You know that scheduling shift I mentioned on Monday? Looks like it’ll happen sooner than I’d realized. I’m afraid my second “real post” of the week will come on Thursday from now on, or at least until that’s inconvenient and has to change too. But there’s an excellent reason for this, and that reason is my class on Children’s Book Publishing, taught by Anita Silvey. I’m very excited about it.
Author Archives: Henry
New Flash Fiction En Route!
Once again Chuck Wendig has provided me with a prompt to play with, and I intend to share the results here. I won’t be sharing them with you today though, because I spent most of today in a car. This time around, the prompt is “X meets Y,” a theme in keeping with nonsensical high-speed elevator pitches. I ended up rolling a few times on the table Wendig provided because my first result seemed too surreal, but my natural stubbornness inclines me towards using the first result anyway. I’ll tell you what that was later, and share the ones that I’m not writing instead: Fast and the Furious meets The Godfather, and The Matrix meets True Grit. Maybe I’ll get around to writing those some other time.
I should also note that I’m now going to be in classes on Wednesdays. My posting schedule may change some time in the near future, to avoid timing conflicts. I’ll be sure to let you know if/when it does.
Concept: A Tintin Adventure Flowchart
I think I’ve mentioned my love of Tintin previously. But I’ve just had a fabulous idea, so you’re going to hear about it again.
Some necessary background: Charles Stross wrote an excellent book, The Jennifer Morgue (part of the Atrocity Archives series, very much worth reading). He based the story (careful, spoilers) on a combination of real world events and James Bond clichés, and did it excellently. He did this in part by analyzing the Bond oeuvre (I suppose I should say the Fleming oeuvre, but Fleming really didn’t have that much to do with most of the movies) and creating flowcharts of Bond film opening scenes and general plots.
Yes, you read that correctly. He watched all the Bond films with a friend and wrote up flowcharts to describe what they saw going on. Here’s the flowchart of a Bond movie opening scene, and here’s the flowchart of a Bond film writ large.
Now, I love Tintin very much, but there are some problems with the old comics. Consider:
I’m amazed that Castafiore is even included in the cast of characters.
Yeah, that’s objectionable.
So I’ve been thinking that I should try writing new Tintin stories. Well, not Tintin per se, but adventure stories like Tintin’s, without the same racist depictions and with better representation all around. And Stross’ flowcharts have inspired me. I plan to go through and re-read a number of old Tintin stories, and try to make a Tintin adventure flowchart that I can follow when the time comes. It might turn out that this is impossible, and Hergé simply had too many different stories, but I suspect that I could pull something useful out of all this. What do you think? Are you interested?
Flash Fiction: Robin’s Songs
Chuck Wendig has a blog called terribleminds, and on the 9th he posted a Flash Fiction challenge. The prompt: write a 1000 word story about a character created by this random D&D character generator. My prompt turned out to be a “suspicious half-elf bard from a sheltered upbringing who is lactose intolerant.” I really had no idea how to work in lactose intolerance, but I think I’ve succeeded. Check it out below the break!
***
Robin looked up from her book, absentmindedly pushing a strand of hair behind her gently pointed ear. The little cluster of red feathers that she kept tied at the end of her hair rustled against her shoulder. She gave the innkeeper a second-degree smile, the one the Enlightened Brethren had taught her to use for disarming the suspicions of others.
Tombs=Raided, Hearts=Won; Tomb Raider Rocks
I don’t usually wish that I paid more for a game. But I liked Tomb Raider so much that I almost wish I hadn’t bought it on sale. I want the people who made it to know how much I liked it, and I want them to put as much high-quality work into making the next one as they put into making this one. Because there’s a next one. I mean, even if I didn’t know that Rise of the Tomb Raider is coming, I wouldn’t have any real doubts (except, I suppose, if the studios involved fell apart or lost the rights, which would be terrible). The end of Tomb Raider left it clear that Lara is nowhere near finished with being the awesome badass which she’s become, and that makes me very happy. Watching the announcement trailer for the new game has reduced me to a quivering pile of enthusiasm.
Why am I so happy about all this? Tomb Raider is a brilliant game, and does things with story-telling that remind me why games are such a fascinating medium in the first place. It’s an adventure novel with audience participation, a new entry in a genre that I love, and it evades the problematic trappings that spoil so many other adventure stories for me.
Ok, spoil is a strong word. I love adventure stories enough to enjoy them despite their frequent problems, but being able to enjoy one that isn’t so inherently problematic is a breath of fresh air. It doesn’t hurt that this particular story is extremely well written, with characters who feel like real people, and who share history with each other that seems fitting and unforced. It’s a little bit like someone crossed Tintin with Indiana Jones, turned the tone dial to ‘gritty and a bit bloodthirsty,’ and then put you through the Bildungsroman of Lara Croft as she goes from untested and unconfident archaeologist to self-assured and competent survivor and adventurer, hellbent on keeping herself and her friends alive. Wait, no, that’s almost exactly what it’s like. It’s glorious.
Look, you don’t have to take my word for it. You can play the game yourself. But if you want to read more of my thoughts on the topic, including the few reservations I have, please be my guest: Continue reading
Godseat, a Wayfinder Adventure
I should note, I have no idea whether or not this game will actually be chosen for use by Wayfinder. In fact, I still have to finish writing it and submitting it. I think it’s a pretty cool concept, and it experiments further with some of the player vs. player mechanics that I explored in the 2014 Staff game (along with my excellent co-writers, you rock). In the interest of not spoiling you for anything, I’ll refrain from telling you too much about the flow of game. Instead, this post will give you a brief overview of the setting and what the game is all about.
