We had a pleasant holiday season. Technically, it’s not over until Sunday if you celebrate Twelfth Night / Epiphany. We used to in my family, but with just the two of us here, I think and I will pass on finding out who gets to be king. 🙂
On Monday, we got together with seven of our friends and played games. In the afternoon, Edmund ran a nifty game of Bloodshadows, a role-playing game that uses the Masterbook system. I played a cat… I’ve never been very fond of that particular setting, but Edmund had done a great job creating characters, and the game was a lot of fun. And I really, really love the Torg/Masterbook/Shatterzone system; yes, it has a bunch of little crunchy bits, but unlike most crunchy games, they feel like they are there to accomplish a purpose, not just because someone else had a similar bit in his game 30 years ago. They work, they provide value. Also, my cat character stood up to a God. ^_^
We had a gamer potluck dinner: Peter and Cindy brought a couple of large (and tasty!) Hogswatch pies they had made, and a bunch of vegetables, satsuma mandarins, cookies, crackers, and drinks the rest of us had brought. Then I ran Spirit of the Season in the Truth & Justice system. It was not as good as Edmund’s game because I was very tired by the time it ended at 11pm. Then most of us stayed on to play board games and toast the New Year in with bubbles (cider!)
Yesterday, we kind of vegetated: did a couple of loads of laundry, ordered Chinese food for dinner(!), and I finished a couple of things I’d let go for the last few weeks: the proposed front and back layouts for the Indie Tour 2008 t-shirt; and a draft poster for ConQuest NW’s role-playing section. I confess, after having had a very pleasant few days, I was feeling a lot more moody yesterday when thinking about a new year. Starting it with the blood bath in Kenya, and bad or lukewarm health news from several people I love, left me feeling sober.
The Reef 