Save me Jebass!!!

wow it still works.....

davedevil — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 12:26:25 GMT

I just logged on to this thing for the first time in two years... I feel oddly nostalgic...

Clear out

davedevil — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 09:40:30 GMT

Having a bit of a clearout - so before these take to ebay if anyone has any interest let me know prices are all below buy it now on Ebay, may have some wiggle room on price especially for multiple buys. I'll ship it to you (at your cost) or arrange to hand over when next we meet.

Boardgames:
Last night on Earth - The Zombie game (nearly new) £25
Arkham Horror (nearly new) £20
Pandemic (nearly new) £15
Elder Sign (nearly new) £10
Illuminati (Good Condition) £10

RPG:

Cthulhu:

CoC 6th Edition - £15
Realm of Shadows - Pagan Publishing £15
Fatal Experiments - £15
Terror Australis -£15
Cthulhu Now (1990's edition - 2322) £15
Ramsey Campbell's Goatswood £10
The Laundry Files - £15
Cthulhu Britannica £5
Cthulhu Britannica Avalon - £5

BASIC RPG Games:

The Celestial Empire - £5
Dragon Line - £5

Godsend Agenda:

Core rulebook (new) - £5
Superlink (new)- £5
God Maker (new) - £3
USERS's Most Wanted (new) - £3
Mythos - (new) £5

SLA Industries:
The Contract Directory (new) - £15
The Key of Delhyread (new) - £5
Mort Sourcebook (new) - £15
Hunter Sheets - Issue 1 - £5

Savage World:
War of the Dead 1 - £3
Savage Suzerian £10
Noir Knights -£5
Dogs of of Hades £5
Sunderskies Companion - £3

Planescape:
Warpath - Mass combat rules - £5
Coliseum Morpheuon - £10
The Tome of Secrets - £10

Misc:
Weapons of the Gods RPG (wuxia roleplaying) - £15
QUERP (plus players companion and Bestiary - £10

How strange...

davedevil — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 18:47:54 GMT

I logged onto LJ for probably the first time in 2 years today - I needed to look back, way back! to the beginning of my journal to find some dates. This LJ is over 10 years old. Ten years ago I was so young - much more chaotic and simple a soul. It seemed odd to go back, one day I should re-read this old thing to remind me of old lost friends, lovers, jobs, joys, opportunities and youthful naivete.

Tis the point of year where people

davedevil — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 07:53:06 GMT

Promise to use there LiveJournal more. I hereby promise not to do so!

(Unless Vladimir Putin commands it)

FICTIONAUTS ASSEMBLE!

davedevil — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 10:29:17 GMT

Few months ago I proposed Fictionauts Assemble a monthly London RPG club/social mixer. Lets see if I can get this going, it would be quite nice to make London monthly and catch up with folks. I'm going to aim to start this in September, Sept 24th in fact! I'm looking for people who want to play, run games and enjoy in social geekery! My plan would be to game in the day and have a social chinwag session in the evening (I may fit in a geek quiz or something to break the ice). Spread the news give me some commitment so I know how big a space I need! to book

OPERATION HOWLING ARCANE DIAMOND!

davedevil — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 07:04:16 GMT

Calling all field operatives of a Grade 6/C with a valid esoteric weapons training certificate. Operation Howling Arcane Diamond needs you! Episode 8 of IT CAME FROM THE CUBICLE! is live. We interview Sarah Newton and Gareth Hanrahan Listen for a chance to win a copy of the Laundry and Black Bag jobs!

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Cubicle 7, sherbertsaucers and Cthulhu

davedevil — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 10:22:00 GMT

Episode 7 is here!

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Friday the 13th!

davedevil — Tue, 10 May 2011 15:26:53 GMT

I plan beer in the city, likey in the Kings Cross or Liverpool Street area Friday evening. Entertain me or face your DOOM!

"IT CAME FROM THE CUBICLE!" - Episode 5 - Gentlemen of Distinction

davedevil — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:58:06 GMT

Want to know all about Cakebread and Walton's alt history setting Clockwork and Chivilary?

Fancy hearing about what is going on with their Abney Park rpg Airship Pirates?

Maybe you just fancy a chance at wining a hoard of free stuff!!!

Then listen to IT CAME FROM THE CUBICLE!

