"Of course I know the pit," she said. "Doesn't everyone?"
The grey man looked down at her, skeptically.
"Some days you wake up and see nothing but green trees, and you can't even remember why your fingernails are bloody. Other days, you wake up in the pit, and every thought's another boulder that you drop on your own head."
"Sometimes whole days go by while you're stuck down there. Whole chunks of time, just... gone."
He nodded slowly.
She couldn't say exactly why she thought of him as grey. Everything about the man seemed faded, as if somebody had left him out for too long in the sun.
"I don't think everybody knows the pit," he said, swiping his finger through an amber bead of rum.
"No?"
"No." He shook his head. "I think it's just a particularly unblessed few." He sized her up, almost like he was looking for a fight. "People like us. You and me, we know the pit. Normal, happy people don't ever wake up there."
"I can't imagine." She shook her head, too. "Even when I can see the stars, I know that the pit is always there, calling me back. I can't remember the last time my ears weren't ringing with it."
She took a drink. Lifted her vodka to his rum.
"I can't remember the last time I wasn't bruised and battered by it," she said. "I can't remember the last time my vision wasn't blurred."
With a swift tip of his grey hands, he drained the glass, and raised it toward her in a mocking toast. "Hell," he said. "Why do you think I'm here? At least this way, it's normal to feel broken. Crushed. Blotto. Smashed to smithereens."
"Don't get carried away with repetition," she advised. "It makes you sound desperate. Cheers." She drained her glass as well, and raised her finger to the hovering bartender for another.
"Oh, go fuck yourself," he said.
"Actually, I was hoping that maybe you could help with that." She folded her hands into the sleeves of her ugly, stretched green sweater.
He looked away from her. "It wouldn't make you feel any better," he said.
"No. But it might distract me for awhile."
"Hmm." He stared down at his dirty, empty glass. The silence was a wire wound between them, stretched as thin and tense as her white, waiting lips.
He looked up at her. "I don't think you're beautiful," he said.
She relaxed. This was an arena in which she could fight.
"Your arms are manly," he continued, "and you've got too much fat about the chin. Your hair is ragged – not quite curly, not quite straight – and it looks like you plucked your clothing from the cheapest bargain bin. Your skin color is ugly, and your hands are thick and coarse."
She lifted her chin. It was a familiar motion, one she'd practiced many times in the face of that very same response.
"What of it?" she said. "You're a spiderweb whose spider died of hunger, long ago."
"You're the clay that was left in the ground, when God carved Adam. You're as friendly as the heat-death of the universe. You're barely three-dimensional; if I turned you sideways, you might fall through the floor. I don't know why you even bother having a name."
He whistled. "Well, ain't you a poet."
She ignored him. "I'm no waif, but my body serves me well in a fistfight, and my thick skull has survived every single blow. Which one do you think is more useful, in the context of my life?"
"Alright, alright. Put down your fists, ugly poet," the grey man said. "Let's call it a fair fight."
He ran his finger around the rim of his once-more empty glass, turned it upside-down and then back up. "I'm in the habit of a pre-emptive defense," he admitted. It almost sounded like an apology.
"Where I come from, we call that an attack," she said.
"So? They'll attack if I don't, and then they've got the advantage."
"Who's they?"
He shook his head. "That's like asking, 'where's the pit'? They just are. It just is."
They studied one another. She noticed that the rhythms of their breathing had aligned.
Maybe it was a good omen. Or possibly a bad one – she could never rule that out. Either way, she wasn't going to let it stop her.
"How about that distraction?" she said. This time, he nodded.
Pushing his bar stool back, he rose. She tipped her cup, draining the last drop, and then, on a whim, she laid it over on its side.
He took her elbow, and then her hand. She let him.
They stood, leaning together, and found a new center of balance. It was located somewhere in between their bodies, not contained by either one.
Dodging chairs like they were boulders, the grey man and the ugly poet stumbled toward the door. Behind them, her cup rolled off the table, fell, and smashed.
