Catherine Fitzsimmons's Blog: Jinxed, page 13

Gen Con 50 games wrap-up part 2

Since my first Gen Con games wrap-up post ended up being so long, I decided to break it up into separate posts per day of gaming. So, without further ado, here is my summary of my Friday gaming.

Friday – 7:00-8:00 p.m. – Catgirl Death Match

Friday evening was my husband’s and my designated time for gaming together, so all of these events were decided upon in tandem. So, of course, given our tastes, what game would capture our attention as the first game of the evening? A little rapid-fire dice game called Catgirl Death Match.

We played a prototype version of the game – very much so, as the GMs were still putting stickers on additional dice even as they were explaining the rules to us. Learning the rules and playing the game through one complete round filled up the hour, though the game is rather faster to play than that. The GMs had not been to Gen Con before and seemed a little inexperienced at explaining the rules, but my husband and I and the two other players at our game eventually got the hang of it.

The game play is pretty simple: 20 dice of three different types make up a pool the players choose from before rolling those dice. Each die has four possible outcomes which you can use to attack an opponent and take their dice, reroll dice, shield yourself from attacks, or one unfortunate facing on the less common, more powerful dice that would take itself out of the round. Players take turns until only one is left standing, when points are scored for the dice taken by each player.

It was a fast-paced, fun little game with an amusing style to it. It’s hard to say how much replay value it might have and the initial roll of five dice, each roughly 3 cm to a side, was a little awkward, but it was certainly an enjoyable way to spend an hour and I wish the designers the best of luck. On that note, they have launched a Kickstarter for production of the full game, so check it out and help an aspiring game involving a catgirl battle get off the ground.

Friday – 8:00-9:00 p.m. – Artemis Bridge Simulator: Training Ship

[image error]While I hadn’t seen it in action before, I had heard of Artemis and knew the general concept: that a group of players get together, each at a separate console, and take a different role running a starship, a la Star Trek. I was mildly disappointed when we arrived for our game to find that the training event we signed up for was not at the full bridge setup but at a group of tables holding seven desktop computers like a LAN party. It was only a minor disappointment, though, entirely what I chose, and did make it more interesting that there were two screens in active play that I couldn’t see at all. One had to focus entirely on one’s own job.

Since I was wearing my Starfleet science officer shirt, it seemed only fitting that I take the role of the science officer on the ship, which was a pretty low-stress position. There was a bit of fumbling both on my part and my husband’s – and, it seemed, all three of the other players – as we didn’t really understand what to do with our screens, but as with Catgirl Death Match, we eventually got the hang of it. It was a pretty impressive little simulator and the whole setup, with each player only having a small part of the whole picture and needing to work together to run the ship effectively, was a really neat way to run the game. I will say that our second mission, when the trainer actively stepped in as captain of the ship, ran a lot better than the first one did when nobody was in charge. I would definitely be interested in playing this again.

Friday – 9:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m. – Super Dungeon Explore

[image error]We’ve been eyeing this co-op dungeon crawler for a couple of years, mainly due to the cutesy art style, so we were happy to get the chance to play it. I was a little concerned when I only noticed very shortly before Gen Con that the event page actually stated that some experience with the game was required, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case. In fact, the GM said that of the several events he had run so far, he had yet to have a player who knew how to play the game.

Game play was pretty similar to the RPG-in-a-box style without the actual role-playing/story element: players each select a character and move through one room at a time trying to defeat all the enemies. At the end of each room there is a mini-boss, and at the end of the last room, the final boss appears. Defeating enemies gives you treasure in the form of equipment players can give their characters, which is needed as difficulty increases with each room you face. There is an ‘Arcade Mode’ in the current rule-set which allows all players to play against randomly drawn enemies, but the GM chose to play as our antagonist to help the two of us and the other player at the table learn the game. There were a couple questionable mechanics, but generally, it played very well, balanced nicely and quite dependent upon effective cooperation between players.

Our game did, however, end on a rather exciting note, so permit me to go into greater detail for a moment. Due to time constraints, the GM recommended we skip the final room and summon the final boss after completing the third room, so that we could finish the game. The battle against the final boss started well enough, but when it dropped to half its health, it spawned another mini-boss (which were difficult enough on their own). The two bosses then swiftly killed both my husband’s character and the other character on the board, leaving my barbarian alone against them both.

