So, I have done some writing for two larps now.   This does not make me the worlds leading expert, but it has given me some fodder for thought. The process of writing for a boffer larp is interesting and worthy of a few notes beyond the usual sort of world creation skills.

Let me first say, that I am concentrating on boffer larps in this post and future ones.  This is not to say anything bad about the parlor larps.  I have had fun in the Camarilla and other parlor style larps. I have written some weekend vampire games in my time.  What I will say is, they are different.   Writing a world that happens essentially in the real world only with a supernatural overlay, is not quite the same as making a whole new world and rules set. They each have their own challenges.

On to the subject at hand though.  The standard boffer larp is a fantasy larp.  There are certainly some that have claims to other genres, but if analyzed beyond the few trappings, they are all still fantastical.  If your in a scifi larp and the psionics in it strongly resemble spell casting from fantasy, then it is not really science fiction.  Star Wars is not science fiction. It is more accurately called Science Fantasy, I guess.

Why is the distinction important?  On some levels it is not, but what it does effect is expectation.  I can write a detailed larp about investigating a new scientific principal expanded out into a concept piece.  It might make good fiction.   It is unlikely to make a good larp, though.  Players of boffer larps, are expecting looking for fantastical and adventurous elements.  The expectation is a place where they can be heroes(or anti heroes) and not spend days and months trying to figure out a scientific puzzle.  They will want a blaster, a sword, and some sort of power that will allow them to be awesome.  This places it more in the fantasy genre.

So more generally though, where do you start?  I suppose that depends on your approach. I know several folks who started with “I don’t like this aspect of existing larp blah.”  That is a place to start.  When you first get in to such games, your just happy to find the game.  After a while though, you will find there are aspects you feel you could do better.   The story elements might not be to your taste or the rules may be bothersome.  What ever the reason, you don’t like game A and you seek to improve it in game B.  This will lead to a game with a lot of similarities to the original game.  It leads to iterative game development. If you want to see a good example of this, compare the national level larp Nero, to it’s various spin offs.

Another place to start is a mechanic.   This may be related to not liking an aspect of a previous game but does not have too be.   This is really the place a lot of the rules oriented people tend to start.   Say you have a cool idea for how to do magic differently, or martial skills.  You define that idea and then begin building a world to match those notions.  If you magic system is purely based on writing spells out on a sheet of paper and destroying those papers to cast the spell, then you need to think of what kind of world would come of that.  What sort of mages would come up?  How powerful are they?  How do they compare to guys with a sword?  It seems like the guy with a sword would be more dangerous in personal combat because his effects happen in less time, but you would need to process out the magic system to be sure.

A place I prefer is start with the world and make the rules to suit your vision.  If you picture a low magic world where mages are few and far between, then you will design the magic to more difficult than just saying a few words and casting.  If you want the world to be ruled by wizards then you might make magic easier to do for those who have it, but make it hard to get.  What ever the story and the theme for a world, they will need to influence the rules.

Generally though, it is a combination of those various starting points going on that leads to a larp being started.  One guy says “Hey, I have an idea for a larp.” and gets a few friends to help him write it.  They all have different starting points and reasons.

Another thing to keep in mind is….YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GET PAID FOR THIS.

Seriously, writing for a larp is a labor of love.  You just have to love larping and running them to do it.  It will be lots of work for no pay, save people telling you they liked your stuff. If you are concerned about getting paid for your work, write for someone else.  Write fiction or for the tabletop gaming market if you must.  Neither of those pay super, but it will be more than you get from writing for a larp.

Also, this is a job for a committee.  Generally speaking most boffer larps cannot be run by just one man.  You have to write a fully formed world, character creation rules,combat rules, flavor text for a website and run plot lines in said world.  It might work for one guy to do it for maybe a dozen people, but much beyond that and you are asking for it to fail.  it is too much work.

As it is a committee, try and work with people you know and like.  Plot committees historically are the source of much wailing and gnashing of teeth.  You get together more than 3 creative personalities all working on the same project but from different direction. They all have their vision of how things should go, their own level of organization skills, and their own style of running things.  It is trying on a friendship and considering the above mentioned not getting paid, your stress level for no pay can put a strain on anyone’s patience. Blow ups will happen.

Try and work with people who you know will come to their senses after a blow up.  Work with people who can let go of an idea in favor of letting a prevailing idea win out.  Try and be able to do that yourself.  Try to avoid folks with control issues or ego problems.   No one is perfect and always right, not even you.

Anyways that is my first post on this subject.  I will post more later.

