craigoxbrow

An example of an idea that ended up growing in the telling... and a look at an episode of Season 8, were there such a thing.

We open on Milli running full-tilt down a dark alley, sword drawn, out into a square - looking up just as a vampire drops out of a tree and steps back to stop it landing on her. It leaps to its feet and aims a kick at her head, she ducks, grabs its ankle and spins it around, swings her sword as it tries to get back up. BOOM.

Then a light comes on behind her.

Voice: Miss Blackhurst?
Milli: Uh...?

She turns and sees a reporter and cameraman looking at her.

Reporter: Is this latest vampire attack part of a pattern?
Milli: Er...?

--

Cut to a shot from the camera POV, with a BBC News caption underneath:
Millicent Blackhurst, Watcher’s Council

Reporter: What can you tell our viewers about this particular cult?
Milli: Um...?

--

Is this a natural event caused by Harmony outing vampires (and Clem) nudging the setting in a True Blood kinda direction? Or is this some mystical denial-filter-remover?

And either way, who made those Keep Calm And Carry On style posters?

(thanks to Keep Calm And Carry On.)

--

Escher: Well. It would appear that the hidden occult world of the supernatural, er... isn’t.

--

David Dimbleby: Tonight, Question Time comes from Cambridge, centre of the Watcher controversy. The Watchers’ Council has been the self-appointed defender of humanity for centuries. But has their policy of secrecy and denial done more harm than good? With me tonight to discuss this are Sir James Morton from the Ministry of Defence, lecturer on medieval history and senior Watcher Michael Henry Escher, vampire rights activist Victoria Valdermar, Witch Alliance representative Janet Shadowborn, and the Guardian science journalist Alok Jha.

--

(Isn’t she dead? Shhh.)

--

Happy Holidays, all.

A collection of five hundred fairytales compiled a hundred and fifty years ago has been found in Germany, some not collected elsewhere such as The Turnip Princess.

Not my subtlest plug ever. 10,000 words on running Buffy games, episode by episode.

Drawing from The Watch House, the Band On The Run PBP and the Nationals rewiring of it, and more.

Go. Read. Comment.

Please?

The Skies They Were Ashen And Sober

Part of A Night In The Lonesome October. Hey, it's still October where the organiser is!

Last one. Couldn't resist.

Since it's so far drawn zero comment, a reminder that I yammer about gaming a bit more over here.

Yes, I called it The Watch House.

Also out there, and this drawing comment due to plugs at the DWAITAS officially unofficial forum, my Who gaming miniblog.

Apparently I write like a bunch of people. Not always the people I'm trying to write like, since testing it on biggish LJ entries my random musing about making a fake Lord Of The Rings trailer is like H.P. Lovecraft while my deliberate H.P. Lovecraft pastiche is like Jack London. And it seems to kick up Dan Brown if you mention Rosslyn Chapel. Or running. And Douglas Adams by saying "dunno".

And meanwhile, National Anthems, part two. Nothing quite as stunning Bosnia/Herzegovina, but the Ecuador anthem would totally work as described.

I just got done reading The Writer's Tale: The Final Chapter and while I don't agree with everything it's full of funny, clever, touching, reassuring with the writer's block and the frustration and the rethinking and the getting-a-cold-when-you're-done. And, oh yes, story ideas. Which I will be stealing. This was nearly the 2009 Easter special, for example.

Not as shiny and full-colour and big and sumptuous as the hardback, obviously. And hardly any doodles in the new 300 pages. But still, liked it, liked it.

Watching The End while planning a game got me thinking about beginnings.

( Pointless rambling ahoy! )

So I'm hoping Matt Smith's first episode is a good jumping-on point.

Plodding back home in the rain after getting a paper, I got to idly thinking about doing an RPGnet column about kitchen-sink games. Start with defining terms, look at some examples in gaming and other media, talk about what players and GMs can bring to a game where just about anything can happen, look at some specific issues in an anything-goes game (the first example I came up with was the Revolving Door Of Death). It might get pretty ramblin', but after five and a half years of a huge kitchen sink and then going to GM games where I deliberately limited what would fit into the setting, I feel I could ramble interestingly. What say you, gentle readers?

And while we're here, on a sorta-related note: Buffy Episodes based on Jonathan Coulton songs/titles by The Unshaven. I am sincerely flattered. Hopefully SteveD will be sincerely sincerely flattered.

Around again, snagged from bodybag_pilgrim:

I really liked this one last time around, so I figure, why not do it again?

Tell me about a story I haven't written, and I'll give you one sentence from that story.