A Good Day

It's surprising just how fast the day goes when it is packed full of things to do. It started early, with Aidan waking in the early hours as it was so hot, and ending up in bed with me to try and settle him while Jill grabbed some sleep on Nathan's lower bunk. By 7am, Aidan was wide awake again (having been very restless ever since he came in to me) and bouncing on me, demanding that I read him a story (he's very attached to Thomas the Tank Engine at the moment) and generally be fun.

Fortunately, Jill woke up and started to entertain him (and soon after Nathan) and I got a chance to get a little sleep back.

We headed down into Wetherby, as we had a few errands to run. Nathan and Aidan both needed some sandals sorting out - Nathan's being a change from those bought the night before as they were too big without socks. (See, that's why socks and sandals have an uncool meme). I spent an hour or so buying the essentials, then caught up with the shoe shopping party who were still in the shop. There'd been a huge queue; the shop assistant said that they had been mad busy all week since the sun decided to arrive in force!

We rushed home, and went separate ways. I took Nathan to a birthday party, and Jill took Aidan swimming to Waterbabies (which he enjoys even if he can be a little too laid back with his thumb in while swimming)!

The party involved a soft play area, and then party food and games, while the mums and dads tried to relax and at the same time watched the kids like hawks to make sure they behaved! It was Star Wars themed, so Nathan really liked that.

I'd hoped to stop off at the Muse Bar in Wetherby on the way home for a cold alcohol-free Erdinger, and Nathan was angling for a pint of lemonade with ice (it's the latter he was really hankering for), but it was mostly shut due to a wedding. Instead, we went to the supermarket and bought supplies, avoiding the need to explain to Jill.

On arriving home, it was 'gentlemen, start your barbecues' as Jill had bought supplies. I cooked without burning (and can recommend Debbie & Andrews 97% sausages as the lack of fat makes them cook well!) and Nathan was really happy as he'd requested the BBQ. Unfortunately, while I was cooking he managed to crash off his push scooter, racing the lad next door, as he hit a stone. Big graze to the arm, very upset little boy, and lots of TLC needed.

As I write this, Aidan is asleep, and Jill & Nathan are watching Eurovision. All in all, it's been a good day, a normal day.

Meanwhile, the house extension continues...

The rant I mentioned

At the start of May, I mentioned in a post that I had a rant that I intended to post. I’m not going to post it now. Things have moved on somewhat.

The rant was about the bigoted and discriminatory campaign that the “Coalition for Marriage” has been running opposed to the present consultation on the marriage laws in this country. It systematically shredded the campaign’s reluctance to present any evidence despite claiming to have a substantive and extensive selection at its fingertips. This has changed a little recently, as they have posted some supporting documents. Having read through these, I do find it amusing that in some cases they are relying on evidence as far back as 1866 to make their point, but I accept they have now built a more substantive argument.

It’s an argument that I can’t in any way agree with. The present “civil partnership” definition was a fudge put in place by the last Labour government to avoid causing offence. Well-meaning, but fundamentally discriminatory. Exactly the same case could be made for extending the provisions of civil partnerships to include heterosexual couples as can be made for extending marriage to homosexual couples.

I find it offensive that, until recently, C4M was relying on a petition to demonstrate its case rather than participating in the open - and formal - consultation process being run by the Home Office. They are now advocating that the supporters only answer the 2 questions that they feel are most relevant, rather than actively supporting the process.

Letting homosexual couples marry isn’t going to end the world.

It isn’t going to undermine the fabric of civil society.

It doesn’t have any bearing upon the religious and their rights to hold their own views and practices.

It affects a specific part of civil law that will allow 2 people who love each other to marry and have the same recognition for their relationship as the rest of society.

If you feel strongly, either way, then you can find the consultation online here: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/about-us/consultations/equal-civil-marriage/ I encourage you to take the time to fill it in before it closes on 14 June.

Rain stopped PLAY!

We decided to take the boys out for the bank holiday as a treat and headed off to 'Play!' at Harewood House. This was a child-friendly event, with a Lego stand and lots of rides and play-buses etc. Ideally stuff for a bank holiday weekend to keep the kids entertained, really.

It was expensive (with £10 per adult entry), but we had fun in the Lego room. Then, as we had lunch the weather changed to cold, icy rain, so we decided to head home.

On reflection, I don't think I'd rush to go to this again - the Lego was nice, but nothing special. A trip to the Discovery Centre at the Trafford Centre would have probably made more sense. Most of the activities – the fun bus, the train, and the carts - had extra charges beyond the entry at Harewood, which I think was a bit cheeky.

Anyway, having got home, Jill & Aidan are napping, and Nathan is chilling out...

