very late gig guide

Just in case anyone is interested The Hounds (Tegan, Robert, and Adam) are back in Adelaide putting on their show Every Movie Ever Mad at the Space Theatre on June 10 & 11 as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival. Their Fringe version of the show was quite good. Also, Kate Miller-Heidke is at The Gov on Friday May 8 if anyone is interested, and Spiral Dance is having their annual English Ale at Mylor oval on May 9. Don't really know if I will make either show, given how healthy I've been recently.

it's a beautiful day

Wow! The postie just delivered a copy of chadu's Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies. It's a truly beautiful piece of work (lots of kudos to drivingblind for his excellent layout), and I highly recommend getting the limited edition hardcover to anyone interested in buckling their swash. In fact it's so nice, I probably will have to get a copy of the softcover when it comes out to actually play the game with... <sigh> Anyway, now I can settle down to seriously reading the final version of the rules. And yes, if people are interested, I'll run some Musketeer games (either in Barathi or Colrona). Which, judging from the S7S list, means I'm in the definite minority. Everyone else seems to want to run pirate (or pirate prey trader) games. <grin> Oh well. I've done that once already, using Privateers & Gentlemen, albeit in space. And there really isn't much difference between spaceships and skyships. Besides, I'm still rather suspicious of the Vehicular duel rules. I also got a copy of Greg Stolze's A Dirty World, the film noir version of the ORE (One Roll Engine) system (Godlike, Reign, Wild Talents, Monsters and Other Childish Things, This Favoured Land). Whilst all these games use the same basic resolution system, how they apply it can vary quite considerably between games. In A Dirty World it makes interesting use of "sliding attributes," which means that as things happen in the game a character's fundamental abilities will change. A very interesting approach which encapsulates much of the feel of the noir genre, and how it is always highly personal. I believe Greg is currently working on a posthuman/transhuman game at the moment. Which reminds me that I really must stop collecting rule systems* that I will probably never end up having the time or people to play with. I still haven't got around to doing anything with Sufficiently Advanced (which looks like it has been semi-abandoned [or at least released into the Creative Commons wild] by its creator**), and I loved the ideas in that game. And to round out my extravagant acquisitions I've just ordered the boardgames Android and Battlestar Galactica to plague my boardgame group. More reports after we get to play them. And to cap it all off, for the first time in at least a month I'm not in crippling physical pain today. This day is full of win. * Although, thinking of this, I will have to get This Favoured Land (American Civil War with "superpowers") because all the other ORE stuff has been excellent, and the new version of Heroquest is apparently coming out around my birthday (even though I suspect I'd abhor the system as being too far into the narrative sense of play and I really do prefer sandbox), and, of course, The Dresden Files RPG because I like the books (even if my favourite character is no longer around <pout>) and I'm already salivating at the tid-bits that have been released into the wild... I'm not an addict. I can stop when they stop producing good games. Honest! **Sufficiently Advanced is now free! Do yourself a favour and download a copy now. Anyone got room for a member of the Eternal Masquerade? <grin>