Infini-Nut

Review: Avatar Movie

2010-01-29T16:39:00.001+11:00

I saw the Avatar movie twice over the holiday period, both times in 3D. Visually it is a glorious feast for the senses, but in terms of story it was Dances with Wolves (or Pocahontas), and fairly ordinary. The acting was actually of quite a high level for a Hollywood action sci-fi film, with newcomer Sam Worthington holding his own alongside veteran actress Sigourney Weaver.

The slightly wacky eco theme sits curiously well with me as the bizarre ecological situation on Pandora is really unable to be compared with Earth – and in fact given the apparent lack of sensitivity of Earth’s creatures to each other we might even find that a Pandoran viewpoint would be that Earth’s deadness existed even before humanity killed it (as Sam’s character alludes).

From a spiritual viewpoint I find it interesting that people are seeking the one great truth, and grasping at the apparent holiness of the eco-green movement as the way forward. The hypocrisy of that movement is that it places ecology before humanity, whilst claiming that it is more humane to live that way – the millions of people who have suffered starvation because of the rush to make biofuel out of food crops are testimony to the illogic. Some of the greatest green leaders are in fact quite open about believing that we need less people on the Earth (perhaps if we need to kill ourselves off they could go first?).

Anyway, that wasn’t what this post was supposed to be about. In fact the thing that prompted me to write something tonight about Avatar was its use of 3D. A lot has been said about this being the first real mainstream movie use of the 3D effect. There were certainly scenes where the 3D was particularly noticeable (in the holographic displays in the command centre and in the ash flakes falling from the sky). There were also scenes where it was probably used, but it was less obvious (like the flying scenes). Seeing the movie again in 2D would probably be the only way I could truly tell where it was most used.

It was the less subtle times when it was used that bothered me as it jolted me out of my suspension of disbelief and reminded me where I really was. In my mind this is the paradox of 3D effects. As long as the 3D effect is simply adding depth to the screen you run the risk of a few things happening:

Reminding the audience that they’re really in a cinema (or at home now that 3D TVs have launched).
This happened to me when the ash flakes fell and it felt like something fell in front of my eyes in the cinema and blocked my vision, which was annoying.
Allowing the director to force a focal plane on the audience.
In some scenes, particularly the command centre, I wanted to focus on the cool background items but found them deliberately out of focus because of the 3D effect. This is less obvious in 2D movies and it feels more natural looking at the background items.
Bringing the audience into the scene.
This seems like it should be a good thing, but as long as we can’t change the point of view it can be frustrating to feel like you’re cemented to one part of a scene, especially one that may challenge your phobias or perceptions (the character may want to peek over the edge of a 500m drop, that doesn’t mean I want to).

An obvious future step is for filmmakers to try to give audiences the ability to change their point of view (POV) in each scene in the movie, and then to even attempt to give them the POV of the main character. This is the ultimate merging of first-person shooter games with the movie format.

Playing with POV can lead to some insidious issues, such as the problems created when the main character and the main viewpoint are one and the same. In this case you are given some uncomfortable issues to deal with if the main character lies or is misdirected as the audience must be likewise affected. Physical comedy becomes much harder to represent when the body of the main character is invisible – and worse the audience may be left feeling the physical discomfort of the performer rather than the humour of his actions (although some new, more subtle, comedic routines might be discovered that make use of this fact).

So if 3D filmmakers avoid the issues of POV by taking the more traditional ‘limited godhood’ viewpoint then the issue becomes how to cope with audiences that will manipulate the POV for their own purposes (I can already see websites springing up with screenshots of actors from compromising/embarrassing angles). Perhaps some angles would be marked off-limits and unavailable, guarding film crews and actors alike – or post-production would become super-intensive and designed to limit the effect of compromising viewpoints.

Of course the technology to capture 3D is a long way from allowing us to capture all of a scene in real-life cameras, but that wouldn’t stop the type of CGI scenes that Jim Cameron has pulled off in Avatar – which then brings back the existence of compromising angles.

I think the first-person POV will be experimented with, but in movies like Doom that was generally regarded as an annoying gimmick (remember The Rock?), and I can’t see it taking off in 3D either, except perhaps in the horror or X-rated movie genres. In fact there might be a place for it in romantic movies – after all it would feel great to be seduced by a famous actor/actress, right? Perhaps not, but I’m sure someone will try it.

In fact, before POV becomes changeable it would be nice to see the plane of focus being variable. If we could choose what was in and out of focus then that would make it a much more natural experience and add variety to movies that you might watch time and time again.

Other areas are likely to prosper once we get 3D TVs into our living rooms. For one thing sport offers a tremendous area of innovation as promoters look for ways to bring the audience onto the sporting field. However the costs of creating 3D cameras might be prohibitive in a fast-moving and unpredictable domain like sports (although table tennis, darts and snooker might be easy ones to make 3D). The thrill of being in the midst of a sporting occasion would mare it an obvious choice for pay TV, and this alone might make it the starting point.

Gaming is the most fertile ground for 3D TVs. Technological breakthroughs like Microsoft’s Project Natal enhancement to the XBox will also offer an amazing degree of interaction with a 3D image – with the potential of games taking advantage of your 3D TV and the Natal interface to offer truly immersive experiences. In fact that might be the greatest use of a 3D movie in providing rich, immersive ready for 3D worlds for game designers to then populate with challenges and learning experiences for novice and experienced games alike.

STAR TREK WIDGET

2009-04-01T23:00:00.001+11:00

Experiencing Top Gear Australia

2008-10-17T17:06:00.003+11:00

I had the pleasure Wednesday night of going with 3 mates, Andrew, Dan and Chris, to be studio audience members for the 6th episode of Top Gear Australia (TGA). Whilst it was fun, I would say that the experience is one I'm not keen to repeat. As in the taping of any pre-recorded TV show there is lots of time spent waiting for crew to move things around and cast members to get their lines right - and unlike most shows you are standing up the whole time.

The TGA hosts, Charlie, Warren and Steve, usually got their lines right the first or second time. But one segment just didn't seem to work and we saw several attempts at it - fortunately this was made more bearable by Warren hopping up on their center stage and giving us an impromptu trivia lesson about TGA and its British parent.

Top Gear Australia hosts Warren Brown, Charlie Cox and Steve Pizzati

The hosts were all charismatic, funny and friendly, with Charlie perhaps being the most standoffish. Actually Charlie looks like he could stand to gain a few kilos as he is a bit too skinny. Warren was great and very approachable - Steve was a little invisible (perhaps because he's too short).

