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Baghdad Burning is a new addition to the blogroll; it’s written by a 24 year old Iraqi in Baghdad. It’s strong and angry and educated.

No- I’m getting great at it. I can tell you if it’s ‘them’ or ‘us’. I can tell you how far away it is. I can tell you if it’s a pistol or machine-gun, tank or armored vehicle, Apache or Chinook… I can determine the distance and maybe even the target. That’s my new talent. It’s something I’ve gotten so good at, I frighten myself. What’s worse is that almost everyone seems to have acquired this new talent… young and old. And it’s not something that anyone will appreciate on a resume…

[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

Matrix: Revolutions trailer. Available now. The site is so hammered it isn’t worth trying, though.

Ah. Bittorrent link here. That’s better.

[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

A special two-session Dear Brother, in which our heros undergo torture and brainwashing. Not for the faint of heart.

More...

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Absolutely awesome campaign concept, plus a bonus first session writeup. Man, I am beginning to yearn for some good pulp. Here’s the most brilliant gem out of all the brilliant gems:

The characters were all previous associates who had been in Paris just before the bombs were dropped. They don’t talk about what happened there, but as a result of it they all swore an oath — an oath which takes preference over loyalties, family and faith. Each of them can call on the others to help them with any situation once and once only. For the first time, one of them has invoked the oath.

This turned out to be a nice way of getting people together, and ensuring that they’d stay that way. We didn’t go into detail about what happened in Paris, just saying that they never talk about it, but the players could, and did, allude to it in play. I’m hoping that after a number of sessions there will have been enough hints that I can run a flashback scenario set there tying all the allusions together.

One of my favourite moments in the game came when someone said something like “It could be worse - we could be back in Paris.” and everyone nodded sagely and shuddered. “What happened in Paris?” asked one of the NPCs.

“WE DON‘T TALK ABOUT PARIS!” chorussed the entire player group.

Elegant.

[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

To my vast amusement, the Koppel-Argamon Gender Predictor believes Reese is female. Seriously! There’s some sort of gender-determining algorithm which looks way too simplistic from where I’m standing which is meant to determine whether the author is male or female. The latest Dear Brother tests as feminine.

Link thanks to Kip, who I don’t know at all so why am I using his first name?

[Population: One] <A HREF="http://popone.innocence.com/ar

As a rule, I really like Bruce R’s blog Flit. However, I am starting to wonder about his choice of blog partners. T. M. Lutas is not the sharpest crayon in the shed.

This in the way of introduction to this exciting new theory of American’s Iraq reconstruction plan. Salam Pax said:

I guess you’ve been hearing news about Mosul? Well it’s worse. The security situation isn’t too bad (they don’t rely on Americans in these parts- if they did it wouldn’t be any better than Baghdad). Electricity is more or less sorted out (although we do have problems)- and no, it wasn’t the Amreeeekan who got things running, thank you very much.

Lutas enthusiastically responded:

These are not the words of somebody who is going to feel permanently humiliated at their dependence on america. That’s all to the good and may there be many more such independent people.

Yep. We’re failing to provide electricity in Iraq so that the people of Iraq can feel self-reliant. Perhaps it’ll distract them from the fact that we haven’t yet let them try their own war criminals. I mean, yeah, as a tactic it’d work — but it kind of ignores the resentment it’d engender.