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You are entering a realm beyond sight and sound. A realm composed of digital bits and bytes. You are entering a realm of my thoughts, digitized as best as my fingers can type them. You may be entertained, you may be bored, you may be offended. And if you are, well, that's life.
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Sep. 9th, 2009 @ 09:21 am Game Prep
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: stressed
Current Music: Final Fantasy mix
Prepping a one-shot game of a system I've never ran for nine people is a little nerve-wracking. If I suck, the new players might not return for future games. My existing players will just figure the problem lies with the game itself and won't want to play it again. At least I can use NPCs from a supplement I have as PCs for the night (thank goodness for Rustlers & Townsfolk!), but I still need map out the location (a paddlewheel riverboat).
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Sep. 4th, 2009 @ 10:00 am The Opposite Problem
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: ADD'd
I have complain often and loudly how I can't get people to show up for my RPG games (and no one comes out and says I'm a bad GM; in fact, I've been told I run a good game). After doing some recruiting, I think I scared up some new players. Unbeknownst to me, one of my players did some recruiting. So, I may have 4-5 new players at the next game.

If everyone shows up, that'll be 9 players. Yikes!

I doubt everyone will show up. One of the guys is having eye surgery again, so I'm pretty sure he's not coming. Still, that's 8 potential players at the next game, and I'm in the middle of moving, so I don't have a proper gaming area set up yet.

It's not a bad problem to have. Historically, I've found that for every two players you find, one of them will drop out within the first couple of sessions either because they play style doesn't mesh with the group, or they find the time commitment to be too great. So if only 2-3 (one is a spouse who only "might" be interested, hence the range) stay with the group, that'll put me back in a comfortable number of regular players.

First up, is an Aces & Eights one-shot game. Ironically, I'm sure there will be more bullets flying than just "one-shot." heheh. I amuse myself. If people don't want to decide on an RPG after the next game, I'll prep a one-shot of Shadowrun 4E. After that, maybe Pathfinder. One of the new people offered to run some Hackmaster Basic for us, so I might let him do that, too. I'd like to try a one-shot of Dark Heresy, too. If the new players want, I'll run a Pathfinder one-shot (it's not really necessary for the existing players, as it's just D&D 3.75). I could go REAL retro and do a Star Frontiers game, too. No one could complain about resources for that, since an updated version of the game is available for free on the 'Net. I guess I should run Star Wars Saga edition as well, and maybe even Savage Worlds, especially since I bought everyone a copy of it last Christmas. Oh, I guess I should do a one-shot of Mutants & Masterminds, too.

Of course, I could get lucky and everyone just come to a consensus about a game without me busting my butt making one-shots. It's a lot of work to learn a system, making pre-generated characters, and come up with an adventure (if there isn't one available for download) in two weeks' time. Sometimes, I think my players think since I'm the GM, that's the only thing I do with my free time.

But, I gotta move, man! It's rough doing game prep without my computer hooked up, or my stuff laying around. I set myself the goal of having my computer moved this week and the closest I got was making room for the desk in the upstairs office. I didn't even put the desk together yet! (Though, I might do that this afternoon.) Shoot, that reminds me, I need to call AT&T and find out what happens to my e-mail when I cancel. See, I have two e-mail address with them, both of which go to the same Yahoo mailbox. I figure the Yahoo account will stay active (albeit with less storage space), but I don't know if they'll let me set up forwarding on the sbcglobal.net account.

Moving is such a pain-in-the-butt. I had so much less stuff the last time I did it. I was able to cram it all in about two Ford Explorer loads. Heck, the only furniture I had was a bed, computer desk, and some dressers. Now I have a house full of stuff, plus Estelle's stuff. I need to have some eBay auctions. Anyone want some porcelain dolls, Coach purses, and creepy ceramic Marti Gras masks? (Can't have my Steif plush fox, though :P).
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Aug. 20th, 2009 @ 09:28 am Gen Con 2009 Slideshow
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: okay
I finally put together my pictures from Gen Con 2009.

There's a joke at the end that only people who played in my Star Wars game Thursday night will get.


