Fair Play
Posted by Jason on August 29th, 2007 — in The Roach
I was worried that I’d completely botched the title to our first game, which refers to a place I learned about in the context of the first Gulf War and located on a military aviation chart, but my friend (and former Arabic student) Eric J. Boyd puts pay to that worry! Eric writes:
“Generally speaking, “al” simply serves as a definite article like “the” in English. In written Arabic, it is directly connected to a word (like “alHiri” or “alTikriti), which is why the hyphen gets used in transliterating to English to show that connection. So I’d usually transliterate the name as Shab al-Hiri. But using an “al” construction ties the two words together in a meaning like Saddam al-Tikriti or “Saddam, the one from Tikrit” so I can totally see the value in using two hyphens to tie everything together. Transliteration is always inexact and opinions differ, so your source using Shab-al-Hiri is just as legitimate. I really wouldn’t sweat it.”
Posted by Jason on August 25th, 2007 — in Check this out dude, Grey Ranks
Now, at last, you’ll know how to say “Żoliborz”! At Gen Con Matt Snyder and I grabbed a few minutes from Radek “Dro” Drozdalski, a Pole who offered a huge amount of help while I was designing Grey Ranks. We ended up with six minutes of Dro pronouncing some of the more prominent words, names, and phrases in the game for us, interspersed with profane commentary and taunts from Luke Crane. It’s pretty funny but not really safe for work…the .mp3 is here.
Posted by Jason on August 23rd, 2007 — in Check this out dude, Grey Ranks
Anna Kreider is currently playing a game of Grey Ranks, and I had the good fortune of seeing her character drawings at Gen Con. So good. I love the strong line – it reminds me of mid-century animation, like stills from a film that would be really hard to watch.
1 Comment »
Posted by Jason on August 21st, 2007 — in Conventions
Wow, what a busy week. I learned a lot at Gen Con and returned exhausted and sick but raring to go on a variety of projects. It’s a pretty stimulating environment, and I had the privilege of having some really satisfying and challenging conversations with some really fine people. These conversations will inevitably lead to new and interesting adventures! I also got to playtest a side project (Remi Treuer and I are working on a competitive eating hack of Contenders called Food Holes) and expose myself to some weird and exciting new games and ideas. Steve busted his ass at the IPR booth. Our games were very well received. Demos galore! I had set my expectations for Grey Ranks pretty low, given the subject matter, but people were very enthusiastic about the game. Our scheduled events for Grey Ranks and The Roach went well – thanks to Hans Messersmith for his help! Sincere thanks to everyone who voiced their support for Bully Pulpit Games and what we are doing.
Posted by Jason on August 3rd, 2007 — in Check this out dude, Conventions, Grey Ranks
Grey Ranks is in ready to order from IPR. We’ll be at Gen Con, at the Forge booth, with copies as well – and we’ll also be running games! Come track us down and play some Grey Ranks with the Bully Pulpit Games crew!
