Today's garage sale theme appeared to be "musical", with a few exceptions. I wasn't intending to go saling today, but after picking up the car from the mechanic down the road (It needed an oil change, and my faithful reading of The Consumerist has left me wary of Quickie-lube sorts of places, so I'd simply taken it to the mechanic two blocks from me.
All in all, it was rather a solid set of sales. There were very few misleading or obsolete signs-- only one, if I recall, although one sale's ill-placed signage left me going around in circles in a subdivision a few times. The talk-downs weren't extraordinary, although that is due as much as anything to the very good asking prices on a lot of what I wanted.
I'd found one to check off "The List", the imaginary checklist of rare or larger-ticket items that I'm always keeping an eye out for at yard sales: an electric guitar. I was hemming and hawing, and I'm still not sure-- as I'm usually not with such big-ticket items-- that I made the right decision. When the price goes into the triple digits-- I paid $150-- I get very nervous about the deal, no matter how good it looks. Actually, I start to shy away once the price creeps over $25... my $30 Dr. Pepper refrigerator took quite a bit of discussion, both internal and external. When it gets into the triple-digits, then, the fact that there's no refund and no return weighs quite heavily and makes me quite nervous. I've even been burned on a guitar before, although it was an amazingly cheap and cheesy acoustic that left me out $20.
Still, this was a very attractive offer, even given the price. The guitar was an Epiphone, and looked-- to my untrained eye-- to be in rather good condition, and had everything I needed to start playing now. All the strings were strung, and it had a practice amp, an electronic tuner, a case, and all the cables. I'd seen similar guitars at the 28th Street flea market from $80-90 on up, but that likely included nothing but the body-- and I still wouldn't have the surety of normal retail sale. So, I called up Liam, my trusty "only person who knows about guitars whose phone number I know", and sort of stumbled off a description. He shrugged, said it sounded worth it, and mentioned a couple things to check.
(Time passes.)
Well, after looking through Epiphone's wholly unhelpful site, and doing web-searches for a number of things, I've tracked it down-- it's a S-310, a Stratocaster-style guitar. It's rated as a solid, but low-frills unit. If it were just the guitar, I'd be steaming a bit-- retailers have them (used, albeit) for $120, but I suppose I'd drive it well over in kit price. It did come with the practice amp, a tuner, and a case. OTOH, the pots desperately need to have a gallon or two of contact cleaner drenched into them, and there's a persistent buzz that might be a problem with the guitar, or the fact that I live 4 blocks from a radio tower. The verdict: I don't feel ripped off, but I'm not ecstatic either. It was asked at $200, and the lowest offer they would take was $150. I would have liked to pay $100, but there was no chance of that happening. I'll remain upbeat because it is something I'd been searching for, and this means not having to puzzle out and put together a kit.
Other finds from the day:
- On VHS: Bubba Ho-tep and So Long Saddam. I wasn't that thrilled with Bubba the first time I saw it, but hey-- it's a cheap laugh at a buck. Saddam, on the other hand, looked just strange enough to work. It's a relic of the first Gulf War, and the cover pictures a sloppily-drawn Hussein fretting over a "U.S.A."-labelled bomb. From the back cover: It's non-stop, side-splitting comedy as Saddam Hussein-- the man everyone loves to hate-- gets his! You'll laugh 'til you cry as the Iraqi dictator runs afoul of everyone from Khadaffi to the Three Stooges! More laughs per minute than allied sorties over Iraq! SO LONG SADDAM is a great party video and just what the doctor ordered for THOSE WHO DESPISE SADDAM! And, of course: CAUTION: Contains strong language not suitable for children. Although I can appreciate using Saddam Hussein in a comedic cameo, the idea of working up an entire-- possibly even animated-- feature just sounds like a recipe for failure. Sweet, sweet failure. $1 (ask $2)
- A dehumidifier, as our current one has been on the fritz all summer, and our basement is getting kind of musty. $15 (ask $25)
- CDs from the 90s-- A pretty good selection for a buck apice. I picked up a Nine Inch Nails EP, Tool's Aenima, which someone swiped from me in the long dark past, and a couple others. 5/$5 (ask 5/$5)
- A box full of posters and a couple comedy CDs-- this was an excellent find, and I'll probably be sharing the wealth. This includes a laminated, two-sided Alien vs. Predator poster, a Terminator 3 poster, 3 Superman movie posters, and quite a bit more. A steal! $5 (ask ~$10)
So get this...