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davedevil — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 19:56:56 GMT

I always have mixed feeling working away. Obviously I miss Caroline terribly plus the normal day to day life bits of seeing friends (between working away and moving end of last year I didn't see my core group of friends for nearly two months that was ewwww).

However going away especially somewhere new is always kind of nice. Time to yourself in a way you just don't get in normal life is kind of rare and the ability to detach and just think about things usually is very much needed. It's allowed me to break through some stirrers block which has been bugging me, which is good as I have three weeks of real work writing coming up as well as hobby stuff. The new burst of energy should have me through the hobby stuff soon at around double what I was originally commissioned to write. Once this project is done I'll move away to somethings I've been burning to write for a while and I think I'll be happy with that. I certainly couldn't work like this project again for a number of reasons.

Still I'm proud of the work that has come together and look forward to seeing it in print.

Why my LARP ST days are over.

davedevil — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 18:08:41 GMT

This is my final statement and testament in relation to the gaming medium LARP

I used to live, dream and eat LARP. The Camarilla and White Wolf days will always have a soft spot, at least until the burnout. Now however I am coming to and end of what will be my final LARP as an ST. For many reasons but primarily because I think I have achieved all I can as a storyteller in the medium and defiantly because the love has gone.

LARP induces all sorts of behavior you would never see in a table top game a few of these wonderful fallacies about LARP follow.

1. Not turning up and not telling the ST, after all there are loads of players and I won't be missed.

WRONG:

STs always miss players and even more so miss characters more times than I can remember I've had plot for a key element of the game and the player has not trend up. Urgent ST huddle, reassignment of plot and a quick fix. Player returns and complains they never get any plot ST tries to stop killing player (roll 7 or above to succeed). Players would never behave this way in a tabletop game so why they do here always astounds me.

2. ST's are important

WRONG (mostly)

ST's are important to start a game off and resolve things when they go horribly wrong. Don't get into LARP STing for heavy deep narrative structure or guiding the characters story. They don't need you. Like a mother hen your chicks cluck off into their own make believe lives. She your off spring are godless emo bastard children who exist only to make your life a misery!

This is unavoidable, players want to go off and gain that in-depth social RPGing that hang around without the stuffy ST can achieve. This can be awesome, but more often that not it involves bad cyber sex. Some times it involves bad cyber sex between two hairy fat men who each other think are girls.

Ultimately if the players don't need you other than to make rules calls you've probably succeeded beyond your expectations as an ST. Cheer your success while you stand lonely and unloved in a corner! Which brings me on to my third point.

3. Roleplayers have Ego issues

We all do, we all want to be Aragorn/Flash Gordon/Batman/insert meaningful fantasy character here (there must be one? How about Lois Lane?) but we're not all meant to be the hero. This has a few key issues in LARP.

- You have a real personality and some social skill, maybe you can even communicate with members of the opposite sex. This puts you at an unfair advantage and you will always rise to the top. You'll probably get RP experience every month as well.

- There are usually a few players like this in a given game they will drive plot and slave drive others Like two cats in a territory contest these two must be separated. If in any way these players are sexually attracted to each other spray them down with cold water and spay one of them .

- Some players have no social skills but insist on trying to play a social character and become frustrated when it doesn't go your way. It will end with violence, usually because people with no social skills are often wonderful min maxers (everyone is good at something after all)

- The game is all about ME! Whether you are ST or player there are often issues here, ST's feel unloved, in larger societies the ST, who has been your friend since childhood and is the god father to your baby, is a cock and doesn't know the rules and I'm going to complain until they drive him out of town! Occasionally you may disagree with an ST in a TT game but you tend not to make formal complaints or write rude stuff about them on the walls of the bathroom (I did once but the ST in question won't let me come round any more.

4. FUCKING DOWNTIMES

I hate them, I hate processing, I hate writing them and I hate the fact they are expected in a game. If only they didn't exist I would have something to do at the game! As an ST and a player! London Cam was always the worst for this. I'm a role-player not a war gamer and god don't get me started on Slashfic! (unless it involves Salma Hayek, Scarlett Johannson or Angelina Jolie when she still remembered to eat stuff.)

5. BAD BLOODY MANNERS

This links to the ego of players and the diminishing power of STs in a game. I've seen this in the four LARP's I've run and the two I've helped run at the start of the LARP everyone loves you! You've given them escapism from their humdrum lives! Six months in the super ego of the player escapes from its cage and takes over!

