Okay so once again the train is delayed and this means I will miss a connection, I get really dis-chuffed when that occurs. Then I will blame privatisation. But this isn’t a random blame.

Privatisation was supposed to bring us:

Lower Fares. It didn’t.
More trains. It didn’t.
Better service. Debateable, more customer service bollocks that’s for sure.
Increased efficiency – well let’s look at that.

How do we measure efficiency. Ask the operators and they may say number of people to destnation – in shortest time – on time. Ask the travellers and they would add a qualifier, they would put comfort while traveling as part of that.

Let’s face it, 150 mph in a boxcar with us jammed in like sardines would be efficient.

So comfort is a part of efficiency to the customer. Not just speed and on time, but do I get a seat, is there enough baggage space, etc.

Baggage Space, well that’s a joke, most trains have inadequate space and they now have no baggage car so there is luggage everywhere, especially airport trains which should have a baggage car, but that means an extra car, an extra person to manage it, loss of profit from fuel and personnel and time and oh gods that affects efficiency, so that’s a no go.

Seats. Even on regular routes with no issues there is often overcrowding and distressed persons, and this is compounded when there are delays that push extra people onto the trains. The solution is extra cars even if the figures do not justify it, but again this increases costs and yada yada yada.

So comfort is pandered to with a smiling smartly dressed staff member, who has no real power to alter anything, can only point at alternate routes, offer a form to make a complaint or request compensation or say sorry. There is no real method for change.

But this situation -could- be the same even if they weren’t private, I hear you cry…

Not the point, if they are making a profit at the massive expense of their customers there is an issue, and since we have no alternative that effectively is a monopoly, so I will complain and state that privatisation of the train industry was a joke that has led to nothing but a failure of promises.

There is an issue when we measure efficiency as a means test for quality, it isn’t. Efficiency is a test of just that. It never means quality of service, this thinking is applied to health, education and other large systems with the same failure. We want quality, we achieve that by measuring satisfaction of service, not by quantifiable metrics.

What a difference having power and a seat on a train makes to the mood of the weary traveller…so my argument about quality of service and amenities starts to gain more credence as my rage is ameliorated by the comfort i have found. I do however pity my fellow passengers who got on at Chorley and Bolton and are doomed to stand for the remainder of their journey, I doubt the delays and inconvenience are changing their moods at this present time.

Some of the trains are nicer though, so glad that we helped to pay for them with public funds!

In the beginning…

I had a strange, well odd, well interesting, well probably something… experience in the taxi to the station. Let me set the scene for you and hopefully try to work this through as I do.

I was getting ready to fly to Orlando, part of this is that I was up earlier than usual (by about ninety minutes) but I hadn’t gone to bed any earlier, in fact due to a compression of things to do I went to bed later so I was already a little out of sorts and I had started on caffeine.

I called the taxi and set a time, the taxi was 20 minutes early and they didn’t call the phone as usual but knocked on the door which surprised me and I had a last minute panic rush to get ready – meanwhile the taxi driver had the clock running eventhough he was early. I can see his point as he was given the job by despatch, but that wasn’t my problem and I object to being charged for something that was out of my control, had they been a few minutes early I would have been ready, but 20 minutes is a bit too early. I only think about this now and I don’t believe it affected me at the time as I only figured out the increased cost when we got to the end of the journey.

The taxi driver himself was fairly chatty, he was either up early or more likely on the night shift so had been quiet for him until then. He was however a little critical of things, he had a strong Liverpool accent which was familiar to me and reminded me of when I used to live in Warrington.

A difference of perception/behaviour

We chatted about where I was going and he tried to up-sell me a taxi ride to the airport which felt a bit odd, he discovered I was going to a conference and then claimed I could just charge it to the company (not knowing I run the company). I mentioned that the company had already paid for the flight and hotel so cost frugality was to be respected. His words were that I should lie (to myself) and claim that there were no trains. Even if I were working for someone else that is not a wise behaviour especially as it is an easy thing to verify. One can also grab historical train delays if that is your lie of choice, so it is unwise even if your specific mores let it be ethical to engage in such behaviour. Especially if it is to yourself.

He asked about my line of work, I did my usual enquiry into his level of knowledge about computers and the computer industry, I didn’t wish to bore, patronise or confuse which is so easy to do. He reassured me it was good so I said we worked on “infrastructure” software as it was close to giving some idea. He wanted to know if it was like Apple, so I mumbled no and gave a simple explanation of Perl and OSS and left it at that.

Feeling odd and weird…

I felt odd during the conversation though, a little detached and not fully engaged. I usually pride myself on being able to talk to people and so it could have been the tiredness that was making me feel disconnected.

But I have had other occasions where I feel the same way, where I cannot connect as well as I have in the past. It is as if some of my register specific phatic communion skills are rusty. I find it hard to engage in small talk and need to be warmed to it, or rather I find it hard to engage in a specific type of small talk.

This could be the particular levels of socio-cultural groups and people I am engaging with and their standard forms of communication. Added to this is my increased use of text as a form of communication in online life such as irc, text message, email etcetera. This is perhaps dictating a particular social interactive model and providing the impetus for my interactive passivity and failure.

Finding reasons…going forward…

In all honesty the introduction of a child into my life has probably added to this in many regards, further dictating modes of thinking and interaction. It is very easy to fall into the trap of all ‘parent talk’ about things that affect your child social age group and future. To discussing their development and the particular habits you engage with them. There are fascinations based upon these and I think a good number of parents follow them. I wonder however if we can generalise and say all parents are like this?

Back to my social skills however and it will be interesting to see if I can practice and regain some of the inter-social dexterity I once felt I had. This will of course mean that I will once again have to try and talk to people more which fights against my natural shyness.

Yes I am shy. I hide it well by being an extrovert and consciously pushing communication, it is part of why I am loud, boisterous and gregarious, some of what makes me want and crave attention is to hide my brains immediate pull back and hide a little then they wont see you for what you really are…

Okay, too close to psychological triggers of behaviour there…

But I am shy, and I often feel I am being awkward and don’t know what to say or how to ask and continue talking, I can rant on and on about the minutiae of things that interest me, but have trouble getting people to want to continue talking to me…

More thinking required and examination needed…

Thanks for the time.

(I had no idea how to end this…)

…

Sorry for all the elisions…

I follow the UKMinisters Twitter feed that follows all of the ministers who tweet. There is a pattern that happens every Wednesday.

Prime Minister’s Questions occurs and all those on the PM’s side will state how magnificent he is and how he destroyed poor Red Ed. Whereas on the opposition it seems that Ed annihilates and embarrasses the PM on a regular basis.

