When Less is More

I really need to learn some time management skills. There must be an app for that ;)

In any case, I squeezed more into one evening yesterday then any sane man would, yet I still didn't get everything accomplished that I wanted to - but I accomplished what I needed to.

I think the same can be said about many things. You want to accomplish A-Z, but you NEED to accomplish A, D, E and S... anything beyond that is just gravy.

When I was writing my version of the Bard Class for the next KnockSpell, I had a huge list of things I wanted to do with it. Once I got started, I quickly saw I had to prioritize what was needed to make the class work. The rest could wait, or maybe wasn't even really needed. Less can be more.

With the Bard Class, I cut out new spells / songs and magic items. They weren't needed to make the class work. As for class abilities, if there was something already defined elsewhere in an OGL, why reinvent it. It took a lot of effort to reign myself in ;)

So, tonight I prioritize and remove some floor molding in advance of installing my flooring. Not going to go crazy, just the side I'll be starting in. Then read some RPG rules. Maybe a post. Then, if there is time, watch the first episode of Game of Thrones. I've put that off long enough I think.

Of course, the chances of me sticking to tonight's plan is slim to none, but one has to try ;)

Double Rainbow (sorta)

We had a short sunshower / thunderbumper last evening and I caught these pics of a rainbow after stopping at a cash machine for dinero.

You can sorta see the hint of the second rainbow in the first shot.

Now where the hell is my pot of gold?!?










- Posted from my iPhone

It's High School

When my son asked me to explain my job to him (as he is now thinking careers and such) I told him that being a cop was like spending an extra 20 years in High School. Same practical jokes. Same bullies. Same horsing around. Same authority figures, both good and bad. Same close friends, and just like High School, most of them are friends because of similar interests. Same assholes, and most of them are assholes because they enjoy being that way. Don't show up for the day and you'll get a phone call and possibly a visit.

Except that in my case, you also get a gun and shield, the authority to takes someone's freedom from them, and the responsibility to protect life. But it's still High School. If you didn't enjoy the antics and drama from High School it's going to be a long 20 years on the force.

If someone asked me about about our corner of the Blogosphere at this point in time, I'd probably have to give a similar answer. It's High School, just without the school work. Oh, and it's virtual.

I happened to like High School a lot, even in the crappy NYC Public School System.

Progress is Painful

This is getting painful - literally.

The renovations are causing more aches and pains then I'm used to. Progress is a beautiful thing despite the discomfort. Maybe as the flooring gets going I'll post pics as it progresses.

Once these two room are done I'm tapping out and hiring a professional for the kitchen ;)

Review wise, I reread some of Errant while dealing with an hour and a half texting marathon with a co-worker that is out sick with kidney stones. Weird combo, I know, but it worked. Production qualities are top notch, although I'm sure Greg would say it's not up to his new standards. Picky SOB ;)

Demolition Man

(not my closet - but double the size and add more wood and you have an idea)

(oh, and my holes are smaller - so far ;)

When I got home from work I returned to closet demolition.  95 degrees on the back porch and just a bit hotter on the second floor with no A/C.  The closet is / was about 8 feet wide and just about as tall, solid wood construction.  It's just too damn shallow, and the clothing bar is way too high for my Rachel.

As I did my destruction, I realized I had a Tunnels & Trolls game tonight.  Kinda buggered my time available to do reviews.  Lo and behold, I checked the message board and this week is a wash.  Looks like we may be heading to every other week, which works well with my free time.  So, reviews were back on.

Until I checked my email and found my Pergo laminate flooring, which was supposed to take 3 days to process and 3 to 6 days to ship, putting it mid to late next week, is arriving this thursday.  Sixteen boxes.  I need the space where the closet is just to store the crap as I install the first room.  So back to more destruction and less blogging.  This is my 10 minute break to cool off  before my next round.

Fun fun, but it's getting there.

So, punting until tomorrow for the next review.  Sorry Greg, hopefully tomorrow.

K, back to breaking wood...

The Return to Normality

Greg should be happy. If all goes well, should have a mini-review of Errant posted some time tonight. Heck, if I'm really lucky, I may even get the next part of the Savage Worlds Deluxe review posted tonight too. That part will deal with the powers / spells section of the rules.

Its nice to see things returning to normal. Of course, I need to spend at least an hour or so when I get home demolishing that damn closet. It's getting there. I'm tearing down the "Old School" closet so I can build a "New School" closet. How ironic ;)

Why Do We Blog in This Corner of the Blogosphere?

Blog - web log: a shared on-line journal where people can post diary entries about their personal experiences and hobbies; "postings on a blog are usually in chronological order". (source ordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn)


Community - A feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals (source google.com)


Troll - (bold is added by me) In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory^{[citation needed]}, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response^[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion. (source Wikipedia)


I know this has been said to death, and everyone has been putting in their 2 cents in the past couple of days, but I need to say my little piece on the matter.  I don't have the prose of others, and as we've seen my poetry can be a bit forced, but I'm going to borrow a minute of your time anyhow.


