The annual Nordic roleplaying event Knutepunkt was held in Norway this year, and with it came the book, called Crossing Borders. It’s divded into four parts, three of which are available on the net as free PDFs. My article is about my experiences in the first larp in Palestine.
Sokerisamurai on myynnissä Akateemisessa kirjakaupassa. Tässä todisteet:
Romaanini Sokerisamurai tuli painosta tänään. Virallinen julkaisu on 13. 3. 2013, mutta joistain kirjakaupoista kirjaa voi löytyä aikaisemminkin.
(Kuva: Maria Pettersson)
Romaanini Sokerisamurain nettisivut on nyt pystyssä. Käykää tsekkaamassa!
Sokerisamuraissa esiintyvästä tyttöbändistä Sugar Samurai tehtiin joukko promokuvia, jotka tulevat bändin kotisivuille. Tässä previkkana yksi.
Esikoisromaanini Sokerisamurai meni tänään painoon. Täällä kustantajan sivu kirjalle, ja tässä etu- sekä takakansi.
Olin tänään Jussi Ahlrothin vieraana Radio Helsingin Norsuradiossa puhumassa peleistä. Aiheina oli Wii U, käsikonsolit ja Yhdysvaltojen pelikeskustelu kouluammuntojen jälkimainingeissa. Lähetyksen voi tsekata näin jälkikäteen täällä.
(Kuva: Dishonored)
Tiltin sivuilla on julkaisut mun tekemät arvostelut peleistä Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, Medal of Honor: Warfighter, Halo 4, Assassin’s Creed III, Dishonored, LittleBigPlanet Vita ja Bastion.
Kirjoitan myös pelijournalismin nykytilasta.
Novel: Matthew Reilly: Ice Station (St. Martin’s, 2000)
Ice Station is an action thriller about an American Antarctic research base that discovers something valuable under the ice, and various governments around the world who send military forces to capture it. It’s mostly composed of improbable action scenes.
The book is silly and the action scenes over the top, but that’s actually why it kind of works. In the beginning, I found the book really dumb, but after a while I started to get into it. There’s a scene where the hero, U.S. Marine callsign Scarecrow, jumps into the Antarctic Ocean and blows up a French submarine by using his grappling hook to shoot explosives into the sub’s torpedo bays. It’s kind of fun, like reading a transcript of a Michael Bay movie.
At first, I found the book’s belief in American moral superiority annoying, but after a while it ceased to bother me. All foreigners are untrustworthy psychopaths, of course, but many Americans proved to be the same.
(Photo: Maria Pettersson)
That’s a photo of me on the deck of the Fram, an exploration vessel used by both Fridtjof Nansen and Roald Amundsen. It was Amundsen’s ship on his conquest of the South Pole.
We visited the Fram Museum in Oslo last weekend. The museum features the ship itself, and exhibits providing context. For me, the main attraction was the chance to go inside a ship I’d read so much about. It was a surprisingly emotional experience.
The Fram has a strange design for a wooden ship. It’s fat and round, designed to avoid being crushed in ice by rising to the surface. This quality also makes it unpleasant to sail in, as it’s quite unstable.
The interior of the ship was fascinating in its familiarity. Little details like the type of planks used or the hinges on doors were exactly the same as what you’d see in the construction of old wooden buildings all over the Nordic countries. Sometimes it was eerily like the house my grandparents used to live.
PRS:n julkaisemat kirjani Ikuisuuden laakso ja Unelma Keltaisesta kuninkaasta ovat saatavilla nyt myös Elisan kautta ilmestyvinä e-kirjoina.
Pingviiniroolipeli Ikuisuuden laakso maksaa 8 € ja löytyy täältä.
Tanskalaisia yhden illan pelejä kokoava Unelma Keltaisesta kuninkaasta maksaa 30 € ja löytyy täältä.
Molemmat teokset on julkaistu ilman DRM:ää.
Back issues of the Nordic art roleplaying magazine Playground are available in a digital format here. I was a contributing editor for the magazine for issues 1-4.
Non-fiction: Richard E. Byrd: Little America (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1930)
Little America is the U.S. explorer Richard Byrd’s account of his first Antarctic expedition. I’ve written before about Byrd’s two other Antarctic books, the account of the second expedition, called Discovery, and the account of Byrd’s winter alone (called Alone) in the Antarctic, also his best book. I’ve also written about the documentary With Byrd at the South Pole, documenting the same expedition as Little America.
The name of the book comes from the name of Byrd’s main expedition base on Antarctica. I don’t have a cover image because the copy I have is a ramshackle first edition that doesn’t really have cover graphics of any kind.
Little America is a thorough but workmanlike depiction of Byrd’s expedition. We learn that all of his men were great and that he’s grateful for his sponsors. In places it’s almost like an official report. In scale, Byrd’s operation is much bigger than that of predecessor’s like Scott and Amundsen, and unlike many of his peers, Byrd was there almost purely for the science.
Despite the general dryness of the book, the flight over the South Pole is interesting stuff.
(Kuva: Sleeping Dogs)
Tiltin sivuilla on julkaisut mun tekemät arvostelut peleistä Gravity Rush, Sleeping Dogs, New Super Mario Bros. 2 ja Spec Ops: the Line.
Kirjoitan myös osallistumisen ongelmista videopeleissä ja teatterissa.
I and some friends have a project of trying to watch all movies, tv episodes and other stuff with moving pictures related to roleplaying games ever made. We’re pretty far along on this goal. I’ll write here about old and new things we’ve found and watched.
(Astrópía)
Larp is a very specific subculture, so when a vacuous member of straight society is dropped into it, hilarity ensues. At least, that’s the theory behind the U.S. comedy Role Models and the Icelandic Astrópía.
Hildur is a blonde society girl who’s boyfriend ends up in jail. She’s left with no money and no prospects. By a coincidence, she lands a job in a gaming store called Astrópía. Through the job, she meets roleplayers and is drawn into trying roleplaying games.
Gunnar B. Gudmundsson’s Astrópía is one of the best roleplaying comedies out there. The fish-out-of-water story allows it to riff on the various curiosities of geek culture, but the love for the scene is self-evident. Hildur enjoys gaming, and uses it as a vehicle for personal liberation.
(Astrópía)
Little details in the movie, like the choice of the covers of old Forgotten Realms modules as posters you can see in the background, are geek gold. The best scene in the movie has one of the roleplayers in the gaming store with a small child. He explains that it’s necessary to see all the classics of horror cinema while young, “before you get jaded”. As someone who saw many of them quite young, I couldn’t agree more.
(Role Models)
David Wain’s Role Models is a movie about two thirtysomething dudes who have problems growing up. After they get into trouble with the law, they choose community service and and up in a big brother program, mentoring troubled teens. One of the kids, Augie, is a larper, and Danny, his “big brother”, has to larp too to fulfil his obligations.
Larp is portrayed as a geeky activity that nevertheless offers a safe environment for self-expression for kids who have problems fitting in. Danny’s story is more about learning to take responsibility by taking on the duties of a father rather than becoming interested in larp per se, but the message still is “be a good dad and larp with your kid”.
Esikoisromaanini Sokerisamurai ilmestyy Into kustannukselta alkuvuodesta 2013! Tsekkaa kustantajan kirjasivu täällä.
Buy my roleplaying game Valley of Eternity at DriveThruRPG! Osta roolipelini Ikuisuuden laakso Fantasiapeleistä tai e-kirjana Elisalta!
Päätoimittamani roolipelilehti Roolipelaajan vanhoja numeroita voi ostaa iPadille Applen AppStoresta.
