(Scroll down to Updates for my latest online activities, except for my Skiffy and Fanty reviews, which are posted separately!) Rather than adding another update to my Jan. 4 post, I'm starting a new roundup here:
Hugo Awards: I'll nominate for these by the deadline, April 30. I've heard I should NOT wait until the deadline due to some problems with the site that may slow me down, as they've slowed others. (UPDATE: Yes! I finished voting around 2:30 a.m. EDT today.)
GAMING: I've now played three sessions of Star Trek Adventures, GMed by Paul Weimer, with Shaun Duke and Arturo Serrano. These are not being streamed, they're just for our own entertainment. I'm playing a Romulan science officer (and XO, now acting Captain) from Diane Duane's The Romulan Way alternate universe who accidentally went through a portal to the game universe. An Andorian here sponsored me into Starfleet Academy just to tweak the Vulcans. The adventures have been fun so far, but the office politics are quite a bit more challenging than I'd anticipated!
I've also played two sessions of the Stargate RPG by Wyvern, GMed by Andrew Pontious (whom I podcast Stargate SG-Fun with), and including David Schaub (another SG-fun podcaster), Paul Weimer, and two other guys whom I'm not sure would want to be mentioned here. I'm playing an Aturen engineer who is not quite a pacifist anymore. This one is also a lot of fun. We recorded our voices in the first session and will probably put that on the SG-Fun podcast eventually, after I edit it.
Tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern, I'm playing a one-shot of the Fifth Season RPG based on N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy. I answered a casting call in the Rem Alternis Productions channel on Discord for this. If I'm interpreting everything correctly, this will be broadcast on GenConTV's Twitch channel. (UPDATE 5/1/23: It was! But due to Rem's busy stream-a-thon weekend, this has already dropped off her and GenConTV's Twitch channel's list of videos, so I have a YouTube link instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9os3PWnwXx8 ). Summary: It's an interesting world and system, but it dragged at the beginning as GM Teslan kept looking up rules and our "longstraws" [drafted investigators for the community] tried to figure out the mystery. However, I really liked how what most campaigns would consider extremely low stakes, tools that had gone missing, was a vital concern for our farming comm (community), since life in NKJ's Broken Earth is so very precarious.)
I also signed up for two more one-shot games this weekend, for a multi-game weekend event being held on the Rem Alternis Twitch channel. At 9 p.m. Saturday, I'll be playing the location scout for a ghost-hunter TV show in Destination Investigations. (UPDATE: Macabre but light-hearted; mine was the second character death, but GM Panabon had pretty well implied that casualties would be heavy, and at the end we did a "rewind" segment, so no worries. I liked the surprise that was revealed about the setting! We had a good time playing a semi-quarrelsome crew with conflicting agendas. My costume was a T-shirt of a sort of phantom figure who used to roam the hallways at Balticon, and a headstrap flashlight that I thought looked a little like the GoPro webcam my character was supposedly wearing. The Twitch replay starts about 25:30 minutes into the stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1807260063 )
At 5 p.m. Sunday, I'll be playing an inventor/trick shooter in Through the Breach, set in the world of Malifaux, a sort of steampunky Weird West portal game. (UPDATE 5/1: I had a great time! Interesting setting, GM Jester kept everything running at a good pace without feeling railroaded, going with a narrative focus and basically ignoring mechanics helped with that; everybody got dressed up and got into good character roleplaying, and we managed a satisfying conclusion. My costume was a black cowboy hat with a black feather, a black leather vest, and a pink corduroy shirt. The Twitch replay starts about 30 minutes into the stream: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1808018830 )
On Monday night, if all goes well, I'll be resuming the Community D&D campaign, The Dragon of Icespire Peak, on Arvan Eleron's Twitch channel! We're hoping to wrap up this campaign during ArvCon, Memorial Day weekend, the annual fundraiser for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. (UPDATE 5/1/23: It now looks as though we'll probably resume on Wednesday, May 10, instead, 8:30 p.m. EDT, and play again on Monday, May 22, at 8 p.m. EDT.)
Video: Nothing new so far, except the games posted above.
AUDIO: As mentioned above, our Stargate SG-Fun podcast has resumed! Actually, so far we've just been editing and releasing audio that was already in the can, and recording a game we played. But we do intend to start recording SG-1 Season 3 show reviews soon.
The old episodes released via The Incomparable are here (podcasts 1-6, ending on the S1 cliffhanger: https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/stargate/
All our episodes, including new episodes as well as the old ones, now being released independently, are here: https://sgfun.space/
And we're now on Mastodon: @stargate_sg_fun@podcasts.social
These are the new ones:
7. The Daniel of This Civilization (released Jan. 29): We discuss the movie that kicked it all off, and look back at Season 1. With special guest Mandy Self!
