Back in service

First, a confession. I should have written this blog two weeks ago. After nearly three months of not-so-patient waiting, I received the first big shipment of books on December 11th, and the proceeded to do nothing about it.

That's not entirely acturate, but it feels like it. I've read all of two books of the 40+ that I received, and waited more than two weeks to mention it here.

My appologies. I'll pull the traditional holidays excuse, you know, because I can. Visiting in-laws, birthdays, christmas, graduation, it's been a busy month, but I'm down to business now.

So, what's happening at this point? Well, as of now I have almost everything that the other judges have. A couple little things seem to have gotten lot in the transition between one judge and anotherm, but not much, and I'll just replace those myself.

In the mean time I've just finished Emily Care Boss's Under my Skin, a game about playing through the uncomfortable issues that come up when people's romantic relationships get intertwined and messy. It's very well written, and very non-traditional, even far more so that her other game I've have some experience with, Breaking the Ice.

To be honest I'm going to have to let this one soke in a bit. I literaly just finished reading it before starting this post, and it's totally different than the other games I have experience with. I've played a lot of different games, even LARPs, and this is a different stage than what I've done before. There's a discussion in the book on using it to explore your own emotions and relationships, and it definately feels like that's exactly the kind of thing that would strengthen the experience. It's a touchy subject, and it's probably not for me, but it is very well done. It feels more like a well-guided roleplaying experience than a traditional roleplaying game.

On the other end of the spectrum I've also been reading Dark Heresy. It's the most complete system I've received thus far, so it'll be the first that I settle in to playtest. I received the core book, Inquisitor's Handbook, and the Purge the Unclean campaign book, so last night we put our Saturday game on hold to make characters, and we're going to play through the adventures in Purge the Unclean. I'm going to withold comment for right now, but I will say that I'm excited. The peritextual elements, the pictures, the font, the borders, all draw you in and really put you in the mood. Last time I was a judge Warhammer Fantasy hit me in much the same way, and I ended up filling out my collection even after the judging period was over, just for my own use. I'm interested to see if the 40k version can grab me as well.

So, I guess that's it for now. I'll check back in like I did last time, a couple times a week or so, now that I'm actually getting stuff done. Because of the earlier elections I'm still three months ahead od where I was at this point last time, so I'm going to take my time and really enjoy the books this time until more stuff starts pouring in.

As always, feel free to ask if you have questions or comments.