Blue Moon Aurora

2010 will mark the beginning of a new era – roleplaying campaigns with the kids!  

I did run A Faery’s Tale adventure with Michelle and the kids over a year ago that went fine enough; however, it was simply too much work – mainly in herding the kids.  They loved it and have been clamoring for another session but Michelle and I have been dreading the prospect.  Fortunately, things have improved.  The kids are more together than ever and with our weekends mostly cleared things are more relaxed.  We have been doing a family game or movie every weekend and can shift this to a roleplaying campaign.  Anton will soon be 11 and Alina turns 9 this year and these are good ages to start the hobby.  

So this week will have a series of blogs as I prepare for our first family campaign that begins this Sunday.  Today's blog deals with picking an RPG and deciding upon a scope for the campaign.

There were really only five RPGs I seriously considered: A Faery’s Tale, D6 Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragons, Mouse Guard, and Robotech RPG.  

A Faery’s Tale has the players assume the role of fairies set in a world like the one where all fairy tales are set.  This is a very kid-friendly RPG.  I approached my consideration of what RPG to use on the assumption that A Faery's Tale was the default and standard.  

D6 Star Wars is one of my favorite RPGs to ease new players into roleplaying.  Michelle and I are experts with this RPG and the kids are fans of the Star Wars universe.  However, Michelle is worried about the violence levels in a typical Star Wars adventure and that Anton might just try to join the Dark Side right off the bat regardless of the story.  I don't know about those concerns, but the kids would definitely approach a Star Wars RPG with expectations and expectations are always dangerous.

When it comes to violence Dungeons & Dragons is king so Michelle would definitely nix this option, but there is something magical about D&D and its goofy genocidal violence.  D&D is all about good versus evil, killing things and taking their stuff, and gaining wealth and power.  There is no more American game than D&D.  However, I didn't mention I was considering D&D to Michelle as I knew she would nix it so we're going to put this to the side and revisit it after our first campaign ends. 

Mouse Guard won last year’s Origins Awards for Best RPG and I bought it and found it refreshing.  You basically play mice that have a medieval-style society beset by other savage animals.  There are no humans in the world just animals and the mice have to face off against weasels, snakes, and also fight treachery within their own kind.  It is based on a graphic novel series and is similar to the whole genre of intelligent speaking animal fiction.  The system is good, but it’s not one I have used before so I would need to reread the rules in detail.  That more than anything has compelled me to table this RPG till further down the road.  This will probably be our next campaign if the first one goes well.  

Robotech is an RPG I don’t have, but I know the rules as it uses a system from other RPGs I own.  It is based on the anime series Robotech, which the kids have seen and love.  It is about pilots of giant transformable robots who fight off alien invasions.  Violence aplenty, but the kids know the series, plus I could use a military hierarchy of the Robotech Defense Force.  Michelle would command their unit and would have Anton and Alina as her soldiers.  The big problem is the system – which is complicated and would probably confuse the kids.  I’m probably buying the RPG next month but it may be awhile till the kids can handle this RPG.  

Fairies!  Why did it have to be fairies!

So at the end of the day - I end where I began with A Faery's Tale.  That brings up the question of scope.  Well I think four-adventures is a good plan and with A Faery's Tale the style is to incorporate a fairy tale into the adventure with twists.  I did Little Red Riding Hood for our first adventure but this time I am going to move a little way out of fairy tales and use King Arthur.  So a four adventure campaign that weaves fairies into a King Arthur story that makes the fairies the heroes.  That's the idea and tomorrow I'll discuss how I develop this idea further and move closer to Sunday's first adventure. 

One of the most oppressed minorities in our nation won a stunning victory yesterday with the Supreme Court’s (SCOTUS) decision in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, which can be found here.  Though if I were you I would just skip to page 88 and Justice Stevens’ dissent as the losers are always more informative and interesting when it comes to reading decisions.  However, for those who don't want to read boring legalese I can sum it all up – corporations have full First Amendment rights and attempts to limit their freedom of speech are unconstitutional! 

This has been a long hard fight for the oppressed corporations who were only first recognized as persons in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, 118 U.S. 394 (1886) and they have been fighting for more rights ever since.  Human beings are considered natural persons, which are like persons except they can’t be incorporated and have to actually work for their money.  This may surprise you but corporations still can’t get married or even vote, but Citizens United signals that change is in the winds and the current activist majority of the Supreme Court will extend corporations’ rights as soon as the right case gets to them.  This is only fair; as corporations are just like human beings, well, except for the fact they have lots more money, which as Justice Scalia and company would agree – makes them better!

