#Dr. Marcel de Lara

[eod-agent-13-12]

The Late Night Embers

After an attack by a Zoraxis operative and a breakdown, Agent Bluenix (@brain-is-a-toaster) deals with Agent 13-12's stay in the recovery wing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Smitten, what happened?"

Agent Smitten turned to Typhoon as he sat on the chairs outside.

"It was brown. Her blood is brown, Typhoon."

The younger agent's fist clenched, choosing to sit down beside him. "How did they... How did that happen?"

"Candlelight happened." He took a few breaths, staring out into the hallway.

Typhoon remained silent, staring at the older agent's heavy sighs.

"I was gone for a mission and this happened. It's... I don't know anymore. How's everyone?"

"Not good, if I'll be honest. I'm not going to see 13. Last time was rough. Too much."

He nodded, staring at the closed door, which soon opened to reveal Dr. Marcel. Some medical jargon was exchanged before Smitten was allowed inside.

"Flor... Are you in pain?" He sat beside her in the bed, passing a keychain with three buttons. The yellow light lit up after a few seconds. "I suppose you're in distress."

He refuses to look at them, trying not to remember the incident. "Here. Trevor sent a letter."

The envelope was soon opened and passed to him with TK. "They're too busy. But hey. At least you can threaten them with a hug cage when you get better." He chuckled, handing a basket to them. "From them. They seemed really worried about you."

The green light lit up immediately.

Agent Smitten chuckled, but turned his back on them like Orpheus leaving the underworld.

They reached out their hand, him accepting so their hands intertwined.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hello? Bluenix? Are you still here?" Smitten knocked on the door of the bathroom after visiting hours passed. "Bluenix? Would you like to visit Flor tomorrow morning?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Agent Typhoon was carrying the report, choosing to bring them to Handler Blue (@blueorchid-95) tomorrow. She's currently preoccupied with her agent (@agent--shadow). His handler had been informed, now currently trying to stop a certain Crane from heading over in worry.

He's so exhausted, not only from his assignments in college or even the missions but emotionally. His friend fellow agent (@agentwraith) was just injured and now his universe's Agent Phoenix?

What's next? He'd rather not think about that right now.

His feet soon wandered to a the bundle of boxes as he looked for the oh so familiar white.

[wyvchard]

Character Voice Tag

Thank you, @paeliae-occasionally

My line: What do you want from me?

Florian / 13-12: What is it?

Ameri / Smitten: Is there something you need?

Dr. Marcel: ... What is it this time?

Kae, for most people: How may I help you?

Johannes, for most people: Good (time of day), how can I be of service?

Lia: Please state your purpose so I can help you.

Kazuya (might write about him soon): Alright. What did I do to annoy you this time and what are the consequences?

Your line: So cute! I feel like I'm dying of cuteness...

Tags (no pressure)

@phoenix-and-found-family, @the-one-and-only-043, @ghostlystarwanderer, @heycerulean

(Anyone who wants to join, please do)

[alvaromatias1000]

Buika: Síntese e Sinergias

Kathleen M. Vernon, no livro A Companion to Pedro Almodóvar (First Edition. Edited by Marvin D’Lugo and Kathleen M. Vernon. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published; 2013), narra: em 2010, Chavela Vargas e Buika foram escolhidas pela rede de rádio pública dos EUA, NPR, como duas cantoras entre as 50 Grandes Vozes do Mundo.

O site da NPR explica: “elas fizeram sua marca internacionalmente ao longo da história” (Blair 2010). O emparelhamento de Vargas com uma cantora cerca de cinquenta anos mais jovem, em uma lista diversificada [confira abaixo], que varia de Maria Callas e Nat King Cole para Celia Cruz e Youssou N’Dour (All 50 Great Voices A-Z), não é coincidência. O segmento do programa NPR dedicado a “Buika: The Voice of Freedom”, enfatizando as origens de sua voz distinta em sua singular história de vida, também destaca sua relação com Vargas, cimentada no CD da cantora mais jovem de 2009, El último trago, em grande parte dedicado a covers dos trabalhos de Vargas. Além da peça da NPR, outros artigos chamam a atenção para o papel de Vargas como mentora ou inspiradora.

Um artigo de 2010 no New York Times, por ocasião da turnê americana da cantora espanhola cita Vargas. Ela fala com aprovação de sua pretensa protegida: “Buika realmente se desenvolveu como cantora… Ela adicionou as influências do flamenco e outros gêneros para minhas músicas, mas a aspereza rouca em sua voz quando ela canta me lembra de mim mesmo” (Rohter 2010).

Além das afinidades musicais, Vargas, com sua sexualidade lésbica aberta e de sucesso em sua cultura adotiva outsider, oferece um ponto de referência para a Buika declaradamente bissexual e ultra “cosmopolita” (Byram; 2010) na projeção de um novo paradigma de sensibilidade musical latina global.

Apenas a terceira cantora a aparecer na tela como ela mesma, em um filme de Almodóvar, seguindo o duo Vargas e Veloso, Buika executa duas músicas em La piel que habito. Ambas aludem a sua trajetória de carreira, mostrando sua versatilidade, enquanto ancora um momento chave reunindo várias vertentes na trama. O cenário é um casamento na Galiza, com a presença do Dr. Ledgard, juntamente com a sua filha de vinte anos, Norma, ainda se recuperando anos depois dos efeitos da morte violenta de sua mãe.

O primeiro número da cantora é uma versão da Lara da canção ranchera, “Se me hizo fácil”, outra pedra de toque do repertório de Chavela Vargas, dado um remake up-tempo como um número de dança de jazz latino.

As letras originais com sua rejeição enfática de um amante feminino infiel (“Me hizo fácil / borrar de mi memoria / a esa mujer a quien yo amaba tanto” – foi fácil para mim / apagar da minha memória / aquela mulher que eu tanto amava) servir às imagens públicas de ambos os gêneros de Vargas e Buika. Elas incluíram esta versão em seu CD de 2009. Com sua coda de dança estendida, o desempenho da música traz os convidados do casamento a seus pés, proporcionando distração e cobertura para Norma sair para o jardim, onde ela será estuprada, ou quase estuprada, por Vicente (Jan Cornet), pondo assim em movimento o plano de Ledgard para a vingança cirúrgica.

Segue-se uma versão simples e sem adornos da música “Por el amor de amar” com acompanhamento solo de piano, ouvido pela última vez em português ao ser cantado pela criança Norma. Conforme relatado em flashback pela governanta Marília (Marisa Paredes), a mãe da menina pulou para a morte quando a canção, que a mãe tinha ensinou a sua filha em tempos passados, e mais felizes, despertou-a de um coma induzido por drogas para dormir enquanto se recuperava de queimaduras graves sofridas em um acidente de carro. Embora nenhum dos dois Ledgard nem Norma parecem reconhecer sua ligação com o passado, a música lembra o espectador da trágica história da família e nos alerta para a garota ainda estar frágil. Também faz referência à conexão brasileira do filme, desta vez em forma musical.

Semelhante ao caso de “Volver“, a música entrelaça genealogia familiar com histórias culturais mais amplas. Introduzido pela primeira vez no filme de 1961 Os Bandeirantes / The Pioneers, pelo diretor francês Marcel Camus, mais conhecido por Orfeu negro / Black Orfeu (1959), a canção, cantada por Ellen de Lima, tornou-se um sucesso na época. A versão de Buika preserva o lirismo infantil da melodia de menor importância. Com o seu melancólico tom introspectivo e afetado, parece uma escolha improvável para uma recepção de casamento e parece mais direcionada para os espectadores do que aos convidados na tela.

All 50 Great Voices: A-Z

Hear and read stories about each of the 50 vocalists profiled in our special series. You can also download the podcast, explore more than 100 nominations and find out more about the series.

