The official video for Q-CON XIV was posted today: It’s good to see it running as I did all the research for the first Q-CON by visiting cons around the country when I was President of ‘Slayers the year before. I amended the constitution, got it ratified and and then pushed the idea of running…
Author: matt
Gamer. Writer. Dad. Serial Ex-husband. Creator of The 23rd Letter, SpaceNinjaCyberCrisis XDO, ZOMBI, Testament, Creed. Slightly megalomaniac
Rolled up a superhero character?
Flight? Check… Agility? Uh… Strength? Um… Energy Attack? Ah… Reactions? Well, you see… So we have Flight. Cool.
Run out of plot ideas?
LifeOptimiser covers some of “the best books of human civilization.” It beggars my belief that someone may not have a plot to mind much like I find it hard to believe that an artist doesn’t know what to paint or a programmer what to write. I suppose that because I neither paint nor code, I’m…
The Game I’d Play Right Now
I’m having a lot of fun writing half-a-games at the moment. You know – getting the grist of a game together. I’m not really enjoying the layout/art section though I’m sure I’ll get round to it. Illusion is almost ready to go. Six requires about another few weeks. It’s all good. I have a hankering…
post-apocalyptic rainstorms
The atmosphere is becoming more humid in a pattern consistent with man-made climate change, researchers have found. “This confirmation that humidity and temperature are increasing as expected has important implications for future human health and comfort,” observed the Hadley Centre’s Peter Thorne, one of the research team. – BBC News Looks like BladeRunner had it…
Your rights … under Section 44 of the UK Anti-Terrorism Act
This kind of thing gives me the shivers. Two disabled blokes were detained by UK police for suspiciously opening a white envelope and looking at police men in public view It’s been asked about 20 times now when I’m going to London with the job and I’ve been wanting to put it off. Anything to…
Bad Halo Reviews? Bungie leaving the Evil Empire?
Pardon my French, but this is fucking mint. Escapist’s Yahtzee reviews Halo 3. It made me chuckle and made her-indoors roll her eyes. Meanwhile we learn that Microsoft and Bungie are parting ways. So sad, too bad. Of course, Bungie is now broken but who cares. Really.
Even more on Sexism
Okay…. From the Wonderland blog: While we’re debating the use of English pronouns in RPG books, we find that Ubisoft have just created a range of games for the Nintendo:DS which consist of shopping, fashion, animals and babies. The world is imbalanced, side-loaded, lurching: we need more female policemen, actually – aren’t Ubisoft watching Life…
Jame’s Herbert’s ’48. A review.
I recently read James Herbert’s ’48 which is a post-World War II version of a few post-apocalyptic stories. It was essentially “28 Days Later” or “Night of the Comet” but with Nazis. It read like a muh shorter ‘lite’ version of Stephen King’s “The Stand”. It’s Dawn of the Dead with a swastika. Sure –…
Natural Wonders
The Giant’s Causeway is one of the most astounding natural formations in Northern Ireland. This got me thinking about the representations of natural wonders in gaming. In the Aurore Sourcebook for 2300AD, they described a tidal flood plain which was so flat that the tides, sped by the influence of the large lunar satellite on…
A Guide to Britain, for Americans.
It’s funny 🙂 You will find British people very polite. Here are some of our quaint phrases; if you learn them before visiting Britain, you will be able to understand us much better, and soon will be talking “like a native”! Phrase – Meaning Efforf – Would you like to join me? Bleadenyanx – I’m…
Being moody sucks.
I’ve been a grumpy bastard all day and the kids just turned what was already going to be unpleasant for me into something hellish and I think I took my mood out on everyone. Being moody sucks. Sorry to everyone.
More on Sexism
This time it seems to center around the use of the English language (which does not have a gender neutral pronoun). Is it possible to write gender-neutral (as opposed to say balanced) text and still entertain? Yes. But if the audience is spending more time counting the number of times you used he and she…
Crucible Design’s Games on Sale at Key20.
After what seems an age, the first roleplaying games I wrote are on sale again at Key20 SpaceNinjaCyberCrisis XDO The 23rd Letter ( RPG.net Review ) Zombi: The Earth Won’t Hold The Dead ( Review by Jeff Rients ) I’ve linked to reviews before but they’re easily searchable anyway.
What other cultures can we suppress?
A disturbing development: The fashion chain Zara has withdrawn a handbag from its stores after a customer pointed out that the design featured swastikas. .. As well as being the Nazi symbol, the swastika is also a religious symbol for Hindus and Buddhists. What disturbs me about this is that if the Nazis had adopted,…
He said, do you speaka my language? (Foreign RPGs)
I’ve bought a few foreign language games in the past – a few French games (Humanydyne, Vermine, In Nomine Satanis, Te Deum Pour Un Massacre, Apocrypha) , a couple of German games (Das Schwarze Auge, Space Gothic) and my friend Paul gifted me with a copy of Ars Magica in Russian a few years ago….
I haven’t eaten anything since later this afternoon.
I’ve been thinking a lot about the Time Killers game – mostly about whether or not there is room for ANOTHER time travel game out there. One of the best time travel games I’ve ever read was Continuum (1999) which really went to town on background and gave special focus to making sure you fulfill…
I tolerate this century but I don’t enjoy it.
Jim passed me this link about Pretend to be a Time Traveller Day.. Now imagine mixing this with KILLER and I think you’d have a bundle of fun with your time-travelling cohorts. Then again, there’s always >a href=”http://www.johntitor.com/”>this guy.
An update and also “Under Development”
These are the games I’m currently working on – as in trying to spend an hour every night writing something, anything. Some nights are more productive than others. I’m only hampered my Black Macbook being pinched by my partner because she has more important stuff to do but hopefully before the end of September that…
CONTROL
Tonight I put together the first eight pages of CONTROL, a game I hope to release in PDF form in just two weeks, time permitting. CONTROL is an espionage game set at the start of the second Cold War, a period of intense emotions which I remember well. The game itself uses the model of…