Earlier this week I finally had the opportunity to sit down and do some PnP roleplaying. That doesn't happen often enough. At any rate it's an old game that I started last year, but we haven't played that many sessions. I think only six so far, and two of those were pretty short and the first one we spent mostly making characters.

For once it's not grim and dark or fantasy. It's Star Wars. Clone Wars. Influenced rather more by the animated series than the (crapcrapcrap) prequels. We started playing using the Revised d20 rules. I think they are pretty good. Very DnD v.3.5. A few tweaks though, but largely the same.

We considering a switch to the Saga edition instead. Saga is something of a cross between DnD v.3.5 and DnD 4E. You can see some of the features from 4E in there, but not all. The result is a much simpler game than the Revised edition, which is mostly a good thing since we want to focus on story and action for our brave Jedi rather than bean counting. So we are presently considering making a transition to this edition. Probably will, but with some tweaks.

The two PCs are Jedi Apprentices. The human Jedi Guardian E'tan is to young, too brash and too quick to fight. His companion is the much more stable Cerean Jedi Guadian E Leet. Together with their Master, her Padawan and two other apprentices they adventure across the galaxy and get into trouble - usually involving Separatists. I'll write more about them later - the point of this post is to attach the first scenario we played: Mission to Arcuuna.

If you're into ancient history I think you will find that The Classical World: The Epic History Of Greece And Rome by Robin Lane Fox is an excellent read. What I liked the most about it is that it neatly ties together Greek and Roman history. It's also not a book for academia - it's written in more prosaic form, which I found refreshing. I only wished it had contained a little more about the Archaic period for Greece and Rome's ties to the Etruscan civilization. But I guess you can't have everything in one book. You can also find a nice review here.

Who doesn't love Battletech and MechWarrior? I certainly do. Never did play much of the tabletop mini game, but I certainly did my fair share DMing MechWarrior back in the day. I also played a couple of MechWarrior games for the PC, and found them entertaining enough.

Last summer (2009 thay is) I was pleasantly surprised to see that there was to be a MechWarrior computer game reboot. If you have a look at some of the footage released you'll understand why (there was a couple of neat live clips involving a Warhammer and an Atlas, but I can't seem to find them anymore). At any rate there was some legal trouble and when I had a look again today there wasn't really a lot to new stuff to be learned. Maybe it died before it was born...

At about the same time there was an announcement that the aging MechWarrior 4 would be released for free download. It never happened either. But you can find plenty of torrents out there, so no worries. The reason I mention this is because I actually ended up playing it, finding that it had an active modding community that had put out several expansions. And even after I got tired of it my then-eight-year-old son continued playing. Customizing mechs and then blowing up stuff - what kid can resist that? So now I can check off MechWarrior on my list of things-a-father-should-teach-his-son :-P

A while back I got a book as a present from my brother. I think it was last Christmas. Anyway it was The Darkness the Comes Before, by one R. Scott Bakker. Not an author or book title I had heard of before. Today his writings - one completed trilogy called The Prince of Nothing and one started trilogy named The Aspect-Emperor - are rather well-known.

I quite enjoyed the first book of the series. It's well written. Good language. It also has quite a few interesting characters - even if few of them come across as believable. If compared to he doesn't do too well - Mr. Martin is a far superior writer and a LOT better at character description and development. He does describe his world very well through, and manages to balance keeping true to the fantasy genre while also adding something new and unique to the scene. In all I enjoyed the book very much and would recommend it very strongly indeed.

The next two books were not as great. Bakker still has his strengths and weaknesses, but it's clear that after enjoying some success he's decided to water out the ale and only rarely serve the real thing. It's not bad books as such, but it is really only one volume in theme and content, but two (big) volumes in the print. So it gets sort of tedious. Which turns what could have been one very good book into two mediocre ones.

One final note about the third and last book of the trilogy; it's obvious that it's not the last book. It practically screams follow-up. It left me hugely unsatisfied after ploughing through two whole volumes to reach the conclusion - only to find none. I really need to begin reading the end of a book first...

The new trilogy is not really a new trilogy. It picks up where the first one ended. To me it comes across as what the last volume of the original trilogy was supposed to be like. Only now it's not ONE volume, it's THREE BIG ONES. The ale is no longer watered - you're being served watered piss. I found the Judging Eye to be boring, annoying and completely bereft of originality - it even re-imagines Tolkien's march through Moria - with none of the charm of the original story. Crap crap and utter crap!

I hesitate to say this, because the first book was so good and the next two passable, but stay the hell away! Unless you're really patient and for some reason think Bakker is the new shit. For myself I suppose I'll eventually pick up and read the rest of the Aspect-Emperor. Maybe.

