I’m sure everyone is interested to know how things are going, and I can tell you it’s very busy with speeches, dinners, workshops and meeting people from all over the world. JET lag has left us limp legged, so I’m only going to post some pictures and get a good rest for tomorrow.
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| The time difference between Johannesburg and Hong Kong is 6 hours, between Tokyo and Johannesburg is 7. |
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| The Japanese flag waves hello while we eat breakfast at the hotel |
Time seems to blur as we sit cramped on planes, dash through airports or strain our ears to hear the in-flight movie. But this is all part of travel, and it’s exciting and emotionally draining. I’m writing this at what is 1:15 PM on Sunday the 24th in South Africa, but 8:15 PM in Japan. Looking out from what must be the 23rd floor of the Keio Plaza Hotel I see tall buildings and the lights of our first evening in Japan. There is much to tell, but I’ll save that all for another day, right now, Julia and I are savouring finally being in Japan, after so much hoping, praying and waiting: we are finally here.
Already almost a week in the past, Icon 2011 was loads of fun. I only managed the Friday, but there were plenty of familiar faces and I got to try my hand at convention level Magic The Gathering for the first time.
Magic
I’ve played Magic on and off since high school, and I was a little worried that I’d be up against serious players that were years younger than me, but those expectations were thankfully shattered. We played booster draft and although I only won two rounds, everyone I played was super friendly and each game a load of fun. I’d guess that most of the guys (and they were all guys) were between the ages of 20 and 35 or so, and more than patient when it came to questions about the rules. If I learnt anything playing at Icon it was that you just need to go and play, don’t make assumptions about other players, rather go and have fun.
Role-Playing
Positive feedback on my module, Storm of Souls, which ran in the morning. I didn’t watch any of the role-playing or get involved beyond writing my module, but judging by the number of people around on a Friday I’d say that role-playing games are a great reason to take leave, or that role-players are generally unemployed.
I managed to score some of the controversial D&D Fortune Cards (3 boosters in total of Shadow Over Nentir Vale) and must say I don’t think they are as bad as everyone feared. Firstly, you only need one booster to use them in your game, so 6 boosters will cover a party of 6 players. You can then build a deck with as little as 10 cards (there are 8 in a booster), allowing you to customise your deck to suit your characters fighting style and strengths. I haven’t played with the cards yet, but the advantage to the player is pretty small, considering that you only ever have one card in your hand at a time per turn. To me the main advantage (to the GM as well) is that players will probably tighten up their tactics to maximize the effects of the cards, which means faster combats. My main criticism is that only the rare cards have proper illustrations on them, which I think is sad coming from a company that produces games like Magic the Gathering. Secondly, I picked up 3 swaps in my boosters, which will make me less likely to buy these cards again, unless I find someone who’s willing to trade or the cards see a lot of use at the table. Still, I’m excited about seeing my deck work at the table, and I’ll let you know when I give it a test run.
Comics
I went to my first ever Icon looking for Spider-Man comics, and won a door sized Mary Jane poster because of it. I was also introduced to Warhammer 40,000, which led to role-playing games, so comics for me will always be where it all began. Comic books are still well represented at Icon, and if I had had more time and money I would have filled out my X-Force collection, or my Amazing Spider-Man collection, or my… well, you get the picture.
Warhammer and Warhammer 40K
I got a lift to the Con from a friend who was just bitten by the Warhammer bug, but unfortunately there was no action on Friday except for a demo game of Warmachine, which seems to be hugely popular. I must say though that, after spending a week packing up my home, Warhammer is one of the most difficult hobbies to cart around. It’s almost like being the logistics guy for your own horde of Orks (in my case), and is likely to end up with more than a handful of carefully painted miniatures hitting hard floor at one time or another and a huge load of stress, so I don’t blame them for not showing up on the Friday.
LARP
Big things are happening in the LARP world, and I’ll leave that for another post, save to say that you need to give it a try. The LARPers are great people and LARPing in South Africa is growing stronger all the time.
If you were at ICON 2011 let me know what you got up to, leave a comment and share your experience.
This week saw the premier of the final Harry Potter movie and the launch party for Magic the Gatherings 12th edition. It’s almost like magic is everywhere, and really, it is at the very core of the fantasy genre. Magic is an integral part of fantasy and fantasy gaming, from magical creatures to spells and worlds formed by raw magical energy. In this article I’ll look at magic in terms of world mechanics and as a story device.
Defining Magic
I could look specifically at magic in this article, but then write a similar article on mutation and super powers that wouldn’t add anything new. Rather, let’s group magic, super powers, psionics, amazing technology and everything else that is “abnormal” and call them “world mechanics”. I’m using broad strokes here, but let me explain. Mouse Guard is a game (and comic) with little magic. Mice can talk, but they possess no powers as such or magical artefacts. Mouse Guard’s “world mechanics” are interesting because we can play as mice in a world terrifying to mice. Dungeons and Dragons, on the other hand, lets us use magic to fight magical creatures, and we can become powerful beings that can take on terrifying dragons through the levelling up mechanic. If you think about it, levelling is a type of magic, you would never gain such abilities in real life even with dedicated training. Thus the world mechanics for D&D represent a world that is full of magic. So, I’m going to use “world mechanics” and “magic” interchangeably in this article.
Magic has Boundaries
Magic needs to have boundaries, without these boundaries players will feel cheated and confused. Can my wizard become invisible if he casts an invisibility spell? Boundaries (rules) set this out for you. The boundaries then, like I said above, define the world at the same time. Frodo’s ring had power to corrupt, so we understand that in The Lord of the Rings magical items may have a risk involved when they are used.
