Salthon Plain: Cracks

Friday January 5, 2024 at 9:00pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The group made their way west toward the fissure, deciding it was the better approach for the moment, making camp on their way up the ravine.  Upon reaching the enormous crack in the ice, they found that a strong, howling, and frigid wind coming from it.

- After making some preparations and pushing their way inside against the wind, they found themselves navigating a maze of cracks and tunnels in the ice, eventually coming upon a den of winter wolves and undead northern jackals.  One of the winter wolves - a very large one - seemed to understand the ancient language Jaydah tried speaking to it, but when she insisted they were trying to "help", it answered only "we are forsaken".

- After the wolf encounter, the group made their way into openings away from the wind, which was beginning to cause them problems.  They wandered around for some time in the ice, occasionally finding objects and structures frozen inside it.  Apart from a few small treasures and minor clues about the nature of the place, they found little here.  The group concluded that whatever was actively "going on" here was coming from the source of the cold wind.

- As they made camp and prepared to head back into the howling corridors, Jaydah received a short telepathic message from Fyndwhyr: a message from the witch Lesab saying they were not meant to enter the glacier...

Salthon Plain: Appearances

Saturday December 16, 2023 at 8:30pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The decided to make their way back south to the place where they'd seen evidence of a pixie gathering, hoping that the harmless fey would be able to take them to their queen.  The forest seemed to turn against them, however, and they soon found themselves lost in the black wood.

- They eventually stumbled upon a depression containing a small, faintly-glowing, snow-covered clearing like the one they'd seen earlier, but it appeared deserted.  As they investigated, they were greeted by a single small male voice that began asking who they were and what they were doing.  As they spoke, a strange silver mirror rose from the ground - and in its reflection, they saw the approach of a tall, majestic figure in green with eyes glowing like the sun.  The pixie they'd been talking to, desperately warned them to only look on the figure through the mirror - and not to turn around to face her.

- The fey queen announced her presence and demanded to know why the intruders had come.  She continued to badger them as they explained, and seemed only concerned with securing their promise to undo the "curse" on the land caused by the "forsaken" goddess.  Once Jaydah grudgingly acknowledged their agreement, the figure vanished, along with the mirror, and the aged Kugrash immediately collapsed.  The pixie flew over to Kugrash and touched his head - at that moment, the years began to dissolve off of him and his youth was restored.

- Jaydah, thoroughly annoyed, resumed conversation with the pixie.  The pixie seemed curious about what they would do to fulfil their promise to the fey queen, but Jaydah was in no mood to humour him.  A few misleading comments and some disparaging remarks about the queen of the fey caused the pixie to lose its composure.  Its form flickered and its gender and dress suddenly changed.  She began to sulk and glower at the group and their "spoiling everything".  It was Jaydah that then realized that she was, in fact, the fey queen herself.

- The group spoke further with the now more-compliant queen, but found that she knew comparatively little about the actual problem as its origin was from beyond her forest.  She did, however, tell them that she knew of two routes into the glacier - one by way of a great fissure at its base in the deep ravine to the west, and the other by way of a deep chasm atop the glacier much further east...

Salthon Plain: An Age Old Problem

Sunday December 10, 2023 at 9:19pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
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Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- Kugrash quickly sprang forward, smiting the bone serpent with his sword, but the ensuing combat seemed to disturb the ghost.  Its features warped, and it let out an unearthly howl that aged him 40 years.  As some of the bones animated into skeletons and began pursuing the party, the group decided on a strategic retreat into the forest.

- Kugrash began to hallucinate, seeing flashes of scenes from some other place and time: a marvelous city freezing, and falling into ruin.  The group made their way deeper into the forest.  Mido had also been aged by the ghost's wail, but his seemed to have "worn off" - Kugrash, however, seemed permanently weakend.  After some combination, Mido and Carmella could only think of one entity who would be capable of restoring their companion: and that would be the fey queen they had been avoiding...

Salthon Plain: The Curse

Friday November 17, 2023 at 8:30pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
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Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- As the group made their way northward toward the glacier that filled the pass between the two mountain ranges, they came upon a group of pixies curious as to the reason for their presence, and a frozen skeleton that "awoke" and demanded "where is it?".  They attempted to fight off the skeleton, but whatever force was animating it seemed to depart before it could be defeated.  Kugrash decided to smash the remains of the skeleton, just to be sure.  The pixies told them that the fae queen had said they were not allowed to be there, but they seemed hopeful that the "children" might end the "curse".

