Good things today and yesterday, and tuesday...

Tuesday is rapidly turning into work followed by long Expo meeting day, which means that updates are going to be on wednesday at some point because I get to bed early in the morning rather than late.  Except on weeks like this, when the week starts bad and progresses to worse...

We lost Jude's car last week late on, ECU finally failed and nothing we could do to get it to go back online, so the bad started there, Mark's been down with flu all week and as of Tuesday afternoon, me too, I'd like to say that it's going to be clearing sometime soon, but my sinuses and the temperature suggest that it's not...

However, that isn't to say that I haven't found good things in the day...

On Tuesday my good thing was the Expo meeting, nearly everything sorted, a few bits and pieces to put together, but it's coming together, which is a very cheerful thing this close to the show.

On Wednesday, my good thing was going for dinner with Tiny Wife and Sylvia (Jude's mum) after test driving a new car that looks to be perfect for what we need.  I got a second bonus in the evening of playing in Nigel Clarke's Blades in the Dark Game, and got to bed within a reasonable time.

Today... Well, today both me and Keith have been working through the CDM regs for the NEC, most of it nothing to be concerned with, just the same thing parroted a hundred different ways, but we've broken the back of it and it's one more thing off the list, all to the accompaniment of The Warriors.

Can I dig it...?

Book review - 253

Every once in a while, you encounter a book that's different from any other book you've read.

I found 253 on a friends reading list (Thanks Simon Ramsden-Fletcher) and took a look in to see what it was all about.  253 is unlike any other book I have read, and I've read more than a few, what makes it different is that in a book numbering 351 pages, there are 253 different characters with unique viewpoints.

You did read that right, more characters per page count than George R.R.Martin...

It doesn't read like a regular story, being a series of descriptions of the 252 passengers and the driver on an underground train as it travels towards it's destination.  Each description (barring titles) is 253 words long and covers who the person is, what they look like, what they're doing, and their motivations, hopes and dreams.  Many of these people are interconnected and the stories of each other start to weave together as you progress in the book, but for those used to the idea of a story that has a beginning, middle, and end, it may take more than a little getting used to.

The problem with the book is that if you want to get straight into the action, it's not for you, this book takes a lot of preparation in getting to know the characters before you get to the actions of the train itself, which takes up the last seven or eight pages of the book.  If you're willing to spend the time learning of all the characters, their hopes and dreams and where they hope life will take them, it's a good book and has all the characterisations that you could ever hope for.

And the ending of the book will have all the impact that the author intended for it...

I cannot speak anything of the ending, even the slightest hint would allow the astute amongst you to figure out what will happen there, and that would be a shame if you intend to take a look at it.  On that subject though, I can be of some assistance, 253 was originally published as an online novel of sorts, with hyperlinks to all the different parts of it so that you could read it and understand all the parts of it without having to flick back and forth through the pages to find the right reference.  This is how it was designed and envisioned, and it works far better than the book, which is a list of characters before the story arrives.

To that end, you can still find that novel at http://www.ryman-novel.com/info/why.htm and I need to point out when you go there that the main page of that website has the ending on it, which is why the link is to the start of the novel and not to the front page of the website.

Overall it was an interesting read, but I don't think I'd look to read something similar again...

A year of good things...

So the good thing today was clearing several items off the do list, most notably three book submissions to publishers and then completing the competition list for what I'm doing this year.

Not a massive win...?

It's a work day, take what I can when I can :)

And the good thing for today...

Actually, there were a few, which for a weekend is a really big thing...

I finished off Dava Sobels Longitude and got a review done.

I finished off All the Elders Orphans, a book I'm reading for a fellow author on goodreads, lovely book, could easily be the next Station Eleven.

I've listed all the writing competitions I'm entering this year, and all the conventions I hope to go to...

I spoke to my excellent friend Martin Tideswell, we don't catch up often enough he and I, side effects of lives too busy and time not (yet) bending to our will, good to catch up with him though, I need to spend more time doing that...

and finally, I just finished off the big bottle of Glayva in the corner...

Not even a bit tipsy...

Truly not...

But the day reminded me that there's not enough time to do everything that you want in life, and that's something I have to work on soon...

This is John Dodd, in the socialist republic of South Yorkshire and goodnight England, Wherever you are...

Book Review - Longitude – The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time.