My big tree in the backyard that hangs over where I park my car...
Gone. Sawed off.
Someone stole my tree!
Nicole had been talking with tree removal people, but hadn't gotten to the point of actually scheduling the appointment... well, it would appear that they took things into their own hands. I came home and noticed the clear blue sky where the tree was, just figuring that Nicole had set the whole thing up, and I'd forgotten that she told me the date or something. I jokingly mentioned that "Someone stole our tree", and she did a double-take.
We're figuring the tree folks we were talking to just didn't get the idea that she had yet to set up an appointment. As long as they don't try to charge for removal (which we were going to turn down), or it isn't one of the higher-priced placed pulling a fast one, we're fine.
Link: Character Sheet
- Player, Character: Name of the player and character.
- Concept: Basic character concept
- Personality: Three-element description of your character. Select each personality element, and mark the primary driver to your character's personality.
- Consideration: ACTion or CONtemplation
- Vision: OVeRview or DETail
- Interaction: SURvivor or REScuer*
- Type: Descriptive type adjective derived from your character's three-element type
- Breakdown: What happens when you run out of Composure. Determined by your primary Personality element.
- Composure*: Your ability to "hold it together". Can be spent to expend effort or go against your innate nature. When this is depleted, you go into Breakdown.
- Health: Self-explanatory. When this is depleted, your character is dead.
- Attributes/Mode: Attributes (Athletics, Endurance, etc.) range in strength from 1 to 3. The Mode is the primary specialization of the attribute is. For example, Athletics may have a Mode of "Strong" or "Fast". Any action that uses the Mode gains a +1 modifier.
- Athletic: Physical strength, speed, and dexterity.
- Endurance: Physical resistance against battering, poisoning, and exertion.
- Knowledge: Knowledge about a subject or area of expertise.
- Wits: Thinking or acting under pressure, and the ability to invent or come up with ideas.
- Persuasion: Ability or personal attributes which allow you to influence others.
- Perseverance: Mental fortitude, ability to "keep on" or cope in the face of difficulty.
- Coins: "Two-sided" attributes that either are a help or a hindrance depending upon the situation. The Effect column tells the systemic procedure used to implement the Coin.
- Fate Cards: This is a place to note which Fate Cards you have drawn, and what the messages on them were. Lines are included for folding the paper to hide the information from other players.
The more I work on it, the more I'm getting geeked to actually play Glass and Steel. I might just have to cobble something together on a d10/pool system and go for it for the immediate time.
I've been thinking of a central merits/flaws sort of system called Coins, as in "there's two sides to every coin". It consists of opposing benifits/detriments of the same general trait, taken as a pair. In some cases it would be a help, in others a hindrance. Characters could take either one 2x Coin (usually something supernatural/metagamey or at least powerful) or two 1x Coins.
The "Feats" at the end are less constant modifiers than usable extra abilities. They still fall into the same pile, they're just used a bit differently.
Loved/Concerned 1x
You are a kindhearted, nice person, and people have grown to know and
love you. You will command the assistance and sympathy of others, but
you will be compelled to help others in need, even to the detriment of
yourself or your goal. System: Allows rolls for outside assistance, but
requires a roll or deferment whenever someone else is in trouble.
Attractive/Vapid 1x
You're a bimbo or musclehead. People swoon or lust over you, but when
the chips are down... well, you really aren't the most important one in
the room. Gain a point in persuasion abilities when in a non-crisis
situation, but lose a point when you are.
Stature/Resentment 1x
You are a person in a position of power, but your management style has
made people secretly hate you, or find you incompetent. Roll a
threshold roll when using commanding abilities to determine whether you
gain or lose a point.