Sezen Aksu: The Voice Of Istanbul

Biggie Smalls: The Voice That Influenced A Generation

Asha Bhosle: The Voice Of Bollywood And More

Bjork: A Celestial Voice

Dennis Brown: The ‘Crown Prince’ Of Reggae

Buika: The Voice Of Freedom

Montserrat Caballe: A Voice Of Passionate Grandeur

Maria Callas: Voice Of Perfect Imperfection

Enrico Caruso, And Confessions Of An Operaholic

Twinkie Clark: Riffing On Gospel

Radmilla Cody: Two Cultures, One Voice

Nat King Cole: An Incandescent Voice

Celia Cruz: The Voice From Havana

Camaron De La Isla: The Voice Of Flamenco

Sandy Denny: Mercurial Queen Of British Folk Rock

Placido Domingo: The Spellbinding Voice Of A Titan Tenor

Fairuz: Lebanon’s Voice Of Hope

Ella Fitzgerald: America’s First Lady Of Song

Carlos Gardel: Argentina’s Tango Maestro

Donny Hathaway: Neglected Heart Of Soul

The Many Voices Of Lauryn Hill

Billie Holiday: Emotional Power Through Song

Howlin’ Wolf: Booming Voice Of The Blues

Iggy Pop: The Voice As Weapon

Mahalia Jackson: Voice Of The Civil Rights Movement

George Jones: The Voice Of Heartbreak

Janis Joplin: The Queen Of Rock

Israel Kamakawiwo’ole: The Voice Of Hawaii

Khaled: The King Of Rai

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: The Voice Of Pakistan

Umm Kulthum: ‘The Lady’ Of Cairo

John McCormack: The Charming Irish Tenor

Lydia Mendoza: The First Lady Of Tejano

Freddie Mercury: Rock ‘N’ Roll’s Humble Showman

Meredith Monk: A Voice For All Time

Youssou N’Dour: The Voice Of Senegal

Roy Orbison: A Great Voice, A Lonely Sound

Robert Plant: Born In England; Made In America

Esma Redzepova: ‘Queen Of The Gypsies’

Dianne Reeves: A Jazz Voice With Pop Sensibilities

Elis Regina: The Feeling Between The Notes

Amalia Rodrigues: The Voice Of Extreme Expression

Yossele Rosenblatt: The Cantor With The Heavenly Voice

Mohammad Reza Shajarian: Protest Through Poetry

Irma Thomas: The Soul Queen Of New Orleans

Luther Vandross: The Velvet Voice

Chavela Vargas: The Voice Of Triumph

Kitty Wells: The Queen Of Country Music

Jackie Wilson: The Singer And The Showman

Ahmad Zahir: The Voice Of The Golden Years

Buika: Síntese e Sinergias publicado primeiro em https://fernandonogueiracosta.wordpress.com

[eod-agent-13-12]

*As if fate was pulling a cruel joke, Dr. Marcel, 13-12's doctor, came to see the scene and immediately presses a button in his pocket to call some nurses.

*The movement was so subtle that only Blue noticed it. It seems like he had quite the experience calling nurses in secret, which given the fact that he's a Phoenix's doctor, is not surprising.

"... What happened here?"

*His voice was careful, measured. As if he gets patients lashing out. Shadow can tell he's not angry, only trying to understand. He offers a hand to Blue to help her up.

@blueorchid-95 @eod-agent-13-12 @agentwraith @brain-is-a-toaster I too wanted to establish A Moment™ so this is zooming in on Shadow's room for a bit.

Her eyes fluttered awake to bright lights, beeping machines, and a concerningly sterile smell. She tried to sit up, but collapsed onto her back when waves of pain shot through her body at the motion. What was going on? Where was she?

Tilting her head to the side she looked for anyone in the room with her, "H- hello?" Her voice was raspy, as if it hadn't been used in a while.

[cardboardedison]

Meaningful Decisions: Bruno Cathala on Design Choices in Kingdomino

In our Meaningful Decisions series, we ask designers about the design choices they made while creating their games, and what lessons other designers can take away from those decisions.

In this edition, we talk with Bruno Cathala, the designer of the Spiel des Jahres winner Kingdomino, about putting restrictions on players, variable turn order, rule changes for different player counts, and more.  

In Kingdomino, players select tiles using a drafting system that makes players weigh a tradeoff between getting a better tile now versus getting better drafting position next round. Where did this system come from? What other aspects of the design rely on it for the game to work as a whole?

This system is one example of what I call a “blessing in disguise.” In my games, very often, when I’m offering something very good to one player in the short term, he will pay a kind of counterpart. This is the case here: If you choose to draft the best domino, on the next turn, you will have no choice at all, just having to accept what other players don’t want. This kind of mechanism really helps to get a good balance.

One other aspect which is important in the game, is the distribution of different land categories. You have a lot of wheat fields and forests, but few crowns inside them. You have few gold mines or swamps, but many more crowns inside. And as far as points are, at the end, the result of multiplying the number of spaces by the number of crowns, you will be able to get a satisfying number of victory points, never mind the category of land you chose at the beginning.

Do games that allow players to vary turn order have any particular design considerations or pitfalls to avoid?

I like systems that break the basic “clockwise turn sequence” because it avoids having to always play after the same player. If the player is not very good, it gives you an advantage, and when it’s a very good player, you have a disadvantage. The counterpart can be increasing downtime, when you go first on one round, and last on the next one.

Players in Kingdomino must build their kingdom within a tight, five-by-five grid. This forces players to plan ahead or risk being unable to place a tile later on. Did the game always restrict players to that five-by-five grid, and what was it about that restriction that made you decide to use it?

In a game as simple as Kingdomino, tension comes from restrictions: If you were in a position to always place your tiles the way you want, you would lose some tension in the game. That’s the reason why I introduced two restrictions: You must be connected with your castle and/or to the same color, and you must stay in a 5x5 grid. Two simple restrictions which create a tension that increases throughout the game.

Also, it’s a way to introduce a little more interaction between the players. If I’m playing before you, I will make my choice analyzing what is good for me, and what could be absolutely bad for you. (Maybe I can force you to discard one tile because you have no solution.)

My first prototype, to validate the concept, was on a 4x4 grid, with eight dominoes per player. It was nice, but not long enough. So I increased it to 12 dominoes. At first, there was no castle, and players had to fulfill a 4x6 grid. But it was confusing for some of them. That’s the reason why Sébastien Pauchon (Jaipur), who is a friend and a talented game designer, suggested to me to add the castle tile, allowing players to play on a 5x5 grid.

How do you know if a particular restriction on players will be fun or just frustrating?

First of all, my personal theory is that frustration is the main mechanism which leads to games you want to play again and again. After your first game, if you have absolutely no frustration, you don’t want to play again. If frustration is too high, same: You don’t want to play again.

So I try to find a good level, which is not easy, because we all have our own frustration limits. For example, for some players, rolling a die and having no chance to change the result is too frustrating.

Then I have to say that I’m designing my games… for myself! I’m always working on the game I want to play. So the final balance for frustration is the one which is satisfying to me.

I consider a game designer to be someone who shows a path and then tries to convince people to follow him in that direction.

In the two-player version of Kingdomino, each player uses two pawns instead of one. This means players can and should plan further ahead each round. How did the rules for the two-player game come together?

This change to the rules was necessary to keep some tension during the choice of dominos with fewer players. Imagine that players have only one pawn. Selection would have been very automatic. No tension at all. So it would have been uninteresting.

As you know, I’m really a fan of two-player games. I myself play a lot at only two players. So I wanted the game to be interesting for two. I don’t like when it’s written “for 2 to X players” on the box, but with the game being very flat at two players.

So… It seemed to me that playing with two pawns could be a good solution. This was confirmed the first time I tried it.

And moreover, at two players, you can play on a 7x7 grid, using all the tiles, which is probably my favorite configuration.

When a game has to change some rules for certain player counts, how do you decide how different the game should be when it is played with that many players?

I don’t really care to have exactly the same game experience depending on the number of players. The thing which matters for me is to create the best game experience possible, never mind how many players you are. So, to keep that interesting game experience, I have no problem making the changes which seem necessary to me.

Cardboard Edison is supported by our patrons on Patreon.