Not well known of my interests is that of the oceans of the world, I do not speak much of it and given that I live in a landlocked area with little chance to happen upon large bodies of water, I tend to reserve my enthusiasm for those times when I can give it full vein.  Another of my interests is in watches, not just the quartz disposable’s I had when I was younger, but all manner of horological devices.

So a book that has elements of both will of course draw my attention…

I saw Longitude on the shelves of a friend at Goodreads, and the title drew my attention, one cheap copy later and I started to read through.  It tells the story of John Harrison, creator of the Harrison clocks and his ambition of making a mechanical time keeping device that would hold the time on prolonged sea voyages, something that the existing pendulum clocks would never be able to manage and thus requiring a whole new science to be developed and tested in the most strenuous conditions.

And of the problems that beset him in this endeavour…

I like the style in which the tale is written, it’s a factual account, but it’s told without embellishment (as indeed history should be), and laid out in plain language that avoids referring to the technical nature of the works being carried out and instead focussing on the human element of the book. 

John Harrison was a man who sought to win the prize offered by the Longitude Act of 1714 for working out a way for ships to be able to navigate across great distances on the ocean without becoming turned by the waves or left without hope tens, sometimes hundreds of miles from the point they should be.  He trusted in the nature of mechanical excellence over the imperfect method of navigating by the stars.  Along the way, he was beset on all sides by those who were too invested in the older methods (as indeed most who suggest something new are) and had to pass many tests before his science was accepted as it should have been.

It is apparent from reading the book that Dava Sobel’s sympathies lie with John Harrison, and even in his failings, he is shown as a man driven by a dream being assaulted by the establishment at all times without anyone to champion him.  The greatest achievement of the book is that you walk this path with him, and while there is clear bias, it gives you the inclination of what it must have been like to be challenging the order of things at that time and you find yourself willing him on to succeed.

If history lessons were written more like this book, more people would seek to learn of what happened in times past, this is an excellent book and one that I would recommend.

And a good thing today...

I watched an episode of Leverage with Jude and helped Mark dislodge a sim card from a phone...

May not seem like much?

You know, on some days (most of my weekends in point of fact), you take the victory where you can get it and don't worry about the size of the win, just be happy you got one...

Game Review - Ten Candles

In gaming, every once in a while, you need to broaden your horizons and take a look on the other side of the fence to see what everyone's up to over there.

For me, the other side of the fence is where the independent publishers hang out, I'm a great believer in supporting independent game design and publication, but I rarely get chance to look through them or play them after supporting them.

I was talking to +Joshua Fox creator of Lovecraftesque while we were playing Far Havens Mindjammer earlier this week, and that was one of the games where I was on my Kickstarter limit when it was being offered, so didn't back it, but he mentioned that the game was up for a Golden Geek award and so I went to have a look at the other nominee's.

Most of them I had already seen or knew of, but there was one that stood out as something I'd never seen or heard of, so I went out and got the PDF.

What I found was a game where the characters die, not just can, or might, but will die...

This is Ten Candles...

The premise of Ten candles is a simple one, something (henceforth referred to as Them) has taken the light away from the world, and the players take the role of people who are living out their last days before Them end it all.

Depressing...?

If not handled in the right way, very much so, but the key point of the book is that while you know that your character is going to die, you have to believe that on some level, they will be the one that survives the trend and goes on to win.

In the manner of all good heroes...

The story is told via candlelight, which adds to the atmosphere of the game, and promotes well the idea that the light has been taken away, and while there's some setup required, and the theatrics of the game will not lend themselves to everyone's playing style, it's worth putting in the time to get the mood on this one.

The game is played in three stages, Here there is Light, Here there is Shadow, and Here there is Darkness, and I won't go into massive detail with this, because it's very rules light and describing what you do in each part will give away more than I'm sure the creators will be happy with.

In Here there is Light, the characters are created with Virtues and Vices, Brinks and Moments.  Virtues are helpful traits, Vices are harmful, but the key of the generation is that when you've written down the virtue and the vice, you pass them to the other players so that you all have a character made up of two people's independent thoughts.  Then comes the choosing of a Moment, when you define how your character will find hope, and then finally the most interesting part of the character generation for me, the Brink.

Brinks are what the characters is capable of when all around them is darkness, and as with virtues and vices, are written by another player and handed on.  It is the use of language here that interests me, because brings are written in the form of a note saying "I've seen you..." and then the description of just what the character was seen doing.

