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State of the Weekend

Because, heck, if I can’t bore you with details of my life, who can I bore? FRIDAY Star Wars RPG at Doyce’s house. Dag’s become the Master Pilot of the…

Because, heck, if I can’t bore you with details of my life, who can I bore?

FRIDAY
Star Wars RPG at Doyce’s house. Dag’s become the Master Pilot of the group, which I suppose has its advantages. The current adventure in the “Prince of Alderaan” campaign is much more scattered than some of the preliminary adventures Doyce ran us through — less of a “dungeon crawl,” more of everyone having their own threads to pursue. Dag gets back to pursuing Nayda’s disappearance (in the company of his mysterious double) next time — and with an additional level, to boot.

SATURDAY
Margie took Kitten Duty in the morning, which I had been ready to take on (since she was sick), but she thwarted me by saying “Go back to sleep.” My will sapped by being damned sleepy, I complied, and ended up with a good nine hours under my belt. Or someplace.

I tried to return the favor by taking Kitten with me out front while I did spring cleaning on the yard — chopping down the old grasses and other shrubbery that needs pre-new-growth pruning. While Katherine played with sidewalk chalk, I also filled up the watering sacks by the trees, and looked at all the bulbs already rising from the mulch.

I’m worried about the yard this year. Water restrictions look like they’ll be harsh, which means no new plantings, and the old plantings (even the drought-tolerant ones) may suffer mightily.

That done, I went in and noodled about online, putting together my game log from the previous night (unheard of!) and leveling Dag to 8th.

I got sucked into a discussion about Iraq and the current Nuclear Posture Report (well, current as of a year ago) on a e-mail discussion list I belong to. That ended up taking a lot more time and effort than I’d have thought, since it’s more difficult to participate in a dialog than to simply put forth (as on my blog).

SUNDAY
Margie took a sick day from church, so I took Katherine, then we all got back together, did brunch, and then went on the normal Alpha shopping at Costco and Safeway.

In the afternoon, I tried to catch up with other household necessities, including ordering magazines from my nephews’ school fund-raiser, and getting this month’s comic book order filled out. On the latter, I dropped some marginal titles, which made me feel virtuous.

MONDAY
I’ve been feeling worn out and listless and unable to concentrate this morning. I don’t know if I’m just tired — my sleep hasn’t been abnormally short, but Margie’s coughing has been waking me up a few times (concerning which I feel worse for Margie than myself, of course) — or if I’m the third domino to drop in our Household Illness Fest. Hopefully the former, since it looks to be a very hectic week.

Status check

Nothing profound here, just an update on How Things are Going. It’s been snowing on and off here in Denver for most of the week. The streets clear out to…

Nothing profound here, just an update on How Things are Going.

It’s been snowing on and off here in Denver for most of the week. The streets clear out to dryness just in time to get dusted again. That’s all to the good — we so badly need the moisture, but we don’t need it all in one day.

It makes driving in more interesting, of course. I’ve gotten so gun-shy at the Saturn on snow that even a light coat of muddy slush is enough to get me white-knuckling my way to work. I take the I-25/I-70 route, not because it’s faster, or because I enjoy maneuvering through T-Rex, but because it’s highly traveled, and thus snow will be more likely to be melted away or plowed or sprayed or pushed aside.

I’m not driving myself to Bear Trap Ranch this afternoon for the retreat, thank heavens. Margie needs to have the van here for Kitten Transport, and the road is not the best for the Saturn under summer circumstances; if it’s wintry, I’d as soon not. So I’ll be riding down with someone else, who has a Jeep with 4WD. I dislike riding with strangers (being my father’s son and all), but it’ll be worth it.

Things have been busy. I think we’ve kind of gotten back up onto the wavefront after our time away, balancing and maneuvernig frantically down the pipeline of commitments. The big focus of our weeks is the Monday night Alpha — Margie’s especially, doing the cooking for 100, but I’ve got my own time sunk into it, as well as the peripheral Margie support — going to the store, helping watch after Kitten, etc.

Gaming has only started getting moving again — the advantage of dragging your GM off on vacation with you. D&D at the house tonight, since Margie will be single-parenting with Katherine while I’m away. Keep her in your thoughts …

We’re still not caught up with everything, though. There’s still a Christmas tree in the living room (artificial, of course, and de-decorated), and stacks of mail that need sifting (though I made sure the water bill was paid before I left), and other such overhead tasks.

