Sitting comfortably?

So I’m about to be somewhat boring here but at the same time this is something that has been bugging me at home for quite a while. Months ago I posted about back issues that I was having. These sort of went away for a bit but recently my shoulder issues have been flaring up with a vengeance. Added to that RSI now flaring in my left wrist, and now not being able to bend my right hand properly typing at computers and in fact doing most things has been really difficult. At work I have been able to combat this somewhat by requesting a graphics tablet (Wacom’s Bamboo) instead of a mouse. This has helped somewhat as my arm seems to be in a better position now, and i’m not constantly resting my hand on the mouse and twisting my arm into an unnatural position.  See here

Also not doing a constant clicking motion with my index finger seems to help a lot. The tapping motion on the tablet is a lot gentler.

So at work I’m fairly ok. At home though? Home wasn’t so good.

I’ve started doing a lot of writing and this has meant I have constantly been moving about the house to try and find a good position. Before my shoulders flared up again I was generally ok sitting in a comfy chair with my netbook on my lap. Or propped up on the bed with appropriate pillows for my back. Netbook on a cushion on my lap. But this isn’t so good now, and perhaps this has been a contributing factor? I don’t know.

Why don’t I simply sit at my computer? You ask.

Firstly due to space issues it is on a shitty desk which has a pull out draw for the keyboard.  I cannot physically get comfy at this desk any more. It’s ok for gaming on but sitting for long periods typing? Well I’m sitting at it now typing this post up, you can see the post isn’t so long at the moment and I can already feel my hands complaining. The arms on the desk chair are slightly to high for where the keyboard is to type comfortably and I cannot lower them further.

Secondly if I’m on the PC it means hubby cannot play Fallout/Mass Effect/Dragon Age etc etc.

So I became somewhat grumpy and irritable due to not being able to sit comfortably for a while and setting into writing. Which considering the stage where I’m at with my novel I need to be able to sit down and focus before I start. I’ve written so much already that I need to have an idea at least of what I’m supposed to be writing before I start. Stopping and starting on short stories is a lot easier as there’s less to think about.

I recalled however that I did actually have a perfectly good desk in another room. Albeit one that a) has my sewing machine and stuff on and b) often then covered with Warhammer stuff so I can’t even USE said sewing machine.  Well I decided that this had to stop. We had a tidy up over Xmas with the Warhammer, throwing out quite a few empty boxes. This was especially important as I finally got a rotary cutter and cutting board for Xmas and so I needed space for the board.

However I had no chair. Well I had a dining table chair, but that is not comfortable to sit on for long periods of time and more importantly doesn’t offer that much back support.  Still the problem with ergonomic chairs is that usually they are pretty expensive. Especially if you want them to be fully adjustable (movable arms, seat, back etc etc)/

Still good thing there is Ikea. Although I do advise that going at 4pm on a Sunday when you’re in pain… not a good idea. And for £62 this isn’t bad:

It tilts a bit, seat isn’t too large, and the back is actually a good shape. Its not that adjustable but its pretty comfy for what it is. So hopefully this means I will have somewhere comfy that I can sit and write while not messing anything else up!

Incidentally this is also why I haven’t really done many posts on painting Games Workshop models, I cannot sit for long periods painting them. Today I painted one model brown and then had to stop because my shoulders objected. I was only painting for about 10 minutes, so you can see that at that rate its going to be a while before I EVER finish anything. Which is annoying because I’d really like to finish my Blood Angel army!!

 

Sherlock and why I kind of don’t care

So I suspect I’m going to be controversial, but I didn’t really enjoy this series of  Moffat’s Sherlock. Now before you have a freak out. Yes the acting was good. Very good. There is a lot of sharp dialogue that is delivered superbly. And I do like the clever tricks used to show text messages, and how Sherlock analysed people etc.  I thought that worked really well. But … but.

In fact at the time of writing this, I haven’t even finish watching the ep of Sherlock that was on on Sunday. Now granted it will be on iPlayer and I will probably watch the end, just to see what all the fuss was about… at somepoint.

Perhaps some of it is related to what I’ve read recently about how Moffat is not really that good at writing female characters. (In fact even before I’d read anything and had just watched A Scandal in Belgravia, I was querying Adler’s sudden confession. And also why the very very end bit was necessary.) But this is not what my blog post is about.

