Hunger Games of Potterthrones

Just a bit of an update as to what I've been up to of late.

Gamingwise, things have been a tad on the quiet side, so I've kept myself amused in other perfectly legal ways.

The first of these is finally taking the advice that Oldscool and Schbudda of the Small But Vicious podcast (dedicated to Warhammer Fantasy RPG in all its forms) when I was a guest host for the Bretonnia episode way back in the day to pick up and read A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. Though to be fair, what really got me to start reading the series was catching a few snippets of the HBO series. It looked good from the bits I saw, and I knew that I had picked up the first four books in paperback back when Borders was going out-of-business. So, I cracked open Game of Thrones. And so far, I've generally been enjoying it, particularly the chapters from Jon Snow's POV (as he is probably my favorite character so far) and anything where Tyrion shows up. Frankly, I'm not that far into the book (only been reading a couple chapters a night), but I'm eager to read more of the series, though I've been advised to be too cautious about who I get attached to seeing as how Mr. Martin has apparently adopted a "Anyone Can Die" mindset.

Other recent doings was going to see The Hunger Games last night as the usual Star Wars NJO game got called on short notice due to a sick GM (spring cold). I've not read the book, which I've heard from several friends and co-workers is quite good, but I found the movie very enjoyable, and unlike what one person said, had no problem following along with the plot. I'm kind of glad that they apparently toned down the level of violence (less showing of gore and more implication thereof): then again I've always preferred the "old school horror" approach of letting the audience imagine the gore rather than rubbing their face in it. I at least appreciated the fact that they didn't glam up the kids except when it make sense, such as when they're being presented to the jaded citizens of the Capitol (whose appearance looks as though Ziggy Stardust and Lada Gaga were hired to do the design work). I know there's three books, but even if they don't make the rest of them into movies (though I strongly doubt that), Hunger Games stood on its own well-enough for my tastes, and I'll probably buy the DVD when it comes out.

Lastly, for those of you who are fans of Harry Potter, I would hope that by now you're aware that Pottermore has been opened to the general public. Apparently it's still in Beta mode, as according to my friend Nateal (aka @HotPinkJoysticks on Twitter) you can only access Philosopher's Stone/Book 1 so far. And rather than bore you here with a rambling attempt at a review, I'll just simply link to a very good review that Nateal wrote for Word of the Nerd instead.

http://www.wordofthenerdonline.com/accio-pottermore/

It's a fun site, though for me the main draw is all the background material, with my top faves so far being the in-setting discussion of wands, including the traits of the wood and magical creature substance each is made with. I've not gotten to the Sorting yet, but it was very interesting that I wound up with a wand of alder wood with a unicorn core, fourteen and a half inches long and "surprisingly swishy" according to the description. If you do sign-up, you can find me at KeyPatronus8930, though so far there's not much in the way of social networking in the site, but perhaps that will change as time rolls on and more content is added.

The other thing I've been working is actually an old project from many, many years ago (close to decade in fact), and revolves around a series of Star Wars fan-fic I wrote that served as a back-story and early adventuring synopsis of my on-line namesake, Donovan Morningfire. I initially wrote it as five "chapter/episodes" broken up by the protagonist's age, but have opted to simply roll the entire thing into one massive story, though I may still divide the sections after I'm done. So far I've finished with the first three episodes, and will shortly be moving onto the fourth episode fairly soon. It's been fun revisiting those old stories, though I've found they were dire need of added polish, with some sections getting pretty heavily revised compared to the earlier versions I did. I've no idea when I'll have this finished, so it'll be done when its done.

Anyway, that's been my weeks in geekery since my last post. From what I hear, for Saturday or One Ring group is going get together to polish off the rest of Marsh Bell, with the GM possibly implementing a couple of house rules based off what he's seen on the Cubicle 7 forums, so I'll keep ya posted as to what happens there.

Catch ya on the flip side.

Update: Went through the sorting on Pottemore, which began with an neat little video clip from JK Rowling. And true to form for just about every online Sorting I've tried over the years, I got Sorted into Gryffindor.

So, maybe I'm a lion (courtesy of The Black Mages)