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The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
watching The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, it's remarkable how Jude Law looks like Rik Mayall ( Read more... ) -
the defining feature of flailsnails* characters
is their propensity to turn into characters out of Tom Waits songs.
Actual Play report: http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/tom_waits/16_shells_from_a_thirty-ought-six.html (system: Call of Cthulhu: the PCs go off the res after last week's near-TPK encounter with Byakhee ( Read more... ) -
what I've been doing when I should've been working
This is a really good question from xkcd. I was pretty smug about knowing what Rayleigh scattering was. Damn.
This, on the other hand, is pretty much exactly what I think of the balls-on-a-rubber-sheet model. (also this)
This bit on the pools of water for cooling off old nuclear reactor fuel rods might be directly relevant to my game! Especially ( Read more... ) -
anti-advertising: the cocktail edition
Strange self-realization. On one hand, I am a cocktail enthusiast with a particular interest in (although precious little knowledge about) the history of cocktails. So if you were to pitch me a book or blog or evening out sampling cocktails from various previous decades, I would be a very easy sell indeed ( Read more... ) -
the strange alchemy of Wampus Country
Erik Jensen's Wampus Country somehow manages to make homespun American kids' storybook DnD wonderful rather than lame. I can say with confidence that it's not nostalgia for me personally - I was brought up on Russian constructivist poster graphics, Struwwelpeter and bowdlerized Greek myths. Maybe it's because he name-checks Borges, Melville and Poe ( Read more... ) -
Mecha but not Bolly: a simplified giant fighting robots game suitable for my 10 year old
First, HSBC are poopyheads, do not bank with them. I wish I didn't.
OK, now that's done -
You will need: Hex map (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), mecha counters
showing facing, 1d6. Either paper for each player to record mecha info
or, if you want to get fancy, cards to deal out for the Weapons and
Specials.
Build your mecha
Draw from a deck of cards or roll dice ( Read more... ) -
Tartary is Bollymecha, part 1: the Bolly, or Dance Rules for Techno-Tyrants
Tartary is slums and pomo Orientalism and post-Soviet social commentary and Roadside Picnic getting-melted-by-your-treasure, and constant war and endless treachery and uncaring thaumatocrats and incomprehensible honour systems and tyrants replacing each other on the banks of the Oxus.
But in true Massala movie style, Tartary is also GIGANTIC ( Read more... ) -
whining
First, RAGE ( Read more... ) -
Inachus houseboat
I have barges going past my window all day - mostly bulk freight, a few retirees who've decided they like a mobile lifestyle and that the upkeep on a steel hull won't cripple them financially. This is the natural next step on the latter approach, and looks like it's calculated nicely to just go through a lock... assuming it is actually mobile and ( Read more... )