The different segments were spread around the cavernous hanger which allowed different parts of the audience take their turns in getting close to the action. Canned segments were displayed at the appropriate time on monitors so we understood the hosts' references to those elements of the show. If I was going again, I would try to stand right at the edge of the center stage (the one they use for celebrity interviews) as people there were able to get up on the edge of the stage and see what was happening further away more easily than those of us on ground level.

The actual studio is very basic on the outside, but inside is full of relics of the hosts' car stunts (the shark-cage car, a sailing Audi and this week's demolition derby cars were all on display - sometimes levered up high, but mostly accessible to bored audience members. I would show some photos but you are banned from taking cameras in the studio, and asked to turn mobile phones off as they interfere with the recording equipment (really?). Being at a working airport (Bankstown Aerodrome) the taping had to halt a couple of times as helicopters took off or landed nearby.

The celebrity guest for our episode was James Morrison, a famous Australian jazz musician, and avid petrolhead. He had a cracker of an interview with Charlie and having had 96 cars (!) he was obviously at home discussing them. He has also had some experience in celebrity races and rally car driving. Watching his lap footage it looked like he was simply taking it easy, when in fact he was hurtling around the track faster than anyone else so far (including Steve Bisley).

(Sidenote: I just saw a Prius with Police stickers driving around Frenchs Forest - weird!)

After 2 hours we were all feeling footsore and a little bit bored, so we took off early for a bite to eat, Andrew reckoned he knew where to find Sydney's best wood-fired pizza nearby ... except he got us lost and we ended up at Yagoona. The pizza was respectably delicious, although the ambience of the area leaves a lot to be desired. That is one suburb that has sure gone downhill in recent years and if you are not familiar with the area I recommend you take the M5 to nearby Beverly Hills instead. The main strip near Beverly Hills train station is now famous for its high quality and affordable restaurants -if we'd been bothered (and paid a little more) we could have had a much more pleasant meal there. Although we would have missed seeing Andrew trot out his rusty Italian and get (loudly!) ear-bashed by the proprietor of the pizza joint! :D

World of LEGO

2008-07-02T08:46:00.001+10:00

I was a LEGO fanatic as a kid, always wanting more of the little coloured blocks and building everything my imagination could desire, from spaceports to castles, dinosaurs or anything in between. My enormous LEGO collection was passed onto my half-brothers and has dispersed from there to other kids.

Having kids myself means I get to re-visit my childhood and re-enter the world of LEGO, this time with a more discriminating eye and the aim of getting the best value for my kids that I can.

Things are certainly different from when I was a kid, and yet the basics are the same. There is a greater selection of bricks/parts than ever before, and even small models come with unique parts that offer interesting re-build possibilities. The basic streams of city, space and castle LEGO are still there, but there are new lines that target specific media licenses (such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Speed Racer, etc.). There is a far greater prevalence of friction and pull-back motors that give kids all sorts of vehicle possibilities, but there are less lights and battery operated pieces than when I was a kid. Technics is still around, but there is also MindStorms, the robot building kits.

Being a one-time LEGO junkie there is nothing better than sitting with my kids and helping them build an X-Wing launcher, monster truck or other fun toy. In fact there are still a good number of adults that still build LEGO models, it's just that they are either aiming to look more like models than toys (e.g. see the spacecraft below) or they use them for other purposes like wargaming or roleplaying games. There is even LEGOuniverse, the upcoming massively multiplayer online game from LEGO.

With the newer editions of D&D emphasising the use of square map grids for combat maps, the LEGO world starts to make some sense, particularly given the additional minifig personalisation options now that we have aliens from Star Wars, Dwarves and Trolls (OK, Ogres and Orcs) in the LEGO range. Unfortunately by the time you collect enough bricks and minifigs you might as well have spent the cash for good old fashioned wargame miniatures, especially if you are just a player who wants a single (if highly customised) minifig.

Fortunately it turns out that the bricks aren't the only thing that's changed in the last 20 years. You can now find sites online where you can buy single bricks/parts and get hard to find items that might not even be in production any more (can anyone say Pirate LEGO?). There are even sites where people make custom parts compatible with LEGO, for example farm animals, wizard's capes, etc. In fact there is a plethora of sites out there, many of which are just copies of each other.

Here is a short list of the sites I've been most impressed with:

Bricks to the World
First up, an Aussie company that gives you access to the whole LEGO range, including some kits that are no longer available elsewhere.
FindMyBrick.com is a great site to go to find individual bricks/parts. The ability to buy individual parts (usually for less than a US dollar) makes it easy to build a minifig to match your elven fighter-mage. They also have some modified bricks.
Official LEGO Store
Of course there is an official online store, but prices may not differ much from your local toy store (and with shipping are usually more). However there are pieces for sale there that are not available elsewhere, such as this huge LEGO chess set.
BrickQuest
In the spirit of HeroQuest comes BrickQuest, a fantasy boardgame that uses LEGO pieces and settings. There are even fan sites with ideas for monsters.
MOCpages
This site gives LEGO enthusiasts a place to showcase their models. I particularly like DARKspawn's range of historical building models.
Brickshelf
Like MOCpages this gives the enthusiast somewhere to show off their latest models.
Minifig.co.uk
This is not an eCommerce site, but it has a nice selection of custom models for the Viking and Castle ranges.
The Brick Testament
This is a fun retelling of the Bible using LEGO bricks and minifigs.

Enjoy LEGOing and let me know if you find any other good sites out there!

Signs of the Singularity

2008-06-10T15:13:00.000+10:00

Vernor Vinge is still banging on about the Singularity. In this case in the latest IEEE Spectrum, with Signs of the Singularity.

Personally I think that humanity is more than bits and bytes and processing power is not, and never will, be equal to human intelligence. More to the point I suspect we will come across technological revolutions (like printing or the internet), but they will not fundamentally alter human nature, or the essential issues of being human (living, loving, growing old and dying).

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition

2008-06-10T08:32:00.001+10:00

This is my review of the 4th Edition rules for Dungeons & Dragons. Basically I like them, although I think they have been marketed at a mature audience and I would not recommend them for anyone younger than 15, and with parental guidance for any older teenager.

I was surprised this weekend when I managed to get an hour or two free from the family to browse my FLGS and found that they had just got their first delivery of Dungeons & Dragons, 4th Edition (D&D 4e). Another pleasant surprise was the price, AU$39.95 each for the Player's Handbook (PHB), Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) and Monster Manual (MM). After perusing the books for 10 minutes or so I was sure that whilst interesting, this might not be the future for my gaming group, so I only plunked down the cash for the PHB and DMG, as the MM could come later if I actually DMed anything.

Dungeons & Dragons was one of the first pen-and-paper roleplaying games (RPGs) that experienced a huge growth in the 1970's and 1980's before first collectible card games (CCGs), and then massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs) ate into their customer base, especially the important new players (who tend to spend a lot on new rule books).

