Thoon wants to be the very best, like no one ever was...

I've been feeling like crap for the last 24 hours now, slept maybe 12 of them. Spent the rest of it madly writing ideas for Psychoka, then spent some time digging up my DS and playing Pokemon Black. I really forgot just how messed up the game can be.

I've always liked Pokemon, It's the only Nintendo game that hasn't messed up fatally yet if you ask me, and that's because I ignore the console released games. One large reason is because it plays with the element known commonly on the internet as grimdark, with vague threats of unpleasent things to characters and pokemon having disturbing facts that aren't elaborated on. I'll always be tempted to run a campaign based on those parts if I could figure out good mechanics for it...


But, sometimes it's almost like Black and White take this to the point of farce. Be warned, Pokemon B/W spoilers inside, if pokemon can be spoiled.

That Advanced Networking I just did sure comes in handy...

Boy I sure do love it when half way into the day at class the network cuts out on us, ruins half the classes tests because hurpityderp hosting important things like tests on a local server is too much work, and we can't do any work for the rest of the day. So screw this, I'm looking back into volunteering for Lifeline. It's probably strange to some how I'm skipping classes on tech support and help desks but seeking to work for a suicide hotline, but if I'm going to work with faulty computers, at least ninty percept of the time won't be wasted explaining they need to jiggle the brain cables.

Tabletop games on the internet, taking advantage of what you've got

You know what I hate? ARGs.

I remember back on an old website that's probably still famous called Neopets, it would occasionally run over-elaborate mysteries for advancing its plot. This picture if you use MS paint on a seemingly solid colour block spells out a URL, which redirects you to another URL with a strange message, if you then delete every second letter you get something telling you about this little pixel you can click on on the main page... It was a mess. In this age of twitters and wikis and obsessive people willing to pay employees to anonymously leak out secrets, they've gotten even worse, now spread across multiple websites with false trails and jobs dedicated to sabotaging efforts to decode them, and when its all said and done, you get things like video clips of people dying to the monster that will be in this upcoming movie without any clearer a picture of what it is.

But, seeing how usable the Internet is, I can see a strange appeal in using it to present something that facilitates immersion into the world.

Hinting to players, a constant strugle.

I should have done this after my game yesterday but was distracted.

Spoiler warning: (At this point minor) Tager-chan spoilers can be gleamed from this post, read on at own risk.

I always remember back to this this one event at the tail end of a campaign I played in under a GM now considered reviled in the group. Their desire was to more or less say "This is today's adventure you should go there", a fair goal, by having a NPC with circumstances exactly like my own do certain actions to provoke us to take the same actions. Much snickering at how awful this was handled took place behind their back.

Plans for the future: Psychoka

I wonder if I'll ever come up with a more original name for this? It works, though.

As I mentioned before, this is a game I'm planning, heavily inspired by the anime "Puella Magi Madoka Magica" (Highly recommended, though it definitely isn't for everyone.) In it, each player will be a freshly contracted magical girl, who was granted a wish by a magical, invisible animal like cute mascot creature for the price of fighting the evil "Eidolons".

This being a major source of inspiration for him. Source, Inaba Taiju.

Tabletop Games

For those that are interested, here's a list and brief summery of my status of RPGs as of the time of posting this. It'll make for a good starting point for any future posts on any of them.

I'm currently running a Tager game using Cthulhutech, called Tager-chan. It's a bit of a varriation on the normal setting, which is anime of the action, horror or mecha kinds combined with Cthulhu Mythos, in this case, it's the magical girl genre. Tough this game is starting to close up.

The games I'm playing in;

• A more traditional Magical Girls Game, this uses Mutants and Masterminds. we're a small military group trying to deal with an alien invasion by the Bydo. The GM basing everything heavily on shumps. Myself, I play a thief-y character, far too lazy to use her own magic, instead steals it from her allies or enemies. We just recently left for a trip to Russia to look into a villain/friend we've met a few times.
• Another M&M game more in the style of a fantasy adventure, though far more for comedy then something serious. Inspired by games like Disgaea. My character in that is a messenger angel of 'love and peace', armed with a gun and with a dozen different kinds of bullets for it, each capable of unique methods of destruction. Currently we're on our endless quest, trying to figure out a way to stop a demoness that's out to destroy the world.
  

Once my current game ends, I'll be starting my new one, hopefully, which I'll likely discuss in a lot more detail here, Heavily inspired by the anime Madoka Magicka, currently it's under the name Psychoka (get it?) In it, the player are all magical girl agents of a small cute mascot creature, tasked with hunting scary monsters called Eidolons. They're granted a wish as part of the contract, and quickly learn they got more then they bargained for.

What this blog will be

Hey there. Welcome to my blog. This will sort of a gathering ground, as well as my putting myself out there. A place where I can talk about my hobbies and get things sorted. Maybe even have input from others. As well as a place for occasional rants on things. As are always fun.

My main topics I imagine will be the following:

• Tabletop RPG's Mostly the ones I play in or run myself, which use Mutants and Masterminds and Cthulhutech mainly. Though there will be plenty of talk about other games, or general gaming topics.
• Video Games. I enjoy streaming games and play many more, mostly other Role playing games in western or Japanese format.
• Education topics, likely either Psychology or Information Technology. I'm no expert in either though, so this is a fore-warning.
• Slices of life for my daily life in Australia. Ever wanted to know what its like to be a spiteful internet addicted misanthrope? Now's your chance.
• Nerd topics, for my lesser hobbies, Star Wars, Magic the Gathering, Cats. There's a lot of these and they'll come up from time to time.

There will be more, I'm hopeful, but this is a solid list of what to bet on. So thank you again and welcome to the horrible mind.