As the other players began to discuss strategy regarding my character using her actions to revive the other characters, I looked at the board and suggested an entirely different tactic. My character had a special move in which she could attack once for every movement point spent. Given that I was equipped with an item that increased my movement, that equated to a lot of attacks – enough to potentially drop the mini-boss in one turn. It would decrease my defense for the following turn, but my character was at full health. If I was able to defeat the mini-boss, I could survive whatever attacks the final boss could dish out.

Given the time and that we were just playing for fun, the other players encouraged this strategy and I tried it. One dice roll after another, my four or five against the GM’s one with a minor bonus, I picked away at the mini-boss. In the end, it worked. I soloed the mini-boss and ate the final boss’s attacks, leaving me alone against him.

I then drew a treasure card for defeating the mini-boss. The GM more or less dismissed it (though it turns out that’s because he thought it was a different card at first glance), but I let out an excited howl as soon as I saw it – the card allowed a player to double their current equipment.

We were then faced with the same choice again: I could use all my actions to revive another player, thereby ensuring I would be killed in the following turn, or I could equip this new card, along with three other items we had saved up, and do my special move again with the potential to kill the final boss.

The players told me to do it. I was able to add two more, and better, dice to my offensive rolls, along with a bonus on the roll. And it worked. One roll after another, despite the GM’s improved dice against mine (but still less than half what I was rolling), I managed to take out the final boss as well. It was a hilarious and exciting conclusion to the game, one that the GM admitted he had never seen before, and we all walked away smiling.

Gen Con 50 games wrap-up part 1

[image error]Gen Con has been my favourite convention/festival since the first time I went there seven years ago. It’s always been my best event for sales and the atmosphere is so welcoming. The tens of thousands of gamers who descend upon Indianapolis are the friendliest bunch of geeks I’ve had the pleasure to be with. And unlike even other massive fan events, the celebration of geekdom spreads well beyond the convention centre and takes over all of downtown Indianapolis. It is the most inviting place for a gamer to be.

There’s one thing I’ve been doing wrong most of the years that I’ve gone, however. I keep missing the point: the games.

Usually, the gaming I take in at Gen Con is an unplanned scramble of trying to find something to play (a rather daunting problem for someone bad at improvisation), without knowing a vast majority of the games there and often not having any company to do so (a fairly insurmountable problem for an introvert). This goes about as well as one might expect. Not to say that I haven’t done my share of gaming there, but it tends to come about more as a happy accident* than through any effort on my part.

This year, I decided to change that pattern. I thoroughly perused the event catalogue and made selections that I submitted the moment event registration opened, scheduling my Thursday through Saturday evenings full up.

It was absolutely the right idea for me. Even though I was strapped for time getting to all my events, I felt much more at ease having a set schedule and I got to try out a number of new games. I didn’t feel like I missed out on the true fun of Gen Con, as I do sometimes when I struggle to find something to play (and often don’t manage to).

In fact, I enjoyed the games I took in this weekend so much that I wanted to write up a summary of them while details are still fresh in my mind. Thursday’s results follow; Friday and Saturday will come in later posts. Due to length and the fact that this is only really of interest to me, the rest is hidden behind the cut tag.

* speaking of happy accidents, have you heard about the new Bob Ross game?

Thursday – 7:00-11:00: Lockdown: A Star Wars LARP

This was the first LARP I had ever been to. I had done something similar several years ago, but it wasn’t a complete success, nor quite the same thing. The story here took place during the Rogue One era, on a space station which had drawn a number of elite guests for an Ithorian art exhibit until an unspecified event put the station on lockdown.

My character was described as someone who had been taken in under Darth Vader’s wing, was force-sensitive, and who had two goals: to investigate rumours of kyber crystals on the station (and to try to acquire them), and to investigate rumours of Jedi on the station (with the goal to either convert them, subdue them and bring them to Vader, or to kill them).