In fact, considering that our activist majority basically equates money with speech there is a strong argument that corporations may already be entitled to the right to vote, which certainly isn’t a more important right than speech, you know the First Amendment.   Voting just takes a few minutes at best and most natural persons don’t even bother to do it, but creating and distributing a fallacious political attack add takes hours, maybe days, and certainly is of greater value than the right to vote.  It certainly costs a lot more and it’s all about the money.  So I imagine it’s only a matter of time before SCOTUS gives corporations the right to vote, but how much of a vote should they get?  Well, since SCOTUS thinks money is the same as speech then let’s use that as our standard.  The US median income for a family is about $50,000, and each family has at least one vote, so a company like Wal-Mart should get about 8 million votes and McDonald’s just 450,000 votes.  That’s only fair. 

IBM has been an oppressed person for decades but SCOTUS has given him the same right to say whatever dumb shit he wants just like any natural person.  So keep an eye out for IBM to be posting racist bullshit in blog comments, starting flame wars on forums, and using that hard won freedom of speech just like the rest of us. 

Life has been hard for corporations.  I had a friend who dated a corporation in high school and there was a lot of pressure on them to breakup.  You see corporations can merge with one another, but they can’t marry natural persons.  It’s unfair.  However, they broke up over kids; he wanted them but she didn’t want to settle down when there were still profits to be made.  He’s currently dating a union, but I don’t think he loves her as much as he did the union.  Let’s face it – corporations are just sexier.  Still considering that freedom of speech is perhaps the most sacred of rights in this nation, easily more enshrined than let’s say marriage, it’s easy to see that SCOTUS will obviously extend this right as well to corporations, who really are the same as natural persons, except they have a lot more money.  So I’m confident my friend and his union girlfriend will get married and have little PACs in no time. 

I am so proud of Justices Alito, Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas to say what we all know in our hearts: corporations are just as important as living breathing people, because corporations make piles of money.  Corporations give so much to this country; in Walter Reed there are dozens of corporations missing limbs from combat in Iraq and now they have equal First Amendment rights as the other soldiers.  It really warms the heart.  On September 11th the number of corporations that died I think helped bring the country together to agree that corporations should be treated as fully equal citizens.  The sacrifices of corporations, especially since a lot of them have lost a lot of money the last few years, I really think moved SCOTUS to raise corporations up with those other historically oppressed minorities like women and African-Americans.  If Obama can become President, then so can Microsoft - that’s the American dream and I’m glad SCOTUS is making it happen.

The Democratic Party needs to take some lessons from James Cameron’s Avatar if they want to make sure that what happened in Massachusetts stays in Massachusetts.  Avatar has pulled in $1.6 billion with more on the way, won the Golden Globe’s Best Picture award, and is considered a cinematography phenomenon.  Sequels are in the works and James Cameron is once again “King of the World”.  It's 3-D CGI change we can believe in. 

The Democratic Party on the other hand, has lost a special election in Massachusetts over the late Ted Kennedy’s seat and with that its filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, healthcare reform is in the balance (possibly dead), and public opinion towards the Democratic Party is plummeting.  The irony is that at the 2008 election it was Senator Barak Obama and the Democratic Party that were “King of the World” and what a difference two years makes.   

Now the Republicans are claiming that Americans are fed up with the Democrat’s liberal agenda centered on a watered-down healthcare reform bill that is neither liberal nor probably that significant of a reform.  It represented change we can accomplish – which isn’t a catchy slogan.  It’s not liberalism that is bringing down the Democratic Party, but something more insidious – a lack of a message.  The only good news for the democrats is that the Republican Party doesn’t have a message either besides the typical oppositional rhetoric.  However, “the party of no” will always beat the “the party of whatever” and that is why the democrats are going down. 

Avatar had a liberal bent.  No let me rephrase that – Avatar was an angry call for revolution.  The military is evil, capitalism is heartless, scientists are well-meaning but politically ineffectual, and it would all be better if we loved mother earth and ran through the jungles naked.  I’m fairly progressive, some might call me liberal, but Avatar was way out there – it made the Green Party look mainstream.  However, it’s popular and everyone is watching the movie, the only haters are those of us who are picky about our science fiction movies and that transcends politics.  If climate change legislation happens this year it won’t be because of the Democratic Party.  No, it will be because of Avatar and its glow-in-the-dark-computer-like trees.   

Avatar does touch on healthcare - if it wasn't for our horrible healthcare system then Jake Sully wouldn't have had to go to Pandora to earn new legs and the blue-skinned aliens would never have been saved by the white guy.

The Democratic Party has no message and this is why they are struggling.  The message has to come from President Obama and he just hasn’t delivered it to either the American people or the Democratic Party.  It doesn’t matter what the message is as long as it is sparkly and simple enough to resonate.  For Avatar the message was nature good and Republican values bad.  That’s not a bad message.  Healthcare, welfare, and all that stuff deals with people.  When you deal with people you have value judgments.  A homeless person is something unclean and contemptible, but the stray cat or dog evokes pity.  Nature is free of value judgments, we are more generous to other species than we are to our own.  That however is a political reality, but it can be overcome and you can tackle real issues like healthcare IF you have a message, a strong narrative, something to communicate a vision to people.  If you don’t have that then the opposition controls the narrative and all you are doing is trying to hold on to power, which you will definitely lose. 

