Gamer Girl

I've played a lot of games over the years, but this will be my first foray into the pen and paper RPG realm. I have to admit I'm a little nervous. And a lot excited.

A very dear friend of mine will be running her first ever campaign as a GM, and has invited me to participate. I'm so very excited because I know she likes to tell great stories, and that's exactly the kind of RPG experience I have been looking for!

Last night, for the first time in life, I sat down with some books and a character sheet, and made some tough decisions. It's not too dissimilar to creating a character in an MMO, except that there are a whole lot more choices.

Meet Agatha the Dwarf Cleric!

I still have to come up with a family name, and settle on some of the finer points of her personal backstory. I have two weeks to hash that all out, though. Then it's time to meet the party and learn our fates!

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KickStart this!

Cary Cooper's new album Zuzu's Petals. The video is told from the point of view of her daughter, but features some of her lovely music. And I love the idea of her stretching herself outside her comfort zone.

Learning and becoming competent on an instrument, and learning how to carry whole shows by myself were among the things that terrified me the most. But because I love doing what I do and can’t imagine doing anything else, I made the brave commitment to stretch and see just how far stretching would take me. As it turns out, I’ve stretched pretty far!

Heroine is a role playing game with an adventurous young woman protagonist, by Josh Jordan. I've heard so many great things about this project from my various gamer friends. We don't do a lot of story-telling around here, but I might have to get a copy anyway.

Heroine is a storytelling game inspired by books and movies like Wizard of Oz, Labyrinth, Alice in Wonderland, and The Chronicles of Narnia. I love these stories about a girl who has serious problems to deal with in her regular life, but who gets whisked away to the Other World, where she has an unusual chance to be heroic.

Invisible Warriors: African American Women in World War II -- will tell the stories of African American working during World War II -- fighting the war and fighting for their own civil rights. This looks like a great project and well worth funding for the historical value alone!

Keeper of the Stars, by Aubrey Jewel - "A tale of the magic found in the night sky in the form of an animated story." This looks like a lovely book for kids, young and old alike.

Fabulous artist Therese Obergottsberger is looking for some help getting her her work scanned and ready for a showing in New York in December. She's an amazing talent!

Diary of a Champion -- Looks like the kind of sports story I'd love to see. And the cast list is impressive.

When your passion and talent don't seem to be enough, the lengths one will go are detrimental. Following the story of Track & Field star Tahja Dupree, “Diary of a Champion” explores the politics and scandal behind the doors of competition between prominent track athletes and coaches preparing for the 2016 games.

And finally, just in time for the holi-daze, check out Heather "Cloe" Bloss' Spoonful of Cats Holiday Cards. I mean, who doesn't like cute cats in holiday scenes?

What KickStarter projects are you following?

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Gamer Girl - Guild Wars 2 Final BWE

Today kicked off the Guild Wars 2 final beta weekend event. Like just about everyone else it seems, I created a Sylvari. The whole concept of a plant that has become sentient and free to move around in the world is intriguing to me, and the story is interesting to act out in the personal quests.

As I did in each of the other beta weekend events, I started a new class as well. For me the purpose of these  events is to check out thedifferent options open to me so I have a better idea of what I'd like to play in release. In the previous events, I'd played a human, Norn, and a Charr, and really enjoyed each of them. Today was Sylvari day, and sometime tomorrow, I'll probably create a Asura.

This character is a Mesmer, which I'm enjoying. She's like a casting tank. She's tough and can take down bigger foes. My other characters were an Engineer, an Elementalist, and a Guardian. I still don't know what I'll play in release. If I had to pick one, I'd probably go with the Guardian. But, luckily, I don't have to decide. It's likely I'll have a full set of alts, so I can play them all!

I'm not wild about her outfit, but it's better than a lot of the other outfits in this game. Plus, if I accept the premise that the Sylvari are purposely exaggerating their gender presentation, I can let it go a bit more easily.

They've also added a new set of Vista points, where you can get a soaring view of the immediate area. What a great way to show off the beautiful artwork in the game. Frankly, that is one of my most favorite aspects, aside from the actual gameplay. The world is amazing. As you run along, the landscape emerges so that it almost feels like the flowers are bursting out of the ground around you.

And I just couldn't resist including this shot of my character with a shovel. When I picked it up, my first thought was, My spoon is too big!

I had a blast just running around in the new areas, looking at everything, exploring all the nooks and crannies. But it's late now, and I need to sleep. I'll post more shots and thoughts tomorrow, I promise!

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SRPS Blog-Around

Happy Friday the 13th! So many great links this week, so let's get started!

If you haven't seen Tavi Gevinson of Rookie in her TEDxTeen presentation, you really need to take 8 minutes to check it out. I expect to see more great stuff from her and her generation!

And speaking of Stevie Nicks, did you see her on Up All Night last week?

Also last week there was this Big Deal Gaming Conference in Boston. I didn't get to go, sadly. But I got to see some great photos from my friends on G+ and Facebook and Tumblr.

Pokket, over at MMORPG has a good wrap-up video:

It looks like it was a great time for everyone involved, which is to be expected. PAX Prime is our major vacation destination, and maybe some day we'll be able to swing a trip to PAX East. In the meantime, I'll console myself by watching videos and reading blogs, like this great write-up by Geeks Playing Games -- including a photo of a woman in a Dr. Who Tardis skirt:

Awesome Tardis skirt; photo: geeksplayinggames.com

Actually, so much great cosplay at PAX East.

Mass Effect 3 Cosplayers; photo: Kotaku

Assassin's Creed cosplayers; photo: dynamiclunch

Little Sisters; photo: amandarenz

Uh... so many things; photo: urdnoteve

Link, Link, and Link... laughing with a salad; photo: summerhop

I really *should* know, but I don't; photo: visiblespectre

Speaking of awesome gaming stuff, there's a great Kickstarter project for a new tabletop RPG, Witch Girls Book of Shadows.

Witch Girls: BOS isn't just about us printing a book, it's about bringing table top RPGs to a new and overlooked demographic. Part of your future funding will go towards printing Quick-Character Creation guides to give away for free organizations for girls and schools to help introduce kids to Role playing games and the world of witch girls adventures as well as a larger print run.

Seems like a worthy cause. I'm all about bringing empowering games to girls!

And, lest you think I ran out of cool videos, have you seen the Lizzie Bennet Diaries?

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