misterdaniel

I aim to post more. I fail a lot. Still, I do have something to froth about. As will come as no surprise to anyone who has talked LRP with me of late, I have been asked to participate in designing Empire, the new fest-LRP system that Profound Decisions intends to launch in 2013 when Maelstrom concludes.

My involvement is no secret. In fact, PD released a video entitled "Meet the Writers". I am not actually in the video but you can totally see my name at 2:28-2:29 when a shot of a computer screen displays: Dan Williams' Religion Team.

The video is here:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/hPvbPX9ozQ0?rel=0

When Matt and Andy asked me to take a lead role in Religion development, I don't think they knew I had a degree in Theology. I do think they knew how much I enjoyed the religion game in Maelstrom, which I did like an awful lot, even if it was not everyone's cup of tea. I suspect they also knew that I am a froth-monkey with a narrativist love of substantive, yet non-lethal, PC engagements.

I have to say that I am broadly excited by a number of features that are being worked on for Empire, but I am naturally excited about what we've been doing with Religion. We are looking at something that has never been tried before in LRP. It may require a bit of a buy-in from players, but what element of a game doesn't? If we get that buy-in, then I think we may see something different and hopefully uniquely enjoyable.

I've drafted a blog for the Facebook group on the design principles we used, some challenges we face and how we aim to overcome them. Its with the Fbook moderator to, hopefully, go up as part of a steady release of information.

Meanwhile, I am due a face-to-face meeting with Matt P and others to discuss the draft of the religion to date to ensure we all understand the same things from it (which is a danger with text alone). I know I have a couple of ideas that I have yet to sell PD on, but I think a lot of the core material will make the final cut.

I didn't intend to have a part of the sandpit to play in, but I am glad I do and I am having a lot of fun doing so.

So I've seen, and enjoyed, Avengers Assemble. I did not squee, per se, but I did laugh, and jump, and smile - and enjoy.

Its clear to me that the 21st century is when the Marvel Universe has cracked Hollywood - and I wonder at the implications. You see, we are about to have The Amazing Spiderman hit our screens. Ten years after Tobey Maguire and Sam Raimi gave us a fairly good Hollywood intro to the character, Andrew Garfield is taking us through the origin story in a different way. Its probably a spoiler, but I suspect Uncle Ben isn't going to do so well in this version either. In another ten years, I am not sure I need to see Uncle Ben die again.

So I found myself wondering if ten years later, we are going to see a remake of Avengers Assemble and wondering if the "shared universe" of Marvel Films may actually protect us from this. The reason the film works - heck the reason it even exists - is because it drew together established characters from other films and did not need to go through the origin stories and the same repeated tragedies. Equally, I do not think there will be a demand for recasting Iron Man or Nick Fury in the imminent future - which seems to have been nicely covered by some foresighted contracting.

I think the acid test will come when Mr Downey Jnr, Chris Hemsworth or Chris Evans want out. However, they have recast Dr Banner (and done a good job this time). As long as they maintain the quality, can they recast? If they are tapping into the full depths of the Marvel Universe, do they need to?

Another interesting point is that I hear Iron Man 3 is not drawing off Iron Man's back catalogue of racist stereotyped villains and is doing something "new". I hope this is so. Whilst having a deep history to mine is good, I would be interested to see where they go in terms of using the Big Screen to find new stories and voices for the characters in the 21st century. If anything, X-Men 3: The Last Stand, shows the perils of tick-boxing the available characters/history for the sake of it without actually having stories for them.

Sooner or later, Kevin Feige or whoever is Being Clever at Marvel will lose the plot, or the momentum will falter. Iron Man 2 was a misstep but not a fatal one. Overall, whilst Avengers Assemble was not the Best Film Evar, I am fascinated by what it means for Marvel at the Cinema - and possibly the film industry as a whole. There is no denying that, thus far, it has been a tremendous commercial success.

Kaz and I have a computer that works that is not a) a smartphone or b) my work laptop. From this, it seems likely that I will return to updating LJ more often. I've a lot to update about, but for now a short note about this weekend past.

