Books you never read: Chronicles of an Age of Darkness

It feels a bit hubristic to call these entries "Books you never read", but I did (and do) read a lot of books so its no surprise that many of them never made it to mainstream popularity. And most of these were published a long time ago so they may never be seen again.

Chronicles of an Age of Darkness was 10 book series that is fairly unusual in that it made it to 10 books without the author dying or having an editor dick around with the format. I see that Wikipedia says it was meant to be a 20 book series, but at 10 books, it felt complete.

I can see why it never took off - if I hadn't been working in a bookstore and consuming every generic fantasy product of the day, I probably wouldn't have picked up the second book. The first book - The Wizards and the Warriors was good, but not spectacular. It had your standard Fantasy Adventurer Protagonists and a quest to save the world, etc. It did have a certain gritty style about it that I liked, but aside from that it was nothing special.

The second book, The Wordsmiths and the Warguild, was hilarious. The opening passage describing Sung had me laughing hysterically, and the characters had changed from standard swordsmen and wizards to gormless idiots flailing around trying somehow to survive. It was a complete surprise, and I'll bet a lot of people who read the Wizards never went on to Wordsmiths.

And then I hated The Women and the Warlords. I can't really remember what it was about now, or why I disliked it - I've been meaning to give it another try now that I'm older. The memory of Wordsmiths stayed with me though, and I bought The Walrus and the Warwolf (Have you noticed the style of the titles yet?) Walrus was much like the first book, allright but nothing like the Wordsmiths.

I kept with the series despite its spotty nature. It seemed like each new book was probably going to be allright, maybe really bad, maybe really good. I liked those odds. With the next two books, The Wicked and the Witless and The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers I lucked out. Even funnier than Wordsmiths! Hints at forgotten technology! Death, mayhem and excitement! They were so great. But who was going to read them?

The rest of the series never managed to hit the heights of those two books, at least as far as I was concerned. But he never hit any lows either. Each book, with a few exceptions, had completely different characters, but the story seemed somehow to lurch along each individual story somehow connecting into a greater narrative. With the final book telling the story of Guest Gulkan, a background character in every book so far, you had a sense that at last this anarchic storyline was going to conclude. And so it did, not with a bang or a whimper, but somewhere in between.

Adding to the cloud.

I like the Register. I like the cynical attitude they take to tech news, and the way they mix up news and opinion and fiction. I even like the way they sometimes throw stupid commentary in - it means I can never read it uncritically because I never know when someone's going to deny global warming or something.

Cade Metz's piece: Google Chrome OS - do we want another monoculture? isn't so bad, if you ignore the headline. He doesn't talk in the article about how Google Chrome will take over the world so I have to assume the headline was added by someone else.

The problem I do find with the article is that in his quest to come off all cynical and negative about his subject, he makes a few crazy statements.

But the ultimate irony is that after years of criticizing Microsoft for bundling its OS with its browser, Google has nearly made them one and the same.

Wait, what? Is Metz confusing Google with Netscape here? I'm sure Google hasn't had anything complementary to say about MS's browser bundling. But most of what I remember Google saying about IE, is that its a really crap browser, and that they had to write Chrome to save us all from it.

The realisation that anything you want to do, you can do in a browser isn't all that new either. Mozilla's been threatening to do it for years - its about time someone really tried it.

Then he takes this:

"We're going to be working with our key partners very hard to make sure you see lightly larger netbooks, essentially netbooks that can accommodate a full-sized keyboard and a much more comfortable touchpad. We care about the displays. We care about the resolutions people get on these displays. And those will all be part of the specified reference hardware."

and identifies it as Apple-like. Bashing Apple is one of the Registers favourite things (after bashing MS). But really, does Apple provide reference hardware? No. That's Microsoft. Apple makes their own hardware, and sues manufactures who try an run OS X on PC hardware.

Then, Metz misunderstands, or deliberately fudges over the nature of open source:

And, yes, the ban extends to third-party browsers. Chrome OS is limited to Chrome. Naturally. The only way to run the OS with a third-party browser, Pichai said, is to grab the open source code and do your own surgery.

Well yes. Of course, the ability to do your own surgery is what open source is all about. And once you've done it, you can make it available to others who don't want to do surgery. Similarly the fact that Chrome OS does not support current hardware is something that can be quickly corrected - if enough people like the OS.

Lastly, there's a difference between how MS pushes its applications on to you and how Google does. MS makes you buy an operating system by being the only one. Then it gives its own applications a head start with private APIs. Then it makes sure that only its applications can read documents created with other MS applications. Or at least that's how it used to work.

Google makes you use its applications by having them be the best, and free. It uses open standards so you don't get locked in. It doesn't have to lock you in - as long as its applications are the best and free, then they have you. The only question is "Is this application the best one?" if the answer is yes, for you, then Google has you.

As long as Google's dominance is dependant on them releasing software that people like, for free, we don't have anything to worry about.

Smartest thing I've read today.