Both of these cannot be right.

I have even watched this and tried to compare what I am seeing with what they are tweeting, and although sometimes I can kind of get what they mean, mostly they don’t match what is happening that I can see.

I could just be unable to follow the subtle interplay, but I consider myself fairly well educated and savvy enough about language, if I struggle I would gamble that many do also. Maybe this is why the tweeters cannot agree or even vaguely represent what has occurred.

There is only one solution.

We need a cage fight, that will give us a real winner. If this is too extreme they could always lean across the boxes for a game of ‘slaps’ or maybe a quick round or two of wink murder.

So while flying to the US I encountered what I thought was a rude bloke, it could be me who is just too sensitive, or maybe with my attitude I am rude, here are my thoughts as I travelled.

–START RANT–

A bloke sat to the right of me on the flight has a loud cough, obviously it is irritating him, I just wish he’d cover his mouth more with his hand or with a handkerchief when he is hacking up a lung, or maybe just get it over with and die already.

So that was written three hours ago, since then he has munched on M&Ms with his mouth open and constantly coughed spraying germs liberally into the air, there is the occasional half-hearted effort to cover the mouth, but most of his loud and violent explosions are done unmasked. I have headphones on and listening to loud music and I still don’t drown him out, time to just kill him with the foldaway table I think.

Okay, 40 minutes later and he has a spare chair as the bloke who was sat next to him has moved, maybe to jump off the plane rather than be next to him, and so he has placed his feet up on the seat, that’s not a crime, leaving the shoes on however is just plain awful. I am not being prissy but there is something deeply wrong with shoes on furniture, I dislike it, take your fracking shoes off. Especially if they are boots, this just compounds a social sin.

I wonder if this piece will be used against me in court…

And as we land he takes off his belt while we taxi and turns on his phone to check his messages, please slam on the brakes so he flies face first into the seat back…

–END RANT–

Flying to the United States I decided to do some writing and since I wanted to drown out an odious nearby person and the drone of the planes engines (which I normally tune out from but the odious man was too irritating – ranty post to come). I therefore went to the music channel and was delighted to find some albums that intrigued me as they were by artists I wasn’t familiar with playing compositions I didn’t know that well (aside from the Liszt).

This is what I heard…

Works for Cello and Piano

Mendelsson – Watkins Brothers

This was a new experience for me, I have not heard many of Mendelsson’ s works done before and have never encountered the very talented Watkins Brothers. Very delightful to listen to while writing on the flight over the Atlantic.

The experience was only ruined by the imposed-by-software pause between tracks which meant that several of the multiple-movement pieces had nasty breaks in their reproduction making it jar quite horridly several times. The worst being a piece split into about five sections by track number with each piece being only a minute or so in length. Ugly cutting and easily avoidable with a fully digital reproduction and playback system, that should be a software switch.

Liszt: My Piano Hero

Lang Lang

Also heard some interesting interpretations of Liszt by the clearly talented Lang Lang, not come across this young Chinese man either though the pieces by Liszt were all familiar to me. For the most part I loved the way he had interpreted them, in fact it is an album I may have to pick up. Wonderful orchestral accompaniment, especially on Piano Concerto No. 1, by Valery Gergiev and the Vienna Philharmonic.

Interesting that the first exposure this young man had to the works of Liszt was via a Tom & Jerry cartoon. Cartoons are probably where I heard the majority of my first classical pieces. In fact T&J did a wonderful pair of ‘toons where they used Gershwin and Jazz symphonic to great effect.

Debussy and Ravel: Music for two Pianos

Vladimir and Vovka Ashkenazy

And the introductions continue as I then heard Father and Son play a magnificent series of pieces on two pianos. The synopsis states that Vladimir “the flamboyant pianist turned conductor returns to the piano alongside his son” and this is “powerful, fiery and spellbinding”. Not being familiar with either the musical pieces in question or the performers all I can say is it was breathtaking.

En Blanc et Noir (3 movements) is a brilliant introduction to these two men and is a great build into the stunning Jeux, and the rest of the album is filled with similar brilliance. A well thought out collection masterfully played. I was very delighted as neither Debussy or Ravel have been on my listening list much, I had a thing of not liking Ravel because of Torvil and Dean, so this was wonderfully new.

<rant>

“Of course I know that there will be many people watching this who are worried about what else the year might bring. There are fears about jobs and paying the bills. The search for work has become difficult, particularly for young people. And rising prices have hit household budgets. I get that. ”

So said cameron as part of his new year address, and my response to this is bollocks.

He gets what it is like to come from a broken home with a mother who divorced twice.

He gets what it is like to come home to the house you were born in, that you were raised in, to see all that remains of your possessions strewn on the street because the baliffs have repossessed your house and most of what you own.

He gets what it is like to spend 30 months on the unemployment lines because you are inexperienced, too young and without a career or even a direction in life.

He gets what it is like to live on a ‘sink’ estate where the evening activites are alchohol, drugs, misplaced violence, arson and burgalry.

He gets what it is like to be hit in the face with an iron bar so that you are mugged having 12 pence in your pocket.

He gets what it is like to make the choice between having a low skilled job or placing yourself in debt for 17 years because you put yourself through full time education.

I experienced all of those during the reign of Margaret “Iron Lady (trickle-down neo-Liberalist POS)” Thatcher, and now I have to witness the same retarded policies, the same excuses, the same sick, twisted logic applied 30 years later.

He gets that. Because he has personally heard about things like that. Of course neither he, the arsonist also known as Clegg and the wealthy little suck-puppy Osbourne have never experienced any of these. They have in fact been spooned a rather indulgent life when compared to many of us, so the idea that the “get” anything about the personal experience of many people brought up during the previous Tory social destruction (80s), and that they know how hard it is for anyone in the UK currently suffering under their mismanagement of the country is ludicrous.

We are all in this together which is why top earners had a wage increase of 49% on average last year and the rest of us got thoroughly shafted by the coalition.

So, Mr Cameron, please stop saying you “get that”, you don’t fucking get it, you are unlikely to fucking get it and you sound like a complete twat when you attempt to emote with something that is alien to you. I will believe you, Clegg or Osbourne, if you all give up your lifestyles and live on a council estate on the minimum wage/benefits for 12 months. Do that and I think you might have some chance of getting it. Until then stop with the hypocritical bollocks.