From this we have the characters, to this is added the module that the characters will be working through (there's a great number of them to work with), and then play begins.

Throughout character creation, candles will have been lit as the stages are completed, this is key to the game, and hence my earlier comment regarding the theatrics, those not interested in the theatrics will find this game far less immersive, and that would be a bad thing.

In Here there is Shadow, the characters work through the scenario, there aren't many dice rolls made, but those that are made are challenging, and when one is failed, a single candle is darkened and the game continues till there is only one left and times are darkest and then there is Darkness, where the characters finish their journey (and indeed their lives).

The whole game has the feel of ritual, and I don't mean that in a Mazes and Monsters sort of way, there are words to be used at various points in the scenario, and while I don't agree with having people read out long sections of text to describe things, short audible prompts are more than acceptable, in particular when it comes to the setting up of an ongoing message of hope that fades at the end...

I like Ten Candles, it's an interesting premise that won't have a campaign attached to it, but that's the point, and it allows people to explore the idea of a doomed world without the illusion that they can prevail, which is an interesting diversion for people like me who never accept the dying of the light.

Oh, and the artwork, masterclass in how to budget in getting a few superb images rather than getting a hundred clip art pieces.

I'd recommend this, it's worth the asking price on the PDF for the single game you'd play with it.

And the good thing for today...

I got to spend some time with my son, and you forget how precious those minutes are until you don't have them every day, and then every one of them becomes a treasure, because this last week, there have been times when we haven't seen each other in days, and we live in the same building.

In other news, Ironhide (Jude's Car) may have a malfunctioning fuel pump, and depending on what is found out tomorrow, there may be requirement of a new autobot on the Dodd drive...

I also picked up Ten Candles, interesting book, review coming shortly.

And almost all the Expo things are done, now all I've got to do is double the number of RPG submissions...

Book Review - "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

I've read a few books on writing in my time, some of them I've read more than once, and some of them I've got halfway through before wondering where in fact the author had been coming from when they wrote it.

It has to be said that most of the books that fall into the second category are by authors who only write "How to write" books, and haven't actually managed to do what they're supposed to be telling us how to do...

This one I liked and disliked in equal measure, and that's a rare thing for me.

The book is split into several sections, detailing why and where language is used to obfuscate rather than illuminate, where many are in love with the idea of rambling on about the very nature of the thing they are writing and how they are writing it, rather than just bloody well writing it...

This struck a chord with me, my own prose is terse at best, trimmed with a chainsaw would be a more accurate description, I took to heart the directive of Omit Needless Words many years ago and have been living to it since, so a lot of what was said resonated well.  Mr Pinkers commentary on how legalese would not be required if everyone just said what they meant and meant what they said was well made, as was his point that much of any scientific paper pads itself with needless words because to speak using as few words as possible would take away much of the mysticism of the science itself, something that many do not want.

He also goes on at length about how the various parts of any sentence can be amended to make more sense, how the correct use of words makes every piece of writing much more accessible, and not just to those it was intended for, but for everyone.

The first part of the book I would recommend with my whole heart.

Imagine my sadness when I found the second half filled with the level of needless embellishment that the first half had cautioned against...

Where the first half of the book shone the light of clarity upon the words and asked that we do not add needless embellishment to anything, the second half proceeded to make as many examples as possible to show the things that had been done wrong by others.

A single example would have been more than enough...

But it goes on, every example presented is a clear example of how the first half of the book is right, but I'd already accepted that truth and did not need it driving home any further, and in truth, with example after example and no new points being made, I lost focus upon it and it took me a few more days to finish off.

Overall it's an interesting book, worth the price for the first half alone and a very interesting study in the use of language from someone who cares about it a great deal, but if, like me, you tire of endless examples, take the inspiration of the first half and use it as it was intended.

A year of good things...And a review of Colt Express

So today was mostly about Expo, as are many days recently, but we've got the Cthulhu masters locked down and that'll be coming on line shortly, as well as the megagame, and the starship bridge simulator, the rest of the RPG's should be approved for tomorrow, and it's all coming together well now.

But those weren't my good things today...

My good thing today was giving my friend Lee his birthday present of Colt Express and playing a game with him and our friend David, good game, simple mechanics, you can see why it got game of the year.

It's a simple premise, you all take the roles of bandits trying to rob the train whilst avoiding the marshall and each other, the train is a cardboard construction that you place the various meeples and treasures on, and then proceed to move around the train shooting and fighting your way past the others.