The only thing that matters in politics is that you stand for something.  Okay it helps if you are good looking and eloquent, but if you don’t stand for something then people can’t pin their hopes to you.  The Democratic Party needs to stop talking about all the problems created by President Bush and tell us what their vision for the United States really is.  Honestly, anything will do as long as there is true commitment to the vision.  If Americans can accept blue-skinned aliens with USB ports in their ass then they will accept anything as long as it represents the Democratic Party standing up for something besides winning more elections. 

So yesterday the Jehovah Witnesses swung through the neighborhood again, and as usual, I politely listened to their pitch and took the magazines they offered.  However, for the first time the two women I was dealing with were rather, well, snarky.  Usually the Jehovah Witnesses are pretty nice and amiable, but these last two annoyed me.  

I mentioned I was Buddhist and that we shared many of the same concerns about declining morality and the like and wished them well.  Usually this gets me off the hook and they move on, but this couple decided to rip into Buddhism and really tried to pitch the whole ‘you need God’ thing as the End Times were coming up quick.  Apparently this group must be using the Mayan Calendar or have been taking the recent rash of apocalyptic movies too much to heart.  

Or it might have been the older white woman who said she had lived in our neighborhood for 40 years and that lately it had gotten a lot worse –in suburban speak this is translated as “minorities are moving into the neighborhood”.  We had the same thing in Gainesville when the old timers freaked out as a middle class black family moved into the neighborhood.  O the terror!  Interestingly, when minorities move into an all white neighborhood it actually raises property values, this is a complicated process and is fed indirectly by racism but it is well documented.  Still we get some snarky racist comment from most of our white neighbors almost every time we talk to them.  Interestingly, at school events I mostly deal with the minorities as they are the younger generation with kids in the neighborhood.  Nice people.  Just like everyone else they are just trying to make a living and give their kids opportunities.  

Anyway back to the Jehovah Witnesses.  They begin by going into the fact that the Buddha was just a man and not a god.  As if I didn’t know that, but I guess the analogy was that as Buddha was just human and as Jesus was the half-God adopted son of Joseph then clearly Jesus had to be superior.  It felt like I was trapped in one of those ‘Whose Better Captain Kirk or Captain Picard?’ discussions (obviously, Picard) – of course religion was the first fandom.  I’ll give you that Jesus was pretty cool.  He could walk on water, conjure up food, heal people, bring people back from the dead, even brought himself back from the dead, gave some great sermons, and kicked some moneylender ass.  But come on.  The Buddha would lay the smack down on the Virgin-Spawn…or probably not as they were both pacifists.  Most likely they would just sigh and complain to each other about their idiot followers, starting with Ananda and Peter and then moving right down to their most wacky sects today.  There would be some laughs, some tears, but definitely no smack down.  Personally, I’m a fan of both of them, I’m just not too keen on some of their followers, but I’m pretty confident they would agree with me on that point.  

Anyway, back to the Jehovah Witnesses, they then go into this malarkey about how we need the Creator, i.e. God to take us up to Heaven when the End Times come.  What the hell? Literally, I guess.  So they did ask me a question – who created everything if not God?  Apparently, this is one of the retorts they must be taught to deal with us wacky Buddhists; we’re like atheists but with cooler stories.  So I responded with ‘why do you need to have a beginning?’  They kind of ignored my point and I didn’t really want to push it, but it is the question – why do we need a beginning or really an end?  

Humans are very linear creatures we have this need for beginnings and ends, but as Yoda would say “All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was”. The Jehovah Witnesses seem to believe the End is coming and they are trying to get everyone to the lifeboats.  In a way, it’s a noble concept.  It’s far better than the right wing nutjobs in this country who are stockpiling weapons and getting ready for the revolution, because a black guy was elected President.  I’ll come out and say it – 75% of the opposition to President Obama is fueled by racism.  It’s all the same thing.  They all believe End Times are coming; maybe the end of the world, maybe the end of America, but the end is coming.  Both groups are the same – instead of focusing on the here and now they just want things to end so they can have a new beginning.  I’ll be blunt – they are all morons!

Beginnings and ends are states of mind.  If you have a problem with society then try to change it, make today your new beginning, but if you are waiting for God to come take you up to Heaven to escape all the problems in the world then in the words of Malcolm Reynolds, “that's a long wait for a train don't come.”  

I’ve never been a believer in God, probably since middle school, maybe earlier; it just didn’t make any sense why some omnipotent being would give a rat’s ass about a group of humans just because they worshipped him.  Maybe there is a God, I don’t know, it’s possible, but it’s not possible that his standard for promotion is simply belief.  Humans will believe anything.  No, I think the truth is that if there is a God he only helps those who help themselves, because that’s the person with vision.  

Take this joke told by a Russian space scientist to an American space scientist:

What is the difference between a realist and a dreamer?

The realist thinks that someday a UFO will come down and hover over the UN building, and that the aliens will come out of the UFO and offer to share their technology and solve all our world's problems.