</end rant>

The BBC are warning us that there is a lot of fake booze for sale, particularly Vodka as it is easy to make clear spirits as that’s the normal colour of distilled drink. The issue it that you don’t end up with the right type of ethanol, you may get methyl-ethanol or meths/methanol – which is poisonous and potentially fatal as was highlighted by the recent issues in India.

The Beeb have a handy little guide to see if it is fake:

I’d like to add a couple of items to that. Such as:

Don’t buy it at a ridiculously low price;

Don’t buy it from a mate’s car;

Don’t drink if your mate is saying “try this I know the guy who makes it, it’s brilliant”;

Basically an ounce of common sense is all that’s actually needed in this regard, if you are at all unsure then avoid like the plague and drink something else.

So having a small child changes you, for one thing you get to watch a lot more children’s television. Despite all your protestations that you will raise your child in a bubble of academic excellence and books only, you quickly start to use the excellent service that is CBeebies.

One of my favourite programs is ZingZillas,[1] but I have noticed an issue with this latest series, in fact they have taken what was a brilliant show and reduced it’s brilliance, they have taken the shine off and lost the awesome. Let me explain some of the changes.

1. It is shorter and it shows as it feels very rushed.
2.  Because it is shorter the coconuts drop quickly so no sense of build or narrative tension.
3.  We have less story and virtually no character development or interaction which was a strength in the previous shows.
4. The special guest performers are given less time and do not interact as much, they also have no place in the storyline.[2]
5. The other characters, DJ, heads, chorus birds and Todd have virtually no place in the story, and less interaction with the main Zings;
6.  They added dress elements:
   a. Zack has a cape that makes him look like a failed superhero;
   b. Pansy has been given a feather boa because you know she’s either a stripper or a drag queen;
   c. Tang has a cowboy hat that makes him look like he finally came out and just went full on camp;
   d. Drum has the only costume element that makes sense. She has some, in character to her, butterfly wings.

The last big element is that the Zings’ themselves know it has become less, they feel that they have lost their cool and brilliant selves, they no longer state at the end of each episode “that was the best big Zing ever”.

I want my best big Zing back, I want genius episodes like the Wishes episode whose story and song were awesome. I want the return of narrative tension, storyline and characters entwined within the development of the stories. I don’t blame the writers or the production crew at all, and the songs are still great, but it is too rushed, it needs to be able to breathe not be throttled.

Give our Zingzillas their awesome back, that’d be the best Zing ever.

—-

[1] Visit some of the ZingZillas sites:

• ZingZillas Official Site
• BBC ZingZilla Official Cbeebies Site
• ZingZillas on Wikipedia
• Banks and Wag official site

[2] I am informed by the internet[3] that the actual ‘glade’ time and ‘performance’ time remains the same, and this I cannot question without examining two episodes, an old and a new. I am inclined to believe it remains the same but the ‘less interaction’ in the storyline, or less time spent developing the need for the guest performers to be there makes it feel as if they have less time.

[3] Specifically the creative force of Banks and Wag

We speed along the rich tarmac and I sit facing backwards watching the vehicles slide through my view against the backdrop of wilderness with occasional man-made conformity(2).

I have spent most of the week away from the rigours of the internet. I say “most” as I did take a brief sojourn in the middle of my holiday to travel to Edinburgh and co-organise a conference day on (Dynamic Languages with Marco. That was a great day, we learned a lot that we can take to next year’s event and it was very interesting meeting Richard Stallman, it was a pity I had to rush back to my holiday as it would have been nice to be a part of the rest of the festival.

Being away from the internet was interesting. Although I was concerned about all the people I had to speak to and catch up with, it was also nice to be apart from them, to enjoy the silence away from electronic noise that clutters my life. After a few hours away I missed it less and started to enjoy the solitude it afforded.

I wasn’t alone of course, I was with family, my wife, my son, Grandmas Steph and Linda and the extended Scottish Clan were all part of the time away. But the solitude was being remote from the instant world. I was able to sit on the shore (being eaten alive by the midges) and watch the waves gently lapping in the Kyle of Lochalsh. I was able to watch the sun set and the sky change through dramatic hues. I was also able to forget about the many tiny concerns that flit about my head in the normal days of connectivity.

But now we head back and as we go forever south and the signal becomes stronger on my phone and other electronic devices I start to appreciate what I had missed. I am, I realise a dichotomy, happy to be away from technology and modern society and also willing to immerse myself within it and suckle from its many benefits.

C’est la Vie.

-mdk

(1) Apologies to Kate Bush.

(2) I am sitting in a mobile home hence the direction of my view.

(Caution this post contains personal opinion, emotional choice and casually rambling rhetoric, a shorter version can be found at http://mdk.per.ly/2011/08/07/do-what-thou-wilt/)

I was asked, online in Twitter(1) by a friend (@techpractical is their  twitter ident) if I would support their efforts to form a LGBT.pm. So a bit of knowledge for those of you who don’t understand what that is, LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transsexual; .pm is shorthand for a Perl Mongers group as they use the domain identifier .pm.org for the groups these are usually regional groups who meet up to be part of their local technical community, hence london.pm.org and northwestengland.pm.org.

@techpractical had decided that Perl needed a specific group to represent these people, now as I mentioned above the .pm groups are traditionally regional matters but there are precedents for their being other types of groups as shown by the drinkers.pm and Dahut.pm groups amongst others.

I think that he was approaching me for a couple of reasons, I am the Managing Director of Shadowcat who are known for supporting the community and community efforts, I am the organiser and co-organiser of a number of conferences and events, I am the Chair for the Perl Foundation Marketing Committee, I am a Director and Secretary for the Enlightened Perl Organisation and I think I have a reputation for helping people to get things done and supporting other people’s efforts to improve the community for everyone.(4) There is also the fact that we know each other socially which might also be the only reason.(5) Of course the possibility exists that it is none of these reasons whatsoever or a subset of them that I haven’t considered.

My initial response via Twitter  (scroll to the end of the article for the tweets) was to clearly state that there were precedents for having groups that were not location based but based on identity or lifestyle so I had to support that. That is when I hit the usual ’140 characters is not nearly long enough for a good response’ as it seemed a cold response. I sounded as if I supported a general concept based on the fact that there was historical bias. I wasn’t. I was trying to indicate that we had a good case for it in the first part and that identity based Monger groups already existed. The Perl community supports at least two identity based Monger groups to my knowledge (6). There is the infamous ‘drinkers.pm’ who meet at conferences and troll the bars after the event has finished, in this way they do become a geographical group when they meet but they are divergent otherwise. Then there is ‘Dahut.pm’ who organised the 2011 YAPC::NA conference and are comprised mostly of organisers. I could also mention that unlike most other groups my own northwestengland.pm covers a whole region and not just a city due to the diversity of locations we all reside in.

