Erik Amundsen's Blog, page 48

Two Audio Things from Patty! Three! Three Audio Things from Patty!

aa aa aa

The mail arrived in something like a timely fashion (imagine my surprise; they have been coming 6-7 at night) and with it NOT ONE, BUT TWO CDs from pattytempleton !

I dance now.

When to Abandon an Idea

So for five years, I have been chasing this goal, this thing I wanted to do: finish the game I designed for the 2007 Game Chef competition; Autumn War.  I have learned a lot since then about game design, graphic design, storytelling, horticulture, art, my own internalized privileges... So many more subjects than I ever thought possible.  It's been rewarding, in its way, but it has never, ever gotten off the ground.  I keep coming up with rule sets that I know are solid (could use some refinement, even still, better melding, better terms of implementation, etc. etc.)  and then I keep walking away from them, abandoning them, dropping them.  My playtests fall flat every time, and these last two weeks have been no exception.  Players are dying off at my table, and I cannot get any air into the stuff I am doing.  I figured out why, finally; one player asked for hooks after I *thought* I had built as many as I could into as little space as I could manage.  One player mentioned something about playing The Road and not finding that a lot of fun.  I realized something - 

I don't want to run or play The Road either.  It's not fun.

So the Autumn War, Winter Sorrow, Thorns or whatever... I'm not sure what to do.  I'm not junking it or walking away, but I realized I'm making the game I think I *should* be making and not the one I want to be playing, though I have made rules that I think I want to play with, and I have designed things that I definitely want to use in a game.  But Grim Meat Hook Fantasy... well, shit, it's me.  I'll write that, but making people game it is... It's pretty fucking awful.  

What I need is a new plan.  I have a solid rule set, I have great character design, but it could be better.  I'm going to think about this, see if I can switch the spine out on an animal that I've made crawl around a little to see if it walks.  

I will do something with these rules.  I will have the Strength to Insight economy for advancement, I will keep the Natures, I will probably continue using Peril.  Suffering, who knows.  

There will be Shokkals and Kacias.  There will be Oaks and Pines and ... A third, Beech/Apple/Sycamore?  Masked Bandits!

There may be Dahan Nen and her Ugly Birds, but I think they may come to mean differently.  

This is not going to be a game about desperate refugees trying to escape the aftermath of supernatural invasion.  It's a good story, and a gamable one, but I can't run that game.  That said, there will be a little desperation, sometimes.  I have a lot to think about.

Last night I had a dream about human sized, dark brown birds who hopped around on one foot, carrying katana in the other, I guess like tengu or kenku, but they told me they had come to kill the ugly birds, and I think they can.  

They draw the swords with their beaks.  

Run Blogging Day 14

Unlucky number, first run of the Year of the Dragon (Dragons and Hares, I'm told, are bad for one another across the board and in general), and barely at running speed (there was some geriatric death trotting here and there.)

BUT, when I was about to pack it it, there was still more of pattytempleton 's "Fruit Jar Drinkin', Cheatin' Heart Blues" to listen to , so I kept on running.  You don't have to run to listen to it, over at Podcastle!

Oh Dear

Already at 3200 words, not at the island, not a werewolf in sight, and the steam aspects are... well, they're on a steamer.  
Still, I can continue on.  I will.  I must.  Also, I have almost half a month before this even begins to be an issue.

If SOPA/PIPA pass

I will lose my job.  My perfectly legitimate, non-infringing job.  Gone.  This will also be the end of my career as an author, and as a painter, not that there is much of a career in either.  Everything that puts food on my table, a table in my apartment and an apartment into which a table and food goes is reliant on a free internet.

There Was a Con

In which I spent good times with skogkatt  and Moss, almost enough time with shadesong , more than I usually get to spend with teenybuffalo  and nineweaving , though less than I would like, not nearly enough with sovay , sindrian   upstart_crow  or last_real_ange , and, to my sorrow almost none with yendi  or ajodasso  (the latter I met for the first time, and hope to meet again).  Most of these people live a little more than half an hour more driving than I DO EVERY WORKING DAMN DAY from me.    Arisia had a slower pace, in some ways, than Readercon, where everyone is always rushing to make professional contacts and people come from much further out.  For me, it is a smaller con.  Weird, but there it is.  

I am exhausted.  My legs ache from moving slowly, standing still, tension.

My panels went well.

The first - Interstitial Fiction was the worst; it became the taxonomy panel, and I think I came off as glib, flip and shallow in my opening remarks to the moderator, who thereafter sort of treated me as though what was going to come out of my mouth was going to be madness or stupidity.  The blame for that panel, I think was shared around; the audience as well, seemed to have a number of axe grinders and the hipsters took over the asylum.

Dark Fantasy turned out to be quite good, and a panelist with whom I remember having kind of negative experiences last year makes me question my recollection (I will not name this person, but they were excellent in both panels on which we both served).  There was more I wanted to talk about in regards to that one, though I have to remember, next time, that Mercedes Lackey uses rape-as-character-development all the damn time.  Which actually kind of fed into a point I wanted to discuss... Maybe in a blog post.

Fairy tales and Myths went quite well (it could hardly go wrong; I got to be on an all-star lineup with that one) and though I had little to contribute, I did get Slendy in there and that was fun.

The one I moderated, Setting as Character, again, all-star lineup, and I LOVE THAT SUBJECT.  We knocked that one out of the park, I think.  I need to make sure that Readercon does this.  I need to make sure the four of us who were on it (plus sova ) get to be on it.

Then there was the readings.  I am getting pretty good at reading, and I was reading some of my best work. Everyone kicked ass.  There was a song sung that tore my heart straight out, too.  

