Woof! Woof!

I received an anonymous letter from one of my neighbors. Because it is anonymous, I am unable to respond and apologize. But since it's anonymous, I can put it on the Internet. So here it is, with my response.
Dear Neighbors,
I'm writing to you regarding your dog. I haven't lived here for very long, but since that other family with the annoying barking dog moved from the neighborhood, it has been a relatively peaceful area. [S/He's referring to the people who lived at Meg's house, I think. I never heard their dog, but they had dogs and they moved away.] Until recently. It shows a tremendous lack of consideration toward your neighbors to let your dog bark from your porch at whatever it sees. This is not a small dog. Its voice is loud and thunderous and is amplified off the other houses. The dog is frequently waking my daughter from her naps, and me from mine, especially when you let it bark at night. Couldn't you keep the dog in your back yard, or get a muzzle for it. I'm getting very frustrating and don't know what else to do, other than calling the police, which I'd rather not do.

So please show some respect and consideration for the other families living in the area and train your dog not to bark. Thank you!!!!!!!

Sincerely,

Your Neighbors

Dear Anonymous Neighbor,
It is unfortunate that this couldn't be resolved face to face. It shows a tremendous lack of neighborliness.

We've had our dog since November. In that time, I've left him on the porch no more than 5 times, and no more than one or two hours. We don't leave him out all night. We don't leave him out during the day. He's in the house when we aren't around or it's night time. I wonder then, if you're not hearing another dog. In the past week I tied him on the porch twice and when he started to bark too much, I brought him in.

I apologize if he disturbed you and your daughter. (Frequently? I find that hard to believe, given the rarity I've put him on the porch) He does have a loud bark. I won't put him on the porch any more.

In the future, please speak with us directly if there is an issue that can easily be resolved between neighbors. We, including our dog, don't bite.

Sincerely,
Your neighbor


I asked one of our other neighbors if he can hear the dog barking when he's in the house. He said no. I am really irritated by the anonymous note addressed to neighbors. There's nothing neighborly about it.

Last year, the people who own a quadruplex down the street let their shrubs grow out into the sidewalk. I wrote to them and asked them to trim them. They did, and then wrote me back, apologizing, and thanking me for bringing it to their attention (they live a few towns over). I would never write an anonymous note to another neighbor. But that's just me. Gosh. I know I'm in the wrong here. I need to stop putting the dog on the porch (it's really been a handful of times). But I'm pissed because I can't talk to this person about it. Maybe there's another dog that is left outside more than Jeddy. What happens when I stop my behavior, but the other person doesn't? Will my "neighbor" call the police on me?

Congo Square, New Orleans (More Playtesting)

I'm not going to go into too many details about this one. We played for about an hour, and had to leave--with people wanting more! Yay! It was with 2 people I've played rpg's with, one person I've played a game with (Werewolves of Miller's Hollow, which is sort of a rpg), and one person I've never played rpg's with: my handsome and princely husband. That was in interesting experience right there.

The setting was New Orleans 1840-1850. I borrowed characters from our Prime Time Adventures game from last year, which meant I didn't play for absolute historical accuracy. No one's master or slave driver came into play. Because it was a city, everyone had a different one. They all congregated at Congo Square. They made lots of bargains with each other, which would have been awesome to see used in a major conflict. Awesome interactions. I loved the pace of this one. The GM (me) had less involvement since there weren't any subjugators in play. I did get to play a free person of color who was sweet on a slave (played by my husband, by sheer coincidence).

I noticed that I had to referee more though. Maybe it's just a part of explaining the mechanics, but there was one bargain where the risk to one of the PC's was huge compared to the risk to the other player, and it wasn't very plausible either. I can do anachronism, abandoning historical accuracy, but I need plausibility. I had to get them to really think about it.

I also noticed that it's helpful to do worth assessments at the end of a session. I already knew that, but I see how I might have mis-assessed some people in the other playtest. On the other hand, I like that, too. The GM assessing worth is like the auctioneer deciding where to open bidding. The assessment will be based on the going rate plus the auctioneer's own prejudices.

