Simplest RPG ever... cards!!

Today, I've got a good topic which deserves a mention here, at my blog :)
It has to be with RPG (Rol playing games) and cards, two things usually bound together. (Mental note, talk about RPGs in another post, though maybe I'll need four or five... ).

We all know that some RPG's develop their own cards in order to make them playable, and easier than their older brothers based on complex rules written in manuals.

I thought the simplest form of RPG was "playing a role", or just "being an actor", both typical games at early ages. But that doesn't involve chances or mishaps, as though dices determine, for instance.

Today I hit on an idea while playing cards with my little cousin. We pretended that she was reading my future over cards, simply taking out one from the deck and making up the story. As you may know, the main aces on the Spanish deck are Coins, Clubs, Swords and Cups (weird, I know). Well, my "fortuneteller" took in mind the following assets:

Coins: Fortune, money, reputation, good stuff
Cups: lust, leisure, laziness, pleasure, drunk as hell
Clubs: beat-ups, violence, bad things to me
Swords: Kind of a mixture between pointed objects and Chinese acupuncture, but in the end they represented the law, justice, the cops.

We ended up making the story of my life, beginning earning money but balancing it by frittering away the income in nightclubs and drinks, followed by starting out a business consisting on a sect of depraved members, wherein new guys never stopped to join in. That enriched me, and my life turned into a mafia dog-eat-dog style whose end was hardly predictable. However the police came after me, busting the entire association down into jail.

The cool thing is we two got a nice flying-free moment laughing at our own inventions, with the add-up of depending on the randomness of discovering new cards each time, and using their value (1 to 12) to deem the impact of it.

Just like RPG at its simplest essence!!

King's wisdom

The following text was created during my stay in Burlington, VT USA. It describes how an elf king feels at the verge of battle against Melkor's forces, on an fictional place and moment. Quite influenced by Tolkien's books, but also by a folk-metal band called Elvenking. Enjoy.

As part of the ancient world,
as good being amongst all creatures
I daresay no evil harms me
no ghoulish thought has ever taken
place in my mind, though I've not the
need of beholding such inexistent weakness,
neither of my sons shall be vanished to that doom
since gods bestowed my rage of elvish nature

Then when time to fight arrives, and
weapons must be released from their sheaths,
this beloved pride of race comes to me,
like sunshine after storm, making my eyes and
my spirit bright in a magic whirl of purity
which neither dirt nor darkness may bind.

At the border of the barren skirt, where battle
shall be delivered, I hand the hilt of my long sword
'Aelah inne', sister of ancient elven smiths, given as memory
of old and keeper of all the good things on earth, which
one simple touch to her makes me feel that no fear or worrisome
can chase me down.

There they come, wrapped about darkness and terrible evil,
running over the fallen, cracking, thumping, as mass of tort through the gorge.
Melkor's offspring, born to slay, to torment and overwhelm
elves and men, whose end is to finally dip us in death and sharp sorrow,
now I say: "You shall not pass through this point while I'm standing
on my feet, because no wicked creature has ever crossed the frontier
of my parent's realms in which evil has no further concealling.
My sword is eager to know of those bold enough to face her.

Time to war is upon us, brothers"
Soldiers turned arround to gaze at me, less fear within their eyes.
"for the death oath that bound us since our birth, for all the beautiful
things of this world that you love and that love you with same devotion,
For our women, now praying hard skywards to our safety, and for Arda and the Valar,
our gods, who give these prayers back in truth. For our honor, duty and own lifes,
now I claim you, brothers: To battle!"

FrontKick... WACK!

Well, here has risen up a new rock band. Slightly rocky, tending to punk style, harsh voice (not to the point of tiring you up) nice melodic tunes, chorus phrase repeating on and on (but if it sounds quite good, why the hell not?) as I really like, all to the unstoppable pleasure of making you feeling good. Wow, seems like I've got a crush on them... maybe.

the way I discovered them is quite odd . I was playing a dvd on my laptop, you know, one of those dvds that goes along with magazines. this one's about bikers. Freestyle bikers made in Spain (that's the original title, in fact). I'd have called it bike divers... all the stuff these guys perform while driving bikes is just awesome.

I stumbled across this tune, called "heartbreak hotel"... damn!! It got me whirling around my room like mad, even before realization! (Freak)

they promise much more though, check their website: Frontkick (only for punk lovers) and take a glance upon this old school punky band that really rocks!