egg and spoonerisms

Last week we were chatting with Green Ronin developer Rob Schwalb about undead creatures and how we should be presenting them.

"Yeah" said Rob, "We really need to individuate them"
"What?" we replied, "That's not a word! That's some strange American term that you've just made up- like Weaponize"

Googling then ensued.

Turns out 'individuate' is not only a proper word, it's also English and from the 17th Century.

Just one more example of how US English is divergent from UK English. Whilst it is quite happy to coin phrases and terms left right and centre, sometimes its based on old UK usage that we've just stopped using.

'Pants' (meaning trousers) is a great example- it's based on 'Pantaloons' In England, it's meaning changed to refer to undergarments, whilst the US it kept its original meaning- that of leg coverings. Which makes for some comedy moments (we have fond memories of seeing a sign in Las Vegas that said 'Spring Pants Event $25') Misunderstandings also arise from the modern slang, in which 'Pants' means 'something that's slightly rubbish'. For example 'Roller Cola is pants' (apologies to Peter Kay)

Why is this worth blogging? Well, it just goes to prove, when it comes to messing with English; we are just as guilty as the US. The language might have been ours to start with, but its out there now for lots of nations to use and abuse as they see fit. It's gone global, and we've got to learn to share.

Not that we'll drop the 'u' from Armour and Colour in WFRP...

...there is a limit after all.

pictures of you

Dark Heresy Continues apace...

Macs have infiltrated our office...

Paper prototyping...

Pie Tunes becomes popular

We're dead busy at the moment, and they say a picture paints a thousand words. So here's what's new on the Black Industries shop floor:

Owen and his WFRP dungeon

Sweep stake action!

So, the World Cup is almost upon us...

For those not into all things football related, this is where 32 countries the world over get together and slug it out to proove who plays the best Soccer.

This provides a thinly veiled excuse for people to paint their faces, drink alot of beer, talk about sport, buy shirts/car flags/comedy plastic hair emblazoned with the flag, buy other vaguely related stuff that is shamelessly advertised as being somehow related to football.

We're not too fussed about any of these things, but we are a big fan of trash talking our collegues, thus we have entered the office sweepstake.

This is where everyone pays £1 and picks a country name out of a hat. If their country wins the world cup, they get all the money in the hat. (well, biscuit tin)

There is then lots of laughing and mockery as folk reveal that they've drawn Lativa or some other not-that-good-at-football country (apologies to Lativans everywhere)

We drew Sweden, which apparently is 'not that bad'

So, bring it on!

Dark Heresy Inspiration

As you're likely aware, we're currently working on a Warhammer 40,000 roleplaying game called 'Dark Heresy'

It's all about working for the Imperial Inquisition. Players investigate heresy, aliens, conspiracy and daemonic cults in order to safeguard the Imperium of man.

As it's still taking form, we've been drawing inspiration from all over the place- movies, books, games, minatures and the like.

That's why when we saw last nights episode of
Doctor Who we nearly fell off our chairs shouting 'yeah! That's what we're talking about!"

It had nearly everything we'd want from a classic Dark Heresy adventure- action, mystery, horror, weird aliens, grubby retro tech and of course, daemons.

So hurrah for the BBC. We can't wait for the second episode next Saturday!

40k: Now with more motivation

In keeping with the current internet meme of 'motivational posters' we saw this creation appear on our own 40K Roleplay discussion forum. It was created by ErikBoielle, and we liked it so much, we thought we'd post it here.

'borrowed' from RPGnet...