Further ramblings of a self-made pauper

( Columbina, Columbine, Mysterioso, Serenissima. )



This picture has had a gestation period of about three years. I drew the initial sketch shortly after we ran NWO: Rome and filled it out before scanning it. Then the outline lay fallow for some months because I could not find a background for it. nyarbaggytep came to my rescue by allowing me the use of one of her Venice photographs, showing a quiet little backwater somewhere in the labyrinth of Venice. Then nothing happened for a while longer through a combination of inertia and technical failure. My ancient ArtPad would not work on my most recent motherboard, so it stalled again.

Now it is fixed and for some reason, over this weekend, I have found the enthusiasm and creative drive to finish the picture. It is not quite what I envisaged when I started out all that time ago, and it is a less than accomplished mishmash of techniques, but seeing as all apart from the initial out line sketch has been done with a mouse, a keyboard and an ArtPad, I am not too displeased with the result.

One of the days, I may post up the sequence of development and variations that the picture went through to get to this.

A little later in the day than I had hoped - largely on account of the time it took to upload the pics (torrenting at the same time, see)- here is the final post I intend to make concerning NWO: Grand Tribunal.

It has been a long time coming. I have lost track of when we started, but I think my involvement goes back six years. I joined the writing team for Thebes, and despite questioning my sanity every time since, have stuck with it to the end. Suddenly I'm not quite sure what to do; I don't have to worry about deadlines, I don't have to worry about quality and I don't have to worry about continuity.

It's been a ride and a half; there have been ups and downs, crises major and minor, successes, failures, flanges and moments of exceptional brilliance.

I am glad I was involved, I'm glad we finished it, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I am very glad it's over. Ladies and Gentlemen, for the very last time, I give you New World Order Games. I challenge anyone to do what we have done over the course of five events and six and a half years. I am not expecting any takers.

Good night, and thanks for the memories.


The Archmage Marain ex Tremere, First of the Conclave and Primus Tremere swings round after delivering the killing blow to the discredited Archmage Palatine ex Bonisagus, erstwhile First Magus of the Order of Hermes.

Registered users can go here for a random selection of my pictures from the event.

It occurs to me that a week from now, the beast will either be dead or coughing up blood in its final death spasms. For all the grumbling I've done over the past few months, a little bit of me feels sad at the prospect. It has been a long journey, starting with peering over colonel_maxim's shoulder at a brief he was struggling with for NWO Levant, and thinking that it was something I could help with. A page and a half later and I was crewing for the event, and shortly thereafter, on the writing team for NWO Thebes, Transylvania, Rome and now the Grand Tribunal. It's been a long, long haul and the events have grown more complex as they progressed with awful inevitability towards the Fourth Crusade in 1204.

By and large I think we've done well. Perhaps things could have gone better at NWO Transylvania, but while the team fretted, the players seemed not to notice and enjoyed themselves. Rome far surpassed expectations, and I hope that what we have written for our final outing will do that justice and at least equal it even if we cannot out do it (although at this stage, I believe we will).

It is surprising simultaneously both how few plot lines have survived the sequence intact, and how many others have. This isn't a contradiction, but it is symptomatic of how the games morph and evolve as player interaction twists the plans of the writers over a weekend, leaving plot strands dangling where they should not, and unearthing avenues for inspection and further exploration that were previously closed. That is the bit that remains exciting and challenging.

This time next week, anyone who is at the event, and who is interested will get to find out in the debrief precisely what has eluded them over the sequence, and we shall all kick back with a beer or two and relax.

And then we shall keep it all in our memories and forget the sheer bloody hard work of it all.

Until some one says "I have an idea..." at which point he (or she) will be pounced upon without mercy. I can't do this again, wistful reminiscence not withstanding.