For the last week or so I've been operating under the limitations of a laptop that doesn't have enough lifespan (power cord issues) to make playing City a practical option. With luck this should be solved in a day or two.
I probably should have said something sooner. Gomen!

Sony sues the folks who made their rootkit. Because, of course, it's their fault everyone got so upset about it.

-- Bob
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The Internet Is For Norns.

Well, I wound up my campaign a couple of weeks ago (with a 100% PC survival rate, no less), and almost everybody else in the group has decided that I should take a break from gamemastering for a while. (I don't know why; I'm not at the burnout point yet... Anyway, that's irrelevant.)
Epsilon's already running a game, and he's posted game logs from it on occasion. He's a good GM, and it's an enjoyable game. (I'm sure I'd enjoy it more if the players could agree not to be idiots in-game. (No, Epsilon, I don't want to hear about the time my character was an idiot. That was with the full agreement of the other player-characters before I made the boneheaded maneuver; I was trying for some party unity.) Anyway, that's irrelevant.) But he's only able to run every other week.
Which leaves the others... No names, for obvious reasons.
Two of them I have no idea whether they'd make good GMs, because as far as I know they've never tried.
One has the attention-span of a mayfly; when he loses interest in a game, he stops coming to the sessions. He doesn't bother telling anyone, he just stops coming. I trust I don't have to explain why it would worry me if he was to try his hand as GM.
Another has trouble telling the difference between a computer RPG and a pencil & paper RPG when he GMs. His last campaign lasted less than a half-dozen sessions; the final session in that one was a carefully-contrived session-long "cut scene" where the players weren't allowed to do anything. (When I tried having my character say something that would have shifted the focus away from the NPCs and back to at least one of the PCs, he said "You don't want to say that" and went back to his prepared notes.) I believe he still doesn't understand why nobody wanted to play in that game again.
The last one brings his favourite character into each game he runs (modified as little as necessary to fit into the setting), and expects the players to not mind that this character is not only more competent than the PCs, but is also an active part of the party. He doesn't seem to grasp that we don't want to play sidekicks to a "GM's character".
(Yes, I have considered finding a different group. I'd send invitations to the better players I know if I had some gaming space and a decent game-plotline in mind... Anyway, that's irrelevant.)
So... What I'd like to do is give copies of a "how to be a good gamemaster" text to the other people in my group. There's no guarantee that they'd read the thing, but at least I'd have done something constructive. The problem is, I don't know of any such works. Introductory texts are a dime a dozen, but most of these folks need something more than introductory texts. (And there's always something in this sort of book that the old hands will find new, so I'd want to read them myself.)
Any suggestions? Printed books, PDFs, web sites, bundles of 80-column punch cards, ... anything?

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Hey, anybody remember the Max Headroom TV series from the late 80s? Way way WAY ahead of it's time for the time. It's available on DVD now, and you can watch several episodes of it (including the pilot!) for free here.
There are commercials, but they are -amazingly enough- placed at the places in the episodes where the actual commercial breaks originally were! So it's bearable to watch them. Nice long 12-15 min segments apiece.
It's amazing how little Max Headroom has dated over the years. Partially because I think they purposely made it an alternative history anyway. Partially because it was just THAT revolutionary. Some of the humor and satirical commentary is such that - given the censors at the time, I'm AMAZED it made it on the air at all!
Anyway - you might want to take a look. The episodes are pretty high quality, and the sound is pretty stereo quality too.
-Logan
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"Wake up! Time for SCIENCE!"
-Adam Savage
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As much fun as most fen have in the Solar System, we shouldn't forget that a few brave folks have ventured outside the confines of the Sun's dominion to see what's out there. And of those who've gone There & back again, a few have shared their experiences with the general public.
In that light, here's a publicity still from Tau Ceti, the 2010 documentary about the 2009 Ptichka expedition:

Just a heads up. You may have noticed that I haven't been in game all week. My account expired and I have no ready cash to get it updated. I'm between jobs at the moment and have to be really careful with my funds. Fortunately, I have a line on a tech support job that looks good (I've worked with them before) so hopefully I'll be able to get my account updated and running again before Issue 10 hits.
-Logan
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"Wake up! Time for SCIENCE!"
-Adam Savage
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Nigerian email scammers meet the Cult of Cthulu!!
Has to be the funniest damn thing I've seen today. Thought I'd share. ^_^
-Logan
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"Wake up! Time for SCIENCE!"
-Adam Savage
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Still a WIP, but submitted for your comments anyway.

www.ananova.com/news/stor...79263.html
*tilts head*
*considers*
That's pretty cool if not very functional. :p

www.nytimes.com/slideshow...HOW_1.html
Photos of players and their avators from various games. NY Times.