As previously mentioned, I am bad at improvisation (this is why I write), so I made some mistakes in this game that, looking back, were really quite obvious fumbles. My main problem was I took my character sheet entirely at face value. I assumed that the “characters I knew” listed on my character sheet – only one of whom was cast in the game – were my only allies in the room. I therefore treaded very carefully in all my interactions with everyone aside from my one known ally and spent a lot of effort in trying to keep my cover. Instead, I could have been making alliances with some characters I never spoke with but who were likely to have similar objectives, such as station security. This was the main reason I failed to achieve my second goal, even though I literally came face to face with the Jedi I was searching for right near the end of the game.

For another thing, because it was not explicitly spelled out on my character sheet, I didn’t even realize until the GM’s post-game wrap-up that I was in fact an Inquisitor. Had I put two and two together, I might have taken a more aggressive stance when faced with said Jedi and possibly achieved that second goal, especially considering how powerful my character was.

I did obtain the kyber crystals pretty early in the game, mostly through luck and partly through a rare bold maneuver of telling a fence specifically that I was looking for them (and who happened to know precisely who had them). I probably should have taken a cue from that, but again, I’m much better at analysing situations after the fact than thinking on my feet.

I ended up spending a fair bit of the evening milling around the room, trying to listen to conversations and keep my identity concealed, partly also because my character really didn’t have any interest in the other more major sub-plots of the game.

Ultimately, I had a lot of fun, and considering my disadvantages and despite the sheer luck that went into it, I count it as a victory that I did achieve one of my goals. I also felt good when another player commended my performance of the character as “stone cold”. Given that it was my first true LARP, I feel fairly good about how I played and I’d certainly be interested in trying it again. My thanks to Marshall and Nancy Grunwell and Chris and Sara Marten-Naj for putting together an entertaining game and for all their hard work developing the story, characters, and gaming system for it.

Another avian interlude

Owl pictures taken at a Harry Potter event at my local library, everything else taken in Niagara Falls, Ontario on 30 July 2017.

Some summer

A few pictures I’ve taken in the last month or so (I’m trying to get better about posting).

On ‘borrowing’

I’ve been thinking a lot about cultural appropriation lately. It is a serious problem, I recognize that. But I also think that, unlike a number of so-called SJW crusades, arguments over it do go too far sometimes. Like a ‘get your picture taken in a period-style kimono’ exhibit at a Boston museum that was removed over too many complaints – despite members of the local Japanese-American community counter-protesting to keep it up.

I read a blog post a while back that resonated with me for a single line in it: straight people aren’t allowed to say what’s homophobic, men aren’t allowed to say what’s sexist, and white people aren’t allowed to say what’s racist. That made absolute sense to me. But would it also apply the other way? What does it say when white Americans rail against whitewashing more than the people supposedly being marginalized?

If I was married today, would I get complaints of cultural appropriation for my cheongsam-style wedding dress? (It was white. I obviously wasn’t trying to rip off a Chinese wedding.)

But again, it’s not up to me. Maybe I would’ve been in the wrong to wear that dress; maybe I was in the wrong. I wasn’t trying to disrespect or even emulate Chinese culture by wearing it. I just liked the style better than typical western wedding dresses and thought it more flattering on me.

I love learning about different cultures. I find it fascinating to see how people very different from me live their lives – their fashion, their food, their beliefs, their values, and on and on. And something I have come to learn is that it is immensely fun to both read and write about people very different from me.

That fact may come as a mild surprise to those who have read my novels, which (so far) don’t branch out very far from Tolkienesque 12th-century Britain-based fantasy or modern-day North America. But I want to. I wrote a novella last year starring a character from a nomadic society very loosely inspired by Romani, and I absolutely loved it. The part I’m currently writing for my next book features a number of different peoples all of which are very different from me. It’s been immense fun building these cultures and figuring out the characters’ roles in these societies.

However, I’m constantly wondering – will this be seen as disrespectful? Yes, these are completely fictional societies, and a lot of their development comes from natural progression based on location/climate/access to resources, but the fact is they’re not coming out of a vacuum. I find inspiration here and there from various cultures on our Earth, both because I find it interesting and because it suits these cultures and lends authenticity to them.