ADVISERS: Rob Greanias, Peter C. Hayward, Aaron Vanderbeek SENIOR INVENTORS: Steven Cole, John du Bois, Chris and Kathy Keane (The Drs. Keane), Joshua J. Mills, Marcel Perro, Behrooz Shahriari, Shoot Again Games JUNIOR INVENTORS: Ryan Abrams, Joshua Buergel, Luis Lara, Neil Roberts, Jay Treat ASSOCIATES: Stephen B Davies, Adrienne Ezell, Marcus Howell, Thiago Jabuonski, Samuel Lees, Doug Levandowski, Nathan Miller, Mike Sette, Matt Wolfe APPRENTICES: Cardboard Fortress Games, Kiva Fecteau, Guz Forster, Scott Gottreu, Aaron Lim, Scott Martel Jr., James Meyers, Tony Miller, The Nerd Nighters, Matthew Nguyen, Marcus Ross, Rosco Schock, VickieGames, Lock Watson, White Wizard Games

[noautomatico]

DIVERSIFICACIONES. ENCUENTRO DE ESPACIOS DE ARTE EN MÉXICO. NoAutomático. Dos mesas de diálogo se llevan acabo dentro de un mismo tema, pensar los conceptos de imaginario, centralización, independencia, autogestión, entre otros, desde la práctica artística -especialmente sobre los espacios de artistas-, extendiendo el tema a lo social. Se pretende un diálogo que inicie con los participantes, para después ampliarse entre los asistentes y generar un registro colectivo de opiniones sobre el tema. * 11:00am a 1:00pm > ESTRATEGIAS PARA LA DIVERSIFICACIÓN.   ¿Desde cuál enfoque pensar la centralización? ¿Desde lo histórico-social, el individuo y su imaginario identitario, la economía de mercado? ¿Cómo romper con el modelo centralista de la nación, haciendo énfasis en el quehacer artístico? ¿Son las prácticas artísticas autogestivas una manera de hacerle frente al paradigma instituido? * 3:00pm a 5:00pm > TIPOLOGÍAS DE ESPACIOS DE ARTE EN MÉXICO. ¿Cómo entender los conceptos de independencia y alternativo? ¿Un espacio para la discusión del arte contemporáneo debe ser físico? ¿Cuándo transgredir las formas establecidas? Participantes: Eduardo Abaroa y Sofía Táboas (Temístocles 44), Daniel Aguilar Rubalcaba (Bikini Wax EPS), Óscar Formacio (Error), Federico Martínez Montoya (Museo Arte Contemporáneo Ecatepec), Mónica Ramírez Callo (Lateral), Andrew Roberts (Deslave) y Christian Gómez (PAC), Abril Zales (La Cresta), Daniel Martínez, Francisco Benítez y Marcel del Castillo (ElExpendio), Paola Livas (Deadline), Ana Fernanda Cadena (Espacio En Blanco), Nico de León y Alejandro Gómez (El Taller 3120) Tetei Cornejo y Luis Puente (Leun'un Arte Habitación), Carlos Lara y José de Sancristóbal (Malteada La Vida) SÁBADO 1 DE JUNIO, 2019. 11:00am a 01:00pm 03:00pm a 05:00pm. AUDITORIO MUSEO DEL NORESTE Dr. José Ma. Coss 445. Centro de Monterrey, NL. 64000 ENTRADA LIBRE DIVERSIFICACIONES. ENCUENTRO DE ESPACIOS DE ARTE EN MÉXICO es una actividad del programa DESPLAZANDO EL CENTRO. APUNTES SOBRE DISIDENCIAS, apoyado por el Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes.

[wyvchard]

*Dr. M de Lara's office.

He was answering e-mails when Greave's e-mail arrived.

"It actually worked." He sighs in relief as he reads the e-mail carefully.

043 noticed that 13-12 hasn't visited their room in the hospital for a while.

It took a day or two but a letter with a gift basket arrived in their room.

The letter was sealed, no return address but it's clearly written by 13-12.

043,

Guess who got banned from travel for a few days? Apparently, I'm "under investigation" for some kind of fire.

... I was with you that day.

I can tell Dr. de Lara is pulling some things to keep me resting. Something about "physically okay but not great" and "using paperwork to escape". So yeah, that's how my days are going.

Hope you're recovering well. I got someone to send this gift basket in my behalf. I hope you don't get sick of all the rice.

BTW, their Reggie knows we lived. I hope he visits soon.

Hoping to get out of this "vacation" soon enough,

13-12

043 notices another envelope in the gift basket. There was a sentence on the back of the envelope.

'To whoever is treating 043, I need a bit of help.'

[This is the content of the envelope:

Good... whatever time of day or night this letter gets to you or if it arrived at all,

This is 13-12's doctor. I'm just writing to you as I am at the end of my rope.

I'm merely taking a shot in the dark but I'm pretty sure you know what this is about. I don't know if I'm breaking any privacy laws with this. Feel free to tell me off.

I'm still relatively new to this, compared to the rest of my family. Honestly, I'd rather be in a family reunion while everyone is arguing which medical specialty is the most difficult than deal with this right now.

My contact details are in the second page. I hope these pagers work across worlds and we can establish contact.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Dr. M de Lara]

(Yay, new OC to interact with.)

[043 had actually just been wondering about their friend when Greaves stalked into the room.]

You have a delivery.

Oh! What is it?

Rice, and two letters. One was addressed to me, though I haven't opened it yet.

Ooooh~ Rice! Gimme!

[Greaves sighs fondly, and hands them the gift basket (minus his letter) and leaves.]

...Oh, dear. [They sigh.] Oh, for fucks sake. That's ridiculous, honestly... But you don't rest, so I s'pose that's what you get, 13.

[They open up one of the containers and begin wolfing it.]

MEANWHILE, IN GREAVES'S OFFICE...

Hm. Well, that's certainly something. I feel sorry for you, you've got to deal with a Phoenix that hates medical care, it seems...

Well, I might as well try it.

[E-MAIL SENT.]

______________END TRANSMISSION_______________

[artsvark]

Nominees for 53rd Fleur du Cap Awards announced

The Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards will take place on Sunday, 18 March at 17:30 at the Baxter Theatre Centre in Cape Town.

These annual awards are regarded amongst the most valued and prestigious in the South African performing arts industry. This year’s ceremony will take place on Sunday, 18 March at 17:30 at the Baxter Theatre Centre in Cape Town and promises to be an “Elegantly Extravagant” evening.

The nominees in the various categories are, in alphabetical order:BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEAD ACTOR IN A PLAY

André Roothman in Die Nag van Legio as Dogoman

Charlton George in Marat/Sade as Jean-Paul Marat

Craig Morris in Tartuffe as Tartuffe/Madame Pernelle

Ephraim Gordon in Die Dans van die Watermeid as Mills

Marty Kintu in Topdog/Underdog as Lincoln

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEAD ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Buhle Ngaba in What Remains as The Student

Charmaine Weir-Smith in Suddenly the Storm as Shanell

Faniswa Yisa in What Remains as The Archeologist

Tinarie van Wyk Loots in Hemelruim as Mariaan

Tinarie van Wyk Loots in Marat/Sade as Charlotte Corday

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A PLAY

Bongile Mantsai in Marat/Sade as Duperret

Darren Araujo in Shakespeare in Love as Henslowe, Ensemble

Gerben Kamper in Die Nag van Legio as Oubaas Menge

Mark Elderkin in Twelfth Night as Malvolio

Wessel Pretorius in Twelfth Night as Feste

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A PLAY

Camilla Waldman in Tartuffe as Cléante

Faith Kinnear in Marat/Sade as Patient, Chorus

Jenny Stead in The Visit as Jackie Lodin

Renate Stuurman in Suddenly the Storm as Namhla

Robyn Scott in Shakespeare in Love as Elizabeth I, Ensemble

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEAD ACTOR IN A MUSICAL OR MUSIC THEATRE SHOW

Andile Gumbi in King Kong as King Kong

David Dennis in Priscilla Queen of the Desert as Bernadette

Jonathan Roxmouth in Evita as Che

Marc Lottering in Aunty Merle the Musical as Aunty Merle

Sne Dladla in King Kong as Pop

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL OR MUSIC THEATRE SHOW

Ashleigh Harvey in Funny Girl as Fanny Brice

Edith Plaatjies in King Kong as Joyce

Emma Kingston in Evita as Eva

Nondumiso Tembe in King Kong as Joyce

Tarryn Lamb in Aunty Merle the Musical as Abigail

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A MUSICAL OR MUSIC THEATRE SHOW

