Compromise and Conceit

So between October and April England disappears into a murky world of fog and chilly, dark afternoons. What does one do during that time? I have been reading, my role-playing group switched to an old favourite, and I watched a few things. Here are the things I have been reading and doing recently:

Rolemaster in middle Earth: My role-playing group did a 5 or 6 session short campaign in good old-fashioned Rolemaster (Classic, to be precise), set in Mordor at 10th level. It was fun but with 8 players and high levels, it got a bit tedious at times. I’m not sure if my players liked my vision of Mordor either – 10km deep canyons and cities of Undead didn’t seem to appeal. Well, can’t be helped… but in fact Rolemaster was a lot less fun than I remember and I won’t be DMing it again. I originally intended to write the results here but I couldn’t be bothered in the end. ennui, much?

A concise Chinese-English dictionary for lovers: recommended by a friend, this book is by a Chinese author, and tells the story of a Chinese girl who comes to London to learn English and, ah, doesn’t quite fit in. She meets a 40-something ex-anarchist and they start a quite fucked-up relationship. I’m sure this book is autobiographical. It also contains some beautiful observations about the horribleness of London. There’s a passage where the Chinese girl compares British weather reports with reports from a war, and it’s so true. It’s a sad book but a really interesting description of cross-cultural confusion. Strongly recommended!

Emma: also happens to be the name of my partner, but in this instance is the manga tale of a Maid in Victorian England. I think it’s by the author who wrote “Mermaid Forest” but I’m not sure. I’ve been struggling through the Japanese version (i.e. the original) of book 1. You can get the whole thing online in English, but I think I’ll stick to misunderstanding the Japanese. 4 months= nearly finished.

Dexter: Just finished season 3. I love Dexter!

Neverwinter Nights 2: I have returned to this, and spend maybe two or 3 hours a week saving the world. It’s not going too well, but at least I’m back into it. It is still too easy though… and I have discovered that when NPCs die they don’t die, they just lie down until the fight is over. This is all the encouragement I need for sloppy, drunken adventuring…