Where Worlds Collide

Norm is spreading a name meme

• My prOn star name (name of first pet owned plus street name of first address): Pepper Alderbury
• My West Indian cricketer’s name (surname of the US president in year of your birth plus last seaside town visited): Kennedy Sheringham
• My Star Wars name (first car owned plus the name of any medication you’re on, which reminds me of this): Volvo Loratidine

I had to cheat on the last one since, like Norm, I’ve never actually owned a car; it’s the vehicle my parents owned when I was 17.

I can imagine Kennedy Sheringham as a swashbucking middle-order Batsman.

We’re back!

If you tried to access this site over the past 36 hours, you will have got a 403 - Forbidden error. This is because the hosting provider suffered a major server meltdown on Friday. The site has now been moved to a new host, and everything should be back to normal.

My first indication that the site was back up again was when I received 83 comment notification emails, all of which were comment spam.

BBC News are reporting seven dead in a level crossing collision between a train and a truck. Judging from the TV pictures the train looks like a Danish-designed IC3 DMU. Most of one side of a carraige was ripped out; it’s a miracle the death toll isn’t higher, given reports that the train was standing room only.

Like the recent crashes at Ufton Nervet in Britain, and Los Angeles in the US, the cause was a road vehicle on a level crossing. According to a report by Haaretz, the authorities have ruled out terrorism. The truck driver was among the dead.

As technology improves, and trains get safer, the one remaining big risk factor is the interface with untrained and sometimes reckless members of the general public. Road crossings are one of the most dangerous of those interfaces. I don’t know if the crossing in Israel had barriers, but reports of the accident being a long way from major roads suggests it’s a minor road, possibly a minor farm track, likely to be without barriers.

My sympathies to the injured and the families of the dead.

… squabbling over their toys. Only this time it’s a 12 inch to the foot scale Scalextric set.

I cannot think of any other world sport that could possibly have reduced a major event to a total farce on this scale. I believe Formula One is totally dead as far as America is concerned. No way can it ever recover from this debacle. It may even be the beginning of the end worldwide. Don’t forget the western hemisphere races are prime time TV in Europe, and are therefore as important to Europe as the races actually held on our side of the Atlantic.

The sport is run by a bunch of idiots who’s inflated egos won’t let them back down in any dispute. It’s become obvious that their stupid political games come before the enjoyment of millions of fans, or the huge financial investment of the sponsors; the two groups whose money ultimately pays all the bills. Ecclestone, Mosley (don’t forget who his father was!), Flavio Briatore, all of them are like spoiled children threatening to take their toys home if they don’t get their way.

Just like a bunch of nine year olds.

I’m currently getting hundreds of emails claiming to be advertising www.cattyshaq.com, a site that exposes internet scams. Despite this being a blatant Joe Job, the site’s provider did suspend the account, although they reinstated it once it was pointed out that the site’s owner had no connection whatsoever with the sender of the emails. Presumably the spammer is some fraudster who’s been exposed by them taking revenge.

I can only guess that my email is being target by this piece of slime because I used to post, in an earlier life, to the newsgroup news.admin.net-abuse.email.

With their distinctive Nanking Blue livery, the Blue Pullmans were an iconic train from the early 1960s. BR marketed them as Britain’s attempt at a exclusive luxury train in the mould of the continental TEE. Just five units were built, technical problems meant that they lasted a mere thirteen years in service, and sadly none survive in preservation.

Author and bookseller Kevin Robertson is a familiar sight at railway shows up and down the country. He’s previously written books on GWR gas turbines and the ill-fated Bullied “Leader”. His latest book tells the complete history of the Blue Pullmans, from their original concept, their operations to Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and Cardiff, through to their eventual decline towards withdrawal.

It’s extensively illustrated, including sixteen page colour section, which not only includes some superb colour photographs, but also a lot of the 1960 BR publicity material. There are many good black and white photos as well; one of my favourite shots in the book is of a set leaving Paddington taken from one of the high road overbridges. It manages to include a Hall class 4-6-0, a class 117 DMU and a Metropolitan line COP train all on adjacent tracks to the Pullman. It’s not just action shots of the trains in service, there are also plenty of detail shots, essential for anyone wanting to model one of these trains. The book also contains 4mm scale drawings the cars, both exterior and interior layouts.

The text is packed with historical and technical information, from details of the equipment of the trains to the catering menus. A lot of space is devoted to what may consider the Achilles heel of the trains, the rough riding of the Swiss-designed bogies. These may have worked well under Swiss EwIIs on SBB’s well-maintained track, but they proved allergic to the rough trackwork of the Midland Main Line. Robertson notes that the rough riding was nowhere nears as bad on the better maintained WR lines out of Paddington.

On operations, we’re told of the services run over the years, as well as some proposed runs that never saw the light of day, such as extending the Midland Pullman to Liverpool, or the proposals to use the Midland sets on the East Coast Line following withdrawal of the Midland Pullman. Robertson implies that the livery change in the late sixties that saw the Nanking Blue replaced by reversed BR blue/grey (the so called “Silver Pullman”) marked the beginning of the end. We’re told of the train formations in their declining years, when cars were swapped around between different sets in order to turn out enough complete trains as individual vehicles got sidelined.