Anton Luitingh in Evita as Magaldi

Anton Luitingh in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as Pharoah

Sanda Shandu in King Kong as Lucky

Tshepo Ncokoane in Priscilla Queen of the Desert as Miss Understanding

Tshamano Sebe in King Kong as Jack

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL OR MUSIC THEATRE SHOW

Candice von Litsenborgh in Priscilla Queen of the Desert as Shirley

Isabella Jane in Evita as The Mistress

Josslynn Hlenti in King Kong as Petal

Kate Normington in Funny Girl as Mrs Brice

Tankiso Mamabolo in Aunty Merle the Musical as Lydia

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ENSEMBLE

The Cast of Marat/Sade

The Divas of Priscilla Queen of the Desert

The Cast of Shakespeare in Love

The Cast of Tartuffe

The Cast of What Remains

BEST PERFORMANCE IN A REVUE, CABARET OR ONE-PERSON SHOW

Daniel Mpilo Richards in State Fracture in Various Roles

Gideon Lombard in Die Reuk van Appels as Marnus

Jemma Kahn in In Bocca al Lupo as The Narrator

Sandra Prinsloo in Moedertaal as Nellie

Tony Bonani Miyambo in Kafka’s Ape as Red Peter

BEST PERFORMANCE IN AN OPERA – MALE

Fikile Mvinjelwa in Rigoletto as Rigoletto

Jaco Venter in Der Fliegende Holländer as Holländer

Lukhanyo Moyake in Rigoletto as The Duke of Mantua

Lukhanyo Moyake in Der Fliegende Holländer as Steuermann

Martin Mkhize in The Magic Flute as Papageno

BEST PERFORMANCE IN AN OPERA – FEMALE

Brittany Smith in The Magic Flute as Pamina

Johanni van Oostrum in Der Fliegende Holländer as Senta

Leah Gunter in The Magic Flute as The Queen

Noluvuyiso Mpofu in Rigoletto as Gilda

Nonhlanhla Yende in Rigoletto as Maddalena

BEST THEATRE PRODUCTION FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

Fred Abrahamse and Marcel Meyer for Peter Pan

Jon Keevy for The Underground Library

Marinda Engelbrecht and Margit Meyer-Rödenbeck for Vlooi en die Koninginby/Kipper and the Queen Bee

AWARD FOR MOST PROMISING STUDENT

Luntu Masiza, AFDA

Matthew Stuurman, UCT

Melani-Roxanne Breedt, AFDA

Tristan de Beer, UCT

Zoe McLaughlin, WTS

BEST NEW DIRECTOR

Dara Beth

Joshua G Ackerman

Nico Scheepers

Nwabisa Plaatjie

Thando Mangcu

BEST LIGHTING DESIGN

Nick Schlieper & Per Hording for Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Patrick Curtis for Marat/Sade

Tim Mitchell for King Kong

Wilhelm Disbergen for What Remains

Wolf Britz for Shakespeare in Love

BEST SET DESIGN

Brian Thomson for Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Bus Concept and Production Design)

Greg King for Suddenly the Storm

Jaco Bouwer for Marat/Sade

Nicola Mayer for Immortal

Nigel Hook for The Play that Goes Wrong

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Birrie le Roux for King Kong

Birrie le Roux for Funny Girl

Leigh Bishop and Lieze van Tonder for Twelfth Night

Sasha Ehlers for Tartuffe

Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner for Priscilla Queen of the Desert

BEST SOUND DESIGN, ORIGINAL MUSIC COMPOSITION OR ORIGINAL SCORE

Charl-Johan Lingenfelder for Original Music Composition (additional) for King Kong

Daf James & Michael Williams for Original Score for Tiger Bay the Musical

Neo Muyanga for Original Music Composition for Twelfth Night

Pierre-Henri Wicomb for Original Music Composition for Marat/Sade

Tarryn Lamb & Marc Lottering for Original Score for Aunty Merle the Musical

BEST NEW SOUTH AFRICAN SCRIPT

Die Dans van die Watermeid by Amee Lekas

Suddenly the Storm by Paul Slabolepszy

The Eulogists by Louis Viljoen

The Visit by Brent Palmer

What Remains by Nadia Davids

BEST DIRECTOR

Jaco Bouwer for Marat/Sade

Jay Pather for What Remains

Jonathan Munby for King Kong

Lara Bye for Die Reuk van Appels

Sylvaine Strike for Tartuffe

BEST PRODUCTION

Die Reuk van Appels – Theatrerocket (Johan van der Merwe and Rudi Sadler)

King Kong – The Fugard Theatre (Eric Abraham)

Marat/Sade – The Baxter Theatre (Nicolette Moses)

Priscilla Queen of the Desert – ShowTime Management (Hazel Feldman)

What Remains – Nadia Davids

For over 50 years the Fleur du Cap wine brand has proudly associated itself with the Theatre Awards as displaying the flair that is synonymous with the wine. “Theatre is the showcase for generations of artists; it is an honour to support such a pivotal part of the industry,” says SA Brand Manager for Premium Wines, Khanya Mashalaba.

Through awarding excellence in professional theatre Fleur du Cap wine and the Theatre Awards have played a significant role in the lives of South African theatre-makers.

Winners are chosen from productions performed at professional theatre venues in and around Cape Town. Theatre practitioners are recognised for acting, directing, staging and technical ability. These nominations reflect the excellent theatre talent seen on stages throughout the Western Cape last year. For the first time, awards will be made in the categories of Best Performance in an Opera (Male), Best Performance in an Opera (Female), Best Performance by an Ensemble, Best Theatre Production for Children and Young People and Best Production. This year awards will not be made in the category Best Puppetry Design.

The awards are considered in 26 different categories, including for Lifetime Achievement and Innovation in Theatre. The latter will be announced at the ceremony next month. The judges for the 2017 productions were Africa Melane, Dr Beverley Brommert, Eugene Yiga, Johan van Lill, Marina Griebenow, Maurice Carpede, Niel Roux, Tracey Saunders and Wayne Muller.

A total of 80 diverse productions from the year under review were eligible for consideration. They are, in alphabetical order:

A Handful of Keys, Angels on Horseback, Another One’s Bread, Aunty Merle the Musical, bash: latterday plays, Black, Boy Ntulikazi, Brother Love 2, Buzani Kubawo, Cathy and the Trolley Dollies, Chapter 2 Section 9, Cheers to Sarajevo, Der Fliegende Holländer, Die Dans van die Watermeid, Die Nag Van Legio, Die Reuk van Appels, El Blanco: Tales of the Mariachi, Evita, Evita Bezuidenhout and the Kaktus of Separate Development, Fiela se Kind, Funny Girl, Hamlet, Hemelruim, Immortal, In Bocca al Lupo, In Whorefish Bloomers: The Waitresses’ Lament, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Kafka’s Ape, Kidcasino, King Kong, Klara Maas se hart is gebreek, ensomeer: Die vloeistof-trilogie, From Koe’siestes to Kneidlach, Koöperasiestories, Kwamanzi, Macbeth: The Adult Panto, Mama Africa the Musical, Marat/Sade, Mate, Moedertaal, Nasty Womxn, Nice Coat (Lekker Jas), Niqabi Ninja, Peter Pan, Pieces, Police Cops in Space, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Red Aloes, Renaissance, Rent, Rigoletto, Scenes from an Execution, Selwyn and Gabriel, Shakespeare in Love, Sherlock Holmes and the Curse of the Queen’s Diamond, Single Minded, So ry Miss Daisy, Songs of this Soil, State Fracture, Suddenly the Storm, Synergy, Tartuffe, The Eulogists, The Magic Flute, The Mother, The Mystery of Irma Vep, The Native Who Caused All The Trouble, The Play That Goes Wrong, The Rabble, The Visit, Thirst, Three’s a Crowd, Tiger Bay the Musical, Topdog/Underdog, Tswalo/Source, Twelfth Night, The Underground Library, Vlooi en die Koninginby/Kipper and the Queen Bee, What Remains and Who’s Your Daddy.

