Roadside Picnic

The advance of racing technology amazes me.  The 24 Hour race at Le Mans was this weekend, and I've watched some of the coverage on Speed.  Two things have stuck out this time:  1.  The Audi R10 is getting a lot of flak from other drivers because it's considered to be too fast for real competitiveness - and the thing is diesel-powered.  2.  The Ferrari F430 is so aerodynamically clean that air pressure in the cabin can cause a window to pop out of its frame, and carbon-fiber doors for the thing weigh only about ten pounds.

Old gaming buddy Jim F ran a playtest session of Starship Troopers yesterday, prepping for his trip to Origins.  Had a good time with it, and came away with mostly-positive impressions of Mongoose's modifications to the OGL rules.  There's only one base class for characters - Trooper.  With feat and skill selections, there's ample room for customization early on (my character was a communications trooper, for example).  The game has a slew of 3-level prestige classes to represent specializations - engineer, field medic, Marauder driver, officer cadet, and so on.  Hit points are scarce - you get a number equal to your CON score at first level, and successive levels give 1-3 depending on your class advancement, and the game as a result is very lethal.

I'm hoping to catch up on movies today.  Might get crazy with the supers and see both Spidey and FF.  Been meaning to see 28 Weeks Later, too.  First, though, a trip to the grocery is in order.