Octopus Falls in Love with You

Utagawa Kunisada.
Floating Bridge of Dreams
(Yume no ukihashi), 1854.

I'm making a game for Chris for two people, inspired by my freaky tattoo thing (so you know what kind of game it will be), called Tales of the Fisherman's Wife: Roleplaying the Floating World.

Set sometime in a fantasy Japan. When the Fisherman leaves for sea, he gives his wife 6 words to weave a story while they are apart. The Wife creates a story from his 6 words (see title of this post for example), which she tells him when he returns.

He rolls the d4 to determine how long he will be gone. 1-4 days. The longer he's gone, the more they miss each other. The more they miss each other, the more graphic her story.

The Wife rolls the d4 to determine how many fish he caught. The more fish, the more leisure they will enjoy. The more leisure they enjoy, the more input the Fisherman gives.

But the Fisherman and his Wife have caught the attention of kami, oni, or otherworldly beings who try to seduce, possess (or supplant), devour, or serve them. While the Fisherman fishes, the "Wife" Player plays the part of the being attached to him, and the Fisherman player plays the being attached to the wife. Players take turns playing out what happens while the lovers are apart and vulnerable to the demons or spirits.

Players must successfully hold off the spirits until the couple is reunited. The Wife's story should incorporate the couple's escapades while they are away.

It uses dice and cards. A short game, no more than an hour. That's what I have so far, what I came up with at work last night. Now I'm going to sleep on it.

A Serendipitous Encounter

I love Atlanta!

In the airport, on my way back home, I bumped into my cousins Chi Chi and Antonio. They were flying back from Argentina, where they were visiting their son, who works there. A luggage mishap kept them from leaving the airport and going home to Auburn, AL. It also made it possible for us to cross paths in a city neither of us lives in, going in opposite directions, but both going home.

I'm in Atlanta!

This is short notice, but if you’re in the Atlanta area, I’m giving a presentation on Steal Away Jordan and game design at Spelman College Monday, March 24 at 6 pm in the Ennis Cosby Reading Room.

I’m going to talk about how I came to design a role playing game about slavery, about story games, the community, being an “only” in the community, and anything else that’s relevent. I’m also going to do a brief demo of Steal Away Jordan.

There's a possibility that I might run an evening game at the hotel or on campus. We'll see. Email me if you're interested.

Slave Narratives: Prince Among Slaves & The Story of Catcher Freeman

[From Stone Baby Games] I have a new category: Slave Narratives. I'm on a search for all kinds of slave narratives in all kinds of media. Fictional, autobiographical, mythical, books, film, spoken word, still life. I am particularly looking for slave narratives that break with convention.

Last month, as I watched Prince Among Slaves (the book on which it is based) on PBS, I realized that Steal Away Jordan has more in common with a televised dramatization of a slave narrative than a text, such as Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.

I push the notion that in SAJ you play a hero. Your character can be larger than life. Your story has a full orchestra soundtrack. Your character's costumes and makeup would win Oscars. Your characters may not get everything they want, and quite possibly may not survive, but they will go out in a blaze of glory. The audience will howl and weep and will cheer at the end.

Stories spoken out loud have that affect on me. It's one of those things that drew me to role playing games in the first place. I could not resist the chance to exchange stories. Reading a book is a personal story telling experience. Movies and role playing games are enjoyed best in groups.

Last night at work, I finally saw an episode of The Boondocks. Tonight I watched The Story of Catcher Freeman. It illustrates perfectly and hilariously the power of collaborative story telling. You have four people each giving their account of a legendary slave hero, in all his cinematic glory. Each story reflects the ideals and perceptions of the story teller, for better or worse. Best of all, it was painfully funny. You can see it here for now.

Dinner of Champions!

I was at Trans World Market, cruising the aisles, trying not to spend more than I could afford (and failed). And there it was: Friday night's dinner (see above).

How could I not spend $1.19 for Cock Flavored Soup?

Go to sleep, America!

I had a hard time sleeping after last night's shift, and found myself still awake at 10 am. This will not bode well for tonight. I hope my patients need lots of bathroom breaks so I don't zone out or worse, fall asleep.

Rachel Ray had a cool segment on sleep studies. I'm seeing more and more mainstream media on sleep disorders. 70% of Americans report being tired all the time, or something like that. I'll save my sermon on sleep and health for another time, but there's a link between obesity and poor sleep. Lose weight, eat better, you'll sleep better. Actually, it's not that easy. If you're too tired to make lifestyle changes, doing what you need to do to sleep better is that much harder. Okay, climbing off the soap box.

I love my job (I'm a sleep tech). I love it when people wake up and report having the best night sleep they've ever had, despite the fact that they're wired from head to toe, and wearing a CPAP mask for the first time. Getting a good night's sleep can be a life changing event.

The [cruel] irony that I couldn't sleep before going to work to watch people sleep is not lost on me.

One Grain of Sand

Someone asked me about Murder Ballad Blackjack recently. I haven't been doing too much with it lately, I've been focusing more attention on M'Alice. But I think I'll work on it some more in April. I'm re-energized after watching the PBS Pete Seeger documentary 4 times (see below). Without Pete Seeger, I probably wouldn't be paying homage to folk music with a role playing game.

Pete Seeger has influenced my life, and his life has inspired me countless ways through his music and commitment to community and social justice. It wasn't until after Bea was born and I picked up a Pete Seeger album did I realize it. It was an album for children. I knew every single song on it. Sure, many of the songs were in Rise Up Singing, but I probably first heard these songs at St. Anastasia's Montessori Pre-School. Now every time I hear Pete Seeger's children's albums it is clear to me that I became a folk music geek thanks to the music of Pete Seeger. Thanks, Mrs. Leong for playing Pete Seeger in Montessori.

The song "One Grain of Sand" is my all time favorite Pete Seeger song. Anything I say about that song will not do my love for it justice, so you'll just have to listen to the sample or read the lyrics. It speaks for itself. It's a lullaby and love song. Incidentally, Pete does an awesome version of "Pretty Polly", my all time favorite murder ballad.

Bea and Ingrid both listen to Pete Seeger, and like me, they probably don't realize how much he will influence their lives as they get older, musically, politically, socially.

In the American Masters documentary on Pete, there's a scene where Pete and his wife are walking around town and a woman comes up to him and just thanks him for being him, for doing what he's done, for inspiring and provoking and supporting. Yeah. She speaks for so many of us.

So why the orange singing Carmen? Well, I remember that sketch from my toddler-hood, my early Pete Seeger years. It's one of my favorites, from back when Sesame Street really spoke to children's sense of humor and appreciation for the absurd. It also helped inform my love for my favorite opera, Carmen.

Pete Seeger, Montessori Pre-School (cookies and juice, sitting on my dot in a circle, singing songs in groups), an appreciation for the absurd, oranges singing Carmen: that's a little slice of Julia at 3 years old. And 37.

Pete Seeger love links:
Clearwater (especially the Clearwater Festival)
Pete Seeger Appreciation Page
Pete Seeger's Notable Unitarian's Page
Rise Up Singing
One Grain of Sand: the Book

Thanks, Pete!