[RPG] Destroyer of Fun

I had a weird dream last night that my version of Ultimate Rival showed up at the FLGS.

Instead of being someone I want to destroy in game, my particular guy is the guy who ruins all my fun. What's really frustrating is that it's very subtle and I seem to be the only one that has him figured out as a ruiner of fun.

What makes it worse is that everyone else really likes him and thinks he's "great".

But he's not. He's a creep with a really good ability to disguise it.

So when I woke up, I checked to make sure he is still where he is supposed to be, and then giggled at the idea of turning him into a BadGuy in a game that I'm working on (I hope to be ready by summer).

Ultimate Rival, Destroyer of Fun, Closet  **&^%- what are the names of your opponents? Is it a joke, or is it for real? It'd be fun to hear your stories....

Because it's relevant

Many of you may know that I'm writing a series on Intelligent Design over at HOP.  

I'm interviewing various folks, talking about the various aspects of design and their takes on them. In doing so, I've checked out a lot of awesome work that I want to share. 

Before I quoted a single person, shared a single image, or used a single comment, I asked permission. Mostly because I am nice; but because I don't want to infringe on anyone's copyrights. Why? Well, because it's the *^%$ law. Wanna see more about this?  Check out the utterly awesome article written by Lauby here. 

I hope you enjoy this article- it's well written and well researched. Plus, it's by Lauby; so it's double awesome. 

[RPG] Self-Expression

Sorry I'm late- yesterday was TheDude's birthday and I spent the day spoiling him rotten.
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For me, self-expression is the ultimate reason I play RPG’s. The free-flowing stream of ideas, concepts, and strategies really get my creative juices flowing.  I love that the potential for drama, hubris, loyalty and humor are exponential. Working in tandem with other like-minded geeks to cause imaginary lives, choices, consequences and resolutions is only part of the joy for me.  It’s the spark of myself that gets pushed, imbued, and transformed into those conceptualized worlds, combined with my special brand of expression that lights me right up.

Everyone has their own special “brand” of expression. Several of my friends are artists, and their character s do not come to life until they’ve made a sketch or drawing.  Some paint miniatures to convey their creative spark, while others are truly gifted actors and simply “living” as their characters in game is their mien. I’ve got a friend who draws maps, and has for a long time; well before geomorphing was cool. 

The cool thing is that self expression is so personal. Each and every one of us that plays or runs games has a different way of bringing our creativity, ingenuity and representation into our game worlds and characters.  I truly admire my friends and their talents and ways of bringing their ideas across. I adore checking out the drawings, the miniatures, the maps and watching those immersive players. It’s a fun kick to see what others use; their enjoyment is pleasure for me.

My personal expression is through words. I love playing with them, their meanings, their syntax, and their variations. I truly enjoy finding new ways to say something and love searching the depths of nuance and inference. 

I’ve discovered that I am a much better writer than a roleplayer, in comparison. I contrast my sessions as Eile to my write-ups or my Hedge Tales and see a drastic and dynamic difference between them.  I’ve accepted the chasm, but I strive to utilize language more effectively while playing so that I can grow and improve in game.

Language is my source and field of expression in life as well. If you don’t believe that “Loquacious” fits me, you have not spent a lot of time around me. I love to talk. I like to talk to dang near anyone. I enjoy the art of conversation, learning about people, and sharing myself with them. I adore a good jaw, and have been known to sit down just to explore words with someone.

There are plenty of times when words are my shield. There are also numerous times when words are my foundry, forging my emotions as I work through my vocabulary. I have found more than once that I’m not exactly sure how something makes me feel; but through talking and expressing myself in language, I find names for whatever’s on my mind.

Taking that away from me limits my self-expression, and generally frustrates me.  While I know I talk a lot, and often don’t say things directly, that’s who I am. If you don’t like it, or want to curtail it in some way, it’s probably going to cause some sort of issue.

