Archive for November, 2010

The following notes come from the seminar at Dragonmeet (27^th November 2010) by Kenneth Hite, Robin D Laws, Simon Rogers and Gareth Hanrahan.  I didn’t record the talk so these are just notes that I took that give the gist of what was being said.  They’re also only the notes about investigative gaming.   I’m providing them as is without comment on my personal feelings about them and I hope I’m accurate in reflecting the spirit of what was said even if I’m not reporting word for word what was said.

A GM should decide if a piece of information is essential or if they only want to give it out on a 20% roll.

Investigative game structure – Opener followed by clues that offer multiple routes followed by finale.

Avoid creating scenarios where Player Characters are observers of Non-Player Character driven stories.

Avoid default skills – eg spot hidden in CoC – other skills should be useful for investigation.

Skills can signal players what is important in a game – so include skills that tell them what a game is about.

Players select their own spotlight through their choice of skills.

Scenes have to have a design purpose – not just be there to delay dinner.

There are clues that move players on.  There are clues that explain what is happening.

In Gumshoe point spending gives colourful extra clues.

Active or passive investigation – player seeking clue is active, GM pushing clue is passive.

It’s not clever [as a GM] not to give information out.  You get a richer gaming by giving information out.

Many players feel cheated if they think you [the GM] are making up the adventure as you’re going along.

The Armitage files shows how improvisational techniques can be used.

New Orleans Syndrome – lack of information sends player characters racing off to New Orleans punching Jazz musicians.

Tell players what is going on but not how to solve what is going on.  Doing the later would be railroading.  Doing the former is letting a game progress.

Avoid 30 minutes of faffing around because of bad dice rolls on spot or other investigation checks.

Players need to get from A to B.  May go the scenic route or charge in all guns blazing.  They’ve always followed some track if they get from A to B.

Free floating clues can be delivered by any NPC the PCs are talking to.

Clues A,B,C and D can be available in any order in a sandbox game.

If the PCs go off path a floating clue can be used to point them back on track.

Most gamers want fantasy in their games.

Red Herrings / Mistaken information can be clues if they get PCs to another scene.

Stuff in a game book should have stuff to play with (Ken Hite).

Update: Thanks to Angus for letting me know Gareth Hanrahan was the other person on the Pelgrane panel.