Suddenly for what ever reason the fact the people running this are your mates or have tried their best is forgotten and its ok to shout at them, demand down time returns and speak to them like a badly behaved puppy.

This again has happened to me in every LARP I have run and I am as is the case with so many of these issues been a culprit as a player. Lest we forget STs are mean to have fun to. As an ST you'll know when you've crossed the line, I go to the bar and don't come back.

6. TOTAL IMMERSION

I find it quite cool when people talk about my game after the sessions, again ego of the RPer. I like occasionally talking to you about it, hey its shared experience. I don't always wan tot talk to you about it and I really don't care what kith ling your vampire character is shtuping! Back when I was ANST Mage, around the time I realised it was time to stop I was putting more hours into LARP than my job. Home to IRC, DT's, scenes, un-requited love via the internet, requited love via the internet. For most of it I had a great time but upon reflection I prefer occasional gaming.

7. All to often it is emotionally charged.

If your a relatively attractive, in reasonable physical shape, wash and can talk to people you're gonna get laid. Your going to get a lot of people trying to cyber with you before then.

If your female you're going to get a lot of attention and much of it will be unwanted. However there is more than a passing chance you will be lauded like afore mentioned Scarlett Johnsson.

I had some of the most tumultuous relationships of my life whilst engaged in what was the Cam UK. I behaved badly and was treated badly, relatively cathartic to admit that. Sorry for those I was insensitive to and no hard feelings to those who were with me.

So to sum up…

Should you LARP?

Yes! You will meet amazing and wonderful people. Just about everyone I consider close friends now I met through LARP. Every time you LARP you will wade through a swarm of folks who are nice enough and probably more than one you want to throttle (the only person I can say I honestly hate I encountered in the Cam. To this day the mention of his name fills me with a stomach knotting anger). LARP in different environments and try different groups. Every time I have played I've come away richer. Know the boundaries though, and just cos Princess Flower petal likes your mighty troll does not mean she wants to be your soul mate (probably). Just from my own experience don't immerse yourself to deep and make surveyor real life relationships come first and for fucks sake if you are IC having a relationship with someone tell your other half and don't sneak around I loose count of the relationships I have seen implode due to this.

So yeah most people you meet will be great and spark acquaintances UK or even world wide! I rarely hit a UK city where I don't know someone!

Should you run LARP's?

Ummm maybe?

There are lots of benefits to it, especially if you do something in an ongoing story where you pass on the reins. You'll have created something that can last for a very long time. On the flip of that you need a thick skin and the ability to switch it off. You have to remember you're not really running the game, you are enabling it. You become more like an umpire than a traditional GM especially when you pick up an established game.

So in conclusion..

I think this started out as a Facebook status update and I wandered off down some meandering thought path…. My time as a LARP ST is over, like Bilbo in his Hobbit hole I have had my adventures and regretted none of them, many of the mistakes and accomplishments in this co-operative hobby formed a lot of who I am today.

You will meet lots of awesome people who you enjoy begin with, do remember to be with them as well as characters! When the game is over figure out who you would like that drink/chat/long term relationship and act on it.

Oh and players be kinder to your ST's that is a reminder for me as well as you!

Dave Waker is a rpgaholic and the giving up of his LARP ST duties is part of his long road to recovery. In the past he started and ran London Sabbat and Mage, was an RST and ANST int he Camarilla before he got better. Unfortunately Dave relapsed with his good buddy Lee Robson and ran Star Wars game for close to 3 years. After some time in local sanitarium he promised never again until he got drunk with Michael Sweeney and made the same mistake again. This time he promises to make it final and has found real life politics to be much better than any Primogen council he ever attended.

Instead he has turned his attentions to tabletop RP and writes and plays whenever his job doesn't get in the way. He likes many of the people he met in is last LARP so much he's turning the slot into a Table Top gaming club and thinks if you love RPG, London a wee spot of beer and being sociable you should come along to.

"IT CAME FROM THE CUBICLE!" - Episode 4 - GRIM'S Fairy Tales!

davedevil — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:19:38 GMT

Listen to the man they call Grim talk about things you like and all his favorite recipes on how to cook small children!