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Aug. 18th, 2009 @ 11:10 am Gen Con Report (Day 4)
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: good
Current Music: Atomic Array Podcast
Tags:
I got up and went to work at the ENnies booth. Actually, I spent most of my "Booth Time" going from vendor to vendor telling them about the ENnies and trying to get submissions for next year. We ended up with 41 entries for the 2010 ENnies. Some of it looks really good. We're getting a lot of miniature products this year, some of which (from Alkemy, the Khaliman faction) would make really good Litorians.

Around noon, I went back to the hotel, we packed up and checked out. I took Maria home, unloaded the car and came back to the Con to tear down the ENnies booth. We finished up around 6:00 and I headed to Rock Bottom to have dinner with the folks from Circvs Maximvs (two of whom have ENnies involvement). I got home about 9:00 that night and set about sorting my filthy lucre.

Much fun was had.

Final Thoughts
The Convention Center really needs to turn on the A/C Wednesday afternoon and wait until AFTER tear-down to turn it off. It's too darn hot to work in that Dealer Hall without A/C. I suspect they do it to encourage people to work faster. Actually, I think it just makes them irritable and miserable.

I often joke that I don't have a lot of friends, and those I have tend to be kind of slackers when it comes to gaming. I got called on it this year at the Convention. I have a lot of friends. Good friends. Great friends. They just don't live in Indianapolis. I'm richer for knowing all of you. See you next year!
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Aug. 18th, 2009 @ 10:58 am Gen Con Report (Day 3)
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: good
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Late to bed, early to rise...the creedo by which we live Gen Con.

I got up and drove home. I had to buy Happy Joy Energy Pills for my 9AM Paranoia game. OK, they're doughnuts from Long's Bakery in Indianapolis, a local legend, and arguably, the best doughnuts in town. At first, I thought my Paranoia game (Planet of the Clones) was going to suffer from too few players, but we managed to snag a couple of extras at the last minute and a great time was had by all. The hapless troubleshooters totally forgot to go to their mission briefing and got shot off into space with only the slightest inkling of what they were supposed to be doing. At least they got to take all their replacement clones on the spaceship with them. As I predicted, someone shot out the windows on the spacecraft (OK, it was an airtight autocar; basically an early 80s sedan with an autopilot attached to the top of a missile). By the time they got to the space station (Orbiting Space Platform H-A-L-2-0-0-1, I have no shame), almost everyone was on their second clone. A couple of more deaths occurred they followed the bad guy through a strange portal. Funny thing, as they were leaping through the portal, they heard a countdown (Self-Destruct in 5...4...3...). The re-appeared on a tropical beach and quickly discovered that EVERY person on the planet was a clone of the bad guy, though they didn't all act like the bad guy. When one of the trouble shooters was killed by an errant grenade, it dawned on them, finally, that ALL their replacement clones were back on the space station which blew up approximately 2 seconds after they went through the portal. Yes, on the Planet of the Clones, death was permanent.

But, they pressed on, killed the bad guy in a spectacular display of explosive action and ended up all dying themselves except for two of the Troubleshooters, one of whom had such severe radiation burns, he was probably going to die without immediate medical attention. All-in-all, it was a typical game of Paranoia.

After the Paranoia game, I wandered around the Dealer Hall a while more. Maria was taking a Wire-Wrapping (for Jewelry) class. After picking her up, we went to lunch and back to the hotel for a quick nap before I had to get to Varianor's Air Strike game (part V: V for Vegatables). I played yet a different character and had an awesome time. If you haven't yet, you simply MUST play in one of Varianor's games. He is one of the best DMs at Gen Con.

There was little time to spare after Air Strike V; I had to get to P.F. Chang's for the 5th Annual OYT Dinner. Our table of 30 was once again full, and it was a great opportunity to just relax with friends for a bit (even if Maria did start feeling ill just in time to not be able to eat; we're still not sure what that was about). It's one of my favorite events of the Con, and I'm not just saying that because I organize it. It's a great meal with good friends, but a little bittersweet, because for some, when you part ways at the end of the evening, it's goodbye for another year.
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Aug. 18th, 2009 @ 10:33 am Gen Con Report (Day 2)
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: good
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I didn't have to get up early on Friday, but being able to get into the Dealer Hall before they opened (due to my spiffy ENnie Awards exhibitor badge) was too good to pass up. So, I did that and wandered around, scoping out things I wanted to buy, despite not having any money.

