Caleb is a mad genius (or Yet Another Fan Club Thread)

[Kamen]

he's mentioned on the talk podcast that he has a whole conspyramid written out for NBA...and that he wants to run Unknown Armies =| if Caleb ran UA for RPPR my world would end. too many favorite things all in one place

His NBA conspyramid is quite the sight to behold. You can find it if you do some digging, but then there's pontential spoilers if it ever gets played, which I hope happens one day.

As for UA, Greg Stolze has been tweeting pretty regularly about his progress on the new edition, which is looking like it'll be 3 books! This is sounding like another Kickstarter to lighten my wallet already!

[crawlkill]

As for UA, Greg Stolze has been tweeting pretty regularly about his progress on the new edition, which is looking like it'll be 3 books! This is sounding like another Kickstarter to lighten my wallet already!

I KNOW RIGHT? I saw on one of those lesser forums that he was considering doing one earlier this year, then the other day I go to Twitter and check #UnknownArmies and Greg's most recent tweet is that he's, like, a thousand words from finishing each one. the text is supposed to be done now. ...but he had some other discouraging comments about having no idea when we'd see them. something like, "when you're writing it, you think that's the hardest part. but then you go on to the next hardest part, and then the hardest part after that." I'm sure he'll do it, but yeah, crowdfunding a high-production values book to a niche audience is no joke, specially if you're doin hard copies.

I keep trying to convert my World of Darkness friends to the UArk side, but it seems like a lot of people kind of just...decide on the game they're gonna do and do it forever, even when their meth labs explode.

[Tadanori Oyama]

I keep trying to convert my World of Darkness friends to the UArk side, but it seems like a lot of people kind of just...decide on the game they're gonna do and do it forever, even when their meth labs explode.

Hey! Most of us play next to our meth houses, not in them. We're not idiots.

[Kamen]

Hey! Most of us play next to our meth houses, not in them.

This is the Caleb appreciation thread, remember? WoD in a meth lab house is all but tradition!

[crawlkill]

Hey! Most of us play next to our meth houses, not in them. We're not idiots.

I've never had a regular tabletop group, so all my WoDery is on MUSHes, where there are a lot of, um...not...so happy and overcompetitive players, which makes the "we let the writers write all the rules and didn't playtest this at all" factor stand out. Flimsy mechanics are fine in tabletop with friends, but around internet strangers who wanna WIN, it can get a little tense.

But I have to admit I didn't associate prosey internet nerds with exploding drug dens until that story.

[Tadanori Oyama]

But I have to admit I didn't associate prosey internet nerds with exploding drug dens until that story.

You would have if you'd played in college. Damn horror show. But it was what the attractive girl in your English class did and gave you a reason to talk to her. Then you saw some of the other people in the cafferia and decided that this wasn't for you until you moved out and meet some new people who played. And even then they were weirder than most people but more or less decent. What were we talking about?

Oh right, death traps. Kids, don't game in meth labs. They're the pintos of drug lairs. Game in opium dens, that shit be high class.

[Kamen]

Oh right, death traps. Kids, don't game in meth labs. They're the pintos of drug lairs. Game in opium dens, that shit be high class.

All sorts of pillows to relax on and silk curtains to section off playing areas. So nice.

[Jace911]

he's mentioned on the talk podcast that he has a whole conspyramid written out for NBA...

[Kamen]

he's mentioned on the talk podcast that he has a whole conspyramid written out for NBA...

I could just link it, but it's so much better if you find it. Feels more thematically appropriate.

[Zombieneighbours]

It really isn't that hard to find. The concept for vampirism is especially cool.

[Gorkamorka]

It really isn't that hard to find. The concept for vampirism is especially cool.

Link for the google-fu handicapped?

[trinite]

If I don't look up the Conspyramid, I can continue to quixotically hope that one day I might actually play in that game...

In other Caleb news, I'm going to run Bryson Springs this Sunday for some folks.

[crawlkill]

so this is retro as fuck:

after Caleb's first-run game ever, AKA the best game ever, Andrew's Fortune, he mentioned on a talk podcast that he'd been inspired by the Burke novels of Andrew Vachss, child advocacy lawyer by day, child abuse neonoir PI expy by novelistic night. I read his first few books and mostly liked em--problem was usually the femme fatale-of-the-month being way too prominent and annoying and Burke-is-insta-into-this-chick-y for me to buy it. I have to admit I wondered for a while if he really did have the experience he claimed with kids, or if he was making it all up.

Then I discovered his interview with Oprah from 1992. http://www.wallsofsilence.com/watch.php?vid=de8bac478

I'm still not completely sure Vachss is really as educated and dedicated as he sounds, but that's just because I'm not sure any words ever spoken aren't lies. the rhetorical hammers he breaks out are peerless. his narrative still sounds a little "Satanic preschools" sometimes, but I urgently prefer to hope that he's some semimythical figure, dispensing truth with one hand and indomitability with the other.

[Jace911]

Caleb brainstorming his NBA Conspyramid:

[Twisting H]

Caleb mentioned...somewhere a piece of software available online that allows you to put words in circles and connect them to other circles with sticks.  It basically allows you to diagram a plot with the "clustering" method but a lot easier to work with than powerpoint.

This is driving me nuts. Does anyone remember the software used or where he talked about it? I know it was for one of his projects but that doesn't narrow it down.