- The group finally located the ruin of the next tower - finding it was little more than a ring of foundation stones filled with bone.  In the center of it however, was a stone table on which were a number of scrolls and parchments, some large natural crystals, and a shrine to a goddess of magic or fate.  As they investigated, a ghost appeared near the table, seemingly in the midst of some prayer or ritual.  Jaydah attempted communication with him in the ancient langage she'd been studying, but this proved difficult.  She was able to discern that he was looking for some kind of "gift", and there was some urgency to the errand.

- As they were talking, the bones began to stir, and out of them rose a skeletal serpentine form.  It chided the ghost before turning to Jaydah and the others, telling them that they were meddling in affairs that were beyond them...

Deadlands: Trouble in the Street

Thursday October 19, 2023 at 8:30pm deadlands, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- The following day each of them spent some time in down doing different things.  Around noon, they all happened to be on the very crowded street in front of the Palace Saloon.  A drunk from inside stumbled into Montana and immediately started a fist fight, which quickly spread through the crowd.  As it unfolded, it becamse apparrent to the PCs that something was "wrong" with the people involved - and some of the bystanders.  The fight continued until Kevin and the town marshal showed up with a pump wagon and started dousing the participants - at which point the marshal declared that Montana was under arrest for the murder of the Grayfalls marshal three years earlier.

- There was a brief standoff after which Montana agreed to go relatively quietly.  The others attempted to find a way to help, but eventually ended up back at the Palace.  As Percy had something to drink and proceeded to have a run of bad luck at cards, Lily returned to talk...

Salthon Plain: Consequences

Friday October 13, 2023 at 9:00pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
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Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The creature - a manticore - had come to ambush them with a trio of Kenku assassins.  The fighting was fierce, but in the end there were no fatalities.  The group managed to drive the monster away, the kenku retreated, an though Mido and Anders had sustained some serious wounds, Carmella was able to bring them back from the brink.

- The following day their companions continued their survey of the ruin site, but the group spent most of their energy debating what to do next.  Should they return to Ereland with Fyndwhyr to get paid and evaluate the next move, or should they continue north to the glacier to see what they could learn now, since they were so close.  They ultimately decided on the latter, trusting Stahzer and the dwarf Millek to get the others back to the city safely.

- As they left the ruin site the following morning heading northward, they were met by a pair of fox-like fae creatures.  They were warned that the forest queen of the fae held the humanoids of the plains in contempt for wrongs of the past - and that the "curse" the land was rooted in the judgement a "vile goddess".  If they were to continue on their path, they must face that past, or be forever lost...

Deadlands: Immortal Struggle

Friday September 29, 2023 at 8:30pm deadlands, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- Kevin awoke the others and they made their way downstairs.  Sister Bower's voice beckoned him to come speak with her, but the shadows and smoke surrounding her were becoming malevolently alive.  Skeletal figures emerged from the thickening shadow and began attempting to drag her deeper into the void, while others lashed out at the investigators. 

- Kevin invoked his holy powers to try to keep the demons at bay long enough to ascertain the nature of the situation, but Percy, feeling she was the heart of the "problem", turned his gun on Sister Bowers' form, which burst into cold ash as the shadows evaporated.  The shrieking sound the reverberated throughout Flagstaff in the following stillness chilled all who heard it to the bone...

Salthon Plain: Paths to the Past

Friday September 22, 2023 at 8:30pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
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Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The group spent some time discussing their next move.  Fyndwhyr and his group were planning to head back after the following day's observations in order to reassess and decide how to act on this new information about the lost city's location being covered by an enormous glacier.  Some of them, however, believed it might be better to continue on from their current location to see what they could see, rather than going all the way back to Erelan - not to mention the urgency expressed by some mysterious parties, and some concerns as to whether the paranoid Lord Velior would allow Fyndwhyr further leave and resources given the recent issues with gnolls, kobolds, and the dragon.

- The group spent the rest of the afternoon making a cursory examination of the ruins, finding only one other building that was much more than foundation stones.  It seemed to be some sort of hall or temple, and contained in its primary chamber a toppled statue.

- As the day waned, the group traveled a little way away from the ruin to make camp.  During Carmella's watch, a shadow crept silently into camp - a monstrous winged cat with a grotesque humanoid face...

