Back in Civilization (Almost)

Welp, me and the fam are almost back to Seattle (been up on Flathead Lake in Montana the last few days) and I finally have a place to connect to the internet: the Oxford Suites in Spokane, Washington. Spokane (or "Spokavegas" as my friends from WSU always called it) has grown up a lot in the last 20 years...for a change, my wife and I have decided to linger a bit in the town rather than drive straight through, and it's quite nice. Riverfront Park has many of the same sights I recall from my youth (the Carousel, the mechanical goat) but also has new stuff (a friggin' gondola?!).  I am forced to admit it's quite beautiful...though I think I'm still too much of a "city slicker" to live in Eastern Washington.

Anyway, it's been very relaxing...I've let my cell phone run out of juice (not that I'm a big cell user...I only picked up my first one in January...talk about geezers!), and I didn't turn on a television my whole time in Montana.  I didn't crack a book, either...instead simply enjoying the outdoors, the company of my family and relatives, and lots of card playing.

My family are game players from waaay back, though mainly it's cards. Not poker (they do some of that but mostly they're not gamblers) but rather pinochle, cribbage, bridge, and rummy. Montana winters tend to mean lots of snow, and all my relatives are skilled card players...most of my card knowledge was taught to me by my grandmother.  Like Old School RPGs, cards have a simplicity and portability that allow for hours of entertainment with very little space requirements. Personally, I love playing cards...which is probably one of the reasons I have so much fun in Montana despite my general aversion to hunting and fishing.

Anyway, despite taking my computer and references with me, I did very little writing.  Well, I DID write up my own one-page micro-game a la Searchers of the Unknown, Mutant Scavengers of the Ruined Earth, and Scavengers & Spacewrecks. My little game is called  Clockwork...it's a one-page version of an RPG I've been working on for awhile. Those familiar with Boot Hill will recognize some of the obvious similarities in the game system...it's not really compatible with the other micro-games, because of this. But hanging out in Montana always gets me fired up about the Old West, so Clockwork is what I wrote up.

Actually, I found the one-page model to be pretty fun to work with...I have a couple of other half-written RPGs that might be good in this format.  As well as one more knock-off of an existing RPG....

Oh, any comments on Clockwork are appreciated. I'll probably get back to the full length version once I've completed my B/X Companion (one thing at a time).