Shirky: Ontology is Overrated -- Categories, Links, and Tags: "Clay Shirky's Writings About the Internet
Economics & Culture, Media & Community

Today I want to talk about categorization, and I want to convince you that a lot of what we think we know about categorization is wrong. In particular, I want to convince you that many of the ways we're attempting to apply categorization to the electronic world are actually a bad fit, because we've adopted habits of mind that are left over from earlier strategies.

Campaign Log: End of Winter

Not much roleplaying happened this session: they ended the season and did a bunch of accounting and planning.

45 Master Characters

Having just read '45 Master Characters' I feel the need to post what I think about it. The book is a tool for writers, classifying personality types into 45 archetypes. By trying to fit in your half-fleshed out character into one of these archetypes, you can make the characterisation more believable by fitting him into one of the classic types.

The first question that comes to mind is "Is it correct?" Has she correctly classified all the myriad personalities of the world into 45 types? I don't believe that she has. Or that it can be done - I think that humans have a tendency to classify things, and to then see the world in terms of those classifications. The real world is woolier than that, and when you look closely at any classification system you see flaws. Take our species classification system - different species aren't supposed to be able to mate, but we have mules, and ligors.

Even the most basic classification - the 0s and 1s of digital computers - breaks down when you look at it closely.  Zero turns out to be 0 to 0.5, and occasionally something that should be a zero shows up as a 0.51 and you get an error.

Despite this computers still manage to work most of the time. Correct isn't as important as useful. So is the book useful? I think so. I'm finding that the artificial constraint of the archetypes is giving my characters more life than they would otherwise have. And the structure of the journey that it talks about is giving me something to do with them - even when I disagree with the structure.

So thus far, it seems worth the price. If I become a world famous author, I'll be sure to mention it as an influence.

Campaign Log: Winter 1470 (3) (updated)

Our heroes go back to Florence with their vis and (unknown to Tito) flower. Valantino asks Cosimo to heal him but the spell does not go correctly. There's no immediate ill effect, but Cosimo insists that Valantino stay with him for observation.

Valantino had planned to go back to Rimini to be with his wife, and deal with all the other things that are going on right now. Leora, his wife, has been sleepwalking, lured out at night by the magical creature that until now has only been interested in Valantino. Unable to go to Leora, Valantino charges Tito with going back to Rimini and making sure she does not get outside tonight.

This is one of those cases where Valantino loses track of the big picture when responding to the immediate need. Tito, you see, was earlier banned by Valantino from having any contact with Valantino's family. They had a duel over it, and Tito lost. The reason for the duel was that Valantino tries to keep as many details of his life as a mage as possible away from his family. As an example his wife doesn't even know he is a mage - despite being able to fly, Valantino made the entire party travel two days by regular coach to Rimini, just so that his wife could come with him and not find out about his magic.

Tito is broadly sympathetic with keeping Valantino's magic a secret - in fact, revealing another mage to a mundane is against the Treaty of Rome - but Valantino has a lot of other secrets, such as the number of people he's killed, which Tito is not cool with. Nor does Tito like telling lies. Hence the ban.

Tito leaves Carlos and Valantino in Florence and heads back to Rimini, arriving just after dark. Gaius is  fobbing off Leora about the whereabouts of her husband by telling her he left with Tito on some errand or other. Tito comes back, and in two words proves the wisdom of Valantino's ban:

Leora: "Where is my husband?"

Tito: "In Florence."

Cue head-slaps round the table, and groans from Valantino's player. There follows a bit of interrogation as to how Valantino could have reached Florence in just one day, but eventually Tito is forced to confess that they travelled in his magical flying carriage. She doesn't believe him at first, but he takes her down and shows her that it can, indeed, fly. Convinced, she asks to be flown to Florence to be with Valantino.

Tito: "But... its night, and I've been flying all day and- "

Leora: "Take me to my husband now!"

Tito: "...OK."

Gaius is present for this whole scene but provides no help at all to Tito in this argument. Much later (Tito got a little lost) the characters are all in Florence, and Leora gets to sit vigil by her husbands bedside. He's a little delirious and not entirely sure if she's really here.

Tito would like to get some sleep but he keeps hearing this singing noise coming the dormitory window. Gaius is there, but can't hear anything, so the pair of them go out into the garden - Gaius comes along because Tito has become his favourite form of entertainment. They track down the singing and discover that Valantino managed to find time before getting 'healed' to plant Daunte's gift. The flower is singing in the moonlight - no words, just a tune. Gaius can hear it well enough now, but its evidently louder for Tito, who stares at his nemesis, the singing plant.

Once again, Tito is in the company of someone perfectly capable of destroying plants, but who is disinclined to acquiesce to Tito's frantic demands to "Kill it, kill the abomination!" But here in the covenant, a nexus of magical power, Tito can conjure fire. He does so, the merest lick of flame, but enough to put paid to this small flower. He sets it to one of the leaves, and the plant screams! Not any more loudly than its singing, just a plaintive wail of pain and suffering. Tito tries to keep holding fire to the plant, but he can't bear to hear its suffering. He gives up. The plant shall live.