A Brief History
There are many gods and godlings, but there is only one Most-High. The Most-High reigns over all from the Godseat, the Throne of Supremacy, the Seat of Knowledge, the Bringer of Good Tidings and Ill News. Whichever being sits upon the Godseat is acknowledged as the ruler of all, but no one being can sit upon the Throne forever. The prayers of faithful worshippers, and their propitiations, may sometimes elevate a new being to the Godseat, replacing the previous Most-High and beginning a new reign. There are some times, perhaps once or twice a decade, when the cycles of the moon and the stars and the seasons coincide just so, when the prayers and rituals of worshippers take on special power in the area around the Godseat; these times are known as the Nights of Ascension.
Long ago, before the Years of Ruin, Continue reading
Happy New Year(‘s Eve)!
I don’t have much else to tell you today: I expect to be busy, and I expect you’re the same.
That said, I do have some juicy tidbits about my planned Wayfinder game to share with you, and I’ve been playing (and loving) the new Tomb Raider. I’m not a fan of the quicktime events, but the writing is *excellent* and the game feels like a perfect adventure story. It makes me very happy. I can tell you more about both of those things next week (though I may be distracted and tell you about something else if another cool thing crops up).
Pairs
There’s something brilliantly simple about Pairs. This is probably because it’s a very well designed pub game, from the experienced designers at Cheapass Games. Pairs is in some ways a departure from the style of their other games, but it shows their collected experience: it’s a snappy game with simple rules that pushes you to go big or go home and gives you quick excitement with good replay value. It rewards you for smart play, yet it’s just random enough to make flirting with risk a rewarding experience, especially when you can force your fellow players into even riskier territory. Succeeding in Pairs means balancing your untenable position with your knowledge of the deck and the mental states of your fellow players, and somehow staying in just long enough for someone else to crash and burn first.
While the composition of the game’s deck is very easy to understand (there are ten 10’s, nine 9’s, eight 8’s… all the way down to two 2’s and one 1), counting cards has been actively discouraged by means of a few careful tweaks: each deal starts with five cards being dealt off the top of the deck into a burn pile, all cards removed from play during the game are discarded face down into the burn pile, and a cut card is used to cover the bottom of the deck in order to restrict player knowledge. Players gain points (a bad thing) when they are dealt a card matching a card they already have in their hand, and all players play with open hands. Points are tracked by leaving cards you’ve scored visible in front of you, separate from your hand. Because of how the deck is constructed, you have a roughly 50-50 chance of being dealt an 8, 9, or 10, limiting the amount of time that you can last in any given round. But it’s possible to fold before you are forced to take points, scoring any one card in play instead of risking being dealt a higher value pair. The moment you score, regardless of how you do it, you discard whatever remains of your hand. This means that by folding you to both avoid taking a high value card (e.g. by having a matching 10 dealt to your hand), and deprive other players of opportunities to score low-value cards (either from your hand, or from whatever you picked elsewhere in play). In play, this means that players’ turns cycle quickly around the table as players choose to either fold, accepting that they will take some points, or hit, accepting risk for the chance of taking no points at all.
Once you’ve taken points and your hand has been emptied, you check to see whether your score has passed the threshold set for your number of players (31 for two players, 21 for three, [or 60/(number of players) + 1, with a minimum of 11 for 6 or more players]). If you haven’t lost, play continues and you are dealt in once again starting with your next turn, while you hope desperately that someone else will lose before the game gets back around to you.
All in all, rapid and easy play combine with just enough chance to make Pairs an excellent game for laughing at your friends. If you’re looking for more easy pickup games or pub games, check it out and enjoy scrabbling to take as few points as possible while everyone else does the same.
Whoops, it’s Christmas Eve
So, uh, I forgot to post today. I’ve been sick, and was distracted by friends being free for the holidays, and then by helping my landlady and her family prep their Christmas tree. I hope that you’re all doing well, and I’ll be back next week. Hopefully with less diseased fatigue. ‘Til next time.
The Fault In Our Stars Made Me Cry
Have you ever tried crying surreptitiously on an airplane? It’s a very strange experience, perhaps doubly so as a man when so much of our society puts a premium on men “being strong” (crying in public is a definite no-no). I was always a bit weepy as a child, particularly where movies were concerned, and as a boy I was teased mercilessly for it. I worked hard on suppressing that behavior, until I got to the point where almost nothing could make me cry; eventually, someone who was well and truly pissed with me called me “Ice man” for my lack of affect or reaction (not in a kind way, nor as a reference to young Val Kilmer… which might have been kind?). I’ve definitely reached a happier emotionally demonstrative balance, but this balance has given me the questionable pleasure of feeling awkward, wiping away my tears while the woman sitting next to me (watching the same movie) was completely dry-eyed. Oh well. All of which was a round-about way of saying that The Fault In Our Stars (the movie, not the book which I haven’t yet read) made me cry.
The movie (and presumably the book) is about a teenaged woman who has survived a bout with cancer and come out with less than half the lung capacity she should have, the specter of cancer returning in the near future, and a tendency for her lungs to occasionally fill with fluid without warning. She’s understandably less than enthused with life around her. The story, however, focuses on her budding relationship with a boy who is also a cancer survivor, one who has escaped mostly unscathed. Mostly.
Ok, look, I don’t want to spoil anything more for those of you who hate spoilers. I’ll leave that for after the break. Suffice to say, if you have loved ones who’ve gone through cancer (or died to cancer, or saw their loved ones go through cancer), you might find this movie a bit emotional. There are other reasons for it to be both good and sad, like watching teenagers trying to deal with imminent mortality, but I invite you to find out on your own. And as I mentioned above, maybe it will do nothing for you. The lady sitting next to me certainly didn’t seem very effected.
Fistful of Wits 