Tip: If you promise to buy stuff for other people, it's OK to do it all on the first day provided you leave some spending money for yourself. D'OH!

Friday morning and early afternoon was actually kind of a blur; I don't think I had anything schedule and I really don't remember much of what I did. I probably just wandered the Dealer Hall, basking in the unbridled, gaming-related consumerism. At 4PM, Maria and I had another workshop together, Terrain Building. He showed us how to make our own terrain using pegboard, insulating foam, modeling flocking, paint, and glue. It is WAY easier than it looked, and I can see myself spending way too much time and money doing this.

After the workshop, I had to dress myself up for the ENnies. I was stylin'. I live-Twittered the entire ceremony, so no one could scoop EN World for the results. Some of my favorites won medals (not necessarily Gold, but a win is a win). Maria saw the lot of art that was being auctioned in the Silent Auction and bid on it, thinking it would be nice for my new gaming room when I move in with her. Some of the art is really, really awesome (and some of it is original art; so it's not all just prints). Some, I'm not sure I'll put up. I've never been one to put up pinups, but hey, most of it is just made of coolness. She won the auction, buy the way and I now have over 40 pieces of fantasy/sci-fi artwork to hang in my gaming room and home office/workspace/computer room. She is TOO COOL for words. After the ceremony, we kind of stared at the pile of artwork wondering how we were going to get it back to the hotel when who shows up? GMChris, his wife TG (Twi'lek Goodness) and someone whose name I sadly can't remember, from the Order 66 Podcast. They graciously offered to help us carry the art back to the Marriott.

Yes, twice in one Convention I had Award-Winning Podcasters as my personal valets. They are just awesome people, great friends, and deserve that award.

Another night of too little mediocre-quality sleep.
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Aug. 18th, 2009 @ 10:12 am Gen Con Report (Day 1)
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: good
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The first day of the Con didn't start too early. I was schedule to play in the Dungeon Crawl Classics tournament. It was my first experience playing D&D 4E (up until Thursday, I'd only DMed it).

The first combat was against a manticore and a gorgon. In the DCC tournament, you can only roll the D20 they provide, and it's one of those big clunker dice that if you don't throw just right, it tend to just fall to the table with a "thud." Within the first hour of the game, my Fighter was petrified, and the Paladin followed shortly thereafter. It was then up to the Wizard, the Warlock, and the Cleric to defeat both monsters. It took 2 hours. Yes, I paid $10 to play a game at the con where I literally sat at the table for 2 frickin' hours during which I could do NOTHING. Neither the Cleric nor the Wizard could help me because the Remove Affliction ritual takes an hour to perform.

Fun times. And I say that without any enthusiasm whatsoever.

Needless to say, my team did NOT advance in the tournament, and I'm going to seriously rethink participating in any future tournaments. I've played in three sanctioned D&D tournaments and came away with a sour taste in my 2/3rds of the time.

So, after 4 hours of brutal 4E play, I went home to get Maria loaded up in the car and drove us to the Marriott where we checked in (yup, this was the first year I've stayed AT the convention). Time was short and we had to rush, rush, rush to our first event together, Beginning Miniature Painting. I'm not totally inexperienced with miniatures, but I was way out of practice and it was something Maria wanted to start doing with me. It was a very good class. I already knew, in a general sense, how to use the techniques he taught us (base coat, dry brushing, washes), but I've never had them explained to me in the way he did and his pointers were very good. The class gave me a lot of confidence in my ability to get back into mini painting and paint up some miniatures that I would not be ashamed of.

After mini painting, it was time for a quick dinner, then I had to go run a Star Wars D6 game. It went very well, but like Monte, I noticed some clunkiness to the rules, particularly when it came to dodging and difficult hitting. Still, I think everyone had a good time and the solutions to fighting off an AT-ST and an AT-AT were very creative. One of the snowtroopers was dubbed "Shaftrooper" since he Would. Not. Die. Shafttrooper may have survived the Battle of Hoth...

When the Star Wars game concluded, I retired to our room at the Marriott and got too little mediocre-quality sleep.
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Aug. 18th, 2009 @ 08:02 am Gen Con Report (Day 0)
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: good
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Wednesday, I slept in. Ahhhhhh, luxury.