Here are the major differences I've noticed in my first few reads:

Core Classes: Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, Warlord, Wizard.
Core Races: Dragonborn, Dwarf, Eladrin, Elf, Hafling, Half-Elf, Human, Tiefling.
Alignments: Lawful Good, Good, Unaligned, Evil, Chaotic Evil.
All classes are as complex as each other now. Cleric/Wizard have simplified a lot, the rest have become more complex, especially Fighter.
Skills have been greatly simplified and streamlined, but still offer interesting abilities.
Healing is still important, but more of it is available via 'natural' means (resting, skill-checks) than ever before. Healing powers are more spread about the classes too.
Lots of development choices, whilst all random elements in character development have been removed (no rolling for abilities, hit points or starting gold). This makes it possible for people to create characters without a DM present.
There are no conversion rules, or references to old versions of the game, except for a brief History of D&D sidebar at the start of the PHB.

There are some elements that are worrying as core rules for a game that has traditionally been pitched at pre-teens on up:

Tieflings are more definitely infernal than before, with the devil-inspired characteristics very plainly displayed in the artwork (horns and thick tails) and flavour text that suggests a real struggle to overcome their darker natures.
The artwork in general is much darker than ever before, with violence and horror graphically depicted (PHB: p.122, massive slice through lizardman's side; p.297, blood running from Regdar's nose; DMG: p.11 bruised and bloody heroes; p.130-131 a far too realistic horror piece).
The Warlock class is a dark parody of real-life witchcraft and plays up the darker emotional aspects of the role and the 'selling your soul' element. For example Hellish Rebuke says that "You point your finger and your foe is scoured in hellish flames stoked by your own anger and pain." If you take the Feytouched paragon path then you have been "driven slightly mad" and "relish the madness and can control it, but those you unleash it upon can do nothing but crumble in the wake of the unparalleled majesty of the Feywild." If you take the Life-Stealer paragon path then "Your pact with infernal powers has given you the ability to steal and utilize the life energy of your enemies. This life energy provides you with a new avenue to power, and you hunger for it as a vampire craves blood." Lovely.

As a result I would not recommend these rules for anyone younger than 15, and parental guidance even then, given the interest in the occult that this could easily foster. This is a shame as the artwork could easily have been toned down, and the Tiefling/Warlock rules left out for a darker add-on supplement. In particular it clashes with the (rather glib) advice that if "you choose an alignment for your character you should pick either good or lawful good."

I suspect the decision has been made (at some level) to go after an older age group, as the average online gamer is in their 30's and can afford the subscription model that D&D 4e seems to be heading towards. However, I can't help wondering whether this shoots themselves in the foot as many parents I know would be even less likely now to invest in D&D 4e for their kids. I certainly would now steer my children, nephews and nieces towards other softer games for their first pen and paper roleplaying experience.

Now, some people might reflexively think I am overreacting, however please bear in mind that I would not recommend many online RPGs to younger players for similar reasons. I recognise that my own exploration of RPGs started with the very benign Basic D&D rules, and it was only later that I was exposed to ideas that required more mature filtering than I had as a young teenager. Giving a young teenager D&D 4e would be exposing them to occult ideas, horror elements and graphic violence - there are undoubtedly parents who do not have a problem with this, but personally I'd like to save my kids the nightmares and unnecessary perversity of the thoughts behind ideas such as selling one's soul for power. If I was going to do it, then I would make sure I guided them through it in order to help them place these ideas properly in their place.

So, perhaps I am unusual, but it does make me wonder if this sort of marketing blunder indicates that someone at Hasbro (owners of Wizards of the Coast, publishers of D&D 4e) has taken their eye off the brand?

For mature gamers, who have perhaps been around the block more than once with White Wolf's World of Darkness products (Vampire, Werewolf, etc) there is little in these rules that you will not have seen before, and the main issues you would have are with the decision to change the core classes and races, yet again. In particular the admission of Dragonborn and Eladrin races seem spurious, given how many other races have been left out.

I've heard people openly criticise this edition as going after the MMORPG crowd, and whilst a sell-out could be on the cards, to me this looks more like a genuine attempt to re-visit the core rules and bring some much needed balance back into the game - albeit by removing many of the 'realistic' rules that have been around since D&D's early wargaming days. Personally I look forward to sitting down with the boys, opening a few beers, swapping stories about the kids and then seeing just what we can do with a few heroes of old.

R2D2 DVD Projector

2008-05-01T10:59:00.001+10:00

This absolutely rocks! At US$2900 it is a touch out of my budget though ...

More information at the Nikko America website.

Gary Gygax dies

2008-03-05T15:45:00.002+11:00

Gary Gygax, a co-creator of the original Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game (and afterwards his own series of games, Lejendary Adventures) died yesterday. NEWS.com.au has more details and there are tributes from Wizards of the Coast and Penny Arcade, amongst others.

It is a shame he has died so young (69), when many of his contemporaries have another 10, 20 or 30 years of gaming ahead of them. My commiserations go to his family, as well as my thanks for his contribution to my many days and night of fun gaming.

Dawn over the Northern Beaches

2008-02-22T07:45:00.004+11:00

And now, for some poetry ...

Incandescent blazed the Sun,
Gently hot, still wreathed in clouds.
Brazenly the Moon, sat high and opposite,
Gloriously pale, unafraid of being found.
Beautiful the Beaches, long and low,
Gladly awake, justifiably proud.
by Angus McDonald

It's nice to be living somewhere that stirs up the poet in me. The words do not do justice to the beauty of the moment, fleeting as it is, when the Sun first breaches the wall of clouds in the morning and rises over the Pacific Ocean.

Bill Gates’ last day at Microsoft

2008-01-08T09:45:00.000+11:00

This is great, it's a the funny part of the CES 2008 keynote by Bill Gates.

What Sumo wrestling should really look like

2007-12-20T13:17:00.000+11:00

Here is a great little clip of what Sumo wrestling could look like after some judicious (actually more exuberant) application of special effects.

Do it with a fireball ...

2007-09-14T15:03:00.000+10:00

Quote of the day from Real Men Don't Play GURPS:

If you can't do it with a sword, do it with a fireball. If you can't do it with a fireball, it isn't worth doing.