Unleash the OGRE!

OGRE was my first true science-fiction wargaming love. It shares its birth year - 1977 - with Traveller, the granddaddy of science fiction roleplaying. I'm not certain if it was my first wargaming love, but it may have been. I certainly purchased it around the same time that I was reading Charles Grant's seminal 'Battle: Practical Wargaming' from the local library in the sleepy commuter village of Holmes Chapel in Cheshire. I can remember going into the local toyshop - back in the days when the village still had one - and seeing a small selection of Metagaming's pocket wargames and Basic Dungeons & Dragons (the blue book box before the red box). I was so excited.

I can remember buying OGRE - it was a toss up between that and a game called Chitin, but the tanks won - and starting to save to buy D&D. I'd been tempted towards that as well by the book 'What is Dungeons & Dragons?', a Puffin book written by some public school types that hooked me into the whole idea of roleplaying. I was gutted when it was bought by someone else (unbeknownst to me, my parents for my Christmas present).

One of the other reasons I think I bought it was the fantastic Winchell Chung picture on the front which promised one hell of a fight.

Anyway, OGRE. The principle is simple. A huge, nuclear shell lobbying cybernetic AI tank attacts a Command Post guarded by a mix of hovercraft (GEVs), missile tanks, heavy tanks and infantry. Either the OGRE will die, or the CP will. The game is simple, the sole rules reference being needed is a combat results table combined with the ability to work out odds. I played this game again and again, both solo and with others. Although its very simple, there is enough randomness and strategy variations to make you want to keep coming back for more everytime you play it.

When the game was rereleased around 2000, I bought back in and purchased pretty much everything, except for the second scenario book that I just found out was printed in 2005. The whole game, counters, rules and dice with all the expansions fits nicely into a VCR case. Perfect to take away when travelling. Unfortunately, the arrival of the two boys has meant that it's been neglected for the last 5 years.

I was very excited when Steve Jackson, the author, announced that he was going to be bringing OGRE back in a huge new 6th Edition 'OGRE Designer's Edition'. It's always had a special place in his heart as it was the first game that he designed. When I say huge, the game has a monster box with an estimated weight of around 15 pounds (7 kg) due to the component quality and numbers. Have a look at the box in the video! I was then instantly disappointed when I found that the Kickstarter campaign was going to be US-only, unless some practicable way could be found to ship the package at a reasonable cost. This has since been fixed, but as you can probably guess, shipping that kind of weight air freight isn't cheap. It's around $90 to the UK!

The Kickstarter campaign (a win-win way for the publisher to gauge support) has taken on an OGRE-like approach, massively exceeding the $20,000 initial target and crushing all the stretch goals in sight. What's a stretch goal, you ask? This is when the publisher (or Kickstarter campaign creator) pledges to do extra things in the event that funding reaches certain levels. For example, additional components, better quality product and so on. As I type this, the campaign has broken through $570,000 with 5 days to go.

Isn't it amazing that a 35 year old board game can attract such support? There's a lot of love, excitement and nostalgia driving this.




Interestingly, Zombicide, another boardgame but a new one, has - in its last 12 hours - just broken the $720,00 barrier having trailed behind OGRE until the end of the week. It's great to see boardgames prospering in our digital media world, powered by a digital campaign system and the buzz on the internet.

Now I just need to find some time to play this kind of thing. Or wait another couple of years for Nathan to be old enough!

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PS There are missing posts from April, including a rant. They’ll appear in due course.

Bedtime Reading

We've had a bit of a break from the usual bedtime stories that Nathan has over the last 3 weeks as we've been reading “the Hobbit” night by night. It was actually at his request but I guess that's really my fault. About 6 months ago he wouldn't sleep, so I was asked to read him a story to try and get him to settle. The only problem was that we didn't have any of the books he liked to hand. So I gave him an oral version of the Hobbit as he lay in bed and ever since then he's asked me to tell them about Smaug the Dragon and Bilbo Baggins.

It's been great fun, and he's only been scared once. He asked me to stop doing Smaug voice when Bilbo met the Dragon. Anyway we should have finished it tonight but he fell asleep 3 pages from the end, just before the hobbit returns to Bag End to find all his personal effects being auctioned off by his over-eager relatives!

Jill and I were struggling to decide what story to try next and we're now tempted by the classic "Swallows and Amazons" as he loves the Lake District.

