I wasn't at the last Thornwatch playtest. I made the mistake of relaxing for one second last Friday, one Goddamn second, and PAX finally caught up with me and laid me out. I understand that it was... a thing.

Having received word a second time that his account had been pilfered, even though his password was now an alphanumeric goulash, Gabriel decided on a bold new strategy for dealing with this sort of thing. He was contacted later that day to find that it had all been some kind of internal mistake, but Guild Wars 2 has no monthly fee; he can get back in whenever he wants to and not be out any money. In the meantime, he gets a t-o-n of free labor. He can't actually lose.

In case you missed it we announced PAX Australia at PAX Prime this year. It’s scheduled to lauch next year and we’ll be announcing all the details in the next few weeks. If you want to stay up to date on the latest happenings with PAX Down Under there are a couple places to watch.

Last night I ran another Thornwatch play test. This time we worked on how deck advancement will function as well as testing out some new mechanics for skill test resolution.

We have referenced Linkin Park once before, in another strip, which resulted in the kind of hurt one typically associates with the butt. "LP" is like a test strip for age; I can put it in my mouth, take it out, compare it to the color chart, and it will say "YOU ARE TOO OLD." I was starting to think I had reclaimed some measure of my former vigor, in accordance with theory that age can fluctuate as it pertains to cultural product, but then I saw a sign someone had stapled to a telephone pole and the urge to tear it down was overwhelming. "Nope," I said. "Still old."

People used to ask me what I liked about Donkey Konga, what was so great about it, which made me scrunch up my face. This is a game where you beat bongos with your friends; it needs to justification. It justifies itself. Fuck off.

Gabriel's Guild Wars account was hacked with all speed, shortly after it had begun to germinate mentally. He received a mail that said someone - "hopefully you!" - had made a password change request. Spoiler warning, obviously! It wasn't.

There has been a slight rebranding. Now you play as a powerful Thronguard from the Thronmarch.

Are you changing the IP?

I had a major play test last Friday for my Thornwatch game. It was the first time I tried to run a full adventure rather than just testing combat mechanics. If you're working on a game of your own I cannot stress enough just how important it is to get it in front of other people. Watching how my friends played it showed me right away what parts were working and what parts needed help.

Hugo House is a House for writers, it "fosters" them, it "builds community and engages the Pacific Northwest in the world of writing." They just had their second annual "Celebrity" Spelling Bee, and it was my pleasure to return as Arbiter. It's possible to manifest a smug, trebeckian sort of omniscience at something like this; all the words are spelled out on your paper. I still managed to be imperious, somehow.

There's lots to like, or not like, or to think and talk about as regards the onslaught of Wii U data. I happen to believe Wired's Chris Kohler does it best; he's got a psychic investment but it doesn't cloud his analysis. The price is a concern at the individual level and also at the meta/tactical level, but if - like Gabriel - you saw your son gleam in the presence of the device, you might feel compelled to see that glow again.

So I posted some information about my tabletop game earlier this week. I got a ton of great responses and I really appreciate that so many of you think it sounds interesting. I’ve got a lot more mechanics than I posted about and I’ll be sharing those with you a little bit later. right now I wanted to address one of the big questions I got.

We came home from Sir Frederik of Meyers a couple years ago with a copy of Tony Hawk's Pro Catshit and literally no way to lose.

I ran my D&D group through a test of my new game on Saturday. I was nervous as hell but it went really well. It is a tabletop role playing game that attempts to express each class as a deck. I realize this is nothing new but none of the other games we’ve played have done it how I would do it. I figure there must be lots of people out there like me who want to make a game but just aren’t sure how to get started. I’m not a professional obviously but I’m having a lot of fun. I figure if I share my process maybe it will inspire some of you guys. I’m still ridiculously early in the development but here’s how I got started.

Like most sensate organisms, Gabriel didn't know what he was supposed to think about the Wii U. Reasonable, perceptive creatures can't be faulted for thinking that the enhanced controller was simply a peripheral, not terribly unlike the two fairly high concept peripherals they might already have been asked to purchase - one which is placed on the floor, of all places, and another that increases the resolution of the remote when used in space (?). The idea that a new controller would come out that has a teevee in there isn't that weird.