Robertson concludes the story with some thoughts on their influence and legacy. He largely dismisses the popular idea that they were any kind of technical precursor to the wildly successful HST that entered service shortly after the demise of the Pullmans. He does however recognise that the Blue Pullman, despite the technical failings that contributed towards their downfall, proved the concept of the fixed-formation multiple unit for inter-city services, now the predominant form of train on today’s railway.

Overall, an excellent book, well researched and superbly illustrated.

I’ve got out the habit of doing gaming memes, but I’ll do this one. Lunchtime Poll 30: Whaddaya Got?

What’s the last board, card, or roleplaying game you bought, and what do you think of it?

That would be Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne

Empire of the Petal Throne is one of those legendary games. It was one of the very first fantasy RPGs to follow in the wake of the original Dungeons and Dragons, and has been through several editions with wildly different rules. Earlier version had the reputation of being next to impossible to GM unless you were the world’s creator, Professor M.A.R.Barker. One of the claims for the new edition is that they’ve made it much more accessible for new players.

Tékumel is a a pulp fantasy, with a setting that’s not the usual generic fantasy mix of medieval Europe and American wild west. Instead, the cultures are inspired by those of India and pre-Columbian South America, with caste and clan-based societies, and polytheistic religions that fit naturally rather than looking crudely bolted-on. It’s a style of game that’s rather out of fashion nowadays, about deep immersion in a strange culture, some of whose values look barbarous to our own eyes.

The system is based on the d10 version of Guardians of Order’s “Tri-Stat” system. It avoids fashionably funky dice systems or dubious mechanical gimmicks in favour of something that looks solidly straightforward and playable, although I have yet to put this to the test.

I have to admit that this is a game I’m unlikely ever to run, although I may well sign up to a Tékumel game if I see one running at a convention. I’ve really bought it as much to mine for ideas for my own games as for anything else.

I’m still considering the possibility of writing a full-blown Kalyr RPG, to be sold as a PDF download. I’ve got as far as putting together an outline, and writing first drafts for one-and-a-half chapters The game will be based on Fudge, and is intended as a standalone game.

Although it’s based on the large amount of material already online, the whole thing’s going to be rewritten and revised, with some cool new things added, and cheesy ideas that didn’t work taken away. At least that’s the idea. Consider it as a second edition.

The outline reads as follows:

1. Introduction: 4-5 pages. This is an attempt to distill the essential flavour of the world in a few pages, without going into too much detail.
2. Character Generation, probably 15-20 pages. The template-driven system means this chapter also includes a lot of world background. This chapter will also include the full skill list.
3. Game System, another 15-20 pages, mostly taken from OGL Fudge material, with some Kalyr-specific examples. Covers skill use and combat, the usual stuff, in other words.
4. Psionics, probably 8-10 pages, covering both game mechanics and a brief overview of the Academy of the Mind. I’m in two minds as to whether to expand this chapter, or whether to cover just the basics, leaving the rest for a later supplement.
5. Technology, probably 8-10 pages again, with an overview of The Academy of Knowledge, and a list of available gadgets.
6. Culture, 10-15 pages. This one’s a bit more nebulous, and I’m wondering whether even to have the chapter at all, or whether to distribute the material through the preceding chapters. I do need to cover Religion somewhere, though.
7. Bestiary, 5-10 pages. Covers races other than kandar and human, as well as native flora and fauna.
8. Campaigns, 10-15 pages. The all-important GM’s chapter, covering campaign frames and scenario advice.

At the moment, I’m not shooting for a specific page count. I intend on writing a first draft of the manuscript and seeing how long it comes out.

If it actually reaches the stage of having enough material to playtest, I’m going to be recruiting playtesters. What I’d really like is a mix of Fudge experts who can scrutinise my rules, a couple of existing online players who can tell me how well I’ve captured the feel of the world, and gamers familiar with neither who can tell me if the thing can be understood without prior knowledge.

Pink Floyd are apparently due to play four songs in there set at the finale of Live 8 in July. Nick Mason, interviews on TV news last night, kept tight-lipped as to what those four songs might be.

With a 20-25 minute set, I don’t think we’ll be hearing any 20 minute epics like “Echoes” or “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. I would also be surprised to hear any material from the Syd Barrett era, or anything post-split. If they were to ask me, these are the four numbers to do:

• One of These Days
• Another Brick in the Wall, Part II
• Money
• Comfortably Numb

Anyone else got a better list?

Liberal England says, in a post about the government’s plans to extend school hours, to cater for the needs to parents with full-time jobs:

One of the great changes in British society in the past 30 years, though it is rarely commented upon, is that it now takes two full-time incomes to maintain a comfortable middle-class lifestyle. This explains, amongst other things, why divorce is now financially ruinous for all concerned.

What I’d like to know is whether there is any consensus as to why it now takes two incomes to support a middle class lifestyle?

Is it just the the middle classes have grown as a proportion of the population at a faster rate than the economy as a whole has grown, so the ‘middle class pie’ is spread more thinly?

Has a middle class lifestyle got more expensive with things that used to considered luxuries (2 cars, foreign holidays) now considered essential?

Or have median disposable incomes actually fallen in real terms? Insert you villain here according to ideology. Is it those ‘stealth taxes’ the right wing media keep telling us about? Or is it the ‘fat cats’, hoovering up so much in inflated salaries and bonuses that it’s impacting the income of the rest of us?

I have an uncomforable feeling that I’m one of the generation that’s worse off financially than my parent’s generation.

I’m not an economist. But I’d like to know the answers to these questions.