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IT CAME FROM THE CUBICLE!

davedevil — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:41:53 GMT

Heya folks,

April is Cthulhu special month on It Came From the Cubicle! I'm looking for feedback, what you loved, what you hated and what you've used your Cthulhu Britannica products for! Or maybe you have the top tip for scaring the hell out of your players that can help all budding keepers!
Please leave comments or email me at
podcast@cubicle7.co.uk
Best entry will, if they choose to, be immortalized as an NPC in an upcoming release!

"IT CAME FROM THE CUBICLE!" - Episode 3 THE PEREGRINE'S CLAW!

davedevil — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:27:58 GMT

Episode 3 of IT CAME FROM THE CUBICLE! The Official Cubicle Seven podcast now up! Featuring an interview with Andrew Peregrine! Subscribe on iTunes or listen direct at: http://cubicle7.podbean.com

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Beer on Friday

davedevil — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 18:35:04 GMT

Old Kings Head 7-8pm this coming Friday, be there or be somewhere else.

davedevil — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 12:10:16 GMT

sea_of_flame and I demand you attend us this evenign fro a drink to celebrate owning a house. We will be at the Crosse Keys near Bank for some time after work (I'll be there by 6) If you fail to attend you hate us and are misserable friends :P

Hijack Add hell!

davedevil — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:04:55 GMT

OK the screen hijack popup adds when you log in are a last resort for me. I usually check in at least once a day on LJ but I can't be doing with popup adds that hijack screen control.

I think ye can count this journal as offcialy dead!

"IT CAME FROM THE CUBICLE!" - Episode 2: Newtons First Law!

davedevil — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 18:12:14 GMT

Episode 2 of It came from the cubicle has an interview with Sarah Newton about gaming, Mindjammer and Legends of Anglerre. Listen on for a chance to win a copy of the Awesome Mindjammer!

To enter the competition or if you have any questions or suggestions please email us at podcast@cubicle7.co.uk

Do you like Cthulhu?

davedevil — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 09:22:58 GMT

Can you write, may be even write letters? Do you think Cthulhu is good fun for all the family?

Want to help me in my review for the Cubicle 7 Podcast of the 2nd Edition of De Profoundis?

A game where this is no gamesmaster, no meetup just letters and journals of investigators that collaboratively tell terrifying otherworldly stories.

http://shop.cubicle7store.com/epages/es113347.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/es113347_shop/Categories/De_Profundis

It Came From the Cubicle - Episode 1

davedevil — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 12:04:13 GMT

THEY CAME FROM THE CUBICLE!

An interview with Angus & Dom over at Cubicle 7.

Listen for a chance to win a copy of Legends of Anglerre

Download it from:

http://cubicle7.podbean.com/

The Great Giveaway - Part 1

davedevil — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:32:50 GMT

As a move seems imminent we are in the process of sorting out the house and clearing out possessions if you want any of the following let one of us know:

1. A large selection of various sci-fi and fantasy books. No grand classics in there but if you want a mixed bag of new books let us know.

2. A black laser printer working and now unused thanks to wireless fun.

3. An iPaq PDA.

4. A working but elderly PC with monitor.

5. Pretty much all of Red Dwarf on video.

6. A mixed selection of some Terry Pratchett audio books on CD.

Goods are given freely but I don't want them to then to be resold. That would make me sad.

Rare post

davedevil — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 08:35:31 GMT

However I figured failing_angel would like to see this:

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

The Pandorica Opens

davedevil — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:26:32 GMT

The Pandorica Opens

Well that was quite awesome and something that has not quite pulled off since the first part of Christopher Eccleston's finale way back when we had new Who. I love that Moffat did what RTD never managed to do, made the Cybermen terrifying. I adore River Song and would love to see the wondrous Alex Kingston in her own spin off series.

"IT CAME FROM THE CUBICLE!"

davedevil — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 14:49:04 GMT

As the all knowing Angus informed you avid readers a few weeks ago the C7 podcast will soon be making its way to the internet airways. We will be producing two podcasts a month and we'll let you know what they are about and what we will be discussing ahead of time to get your feedback and interaction.

