Hey Man, well this is Babylon

Yesterday I met with Nievita and Chris to start up some face-to-face dialog on my ideas for a new game based on the Unknown Armies rules. The basics of the game are that the characters are all connected to each other through some kind of journalistic endeavor, and are soon immersed in a world of twisted conspiracies and “alien” agendas. I’m so far quite pleased with the results.

The first thing we laid down was the nature of this “journalistic endeavor” I was insisting upon. Thanks to a suggestion from Nievita, we quickly and unexpectedly all agreed: the characters are all part of Anonymous. That idea instantly stuck with me, and spawned a plethora of ideas for plots and content.

We’re using the Unknown Armies core mechanics, but not necessarily the cosmology or magick paths. I’m heavily inspired by the old Nightbane game, so there will definitely be themes of “otherworldly alien darkness” in this game. Both of the character concepts presented so far will definitely work with this, but I’ll resist posting them until they’ve been developed a bit further.

Looks like the foundation for something awesome!

- NPC

Bitches and Roses? Huh? Read here for the low-down.

Bitches

• Bethany and I have just started part two of our Resident Evil marathon, and are now playing through the collector’s edition of Resident Evil 2 on the Playstation. This is so far lots of fun, and would actually qualify as a rose if it weren’t for the godawful controls. See, in playing through the REmake on the GameCube, I got used to my favorite survival horror control scheme, in which I use one of the shoulder buttons to move forward and the stick to turn. I’ve been using it for years in other games, and love the fact that it doesn’t disorient me. But RE2 lacks this option, and additionally it also lacks a “quick-turn” button, which has become so invaluable to my Resident Evil experiences. Grrrr. Otherwise, this is a pretty great game.

Roses

• #1: I’ve signed on a pair of artists to illustrate the interior of the Cannibal Contagion book. Their work is amazing, and I look forward to posting some sneak previews in the coming days.
• #2: I’ve also signed on another amazing designer to illustrate the book’s cover and draft a game logo. Again, I’ll post more as I hear it, but goddamn, this excites me.
• #3: Getting to play Castle Crashers with Chris, Sam, and Kevin, and then collectively nerd-rage afterwards over a wide variety of geeky conversation topics.

Hopes

• I’m meeting with three players tomorrow to get a new Unknown Armies campaign started, and I do hope it goes well.

Back around the turn of the century I lived as a renter at the Psi Upsilon fraternity house on Georgia Tech campus. They had weekly house meetings, and a common feature of each of these meetings was a little round-robin venture they called “Bitches and Roses,” wherein each attendee got a moment to say something they were happy about and something they were upset about, be it relevant to their life or whatever. Each person would give a “bitch” which would be something like “studying for the goddamn finals sucks!” and then follow it with a “rose” such as “i wuvvs my hot nerd girlfriend!”

I’m going to continue that tradition here, and hopefully keep doing it every Monday. Additionally, I’m adding “Hopes” to the list, to catalog the things I’ve got in the works, or the desires I’ve hopefully got coming to me just around the corner. So without further ado, I’ll kick this off.

Bitches

• My roommate heinously sprained her ankle and had to go to the emergency room Friday night, right before our much-anticipated night of zombie-murdering. She’s in a lot of pain, and it makes me sad.

Roses

• Thankfully, she wasn’t too incapacitated that we weren’t able to pick up our plans Sunday. We finished Resident Evil (Gamecube Remake) yesterday as Jill, and it felt good. Sure, we used a walkthrough, but that’s only because we’re on something of a tight schedule. We need to be able to finish the series in completion before the new one rolls out next year, and we’re both quite aware that the October releases of Fallout 3 and Deadspace will heavily impact our playing of the other titles in the franchise. Go Team Hotness!
• A second one! Saturday we had a fucking fantastic six-player game of Twilight Imperium (3rd Edition). That’s the most epic game I’ve been in yet, and I’ll be uploading pictures soon. Special kudos to Sam, who despite never having played before kept tied with the highest score right to the end.

Hopes

• I want a weekly game again. I’m really inspired for a street-level Unknown Armies game focusing on members of a small zine (maybe grass-roots, maybe political, maybe even poetic). The game would take place, as they say, “20 Minutes into the Future” and be very inspired by Transmetropolitan, Global Frequency, Strange Days, Max Headroom, and Dark Angel. Of course, I have to find players first, so likely this concept will change drastically once I get them. But regardless, I really want to run a street-level UA campaign with some element of journalism uniting the people.