Here’s the footage.

And then here’s the after-action report. Funny stuff.

I like being alive in a world where this kind of thing happens.

HT: Theresa

I owe a more extensive report, but I’ll say that this went really well. In this thread, there’s a link to pictures, too!

Bacon was on sale recently at Kroger’s. $.99 a pound! So, we bought a lot of bacon. Yay for us! In fact, for lunch today, I will have bacon and eggs!

On Saturday, I was frying bacon, and Gabrielle asked me why I like bacon so much. It was one of those casual “please dig deeply and consider yourself and your motives” questions that Ben-Ezras tend to pitch around at each other. And, upon some reflection, I figured it out.

Yes, I like the taste of bacon. Always have, as long as I can remember.

However, for most of my life, bacon was a delicacy. We rarely had it in the house, and when we did, we had to divide it between seven people. That really doesn’t go very far. So, in my mind, bacon was an extra special treat that only rich people could actually afford to have on anything resembling a regular basis.

So, when God is good and provides bacon sales, and bacon enters my house, it makes me feel rich. It’s an extra special sign of God’s goodness to me, that He loves me enough to shower me with bacon.

Mmm….bacon shower…..

Now, I must go eat.

This is from Story Games. Vincent is apologizing for the tardiness with which some of the hard copies of his latest game In a Wicked Age are shipping:

I’m sorry for the wait! I was like, “oh sure, I’ll mail them all bright and early on the first of Feb. After all, how many people will really preorder?” And then I was like, “…crap, that’s, uh, more than I expected.”

(I expected 30-50, feeling optimistic. I got 210. Shows how smart I am.)

I doubt that I could get a preorder of 210 on one of my games. Well, maybe one day. Of course, I’ve never actually done a preorder for one of my games. Maybe I should….

Sam Chupp interviewed Chris Chinn for his podcast The Bear’s Grove on the issue of race and RPGs. Dirty Secrets was mentioned positively during the interview. This is a good thing. Crystal put a lot of effort into selecting a racially diverse group of photographs. She knew that, since we were addressing the issue of race with the game, we would need to be especially mindful of this aspect of the game. Glad to see that it was received well!

Here are some more actual play videos for A Flower for Mara. I’ll probably draw on these for some sort of video tutorial or something.

A Flower for Mara Spring Scenes part 1

A Flower for Mara Spring Scenes part 2: this clip illustrates the use of “phone call” techniques to have two characters talking to each other on the phone. In our game, we ended up turning this conversation into two spotlight scenes, one for each side of the conversation.

A Flower for Mara Spring Scenes part 3: This clip illustrates the use of off-stage characters. Also shows the general mood of the evening, which was happy and not at all bleak. This is an important point, actually. We enjoyed playing the game. Sure, a lot of it was catharsis, but we enjoyed doing this thing together. Finally, you can see the feedback from the “audience” to the developing storyline. Cast members are perfectly free to make comments during the game, and there was a lot of talking in between scenes. This is a Good Thing; it showed me that everyone was engaged in what was going on.

A Flower for Mara Spring Scenes part 4: The exchange beginning around 2:10 shows an excellent example of Endowment in play by Whitney (portraying Ruth). (Endowment is giving another character or object an attribute of some kind.) It was fairly subtle, too. It took me a little bit to realize that, according to Whitney’s statement, Mara had stolen Ruth’s boyfriend and then married him. This wasn’t part of anything preplanned, and it is an excellent example of what makes this game work.

A Flower for Mara Easter Dinner Part 1: I was particularly pleased with a shocking explosion from Jana (starting around 8:00), set up by Jennifer as a result of the preceding soliloquy. This is a good example of how one player can use soliloquy information to help set up another player’s actions. In addition, Jennifer’s statement that that pizza was for dinner was another excellent use of Endowment.

A Flower for Mara Easter Dinner Part 2

Watching these has been pretty neat, since it reminds me of playing the game that night. Ever have a game that was especially meaningful to you? This was one of those games. Thanks again to everyone who was a part of it.

Anyways! Hopefully seeing this footage gives you an idea of how A Flower for Mara will play. I need to playtest a couple more times (and some external playtesting would be great), but I think that I will soon be ready to write this sucker.

Well, I started compiling the video footage I have for A Flower for Mara, for those who are curious. Here are the first three videos:

A Flower for Mara Opening
A Flower for Mara Funeral Dinner Part 1
A Flower for Mara Funeral Dinner Part 2

Essentially, this is the opening part of the game. You’ll notice that I cleverly edited out Gabrielle’s flower monologue. As I mentioned previously, I won’t be releasing those. But, it should be clear when the monologues happen, so you can get a sense of the pacing of the game.

We ran out of tape before we ran out of play. Hopefully I will be able to show some of the highlights of that night, as well as pointing out various techniques used in play. Hopefully, I’ll be able to use these as examples for others who are seeking to play A Flower for Mara.

A couple of weeks ago, we played Land of 1000 Kings for Raquel’s birthday. During memory sharing, Theresa shared this story about James. Since she’s written it up, I thought that I’d share.

Bacon. Vodka.

HT: Theresa

Did you hear about how Berkeley, CA, is trying to get the Marine recruiting office kicked out of downtown?

Here’s the New York Times article about it.

And, for the curious (like me), here’s the text of the resolution (PDF).

