My Dead, Stiffening Corpse is quite a Scrapper!

My current CIRCUS MAXIMUS GAME has gone from surreal to funny to just plain oogy...

I got killed several turns ago, and my body is still being dragged around the track, and has actually made a lap and a half as a corpse. Ditto for the yellow player:

Rob gets the first move this time and cracks the whip to get his team
moving. He gets a +2 Voluntary Strain to add to his base of 18, for a
total of 20MF. He pulls In/In and then speeds forward 16 spaces to end at
V/19. He looks to his left and sees Walt’s wrists still tied into the reigns.
Walt’s team then bolts forward 18 to end at IV/c. MarkR continues
along the backstretch with a speed of 10 to end at I/66. MarkG decides to get a
little more speed from his team and cracks the whip for 2 more, for a
total of 12; which he uses to move In/In/8 to end at III/59. With some luck,
he can catch MarkR. Bob’s team limps down the backstretch with a speed of
12 and pulls into the 2nd turn ending at VIII/c. Ken can’t believe his
luck. He hears Bob pull up beside him, so Ken does what he enjoys best –
RAMMING!!



Ken first pulls Out and initiates a Ram against the chariot and
scores a 14, which damages the defending car. With a roll of 7 +3 for the
scythed blades, 4 points of wheel damage is inflicted. This forces an
immediate flip check, but with a roll of 6, Bob’s chariot keeps upright. Not
satisfied with this damage, Ken pulls even with the horses and rams
them. With a roll of 6+3, Ken inflicts 2 more points of damage, killing the
left-most horse. Blood and guts makes Ken smile and he stops to admire
his handiwork, using only 4MF. Jamie’s team flies through the first turn
for the second time and races down the backstretch, ending at II/53. Chris
is the last driver to move this turn. He whips his horses and adds 3 for
23. He pulls Out 3 lanes and forward 14 to pull adjacent to Rob. Chris
initiates a Lash attack, but with a roll of 13vs9, Rob succeeds in Evading.
Chris is undaunted and pulls out and whips at Rob again. This time, with a
roll of 6vs 10, Rob is unable to Evade and must take the whip. Chris rolls a
12 and Rob rolls a 10. Checking the Lash table in the +2 column, Chris rolls a 6, which results in a Movement loss for Rob. With a roll of 6, Rob loses 6 from his Max speed next turn. He must also lose 1MF for the successful Evasion. Rob’s evasion changes his ending position to VI/19. Chris finishes his turn by moving 3 more forward to end at V/22.

Summary:
An interesting Turn this. Chris isn’t satisfied with his superior speed, so using his last random start, he catches and whips Rob, before passing him. Ken finally causes some serious damage to Bob, tearing up Bob’s wheel and then eviscerating Bob’s left horse; spilling blood and guts in the second corner. MarkG is making up some ground on MarkR along the backstretch. Walt’s team enters the 1st turn for the second time and Jamie’s team rips through the turn and charges down the backstretch. The Marks will probably be lapped next time.

Again there are no changes in position, but there are some teams closing the gaps.

Random Order for Turn 9:
MarkR
Ken
Chris
Jamie
Rob
Walt
Bob
MarkG

Wow. This is becoming like a Louis Bunuel film.

I'm very much looking forward to another game-- I hope I can generate some interest in another PBeM from some of y'all out there...

(I'm green BTW)...

By Popular Demand Final Round

The Final Round before Quite Popular Demand.

Winners will be announced at the end of this round.

The Secret Letter is T

"T is for Terror"

Category 1: A Horror DIRECTOR, first or last

Category 2: A Horror Movie ACTOR, first or last

Category 3: A Horror Movie TITLE, any word except an article

Category 4: What Concerns a Zombie?

Category 5: A Body Part that Frankenstein would love to have

Category 6: A Horror Movie MONSTER (character), any part of its name except an article


Good luck, and have fun.

We start BY QUITE popular demand in a week or so.

(BY QUITE is different from BY POPULAR)

Walt

Go, E!

What's Memorial Day without an Elvis Presley impersonater?



of particular note was Elvis' hard-working "scarf distribution gal", show here taking a well-deserved break.