How do you get The Last Airbender to be a bad movie?  Take the events of the first season of the show overall and remove all the heart, humor or wit.   When you have done that, then shorten it down to 2 hours so no one has any chance be on screen long enough for you to identify with them.   That is the recipe for the live action Last Airbender.  There are some high points.  The actor who plays Iroh does an excellent job as does Aasif Mandvi.  The fights are interesting to watch and the effects are really stunning.   I also sort of liked what little I saw of the guy playing Prince Zuko.  Again you don’t get enough time to see why he is interesting or cool.  You get told only in brief  exposition what happened to him and why he is the way he is.

I am firmly in the do not recommend category, on this movie.  I really wanted this to be better than expectation but it really it isn’t.  I didn’t hate it.   I didn’t walk out or anything.  It was not a Uwe Boll film or anything. I just didn’t care about anything in it. Nothing had any weight.   It was merely adequate at best.   The source material deserves better than merely adequate.

What I will recommend, is go watched the series again.  It is leaps and bounds better and you will not regret the time you spend watching it.

Do you like pulp action comics? I know I do. Two fisted heroes who use their wits, tough jaws and maybe a pair of .45s, to beat over the top bad guys is a recipe for a fun time. There are many superheroes that get to claim pulp roots. The Shadow, while he did not start in comics, is a pulp superhero. Batman is definitely a comic superhero with strong ties to the pulp tradition.

One of the longest running pulp action superheroes is the Phantom. He first appeared in 1936 in a King Features comic strip. Since then, he has become one of the better known comic strip characters.

The character in the comics was a purple clad guy running around in a skin tight body suit and simple mask. This even looked a little silly in the comics but still the look hasn’t really changed. He ran around with a matched set of .45 automatics which he used to fight crime and the evil band of pirates called the Singh Brotherhood. Got to love a name like that.

The Phantom apparently was the descendent of a long line of heroes named Phantom. The idea was it would be passed down from father to son for centuries so all his enemies believed it was the same guy. They even gave him the cool sounding tribal name of “Ghost Who Walks”. I am not real clear on what they were supposed to do if all a generation had was girls(hard to sell that as the same guy), but I digress.

In the 90′s someone thought it would be a good idea to make a movie of the Phantom. Why not? Someone was doing the Shadow after all. I will say I am probably one of the few people who really liked the movie of the Shadow. The Phantom movie stared Billy Zane as the Phantom.

I like Billy Zane. He is kind of quirky cool. Catherine Zeta Jones was in it as was Patrick McGoohan. There were good people in this movie. It had pulp action and pirates and mystic skulls. The film could have been good.

Could have, but it sadly was not. There are some nice bits in there, but on the whole it was terrible. The costume just looked dumb and there is no way around that. Sometimes costumes from comics don’t translate well, and sometimes they are just terrible.

The script was awful. The acting was just silly and bad. I have a love for this film as I do for some bad films who at least tried something cool.

So the story ends there. The Phantom stays a relic of the age when people got their comics from the funny papers and not online like we do now(Don’t email me. It is joke. I get that people read the comics in newspapers still).

Except the story is not over.

Syfy decided to take a shot at it. Syfy(which is still the dumbest name ever) network decided they would do a modern translation of the phantom. When I heard this I kind of cringed. It is SyFy. I mean yeah, they made Eureka, BSG, and Wharehouse 13. They also make Scare Tactics, Ghost Hunters, and a line of the worst movies possibly ever. These guys have successes buried in mountains of failures. Also the Phantom, general wisdom would say, is a hokey character to begin with.

So I watched it.

I watch most anything comic related. I am a sucker that way. If it appeared in in sequential art before it made it to the screen I will eventually see it.

The thing is, my expectations on this were way low. I am pleased to say then that it actually was far better than I expected. I will not get too far into the plot of the show. The plot was a little too convoluted for it’s own good.

The acting was all over the place. Some of the scenes were really badly written. It should not be any good at all, but it actually kind of was. There is a real heart to this redo. IT is self aware without being meta. The hero, Kit Walker, last of the line of Phantoms at first doesn’t know anything about it and when he does find out does not believe. He sees the costume and says there is no way he is wearing it. He eventually gets the still a little goofy looking but much more practical body armor.

The over the top villains are here, only with a more corporate feel. The good guy is the right mix of determined and unsure. The update from the more traditional older setting seems to work, mainly do to the fact that they don’t ignore the older version of the character. It is less like a reimagining and more an update. There are fun stunt bits, with our hero of course being skilled in Parkour.