So in my very next tweet I mentioned that the subject needed support and that this would be a good way of showing the support for equality in our community. Now in my head I can run a lot of arguments for and against supporting such an issue and most of it is political or aimed at personal sensitivities, I am not entirely comfortable with listing them all as many of them are positions i have no favour for and wouldn’t promote them even in an abstract example for a sensible argument.

I can, however, make a very good case for equality and the representation of such that bears a simple and pragmatic understanding. I have always liked to think that no two people are equal, it is hard in my mind to make that assessment. I am not equal to my wife in looks, intelligence and general musical skills and she doesn’t have my arrogance, pedantry or strength (she also lacks my knowledge of Doctor Who)(7). Some of these distinctions are genetic, some are environmental, but they are still differences, they are what marks us all out as unique beings. This also mixes a qualitative argument with Sophistry on the nature of equals, can you define equal by matching elements of testable cogency, practical/physical examination and individual taste? However, and despite that cul-de-sac, we all have the right to be treated as equals and in regards to any organisation whether governmental or otherwise we should be afforded those same rights.

Though I should still relate that I have a concern that we might appear to be over politicising the Monger groups and a distributed community of interest is not the place to create communities and pseudo communities based on identity.(8) One could respond that it is impossible to remove identity from community and that we already share these things and it is why and how we form such close bonds. One could equally argue that this is just a feature of similar interest not identity or lifestyle choice which is arguably what this group would be(9). So we return to an over politicising stance, we are using the community to highlight, comment upon and correct, what can be seen as a broader societal problem.

However, I am not opposed to there being some political stance, this isn’t about posturing or forcing people to accept that stance it is about recognising it exists. We have a community that has members who clearly identify with this issue, some of us live in a society and mix in cultures that classifies these people with derogatory labels, reduces their rights and in some locales criminalises their behaviour.(11) If we are to allow people the right to form groups that have a similarity based upon the worship of that sweet nectar we call alcohol we have to allow groups that identify themselves with mythical beasts amongst other ways. It is progressive to be inclusive and not exclusive, it is also a natural evolution of a community, from a community of interest to one that shares identity and celebrates individuality and the choices of it’s members.

Now an anecdote and something I normally do not like to think about. I am going to wander towards my youth and a confession upon it. When I was younger I had my perceptions challenged and I realised a horrible truth about myself that I forced myself to change. I was presented in a social psychology class(12) with a video of two men kissing deeply on a high street and the narration casually declared that most people were uncomfortable viewing this image(13), I didn’t find that surprising as I knew I was uncomfortable seeing it at that point. It hadn’t really struck me before as I had never seen two men passionately kissing in a public place. I guess, to my lasting shame, that this was at that time a mild homophobia. A product of environment if we are kind, and in all respects thoroughly wrong. Like most apparent heterosexual men in the western world I was quite happy with two women kissing passionately as the stereotyped fascination was already thoroughly ingrained into me, but not two blokes kissing.

I felt ashamed on that day, and not mildly but deeply as I had always felt that I saw people for who they were and judged them on their deeds, not their sexuality or gender. I had friends who were gay and I realised they were never affectionate in public society as much as other people were, in fact they seemed to never be that affectionate when with friends. I discussed this class with them at the time and realised I was a moron, I had never looked at the expressions on other people’s faces when they walked hand in hand in a public place. Was I one of those people?

This was less than two decades ago. I decided then that I would ditch that attitude as that was not the person I wanted to be and I don’t believe it was the person my mother raised me to be. It wasn’t as easy a task as it should have been, I would love to tell you that my stance changed overnight, it didn’t, attitudes are hard to shift even if you don’t like them, but I did change. So I guess I emote these days with this argument, I don’t want to live in a world that has these attitudes built in to it. I don’t care if you choose to be a homophobe, I allow you that choice even if I think it is wrong. In fact, being the arrogant pedant I am I might even defend your right to be an arse. But, I do care that people are made into arses without being exposed to a world where that attitude is seen as a choice and hopefully an unpleasant one. So when asked to support lifestyle choice, and the freedom to express and to encourage participation based on identity then I have to support it.(14)

-mdk

Post Scriptum: The request was officially accepted and there is indeed now a LGBT.pm (http://www.pm.org/groups/757.html)

Original Tweets

(Reprinted here for reference)

Evening of the 20th Jun:
techpractical:
@shadowcat_mdk i think a lgbt.pm group might be good for perl. thoughts?
34 minutes ago

shadowcat_mdk:
@techpractical we have groups such as Dahut.pm and drinkers.pm, it is established that some groups are identity not location. I support it.
14 minutes ago in reply to techpractical

shadowcat_mdk:
@techpractical also, lgbt is a huge societal issue that needs to be embraced by all communities, damed right that we recognise/support this.
12 minutes ago in reply to techpractical

shadowcat_mdk:
@techpractical perfdave is very connected with these issues politically iirc, so I think we can conscript his support.
10 minutes ago in reply to techpractical

_doherty
@techpractical @shadowcat_mdk: Count me in.
10 minutes ago in reply to techpractical

Morning of the 21 Jun:
@techpractical:
@shadowcat_mdk he’s on here as @davepa ge_ld . I’m happy to set up up the group with your support

@shadowcat_mdk and if shadowcat could donate space for a website and mailist lists ,this would be even better

@shadowcat_mdk:
@techpractical would be honoured to provide space and a mailing list.

—
(1) It struck me at the time that Twitter timeline was such a public place to be asked and that my life has changed so rapidly with the continuing march of technology. There was a time when I would have never have started a discussion about what I may or may not support in a public forum, mostly because I wouldn’t have been in that forum being a naturally shy person(2), now it seems normal(3).

(2) I really am that shy, honest, I just don’t come across that way, partly because of my current life/work/social matrices and partly because shy people tend to be gregarious and loud to combat the shyness.

(3) There is probably a longer post somewhere about how much I have changed my opinion and how this has been affected by my exposure to technology.

(4) I know many people reading this know that list but I was trying to engage all readers, also you have to list the reasons people approach you rather than it just being a random conversation on Twitter between two people. I should also state that @techpratical is a well-known member of his local .pm group and a well respected coder and contributor to the community. He also is a cheerful and vocal campaigner for rights.

(5) If of course that was the only reason then I do apologise for the above self-grandising speculation.

(6) Thou the official bias is not recorded here as I am not sure who makes an ‘official’ decision on these matters, well I know of them but I cannot speak for them or any position they consider official.

