There's a Storm in My Brain!

My wife was out at a stained glass class (say that five times fast) with my mother tonight, so I got to do a little "brainstorming".  Yep, finally putting some parts of Never Unprepared into action.  Took me long enough. Well, not really, as I've been brainstorming during my drives to and from work. Just needed to find the right times to get my brain to work in the right ways.

For tonight's brainstorming I will firmly place the blame on Mike Garcia and Tony Love.  The timing was right, so I am not complaining.  A little more magic, a little Evil magic - back and forth.  Actually, maybe there should be a mix - never mind.  Might be saying too much.  It's dangerous to cross the streams, especially when it might give the player's in your games a "heads up".  That certainly won't do ;)

I must say, I do like the idea of being dually productive.  If I can design stuff for my campaigns and possibly get some of that stuff out into the RPG wilds too, I'm doing good.

As a side thought, I have some ideas for a DCC / ACKS mashup.  That's definitely for another night tho ;)

I Was a Tinkerer Back in the Day

My first tour through this hobby I was a rules tinkerer. The players wanted to raise an army and conquer part of the Wild Coast (pre BattleSystem)? I put together a quick system to handle mass combat with a handful of rolls (like many of my notes from the 80's and 90's, long gone).

AD&D2e with it's endless splat books? I house ruled for balance.

NPC classes? Check

New spells? Aye

New creatures? But of course. You can't keep your players on their toes if you don't put them off balance on occasions.

That all ended in 97, shortly before the released of 3e.

3e I collected and read, but never played.

Then came Castles & Crusades - and I was back in the game and active. My second tour in the hobby known as Role Playing Games commenced.

I thought about tinkering but never did much of anything until a few months ago, when I put together a Swords & Wizardry Bard Class for submission to KnockSpell. It was a blast to do. Then again, I've always liked Bards.

I think I need to do some more tinkering, just not sure what yet. Maybe expand on the Bard with new spells and magic items. Maybe resurrect some of the more balanced kits from 2e for Swords & Wizardry. Something.

I understand why the real creative types in our hobby produce what they do, as there is little more satisfying in life then creating, completing and sharing a project that your are satisfied with and proud of.

Well, that and it would be a nice occasional distraction from installing the 2 rooms worth of flooring. It arrives tomorrow and I commence installation Thursday night after work. In a heatwave. In rooms without AC. The fun never ends ;)