This lucky lady reacts to "getting scarved"..



You lucky thing! And to round things off, the UGLIEST THONG in creation:



It sort of disappeared into the fleshy folds, never to be seen again.. the mind boggles.

For more Elvis pictures, HERE'S THE SLIDESHOW... (Flash required)

HMGS Outreach project at the VA Ren Faire!

First of all, a little credit where credit is due. The VA Rennaissance Faire is currently in the middle of its seasonal run at its semi-permanent location at the Lake Anna Winery in the middle of Virginia. Faire authorities made a pitch to the HMGS Board of Directors last year to somehow get a sponsorship for the faire. HMGS East, to its credit, decided to set up a quid pro quo arrangement with the Faire, where HMGS east could send 'missionairies' (or evangelists, or whatever you wanna call them) to run games. I was asked to do this last year, and said yes, with the proviso that I could recruit MR. BRIAN WHITAKER to assist in running some sort of introductory game along the lines of the stuff he runs at HMGS and NOVAG cons. I called Brian, he became a rabid advocate of the program before I even terminated the phone call. Brian is a natural showman, good sport and good friend. I like playing in his games and like his attitude. We were pretty succesful last year. THIS year the folks at the Faire were smart enough to contact the REAL tyro behind the operation and went straight to Brian Whitaker to run things. I had fun last year; I was more than happy to assist this year. Brian recruited a sturdy little crew of youngsters and oldsters (like me) to assist. The results were fantastic.. 85 to 90 people (either playing or passed out literature to) on Monday, 140-odd on Sunday, 120 or somewhat less on Saturday.

Here's some pictures. I apologize that they are so crappy, I took them with a Palm Zire 72, which isn't the best camera in the world.



Brian haranguing the crowd to victory.



Brian demonstrates how to keep the Miniature Building Authority finanically afloat.



It's dark, but something portentious just happened...



More shots of our happy little town of victims...



They sure dressed funny, but they got into the spirit of things right away.

Brian owes me a few pictures taken with a much better camera; hopefully they won't be quite so muddy.

The game was PIRATE LOOTERS, a homegrown variant of VIKING LOOTERS, a game Brian and his son Greg have run at HMGS cons for years. We found that the game was a perfect fit with the mindsets of the (mostly youtnful) audience; many of them had RPG and video game experience and were quick to pick it up.

We had some propoganda for HISTORICON to hand out; we did our manly best to get the word out for HISTORICON and the hobby in general. Without a doubt, this is a worthy effort for hobby outreach. I encourage you all to drop in to the Faire and if you have to time to volunteer running a game, try to get in touch with Brian.

Interactive Tables...

The Tabu Ultra Lounge at the Las Vegas MGM Grand has been recently renovated with the addition of 5 interactive tables, see video snippets below. This is an impressive achievement, and the mind boggles at how it could be applied to gaming.

Credits and Accredidation:
Client: Tabu Ultra Lounge (Las Vegas) http://www.tabulv.com/
Entertainment concept: Realisations (Montreal) http://www.realisations.net/
Technology: Freeset (Montreal) http://www.freeset.ca/

Visuals copyright Tabu Ultra Lounge.

SLIDE (my favorite)


FLAP

Everyone's favorite Grumpy Uncle returns

I was not at all surprised to see a lavish ad taking up the back page of the HMGS Historicon full color flyer that came out recently, advertising "Uncle Duke Returns to HISTORICON!". Not at all surprised, because the issue of a stipend for him to return to HMGS conventions had been debated at board meetings I attended in 2005 and the specific issue of "paying off" Duke was voted in at the one meeting that I missed in 2005 (December at some point-- not that ANYONE in the membership other than the BoD have seen the minutes from that meeting yet...). The membership (or portions of it) seem to be up in arms somehow about "paying for gamemasters", especially paying for "Uncle Duke, the Rennaissance man". Others say "Hey, it's a visual spectacle, and it attracts gamers, isn't it worth it?" (I'm summarizing points of view demonstrated on TMP and Yahoogroups, not quoting a specific person).