Shards and splinters of glass covered the floor. The bartender cursed, but neither of them bothered to look back.
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In honor of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's 20th anniversary, I've decided to compile a list of the most essential episodes from every season. The entire series is available on Netflix, so I thought that a guide like this might be helpful for old fans who want to relive the show's highlights, as well as new watchers who don't want to waste their time with filler episodes. I've tried to include episodes that are integral to the show's overall plot arc (and sub-arcs), as well as episodes that stand out in their own right.
I had a really, really hard time picking out 10 episodes from Season 2. It's a really solid season, and it's also a longer season, clocking in at 26 episodes overall. Although the series' main arc is still just barely getting started, there were a lot of really strong standalone episodes focused on individual characters and the development of various relationships between them.
See "honorable mentions" below for a few choices that I couldn't include, but didn't want to entirely leave out.
1. Episode 7 - Rules of Acquisition
This is my pick for the Ferengi episode of the season, for two reasons. One, it introduces us for the first time to the Ferengi culture's incredible misogyny, which is a topic that will play out in interesting ways over the course of the show. Two, it plants the very first seeds of some really important Gamma Quadrant stuff, that will come to fruition in a big way later.
2. Episode 8 - Necessary Evil
This episode is basically a cold-case murder mystery, filled with past and present scheming and intrigue. Like "Duet", one of my recommendations from Season 1, it explores Major Kira's past during the Cardassian Occupation, as well as Odo's role on Terok Nor (the station that would later become DS9). The twist at the end, which I won't give away for spoiler reasons, really gives insight into exactly how dangerous and determined Major Kira can be, when she's fighting for a cause that she believes in.
3. Episode 12 - The Alternate
This Odo-focused episode continues the story of Odo's search for his origins, which I thought was one of the most compelling early-season plot arcs. It also introduces us to Dr. Mora, the scientist who discovered that Odo was sentient, and first taught him how to communicate with other beings. They definitely have an interesting relationship dynamic.
I have mixed feelings about the ending of this episode, but just seeing Odo and Dr. Mora together makes it worth the time investment IMO.
4. Episode 13 - Armageddon Game
This action/thriller episode has a great plot, full of betrayal, double-crossing, and suspense. More than that, it marks the beginning of Dr. Bashir & Chief O'Brien's friendship, which will go on to become legendary. Finally, there are a few nice Keiko O'Brien moments in this episode, which is a somewhat rare thing overall.
5. Episode 14 - Whispers
Season 2 did this thing where there would be a run of episodes all focused on the same character, and then they would move on to a different one and repeat the same thing. This is another O'Brien episode following right on the heels of Armageddon Game, but it's so well-done that I couldn't leave it out.
For most of this utterly creepy and suspense-filled episode, you will have no idea what's going on. Everyone on DS9 is acting strange toward Chief O'Brien, and he cannot figure out why. The ultimate answer came as quite a shock to me, and was totally not something that I in any way saw coming.
My one problem with this episode is that I feel like the ending portrays a criminal and gravely immoral act, but that fact is totally glossed over and never really addressed. I mean, I get that they had to wrap things up, but at least some acknowledgement... Well, watch it, and see whether or not you agree.
6. Episode 15 - Paradise
This episode features Cmrd. Sisko and (yet again) Chief O'Brien crashing on the surface of a planet where technology doesn't seem to work. Despite that fact, a group of humans has worked hard to make a life there, creating what is in some ways a sort of pre-industrial back-to-nature paradise. Of course, not everything is what it seems to be, and things get incredibly creepy before the end.
This episode is basically a warning about the dangers of blindly following any kind of charismatic leader, or of unquestionably accepting any system of belief. It's a warning about how a close-knit community can be a double-edged sword, and how social pressure and conformity can send an entire group off the rails really quickly. Which is always a warning worth keeping in mind.