I don’t infringe on others’ expression, and I can’t say that having mine refrained is something I relish. I mean, self-expression is the ultimate reason I play RPG’s, and it’s a core component of my personality.

I'd love to hear about yours, and how you find your true self in the game.

[BIRTHDAY] Contest Results!

I want to thank each and every one of you for your fabulous, wonderful, generous wishes for my birthday. It was absolutely spectacular, and I enjoyed every minute of it. I woke up to find a Storm Raven with my name on it, and it just got better from there. (How that's possible, I'm not really sure- but it did!)

Friends and family helped me celebrate in style and I have to say- I really, truly, honestly NEEDED a day of just ridiculous, over-the-top spoiling like I got. I've been burning the candle at both ends (and in the middle too) for a while. Having a day where I got and did what I wanted was .... well.... really nice.

Now, to the meat of the matter- the contest!

Each of your entries was interesting and fun in some way. Each of you took time out of your busy, crazy lives to share something with me- an aspect of me they saw, an idea they wanted to pass on, some token or treasure they had in their head. That alone was a pretty darn good present, and on top of it, the entries were great!

Contest #1- Most of you understood how much I love words, and played with them to encapsulate my personality and blog into a short snippet. Before I announce the winner, I'll share the entries:


1) This in iteslf is wonder...

2) Inspire yourself to wonder...

3) World of Wonder: Proving unicorns exist since (insert year you started gaming/year you were born/random year/random 4 numbers here)

4) Wench waxes whimsical; war, wifecraft, witch with words; wonders woven weekly.

5) Wondrous and Loquacious Ramblings and Reflections on a Wide Variety of Words

6) Wherin you can find the thoughts and reflections of a wife, mother, and gamer

7) Boardgames and Roleplaying-games: Musings and Reflections of a Wife, Mother, and Gamer

8) Gregarious Girl’s Guide to Good Gaming and Gushing Graciousness & Making Modern Motherhood Mostly Manageable.

9) Genuine Gopher Gaming Girl Gets it done with Weird Wacky Wild Wonderful Words

10) Audacious, bodacious, tenacious, veracious, Loquacious.

11) What has two thumbs and is awesome? THIS BLOG!!

12) Global domination is not just a game for men.

13) Where wizards, warriors, werewolves, witches and wyverns are warmly welcomed with words of whimsy.

14) Whimsical wanderings with wizards, warriors, werewolves, witch hunters, wyverns and words.

Some of these made me laugh- HARD. A couple were favorites right away. I decided to enlist the help of TheGirl (remember, she's distracted by shiny things) and TheDude. Both of them voted on the same entry, which was one of my favorites. Clearly, we had a winner!

Who is it?

Chris D with his entry of: World of Wonder: Proving unicorns exist since (insert year you started gaming/year you were born/random year/random 4 numbers here)

I'm sticking in 1985, the year I started gaming. I love the nod to the absurd here, as well as the acceptance of the strange complexity of the female gamer. Plus, it's FUN!

This winner had a close competitor with Porky's entry -


Audacious, bodacious, tenacious, veracious, Loquacious.

I love the rhyme, the playfulness, the intent, and most of all the accuracy of all the words used here to describe me. I'm keeping it to use in another place in my blog, many thanks to Porky.

Onto the banner contest:

 

I have to say that this was truly difficult for me- I love two of them very, very much. Both of the designers in question are thoughtful and considered me and my blog very seriously. Both of them captured an element of “me” that I found more than a little surprising.

Here's the “runner up”- What I liked most was that the designer was more than willing to change the eye from blue to brown at my request. My eyes are brown, and if I'm sharing my perspective, my viewpoint, if you will – with you, I'd like the eye to be brown.

Thor over at Creative Twilight did an amazing job, and with his permission, I'm using the banner for my Weekly Whimsy posts on Sunday. I like this so much, I can't help but smile when I see it- and I would love to share that simple joy and wondrous perspective with you on a regular basis.