• Coming up from deep code related silence just in time to go home and leave you all in more peace… #
• Just stumbled across the MPI Resolution moored on the Mersey – if you can stumble across a massive ship. Will post pictures later. #
• Works underway below our office, emergency services here earlier, apparently a manhole cover was being sent orbital by an electrical fault #
• @AmpTheBard Wonder if the guacamole bot will follow me now too… #
• @AmpTheBard Oops Cross Tweeting lol #
• @GuacamoleU lol #
• @GuacamoleU Since your not a bot I'll follow you back #
• @b_s_lynn The Rolling Stones version has one of the greatest intros of all time. Liked the cover too #
• @b_s_lynn I didn't notice – I was too busy enjoying the track #
• Thanks to @b_s_lynn I've got this playing in my head so now it can play in yours too. One of the best intros EVER… ♫ http://blip.fm/~yws2l #
• @mattstaggs Could it have been Crisis, what Crisis? Alwyn W. Turner although the hard back was 2008? #
• @b_s_lynn Now that I don't know – doesn't help there are several songs with that title and the confusion with Robert Frost's poem… #
• @b_s_lynn Be careful with that – one of the web page Google brought up just eat my PC – had to do a hard reboot to get it back! #
• The MPI Resolution, Docked in Liverpool today – a rather impressive bit of kit http://bit.ly/fMYBoa #
• I was wondering what all the ambulances & fire engines were doing at the cinema near my bus stop was this morning http://bbc.in/i3QR62 #
• Something to help me find the mood for tonight's writing ♫ http://blip.fm/~yx7u5 #
• @ghostfinder Sounds like a very cool trophy – just don't stroke it too much #
• Hopefully that's the last I'll see of that bit of T-SQL #
• @KimKnox All cheap printers are. The low end office laser printer I got 2 years ago is great – and I'm still on my first ink cartridges! #
• Last Night's Blog Post Reheated ~ The MPI Resolution, Docked in Liverpool today – a rather impressive bit of kit http://bit.ly/fMYBoa #
• Couldn't see the students marching but could see them and the multiple lines of police cordons. Sound now fading into the distance. #
• @CaptCalamitous @symatt I'd recon on High Street Kensington being the closest too (based on Salute when it used to be there) #
• @spankeddm lol. The students, Dragon meet or Salute – Only one of those should be in Leeds. #
• @spankeddm No problem had me confused – the ones in Liverpool we could hear but not see. I'd have to say the police were taking no chances. #
• @spankeddm Less here. We had line of horses backed by 1 of foot with a solid line of motorbikes across the road 10m behind… #
• @spankeddm Could have brought up Gandalf "You Shall Not Pass"! #
• @jearle Cool picture. I hope the next picture isn't your living room on fire. #
• 3 things at once: Rendering pics for a review of SkinVue9, planning what do in London on Friday thanks to early "cheap" ticket & writing #
• @jearle 3 days? Ow! Better than Orange who took 30 days not fixing a fault. BT tech took 5 min:Orange tech had left kit running diagnostics! #
• @symatt Thats way too slow – my favourite webcam has to be Tower Bridge just in case its opening… http://bit.ly/exjc4t #
• @greywulf These are not the tweeters you are looking for. Move along. #
• @greywulf A sort of Star Wars Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Lucas will get there eventually #
• @greywulf Kiefer Sutherland and Tommy Lee Jones might make an interesting combination #
• @greywulf And you could do reveals where you only discover who the guest was when they take the helmet off at the end #
• @Danacea When you find its a room full of women don't freak out. Probability say it has to happen sometime #
• @Danacea A friends sister said that we were easy to meet leaving Salute – She'd look for me as I'd not be wearing a black T-shirt #
• @sciamannata I wonder if companies get just how annoying being offered savings because its another countries national can be holiday? #
