Sometimes, I think the Philippines needs a little V

Good Players vs. Great Players

I'm taking a little time off to quote a post from Ratboy45 over at RPG.net regarding observations between Good RPG players and Great RPG players.

I'm pretty sure that some of my fellow gamers read this and I'd say that it serves as a great reminder as to why we game in the first place.

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As quoted from Ratboy45:

A good player will think about what his character would do before he acts.

A great player will think ways to make his character realistically take actions that benefit the game.

A good player will seek out opportunities to get his character involved in things.

A great player will seek out opportunities to have his character help others get involved.

A good player will avoid doing things that makes the GM's job more difficult.

A great player will look for ways to make the GM's job easier.

A good player will make an effort to learn the rules.

A great player will remember that the rules must sometimes be broken for purposes of flavour or story.

A good player will seek out ways to build his character's story.

A great player will know when to let his character’s story end.

A good player understands that winning means having fun.

A great player understands that winning doesn’t mean much unless everybody wins.
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Give the above list some thought, and try it out in your next game. You might find that you're having more fun than you thought you would.

Story Time with Uncle Jay

Well, now that I've gotten the whole business of Pat Robertson ruining my morning, let's go ahead into some good news for a change. Just recently I've submitted a short story for Dean Alfar's Philippine Speculative Fiction Anthology.

I was really surprised to find that my story was actually chosen to be part of it. Right now, I'm putting a few edits onto it before I send the story back for it's first editorial pass.

To be honest, it feels odd to be published in a book. I'm technically a virgin to being published and it still feels shiny and new to me. ;)

Ah well, I guess I'd better get back to editing the story. If it's going to be out in public, it might as well be good.

I KNEW there was something seriously wrong about that dude in the 700 Club...

I'm technically a non-practicing Roman Catholic guy with a bit of syncretic tendencies towards Buddhism. However, I'd like to think that I happen to be part of the saner side of the human race, adverse to grand acts of violence and capable of decent thought.

Pat Robertson, is apparently on the opposite camp. Our friendly little host of the 700 Club goes on to call for the assassination of the Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. It's surreal. I've always felt wrong about his show as a kid, and now that I'm supposed to be an adult, I'm seeing why.

It's funny how people can be closed minded sometimes. Here we have a guy from a faith that supposedly espouses understanding and peace in the same way that Jesus Christ did calling for Spec Ops operations to kill off a dictator.

I guess Pat Robertson forgot the part about "Thou Shalt Not Kill" in the bible. I guess he didn't read the part about "Thau Shalt Not Be An Idiot" in my bible either.

Maybe we need Pope Benedict XVI to show up and beat Pat Robertson up with one of those metal incense burners they use in church. The one hanging from a chain?

I'd pay good money and have popcorn watching a one-sided match with Pat strapped to a chair butt naked and Pope Benedict XVI unleashing the wrath of god in full regalia and a really heavy incense burner. Of course, being the Pope, Benedict XVI wouldn't kill the guy, just leave him with a long memory of why God was so feared back then and why it's not a good idea to use God as a platform for spreading hate.

Brazilians and Tunnels

If Mole Man was a real person, he would have to be Brazilian.

I say this because it seems that the Brazilians enjoy digging tunnels, as evidenced by the Greatest Bank Robbery in Brazilian History. These thieves got away with up to $65m! Holy crap! Imagine what you could have done with that much money...

In fact, tunneling seems to have been the national pastime for Brazilian criminals. Apparently, a gang of prison inmates attempted to break out of jail by digging their own little tunnel. Unfortunately for them, it didn't quite reach as far as they would have wanted to.

Not that I know anything about the Brazilian police system, but if I were one of the cops, I would have unslung my truncheon and started playing Whack-a-Mole with the prisoners before sending them to new cells without food or water for a few days.

Top 5 Things I Think You Don't Know About Me.

Okay, after getting away with not updating this blog for so long, it looks like I've been tagged by K8 to do a little trivia list about myself.