8. Chekhov’s Sarcophagus (released Feb. 12): Season 2 begins and it is not bad, not bad at all.
9. Can’t Leave the Planet Wrecked (released Feb. 27): We marvel at how many messes SG-1 has made. At least they’re trying to clean them up. With special guest Eric Scott!
10. The B-Plot Is Actually the A-Plot (released March 22): We watch and discuss the Jacob Carter trilogy, some unexpected meet-cutes, and how the writers just don’t like Teal’c and Sha’re.
11. Bathe in the Light of That Pretty Lantern (released April 17): We discuss the gravity of Stargates, how to win alien friends, and influence the weather.
I have also been on a couple more SFF Audio podcasts:
The SFFaudio Podcast #728 – Ministry Of Disturbance by H. Beam Piper – read by Phil Chenevert for Librivox. "This is a complete and unabridged reading of the novella (1 hour 55 minutes) followed by a discussion of it." With Jesse, Paul Weimer, and Evan Lampe. (released April 2)
The SFFaudio Podcast #729 – The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain – read by John Greenman for Librivox. "This is a complete and unabridged reading of the novel (6 hours 42 minutes) followed by a discussion of it." With Jesse and Paul Weimer. (released April 10)
UPDATE 5/15/23:
The SFFaudio Podcast #734 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Black Stranger by Robert E. Howard -- read by Connor Kaye. "This is a complete and unabridged reading of the novella (3 hours 30 minutes) followed by a discussion" hosted by Jesse, with Paul Weimer, Connor Kaye, Alex, Cora Buhlert and me.
UPDATE 5/25/23:
AUDIO: The SFFaudio Podcast #735 – READALONG: A Night In Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny. Actually, it's A Night in the Lonesome October. Hosted by Jesse, with Paul Weimer and Tony DeSimone. One of my favorite books; I usually listen to each day's diary entry each October. Released Oct. 22, 2023.
AUDIO: Skiffy and Fanty #737. S&F CLACKS #2: DUNGEONS, WORLDCON, AND AFTERLIVES, OH MY! I joined Shaun Duke, Brandon O’Brien, and Paul Weimer on the Twitch channel for Skiffy and Fanty on April 7 to discuss the D&D Creators Summit and the future of the game, the Chengdu Worldcon and the Hugo Awards, and the passing of Rachel Pollack. This was turned into a podcast that was released on March 23.
AUDIO: Skiffy and Fanty #738. TIMELINE (2003) — TORTURE CINEMA #130. From the episode discussion: "Shaun Duke, Paul Weimer, and Trish Matson join forces to tackle a time travel “classic” — Timeline! Together, they try to make sense of its plot, make fun of its treatment of medieval France, fawn over Gerard Butler, and get lost in thought about strange things that will make you giggle."
In addition to participating in this discussion, I did extensive audio editing for it, by filtering noise; synchronizing tracks; sliding tracks around in time or muting parts of the conversation to fix crosstalk issues; picking a section of conversation to highlight in the cold open; and adding the usual musical intro and outro.
GAMING: The Shadowcrew resumed our campaign of Community Dungeons & Dragons: The Dragon of Icespire Peak, on https://twitch.tv/arvaneleron on Monday, May 22! We almost, um, killed the equivalent of Ori, Nori, Dori and Gloin. Sort of. We'll see how that resolves on Saturday night from 10 p.m. EDT to midnight! You can see the YouTube replay on (51) Arv streams Day 30 of Community D&D: Dragon of Icespire Peak--Into Icespire! - YouTube .
UPDATE 6/6/23:
AUDIO EDITING: I edited Skiffy and Fanty #742. LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION (SEASON 2) W/ MICHI TROTA — SCREEN SCOUTS. I wasn't on this episode, but I did all the editing for it, unless our fearless leader Shaun Duke did something subtle. His tweet about it thanked me for the editing, not for helping with the editing. This time, I watched a half-hour YouTube video about NoiseGate before I started, and I understand the attack/decay aspects much better. So the noise filtering was easier, but as usual, I spent much more time on snipping out stutters, ums, and other verbal fillers, and sliding tracks around to fix people talking over each other -- about six hours of editing for 1:22:15 of polished audio. Released June 4.
AUDIO: The SFFaudio Podcast #737 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Cosmic Computer by H. Beam Piper. Hosted by Jesse, with Paul Weimer, Tony DeSimone, and me. I found it to be an enjoyable tale, despite some quibbles, but not Piper's best work (my favorite remains his novelette Omnilingual).