• @Thisangelbites They had some plates on the TV the other night not seen any in the flesh #
• @Danacea Yup. Used to do a mad hike from Liverpool for it not been in years though. I'm guessing its still the same #
• Jessops the photographer moving in downstairs from work is probably not the best thing for my bank balance… #
• @AmpTheBard I had an idea for an all flesh must be eaten scenario where fiscal zombies threaten bankers at a Christmas party #
• @grahamwalmsley That and the one after look like they have my Saturday afternoon sorted out #
• Time I got moving – train to catch. Museums to crawl and then Dragon meet tomorrow #
• @simplychrista Thanks for the #ff #
• @symatt Thanks for the #FF #
• @JonBrazerEnt Thanks for the #ff #
• @GEvans58 Thanks for the #FF #
• @craig3djarvis Thanks for the #ff #
• I've probably got as much haul as I can carry back from Dragon Meet. Wish there were not quite so many shiny shiny toys I can't fit in. #
• Would have live tweeted Pelgrane and Ian Livingstone sessions at Dragonmeet but both were full to the Gills. Both also really good. #
• @call_me_salome But we only know your lips so how can you be sure we'd know it was you we were following & not a police sting operation #
• Back from Dragon meet, no snow but found these by my door instead… http://bit.ly/gGcoQm #
• @call_me_salome Facebooking you as we speak – if that's doesn't sound like a rude thing to do to someone you've not met #
• @call_me_salome Lol. I'm too PC to follow someone, it would be creepy, no women needs frightening by being stalked & … #
• @call_me_salome … my memories good enough without acting creapy as this post I think should demonstrate http://bit.ly/aguws0 #
• @call_me_salome lol. So it turns out I've followed you twice even if you're not dressed as Catwoman #
• @greywulf lol that pretty cool. I've been using the names from the spam e-mail I get for several years for my pulp stories. #
• @call_me_salome Don't worry – its those red heals I'm stalking #
• Ah the final scene in You Only Live Twice. I'll break off from writing Dragonmeet show report till its over. #
• @symatt You beat my report because I did a spell check lol. I'll add a link to yours from mine… #
• @MoonWolf95 I'm going to blame the travelling but you've lost me with zemanta. #
• @symatt lol. I've posted without sperlchicking too many times. Was surprised at how little DM twittering there was going on. #
• @MoonWolf95 Ah. I've not come across that – I'll have to take a look thanks #
• @symatt Doh! My netbooks wifi was maxed out but I couldn't use it in the seminars because I was trying not to fall off the end of the row! #
• @symatt And get surprised when what gets hits and comments doesn't make sense to you #
• @greywulf @symatt for me its my reviews of the Expendables, my Xfrog snowflakes and the fifth page of a tutorial (but not 1 to 4)! #
• @Curis It has a slightly lower freezing point than water. Your car possibly insulate it & if your car was in the sun it will have warmed it. #
• @Curis But if your car was its metal body / glass would warm up a lot quicker than the ground and a large body of canal water… #
• @Curis Its not a simple scientific problem to solve. I did three years on building thermodynamics at Uni. its horribly complicated+dull #
• @MoonWolf95 lol But page five of one without reading pages 1 to 4 first? #
• @Curis Lol far too many and thankfully I've forgotten most of them since I've never needed them in anger #
• @symatt A less drastic solution: use a filtering tool put the ones you keep up with most in a group and dip into the others when you've time #
• @symatt I use tweetdeck: I've a group for friends set up so people I interact with I can see and then dip into my main feed when I have time #
• @MoonWolf95 I really need to find the time to do more tutorials but I get a bit intimidated by the GeekAtPlay ones #
• @symatt Add a new column, then select Group/List, then New List, then name it, then add the people. Shout if it need explaining. #