This is one of the DS9 episodes that I saw for the first time as a kid, and it made a huge impact on me. In particular, that damned torture box gave me intense nightmares for quite awhile afterward. For some reason, that thing still freaks me out more than any other kind of torture that is ever shown on the show, even the far more explicit kinds. I'm not even claustrophobic or anything, but I swear I was emotionally scarred by that goddamned box.
It also shows us exactly how stubborn Cmrd. Sisko can be -- which, for better or for worse, is very stubborn indeed.
7. Episode 22 - The Wire
This episode focuses on one of DS9's most fascinating characters: the resident Cardassian tailor-and-possibly-spy, Garak. True to his character, it doesn't provide many answers about his past directly... Or does it? At the very least, we learn a few new things about the Cardassians, who are always fascinating, and about Enabran Tain, who will be important again later.
This episode also highlights the relationship between Dr. Bashir and Garak, which became the DS9 fandom's main slash pairing, and which remains an ongoing topic of fanfiction to this day.
8. Episode 24 - The Collaborator
This is a pretty major episode in the series' plot arc, as it establishes who will become the next Kai of Bajor. (The Kai is basically the Bajoran Pope, if the Pope had more political influence than he does today. More like the Pope in the Middle Ages, perhaps.) The two candidates are Vedek Bareil, the liberal candidate, who also happens to be Major Kira's boyfriend, and Vedek Winn, the fundamentalist candidate, whom we saw [SPOILERS FOR SEASON ONE] arranging the bombing of a school and trying to have her rival assassinated. The outcome of the election looks assured, until some buried secrets from the past are revealed.
I've always really liked the way the Orb experiences and conversations with the Prophets are presented on the show, and Bareil's Orb experiences in this episode are particularly surreal and well-done. I feel like they really capture the symbolic & allusive nature of dream logic.
The theme of this episode, I would say, is the choices people have to make when there are no good choices.
9. Episode 25 - Tribunal
Yet another standalone O'Brien episode. (Seriously, there was a lot of O'Brien in Season 2.) This genuinely scary, Kafka-esque episode highlights the fascist and dystopian nature of the Cardassian justice system. The ending is a bit deus ex machina, but the insight that we get into Cardassian culture makes it all worthwhile.
10. Episode 26 - The Jem'Hadar
Fittingly enough, the season's closer is the most important plot arc episode of Season 2. We meet the titular Jem'Hadar species, as well as the Vorta, both of whom will play a huge role in future seasons.
This episode does a really good job of setting the crew up against a powerful, technologically advanced opponent. I won't give too much away, but the events of this episode left me scared for the future of the Federation, in a way that few-if-any other Trek villians have ever done.
Honorable Mentions
This season featured not one but two multi-episode arcs dealing primarily with political intrigue. I couldn't spare the precious slots to put either of these arcs in my top 10, but they're both well worth the time if you're willing to invest in a slightly slower-paced, more complex story arc.
There's also one character-focused episode that didn't quite make the cut for the top 10, but which is still quite good.
Episode 1 - The Homecoming
Episode 2 - The Circle
Episode 3 - The Siege
This 3-part season opener deals with Bajoran politics, and the internal conflict between Bajoran isolationists and those who want to work with the Federation. It begins with Major Kira rescuing a Bajoran war hero from a Cardassian prison camp, in the hopes that he will serve as a symbol to unite Bajor. Unfortunately, that's not enough to prevent a group of extremists from staging a coup.
Some of the highlights of this arc for me were the relevation of the real powers behind the coup, an amazing interaction between Dax and Kira in the third episode, and the closing commentary on the unifying power of heroic symbols -- whether or not the legend behind the symbol is strictly factual.
Episode 4 - Invasive Procedures
I really wanted to include this Jadzia Dax-focused episode in my top 10, but I couldn't quite justify doing so. The main reason is that this story, about a desperate Trill who will do anything to get the Dax symbiont, appears to have no impact on any future plotlines. In fact, I'm not sure it's ever really referenced again, when it seems like it really should be. It's like these events never happened.
Nonetheless, taken on its own merits, it's a good episode that shows us some new things about the ever-fascinating Trill.
