Hey Man, well this is Babylon

I tried playing a little more of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, and it just further solidified my opinions on this game. I really like the game’s mechanics. I love third-person shooters, and I think the way that gameplay was implemented in K&L is perfect for the heist style of game. But goddamn, I hate both of the main characters in this game, and have absolutely no sympathy for them whatsoever. One is a mass murdering bank robber who misses his family (boo fucking hoo), the other is a mass murdering schizophrenic nutjob who is just misunderstood by everyone (boo fucking hoo), and neither of them have a single quality trait that makes them likeable. Seriously, designers, what the fuck were you thinking? Trying to cash in on the wave of lucrative immorality made popular by that terrible Grand Theft Auto franchise, is my guess.

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My pal “Zipp Dementia” has adapted the Cannibal Contagion rules to be used for online forum-based roleplaying with a D20. Looks interesting. So far Zipp’s been in on two of our local playtests, and contributed greatly to the ideas and musings that led to the new Draft 5 mechanics of the game.

This looks nifty so far. Thanks for the link, Zipp!

- NPC

I really should start posting here more often!

Reading:
Red Seas Under Red Skies, by Scott Lynch. This is my second attempt at reading this. I got about 100 pages in on it sometime last year, but couldn’t focus on it for some reason. This time I’m doing much better, and am pretty hooked. My one complaint: I’m kinda tired of Locke Lamora. He’s an ass and is growing less and less sympathetic with each turn of the page. I fear he is going to be another Drizzt Do’Urden “Mary Sue” character. Jean Tannen is far more sympathetic, and frankly, far more interesting.

Writing:
Trying to finish up the newest draft revision of Cannibal Contagion. This one’s looking awesome, and I believe the product is nearing completion.

Watching:
Finishing up Season 4 of Battlestar Galactica – it FINALLY started getting good again with episode 6, after five totally abysmal crapholes of boredom kicked off what looked to be a pretty mediocre season. Also, watching through Season 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender with the Lady. The fact that she’s enjoying it excites me.

Playing:
I bought a new copy of Thief: Deadly Shadows recently and gave it another spin. I tried this game a few years back, and while I couldn’t get into the controls at the time, something about it has stuck in my brain like a nagging compass alignment ever since. After finding out that it is compatible with the Xbox 360, I tracked down a copy and have started playing it again. This time, I’m all about it, and I love the stealth controls. So far, this is an A+ game for me.

It’s official: Cannibal Contagion is almost complete – it is in a “release candidate” stage of near-final development. After this weekend’s session, I can see exactly what minor tweaks need to be done to make this game ready to go. It does exactly what I want it to. With a good month of focused editing, art assembly, and formatting, it is entirely possible that I could have a handful of copies to pimp out by this year’s Gamestorm convention. I’m thrilled by this notion, but I also understand that if at any point I feel like I’m rushing it, I’ll step back and wait until after the con. I don’t want to publish a rushed game, as that would just piss me off, and I’d be pretty ashamed.

This excites me, and gives me a feeling inside that both turns my insides to warm, pleasant putty while chilling my bones with apprehension. I felt this very same sensation when I got my very first piece of commissioned artwork for the game from Vero and Leo. I’ve watched a project which started largely for me as a method for distracting myself from heartache over an ex-girlfriend morph into a great goal of actually accomplishing something with this over-abundance of fluctuating creative energy. Soon, hopefully soon, I will see tangible results. I just have to make sure and frequently remind myself: be patient, don’t rush this, yet don’t coddle it either. It will be ready when it’s ready.

Speaking of this weekend, Saturday’s “serious” Cannibal Contagion session was one of the best I’ve ever played with these rules – a session of a caliber that exceeded even that of the much-loved “Spaghetti Monster Must Die!” first session ever. The revamped Crazy-Go-Psycho rules worked almost flawlessly, and after only a few minor tweaks will be exactly how I want them. It was good to see the mechanics applied to a scenario with a more serious, less tongue-in-cheek theme, as it proved to me that such an approach to this system is very feasible. All in all, the session was just plain awesome – so awesome, in fact, that I’ll be fully fleshing out that scenario and making it available as a free downloadable demo scenario at the time the game is launched.

Anyway, to further entice you with the new rules, I’ve uploaded a one-page special preview of the newly-redesigned character sheet. Download it here. As of now, the playtest rules are being taken offline. The Draft 5 Revisions are mostly staying in as finalized rules, and the online rules available until now are a bit defunct. Massive thanks to all of the testers who helped me bring this game this far!

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What else have I been up to? Playing (and loving) Mass Effect and planning for my first ever Gen Con.