From People With Big Swords to Cake Shop Mummy

[lathany]

• GameFAQs character contest - This year I scored in the 11th percentile at guessing which characters would come out on top, which I was quite pleased about. The Final Fantasy group did pretty well, most notably Cloud, Sephiroth, Zack, Vincent, Squall and Auron. However, Link came first.
• The Golem's Eye - I enjoyed book two of the trilogy a lot. I don't think it was quite as good as book one, although in part because the first book had the "all new setting" advantage. I guess the main objection I had was that my favourite character from the first book was becoming less likable. On the plus side, the plot continued to work and work consistently.
• 27 Dresses - On the one hand, it's a mildly predictable chick flick. On the other, I really, really enjoyed it. It's a feel-good movie with some great lines (mostly from the best friend) and a happy ending. It's pretty and the side characters in particular were nicely done (the best friend, the taxi driver, the other journalist). Also, I think there was an element of this being the sort of film that I rarely see nowadays, so made a pleasant change from some of the grimmer films we saw earlier this year.
• Cake Shop Mummy - Most people would call this shop "The Jolly Baker", but in this house it is known as "Cake Shop Mummy". It had been a fortnight since out last visit, so I agreed to Ryan's demands to go (and might have made some myself if he hadn't reliably requested). I think they're starting to recognise the quiet hippo there and will even let him say which cake of the type he wants (not quite as strange as it may sound as he chose a cake type with different tiny button pictures on top). I had a stollen (lovely, but had that weighty high-calorie feel), we bought an almond slice and a chocolate danish for bateleur and Bea respectively, and I bought a Christmas pudding for next month.
• From the Cellars of Xanadu - I ran the first session of chrestomancy's game last weekend. It was a game I had originally agreed to set up about a decade ago (and, back then, I was thinking of a free-form). So far, so good. The players play a unit (III) of marines who are trained in Porlock on Earth and then sent out on behalf of the Solar Council (it daws heavily on Warhammer 40K). So far they've completed a mission in Afghanistan locating a missing person (found in a set of tunnels with killer robots) - "The Sudden Tunnels", and marched around in Mechs in Greenland trying to stop a rebel attack on a secret government base there - "Mechs Alive". They've now finished Episode 1 ("When I Grow Up") and I'm working on completing the presentation of the next episode for the next session. I've designed a hand-out heavy game, complete with new combat system and experience system. The players have various background sheets, but receive news updates (both formal news and letters from friends/family/acquaintances) at the end of each mission. The nicest part about it is that so far it's running as planned.

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

trying to stop a rebel attack on a secret government base

That's not quite how I'd have put it. I mean sure, we'd have liked to try that, but they were most of the way through their attack and thinking of leaving by the time we turned up!

[lathany.livejournal.com]

:-)

[mrlloyd.livejournal.com]

I'd love to be playing a game drawing heavily on 40k right now. At some point I owe the world a big post on my regression into GW fandom and the steadily increasing pile of miniatures in my study...

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I'd love to read that post.

bateleur and I ran a Warhammer 40K one-off three-and-a-half years ago that I really enjoyed. Consequently, when I'd reached the stage of "I'm definitely running chrestomancy's game next..." I decide I'd go back and draw on that background / system. The result is a long way off pure, but it's obvious what the influence is.