T w e n t y S i d e d
No, I already used that one. Dangit…
– Shamus, Friday Nov 3, 2006
‘distractable’
Man, I love seeing my dad’s typos. I inherited his horrible dyslexia and he spent a lot of my young life projecting his anxieties about it onto me. I didn’t even realize he had the same problems I did until I was nearly an adult, reading this very comic. He apologized for being hard on me about it a long time ago, but it’s still nice to remember sometimes. Especially since we both became writersI was going to throw in a self deprecating joke here about him being a writer and me being a ‘writer’. But, honestly, I’d have been comparing his 50 years to my 25, apples and oranges. Plus, I do have two finished manuscripts that will presumably someday will see the light of day if I ever get around to it…
Footnotes:
[1] I was going to throw in a self deprecating joke here about him being a writer and me being a ‘writer’. But, honestly, I’d have been comparing his 50 years to my 25, apples and oranges. Plus, I do have two finished manuscripts that will presumably someday will see the light of day if I ever get around to it…
Spec Ops: The Line
A videogame that judges its audience, criticizes its genre, and hates its premise. How did this thing get made?
The Middle Ages
Would you have survived in the middle ages?
Punishing The Internet for Sharing
Why make millions on your video game when you could be making HUNDREDS on frivolous copyright claims?
Could Have Been Great
Here are four games that could have been much better with just a little more work.
Blistering Stupidity of Fallout 3
Yeah, this game is a classic. But the story is idiotic, incoherent, thematically confused, and patronizing.
I learned a solution to this problem from a good but patchy DM who ran irregularly. He circulated a post session summary by email to the group, so everyone had a handy reference for what had happened last session. Trouble was, he sometimes left bits out, and got tetchy when called on it.
So when I borrowed his idea for my own irregular game, I tried to write my summaries within 24 hours and actively invited corrections from my players. It seemed to work. Indeed, that campaign never ended, it just went on hiatus because of Real Life Issues. They’re still about to cross that chasm…
I have found that there is value in asking one or more players to give a recap to the table.
That lets the GM pick up on A) anything the GM thinks is important but that none of the players have mentioned and B) something the GM didn’t think much about at the time but which all the players agree was cool.
I used to do this too! It became a sort of unofficial “adventure journal”, and one of my players actually wanted to print it out and bind it at the conclusion of the campaign to give out as a souvenir to all the players. Sadly, RL intervened and we never managed to finish that campaign. :(
French translation available here: https://dmoftheringsfr.blogspot.com/2023/06/rappelle-moi-on-est-ou-deja.html
I remember how good-natured Shamus was about getting corrections in the comments. I don’t think he ever even mentioned dyslexia as a possibility until the Autoblography, just said thanks and fixed the post. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone with dyslexia who was that (outwardly, at least) chill about the constant stream of “well actually”s.
I am surprisingly good at keeping track of the narrative as the resident GM of my tables. I wish my memory was that good in any other regard. Can’t remember what I ate yesterday, but don’t worry, I remember *exactly* which NPC they’ve already made fun of!
Maybe it would help, if someone would make fun of your food each and every time you ate.
But I think there are very few people who remember what they ate on the same day they ate the said food.
… what’s wrong with “distractable”…?
It’s spelled “distractible.”