Mailbag time
Posted by DavidJaySirois in Fake Mailbg on April 28, 2012
Hello Story-friends.
So, this week I have some apologizes. I was too busy playing other games to finish playing this week’s game of Apocalypse World. First world problems, I know. But this week off gives me the opportunity to dip into the electronic mail bag and answer some of the questions I’ve been meaning to get to.
Nice. Very nice.
–T Davids
Thanks! I’m glad you like it so far. That’s not really a question though…
Is Uni City based on a real place? It seems you have the geography figured out pretty well.
–Geodude
Yeah, it’s actually based on the University of Central Florida, the school I got my undergrad at and also worked at for a few years. Here’s a map of the place: http://map.ucf.edu/static/pdf/Illustrated%20Campus%20Map.pdf
I like this story your putting up, but it comes out so randomly. What gives?
–Franklyn C
Glad YOU’RE enjoying. My goal is to post something at least every weekend, but these Uni City installments have been going kind of long so I’ve been posting them in chunks, usually of one or two characters.
When I break it up like this I try to put something up on Tuesdays and Thursdays (in addition to the normal weekend post), but it depends on when I have some free time (from all the other games I’ve been playing, busy life you know).
I like your stories and everything, but you curse all the time and write about sex and stuff. It makes it hard to read at work. Any thoughts about a safe for work version?
–SoccerDad79
Hm, not really SoccerDad. I doubt I’ll put up any potentially offensive images, but you can expect naughty bits when appropriate. I strive not to add anything gratuitously, but I can’t really make any promises.
That being said, the nature of Apocalypse World kind of encourages more adult content. It’s fairly possible that whatever the next Story-Friend project I work on will be friendlier for all ages. (I wouldn’t bet on that though.)
Speaking of…
What’s the deal with all the math problems in these stories? I’m really confused.
–U Gel E
This whole Uni City project is the product of me playing a roleplaying game by myself and writing up the results. Those math problems are the dice that I rolled to affect the story. It’s been a pretty interesting way to write a story.
The game I’m playing is called Apocalypse World. You can learn more about it (and buy it) right here: http://apocalypse-world.com/
I love Apocalypse World. I’ll play with you. Anyway, just one question, what playbooks are your main characters?
–V. Baker
I know, it’s such a great game. I can’t wait to actually play with other people. I’ll put you on my list of potential players.
Dice is a Chopper, a leader of a biker gang (I interpreted “biker” a bit differently than the standard I think).
October is a Skinner, a supernaturally beautiful stripper.
Scrib is a Hoarder, someone who obsessively looks for things to add to their sentient collection (sort of reinterpreted this a bit too).
Mr. Sunshine is a Maestro’D, the owner of a place to get things. I changed this class around a bit because I wanted to make someone closer to Ian McShane’s character on Deadwood. Pretty much all I did was swap all references of the stat “hot” with the stat “cool.” As you can see, he didn’t turn out all that similar to McShane’s character, but I still like him a lot.
Reading these chapters backawards is really annoying. Is there anyway to read them from oldest to newest?
–Reed Rick
I can see how that would be annoying. I’m kind of new at Word Press, so I don’t know if there’s any really easy way to reverse the posts’ order. I guess you would click the Lone Wolf Theatre tag so that all of them come up. I don’t know that it will display them in the order you want though.
My tentative plan is to keep doing Uni City for two or three more weeks. After the last post I’ll put up a page of all the links in order. That should hopefully help.
This blog is awful. Roleplaying is for nerds and you are a nerd. I bet you are the kind of loser that would make up emails to respond to.
–Aida R.
Hm, no comment.
That’s enough emails for today. If you’d like to ask some questions, make some comments, or offer criticism and/or praise, feel free to email me at Dodavehu@games.com or comment somewhere on this very web page.
Tune in next week for more installments of Uni City and perhaps some more inane ramblings from your very special story-friend.
Portraits of Apocalypse
Posted by DavidJaySirois in Uncategorized on April 10, 2012
Hey Story-friends,
No new Uni City chapter today. I’m still hard at “work” playing the game and making notes. I should have at least one character’s section up by Wednesday. I’ve gotten addicted to the Avengers game on Facebook, so everything is falling a bit behind.
To whet your appetites, here is a confession: I loosely based Scrib on this character I made a few years ago. I thought him up for my roommate, Kelly’s, birthday party. Aside from sharing a house, we also share a tendency for over ambitious party themes. This one was post-apocalypse themed. She created two factions which would fight at the party’s climax. Backstories were encouraged.
Unfortunately, I got a bit too drunk and forgot most of what happened (oh, college days), but I do remember the concept of my persona. He was the scribe of one of the factions and was a reluctant loner. He was born in a library where his parents taught him how to read. When they died, he travelled out to teach others how to read and to document the stories of the world.
Also, Kelly did a photo shoot before the party, when we were all still sober. You might notice the leather bound book in this Scrib’s left hand. You might also notice he he gets his fashion sense from his favorite books–mythology texts in this case.
This is pretty much how I imagine Scrib. Just add some wire glasses and maybe lose the shirt and the archer’s glove.
Who the other two girls (and dog) are, you will have to decide.
Speaking of deciding, I’ve been spending some time combing through photos by the amazing Lee Jefferies. I’m hoping to find some portraits that fit some of the people from Uni City, but I keep getting distracted by how fantastic they are. Maybe you can make some suggestions? Maybe I’ll send a prize to anyone that picks an especially appropriate photo.
Anyway, I guess I should go to sleep at some point.
Armchair Author 1: Hungry for a dialogue on race
Posted by DavidJaySirois in Armchair Author, Nonfiction, Uncategorized on March 29, 2012
While waiting for the next Uni City chapter (should be up on Friday, for those of you on the edge of your seats), I thought I’d write up a brief post.
I saw The Hunger Games this past weekend, like most people in the world did. I really liked it. This was one of those rare (yet increasingly more common) movies that I liked even better than their source material.
Anyway, I’m going to introduce a new column: Armchair Author. I’ve read the first two books of the series and I think the author missed at least one really interesting facet of her world that could have been focused on more closely. Namely, District 11.
I’ve talked about this in person when I was reading, but with all this press the institutional racists have been getting by tweeting surprise over Rue’s race, I figured I’d bring it up here too. (Don’t know what I’m talking about there? Check out this tumblr or this write-up.)
From what I remember in the books (the first two at least) Suzanne Collins made District 11 out to be an analogue of a huge plantation for the whole nation of Panem. This is the district tasked with tending the crops and shipping them off to the other districts. All the characters were described as dark skinned (despite what some tweeters remember from their klan book klubs). It’s even mentioned that the District 11ers were harshly punished if they took any food for themselves. What does this sound like to you?
It seemed like Collins was sending a racially charged message, but then didn’t really go anywhere with it. There’s an entire race segregated into a ghetto-district, but race was such a nonissue in the novels that self-claiming fans missed that a main character was black.
From my armchair I can safely say that, if I were writing it, The Hunger Games would have had a lot more to say about race in the future which would reflect more of how our own society sees (or doesn’t see) race.
The Hunger Games did deal with a lot of issues—class, privacy, freedom, innocence, just to name a few—but I feel it would have been more rich if it spent some time on race too.
I might have to come back when I get around to reading the final book if they do address race more, but the perfect time to bring it up would have been the second book when District 11 riots (which the filmmakers snuck into the movie). I guess I’ll have to wait and see.
So, what do you think? Do you wish race was more directly addressed? Can you think of other sweeping changes that would have made The Hunger Games (movie or books) better? (Like maybe making Katniss less annoying.) Let me know in the comment section.
Until next time, Story-friends.