All in all the 4 hour premier was a really solid origin story for a tv superhero show. Is it gr4eat television? No. There are a number of non starters in the show, but I enjoyed it. I forgot to critique it about half an hour in and just enjoy it. If the TV series is half as fun, I will be tuning in.

I am done rambling now.

Once Upon a Time in Vegas, chapter 31!

PENDANT PRODUCTIONS PROUDLY PRESENTS:

Original art by Daniel Chon and Kristen Bays for Pendant Productions.

Once Upon a Time in Vegas, chapter 31 – “Hidden Messages”

Todd runs into Princess, the past haunts Robert and Abby and Jeff gets a spirited ultimatum!
“Once Upon a Time in Vegas” is a full-cast, fantasy maxi-series serial drama. Available for free download in .mp3 format, or as a Podcast!

Also available — a commentary track with the director and co-writers!

iTunes link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=262309363

Podcast feed:
http://www.pendantaudio.com/vegas-podcast.xml

Download link:
http://www.pendantaudio.com/vegas.php

Featuring the voice talents of:

David Ault as Jeff
Rene Christine Jones as Tessa
Ryan Pickens as Brock
Jeremiah McCoy as Robert
Marleigh Norton as Abby and Ati
Tom Stitzer as Lewis and Todd
Jessie Moore as Princess
Caleb Marshall as Soldier James
M Sieiro Garcia as voice 1
and Pete Milan as voice 2

Written by Alicia Laine Matheson and Rene Christine Jones
Based on an original work by Rene Christine Jones and Alicia Laine Matheson
Directed by Rene Christine Jones
Edited by Chris Brittain
Original music composed by Kevin McLeod
Cover art by Daniel Chon and Kristen Bays
Produced by Pendant Productions
Executive Producer Jeffrey Bridges

http://www.pendantaudio.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pendant
http://www.comicspace.com/d_man
Thanks for listening!

Long time no post.

Is this thing on?

So…. I have been laying low on posting here. A few reasons, but not the least of which is was laid off back at the end of April. I worked at a video game development company, on the game Fallen Earth among other things. There was a large number of us let go on that day and the less said about the details the better. I am glad of my time there and proud of my work.

So what now?

Now, I had to give up my apartment in Cary NC and move back to Tennessee. No one thing is to blame. I was sans job, so the income had reduced drastically and I had recent surgery that I am still paying for.

I am doing my voice acting still. I am in two productions as regular cast and recurring in another. I have a little more time these days so maybe I will try out for more roles.

I am blogging. I was asked to contribute over at http://temporaryhitpoints.com/ and my first post is this weeks article. It is a player advise focused blog for 4^th edition and it is shaping up nicely as a good weekly blog.

I am doing some writing of my own on some short stories I have been pouding out. Next week, I break out the novel writing and rewriting and more rewriting and contemplating sepuku and more rewriting. That will take a while.

I am trying to pick up some new skills. I am learning C++ or at least I am trying too. I have joined a gym. It is time to get back on that horse. I am moving like an old man and I am not that old.

Also I am looking for work. I have been working in the gaming industry for a while now. I like it. It is easily one of the most rewarding jobs I have ever had. I am focused on getting back in so I hunt. Resumes are being sent. Recruiters are being contacted.

All in all, life is…. a work in progress.

More to come.

Original art by Julie Lindsey for Pendant Productions.

Once Upon a Time in Vegas, chapter 30 – “Contact”

Teri reunites with Tessa and Chloe while Abby reflects and the frat boys ghost hunt!
“Once Upon a Time in Vegas” is a full-cast, fantasy maxi-series serial drama. Available for free download in .mp3 format, or as a Podcast!

Also available — a commentary track with the director and co-writers!

iTunes link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=262309363

Podcast feed:
http://www.pendantaudio.com/vegas-podcast.xml

Download link:
http://www.pendantaudio.com/vegas.php

Featuring the voice talents of:

Rene Christine Jones as Tessa
Susan Bridges as Terri
Jeffrey Bridges as Danny
David Ault as Jeff
Marleigh Norton as Abby and Ati
Tom Stitzer as Lewis
Bill Young as John
Jeremiah McCoy as Robert
Alicia Laine Matheson as Chloe
Perry Whittle as Soldier Ben
and Caleb Marshall as Soldier James

Written by Alicia Laine Matheson and Rene Christine Jones
Based on an original work by Rene Christine Jones and Alicia Laine Matheson
Directed by Rene Christine Jones
Edited by Chris Brittain
Original music composed by Kevin McLeod
Cover art by Julie Lindsey
Produced by Pendant Productions
Executive Producer Jeffrey Bridges

http://www.pendantaudio.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pendant
http://www.easily-distracted.net
Thanks for listening!