In the morning, Valantino wakes up to find that Leora being here wasn't a dream, and that Cosimo has identified the nature of his spell botch: Valantino is healing in reverse. Cosimo isn't sure of the best way to proceed. Its possible that they could take advantage of this - healing him by casting harmful spells. They could try to break the spell, or just leave it to run out on its own. Trouble is that they don't know how long the spell will last...

They discuss the options over breakfast, after Valantino and Tito have had their spat: "You brought my wife back!" "You brought that plant back!" One of the other students, Bryan (from the Stonehenge Tribunal) mutters something in his abominable accent about knowing a spell that might fix it. It proves to be so - but Valantino is still left injured and with no vis left. And its only a matter of time before Leora wakes up and he has to explain about the magic. He limps out into the city to find an apartment - he has plans of constructing a trap to catch this Lamia that is haunting him.

But wait! I forgot about the presents. In a previous session, Valantino had been contacted by Rinaldus, an apparently immortal mage who was responsible for a whole deal of trouble in an even earlier session. Rinaldus had a new tune this time - he wanted to help Valantino with his many problems. After a discussion of what they were, Rinaldus offered some magical items that he had 'lying around' that might be of use. And while Valantino was in Rimini, these items arrived, along with instructions on what they did and how to use them. Now that they were all together, Valantino presented the items to the other PCs.

Tito could not believe it. After all they went through with Rinaldus before, and here was Valantino accepting gifts? Did he not remember that Rinaldus was behind Master Bernado's attempt to enslave them all with mind control? Did he not remember that there was still a decision to be made in the upcoming Tribunal about that? Was he going to start voting for Rinaldus now? Did he have any reason to think that these items didn't mind control their wielder? Had he even noticed how the other apprentices that had been 'gifted' by Rinaldus were behaving? Was Valantino, in fact, mad?

Valantino's defense: "But he seemed so nice."

Tito goes back to Rimini - he has some bandits to negotiate a contract with. Not having the money to pay them directly, he comes to an arrangement where the bandits 'levy fines' from people coming into the forest, and he clears it all with Duke Sigismundo. The bandits have been limiting their depredations to stay under the Dukes radar. Under this arrangement, they'll be able to rob more people, but take less.

Tito: "and no killing."

Bandit leader: "Of course. Unless theres some situation where we have to."

Tito: "What? No, no killing!"

Bandit leader: "Oh, but we'll need to have that option. What if we run into someone who won't pay up? Or threatens one of my men?"

Tito: "But..."

Bandit leader: "If anyone dies, we'll have a full investigation."

Tito: "Well..."

Bandit leader: "And a report!"

Tito: "Allright..."

After this... I think that the way it happened was that Gaius teleported to Tito, flew the cart back to Florence to pick up the other PCs and they all met up in Rimini to handle another bit of negotiation with the primitives up on the mountain site of their proposed covenant. And the way that went was that the High Priest declared that in order to get their God's approval the PCs would have to spend a nights vigil in the sacred chamber (ie: cave). The PCs elected to postpone this until Valantino was better and went back to Florence.

The next day, there was a message from Ysabelle. I don't believe I've mentioned her before - she's a spy. She was raised, trained and employed by the mysterious and evil Countessa, but came off second best in her first encounter with Constantine (another PC). As punishment, and as a form of reparations to Constantine, she was given to him. She was ordered to obey any of his orders, and it was made clear to Constantine that if he sent her away, she would be killed. She's been fairly useful to Constantine in the past, and has not yet betrayed him. And since he can read her mind, he should know.

But Constantine is gone now, no one knows where, which is why Ysabelle wants to meet with Tito and Valantino. If they can't help her find Constantine, she wants them to get her to the other world.

More back story.

The other world, (Altero Terra) is another plane of existence, or regio. Unlike most regios, this one seems to mimic the real world in terms of landscape and seems to be as large as the world. It was discovered a few hundred years ago by mages, attempts were made to colonise it - but they ran into problems. The PCs, in a previous adventure, gained the ability to travel to the Altero at will, but when they do, all their possessions, clothes, etc get left behind. The only way to bring stuff from one side to the other is to use the portal concealed within the maze at the Academy. Ysabelle explains that she thinks it likely that Constantine is hiding out in the Altero. If he's not, then the Altero is the one place Ysabelle can think of that might be out of the reach of the Countessa - so Ysabelle might get to live. To get there, she needs to use the portal, but she needs someone to a) get her into the Academy and b) solve the maze.

The PCs agree. Tito doesn't like to see people getting killed, and Valantino owes Ysabelle for past misdeeds - as Tito points out when Valantino brings up the question of whether they should be trusting Ysabelle. But neither of them can actually help her, as neither of them can solve the maze - it requires knowledge of the Criamon mystery to do so. So they send a message for another student NPC who can help - Topillio.

Then its back to another of Valantinos problems (he has so many) - the Lamia. Tito goes off to prepare the trap they are constructing, and Valantino goes home - his wife has got a lot of questions to be answered.

