Jesse Scoble

Ink

Chillin’ out, trying to rest up (with marginal success). Haven’t been the most productive, though I have been able to test out Mario Kart Wii – I call it therapeutic research.

Working on a short story – in the urban fable motif. Hoping it will join several other ideas in a series around the same characters / locales.

I like the story, but it feels like all the dialog is:

JO
How long ‘till your pals show up?

The boy pulled a cellphone from his pocket and glanced at it. No messages.

BOY
Uh, I’m not sure. Soon, I bet.

JO
What did they say?

She cupped her hand against the glass to watch the big greaser more clearly. His eyes constantly roamed the street, never resting.

BOY
Um, they said they’d tell the Crow King, and he’d decide.

JO
The Crow King?

Which is probably fine, as I’m introducing the reader to the elements as Jo learns them. But goddamn, it feels like call/response, call/response, call/response all through the piece. (or Q/A, Q/A, Q/A if you prefer).

There’s some names I’m unhappy with, and the end doesn’t quite work, but overall I’m happy with it.

We’ll see if that remains true after Dev reads & criticizes it.

(the image here comes from my brother Nate’s gallery)

Posted in Big Smoke, Urban Fables, Writing on August 25, 2008 by Jesse
1 Comment »

GENCON: The Other Side Part 2

More thoughts about GenCon.

FRI
Friday we hit the show floor early. I was sporting an Exhibitor’s Badge with the Green Ronin logo, for the work I’ve done on the upcoming A Song of Ice and Fire RPG. (Which sadly wasn’t ready for the show, but with luck should make a fall release – I’m really looking forward to this one).

I made it immediately over to the WoTC booth, breezing by friend and author, John C. Hays with a quick promise to return after I’d obtained my swag. At the WoTC booth there was a barely organized queue – or 2 lines, really – one for the promo Heroscape figure, and one for the new Magic Dragon Box set. I stood in line with oh, 50 or so exhibitors, and got my promo figure (for my boss – he’s a big Heroscape fan), then dispersed. I have virtually no interest in trying to resell promotional items on eBay – I just don’t have the mindset for it.

That said, WoTC’s organization was pretty lame, considering the 250 Heroscape figures were all snapped up within 5 minutes of the doors opening every day. They could have punched badges (easy), or even calculated how many exhibitors would try to acquire figs and simply up the number they had to give out, or simply required people to play in demos.

Boardgame Geek has a pretty good description of the process.

(more…)

Posted in Current Events, Games on August 24, 2008 by Jesse
2 Comments »

GenCon: The Other Side

I think this was my…11th GenCon, believe it or not.

97 was my first, 98, skipped 99, 2000, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08.

Good Lord. 11 is supposed to be a lucky number, but I’m not sure it was in this case. I’m glad I went, but it was a strange show. Marked more by a sense of confusion, lack of planning, and my breaking body. Anyway, with that said, here’s a few things to consider / remember / reflect on:

(more…)

Posted in General on August 20, 2008 by Jesse
Add a Comment »

GenCon Day 0

Made it with co-writer-cum-driver Dev to Indianapolis in decent time yesterday. Drive was pretty fair, though 9 hours is always long.

We arrived and found our hotel, and found Jason, jdurall, in the room. We quickly ditched our things and headed out to find badges, food, drink, and friends (in no particular order).

One quick aside, which I desperately hope I’ll stop talking about soon, is that somehow the night before we left I fucked my left leg up. I don’t know what I did. This has never happened before. It’s like a brutal cramp that won’t go away, and if I stand wrong or stretch too far a shooting pain goes down to my toes. This all despite going to be early and getting decent sleep before the con, the first time maybe ever. I feel like my some of my heroes – old, decaying writers, dropping off and only soldiering through the pain by drink and force of will alone, but dammit, I figured I had another decade before I hit that point. Bloody hell.

Anyway, we limped (OK, I limped, they strolled) away from our hotel, which is on the south side of the Indianapolis Convention Center – a bit of disorientation as we’re normally on the north side. As we made our way up, we were joined by fellow Canadian and game luminary Robin Laws.

Robin was in need of food and badge (definitely in that order), and joined us. He stolidly accepted our course to get badges first, and even endured patiently while we stood in line for swag bags. But then it was find food or watch Robin eat his own arm, so we quickly left the convention center.

Robin guided us to Weber’s Grill, where food and drink were found. Jason was a non-believer in good BBQ outside of Texas, but he was won over. I had beer-can chicken, and while it was good, I’ve had better at a friend’s cookout back home recently. Ah well.

Dinner polished off, Jason, Robin, and I headed to the annual kick-off to GenCon, the Diana Jones Award Party. Dev begged off and went back to recuperate.

The winner of the Diana Jones awards was a tie this year – I’m just going to be lazy and quote Robin’s livejournal her:

* Wolfgang Baur and his Open Design project, an innovative business model bringing D&D support material to a base of patron/subscribers whose input shapes the product line.

* Gray Ranks, an indie game by Jason Morningstar in which a GM-less group creates a narrative featuring doomed teenage resistance fighters in Warsaw during the waning days of WWII.

More details after we find food and check out the hall…

Posted in General on August 14, 2008 by Jesse
Add a Comment »

Propane Explosion Update

First, we’re fine. We’re actually pretty far from the area in question. We did hear it last night, and the greater area is affected by traffic, highway closures, subway closures, lots of people whose sleep was interrupted, etc., but things seem to be calming down and we were never at any risk.

No one around here was evacuated, and the streets were surprisingly quiet when we out to pick up some groceries. Although lots of the staff at the store were a bit grumpy / put out from having their night disrupted.

Below I’ve included a Google Map of the area and some YouTube footage that was captured.

(more…)

Posted in Big Smoke, Current Events on August 10, 2008 by Jesse
Add a Comment »