3D Display in 360 degrees

2007-09-05T23:15:00.000+10:00

My colleague Anthony Milner really wants a Microsoft Surface wall display, but I'd prefer to be able to call up 3D images and check them out on my coffee table - although that spinning mirror looks pretty dangerous!

via Engadget

Rugby World Cup 2007

2007-08-26T22:28:00.000+10:00

Some rugby goodness courtesy of YouTube:

Heineken's Continental Shift ad:

French TV ad:

A fan's listing of the stars of each major team:

Some older (unrelated) rugby commercials:

Lastly a funny Heineken ad about finding life on Mars:

Forbidden Lego

2007-08-23T14:50:00.000+10:00

What every Lego geek needs is some help coming up with truly interesting models to amaze their friends and family with. Enter Forbidden Lego, helping us to “Build the Models Your Parents Warned You Against!”

The cover page example is a fully-automatic flat tile launcher, as shown in this video, from Evil Mad Scientist.

via OhGizmo!

Dungeons & Dragons: 4th Edition

2007-08-20T17:51:00.000+10:00

Wizards just announced the impending release of D&D 4th Edition at GenCON. Here are the videos of the major announcements:

Here is a better version of the teaser shown in the first presentation:

Mars Mission in Lego

2007-07-15T13:55:00.000+10:00

My son has got some great Mars Mission presents for his birthday, and we checked out the website today to find this fun game:

Update: I've just realised how annoying the sound on this is, so it's now hidden.

87% Zombie Proof

2007-06-29T21:59:00.000+10:00

87%

Mingle² - Free Online Dating

I must admit though that I cheated - I was only 44% the first time through (too soft-hearted).

Transformer Thinking

2007-06-29T16:43:00.000+10:00

Imagine if we actually built everyday vehicles so they could transform to kickass robots?

The Pasha Bulker would be off Nobby's Beach:

The Singapore Navy would need far less recruits:

Aussies would actually want to go buy a Citroen car (especially if we had ice to skate on!):

A fear of flying would become much more rational too:

Scary avatar

2007-04-25T13:03:00.000+10:00

This is my son's avatar (courtesy of dookyweb), he likes science-fiction because aliens look scary like this ...

Dave Thomas of The Pragmatic Programmers on Writing

2007-04-18T12:44:00.000+10:00

Dave Thomas, one of the guys behind The Pragmatic Programmers has a series of blog posts on Writing a Book. Given that he's a techie (like me) who has written a book or two himself (like I want to), and the books these guys publish are without a doubt some of the best in their class - so it seems to make sense to check these out.

The perfect bacon sandwich

2007-04-10T12:41:00.000+10:00

Apparently British scientists from Leeds University have found the formula for the perfect bacon sandwich:

The formula is: N = C + (fb (cm) . fb (tc))+ fb (Ts) + fc . ta, where N=force in Newtons required to break the cooked bacon, fb=function of the bacon type, fc=function of the condiment/filling effect, Ts=serving temperature, tc=cooking time, ta=time or duration of application of condiment/filling, cm=cooking method, C=Newtons required to break uncooked bacon.

It's funny what some people do for a living. I guess these university researches will be in high demand with fast food giants.

NCIS: Homage to Gibbs

2007-03-23T13:50:00.000+11:00

I missed my favourite TV show this week (hint: NCIS) but found this fun homage to Gibbs at YouTube:

300: The Movie

2007-03-15T13:43:00.000+11:00

I discovered a great action movie coming out this year, based upon the Frank Miller comic of the same name, which is a mythic re-telling of the actions of Leonidas king of Sparta and his 300 strong bodyguard at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.

Gerard Butler, who stars as King Leonidas, states, “It’s almost like somebody who was there and witnessed the battle went to sleep and dreamed the whole thing again because a lot of it is very representational … a lot of it exists in the imagination, so it allows us to take it so much further. It’s an incredible story, which has been an inspiration to so many people throughout history, but it’s not a documentary. It is a fantastic story full of passion and politics and brutality and so many more things, existing in this hyper-real, beautiful, emotional world.”

It does seem to have lots of gore and a bit of sex, but reports so far seem to indicate that the highly stylised nature of the action scenes makes it acceptable. It always stood out as one of the more interesting moments in history when I was at school - it was the first example I saw of men defining heroism by what they tried to do, rather than what they actually achieved.

Watch the trailer for yourself:

Seeing the style of the art for the movie reminded me of another great poster which Chris Achilleos created for another take on the Battle of Thermopylae:

“Madness? This is Sparta!”

Michael Crichton - State of Fear

2007-02-28T08:18:00.000+11:00

Michael Crichton's latest book deals with the hype of global warming and mines it for an interesting storyline. Care of HarperCollins, here is a preview of the novel:

Tomb of Horrors: Revisited

2007-02-26T14:39:00.000+11:00

The Tomb of Horrors is a venerable old lady of adventure modules, the grande dame of horror-themed 'no one gets out alive' adventures, as Wikipedia puts it:

The Tomb of Horrors is infamous among players of the game as a "killer dungeon," filled with all manner of extremely deadly traps and monsters that are capable of easily wiping out high-level parties of player characters. Indeed, some players consider Tomb of Horrors to be "unfair"; many of the traps within largely ignore game mechanics and story logic in their operation.

I got to delve into this pit of dead PCs with my gaming buddies this weekend. We were playing good old 'Advanced" Dungeons and Dragons, the ruleset that was for so long king of the castle, until it was toppled by the (now) ever-present d20 System that lies behind D&D 3rd Edition (or '3e' for short).

Personally the weird mix of Egyptian-themed tomb that should not be opened and typical AD&D dungeon crawl makes this a deliciously scary adventure to play. Getting to do it with my suitably paranoid gaming group made it all the more fun - especially as two of us had read the module at some point (>2 years ago).

It helped that we had player characters that were at the upper end of the recommended level range (14) and in fact far beyond the 'typical' strength of such characters (too many late nights playing find-the-artifact or other examples of extreme-adventuring. We've survived the first level through judicious use of Limited Wish, some well applied thieving skills and disposable gargoyles (thanks to a Ring of Gargoyles). Now I'm really looking forward to getting back into it and cleaning up the next level!

Roleplaying Groups/Cons in Sydney

2007-02-19T22:39:00.000+11:00

To clear up my browser tabs here is a brief list of some of the roleplaying conventions and groups in Sydney, Australia:

SydCon
Only con I ever roleplayed at, won an award ...

MacquarieCon
Good con, great location, had fun wargaming ...

UNSW Gameplayers
I used to belong to these guys when I was at uni ...

RPGA Asia-Pacific
The 'official' roleplayers group - IMO does not carry much weight compared to local groups ...

GenCon Oz
Not due to happen until 2008 - but if it is as big as the North American one, then it will be HUGE!!!

Necronomicon
I've only ever played CCGs at this event, was good fun though ...

Le Parkour

2007-02-18T23:53:00.000+11:00

I investigated free running today, something I knew was in the early scenes from Casino Royale. It looks like an exciting sport, but also something with practical applications either in my own life, or that of a (more active) character. That led me to the Wikipedia Parkour page which explained the difference between parkour and free running.

