Rules Trek

11.08.2005

Way back when I had more time on my hands than I knew what to do with (the 80's, a big chunk of the 90's) I would enjoy learning the rules of various role-playing games, and as is my way, I would have to go out and buy all of these games to learn the rules. Since the core of good RPGs is getting together with friends and playing, and I never thought to ask any of my friends if they would want to play this really cool game I just found, whether it be set in the post apocolyptic world of Poland or secret agents of Earth tryingt o save the universe from the evil alien overlords of some far off planet, I managed to amass a collection of games I never played.

That used to bother me. I had all of these games but the closest I had come to playing a game would be trying to fake a solo adventure after creating a character while reading through the rules. Lately, while trying to formulate some rules for my ever present, snail paced develoment of my PC wrestling game, I learned something about myself from those many years ago. It wasn't so much the story/adventure line and settings of the games that I liked, it was learning the rules of those games. Each game has a lot in common (try to find an RPG where a character doesn't have "Intelligence" listed as an attribute), but the ways in which those common characteristics are used within the game is what makes each unique.

One of the earliest RPGs I remember getting was the FASA version of Star Trek. It had a very rich character creation system which developed a good background for your character, then through in some randomness once you entered Star Fleet Academy. Creating a character was almost a mini-solo adventure, and I guess that's also what appealed to me. I manged to create a bridge crew that was pretty well rounded, and they never got to partake in an adventure since I was the only person I knew with the rules, let alone knew (at least a little) of how to play the game.

This got me to thinking about the different iterations of the Star Trek game. We Trekkies (reformed or not) are notorious for dressing up like a bunch of loons and parading around. 30 years would produce a variety of games, especially RPGs.Amarillo Design Bureau has made a few Trek games: Star Fleet Battles (best known to me as the "1 hour/turn game"), Federation & Empire, and a version of Prime Directive. I had never read or played Prime Directive, but rememebred seeing it long ago in the local gaming store. It seems it was popular enough, at least in idea if not execution, to spawn versions from Wizards of the Coast's d20 line along with Steve Jackson's GURPS game.

The old Star Trek branded RPG has gone through a couple of changes too. After FASA folded, it seems the ST license was up for grabs. Along the way seperate games were developed for each series (such as The Next Generation and Deep Space 9). Interestingly, one of the companies that developed one of the better original series RPGs, along with the subsequent series, Last Unicorn, was bought out by Wizards of the Coast (makers of the d20 line of games). A branch of employees broke off and went to a company called Decipher, where they have produced what looks to be the latest version of the Star Trek RPG universe, having been released in 2002.It's with the Last Unicorn release(s) that came in the late 90's, there also seemed to be a shift in the way RPGs were being played. Back in the old, D&D era, the game was centered around an adventure with a lot of statistic driven hack-n-slash. The emphasis now is changing to a story telling mode. Granted, the story was always important - any good RPG always had a "players guide" and a "dungeon master/narrator guide". Just to find out how different things have gotten, I picked up a copy of the Decipher ST:RPG book over the weekend, taking advantage of Books-a-Million's latest extra discount on the discount card sale. Now I look forward to going through and reading the rules to see what all has changed in the world of role playing over the last 20 years.

And I bet I continue to never play the game.

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Beach Round Up

10.27.2005

After 2 carefree days of unfettered beach time, I make my return home Friday. If all goes according to plan, I'll wake up wee early (I turn Scottish in the early morning) and pick my way through gaps of rush hours in Montgomery and Birmingham. With luck, I'll waste some time in Birmingham because I tend to get fidgetdy that last hour of driving, so getting out and walking around a mall or something would do me some good.

Thursday I made a little road trip to Destin. 80% of my beach trips are spent in Destin, so I feel a little more comfortable there. I know what eateries to go to. I know where the stores are. I know where the weird intersections are that back up traffic so I can avoid them like the locals. To get to Destin you pretty much take Perdido Beach Blvd to Pensacola, where the road changes names AT LEAST 4 times. It then merges into Hwy 98, which takes you through scenic vistas such as Gulf Breeze (home of 3 school zones), Navarre (home of the boss' parents' condo), Mary Esther (they have a Target), Fort Walton Beach (they have a Sammy's, but I've never been - honest!), and finally Destin. It takes about 2 hours to make the trip, mainly due to 2-lane roads, and for some reason 4-lane divided highways with a 45 mph speed limit.

Once at Destin, I didn't really have much of a plan. I wanted to go to the Big Dogs store to check out some shirts, and have lunch at McAlisters. The thing of note is that the Destin McAlisters was the very first one I ever ate at, so it was kind of a return to my origins, McAlister-wise. So, I munched on a salad and then made my way to the Big Dogs store, where I learned about there new managment training method: We don't have a lot in stock and we're obnoxiously pushy. Enjoying my purchase of ABOSULUTELY NOTHING I made my way to Sonic, home of the Route 44 [oz] Coke, the perfect travelling drink. My and the Coke then made our way back to Orange Beach, stopping here and there at Wal-Marts, Targets, Books-a-Millions, and/or Best Buys as they popped up, just to help make the trip seem more fruitful than it actually was.