(7) A tad modest but bears a lot of truth as well. I do consider my wife more intelligent than me in that she has an ability to structure her thoughts in a far more cogent fashion, I can construct a faster argument and pull from more diverse sources, but that is a matter of being wider read. She is more attractive, goes without saying there is photographic evidence to support this and she is musically talented, she plays the trumpet, the piano, has a beautiful singing voice and I sound like a goose farting in the fug and have yet to master the intricacies of the triangle.

(8) Computer languages, and in particular Per,l is our principal shared passion in the .pm groups but because of their nature they evolve and include other shared elements. So we have a “Community of Interest” that shares an over riding shared passion that has pseudo-communities and geographical relationships a s a distinct part of its make up, but we have also evolved true community and familial relationships from our interaction and from the natural evolution of a community. Covered a little more in my presentation “I <3 My Community”.

(9) Please note that I do not consider sexual orientation to be a “lifestyle choice” and evaluating it in that manner is facile and quite stunningly insulting. Choosing to like Star Trek, dress as Spock and attend conventions is a lifestyle choice, the complex dynamic of socio-cultural forces that shapes your sexuality (and I am ignoring genetics as that is a whole different and treacherous kettle of sharks) can not be reduced to a choice! “Oh darling, I am so bored with watching typically hetro TV shows, I am going to try my hand at being queer so that i might watch musicals and sing freely the greatest hits of Abba”(10).

(10) Gay gags of the 1980s reunited in the one location.

(11) It is for reasons like these that I find the need to be proactive and make action to overcome these actions.

(12) The class was part of an introductory module in my first year at university. I had never before then considered myself to hold any attitude towards/against gay people or anyone having a right to choose, I felt comfortable with my position as i had a gay uncle so that surely qualified me as being fine with the world as I never thought bad of him for his sexual orienation.

(13) This was in the days afore Brokeback and “gay cowboys eating pie”.

(14) Barring those whose lifestyle choice is to be a part of a group that removes the choices from others of course, old Wicca standard, “do what thou wilt, without harm”. But, seriously I can support just about anything that allows people the right to choose but not the stance that if you support it will remove that right, there has to be basic rights we all have.(15)

(15) I am not a Wiccan I just like the phrase, I guess we could also use “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.

As usual the Summer madness that is holidays, conferences and schedules came around and bit all of us quite hard so the role-play scene has been odd of late.

As gamers we have supplemented this with a few different tactics and regular changes.

1. We now have a regular computer game session, mostly weekly where a group, gaggle, subset of group, of us wander around the Guild Wars Universe (online game) and battle creatures and do feats of derring-do.

2. I have run a couple of odd one-off sessions, including the infamous Dark Sun and some sessions inside a standard Sci-fi Alternity ‘Verse.

3. We have played far too much Arkham Horror, including a failed game or two and now own all of the sets including the very latest set.

4. I have started work on the Victorian game again and we have had a session in which new people started on the aftermath of Prague. In that game things are going from bad to weird and the hunt is still on for Eddie, can they hold Gary and the Count and who is going to stop Dimitri from upsetting the local constabulary (oh wait, they don’t know about that yet…)

The Autumn looks set to continue the pattern of unusual gaming as we still have conferences and holidays to mess with us, but with some luck we can squeeze in a regular session or two and perhaps have a good stab at some regular epic ness as the Forgotten Realms super epic will soon pass a true milestone, 95 consecutive games, making it the longest running single story arc. We are now 4 games away from the mighty 100 session, which will be 700 hours of gaming or about a month (29 days and several hours). Quite the story. It is currently tied at 94 games with the UN Investigation game from a long time ago.

We shall see what the future has in store in a later post

-mdk

Introduction…

A couple of months of real time gaming (we meet for this session on a Sunday night – not every Sunday as it has to compete with life and another game session with the same players), 5 days of in-game time and about 60 demons, several hundred zombies, a 500ft-tall cthulu–esque angel/portal and some pretty nasty human controllers down. We find our epic Victorian’s up by two prisoners but down by two friends.

The epic fight in Prague is finally over.

Exposition…

If you have been following the occasional posts on Victoriana Arcana you will know that this game is set in an alternate steam-punk universe where we have super powers, demons, cthulu creatures and aliens, yep the whole shebang. It is a little messy about the edges (mostly when people explode into tentacle creatures) and has a plot with more twists in it than a three thousand mile corkscrew, but it is fun.

Also, because of the setup of us using an Alternity system with the FX dialled to maximum (and beyond) the players are walking around with way higher maximum stats (66-70 points) and over 10fx points – some have 15+ – making them heroes in the Marvel Universe mode.

Which is needed, as the creatures they face, like last nights end of level baddie (a 500ft tall angel portal cthuluesque creature and an essence of a great old one, part of its intelligence that had been sent to the body of one of their fallen comrades) are maxed in terms of scope and power. The angel was ripping the buildings apart and the intelligence was ordering people to die (which one of them did by exploding in a mass of horrid tentacles).

But they survived.

Reflection…

They went to Prague following the path of the new type of weapons that have started appearing, Prague is where they were being shipped from. The enemy were using technology stolen from the future using powers they haven’t uncovered yet. They were also tracking down a lost comrade (who had turned to evil).

This resulted in an epic series of battles. They have fought several demons, mostly major demons and two semi-immortal (i.e. bloody hard to kill as they regenerated) Demon Princes. They attacked and mostly destroyed a castle, a grand manor house, most of the warehouse district of Prague and spread a bed of flowers over an area of 10km in radius.

All of this happened over a few days, four of them in fact. Each of the three players were using three to four of their characters at the same time and their were a further ten PC-level NPCs that were provided by me. They split into four teams and we split the narrative into four interweaving tracks with last nights epic seven-hour fight, flight and destroy happening over the final night.

They survived…mostly…

They captured a leader of an enemy group and recovered their lost (potentially evil) comrade…

But they won…sort of…

Conclusions…

They returned to London (using long-distance teleportation) at speed after their battle. They were able, using an alien device, to contact their commander in the middle of their battle. Only to discover that the home base was under attack.

So they rushed home…

To find their founder, Lord Edward, gone…kidnapped, along with several others. Their building destroyed with many dead. Their base was attacked on the day of their success and after they had undergone an epic four days.

So it isn’t really over…

There may be more epic days in June

-mdk

The Victorian Detectives game has notched up a gear as the character there are now in the middle of a “right old barney” in the fair city of Prague. They initially came here to investigate the construction and supply of ‘future’ weaponry that is being distributed from Prague and to find links to Gary, the agent who was kidnapped.
Then the real fun started.