What this is about is the fact that I did not particularly like this iteration of Holmes. I find it a little hard to pinpoint exactly what it was, as Holmes has always been a very arrogant person that is hard to get along with. But I think Moffat’s version was just a little too extreme for me in every way possible. He’s just always seems so angry, so in your face ALL THE TIME.  Even my husband, in the early part of The Hounds of Baskerville commented that he preferred the first season, as Sherlock again began to spew his oh so awesome intellect in everyones faces. And both of went blah at the third episode.

I have read the books, and Holmes in that was a slightly more mellow person. He still looked down on people but he didn’t wave his arms around and rant at them like a maniac. Sophistication, I think the one in the books was a little bit more sophisticated with how he went about things. He understood people at least a little bit. (As opposed to new Sherlock, who doesn’t even seem to understand that you say thank you when someone gives you something. Even if you don’t care about the gift at all.)  Perhaps I’m, also projecting a little bit. The Sherlock Holmes I’ve seen most regularly on TV and can claim as ‘my’ Sherlock is the one portrayed by Jeremy Brett.  Who was a much calmer person. His anger was cold fury, as opposed to blazing inferno.

I can’t quite figure out why Watson remained friends with him either. Other Sherlocks’ that I’ve read and seen, give Watson something at times. A slight compliment, a feeling that they are fond of him. But I never really felt that from Moffat’s version.  It’s always disdain, and Watson asking him to at least be nice.  Hubby said that it felt like it was an abusive relationship. I have no idea if that was what was intended??  But whatever it was it just didn’t work for me, the man was almost too inhuman.

Yes I get that he’s supposed to be vastly intelligent then everyone else, I get that he’s supposed to be unlikable and that Watson is there to balance him out, to show a more human side to things. And that this is a modern retelling of it all.  But… there needs to be something about the main character that is likeable.

I think a friend of mine summed it up best when I saw his post on twitter, where he stated that he’d much rather have had 9 30 minute episodes of Sherlock, as opposed to 3 90 minute episodes. It was just too much all at once.

Portal 2 Song

So I guess I quite like songs by Miracle of Sound.. seeing as I’ve posted the Commander Shepard one (I will go listen to that again) and the Dragon Age one.

Also I suppose I should review Portal2. Here it is: its awesome, go play it. NOW.

(warning spoilers in song if you’ve not played the game.)

Review: Dreadnought by Cherie Priest

So I reviewed the first book in this series, Boneshaker, here. And I confess to being in a little bit of a panic after reading it as the life of a character I quite liked hung in the balance. I did not realise at the time that Dreadnought did (sort of) follow on from Boneshaker, the blurb on the back while descriptive doesn’t actually give anything away. I was relieved when I realised it was going to resolve that situation.

The story follows nurse Mercy Lynch, as she makes her way across the US in order to see her father one last time before he dies.  It’s a very eventful journey, as she has to pass through the lines of the continuing civil war. And then, once on the Dreadnought, a heavily armoured train built by the North, she has to contend with spies and factions that are trying to prevent the train from reaching its destination and thus preventing her from seeing her father.

As soon as I picked up this book I couldn’t put it down (I couldn’t put Boneshaker down either), I read it all in two sessions over the weekend. Priest has a fantastic writing style The action is fast paced but is broken up in a way that allows both the main character and the reader to have a quick breath and reflect on what’s just happened. The clues to the whole messy situation are dropped throughout the book, so there’s no big info dump, and the reader learns everything as Mercy learns it. Actually if you’ve read Boneshaker first then you’ll put several things together before Mercy is able to. I had a lot of  ’Oh God’ moments as I realised just how bad things were/could get.  Especially when you find out what certain people are up to, and even though that situation is dealt with you know what people are like, you just know that someone somewhere at some point will try to do it again. (Bad idea, very very very bad idea! >_<)

The story builds a lot on the alternative history that Priest created in Boneshaker. Filling out the insanity that is the never ending civil war, and showing just how little people in the East know about what’s going on in the West. It also brings with it more steampunky goodness (as if the title Dreadnought doesn’t clue you in).