Magic breaks Boundaries
Firstly, as a story element, magic breaks boundaries. Magic lets your characters and NPC’s do things that they would not normally be able to do in the real world. Flight, as an obvious example, is only possible through magic. Because of this, you need to think outside of reality and be creative when designing your sessions and include encounters and NPC’s that bring the reality of the game world into focus and let the players experience that world. It’s no good running a fantasy game where everything is normal by everyday terms, and I’d argue that a normal day even in terms of your fantasy world would be too boring for your players, but there needs to be an obvious difference between the two worlds. A note of caution though, sometimes subtlety really pays of with regards to the differences in your fantasy world and our own, you do want it to all be believable in some way.
Furthermore, magic gives you a reason to break the mould with you game, within reason. In a recent game I introduced a series of earth-nodes that needed to be used in sequence, and did not let players move as they wished between the nodes. I explained this difference as a consequence of the spell plague, which the players were happy with and I could then stagger encounters out between the different nodes. Because magic and the mechanics of your game world represent the weird and wonderful, take inspiration from the setting and let your creativity flow.
Magic is often Limited
Magic has its limits, which is important to remember. If any world mechanic is limitless, it becomes worthless in a way. If everyone can fly, you will need ways to cut that ability at some point and you need to work out the repercussions of giving everyone such an ability. In my opinion, magic becomes more interesting if there is less of it. In the Lord of the Rings, there are only a handful of magical users, which makes characters like Gandalf and Saruman stand out amongst the rest, magic is thus strange and valuable.
At the end of the day magic represents a great device for telling the stories we love, that’s why so many people fell in love with the Harry Potter series, The Lord of the Rings and so many other fantasy stories. Use magic well and your games will be that much more interesting and captivating.
If you watched the last Harry Potter, or played MtG during the release party or have any other thoughts about magic, leave a comment. Let’s talk geek 🙂
My Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures ready to travel to the next session. Buckle up and drive safe!
If you’re in Pretoria and you’re looking for some furniture, let me know, we’re selling some of our stuff and it needs to go quick quick.
We also have 2 x beds, a long couch and a microwave of awesomeness for sale. Contact me for more info here or via email/facebook if you have those details.
UPDATE
Everything is sold and we’ve moved all our furniture out, thanks everyone.
You have to love the power of email and Facebook. Before even getting on a plane, let alone reaching Japan, I’ve been in contact with future colleagues and, dare I say, friends. I’ve chatted to people in Japan, Ireland, the USA and New Zealand and explored our future home town through the power of digital photography. I’ve never really fully comprehended the connective power until now, realising that without current technologies communication would be so much slower and less effective.
Mind Map of Madness Minification
To help remember everyone I’ll be meeting and dealing with I’m making a mind map to record basic information about each person, including their name, location and other facts. I won’t post the mind map here (that would be a privacy no-no), but I will say that, since my mind is a sieve when it comes to names, I’ll let you know how it all works out.
Yay for birthdays
I’m really lucky to have celebrated my birthday before we head out. I’ve received a mass of clothing, including two suits, three smart shirts, chinos and some much needed thermal underwear (I shall no longer be freezing my backside off this winter). Everything helps while we’re packing for the big move, and getting clothes has really put my mind at ease in a big way.
Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!
Site of the Day
trendytushies.co.za probably has nothing to do with Japan, unless you consider that they sell nappies made of bamboo. As far as I’ve heard, bamboo is very echo friendly and seems to have more uses than a modern day Swiss Army Knife (although I have no idea what Swiss Army Knives have to do with Japan).
The staff of Trendy Tushies are very friendly and knowledgeable and I highly recommend them, especially if you want a money saving and environmentally friendly nappy option for your baby.
Word of the Day
Not a word, but a phrase really. “So desu ne” can be translates as “that’s so, isn’t it.” The word “so” is exactly like our own word “so”, while “desu” (pronounced des) is like “is” and “ne” means “do you agree”. You’ll use the sentence to affirm what someone else is saying.
If we had goblin spies, we’d send them out to go gather some juicy intel for us. But, as a completely Lawful Good company, we don’t deal with goblins, that’s just not on. Instead, we use our web wiles to find out what you, the reader, are interested in. Please take a moment to complete our survey here. An information we get ultimately helps us develop a better product, which in the end benefits you and the hobby in general. Specifically, if you’ve played one of my modules, The LHC, The Lair of Veo Oqum Ucendi, It Takes One To Gnoll One or Storm of Souls, let us know what you thought by sending us a message from our contact page.
News at last! I finally got an email from my supervisor, and it’s the news we’ve been hoping for. Both of us will be working in the city of Shibukawa! It also looks like we’ll get a place somewhere between our two main schools, within walking distance for both of us. Between Julz and I we will be covering at least 3 of the 4 high schools in Shibukawa!
Shibukawa is known as the belly button of Japan, because it’s smack dab in the centre of Japan. It is in the centre of Gunma prefecture and around 120 km from Tokyo. It has a population of 84,160 and an area of 240.42 km2, compared to Pretoria, where we are from, with a population of 2,345,908 and an area of 1,644 km2. Most of Shibukawa is covered in farmland or forest.
You can find out more about Shibukawa here.
Word for the Day
Kora: a very important word to remember, especially for those who enjoy the black and bubbly. Kora means cola, so you could order a coke by saying: “Kora onegaishimasu,” or “kora o kudasai.” The katakana for kora is ??? (Thanks SR).
Site of the Day
The site of the day has to be Google Translate. If only I could download it to my laptop.
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| Learn hiragana the easy way with Kanji Flipper |