edition of Paranoia Trek after running all of these events but fell asleep back in the room after getting some dinner. I missed one of my favorite ongoing Gen Con events! :(
New Rule: No gaming after running eight hours, even if it's just board and computer games.
Big thanks to Odie and Brian for helping me haul stuff to and from the con. I think it's time to look into a sturdier folding dolly, though. And more bungees/straps.
Tomorrow: A glimpse of the Dealer's Room, Car Wars, Robo Rally, and perhaps some actual Paranoia...?
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Gen Con Indy 2008, Day 0
We've arrived safe and sound. Got our hotel room, settled in, and went to pick up our stuff. As usual, our total wait time was about 5 minutes for badge, bag, and GM stuff. As irritating as the registration system is, it's much better being frustrated in the spring than the day before the con.
I went to the Forum Stink but didn't hang out much. Wasn't really in the mood this year, which makes sense since I didn't spend much time on the forums this year.
Tomorrow: 8-bit games and Paranoia Trek!
I went to the Forum Stink but didn't hang out much. Wasn't really in the mood this year, which makes sense since I didn't spend much time on the forums this year.
Tomorrow: 8-bit games and Paranoia Trek!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
'Twas the Night Before Gen Con Indy 2008
packing...printing...
packing...packing...printing...
packing...packing...washing...packing...
Lots to do before 3 AM! AHH! Too much pressure!
packing...packing...printing...
packing...packing...washing...packing...
Lots to do before 3 AM! AHH! Too much pressure!
Friday, July 04, 2008
CWVD 10.7.5 Released
It's been over two years since I've released a CWVD. I never thought that the 10.8 Weapons page update would take so long to do. Sure I've had distractions (finally finishing school, volunteering for Con of the North, SPARK taking a year off) but two years?
Ah, well. That's life, I guess.
To help tide everyone over, I've taken all of the bug fixes (thanks to everyone who reported bugs!) and ported them back to 10.7.4. CWVD 10.7.5 can be found at the SPARK Vehicles page; the change notes are below.
One big difference is that I've moved on from Excel 97. Hopefully everything will still work for people on versions of Office before 2003, but I can't guarantee that. It should, however, eliminate the corruption problems I was running into with 97.
Enjoy the new CWVD!
Ah, well. That's life, I guess.
To help tide everyone over, I've taken all of the bug fixes (thanks to everyone who reported bugs!) and ported them back to 10.7.4. CWVD 10.7.5 can be found at the SPARK Vehicles page; the change notes are below.
One big difference is that I've moved on from Excel 97. Hopefully everything will still work for people on versions of Office before 2003, but I can't guarantee that. It should, however, eliminate the corruption problems I was running into with 97.
Enjoy the new CWVD!
- This and future versions of the CWVD will be developed in Excel 2003. Please let us know if you have a problem opening it in an earlier version. (Minimum: 97 or higher on Win, 98 or higher on Mac)
- Fixed metal accessory costs.
- Fixed ram accessory cost and weight.
- Fixed acceleration for vehicles with Turbo lag and Overdrive.
- Fixed spaces for Solar Panels.
- All Accessories now show their Notes, even if the note is too long to display. (Click the cell to read it all in the formula bar.)
- Added gas tanks to the vehicle summary.
- Fixed B hubs/guards saying they were F in the summary.
- Changed all Misc dropdowns to the flat look (instead of 3D shaded).
- Resized all Misc spinners to be the same.
- Fixed Yet Another Order Problem on the Design Sheet.
- Fixed FT effect text.
- Negative Divisions now show an error and are considered Unlimited.
- The Set Zooms preference buttons now disable redrawing, which should eliminate their flicker and speed things up.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Queen's Blade Reference Sheets Made Public
Even though my set of Queen's Blade Reference Sheets have been posted on the Internet for a while, I've never actually told anyone about them. They've just sat there like my other miscellaneous documents.
Well, now that I've caught up with all of the characters I purchased at GenCon and afterwards and finally split them all into their own page I've gone ahead and posted a message to the lostworlds-rpg mailing list about them.
I hope they find them useful and that I don't get into too much trouble for using images from the books and text from the translations. :)
Well, now that I've caught up with all of the characters I purchased at GenCon and afterwards and finally split them all into their own page I've gone ahead and posted a message to the lostworlds-rpg mailing list about them.
I hope they find them useful and that I don't get into too much trouble for using images from the books and text from the translations. :)
Thursday, January 03, 2008
New Weapons UI Working
Not too long ago SPARK finally played some Car Wars again, and as a result I've been working on the new weapons page for the CWVD.
And boy, does it suck.
Currently each weapon entry has 16 controls. There's 13 weapon lines. Fixing a weapons block involves right-clicking on each control, pulling up the Properties dialog, putting the cursor in the right block, then either jumping to the end (using the mouse because the normal navigation keys move a cell selection cursor around) and editing the cell address to the right cell or collapsing the dialog box so you can use the mouse to select the right cell, then hitting Return a few times to OK out.
Did I mention that even putting the cursor in that field sometimes scrolls the worksheet so that instead of being right next to the cell you want you're a few pages up? Hope you noticed that when the entire page is 13 nigh-identical chunks of controls and data.
Along with those edits, a couple controls require changes in another block in the Properties dialog (easy to forget when you're going quickly), a simple (yay!) search-and-replace to fix all of the lookups, and a bunch of selecting boxes of cells and changing their Conditional Formatting using the menu and weird cell selection edit textboxes.
This is long, boring, repetitive work that's easy to screw up, but that doesn't matter anymore because it's finally done! Well, almost. I don't have the helper macros hooked up yet. I decided to take a break before doing that, so I've been putting together the proper pricing formulas. That's been going so quickly that all I have left is a couple of the mods.
At this rate, there might be a 10.8 beta before Gen Con! :)
And boy, does it suck.
Currently each weapon entry has 16 controls. There's 13 weapon lines. Fixing a weapons block involves right-clicking on each control, pulling up the Properties dialog, putting the cursor in the right block, then either jumping to the end (using the mouse because the normal navigation keys move a cell selection cursor around) and editing the cell address to the right cell or collapsing the dialog box so you can use the mouse to select the right cell, then hitting Return a few times to OK out.
Did I mention that even putting the cursor in that field sometimes scrolls the worksheet so that instead of being right next to the cell you want you're a few pages up? Hope you noticed that when the entire page is 13 nigh-identical chunks of controls and data.
Along with those edits, a couple controls require changes in another block in the Properties dialog (easy to forget when you're going quickly), a simple (yay!) search-and-replace to fix all of the lookups, and a bunch of selecting boxes of cells and changing their Conditional Formatting using the menu and weird cell selection edit textboxes.
This is long, boring, repetitive work that's easy to screw up, but that doesn't matter anymore because it's finally done! Well, almost. I don't have the helper macros hooked up yet. I decided to take a break before doing that, so I've been putting together the proper pricing formulas. That's been going so quickly that all I have left is a couple of the mods.
At this rate, there might be a 10.8 beta before Gen Con! :)
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