There are only a few moves available to each of you, move (up and down or left to right), shoot, punch, pick up loot, and move marshall.  When the game begins, you have a deck of ten cards and draw six (seven if you're playing doc) and then draw a train card to determine what needs to be done that round.

The train card will have a number of slots on it, and that will tell you how many of a particular card you have to play and whether they're face up or face down.  Everyone plays a card into the action stack for the individual part of the journey and when the whole train stack has been played, the stack is turned over and that part of the journey is played out.

Here's where it gets interesting...

The moves that have been played will (if unobstructed) have your bandit move around the train collecting loot and shooting other players, but if the moves the other players have made interfere with what your bandit is doing, then the rest of the turn might be rendered useless because you're out of position, or worse, land you on the marshall, which can severely curtail your day.

We only played with three, so keeping a track on what the other two were doing and planning your actions accordingly wasn't too hard, but with five or six players, trying to keep track of everything would take a feat of memory beyond this man.

If you get shot (and you will), the bullet card from the person that shot you goes into your deck, so that when the shuffle comes around, you'll be sometimes drawing a bulletwound, which has no practical purpose within the game, take too many bullets and your character will be slowed down to the point that they can only make one or two actions in a turn, a nice twist on the characters being blown out of the game, and a greater incentive not to get shot.

If you get punched, you get knocked into a different part of the train (possibly into the marshall) and you drop some of your loot (one character in particular has the ability to punch another and steal their loot at the same time), and then there's the marshall...

Land on the Marshall and he shoots you and knocks you out of the area that he's in and up on to the roof, requiring you to get back down at some point and increasing the complication again.

Having only played once, I'd definitely play again, and the next time, Id try to get more players...

Recommended...

A year of good things - Tuesday and Wednesday

On Tuesday I was up very late with an Expo meeting (till 01:30 in the morning), and didn't post anything as a result.

However...

On Tuesday, my good thing was finishing off the mini Far Havens campaign with Paul Mitchener, Joshua Fox, Tore Nielsen, and Glenn Berry, amusing how many character reference to avatar you can get in one game, but an excellent game and the start of something new...

On Wednesday, my good things were finalising a number of things for Expo, including the Cthulhu masters with Sean Connors, speaking with Elizabeth Simoens regarding another live event at Expo, coming up with a game idea for something that hasn't been done before, and talking it through with my constant companion throughout adventure, John Wilson,

And getting to bed on time...

A year of good things - Day Seven - What's the inverse of the Bechdel test...?

Todays good thing is that I finished re-editting Jerusalem, the first full length novel that I ever wrote.

It's been through a number of different changes, and I think that a lot of the changes that I made to the last version are because I've done a lot in the last few years, seen a few things I'd never seen before, and talked to groups of people I never had before, all of which has found its way into this final version.

The biggest change that I've implemented is that I had a long think about how I see characters, and decided to change several things, the first and foremost being the gender of the viewpoint character, and what started out as an exercise in thinking and viewpoints ending up putting a massive shift in the way the book reads, something which I'm very pleased with.

It does lead me to an interesting point, because all the books I write have strong female characters in them, I grew up around excellent women (Mum/Snoop, looking at you here...) and so writing them into a book is easy, and things like the Bechdel test (For those not familiar, to pass, the book must have two named female characters who have at least one conversation and have it not be about a man) are never a problem because I tend to write with an even spread of both genders in the main characters.

However...

In putting the viewpoint character and the main protagonist as women, I've found that almost every conversation passes the Bechdel test, and there are very few conversations in the book that work the other way around (Two named men who have at least one conversation and have it not be about a woman), and it brought home how difficult it is to meet that criteria if you haven't got the right lead characters.

It also completely switched any scenes of an intimate nature, which was also a challenge to work through (particularly as I don't have any real frame of reference), but it's been interesting in general and given me more to think about as I write on...

An excellent day...

And a kickstarter I'm really looking forwards to...Control...

Because not only did they have a good campaign, well executed with clarity, but they were also willing to put their money where their mouth was and release the Print and Play files before the end of the Kickstarter, letting everyone have a go on the game to see if it was something they'd want to back.

All I've done is printed and stuck the cards on, but it's enough to give an idea of what the game is and how it goes.

The concept is that you're all playing time travellers caught in some sort of temporal rift, and you're trying to find the right combination of elements to escape.  In the game this is represented by scoring exactly 21 at the end of any round and the other players not managing to change your score or stop you before the end of that.

