Three days to go

Three days until the nationals. The Sunday before last I had a playtest which was educational, for lack of a better word. The testers did something I had hoped they wouldn't not to mention having been planning the game for a seven hour session, three hours gaming then an hour lunch break and then a last three hours gaming however as it turns out it is actually six hours total including the lunch break which means I will have to juggle the timing a bit. I had originally planned to slowly reveal the plot bit by bit but instead I was forced to give a blatant clue to get things moving along and then me forgetting a bit of the plot in the resulting confusion, not that it would have made much difference as we would have been so rushed that we couldn't have completed it on time if the players completed it the way I had hoped.

In the mean time however I have been searching for a job which has not been as easy as I initially predicted but after I went into the job centre and I discussed my CV and the problems I had been having I believe I will fare better in the near future. I have also applied for a number of jobs with the new CV, it is just a matter of time now to see if my search proves fruitful.

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-03-28 23:22:15

Saturday Playtest

The scenario I have been writing for the Edinburgh Nationals is near enough complete and I'm gearing up for two days of play testing on Saturday and Sunday. Heather has graciously donated her room for the Saturday session between 2 and 9pm and Sunday's event will be held at Teviot at the same times. All I need to do is sort out is the characters alter egos, backgrounds, and 2 map locations and it will be complete. It's getting tense only 3 weeks to go.

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-03-13 17:53:11

Pony Trekking Bake Sale

I've been baking. Last night I spent a while making cookies for the Edinburgh University Pony Trekking Section's Bake Sale today which Heather was helping with. When I called her earlier she told me that all except 2 of the packets had been sold meaning 8 were left out of the original 34, not too bad I'll have to make more. I do like oat and raisin cookies and the smartie cookies are not so bad either.

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-03-13 17:47:02

As for roleplaying

Still working on the plot for the nationals which I was planning to play test tomorrow but I unfortunately double booked it so will have to run it on Saturday which is cutting it a bit close but then again I do need about 7 hours to play, 6 hours gaming and 1 hour break in the middle. I after consulting the knower of many things, otherwise known as the big stressed one, or the one in the red hat, or simply Big Stu I have added and changed the cast list for the plot. One glaring problem was that there were no female characters, and there was a good reason for that that prisons are generally single sex and it would make sense to only have make protagonists. However as I thought about it I realised that my argument was not really good enough, even the stereotypical idea of psychological experiments containing male WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) which used to be typical of the field it fell down as some of the characters are Hispanic, Thai, or African American. Realising this, the cast was updated. I also rethought the Dedicated Hero exchanging Doug Hutchison for Patrick Dempsey and changed Joseph Gordon Levitt to the teenage Heath Ledger which would better suit the characters. Below is the updated cast list.

Male Characters
Michael Smith Fast Hero - Actor: Jason Statham
Dean Stanton Dedicated Hero - Actor: Patrick Dempsey
Emmanuel Sanchez Tough Hero - Actor: Roberto 'Sanz' Sanchez
John Tucker Smart Hero / Charismatic Hero – Actor: Jesse Metcalfe
Clive Daxter Smart Hero / Dedicated Hero – Actor: Heath Ledger
Boe Williams Strong Hero / Tough Hero - Actor: Michael Clarke Duncan

Female Characters
Serena Lea Fast Hero - Actress: Milla Jovovich
Karen Stanton Dedicated Hero - Actress: Kate Walsh
Chen Wei Tough Hero - Actress: Ziyi Zhang
Heather Lockly Smart Hero / Charismatic Hero – Actress: Ashanti Douglas
Lisa Perez Smart Hero / Dedicated Hero – Actress: Sara Ramirez
Kate Cameron Strong Hero / Tough Hero - Actress: Eliza Dushku

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-03-05 15:42:37

It’s that time of year again

Time for the geology society cleidh and once again I'm in need of a kilt, and guess what the cleidh is tomorrow so I went hunting. Luckily the usual place I go to were able to accommodate me which was very lucky. It's not that I wasn't reminded because Heather had reminded me repeatedly but unfortunately bugger lugs here forgot repeatedly. I really need to look into buying a kilt the place I went to offered me the chance to buy the kilt I was renting for £450 which sounds good down from £650 because it would be classed as an ex-hire kilt but I wanted to check out some other places and see if I can get a better deal especially as I don't really have that kind of money at the moment.