So I finally made it to Dragonmeet, its taken me a few years but this time I did it. My planning fu was weak so I’d not decided to go till quite late on so I was staying four miles from Kensington and eight from the centre of London. This did mean I got to see a bit of the tube system and city I’d not seen before but I think next year I’ll try to organise myself a bit earlier. I’d been to Kensington Town Hall for Salute, when it used to be there, so knew it was pretty straightforward to fall out of Kensington High Street tube station.

Now onto the show itself, I hope it won’t sound like I’m complaining too much and that its more constructive criticism. I really did enjoy the show and I know from running a few events in the past just how much effort it is….

I got there pretty much exactly at 10AM and joined the back of the line. I didn’t have to wait long as they called for advanced tickets to come forward.

It would have been nice to have known what was happening from the shows website a bit sooner – if I’d known what seminars were going to be on a bit in advance I might have put myself down to run something or arranged to meet up with people in gaps. Maybe next year?

The convention pack was functional with the Programme and a supplementary game schedule. Both did the job. There was also a rather heavy book on stage magic – I hate to gripe about a free gift but I can’t really see its relevance. I didn’t have a chance to find an alternate home for it before leaving (I didn’t want to just abandon it with the Gideon bible in my hotel room). I hope a lot of cost /effort didn’t go into sourcing the books because if it did it was a wasted on me. I’d much rather have an old game supplement, custom dice, figure or discount voucher for the trade hall.

Anyway less of the grumbling and onto the morning session. Since this was my first trip I didn’t sign up for any games. I wanted to have a proper chance to look at the show. The trade room seemed busy enough in the morning. There was a good mix of traders and probably enough given the number of punters – a couple of general traders, several larger publishers, several smaller ones, a crowd of artists, a dice seller and a jewelery trader. The Bring and Buy had a prime spot up on the stage. I may have been spoilt by wargames shows but the bring and buy seemed rather short of stock. The hall wasn’t too crowded or too quiet – it reminded me of a good year at Bifrost rather than the three deep scrums I’ve seen at Salute or GenCon. You could have a chat with a trader or get Robin D Law to sign Skulduggery without feeling like you were getting in the way of someone wanting to spend cash.

