BFL, week 2, day 4: cardio

Much the same as last time. Still not getting anything that feels like a 10. Seeing heart rate up near 170.

Weight: 270, down from yesterday. I’ve started moving over to the BFL eating plan. I’m gonna have to buy some chicken fillets or something. More lean beef burgers, too.

Neat RPG ideas

The Valedictorian’s Death, by Paul Czege
A murder mystery RPG that the group builds around an old high school yearbook. The GM guides the game actions, but the players develop the actual plot, inventing details about the murder and eventually deciding which of their characters is the killer. Unlike most RPGs, this one has a scoring system — you get points for working details from the yearbook into the game, explaining the murder, and both for being the murderer and for tricking the other players into wrongly fingering them for the murder.

The resolution system is really interesting. Each character has three point pools for Action (used for taking physical action), Reaction (used for framing scenes, and creating beliefs and emotions in NPCs), and Consequence (used for taking the consequence of some game event). To successfully use one of these pools, you must roll less than or equal to the pool score. You also move one point to the next pool (from Actions to Reactions, or Reactions to Consequences, or Consequences to Actions). So taking a Consequence improves your chances of success in a later Action.

Matchmaker, Lumpley Games
A romance RPG with no GM. It needs at least four players. Two take on the roles of the Destined Lovers, and conspire to invent some facts that they keep separate from the other players: one thing they have in common that will cause them to fall in love, one thing each can do that would repel the other forever. Another player plays Cupid, who has to try to get the Destined Lovers to fall in love by exposing in play the thing they have in common. The fourth player is Everybody Else In The World, playing the cast of supporting characters introduced by the other players in play. Cupid and Everybody Else swap places after each scene, and if you’re playing with more than four players you can swap other people in and out.

Actually, what this game does is distribute the traditional GM tasks among the players. The Lovers have the tasks of knowing the game goals and generating challenges for the others. The Cupid has the scene-setting power. Cupid and Lovers can all introduce new characters, and Everybody Else takes on the task of actually playing the world’s worth of NPCs.

MechaTon, Lumpley Games
A mecha-themed boardgame played with little mecha built from Lego! What more needs be said?!

Wait, this more: a link to Dwayne’s Lego Parts, an online store where you can order individual Lego pieces! Truly, we live in the best of all times!