And, of course, my Muse has been prodding me about getting Catspaw finished. And, in fact, she gave me an idea for advancing the plot that I need to follow up on …

… as soon as I get make some time …

Well, every party needs a cleric

My “real” D&D stats: Str: 9 Int: 10 Wis: 15 Dex: 6 Con: 9 Chr: 12 I think the Dex is a little overstated, and I’d like to think I’m…

My “real” D&D stats:

Str: 9
Int: 10
Wis: 15
Dex: 6
Con: 9
Chr: 12

I think the Dex is a little overstated, and I’d like to think I’m over-average in Int. And I’m not sure about the Con, as well. But, then, what the heck.

(via Doyce-ish)

Adulterine!

A new cologne for picking up strangers? Some strange, contaminated mineral? Mouth wash for grown-ups? Nah, it’s just “an unlicensed castle.” For more castle jargon than you ever thought you…

A new cologne for picking up strangers? Some strange, contaminated mineral? Mouth wash for grown-ups?

Nah, it’s just “an unlicensed castle.”

For more castle jargon than you ever thought you could use (particularly useful for FRPGs, I’d supsect), check out the Castle Glossary.

(via Uncle Bear)

Weekend wrap-up

Whoo. Long weekend. Saturday night was this month’s Hungry Flock dinner. That turned out to be much more hectic because the sitter was late (not terribly happy with the sitter…

Whoo. Long weekend.

Saturday night was this month’s Hungry Flock dinner. That turned out to be much more hectic because the sitter was late (not terribly happy with the sitter in question, but she’s had the twin advantages of being available and being just down the street). Dinner was okay, but still ended the evening feeling a little out of breath.

Today, Kitten got up at 7:30a, which was later than usual — nice, especially since I was the one taking care of her this morning, but the short period between that and actually getting up meant some of the Sunday morning relaxation was not there. Not helped, of course, by my going downstairs without turning off the alarm …

The rest was the normal church and brunch, followed by a long trip to Nordie’s Rack for some clothes all around (and multiple shoes for Margie), plus a long trip to CostCo, shopping for Alpha tomorrow, followed by a trip to King Soopers for same.

Back home in time to (barely) unload, get Kitten down for a nap, get changed, and then have people arrive for this afternoon/evening’s Pulp Adventures game. Playtesting a module for GenghisCon (during which we’ll be in England), it was a lot of fun. I like the Pulp setting, frankly, and would like to do more of it (maybe even, gasp, run some). The only mar to the festivities were various multilateral tensions between multiple members of the large cast of players. Not sure what was going on, not sure I want to know, but the soap opera of metagaming issues is rarely as enjoyable as the gaming itself.

Nuff said. Off to bed. Long week this week — catch-up from being out for a week, trying to get back into the Catspaw-writing groove, lots of initiatives from the meeting last week, trying to deal with some WIST stuff, and various other things to occupy my time, including Alpha on Monday night and the Vestry Retreat on Friday night and the two-hour Firefly tape and the FotR DVD (plus numerous others) plus I’m now two weeks behind on Farscape plus …

Weekend Update

Well, it was a very, very busy weekend. A good kind of busy, to be sure, but ……

Well, it was a very, very busy weekend. A good kind of busy, to be sure, but …

Continue reading “Weekend Update”

Lost

FOUND Magazine – a web collection of stuff that’s been found. we collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids’ homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills,…

FOUND Magazine – a web collection of stuff that’s been found.

we collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids’ homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles- anything that gives a glimpse into someone else’s life. anything goes…

This is really interesting (in its mundanity) stuff.

(via Uncle Bear, who notes the potential for RPG fodder here)

“I waste him with my longbow!”

Oh. My. God. LotR as a bad D&D game. This stuff is a hoot. PC2: Is this debacle over yet? PC1: Almost, man. It’s really wounded, but I’m down to…

Oh. My. God. LotR as a bad D&D game. This stuff is a hoot.

PC2: Is this debacle over yet?
PC1: Almost, man. It’s really wounded, but I’m down to my last few hit points. We beat each other up swimming for a while, then climbed a bunch of stairs, and now we’re on the top of the mountain.
PC2: Oh, brother.
DM: It hit you again for… (roll dice, cheat on result) 5 points of damage.
PC2: 5 points! It’s supposed to be a balrog!
PC1: Shut up. I’m at negative 1. Can I take one last swing?
DM: Umm, sure.
PC1: Hit! And 8 points of damage! Hoody hoo!
DM: Wow – you killed it! It falls off the cliff – 7d6 points of falling damage –
PC2, sotto voce: winnnnggggsss…. it has wings!
DM: – and collapses on the mountain below you.
PC1: Yeah! In your face, balrog! I collapse back into the snow.
DM: Roll some stabilization checks. (roll, roll) You failed them ALL?
PC2: Hah!
PC1 (miserable): Yeah.
DM: Hey, I know! You get all the balrog’s experience points, right? So that puts you up a level, giving you more hit points, and you don’t die!
PC1: YES! Hahaha … I’m unstoppable. Mage with a sword, baby! Balrog-bane!
PC2: You guys suck. I’m going home.
PC1: I’m putting all my new skill points in animal empathy, ride, and disguise (evil wizard).