I think in the end, what helped the winner come out on top was that he emailed me privately. He asked permission to use something he saw on the blog as an element of his banner- and without knowing it, he touched on something truly special to me.


Here's the winner (without the new motto):

DaMastaCheef over at DLWDG designed this for me. What sold me on it was the use of the lily.

He had no idea, but that lily is beyond special. It's my daily reminder of who I am, my place in this world, and why I'm “H” and not someone else. The lily is one of a bouquet sent to me several years ago. The Dude didn't have a reason- he just wanted to say he loves me. He knew I'm allergic to nearly every kind of flower under the sun, but not lilies- and that I love them. He had them delivered to me at work, at a time when I was the receptionist and everyone in the building would see them.

The Dude's not a terribly romantic type, so flowers are a BIG, BIG, BIG deal. The amount of thought and consideration he put into those flowers is a treasure to me. The knowledge that I mattered that much to TheDude was something I couldn't forget. I've mentioned before that I scrapbook (or used to) and I made a beautiful little book with pictures of those lilies.

Using a picture of the lily as my avatar was my own way of keeping the scrapbook with me, even on the 'net. It's my way of showing The Dude that I remember and understand “us”.

The use of the lily in the banner was an extravagant way for me to show my Dude that he's part of everything I do- even the stuff I do on my own. Thanks, DaMastaCheef!

I'll have the new banner with the new slogan on the site soon (tomorrow, I hope!). Until then, send a big congrats out to the two winners and know that I had a blast sharing my birthday with you. 

[RPG] Plot

I got so many wonderful comments on my Characters post! Thanks so much for sharing. I was reallys truck by how much I identified with some of the comments. I definitely agree that playing a character that allows you to be someone you're not is a fun (but tricky) thing!

One of my favorite characters, Jak, was just about opposite to me in every possible way. I liked playing him, but he was a constant challenge.

I'm really liking this series about the "core" elements of role-playing, and look forward to a lot of interesting discussions with you guys.

Plots seem to be a bit trickier. They're either great or terrible, in my experience. I've yet to be involved in a plot that was "meh", but I'm sure it's possible.

What makes a plot good? Is it personal involvement? Complexity? Depth and scope? Is it the interaction between the elements? Is it the resolution? On the flip side, what makes a plot bad?

How do you develop plots? What makes a plot seem natural and organic, versus railroaded or hammy? How do you incorporate mature (or silly) plots without offending? What do you do when your plot falls apart?

I can't wait to hear what you have to say! 

[RPG] Characters

In talking about game development last week, I got some great commentary and insights. I loved the conversation and wanted to discuss the foundation for any game, the characters we play.

We all have a favorite character- that one manifestation of our imaginary selves that we hold near & dear to our hearts.

What makes that character more special or unique than any other? What causes them to be held so dear? is it a personality quirk? An awesome roll in a fantastic adventure? A plot hook that bit into you and just wouldn't go away? A release from the reality you were dealing with at the moment?

I'd love to hear about your characters and what makes them so fun and enjoyable to you! Please share your stories, because I LIKE hearing them. I'll be glad to share mine, if folks ask.

[BIRTHDAY] Contest!!!! Update and Big News Revealed

I'm at 93 followers last I checked- only 7 away from my goal of 100 by my birthday. I'm excited about all the new readers and I hope I can bring you some fun stuff to keep you here! (Thanks for reading!)


There were no new entries into the contest this week- that's ok, there are still 10 days to enter.
Here's a recap of the contest and all the details for those that might be late to the party!
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Contest 1 - Intended for the Wordy Folks (RPG players, language majors, word nerds)

Come up with a Motto/Slogan for World of Wonder.
Use 15 words or less to describe me and my blog. Funny, witty, and alliterative entries encouraged.