I’m not trying to make a medieval Mongolian or Mayan or Russian society in my novel; I start with pieces of one or several source cultures and work it into the world I’ve already developed. But all the same, I am borrowing from existing cultures, and is that problematic?

Today I was writing a scene in which a character reads the (magic) energy of the world. After some research I decided I liked the term prana for what she is sensing. But then I wondered – would people object to me using an Indian/Sanskrit term for a character whose society is more Pacific Islander influenced?

Am I splitting hairs, or is this a genuine concern I should be having? On the one hand, I absolutely agree that colonialism has resulted in appropriation that has undermined and demeaned other cultures through callous use of elements with deep sociological meaning to marginalized societies, and I should think carefully any time I “borrow” anything from another culture. On the other hand, where does it stop? Is it considered appropriation for me to cook a teriyaki stir fry dinner, or get henna on my wrist at a festival, or braid my daughter’s hair?

Earlier this year, the now-former editor of the Writers Union of Canada caused a lot of controversy when he recommended white authors incorporate more cultural appropriation into their writing, even as far as to suggest an “appropriation prize”. That comment was in extremely poor taste and emblematic of the issue… but I agree with the point he was trying to make. It’s boring and stifling to have white writers only write about white people. More to the point, writing is a way for us as humans to expand our minds and make sense of the human condition. In that regard, and especially considering white authors have such a stronger voice in current society, I would almost say it’s a duty of the white writer to step outside the box she lives in, as long as it’s done respectfully. We live in a multicultural society; is it not problematic to only write about your own race and culture? Good writing, writing that understands the world we live in, should either include or address multiculturalism.

But again, it’s not up to me. This is a highly complex issue, and one that’s unfortunately saturated with centuries of erasure and abuse.

Ultimately, I think the solution is to listen more to marginalized cultures on topics of cultural appropriation – both when it’s wrong, and when it’s not.

An avian interlude

Some pictures from Point Pelee National Park in Ontario, the southernmost part of mainland Canada. As is probably obvious, the place is known as a hot spot for migrating birds, and this Monday, 23rd May 2017, was at the tail end of the annual Festival of Birds.

For these pictures, I tried acting like a real photographer and shot in RAW format for the first time, including post-processing. Alas, my telephoto lens simply doesn’t take pictures as sharp as my other lenses, so despite the extra work, they don’t look quite as good as other unprocessed pictures I’ve taken (which would be nearly everything I post here). It was an interesting experiment and I did learn a few things as a result, however.

And to round it all off, here’s a couple panorama pictures I took with my phone. Naturally, these, particularly the first one, are shockingly sharp and high-res, especially considering the full-size images are 30% of the original size.

 

An entomological interlude

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Pictures taken 23 April 2017 at the butterfly conservatory in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.

Music Monday: Hero of Time

[image error]I am very excited this week to feature an album that just launched last night, Hero of Time, a The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time arrangement album produced by Materia Collective.

When I first discovered the Kickstarter for Hero of Time last fall, I was thrilled at the idea of a fan-produced arrangement album of Ocarina of Time performed by a full orchestra, not to mention arranged with the help of some VGM musicians I recognized and liked. I was then immediately saddened to find that with maybe five days left, they still needed to raise something like $30,000 to reach their goal. I contributed my share because I wanted to show my support, but I never expected it to actually succeed.

Lo and behold, in the last few hours of the campaign, they reached their goal and my excitement mounted again, and I spent the next six months watching the updates on its progress and eagerly awaiting its release. Now, here we are, and while I am still waiting for my download code, I have listened to the full album on Bandcamp.

(it’s also available on iTunes and Spotify)

Hero of Time tells the story of Ocarina of Time in epic orchestral form. There are some original sections added, mainly for transitions or track openings, but for the most part, the original tracks from the game are arranged fairly true to form, but generally on a much grander scale, with varying tempos and the addition or encouragement of sweeping strings, booming brass, and huge orchestral hits. The story was condensed for the sake of the album, and some notable tracks from the game are absent, such as Zora’s Domain and Death Mountain, and Kakariko Village appears only as a minor key cello adagio as part of the homage to the Shadow Temple (though the rendition is haunting and beautiful).