-- Update --

Leora has been doing some thinking. Tito has admitted that he is a mage, and he and Valantino hang out a lot together in an 'academy' with a bunch of other students... Valantino can see where this is going and admits, that yes, he is a mage. He was only keeping it from her because he thought it would freak her out. She seems quite practical about it though (remember that the whole 'magic isn't real' meme hasn't caught on yet) and has a number of questions like: "Where is the money going to come from?", and "How did you get injured?" which Valantino can answer with varying degrees of honesty (He neglects to mention his recent career as an assassin)

When Valantino then explains that he has to go off to hunt a magical beast, Leora puts her foot down. Valantino is to injured to go out, she says. Valantino might have explained that his part in this was simply as bait, but that way led to many more long explanations, so he tried to explain that only he could cast the spells. Not Tito, nor any of the other mages in the academy. Leora wasn't buying it. She insisted that he wait until he had healed before going off to try something so dangerous. Unwilling to explain what the danger was (ie: that Leora would be lured to her death) Valantino gave in.

The next morning, Topillio arrived back from the Altero, agreed to take Ysabelle through the maze, and even offered her a place to stay - the abandoned covenant that he is trying to set up again. Offers were also made to the PCs - this is another possibility for a future covenant. It all went reasonably smoothly - invisibility spells were cast to get Ysabelle past the school masters, no one failed badly, it all went well.

Ah, Politics

So the news has been all about immigration. (In Australia anyway) Why, I'm not sure. Apparently we have a crises - 2000 people want to come into our country and aren't taking no for an answer. No, seriously. OK, sure, America has 22 million [1] 'illegal' immigrants - about the same as the population of Australia. But we have a smaller population! And if action isn't taken, why that number could increase to 4000! or even 10,000!

Please.

Campaign Log: Winter 1470 (2)

Tito walks into the ambush site, screened by his walking trees. (Animating trees is Tito's Thing). But he's not here for a fight, he just wants to find Valantino, so he tries to open up negotiations. Gaius, up on the hillside is looking for a fight, so he's trying to find the bandits that he saw going over the ridge, without much luck. He holds off on starting anything, knowing how Tito gets when he causes needless casualties.

The bandits are also not interested in getting into a fight. They saw Tito fly in, and they're looking at walking trees - they know they're up against a wizard. So negotiations begin. They fetch their captain, and Tito sends Gaius back to the campsite to pick up some stray hairs for use as arcane connections later.

Cut to the campsite, an hour or so ago. Carlos has made his way back there, after losing track of the other mages. As he approaches, he hears activity. Being invisible, he easily manages to sneak up to the campsite and observe that some of the bandits have doubled back and are clearing out their hastily abandoned campsite. They move with precision and purpose, destroying or removing every trace of their presence here. These are no ordinary bandits.

Carlos tries an illusion to scare them away from the flying carriage, but this only causes them to sweep the forest for the illusionist. He evades them, but chooses not to interfere further. The bandits complete their cleanup and depart. Shortly afterwards, Gaius teleports back to find a clean campsite. He casts around for a bit, exchanges a few words with Carlos, and then goes back to Tito - who sends him back when he admits that he didn't use magic to find the stray hairs.

Carlos goes back, fails to cast the spell, and teleports back to Tito. He's getting a little tired of being Tito's errand boy, but changes his tune when he hears how the negotiations are going.

Titos goals are a little unusual for a Italian landowner. He wants:

1. Nobody to get killed.
2. His trees not to get cut down.

The bandits, of course, want money. I think it was Gaius that proposed that Tito hire the bandits to keep other people out of the forest, and to not rob people. Captain Gavino is agreeable to that, but his price is 300 florins per month, which is money that Tito just doesn't have. Other options proposed include simply allowing the bandits to operate in the woods, keeping people out by robbing them. Gavino says that he could step up operations - they've been keeping a low profile to avoid pissing off Sigismund off too much. If Tito was willing to provide political cover...

Gaius's preferred option is that they hire the gang, and use them to rob the Pazzi's bank, giving them enough funds to pay them. Gavino is also in favour of this idea - this is turning out to be a pretty good day for him!

Tito, unwilling to make any commitments at this stage, returns to his top priority - getting Valantino back before sunset. He explains why to Gavino, who points out that Valantino is unlikely to be fighting any sorcerous beasts any time soon. Nevertheless, in light of the new, hopefully profitable relationship, he agrees to show the PCs where to find their friend. He'll have someone meet them in town tomorrow or the next day.

And so the PCs go back to Rimini. Sorcerous beasts are not in evidence, which is just as well, as Valantino is at -5 from his wounds, even after aid. Its a quiet night for all.

In the morning, Valantino hashes out the details of the Lamia trap he wants Tito to build, and tries to get healed. Unfortunately, he doesn't have enough vis of the right type. So he goes looking for a trade, first amongst the players, then its flying back to Florence to see if any of the other mages have Creo or Corporam vis. None do, but Tito remembers another mage who might be able to help. Someone who would almost certainly trade Herbam (one of the least valuable types of Vis) for Creo (one of the most valuable types)

Some digression is needed here. Tito specialises in Herbam - plants. He hates seeing plants destroyed, and he's very bad at doing it himself - he can't destroy them using herbam magic, and he can't use fire magic worth a damn either. When the players visited a Covenant near Bolongna, Tito had been very exited to hear about another Herbam specialist. All the other types of mage tend to look down on the Herbam mage, what their flying and teleporting and fireballing. Here was somone he could talk to!