I didn’t find this book quite as tense as Boneshaker, but I think that may be more due to locations. Mercy isn’t trying to stumble through tight gas filled streets with fast running zombies like Briar is. As soon as I started reading I was content to follow Mercy through the story. She is calm under pressure, able to take charge where necessary and smart. I never questioned a decision she made and there wasn’t a moment where I was raging at the sheer stupidity of anything she did. I merely willed her on. Everything she does fits with her character. It’s nice to read a book where for once I can agree with all the decisions the main character makes. (I had a similar feeling with Briar as well.)

The only jarring thing I had was that my knowledge of American geography is not that great, it’s somewhat vague. And yes, sure I could have looked things up on Google Maps, but I was reading. The story was more important!

I have to say I’m quite glad that I decided to read this in two long sittings over the weekend and not on the way to work on the tube.

1) Because the book is awesome and I would have had to stop way to many times.

2) And this is totally a me thing, but I am not good with gore. Now with the main character being a nurse she has to stitch quite a few people up over the course of the book. And actually in a way it’s not that gory, compared with how some writers like to describe things. But I would like to point out that I am absolutely pathetic when it comes to gore, especially recently. I very nearly fainted on the tube a few months ago from reading one book (Vision pretty much went, and legs were barely holding me up, I had to get off the tube and wait for the next one to get some fresh air, felt off for the whole day.) it wasn’t quite that gory, but I couldn’t deal with main character trying to ignore her injury and it didn’t help that the tube was also very stuffy.  So yeah, if you’re like me, make sure you’re curled up in bed/on the sofa reading it.

3) Did I mention the book is really hard to put down?

Well worth reading and I’m glad I have Ganymede on the shelf ready to read.

Review: Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

So a friend lent me this book as he thought I might like it and well turns out he was right.

So Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Peter Grant has just finished his probationary period in “that mighty army for justice known to all right thinking people as the Metropolitan Police Service and to everyone else as the Filth”.  Grant is about to be transferred into the Case Progression Unit when he finds his whole world view changing with the discovery that magic, ghosts and gods/spirits are real. Working under Inspector Nightingale, the only wizard in the police force they must hunt down a particularly nasty spirit that is inciting murder and riots.

As I just said I really enjoyed this book. It is very well written, funny and somewhat creepy in places. I’m a Londoner born and bread, which is one of the reasons my friend said I should read it, as there are places mentioned that I know. But its not just the places, some of the things that Grant points out regarding the behaviour of people, Londoners vs Tourists ring true and really help the book to stand out.

I loved the fact that it actually took time for them to complete the major investigation (several months) and that in between that you get a glimpse of some of the things that Grant has to deal with when you need to police magical beings.  He’s also doing a lot of training at this point and learning how to do magic. I like the way magic is approached and explained in this book, it’s not actually that ‘ancient’ as magic started with Issac Newton. I love the way that magic and modern technology do not interact well at all. And also the way that Grant approaches everything with a very scientific mind. He thinks things through and doesn’t leap to conclusions, but he also doesn’t come across as too confident.

I was a little unsure at the beginning as the whole world of magic is brand new to Grant (and it’s a secret even amongst the police only a select few know what Nightingale does) and he questions it a tiny bit and wonders about it how it works scientifically. But for the moment part he just seems ok with his whole world view changing.  I decided however that I wouldn’t worry too much about it and that I would just get on with enjoying the story.

And enjoy the story I did.  Its a great book, enjoyable characters, good banter and full of very good ideas. Well worth reading!

A thoughtful Xmas gift

So I got quite a nice haul for Christmas, some DVD’s; the complete series of The Mysterious Cities of Gold ( I wonder how this bears up with what I remember from childhood, which to be honest isn’t very much), Season 5 of Doctor Who (still missing season 4 though, not quite sure how that happened). Nigel Slater Kitchen Diary’s, which on the one hand the layout seems somewhat awkward, but it should prove an interesting read, I do like his fairly straight forward recipes. Plus a few other bits and pieces, no knitting stuff but I did finally get a rotary cutter and cutting mat. So no excuses for me to not make that quilt set I got last year!!

Hubby, being the clever man that he is, also bought me the following book.

I must say I was a little dubious when I opened it and saw the cover. We’re both quite practice people we don’t believe in any of this stuff.  But when I had a flick through I realised what it was, a reference guide to what things mean, be they symbol, plant, animal etc.

As someone who tends to write fantasy based stories this is incredibly useful, especially if I want to have a play about with particular tropes!  So it should help me with my stories.