Sometime in the afternoon, I headed to the Convention Center with a car full of stuff so I could help set up the ENnies booth. As I wrangled the booth itself, my dinner in a small cooler, a box of display stands, and two totes full of ENnies submissions, I found myself cursing as the stack kept shifting and falling off the dolly. As I was walking towards the Convention Center, I got a call from GMChris (of the Order 66 Podcast) asking how I was doing and wondering what my schedule was like the rest of the day. He was forever trying to get me for a pickup game of Star Wars Saga edition, which sadly, I was always too busy to participate in. Hopefully, next year I can throw some dice with them. Anyway, about 2 minutes after I got off the phone with them, my load falls off again in the Convention Center in front of a group of gamers. I cursed and started picking stuff up. At this point, I was sweating like a pig because the Convention Center doesn't turn on the A/C until Thursday and it was near 90° outside. The helpful gamers came over to assist me and saw "ENnies Stuff" on top of one of the boxes. They got excited and mentioned they were one of the nominees. For Podcast. For the Order 66 Podcast. How fortuitous!

So, GMChris and DonovanMorningfire (I think) helped me carry stuff into the Dealer Hall. They also gave me a couple of custom-made D20 Radio D6s, which make perfect Wild Die dice for Star Wars D6.

With the help of Reveal (from ENWorld), aka Tony Law the ENnies PR guy, the booth was assembled in no time flat and I scooted over to the Hyatt to play in Tarondor's AE game, "Apotheosis of the Red King." A great time was had by all and after sweet-talking a god-minion and freeing a not-necessarily friendly god, we defeated the Red King and brought the Red King trilogy to an epic conclusion!

Then I went home for one last night in my own bed with my own pillow.
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Aug. 10th, 2009 @ 02:55 pm My Gen Con Schedule
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: excited
Current Music: None
More important folks than me have posted their Gen Con schedule, so this might be a little self-serving...or not.

WEDNESDAY
Afternoon - Help set up ENnies Booth
7PM - 11PM - Off-grid Arcana Evolved game at some downtown hotel.

THURSDAY
9AM - 9:45AM - Take of anything I need to do in the Dealer Hall (hand out ENnies Nomination Certificates, etc.)
10AM - 2PM - Dungeon Crawl Classics Tournament
2PM - 4PM - FREE TIME WHOOOOOOO
4PM - 6PM - Beginner Mini Painting
7PM - 11PM - Escape from Echo Base (Open Gaming Area, I'm running it; Star Wars D6)

FRIDAY
8AM - 3:30PM - FREE TIME WHOOOOOOOO
4PM - 6PM - Terrain Building Using Hirst Arts Molds
8PM - 11PM - ENnie Awards (I'll be stylin')

SATURDAY
9AM - Noon - Planet of the Clones (Open Gaming Area, I'm running it; Paranoia 2nd ed.)
Noon - 4:30 - FREE TIME WHOOOOOOO
5PM - 7PM - Air Strike V: V for Vegetables (Open Gaming Area; AE)
8PM - 11PM - 5th Annual OK--Your Turn Dinner @ PF Chang's

SUNDAY
9:30 - Noon - Workin' @ ENnies Booth
Noon - 5PM - FREE TIME WHOOOOOOO

Wow, I gots a lot of a free time this year. Can you tell I have an English degree?

For the first time, I'm staying downtown this year. We're staying at the Marriott. It should be an interesting experience. I still have to go home every day to check on the cats, though. One of them (I'm not sure which) has a nasty habit of pissing on my kitchen floor if the litter boxes aren't cleaned out daily or more frequently.


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Aug. 10th, 2009 @ 10:22 am Pre-Gen Con Update
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Order 66 Podcast
So, here I am, T-Minus 3 days before Gen Con (my vacation starts tomorrow). Yippee!!

Saturday, I went to my step-nephew-in-law's deployment party. He's going to Afghanistan for a year, leaving a pregnant wife behind. For Christmas, I'm going to get him the Pathfinder RPG (hopefully in time to have the folks at Paizo sign it at Gen Con). He hates D&D 4E with a vehement passion that reviles a religion, but is gung-ho about 3.X and Pathfinder.