Episode 20 - The Maquis, Part 1
Episode 21 - The Maquis, Part 2
This two-part arc shows us that not everything is perfect in Federation-land, and that even a utopian future will have its discontents. I find the Maquis fascinating and somewhat morally ambiguous, though the show presents them as ultimately wrong; if I was in their situation, I'm honestly not sure where my sympathies would lie.
This arc also sets up a future Maquis story arc which is, for my money, much more interesting than this one, though it's very similar in terms of basic setup and themes.
So 2013 is the 20th anniversary of my favorite Star Trek series, Deep Space Nine. In honor of the occasion, and in light of the fact that the full series is available on Netflix, I've decided to compile a list of my nominees for the most essential episodes from every season. I thought that a guide like this might be helpful for old fans who want to relive the show's highlights, as well as new watchers who don't want to waste their time with filler episodes.
I've tried to include episodes that are integral to the show's overall plot arc and my favorite sub-arcs, as well as episodes that stand out in their own right. I'm going to try really hard to keep to exactly 10 essential episodes from every season; with 7 seasons, that should result in a list of 70 really solid, entertaining/thought-provoking episodes
Without further ado, here are my 10 essential episodes from Season 1. My recommendations for this season tend to be clustered around the beginning and the end; the middle episodes tended to be a little meandering, with one or two notable exceptions...
1. Episode 1 & 2 - Emissary
2. Episode 3 - Past Prologue
3. Episode 4 - A Man Alone
I've lumped these three episodes (technically four, since the pilot is a two-parter) together, because I feel that all three of them serve basically the same purpose. They introduce the cast, begin to establish their characterizations, and set up the ground rules of the show. They're pretty much required watching for everything that comes after.
4. Episode 6 - Captive Pursuit
"I am Tosk." That phrase will hold great significance to anyone who has already seen this excellent standalone, action-oriented episode.
DS9 is at its best when it's wrestling with big issues, and this episode is one of the first that shows off just how well it can do that. The episodes raises interesting questions about both moral relativism and genetic engineering, both of which are topics that will crop up again and again over the course of the show. The premise, which I won't give away for spoiler reasons, is intriguing, and the action is well-paced. I found the resolution satisfying as well, from both a narrative and a moral perspective.
This episode also introduces us to a Gamma Quadrant species that, while appearing in only this one episode, foreshadows another Gamma Quadrant species that will become very, very important in later seasons of the show.
5. Episode 8 - Dax
The whole "use a character's trial to explore facets of their identity" conceit was previously used to great effect in the outstanding Next Generation episode "Measure of a Man," wherein Data is put on trial to prove that he is a sentient being. While this episode doesn't quite live up to the heights of its predecessor, it does help establish important facts about the nature of joined Trills, and gives us insight into the personalities of Curzon Dax and Jadzia Dax.
Jadzia Dax is one of my favorite characters on the show. (Along with Kira, Odo, Quark, Bashir, Elim Garak, Jake Sisko, Nog, Rom... Okay, so I have a lot of favorites.) But seriously, Jadzia is an amazing and complex character, and this episode really showcases some of that.
6. Episode 11 - The Nagus
I'm just going to put it out there: I love the Ferengi. They're like a facet of human existence taken to the utmost extreme. Every single aspect of their culture -- religion, social interactions, family, death rituals, philosophy, marriage, everything -- is centered wholly around greed and commerce. Basically they're an Objectivist wet dream, and when they butt up against the high-minded, idealistic Federation, hilarity usually ensues.
The Grand Nagus is particularly awesome and hilarious (that face! that voice!), and I'm probably going to recommend every single episode that he appears in. If you don't share this particular bias, consider yourself warned.
Anyways, this episode is the first time that we get to meet Grand Nagus Zek, a character who will reappear throughout the show. It's a great Ferengi episode, and it also features some nice elaboration of Jake and Nog's evolving friendship. Finally, it features the first mention of the Rules of Acquisition, which are sort of like a hilarious Ferengi version of the Law of Moses.
