The Weekly Update for Sunday, June 16th, 2013

My dad, in his natural habitat.

Barker of Arabia, and the Mughal Empress.

It's Father's Day; I'd like to take a moment to remember me dad, me step-dad, and Our Phil - who was like a father to me.

Thanks!

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I am finally getting back on my feet after last weekend's frolics; all the miniatures are unpacked and back on the shelves, and the game room is starting to look normal once again. It's been a very busy few days, and a tiring one; I have so little staying power these days, sorry to say.

Be that as it may I did get all the boxes unpacked, folded up and stored. The two couch-beds formerly in the game lounge are now in their new home in the spare room, and we're in the process of getting that ready for the July arrival of Our Older Daughter From Zurich and The Son-in-law What I have Never Met. I also have hopes that at some point, Our Younger Daughter From Zurich will get the chance to get over here to visit.

For the record, I have four Daughters on the establishment at the moment; I am a Dad, and dang proud of my little clan of eccentrics. We've chosen to be a family, which to me is a Pretty Big Deal; I love them all, and they are what keeps me going. And a special thanks to The Missus, who's there for her adopted daughters despite her own severe health issues. Thanks, Sweets!

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I would also like to thank Our Man In Duluth, kokigami, for a wonderful after action report from last weekend's game; it's on his blog, The Superior Force, and there's a link off to the left for you. Great photos, too!!!

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I really must do custom T-shirts for Team Hlutrgu!!!

The Weekly Update for Monday, June 10th, 2013 - Whew! A Truly Wonderful Weekend!

Man Overboard!!!

Before I get to the game news, I'd like to note that one of my favorite authors, Iain M. Banks, has passed away after a battle with cancer. My I suggest having a look at the BBC story?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22838993

Witty, entertaining, thought-provoking, and just plain wonderful reading. I'll miss him.

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It has been a very busy week, and a simply wonderful weekend! I was busy all week getting the big game ready for launch, but all of the work paid off; we had a good crowd of enthusiastic players, and my classic Braunstein seems to have pleased them. I am uploading the photos I took to my Photobucket page, and The Missus has gotten three video clips of fifteen minutes to a half an hour loaded onto the new video website - links to both in the left-hand column. We also did a much longer video recording of the whole game, and we'll be editing this into something useful for people to marvel at.

[Edit: Photos are now up on the Photobucket page:

http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/chirinebakal/library/?sort=2&page=1

Have a look and enjoy!]

May I suggest looking at other folks' thoughts on this event?

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?688557-Braunstein-meets-the-Petal-Throne-June-8th-2013

(One of the players from Team Hlutrgu has a great report on page six of the thread)

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?691307-Braunstein-Live-streaming-video-June-8th-at-noon

(More good discussion about the game and the underpinnings of it)

http://everwayan.blogspot.com/2013/06/tekumel-braunstein.html

(Our own Mr. Till reports from the headquarters of Team Hlutrgu)

I will have a lot more posts and messages about this game as the week goes on - right now, I need to catch up on my sleep!!!

And a very, very special thanks to everyone who made this game happen:

Howard Fielding of The Tekumel Project;

The Missus, for the video work;

My Family for all their help and support;

My friends in the Aethervox Gamers Group, for all their help and support;

The management and staff of Fantasy Flight Games and the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center,

for all their help and support;

All of the players who came and made this game a success - and so much fun!

and:

Dave Arneson. M. A. R. Barker, Dave Wesley, Ross Maker, Fred Funk, Chuck Monson, and all of the other folks in the University of Minnesota Conflict Simulation Society back in those far-off days of yesteryear...

It's been a truly wonderful weekend!!!

Thank you!!!

Braunstein - The Video! - Live Streaming, We Hope!

With a little bit of luck, and the new Sony camera (above) that The Missus found, we should be able to have the first half-hour of the game session on June 8th put up on the Internet as live streaming video. The idea is to have the 'introductory talk' go live at noon, Central Daylight Time, and run for about a half hour. Depending on battery life, we'll try to stream some of the funnier moments of the game itself on line; the URL where all this will be is:

http://qik.com/chirine_bakal

And we'll be making announcements on this blog as we go along. The camera also records the video while streaming, so we'll post the recording as well after the event.

And, just because we have the capability, we're going to be recording the entire event on video; we're not going to be using the two- to four- camera 'production shoot' set of equipment that we used to record Prof. Barker's Memorial Event that we did just over a year ago, but rather a smaller and lighter 'flight recorder' set up that will capture video and audio from a fixed camera and recording straight to DVD. The DVD recorder that we have allows us to record up to eight hours at one time, so it'll get everything we run at the game session with no problems.

The big issue here, as it always is with doing video production, is time and people; even using the production set we have, it takes several people to run the video switcher, audio mixer, and lighting that you really need to do really high-quality video. We're simply not going to have that option at this game session, nor will we have enough room on-site for a full-court-press production effort. Normally, I'd make up for that by using a lot of set-up time, but we don't have that on the day either. So, we'll got for a realatively light 'field production' set-up that does the basic recording without taking up a lot of people and time; I think it'll work decently, and give all of you an idea of what these games are like.

Mind you, we'll still be using the 'big video' set, but we'll be doing that here at The Workbench to make videos that we can upload as needed; the game plan is to set the rig up once, and then use it as the 'in-hoiuse' production system. More on this, as we figure it out...

Weekly Update for Sunday, June 2nd, 2013 - One Week Out!!!

What you can expect on Saturday.

We are now a week out from the June 8th game, and I'm really looking forward to it; it'll be my first big game after the brain bleed, and I'm happy to be here to be able to run the thing. Special thanks to Fantasy Flight Games' Event Center for hosing us, too!!! Their web site is:

www.FFGEC.com

and you can see the mezzanine space where we'll be playing. It's a great space, with great people, and I really like being there. The Event Center features cold sodas, light snacks, and take-away food on call - I think we'll do dinner at the local Asian buffet; all you can eat for a very reasonable price, and nice food.

I'm also happy to say that the folks at FFG and I are talking about making the Event Center the regular home of the Dave Arneson and M. A. R. Barker memorial games each year; more on this as I get it.

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The Missus went shopping in the marketplace on Friday, and came back with a nifty Tinaliya incense burner for Chirine's traveling kit and an even niftier lock for a chest. One of these days, if there is any interest, I'l spread his luggage out for your inspection and amusement.

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These busy weeks continue as I get ready for the game on Saturday. Lots of writing and printing, as I get the players information sheets done, and a little paint is getting splashed around. I have a four-day weekend coming up, and I'm really looking forward to it!

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There's not much else to say, today. I am well, it's been a very good week, and we're doing all right.

The David L. Arneson Memorial Maritime Miniatures Mayhem Event and The M. A. R. Barker Memorial Invitational Pro-Am Miniatures Game - June 8th, 2013

Aliens, swamps, boats, spaceships; the usual.

I am happy to announce that the annual DLA MMMM Event (you try typing it with dyslexia!) and the MARB MIP-AG Event will be held on Saturday, June 8th, at the Fantasy Flight Games Event Center in the Twin Cities. Their URL is:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_npm.asp?eidm=13

Game at noon; dinner at seven or eight, depending on when we get hungry and how long I last. The game is a Braunstein, and the scenario is "Saving Serqu's Sisters".

What's a 'Braunstein'? have a look at this:

http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/104/braunstein-the-roots-of-roleplaying-games/