Contest 2- Intended for the Visually Minded (Graphic designers, artists, folks that play with computers)

Come up with a Banner for World of Wonder. ( 950x200-450 in size)
Use graphics, images, drawings or other visual media to convey my personality and my blog. Using references from older posts, repeating themes of posts or comments, or ridiculous riffs on stuff I've said are welcome.

What are the rules? 
1- No more than 4 entries per entrant. I don't care if they are all in the same contest or spread out over both, but you only get 4 chances.

2- It's my blog, and my birthday. I pick the winner of each contest with my own personal metrics.

3- You had a month to enter! Entries must be sent by email (available in my profile) and received by my birthday: 10:00 AM CENTRAL STANDARD TIME, Saturday, February 12, 2011.

What do I win? 

I am working on an awesome looty prize for each winner- but because it's a birthday, the presents are a surprise.They will most likely have some relevance to miniatures and/or roleplaying in some way. It's entirely possible I will tailor the prizes to match the entrant, but I am not telling yet.


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Last week I said I would give a couple sneak peeks at the prizes. I'm still keeping it a surprise, but here's the first hint at the possibilities:

it could be one of these

Or maybe one of these

There are a lot more possible options. How am I able to do this? Well... I have connections. As in,

My husband (The Dude) and I OWN Armored Gopher Games. 


My little vacation this past weekend was to attend a local convention and sell some goodies to our friends, loyal customers, and new folks that are now part of our growing community. We love games and sharing them with others is part of our passion. A highlight of our weekend was the demo of DUST Tactics, the AT-43 "light" game from Fantasy Flight. One of our regulars showed off his copy to anyone who was willing to sit down and play. As a thank you to those who checked it out, our store gave some great swag away.

The INSIDE of Dust Tactics- a DEAD Sexy game

Because it's my birthday, I'm doing it again- giving away fun stuff to those that are part of my community. My blog is not really intended to be focused on on the store- but the store is a huge part of my life, and I want to share it with you. I hope you will join in my fun ramblings, and take part in the many adventures yet undiscovered!

[ A special shout-out to those of you who have known and kept it quiet at my request. I really appreciate your understanding and consideration to my feelings. It's meant a lot to me and I am glad to have you as part of my "family". ]

My blog is still all about my Weird, Wonderful, Womanly World- and all the things in my head. I've finally settled on a posting schedule (changed and revised to picking up another "day job") and hope to bring you some really awesome material in the days, weeks, months and more to come.

Don't forget to send your entry into the contest! Also, a special goodie for my 100th and 101st followers!

Thanks so much for your great feedback, advice, commentary and everything else you add to my wonderful online community. Please chime in with your thoughts, questions, comments and other musings about the contest and the news- I'm always glad to reply.

be Well,

'Lo

[Birthday] Announcing a CONTEST!!!

My birthday is coming up soon! Instead of getting presents, I decided to give stuff away. 

As a reward for following along my little corner of the blog world, I will have a contest. It's actually a two part contest, intended to touch on both of the 'major" sides of my gaming life.

This is also a not-at-all-shameless grab for readers! I hope to break 100 followers before the contest is over. A special goodie will go to my 100th and 101st follower!

Contest 1 - Intended for the Wordy Folks (RPG players, language majors, word nerds)

Come up with a Motto/Slogan for World of Wonder.
Use 15 words or less to describe me and my blog. Funny, witty, and alliterative entries encouraged.

Contest 2- Intended for the Visually Minded (Graphic designers, artists, folks that play with computers)

Come up with a Banner for World of Wonder. (EDIT: 950x200-450 in size)
Use graphics, images, drawings or other visual media to convey my personality and my blog. Using references from older posts, repeating themes of posts or comments, or ridiculous riffs on stuff I've said are welcome.

What are the rules? 
1- No more than 4 entries per entrant. I don't care if they are all in the same contest or spread out over both, but you only get 4 chances.

2- It's my blog, and my birthday. I pick the winner of each contest with my own personal metrics.