As it turned out though Daunte Rociacasale was a Perdo Herbam specialist, specialising in destroying plants. And worse - on causing them pain. Hey, everyone needs a hobby. When Tito visited Daunte, he was horrified to find the garden that Daunte was growing - a garden filled with plants twisted and macabre, of plants given traits of animals or humans, twisted mockeries of Gods creation.

Daunte, though, would almost certainly be interested in Valantino's trade. So off to Avenio they go. Not all the way though, Tito refuses to go within a mile of the place, so Valantino is forced to walk the rest of the way. When he gets there he is greeted by Uso - a big man who has a habit of turning into a wolf as big as a bear. Uso greets Valantino warily - the PCs don't have a great reputation in Avenio. He considered giving Valantino a hard time, but the first words out of Valantinos mouth are that he needs to see Daunte. Short of attacking, Uso can't think of anything worse than that, so he directs Valantino to the garden. (The rest of Avenio's mages aren't mad keen for Daunte either)

Valantino walks the gauntlet of the outer garden, looking at the bleeding trees and the softly screaming flowers and eventually finds Daunte. He's fairly old, and keen to show off his latest creations, the crying begonias, and the cabbage kids. He gets so few visitors. But he is happy to trade. So pleased is he by the visit that he give Valantino a plant that hes been working on. To all appearances, its a small potted flower. Valantino is too eager to get out of there to ask whats special about it, and too polite to refuse it. He leaves as soon as he can.

Greeted again by Uso, the conversation goes something like: "Finished already? Oh look, he gave you a plant... WellthatsverynicebutI'msureyouhavetobegoinghaveanicedaybye!" SLAM.  Valantino walks back to the carriage. When he gets there, Tito is staring at him in horror.

Tito: "Where did you get that plant?"

Valantino: "Daunte gave it to me as a - "

Tito: "No! Kill it! Kill it!"

Valantino: "I can't do that, it was a gift -"

Tito: "Its an abomination! It must be destroyed!"

Then follows an hilarious sequence, where Valantino, who could easily destroy the plant, refuses to, and Tito, who is completely unable to, is desparate to. Valantino is willing to let Tito do as he will in this matter, so he stands aside and lets him try, even pointing out that its quite a small plant and Tito could just step on it. He demonstrates on a nearby shrub.

Tito: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!!!"

Despite the example, Tito is worried that the plant might recover from crushing damage, or worse that it might release pollen or seeds. He tries Plant-rot spells and fire spells, but he never had a chance to succeed. He double botches his Natural Philosophy roll and decides that the only animal that could eat a plant like this is a wild boar. Taking pity on him, Valantino picks up a stick and conjures fire on it - and botches, hitting the flying carriage.

Tito: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!!!"

Tito quickly detaches the piece of the carriage thats on fire (it was just a small spell) and tries to set the plant alight. It refuses to burn.

Tito: "Nooo! Abomination!"

Tito heads off into the forest to find a boar to eat the flower. He takes the control stick for the carriage with him. Valantino waits. Valantino uses his invisiblity ring on the plant and stows it on board. He creates a fake plant and pot. Eventually, Tito comes back out of the forest with some boar poo.

Tito: "Right, lets summon this boar!"

Valantino snaps his fingers and summons a flame that burns the pot to ash.

Tito: "Why didn't you... I've got boar shit on my... Fine! Lets just go."

Why does Gartner exist?

Two articles I saw today:


Prediction:

Speaking of Apple, its share of the smartphone OS market will also grow - but only from 10.8 per cent to 13.7 per cent [in 2012], Gartner said. 

Observation:

The latest smart-phone numbers from Canalys show that Apple's gaining share like a bat out of hell. The company has gone from 2% global share to 14% share in a year. 

Looks like Gartner's numbers are a little out of date? I can't understand why newspapers keep quoting Gartner reports like they mean something - and why managers keep reading their reports. They are just so often wrong.

I'm starting to remember what I like about my job

When I left, I didn't think I could stand one more day there, but after three weeks, I'm starting to feel OK about it. Well, thats generally how long it takes for a holiday to end.

The good thing about working in a soul-sucking bureaucracy is... you can't fail. You can stuff something up, but thats not failure. Clearly, you didn't have the knowledge or experience or enough time or whatever to complete the task. We'll work out what went wrong and do better next time. And thats when you stuff up, which is rare, because a bureaucracy has rules to follow. As long as you follow the rules, you'll do well. If you find yourself in a situation without rules, you can do whatever you want - and if it doesn't work out, then there will be some new rules to cover that situation.

In the real world, failure hurts. Even if its just the rejection of a story submission to a magazine, when you put yourself out there its you that gets rejected. That never happens in my job - I can do my job in my sleep.

Which brings us to the bad part. Doing my job - I am asleep. Theres just mindless tedium and endless procedure, and I hate it. Its easy, but you can't live fully when doing it. Part of you has to go away and do something interesting.