How do I weigh in? Well, it's the CD's call, and it's Bob Giglio's convention and his call to make, and I support that. But we had to change the rules to get to this point. I don't like bankrolling big, special extravaganzas. It creates a general feeling of inequality and an aura of the backroom deal. Right now, HMGS East does a lot for GMs.. letting them in for free is no small potato. When it becomes widely known that ONE GM (or a few GMs) get some form of remuneration, that the rest of us hard working joes start feeling a bit slighted. We don't want to open that Pandora's box.

The rules were recently changed so that a convention director can invite a special guest and pay him a "stipend" to appear. Prior to that the BoD's position on special guests and programs at conventions was unclear. Now, a CD may invite all kinds of guests and promise a stipend as long as the budget is approved and the CD sticks within the limits he sets upon himself.

I'm not against guests. I would like to get Adrian Goldsworthy in for COLD WARS 2007, budget permitting. I would love to promote a prize budget for theme events for the Engineering theme. But here's my line in the sand: The Guest should fit the Theme. AND the Guest should be something of a draw. I'm not convinced that MORE people come to a HMGS convention because Duke Seifried runs a game at them.

(Deleted out of respect for Bob Giglio and HISTORICON).

---

Important Disclaimer
The previous statement is solely my own opinion.
It does NOT represent an opinion of the HMGS East organization.

---

Diplomacy Again!

Announcing SINGLULARITY 2. This will be a YOUNGSTOWN variant Diplomacy game run by email using RealPolitik as a graphical map tool, adjudicated by me.

YOUNGSTOWN is a lot like COLONIAL DIPLOMACY in that there is a Far East Asia element to the map and new players. The game is likely to be a little longer than the previous standard Diplo game of SINGULARITY 1.

Please email or comment your interest; I will be INVITING the final players and hopefully we can get a good crowd going this time.

Information on the Youngstown Variant.

Initial unit placement and home centers for the Youngstown variant is:

Austria-Hungary
F Trieste
A Vienna
A Budapest
A Klug

Germany
A Berlin
A Munich
F Kiel
A Posen

Turkey
F Ankara
A Baghdad
A Smyrna
A Constantinople

China
F Canton
A Hankow
A Peking

India
A Delhi
F Madras
A Calcutta

Russia
A Warsaw
A Moscow
F St. Petersburg (SC)
F Sevastopol
F Vladovostok
A Omsk

England
F Edinburgh
F London
F Joharra
F Liverpool

Italy
A Venice
F Naples
A Rome
F Magudisco

France
A Marseilles
F Brest
A Paris
F Saigon

Japan
F Tokyo
F Kyoto
F Osaka


Map (click to enlarge):



My email for this is HERE. Remove the obvious webcrawler foils.

Of Lifetime and Led Zeppelin

Here's the results for Round 9. For once, Rob Winslow kicks some serious heiney.

The Lifetime Cable Channel was a serious "gimme" answer, as was "Led Zeppelin". The other categories were predictably obscure.

Chaos Factor Cards Revealed

I've been working on a game called NOMICA (Nah-mi-ka) for about a year and a half. In short, the central rule of the game is that you are constantly changing the rule of the game. NOMICA is heavily infulenced by its paper game cousins, NOMIC, DVORAK and FLUXX, only NOMICA will feature miniature soldiers. To give the players an easy and fast way to change the rules, I have devised a card set for rules-changing I call "the Chaos Factor set". It's not TRULY chaos, as the range of choices are limited to the deck, but it gives the appearance of chaos and is perhaps a tad more "gameable" to use cards. I could have just used old business cards or something like, but I decided to have some creative fun with the idea, especially after playing around with ELECTION SEASON. The use of "Dante's Card maker" for the Election Season led me to his commercial product, CCG Maker. CCG Maker is a software utility that allows you to build CCG (Magic) style game cards of almost any variety. The card templates are all customizable and they allow for the importation of your own art and symbol set. For ten bucks, it's a bargain. Here are a few "Chaos Factor" Cards. They are all green, and their purpose is to change rules. There are OTHER kinds of cars, of course, but I haven't developed them yet.

Somehow, I'm sure George Washington Did Something Important today

So, in his honor...