Another interesting thing that came up (and I was waiting for it to come up), was a clear clash between modern ideals of sex, paternity, and male dominance, versus the Antebellum ideals of sex (with slaves), paternity (of the offspring resulting in the likely forced sex with slaves), and male dominance, where white men--more specifically white male property owners were at the top of the food chain. I have mull on that a bit more before I write about it.

Anyway, all my ideas and fears of people creating stereotypes are fast fading. I'm seeing that players are creating real people who happen to be slaves. On Sunday, I saw people create characters who, if they died suddenly, I think the player would be jarred, maybe hurt because he/she cared for the person. That made me happy, not in a sadistic way, but in an intent becomes reality way.

In non gaming news....
I have a job interview today for job I would totally take if offered, and I'm totally qualified for it. And it pays better than what I make now. And I could almost say I'm using my degree for it. Sort of. Roll some Lucky Sevens for me (which you'd get if you read the draft rules of my game).

I added ginger to one of my kombucha batches last week. It is soooo freakin' good. So good that my handsome and princely husband couldn't wait to drink it. It's all he talked about. He wants to bottle it and sell it, or give it away. I'm trying to get him to give kombucha babies to his co-workers. And yes, I have many kombucha babies for anyone interested. Kombucha will change your life. Really.

First playtest of the new rules

Wow. I'm a sucky GM, but I think I can learn.

Let's focus on the real stuff though. First session went well. Nearly everything I loved about what I wrote totally worked. I think it's interesting that all the PC's are male. I wasn't expecting that, but this morning in the shower I figured out something diabolically horrible that would work with that, and I'm excited to put my friends' characters through some torture. Clearly I need to turn up the bad.

So here's a run down of the characters. Here's the playtest report, so I'm just teasing you here. Go to the Forge and see what happened to the characters.

PC's
Cupit (Emily) a 22 year old male field slave, born in Florida. His Attributes: Nimble hands, friends who escaped in Florida, can run far and long, doesn't act seriously about anything, and is handsome. I'm going to skip the Motivations for now, so I don't cheat and look at their tasks and goals!
Friends: Ginny, who works in the house and is pregnant. May or may not be his child; Crissy.
Enemy: Martial
Worth: 12d6 (unskilled young man)

Martial (Joshua), 29 year old blacksmith (slave), born in West Africa. Attributes: Proud, has a bunch of tools, can read Arabic and French, is good looking, and "I'll own my own slaves".
Friends: Ginny (same as Cupit), Ephraim, the late Master's 10 yo son.
Enemy: William Jackson, the overseer.
Worth: 14d6 (skilled--blacksmith, young man young man)

Kato (Vincent), 17 years old, field slave, born on the Strong Plantation. Attributes: "I've got 2 thumbs and 5 fingers", "I'm tall, kinda knobby", "I'm a really steady worker", "I'm good with horses and dogs".
Friends/relations: Older brother Ned; the cook, Anne.
Enemies: Tom, William Jackson
Worth 10d6 (unskilled young man, missing fingers, minus 2d6 for his disability)

Tom (Meg),27, field slave. Born in Georgia. Attributes: Strong back, steady worker. Excellent memory & a good voice for stories, songs, news. Friendly and easy going. Children somehere?
Friends: Jonah, older field hand, Lucy, a cousin and housemaid
Enemy: Sterling, Lucy's suitor, Crissy's brother.
Worth: 12d6 (unskilled young man)

Sing It, Johnny.