Right now, I'm looking at my first piece of pain, my first rejection, and I'm thinking - I'm not good enough. I'm not writing enough, I'm not submitting enough, I'm not getting better fast enough. I'm not going to accomplish anything during this time off and I'm going to go back to work, back to sleep, with nothing having changed. Its fear and I hate it. But at least its real.

Books you've never read: The True Game

It took me a while to realise that most people haven't read The True Game. I read it  when I was quite young, so it had quite an effect on my thinking about fantasy, becoming part of my background understanding of how fantasy worked, much like Tolkien did for a lot of people (including me) So it was quite a shock to realise that other people didn't share it.

Because I was very young (12?) I missed a lot of what was going on. I had taken it for a standard fantasy epic. You know the one, the one with the young boy hero who is born with a special power, who goes on a journey to change the world and defeat the Evil King. All of which is in the book, but there was so much more. Like the homosexual relationship between Mandor and the underaged hero, Peter.

And so much more. Tepper's style, and Peters voice (the novel is in the first person) is so... nice, that it masks the fact that the Lands of the True Game are horrible places to live. You might think that George R Martin's Westeros has scant regard for human life, but at least there, people only kill for fun and profit. In the Land of the True game peasants are killed by the dozens for the scant advantage that sucking the heat from their bodies gives. The society in which Peter lives and the ethos with which he grew up with completely lacks compassion and morality. Peter grows up without parents, not because they are dead, but because they know that if anyone knew of his parentage they would use him to get at them. Its a wonder that Peter is as nice as he is.

Not that he is a saint. One of the features of this world is the Schools where people of Peters class are raised, kept safe from the horrors of the world outside. Peter grew up being taught in class how, when, and where to kill. It lends an interesting twist to the naive hero who somehow manages to survive all the dangers to reach his destiny. Peter is naive, and is always finding himself in dangerous situations, but when he stops to think about, he has all the mental tools available to outwit, ambush or otherwise overpower his adversaries.

If you've read Tepper's other works, you may start to see her oft used theme here of "People are horrible", but you will have to read the rest of the series (The Chronicles of Mavin Manyshaped and the Jinian Trilogy, two trilogies often grouped to together as two books) before the full nature of the situation unfolds, and the real message behind the books becomes clear.

Campaign Log: Winter 1470

The characters are still in Rimini, scouting out a location for their covenant. They have a potential site, with just one problem - the local residents. The site is on Mount Titano, and the locals are a stand-offish group who haven't had much interaction with the rest of Italy. As magi, the PCs could probably destroy the small community without much effort or repercussions, but despite strong representation for that option, the majority are against founding their covenant with a bloodbath.

Efforts at negotiation have been made more difficult by Carlos, who played around with some illusions last session, provoking the village. Tito had to fly in and put a stop to it, managing to stop the confrontation from escalating, but not really ingratiating himself with the villagers.

So in the morning, its up to Valantino to head up the mountainside and negotiate. Flying most of the way there, he lands and approaches on foot to avoid spooking the villagers. He spots the guards before they can ambush him, and speaks his piece, offering gifts and asking to speak to the leader. When the leader agrees to speak with him, he continues his humble approach, submitting to the silly (and quite uncomfortable - bathing in winter?) rituals and is allowed to come up and speak to the High Priest.

Meanwhile, Tito is wandering around Rimini, trying to find out something about the bandits that are living in his forest. Of course, Tito being Tito, he says the wrong thing to the wrong person, and he finds himself in an escalating confrontation with a very loud shopkeeper. He shouts "Fine, see if I care if you get killed by bandits!" and tries to leave. But the crowd blocks his way. He forces his way past them, but the crowd follows, yelling insults, and working its way up to throwing stones at him.

Before it can get to that stage, though, Tito cracks. He starts blubbering, crying "I'm sorry that I'm so ugly, I don't mean to be!"

Confused, and more than a little disturbed by the sight of the big man blubbering, the crowd disperses. Tito goes back to his rooms in the castle (the players are guests of the Duke, Sigismundo) and sulks. When Valantino comes back with news that the villagers are ready to move on to the next step in negotiations, Tito is in no mood to hear it.

The rest of the party are pleased to hear that things are moving forward. Valantino tells them that the next step is for the people that were fooling with and/or killing the villagers last night will have to come forward and apologise. Its suggested that they will have to pay were-guild for the dead raiders. Sigismundo steps in a this point, and says that there's no need to stint on the gifts - he provides silver, fine cloths and wine for the characters to offer.

And offer them they do. The High Priest is pleased with the gifts, and impressed by their powers - it seems he is no stranger to magic. He admits that the warriors that were killed were on a raid, so their deaths were honourable and accepts the gifts as reparation. He declares that there will be a feast. He doesn't mention that the feast will be a test of the characters good nature, but they get that anyway.