After circling the stalls a few times and bumping into some friends on the way I took a turn by the games room in the basement. It looked pretty busy with all the games looking like they were full to the point of just being manageable. I always think it’s a good sign at a con if the games are busy. I wasn’t really tempted by any of the morning seminars so I wandered around a bit and lurked in the basement listening to games in progress. That may sound a bit odd but I started playing role-playing games  by watching games being played and I’ve always thought you can learn a lot about a game by seeing it played.

After lunch I had a feeling that the numbers at the show had thinned out a bit – not a surprise as you often get a rush at the start of a show who are just coming for the traders. I went to two of the seminars in the Green Room under the stage. Now if you don’t know what a Green Room is or don’t know where the stairs to under the stage are this could be a rather lost location. Fortunately I’d been down there at Salute many years ago and having been involved in shows I know where to look for a Green Room.

Now here’s a tip if you’re putting on a seminar at a convention – pick a theme that’s broader than “my game companies plans for the future” that will get you you’re hard-core fans and a few who are interested in the business. The two seminars that lured me to the Green Room were Investigative Gaming, featuring Gumshoe and Pelgrane Press and Ian Livingstone: A Retrospective. Both of those managed to fill the room and both got to tell us a bit about what they have coming up. Of course that’s probably more important for Pelgrane than Ian Livingstone

The two talks were quite different. I’ll write my notes up from Pelgrane’s talk about Investigative Gaming and post them tomorrow. They announced they are starting a fiction impring Stone Skin Press and gave us some background on that. I picked up some good ideas in that session. Ian Livingstone’s talk about the foundation and growth of Games Workshop and his work in computer games was fascinating.

Based on the numbers in both sessions I’d say the seminars are the one part of Dragonmeet that has outgrown the space it has available. Perhaps it was that I was at the end of a row and in danger of being pushed off my chair by other people trying to squeeze in. It could really do with a slightly larger, more accessible location, preferably where the video projector can be set up to project in the direction the audience are facing!

After back to back seminars I needed a drink and then wandered around for a bit till friends finished up their games. The raffle was called and I didn’t win

The charity auction was going on but we had to head out to get people back to snowed in parts of the country and trains. So I’m not sure how much they raised. Then managed to spend a couple of hours having a quiet drink with old friends before hiking back to my hotel.

£7 wasn’t an unreasonable price to pay. There were a good mix of traders, games and seminars. Ian Livingstone’s seminar was a special treat.  Thanks to all those involved in organising and running it.  I really enjoyed my day and hope I can make it again next year.

Symatt’s posted his Dragonmeet show report too.

Just got back from Dragonmeet in London.  No snow here in Liverpool although saw a dusting on the fields on the way back.  I did find these icicles had formed on the back of one of my wheelie bins.  The longest one is almost a foot long!

How’s the weather where you are?

On my way to Dragon meet 2010 in London I decided to visit a couple of exhibitions on the way by chance both had a similar theme – Ink and the Bottle at the The Cartoon Museum and High Society at The Wellcome Collection.

The Cartoon Museum: Ink and the Bottle

Not the largest museum in the world but not without its own charms.  There are two permanent exhibitions.  Downstairs  take you through the history of cartoons .  The works of Hogarth, Gillray, Cruickshank, Heath Robinson and many others are arranged chronologically with extensive notes for each piece.  Upstairs covers comics there are original pages on display from The Beano, Eagle and graphic novels including V for Vendetta.

The current temporary exhibition is Ink and the Bottle featuring cartoons relating to Drink in cartoons.  It starts with cartoons from Hogarth and Cruikshank from the days of gin travels via temperance cartoons, cautionary series, modern comic representations and political cartoons.  It runs until 13^th February 2011.