Parkour, the name of the discipline, was thought of by Herbert Kuonde, — a friend of David Belle's, but not a practitioner — and it derives from "parcours du combattant", the military obstacle course of the French marines. Kuonde took the word "parcours", replaced the "c" with a "k" to suggest aggressiveness, and removed the silent "s" as it opposed parkour's philosophy about efficiency.

Traceur is the substantive derived from the verb "tracer". Traceur normally means "to trace", or "to draw", but also translates as "going fast".

There is an Australian Parkour Association, so I might have to attend a few beginner training sessions to experience it myself. Although I will certainly have to a) get fitter, and b) get my joints and back stronger if it's to be truly enjoyable.

I've added some Parkour clips below to demonstrate how it works.

BBC ad using parkour:

Aussie parkour traceurs:

UPDATE: There is an active online community for Australian traceurs as well.

Six words to tell a story in ...

2006-11-15T14:58:00.000+11:00

Wired set a group of well known writers a challenge, could they tell a story in six words or less?

I've reproduced a few of my favourites:

Computer, did we bring batteries? Computer?
- Eileen Gunn

Gown removed carelessly. Head, less so.
- Joss Whedon

Machine. Unexpectedly, I’d invented a time
- Alan Moore

Epitaph: Foolish humans, never escaped Earth.
- Vernor Vinge

Lie detector eyeglasses perfected: Civilization collapses.
- Richard Powers

K.I.A. Baghdad, Aged 18 - Closed Casket
- Richard K. Morgan

Dinosaurs return. Want their oil back.
- David Brin

Deadline postponed. Five words enough...?
- David Brin

Please, this is everything, I swear.
- Orson Scott Card

Finally, he had no more words.
- Gregory Maguire

Leia: "Baby's yours." Luke: "Bad news…"
- Steven Meretzky

They also created some interesting graphics to go with these micro-stories:

The DM of the Rings

2006-10-29T22:05:00.000+11:00

Shamus Young had created a most excellent comic interpretation of how a 'normal' D&D party would tackle the Lord of the Rings. If you've ever played D&D (or any of its many siblings) then this is sure to cause you to lose it, so do not read this whilst drinking, eating or in a place where loss of composure could be seriously embarrassing (like work).

In the words of the creator of this misadventure:

Lord of the Rings is more or less the foundation of modern D&D. The latter rose from the former, although the two are now so estranged that to reunite them would be an act of savage madness. Imagine a gaggle of modern hack-n-slash roleplayers who had somehow never been exposed to the original Tolkien mythos, and then imagine taking those players and trying to introduce them to Tolkien via a D&D campaign.

That sums up the comic nicely, and explains why I kept having flasbacks to the various times when I tried to get my hack-n-slash friends interested in my latest campaign, based on {insert seriously good scifi/fantasy novel, film or comic name here}.

Blow-up Space Station

2006-09-06T14:11:00.000+10:00

I missed this when it occurred, but Bigelow recently launched their blow-up space station into orbit:

Personally, I think this is cool. The fact that the Russian missile rocket launches from underground must cause some administrative headaches, but then it probably also protects it from inclement weather as well.

Brust: Plot, a Bourgeous Luxury

2006-09-02T21:22:00.000+10:00

So what does Steven Burst think about plot?

"The Thing That May Become A Book now has seven pages to it. Email still isn't working, for those who care. Also, I still don't have a plot, but that's okay; I've always felt plot to be a bourgeous luxury."

David Gemmell Dies, Age 57

2006-09-01T22:51:00.000+10:00

One of my favorite authors, David Gemmell died a few weeks ago, on the 28th July 2006. His death was due to coronary artery disease, probably brought on by his heavy smoking. Dying at age 57 is far too young, and cut short what could have been an even more prolific career as he came to complete his Troy series. His publisher said he was "writing at the peak of his powers".

Looking at the Wikipedia entry above, I realise that I've only ever read three of his series:

Drenai Series:
This was the first of his series that I ever read, and the stirring heroes of individual brilliance still resonate with me.
Sipstrassi Series:
This series mixes Wild West with a post-apocalyptic world with linkages to lost Atlantis (the Drenai series actually has similar 'memories' of a lost technological civilization, although less obvious). I appreciate the religious gunfighter anti-hero much more now than I did when I first read these as a teenager.
Greek Series:
This 'alternate history' series is interesting, but has a disturbing twist on traditional Greek mythology. I have not re-read these since I first bought them, unlike the other series.

I never bought the Rigante series - it just seemed too much a copy of the Drenai - and the rest of his work also seemed less interesting. I think I'll have to at least hit the local library for them though as there will be no more Drenai novels coming.

It is interesting for me to compare the heroes of Gemmell's worlds with main characters from another of my favorite authors, Steven Brust. Brust's series of books about his reluctant hero Vlad Taltos (assassin, witch, criminal boss, sorceror, psychic, human) and the Khaavren Romances set in the same world of Dragaera, have a very different style to Gemmell's work, but are similar in that they inhabit a consistent world over a long period of time, with the history in some books making reference to events from others, and a similar hint that this 'fantasy' world is simply in the future of our own.

Gemmell however has an unshaking belief in the ability of one man to sway a crowd of enemies, consistently his work shows single heroes standing off much larger groups due to their lack of fear and willingnes to die - which paradoxically guarantees their life.

Brust shows his heroes as far less effectual, for them the crowd will charge and not be stood off - the heroes will triumph through other means, often after an initial setback - usually through the bold application of their wits, or magic.

The difference may be put down to the backgrounds of the authors. Gemmell had a much more rough and ready youth, expelled from school for organising a gambling syndicate and working as a bouncer and then later a journalist. Brust is a musician and plays up his Hungarian descent, almost dressing as one of the characters from his books - he also likes poker. Gemmell was 6'4" tall and looked very much like one of his craggy heroes.

Anyway, as an aspiring writer, I like hearing where characters really come from, here is what Gemmell wrote in 1995 about the genesis of his Jon Shannow character for the Sipstrassi Series (emphasis mine):

Of the many characters I have created over the years, few have
captured the imagination of readers as powerfully as Jon Shannow, the Jerusalem Man.

Alan Fisher, the award winning author of 'Terioki Crossing', and a fan of the film Casablanca, has a phrase that sums up characters like Shannow. "They walk out of Rick's bar, fully formed and real. The author doesn't have to work on them at all. There is no concsious act of creation. One moment they don't exist- the next they stand before you, complete and ready."