I worked as a night watchman in a government building while I was going to college in the early 80s.  In many ways, it was the perfect job—I worked nights, it paid well, and there were plenty of opportunities to study.  Unfortunately, the graveyard supervisor, Matthew, didn’t care for “college punks” so there was always a source of friction between us.  

Matthew was a classic Hallway Monitor all grown up; pushy, egotistical, sure of his charm, and always a big hit with the ladies who worked in the building during the day.  There’s a million little ways to needle a guy like that—and I explored every one of them.  I would play chess with another guard at meals.  I would read French magazines and listen to Arabic music stations and pretend I understood them.  I would “grade” the grammar and spelling on his log books (“C-!  Let’s see a better effort!”).  Childish revenge.  Most of all, I read books.  This was an activity Matthew rarely indulged in, and I think it intimidated him.  

On a rare Saturday shift, I was working as his roving guard, having been given the carrot of a little extra pay.  As I was walking around the building’s printing plant, my radio started squawking.  A car full of building employees had come back from lunch at high speed (and lubricated with drinks, it turned out) and had flipped in the corner of the parking lot.  Everyone on staff rushed to the scene and the proper procedure was followed—we called the real police, ambulance and fire, and then did what we could to help, which turned out to be keeping the crowed back.  The wreck was awful—the driver and front passenger, both young women, were killed instantly.   We followed procedure, the bodies were taken away to the morgue or the hospital, and we all made statements for the police.  Later, I strolled back to the guardroom in a daze.  Matthew was there, by himself, sobbing.  Not a watery-eyed snuffling, but genuine, helpless, snotty sobbing—the kind you don’t want to have seen by anyone.  I backed out of the room silently so that he never knew I saw him.  

The next week, I taught him how to play chess.

Towers of Hanoi

In front of you, you see three spires and three disks of three sizes piled on the leftmost spire.  The goal is to move all disks from the leftmost spire to the rightmost one in the least amount of moves.  

Here’s the trick: You can only move ONE disk at a time, to either an empty spire or to a spire with a larger disk already on it.

There are many solutions.  What’s yours?

  

Not Exactly Gallup

See the previous post on the subject for a description of the color coding of the "voting blocs".



Based on these results, it's still a race, but I suspect we'll have at least ONE "tournament faction" guy on our board, Bill Rutherford for sure, and after that, the race is between Fred Hubig, Heather Blush and possibly Don Manser.

I know the voters are turning out for this one, in record numbers.

That's heartening...

---

Important Disclaimer
The previous statement is solely my own opinion.
It does NOT represent an opinion of the HMGS East organization.

---

Say a little prayer, bow to the east, beat a tom-tom, or whatever you do to increase good kharma for Cornelia Rutherford, the good lady wife of Bill, who is in the hospital sick right now. I won't release any more details than that out of respect for Bill and Corny's privacy. This is just a shout out to demonstrate our thoughts and prayers are with you both, and that's not just ME talking, Bill.

When a loved one is sick, it brings into sharp focus the folly of the human condition. All this HMGS Politicking going on sure looks pretty stupid in the balance, neh?

More Fun with Uncle Sam's Death Machine

Small Contained arc Explosion using a radio controlled airburst weapon. Groovy!

Kurt Lortz, RIP

Just received this off of the Society of the Daisy Yahoogroup. Sad news.

Message 1
From: "ladystahrxxxxx
Date: Fri May 19, 2006 6:01pm(PDT)
Subject: Sad News

It is with sadness that I pass this information along:



Kurt Lortz, 54, "Emperor of the World" and creator of Chaosium's Panzer Pranks, passed away on May 15, 2006, after an extended illness. Those of you who have been around gaming for a long time more than likely either knew him, or you know his brother, Steve Lortz.

Calling hours were held tonight at Robert Loose Funeral Home in Anderson, Indiana. Services will be Saturday, May 20, at 2:30 p.m.

Memorial contributions may be made to the charity of the donor's choice.

We'll all miss you, Kurt....

Indeed we will. I never met Kurt, but this informatin saddens me, because I can judge a man by his works, and Kurt made some funny stuff.

Hey! Is THAT Our Appointed Election Official, James Mattes, doing a little politicking on the side?

Important: Read Disclaimer First. Thank you.

