Work

I asked Biff what nomenclature to use for my three new paragraphs. Biff called Julius and forty-five minutes later they agreed we did need three paragraphs, not one paragraph with two logic rules. (I know.) Then we got onto the nomenclature and fifteen minutes later I determined the system was mostly Biff’s personal mnemonic tool. Also, the system is an information paradox; between four and seven of the ten characters are determined by which existing paragraph you use as the template for the new one. Finally I got to choose which letter between ‘A’ and ‘I’ would be used to distinguish the second paragraph. I chose ‘G’ because it spelled a pun. Biff didn’t get it.

Play

On Wednesday night after a little conferring on the science fiction setting and pizza Dave, Jimbo and I rolled up half a dozen characters for our latest attempt at a regular roleplaying game. We went through a big book of science fiction character generating tables (a.k.a. Casting Call: Heroes of Tomorrow) and then decided to convert the page of results into a (HeroQuest) drabble. This is a good thing as it allows the interesting and reasonable parts of the random character generation to be focussed on. For example: one of Jimbo’s character supposedly led a prison riot at age two before becoming a pirate captain at age six; prison is not reasonable but pirates are interesting. Unfortunately it also means I have to write character descriptions which I find astoundingly difficult. Short ones even more so.

Soccer is our forte. Next Week For Sure won three to nil this time. In the first quarter we were so good at keeping the ball off the other team, Red Bull, it was spooky; if only we had kept the ball out of the corners we might have scored. Ian scored a penalty in the second quarter and at the start of the final quarter it was still one to nil. Fatigue was becoming a real factor in the game so I played a dedicated fullback role to save everyone having the run up and down the entire length of the court. This worked well as Red Bull didn’t get a single shot on goal and Sue scored twice in a minute. Her second goal was a solo effort intercepted on the wing from the kickoff, cut inside the defence and slotted between the goalie’s legs from the top of the circle. Beautiful.

At the Heroclix game on Friday seven people set up for a six hundred point capture the flag scenario on a two foot square table with the colossal Baxter Building in the middle and the flag on top. After the crowd squeezed onto the field Jimbo, Little Simon, most of Matt’s team, Trudi and I were on the ground at the edges of the map while Glen and Jeremy were forced onto the roof of the building with the rest of Matt’s team. Trudi set off up the skyscraper to grab the flag. Then I had my go. My team had one flyer, one phaser and nobody with leap/spring so they were not going to be able to assail the building. Instead I levelled the playing field. Judge Anderson, Judge Fear and Rasputin perplexed up Lobster Johnson’s damage (two shots at five damage), Psylocke enhanced damage for Johnny Alpha (four damage), Nemesis (four damage) and Starman (five damage) and then they shot the base of the Baxter Building. Twenty-three points in one turn brought the building down, filled the board with rubble, and reduced Jeremy's and Glen’s teams to one injured figure each. Unfortunately Jimbo, Little Simon and Matt forgot what the object of the game was and decided to beat each other up. Trudi picked the flag out of the rubble and kept me away with smoke and phased ranged attacks through the rubble for the rest of the game, gaining double points and beating me into second place by the end of the night.

Back at Dave’s on Monday for space adventure on the Starship Manticore. To my surprise I had managed to produce necessary and sufficient character descriptions to convert into HeroQuest character sheets. My freelance owner operator is looking for a new crew, his contact on the mining station stonewalled him, and he just met some guy in a white coat at a bar near a television while something disastrous was being broadcast live. And we're off...
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