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...which I will in just a moment...
Many thanks go out to everyone who dropped on to my previous post to wish me well done on completeing the PhD. To see that many well-wishing comments rolling in the way they did is a fantastic ego boost when I was feeling utterly exhausted. Cheers.
_________
Robert Jordan is dead.
SHIT. For all kinds of reasons, ranging from the humane to the downright selfish.
He was writing the last book in the series that has become possibly the greatest act of literally heroin (sic) of all time. In the beginning, there was genius; in the middle, there was much emergency braking of the plot as Orbit realised precisely what a cash cow they had here; in the end, there was a much smaller but utterly addicted group of gasping, raving fans that almost hated themselves for their lack of control every time they opened up and started reading.
Nevertheless, those of us who still bought his books loved what he wrote, both in his fiction and his blog. The latter involved his speaking in a forthright and direct manner about the problems his illness caused him on a day to day basis, without ever quite going into the realms of entirely fishing for compliments. His consistent light-hearted attitude, in the face of a what everyone including himself knew was invariably fatal, was one of those wonderful examples of not letting the bastards grind you down when you know your days are numbered.
Whether the literary world wants to admit it or not, his death is a sorry loss to fantasy fiction, and I dearly hope that his epitaph can be the release of the twelfth and final book in the series to the acclaim that the entire story deserves.
The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten by the time the age that gave it birth comes again. May the prophecy come true and we read his genius again some day.
_________
The 36hr last weekend was the best one I have been to, without a shadow of a doubt. I understand that I have been to less than most (in four years in the society this was my third), but far various reasons this was by far and away the best. The previous two were hampered by various issues, to include disputes and arguments over roleplay (or lack of it), statting, overstatting, hits, cheating, cliquiness, intolerance, overly raised voices and a host of other things. I'm sure that some of these were present last weekend as well, but it was a testament to, well...something, that this time I hardly noticed them, if at all.
I was relatively pleased with the perfomance as Nimbus for the weekend, though I need to work on my endurance with respect to his mannerisms. Standing still and not moving for hours on end made for lots of restless shifting around, and I caught myself putting my hands on my hips and crossing my arms on more than one occasion.
I realise that interacting with someone like him can be difficult and exasperating at times, and I hope I didn't cause any OOC ill-feeling based on the way I had him react to situations. His almost entirely irrational brushing off of half the party, on the basis that they'd been present when he was thrown through the magical portal on an earlier game, was a result of a near-barbarian like abhorrence of magic and what he feared it may do that I may not have been entirely forthright about when I first submitted the background to Ruth and Dave. I am sorry if it severely got in the way of anyone else's roleplay experience, but I'd like to hope that on some (okay, a couple...okay, one...maybe) levels, it added opportunities for people to interact rather than took them away.
Other than this, however, it was just about all good. Nimbus contributed to the movement of the plot in a way I didn't think possible when I started the character, I was able to keep his cloud dependance within boundaries I'd set myself to avoid metagaming, and I was able to put in two of the potential set-pieces I had designed for myself over the weekend. Neither of them ocurred in the way I thought they would, but the fact they did at all was very pleasant.
Nimbus had a nightmare when he realised (in his mind) that his actions in the final fight had resulted in several people he held in high regard dying. You might not know it to look at him, but he's angsting like a bastard and I'm waiting for the next thunderstorm to hit the Shire.
Thank you once agian to Ruth and Dave for utterly burying themselves for an entire year to provide a plot that was interesting, multi-facetted, highly involved and had something for everyone with the inclination to go out and look. It was everything I thought a campaign should be (in the light of past events that may or may not be a good thing), and I hope it sets the standard for future years.
Genius. A large portion, yes.
Many thanks go out to everyone who dropped on to my previous post to wish me well done on completeing the PhD. To see that many well-wishing comments rolling in the way they did is a fantastic ego boost when I was feeling utterly exhausted. Cheers.
_________
Robert Jordan is dead.
SHIT. For all kinds of reasons, ranging from the humane to the downright selfish.
He was writing the last book in the series that has become possibly the greatest act of literally heroin (sic) of all time. In the beginning, there was genius; in the middle, there was much emergency braking of the plot as Orbit realised precisely what a cash cow they had here; in the end, there was a much smaller but utterly addicted group of gasping, raving fans that almost hated themselves for their lack of control every time they opened up and started reading.
Nevertheless, those of us who still bought his books loved what he wrote, both in his fiction and his blog. The latter involved his speaking in a forthright and direct manner about the problems his illness caused him on a day to day basis, without ever quite going into the realms of entirely fishing for compliments. His consistent light-hearted attitude, in the face of a what everyone including himself knew was invariably fatal, was one of those wonderful examples of not letting the bastards grind you down when you know your days are numbered.
Whether the literary world wants to admit it or not, his death is a sorry loss to fantasy fiction, and I dearly hope that his epitaph can be the release of the twelfth and final book in the series to the acclaim that the entire story deserves.
The Wheel of Time turns, and ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten by the time the age that gave it birth comes again. May the prophecy come true and we read his genius again some day.
_________
The 36hr last weekend was the best one I have been to, without a shadow of a doubt. I understand that I have been to less than most (in four years in the society this was my third), but far various reasons this was by far and away the best. The previous two were hampered by various issues, to include disputes and arguments over roleplay (or lack of it), statting, overstatting, hits, cheating, cliquiness, intolerance, overly raised voices and a host of other things. I'm sure that some of these were present last weekend as well, but it was a testament to, well...something, that this time I hardly noticed them, if at all.
I was relatively pleased with the perfomance as Nimbus for the weekend, though I need to work on my endurance with respect to his mannerisms. Standing still and not moving for hours on end made for lots of restless shifting around, and I caught myself putting my hands on my hips and crossing my arms on more than one occasion.
I realise that interacting with someone like him can be difficult and exasperating at times, and I hope I didn't cause any OOC ill-feeling based on the way I had him react to situations. His almost entirely irrational brushing off of half the party, on the basis that they'd been present when he was thrown through the magical portal on an earlier game, was a result of a near-barbarian like abhorrence of magic and what he feared it may do that I may not have been entirely forthright about when I first submitted the background to Ruth and Dave. I am sorry if it severely got in the way of anyone else's roleplay experience, but I'd like to hope that on some (okay, a couple...okay, one...maybe) levels, it added opportunities for people to interact rather than took them away.
Other than this, however, it was just about all good. Nimbus contributed to the movement of the plot in a way I didn't think possible when I started the character, I was able to keep his cloud dependance within boundaries I'd set myself to avoid metagaming, and I was able to put in two of the potential set-pieces I had designed for myself over the weekend. Neither of them ocurred in the way I thought they would, but the fact they did at all was very pleasant.
Nimbus had a nightmare when he realised (in his mind) that his actions in the final fight had resulted in several people he held in high regard dying. You might not know it to look at him, but he's angsting like a bastard and I'm waiting for the next thunderstorm to hit the Shire.
Thank you once agian to Ruth and Dave for utterly burying themselves for an entire year to provide a plot that was interesting, multi-facetted, highly involved and had something for everyone with the inclination to go out and look. It was everything I thought a campaign should be (in the light of past events that may or may not be a good thing), and I hope it sets the standard for future years.
Genius. A large portion, yes.