We went to visit my brother-in-law and his wife and son in Huntingdon. There was lunch, which was nice, and then he suggested that we go to the local church he attends as they were having a special "Messy Church". Basically, this was a special event for kids to celebrate harvest festival. There was the opportunity to stick googly eyes and feathers into potatoes, making paint shapes with vegetables, plant bulbs, make fruit skewers and cards with glue and seeds.

Eleanor loved it. Benjamin was largely oblivious.

The whole atmosphere reminded me of many reasons why I loved going to church when I was younger.

Also at the weekend, I found a piece of scripture nagging at my brain. 2 Kings 1 v.9-10 to be precise. I read it in a Bible at Brett and Debbie's house and it is every bit as awesome as I remembered.

It was a nice weekend all round - if one with a hint of dichotomy.

I went onto the ward at 5pm last night at at 6pm came home with a Kaz and a Benjamin. In an entirely unsuprising turn of events, the tests revealed there was nothing wrong and that Ben's birthweight had dropped 9oz from 10lb 5oz to 9lb 12oz which is a) normal, b) entirely within acceptable parameters, and c) puts him still well above average for birthweight.

Once back home, I settled Ellie to bed, made dinner for Kaz and I, we watched the GoT finale whilst Ben slept in the basket next to us - and then we went to bed. I slept on the sofa-bed whilst Kaz did what she had been doing in hospital regarding her and Ben but in her own bed. It was great.

Everyone - and I mean everyone - was a little more tired than usual this morning (mostly Kaz - but she got to mostly lie in around feeds whilst I got everything else under control). Eleanor kept telling me she "liked baby bruvva" but I am not sure whether she was trying to convince me or herself.

Now Kaz and Ben are napping, Ellie is with grandma and I have time to update LJ.

In other news, my boss left me a voicemail to say that our company had won a £600k tender that I had submitted. That was good too.

So, yeah, life is pretty good overall.

So, for Father's Day, it would seem that I have been given a gift of the last lie-in I will have for a clear decade and more.

Last night, at 21.30, sheyna brought our son into the world some 39 hours after waters broke. We are choosing a name today and sheyna will likely make the announcement on her own LJ, however I can tell you that he was bigger than Eleanor at 10lb 5.5oz though there was significantly less trauma at his arrival (some stitches). All told, it was a much more civilised experience.

Both he and sheyna seem entirely well and my arm has already been gummed to within an inch of whatever you can gum to. I'd have a row of love bites if he was better at creating a seal.

He and Kirsten are on the ward. Eleanor is with grandma. I am at home with the cat. Today, everyone comes home and then the sleeping stops.

So that was my first proper PD event and my penultimate one before the baby arrives. Partly as a result of that, I was loath to spend three nights away from my pregnant wife and active toddler. They could have coped, but I would have missed them. Therefore I decided that I would only be there for two nights (like a regular weekend event) and leave partway through.

Thankfully, even with an early finish, the event was a lot of fun.

( It ain't 'alf 'ot, mum (mostly x-posted to rule 7) )

There are some nice pictures of Insurrection Event 5 here. Good-looking people in nice kit taken by a skilled photographer. What more can you want?

Egotistically, I like Page 5. Pictures 8-27 pretty much sum up my character concept and character arc. For context, the female human with the bright hair (Elena) was my "leader" for that fight and you can see her becoming injured with the response of "GRASH SMASH!".

( Some musings on the way I LRP which are unlikely to interest many )

When I last posted about family, I was mocking Eleanor's chicken pox. That will teach me to take such things lightly. Ellie weathered it well, to be fair. She could distract herself just fine and thus didn't scratch - so the only issue was when she was trying to sleep.

Thankfully, its gone. Well, there are small pink marks but she's not contagious and so could go to a pirate themed birthday party at the weekend. Thanks to sheyna she was the only one there in costume - apart from me.

( Conversations with my daughter. )

It has been quite a week, and well worth recording for recollection another day. I've had a week off work and its been pretty full from day to day.

( Read more... )