Casual Gamers Hell

Human Igo

townleystreet — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 06:15:14 +0000

I just saw this on another blog – A game of go played by some of the world’s strongest players, using human pieces! Hell yeah!

The cold didn’t stop the cylons

townleystreet — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:39:32 +0000

It was very cold in Nishinomiya, but not cold enough to stop the Cylons from ruthlessly murdering 4 Aussies!

They’re back!

townleystreet — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:08:05 +0000

The Aussies are back in Japan ready for some Xmas craziness!

All I can say is that it will be shocking!

I’m in the news!

townleystreet — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:03:54 +0000

Once again the local populace decided to celebrate my presence – and it’s not even my birthday yet! My birthday constitutes week-long celebrations with dancing in the street, festival stalls, games for children and all sorts of events. This time however, it’s just a simple interview in the local paper:

What to do when Aussies visit?

townleystreet — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:13:47 +0000

Recently we had a couple of Aussies come to stay over. One was my brother D, and another was his workmate T. His girlfriend, who I shall call E, came a bit later.

During the visit they went all over Japan. While they were at my house though, I forced them to play Carcassonne: The City, time and time again:

We also taught them all about the famous Japanese cuisine - specifically TAKOYAKI!

This is what it looks like up close:

ChickHEN on a Japanese PSP-3000

townleystreet — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 06:22:44 +0000

If you’re like me you have a Japanese PSP-3000, and no matter how hard you try, the ChickHEN exploit just will not run. I searched forums, tried all sorts of theme-resets, language changes, voodoo and so on, but to no avail. It just would not run. All that happens is the PSP would crash. Then just today I was in a bookstore and I noticed this!

Luckily I had 725 Yen on me so I picked it up. It turns out that somebody over here has already written and published a book about running ChickHEN and other homebrew on the PSP-3000. They don’t mess about!

After fiddling my way through it I had a couple of goes with my PSP. At first it didn’t work, but I didn’t give up. I tried again to no avail. Finally I combed the book once more for any insight and found something! It was so simple, how could I have missed it? So I tried, and then suddenly it worked!

Here’s how I did it:

Step One is to copy the ChickHEN files (found elsewhere, or on the CD with that book) onto your PSP. You’ve probably already done that correctly.

Step Two – make sure your system language is English

STEP THREE – (This is what I missed so many times) set your charset to US(437). The setting is in the system tab somewhere. If you want ChickHEN as much as I did, you’ll find it.

Step four – make sure you don’t have a game in the UMD slot

Step five – browse to the picture on your PSP.

After that, it just worked for me. I’ve been running Bookr and other programs quite happily for hours now, just watching my little PSP battery drain in joy.

I hope it works for you!

Big Blue, Part 2!

townleystreet — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:03:23 +0000

Those kids are at it again, this time they recap the amazing events of a previous session. LISTEN and be amazed at what you hear. WATCH and be devastated when it all comes to an abrupt and unexpected end…

Notes on the unreasonable delay

townleystreet — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:20:24 +0000

I’ve been struck down by a disease so virulent and deadly that even by reading this post you have a chance of being infected. You have been warned.

Apart from that I’ll have another episode of Big Blue up shortly, hopefully including my new intro! Here are a few notes about the making of Big Blue to tide you over. Two of the kids regularly attend Saturday / Friday classes where the game might get played every other week. I’ve found it to be incredibly effective at motivating them to express ideas that they might otherwise not get to practice, and to use English in all sorts of crazy new ways.

This session that I taped was originally intended to go for a couple of hours, but unfortunately we started late, so the first season is a short one. The rules are incredibly simplified 4e rules, although every so often I’ll step them up a little when I think the group is ready. Strangely though, the kids all feel that no matter what pokemon mechanics will apply to the game and every monster in it.

I hope you enjoy it, and if you do feel free to let me know by commenting. That way I’ll know whether to keep going with it or to abandon it like a Jehovah’s Witness at the door.

Big Blue Is Coming… to Bears!

townleystreet — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:08:24 +0000

What happens when a group of Japanese students have a school camp and play a simplified role-playing game? Watch and find out. This episode starts with an explanation of the rules for the kids, and a little sorting through the miniatures that will be used.

Nishinomiya RPG day.

townleystreet — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 04:28:58 +0000

December 28th 2008 is going to be my RPG day held here in Nishinomiya at my school – Bears. I will be running a D&D 4th edition game for people to try, although if somebody else wants to run a different game too, we can certainly make time. As a note, I have some dice, but if you BYO that would help immensly.

Apart from that there are two quick things to cover – Creating characters for the game; and how to get here! First, here are some quick guidelines for the characters:

1. Level: Characters start the campaign at level 4. See the DMG page 143 for information about starting at a higher level. The key things are

4 different powers (two encounter powers, level 3 and level 1; 1 daily power; 1 utility power.
Equipment – mundane items are free (so long as you dont go overboard), you also start with 3 magic items (one level 3, one level 4 and one level 5) and gold pieces to the value of a 3rd level item. You can spend that right away

2. Races and Classes Any character made using official races and classes- is ok. To my knowledge druid and invoker only go up to 3rd level so far, so they aren’t recommended.

3. Alignment I’m just as happy to play without alignments, but if you want one, please make it either ‘good’ or ‘unaligned.’ This just makes it easier for the group to get along.

Getting to bears

Unfortunately I’m not as good with google maps as Ryan. There is a map at www.bear-international-academy.com that will help you get here from Kurakuenguchi station. Kurakuenguchi is on the Hankyu line between Osaka and Kobe . You have to take the train to Shukugawa then get on another train that will take you one stop to Kurakuenguchi. The school is about 10 minutes walk from there.

When you exit the station, the main road in front of you branches to the left and right. Look for the bakery on the left hand branch – it marks the street you want to follow. There is a Lawson about half way, and a few car-parks, and eventually you’ll see our school on the right, just before the big park. It takes a good 10 minutes from the station.

here’s a picture of the building:

View Bear’s Front

Finally if you get into trouble you can contact me on 070 5654 6971.