The student panel adjudicated another 35 student productions, bringing the total number of productions that were considered in 2017 to an astounding 115.

“The increased number of nominees in the category for Best New South African Script is extremely exciting as it means that local theatre-makers are becoming bolder in telling the stories that are at the heart of our collective lived experience. To see life imitating art in this way is truly exhilarating. We thank Fleur du Cap wine brand, the hardworking panel of judges, theatre-makers and all the creatives behind the scenes who made this possible,” says Melanie Burke, chairman of the judging panel.

Each award carries a cash prize of R15 000 and a silver medallion. All voting processes are audited and overseen by Distell Internal Audit and the legal firm Cluver Markotter Inc.

A limited number of tickets for the ceremony at The Baxter Theatre will be on sale at R300 per person.

However, there is no reason to miss this exciting annual event! For the first time in the history of the awards theatre lovers can share in the celebrations from the comfort of their own home, in real-time, through a virtual experience, at only R100 per ticket, standard data rates apply. Purchase your tickets from the Baxter Box Office on 021 685 7880 or Webtickets from 15th February 2018.

Share your Flair with Fleur du Cap wine and celebrate excellence in theatre with the award recipients! Follow the awards on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/FleurduCap/ and on Twitter at https://twitter.com/FDCTheatreAward. For more information on Fleur du Cap Wines www.fleurducap.co.za

Nominees for 53rd Fleur du Cap Awards announced was originally published on Artsvark

[eod-agent-13-12]

Cave-ng in

Context

"Ow..." 13-12 hissed as Dr. Marcel applied the bandages. "You didn't have to be forceful about it."

"I'm not. What even happened here? Several agents clearly had it rough."

"... It was a trap. Handler Blue isn't taking it well since Shadow's... I don't know exactly what happened."

13-12 lowered their head. "... I couldn't protect them."

"Don't try to blame yourself for that. We also should've done more research."

They turned to the door, auburn hair and blue eyes staring right at them. "I..."

"Several medical staff are treating Shadow as we speak and Typhoon and Bluenix are aldo getting medical attention. Bluenix is... dazed though. I'm awaiting Blue's news about Wraith."

"I would normally get mad about someone handling Phoenix but my hands are full." Dr. Marcel sighed. "I'll double check the files later after I make sure that doesn't happen again. Sorry for being paranoid but we don't know if those crystals can be used to cause... you know."

The room felt colder, and not because of the air conditioning.

"It was kinesium that caused that. But if you're right... And it is enough to... cause a similar effect..."

"Let's... not think about those things."

"... What if it leaked to other universes? It's my fault. If it wasn't for the fact I did digging... I don't think someone else could've connected the dots. I'm the only me who has overloaded their TK implant and an ocular implant."

"You don't know that. So don't blame yourself."

"But if I say it... anyone eavesdropping might know. They might even get the idea."

"For now, focus on resting. I have other matters to deal with."

"... Later, Elira."

"I'll see you around, Marife."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@agentwraith, @agent--shadow, @blueorchid-95, @brain-is-a-toaster

Have some 13-12 lore. And for those who know 13-12 by a different name... I have an explanation.

@phoenix-and-found-family, @the-one-and-only-043

Not sure you wanna see this but... here.

[wyvchard]

OC Facts Tag Game

Saw this post from @davycoquette

Because I saw it, I will now give fun facts about my OCs!

Rules: Make a list of fun facts about your OCs. Like a headcanon list if you will. Except it’s canon.

Kae

Kae can accurately throw slippers quite far so most people avoid angering her.

Despite her reputation for said slipper tossing, she's quite soft on children.

However, if she was allowed to swear, I'd say the chances of her swearing (when children aren't present) is over half.

Despite her visual similarity to their creator, most people who know her creator do not mistake them as their creator also has purple hair.

Lia

She's the oldest of the plushie clones. Due to this, she can control the younger ones with ease as she knows how their mind works. She rarely does it though.

Out of the others, she's the only one their creator trusts to help make the others.

Some people often mistake her voice with their creators'. The fact their creator sometimes speaks through her doesn't help correct it.

There are rumors she can control more than one plushie body but no one seems to be able to stumble across any proof.

Johannes

He can cook quite well. Mostly because his boss loves to do so. He will also give you a "(¬_¬)" look when you burn food.

He's been given a spell that practically turns him into a walking scanner and printer. As such, he always has blank pieces of paper with him.

His chosen weapon is a shovel.

Due to his boss' occupation, he has developed the ability to spot subtle changes in environment caused by ghosts.

Kazuya

He's a major fan of conlangs and is actively trying to make the most cursed one possible just because he wanted others to suffer reading through his notes. (Someone please give tips on this.)

He had a habit of getting people in trouble by saying the most helpful advice in the most condescending way possible in a bet that they do the opposite. (He has mostly stopped. Mostly. He can and will do it again if you cross him.)

Despite wyverns often having poisoned stingers for tails, he seems to have feathers on his tail that hides the stingers.

He likes putting accessories on his horns, particularly those that sway when one walks or when it's blown by the wind.

Dr. Marcel de Lara

Due to his (extended) family having a tradition of naming their children that starts with the letter "M", he sometimes uses the initials to pin certain requests onto other cousins. They do the same things to him.

His relative deals with a lot of magical illnesses and incidents. He deals with a lot of agents getting hurt in the most dangerous of ways. It probably runs in the family at this rate.

He removes a certain song from songbooks in karaoke establishments because it tends to end in someone getting hurt. No one confronts him about it but they seem to all know he does it.

He most likely is the cousin who plays video games to relax.

Tag list (no pressure (｡･ω･｡)):

@phoenix-and-found-family

@eight-cats-in-a-box

@heycerulean

@ghostlystarwanderer

[eod-agent-13-12]

Dr. Marcel: *pressing on the wound and grabbing a bandage. Cue judgmental look*

Agent Smitten: This is one of the worst weapons to use. How did you even get this past security?

Agent 13-12: *clinging onto the sword to make sure it wouldn't cause them to bleed out and using TK to grab their hidden weapon* Give me one good reason why we shouldn't fight.

Candlelight: *shoots the person responsible with a lipstick pistol*

Agent Typhoon: Keep one eye open tonight. Trust me.

*The crew's reactions to being stabbed with a sword*

John: Rude.

Prism: Really?

Reginald: That's fair.

Phoenix: Are you going to want this back or can I keep it?

*bonus*

Fabby: Excuse you? You tried to kill me with something this tacky?!

Hivemind: *doesn't notice or care*

Sans: *kills the person extremely painfully*

Zor: *if I described what they did I would get twenty to life*

[wyvchard]

What Someone Thinks is Best

Idea from this prompt

Agent Phoenix comes back a week after destroying a mind control machine, only to be more emotional than usual.

Content Warnings: Self-depreciation, Phoenix just getting the short end of the stick and enduring it, hospitals, failed mind control, verbal attacks

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Phoenix, are you alright?" Reginald came to them in medbay as he sat beside them as they laid on the bed. "That week was awful. Well, not quite like the Juniper incident but... it was still quite harrowing."

They nodded, crumpling the bedsheet on top of them. "... I'm fine. There aren't any injuries. Why am I here?"

"Dr. de Lara found some concerning things. We're making sure you're in the clear. We're worried that the mind control machine messed with your implants." He looked at their paled form, noting the lack of things floating around via TK. "You know, for safety."

They nodded. "I was told that it will hurt and wow." A resigned chuckle escaped from their lips as they stared at the ceiling. "Not a lie." A wry smile laced their face as they reached their hand out for something.

Reginald handed them another pillow to scream into. His face is fixed with concern. "Agent, I'm worried about you."

Phoenix didn't dare look at him. "... I don't want anyone to worry."

"... What happened? When you were gone for a week, your earpiece and microphone were turned off, not to mention the tracker. Wherever it is you were staying clearly knows how to use a signal jammer."

They paused, eyes slowly growing with guilt. "I didn't mean to worry you, Reggie. Really. I was safe all week."

He sighed, choosing to focus on paperwork for now to get his mind off things. "I'll... believe that for now, Agent."

