The Plan B rule set for my WSS project is making rapid strides. Tonight I've finished the customised card decks for the game - an easy evening of cutting things out and inserting them in plastic sleeves, while I listened to the football match on the Liverpool FC website (we won, which was a bit of a surprise) and enjoyed a restrained glass of Corbières.
All ready for some playtesting now - plans are afoot [plans are a WHAT?]. I'll be away next week, but provisional plans are shaping up.
Plan B does not have a proper name yet; it could justifiably be called A Heavily Modified Version of Richard Borg's "Tricorne" AWI Game, but I'll try to come up with something a bit snappier.
Topic 2 - The Sad Tale of a Stinky Minke
A week ago we had something of a local drama, when a Minke whale was washed up on North Berwick beach. It's a while since we had a dead whale - last one, I think, was at the tiny harbour at Canty Bay, maybe 20 years ago. Last week, this poor thing was fatally injured on the rocks (which indicates it must have been stormier than I had noticed) and ended up on the public beach.
This is a job for East Lothian Council's Cleansing Dept - yes, the same boys who collect our rubbish and recycle our yogurt pots. They were very businesslike about it, in fact. They obviously have a refrigerated van just for this job.
Sad tale, but all cleared away quickly. We did very briefly get on the national news, though.
Great progress on the WSS by the looks of things - hopefully we’ll see a test game in the near future. Poor whale - never think of them getting injured on rocks, just us humans screwing up their environment. You must have had some heavy seas up there!
ReplyDeleteGood morning JBM. Yes - a bit of rapid progress, which is invigorating!
DeleteTopic 2: An acquaintance who knows about these things (and most other things, apparently) tells me that a healthy whale would not get hurt in a rough sea, so this one must have been in a poor shape to start with. You may have met this fellow yourself - Fred Darwin.
I'll be very interested to see these C&C variant rules, judging by your previous rule adaptations they should be good!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ian - I'm quite excited about them (in a dignified sort of way, naturally). Still sorting out the QRS details, but I'm ready for some testing as soon as I get back from That Europe, next week.
DeleteI have come to accept that, as a would-be innovator in rule design, I can just about get by as a copyist!
There's been too many of those poor creatures washing up on beaches and up estuaries. And sharks too now.
ReplyDeleteSeems to trite to say 'well done on the cards and game', but well done. You could still call it Prinz Eugen or le Prince de Savoie or something.
It's a disgrace - what happened to the control of our own borders? Not to worry - Cruella will fly them off to Rwanda, probably by Ryanair.
DeleteWorking on a game name - I still feel that "The Emperor's Toenails" is interesting; someone suggested "Perruque", as a sort of tangential nod at "Tricorne", but it probably means something ridiculous in the world of fashion. Thinking about it.
Sad to see the whale, I guess it must have been in trouble already if it was that close to shore, but I know nothing. I wonder what the council do with that truck the rest of the time?
ReplyDeleteGood news on the WSS rules - the name is of course a challenge. 'Corporal John' ? 'Malbrook'? I like 'Prinz Eugen' too. Or instead of Tricorne, how about 'Mitre' ? hmmm...
Hi David - I think you're right - it maybe wasn't very healthy anyway. A local marine biologist was on the radio, and he said that obviously lots of these things die naturally, but they usually die out at sea, in which case they provide a lot of essential goodies for the marine life - he also made the point that there is an argument for taking it out to sea and sinking it out there. Hmmm.
DeleteAnyway, on an amenity beach, within a stone's throw of the harbour entrance, it was a no-brainer - they had to get it off the beach safely, and dispose of it.
The big truck? There is a logo on it which is patently not the council, so I guess they hired it. This truck clearly doesn't do whale-shifting very often, so presumably it has a queue of people wishing to hire it for other purposes. Large refrigerated vans are usually used in the food industry, I suppose, so we have to hope someone gives it a good scrub out before it is next used for shifting beef carcasses to the Scotch Pie factory.
All a bit icky, really.