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Well, here I am.

I admit I sort of half expected things to break at the New Year. In other words, if the lights had gone out, I knew where the flashlights where. But, they didn't, things look okay, and the only real problems I've heard of came from people who lied about it when it broke, and can afford to buy themselves a new one, so all in all, things look all right. Huzzah.

I just want to state here again, in case it wasn't clear before, that I have really mixed feelings on the last entry. I mean, on one hand (the cynical, spiteful, nasty hand), I do feel that way sometimes. Of course, since I recognize that as cynical, spiteful, nasty, and not necessarily accurate... Oh, well.

I finished reading Cryptonomicon last weekend, and I've got mixed opinions on that, too. On one hand, the subject matter of the book (cryptography, and other related topics) fascinates me, and I thought some of the stuff in the book was just great. On the other hand, though...

The book takes place in two different time periods -- World War 2, and the proverbial "15 minutes into the future", which is (just so I can talk a little more here), a quick way of saying that the setting is 95% just like the real world, but there are some smaller scientific advancements that have been introduced. Actually, I'm not sure how much of the stuff that's done in the book couldn't be done today, but just isn't being done. The GPS PCMCIA card is the main thing I'm dubious about.

Anyway, the main problem I had with the book was that I didn't feel things really resolved that well. I've heard rumors that this wasn't intended as a standalone book, that Stephenson had to cut out chunks of the book which are going to be published in another book, etc., but the fact of the matter is that it is a standalone book. Nowhere in the book does it say "Part 1", or "catch the further adventurers of our techie geeks in <Title Here>," which would lead you to believe that there's something else that the book relies on. But while things sort of slide together, they don't climactically combine. At least, that's how I felt. I ended the book with too many "Wait, what about...?" moments. And I have no idea why the one guy suddenly became the fucking jungle ninja with handmade bows and arrows, but it may be obvious if I re-read the book.

I'll probably get the next Stephenson book that comes out, if just because of all these lingering questions I've got, and I hope he'll resolve them, but I just hope he doesn't make a habit out of it.

What else...

Liz got me the 7th Sea GM's Guide and Pirate Nations book for Christmas, and I've read the books a couple dozen times together all told, now. I really like the game setting, and the system seems fairly straightforward, too. (I wrote a bit about this game before, but if you don't want to click on that, it's a game about swashbucklers, pirates, secret societies, intrigue, unusual sorcery, duels, and all sorts of wonderful things. I'm thinking of maybe running a game or two (hey, didn't I say the same thing about Star Wars?), but I'm still mulling it over. The anti-hero is still really big with a lot of the people I play with, and I don't want to get all sulky and pissy because people aren't playing the way I want them to play. Still, if that's the way the setting is, it's just not as fun to play the anti-hero, right? Still, I'll feel guilty if I start docking people's Reputations because they're just doing the same things they'd do if we were playing Werewolf, or most of the AD&D games, or... stuff like that.

Anyway, my one quibble with the game is that a whole lot of the information is being doled out in little bits, across many books. Want to know who El Vago is? Wait until the Castille sourcebook comes out. And so on. I can understand it, because from a business perspective, the game designers want to be able to buy groceries. But still... it's a little frustrating that the Pirate sourcebook deliberately omits information on one of the biggest pirate figures.

Anyway, 7th Sea is still a great system, and I highly recommend it if you've got $30 to spend and want to buy an RPG with it.

That's all for now.