3- You have a month to enter! Entries must be sent by email (available in my profile) and received by my birthday: 10:00 AM CENTRAL STANDARD TIME, Saturday, February 12, 2011.

What do I win? 

I am working on an awesome looty prize for each winner- but because it's a birthday, the presents are a surprise.They will most likely have some relevance to miniatures and/or roleplaying in some way. It's entirely possible I will tailor the prizes to match the entrant, but I am not telling yet.

--I totally promise they will NOT! be lame-- Be assured that if you win, you'll get something wonderful... because it's my world, and I love to bring out the childlike wonder all around me.

I'll do a weekly post with updates on number of entries and what kinds of fabulous goodies you might win as the month goes on. Spread the word- I want this to be kind of like a virtual party, and the more, the merrier in my book!

I look forward to whatever entries might come in- and good luck!

[40K] [Beginner's Project] Target Priority

Last night I went to the 40K night at the FLGS. Due to it being winter break for the local university, holiday break for the public schools, it being "free play" rather than league, and a butt ton of snow coming down, there was a pretty small crowd.

I wound up hanging out with some friends and the guy that runs one of the role-playing games I am involved with. Some of our conversation was roleplay related, but we did talk about real life and joke around a lot. The guy chose to spend time hanging with us, rather than play 40K. The Imperium was not his target priority last night.

That choice of where he was focusing his attention got me to thinking about the strategies involved in chosing primary targets in an actual game. I've learned through a little bit of watching and a lot of listening that mech needs to die as quickly as possible if you're smart at all. Other than that, I don't really know- but I know it's important.

How do you decide what targets need to be eliminated first, and wat alters those plans? How do you respond to a "Death Star" in such a way that doesn't scream "panic"? Do you let target priority interfere with capturing objectives and/or win conditions? Are there other factors I should consider, and why?

Thanks, guys. I'm getting a lot closer to confident.

I'm Back!

While I'm not totally well, I am feeling tremendously better. A couple days off made a world of difference.

I mentioned a new schedule a while ago- I am still working on that. For now, I'm posting "Whatever" and trying to enjoy it.

I have some additions to my blogroll. I was chided for not sharing, so here are the goodies I remember adding recently:


Newest HOP Staff Member


Space Wolves, Grr


It's Good To Be The King


Does It Go To Eleven?


Crusading Against the Dark


He Talks More Than I Do!

It's Sandy


Who Doesn't Love Orks?


Different Enough


I hope you enjoy these guys. I'm still poking around some of the sites, so I haven't fully learned all of their interesting tidbits to share.

Be Well,

Lo

[Blogging] Lessons & Tools

I learned a whole lot of very important lessons last week. Since I'm the gal I am, I figured I'd pass a few along.

LESSON ONE:  My experiment Wednesday was a huge failure. I had the first half of a really cool, atmospheric, immersive and moody post- but I ran out of gas about halfway through. Rather than recognizing it and scrapping the idea until it was fully formed, I pushed ahead and wound up with a bomb. Another experiment I tried on Wednesday leads to

LESSON TWO: Changing stuff without trying it is DUMB. I tried to install Intense Debate and turned off comments, instead. I honestly didn't figure it out until the next day. I hadn't tested this new thing and it bit me in the rear. But this failure also leads me to

LESSON THREE: My readers are NICE. You guys are so incredibly nice, not a single one of you could bear to tell me I'm an idiot and my comments don't work. I found that a little comforting.

I try to make interacting with me as easy as possible- I've got my email in my profile, and I'm open to criticism with the intent to improve the blog. So having made all those mistakes, I've resolved I won't be making any changes that affect how you interact with me here again without LOTS of warning and some feedback from you.

I have found a couple tools that are behind the scenes that I like a lot. There are a lot of very interesting and helpful options for bloggers out there- I can't say enough about StatCounter. I love that it doesn't do anything to my blog except tell me all the cool stuff I want to find out - who reads, how long, where they come from, etc. In combination with GoogleAnalytics, I can get way more bang for my blogging buck than even a month ago.