The feast is held, and the characters acquit themselves well. Gaius makes an impression on one of the prettier villagers, but he manages to sneak off with her and not cause any trouble. Carlos declines to make any more mischief. And Tito has a chance to save a young kid from a nasty fall. The kids mother thanks him profusely, and Tito starts to come out of his sulk. The characters are invited to stay the night, as climbing down the mountain isn't safe - but the characters have a flying carriage, so they decline. Gaius manages to re-join the party in time, and they depart.

As the party flies down to the castle, they spot a figure wandering the battlements. A closer approach reveals that it is Valantino's wife, sleepwalking or in a trance. Valantino snaps her out of it, and gets her back to bed. Carlos also retires, but Gaius takes Tito out into town. Tito has been moping far to much for Gaius' liking recently so he gets Tito drunk and pays a 'large woman' to spend some time with Tito. Tito is too chaste to take advantage of her offers, but he feels better at least.

The next morning, Gaius declares that he needs a coffee and a kebab to deal with his hangover. Since neither of these have been introduced into Italy yet, he teleports to Tunis, where such things are available. He quickly regrets it, as it turns out teleporting is bad for hangovers. Even with the recuperative powers of coffee and kebabs, it is noon before he feels well enough to teleport back. But he's in time to join the party's bandit hunting expedition.

Tito has learned from Sigismundo that the bandits are ex-members of his mercenary company. They are skilled, know the forest and are trained to deal with magic. Worse, they have got a hold of at least one of the helmets that Sigismundo equips his trusted soldiers with. These helms allow the wearer to see through illusion and provide magic resistance. Nevertheless, the characters are feeling confident as they set out. The weather is good, if chilly, and they hope to fly over the forest and identify the bandit camp by the smoke from the campfires. A high aerial pass shows 5 possible sites, Valantino volunteers to do a close inspection as he can both fly and go invisible.

Some three hours pass, and Valantino does not return. The party heads out after him. They quickly investigate a charcoal-burners camp and a lone cabin by a lake. As they approach the third site, a man pops out of concealment an fires a crossbow right at Tito. Tito is protected by his Shriek of the Impending Shafts spell and dodges the arrow. The man pops back into concealment and sounds his warning horn, as the flying carriage zooms up to his hiding place. He is not to be seen there, and as they fly over the ridge in pursuit of him, they espy the remains of a hastily-vacated camp. Ignoring their attacker, whom they have lost track of anyway, Tito lands in the camp and identifies the direction the bandits have left from. He follows on foot, leaving the rest of the characters to follow.

The bandits left a few traps to slow pursuers down, but Tito uses his magic to disable them without breaking stride. Much to his dismay though, he finds that the tracks split a number of times. Each time they do, he knows the chances of finding Valantino grow smaller. He runs on. Carlos falls behind, gives up and heads back to the carriage. Gaius manages to keep up, and spots another ambush ahead. He teleports above the ambushers, ready to serve up an ambush of his own....

End of Session.

What a random link gets you

So I click on this link and get a fascinating article (well, sample chapter really) about our assumptions and perceptions of national cultures and how they are completely shit. Lazy Japanese indeed!

So in the early days of capitalism when most economically successful countries happened to be Protestant Christian, many people argued that Protestantism was uniquely suited to economic development. When Catholic France, Italy, Austria, and Southern Germany developed rapidly, particularly after the Second World War, Christianity, rather than Protestantism, became the magic culture. Until Japan became rich, many people thought East Asia had not develop because of Confucianism. But when Japan succeeded, this thesis was revised to say that Japan was developing so fast because its unique form of Confucianism emphasised cooperation over individual edification, which the Chinese and Korean versions allegedly valued more highly. And then Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea also started doing well, so this judgment about the different varieties of Confucianism was forgotten. Indeed Confucianism as a whole suddenly became the best culture for development because it emphasised hard work, saving, education, and submission to authority. Today, when we now see Muslim Malaysia and Indonesia, Buddhist Thailand, and even Hindu India doing economically well, we can soon expect to encounter new theories that will trumpet how uniquely all these cultures are suited for economic development (and how their authors have known about it all along). 

Must remember to keep that prediction in mind and see if the pundits do start declaring the unique aspects of Indian culture that made it destined to succeed.

He also talks about how cultures aren't monolithic and unchanging - I don't think he goes far enough. I think that any trait you care to name is manifested in all cultures - we fixate on what is dominant, or perceived to be dominant, but under the right circumstances traits that are more valuable come to the fore. Thats why cultures can change so radically, so quickly.

Character Profile: Azaith

Character Name: Azaith

System: Twilight (Home grown)

I miss Azaith. I miss a lot of my old characters - RPG characters rarely get the closure that the characters of a novel get. RPG characters can die, retire, or the game can just end - either because its finished or because some new game has come along. When that happens, the character sheet goes in a file, probably never to be looked at again. Sometimes a character sees new life in another game, but its rarely the same.

Its difficult to describe Azaith, because he was a shapeshifter. He could also go invisible, and was able create illusions, most commonly of himself. He was the slipperiest character I've ever played or seen. He was like paranoid water. And he was crazy, and he was so much fun to play. To get an idea of what Azaith was like, you could check out Fuzzy of Sam and Fuzzy. I used him a lot for inspiration. Of course Azaith was a lot more paranoid. He had to be, a lot of people wanted to kill him.

