I'm Not Myself You See

Last Friday, I had a tooth extracted and I’ve spent the whole weekend in a state of Vicodin conjured half-awareness. Ideas have percolated up to the surface of my consciousness, only to burst like soap bubbles as I try to grasp them and forge them into something cohesive and concrete to display here for your perusal. I have concluded that perhaps deciding to watch both Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey during my convalescence wasn’t a well-thought idea, as well. Those viewings led to some very strange ideas about the nature of human fear and ponderings about including certain black monoliths in game to explain the uplift of various monsters. Luckily, I doubt these ideas will survive once the medication wears off.

In addition to E.T.I. both malignant and benign, I’ve had some time to think about ghosts, stemming from a reading of Stephen King’s short story, Willa, and how much I still consider Wraith: The Oblivion an overlooked and underappreciated gem of a role-playing game (once you jettison the metaplot and get down to the themes of loss, melancholy, and struggling against the dying of the light, that is). I’ve entertained thoughts about what the MMOPRG world needs is a sci-fi game about the exploration and colonization of unknown worlds; one that had more emphasis on prospecting, building settlements, a player-based market economy, mapping uncharted landscapes, exploring strange alien ruins, and discovering hidden geographic vistas instead of blasting aliens and the other all-too standard MMORPG themes of grinding and “phat loot.” (A game which, as close as I can tell, has only existed something like this in the very early days of Star Wars Galaxies before the need to remain true to the brand exterminated those same facets from game play.)

I’ve entertained notions of working on my hex maps for both the surrounding areas of Stonehell and for my Gamma World hex-crawl, but I haven’t been cognizant enough to do more than lightly brainstorm (braindrizzle?) in that regard, so no progress was made. I’ve been aware that I still need to finish the last bit of the third level of Stonehell and make that available, but that will have to wait until I’m done with painkillers in a day or two. A .pdf of the quick and dirty snowflakes chart also needs addressing. My apologies on both of those the delays.

In short, this has been a very long and roundabout way of saying I’ll be back on Wednesday once I make my way out of Burroughs/Castaneda County and return to the world of more solid ideas and soundings. I’ll see if I can bring home any souvenirs from the sojourn.