theWeem

I’m terrible when it comes to planning my games.

I wait till the last second, it’s pretty scattered and unorganized, and it generally is just tweaked so much in the end that I might as well have spent much less time on it.

But with that said, it almost always works out just fine.

Anyway, I find myself in that same situation right now.

I am running what will be the first game in the Paragon Tier of my current (second) 4th Edition Campaign. I almost see this tier as it’s own, separate campaign/story. The style will be different, as well as the theme and even a few of the players will be playing new characters, so I want to make a great impression.

But, the ideas are all over the map right now and time is counting down. I have tonight (which is not working out so well right now) and tomorrow night to work out what I would like to be a very memorable game.

I may have to settle for ‘ok’.

There was a lot of driving for me this weekend, first down to an Engagement party in Santa Barbara and then up to the Bay Area for my brother’s Birthday. I came home late last night and am finally settled back in, relaxing and catching up on everything.

Good to be home

Back in 2001, I ran a number of various RPG websites. For one such site, I sought out people in the industry to interview, including Gary Gygax and David “Zeb” Cook.

These interviews were published on my site at the time, but within a year, the site was taken down and before long those interviews were lost. Despite looking for them ever few years, my assumption has been that they were lost for good.

However, a few days ago while sifting through old CD’s, I found a few “data” (backup) CD’s that had old websites on them, and deep within those backups I finally found the interviews.

On Monday, I will be presenting part 1 of 2 from my 2001 interview with Gary Gygax. In this interview, you will see him answer questions from a fan (me) who was not following the industry closely yet, and was simply asking one of his heroes the questions that he had been wondering about for years.

In the interview with Zeb Cook, you will see a lot of the same thing – questions from a huge Planescape fan answered by the very man who created the setting.

I’m very excited to have found these, and look forward to sharing them soon!

This last week was awesome.

My brothers came in from out of town (a few hours away) to stay with me this last Monday through Thursday and we had a blast! One of them even ran a one-off D&D game on our typical game night (Tuesday) which was a lot of fun. He has some background in theater and I think one of the great things he brings to his games is that immersion you get when you have a DM who can act out various roles really well.

His game involved us heroes heading out to a haunted island of sorts in search of the father of a boy who went missing there. It was a horror-themed game, and done very well – everyone had such a good time we played well past the time a few of my players needed to have been heading home.

We also played some old school games including Age of Empires 2 and Imperium Galactica 2 which was a lot of fun and brought back some great memories. I also introduced them to Monday Night Combat (thanks @michaelrobles for getting me hooked on that one) which was a lot of fun as well (I seem to really enjoy the ‘Gunner’).

One of the days they were here, I had to head into the office to get some things done during which time my wife took the guys out to ride ATV’s out on the (Pismo) Dunes (I didn’t feel like going so it was good timing).

Anyway, this week was a ton of fun but we stayed up very late most nights and I am very worn out now (the fact I just finished doing a bunch of yard work doesn’t help with the resting either). I have a number of things to work on outside of this site, but I do hope to get back in here tomorrow or the next day with an update or two.

Seeya then!

I have this week off as my brothers come in from out of town – as such, things will be slow here until next weekend or so.

Just sayin’

Well, all those who went out to GenCon are back now with the rest of us (who could not go). I, like many others I’m sure, sat glued to Twitter living vicariously through those who were there. The highlight for me was the ability to watch the ENnies streamed live – getting to see faces, and hear the voices of those whose names were familiar to me – whether they can be found in a book on my shelf, or attached to a blog I have read, or a forum I frequent.

Often times, when reading various D&D blogs and forums, I recognize how minuscule my experience/take on D&D is when compared to others. Sure, I have been playing some 22 years now, been around the community for a long while, but there are just SO many people who know SO much more than me I feel like it’s new to me, but so familiar at the same time.

The whole experience of getting my GenCon fix through others in this way really cemented in me the desire to not only go next year, but to DO more during this next year as well. I’m going to be developing some new ideas/projects and may be approaching some of you about them, but I also want to offer up the idea of me working with you in some way, any way you think might be fun or interesting. If you have ideas, I’m open to the possibility of helping if I think I can!

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to seeing many of you there next year and to working on some new things between now and then!

Tonight, like many others, I watched the ENnies broadcast via livestream as I was not there in person to do so. What it made me realize more than I already felt was that I really want to be there in person, and my commitment to go next year was only made stronger. My wife is excited to go, and she is not even a gamer. She makes things happen around here and wants to go as well, so we WILL be there in 2011.

The ENnies were hosted this year by Kevin Kulp, aka “PC” aka Piratecat over at EN World which was cool – I didn’t follow the event leading up to it, so it was nice to see him there – a face to associate with the board member (and the one who will probably surpase my XP count at EN World first).

This was a huge, HUGE night for Paizo’s Pathfinder as they raked in the awards.

Anyway, I don’t have a lot more to say beyond that. It was fun to watch and I look forward to being there next year to see it in person.

As you may have already seen in the picture to the left, I dropped and shattered the glass on my new HTC Incredible. I had waited a month for this to get to me. Every day harder than the next to wait, and having had it now for 23 days I can say it was an appropriate anticipation. This phone is by far the best/coolest ‘gadget’ I have had. It is a phone, to be sure, but it is a gadget as well – one that I have been very happy to own.

So last night, I’m getting ready to climb into my truck on the way to a neaby 7-11. Already in my mind I’m thinking about the foursquare check-in I will be making when I get there (gotta make sure I stay keep my mayorship of course). As I open the door and move to get in, I pull the phone from my pocket and it SLIPS! It was all slow motion at that point – the scramble to secure it as it bounces and slides away from. The fractions of a second where the silence can be felt as it descends towards the pavement below – and finally the sound of a slap as it lands perfectly flat on it’s face, like a hand slapping water.

No case on the phone.

No insurance.

It was a drop that has cost me $266 for the order of a new one and 2 more weeks of waiting for it (though this new one IS insured).

I have to smile though – I’m fortunate enough that buying another one is even an option, so, no complaints here. At least I will have some spare parts (including a battery) for the new one!

Well, today is the day.

The players of my regular D&D campaign are coming over today to check out the Dresden Files RPG. I bought the books a few weeks ago, and have been going over them as I can. Last night in fact I made my very first character and was very pleased with the process and outcome. It’s making me wish someone could run a game for me, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon, so it’s best not to dwell.

One of the things I really like about this system is the way in which you can think of a theme for your character, or take a vision in your mind and make it happen. Other games allow you to do this with varying degrees of success, but this one did it well and the process itself was enjoyable. The character building process is even supposed to be a cooperative one which I think would have been even more fun, but I was flying solo with it last night.

Today, we’ll be talking about the system, and making characters. Even if these characters aren’t used in future games, I think getting to know the process is important in helping the players better understand the rules.

If they finish some characters before it’s too late, maybe I will throw something at them to beat down… or die to.

I’ve just added a new page to the site called “Win Stuff!“.

Essentially, I am rewarding my Twitter followers for… well… listening to me! If you are already following me, that’s awesome, but I suggest checking out the page anyway as there are more ways to win then by simply following me on Twitter.

Not following me on Twitter? Head to my Twitter page now, and hit “Follow” – that’s it!