Gary has defected to the other side, not only that he is responsible for the new weaponry. Somehow he is more than twenty years older and they have learned that he was sent back in time to construct the weapons so they would be ready to use now ( a timey-wimey paradox approaches). Meanwhile the agents of the Fallen Church are mixed up in this weapons supply and have been using their demon lore to summon Greater Demons to Prague. The two fights involving these have seen great events, fire and brimstone falling from the sky, explosions, and all sorts of kick ass supers fighting.

Now, an angel has appeared, except this is in fact a creature linked to the Great Old Ones (Cthulu-esque creatures from beyond the veil, externals to our universe) and he has thrown a Circle of Power around the whole of Prague preventing Alienists from passing through, so some of our heroes are trapped. With more than one Alien race on the way.
So the heroes now face:

• Human enemies with futuristic weapons and great firepower;
• Greater Demons and summonings of demonic creatures and sacrifices;
• A threat from beyond the universe whose incursion into ours just results in gross cellular corruption, madness and death;
• Alien races heading to have a fight they started on Earth a long time ago;
• An old friend who has turned traitor and now wishes to kill them.

Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun

So we are still bashing our way through the mighty epic of epicness with one of the groups, we have now just come out of some fun in the dark areas of Death’s Reach (adapted from the module of the same name) and are now back in the North of the lands of Faerun near Neverwinter.

There was a brief diversion caused by some epic gaming near a portal (made from blood) and a Tome of the Planes and a Dark Wanderer skill abused quite heavily which saw a brief post-modern side trek into a parody of our own world. There the characters fought a bus, got very drunk, abused the heck out of Earth culture and laughed at our idea of astrologers and clairvoyants.

Now though they stand paused, ready to move back towards the territories they last visited three game years ago (or more in the case of the Minotaur), looking for ways to enter the rift and to finally step into the Underdark, to confront Torog, stop the assembly of Vecna’s items, find and destroy Timesus, oh and there is still the long running dispute with Orcus to consider…

So we are still playing the occasional Dark Sun game, as I wind down the huge epic of epicness, in preparation for a longer deeper slog and it seems to be going fairly well. True, the players are having a little fun getting their heads into gear on the fact that Dark Sun people have a bad attitude in general, life is harsh and attitudes are cruel.One person who breaks that rule is Prince Bert.

I thought I might explain a little of the good prince for you all here.

Prince Bert is based upon a character that Paul Fenwick (@pjf on Twitter) created as a young roleplayer (I think it may have been his first character). I liked the name as lot, I also liked the idea that you could potentially have a regal person called Bert. Inspired by this and by the tale of the First Emperor of America (Emperor Norton) I read in the Sandman series I created a Dark Sun personality called Prince Bert.

Prince Bert claims to be the last in the line of royals who once ruled the world of Athas before the dragon of Tyr came and destroyed it all. He knows a great deal of information about the history and geography of Athas, but this could be from his life of being an almost non-person. He is a street beggar, but an amiable one. He politely refers to money given to him as donations from his loyal subjects. He appears infrequently but often with a vital plot clue that he has overheard or just gained from his ramblings.

In last nights game the characters enjoyed/endured a meal in the sun with Bert (he wanted to get a lot more sun to “aid his complexion” and to help “warm the brains into greater thought”) , they also met with his counselor Lochinvar* who is a small cat-like lizard I used Lochinvar because of the line from Black Adder and not the wonderful Sir Walter Scott poem, which is interesting as the poem has a Fenwick in the last stanza (see the poem below). I now of course will have to use the poem and its references more if I am to use young Lochinvar again .

I like Bert, he is a noble and gentle soul who is at odds with the harsh entities who normally beg and frequent the dark streets of the Warrens in Tyr, he is also a homage to a character (who was a real person http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Norton) in Sandman and to a fellow gamers first PC.

*Lochinvar a poem by Sir Walter Scott

H! young Lochinvar is come out of the west,
Through all the wide Border his steed was the best;
And save his good broadsword he weapons had none.
He rode all unarmed and he rode all alone.
So faithful in love and so dauntless in war,
There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.

He stayed not for brake and he stopped not for stone,
He swam the Eske river where ford there was none,
But ere he alighted at Netherby gate
The bride had consented, the gallant came late:
For a laggard in love and a dastard in war
Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.

So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall,
Among bridesmen, and kinsmen, and brothers, and all:
Then spoke the bride’s father, his hand on his sword,–
For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word,–
‘Oh! come ye in peace here, or come ye in war,
Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?’–

‘I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;
Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide–
And now am I come, with this lost love of mine,
To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.
There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far,
That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar.’

The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up,
He quaffed off the wine, and he threw down the cup,
She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh,
With a smile on her lips and a tear in her eye.
He took her soft hand ere her mother could bar,–
‘Now tread we a measure!’ said young Lochinvar.

So stately his form, and so lovely her face,
That never a hall such a galliard did grace;
While her mother did fret, and her father did fume,
And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume;
And the bride — maidens whispered ”Twere better by far
To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar.’

One touch to her hand and one word in her ear,
When they reached the hall-door, and the charger stood near;
So light to the croupe the fair lady he swung,
So light to the saddle before her he sprung!
‘She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and scaur;
They’ll have fleet steeds that follow,’ quoth young Lochinvar.

There was mounting ‘mong Graemes of the Netherby clan;
Fosters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran:
There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee,
But the lost bride of Netherby ne’er did they see.
So daring in love and so dauntless in war,
Have ye e’er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?

This Thursday (18th November) will see the start of the Dark Sun game we are playing. Things have progressed since I first conceived of this game.

1. Timescales

Due to the varying interests and the difficulty in organising a game between many busy people, especially since there are other games happening that they are involved with, it has been hard to lock down a regular schedule.

2. Attendence

Add to that the fact that some people need to be playing one week but not the next.

3. Anti-Epic

I love epics, I have to admit it. especially when i am playing D&D. I know it feels like a cliche and perhaps it is a cliche, but I was introduced to good fantasy quite late in my life and I was introduced via Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit both of which have the feeling of life on a grand scale. So small games that are unconnected to a larger plan are hard for me to construct.

4. baby Ben

I have a young son, it puts a strain on the games by having to organise him and to organise my life more.

5. Types of Hero

There are many source books now with a plethora of types of build, race, class etc., it is going to be almost impossible for people to play a large number of good character ideas to even the lowest of tiers (Heroic Tier upto 10th lvl) – and what about testing out a 25th level character to play out a character archetype?