7. Episode 17 - The Forsaken
Do you love Lwaxana Troi? I love Lwaxana Troi.
If you don't love Lwaxana Troi -- whom ST:TNG fans may remember as Deanna Troi's overbearing, shamelessly cougariffic mother -- then you might not like this episode, because it focuses in on the interactions between Ambassador Troi and, of all people, Odo. Their interactions start out hilarious, as Odo tries to fend off her advances, and end up unexpectedly sweet. We get some nice character development for Odo along the way, and the episode sets up a connection between the two characters that will impact several future plotlines.
8. Episode 18 - Dramatis Personae
This is a solid standalone action/thriller type of episode, which manages to maintain a fairly good level of suspense throughout. It also gives some of the actors a chance to show off, and puts an interesting spin on the relationship between Cmdr. Sisko and Major Kira. (Have I mentioned that Major Kira is one of my favorite characters? Because she is.)
9. Episode 19 - Duet
This is one of several powerful early-season episodes that deal with the aftermath of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. There's some dark stuff in this one, as in many of the Kira-focused episodes.
One of the reasons DS9 is my favorite Star Trek series is that it doesn't shy away from depicting some really heavy stuff. Don't get me wrong, I love ST:TNG too, but it can get a little bit too "lah-di-dah, it's the future and everything's ideal" from time to time. DS9, on the other hand, isn't afraid to hit you where it hurts, and this is an episode that does that quite well.
10. Episode 20 - In the Hands of the Prophets
One of the other reasons DS9 is my favorite Star Trek series is because of the nuanced and well-rounded way in which it treats religion, particularly the Bajoran religion. They do a good job of showing it as neither an entirely negative nor an entirely positive force. This is another one of those "big issues" episodes, where the issue this time is the place of fundamentalist religion in a multicultural society.
Relevant stuff, y'all.
This episode is also our first introduction to Vedek Winn, everyone's favorite power-hungry religious hypocrite, who will continue to be an key figure throughout the entire run of the show. And she certainly makes a lasting impression.
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Add 1 shot of Brennivín (soon to be available in the US!).
Muddle 2 sweet basil leaves into the liquor.
Fill the rest with DRY Cucumber Soda.
Add ice if desired.
The resulting cocktail is deceptively light in flavor (though decently strong in alcohol content, so be aware). It has a mild sweetness, with fresh vegetable and herb flavors. I find it very "green" tasting, in a good way.
It was, in fact, invented on the Spring Equinox. The inspiration came when I was trying to figure out something to do with the bottle of Brennivín that I've had sitting around since I visited Iceland several years ago. :)
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Flying into Suvarnabhumi Airport, which is the main international airport in Bangkok, I saw that the city is surrounded by hundreds of miles of farmland. The fields look different from what I am used to, though; they are extremely long and narrow, roughly the shape of a ruler. If we Americans have covered our own Midwest with a patchwork quilt of green cornstalks and yellow wheat, the Thai people have painted their own bread basket (or rice bowl, as the case may be) with long, slender, variegated brushstrokes of brown and grey and green.
At random intervals, some of the fields are flooded – sometimes one by itself, sometimes several in a row together. When the sun hits the flooded fields, they shine and sparkle silver, lending a glittery quality to the otherwise muted palette. It's as if the Thai love of gilded and shiny things has been extended even to the land itself.
That's fanciful, of course. In reality, it's all for rice cultivation. I assume that even the shape of the fields has something to do with the technologies involved in mass-producing rice. According to our tour guide, Matthew – whose real name is Prasopsook – agricultural products are Thailand's 3rd-biggest industry, after tourism and jewelry. In fact, that captures Thailand pretty well, or at least what I've seen of Bangkok. Tourists, beautiful ornate objects, delicious produce, and beautiful flowers. Tons of flowers.