I fianlly found time to watch a couple of BSG epsiodes; season 3, epsiodes 13 and 14. The first one, Taking a Break From All Your Worries, was pretty good. The second, The Woman King, was more of a filler episode. It's saving grace was the apperance of Caprica-Six' imaginary friend, Dr. Baltar the mind-ghost. Very amusing.

Anything that has Baltar in it is usually well worth watching. He's by far the most interesting character on the show IMO. Yes, there is his ego and hubris, present on a level rarely seen since Gaius Julius Caesar, but more than anything it's his capacity for self-denial that impresses me. And the ability to always see himself as the victim, rather than the villain.

I think that's very human. Very few people go around seeing themselves as bad or evil. Not in big ways. Not in the small ways even. There is a always some external 'reason' why people do as they do. Always the claim of 'I had no choice' or 'you would have done the same'. Perhaps it's just human nature?

At any rate I find these themes quite interesting to explore in my games. Roleplaying gets infinitely more interesting once you start exploring the byways of the human mind, our morality, and whatnot.

I'll just conclude with a shot of Baltar from the happy Caprica days. It's just a coincident that Tri...Caprica-Six is also in it :-P

Yesterday I cleaned out a room in the basement. Part of that included going through some old boxes that haven't been opened in YEARS. It turned out the be a veritable dragon's hoard. Old game stuff forgotten for a decade or more. I'm sure that some of them will feature here eventually. But first things first - literally.

Warlock of Firetop Mountain was the very first 'roleplaying-game' I ever played. In the mid-80s or so. It was in Norwegian, but the cover and the contents were the same (only it didn't say '25th Anniversary Edition' - obviously). Me and my brother must have played through it a gazillion times (we also had The Citadel of Chaos and the Forest of Doom). Me, I even tried to draw a map out of it, going down ever possible route to learn ALL the secrets of Firetop Mountain (already you can see why I became a DM).

But that's not all folks! I also found a 3rd party DnD 3E adventure based upon the Warlock of Firetop Mountain. I'm so going to find some old-time Fighting Fantasy Fans and actually play the game. Using the Pathfinder RPG (more about that later). And here I had completely forgotten about you...welcome back Warlock!

Adeptus Astartes. Space Marines. Angels of Death. They have many names, but you know you've always wanted to play one (if you're into role-playing that is). Now Fantasy Flight Games is putting out the Deathwatch RPG that enables you to play as a Space Marine using the same rules (more or less) as Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader (which could be a good or bad thing depending on your relationship with said system).

I'll certainly pick up a copy. Always loved those Marines. Not sure I think the Deathwatch makes a lot of sense though. If you didn't know the DW is a group of Marines under Inquisition command and control, hailing from a variety of Chapters out there. It's not hard to understand why GW made up the Deathwatch in the first place - to let gamers field their favorite Marines from several different Chapters within the same squad-sized units. Makes sense from a wargaming/painting point of view, but I have a hard time making it fit within the rest of the 40K universe. So I've done a little retconing in my games - the Deathwatch is just a term for any Marine unit attached to the Inquisition (any part, not just the Ordo Xenos) as auxiliaries.

At any rate; to celebrate this occasion, let us join in prayer (and you can substitute anything you don't like for 'Xenos'):

To be Unclean
That is the Mark of the Xenos
To be Impure
That is the Mark of the Xenos
To be abhorred
That is the Mark of the Xenos
To be Reviled
That is the Mark of the Xenos
To be Hunted
That is the Mark of the Xenos
To be Purged
That is the fate of the Xenos
To be Cleansed
For that is the fate of all Xenos

I have a plan. And it's a damned good one. I'm going to look at more footage of this blonde. Not that I have anything against non-blondes or blondes other than this one. Far from it. It's just that this particular blonde fits into my plan :-P

Very amusing. Am I. Tricia Helfer stars in Battlestar Galactica movie The Plan. And being a BSG fan it's a movie which I absolutely have to see...especially after watching a clip featuring Cylon Basestars nuking Caprica. Only I've yet to conclude watching Season 3 of BSG, let alone Season 4. And I feel I have to finish that before I commence with my Plan...

For those of you that have finished the series AND watched The Plan AND maybe even looked through the Caprica series, then I would suggest another featurette with Tricia in it (and she's not quite alone). Enjoy!

Hello and welcome to the new Twilightpeaks.net - TP.net for short - news blog!

Here you'll find various blog posts related to my gaming hobby in general, my ongoing games in particular, development news, and anything else I feel like posting.

Hopefully some of it will make sense. To some of you. Some of the time.

:-P