What remains, though, paints a beautiful picture of the game’s story, transforming it into a musical journey that seriously sounds like a modern movie score. The original soundtrack for the game was melodic, delightful, and memorable, but not necessarily very emotional. In this rendition, however, Materia Collective did an amazing job bringing the mood of the tracks to life, highlighting the grandeur of Hyrule field and castle, the awe of uncovering the Master Sword, the horror and failure as Ganondorf uses that opening to take over the kingdom and plunge it into darkness, the mystery of Sheik, and more. And in the end, it’s a near straight rendition of the ending credits as performed by a full orchestra, immensely satisfying to someone who has happily listened to the original track in its 20-year-old synthesized splendour over and over again.

I can’t say enough good about how this album came out. In one listen, it has immediately jumped to my top 5 VGM albums of all time. If you played Ocarina of Time and/or enjoyed the soundtrack at all, buy this album. You will not be disappointed.

Music Monday: January indie releases

This January seemed to be a good month for indie VGM album releases, even with my limited exposure to news on that front. So for this week’s post, I thought I’d highlight a few of the new releases I came across.

Chaos Theatre by The Runaway Four

This Vancouver group touts itself as a medley band, which is more accurate than to say they’re arrangers. After the first track on this first studio recorded album of theirs, there isn’t a lot of original interpretation or expansion of the source tracks, and focuses on straight performances weaving together many songs into five mega-mixes. However, the combination of great instrumentation, solid performance, and smooth transitions between the source material makes for great, engrossing ear candy that both grabs and holds your attention and pays a very satisfying homage to the original tracks.

 

The Travelers (self-titled album)

When you have a collaboration of musicians from VGM cover bands such as Materia Collective, the Triforce Quartet, and Tetrimino, you can expect high quality results. The Travelers’ namesake album delivers on that promise with lush European folk arrangements of songs from various (mainly older) games, in many cases really showing the potential of these classic soundtracks. There are very occasional moments when songs become a little dull or repetitive, but overall, this album is very lovely. It’s also the only album in this list that isn’t free to download, but with professional-grade production quality and I don’t think a single synthesized instrument, the $7 price tag is a bargain.

 

Super Mario RPG: Window to the Stars

This latest album from VGM community and repository extraordinaire OverClocked ReMix will probably be a treat to fans of EDM and drum’n’bass (as well as Super Mario RPG), as those styles make up the bulk of the three-disc album. There’s a bit more distortion and chippy sounds, even from familiar names in the VGM community, than I tend to prefer, but some of it works for me, and there’s still a bit of variety. Joseph “XPRTNovice” Zieja, as always, does not fail to surprise with his contributions, including an arrangement that turns the bizarre, almost carnival-esque “And My Name’s Bukki (Booster)” into a haunting orchestral expansion worthy of any mindwarp movie trailer.

Let’s Talk

I suffer from anxiety.

That’s one of the first times I’ve said that out loud.

Why is that? I don’t think I will be ostracized or maligned for admitting it. I don’t think I’ll be treated like I’m diseased or insane. I won’t be locked up or force-fed medication that will erase my personality.

The people I know won’t tell me to suck it up, or that I’m faking it, or that I’m just trying to get attention. They won’t tell me to just get over it, or try to convince me that other people have it worse and I have no reason to complain. They won’t belittle me or try to cut me out of their lives.

I won’t be made to feel that I somehow failed as a person. I won’t be made to feel like getting over it is as easy as just thinking positive thoughts. I won’t be made to feel like this struggle is trivial or invalid. I won’t be made to feel like I’m not allowed to show it, or that showing it means I’m weak.

So why has just admitting it been so hard if I don’t have any of these struggles?

Because these things have happened, and that’s where the stigma of mental illness comes from. Even though I’ve never experienced such reactions, years—decades—of such responses have created an unconscious reflex to keep it to myself. People who cannot and will not understand what it’s like to live with mental illness have dictated how people who do will look at it, even to themselves.

So let’s put the dialogue in the command of people who actually suffer from it.

My name is Catherine Fitzsimmons and I suffer from anxiety. I can’t control it, it impacts my daily life, and I am not ashamed of it.