(via SfAD)

Now we know what the monkeys are saying

Folks With Way Too Much Time On Their Hands have ported the Ook language over to the .NET framework, callling it Ook#. Ook is a computer programming language consisting of…

Folks With Way Too Much Time On Their Hands have ported the Ook language over to the .NET framework, callling it Ook#. Ook is a computer programming language consisting of one word — “Ook” — with various punctuation marks.

Consider, for example, the standard “Hello World” program in Ook#:

# Lawrence Pit
#
# (C) 2002 BlueSorcerer
#
#example that prints Hello World!
Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook! Ook? Ook? Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook? Ook! Ook! Ook? Ook! Ook? Ook. Ook! Ook. Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook! Ook? Ook? Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook? Ook! Ook! Ook? Ook! Ook? Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook! Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook! Ook. Ook! Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook! Ook. Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook! Ook? Ook? Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook? Ook! Ook! Ook? Ook! Ook? Ook. Ook! Ook. Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook! Ook? Ook? Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook? Ook! Ook! Ook? Ook! Ook? Ook. Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook! Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook. Ook! Ook. Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook. Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook! Ook. Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook? Ook. Ook. Ook! Ook.

Something to remember for our next “Living Jungle” game.

(via BoingBoing)

Series WISH

This week’s WISH is a fine one — and something that might inspire some last-second holiday shopping: What three fantasy books/series would you recommend to other gamers? Why? What particularly…

This week’s WISH is a fine one — and something that might inspire some last-second holiday shopping:

What three fantasy books/series would you recommend to other gamers? Why? What particularly makes them suitable for gamers to read? Would they be particularly good for novices or better for experienced gamers?

Continue reading “Series WISH”

Fan Service of Gor

Yikes. There’s a D20 Sourcebook coming out based on Jon Norman’s Gor series? Yeesh. I was hoping that particular body of fanboy bodice-ripping sex slave fantasy “literature” had been buried…

Yikes. There’s a D20 Sourcebook coming out based on Jon Norman’s Gor series? Yeesh. I was hoping that particular body of fanboy bodice-ripping sex slave fantasy “literature” had been buried under a crossroads somewhere. Even if it makes for great parodies.

Though as Ginger notes, D20 Gor it might be a useful screening tool to see what players (or GMs) you want to stay far, far away from.

The real wrap-up

Not much more to report on from WDW. We managed to fill in some of the gift gaps at Epcot World Showcase, which also let us see the big fireworks…

Not much more to report on from WDW. We managed to fill in some of the gift gaps at Epcot World Showcase, which also let us see the big fireworks ‘n’ light show at the park closure. Kitten was a bit daunted by the light and noise at first, but eventually got seriously into it.

We got up too early yesterday, everything being pretty much packed the night before (and Margie working her normal magic to compress mass, if not weight, into far smaller suit cases than the local space-time fabric can normally support).

The flight was uneventful, save for my sending us off to the wrong concourse at Orlando (once, almost twice). We all three slept at various times on the plane, and woke up to the land of green-wet-sticky having turned to sere-dry-cool.

It was great to be home.

Well, we knew that sometime in the afternoon was going to be the official Gaming Group Gift Exchange. And that Sunday eveningish we’d be doing some Living Jungle stuff. Margie called Jackie from the baggage line, to discover that the two events had been conflated, for various reasons — but that nobody had actually let us know that.

Which was okay, actually, and it turned out to be a bigger confab than I’d expected — the Testerfolks, the Herreras, Stan, Dave & Lori, and, natch, us. Gifts were exchanged to adults (Dave G. had pulled my name, and made effective use of my Amazon Gift List, Margie got a fine new book from Randy) and to Katherine, Tristin and Justin.

Jackie had arranged for the food duties to be shared, so Margie only had to put together stuffing, whilst others brought over turkey, ham, potatoes, and more pies than you could shake a stick at.

It ended up being an honest-to-gosh holiday celebration at the house, tearing open gifts in the living room, eating a big turkey dinner in the dining room on the Christmas dishes … it was really neat.

And then we did the Living Jungle game, and had fun showing off the dinosaur-related items we’d picked up at Animal Kingdom.