I get the impression that the Thai people buy flowers as a necessity, like groceries, not as a luxury item like we might in the US. Every home, even the poorest canal-side shack, has its house shrine decorated with strands of woven jasmine blossoms, carnations, and other types of colorful blooms. And not just the shrines; there are flowers everywhere. In our hotel, on the bus, garlands wrapped around boat engines and decorating the political signs that currently dot Bangkok's streets.
(The election for governor of Bangkok is next week. There are around 25 candidates for the position, but Matthew says it's pretty much known which guy is going to win. And they are all men; in Thailand, politics and government are men's work, while commerce is the realm of women. So there are a lot of very wealthy female entrepreneurs and business owners, but the government is pretty much entirely run by men. It's an interesting dynamic.)
The city, of course, grows its own kinds of crops. Like all urban ecosystems around the world, it's covered in a lush canopy of rectangular skyscrapers, nourished and fed by the rivers of asphalt that run around their roots, bringing the tall buildings everything that they need to thrive. Money, electricity, and people to inhabit them and make them come alive. (Traffic in Bangkok is intense, chaotic, and, to my American sensibilities, rather terrifying.) These particular skyscrapers are well-fed; you can tell by the new shoots that are constantly springing up, in the shape of giant cranes. Money, people, and electricity, always making new homes to house themselves.
But of course, every forest has its floor, and that is true in Bangkok, too. On the street level grow other sorts of things: food trucks, sidewalk stalls, vendors, touts, prostitutes and pickpockets, all feeding on the skyscrapers' overflow. Like mushrooms and moss, they form a ground-level economy that the skyscrapers could not survive without.
The entire city is a market; anything and everything is for sale. There is no sidewalk that is not lined with stalls and shops.
Unlike the skyscrapers, which obviously all belong to the same well-rooted, glass-and-concrete species, these undergrowth structures are ramshackle and organic. Corrugated metal, pallets and planks, ropes, tarps – they are assembled from whatever comes to hand. They are epheremeral, here and then gone; but at the same time, they are ancient. Reflections of things that humans have been making ever since we got our minds. The village market, the house you built by hand – old forms, evolved to fit a newer ecosystem.
In our bus, we drove past a slum beneath a railroad track. Walls and roofs of corrugated metal, leaning on one another at odd angles, struggling to defy gravity. Most of the metal was gone to rust, turned from dull grey into the colors of rich soil and dried blood. Here and there, a streak of brighter orange, like Alabama clay. From this forest floor, slowly decomposing, up sprang hundreds of red satellite dishes like mushrooms, all marked with the same brand name in bold white letters. "True Visions."
It's an ironic name for a company that distributes television.
Or maybe it isn't, really. One of my favorite Neil Gaiman quotes says that something can be true without being literal, and I believe that. I believe that Thai soap operas are true. I believe that anyone can attain Nirvana through right action and constant mindful practice, and I believe that the Thai king is the human incarnation of Vishnu and the physical embodiment of the spirit of the Thai people, and I believe that the Earth is alive with spirits and that some of them live in spirit houses in Thai people's yards and love to receive gifts of mango juice and Coca-Cola, and I believe that God came to earth as the lowest kind of person to die in the meanest kind of way, and I believe that we can still find God-or-truth-or-meaning-or-value in all of these places and all of these ways, if we just know how to listen. How to see. (And I also believe that there is no God, and that the Thai king is just an old man who will soon die, and that belief in spirits is a superstition only, and that when we die, we're gone. One thing is literal; the other thing is true.)
There's a reason every shack is covered in satellite dishes. Because, in addition to people, electricity, and money, I think I can add a fourth component of every human ecosystem: stories. I think it's human nature; we need stories like we need food. When you think about it that way, the reason why the slums sprout satellite dishes is the same reason why I came to Thailand.
They need stories; I need stories. I'm here to learn Thai stories – or at least, white-29yrold-American-middleclass-person-visiting-Thailand stories.
I come, and I leave money, and I take away new stories.
And I can only hope that the money that I leave and the stories that I take are enough to outweigh the carbon that I burned to get here, and any damage that my presence might do to local ecosystems, both natural and manmade. (This is pretty much always my hope, in life.)