What I'm most disappointed about is that my sister and brother-in-law weren't at the deployment party. The pregnant wife is my brother-in-law's eldest daughter (my sister's step-daughter), but they had to leave at the last minute to drive down the South Carolina to help someone from their church with something. There's some bad blood there in the past, things aren't all hunky-dory between my niece and my brother-in-law, but I just don't understand how they couldn't see Nate off before he went off to war. It boggles my mind and I really just don't understand it.

None of my business, though. I just try to get along and not get involved in these little inter-family disputes.

Speaking of which, my father's bigoted, insensitive nature offended my bride-to-be on Saturday, and I can't say I blame her. While I have thirty-five years of being used to some of the things that come out of his mouth, it doesn't mean I like to hear it. I won't repeat what he said, but it's an epithet that is normally reserved for folks from the Middle East. He applied it to a doctor he saw from India (so not only did he use a pretty reviled racial slur, he used it incorrectly!). *sigh*

But, in a few short days, I will once again be at Gen Con where I can leave all this Mickey Mouse BS behind for 4 days and enjoy myself. I may even turn off the work e-mail notifications on my iPhone so I don't get annoyed by it while I'm at Fun Land.

Hope to see some of you there!
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Jul. 29th, 2009 @ 07:35 am Podcasts, Redux
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Order 66 Podcast
As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, I was interviewed on the Order 66 Podcast regarding the ENnies. You can hear the podcast here. The segment with me starts around the 16 minute mark. Heh...it's weird listening to myself.

Yes, I know some of my grammar is messed up and I should be ashamed 'cause I have a degree in English. I was nervous. :p

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Jul. 28th, 2009 @ 01:59 pm Gaming Woes
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: Final Fantasy mix
My group is suffering from a lack of attendance/chronic scheduling conflicts. It's both frustrating and discouraging. The schedule for the next few months is

August 8th
August 22nd
September 5th
September 19th
October 3rd
October 17th
October 31st

Nothing in there should be an issue, however, Saturday, August 15th is Gen Con. For a group that meets every other week, that makes it seem like there's 3 weeks of gaming in a row (especially from the point of view of the spouses not involved). I had originally planned to outright cancel the game on the 8th because that evening is my step-nephew-in-law's Deployment Party (Nate is going to Afghanistan).

Then, I thought about moving that game to the 7th and possibly playtesting the 4E adventure I'd be running at Gen Con.

However, that still leaves me with three weekends in a row of gaming and since we haven't been able to play our 4E game since June 13th, I'm reluctant to drop a session for a playtest of a different 4E game.

In addition, if I recall correctly, one of my players will be leaving the group soon to go to school in Florida and another has had to take a job in Chicago and I'm not convinced of the feasibility of having him play online with Skype/an IM client and a webcam showing the battlemat. So that leaves me with 2 people who are relatively committed to the every-other-week game, 1 person who was pretty reliable the whole campaign until his wife schedule a dinner party on top of one of the games that should have been marked on his calendar (she's usually pretty good about accommodating his schedule), and another player who can only commit to one game a month IF he's lucky.

That's not really enough for D&D and people dropping in and out of session gets really hard to plan for; I never know (aside from 2 people) whose characters to plan stuff around.

I've sent a different version of this post to the group, asking for their input. I'd hate to just outright cancel the game, write off the 4E campaign and start building a group anew after Gen Con, but dang it, that's looking real attractive right now. I spend a lot of time and money putting together these games and I can't even get people to show up reliably every other week. I understand when life pulls you away from what you want to do, I really do, but It's very, very frustrating for me.

I suppose it doesn't help that D&D is so dependent upon having the right number of players in order to run smoothly. When only two of the players showed up last weekend, I was able to run an impromptu Star Wars session with reasonable success. While its good to keep gaming, it does make it hard to keep up the momentum of an on-going campaign as well as maintain any sort of continuity or passion about the plot and characters.

One solution I can see, and I don't know how this would fly yet, would be for me to just hold Game Nights: we play whatever game we agree upon depending on how many people show up. This make it much more difficult for me to prepare as Game Master, as I won't know what to prepare, but would give me the freedom to prepare adventures for several different games, so long as characters were available for people. It would also make it easier for other people to run one-shot games if they had material prepared. If I needed a D&D fix, I could always then play with the RPGA at a local game store; they play there several times a week.

