Gaming Thoughts and Dragons (usually the same...)

[jeregenest]

As some may remember I've been pondering the things I do over-and-over again in my games. At first I thought this might be a problem, but I've been thinking about it. And also thinking about John Crowley (who has a new book coming, hooray!) and Mary Gentle (whose new book I should really read). And I've come to the conclusion that most creatives (those two authors for example) tend to circle around the same issue again and again until they find satisfaction. So it’s not that bad of a thing that my games all involve occult history, conspiracy and issues of rebirth. Course there may be an issue in my psyche behind that, but heh. I’m not going to dredge that up just now.

Which is good because I was starting to feel morose about tantanea but I think most of thatw as that the Mesoamerican incarnation didn’t work that well for me. I’m hoping China is going better.

In other news, this Sunday is the Dragon Boat race and if folks want to go with us they should let us know.

Comments

[head58.livejournal.com]

So, does this realization man you'll be apologizing to Joss Whedon for all the "one trick pony" comments? :)

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Nope. I nver claimed to be betetr than that. I just point them out as I see them.

I'll stop pointing it out so loudly when I can watch a dv of oemthing he's done without all the aggrandizement about he (Whedon) is the best thing sicne slcied bread and how he's totally rejuvenated/renewed/redone the genre/medium.

One-trick poines don't get to make that claim.

[head58.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. Like with Kevin Smith and George Lucas and the Wachowski Siblings and a couple of others, I do agree that Whedon makes too much of himself, and his fans are even worse.

That being said, I think all the examples I provided (even George!) produce fine entertainment most of the time. But possibly with the exception of George (who purely lucked into it in 1977) none of them have done anything quite so worthy of the praise.

(I still disagree with you about Whedon being a one trick pony (superpowered teen chicks - okay, River maybe kinda counts but she's not the focus of the show, and there's a lot more going on there, and lots of other stuff like Angel and Titan AE and Roseanne don't have it at all. He's not helping my point any with this Wonder Woman thing tho), but not enough to want to go a few rounds over it.)

My one trick: mind control. If you've got 2 groups of allies duking it out because one of them is under the influence of the Spear of Destiny/Starro the Conqueror/Gorilla Grodd, then you know you're in a Chris game!

[shiffer.livejournal.com]

I don't really want in on this line of discussion, I just feel the need to point out:

Superpowered chicks - not a bad thing.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Course not. Just don't say you are doing anything ground breaking while your pushing the superpowered chick thing.

[jeffwik.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I pretty well dug the end of Chichen Itza.

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

It sure sounds cool from the little summary on the wiki.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Summaries always make things sound cool. And I railroaded way, way, way to much.

[jeffwik.livejournal.com]

Ken said players don't mind railroads if they get to toot the horn. Are you gonna argue with Ken?

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't be the first time.

[shiffer.livejournal.com]

Hey, new Crowley. Thanks for the heads up.

Didn't we already have this "things we tend to do" discussion and agree that it's all up to style? We keep going to movies by the same directors and read books by the same authors because we like what they do (which is what you're saying) even though it can be viewed as somewhat repetitious, because it's what we like. I see no reason to dredge it up ever.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Color me still unresolved on the subject. I've long had this fear that my players only tolerate me because of my wife's cooking.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I'm very excited about the new Crowley book.