Turd Pudding
In the proud tradition of “Shepherd’s Pie” (or Sheppard’s Pie, as the case may be)… I bring you “Turd Pudding”…
As promised, I have a quick teaser with some information on the game I’ve been working on, which I’m giving a new working title (since it’s what I’ve been calling it anyway lately and since nobody really like the first working title – which was way too long). But first, a few words about Geekcentricity and search engines.
If you run a blog or a website, there are a few tools available that can give you a picture, or more like a few snapshots, of what your web traffic is like. I primarily use two of those tools: Google Analytics and Sitemeter. Before you chastise me for even caring about who visits my site and/or how often, you should know that I realize how inaccurate these things are. A percentage of my readers get their Geekcentricity fix from the RSS feed. I use Feedburner to track that, but with all of these tools, I know I still don’t get a realistic picture of my traffic.
Why do I bother? Because it amuses me. I basically track it for shits and giggles. And yes. I can giggle with the best of schoolgirls.
Where was I? Oh, right. Tracking worthless statistics with inaccurate tools. Gotcha. I’m a baseball fan, so I know all about worthless statistics. When I go to a game, I don’t just watch the game while consuming overpriced food and drink that will speed me to an early heart attack. I do all that with a pencil and scorepad in hand. Also, I was DMing when TSR introduced the Comeliness stat, so don’t even chastise me about useless statistics.
Sometimes, though… Sometimes I find something interesting. For example, when I first started Geekcentricity, I got a few visits from someone at LucasArts. I was all geeked out. Someone from LucasArts visited my new little blog! It was like being visited by angels. Then I started to wonder if I’d inadvertently screwed up and violated copyright or something. Since my door is still intact, I have to assume that I didn’t. I just wish whoever it was would come back and check out the site now.
Another thing I find amusing is looking at what search engine terms people use to find Geekcentricity. They used to just be boring and predictable. I used to read Chuck Wendig’s posts where he mentioned the bizarre shit people typed into Google to find his Terrible Minds blog and wonder how he got listed as a result for some of those searches, and lament over why I didn’t get any hits from interesting searches. I lament no more. Instead of lamenting, I can share some of the wacky shit people have entered to find this place.
Fittingly, the two most common search terms people have been using to get here are geekcentricity and geekcentricity.com. The 3rd most common result is still “i4e iPhone” which I have never used, reviewed or discussed here. Below that is the ever popular “‘mi llamo es’ ‘Bob Brent Spiner’” and my two strangest search terms “laxatives she shits herself” and “pissing video.” What the hell?!? Unless I’ve been sleep posting (again), I’ve never written about these things. You won’t find either of those things here anywhere, I promise. Just don’t look behind that door.
In case you missed my whole Geek Day post, I’ve been spending some time playing Alan Wake the last few days and I am really impressed. The game is divided into episodes (which I mentioned as a preference in my post yesterday). Each episode after the first begins with an intro of “In the Last Episode of Alan Wake” much like a television series. I also have to say that the soundtrack is the best in any video game I’ve ever played (not exaggerating, I pay attention to music), with the music being arranged and positioned just like it would be in a tv series. I also can’t wait to play the travesty that is Deadly Premonition. The more I read about this game, the more anticipation I build up for it. Not to mention that I still need to finish Bioshock 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction and haven’t even started Red Dead Redemption yet. Did I mention that Alpha Protocol releases in a few weeks? More on that title closer to launch.
Finally, I haven’t written much about my game over the past few days. I had a busy weekend with the day job, but I’ve been working on it whenever I can. I have two things I can share with you.
First, the working title. I knew that my previous one was not the best, but for my own brain’s sake, I needed to call it something. I also knew that I’d probably burn through a dozen or more working titles before I settle on one that’s worth using. With that in mind, I have a new working title. For the time being, I’ll be using:
The Dark Shift.
What do you think? I am again soliciting your feedback for this working title. Please, let me know.
I have also settled on the core attributes I will be using in character creation.
Since a portion of my backstory for the game is derived from Hopi prophecies about the coming of the “Fifth World” (too bad that title is already in use for an RPG by Jef Godesky), I will be dividing attributes into three categories: Body, Mind and Spirit. The attributes in each category are as follows:
Body
Strength
Stamina
Agility
Mind
Intelligence
Reasoning
Perception
Spirit
Will
Stability
Charm
Each attribute will be ranked on an expanded 9-point Fudge scale (which uses adjectives to describe all traits) as follows:
- (Legendary)
- Excellent
- Great
- Good
- Fair
- Mediocre
- Poor
- Terrible
- Abysmal
ell.
@Darla – I like how White Wolf uses Strength, Dexterity and Stamina as physical attributes, then uses the mental and social equivalents of those three attributes as well for their 9 stats.
I actually secretly like white wolf ok if we pretend the humanity/morality/whatever mechanics just don't exist.
One problem with that split in white wolf, though, is that the GM is encouraged so very much to reward roleplaying, and the only way he is given to reward it, is to let players get away with social things they might not based on their stats. This means, in practice some of those stats never really get used in most of the games I've played (except when they're used for magic or magic resistance, etc., or in PC vs. PC conflicts). Not that encouraging roleplaying like that is necessarily a bad thing… just saying, these two things together don't work as well as they might.
With one notable exception, in which I was called out on my character lying about liking the power puff girls.
@Darla – Sounds like you have played with some… interesting groups. I haven't seen that problem with White Wolf specifically, but I'm sure it could arise in any game, depending on who you're playing with. Hopefully someone with more storyteller experience than I will happen along and address your comment more thoroughly. My curiousity it piqued.
That is SUCH a copout answer. (Sorry to be obnoxious. I have just come from an official work-related weekly team-building event called "Team Drinking". This actually exists. Did I MENTION I have moved to Germany?)
But, seriously, there are systems out there which actually help the GM be a good GM (by whatever measure is appropriate for the game). I think it is obvious there are games this particular problem wouldn't arise (I mean, trivially, games that don't have social stats? less trivially, games that have mechanics geared more to narrative structure?).
Also, you haven't addressed where you think I'm wrong… I mean, are GM's not encouraged to reward roleplaying? Do they have some other way to do that? (much less likely, in my opinion) does this not cause those stats to get used less, or, at least, to require conscious, concerted effort to use appropriately?
I mean, I'm serious [again, aside from the morality mechanic, because, eww, teen angst], I want to like the white wolf system. My own pet game I have wanted to run forever even uses it! But I think this is a problem that needs to be addressed… mostly, by the GM. Or, by someone modifying the system (which, clearly, I will be doing, because, eww, teen angst).
In case you are curious, my pet game is a fairy tale game. Inspired by Zorcerer of Zo, but that game's system is total crap. Lot's of good stuff about telling fairy tale stories though!
@Darla – I've been playing White Wolf games for only a little over a year. In my games, players are given XP for good role-playing. Every session. I'm not sure what you mean by "the only way he is given to reward it, is to let players get away with social things they might not based on their stats." In my experience, I have never seen that. Of course, I have only played in 1 WW session that I wasn't storytelling, so like I said, I was hoping someone with more experience with the system would come by and respond. A few readers/commenters here do have more experience with the game. I also don't play Vampire because of that angst factor. I was running a Hunter game, which is much less angsty. I also set the tone for my games, though as I've said in a previous post, one of the reasons for developing a game is that pre-existing games come with their own set of baggage that is hard to defeat, no matter what house rules or tone you work with.
[...] a bunch of turds all hooked together and floating in the porcelain pond. Though I did have Turd Pudding a few weeks ago. One blog I read calls its weekly link dump post “Applesauce.” [...]