So how do we fit in this new game? there was only one solution.

The Answer

I have decided to re-invent/revise/reconstruct/revisit/renew a game idea I played some time ago. it is a variant on the idea of the dirty city games I used to run in which players would have more than one character who would interact in varying ways. I used this style in another fantasy game I constructed loosely based around elements of Sigil

For Dark Sun I thought this would work quite well, I could tell my epic story as the characters would play minor roles and major chunks of a larger over-arching storyline and at the same time we could have people drop in and out, play many types of character, be random

I am sure to say something of how it goes

a.k.a It’s a Fact We’re Back[1]

What I mailed to my players this eve:

Get your characters warmed up, there is a strange mist hovering around the temple leading to Raven Queen’s Inner Realm and that first shrine seems to be sullied with the blood of her worshipers.

What this means:

After a long absence of over 19 weeks we will be returning to the Epic adventure that for this group of players started over three years ago. it has been a long haul, there is a book (1st part of this 5 part adventure is 90K words in length) and there have been many casualties (all in game). But now we see the end in sight, but it is a tumultuous ride getting there, with multiple plots to fill and a host of things going on, welcome to the Epic level and all it entails.

There will be Gods, Angels, Babies and Romances – and that’s just in the PCs.

There will also be more….

————————–

1. And we’re hanging from the rooftops shouting out.

We recently completed the Dark Sun Gameday as a group and for the day we created a feedback report (may be linked to later as a pdf but is currently 10mb in size), which I now present to you all. Once again thanks to the players and Wizards for a great day.

Dark Sun: Game Day

The Apes for God play test Dark Sun and come to terms with the new,
and quite challenging, world of Athas

The Setup

by Mark Keating

The Dark Sun game day held an interesting promise for me as I was a fan of this particular setting from the days of 2nd edition so it would be good to once again visit this world but this time as the DM. This Game Day was played by experienced gamers who all were familiar, though one only slightly, with the 4th edition.

The module had the familiar format that Wizards have become familiar with, there was a group of characters, a decent little adventure with skill package and encounters (slightly variable with the addition of a possible encounter) and enough extra material (monster counters/map/booklet) to run the game.
The story itself was aided by not being a crawl underground, or a search the location for monsters/treasure. Instead we were treated with a piece of intrigue, and a challenge against the environment and a new magical location for the world.

As with the other adventures, and the pattern set up by the 4th Edition rules the skill challenge was going to cause issue to my players. There is nothing wrong in essence of having a challenge where players roll against a skill they have, but it is the manner in which it is presented to them. First they are told the event they face, then they are allowed to make rolls against appropriate skills, then ask them if they can modify those roles with a set of secondary rolls (pre-ordained) add up the successes and failures to determine outcome.

It is very sterile.

Also the intrigue that was set up by this adventure didn’t speak a great deal about the city of Tyr. Choose one of these encounters and let the players be employed, or choose one that they refuse and have a back-up offer! That was how it read (my interpretation).

I knew if I ran these as they were presented that there would be complaints from the players about the paucity of plot and the dullness of a skill challenge that was nothing more than an exercise in guesswork (for the skill to be used) and luck (for the rolls).

No one doubts that there is a certain amount of guessing and luck in any challenge, combat included, that involves random dice rolls and unexpected events or conditions. But in a combat the players can work out tactics and utilise combined gaming. Even this skill challenge that attempted to use “group” rolls this would still be poor.

So to alleviate this I made some small changes once again to the set module.

(I should note at this point that this is not a complaint about either the system or the module, both are produced to a high standard that I have come to enjoy from Wizards.)

The Changes

The first major change I made was to the intrigue element of the plot. I was instructed by the booklet to choose one of the “reasons” for the players to be engaged.

I thought this was flimsy in a world of spies and intrigue and everyone watching each others backs.

So I chose three.

I explained that their party had a history, they were mercenaries and revolutionaries who had helped to free Tyr. So on the start of the game they received a summons. They were engaged by officials from the Ministry of Defence to find this potential new water source.

On their way from the official quarters they were persuaded, by a polite man with some very large friends to attend another meeting. This was a private noble who wanted them to give him the information on the Cistern (whether it was real or not) first, on the quiet, so that he could arrive ahead of the army and claim the prize and make money from it.

The third encounter was a man representing the nobles who supported the revolution and the freeing of slaves. He requested they tell him, not first, or alone, but whatever the circumstance, even if they told others before him so that he could have the information released for the good of all. No one would be able to claim an absolute right if the citizens were made aware.

This gave the players more intrigue and a glimpse of the convoluted paths that may exist in a world where everyone watches each other and the aim is to gain the upper hand.

The next change I made was to the skill challenge. I decided to stretch out this encounter a little.

I gave the players an ample set of hints as to the challenge by forcing them to make the first endurance rolls. Then I presented them with the desert in three forms including a small area of badlands and some dunes to see how they faced this and what skills they chose to make. They used endurance, nature and history to learn more and help them.

Then I had them followed during the dune section, the first group they saw were figures on a far dune, they presumed this was a rival group so they started to run. They could have faced the threat and had they done so I would have used the Elven group from the optional encounters. Instead they decided to run to get to the cistern.

Knowing that the desert was harsh, and the sun a challenge is only part of the charm of Athas. Another component is the changes rent upon people and creatures. The shift in evolution from dark magics and environment that twist this world.

Their running therefore had the consequence of attracting some Silt Sharks in the soft dunes, so the players had to race away from these creatures. Because there were only five players I hung the threat of devouring over their heads, claiming that I had a handy spare character who would be in the same desert .

They escaped these sharks by the skin of a halflings behind (which almost didn’t escape, instead he lost his survival pack). One more environment of badlands to navigate and they reached the hidden valley with the Cistern

The Combat Challenge

All I can say to this is YAY to the designers of Athas.

Combat just got a new nasty edge as the lack of major healers and healing powers going off in all directions and the addition of a nasty (Tembo) creature made for three harder combat challenges. This forced the players to think in clever directions and the Ardent used a surprising taunting/bluff to get the Tembo to face him when he ran out of healing. Classic.

∞ § ∞

Players responses

Mikey

So then there was me tardy as usual putting of the actual writing of things because unless I can put it into a an excel reference right now I’m screwed.

Well as to the game what can I say the GM was back to his wonderful sadistic ways and kept us all jumping and thinking. I loved the setting and the darker side to the world. It was interesting playing the “healer” without many heals. The idea to add debuff to the enemies was interesting but in some ways with a standard saving throw the more powerful ones at times felt wasted but forced people to think outside the box to get through an encounter.