The dreamer thinks maybe we can get our act together and do it ourselves.

We are starting the second draft of our novel!  While we are still waiting for some of our readers to give us feedback we got enough from two readers to chart our path for a major rewrite of the novel.  Basically, we are giving the characters more to do, adding a little more complexity to the story arc, reducing the points of view, and generally adding to the novel.  To be honest, we were pretty conservative in how we wrote the first draft, which was too tight of a story.  Our goal is to have it finished before Christmas, which is quite doable once we get back into the writing.  I'm not going to go into any specific details about the novel at this time, but I am nearly 100% certain we are going to get it published. Actually, I am 100% confident, because if we can't find a publisher we'll self-publish.  I think this absolute faith in your book is critical to one's success as an author.  You have to believe in yourbook.  We are already ahead of 99% of the people out there who have tried to write a book, because we finished our first draft.

So some things we have learned thus far.  We work well as a team.  Yes, we have argued and disagreed about a few things, but it helps that we both have very similar likes and dislikes when it comes to character and story development.  Working together also gives us a pretty fast work pace, it took us 40 days to write the first draft and it was pretty well written. Neither of could have finished a novel alone, but together it was fun and relatively painless.  It is also important to trust your instincts.  That's key.  I think the biggest problem with the first draft was that we were overly cautious with some things we both wanted in the story.  The second draft is looking far less constrained with many things and we think it will make a far better story.  It goes back to that absolute faith in what you are writing.  Finally, the one advice you always hear, and it's good advice - use all your best stuff.  We did hold back a little on the first draft stupidly thinking about sequels, but you need to pour all you got into the book you are working on now.  I imagine it's the same with movies and television shows, at least it should be. 

Anyway, I will keep posting updates and will blog when we finish the second draft, which is probably going to be our final version though no doubt we will need to do some editting and corrections to it.

Michelle sent me an interesting little news clip about World of Warcraft and its scope, both as a company and as a mechanism for roleplaying.  It?s fascinating and shows the sheer immensity offered by MMORPGs and it raises the question: how can tabletop GMs compete with this?  Sure companies like WotC and Paizo can fight over the crumbs that constitute the tabletop RPG market, but World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs are the principle competitors for every GM out there who wants to run a campaign.  How can we hope to compete with 40,000 NPCs and over 7500 quests? 

Obviously we can?t beat MMORPGs in quantity; you don?t have 4000 people to help you design your adventures and campaigns.  We might or might not be able to beat them in quality, honestly, this isn?t a given and in a lot of cases our adventures and encounters aren?t as good as MMORPGs. Most of us can provide a visual aid in the form of cheap miniatures or a hand drawn map, but that is really rather pathetic compared to the competition.  This is a lopsided fight so we have to be innovative and here are five tips for us tabletop GMs to even the odds with MMORPGs:

#5. Provide food.  Video games might have virtual meals that restore hit points, but you can provide genuine sustenance to your players to keep them alive in the real world.  

#4. Get off the tracks.  Video games are tracked, even the most expansive ones, but a tabletop campaign is only limited by the imagination of the GM.  

#3. Read the audience.  Video games can be well scripted, brilliantly so, but the tabletop GM can counter this by reading his group and adjusting the game on the fly.  

#2. Fudge.  Video games are all about the numbers, but with tabletop the GM can ignore the damn numbers to change an outcome to improve the game.  

#1. Keep it unique.  Unlike MMORPGs your campaign is unique, well unless you run published adventures, but the uniqueness is what really separates tabletop from MMORPGs.  

This is the challenge of our generation of tabletop GMs ? how do we compete against MMORPGs?  Sure I?m being a little humorous about it, but this is a real issue.  I?ve lost players to MMORPGs and so has every GM.  So to fight this rising tide of digital competition to our campaigns and groups ? what other suggestions do you have?

As one would guess from the lack of activity – I’ve been busy. Partly the kids being back in school and partly a very aggressive roleplaying blitz. I’ve restarted my famous West Pacific Supers play-by-post campaign and have seven players living it up as celebrity superheroes. I’m also starting in October a weekly chat-based Pathfinder campaign on Wednesday nights from 8 to 10 pm, if interested post so here. I already have two players and a few tentative players so should have enough to make it work. Autumn is always a time of new beginnings, mainly due to how the US school year is organized, but it has rejuvenated me to launch these campaigns, which should go well into 2010. 2010…wow, time is flying.  

The website will be getting a few more adventure outlines from a competition wrapping up on the forums Monday and there are some new maps, with more on the way in coming weeks. From book to roleplaying the website is sort of in a standby mode, but the wiki is booming, mainly due to Michelle, though we may close some sections off to wiki members. Still debating that issue.  

Yes, lots in politics and movies to ramble about, but haven't had much time to focus on a specific issue.  Maybe next week, we'll see.  