My thoughts:

Well, folks know what I think of the war in Iraq. That said, this mostly makes me laugh. A lot. Here’s some of the language from the resolution of the Peace and Justice Commission of the City of Berkeley:

WHEREAS, the United States has a history of launching illegal, immoral and unprovoked wars of aggression and the Bush Administration launched the most recent of those wars in Iraq and is threatening the possibility of war in Iran; and

WHEREAS, the United States armed forces, including the Marine Corps, explicitly refuse to hire openly non-heterosexual individuals, and will discharge an individual in their employ “who engages in, attempts to engage in, has a propensity to engage in, or intends to engage in homosexual acts”[.]

In other words, “The Marines are bad people because they are murdering people! And they won’t hire homosexuals!” Because, like, those are moral equivalents or something.

But wait! There’s more!

WHEREAS, the people of Berkeley should want the Marine Corps present near Berkeley High School, Berkeley City College, and University of California no more than they would want other violent influences downtown.

That’s right! Clean up downtown! Get rid of those gang members and drug dealers and Marines!

Now, to be fair, there is this:

WHEREAS, military recruiters are sales people known to lie to and seduce minors and young adults into contracting themselves into military service with false promises regarding jobs, job training, education and other benefits; and

WHEREAS, many enlisted persons never see the benefits they are promised and find out they are not eligible for the educational benefits due to loopholes and they did not receive the training promised or it did not qualify them for jobs outside the military[.]

I am concerned about how military recruitment is done. I’ve seen the ads, and I’m familiar with some of the spiel. “It’s a good job! Serve for just a few years, proving your manliness to yourself and your community, and then you will be cared for by the U.S. government for the rest of your life.” I mean, check out this recruitment video, which I discovered doing about 30 seconds of research on YouTube and am assuming is legit. Doesn’t that look like something you’d want to be part of?

So, yeah, I’m concerned. And the lying? Well, I’ll simply offer this video: Military Recruitment Abuses Uncovered. We may have a problem.

But Berkeley probably isn’t helping anything with this stunt.

I’ve had a thought kicking around in my head since my last playtest of A Flower for Mara.

People want to talk.

I noticed this behavior in the playtest. The players actually wanted to have their turn to lay down their flower and talk about their grief. What drove this home was John C.’s comments in post-game discussion. He was expressing the concern that the game forced the characters to resolve their problems too quickly(*). I noted to him that he could have simply not laid down his flower, leaving his character unresolved. He shook his head quickly. “But I wanted to be able to place my flower,” he said.

I hadn’t been expecting this. I had thought that being forced to confront your grief would be a social motivator to hang on to your flower. Instead, it’s turning into a powerful reason to play the game. A Flower for Mara provides a safe place to talk about these things, when you have people who have agreed that they will not abandon you as you walk down this path of facing your own sorrow and who are willing to hear you.

That’s pretty powerful stuff right there.

Makes me wonder how much more we could share with each other if we simply communicated to each other that we are really willing to truly listen.

(*)My response to this is “Yes, but no.” My solution is to clarify what exactly it means for the character when the player lays down his flower. It’s not the end of grief; rather, it’s the end of crisis mode, when you can take the first step into a life without that person. It’s not the end of the grieving, but it is the beginning of the healing. And no, not everyone gets there.

Here’s the link.

And here’s the quote:

Often elections in this country are fought within the margins of small differences. This one will not be. We are arguing about hugely consequential things. Whomever the Democrats nominate, they would govern this country in a way that will, in my opinion, take this country backward to the days when government felt empowered to take from us our freedom to decide for ourselves the course and quality of our lives; to substitute the muddled judgment of large and expanding federal bureaucracies for the common sense and values of the American people; to the timidity and wishful thinking of a time when we averted our eyes from terrible threats to our security that were so plainly gathering strength abroad. It is shameful and dangerous that Senate Democrats are blocking an extension of surveillance powers that enable our intelligence and law enforcement to defend our country against radical Islamic extremists. This election is going to be about big things, not small things. And I intend to fight as hard as I can to ensure that our principles prevail over theirs.

And here’s the question:

How does opposing the “govern[ing of] this country in a way that will, in my opinion, take this country backward to the days when government felt empowered to take from us our freedom to decide for ourselves the course and quality of our lives…” harmonize with supporting “an extension of surveillance powers that enable our intelligence and law enforcement to defend our country against radical Islamic extremists….” From my recollection of the Fourth Amendment, the Founders thought that freedom meant a lack of government surveillance without specific evidence, a narrow focus, and a sworn oath before God Almighty that this was a necessary act.

Call me crazy, but there it is. While I appreciate Senator McCain’s stand against waterboarding, I’m feeling pretty uncomfortable about many of his other stances.

Click here!

All the hullabaloo, hype, yelling, and money, coming down to a few minutes spent in a voting booth.

Odd.

And then there’s the part of me who looks at it all with jaded eye and says, “It doesn’t really matter.”

I mean, what am I actually choosing? Am I selecting the men with the most qualifications and integrity to be entrusted with the leadership of our nation? Or am I just being forced into selecting between two power structures of rich elites? The way some people talk about elections, it’s like I’m supposed to be rooting for one side or the other, like AFC and NFC or somesuch thing.

No, I’m not telling you who I voted for. So there.

Yesterday, we had a thunderstorm where it snowed!

Not a lot of fun to drive in, though. On the way home from dropping off the McDonald children, I wound up being stuck on the hill on Western Avenue below The Hotel Formerly Known As Jumer’s. I ended up putting the van into the lowest possible gear to try to get up the hill. Instead, I gradually slid sideways into the right lane, where there was less snow. An unnerving experience, but I got the van up the hill!