I hate my job. Today was the absolute last straw. After being yelled at the most insanely silly thing, I had to go into the back room for a moment to talk myself out of walking out right there. I've never walked out on a job. I had to do some serious convincing of myself, as in holding my hand down as I reached for my coat. I've had jobs that I hated before. I hated waiting tables, I hated working in a clothing store. Crappy jobs. I shouldn't hate this job, but I do. It pays okay, the hours are decent, my boss is okay when she's not acting crazy, my co-workers are inocuous and actually quite nice. The work isn't horrible. Not exciting, either, but not horrible. And I can walk to work if I don't have to drop kids off. There's nothing wrong with my job except for my boss' unpredictable behavior, and it's enough to send me packing.

I'm taking a break from writing some directed cover letters. From those I'll write some generic cover letters, got the resume looking spiffy.

I just had to get that off my chest. I really hate my job.

Yeah, so, about those crocuses....

...buried under a foot of snow.

Saturday Chris (so sick of calling him Primo. Who doesn't know my husband's name is Chris? And who really cares?) and I went to see 300. It was entertaining enough, but first I must tell about the really cool thing about the movie. Tag team movie going! Meg and Vincent went to the movies first while we watched their kids, then we went to the movies while they watched our kids. My wish for having cool neighbors is coming true double fold.

So I liked the movie. It was like watching a comic book. And visually oriented person that I am, I didn't care that the dialogue sucked. It was a fun and fluffy movie. Here are the fun and fluffy things I liked about it.
The Casting Call
Buff, beefy, and beautiful need only apply. But I was put off by the fact that all those buff and beefy men had absolutely no chest hair, yet the most lush beards this side of Grizzly Adams. We're talking the Mediterranean, right? Whatever. There's a day spa out there with a really handsome chest waxing clientele.

Incredible Cinematography
It was like watching a comic book come to life. Which I guess it was.

Didn't take itself too seriously
At times I couldn't get past Xerxes stupid cheek piercings, and this movie will not win any awards for wardrobes (all those buff men in stupid looking loincloth/underwear were infernally distracting), but I don't think was its purpose. It was meant to be a movie with lots of near naked men running with spears, yelling and sweating like a deodorant commercial. It should have been called 300: Eye Candy and Violence.

All the women were beautiful
Equal opportunity hotties.

Kill Your Rapist
This wasn't really cool, but the one woman who had actual lines got to stab the man who raped her. It reminded me of a provocative tattoo I once saw of two pistols on either side of the woman's lower abdomen, and the words "Kill Your Rapist". Not something I would get, but a memorable and well done tattoo. I wish I could find a picture.
Here it is!

Faramir, Brother of Boromir
David Wenham, liberated from his ugly Two Towers/Return of the King wig, sigh. Sean Bean, who?

It was an entertaining movie. I still would have liked to have seen The Last King of Scotland, but Primo/Chris paid for everything. Maybe next week, since we saved money from not having a babysitter and from going to the matinee.

Hocus Crocus!

I have two yellow crocuses emerging in my front yard! Okay, so they aren't as beautiful as the ones in the photo. They're in my yard and it's mid March. That's why they're so cool.
My friend Rachel and I took Jed for a nice long and somewhat strenuous hike to Poet's Seat Tower this afternoon. The woods smelled like spring, the snow was slushy and slick. It sure beat working out at the Y.
The temperature was in the mid 60's today. I felt overdressed in my corduroy skirt.

We might get 1-3 inches of snow on Friday. March. New England. C'est la vie.

Playtest Me!

**Playtesting is over! Buy a copy!**

Last night I put the finishing touches on the rules draft of Steal Away Jordan. You can download the .pdf and the ugly character sheet here, on the condition that you playtest it and send me constructive feedback.

I've been going back and forth on the name. It's supposed to be the title of a spiritual, but it's actually the combined titles of two spirituals: "Get Away Jordan" and "Steal Away to Jesus." Jordan refers to the Ohio River. Cross over Jordan and you're in free territory. "Steal Away Jordan" just sounds good, though, and who's to say there isn't a song by that name?

Thanks in advance to all those nice playtesters who send constructive feedback.
Please leave a comment here if you download something.

Update!
The first playtest report!
The characters of the first playtest!