Monthly Archives: June 2012

Live action Interactive Fiction games

Remember those old text adventure games from the 80s, like Zork and Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Planetfall and Lurking Horror? I loved them, and I loved how they engaged my imagination while they encouraged me to solve puzzles.

When I was at Origins, I saw this game called JUNGLE ADVENTURE, which uses a system called Parsely. It's essentially a live version of the old text adventure games. A GM plays the part of the computer, reading descriptions and giving responses to a group of any number of players who are trying to solve the adventure.

I haven't played it at a con, yet, but I've read stories from people who played it in a room of a hundred or more people, with delightful and hilarious results.

I've had such a good time reading JUNGLE ADVENTURE and SPACE STATION, I went to RPGnow and bought ACTION CASTLE, the very first game that was released using this game engine. (Note: I didn't realize, until I started writing this post, that mementomori sells the games directly, so I've linked to those pages here; shut up and give them your money!)

I'm not entirely sure it would work on Tabletop, but I'm going to try it with my friends at our next game day. 

I'm just going to throw this out there: I bet it would be really easy to design your own games using this system… get excited and make something, Internet!!

The Eternal Struggle

So this happened last night. I told the tale in pictures and captions on Twitter, and I'm putting it here for the ages. For science. You monster.

Seamus Wheaton

Hey, Seamus, you're in my spot.

Seamus Wheaton

Me: Seamus, move! Seamus: But I'm watching Colbert Report!

Riley Wheaton

Me: Seamus won't move. Riley: Well, duh. He's watching Colbert Report.

Watson Wheaton

Me: Sea- Watson: Can't talk. Sleeping. Me: You sleep all day! Watson: And I'm sleeping now. Correction. TRYING to sleep

Luna Wheaton

Luna: I may appear to be sleeping, but rest assured that I will still murder your face if you disturb me. Me: oooookay.

Seamus and Wil "compromise" on sharing the couch.

So this is how Seamus and I decided to compromise on the whole couch situation.

At times like this, I am grateful that I am so easily amused.

Video Q&A Post for Denver Comicon

I was not happy that I had to cancel my appearance at the Denver Comicon this weekend, mostly because I knew that there were a significant number of people who bought tickets specifically because I was going to be there.

Aaron Douglas did a magnificent job (because he is awesome) replacing me, and I understand that Paul and Storm rocked several faces right off.

I thought it would not suck if I had the con organizers send me some questions from con attendees, which I could answer on videotape from the back of a limousine with Rollergirl.

They liked most of that idea, so I took their notes to heart and recorded this in my backyard Friday, with some help from Anne:

I had more fun than I thought possible doing this, and I understand that it went over fairly well at the con, so all was not lost. If you want to hear me talk about stuff for about 26 minutes in glorious high definition, I've got you covered.