Uncle John's Rantings

Fri, 15 May 2020 20:20:42 GMT

From the Big Red Couch podcast: "Here, have a protein squirrel"

Genetically Modified Adorable Food Mascots Trow Off The Shackles Of Their Behaviour Chips And Plot A Bid For Freedom!

Ben tries to make Hiking interesting with the Power of Gaming!

People try to understand, and ideally survive, in utterly unfamiliar environments

http://www.hoarde.net/bigredcouch/?p=3170

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Cinderella: Really?

Thu, 17 May 2018 02:56:15 GMT

So we all know the story of Cinderella: Father marries a rich widow, leaves his daughter in her care, and she treats her like hired help, letting her own daughters to lounge around and be lazy. Then there's this ball, where the local prince is going to speed date a bunch of the local ladies, and Cindy wants to go. Nope, her wicked stepmother destroys her dress and forces her to stay at home.

Then a fairy godmother shows up, whips up a magical dress, a pumpkin carriage, and turns the local vermin into horses, coachman, and a footman.

Long story short, she meets prince, who falls madly in love with her, but she had to scamper at midnight, when the magic goes away. Except for the glass slippers. They hang around. Funny that. Prince scours the countryside looking for his bride to be, finds her and weds her. Depending on the story, the stepmom is killed by dancing to death, or she just slouches away and plots.

The problem with this story is that it's being told by one unreliable narrator: Cinderella.

Let's take a new look at this story. In most versions, her father is a well to do merchant, that kind of lets things go after his wife dies. But he dotes on his daughter and does his best to cater to all her needs. He spoils her rotten.

But the money is running out, and he needs a new stake. Local widow with a bankroll looks good and he woos her and then marries her. She comes with two lovely daughters, and good head for running a home. To save money while the father is away trying to make more of it, they let the servants go and she tells her daughters and Cindy that they will have to keep house and take of things.

Cindy won't have it. She's never had to work a day in her life. Her stepmother tries to make her understand that everyone is working and Cindy has to pull her own weight.

How dare she say that to Cindy! Oh my! Cindy "works" but is the laziest person on the house. She finds places to hide and makes friends with the local vermin in the house. She doesn't want any of this. She wants it back to the way it was.

And, as in the original story, the Prince is looking for a hookup and announces his cattle call ball. Cindy decides that this is her ticket to Easy Street. She puts together a dress to knock him dead, but runs into her stepmother who tells her that unless she does the work assigned to her, she can't go.

And it's not like her step sisters aren't working hard, they are. But Cindy has another fit and runs away crying. Oh woe is me! I am so persecuted!

The night of the meat market approaches, and while her stepsisters are ready to go, Cindy is moping because she didn't do her chores and is being punished by being made to stay at home. Woe!

After the family leaves, a "Fairy godmother" shows up and fixes her up with a "magic dress" and a coach ready and waiting. In reality, the godmother is a local woman her father had hired via the post to make sure his daughter got to the ball. He couldn't make it, but word of the Prince's bump and grind reached him.

Cindy arrives at the ball and glomps onto the Prince and occupies almost all of his time. Come midnight, she remembers that her magic dress will go away, she runs away, dropping a shoe on the way out.

Afterwards, the Prince announces that he is seeking the girl that had stolen his heart and scours the kingdom looking for her.

When he arrives at Cindy's manor house, Cindy boldly steps forward to claim her prize. Only to be held back by the Prince's guards. "Sorry my dear, you were a total bore, nattering about yourself and nothing else. However, you," and he indicates Cindy's younger stepsister, "you were amazing, I wish I had had more time talking to you. Would consent to be my bride?"

Cindy loses it and has a meltdown. Her stepmother consoles her, and her other daughter who also takes it a bit hard as well.

That's what should have happened.

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Creating games and oh the work involved!

Wed, 13 Dec 2017 04:48:31 GMT

I've been publishing playbooks and one page RPGs now since March of this year. Some of them were me just republishing my stuff on DriveThruRPG, others were created after that. And everyone was always work.

The Trouble with Rose playbooks were part of a spate of ideas that I came up with, after my friend Todd Zircher published TTwR on his own site. One was one I had started and finished after a lot of revision, and another just flew out and poof I put out my playbook Gamma Watch: The Trouble with Rose. That's part of a set of different things I want to publish under that name. But... that's for the future.

Right now I'm cranking on my One Page Wonders, I'm working on another adventure page for Kids' Last Tour, and I just released Toys of Tomorrow. But my next project has the working title of Into the Chasm. Like Kids' Last Tour, Chasm will have a series of "strata" pages, but it will lead to a definite end. How long it will take me to release the full series, I'm not sure. But I do know that I will have to release three products to launch the line: Into the Chasm: First Strata, Into the Chasm Companion, and Into the Chasm: Second Strata. The first two will provide the background and premise for the game, But First Strata has to do double duty: Provide enough background to be viable and stay within the strictures of being a One Page RPG. (No, I'm not going to cheat and say one page, both sides. Most folks don't have a printer that can do two sided printing.)

I'm letting it stew right now, mainly so I can rethink it's layout. I can't make the type any smaller, so I have to either cut text or rewrite and compact descriptions and rules so that they still work, but take up less space. Be less wordy. Wish me luck.

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No longer on Live Journal

Sun, 23 Apr 2017 22:56:55 GMT

Well, I no longer have a LJ account. I've gotten rid of it. Everything I got on it is over here. And those I follow are here now, or at least their feeds are.

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I've moved to DreamWidth

Wed, 05 Apr 2017 15:48:45 GMT

I've moved to DreamWidth and will be migrating all my posts to it. However, because some folks have yet to make the move to DW, I'll still will be checking my LJ reading list.

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