Hubby is clearly hoping that I will now no longer pester him with question like. ‘What plans represent protection?’ or ‘what does x creature represent?’ I can now simply pick up the book and have a look through it. (Which er may take a while there’s over 500 pages).  (I’ll probably still ask though )

I’m looking forward to finding the time to have a flick through it! Now I simply need to find shelf space for it.

 

 

Not quite 100 books in a year….

Really I should have done this post in between Christmas and New Year, but oh well. So this post is a continuation of the one I made back in May 100 books in a year.  I’ve just had a quick skim through that and am glad that I seem to have just beaten my prediction of 40 books in a year. I was almost a little behind so I did have a bit of a push to finish it. Actually if I hadn’t been trying to concentrate on getting my writing done I probably would have read quite a few more.  Its a tough balancing act, and I really wish I could read more, I’m starting to discover quite a lot of new authors that I want to at least try.

(These are almost in the order I read them, although I’ve put those in the same series next to each other and again have bolded the ones I really like.)

21.  Chew v1 – John Layman & Rob Gulliroy
22.  Chew v2
23.  Chew v3
24. Chew v4

A very strange set of graphic novels, about people who have very strange powers (the main character is a Cibopathic – gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats), a world where eating chicken is illegal, and strange alien plants that taste like chicken.  It is very odd, but VERY good. Well worth reading and I’m looking forward to reading the rest.

25. Guns Germs and Steel

A very very interesting book explaining why the world has turned out the way it has. It looks at various factors, such as advisability of plants and animals that could be domesticated. The local environment, disease etc. To give a scientific explanation to things like why Europe were the ones who invaded other countries and not say the Aztecs. Its not simply because some people are better than others.

26. Game of Thrones –  GRRM
27. A Clash of Kings – GRRM
28. A Storm of Swords Pt 1 –  GRRM
29. A Storm of Swords Pt 2  GRRM
30. A Feast for Crows – GRRM

Re-reading all of them so that I could refresh everything before I read A Dance with Dragons. Very good books, full of intrigue, political backstabbing oh and an a big bad evil thing coming from the North that no one believes in any more. Read them.

31. A Dance with Dragons – GRRM

Can I confess here that I actually haven’t yet read the very last 2 chapters? (So I suppose I shouldn’t technically count this here) I got to the big dramatic thing at the end and it broke me. I cried, for quite a long time, I think that’s the most upset I have ever been at events in a book.  (Even hubby didn’t tease me for once for getting soppy over a book!) I put the book down because I couldn’t face reading the last 2 chapters. I haven’t picked it up since then (October I think). I’m not sure why, I could probably cope now but… I don’t know I can’t bring myself to.

32. Changeless – Gail Carriger

Reviewed here.

33. Blameless – Gail Carriger

This did calm the crazed panic I felt after reading Changeless. Everything is alright in the world after all. I still think Soulless is my fave, but this did a lot to help expand the world, explain why the supernatural hate the Templars and why Pesto is a great tool for fighting the supernatural!

34. Amber  - Roger Zelazny (The second set of 5 books)

These 5 books focus on Merlin (Corwin’s son) and I have to say I didn’t enjoy these as much as the first five which follow Corwin.  These are slower paced and there is a LOT of talking, a lot of discussion while Merlin tries to figure out what is going on, and why people keep trying to kill him. (It’s very complex!) It is however a shame that Zelazny died before he could finish the last set of books as I am curious as to how everything was going to pan out. Theres no ‘neat’ ending like at the end of Corwin’s.

35. Boneshaker – Cherie Priest

Reviewed here.

36. Swords and Dark Magic – Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders

A collection of Sword and Sorcery themed short stories. Some aren’t so good, but there are quite a few very good ones, and some that really make you think, the three that stood out for me where the ones by Joe Abercrombie, Steven Erkison, Scott Lynch.

37. Zoo City – Lauren Beukes

A very strange but very well written book. I love the ideas behind this. When people commit a crime they gain an animal companion and along with that some kind of strange power. The main character is very flawed and the flashes you get from around the world to see how animaled peopled are treated helps gives the book a very dark feel. And in some ways this probably isn’t that much different to how people are currently treated in some places.  Well worth reading.

38. The Kill Crew – Joseph d’Lacey

A short novella that has a very strange and interesting take on the zombie apocalypse. Quite creepy and I’m not sure whether that was due more to the zombies or due to certain characters.