Born Leader/Miserable Failure 2x
You can lead people into action and bolster their confidence, but if
your intended action fails, they become disheartened and lose all
confidence in you.
Motivated/Dependent 1x
You are motivated by someone or something in a precarious position
(loved one, belief, motive). Gain a point toward any action taken
toward your goal, but lose a point on any action if the goal is
destroyed or rendered impossible.
Empathetic/Sensitive 2x
You have the ability to sympathize and "read" people very well, but
your emotional connection also makes you vulnerable. You have the
ability to ask any player to truthfully reveal a general question about
their emotions or feelings, but you are helpless in the face of others'
suffering. (System rules for "helpless" TBA)
Single-Minded/Tunnel Vision 1x
You have the ability to go into "tunnel vision" mode, and gain a +2
bonus to any action relating to an immediate goal or plan at hand.
However, any conflict that is not part of the goal or plan gets a -2
resistance.
Wise/Misunderstood 1x
You have the ability to ask the GM meta-game questions about the
situation, threats, or strategies. However, it is very hard to convey
and convince others of your ideas.
Organized/Impatient 1x
You can form plans and stick to them very well, even motivating and
enhancing others. You recieve a +1 bonus to any action in the service
of a detailed plan. However, if a plan fails or "goes to hell", lose a
point on any actions coping or recovering the plan.
Connected/Affected 2x
You are connected on a supernatural level to the events happening
around you. This is both a good and a bad thing. You get two rolls at
the end of each round for cards. If you get a card your first roll, you
take that card. On the second roll, if you get a card, you may take
that as well. However, if you did not get a card (you rolled a number
you already have), you can read any other player's card of that same
number, if they have it. The downside is that you are adversely
affected by supernatural effects and the effects of Degradation.
Specialized Intelligence/General Ignorance 1x
You are a single-subject geek. You gain a +2 to Intelligence tests
regarding things in your field of knowledge. However, you gain a -2 to
Intelligence tests on any other nontrivial subject.
Meditative/Tumultuous 1x
You have the ability to clear your mind and think on a task. Gain 4
extra spendable points when you stop in a quiet position and meditate
or think. However, your normal life is internally quite noisy, which
leaves you at a -1 disadvantage for any mental tasks.
Fearless/Risky 1x
You are devoid of fear, even when the situation demands it. You can
disregard a test against fear or paralysis, but you then gain a
"stupidity point" that you have to bleed off. You can bleed this off by
either declaring it, than going ahead with a risky action, or the GM
can force your character to take an action that they would normally
have the sensibility to resist.
Fast Regeneration/Rushed Regeneration (Feat) 2x
You regenerate more quickly than anyone else, and have additional play
time before the rest start. However, you must forfeit the ability to
take a card that round to use the ability.
Belief Ability/Catastrophic Failure (Feat) 2x
You have the conviction to shape the world. Be it a religion, a firm
insistence that "this can't be happening", or some other self-believed
method of control, you have the ability to shape the supernatural
elements of the situation unfolding around you. However, if you fail
your test, you do so catastrophically, often reversing the intended
effect or causing collateral damage.
Recover Innocence/Confusion (Feat) 2x
When you converse, empathize, or come in contact with a person to the
point that they become more than just a "bystander" to you, it means
that they are vulnerable to permanent death or injury, just as you are.
Recover Innocence allows you, with a feat of concentration, to recover
their "bystander" status from your intervention only. However,
it involves stopping, meditating, and completely clearing your mind to
the point that you come back confused and disoriented.
Well, there seems to have been a flurry of interest... or at least a consistent background of interest that I just finally tapped into... Or... well... there's interest, okay-- in the Glass and Steel RPG system. For those of you who don't know and don't care enough to backtrack, here's the idea as it stood:
Every PC* snaps to awakeness in the late-morning of an ordinary workday at some large firm that does something, in a modestly-sized office building downtown. The day proceeds pretty well as per normal, until a truck-bomb rips through the building. (How's that for subtlety?)