I remember the moment Shannow walked out of Rick's bar. It was at the end of a miserable, wet day in Bournemouth at the start of autumn in 1986. I was the group managing editor of a series of newspapers stretching from Brighton to Portsmouth on the south coast. The previous week I had a call from my father to tell me that my mother was in hospiatl and that the surgeons feared she had terminal cancer. They were right. A year before she had suffered the amputation of her right leg, and fought back to make a dramatic entrance at the Christmas dance. This time there would be no fightback.

I had visited her in London, and then driven to Bournemouth for a business meeting, concluding it at around ten that night. I was staying in a small hotel of remarkable unfriendliness. The kind of place- as Jack Dee once said- where the Gideons leave a rope! I hadn't eaten since the previous evening and I called the night porter. He said the kitchen staff had gone home, but there was a plate of olives someone had left at the bar. Nursing the olives and a very large glass of Armagnac I returned to my room and opened the Olympia portable typewriter.

I was at the time preparing a Drenai novel, featuring the Nadir warlord Ulric, which my publishers had commissioned. According to the contract the book was to be called 'Wolf in Shadow' and was, lossely, a prequel to Legend. I had completed around sixty pages. They weren't good, but I was powering on as best I could.

Sitting by the window, looking out over Bournemouth's glistening streets, I tried to push the events of the week from my mind. My mother was dying, I was waiting to be fired, and staff, who had joined my team in good faith, were facing redundancy. After the fifth large Armagnac I decided to continue work on the book. I knew I was drunk, and I also knew that the chances of writing anything worthwhile were pretty negligible. But forcing my mind into a fantasy world seemed infintely more appealing than concentrating on the reality at hand.

The scene I was set to continue had a Nadir scout riding across the steppes. The intention was to follow him to the top of a hill and have him gaze down on the awesome army camped on the plains below. I focused on the typewriter keys and typed the following sentences...

'The rider paused at the crest of a wooded hill, and gazed down at the wide, rolling ampty lands beneath him. There was no sign of Jerusalem...'

The walls of the mind came crashing in as I typed the word 'Jerusalem,' thoughts, fears amd regrets spilling ver one another, fighting for space. There followed a bad hour, which even Armagnac could not ease. But after midnight I returned to the page and stared down at it. It called to me. Who is he, I thought? What is he looking for, the Jerusalem Man?

And suddenly he was there. Tall and gaunt, seeking a city that had ceased to exist three hundred years before. A lonely, tortured man on a quest with no ending, riding through a world of savagery and barbarism.

The story flowed in an instant, and I wrote until after the dawn. Through all the despair that followed in those next painful months I found a sanctuary in the company of Jon Shannow. Through his eyes I could see the world clearly, and understand how important it is to be strong in the broken places.

As a result Shannow will always be one of my favourite characters. For a while back here he was the best friend I'd ever had.

Here's to you David Gemmell, may you find the spiritual city that calls to you, and if you do, then save me a place at your table for a drink or two.

Ariel Atom - Nuclear Missile on Wheels

2006-08-01T22:59:00.000+10:00

Speaking of great gear - this little car is one heck of a supercar, bearing in mind that it does seat two, is roadworthy and even has a (tiny) boot/trunk. The best bit is the price, around US$50k. See more at the Ariel Atom website.

Surely this car needs to be in the next James Bond movie? And if you're running a spy RPG you would have to also consider this little beast as a great getaway car for the heroes (or badguy).

Found via Signals vs Noise.

Lego Robo Power!!!

2006-07-11T23:55:00.000+10:00

Lumpley Games have a new (free) game called Mechaton up on their website. Now the problem with most tabletop mecha games is the scads of money you spend on buying miniatures (Battletech anyone?), or on unsatisfactory standup card versions of them.

The nice feature here is that they've got rules for making your mecha out of Lego. The abilities your mecha has are dependent upon how you build them. here are some examples:

Pics courtesy of Ninja Monkey J

Apart from the sheer genius of tapping into the combined geek-power of Lego and mecha wargaming, this game is also great because it allows easy customisation of mecha from the same set of parts, so puchase costs are minimal. In case you're wondering what kits you might be interested in, some basic research has shown me that some of the best kits are Exo-Force, Robo Platoon, and Robo Pod. You might also find Dino Pod, Mythical Creatures and Motion Power interesting for the walking and sundry bits.

My son is just getting into Lego now, and I would love to have a game we could play together, or that I could set up for a silly afternoon with a bunch of beer-toting mates.

By the way, for the ultimate in Lego mecha figures, go no further than NeutronBot.com, with Soren's models being the most mecha-like.

The Iron Code

2006-07-07T14:46:00.000+10:00

I've been re-reading my Druss the Legend books this week, somehow I'm missing Legend, which is the first one I read (and the first written). One of my favorite bits of prose is the Iron Code that Druss is taught by Shadak, one of his first mentors:

“Never violate a woman, nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the pursuit of evil. Never back away from an enemy. Either fight or surrender. It is not enough to say I will not be evil. Evil must be fought wherever it is found.”
The Iron Code

I love the uncompromising quality of that code, the assumption is not that all fights will be won, but that no fights will be shirked. I would be the first to say that sometimes discretion is the better part of valour, but that is something that does not fit in the simple black-and-white world of Druss.

However, author David Gemmell is not soft on Druss, he admits that the courage of a father that backs down from a fight to protect his family may well be greater than the man that allows his ego to lead him into confrontation. So the code provides a moral compass for a character that admits it is not the only way to live - in Druss' terms he would simply see one rule for himself and another for others with different needs. Seeing Gemmell handle Druss as a father figure would have been interesting, but as he is first introduced facing his death it would require an alternate timeline to work.

Hmmm ... I'll have to see whether Gemmell makes any of his other heroic figures fathers.

Setting and Source Material

2006-06-28T01:41:00.000+10:00

There is a great discussion about Setting and Source Material at the anyway blog. The most interesting bit for me was:

Last summer sometime Ninja J and I spent a whole afternoon walking all the heck over Northampton. Among many other things, we talked about a beloved old game he'd GMed; particularly, we talked about how rich and alive its setting was, how detailed. His players ate it up, he said, they'd go on and on about how compelling, complete, fully realized the setting was.

Then he told me how he'd done it. He'd taken three principles - I wish I could remember them in particular, J please step in here, but they were like "nobody thinks that they themselves are evil," "the Grand Galactic Empire is procedurally conservative," and "nobody really enjoys their job" - three principles something like those, and whenever any of his players asked him about anything in the setting, he'd simply apply those principles to create the answer.

Now that is a cool tip. it basically fits the idea that Ron Edwards pushes for Setting, which is to take a leaf from the dramatic writing how-to's and determine your game's premise - i.e. the philosophical idea it is wrestling with.