Deadlands: Arrival

Friday August 25, 2023 at 8:30pm deadlands, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- Lily almost immediately rounded on Percy, blaming him for her circumstances and punching him squarely in the face.  Turning to Kevin, she demanded to know why a man of the cloth would be associating with...   ...him.  It was at this point that Milton began to crack, convinced that Lily was possessed.  He drew his gun and shot, but the bullet ricochet and grazed George instead.  Kevin managed to knock the gun away and Milton fell back.  Though tension between the group remained, they slowly returned to their resting places as the wilderness quieted around them.

- The group continued on their way to Flagstaff, making the best time they could.  Unable to reach the town by nightfall, they were forced again to camp in the wilderness.  The night was interrupted only by loud thunderclaps directly overhead - but no rain fell.

- They made it to town by late morning the following day, and were confronted near the edge of town by a pair of men asking questions.  There had apparently been a number of disappearances of late, and they'd been hired by one bereaved family to investigate.

- The group spent some time looking around the town before taking accommodations at the Goldenfields Hotel - which seemed to be the most comfortable place available.  They were enjoying their first rest indoors in several days when Kevin was awakened by a knock and voice outside his door.  A voice he recognized as the nun who'd saved his life outside of Grayfalls.  Out in the hall, the voice seemed to be coming from downstairs - and was accompanied by the smell of smoke...

Salthon Plain: Buried in the Past

Friday August 11, 2023 at 8:30pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
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Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The group spoke briefly with the strange old woman - whom Carmella suspected as a fae hag - but though she offered to reward or assist them in their exploration, her manner didn't inspire trust and she departed when they seemed disinclined to bargain.

- Within the ruin itself, the group found mostly foundational stones and overgrown cobbled streets.  The two largest structures that were more intact were a large hall or temple-like building, and the lower floors of a small watchtower positioned near a ravine containing what looked like supports for a bridge or pier.

- As they neared the watchtower, they were attacked by a floating creature with 4 tentacle-like eyestalks.  After brief engagement, they managed to subdue the creature and trap it within a web spell.

- Inside the tower, they found a great number of bones in piles and a large metal chest.  The chest was locked and trapped, but Jaydah was able to get it open, finding a sizeable treasure of coins and items inside.

- The real discovery however, was what they found upstairs: a wall-mounted etched metal map showing the entire region as it apparently was in a prior age: the entire Plain was apparently and inland sea, and a large waterway flowed through what was now the dark forest they were exploring.  More notably, the map showed a large star along the coast to the north - at a place now covered by a massive glacier...

Salthon Plain: Decay

Friday July 14, 2023 at 8:30pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- Following Mido's cries, they found him tangled in the vines of yet another blight, and being dragged toward the ruin of a stone tower.  They fought off the remaining plant creatures and decided to investigate the tower, which they believed to be the ruin they had been searching for.

- Only the first 15 feet or so of this tower remained, and it was almost entirely occupied by a large, twisted tree.  As they approached, the tree animated and began lashing out at them with snake-like roots and branches.  They engaged the creature long enough to decide they didn't have the resouces to destroy it - but not before Jaydah caught sight of a grotesque statue of a woman tangled in the tree's roots.

- Continuing much further west, they at last arrived at their original destination: the ruin of some sort of settlement.  As they approached, they were met by an old woman with a bag full of bones.  She told them there would be no treasure to be found in this place - only a mad demon and piles of bones...

Salthon Plain: Tangled

Friday June 23, 2023 at 8:00pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
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Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The group continue northward toward a tower mark they'd seen on maps of the region.  They avoided an area containing a giggling presense that unsettled them.  Upon arriving at the region, they found the discrepancies between the map versions they had were causing problems.  They discussed the direction they should take as Carmella turned herself into a squirrel to climb a tree and try to get a better look from above the forest canopy.

- The group decided to continue eastward toward their ultimate goal.  As they passed through an area of thick undergrowth, they found themselves attacked by animate vines and twigs.  The resulting skirmish separated the group somewhat, and as the last of the plant creatures fell or fled, they heard a call from Mido who was being dragged away...

Salthon Plain: Ghosts of the Past pt. II

Friday June 16, 2023 at 8:00pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
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Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The howling wind and the gathering of ghostly entities around the base of the tower - pounding on the tower's ghostly door - caused Eughenn and some of the others to hesitate, but Kugrash, Mido, and Jaydah pushed their way through the ephemeral forms and into the tower.  Inside they found the ghostly forms of soldiers attempting to barricade the doors against those outside.