I could just shelve everything for now and wait to re-build the group after Gen Con. But the holiday season always seems to play havoc with attendance, so I'm not sure if that would solve anything. It could be, I'm doomed never to have a long-lasting game again.

And that would make me sad.
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Jul. 28th, 2009 @ 09:11 am RPG Question Meme
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
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If you read my blog, you know I play RPGs and talk about them a lot, so here's something I ganked from [info]crothian .

1. What was the first RPG you ever played?
D&D Basic Set (the Moldvay red-box with Erol Otus artwork)

2. How long ago?
Fall of 1981 or Spring of 1982 (I know I was in 2nd grade at the time)

3. Tell us something about it?
We were watching one of my best friends in the mornings before going to school (his mom was a Nurse and would drop him off at about 5AM so he could catch the bus with me). He brought over this game he got over the weekend that one the kids in his neighborhood showed him how to play. We didn't know half the rules, but had a blast anyway. By the time my fighter got finished with Keep on the Borderlands, I had two pages worth of treasure I was hauling around.

4. How soon after did you start playing a regular session?
We played regularly all through Elementary school, as often as we could. Pretty much all the kids I hung out with in school or in the neighborhood played at one time or another, but we didn't have an organized gaming group, per se.

5. Which genres have you played?
Fantasy, Pulp Action, War, Sci-Fi (and Space Opera), Superhero, Western, Spy, Supernatural

6. Which games have you played?
BECMI D&D, AD&D 1st & 2nd editions, D&D 3.X, D&D 4E (DM only), Arcana Evolved, Marvel Superheroes, DC Superheroes, Mutants & Masterminds (GM only), WEG Star Wars, d20 Star Wars, d20 Modern, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Paranoia 1st & 2nd editions, The Morrow Project, Twilight 2000, Star Frontiers, Aces & Eights, Champions, Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic, Top Secret & Top Secret S/I, Star Trek (FASA), Dr. Who (FASA)

7. Give a list of some or all of the PCs you've played.
Ranger - human fighter, D&D Basic/Expert
Silverleaf, human cleric, AD&D 1st ed.
Lightwave, human monk, AD&D 1st ed.
Cassowary Mapmaker, kender Cartographer! (Rogue), AD&D 2nd ed. Dragonlance
Hallic Kayne, Rebellion Soldier, Star Wars d20
Balthazar Bouldercrusher, dwarven fighter, AD&D 2nd ed. Spelljammer
Seth Blackthorne, human paladin, D&D 3.0
Thog, half-orc fighter, D&D 3.0
Tallow Wolfbrother, halfling druid, D&D 3.5
Toluene Silverbow, elven unfettered, D&D 3.5/AE

8. What's your favorite genre?
Toss-up between High Fantasy and Space Opera

9. What's your favorite game/system?
Star Wars D6 by West End Games

10. What's your favorite supplement?
Ptolus: City by the Spire by Monte Cook. Before that, it was the Complete Book of Eldritch Might by Monte Cook.

11. Who are your favorite PCs?
Don't really have a favorite.

12. Have you GMed?
I usually GM.

13. Which game did you GM first?
D&D Basic

14. How did it go?
I had no frickin' idea what I was doing, but everyone seemed to have fun.

15. Which is your favorite campaign that you GMed?
Hard to pick an absolute favorite, but I really enjoyed the first Ptolus campaign I ran. I had a full group, good character and first the first half-dozen sessions or so, everything went well. Then attendance started dropping off, my burn-out (from nearly 2 years of the World's Largest Dungeon prior to Ptolus) returned and it just became a struggle.

16. Do you prefer to GM or Play?
I prefer to GM, but I do like to play on occasion.

17. Which genre that you haven't tried would you most like to try?
The genres I haven't tried are the ones I don't have an interest in trying. There are some that I've only played one shots at conventions that I am interested in play more, such as Western and Modern, though.

18. Which game/system that you haven't tried would you most like to try?
Dark Heresy (Warhammer 40K). I would also like to play Mutants & Masterminds, because I've only GMed it once and I didn't know what I was doing. I've often called M&M my favorite game I've never gotten to play.

