RPGs and muttering

I am feeling smug about having finished knitting something. I will go into detail on what it is tomorrow.

I must also get up early tomorrow to drop by the post office. Yet again, I wish for bigger mailboxes in my apartment block -- no, make that an earlier visit by the postman, so he'd get here before I go to work.

Now shall I go to Ambercon UK or not? I'm suspecting that I'm going to decide on not. I haven't been for two or three years now (and it says something that I can't remember which) and I'm not sure it's even going to be as big as it used to be. I don't know. It could be fun. I'd probably end up running in two of the four game slots, because I usually do, because there are never enough GMs. It could be fun, but there are limits to how many emulations of Amber one can manage. Not sure. I suspect that if I were truly wanting to go, I'd feel more strongly about it.

Incidentally, it's sort of amusing watching a thread on the rpg.net forums about trying to find a system for Avatar as a rpg. What I can't help thinking is how this would not only be a game that'd appeal to younger players (and oh, the lamenting one hears about the lack of new blood in the hobby), but it also leads into the whole concept of what sort of game would appeal to younger players. And what's everyone doing? Adding more dice to try to find a better mechanical simulation. I suppose I should have the courage to post and say: guys, what you are creating is a game which has people who have powers over fire, water, earth, and air, but it is not something which would appeal to 90% of the people out there who'd like to "play an Avatar rpg".

Of course, to say that I'd need to actually have some better ideas. And I don't. But I do feel that . . . the point is being missed, somewhere along the line.

---

I Had a Hippopotamus

I had a hippopotamus; I kept him in a shed
And fed him upon vitamins and vegetable bread.
I made him my companion on many cheery walks,
And had his portrait done by a celebrity in chalks.

His charming eccentricities were known on every side.
The creature's popularity was wonderfully wide.
He frolicked with the Rector in a dozen friendly tussles,
Who could not but remark on his hippopotamuscles.

If he should be affected by depression or the dumps
By hippopotameasles or hippopotamumps
I never knew a particle of peace 'till it was plain
He was hippopotamasticating properly again.

I had a hippopotamus, I loved him as a friend
But beautiful relationships are bound to end.
Time takes, alas! our joys from us and robs us of our blisses.
My hippopotamus turned out to be a hippopotamissus.

My housekeeper regarded him with jaundice in her eye.
She did not want a colony of hippopotami.
She borrowed a machine gun from her soldier-nephew, Percy
And showed my hippopotamus no hippopotamercy.

My house now lacks the glamour that the charming creature gave.
The garage where I kept him is as silent as a grave.
No longer he displays among the motor-tires and spanners
His hippopotamastery of hippopotamanners.

No longer now he gambols in the orchard in the Spring;
No longer do I lead him through the village on a string;
No longer in the mornings does the neighborhood rejoice
To his hippopotamusically-modulated voice.

I had a hippopotamus, but nothing upon the earth
Is constant in its happiness or lasting in its mirth.
No life that's joyful can be strong enough to smother
My sorrow for what might have been a hippopotamother.

-- Patrick Barrington