One of the monthly podcasts will focus on what is coming up in releases from the C7 family this month the second will be a more gamer general focus on some of the genres and burning questions of the day! Each month we want questions and queries from you which we will put towards the game developers and the every lovely Dom & Angus. Plus each podcast will have a competition allowing one lucky listener to win a copy of this months new C7 goodies! (Oh and we'll have a few time critical discount codes being slipped in from time to time as well)

The first podcast should be available in mid July and I am happy to announce the first will focus on Legends of Anglerre and Starblazer. I will be talking to Sarah Newton about this so if you have any burning questions put them here and it will be asked! We will also be reviewing and breaking down the products to let you know why you should part with your hard earned cash! Listen out for the competition and the closing date in the show and a copy of Legends of Anglerre could be yours.

The second podcast this month will focus on the Cubicle 7 Story. Just who are the mysterious Dom and Angus? Is Angus hair a wig, how did they meet, what is the C7 dream and what exactly did come from the Cubicle?! If you have questions for the guys let me know.

The question for this podcast's competition is simple- What question should the guys ask as many game industry luminaries as possible at GenCon? Dom & Angus will choose the win and a copy of Mindjammer could be yours!

iPad a first impression review

davedevil — Sun, 30 May 2010 12:30:57 GMT

All of this review is typed on my new iPad and mutters through my first impressions. I'm going to. Be objective as possible as a windows and Mac cross user (only Linux sucks). So just over 400 quid poorer was it worth it? for me yes, however I do have a Mac book and a iPhone and the integration between the three is great. When I plugged it in for the first time it actually asked me if I wanted to use my iPhone restore as a starting setup. As result my email accounts browser favourites and apps were cross installed. I note after I then synched my iPhone later in the day it took on the changes I added to my iPad this was cool. I've used mobile computing for a while starting off with a iPaq and then onto a windows mobile smart phone. The integration between them and windows was frankly poor and often time consuming from minute one this is. What I have always liked about the Apple platform after the horror of Vista and windows mobile I liked the fact the thing just works, is intuitive and fun.

Most of my apps went and worked straight away but there are two types of apps those that are designed for iPhone and those that are iPad optimised. The difference is that iPhone apps at normal resolution sit at the centre of the screen they can be switched to full screen but some pixillation does occur I would expect most of the big boys to solve this in the next few months and come out with iPad opt iced apps which are designed to run full screen.

As far the pad itself it is fast, very fast, and incredibly sensitive. The screen flip and directional movement is tracked instantaneously. A common complaint (usually made be people who have never run an iPhone is that it does not run multiple applications. This honestly does not matter you hit the home button and switch applications then switch back to another no more slowly than switching apps on a PC. Anything worth it's salt saves state as you close it as well. I'll be happy when OS4 hits and multithreading is enabled mind you for the use of my beloved Spotify mobile running as I type. I'll note that iPod does run with other apps.

Lack of Flash, an issue? Not really occasional issue but to a degree Steve Jobs is right about Flash it is bloated, offers some serious security issues and trades performance vs functionality on mobile. Are Apple throwing their market share power around at Adobe yes, is this bad blood from the fact then Macromedia got into bed with Microsoft on a few issues back in the last decade probably. Should Adobe be listening and innovating quickly yes. HTML5 is coming Firefox are going to lead the way with it next year YouTube has already started using the new media player functionality reducing the dependancy of plugins. Designers should use HTML, CSS and JavaScript as their majority of their kit with any plugin as a last resort this is where web is going.

Screen resolution and playback is awesome! Pictures look brilliant and so does video there is a grand app called air player which means I can stream from my laptop and media server. Also GoodReader allows a great link into cloud based storage or allows you to access your iPad over HTTP and pop files on it.

IBooks and Kindle are lovely with lots of free books available as well as best sellers. Pages, Keynote and Numbers at £5 each are amazing really rich office apps that save out to office and pdf from the iPad.

Do not go for the 3G version if you are planning to get one btw. Its a hundred more to have that functionality with no sane data bundle tie in. Instead I got one of 3's mobile broadband hubs. Means I can connect me laptop iPhone and iPad into it which as a frequent traveller is a very useful.

to finish up it is a device that is not going to be for everyone. No it does not take DVD's but then again neither do net books. It does not run Flash if you like a lot of Flash in your life avoid. It looks you into the AppStore however I can get Broken Sword for £5 or £20 for my DS. Apps are sanely priced and delivered straight to your machine. It is as a device a lifestyle choice and absolutely unnecessary but a he'll of a lot of fun and and a great tool for a commuter or business traveller. If you know you want one go get it you'll love it.