Lady Blackbird - "Escape From the Hand of Sorrow"

About a week and a half ago, I had a chance to run my roleplaying group through a session of John Harper's Lady Blackbird. For those who don't know, it's a little, free game that Harper offers as a download through his website - five pregenerated characters, an opening situation, and very light rules framework blending mechanics from, among other things, The Shadow of Yesterday, Mouse Guard, and The Pool. I'd heard that it was pretty terrific, and that proved to be true in play. It really is an ideal pick-up-and-play game - I was able to explain everything we needed to know about the mechanics in about five minutes, and the initial setup are crafted to immediately spark lively relationships between the characters and plenty of interesting avenues for conflict. Having never played The Shadow of Yesterday or Solar System, it was also my first use of Keys in a game, and it's a mechanic that I think is really powerful - the folks I was playing with were playing to their characters right away, and having a solid system in place to reward that was perhaps my favorite part of the game. If you have a spare evening and a few friends that are up for it, and you haven't had a chance to try Lady Blackbird yet, I highly recommend it.

Secret World I

Interruption III

Right now, I'm reading Primo Levi's If Not Now, When? I still have several chapters to go, but there's once again a passage I wanted to share:

"...On the contrary, they were lighthearted: in the partisanka adventure, different every day, in the frozen steppe, in snow and mud, they had found a new freedom, unknown to their fathers and grandfathers, a contact with friends and enemies, with nature and with action, which intoxicated them like the wine of Purim, when it's the custom to abandon usual sobriety and drink until you can't tell a blessing from a curse. They were lighthearted and fierce, like animals whose cage has been opened, like slaves who have risen up in vengeance."

Good Sunday

Last weekend, we made our annual visit to Wenzel Farm, and then came home to relax for the rest of the day. Cara made banana bread, and at Elias's request, we watched some old episodes of The Twilight Zone: 'Walking Distance,' 'Time Enough at Last,' 'Third From the Sun,' and 'To Serve Man.' Needless to say, it was a wonderful afternoon.

Speaking of Elias... I've carefully concealed the existence of the Star Wars prequels from him for the entirety of his young life, but on the way home the other day he said the words I've been dreading for so long. "Dad," he asked, "did you know that there are other Star Wars movies that we haven't seen? There's a queen, and Anakin Luke Skywalker..."

Session Report 15.10.09: Fury of Dracula

We had our first boardgame night in quite a while last week, and with Halloween fast approaching, I'd suggested a game of Fury of Dracula. This was actually only my second play - Cara and Elias gave it to me as a Father's Day gift a couple of years ago, and our attempt to play it shortly after that was something of a disaster. I played as Dracula, and after a few hours of fruitlessly searching the board, the other players threw up their hands in frustration and we packed everything up without finishing. Since then, we hadn't touched it.

Well, I'm glad that we finally gave it another chance. Brent, Franco, and Tom agreed to join me, and I don't necessarily want to speak for everyone else, but I felt like this was the game that I'd imagined Fury of Dracula to be. I played as Dracula again, but this time there was much more of a tense, cat-and-mouse feel to the play - both in the sense of the Hunters trying to find Dracula, and with Dracula trying to find opportune times to spring upon a lone Hunter. The game ended with everyone else cornering me in Constanta and blocking all the overland routes to other cities. I tried to escape by ship, only to have Tom play a storm card and force me back. After a final battle, the Hunters were victorious, but just barely - if I'd managed to defeat just one of them, I would have won. What a delight! Needless to say, my regard for the game has increased significantly.

Cruel & Unusual Meal Plans I

More news from Htrae: Jawbox will commemorate the Dischord reissue of their fifteen-year-old major label debut with a reunion appearance on a late-night talk show.

Interruption II

On Friday I finished John Berger's Hold Everything Dear. A particularly resonant passage:

"On the one side: every armament conceivable, the dream of no-body-bag wars, the media, plenty, hygiene, many passwords to glamour. On the other: stones, short supplies, feuds, the violence of revenge, rampant illness, an acceptance of death and an ongoing preoccupation with surviving one more night - or perhaps one more week - together.

"The choice of meaning in the world today is here between the two sides of the wall. The wall is also inside each one of us. Whatever our circumstances, we can choose within ourselves which side of the wall we are attuned to. It is not a wall between good and evil. Both exist on both sides. The choice is between self-respect and self-chaos."