19. Do you play a typical character of any kind?
I usually play fighters. Personality wise, they're all different. Some have been cunning, some dashing, some dumb as a bag of hammers.

20. What do you like best about roleplaying?
I like being able to play a game with friends were there's no clear winner or loser--competition comes with too many complications.
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Jul. 27th, 2009 @ 10:49 am Podcasts
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: ForceCast podcast
I did a quick interview on the Order 66 Podcast yesterday to talk about the ENnies. I'll post a link to the podcast once they finish production on it and it's available for download.

Unbeknownst to me (until today), I also get a mention in the last 10 minutes of the weekly Forcecast (TheForce.net's podcast, I think it's also available through RebelScum.com). Last week, they were talking about a blooper where Captain' Needa "helps" the floor chiefs lift his corpse after Vader chokes him to death in The Empire Strikes Back. I pointed out on their forums that he wasn't actually dead, because he went through Death Star Orientation Training we saw on Robot Chicken. They mentioned me by name (or as JediSoth) on the podcast I downloaded today.

Is this the beginning of my 15 seconds of Internet fame?
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Jul. 20th, 2009 @ 02:07 pm 40 Years Ago This Week...
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: frustrated
Current Music: Order 66 Podcast
...men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. They went in peace for all mankind.

And like Jim Lovell, Commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13, I often wonder when we will be going back, and who will that be?
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Jul. 13th, 2009 @ 11:47 am The Announcement is out!
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest
The nominees for the 2009 ENnie Awards have been announced! This means I can finally talk about nominations!

Not that I have anything to say: I had neither say nor influence in the judging process, and my sole contribution in the actual winner selection will be to vote like everyone else.

So, my official role as Submissions Coordinator this year is pretty much over. Now, I'm helping out with Ceremony Coordination (I've self-titled myself as the Ceremony Coordination Assistant). Basically, I'm going to take RSVPs from publishers, make sure the AV person has music and such, pull together auction items (most of which are in the Submission Coordinator's hands currently...hey, that's me!), and things like that.

I also get to start fielding questions about 2010's awards and will be accepting submissions for that at the convention.

I like doing this kind of work. I wish I could find a job where I do similar things and actually get paid decently for it.

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Jul. 13th, 2009 @ 07:27 am An Unusual Dream
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: Puzzled
Current Music: Fear the Boot podcast
I don't know why I dreamed what I did, but the dream was unusual in three respects: it was entirely 3rd person (i.e. I was not in it), it had some really BAD racial stereotyping in it, and it was about Superman.

I'm not a Superman fanatic by any stretch. And, for some reason, the Superman in this dream was a super-****. He epitomized this point of this website. He, Lois Lane and several other people (none of whom did any of the work) were assaulting a mountain hideout. I never really saw the villain, but his number one henchmen was a woman wearing a sparkly, sequined dress, not unlike what Willie Scott was wearing during the opening musical number of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. This Superman rolled his eyes at Lois's grousing and defeated the villain by ricocheting his laser eye beams off the henchwoman's sequined butt (which made Lois mad, and Superman just rolled his eyes again). As the henchwoman and all the mooks were surrendering to Superman, he offered to help the henchwoman and the female mooks (who were all Asian for reasons I don't understand) find jobs cleaning hotels. They refused his help, saying they just needed some seed money with which they could then start making a living by turning tricks. Superman agreed, apparently thinking this was a good idea.

Yes, this Superman apparently has no problem with displaced Asian women making a living as prostitutes. Oddly, Lois Lane didn't have a problem with this, either.

So, he and Jimmy Olsen were watching the rest of the mooks evacuate the secret mountain hideout and as some boy scouts were leaving, Superman made the "I'm watching you" gesture (you know, he points at his eyes, then points at someone with two fingers) towards them. He did that to a few other people, and as Jimmy Olsen started chuckling, Superman grabbed him by the collar very roughly and said something to the effect of "And you, Jimmy Olsen, you stay away from that Batman! If I find you snuggling up to him, so help me, I'll stick you so far up Robin's %$$ you'll have to take off his little black mask to take a $#@*.

It was then my alarm went off, rescuing me from what has to be the weirdest dream I can remember having in a very, very long time.