UPDATE 6/12/23:
AUDIO: The SFFaudio Podcast #738 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. Hosted by Jesse, with Paul Weimer and David J. West. I believe this is the longest single-total podcast I've been on yet, at 21:23:33, although 19 hours and 23 minutes of that is the audiobook. So it's not the longest podcast discussion in which I've participated. I do not recommend subjecting yourself to the audiobook unless you're a Twain completionist; skim the text instead if you want -- not that the narration is terrible, but many of the attitudes expressed are, so why undergo that? It may be that Twain himself is not as prejudiced as the opinions he expresses, but is instead making fun of those attitudes, but the fact that I'm in doubt indicates that it's not well done. Or maybe he was just being that subtle in order to slip it past his editors and the part of his audience that wanted to feel that way, but it made me cringe a lot.
UPDATE 7/11/23:
TWITCH: I was a major organizer for the prize giveaways during ArvCon, ArvanEleron's annual gaming marathon that raises money for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. This year we ran from Thursday, May 25, through Sunday, May 28, and raised $6,100.01, which although a bit less than last year's total, is still a very respectable sum.
GAMING:
Community D&D: The Dragon of Icespire Peak held its thrilling conclusion on the Saturday night of ArvCon! None of the ShadowCrew characters died, but we were left with the decision of what to do with the egg left behind by the ice dragon. My Tabaxi bard, Grace of the Refreshing Breeze, convinced the others that we should try to find some good dragon who'd be willing to raise the egg. Here's the replay: Arv streams ArvCon 2023, Day 3--Community D&D: The Finale of Dragon of Icespire Peak!
The following month, on Saturday, June 24, the ShadowCrew convened again on Arvan's channel for a postmortem discussion that lasted for four hours, actually longer than the finale episode. We talked about possible epilogues for our characters, favorite interactions and other moments from the campaign, reasons for decisions our characters made, and much more. It was great having a chance to wrap things up like that. Here's the replay: Arv streams Community D&D: The ShadowCrew discusses their Dragon of Icespire Peak campaign!
This past weekend, July 6-9, was A Weekend with Good Friends, an online horror gaming convention organized on the Discord for the podcast The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which focuses on the Call of Cthulhu and other horror roleplaying games. The games were played over Discord channels, with strict prohibitions against streaming or recording. I played three games during this, none of them Call of Cthulhu, although one of them used the Mi-Go as antagonists. The first game was Mothership, a science fiction RPG that felt very similar to the Alien RPG; the crew I was with investigated a derelict spaceship, and things did not go well, although three of us survived. We used pre-generated characters, and the GM guided us through the minimal rules. It was fun!
My other two games were a bit lighter in tone, played in the system Moonlight on Roseville Beach and GMed by its creator. From its itch.io page: "Queer pulp meets cosmic horror! It's 1979, and you're spending the summer working in Roseville Beach, the queerest little town on Rose Island. You might have come here looking for an escape, some fun, a little extra money, or even love, but now people are seeing phantasms, strange animals—and stranger old gods—wander the woods, mysterious monoliths appear randomly, and that strange music is coming from somewhere." These games also used pregens, and the rules again were minimal, but we had a slow start on both nights as people felt their way into their characters, flirted with NPCs, realized that there were mysteries, and investigated those mysteries; however, the final hour of each game was full of excitement and action, so I was happy to have played them.
UPDATE 8/17/23:
AUDIO: I appeared on July 17, 2023, on The SFFaudio Podcast #743 – READALONG: The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper, with host Jesse, Paul "Prince Jvstin" Weimer, and Alex of "PulpCovers." I actually reread four books and read the fifth of The Dark Is Rising sequence. My favorite this time through is Greenwitch, the third in the quintology.
GAMING: I roleplayed again in Star Trek Adventures (I think this was our fifth game together) on Saturday, Aug. 11. Our GM said we keep challenging him by going off the rails; I picked up early on his clue that we had "returned" to the wrong universe when the Starfleet captain referred to the Unified Federation instead of the United Federation. My character thought aggrievedly, "I thought we were back home! ... Wait, when did I start thinking of that place as home?" Clue drop (to the other players, not to their characters)!
I have also played in a couple more pick-up games (voice only) on The Good Friends of Jackson Elias Discord channel. The first was Call of Cthulhu, set in 1979 San Francisco, investigating an archaeological dig sited in an old ship that had been used as a warehouse, and buried after a fire. We all made it out alive and sane!
The second was "The Murder Shack" on Aug. 11. I'd heard an actual play podcast of this Call of Cthulhu scenario earlier on Ain't Slayed Nobody, so I was pretty sure we weren't going to make it out alive or sane, but I was in the mood for some roleplaying, and the time was convenient. The GM posted the next day that "I'm still thinking of the level of emotional engagement that all of you brought, [My character] at the meeting talking about her mother sends shivers down my spine." (The scenario started with a group therapy session for people who'd lost loved ones.)
Our Stargate RPG resumed on July 29, "The Most Dangerous Game," set on a dinosaur world. We play again this Saturday.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1992574976