Lee was our nail. He put me and many of us on this road. We won our war, made our mark, and what a lovely kingdom we have. I am going to miss you buddy. Good luck with the California and the new job. We will carry on down the road and will meet up another time. There will be legends made, battles won and such tales will shared when the band gets together again.

See you when I see you.

Things happen in combat and I get that, but firing on a group who is not actively perusing combat, firing on people because they are trying to help the wounded, and kids getting hit in the exchange? These guys should have been court martialed. Things happen in combat, but that does not free you of responsibility for your behavior. The military should not have lied and said reporters and children getting caught in a clear exchange of fire. Not once did anybody return fire or even try and fire. This made me sick.

I have nothing but love for the guys serving over there. They were doing a hard job in a hard place but this….this is not the honorable behavior I expect from folks representing us over there.I want them to fight and protect themselves but I want them to be better than our enemies morally as well as militarily. This is not that and someone should be held to account for it.

So a while back I get message on Facebook.

“hey Jeremiah, can you sing?”

With that in mind, I present the musical episode of  Superman: The Last Son of Krypton.

Enjoy

Superman issue 63 and Supergirl issue 35!

PENDANT PRODUCTIONS PROUDLY PRESENTS:

Original art by Jerry Gaylord for Pendant Productions

Superman: The Last Son of Krypton, Issue 63 – “Fifth Dimensional Rhapsody”

Mxy unleashes his mischief as the cast of Superman rock you!

Superman: The Last Son of Krypton is a serialized, full-cast audio adventure with one new episode every month! Available for free download in .mp3 format or as a Podcast.

Also available — a commentary track with the director, musical director and writer!

iTunes link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=202788270

Podcast feed:
http://www.pendantaudio.com/superman-podcast.xml

Download link:
http://www.pendantaudio.com/superman.php

PENDANT PRODUCTIONS PROUDLY PRESENTS:

Original artwork by Manny Aguilera for Pendant Productions

Supergirl: Lost Daughter of Krypton, Issue 35 – “Close Calls”

The heroes hunt for clues while John delivers a load of pain to Kara!

Supergirl: Lost Daughter of Krypton is a serialized, full-cast audio adventure with one new episode every month! Available for free download in .mp3 format or as a Podcast.

Also available — a commentary track with the director and writer!

iTunes link:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=256710457

Podcast feed:
http://www.pendantaudio.com/supergirl-podcast.xml

Download link:
http://www.pendantaudio.com/supergirl.php

“Superman: The Last Son of Krypton” features the voice talents of:

Ryan H Nelson as Superman
Susan Bridges as Lois Lane
Chip Joel as Mxyzptlk
Tom Stitzer as Perry White
M Sieiro Garcia as Bobby Havner
Adam Bell as John Henry Irons
Jessie Moore as Natasha Irons
Deborah Adams as Doctor Falkner
Kristen Bays as Siobhan McDougal
Bill Young as Doctor Anderson
Mike Winters as Riot
Jeremiah McCoy as Dan Turpin
Kristen Bays as Maggie Sawyer
Seth Adam Sher as Batman
and Marleigh Norton as Doctor Adanna

Musical Direction by Susan Bridges and Jeffrey Bridges

Superman Theme performed on electric guitar by Juan A. Romero and Angelo Romito

Written by Jeffrey Bridges
Directed by Jared Page
Cover art by Jerry Gaylord
Edited by M Sieiro Garcia
Continuity Editor Kristen Bays
Produced by Pendant Productions
Executive Producer Jeffrey Bridges
“Supergirl: Lost Daughter of Krypton” features the voice talents of:

Dragon X Blink as Supergirl
Jeffrey Bridges as Metallo
Chip Joel as Amateur
Kathryn Pryde as Scorch
Megan Pressley as Ayumi
M Sieiro Garcia as Miranda
and Jessie Moore as Natasha Irons

Written by Dragon X Blink
Directed by Teresa Keller
Cover art by Manny Aguilera
Edited by M Sieiro Garcia
Continuity Editor Kristen Bays
Produced by Pendant Productions
Executive Producer Jeffrey Bridges

http://www.pendantaudio.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pendant
http://thefranchize.deviantart.com
http://mannycartoon.deviantart.com

Thanks for listening!

Here is one of my favorite songs by her. it appears to have been recorded for television, I saw some live versions but this one had better sound quality.

Enjoy.