I'm still struggling to find meaning in this dream. For the record, while I have no problem with prostitution per se (and I'm surprised the government doesn't legalize it and tax the hell out of it for a revenue source), I find the exploitation of Asian woman in underground prostitution rings to be utterly deplorable. I also don't believe sequined dresses are proper attire for #1 henchwomen of unidentified super villains.
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Jul. 10th, 2009 @ 11:28 am Update 3
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: good
Two of the three games I'm running at Gen Con this year are complete. That's actually quite a relief, since I was beginning to think I might have to cancel one of them to take the pressure off. All that remains is for me to finish writing the D&D 4E adventure I'm going to run. For some reason, whenever I run D&D, I feel like I have to have much more extensive notes in order to feel prepared; I don't feel like I improvise well enough with that particular system. Maybe that's a reflection on the complexity of the game. Or maybe, I'm twisted enough to improvise Paranoia and grok Star Wars enough to improvise that, whereas D&D isn't quite as ingrained in my background, even though I've been playing it in various incarnations since 1982.

ENnies nominations are pretty much selected, so now I have to compile graphics and such for our webmaster to put up on the website. I'll probably also have to come up with a program for the ceremony, and I still want to redesign the submissions forms for next year.

And NO, I'm not going to tell you who's nominated. Those are announced next week. You can wait. :p
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Jul. 10th, 2009 @ 08:00 am I Do Not Like St. Francis Hospital
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: annoyed
Aside from the fact that Estelle had just been (by less than 6 hours) under their care when she died, their billing practices are all kinds of screwed up.

In March, I went to the E.R. for treatment for an allergic reaction. Allergic reactions can be life threatening, and I thought mine was, as I never suffered from such a reaction before. It was about 2AM when I went. Now, the E.R. is never closed. Open 24/7. Nevertheless, I was charged an extra $40 for "After Hours" treatment. In my mind, if you're open 24/7, there are no after hours. Furthermore, the doctor was already there in the E.R.; it was his JOB to be there.

I believe charging extra for After Hours treatment is a violation of the Hippocratic Oath, which states: "...I will keep them from harm and injustice." Extra charges encourages delays. Delays in treatment can result in harm or death. Is it just to charge someone extra for a service you're already providing? Maybe if I had gone to my regular doctor's office in the evening for a special visit after their regular office hours, I could see, but Emergency Rooms don't close. They're there for Emergencies, which often are not convenient. If they were, it wouldn't be a frickin' Emergency.

So, I didn't pay that portion of the bill. I wrote them a letter explaining, in bullet point fashion, why I would not be paying that portion of the bill. If they're smart, they'll let the matter drop. If they don't, I have a trump card I can play, but I'll keep that close to my chest for now.
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Jun. 29th, 2009 @ 10:14 am My New Car is No More
Current Location: Work
Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Brilliant Gameologists Podcast
I refer not to my "new" Dodge Caliber, gentle reader, for while that was a new car (compared to my old car), it was not new when I purchased it. No, I refer to the only car I purchased new, my 2003 Hyundai Sonata. It had 17 miles on it when I drove it off the dealership lot.

Saturday, I took it to Carmax. They offered me $2,000 for it. I took it. Kelly Blue Book trade-in value for that car was just over $1,200 (based on my estimate that it was in fair condition; good condition fetched a mere $300 more). I feel it was an equitable trade for me. They got a clean car they could auction off, and I got $2,000 in my bank account.

That was pretty much the big thing that happened this weekend. Most of my plans fell through, which wasn't necessarily bad. It made for a fairly relaxing weekend. Next weekend probably won't be too terribly busy, either. Right now, I think there's my niece's birthday and that's about it (aside from the Fourth of July, but I typically don't go out of my way to view fireworks displays).

July is going to be pretty busy though, at least my weekends will be. 7/11 is my regular game night, 7/12 is another play at Beef & Boards (Smoke on the Mountain: Sanders Family Christmas), 7/18 is a Murder Mystery Dinner at Chateau Thomas Winery, 7/25 is another game night. I still have three adventures to finish up for Gen Con, adventure on which I have not been spending nearly enough time working. I also have to design the new menu for the Edelweiss Restaurant, and I wanted that done by next weekend. And that doesn't count any last-minute ENnies tasks I'm going to get involved in.

August is going to revolve around Gen Con.
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