I got to table for the Backup Project, which was good.  I got to paint while I tabled, which was fun.  I went to some of skogkatt  and teenybuffalo 's panels ( teenybuffalo can moderate - con organizers, take note.  She rode herd on a panel that could have gone way off the rails and into awful places, late at night, but she kept it together and made it look easy), I did not get a chance to go to really anything else - I was putting out too much energy (even though I kept telling myself to stay cool, and I did stay cool[er] - everything I was able to conserve I threw into my panels and readings) for anything else.  

I had better shoes this time.  I brought snacks with me.  I am thinking that a lighter computer is in order.  I lost my notebook, but the only thing I needed in there were to notes for the werewolf story which, actually, got invalidated by my experiences - I have much better ideas for that now.  Also, I can buy a new notebook for writing!  Backpack, not courier bag.  Lighter load.  Use the green room.  Bring oranges.  Stay cool, let things happen.  Be painting.  Tell fortunes.  Be mindful of boundaries.  Find hiding places.  Sleep more.  Prepare.  Prepare.  Prepare.

It's fun.  Intense, but fun.  There's more I want to talk about, but not today.

divideby0's Instant Province Generator

Click on here to get a Province, then just add a tree name. 

Our current matchup has Cypress vs Ailanthus in clockpunk with a Zelda theme.

ARIIIIIIISIA!

68           Interstitial Fiction: Dancing Between Genres     Griffin  Literature            Fri 7:00 PM         Duration: 01:15

                Interstitial fiction is writing made in the interstices between genres and categories. It is art that flourishes in the borderlands between different disciplines, mediums, and cultures. It crosses borders, written by people who refuse to be constrained by category labels. Some favorite examples will be discussed here.

                Joy Marchand    Sarah Smith        John Bowker      Julia Rios              Erik Amundsen

760         Reading: Amundsen, Lipkin, Rios             Quincy  Writing                               Sat 1:00 PM        Duration: 01:15

                Authors Erik Amundsen, Shira Lipkin, and Julia Rios will be reading selections from their works.

                I will either be reading “PONY” with a side of “A Corpse for a Swan” OR “Under the Asphodel” and whatever other poems catch my fancy.  If you go to anything of mine, COME TO THIS.  IF YOU LOVE ME, COME TO THE READING EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL EMOTIONAL BLACKMAIL

From 2-6, Saturday, I will be staffing the Back Up booth. 

579         Mud and Blood: The Grittier Side of Fantasy      Douglas                Literature                           Sat 10:00 PM      Duration: 01:15

                Not all fantasy involves nobility, worthy causes, and great deeds. Much of good fantasy involves characters trudging through bad situations with mixed motivations. Our panel looks at the grittier side of fantasy.
 Vikki Ciaffone   Genevieve Iseult Eldredge          Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein              Joshua Palmatier/Benjamin Tate (Joshua Palmatier)          Erik Amundsen

69           Myth and Folklore in Fantasy     Douglas                Literature                           Sun 11:30 AM    Duration: 01:15

                How do writers use myth in their stories? What are the most common myth cycles drawn from? Has traditional folklore been run out of town by urban legends? Why is the appeal of these stories so strong after millennia?

 Merav Hoffman               Esther Friesner                 Greer Gilman                     Sonya Taaffe                      Erik Amundsen

45           Speculative Poetry Slam              Quincy  Literature                           Sun 2:30 PM       Duration: 01:15

                Join us for a speculative poetry reading!

                Elayna Jade Smolowitz (Elayna)                Shira Lipkin         JoSelle Vanderhooft       Sonya Taaffe                      April Grant (April)   Julia Rios              Erik Amundsen

                If you can’t come to my reading (with Julia and Shira) then come to this and I may forgive you.  If I did not already, I will definitely be reading “Under the Asphodel” here.  Otherwise, “Wolf Peach” or “The Lend”

75           Setting as Character       Burroughs           Literature                           Mon 11:30 AM  Duration: 01:15

                In many books, the setting itself is as strong and indelible a character as the characters themselves. Let's discuss our favorite places in genre literature!

Erik Amundsen                 Greer Gilman     Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein              Julia Rios             

 For some reason, they are letting the inmate run the asylum here….

I will be about with my cards as I was at Readercon, and I am always ready and willing to do free readings (and also take drinks, dinner, barter if you are so inclined, but you do not need to so don’t feel like you should.  Technically, it’s not legal for me to say this anyway…)

[Dork] A New D&D? My uninformed opinions.

So theofotos told me they are making a 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons, so I feel the need to be wrong on the internet about gaming.  Feel free to skip this, if such things do not interest you.

Yes, WotC, aim it at the kids.  Part of this is simply good business and something that a hobby subsidiary of a massive toy company should find pretty self-evident, but to be perfectly honest, I don’t care about that.  I don’t care how well Wizards or Hasbro does with their product lines.  It would take effort on my part to care less.  D&D 5e should aim younger because I want there to be more gamers.  I want there to be more people playing these games, getting together, having fun, using their imaginations and doing cool things, cool social things, cool adventurous things.  More younger gamers means more gamers who stick with the hobby as they grow and age, which means, in 10 or 15 years,  I will have a much easier time  finding people who game.  It also drags more money into the system which, of course means more products, good and shit, but I’m going to address that point in a moment.  Really, though, it’s all about the more gamers.  I like this hobby, I have fun gaming.  I want other people to have that fun, too.  Role playing can, in a lot of ways, the most democratic form of modern entertainment, the one least dependant on outside production and outside control.  A good rule set can make that play easy to achieve and free people to imagine their own stories.  Sturgeon’s law holds true, but volume affects the 10% as well as the 90%.  Okay, so here is how I would do it:

             

Run Blogging Day 13

Yuck.  Barely counts as a run at all.  Just shy of 2 miles in just shy of 30 minutes.  I think I can walk that, and it would hurt less.