To quote her entry:

Most people have a nasty habit of categorizing other people in neat little boxes. I should know, I do it all the time. But strictly speaking from a theoretical point of view, I believe that there are probably things about you that would surprise most people. It could be the ability to twist your tongue in ridiculously impossible positions, or that you can bend knuckles of your fingers at will or something more bizarre even I can't imagine. Whatever it is, I invite everyone to explore, who knows, you may find out something that may surprise you.:)

And so I present my own list of quirky facts...

1) If I roll my eyes upwards far enough, they go from parallel, to suddenly apart from each other. (to demonstrate, imagine these lines in motion from bottom up... normal: || my eyes when they hit the top \ /)

2) I made my first ever RPG at the tender age of 7, with an old ratty typewriter, and reverse engineering the system from the old Commodore 64 computer game: The Bard's Tale. I also made maps for it using graphing paper.

3) I once threatened my brother with a kitchen knife as a kid. Thankfully, my grandmother was there to stop us.

4) I once tried to run away from home with nothing but my He-Man action figures, and a few clothes in a pillowcase. I remember crying and being so determined to leave. Thank god my mom had a rather intricate lock on our gate so my plan of deserting the house stopped even before I got to leave.

5) I chipped a front tooth from getting my face slammed to the glass of a table when I failed to answer a Chinese review test my mom made for me. In her defense, she knocked me upside the head, without the intention of my mouth striking the glass of the table. On behalf of the table, it didn't mean to chip my tooth either.

Even more Geekery... The Guyver series is remade!

Much like the Bio-Booster Armor the series was named for, Guyver is coming back in a new animated series to air in WOWOW this month.

The differences in character design are really obvious as seen in the following two images:

Sho Fukamachi (circa 1980-something)



Sho Fukamachi (kewler looking overall)



The only design that didn't need changing is the Guyver suit itself. Even sticking to the original designs the suit kicks so much ass that it's freaky.



Anyway, to those who are wondering what the hell Guyver is, it's an old anime about Sho (the guy illustrated above) who finds the Guyver suit. It "chooses" him as it's host and is pretty much stuck to him forever until someone manages to extract it somehow. From the older anime it seems to be pretty pointless as the Guyver was once obliterated down to only the silver disc on his forehead (his "Control Metal"). That of course, includes Sho. When the Control Metal is deposited in the headquarters of the enemy for safekeeping and other nefarious plans, the control metal regenerates the entire damned suit and the human inside it.

Yep.

You read that right.

After that point in the series, I was too damned floored to try and figure out if that means that Sho is really dead and this one is a clone made by the Guyver unit? Or if Sho is actually the Guyver unit now, and just regenerated from the Control Metal with all his stuff intact, including his sanity and his soul?

Ah well... it was still pretty cool.

Anyway, I'll be looking out for any copies of the new series to find out what they've done with it.

The Legend... of Voltron

Oh wow...

First it was news of the upcoming new Transformers live action movie.

Now we've got news of a Voltron Movie coming out as well!

Looks like them giant robots are coming back.

Speaking of giant robots, a couple of series still stick to my head. As a child, I was really fascinated by the little known transforming robot cartoon known as : Rock Lords. At the time it seemed so cool. In hindsight,you've got a bunch or robots (or they seemed to be robots) that can use their amazing shapeshifting abilities to transform into... uh... rocks.

Yeah. I'm glad my memories of them aren't holding up. Now I can amuse myself with stupid scripts pulled from my sleepy brain.

"Oh my god! Boulder! They're attacking our headquarters!"

"Quick, Marbles! Transform to rock form!"

*after sitting uselessly for the rest of the episode*

"Phew, good thinking Boulder! Without your leadership, we'd all be crushed!"

"And it's another victory for the Rock Lords!"

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Anyway, its surprising how many things become popular even with very little brainpower.

Maybe next time, I should write a completely brainless story... that might be my ticket to fame!