Maybe I'll play with Legos this weekend

[ultranos]

*tap tap* Is this thing on?

So I haven't exactly been posting lately. I've been reading, but it's a lot easier to read than post and/or comment. Most of why I've been busy is the new job. Working between two labs is crazy, guys. But it's the good kind of busy. Even if it does mean I'm running between campus and hospitals. ("I need to go to Longwood." "What?! Are you okay!?" "What? OH, FOR WORK. I AM GOING TO LONGWOOD FOR WORK. EVERYTHING IS FINE.") 9 and 11-hour days make scheduling ridiculous, as I need to not work overtime or else the admins will get grumpy so I have to do some creative accounting to make sure everything more or less washes out in aggregate. (I don't actually want overtime. My current theory is lying about that will get me what I want in the long run.)

I am also assuming that I'm currently doing an acceptable job as both labs just keep stacking more things in my lap as I've apparently proven competent and more papers to read as I've apparently proven capable of understanding things.

In other news, apparently the fall TV season started or something. I'm out of the loop. Instead, I found myself reading manga again, and fell head-first into Shingeki no Kyojin / Attack on Titan. I'm currently describing it as post-post-(post?)-apocalyptic survival horror. Really, though, I was sold when Isayama introduced Mikasa. I will have words with you if you don't like Mikasa. (DMark has already declared he will ragetableflipquit the series if she ends up dying. Along with the rest of us.)

I also picked up from Amazon the RPG sourcebook Don't Rest Your Head on Kindle. It looks to be a neat little system, enough that I shelled out for the PDF supplement book Don't Lose Your Mind directly from Evil Hat. System looks to be strongly focused on roleplaying and narrative, rather than mechanics. The mechanics themselves are extremely simple, but the way they serve to bolster the story for the players/GM is quite elegant. I think I need to try it, perhaps running a one-shot or short campaign. I've got some ideas. I also want to see how it fits my theory of narrative torque in RPGs. (Which also reminds me that I've been meaning to run a Kuro campaign for approximately the last six months. Go me.)

Speaking of games, I spend part of the day playing through a nifty little browser game: A Dark Room. I highly recommend it. It's a great example of minimalist game design, where every mechanic and piece of text serves to contribute to the story and world. It's also great in that it'll run in a browser tab and only demand your attention every once in awhile. You actually need to ignore it and let it run for awhile to finish it (resource generation).

Next time in this space: More game talk? Maybe I'll read a book that's not a text book? WHO KNOWS.

Comments

[havocthecat]

A Dark Room is fairly addictive. I've been playing it since I read your post last night. So, question? I've cleared out the iron mine and started mining it, and I've been working on clearing out the abandoned town/suburb thingie, where I just found steel. But how do I go about refining the iron I have into steel? I have eight scavenged pieces and clearly need lots more.

Off to check out Don't Rest Your Head. I trust your game recs implicitly.

[ultranos]

A Dark Room is sort of ridiculously addictive, but I'm a really big fan of its minimalist design. It works really well. As for steel: there's a coal mine somewhere on the map. You'll have to clear it out as well. Since the map is randomly generated per game, I can't tell you where it is. But once you have the coal mine, the Builder will say she can build a steelworks.

I think you might enjoy the atmosphere of Don't Rest Your Head. I've got some friends who are dropping very large hints that I should run a thing, and one of my two tabletop games just died yesterday, so I suddenly actually have free time. I'm so doomed. :)

And you have no idea how hearing that you trust my game recs implicitly makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :)

[havocthecat]

Hah, found it! And now I've got the sulphur mine as well. But I have to wait until I get home to do anything else. I'm trying to get the entire map of the dusty path explored, because I found the airship and I'm wanting to explore that too.

Honestly, the minimalist design is what makes it interesting to me. I don't want a big, resources-hogging game all the time. (I love Diablo III, but I play one of those kinds of games at a time, as a rule.)

Well, I bought Don't Rest Your Head. Now to find time to read it. But if you do run it, will you post about it here? I'm curious as to what you'll do.

[ultranos]

The design was the big draw to me. I'm always interested in games that can draw fairly deep worlds with seemingly the least amount of effort. ADR just peels back the layers slowly and you realize that not everything is as you thought.

DRYH was kind of irresistible at that price. A friend had mentioned it to me awhile ago, and when I saw the price for the ebook, I really had no excuses to not pick it up. And yeah, if I do run it, I can post about it here. I'd have to set up a filter so players wouldn't stumble upon it. (There would be at least one who knows about this blog.) :)

[synecdochic]

Ha! I couldn't remember who'd pointed me at A Dark Room, but I found it again! Thanks so much for the rec; it was genius.

[ultranos]

Isn't it grand? I'm just in all sorts of love for pitch-perfect synergy of mechanics, atmosphere, and storytelling (and use of negative space).

[synecdochic]

It really is awesome! And I love how it teaches you to play it as you go.