Also still haven't run Faery's Tale adventure with kids, sort of dreading it a little, but will force myself to do it this weekend if we have time. 

I haven't played D&D in years, but I just got the Pathfinder RPG rules and it has put me in the mood to start up a new campaign.  However, before starting a campaign you need a campaign setting - which is the imaginary world where the campaign will take place.  Now Pathfinder has its Golarion setting and there are other published settings like the Forgotten Realms, but I have always been a fan of creating my own campaign settings.  I could use one of my old settings like Nor-Kaeda, but I think it is time to create an entirely new setting that incorporates some of the lessons I have learned over the years in designing settings.  Hopefully, I'll be blogging about this more as I progress, but before anyone tries designing a campaign setting they need to ask themselves the following questions:  

1. What is the flavor and style of your campaign? If you are trying for something akin to Arabian Nights then you need to avoid borrowing too heavily from Lord of the Rings.  Many published settings are 'kitchen sink' settings as they cover a lot of different flavors and styles, but for your own setting it is best to keep in mind what you want and try to hit that as closely as possible.  Related to this is the sophistication of the setting's societies from technology to gender/racial relations to forms of government.  For example, Conan the Barbarian has a very different feel than Harry Potter and a lot of it flows from the differences in the two respective societies.  
2. What is the scope of the campaign? Will your PCs be traversing the globe or will they be operating in a small geographic locations?  The common advice for beginning GMs is to begin local and slowly go global as the campaign progresses.  I think this is good advice, though my approach is pretty much the reverse, but that's because I have done this lots of times before. Scope also equal work.  The bigger the scope the more work you will have when you design the setting so be mindful of your time limits and don't bite off more than you can chew. 
3. What are the conflicts and challenges in the world? You need conflicts and you need challenges for the PCs to overcome.  An utopian world doesn't work - it's boring and dreary, but on the other hand a bleak world of constant terror and hopelessness is just as bad in the other direction.  You need a balance, but err on the side of more bad guys as you always want plenty of challening opposition for your PCs.  The heroism of your PCs is determined by the challenges they face, always keep that in mind.  Also note that conflict comes in many forms besides combat/war, religious tensions, economic disputes, scarcity of resources, racial emnity, and political struggles are all great conflicts - in many ways moral is always more engaging than martial.  
4. What are the stories and goals available to the PCs? Let me be blunt - can your PCs change the world? If the answer is yes then the next question is how much can they change the world? However, to answer this you need to know what place the PCs can hold in the world.  Can PCs be nobles? Must they be heroes or can they be villains? Are they supposed to serve the king or are they supposed to become the king? A setting only works if it can produce adventures, lots of adventures, so by this stage of the thought process you should be able to come up with a dozen adventures easily.  If you can't do that then there is a problem with the setting. 
5. What are your sources? Listen, there is little original work in the world, everything is a remake or inspired by something else.  Use the sources that are out there from published settings to books to history.  If you wan an exotic culture in your setting then pop open an anthropology book, because there is nothing weirder than reality.  Truth is indeed stranger than fiction and look to the real world for inspiration.  

That is enough for now, but I'll probably blog some more as I move through this process. 

The process of writing a novel has slowed down my play-by-post campaigns and updates to the website the last two months, but I did finally replace the old campaign wiki with a more usable version from wikispaces.  This should be infinitely more usable for the members of the community to record information for their campaigns and characters.  Beyond this I've only did some fiddling here and there on the website, but nothing too significant. 

So what's the plan for the rest of the year?

In September we will have another Adventure Synopsis competition on the forums and we'll also be rebooting the Directed Discussions, but extending them to three week discussions.  I'm also going to start really pushing to expand the membership of the forums to build up a little more mass for more roleplaying opportunities.

In October there will be the second annual Blue Moon Awards and also Aurora Con. 

In November I will probably be trying to move some campaigns to conclusion before the December/January hiatus.  I intend to wrap up most duets and West Pacific Supers, but will keep Rifts going into 2010.  We'll also have another Adventure Synopsis competition, the last for the year. 

As usual things will die down around December/January, but I'm already thinking about my campaigns for 2010.  Here is the list I am currently kicking around and as some of them will require a few months to set up I am tossing them out for feedback now:

Apotheosis

I have learned a lot with my divine duets.  I actually think this is a very cool idea, but I need to tweak the rules and the setting.  However, I do intend on running a revised version of the campaign in 2010. The PCs will be more powerful and things will be a lot clearer about the setting and the rules.  I might keep this in duet format as that has worked very well. 

Mouse Guard

This will be a one-shot campaign to run for a few months. The PCs will play mice with sword defending the Mouse Territories.  It's a fun RPG and actually a good fit for play-by-post.  If there isn't enough interest at Blue MoonAurora I will probably run it off-site. 

Nesyr Crusades

My big campaign next year will be the Nesyr Crusades, which will use the Pathfinder RPG rules. It will be my first real fantasy campaign by play-by-post and reallymy first real fantasy campaign in years. I can guarantee the awesome and there will probably be chat sessions forthis campaign to keep things moving. This will be my cornerstone campaign for 2010, well, if I have playersfor it.