Simple idea?

Absolutely...

Are they often the best...?

Absolutely...

Control has a simple mechanism, players have one action a turn, chosen from the list here.

Draw a card speaks for itself, as does installing a fuel cell, but there are two types of fuel cell, teh silvers that work when you install the cell, and the bronze that make up far more of the deck, that trigger when you burn (remove) them from your score.

So when you play this one, you can destroy any Nova (10 point bronze) in play and draw a card as well.

When you burn this one, you get to choose which of the top two cards that you may play, which can lead to other combinations and start a chain reaction of events leading to the win.

There are a number of different cards involved, all of which have different special abilities and react in different ways, and while it's fun as a two player, it really shines when you get three or four players in at once as the dynamic shifts from just trying to get the score to making sure everyone else doesn't.

It's a fast play, you can get through a game in less than five minutes when you know what all the cards are, but when you've got a group of good players, the game can go on for more than half an hour before someone gets the right combination.

The Kickstarter page can be found at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keymastergames/control-a-strategic-card-game, full review when my copy arrives

A year of doing good things - Day six

And today, being mothers days, my good thing was that I went and got mum loads of scented candles (This is only two of them, there were more than I could easily photo), really big candles that turned out to be really smelly...

It is a constant source of joy to me when those I love are happy :)

And I'm sorry to report that I'm abandoning another Kickstarter...

This time it's Into the Shadows lovecraftian fate RPG, and while I only backed it at a low level, there's a pattern to kickstarters that go under without the production of anything, and this one is exhibiting all those signs.

Slow to respond (if at all) to backers requests for updates...

Limited progress on the product since the beginning of the project...

Very busy in all other places except the project...

Deletes conversations on their google pages when a backer takes them to task on what they haven't been delivering when they realise that they were replying honestly and the truth makes them look bad...

It was the last one that sealed it for me...

By my own admission, I was badgering for updates, I'm getting to the point with many kickstarters that although I don't have a problem with the money that's been lost (never put anything on that you can't comfortably lose), I do have a problem when people don't seem to have any respect for the idea that it's someone else's money they're having the party with.

And that's why I was badgering, this was a month and a half back and after asking for updates, it was apparent that Alan (Project Creator) was online and of a mind to respond to people, so I started asking questions, and that's when it got interesting.

Because the funny thing about being notified for things is that if you're on for notifications to everything new, it only updates when you go back to the page.  If you never come off the page, it sends you every update as it comes in, and it doesn't matter if someone later deletes what they think is all the evidence.

I've still got it...

I had thought that there was light at the end of the tunnel, but then he took the conversation down from the group and engaged me directly, saying that he'd got the book finished and that he was just typing up the last adventure.

And I've got that too...

When I questioned further, it transpires that the 8 or so pages that have been posted seem to be most of what has been done, and if it isn't, then he's certainly not willing to give out the rest of it.

And I've got that too...

Apparently, all that remained to be done was the writing of the adventure and then "80 hours" of layout to put it all together.  I offered help if it was needed, was turned down, and the conversation went dark after that.

And so did the updates...

There's still people trying to get updates out of him on the group and all over the kickstarter page, but I don't believe we're going to see this unless someone else takes it on, and after a number of people have been burned on this, I can't see why anyone would want to.

I'll be posting this in the main group for this kickstarter as well as the other channels that I'm in, I have no doubt it will not last long in the google group, but it'll be the first update in that group since everything got deleted.  I have also no doubt that I'll find my membership of that group removed shortly after this, so would others keep me updated please?

It was a good idea, as are many of the things I back, and I wanted to see it go far, there are at least a few people who wanted to see it work, possibly outside of the framework of this project, and I'm certainly interested in making that happen, to the point at which I may have a word with a few people to put something together.

Anyone else in?

A year of good things - Day Five

And what good thing did I do today?

I got tiny wife some leaf grabbers...

Shiny

But Beware...

A Year of good things...

And Keeping up with the good year thing...

Today...

Finished the review of Gangbusters
Cleared up a lot of Expo tournaments
Caught up on my Diary
Gave a new company a chance to demonstrate their games
Finished another invoice off (it's less fun writing things asking for payment than real writing...)
Read Random Encounter (review to follow)
Finished 253 the book (review to follow)

Still tired, but better...

