#083
Apr 19, 2020
Work
This was a four-day week due to Easter Monday, and I went on support on Wednesday so I only had one day of normal work. It seems that I’ll be doing a lot of support in the future, as the rota is drawing exclusively from my team (which is admittedly a fairly large team) for the foreseeable future, because other teams are working on more urgent projects.
It’s been a fairly relaxing few days on support, though. I wonder if people are submitting fewer support tickets because they imagine we’re snowed under with coronavirus work.
The Plague
Flour has, perhaps, started to return to the shelves. One day I was able to buy rye flour and wholemeal flour. No white bread flour yet but hope has been kindled.
Miscellaneous
Books
This week I read Battle Royale and re-read The Book of Tea. Two books with Japanese themes but very different tones.
Games
On Saturday, we had our second session of FAE for Pokemon, which we switched to from the unofficial Pokemon RPG system. We didn’t spend that much time talking about mechanics, we were mostly able to just get on and play, which is good. In the previous system we had to look things up all the time. The GM was even able to improvise a random encounter, which has never happened before. Fate points are proving to be a good way to introduce fun complications into the game.
On Sunday, I ran a second game of Golden Sky Stories, and the players enjoyed it. One of them said they had to mute themselves from laughing at one point, which is great feedback. The players seemed more engaged this time, showing narrative initiative a bit more, so I think they’re getting the hang of it. For next week’s session I’ll have to write my own story, as there are only two in the core rulebook (or I’ll buy one of the supplements).
I’ve started writing a Mythras low-fantasy setting based on Sumer around 2500 BC. Here’s the pitch:
This is a low-fantasy setting inspired by real-world Sumer around 2500 BC, the bronze age. Sumer is a collection of city-states in Mesopotamia united by a common culture. The cities of Uruk in the south and Kish in the north have grown powerful and influential, with other city-states flocking to their banners. The nation of Elam to the east, an old enemy of the Sumerians, has finished licking its wounds from the last war, and another looks likely.
But everything changed when Ki-Asag appeared.
In the year 2460 BC, the Sumerians were stunned to see the western desert flower and become filled with life. But this was no divine miracle, the fertile new lands were an affront to the senses. Colours are too vibrant. Sounds too clear. Time seems to flow differently. The best outdoorsmen become lost. And not long after it appeared, the attackers came. Tall, thin, men with pointed faces; wielding powers the priests cannot explain, and weapons the warriors cannot overcome. The Sumerians named this land Ki-Asag, the place of demons.
The campaign begins in the year 2450 BC, ten years after the advent of Ki-Asag.
I won’t get to run this for months (even if my players are up for it), as Apocalypse World is still far from a conclusion, but I’m having fun researching and writing. Medieval Europe is too overdone.
I also wrote a memo on game systems.