The museum’s facilities are basic – a toilet, lockers serving as a cloak room and a shop.  Within walking distance of the British museum and well worth the £5 admission.

The Wellcome Trust: High Society

High Society examines the history of narcotic drugs from plants to modern synthetic  chemicals.  The exhibition includes a mix of artefacts, artwork and installations.  The exhibition is divided into sections covering topics including production, control and the drugs trade.  Exhibits vary from small object to room sized items.  One room features an instillation showing views of poppies that I found particularly effective at creating a slightly disconcerting state.

I wish I’d had more time to take it in – I’ve come away more with impressions than knowledge.  While there was an extensive selection of books in the shop to compliment the exhibition there wasn’t anything specifically to accompany it, a shame as I’d have happily picked up a reasonably priced companion.

High Society is free and runs till 27^th February 2011.

Update: Tim has kindly pointed out that I missed the book High Society, Mind Altering Drugs in History and Culture by Mike Jay.

I’d gone down to the waterfront to take some photograph today and discovered the MPI Resolution was docked on the Mersey at the cruise liner terminal.  If a ship could ever be described as an impressive piece of kit this one has to be in the running to get that description.  The six towers are six jacking legs that allow it to raise the whole hull of the ship out of the water!  The large crane in the middle of the picture isn’t on the waterfront but also on the ship.  There is plenty of juicy technical information in the brochure on the owner’s website.  The MPI Resolution is currently operating out of Liverpool refitting turbines at Burbo Bank offshore wind farm, at the entrance to the River Mersey.

• @MarcUpdates Not quite but I like it #
• Decent wordage this weekend and a decent amount of CG too plus booked some gaming for the near future too. #
• Very cool light show in Derby http://bbc.in/as5Lho #
• Got lost in CityEngine again tonight – created my first (really simple) models. Bed time now. #
• So much for the fog or even mist – bright sun so no moody waterfront photography experiments for me today #
• @call_me_salome I'm confused – Leeds needs drunken tweets? I'm not in Leeds and I'm not remotely drunk #
• So how many unpopular reports/laws/cuts can they dump out with this Royal Wedding? More than Thatcher sneaked out for Charles and Di's? #
• @call_me_salome Lol. I guessed it was something like that. There were worse place you could have thought I was #
• @oxchris The royal engagement specials have been in a warehouse for years. All they'll do is slot them into the middle of the usual hate. #
• @call_me_salome I'll confuse things even more I'm from Nottingham, born in Licoln, living in Liverpool for almost 20 years now #
• I think I may need more than one evening to get to grip with CityEngine's Facade Wizard or learn to make Facades the hard way… #
• Anyone got the RSPG's (Royal Society for the Protection of Gazebos) number? Debenhams have abandoned one outside in this weather. #
• @call_me_salome Make your mind up. Bread or Cake? Cake or Bread? #
• @call_me_salome Doh! Reading thoughts in tweet form backwards is so confusing. Are Atkins Diet tweeters better/worse than Blacksmiths? lol #
• Brioche – A coronary in every slice. Guaranteed. #
• @thedeadone That should keep them going for awhile #
• Vue 9 Digital Nature Solutions for 3D Artists and 3D Enthusiasts are now available http://bit.ly/aq5xT5 #
• 2.5K words tonight is pretty good going. Time for bed soon. Night. #
• Was reading the ImagineFX D&D art special on the way to work. Have saved @DaveAllsop's tutorial for the way home. #
• The ImagineFX D&D art special… http://bit.ly/cOLWyP #
• Tip of the Day: If your Twitter biog only tells me all about how you'll unfollow me your unlikely to get a lot of followers #
• Free the Antimatter! The Charge-Parity violation for Antihydrogen was fixed! http://bbc.in/abYwu3 #
• Waiting for the gas and electric people to come and do their thing. Will go dark without warning (literally) and probably cold too… #
• Brilliant idea RT @Danacea: From the Guardian – getting Britain's kids writing again: http://bit.ly/coUXsN #
• @simplychrista Thanks for the #ff #
• Electricity has been restored… #
• @GEvans58 Thanks for the #ff #
• @craig3djarvis Thanks for the #ff #
• .@safety says "…Twitter doesn't send fake emails about unread messages…". The pedant in me really wants to rewrite that tweet. #
• @MoonWolf95 Thanks for the #ff #
• @DJD73 Thanks for the #ff #
• And heating has been restored… #
• @6violet9 Thanks for the #ff #
• @KimKnox Once he's past the squeaky noise stage its a lot more interesting than a recorder #
• Dragonmeet tickets in the post this morning. Yeh! #
• @KimKnox Big lungs will help At least its a woodwind – my first month of brass lessons was blowing raspberries to strengthen my lips! #
• @KimKnox Good idea. A clarinet is far more portable which I can promise you both is a BIG plus when it comes to learning an instrument. #
• @KimKnox Now that's neat – should make leaving it on a bus by accident a lot harder than say a guitar (once) or a euphonium (twice) #
• @greywulf After my recent travails with python wrangling I'll leave you to it #
• Happy Birthday @deadorcs #
• @cthulhuchick I have a scay image of trying to get boxes big enough to fit a Cthulhu in now #
• Can this really be my 4000 tweet? Apparently it is… #
• @impworks Now you've got me intrigued about your review #
• .@cthulhuchick What is the San loss for reading "How to fit a Great Old One in a Box & other Adventures in Esoteric, Matrix Math"? #
• Another 1K words done. I'm particularly proud of including "a shifting paradigm in orcs underwear" without a hint of it being a euphemism. #
• @aniakovas But which of my funnies was funny? I've been told I only manage 1 in 100 funny to not funny ration so it helps to know #
• Can I get a 1000 more words smithed before Armstrong and Miller? #