The new cardboard counters are great because they can provide more of the map packs at lower cost but it was nice to have all the monster figures on the maps in the previous games.

All in all another well though out scenario provided by the GM. I’m looking forward to the campaign to come.

And = if(A1>10,”Great Game Day”,”") the output of the cell will be Great Game Day.

CHUCK

So after a bit of a break the group has dived into Dark Sun with the help of the gameday for a taster session.  I had the Thrikeen Seeker for the day and off we went with snacks loaded.

We had a quick taste of the intrigue of the world as we moved through the city of Tyr heading out to our quest (apparently its a secret – but everyone seemed to know about it).

We had an entertaining little encounter in replacement of the standard roll and go skill challenges (it was determined in a previous game that the alternative skill challenge was far more suitable to our group) which ended in a narrow, very narrow,  victory for the halfling over the sand shark.

Moving into the encounter with the gith we got our first taste of the abilities our group possessed and we rapidly realised healing wasn’t our strong point   so a brief but brutal combat ended with the Gith down but 3 of our party down as well.   I should have stayed with the Warlock and not come.   Picking up our comrades we pootled down into the fresh waters – well I say pootled – the halfing decided it was best to dive head first.

The fight with the creature was a very entertaining encounter and got my heart pumping (a bit to much probably – sorry bout that boss) but with some clever tactics and a sacrificial manouveur from the healer (who was out of healing spells) to allow the damage dealers an extra round or two to kill the beast it was subdued – leaving the defender with out healing surges and still bloodied.

The final combat with the templar and his mates went exceptionally well with the enemies subdued within three or rounds with minimal damage to the party with the fighter, barbarian and myself targeting the templar and gladiator whilst the monk and ardent removed the lesser thugs.

And after a nice cool night in the shade we headed back to town to get our spoils and gather a few political enemies on the way.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the game day and possibly think it was one of the best so far.  It was a good insight into the struggles we face once our Dark Sun campaign starts and the intrigue that will surround our every move.  The encounters were tough (probably the toughest ever) but we managed to adapt and overcome them using everything we had available.  I look forward to exploring the deserts of Athas!

STARKITTEN

I have taken part in every 4th edition D&D game day so far and can honestly say that the latest offering, marking the release of the Dark Sun campaign setting, is the first time I felt the character was in real danger of not surviving .

Taking a change from my usual character preferences I went for the goliath barbarian gladiator, mostly because the picture looked cool. All the characters had one of the new themes which was great because they came with a bit of a background so we had an idea who they were, which can be a problem with the one-off games when you don’t have time to build up a good idea of your character. I’m not sure what difference the themes made to the mechanics of the characters as it wasn’t clear which – if any – of the features were granted by them from the little character sheets. We also got to see both of the new races in action. They worked well, though it would have been nice to have the minis like we used to since we had a little trouble finding something bug-like for the thri-kreen .

But back to my first point: this game was hard! Not in a bad way, I throughly enjoyed it, but we had three combat encounters without a rest (and I know our DM took at least one out) and healing powers were not something we had in abundance since the group leader only had the basic Ardent surge. One player managed to use all their healing surges so I’m pretty sure we would have lost a few people if we’d done all the combats. The fight with the tembo provided a particularly good challenge. Also, we didn’t use the warlock character due to numbers and quit a few time on the skill challenges we realised they had the skills that would have been useful (whoops!), but we did manage to get through the desert without getting eaten by sand sharks (though two characters did try) so I think we did pretty well.

All in all I really enjoyed the game and what I saw of the campaign setting, which is obviously darker and harsher than the other settings we’ve played in. I’m looking forward to the Dark Sun campaign that our DM is going to be starting soon, so thanks for another great game day!

STEELY

Character: Mul Fighter

This is a new race which is built for strength and melee fighting but also has the ability to use psychic powers, this particular character having one such ranged attack. The balance of the attacks worked well and I’d probably use this build as a template for a new character when we start playing our own campaigns. I decided to play this character as a change to my usual ‘spells & healing’ type so that I could just get in to the fight and bash things, the result was a very enjoyable game.

The new races and classes in Dark Sun are great fun to play with and the party now appears to be more specialised in what they do – in 4th edition healing seems to be available from all corners of the battle field and, especially at higher levels, damage doesn’t stack up for too long (this isn’t an invitation for our DM to bring out the big monsters). Dark Sun restricts the healing ability and makes for very interesting game play with non-healing players relying on the healers.

The new monsters are also an improvement, the encounters were varied and challenging with a few surprises thrown in – giving a creature multiple attacks really caught us out but we got there in the end.

PUPPETMASTER

I thought the new big monsters were nails. I wasn’t the only one to die. (mostly) The characters seemed to meld well together and not having a magic user meant we had to rely on our strength and wits.
The new characters were interesting and the quest well thought out. We knew which characters were blooded, which helped. I liked Chuck’s insect type character and the way the Goliath was restricted by her size and kept banging her head on the cave ceiling.

The maps were interesting although I missed having little monster figures,

So we have added the Black Goat of the Woods Expansion to our growing list of Arkham modules.

And we have faced the Black Goat, first as the easy mode – a game which we thought we’d lose but we won with some clever team playing – and then in Herald Mode…

And I saw a figure in the woods
He had eyes of fire
And horned feet
his name was Blackness
His heart was Dave
(Hmmm maybe got those mixed….)

The herald mode of Black Goat is quite the mode to face. Firstly you have two monster pots (the hex monsters get their own pot) and everytime you draw a gate you get an extra creature from the new pot. Also anyone who fights and defeats a Hex monster has to take a corruption card – I quickly ended up with a stack of corruption cards as my card was a draw 2 more cards whenever triggered.

Never mind though, as I was quickly joined by Leigh who fought four creatures and got a stack of her own cards. She ended the game with 6-7 corruption cards I ended with three (I lost 4 to gate closures).

But that wasn’t the worst of our troubles.

We also drew Yog-Soggoth.

he is a Bastard.

We quiclkly got 6 open portals and activated the smegger, he devours people who have no gate tokens so we lost one character at the start, then he starts annihilating your will, a failed role is a lost gate token and devouring.

In the end it was the Salesman played by Steph who dropped the most damage on this old one. Steph was fortunate to have a shotgun and a high will, she also scored with a propensity for rolling sixes (two successes on a shotgun). We did a modestly respectable 55% damage before we all died.

Not bad….

Not great….

We didn’t win….

But next time Goat Boy, you’re arse is mince pie.