A late night, not helped by a certain Kitten getting up at 5 a.m., but overall, not a bad way to come back to town.

Saturdaze

We wrapped up Doyce’s Star Wars campaign before November/December hiatus last night. Next installment to begin in January, and ten years later, which will move us just to about the…

We wrapped up Doyce’s Star Wars campaign before November/December hiatus last night. Next installment to begin in January, and ten years later, which will move us just to about the Episode II era. I suspect things will not be going well for Dag in the interim; his relationship with Nayda is doomed to a bitter end.

Got to sleep in today, while Margie took care of Katherine. Then it was off on errands (including an errand of mercy to drop off the Firefly tape from last night to the Testerfolks; Doyce ran out of space on his).

Then home again, home again, jiggety-jig, and swinging into action on Operation: MyGodTheParentsAreComing. This afternoon’s target was the dining room. Tomorrow: the breakfast table.

Been thinking about my short story I’m doing this month instead of NaNoWriMo. Now that I’m at the keyboard, of course, I’m finding myself fatigued, and with a zillion excuses not to write.

Such as Excuse #27: Boy, I’d Better Post Something In My Blog …

Itchy fingers

My typing fingers are getting itchy. I need to get involved in a new PBeM. The two I’ve been playing for quite some time while are both, sadly, growing moribund,…

My typing fingers are getting itchy. I need to get involved in a new PBeM.

The two I’ve been playing for quite some time while are both, sadly, growing moribund, heavily impacted by RL brouhahae in the respective GM’s lives. That’s also kept yet another PBeM that it looked like I was getting involved in a few months ago from getting off the ground.

I know, I know … the last thing I need is something else on my plate. But sitting here, right now, pondering it …

… it sure would be fun.

The Game’s the Thing

A bit of discussion’s going on at Turn of a Friendly Die on whether supers RPGs are more oriented (or limited) to physical combat than other settings or rules systems….

A bit of discussion‘s going on at Turn of a Friendly Die on whether supers RPGs are more oriented (or limited) to physical combat than other settings or rules systems.

Frankly? I don’t think so. And I feel passionately enough about the subject to post about it here, too.

Continue reading “The Game’s the Thing”

Be careful what you joke about

Aw, swell. It seems my comment the other day about not missing the days when D&D players were thought to be closet Satanists was premature. Only now we’re not Satanists,…

Aw, swell. It seems my comment the other day about not missing the days when D&D players were thought to be closet Satanists was premature. Only now we’re not Satanists, we’re closet serial killers, a la the “Tarot Card Sniper.”

Just for the record, folks — when I talk a lot about being a “cat person,” it really just means that I like our cats, not that I’m confused between my own self-identity and the felinoid characters I’ve played. Et cetera.

(via ToaFD)

Ze Master Plan

No longer under pressure actually execute a gaming/GMing plan, I’ve had plenty of time and creative energy to start devising one. Nothing until after the New Year. Trouble is, do…

No longer under pressure actually execute a gaming/GMing plan, I’ve had plenty of time and creative energy to start devising one.

Nothing until after the New Year.

Trouble is, do I start talking about it now, providing comfort and relief to my prospective players, impressing folks with my cleverness and flexibility, and beginning to set up that complex web of daunting expectations that’s always my downfall?

Or do I just bust?

(Margie, on the other hand, is suggesting I pick up some cheap one-off modules and do a little ad hoc GMing. Something to be said for that plan, as well. I even have this grand, master strategy as to how it would all tie together …)

Props

This week’s Game WISH: How do you use props in your game? Give three examples, and discuss why you use them. What do they bring to the game? Are there…

This week’s Game WISH:

How do you use props in your game? Give three examples, and discuss why you use them. What do they bring to the game? Are there any downsides to using them? For those who do convention games, are there differences between the props you use in campaigns and the props you use for con rounds?

Continue reading “Props”

Trump trick

Norris Thomlinson is collecting trumps of canonical Amber characters. Remarkably enough, even mine made it into the gallery. (Frankly, I think the Player Character trumps I did were a lot…

Norris Thomlinson is collecting trumps of canonical Amber characters. Remarkably enough, even mine made it into the gallery.

(Frankly, I think the Player Character trumps I did were a lot better, but Roger never did get around to writing about them. And, of course, now I regret never having drawn the rest of the Family.)

WISH about the past

This week’s Game WISH: In the gaming you are doing lately, what do you miss from earlier games? What works so much better you never looked back? Three examples?…

This week’s Game WISH:

In the gaming you are doing lately, what do you miss from earlier games? What works so much better you never looked back? Three examples?

Continue reading “WISH about the past”