- While they watched what was unfolding, their presense seemed to disturb something else present in the tower.  They heard a growling voice from above, and the rattle of bones as a number of humanoid skeletons in the room pulled themselves up and began assaulting them.  Outside, the ghostly humanoids pounding on the door began shuddering and transforming into ghostly, wolf-like creatures, which then began attacking.

- There were a number of ensuing skirmishes with ghostly and skeletal attackers.  On the upper floor, the group again was confronted by the ghost of a commander-like figure, and again they attempted to engage in conversation that, at times, appeared close to violence.  This was avoided successfully again, however - and subsequently, the ghostly forms disappated and the skeletal figures collapsed.

- The group spent some time searching the tower for preserved or magical items that may be of use to them, finding a few.  After a brief conversation about the best way to proceed, they began heading north toward their primary objective - only to be met almost immediately by the ghostly form of the wraith they had seen on the river (or one nearly identical to it).

- The wraith once again began questioning them in its harsh voice with words they could not understand.  The howling wind resumed, and snow and ice began building up and threatening to cover them as Jaydah did her best to understand any of its words.  As its pitch increased, she began hearing other voices - voices asking them why they had come into the cursed lands and if their intention was to defy the will of "the goddess".  Jaydah defiantly told it that they did, in fact, and the wraith vanished - along with the snow an ice.

Salthon Plain: Ghosts of the Past pt. I

Friday May 5, 2023 at 8:00pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
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Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- After a brief exchange, the ghost disappated and the group approached the ruined tower.  The inside was unnaturally cold, and they found the skeletal remnants of a number of humanoids.  As the investigated, they found themselves attacked by the ghostly forms of soldiers.

- On the upper floor of the tower, they found a table with an old map.  There was an imposing skeleton in rusted heavy armor in large chair at the far end of the table, and from it manifested a ghostly figure that attempted to communicate with them.  While they were unable to understand much of what was said, the "conversation" did not escalate to combat.

- The group compared notes w/ the map and discovered some discrepancies between it and the one they had.  They made a sketch and some notes before leaving.

- After a brief conversation, the group decided to make their way to the East tower before continuing north to their primary target.  They made camp about half-way, and approach the tower the following morning.  As they did so, they came upon a chaotic, ghostly scene...

Deadlands: Visited By An Old Friend

Friday April 28, 2023 at 8:30pm deadlands, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- The group kept watch through the remainder of the night and, the following morning, discussed what to do.  Having no horses, their only option seemed to be walking to Flagstaff.  The took their belongings off the stage and secured them as much as possible in the lodge.  By just before midday, they had decided what to take with them and set off down the Highland Trail.

- They made good time heading out onto the plateau, covering almost half of the 30-mile distance to Flagstaff by nightfall.  Montana found them a decent place to camp, but all had the feeling it wasn't far enough away from the lodge and whatever is haunting the mountains.

- After dark, Percy went for a walk under the stars - partly to clear his head, and partly to have a "talk" with his "benefactor" - whether or not he could be heard.  He was still away from camp durning the first watch when Montana heard someone approaching the camp.  At first he thought was Percy coming back, but as the voice and footstep approached and he could make out more words, he recognized Jesse's voice.

- A darkness descended upon the camp as Jesse emerged into the firelight, putting a hand on George's shoulder and asking if he was "ready".  He eyes and the inside of his mouth were black as pitch.  A few words were exchanged, but "negotiations" were interrupted by the shadow inside Jesse's form lashing out at Montana and Kevin, and a dozen or so shadow "things" like they had seen at the lodge descended upon them.

- The insuing firefight started as Percy was making his way back to camp.  Montana's superior aim neutralized the "creature" in Jesse's likeness almost immediately, but the fight with the other shadow-things was far from over and all of them quickly found themselves set upon by two or more.  Percy thrust one into the fire - this seemed to hurt it initially, but as it was consumed the flames began giving it strength as it tried to pull him into the fire with it.  Montana began taking shots at the things on him as well as those harassing George and Milton.  Kevin had invoked his blessing which kept the group much safer than they would have otherwise been, and he began trying to destroy the others.

- As the tide began to turn in the group's favor, Lily was grabbed by three of the creatures.  She was being dragged up the side of a boulder and into the darkness when red flickering lightening began lashing out at everything around her.  She began screaming "no" and something about "not doing this again".  Even after the creatures fled, Lily contined pacing at the edge of the camp, red flickers surrounding her, as she mumbled angrily to herself - or to someone else...