"See you." They waved him off, taking a few breaths before acknowledging the man who replaced their handler. "Dr. Marcel."

"Phoenix." He merely looked at them with a resigned sigh. "Let's get this over with."

"I don't want to worry anyone. I'm fine. It's just a headache. Another agent might need your attention more. You should-"

"You don't have to worry about the other agents. You're the last on my list for today. Now. Describe your headache before I imply that whatever you went through overloaded your implant and extending your leave."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey. Are you awake?" The gentle voice eased their discomfort as they leaned onto the source of warmth. "It must be pretty bad if they got you stuck on the strong stuff."

They mumbled incoherently, choosing to lean on the voice's source. "Not now." They started picking at the tie the other person was wearing, feeling the soft fabric slide between their fingers.

"... What did that Zoraxis operative say to you when I was at work?" Mr. Ambrose's expression was severe as he held Phoenix in his arms, feeling their steady breaths on his chest.

"He usually says high praises about you. But all I see is someone who never meets expectations."

"Nothing I hadn't heard before." They muttered, feeling more muddled as the medicine is slowly taking effect. "It's fine. Don't worry too much, alright? I'll be fine."

He merely looked at them with worry as he pulled the hug tighter. "Whatever that old crone said to you is not true, okay? I'll be back tomorrow night when you're alone. Please, even if you don't tell me, tell someone else you trust, okay?"

"M'kay." They yawned, sleep slowly taking hold of them.

He tucked them in the bed and walked across the room, eyes lingered at their sleeping form, before leaving with worries on his mind.

But that would pale in comparison with his responsibilities. If he wants to help them, he should start cleaning up the evidence of any agency involvement in that neighborhood.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Reginald walked into the sight of his agent hugging a pillow he knows wasn't there before, a contrasting blue compared to the typical white provided by the agency.

"Agent, where did you get that pillow?"

"Hotdog." They murmured, hugging the long pillow tightly as if letting go would cause a disaster. "It's called a hotdog pillow."

He sighed, knowing that whoever visited clearly had their best in mind. "How are you feeling?"

"Terrible. It feels like everything is underwater or somethin." They turned to the side, their eyes more dulled than usual. "I can't get her words out of my head."

"Her? What did she say?"

"The Zoraxis operative there knows how to poke at your sore spots. She says I'm a disappointment or something."

"Oh, Agent, that's not true at all. You're the pride of the agency."

"Then, why did you leave me alone in the volcano? At that beach?" They laughed with tears running down their face. "You did say convention wasn't my strong suit. You probably didn't want to deal with the paperwork I leave behind."

"Phoenix, that's not true. I said it before and I'll say it again. If you're here, I'm here."

"... R&D must have gotten so disappointed when I decided to become a field agent. I mean, why would I use my brain where I could get killed anytime instead of staying back and be useful? See? Wow, maybe I wasn't meant to be here."

The beeps of the medical equipment filled the air as Phoenix drew in a sharp breath. "... Sorry. I didn't-"

"Agent..." Reginald's mind raced as he started wiping his agent's tears. His hands were more gentle than normal.

"... Among us, we almost always believe that I was the favorite. I mean, almost every time I ask pa for something, he hears me out."

Phoenix rarely talks about their family in this light and it gave Reginald a twinge of sorrow. This wasn't like them.

"I don't... I always feel like I have to make up for it. I have to justify it to them why..." They take a shaky breath. "They keep telling me they don't hate me... But I don't even know if it's a lie. If it wasn't, I don't know where it came from."

"He clearly chose you. I don't see why he would. You're clearly someone I personally wouldn't choose. Maybe it's the novelty, don't you think? The brashness of youth?"

"Ma'am, please don't think of him that way. He's made his choice."

"And I'm saying it was a stupid one."

"...Why am I your third favorite field operative? Do you think I rightfully earned to be that right?"

Reginald couldn't find the words to answer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Mr. Crane." Dr. Marcel greeted the handler with mere words, choosing to remain fixated on the screen. "Phoenix will be fine. Although it would be rough for a few hours."

"That's good news, at least."

"That's not what I'm worried about. I saw this in my mailbox." Dr. Marcel waved an enveloped note. "I don't think it's your agent who sent this."

He took the note and checked for any traps, only to find none. Yet, dread only filled him when he realized that it was the same paper his agent uses.

Zoraxis makes sure that those breaking out of mind control spills secrets in case subjecting them to mind control again wouldn't be viable immediately. It keeps them silent. It should clear out in a day or so, enough time for the mind control to fully break. They have been exposed to the beginning stages but they were taken out before it can take a hold. I don't know what that old crone said during that week but I will find out.

"... That's not threatening at all." Dr. Marcel sighed as he turns to Reginald. "Do you think we can trust this?"

"It's likely. Whoever they are, they know about the inner workings of that neighborhood."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"He usually says high praises about you. But all I see is someone who never meets expectations."

Is this why he said sorry?

"Why would anyone commit their life to you? The place is a mess, cluttered. You don't need this many magnets on the fridge. And you're the reason he's rarely home. Someone with a flourishing career in business shouldn't be tied down by someone like you."

I don't like her. I don't like her. I don't like her.

"Florian, why would you quit your job? You could work for Zoraxis, one of the best companies out there. And what? You threw that away because you can't deal with a strict manager?" Grey eyes from years ago look at me with intensity as she's clearly worried for me. "Look. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it but do you have a plan if you do decide to quit? Your future could be set. Zoraxis could acquire that company because your recent projects are promising. What will you do if you regret quitting a year or two from now? I just need you to consider that."

But the woman whose eyes I was looking at right now wasn't grey but dark brown.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Why are you wearing grey contacts? Not saying it doesn't look good on you but it's clear you're not really too happy about it." He frowned as he stared at them with intensity.

"O-oh. Well, you know my sister. She thinks I shouldn't quit. But my manager keeps taking credit for my work and I'm sick of it. Maybe if I have the same eyes as her, I'd think more like her."

"You know it doesn't work that way."

"I know but just maybe... I can delude myself."

"Just be yourself. She does have a point but there are more paths than working for Zoraxis. It might not be the life she thinks is the best you could do, but it's something you chose."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"... Is it okay to feel conflicted about someone who only wanted what they thought is best for you?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@phoenix-and-found-family, this contains foreshadowing on how 13-12 could have been Candlelight.

@the-one-and-only-043, more lore for you as well.

[eod-agent-13-12]

Some Information about this Phoenix:

About this Phoenix: 1. They would have been part of R&D if they didn't choose to be a field agent. They do occasionally help out whenever they're off the field (mostly as a substitute for medical leave). 2. They used to work for a company Zoraxis acquired but quit due to work environment differences. They didn't know about Zoraxis' dark side until after the incident which caused them to join the agency. They thought they just had horrible bosses. 3. They had a long term relationship an agency operative before they got recruited by the agency. The agency operative's status is officially unknown. They refuse to talk about it. 4. They're "slightly" resistant (self-reported) to poison gas as they messed around with chemicals. How resistant they are to poison gas and other chemicals is kept private. 5. They would always carry candy with them out of habit. Everyone interacting with them inevitably gets snacks and food.

In Character Dialogue:

"Oh, hi. Agent 13-12 here. I'm still learning how these ask blogs work. Please be patient with me. I still have no idea what I'm doing.

I'm also known as Agent Phoenix but there are way too many Phoenixes running around so please refer to me as 13-12.

The candy jar is over there if you want anything. But please don't take more than what you can consume.

So, yeah. I hope you'll enjoy your stay here."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

@wyvchard is my main. This is my IEYTD side blog, usually for RPs. I might confuse the two from time to time.

Feel free to ask about this Phoenix, as long as it's not that rude. I will try to answer.

Roleplay is welcome but I might not reply as quickly.

Information will inevitably change.

Here is the lore!