After getting back to home soil, I made my why to Gulf Shores and the very first place I ate fresh gulf seafood - the Shrimp Basket. 5 years later, I sat outside at the same table and ordered a shrimp basket (kind of catchy, it's not only the business name but an entree name. Marketing Genius!). By now it had been 8 hours since I left the condo, so I came back and started looking at what all I need to do to leave in the morning. Pack, clean up some counters and dishes, make sure I haven't forgotten anything. I've enjoyed the little vacation, but I'm itching a little to get back home. Luckily I've gotten a little motivated to do some of the things I've been putting off. I hope it sticks with me for a while.

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Quality Beach Time

10.26.2005

I've reached the halfway point in my stay down here at Orange Beach. The rest of the crew left this morning, leaving me free to galavant and do as I will as a single guy down at the coast, as long as I don't have any hookers in the boss' bedroom (that was my only restriction, but I don't think I'll come anywhere close to breaking that one).

Since I was all alone, I ended up driving around the greater Orange Beach/Gulf Shores/Foley metropolitan area. For anyone unfamiliar with the area, add a little sarcasm once you hit "metropolitan". Granted, this isn't supposed to be a big city, it's a tourist town, a hamlet if you will. I went off to the local outlet mall. If you ever want to miss a crowd at a mall, go to a tourist town in October on a Wednesday. I followed that with a trip to cineplex next to the mall and watched the Doom movie. If you ever want to share a theater screen that sits 238 with 1 other person, go see it in a tourist town in October at 1:30 in the afternoon. It was one of the few times I was a little sorry I never had to fart. Nobody would have ever known. Oh, the movie was pretty good too. It reminded me of the first Resident Evil movie, mixed with a little Aliens (the 2nd one).

Now I have settled in with a pound and a half of steamed shrimp, a loaf of French bread, and Batman Begins ready to play in the dvd movie machine. I have this odd feeling that everyone hates me ;)

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Drivin' Sans Cryin'

10.22.2005

This has been my week for driving. Tuesday I went to pick up Mom (Athens to Lebanon ~ 2 hours) to take her to her ear doctor in Memphis (Lebanon to Memphis ~ 4 hours). Friday was the return trip (Memphis to Lebanon to Athens ~ 6 hours). On Sunday I pack up Jer and join the rest of Spiritus on a working trip to "The Coast" (Athens to Orange Beach ~ 6 hours). On Wednesday everybody but me comes back and I can change from calling it "The Coast" to "The Beach" and goof off a little. Satruday I make the return trip (Orange Beach to Athens ~ 6 hours) and at that point my driving excitement will be over for a while.

Back in the days of working at Alabama's first all compact disc store, one of the popular, semi local (from Atlanta) bands was Drivin' and Cryin'. Somehow the phrase "Drivin' and Cryin'" came to mean that me and/or my coworkers were doing some kind of stupid/busy work in the store - at least that's what I remember 12 years later. That phrase has always stuck with me. To add to the oddness, I've never listened to any of music offered by Drivin' and Cryin'.

Having some downtime between 4-6 hour blocks of driving makes my mind go to some weird places, huh?

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(Not) Seeing Blue

10.16.2005

My favorite, most prized, and most used possession is my big screen tv. 53" of projection goodness. I bought it with a bonus from ResGen back in 2001, back when big screen projection tvs were expensive (I seem to remember it costing about $3K). Now, with the advent of flat screen tvs, plasma, lcd, and the forthcoming HD standard, the prices for the old big projection tvs have dropped. I think I saw my same tv for almost half the price about a year ago.

Mostly I watch DVDs on the tv, along with a smattering of wrestling, UFC shows, and whatever happens to be on if I'm bored during dinner. Friday, during one of those bored for dinner moments, I noticed that the colors seemed a little off. There seemed to be too much green, kind of like being in the Matrix. Normally I'm worse at fiddling with color settings on the tv than anyone else, but I had found a trick a few years back. THX certified DVDs (like Star Wars) have a utility called the THX Optimizer that will let you go through and calibrate your audio and video settings. So, I popped in a THX DVD, in this case the Incredibles, and went through the steps.

Except everything was still too green. I needed some blue. Unfortunately, there's not a straightforward setting for "more blue". Being me, I started looking at one of the non-standard, Sony presented options of "Mode" (my other tv is also a Sony from about 2 years ago, so for all I know every tv in the world has a "Mode" feature now). My Mode setting was on "Standard", which I had selected years ago. I also had the options of Movie, Pro, Vivid, and Game. Just for kicks, I tried "Movie". Suddenly, the colors started to change and a brilliant blue started to appear.

And then the screen went black.

There was still sound, there was still a blinking red LED that told me the tv was wearching for a signal, but the screen was black.

Not knowing what to do next, I fiddled with the remote and found that I set the Mode back to "Standard" as the picture came back, this time once again having too much green. I repeated the process my selecting "Movie" and again getting a black picture. After trying the other Modes,"Standard" seems to be the only setting that actually gives me a picture.

So I'm guessing that the part of the tv in charge of blue is having problems. Maybe there's a blub burning out. Something might be overheating. Maybe the tv saw that part of the cover for the remote that came with it is cracked and it's getting back at me. I dunno. Traditionally, this would be the time to pack up the tv in the car, take it some the local repair guy, and then have him tell me it's cheaper to buy a new tv than to fix this one. But this tv is a little over 350lbs. It won't fit in my car. Are those tv repair guys still around? Do they make house calls? Will they cart this thing away when they tell me it's cheaper to buy a new one than to fix it?

I bet this is the first step in me getting myself a flat tv for christmas.

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