39. Lady of Light and Shadows –  C.L. Wilson

A somewhat guilty pleasure (mostly because I suspect hubby would roll his eyes at me due to it being a fantasy romance), I read the first one and really enjoyed it.  It picks up straight where the first one leaves off, moving the main characters relationship on, showing more of the politics, and also letting the reader in on just what nastiness the bad guy is up to.  Will be reading the rest at some point.

40. City of Dreams and Nightmares -Ian Whates

I liked this book, its kept making me think of Hive Cities in the 40k Universe, and to be fair it is set in a Hive City. I did feel at times that it wasn’t as dark and gritty as I’d like it to be (I’ve been spoilt by Abercrombie) but I enjoyed the ideas in it.

41. Book of Secrets – Chris Roberson

Hard to summarise this one, it has a slow build up.  At first Spencer Finch is just investigating a man as part of a story, but this soon leads him in to a much more complex story which oddly seems to tie in with several short stories about people called The Black Hand, left to him by his Grandfather.  I did quite enjoy this, especially when I got to read the short stories within the story, that was a nice touch. I was a little disappointed by the ending, but I’m not sure why. I think I wanted it to go on for a little longer. Its somewhat bitter sweet ending

42. Rivers of London – Ben Aaronovitch

As a Londoner I really enjoyed this book (I may well try and do a proper review of it).  Magic, mystical beings, ghosts  meet the Metropolitan police force, because even they have to abide by the Queen’s Laws. This is quite funny in places, commenting on quite a few things that Londoners are very aware of.  Well worth reading.

I will confess that it’s hard work writing these posts, I should really write these summaries as I read the books (yeah like thats going to happen).

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

So I realised that I should probably write some kind of retrospective for 2011 (all the cool kids seem to be doing it). I’m going to keep it short. (I also still need to do my what I got for xmas post too! Maybe tomorrow.)

So 2011 has been an alright year, there have been quite a few good things, made a lot of new friends via a certain bookshop. Where my writers support group is hosted, which is full of very nice and helpful people. (I don’t think I would have written nearly as much without them.)  I have managed to write a fair amount of my first novel, and have submitted a short story for a collection. Whether it will go anywhere is another matter entirely but I’m happy that I’ve actually tried to submit something at the moment.

I have also somehow found myself amongst a group of very awesome ladies at The Girls Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse.  (I really need to do some more posts! – But it has given me a rough idea for a new apocalypse themed story which is great. )

I went to my first ever RP convention and had a fab, if exhausting time. (3 games a day for 3 days will do that for you.)  And Season 1 of Game of Thrones was finally aired (fangirl sqee here) and was beautiful.

However there have been some continuing things that we (me and hubby) need to change but cant do a lot about at the moment. So I can only hope that 2012 will bring about some better news and help us make those changes.  We have a big thing to sort out around Feb, which is making me nervous, but if all goes to plan (its not in our hands) we should hopefully be able to breath easier after that.

I am again going to an RP convention, have tickets for some 2012 Olympic events. I will hopefully finish off my novel and get a few short stories done.  I also have plans to potentially go to a few writing based conventions too.  There’s the big fight against the big bad coming up in our long running (2 years) Exalted Campaign plus Mass Effect 3 to look forward to.

So its looking like it will be a busy year!

Happy New Year!!  Hope you all have a great 2012.

RPG books – a thing of beauty

 

So me and hubby tidied some of our shelves up finally. Bottom shelf on the left are my knitting/sewing books then a few cooking books and then comics. Most of those are hubby’s Deadpool ones.

And then there’s the shelf above. Our roleplaying books.  We have come to the decision that we pretty much now own every game we need, as we have something for every genre we care about. There are a few books we still need to get as add on for core games, but a fair few of those (mostly for nWoD) are PDFs. So here’s the list, quite a few of these appear multiple times, as they are designed to cover a few genre’s depending on how the game is played:

• Cyberpunk
• Shadowrun
• Fantasy
• Exalted (Mythic Fantasy)
• Fantasy Craft (High Fantasy)
• Victorian (With potential Steampunk elements)
• Genreless
• GURPS
• World of Darkness: Mirrors
• Gothic Horror
• World of Darkness
• Vampire
• Horror
• Little Fears
• Promethean
• Licensed Games
• • Buffy
  • Doctor Who
  • Dying Earth
  • Game of Thrones
• Sci-Fi
• Traveller
• Space Fantasy
• Black Crusade (Dark Space Fantasy)
• Dark Heresy (Investigatory Dark Space Fantasy)
• Deathwatch (Military Space Fantasy)
• Empire of Dust (Military Space Fantasy)
• Fading Suns
• Rogue Trader (Dark Space Fantasy)
• Superhero
• Icons
• Sword&Sworcery
• Legend
• Elric
• Exalted (When playing as Mortals)
• Urban Fantasy
• Shadowrun
• World of Darkness
• Wuxia
• Qin

(We are missing a pulp game, but a friend of ours already owns Savage Worlds so we’re covered for this, and can always pick it up one day.) (This list also doesn’t include a few we have as PDFs like Supernatural.)

So yes, looking at that list we do seem to have an awful lot of Space Fantasy, but er quite a few of those are actually in the same setting (Black Crusade, Dark Heresy, Deathwatch, Rogue Trader) they just cover different things! In one your disposable agents trying to protect humanity by any means necessary. Another you are the East India Company crossed with original series Star Trek (no prime directive for you!). Then there’s the super-soldiers and finally there’s the one in which you can play any of the others but you’re evvvviiiiiilllll!

You might note that over a third of that shelf is comprised of Exalted books, that is because a) Exalted is awesome and b) we’ve been in a campaign of it for over two years.  I do love some Exalted and there are a lot of different way to play it.

There are some books that aren’t in that above list, that is because I’ve had to put them elsewhere as they don’t fit on the shelf. They’re also ones we don’t really need as they’re older editions or books that don’t work. (Stargate I’m looking at you, a great game to run, but my goodness that book is laid out badly! If I ever run it again I will be using World of Darkness.) Still there’s a few that we don’t really need and I have to figure out what to do with, like 1st Ed Lunars (an Exalted Core book) it’s not that good. 3rd ed D&D, 3.5 was better and anyway I’m not really a fan of D&D, or d20 Fading Suns, I much preferred FS 2nd Ed.

 

 

Woman in Deathwatch

or rather the lack of.

Let me first make this clear, this is not some kind of rant about Space Marines and how its sexist that they’re all male in the 40k Universe. (At least I really hope it doesn’t come across that way.)  Its not something I get my knickers in a twist about, because I enjoy the  Warhammer 40k setting. This is more a post about about an oddity in the Deathwatch rule book.

The tagline for the setting is: “In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war.”

Its a terribly over blow satirical setting, a black comedy based on heavy metal album covers (to quote my husband.)  Its very silly, and whenever we have played Dark Heresy (where you play Inquisitorial acolytes) we tend to ham it up quite a bit, rolling around with shotguns, flame-throwers and as many grenades as you can carry. You shot first and ask questions later, everyone’s a hieratic. (Its a nasty setting, your essentially playing catholic space nazi’s, it’s not pleasant, you have to be over the top with it.)

So getting back to the point at hand, Deathwatch, the RPG in which you play Space Marines. They are all male, there never has been there never will be a female Space Marine.

In the setting this is explained thus: The Emperor, when he walked the Earth, before he ascended the golden throne, was male. He ‘functionally’ cloned himself making Primarchs. Who because they have his DNA are also male. Space Marines are based of Primarch DNA, whis is male DNA. Which is why they are all male. This may be a bit of a silly explanation, its does make it somewhat sexist, but Space Marines are based of Medieval Monastic and Knightly Orders, which funnily enough they were male and this is the feel the 40k universe is going for.  Here are some pictures:

Black Templar/Knight Templar – note the Maltese cross

  

(Black Templare from here, Knight Templar from here)

Dark Angels/A Monk (Cadfael – which is an awesome series) -look at those robes.