I've played evil characters, violent characters, deluded characters - but Azaith was something special. The sheer randomness of his actions, his ever-changing justifications and excuses... it was exhilarating constantly having to come up with this stuff, and tremendously liberating to constantly create new goals without being limited to common sense, consequences or recent history.

One thing I was dissatisfied with though was that Azaith was a lot more destructive than he was creative. I had meant for him to be more balanced, but its a lot easier to destroy than it is to create. Assassinating the lead member of a trade delegation could be done on a whim,  but staging the epic musical "The Necromancer Has No Pants" took a lot of effort from the entire gaming group.

That campaign ended with a climatic finale - the evil god was destroyed or banished or whatever. Azaith made a brief return as a 4th Ed Halfling Thief/Warlock, pushing the boundaries as much as a 1st level character could, but it wasn't the same. Twilight was really a unique system, and I'll probably never really play Azaith again.

Games I Play: Pendragon

Pendragon is fabulously flawed. Its a game that only does one thing, and it does it badly. But its great fun to play.

The first thing you need to know about Pendragon is that you are going to play a knight. None of the varied roles that are normal for a roleplaying game are available. There is magic, but you are not going to play a wizard. Its too early for duellist-types, mercenaries and archers are beneath notice. You are going to play a knight, you are going to hit things with swords (and lances when you ride a horse) and you are going to wear the heaviest (and therefore best) armour. That is all.

You may have some hobbies: hunting, singing, poetry, etc. which may distinguish you from the crowd, but really: everyone start out bad at those skills and gets better as they go along. You have lands and rank, but again, there's a simple progression from less to more as you play.

This might sound a little boring, and to be honest, Pendragon doesn't have the staying power of other games. Once you've played a knight a few times, you start looking for other things to do. Which means other games, because there's nothing else to do in Pendragon.

Its a great game though, for those few times. Why? Because even though its a poor roleplaying game, its a great way to really feel like you're fighting with King Arthur. Those old legends didn't feature modern fantasy's list of archetypal characters. The dragons weren't ancient and wise beings, full of advice for the plucky young bakers apprentice. The trolls weren't unionised - they stayed under the bridges where they belonged. Pendragon is a return to twelfth century fantasy.

Admittedly, the combat system is simplistic, with only a few tactical options (each more brutal than the last) and the skill system is easy to break. Characters with a high enough Constitution can live underwater. Lancelot has enough skill to critically succeed on every hit. But there is one area where Pendragon shines, and that is Personality Traits.

Whereas DnD had its Lawful/Chaotic, Good/Evil scales, Pendragon has 14 matched traits, like Chaste/Lustful or Energetic/Lazy. Each is graded on a scale of 1 to 20, and gets modified in play according to your actions. Character development is literally a development of your character. And its not just for fun - having high virtues has a game effect, with a Chivalric bonus for having high scores in the virtues considered chivalric and religious bonuses for both Pagan and Christian virtues. Not to mention the advantages of having a high Valourous trait when its time to fight a dragon.

Having this complex virtue system makes it possible for adventures to be like the old stories. A knight stands vigil overnight, but does not make his Energetic roll and fails the test. You can be tempted by all the evils of the world, and if your stats are high and you roll well, you can find the Grail. Pendragon is the only game I've seen which both encourages and rewards virtue. Its something that a lot of games could do with.

Pendragon is  a classic game, one you'll keep coming back to every 5 years or so. Its also a game where I'd recommend the published adventures. Normally I like to tell my own stories, but all the best stories for Pendragon were written 600 years ago.

Free at last

Whenever I told people that I was taking the rest of the year off, the universal response after, "Wow." and "I'm jealous." was "Where are you going to go?" It bugged me, because I didn't have a good answer. Well, I did have an answer, but staring incredulously at the person and saying "Why would I want to go anywhere?" didn't seem to be the right one.

Don't get me wrong, I think travel is great - see new places, get away from the rut at home, etc. I've done that, and I will do that more in the future. But Perth is a fantastic city to live in - clean air, open spaces, filled with greenery and with a great standard of living. I've spent years collecting books and video and other entertainment, making my home as comfortable to me as possible. All my friends, whom I regularly game with are here. Why would I want to leave this?

So if I got through that question, the next one was inevitably, "So what are you going to do?" And again I was pretty much stuck for an answer. As if there was only one, or a short list of things, that I could do in three months. The best answer I could come up with was - live. And here I'll add that I don't know what I'll be doing. I have plans, sure. But what I'm going to do, for the first time in my life, is do whatever I want most to do, without having to worry about expenses, without worrying about the time it will take, without having the excuse that work is taking all my attention.

This blog is part of that, the rest remains to be seen. Maybe I'll volunteer to work in East Timor, maybe I'll stare at the ceiling for two days straight. But whatever it is, for the rest of the year, I'll be free to do it.

First Post!

Write something every day... who said that? Well, just about everyone who knows about writing. So. Lets see how this goes.

(like I'm going to write anything until I've played with all the template settings. Lets see how this post looks)