Yoinks And Review!

Hi,

So I finished up Sherwood Nation by Benjamin Parzybok. It was a lot of fun and while not quite a dystopian book it flirts with the themes and does its own thing with them.

So in the near future, persistent drought has engulfed the West Coast and America has pretty much pulled its borders back to the Rockies. People still live out in the West and the National Guard ferries in water to distribute to people there but it's a tough life. In Portland, Renee is a young woman whose cafe has closed down due to water restrictions. She falls in with a group of activists who want to highlight the unequal distribution of water so they stage an action where they stop a truck bringing water to the rich part of town. Things go a little askew and Renee becomes a media sensation when the camera crews arriving to cover the action see her handing out water rations to the locals.

Dubbed Maid Marion, Renee becomes and overnight sensation. The mayor tries to crack down on this water thief and eventually Renee and her roommate Bea go on the run. They wind up in a run down section of northeastern Portland and there they establish the micro-nation of Sherwood with radical plans to conserve and distribute water and make a better life for people. Obviously, the Powers That Be can't let that stand. But resources are stretched thin and Maid Marion is very popular.

So yeah, it's a good read. The book goes through a number of different viewpoints highlighting how people approach the disaster and how they choose to help or not help their friends and neighbors. There are a small number of nits -- the Federal system of water distribution is insane and there's this Stockholm Syndrome sub-plot that falls flat, but overall, the complications of idealism meeting practicality make the book an engaging one.

later
Tom

Freedom's Ring -- Session 1

Hi,

So our gaming group has switched to a new game. This time we’re doing Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker and I’m running it. We just went through our first session and here’s the write-up. Unlike last game, I’m not going to do this in character, I’m just going to give an overview of what’s going on.

( let me tell you about my game )

And that’s where we called it. The character creation in Apocalypse World is fun and it really helped gel up backstories and flesh out the world as we went along. We probably spent as much or more time on that as we did following folks around and seeing what happens.

Now that the first session has got the pot stirring, I get to turn up the heat. We’ll see just what makes these bad-asses tick.

later
Tom