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Produced with Dragon Dictate 2.5

Achievements

We went out on the Harland Way, a national cycle route that runs behind our house, in the direction of Spofforth village. I kept on asking him if he wanted to stop but he always said no. In the end we went all the way to Spofforth and back again. There is a great little pub at the end of the cycle path, but I didn't think it was appropriate to go and buy him a celebratory pint, even of lemonade. He was ever so proud when he told his mum that he'd managed to cycle for 5 miles in total. He keeps asking me when we can go for a "longer" cycle ride so he can have a “bigger number”

Aidan is also doing well, in both his speech and walking. He is now standing freely and doing little walks when he thinks we are not looking and otherwise surfing around the room using the furniture for support"

There are very clear names and phrases coming out now which can be startling on occasion.

"Hello Der", is a favourite!
“I did dat", is another that he takes great delight in, especially if he's being a bit naughty!
And scarily, “what dat?", is getting increasingly common.
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Produced with Dragon Dictate 2.5

TravCon 12 Report

This is a short report that I originally prepared for the Tavern about BITS excellent convention, TravCon. Slightly amended.
I had a great weekend. Arrived on Friday night fully planning to update the scenario characters from CT and MT to Mongoose Traveller and ended up being persuaded by Tom Z to come and play Striker 2 instead. I suspect that he may have regretted that when his G-Carrier popped up to be hit with a missile under opportunity fire from my hidden hover tank. The G-Carrier made an impressive addition to the swamp it was flying over. I enjoyed the game, even if I did end up being wiped out.

Saturday saw me up early to convert the characters. This was unusual. I normally write new scenarios for Travcon and BITS but this time I decided to run a scenario from Challenge called 'Snowblind' and the classic White Dwarf scenario 'Tower Trouble'. I am also usually more prepared. It was also amusing when I got a text from the con team at 08:55 checking I was okay to run when I'd been up since 07:15!

I spent the morning running the game, and the players seemed to enjoy it even if the ending was somewhat anti-climatic (in the sense we all agreed to narrate the big show piece combat rather than play it out). The scenario also reminded me how long starship combat takes - but it was kind of fun.

Saturday afternoon was one of my highlights. I had a quick trip to the pub with a number of old friends for some food, and then went and played Tim Collinson's excellent 'Signs and Portents'. This was the first con scenario he had run and was truly awesome. Absolute classic Traveller style and a rare gem in being a science based scenario with lots of human interest. It was a scout mission to carry out an in-depth survey. This is one I anticipate that BITS will publish. The draft copy that Tim had went in the charity auction and made £70 for 'Help for Heroes'.

Saturday evening I cried out of games to complete the characters for the game the next day. This meant I skulked in the bar with a laptop and access to the real ale brought to the con by Derrick Jones (Continuum - you should get this man to come and visit!). After I finished the game we played Mag*Blast (the annual BITS championship in which Andy Lilly - BITS director - was destroyed first and me soon after) which ended up being the longest game ever. We also played Star Fluxx which was a great variant on (duh) Fluxx and a group tried out my copy of 'The Stars are Right' which had been gathering dust on my shelf for far too long.

Sunday morning was more leisurely and I ran Tower Trouble. It's a Marcus L Rowland heist scenario built around raiding an orbital tower. The team included the Guvnor (a transport expert) and a number of others who decided to avoid the main thrust of the scenario (stop the shuttle car on the beanstalk) and instead hack and do a really clever heist that involved a cargo switch at the down port terminal. Brilliantly done, but I hope it wasn't too much of an anti-climax. It was also the second scenario at a Travcon when the players have planned their approach with a flip chart!!!

Sadly, it was time for the awards ("Starburst for Extreme Heroism" and "Ping F**k It!") and auction which went well and then the con ended and I spent the next 125 miles running up the A1 away from the grim cold wet and snow South to the sunny North.

A great weekend, all in all.

What happened to February?

You may wonder why no posts in February besides this?

It’s quite simple - I wrote a substantial rant and managed to delete 3/4 of it, and then reality bit hard with my NEBOSH Diploma, which has eaten a lot of time. Normal service will resume.

300 years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds

This video is a really good overview on why burning toxic dinosaur residue to produce toxic dinosaur gases (so I stole that from The Infinite Monkey Cage) can be bad for us. It’s worth five minutes of your time. It presents what’s one of the biggest threats(*) to humanity at the moment, one that most politicians seem to be completely detached from the science and realities of the issues.

Tip of the hat to James Robey for spotting this and posting on his Facebook.

(*)The other big ones being a ‘flu pandemic – especially as we’ve engineered extremely lethal avian ‘flu variants in labs – and a big coronal mass ejection taking down the electrical infrastructure in the developed world (more likely in 2013 when the solar cycle peaks).

But, unlike something like a Yellowstone Supervolcanic Event, these are all things that we can do something about, if only we have the will and the vision.

Oh, and a Happy New Year to you all! ;-)