Why are you here?  Why do you read these gaming blogs?  If you blog yourself, why do you blog?


Probably because you enjoy all of the above, or you wouldn't be doing it.  I highly doubt anyone is getting paid to read or write this stuff (not counting the lads and ladies that are actually publishing - heck, many of them aren't getting paid either).  No one is forcing you into the blogosphere.  You are here because you enjoy the community, the camaraderie, the attention to some extent, the joy of giving to others of yourself and your skills.


So why the fascination with shitting on people?  Not all of us.  Not most of us.  Way less then some of us.  The aberrant few.  The type that kicks puppies and tortures kittens.  The type that sets a fire, then waits for the fire department to respond and watch them put it out as they risk their lives.  The type that would rather watch someone trapped in a car accident then help - not out of fear for their own safety, but the joy of watching the suffering.  I've dealt with the above in my career, and they are not wired like normal folk.  


Online communities have the same types of aberrant individuals as normal communities, but in far larger numbers.  Anonymity.  It lowers inhibitions.  Those that would never act out on these impulses in their "real life" are more apt to do so online.  A "troll" in your community, amongst your neighbors, would not last long.  Online, "trolls" have the ability to regenerate like an AD&D Trolls of old.


Of course, online communities also allow those that are painfully shy to open up.  Anonymity.  It lowers inhibitions.  


The blade cuts both ways.


If this were a forum, a strong hand by moderators would keep the "flame wars" and "trolls" under control.  In this community, the OSR Blogging Community, there is only us.  


We are not friends, at least not most of us.  Online acquaintances at best.  But we share a hobby and a community.  A good, healthy community pays dividends on a daily basis.  I'd like to think this is a good, healthy community.


K, done preaching.  Off my soapbox.  Carry on, nothing to see here!

Organizing The Disorganized Way

I really have way too much gaming material that I've accumulated over the years. More then I even realized, as I have it spread out in 3 rooms and a corner of the basement. Truth to tell, I forgot about the stuff in the basement until this past saturday. I went looking for a fan and low and behold, I found my stash of 3e gold (or fool's gold, depending on the publisher).

I also found a bag of Genesis games, which I promptly trashed (yea, I could eBay it but its not worth the hassle). I also realized my son has his computer graveyard in the same corner. I think I'll to start going thru stuff in the coming weeks. It's a good thing I just ordered a dozen office file boxes. I just need to empty out that basement corner so I can start organizing before the fiancé realizes the amount of crap I have and orders a purge ;)

I am NOT organized by nature. Surprise surprise... heh.

Still, the next stage of renovations is me putting in two rooms worth of flooring. I need to organize before I can start that, and the stuff shipped today. I can finish demolishing a closet in the heat, or I can organize crap in the cool basement. Tough one. I need room for my game collection, so I guess I do both.

I need another vacation ;)

Do You Use Any Online Resources to Assist Running Your Campaign?

With the slow rollout of Google+, it got me thinking about the online sites that can be used to help run a campaign. There are forums, sites like Obsidian Portal, email, blogs... and a crap more that I can't even think of at the moment (but I am sure some of you will).

What do you use? Is it as useful as you had hoped? If not, why not?

Yep, another list I'll be putting together in the future I expect, and I'll need some help on this one ;)

Thanks!

Google+ Invites For Those That Want

Apparently, I'm a Google+'er.  Go figure.

No idea how many invites I can give out.  No idea if you need a Google account to sign up.  Doesn't matter.

Drop an email in the comments below and I'll give them out as I can.  Should be less then 24 hour turn around as long as I have invites to give.

I think Google+ can be a handy gaming tool to handle events between sessions, and even work as a replacement for chat based online RPG sessions.

It almost makes me want to forgive Google for f'n up Blogger this week ;)

Blogger is Really Screwing With My Mojo These Days

Why couldn't Blogger / Google have done a Beta testing of the new software before going live with this aberrant piece of shit?

I'll get a real post up later I hope...

Trying Out Some Software For Blogging Assistance - OmmWriter (OSX)

New Age text editor OmmWriter (for OSX) is the latest software I'm trying for my blog writing.  It isn't blogging software in the strict sense.  I'll still need to copy n paste this into Blogger (with MarsEdit it posted stuff direct).  Still, if it helps me get my thoughts on page just a bit easier all the more power to it - and me ;)

I'm pretty sure the New Age background music is going to annoy the living crap outa my son.  This should be fun... heh

That being said, I'm open for other thoughts on blogging software for the Mac, as the PC only gets booted for gaming these days, rare as it is.

How Do You Handle a Campaign That is Designed to Change Midstream (ex: Evernight) Tracks?

What I mean by the title of this post is this:  in a campaign like Evernight for Savage Worlds, the PCs go into the campaign expected a fairly typical Fantasy genre campaign... which quickly becomes fight for survival against an alien invasion from beyond.  Do you tell your players up front what the plot twist is going to be, or do you spring it on them in the hopes that they'll accept it?

