Spells beginning with the letter ‘D’ seem to offer few meaningful ways to assist the revolution. Dominate animal might be useful in convincing some four-legged thing to run harder and win a race and so might be useful for scamming bookies; detect lies might be useful in determining veracity (He’s lying – his lips are moving); dream could also be used creatively to help persuade various influential people to change their minds in constructive fashion. Casting ‘Doom’ on someone sounds like fun but is likely to be too noticeable. Why are there no spells such as: ‘Distribute Wealth’ or ‘Democratise Institutions’ or ‘Discriminate Positively’? Here is a game waiting to be written – players take the role of party members or unattached independent thinkers and use their magical powers to try to bring about a popular revolution. The GM, meanwhile, will challenge them with smears in the right wing media, abuse of national institutions and secret black-clad vampire assassins. Not sure what kind of name to give it.

The Insomnium Games website has been updated and it is noted that the module competition has been extended until February – which rather suggests that not enough or possibly no acceptable submissions have so far been received, including of course my own. The question I face, therefore, is whether to consider submitting another entry – I feel at the moment probably not because of the continuing overhang of existing writing commitment and the lack of opportunity for becoming more familiar with the Abeo setting.

My review of Goh Sin Tub’s The Angel of Changi and Other Stories has now been published at Bookideas (http://www.bookideas.com/reviews/index.cfm?fuseaction=displayReview&id=3512).

Numerous network problems today further reduce productivity, already severely impeded by ongoing festivities. Be like the salmon, swimming against the tide, swimming against the tide of life!

Back tomorrow.