The punchline is: most RPGs' setting material (along with all primary source fiction, like Firefly or The Lord of the Rings) is the end product of a creative process. What do we roleplayers need? We need the starting point of the creative process instead.

Later in the comments Ninja J steps in to clarify his rules, and adds:

It's how I've run games ever since. Characters have motivations and anytime the protags do something, I ask myself what the NPCs would do in this situation, given their resources. Sometimes it's simple: "Queen Elizabeth's agents will never betray her because she's got something on them." "Jean-Renard is a coward and will funnel his resources into violence only as long as it will keep him out of danger." Along those lines.

I've found that you wind up with NPCs that seem really real because they're not prescripted. You have a world that seems real because, even when you don't know what's under every rock, you know the kind of thing that should be there.

Sydney summarizes with:

I'm really wondering now if the Technique we're trying to isolate from various specific instances actually involves combining

(1) seed crystals: highly specific, concrete, vividly visual images -- but with plenty of complexity and ambiguity to stimulate and allow growth in multiple directions [Angus: Characters, Ideas, Gadgets, Locations, Organisations]
(2) generation rules: simple, clear, abstract principles that guide how new specifics are derived from existing specifics.

This gives me some things to think about, I'm not sure what these should be for my own game, but I'm sure thinking about them will be more fruitful than working out yet another set of NPCs (and maps, and plot points, and ... etc) that my players never go anywhere near!

2006-06-28T00:28:00.000+10:00

Viking Battle at Whitby Abbey

A reenactment of a skirmish between Anglo-Saxon and Viking forces circa 1066, reenacted by warriors of Regia Anglorum.

2006-06-27T22:51:00.000+10:00

The 13th Warrior

Check out some more viking goodness from 13th Warrior.

Roleplaying Theory - GNS

2006-06-24T00:56:00.000+10:00

I've been doing quite a lot of web-surfing recently looking at Vikings, as background for my upcoming Iron Heroes game, and a theory about roleplaying called GNS.

Along the way I found a problem with my game prep for Iron Heroes, and the possible solution in Ron Edwards' GNS. For an easy introduction to GNS, try Ben Lehman's post "An Introduction to Forge Theory #7". If GNS is new to you, you might want to go read that now, because I'm going to assume you've read it. I'll link to the full theory at the bottom of this post, but don't jump straight there, Ben's summary is enough for starters.

My basic problem is that I was brought up on the increasingly Simulationist RPGs of the 80s and 90s, I even wandered the halls of the odd Narrativist game. I thought that clearly all the troubles we had in our gaming groups could be solved by adopting game systems that more closely simulated the genre we were interested in, so as to avoid game-breaking, powergaming and wimpish play.

At the same time, I felt that I was the only person who could be trusted to run such a game (since my good friend Shan had moved to Melbourne), which meant assuming the burden of both generating comprehensive Simulationist background, and hacking rules to get a better fit to my ideal system (my personal Mission Impossible). In a comment on Ben's blog I put it this way:

My personal preference is Sim, and that explains why I can find it hard to enjoy running a heavy Gamism game, because the way I run it (Gamist) and the way I prep for it (Sim) are in opposition. I find lots of what I prepare doesn't get used, and I rarely want to return to prep for the next session - yet the players loved playing it.

To aggravate matter, game sessions run by others always left me wanting more out of them. The solution seemed to be more preparation and more work up-front, with increasingly less payoff at the end.

I think the solution is that I need to embrace the essential appeal of Gamism, keep enough Simulationist in there to establish an enjoyable theme, and make the point of the Gamism be competition in ways that satisfy my Narrativist bent. In other words, stop layering rules on D&D that ratchet up the Sim level, and look for ways to use Gamism to keep in-game competition where it belongs.

As a concrete example, I've always enjoyed the little bit of Pendragon I've played. In hindsight that was because the game rules encouraged us to play knights that matched the mythic stories of Arthur's knights. If you wanted you could slide towards magic and paganism, or be a virtuous Christian knight, or pursue the ideal of romantic love, or be fairy-touched.

Because the Pendragon system channelled our Gamist tendencies towards building characters that better engaged in the game world, it both fostered Simulationism and created the sort of investment in premise that Narrativism seeks. It is however (IMHO) a game heavily weighted towards Gamism. Character advancement was less about combat effectiveness, and more about engagement with the game world (becoming recognised as a virtuous knight) - although that brought it's own advantages.

So why don't I just start a game of Pendragon? Partly because I am less interested in that theme than I once was, and mostly because of the heavy financial investment my gaming friends have already made in D&D (of all versions). Getting them to play some sort of d20 game is easy enough, having the selected game system poit us in the right direction is harder.

Iron Heroes has some good ideas about making combat the center of attention and making all aspects of a d20 character impact upon it, through stunts and zones. I have some ideas about linking that with some house rules to encourage the sort of play I'm interested in - but I think I need to examine that in more detail before talking about it.

I'm interested in your ideas, so feel free to comment!

As promised, here are links to the original GNS articles:

GNS and Other Matters of Role-playing Theory

Gamism: Step On Up

Narrativism: Story Now

Simulationism: The Right To Dream

Tags:

William Shakespeare in Code

2006-03-21T10:24:00.000+11:00

William Shakespeare's 18th Sonnet has been ported to ActionScript 2.0 by Satori Canton. It loses something in the translation, but I'm sure that it meets the original's meaning exactly (at least at a quick glance it seems to).

RPG Class Test

2006-03-18T17:30:00.000+11:00

Smart Paladin
81% Combativeness, 26% Sneakiness, 76% Intellect, 55% Spirituality

Valorous! Noble! Or possibly just a self-righteous jerk (but with the brains to keep you alive!)... You are a Smart Paladin!

Paladins are holy warriors. They are valorous defenders of the light. Unfortunately, most of them are so ardent in their defense they tend to meet sticky ends faster than you can say "rampaging red dragon." Many people look up to Paladins, while others just consider them stuck up, overbearing, or self-righteous.

Fortunately for you, unlike most Paladins, you're pretty smart. Which means that you're more likely to fall into the "admired" category, rather than the "obnoxious" or "dead" categories.

Much like the crusades, you manage to combine violence and religion, though unlike the crusades, you add a healthy does of intelligence. You may be a staunch defender of the faith, a valorous champion of the weak, or the stuff that jihads are made of. Which ever one you are, just be happy that you've got the smarts to back it up and make it work.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

You scored higher than 90% on Combativeness
You scored higher than 34% on Sneakiness
You scored higher than 56% on Intellect
You scored higher than 63% on Spirituality

Link: The RPG Class Test written by MFlowers on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

Online d20 SRDs

2005-10-19T11:12:00.000+10:00

Because sometimes it is just better to have it online, here are two great online sources for your SRD goodness:

The Hypertext d20 SRD (v3.5 d20 System Reference Document)

Modern System Reference Document

How to Sing the Blues

2005-08-01T14:31:00.000+10:00

I've been a little less creative than I'd like recently - or perhaps it is truer to say my creativity has been harnessed by my new business. So as a sop to that side of myself here is a link to How to Sing the Blues.