Mr. James Mattes, former mouthpiece of HMGS East and frequenter of the Miniatures Page as Vojvoda, is in charge of the current election round at HMGS East. As such, we have a minimal expectation of extreme objectivity and circumspection from him in his public statements on the current round of elections. At least that's what I think. That's why I was a amused by this statement on the Yahoogroup for the Army of Central Maryland wargaming club:

"As to where I am on the election any club member who would like to talk to my number is __________ or cell of ___________. I think most of you know me as fair and able to look at all sides of an issue objectively."

Well, perhaps that's so, and to be fair to James he did couch his statement with a firmly stated denial that he would discuss the recent firing of Fred Haub, which is only what a reasonable person might expect. And he did say that he would love to share his opinions, but can't speak on it publically unless it's a parlimentary procedure issue. All very comendable. James is an opinionated guy, just like many of us are, and I realize he's speaking to a gaming club that HE is a member of.

However, the fact that he is encouraging people to "discuss the election" with him later on in the post certainly has the appearance of impropriety to me. Just my .02, worth what you paid for it. It could be entirely innocent... yah.

Thread: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/AoCM/message/7408

Just to keep us all honest in case Yahoo experiences any technical difficulties, here's a handy screenshot:



James, if you're doing some sub-rosa politicking, I think that might be a bad thing for an election official to do. Don't you?

James playing Captain Feathersword at FALL IN:

---

Important Disclaimer
The previous statement is solely my own opinion.
It does NOT represent an opinion of the HMGS East organization.
Back to Top

---

Hammer Director and Producer VAL GUEST is dead

Hammer Films pioneer Val Guest passed away this week. He was a pioneering director for my one of my favorite horror studios, Hammer Films out of England. Val directed Hammer's first big hit, THE QUARTERMASS EXPERIMENT, and the sequel, QUARTERMASS AND THE PIT. I met him briefly in the 1980s, at some horror film convention whose name has receded into the mists of time. He was quite a gent, friendly and self-effacing, and always extremely polite.

It seems only fitting that FANGORIA should post an appreciation of Val's career.

We'll miss you, Val. Enjoy the Choir Celestial.

Funeral For Two Gallant Cops

Inadvertently, Garrett and I became part of the giant funeral cortege for Detective Vickie Armel and Officer Michael Garbarino. Blundering back from Camp Snyder, we discovered many thoroughfaires were closed off. In an attempt to find a route home devoid of traffic, we found ourselves right inside the parade route of the funeral procession. We pulled off and paid our respects, with heads bowed as thousands and thousands of cars, plainclothes and squad cars, civilian dignitaries and motorcycle units, drove by slowly. There was a squad car from every county in the state of Virginia (including the tip of the triangle and the Tidewater districts), cars from the Capital Police, Park Rangers, Secret Service, FBI, FPS and every federal armed unit.

The county police have every reason to be proud of their efforts to memorialize their fallen colleauges. The affair was handled with dignity and due decorum.







According to NBC4, thousands attended. We said our goodbyes on the road, hat in hand.

Camp William B. Snyder

Gar and I visited the new CAMP WILLIAM B. SNYDER in Haymarket on Saturday, for their little seminar on shooty-things... archery, slingshots, horseshoes and especially b.b. guns. Garrett was quite enchanted with the concept, and picked it up disturbingly easy.







Private Pyle! I do believe we found something you're good at! Well done!

Later on we caught the Nats/Os game on Saturday. This was the third in the famous "Battle of the Beltway" rivalry that appears to be shaping up. I think this is a good thing, as it cements loyalty for the teams. A lot of folks (like myself) went to a LOOOOT of O's games, back in the Memorial Stadium era. We have fond memories of that time period and so a rivarly with Baltimore will probably be a friendly one.





Alas, poor Gar was a little worn out by a day of shooting things.



The game was a real blow out at 8-3, highlighted by extremely mediocre pitching on the part of the Orioles... I haven't seen anyone take that many balls to the face since the grand old days of 70s porn.

Fortunately we had such diversions as "WHO DANCES BETTER...?"



The Orioles Raven...?



Or the Nationals' Eagle...?

Battle of the chickens!

A great day to be sure, but we were ready to hit the hay when we got home that night.