List of Characters:

Agent 13-12 AKA Agent Phoenix

Agent Smitten

Solaina from Handler Resources

Support Agent Reginald Crane

Dr. Marcelo "Marcel" de Lara

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dialogue:

(Out of character)

*For narration*

"Spoken Dialogue / Audio Recording"

Written Stuff

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tags:

#Agent 13-12

General stuff

#13-12 Monologues

In character dialogue

#13-12 Answers

Answering questions

#13-12 Reblogs

Reblogs

#13-12 Scrapbooks

RPs, Short Dialog Moments

#13-12 Screenshots

Pictures

#13-12 Lore

Lore drops

#13-12 Stories, #13-12 Recollections

Paragraph Form

#Agent Smitten Ambrose

Anything Related to Agent Smitten / Mr. Ambrose

#Dr. Marcel de Lara

Dr. Marcel's files

#13-12 Candlelight

Agent 13-12's alternate self that ended up working for Zoraxis

#Agent Typhoon

Agent Typhoon is one of the younger field agents in the EOD. He doesn't know how he manages

#Handler Ellie

Agent Typhoon's handler. A former field agent but more known for making plushies as a way to comfort and cope

[cardboardedison]

The Process: Dark Moon: Shadow Corporation by Evan Derrick

In The Process, board game designers walk us through the process of creating their game from start to finish, and how following their path can help others along theirs.

In this installment, Evan Derrick describes how he created the Shadow Corporation expansion to Dark Moon.

Process

I made a happy discovery when I began designing Dark Moon: Shadow Corporation: Expansions are so much easier to design. The core system was set in stone and had been proven to be successful, so I simply needed to iterate on top of it. I immediately discovered why designers like Alan Moon and Donald X. Vaccarino put out a seemingly endless stream of expansions for their popular designs. When the development time is as much as 80% less than creating a new game from scratch, it’s not hard to see the appeal of creating five expansions in the time it takes to design one new game.

I had two central design goals when I designed Dark Moon. The first was to create a similar experience to its spiritual big brother, Battlestar Galactica, but in a third of the playtime, and the second was to ratchet up the paranoia and mistrust between players as quickly and intensely as possible. When I sat down to design DM:SC, I didn’t just want to preserve those two goals, I wanted to improve upon them. To that end, DM:SC both shortens the playtime without sacrificing any of the gameplay as well as amplifies the mistrust that players experience. If you experienced a lot of finger-pointing during games of Dark Moon, be prepared to point twice as many fingers when you add in DM:SC.

The Takeaway: Expansions are simpler to design since you’ve already done the hard work of building the foundation.

Theory

I’ll let you in on a little secret: I hate that Infected players can publicly “reveal” themselves in Dark Moon. In my designer heart of hearts I never wanted to give players that option. The fun of the game comes from the paranoia and mistrust which, let’s be honest, pretty much evaporates when all of the Infected players have publicly revealed. “If you’re Infected and you played poorly and the other players quarantined you and took you out of the game, too bad! Play better next time!” That was never going to work, however. If a new player (especially one that wasn’t great at lying) was dealt an Infected card, it wouldn’t be much fun for them if they were chucked into quarantine 10 minutes into the game simply because they didn’t have a convincing poker face.

Unfortunately, this means that some Infected players jump the gun and reveal themselves early when they really shouldn’t. Those shiny Infected actions are just too tempting! And the players don’t realize I included those in the game as a release valve, not as a viable strategy (and why should they?).

So for DM:SC I wanted to correct that behavior, which led to the evacuation ship.

Thematically, the evil corporation Naguchi-Masaki has heard about the pathogen spreading across their mining colony and they want a sample of it for their weapons division. They have “helpfully” sent an evacuation ship to Titan hoping that an Infected miner will get on board. The ship, however, has a limited number of seats, so only a few players can actually get on.

Mechanically, players can vote one another on and off the ship, and once it’s full they can vote for the ship to take off. As soon as the evacuation ship takes off, the game immediately ends and players check the status cards of everyone who was on the ship. If everyone on the ship is Uninfected, the Uninfected team wins, but if a single Infected player managed to sneak onto the ship then the Infected team wins. This means that Infected players cannot reveal themselves early, since it would be simple for the Uninfected team to use their voting power to load themselves onto the ship and take off.

The evacuation ship is easily the proudest I’ve ever been of a design mechanism. It accomplished all of my design goals in one fell swoop:

Shorter playtime: Since the game ends as soon as the ship takes off, sessions can be even shorter now without sacrificing any of the fun. Ending the game early and watching each player that was on the ship slowly flip over their status card is an amazing climax to the game.

More paranoia: If you thought it was easy to point fingers in Dark Moon before, wait until people start voting one another onto the evacuation ship! It easily adds paranoia on top of paranoia.

De-incentivize early Infected reveals: Infected players are incentivized to stay hidden as long as possible now. Publicly revealing themselves isn’t a path to victory now, but to defeat, as the Uninfected team will just hop on the ship and take off.

The Takeaway: Highlight what worked best with the original game and make sure the expansion doesn’t do away with the game’s strengths. Instead, make sure the expansion amplifies the original game’s strengths.

Theory Part 2

When I started designing DM:SC, the evacuation ship wasn’t necessarily the centerpiece of the expansion (which it is now). I threw in the kitchen sink of things I had discarded for the original game but had always wanted.

The first was a brand new team called the Company Man. If you receive the Company Man Status card, you’re playing to win all by yourself (it was inspired by the Tanner role from One Night Ultimate Werewolf). Unlike the other teams, surviving isn’t part of your win condition. Instead, your goal is to collect a sample of the pathogen and send it back to the company, no matter what the cost.

The second were blackmail cards (which eventually became Threat cards in the final version), a mechanism that had been floating around since the very first version of Dark Moon. Every player is dealt one of these cards at the beginning of the game, each card has specific instructions that that player must follow, and each instruction is for the player to do something incredibly suspicious. Thematically, the company is blackmailing the players to do something horrible (throw other players in quarantine, recklessly throw in all their dice on a skill check, etc.). Mechanically, this forces Uninfected players to act even more suspicious (the consequences for NOT performing the action on your card are much, much worse) and gives the Infected players an opportunity to act.

The main problem with both of these mechanisms is that they’re fairly complex. They require all of the players at the table to have a really strong grasp of the game and how it works and can be disastrous for new players. Misreading your Threat card or failing to understand the Company Man’s victory conditions can throw a wrench into the entire machine. Both add some fascinating tension to the game but they also ask a lot of the players.

Even for an expansion it felt like too much. The evacuation ship, the Company Man, and the Threat cards ratcheted up the learning curve significantly, even for experienced Dark Moon players. I was loathe to get rid of anything, however. Which is when Stephen Buonocore, the president of Stronghold Games and publisher of Dark Moon, made a simple yet brilliant suggestion: “Why don’t we just make them optional modules?”

Boom. That solved everything. The core of DM:SC is the evacuation ship and is included in every game, but the Company Man and Threat cards are now optional modules that you can add to the game if you want to. This allows players to get a good grasp of the expansion and its new rules at their own pace. Fearless groups can throw everything together for their first game, while most will introduce the modules slowly.

The Takeaway: Take particularly complex mechanisms and label them “modules,” thereby encouraging players to introduce them slowly rather than all at once.

Playtesting

The playtesting process for this expansion was so much easier than playtesting a new design. Whereas Dark Moon took 2-3 years of consistent development and playtesting, DM:SC was done in only a few months. Rather than make sure an entire game works from start to finish, you’re simply testing to make sure that the expansion doesn’t radically break the original design. Additionally, you have a built-in audience that is fairly eager to try out all of the new stuff you’ve created, making it that much simpler to gather playtesters.

From an emotional standpoint, playtesting a new design can be a fairly grueling process. You have high hopes that this version is the one that’s really going to work, only to watch it crash and burn in the ashes of your shattered dreams. But with an expansion you figure out what works and what doesn’t fairly quickly. You have the context of the original game to work within and that makes the design process substantially easier.

The Takeaway: Playtesting an expansion is much easier to do, given that you have a built-in audience as well as a successful design.

About

Evan Derrick is the designer of Dark Moon, Dark Moon: Shadow Corporation, and the upcoming Detective: City of Angels. He is the Creative Director for Van Ryder Games and oversees the art direction for all of their titles. He also has no free time, although he recognizes that’s really his own fault. You can email him at evan@vanrydergames.com or find him on Twitter at @evanderrick.