After the bombing, the characters try to make their way out, until-- after a set period of time, they all lose consciousness and wake up... back in the late-morning of an ordinary day.
The back-story is that all of this was an event in the past, being relived through some manner, either explained or unexplained (i.e. TBA). In the original event, one of the PCs didn't make it out alive. In order to stop the cycle, that PC must die, either by accident or outright murder. At the end of each round, players have the opportunity to get "recollection cards" that reveal their fate in the original event.
NPCs generally reappear after each scene, even if they die, unless the PCs make a connection to them and "flesh them out" to more than just a background player. (This mechanism is handled by the GM.)
The problem as it existed was that there was little systemic impetus to perform in any particular manner in the game. In short, the game had no point, no reason, no motivation. Although there was the general goal of finding out the doomed person, there was no system-enforced morality, and it was all to easy to end up playing the game like a disinterested type of Clue.
That was where it left off, and it's just been rather stagnant for a while. However, talking to Jeff, it sounds like the Ann Arbor group is interested, and I believe Stefanie's into it, although Josh wasn't feeling it. In any case, I'm picking it back up again as a prospect, and made a little headway on the problem.
After playing a couple games of Hunter (old-school) with Josh GMing, I picked up on the whole Virtues and whatever the other thing was called-- I don't own a book-- that tied your character's traits and alignment quite directly to advancement and abilities. Now, I'm not going to go and copy that verbatim, but it got me back to the idea that, well, it doesn't need to be that complex to tie motivation to reward. At the moment, I'm thinking of selection of traits and values, which leads to the selection of an archetype, which then grants specific extraordinary abilities or modifiers if one plays to their archetype. Not supernaturally extraordinary, just more along the lines of increased or decreased confidence, drive, focus, or effectiveness when making actions consistent with the character's traits.
I've worked up the initial parts of a traits-selection system. This would be the first step, then you would use this information to narrow down to a single class or archetype of character. The initial selection is similar-- but not ripped off from-- a Myers-Briggs style "pick sides" classification:
- ACTion versus CONtemplation (Do you think things through first, or spring into action and work with what comes to you?)
- OVeRview versus DETail (Do you pay more attention to grand plans or implementation details?)
- SURvivor versus REScuer (Do you put yourself or others first?)
| ACT |
OVR |
SUR |
Go-getter, commander, conniver |
| ACT |
OVR |
RES |
Organizer, activist, charity race-runner |
| ACT |
DET |
SUR |
Worker, technician, specialist |
| ACT |
DET |
RES |
Salesman, sports-player |
| CON |
OVR |
SUR |
Architect, designer, engineer |
| CON |
OVR |
RES |
Visionary, manager, planner |
| CON |
DET |
SUR |
Bookworm, expert, scientist |
| CON |
DET |
RES |
Host, planner, psychoanalyst |
Each of the three elements would have two degrees each way, as such:
Action O O | O O Contemplation
Overview O O | O O Detail
Survivor O O | O O Rescuer
You could only, optionally, take the second level-- called the "to a fault" level on one trait. This is an extreme, extraordinary disposition toward the trait-- sort of an "all of one, none of the other"-- and would come with both both a bonus and a negative.
I'm also going to have some sort of sanity/humanity/willpower/whatever pool to gain and lose. I'm still not set in stone as to what sort of "thesis statement" I want to attach to that, whether it be burning Conscience points when you let someone die, or having to burn Sanity or Willpower points to get through the tough spots... although I just thought of an interesting twist that might work.
(Unrefined brainstorm here:) While most games have you losing abilities and effectiveness with the loss of "willpower", it might be an interesting idea that your personal traits become more extreme. They're not necessarily more helpful-- in fact, I may have the benefits wear off as the traits become more extreme. It's just that as the pressure rises, you show your "true colors" more, and are compelled to irresistably act upon your traits, even at the expense of doing well.
So, to those of you who care, expect to see a bit more from the Glass and Steel angle. Now I just have to dredge up all those old notes.
*PC: Player-character, NPC: Non-player Character