Next story coming up: The McDonald's and the Shrine.
Here's a short story that I wrote. I'm not totally sure how I feel about it; I guess it has some strengths, but also weaknesses. But one of the things this blog is for is a space to put my writing, and I need to get over my fear of showing my writing to other people. So here we go.
I guess it could be described as near-future military sci-fi. It is set in 2018, and follows the day of a mathematician who works on a futuristic drone program.
In older times, we poured our souls out onto flapping tongues of paper
stained indelible in ink, sketched out in spidering hand-scrawl.
Letters looped around our hopes and fears, hooking our hearts in.
We placed our trust in locks and bands and keys, to keep them hid.
Safely secreted away, deep in a closet or
up on a shelf, inside a boring cardboard box.
Lying in wait, a time-bomb for our great-grandchildren to take on
after we've passed into the abstract and their thoughts
can no longer do harm.
But now our souls are stored within the space that has no pages.
Encoded and compressed, we spew out endless streams of thought.
Digits cross, but never touch. The signal is so noisy.
Ghosts electronic, we bask in the great indifference of the cloud.
We need no shelves or boxes, no keys to keep our words secure.
We break them, split ourselves up by the billions into bits,
well-mapped and reduced into forms more highly normal.
We keep our selves well-sifted, secrets sent to data mines
where they will be put to work, and soon forget our faces.
When we stop speaking, our words sink into the newsfeeds,
and are gone.
This past weekend, I participated in my second Global Game Jam. Last year's Jam set a high standard for this one to live up to; it was the genesis of Velociraptor! Cannibalism!, which is right now getting printed and becoming an actual, commercially-available game. And I met some wonderful people for the first time at last year's Game Jam.
This year's got off to a rough start, just like last year's. This year, it wasn't due to sleep deprivation, but rather to the fact that Friday evening got started by a 3+ hour drive in fairly heavy snow and traffic. Especially since I was driving. So the first night, by the time I got there, I was already super mentally-exhausted.
It got better after that, though, and in the end I got to help some other people work on really cool game ideas. I also got to finish my own pet project, a card game called The King's Heart. My goal was to come up with a fast-paced, 15-30 min. game that would be completely card-based. And I think I achieved that with The King's Heart. So I came out of Game Jam feeling pretty good about it.
I started with the idea of players playing as assassins, and quickly added the idea of collecting different pieces of a heart, that were held by different people. (The theme for this year's Global Game Jam was the sound of a beating heart.) Other people contributed ideas such as the player choosing which dice apply to what checks, each attack having a different defensive action, and the guard's health being added to your Discovery score on a partial-damage hit. I also tried to give the game a dark-humor, irreverent tone through the card text and such. (I think there's more work that I could do to make the card text entertaining. In particular, the attack/reaction cards.)
None of that will make much sense if you haven't played the game. If anyone out there happens to be interested, here's a complete print-and-play version of The King's Heart (pdf), as it stands right now. (With a few tiny alterations from the Game Jam version.) The cards aren't super pretty, but it's mechanically complete.
I'm tempted to think about doing a wee bit more playtesting, getting a nice card layout done, and then slapping it up on Game Crafter or something. It's all cards, and not *that* many of them, so it should be fairly cheap to produce.
I haven't decided for sure whether or not it's worth pursuing.
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Still waters can run deep,
so the shallows are much safer.
She dodges anything that looks like it might lurk.
The unexamined life is the life that makes her living.
She twists herself, slides rapid over
every sharp-edged rock.
She crests, arches her back into whitewater,
follows the smallest tributaries
until they fade to rivulets.
Long ago, she lost the pathway
from the sea's bed to her own.
Now she just floats.
Real Women have curves. Real Women have a space between their thighs, Real Women have arms with wrists and fingers and nails. Real Women lost all that in battle. Real Women have wrinkles. Real Women have scales and a tail and giant dragon wings they can use to fly around the world.