If it seems like I’ve gone quite quiet here its because I’m playing with new toys. First of all I’ve been getting to grips with Vue 9 Infinite with its excellent new features. Re-lighting is a wonderful enhancement and is a massive time saver for me. Texture resizing is also a massive time saver for me as I used to resize large image textures manually but now Vue can take care of it for me.

Alongside that I got a copy of CityEngine and I’ve found its pretty easy to lose an evening getting to grips with one part of it. So far I think I’ve got the hang of bringing in terrain data from NASA hgt files, road systems from OpenStreet maps, building street networks and modelling streets and buildings using programatic rules. The facade wizard has managed to stump me at the moment but I probably just need to work through the tutorials to crack it.

I’ve not forgotten gaming in all of this 3D fun. Along with continuing writing on my little RPG I’m using CityEngine to model part of the city my game is set in. My ultimate aim is to be able to render pictures of parts of the city for use as hand outs in game.

I would post something but I hate my early experimentation putting anyone else off either Vue 9 or CityEngine.

• @beltonwriter Given the weather here most Brits are wet, or at least damp or moist today #
• @beltonwriter Definitely. Never without our clothes on. We are British after all #
• Big, waterproof coat was the right choice for today #
• Apologies to Red Dwarf~Its wet outside, there's too much bloody atmosphere… Goldfish shoals, nibbling at my nose… Where's the sun, sun, sun? #
• @thedeadone Doh! #
• @thedeadone Lulu is such a great idea in principle but seems to cause so much hair pulling in practice #
• @thedeadone I've not used any of them, AAM! tried Lulu and Amazon and had problems with both but competition may encourage improvement. #
• @thedeadone If you have time let us know how you get on #
• @GeekyClean Excellent thank you: computer and gaming fun. How was yours? #
• @GeekyClean My sympathy for the Colts. Both England and Wales lost in the rugby so only the Australian in our gaming group was celebrating. #
• @deadorcs Not by email but was tweeting less than an hour ago #
• @GeekFaerie If not entirely broken the gears are really in need of some virtual oil before the whale starts to appear… #
• @GeekFaerie The birds seem to be trying to deliver every tweet I send over and over again so the ones left are struggling with the whale… #
• @GeekFaerie Dolphins are all unionized and won't get out of bed for three times what they pay the whale and the birds… #
• Is it just me or did Vincent Regan's character in Spooks look like a set up for a new series regular? #
• @grahamwalmsley Just seemed like he'd fit as a new section chief or even a replacement for Harry. But I could be completely wrong lol #
• Tip of the day: Don't eat bad grapes. #
• @jasummerell Feeling better today thanks #
• @ehlanakovas If only I'd not eaten 3 of them to discover they were bad and not just a bit bitter #
• Night Photography experiment http://bit.ly/9g3oOB #
• Misread the Odeon's advisory on Burke and Hare as "Contains strong sex and mediocre gore" would have been more accurate than "medical gore" #
• Last Night's Blog Post: Night Photography experiment http://bit.ly/9g3oOB #
• If this wind keeps up I may have to tweet We're not in Merseyside anymore Toto #
• @richeym You went out in this? Running? And you got back in one piece? #
• @richeym I can imagine – I've been out in the tale end of one and that wasn't pleasant. #
• @blindgeekuk If you find yours can you check to see if mine are with them while your there… #
• Finished rough Science Fiction Liverpool I'm starting on modeling part of a city for my #RPG with City Engine. #
• @richeym Or ditching them, over pricing them or limiting availability as though we're too stupid to check online. Me bitter? I'm a PC gamer. #
• Will see tomorrow if Britain passed or failed its saving throw versus inclement weather in the morning. Bedtime. Night all. #
• @jearle Doesn't look like it is. #
• Hope they Keep the Title RT @biennial: Open Call for #Artists for #BBC TV series http://www.showmethemonet.tv #
• @BlackpuddleRock Thanks for the #ff #
• @simplychrista Thanks for the #ff #
• @symatt Those boxed sets were pretty good – Immortals is a bit weird. The rules cyclopedias worth a look if you can find it. #
• @CharlesMRyan Thanks for the #ff #
• @6violet9 Thanks for the #ff #
• @symatt I don't have the Gazateers – wish I did but unfortunately not #
• @GeekFaerie I have a potted petunia so the plans are moving forward Thanks for the #ff #
• @DJD73 Thanks for the #ff #
• @MoonWolf95 If they do Show Me The Monet right it could be a breath of fresh air but they'll probably muck it up #
• Good luck with 3 little bundles of chaos #
• If I stop farting around I might just finish what I'm writing this weekend. Why do I not expect that not to happen? #
• @call_me_salome After the 3 bad grapes I eat on Monday its not just a figure of speech at the moment sadly… #
• Operation pull my finger out commencing in five minutes… #
• @BlackpuddleRock Did you manage to get something done? #
• Thanks to M&S selling them at 50p each last night it will soon be Haggis O'Clock #
• @ehlanakovas And they remove the fur and feathers for you too #
• Enough words for today – time for a couple of hours of pictures #
• @BlackpuddleRock Washing machine did its work while I got down to a couple of hours writing #
• @paulbaalham I enjoyed RED and the reviews for The Social Network were good. Not sure about any of the others. #
• @Troppers Definitely not all at once – damp crumpets would be wasted crumpets. Congratz on the 2K words #
• Lunch then I really am going to do something. No really. Not just meaning to do something. Actually doing something. #
• @CaptCalamitous Congratulations #
• @TheAngryDM Games are for evenings or possibly afternoons. Mornings are for sleeping #
• Polished off 1051 words on doing Kitchen sink drama in a fantasy setting – I think I need a drink now. #

Over the last few days a giant column has risen from Chavasse Park in Liverpool One. Tonight the ride that goes up it swung into action for the first time. We can just hear the screams from our office. It seemed like a good subject for having a go at some night photography. This is probably not the best of the shots I took as the exposures a bit long but it had more of a sense of movement than the ones with less exposure.