Game Description

Title: The Mystery of Misty Rease
Players: 6
Mode: Tabletop

Life at the Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans is not a bed of roses; the academic regimen is punishing and the discipline is worse, but once a year you get to go on vacation. Two years ago you visited Miss Flaumel, and instead of going to socialite balls, you rescued Miss Trees from a sabre-tooth tiger and a sticky end. Last year you went camping in the national forest, and instead of rock-climbing, white-water rafting and so forth, you defeated a dozen demons and saved the world. It makes a change.

This year you are not going camping. All that rock-climbing, and rafting and stuff can be great fun, but it's also cold and dirty and the food is terrible. This year you have a much better plan with more fun, better food and far fewer teachers. Just as soon as the rest of them go off camping and most of the staff clear off, you can put your plan into action. You have to admit though, it would be easier to organise your secret vacation if that new kid did not keep popping up. Everyone knows it is tough going to a new school and making new friends, especially if your parents have just died and stuff, it's easy to try too hard. But does she have to follow you everywhere?

When we moved in, eight years ago, the area behind the wall was all gravelled. When I first decided to build a pond I was constrained by two shrubs at the front, and also by the surprise discovery of a very well engineered concrete path hidden half an inch down. The foundations of the path are half a metre deep. Rather than break it up with a sledgehammer, I decided to make a feature of it. However, with that and the shrubs, I ended up with a pond significantly smaller than I wanted.

Subsequently, one shrub died because I'd got too close to it, and the other got far too big and had to be removed. Then this spring I found that the liner had sprung a leak. I was going to have to replace the liner, and I might as well extend the pond nearer to the size I had initially wanted.

To be honest, I don't know a good font from a bad one, but one thing I do know is that one font is not enough… In your CSS that is. I am using Linux here; it's very likely that I don't have Arial or Times New Roman, or any of the other fonts the Microsoft world takes for granted. So when your CSS calls for a single Microsoft font, I'm likely to get the standard Firefox selection, which is probably a very bad serif font. The guys on Apple Macs will be little better off, and they are more likely to scoff. If you want to be as helpful as possible, you should use standard font families and provide a good list of fall-back fonts for your readers. Wiser minds than mine have put together the following lists.

Text Editors are things people get religious about. If you want to start an argument among unix programmers, ask them which editor is best. When the smoke clears the only thing you can be sure of is that none of them will say Notepad.

For the sake of bragging, I spent several years using ed to write large programs. A while ago emacs and vi fought over mind-share with no quarter asked or given, but those days are (mostly) gone, killed off by the shift to windowing platforms. Now there are a huge number of editors available, all with their own capabilities, some better, some worse. Allow me to introduce you to the one I think is better than most. jEdit.

Roleplaying

Roleplaying is like improvised theatre without all the tiresome moving around and building sets. In fact maybe improvised theatre for the radio… without the sound effects. Anyway, six people sit down in comfy chairs with drinks and snacks, and create a story together. It is thrilling, moving, cathartic, escapist, … whatever you need.

I have played many game-systems over the years. I started out with a photocopied copy of Greyhawk before AD&D was released. Then Traveller, Striker, Gamma World, Paranoia. Now I tend to gravitate around World of Darkness, but still make regular forays into other systems.

Right now I am considering getting around to designing my scenario for AmberconUK 12. The Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game (ADRPG) is a roleplaying game without any dice. It is the ultimate is roleplaying, and AmberconUK is the ultimate in gaming conventions.

Programming

I am a software engineer specialising in control systems and SCADA, currently working in the automotive sector. In my free time I like to work with microcontrollers. I prefer the Atmel AVR to the PIC… and Linux to Windows.

Amateur Radio

Amateur (Ham) Radio is a fascinating and little-known world-wide hobby with international legal standing.

I was first licensed in 1983, although for the first ten of those I was stuck on VHF with no money for decent equipment, and then let my license lapse for another ten years.