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-03-05 15:21:48

Yay for Facebook

I have recently signed up to facebook, this was really because of some of my friends on bebo closing their bebo accounts and leaving a redirect to facebook so I decided to have a look. The problem I'm having though is that it doesn't make it easy to add new networks as I have friends in different universities other than the one I went to. It seems to be quite a nice interface other than that. So what else has been happening?

I am currently designing a scenario for the Edinburgh RPG Nationals which should be fun. I haven't GMed at one of these venues before but that is simply reinforcing the need to get everything sorted. Though my concern is that I may be spending too much time planning the beginning, as I have already written 5 sheets for the beginning and the characters have not left the police station yet. My fear is that I'll spend so long building up the characters personalities that I will run out of time at the end. The alternative worry is that the characters will be really smart and figure out how to solve the scenario really quickly as there is a sure fire way of completing the adventure quickly that I've worked out so far. Then there is the very good chance that the players will think of something very interesting that I've not thought of.

So far I've designed the characters, three-quarters the way through the beginning written a summary for the middle and end, built a handy sheet of names for random NPCs the characters will encounter, and built maps for the prison, and police station, and then will use some pre-made maps for the armoury, bank, and mall. All I need now is to build maps for the engineering college, the streets, and the power station. To build the characters I have taken an idea we have used in the roleplaying game that I attend on Wednesday, if this game was built into a movie, who would you choose for the cast? I already had 5 characters and thanks to Calum I have completed the cast list of 6 listed below:

Michael Smith Fast Hero - Actor: Jason Statham
Dean Stanton Dedicated Hero - Actor: Doug Hutchison
Emmanuel Sanchez Tough Hero - Actor: Roberto 'Sanz' Sanchez
John Tucker Smart Hero / Charismatic Hero – Actor: Jesse Metcalfe
Clive Daxter Smart Hero / Dedicated Hero – Actor: Joseph Gordon Levitt
Boe Williams Strong Hero / Tough Hero - Actor: Michael Clarke Duncan

This technique is very useful both for me to visualise the characters and when the players receive the characters for them to easily take on that role. How would that actor do in this? On top of this I am still doing some work for the property company, which I hope to be getting close to finishing next week, then I'll get paid.

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-02-15 23:34:14

It's all over

Completed my last exam and went to Dublin. I had been very lucky at the beginning of the month when Heather found 2 tickets, both flights and hotel for 4 days in a four star hotel in the heart of Dublin for under £200 total, O'Connell Street. Well one of the hearts as temple bar could certainly be one as well. We went on a walking tour of the centre of the city and a bus tour on the next day.

We travelled around Trinity College and through the art museum to get to the natural history museum, down past St Stephen's green, through many shopping centres and districts, and of course temple bar where we got the best hot chocolate made from Belgium chocolate ice cream. We did try to get into the castle twice but it was closed on the two consecutive days we tried .

The final bit was very good fun though, the Guinness factory. We had a wander round before ending up as all eventually do at the gravity bar on the 7th floor for my free pint of the black stuff, following that I showed I was such a tourist by going to the gift shop and buying a Guinness bag and t-shirt. For those who do not know the last time I tries Guinness I didn't like it very much just goes to show how tastes can change, all I have to do now it to get them to change so I can stand whisky.

As for the moment, it is a job hunt for me, being a real person and all. I've applied for a number of jobs with Edinburgh University and a few others but not heard anything in reply yet, but we'll see. For the next few days however I am working for a property company in Edinburgh to build them a database to hold their clients which should hopefully help pay the rent in the mean time.

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-01-30 20:17:15

Happy Hogmanay everyone

As most people will know the weather was horrible this hogmanay in Edinburgh so they had to cancel the street party, but that didn't cancel our party. we had upwards of 20 people in the flat last night it was fantastic.

Everyone was partying all night long but by 5am it was all winding down as people fell asleep. Unfortunately I was not one of them and it ended up just me, Richard, and Calum drinking in Calum's room for about half an hour before eventually deciding that the party had come to a close and then found somewhere to sleep.

Posted by Christopher Chestnut on 2007-01-01 18:01:21