Cardboard Edison is supported by our patrons on Patreon.

ADVISERS: 421 Creations, Peter C. Hayward, Aaron Vanderbeek

SENIOR INVENTORS: Steven Cole, John du Bois, Chris and Kathy Keane (The Drs. Keane), Joshua J. Mills, Marcel Perro, Behrooz Shahriari, Shoot Again Games

JUNIOR INVENTORS: Ryan Abrams, Joshua Buergel, Luis Lara, Aidan Short, Jay Treat

ASSOCIATES: Robert Booth, Stephen B Davies, Scot Duvall, Doug Levandowski, Aaron Lim, Nathan Miller, Anthony Ortega, Mike Sette, Kasper Esven Skovgaard, Isaias Vallejo, Matt Wolfe

APPRENTICES: Darren Broad, Kiva Fecteau, Scott Gottreu, Nicole Kline, Scott Martel Jr., James Meyers, The Nerd Nighters, Neil Roberts, Marcus Ross, Sean Rumble, VickieGames

[cardboardedison]

Meaningful Decisions: J. Alex Kevern on Design Choices in World’s Fair 1893

In our Meaningful Decisions series, we ask designers about the design choices they made while creating their games, and what lessons other designers can take away from those decisions.

In this edition, we talk with J. Alex Kevern, the designer World’s Fair 1893, about guiding and incentivizing players, cohesion in a design, identifying your audience, the development process, and more.

Players start World’s Fair 1893 with a certain number of supporters already on the board. They also receive a bonus based on where they are in turn order. Was this always the case, and how did you settle on the specific setup rules to get players into the meat of the game from the first turn?

In the initial prototype, players chose their starting spots in reverse turn order. For more experienced players this was a good solution, but for players new to the game, they would either choose a spot randomly, or agonize too long over it.

We decided the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze, so we settled on assigning the starting placements based on turn order. Those later in turn order get more “sole” majorities to start, and more placements on locations with lower card limits where there will be less future competition. This provided the needed balancing, without bogging down the start of the game.

What determines how much early guidance players should receive, without being too heavy-handed or too lax?

As designer I think the best thing you can do is make the value of things explicit. If you can clearly articulate what is rewarded in the game, players know what they are shooting for and they can fill in the gaps of how to get there themselves.

In World’s Fair 1893, the primary ways you earn points are by a) having majorities, and b) matching your exhibit cards to where you have those majorities. Players can then fill in the gaps and quickly figure out that placing a supporter in an area that contains an exhibit card of the same type is a good decision, especially if it also gives you majority there. I’ve found players often grasp this even on the first turn of their first game.

Where you need to be a bit more heavy-handed, like pre-determining the starting placements, is where the value of things is more obscured. There is inherent value in having your starting supporters in the Fine Arts and Electricity areas, as each of those locations can only hold up to three cards (as opposed to four in the other locations), so there are typically fewer supporters placed there over the course of the game--meaning more value for each supporter placed there. Given that’s not something less experienced players would be considering, it made sense to be more prescriptive with something like starting position.

Every turn, three cards are added to the board, but each location can hold a maximum of three or four cards. Why implement a cap rather than allow cards to continue stacking up at a location until a player takes them?

We did do some early testing without a cap, but it often led to too few interesting locations to choose from each turn. Once a location reaches three or four cards, it will always be a viable option for players to consider, so there wasn’t a reason to continue incentivising that spot, as it would end up being chosen within the next few turns anyway. It made more sense to improve the other locations, increasing their viability, and creating more interesting options for players to choose from.

How can a designer know when it's better to add hard restrictions and when it's better to let incentives guide the player experience?

Typically I think hard restrictions--like strict hand limit--are only necessary when not having one would  a) potentially break the game, by pulling too many cards out of the deck, for instance, or b) ruin the experience for the other players playing in the spirit of the game. Otherwise, if you want to keep buying Copper cards in Dominion, for example, that’s fine--there are plenty in the supply, and it’s not impacting the other player’s ability to pursue their legitimate strategy, so you can just enjoy your coppery deck until the game ends.

However, if you do find you need to impose something like a hand limit, sometimes it can be enforced through a game mechanism rather than a strict rule. For example, there’s no explicit hand limit in Catan, but anytime you have more than seven cards, you must discard half of them when a 7 is rolled. Other games allow players to take cards from the player who has the most. So there are other ways of enforcing various “soft” limits on things, rather than simply putting a hard cap on it.

World's Fair 1893 went through an extensive development process after it was signed with Foxtrot Games. What core ideas guided that process?

We knew we wanted to make a gateway-style game, with cohesive mechanics and interesting decisions. The idea of cohesion guided a lot of the development process--for example, originally the cards that moved the ferris wheel “game timer” forward were something separate from the Midway cards. There were only nine or 10 of these “timer” cards, and the round would trigger once four were taken, which made round length far too variable (presumably, all four could come out in two turns). After trying a few different things, we discovered the solution of making the Midway cards the game timer--there were a few dozen of them in the deck, which meant that the round could end after 12 or so were taken, leading to a much more predictable round length. It also removed a whole superfluous element from the game, and created something that was much more cohesive.

It could have gone a different direction, where instead we could have added cards or mechanisms to make it work properly. But, because of the style of game we wanted to make, we were focused on a development process centered boiling down rather than building up.

What should a designer keep in mind during the development process? How can they know what to try to hold on to and what to let go?

The most important thing is articulating what you want the game to be, its purpose, and who is the intended audience. Developing a game that you are intending to be played by experienced hobby gamers will be very different than developing a game you want to be in the conversation for the Spiel des Jahres. If you can articulate what type of experience you are trying to create, from there you really just have to “listen to the game.” It will tell you what it needs--more player control, more long-term strategy, less analysis paralysis--and it’s up to you as the designer to listen to those signals the game is telling you and figure out what adjustments to make. Playtesters can help you listen and help you hear new and different things, but in the end you have to trust your ears, and follow the sound.

Cardboard Edison is supported by our patrons on Patreon.

ADVISERS: Rob Greanias, Peter C. Hayward, Aaron Vanderbeek

SENIOR INVENTORS: Steven Cole, John du Bois, Chris and Kathy Keane (The Drs. Keane), Joshua J. Mills, Marcel Perro, Behrooz Shahriari, Shoot Again Games

JUNIOR INVENTORS: Ryan Abrams, Joshua Buergel, Luis Lara, Neil Roberts, Jay Treat

ASSOCIATES: Dark Forest Project, Stephen B Davies, Adrienne Ezell, Marcus Howell, Thiago Jabuonski, Samuel Lees, Doug Levandowski, Nathan Miller, Mike Sette, S GO Explore, Matt Wolfe

APPRENTICES: Cardboard Fortress Games, Kiva Fecteau, Guz Forster, Scott Gottreu, Aaron Lim, Scott Martel Jr., James Meyers, The Nerd Nighters, Matthew Nguyen, Marcus Ross, Rosco Schock, VickieGames, Lock Watson, White Wizard Games

[eod-agent-13-12]

*A doctor walks in, clearly looking like he came here in a hurry. You gotta feel bad for the guy. At least he can tell a lot of crazy stories as long as he keeps the details vague.

"Dr. Marcel!"

"Not now. He doesn't look too good. Someone get hin a proper room. I expect Handler Ellie to provide an explanation for the delays."

*Dr. Marcel looked highly annoyed at this but quickly decides to hold his tongue to Focus on what's going on with Kai.

Questioning and Revelations

After some medical attention, Kai (@agent--shadow) finds himself inside one of the agency's interrogation rooms. Several signal blockers have been set up, cutting him off from any outside communication.

Handler Ellie walks in the room, her eyes cold and strict. She puts down an analog recorder, several digital microphones and cameras have littered the room.

"I would appreciate it if you would cooperate with this questioning, young man." Despite her words implying it was a request, her tone was clearly implying that it wasn't an option to be uncooperative.

She checks her watch, checking the time. If her guess is right, Handler Blue (@blueorchid-95) will arrive in half an hour. She would've heard about Kai's location around this time and once she hears about this, it would not be pretty.