It's a whimsical list of necessary atrributes of both a Blues song and the Blues singer. Thankfully, whilst I love listening to the Blues form time to time, I am grossly unqualified as a Blues singer despite not having all of my own teeth (due to good dentistry, unfortunately).

DO read this list if you ever plan to sing the Blues. DON'T read it if you're the teensiest bit legalistic and want to apply it to every Blues singer you have ever heard (some won't pass!).

Project Orion

2005-02-26T16:39:00.000+11:00

NuclearSpace.com have posted a Project Orion Gallery that shows the possible alternate history if nuclear powered spaceflight had gone ahead when originally intended. Admittedly, there is a fair degree of Cold War rhetoric in giving the bomb sizes the ships are carrying ... but it is an interesting glimpse of where things might have gone.

More interesting of course is contemplating what President Bush's renewed funding of nuclear spaceflight is like to bring us in the near future. Imagine a spacecraft taking off with virtually no weight limitations, and a much, much cheaper cost per ton of cargo than is currently attainable with chemical boosters.

Personally my bet is that the next big 'dot-com' ('dot-bomb'?) investment phase will be biotech, and the one after that will be space exploitation.

Starfall Playtest Files

2005-01-10T10:10:00.000+11:00

Woo hoo! Well it's finally been announced, the Starfall Playtest Files are now available for Moot subscribers.

The nice thing about that is that I am one of the contributors to the Starfall supplement, the adventures set on Arnigi were all done by yours truly. It will be fun see my name in print finally.

Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami

2004-12-29T18:48:00.000+11:00

Whilst we're still busy with after-Christmas goings on, I can't help watching the tragedy unfolding in the wake of the Indian Ocean earthquake on Sunday, the 26th December. I thank God that no one I know is there at the moment, but my honeymoon was in Phuket and I really feel for all of the lovely people that made it such a great holiday for us.

There are some good sites up for people to get information and help from, here are two of the ones I've found best:

The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog has lots of very helpful information for people affected by this disaster, or who want to help those affected.

Wikipedia's 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami web page is full of interesting technical information and some very well organised up to date information.

If nothing else, this is a great reminder that Christmas is meant to be about giving help to others, so check out either of those sites for ways you can donate, or otherwise help out.

Postcyberpunk Detective Fiction

2004-12-13T22:00:00.000+11:00

I've been recently re-reading the Moreau Omnibus by S. Andrew Swann. That got me thinking about some interesting topics:

Postcyberpunk Defined

Notes Toward a Postcyberpunk Manifesto

Detective Fiction Defined

Lanthium Petal in Flight

2004-12-10T23:06:00.000+11:00

Lanthium Petal in Flight
Originally uploaded by Falkayn.

Andrew Boulton rendered this picture from the previous deckplan, with some minor input from me as to how it should look.

It's very cool seeing it come to life like this!

Lanthium Petal Deckplan

2004-12-10T23:04:00.000+11:00

Lanthium Petal Deckplan
Originally uploaded by Falkayn.

A deckplan I did for a starship design for Traveller T20.

Pirates of the Caribbean 2-Disc DVD

2004-12-06T21:53:00.000+11:00

I spoiled myself this Christmas and got the Pirates of the Caribbean 2-Disc DVD set. It's been a lot of fun revisiting the world of Captain Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl.

This is the first time that I've found myself interested in a commentary about the movie by the cast and writers. There are three commentaries on the DVD, each of which brings to life a part of the production or the story in a new way.

As a fan it was great hearing the director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp discuss the highs and lows of the shoot, and it was really funny listening to Kiera Knightley and Jack Davenport with their tongue in cheek commentary.

But as a wannabe writer, the most interesting commentary was that of the four screenwriters, Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio (a team), Stuart Beattie and Jay Wolpert. Having learned a little about fiction writing from Dramatica Pro, it was great fun hearing these writers describe Miss Elizabeth Swann (Kiera Knightley's character) as the protagonist, the trickster archetype shown in Sparrow (light) and Barbossa (dark) and the various difficulties they had (such as letting Will Turner fnd out the name of the Black Pearl's captain).

One of the writers (Jay?) described how he wrote this story originally as his version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, hmmm ... good idea there. Perhaps I could write Pirates of the Caribbean in space? ;-P

Character Names

2004-11-23T16:03:00.000+11:00

Names, names, names ... such important little things, especially when describing an imaginary character to an unknown person.

I have some favourite names. Falkayn is one. Drake is another. Both have been used by authors I like to describe characters I enjoyed. Both could be re-used, but that takes some of the fun out of the creative act.

Hermes is an interesting name, currently used for branding feminine accessories, yet a male name from Greek myth. Even then, the name is one from a story, one already tied up with an interesting character. Of course, many interesting names do have stories attached to them (often more than one) and that shouldn't stop us using a name that is a good fit with a character idea.

Sometimes a common name is good, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sir Nigel Loring merges a common name with a more interesting one. His Sherlock Holmes merges two interesting names, and the way it felt when spoken was surely part of his reason for choosing them (Sir Nigel was from his more serious historical fiction).

For me, finding good names is always a difficult task. Most parents have wrestled with this problem, there are so many name books, and so many names to choose from. As parents you usually are restricted by your family name, which can be helpful. Although the advantage of a work of fiction is that you don't need to agree on the name with your spouse!

The other problem is the old chicken and the egg paradox. Do you start with the character or the name? For me it is a mix of both, a character idea will spark a name, which will help mold the character idea, which may end up requiring a different name.

I was planning on putting some sample names up here, but now I think of it, I want to explore some character, story and world ideas a bit more first.

What's Infininut about?

2004-11-23T13:51:00.000+11:00

For a while now, I've wanted a blog that allows me to post some more personal stuff than my main blog can really cater for (seeing as it's on my resumes, email signature etc).

I plan on posting some of my own creative writing here (bad poetry and short stories :-) ) as well as gaming material (RPG stuff for Traveller and D&D).

Unfortunately Blogger does not yet give me the ability to categorise my posts, so I'll use the post title to indicate when a post is part of an ongoing story.

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright ...

2004-11-22T21:34:00.000+11:00

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forest of the night
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And What shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? And what dread feet?

What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

- William Blake