Rifts

I intend to keep my current Rifts campaign running into 2010.  Have lots of ideas and it's a fun group of PCs, well, as long as they survive the Demon of Canal Town.   

Super League

I am working on the idea of running a campaign where players run the team presidentsand manage superhero teams.  They willrecruit their superheroes make their picks at the Super Draft and navigate a host of challenges during the Season on their way to dominating, or not, their Conference.  I have most of the mechanics already worked out and this will be my West Pacific Supers campaign for 2010.  It should be a lot of fun and anice twist on the setting. 

To Boldly Go...

I intend to keep running this ICON Star Trek campaign on Crazy Monkey's Asylum for acomplete run of six adventures (nearly finished with the first one), which willprobably take most of 2010 to complete. 

Thoughts and feedback are welcome, but that is the plan for fall and my 2010campaigns. 

There are two common pieces of advice for success with writing: write what you know and just write. Michelle and I have finished our first draft of a 99,000 word novel and we did it in about a month and a half. We split the writing and worked together on the story and that helped motivate us to keep pushing through. We plan on revising and improving it for the rest of August and then send it off to a few friends and family for feedback. Who knows what will come of it, but it was a lot of fun and we?ll give it a year or so to try to get it published before we publish it ourselves or something. We?ve already started mapping out a sequel as we enjoyed writing the first novel so much. I?m not going to give specific information about the novel, but will blog here as things progress.  

On another front, this Monday my first in a monthly series of columns will be popping up on RPGNet. The columns will be about duet roleplaying, one player and one GM, and I?ve even got a discussion forum over on RPGNet to support the columns when they go live. I have the first three columns written so am covered for August, September, and October. I?m planning on in September working on the next three columns. The first three deal with the basics of duet campaigns, how to balance things for only having a single PC, and how to create duet side adventures for a group campaign. Good stuff, but if you have any suggestions for future articles you say so in the comments.  

I?ve also ended my D6 Star Wars PBP campaign on the WotC forums to focus on my campaigns on Blue Moon Aurora and Crazy Monkey?s Asylum and after the craziness of August will kick those campaigns into gear in September. Added to this will be the family Faery?s Tale campaign which will start in earnest this Sunday, once again look to this blog for updates on that experiment in roleplaying. I may also be returning to fantasy in September maybe with a Pathfinder RPG PBP on the Blue Moon Aurora forums.  

Life is good and I?ve been feeling really productive and focused of late, and I intend to write, write, write for the rest of the year to end 2009 on a high note. 

Sunday night during dinner I drew up the kids and Michelle’s characters for our Faery’s Tale campaign by asking them questions. In the next few days they have to come up with a name and draw a picture of their fairy, but here is the mechanical information thus far: 

Alina is playing a pixie with the gifts of acrobat, agile, flying, musical, and pixie dust. Her attributes are Body 2, Mind 2, and Spirit 5.  

Anton is playing a brownie with the gifts of clever, hardy, household magic, invisibility, and seer. His attributes are Body 2, Mind 3, and Spirit 4. 

Michelle is playing a sprite with the gifts of alert, animal companion (dragonfly), champion, and whirlwind strike. Her attributes are Body 5, Mind 3, and Spirit 1.  

So the plan is for the kids and Michelle to come up with names and a picture and I will start off the campaign this Sunday with the first adventure. Thus I need to come up with a setting and probably draw up a map, both of which I’ll post here to show the process of running a campaign.  If I'm so inclined I may scan in the pictures everyone draws to put up in a blog.  

The stars are in alignment. Alina has not only turned 8, but she has gotten herself more under control in the last year. Anton at 10 has become quite insightful and is far less quarrelsome. In other words; the kids are growing up and now is a good time to introduce them to roleplaying. Even more importantly, Michelle and I are in a pretty good place with the kids, we have started family therapy, which has been working wonderfully and has helped get us all back on track in many ways. In other words, the stars are in alignment and it’s time for a roleplaying campaign. 

Last year we tried an adventure with Faery’s Tale, a family RPG where the players run faeries, and it went very well, but we felt the kids weren’t quite ready for roleplaying at that time. I recently bought the Mouse Guard RPG, which is mice with swords, and it is another option, but I am leaning towards Faery’s Tale as the rules are a little simpler. Both RPGs are very impressive and quite sophisticated in design and really fantastic introductions to roleplaying, because they are quite a bit better than most RPGs out there.  

My current play is to run the adventures either Saturday or Sunday afternoons and to run a 3-5 adventure campaign with Michelle and the kids all playing. That does make it challenging as the adventure has to be entertaining to both the kids and Michelle, which is pretty challenging. However, it is an interesting challenge, and it’s important for the kids to have Michelle to provide an example on how to both roleplay and to play in a group context. It is important to start the kids off right in how to approach roleplaying. I want them to learn how to roleplay, how to work as a team, and how to engage in critical thinking.  

