Gaming Inspiration out in the wild 2

 

Gaming inspiration is where you find it. Last year after a lovely, almost spiritual weekend in the deep Mendocino woodlands I posted about the moments where my mind went to games that take place in natural places. 

Now to do it again. After a long year at work in my healthcare related job (mostly hybrid so work from home, hold the applause) and not taking much time off from it, early this month I drove the several hours to Mendocino. Not to the woods, but not far from it. Some of my oldest friends and some of their Bay Area music friends, couple dozen in all, rented an old 1800's farmhouse (in great condition) right near the stunning sea cliffs and coves of Casper, California; pretty much Mendocino.

I made it an extra-long weekend. Leaving on a Thursday even though we had the house until Monday morn. I spent Thursday night in a small hippy town called Willits ("Gateway to the Redwoods"), in a quiet hotel where both that afternoon and the next morning had the sauna all to myself.

With the area being cold and misty, the town itself surrounded by woods, it was a great way to relax and prepare for an extended party in a house chock full of musicians.

I'm so grateful to still be a part of a scene where once a year or so I get invited to these terrific and exclusive weekends. At least once a year. And for this one I got to the property first and got to check out the house.

nice Night of the Living Dead vibe

There is something very cool about being their first and watching folk roll in and greeting them, beers and other drinks getting handed around (we had to wait a while for the cleaning ladies to get the place ready for us). 

But before long the party was in full swing. Rooms assigned (I got my own little love room), friends hugged, and more drinks. Great conversations and catch ups, big laughs, and eventually full-on music sessions. 

To many little weekend misadventures to be included here, but on Sunday early afternoon I did a little solo walk to the seacliffs. And of course with some alone time and such great views, some gaming ideas came to mind.

What a great location for characters to explore sea caves. I'm even thinking of having the characters in my upcoming western themed Call of Cthulhu campaign, located in the Pacific Northwest, visit this area. Deep Ones no doubt need to be included!

But yeah, another great vacation weekend out in nature and filled with friends and music. Something like this seems to becoming a yearly think. I don't want to make time fly by, but cannot wait to find out where we will do it next!

Cheers!

Radio Rivendell

I’ve always loved having music going for my games. Whether it’s some soundtracks or just the classical music station on, I think it adds to the atmosphere and mood and can be very inspirational. And as we all know, gaming is one half mental masturbation and one half inspiration (or some compound mixture thereabouts). The few games I’ve sat down as a player in where the DM was against having at least some soft music on where generally sucky. Nothing worse than a quiet room and a boring, uninspiring Game Master.

The ambiance of the infamous Star Wars group I ran a few games for the other year was dominated by yapping, barking (and smelly) mutts and was seriously lacking in much needed music. The host(“ess”) would not even let me at least put on the soundtrack to my beloved Knights of the Old Republic video game to try and get the juices flowing (although I am sure she would have loved to have had the horrible prequels on TV in the background).

It may not be possible in every gaming situation to have good music going, but for our regular sessions at Andy’s house we have always appreciated some background mood. I used some video game soundtracks and other stuff, but that was a little limited. And Andy horned-in on the music with some much hyped computer set lists to play (which sometimes included some inappropriate stuff like Butthole Surfers). But we have really settled on Radio Rivendell going on his computer for our ambient sounds.

Radio Rivendell is an internet radio station created in Sweden and devoted to tunes for gaming. Streaming live 24/7, they play a great variety of orchestral, Irish music, neofolk, dark ambient, and video game soundtrack tracks (and hopefully in the future some tunes from me and the boys in the Bruno Band; we’re going to send in some samples that might make good tavern tunes). The music goes great with fantasy gaming, but I can see it working for my upcoming Knights of the Old Republic games pretty handily.

The first night we tried it was during some heavy underworld evil city combat, and the music playing was dark and dramatic and could not be more appropriate. Sure, it doesn’t always match the action, but it is always good.

Check it out and get a little music going to enhance your games.

Vasen: The best Music for your game

Last week some friends of my put on a big folk music camp, Golden Toad Music Camp. Several days in the beautiful hills and woods outside of the town of Occidental in northern California (not far from famous Bodega Bay, where they filmed Hitchcock’s The Birds). Lots of my best friends from two decades of California Ren Faires were there as teachers, organizers, and kitchen staff. I worked an easy gig 4 hours a day at the middle eastern themed teahouse in the main lodge.

It was my first such camp, and I loved it. Warms days and cool nights, excellent meals in the huge main lodge, and drinking keg after keg of Sierra Nevada Ale with my buddies and lots of very hot hippy girls.

Teaching some workshops, and doing a Saturday night concert under the stars among the trees, was the popular Swedish folk group Vasen. They were three very funny dudes (think of them as slightly less talky, Swedish versions of the guys from Flight of the Conchords). How my friends got them to do this (I think they are touring the West Coast anyway right now) I’ll never know, but I’m glad they did.

They did a concert on the front lawn in front of the main lodge (area shown in photo above), right there among the tall, dark trees and beneath a bright and swiftly rising full moon. It blew me away. The setting was just incredible – majestic yet still very intimate, with around 150 people in attendance on the lawn and crowding on the balconies of the lodge. It was like being in some faraway place.

Although not on my mind at all times, it was hard not to think of gaming in this setting at certain moments. It’s not like when I was in my 20’s and seeing pathways to dungeons in every hiking area or natural setting I visited. Sure, there was some of that. But among the trees and under the moon in that beautiful setting, hearing that great music, was just so damn inspiring.

Vasen is going to be my main game music of choice. Not for dungeons and caverns of course, but for town, tavern, and green this is what I will DJ for my D&D. Very much the vibe of the Irish tunes you know from stuff, but with an added layer of ancient sophistication. That Nickleharpa that Olov plays is amazing, and lends a sort of special old time Euro flavor to the tunes. Sometimes there are some contemporary sounds, but almost all of it will set the perfect mood for your scenarios when players are above ground in the game.

You might find some CD’s on Ebay, but here are links to their Myspace and personal website where you can sample and buy music. “Vasen Street” is my bottom line favorite by the boys, but they have so much music out there there is plenty to enjoy. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Getting out into the woods for a week was an amazing feeling for me. Never taking more than a long weekend for vacation in the last few years, it did my heart some good. I feel like the Grinch, you know, when his heart got all big and shit? The presence of these three Swedish, dorky Vasen guys really helped me with that. When tall Olov came looking for beer one night, I fell all over myself like I was in the presence of some huge celebrity. I felt so generous of spirit that I actually started referring to my buddies out there as “hippies” instead of “dirty hippies.”

cut n' paste some of these Youtube clips.

The first is my favorite tune “Vasen Street”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWorsJwzycw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq-d2CXZH_s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-3rWIQS4yw&feature=related