You are excrement, now what?

There is one undeniable truth about Alexandro Jodoworsky's films El Topo and Holy Mountain, they are mind altering. I went in to a double feature of them, presented by exhumed films (way to rule guys!) at the International House in Philly, all cracked out on Coffee not remembering what i was truly in for. Within minutes i was wrapped up in Jodoworsky's fevered imagination watching a little naked boy shoot a wild west villain in the chest. At first I was astonished by the little boy's nakedness, but within moments the fact that said little boy shot someone at his fathers behest didn't seem at all strange.

It's that kind of suspension of disbelief that is so rare these days. It's like reading Dune for the first time, you're just swept away and the rules you've established for yourself are gone. I think of this as the Holy grail, or holy mountain, or excrement into gold, of story telling. It's so rare as to be almost alchemical.

As a role player, especially one who crafts games and designs systems, I'm constantly seeking it out and i'm not sure i've ever achieved it. I know of only one time where i was so into the game i was playing that it took me by surprise that my character was no longer acting on my wishes as the player, he was simply doing what made sense to him, he ended up summoning a demon and going insane, but it was as though i had no control over him. I couldn't tell you what about that game elevated my play to that level, There was no mood music as the books suggest, there was no candlelight or incense burning, it just happened, it was alchemical or hermetic, the stars aligned...i just don't know.

I think part of the equation, an element for the crucible, as it were, is a sort of abandonment of system. I don't just mean mechanically based on dice and such, i mean an overall system wherein the players know just as well what travails await them as the story teller. Jodoworsky achieves this in El Topo, he eliminates a system, "here is a western..." but from there god knows whats going to show up, a lesbian version of himself, a wierd cossack sharp shooter and his gypsy eagle mother, a pile of rabbits that burst into flame. If this were a V:TM game you would be able to read the books and say, "oh thats the flaming rabit pile, 3d10 damage, and it's fire so it's extra damagey". You'd know it was coming, or at least it could show up, and the magic the spirit of it is gone.

The act of watching an event changes it.... physics is everywhere!

I feel bad for my players in my upcoming western if they are unprepared. It will be impossible for me not to incorporate some of this surrealism into the game, to make it more of a spiritual journey than a dungeon crawl. At the same time i hope my forays into surreality will perhaps effect a loss of system and help suspend disbelief. We'll see.

Until then,

If nothing else, Conquer the holy mountain horizontally.

Hitch Hikers guide to the Nerdiverse: in which our protaganist defines things from a geeks perspective. Don't Panic.

Corporations: Are People too! thats a mantra of most cyberpunk fiction and a standard amongst most conspiracy theorists as well. And it's an actual legal truth too...to some extent anyhow, becoming more and more apparent every day. See Blade Runner for some groovy geeky manifestations of corporate person-hood.

Whats the big Idea ? (Rated P. for political)

For starters, I'm not one of those "hate on america" liberals. I am a liberal but i always remember that America is a place of vast ideas and diversity, and those are inherently good qualities, only positive can come from them, in the grand scheme of things. But i am so bloody tired of all this foolishness going on in our country pitting "us "against "them"! Great googily moogily have we learned nothing?

Rosie O'Donnell started me on this. I can't stand her! Not for what she said, thats her right and as it happens i, like millions of Americans, agree with her. I hate her for quitting. Backing down to Elisabeth Hasselbeck of all people. Did she even win survivor? I don't remember at this point. She's a pathetic piece of eye candy with nothing more to add to the public discourse than chastising John Edwards for a $400 hair cut. Somehow though she had the power to shut down an idea, a thought. Thats scary. Rosie is just another in a long line of people afraid of the power their own thoughts have.

I have a handful of friends who disagree with me on any number of things, not the least of which is politics, they make me stronger by having reasoned discourse with me. They change my mind sometimes, and sometimes I, theirs. Some of my friends are done with hearing other peoples thoughts, it's over, they just aren't listening any more, and i thought to myself, what a shame that this is what we've turned into. We're all victims, but victims of what? Then it occurred to me when reading about the war on "terror" If we're at war with a feeling, what else are we at war with?

We are at war, a subtle war, on Ideas, on free thought, on the right to disagree. Unfortunately most of us haven't caught on that we are battlefield, victim, soldier, and collateral damage. This is a true civil war, in that it is a war for our civilization. This is where we live and die, in our minds and by reflection our tongues.

The other day i was discussing a couple i knew who only took vacations to Disney world. For their tenth anniversary they went to 5 different Disney resorts all around the world, they went to Tokyo Disney, Euro Disney, Disney World, Disney Land and they took a Disney Cruise. They spent 6 weeks and untold money to be force fed one "persons*" ideas of what the world should look like, be like, smell like and taste like. Fake messages of how we could all get along if we just believed were shoved into their ears during fireworks displays (a technique not dissimilar to the acid tests of Mk Ultra). Happy foolish nonsense oversimplified tripe that they paid for. They paid to be told their fears and insecurities were wrong, because you know what, if we all believe: Magic can happen.

No it can't. We can't just believe, we have to speak our beliefs to as many ears (mouse or otherwise) that can hear them. And when other beliefs are spoken to us we have to listen and rationally dissect them and see what bits work and what bits don't. Remember...reason? Truth isn't tinkerbell, just believing in it doesn't make it shine.

But thats what we've become, consensus truth is taking over the world. "well we all got together and decided it was this way, so ...uhm...it is". Saddam hussein is involved with 9/11. Doing your constitutional duty as a check and balance is disrespectful to the troops. It's like Wikipolitics.

I don't know, maybe it is disrespectful to them, but isn't it time that we asked "so what?"? Is it better to keep "respecting" the troops by letting an inept (at best) war monger (at worst) decide their fates because of the rise and fall of barrells of oil? Should we continue to respect them by ignoring their needs but not questioning their commander in chief while he creates more and greater conflicts world wide?

If my ideas are disrespectful to the troops well then i appologize to them in advance, but it's my right to do so that they are sworn to defend. If you asked a marine if they were fighting for a country where ideas are treated like biohazard and quarantined as quickly as possible I think they would look at you like you were crazy. There is a commander in chief higher than the man in the oval office. That commander is the idea of what America is. What we can be, and what we should be. It's high time we started listening to ideas again. All of us, not just the republicans, but the democrats too, liberals and conservatives need to listen to one another. Reason needs to rule the day, not fear, not entertainment or comfort, but reason. Cuz you know what. Saying "i do belive in world peace" over and over again, isn't going to make it happen it's just going to occupy our time while our whole planet is ravaged by people who aren't afraid of their ideas because they have guns and money to back them up.

If you disagree with me...reply, I'll listen.

The Runes bit is a lie...

It's terribly unlikely that i'll ever discuss runes beyond this basic introduction, however it goes nicely with the quasi celto-norman ouvre i somehow ended up going with.

About that... while i am probably quanitfiably strange the name i chose to use is actually a combination of the meanings of my first and last name, not just a vulgar display of oddity. Turns out my last name has distinct and distinguished Norman history, and my first name is decidedly Celtic so when the time came to name myself for blog purposes this where i ended up. So hence henge (the geek parts will be evident, if they aren't already), and thus Drogo Druidspear.

Enough about me, now about you.








okay, i guess it's actually mostly going to be about me.

Drogo