It is very exciting. Roleplaying is awesome and it is our favorite activity and hobby.  I also feel this need to get back into the swing with more tabletop roleplayinig and less play-by-post. 

A new movie is coming out titled Orphan and is part of the 'evil kid' genre of horror movies and apparently involves an adopted orphan doing horrible things. Sure it's not the most original idea, but apparently it has angered various adoption groups and even members of Congress to protest the movie. Apparently, there was a line in a trailer which really irked some parents: "It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own".  The studio did yank the line from the trailer due to the protest, but there is a call for a boycott by some groups for this movie's portrayal of adoption.  As an adoptive parent I have to just say - are you all out of your frelling minds? 

Let me break this down for people to understand - you idiots just increased the opening weekend gross for this movie by giving it free publicity. Controversy generates interest, which generates tickets when it comes to movies. Yes, there are groups out their 'boycotting' the movie, but come on, it's not like a bunch of middle-aged adoptive parents were going to see this movie in the first place. Seriously, it's a movie titled Orphan and all the posters/trailers show this cute, but obviously evil little girl. I suspect that those who are sensitive about adoption issues weren't going to see this movie in the first place.  

Yes, judging by the poster I suspect that this will be an accurate and insightful movie about adoption and the difficulties experienced by adoptive familys...

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I would also point out that there is another movie about an orphan who does really bad things that is also out right now: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Yes, I know Harry Potter is a 'good' orphan, but the movie (I haven't seen it yet, but I have read the book) has a strong focus on the life of Voldemort who is the 'bad' orphan of the Harry Potter series. To J.K. Rowling it's all about blood. Harry had good bio-parents and Tom Riddle had bad bio-parents. Both had a horrible childhood, but Harry turned out better. It's all about blood and genetics. Interesting, isn't it - you can tell that J.K. Rowling isn't an adoptive parent herself. Of course, adoptive parents don't boycott Harry Potter, because at least Harry is a 'good' orphan, though this has nothing to do with parenting but some inherent pure goodness that flourishes at Hogwarts, while for Tom Riddle it's his inherent pure evil that flourishes at Hogwarts. I like the Harry Potter books and movies, but if you are riled up about Orphan then you should just go ballistic about Harry Potter.  

Though let's give Hollywood its due -it actually loves orphans. Besides Harry Potter there was also the orphans Frodo Baggins, who saved Middle Earth, Bruce Wayne, Peter Parker, and Clark Kent (who is also an illegal alien...literally).  Also what about Luke and Leia?  Sure, their father wasn't really dead, but from a certain point of view they were clearly orphans.  Disney loves orphans - they kill off parents with ruthless abandon, though that's because nothing quashes an adventure like a parent. "I don't care what the Fairy Godmother says you aren't going to the cursed castle where the dragon lives and that's final!"  You want some more orphans? How about Worf from Star Trek, not only was he orphaned, but he was adopted and raised by Russians. How cool is that? You know the main characters of the Mummy series (Rick, Evelyn, and Jonathan) - they're all orphans! It is a Hollywood staple to kill off a hero's parents to both engender sympathy from the audience and to give a concrete example on how the hero is self-reliant. So really Hollywood loves its orphans; despite an occasional 'evil kid' movies now and then.  

Now I'm not going to go see Orphan, mainly as horror movies aren't my thing, but I do understand what they are all about: fear. It's not fear of death despite appearances, but other fears than makes horror movies so potent; fears of violation, isolation, corruption, disease, and why not a fear of children. For example, are zombie movies about the fear of death? No, they are about fear of disease. That is what makes them so potent, yes, people are dying all about, but the disease affects people turning them not only into monsters but even death is no escape from the disease. That is horror at its best, tapping into a primal fear, but from a different angle to catch you unawares. 'Evil kid' movies often use orphans, but they are about all kids and the basic fact that parents, biological and adoptive, just don't really know what their kid is truly like on the inside. You never really know and that is the primal fear tapped by this sort of movie, though often the evil orphan isn't quite what she seems, maybe she's a demon, an old woman in a kids body, an android/alien, witch, or just psychotic genius.  Judging by the reaction of some adoptive parents - this movie actually is striking that chord quite well just through its marketing.  

Despite what the critics are saying this is not a movie that is exploiting orphans, this type of movie is empowering to orphans (they love attention - good or bad), what really is being exploited are the parents, which is why people are really get rankled. However, let's face it - all horror movies encompass a high degree of stupidity. The government creates a disease which escapes the lab and turns the world into zombies, the teenage girls decide to go skinny dipping in the lake while a murderer is on the loose, everyone walks backwards into a dark room, and so forth. The difference between horror and action/adventure is that in horror the protagonists are stupid and in action/adventure the protagonists are smart. I imagine it's the same with Orphan. I bet the parents don't get a full psyche evaluation done when they adopt or an IEP until after the kid has started killing people or something.  By then it's usually too late.  They probably don't even try therapeutic holding or other methods for dealing with an attachment disorder, which I am guessing is probably the main problem in addition to whatever twisted plot hook they came up with for the movie. Basically, they are just walking backwards into a dark room and kind of deserve what happens to them.  Event the antichrist can be raised to be a good little boy or girl with the proper techniques and good parenting, despite what a movie trailer might say. 