In my looking at settings for Savage Worlds, I've been rereading bit and pieces of Evernight.  Great concept, horrible execution.  This is railroading at it's very best (worst).  Assumptions are built into the storyline that force the PCs to go a certain way or the GM finds them off script, off the reservation and himself scrambling to plug the holes.

Do you tell the players that the train is heading in a certain direction and they need to follow along?  Do you strip Evernight down to it's core concepts, and let the game go where it may?  The second option requires a strong and skilled GM.

This crap keeps me up at night.  I find it real frustrating that a cool concept like Evernight could be so poorly executed.

Saturday Matinee Movie - Season of the Witch

Is it just me or it Nicholas Cage in just about every third movie released these days?  That being said, I liked Season of the Witch.  Even more surprisingly, my fiancee enjoyed it too.  Yep, she stayed awake throughout  the whole thing.  Good thing we found it on Amazon on Demand.

The storyline of escorting the witch to here trial at the abbey could easily be stolen for an RPG scenario if it hasn't already.  The twist near the end was actually kinda neat and wasn't telegraphed from a mile away as most movies tend to do with their twists (or maybe I'm just good and connecting the dots as they are presented).

Some of the acting is a little stilted, and there isn't much of an attempt to speak with authentic accents, but really, who cares?  The story makes for a great ride.  Besides, I think Nick Cage with an English accent would be painful to listen to.

Last week I had my fiancee watch Dust to Dawn for the first time.  I told her it was a movie that abruptly changes gears, but didn't tell her the twist.  This time, when the dead monks started dropping like ninjas, she said: "Holy shit, this just became a Zombie Movie without dropping the actually story.  They shoulda done that with Dusk to Dawn."  She may be right.

In any case, as a gamer and a fan of fantasy (and a history major) I will put my stamp of recommendation on Season of the Witch.  There are some good lines in it too that I wouldn't mind using at the gaming table.  I might need to watch it a second time to write them down ;)

Blogger's New Interface Blows

Anyone else having issues with Blogger's new interface?  When I mentioned earlier this week I planned on trying out some new blogging software, I had no idea Blogger was going to be playing around with it's software.

This shit sucks.  My previous attempt to post had no less then 2 dozen error messages pop up, then it refused to post.

I really will need to step on to some real blogging software.  It was the plan anyway.

Sigh...

The Troll Under the Blog and Other Short Tales - Forthcoming

I had the main outline of The Troll Under the Blog worked out Wednesday nite when I was driving to pick my son up from his EMT class. Which of course means my outline has faded a bit, as I never actually wrote anything down at the time or immediately thereafter. I do my best writing while driving. I need a voice recorder for my car ;)

In any case, I'll try to get it written out this weekend if all goes well. Oh, and maybe a Tale of the Blue Knight (but don't hold your breath fro the second one... heh).

The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane - Skulls in the Stars

After watching the Solomon Kane movie on DVD last weekend I decided to pick up The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane in Kindle format on Amazon for both my fiancee and myself. Last nite I finally got around to reading the first short story Skulls in the Stars. I must say, I like it.

I'm the first to admit I've never read Howard's original works before. Everyone knows of Conan. I read the Marvel Comics series, played the Play By Mail game back in the day, have the TSR and Mongoose RPGs, watched the original movie and caught some of the recent TV series. Never read a short story or novel.

I think I'm hooked now. Skulls in the Stars held my attention from the first paragraph. Guess I'm back to reading fiction on a semi-regular basis again. It's a good thing.

The Free OSR List Mini Review - Dark Dungeons

The free OSR rulesets are a special bunch.  They seek to clone, or clone and house rule, earlier editions of the Dungeons & Dragons rules.  God bless the OGL, and it's empowering those that enjoy Old School gaming.

Dark Dungeons is a clone of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia.  The D&D Rules Cyclopedia is itself a mash-up of BECMI Dungeons & Dragons - the series of boxes sets that took one from 1st level to 36th level.  If you've tried to find yourself a copy of the D&D RC on eBay or such, you would see that it is pretty sort after.  Dark Dungeons gives you the RC in a revised edition that attempts to correct some of the contradictions between the different boxed sets.

I have this in both dead tree and PDF formats and it is extremely well done.  The PDF is free ;)

Free Traveller Campaign - Secret of the Ancients

I've posted about this when the early chapters were released, but somehow I missed the whole thing hitting 256 pages in length, with 10 chapters and an intro.  Where the heck have I been?

In any case, it's complete and it's free.  How cool is that?

I'll be adding this to the Free Resources List shortly.

Sometimes Ya Gotta Be the Guinea Pig

I'm going to try some new blogging software when I get home tonight if all goes well.

Hopefully it's as painless as the below interaction (my mother's cat Fritzy and my son's cavie Opie).









- Posted from my iPhone

(edit: added some extra pics)