I found out you guys really like my Sunday stuff - so especially after Wednesday, I work hard to make sure I don't put up a half-assed post. I had an idea for a pretty serious topic I'd been working on all week but it wasn't "done" yet (even on Saturday) so I gave it up for something I knew was "finished". While I have a lot of subjects I want to cover, I'm open to suggestions so feel free to throw an idea or two out- you never know what I'll do.

I'd love to hear what tools you guys find useful, what widget works well for you, and what you're using to improve your blog. I'd also love to hear some of YOUR lessons- maybe I can learn from them, too. 

[Blogging] [40K] WTF? FTW!

 I blame it all on those guys at TheBack40K.

Some of these guys used to game at the FLGS and then moved away. Somehow I stumbled on their blog, and keenly followed their escapades from afar. I found them about a week before Ron featured them on FTW. I promptly bragged about my "local boys done good" to all my current friends, and continued following TheBack40K guys.

It was Sandwyrm that got me to realize PICTURES would make a world of difference on my blog, and thus my WM mechs and TheDude's Mexi-Marines started showing up on a sorta- regular basis. When I was plugging away a little over two months ago, I never in a MILLION years thought I'd get featured on FTW's Weekly Top Ten. But BAM! here I am:

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2010/10/tuesday-top-ten-89.html

I know I've been growing (I thought 12 in 7 was crazy? I gained ELEVEN followers in 5 days. That's an average of TWO A DAY!) and I'm beyond grateful. I hope you enjoy my rambunctious, ridiculous self.

As a very special thank you, I have an extraordinary, way fun, ultra-secret surprise waiting in the wings later this week. Stay tuned to see what great stuff I come up with - and take a minute to point out the best underrated blogs YOU know of- so I can return the Followers Bombs!

Introducing FunDave's 40K Blog

The local 40K scene at my FLGS is pretty fun as a rule. Most of the players enjoy playing, have a nice time with each other, and have good personalities.There's quite a bit of good natured joking and teasing with each other on things such as army selection (Tau suck) and rolling ability (several guys have hilarious reputations).  It's not all "fun & games"; there are a couple of serious players that while very fun to play against are pretty interested in winning.

In an effort to showcase this "little engine that could" (the community stuck it out through the world's tiniest store, an ownership change and a move), I decided to see about getting one of our guys to do a blog about 40K and the league. He very graciously agreed, and has put up the first couple of entries. At the moment, he's doing a "beatdown" and a "meltdown" of the week, and may expand out as he gets his feet under him.

The current league is a team escalation deal, with random partners. 1st week's scenario was kind of a "relay" where each partner had to control an objective one after the other, and 2nd week was a "guard duty" sort of deal.

Here are FunDave's write ups of the weeks' best (and worst) moments.

http://www.armored-gopher.com/node/1542
 
and

http://www.armored-gopher.com/node/1543


What FunDave missed for week 2 was not a beatdown or a meltdown, as much as a hilarious moment. Our League organizer was playing a private game in the back. LO was playing Nids against a well respected player running Orks. I overheard some of the game, and pretty much every other roll was "crap, I missed" or "crap, I missed that save". League games had finished and several players were milling around, hanging out and some were offering peanut gallery comments on the Nids/Orks conflict. One player, Jake, had rolled pretty terrible all night and was getting razzed about it. From the back, the Nids player and the Orks player said - in unison-  "Come back here and watch us, Jake. You'll feel better".

Sharing With Others

I'm helping a friend learn to blog; specifically regarding my favorite game I don't play, 40K.

I find that sharing my knowledge, experience, ideas and perspective with others is one of the many ways I can enrich my gaming life. Most of the time, I don't feel QUITE creative enough to do things completely on my own, so going in for the assist is effective and rewarding.

I'm excited to see how the project turns out, which I hope will be in just a few days.