The Sotomayor confirmation hearings have demonstrated a major problem with this country: we are obsessed about race. A judge says that her ethnicity and background help her be a better judge and Republicans go crazy about it. I hate hypocrisy. Republicans are arguing that judges should be little automatons, which is highly ironic because Republicans also argue that you need God and conservative (i.e. white male) values to be an effective judge. It’s hypocrisy, disingenuous, and moronic. All the Republicans will accomplish with their attacks on Sotomayor is to further alienate the Hispanic vote. Seriously, what the hell did they hope to accomplish with this idiotic line of attack? I’ve reached the conclusion that the Republican Party has just decided to give up being competitive or in touch with mainstream America. I also have a real shocker here – ignorant right-wing rednecks are not mainstream America. Yes, a lot of Americans like NASCAR, country music, and American Idol, but most Americans are a pretty sensible lot. Admittedly, the “moron demographic” is fairly vocal and they certainly have a few members of Congress, but they aren’t mainstream America. Also ask yourself what exactly the redneck population has given to the United States? Struggling, huh? The strength of America are not the uneducated idiots who belong to the KKK, but the smart guys and girls who actually add to our society as opposed to just try to divide it and knock it back a few decades. 

It’s all hypocrisy though. How many times have Republicans shouted about how their faith in God makes them better and wiser? So Sotomayor can’t say her upbringing and experiences make her wiser, but Republicans can babble on about how their faith makes them better. I mean Governor Sanford and Senator Ensign have clearly demonstrated how well the whole God plus white male helps them make moral decisions. Hypocritical morons. Don’t get me wrong, there are some sensible Republicans out there – you know who you are, but your political party sucks. 

Not I will also say the Democrats need to get some perspective as well. How many times have you heard in the last year that only in America could X happen? With X being the election of a black president or the confirmation of a Hispanic woman on the Supreme Court, the Democrats are doing this whole pat-ourselves-on-the-back thing which is as hypocritical as what the Republicans are doing. News flash: the entire supreme court of Mexico is Hispanic, a real shocker there, huh? Also Africa has had a few black presidents, blows the mind doesn’t it? Also you know what Pakistan, India, Israel, Germany, and Britain have all had women as heads of state, most of them decades ago. We aren’t all that special. We aren’t the only multi-ethnic democracy in the world and we really aren’t out in front on civil rights issues. So no, this stuff doesn’t just happen in America – it happens all over the world. 

What would be amazing, would be if we could talk about Sotomayor's judicial record exclusively and have a honest discussion about what being a Supreme Court justice means. However, that would indicate a willingness for the discussion and only in America does that never happen.

Last movie analysis we will do for 2009.

Coming out this weekend is the next Harry Potter movie, which is on track with three more movies (the last book will be two movies) to surpass Star Wars as the most successful movie franchise of all time. There is no question this movie will by #1 this weekend and there is no question this movie will bring in the money, but the question as always is how much money this new installment in the franchise will bring in? 

Hm...me thinks Harry Potter might, just might, have an epic run this year.  This is probably the only movie left that can dislodge Transformers 2 from the top grossing movie of 2009.

The first movie, Sorcerer's Stone (2001) pulled in $317 million with a $90 million opening weekend and remains the highest grossing of the series. Chamber of Secrets (2002) dropped to $261 million with an $88 million opening. Then the worst performing, Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), brought in $249 million, but still had a phenomenal $93 million opening. Then something weird happened, the franchise started doing better. Goblet of Fire (2005) pulled in $290 million and had an incredible $102 million opening weekend. The last one, Order of the Phoenix (2007) grossed $292 million, making it #2 in the franchise, but had the weakest opening weekend with $77 million. However, this opening weekend was against Transformers (which had opened the weekend before) and Ratatouille (which had opened two weeks before), both of which overlap in demographics. 

The franchise has an average gross of $282 million and an average opening of $90 million. So with that in mind what is your prediction of this movie's opening and also how much it will gross during its run? Will this movie be the one to knock Sorcerer's Stone off the #1 for the franchise by beating $317 million? Will this movie tank as the life is out of the franchise with no new books coming and will perform worse that Prisoner of Azkaban's $249 million? Will we have an opening weekend bigger than $100 million or will the fans be staying home the first weekend? Make your predictions and let?s see how you do!

As always the tallies provided are from domestic receipts. These movies have been huge overseas and this is big part of their revenue stream, but as always the domestic gross is still the biggest part of the success of these movies.  Also this movie opens Wednesday, but we are only looking at its weekend's take, though the extra two days will help its overall take.