Nick P's birthday on Saturday was a lot of fun, although there was an incident that did put a dampner on things - and kind of kept Nick from spending more time with his friends at his own party. I felt kind of bad for not really stepping up to the plate to help, but it felt like too many people would have made things worse, not better.
Over all, the party was a lot of fun and it was great to catch up with everyone.
Sunday and Monday were pretty uneventful as well.
I had my new group for Monday Exalted over this evening for character creation, and I feel that some progress was made. Fraser is extremely hyped about it all. I also foolishly agreed to work a six day week this week. I'm just reminding myself that I'm getting paid and that I get time and a half for the sixth day. :)
Plus it's toys - come on! It'll be loads of fun. :D
In an interesting twist on things, there has been a new roleplaying game promoted on RPGnet's banners called In Dark Alleys. I was slightly intrigued by the concept - although it does advertise using philosophers in a rather stupid manner - "They laughed at Plato, They laughed at Freud, They laughed at Nietzsche..."
Who?
Not that many people laughed at Plato at all - he's still respected to this very day as a key philosopher. That's why we still study his works thousands of years later. Nietzsche? Some people laughed at him behind his back, but most people just disagree with his philosophy and a majority just misinterpret it - the creators of In Dark Alleys among them from the sound of things. Freud - well people did laugh at him. But that is mostly because his theories were pretty bunk. Considering that IDA draws on freudian archetypes, it's a bit risky.
In fact, there is a lot on that site that ended up suggesting to me people who studied a little philosophy and psychology and then kind of got it all wrong but hoped to use it as a foundation for their games.
Which isn't all bad - Kult was born from Gnosticism and it is a damn fine horror game. But the approach that Varjar takes is... well... questionable. I have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth when I read the preview material and can't quite explain why.
I certainly dislike their ORC system. It's counter-intuitive and very old-school design. Maybe that's the thing. It reminds me a lot of other games I have seen from third party publishers, like Andromeda 2500. Written as if the last twenty years of roleplaying development never happened.
For a game that claims to be about dramatic character creation, it feels very numbers heavy and not character focused at all. Where the system could have gone with an excellent life-path system or something that gave players more options character wise, IDA and the ORC system seem more interested in trying to realistically model everything - every skill (of which there is a MASSIVE list) has its own set of rules.
Not a good start and very, very old school.
Wow. For someone with little on his mind I managed to fill up quite a bit of space. :)
Anyhoop, I'm off to bed now. So hope you all sleep well and have a good night!
Love and Huggles
Conan
Currently Reading: Exalted 2e Storyteller's Companion
Currently Playing: Unknown Armies - To Go; Mage: The Awakening - Threshold
Mood: Feeling good and happy
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