This is John Dodd, Bear at Large in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire and Goodnight England, Wherever you are...

Game Review - Gangbusters: Wrid Tales and Paranormal Investigations.

There will be some out there who remember the first Gangbusters game, set in the Prohibition era, with the players taking on gangs and trying to bring them down, from the small time crooks running moonshine over the borders to the organised crime of the big bosses like Capone.  I have a copy of the original, but I could never really find that many players to get into it, so when I heard that a new version was on the way, I signed up to get in on the action.

Because this was Gangbusters with a Twist…

The twist being that the new version is billed as Gangbusters: Weird Tales and Paranormal Investigations…

Organised cultists, rather than criminals…

Big Crime allying with true darkness…

The possibilities are endless…

The book arrived on Wednesday and I hadn’t really had chance to sit down and look at it with a view to seeing what was in it, and Thursday was a nine hour expo meeting, so I only really got to take a look this evening.

It’s excellent value for money, my copy came to £20 on conversion (plus postage), and for that you get:

A good strong box to hold everything in…

Multiple books, the main rules, Rock Junction city book, and the adventure of Joes Diner…

Set of dice and figures to use for strategic encounters…

Set of useful cards for NPC encounters and a box to keep them in…

Production values are good, the artwork is a little low resolution in places, but it’s all appropriate to the nature of the game and there’s a reasonable amount of it.

Rules are simple, Percentile based system with modifiers applied, all of it is well explained and easy to put together.  There’s a nice touch in character creation (recognising that on a random roll, you could get an attribute with a score of 01), that low scores have a bonus to them added in at character creation so that the person rolling the 01 will actually have a score of 26 rather than being utterly useless.

System is simple, roll under target number, apply modifiers as listed (of which there are not many), apply results, and character generation can be done (without the adding of a backstory) within minutes.

All in all, it’s a very nice starting set for the game and it’s certainly a worthy successor to the original gangbusters.

So why am I not raving about it…?

Because I already have gangbusters, and with this, I was hoping for a little more of the weird to surface, I was halfway to getting on the cloak and twin pistols of The Shadow when I opened the book, and I was a little disappointed with the lack of supernatural material in the main book itself.  I presume that this will be expanded on in later books, but I wanted enough to work with in the first offering. 

Don’t get me wrong, the Rock Junction book gives you a good basic outline of the city, and Joes Diner, while short, is an excellent introduction to the brutal nature of the world.  There are hints towards strange things going on in the area, but these aren’t expanded upon.

All in all, it’s a strong start from Mark Hunt and I’ll be interested to see where it goes next.

And as much as I want to see more of the weird stuff, leave Cthulhu out of it… 

A year of good things...

All work and no play makes John...

Well, makes John take selfies by all account...

Still, as there's been a number of people asking if everything is alright, just thought to post the state of the union such as it is.

I'm fine...

Firked, but fine...

Had a cold (I think most of you are probably familiar with which one by now) which is doggedly refusing to f*** off, putting in all the hours under the sun trying to make sure Expo works, writing articles for Tabletop gaming magazine, writing proposals for Modiphius, submitting books to Gollancz, helping local games stores run games, finishing quest, and in general...

Not sleeping...

Which I admit probably isn't helping.

I had a plan earlier in the week, because the world has not been kind this year so far, and I'm tired of writing "And again..." in my day book, and the first step of anything is to make a positive change, so here it is, if you had a year left to live, but you still had to go to work, still had to honour your commitments, and wanted that year to mean something more at the end of it all, what would you do...?

Me?  I'd try to make the world a better place in small stages, occasionally trying a big one, and I started the year of doing good things on the first of march, so...

Tuesday - Finished the Expo maps (have to redo them again now, but still, finished briefly).
Wednesday - Introduced a good friend to the utter insanity of Kung Fury... If nothing else, it brightened his day immensely
Thursday - Finished two reviews after a nine hour Expo meeting (Everyone out there who wonders how we get it right most years, it's all in the prep), and I'll be posting them tomorrow.

More announcements tomorrow, I'll do my best to stay in touch...

My regular gaming buddies, I'll be back, fear not (even the Russian Julian...)
Those waiting on words from me, before the end of next week...
Those waiting on invoices from me (I know, I know, no rush...), soon...

Oh, and what's everyone's thoughts on podcasts...?

This is John Dodd, Bear at Large in the Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire, and goodnight England, where ever you are...