 

(Dark Angel from here)

Yes ok the Dark Angel is looking a little more aggressive…

There is however a female equivalent.  Sister’s of Battle. While they are human, as opposed to genetically engineered super soldiers, they are the pinnicle of what a human can be.  The stomp around in power armour (like a Space Marine) and wield bolt guns (like a space marine) and flame throws (like certain chapters of Space Marines, in fact they use them even more, its all about the purging!!) So they don’t live as long a Space Marine, they aren’t as physically strong, they don’t heal as fast, nor do they spit acid, eat peoples brains to get their memories, hibernate (Space Marines aren’t quite human). However they have the same level of equipment, they have the same security clearance, the same rank. Oh and they get the incredibly powerful faith powers, they are literally shielded from everything by their faith. Powerful Battle Sisters can banish demons.  They are in fact based on Nuns (surprise, surprise – can you feel the medieval vibe going on here).

Sister of Battle/A Nun

 

Saint Scholastica, who lived from 480 to 547 A.D., is the patron saint of nuns. Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Look thats metal armour coated in leather,so that it can be embroidered, is that not way cooler than a Space Marines? Ok so those two pictures don’t compare quite as well (like the Dark Angel and Cadfael) Nun’s didn’t walk around in heavy armour. But Sisters of Battle kick some serious ass.

Anyway finally onto the point of this blog post. (I just needed to explain some of the background stuff first.)

Hubby has been reading through Deathwatch (he’s good like reading the RPG books, I just buy them and look at them), and he noticed something a bit strange.

Deathwatch, in the 40k setting, is a Space Marine Chapter that was set up primarily to protect the Imperium from the Alien menace. Deathwatch the RPG is therefore based on this chapter, and so your expected to play a Space Marine because its a Space Marine game.

However, I personally prefer to play female characters, as I’m sure a lot of women tend to do. This therefore presents something of a problem. If you have a female player in your group and they want to play a female character in the game, how do you handle it in Deathwatch?  There are several suggestions for how to do this, for example you could play an Assassin, an Inquisitor, a Sister of Battle or some kind of Chapter Lieutenant (because there aren’t that many Space Marines, so you’d probably be a pilot or a heavy weapons specialist – however you have the potential to be more powerful and operating at the same level with the other three, as you can perform functions that Space Marines can’t – you really think a man in power armour can stealth?).

What is odd however, is that this is not mentioned in the book. It is implied occasionally,that you could a play a non-Space Marine. The game is about the Brotherhood between the Space Marines, and it does mention that playing a non-Space Marine will mean you’re not part of this brotherhood. But it never really brings up the fact that anyone who wants to play a female character could play a non-Space Marine.

Now you could argue that maybe in this day and age they didn’t feel the need to mention it. That maybe everyone can be all ‘grown up’ about this sort of thing. However it is something that could have been placed as a sidebar in the GM section, just noting that if someone would like a non-male character there are options, as opposed to kind of hinting at that. (For example most of the example inquisitors given in the NPC section are female.)

Perhaps we’re (me and hubby) are too used to White Wolf games, which do their best to be inclusive, for all genders, sexuality and races, they are filled with sidebars. And I know Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader and Deathwatch aren’t the same kind of game as say Shadowrun, which uses different fantasy races (orks, elves etc) to represent human races and thus deal with social issues, like racism in game. Which is fine, as I don’t expect that from the 40k ‘verse. I expect horrible situations where generally the only solution is lots of grenades, and flame throwers.

However this kind of thing, is generally what a side bar is for. To point something out that doesn’t fit with the main body of text, to make people aware of something they might wish to consider.

Which is not done here.  Was this forgotten? Did they think they didn’t need to address it because it was ‘obvious’ to those that were writing it and so it should be ‘obvious’ to everyone else? (Sure some people will consider this as an option, but there are people out there, who if something if something isn’t explicitly stated, will never consider it as an option.) Or did they simply neglect to even think about it?

I don’t know. I’d like to think that they simply thought it wasn’t necessary because we live in progressive times, but who can say.

So, moving on from that little oddity, what are the options to run Deathwatch if someone wants to play a female character?

• Ignore the canon and allow female Space Marines, they’re functionally the same just female – careful about mentioning this online, people will jump down your throat about breaking the canon.
• Be a dick and say ‘Deathwatch is a Space Marine game, they are male, and I don’t like people playing characters who are a different sex, so no female players.’
• Think outside the box and allow the player to play a female Assassin/Inquisitor/Sister of Battle as mentioned above.
• Or one idea my husband has had is to run the game where everyone is a Sister of Battle. But they’re just ‘fanatical nuns with flame-throwers’ I hear you cry. That’s because they haven’t had as much written about them as Space Marines and so don’t have have as much characterisation.