Finding joy in The Silence

Rocky has a huge collection of books. While sadly a good number of them was lost due to events in the past, I am proud to have helped him slowly recover, relocate and gather more books to his growing collection.  Thanks to his collection, I found myself getting the chance to try authors I always wanted to try but never found the chance to before.  After I finished Frank Herbert's Dune, Rocky wanted me to dip my toes into Haruki Murakami.  Given how slow I can get when reading novels, he wisely suggested I start with The Elephant Vanishes.

The Elephant Vanishes is a collection of short stories that cover a wide range of topics.  All have a very friendly, conversational tone that makes reading it quite a joy.  I had read one Murakami short story before ("On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning") and admittedly, I loved that experience.  The honest delivery of the lines made me relate with the narrative so well, I could not fathom ever liking something that way again.

I was wrong.

The story entitled, "The Silence" deals with a resharing about the events that transpired when Ozawa tells the narrator (and in effect, us readers) about the time when he had punched someone and how it lead to him being shunned by people in his childhood.  Simple yet brutally honest, the story paints the picture of a young man who simply wanted to do his best, is wronged and maligned by a classmate with a persuasive ability to lie.   I found myself relating so much to wanting to face the person who did me wrong and spread lies about me and then later on, like Ozawa, realized that maybe just maybe the Aoki in my life is just as sad:

"To think that this fool would be eternally incapable of knowing true happiness, true pride.  That there existed creatures so lacking in human depth."

I found myself resonating to what Ozawa felt about the many others who so willingly embraced Aoki's lies as facts, without bothering to know the truth or to search for the silver of possibility that Aoki's words failed to capture everything right.  I found myself smiling and seeing how this short story captured so much of what I had gone through some time ago, and what I had to seemingly face in private.  True, I had my ranting and my blog posts which tried to channel out the anger and frustration I had of the events.  But unlike Ozawa, I never taken the chance to literally confront the person face-to-face and deliver what he duly deserves.

The story made me feel better.  Made me realize others did understand how frustrating it can get.  Made me realize there wasn't anything wrong with having this inner true pride.

Now at the last few pages of The Elephant Vanishes, I can only wonder what book will I start on next?  Is it time to dive into Terry Pratchett and hopefully survive all the puns his stories tend to contain (Trust me, I loved Piers Anthony's Xanth novels but I can only take so much of it at a time).  Maybe even take a different direction and try Yann Martel's Life of Pi or finally try Neil Gaiman's American Gods (Yes, I have NOT read it, would you believe it?)

So much to look forward to in this life with Rocky.
Nothing can get better than this.

So hard to choose one every month...

The Serenity game was a success.  To my surprise, the game actually had two people who never ever played a role-playing game before, and one person who wasn't even familiar with the show, and yet all three were spectacular in portraying members of the Serenity crew (Jayne, River and Mal to be precise!)  Even better, though the game started later than I had planned (6:00p.m.) I was actually able to maintain my 4 hour maximum running time and finish the game with every player having a coherent and satisfying storyline (somehow I sense the most satisfying one was Jovan's Kaylee story which had her tearing Simon's shirt off to save his life.)

Yes Jovan.  Something like this.

The upcoming November and December Open Gaming Meets should be even more fun, thanks to the article  our beloved Rej wrote for GMA 7.  It is such a sad fact that way too many people think the only fun gaming to be experienced requires an internet connection and a computer.   I do hope more people opt to join us and realize how much fun one can have even if the power is out!

Oh glorious dice.

For those interested in attending, 
the next few Open Gaming Meets are scheduled on the following dates:
2010 • November 27 • December 11
2011 • January 15 • February 19 • March 12

I have yet to decide what games to run in the succeeding ones.  There are just to many options to choose from.  While it is easy to just use the World of Darkness system and come up with anything the players want (since the system is that flexible.) I feel tempted to run more games using other game systems just to be able to get gamers to try more new things.  Not that many know of the fun Method in Madness' Children of Fire can bring.  Others might not even be aware that there was a Street Fighter rpg!  Or explore a world where Lovecraft's Mythos meets Science Fiction in Cthulhutech.  Scavenge in the wild world of Summerland.  Perform acts of heroism in D.C. Heroes.  Master the Shai Hulud in the DUNE rpg.  Or deal with the darkness as children in Little Fears.

Imagine being able to make your own fighter, and going head-to-head with Chun Li.
And by head-to-head, I don't necessarily mean combat!

On the flip side, the World of Darkness system has been more than adequate to run games based on one's favorite fandoms or movies.  Inception can easily be done with Mage: the Acension rules (especially with help from the Technocracy book).  Pirates of the Caribbean is child's play to recreate with the Sorceror's Crusade book.  Vertigo's Sandman can be achieved with Changeling the Lost.  Even Machete can be done using the infamous Dudes of Legend book.

Baaaauuuuuuhhhhmmmm!

If anything, the trick is finding a way for players to be willing to experience the game.  As I observed in the Serenity game, even long-time gamers can be greatly intimidated to try a new game if they aren't familiar with the setting.  Or system.  And this is a case that will happen more than 50% of the time with new people.  The beauty of a role-playing game is that you can even bring back franchises that are over (like Lost) and allow the fans to experience it again!  And that is one of the  selling points to new players who've never experienced a role-playing game before.

Oh poor Wash.  That's why in my game, you were cloned and brought back by Blue Sun!

Anyway, here's hoping the next one will also be a success.  Maybe even with more attendees!