Salthon Plain: The Dark Wood

Friday April 14, 2023 at 8:00pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
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Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The group met up with a man called Lethan Stahzer - someone Kugrash recognized from a posted one of his drinking buddies hand shown him.  He'd been told the man was not to be trusted, and his friends told him they'd give him 500 gold if Stahzer never returned to the city of Erelan - no questions asked.

- Lethan gave them some about what was happening in the forest.  He'd seen kobold patrols and found a sizable encampment.  Usually this tribe keeps to the Kanath Mountains to the west, but something was emboldening them or bringing them down into the forest.  He'd also seen recent gnoll tracks and had a run-in with a nasty giant boar.  Worse, ettercaps and spiders have been moving down from the north.  The territory was known to him, but they seem to be spreading south, which means the expedition may be moving through more of their territory than previously assumed.

- The group made some discussion of what to do, ultimately deciding to head toward the West Gatekeeper tower both to check it out and to avoid the kobold encampment.  As they traveled deeper into the forest, Carmella had the increasing sensation that the forest was full of hatred - hatred for humans specifically.

- As they continued, they began encountering mats of webbing, and some dead things: giant spiders, ettercaps, and a winter wolf.  As they neared, they found themselves attacked by ettercaps and giant spiders, which they successfully fought off after a brief skirmish.

- Making it to the ruin of the tower, they were confronted by the ghost of a soldier speaking an unknown language...

Deadlands: Swallowed by the Dark

Friday March 24, 2023 at 8:30pm deadlands, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- As they made their way into the northern highland pine forests, the stage was stopped a small band of apache indians.  Their leader attempted to convince or threaten Jesse to turn the stage and head back down to the plains.  He told them the "manitou" (demons) were restless in the region, and the white men only add to the unbalace.  As the gathering storm began pouring down on them and they withdrew and the stage continued on.

- After some discussion, the group decided they would stop at a hunting lodge called Howe's Camp about halfway to Flagstaff rather than risking getting caught after dark in the wilderness.  There were two men at the lodge, and they welcomed the travelers to stay for the evening.

- After settling in for the evening, however, they found the lodge beset by dark, shadowy creatures.  The resultant firefight eventually destroyed or drove off their attackers, but not before Jesse was engulfed by the shadows and vanished.  Venturing outside, they heard no sounds from the stable where their horses were sheltered, and the strong smell of fresh blood was inescapable...

Deadlands: Haunted by the Past

Thursday March 9, 2023 at 8:00pm deadlands, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- Percy sat down for an ... interesting ... conversation with the Man in the Pinstripe Suit.  He prodded the Man about his involvement with the "possessed" young girl.  The Man denied having done  anything "to" her - or even that he had any control over her ... "condition".  He did suggest to a similarity between the girl and Percy's "situation", and seemed to think it odd that Percy would want the girl to be "cured" as though something was "wrong" with her.  He did seem confident that the young girl would recover from her wounds, and alluded to her having been greivously injured before.

- The next day the three had a brief conversation with Jesse and George about the coming storm and whether they should wait for the repairs to be finished (which would take another day) or whether they should get the stage now, rig the best job they could, and continue before they were trapped on this side of the river.  The group decided they would leave the following morning.

- The three spent this day hiking back out to the Wollart Claim to check on Lisa and Una - and to see if they could find any trace of Mack.  Stopping by the cave, they found most of the dead animals hanging from the tree were gone - though the ropers were still present.  The only ones remaining seem to have been recently hung.  They also noticed that they could not feel the "presence" inside the cave.  They found a pack and some firearms, but no sign of Mack.  Inside the cave, they found piles of animal bones - and a few human ones.

- Continuing to the claim, they found Una inside the one-room cabin still in bed and breathing lightly but steadily.  Kevin offered what blessings and purifications he could, but admitted that the remaining healing would be up to the passage of time.  Montana had stepped outside when Lisa came walking around the side of the house.  She was startled to see them, but they managed to calm her down and talk a bit.  They inadvertently brought up some past traumatic memories about the girl and the family and Lisa eventually began to break down.  When they left, she was curled up in the bed, crying next to her sleeping daughter.

- As they left, Montana mentioned that he'd noticed blood on Lisa's apron.  Walking around the house where she'd come from, Percy found a dead fox with a length of rope tied around its neck, and several more lengths of rope nearby.  Following a path to the top of the hill, he found a small cemetery of sorts with two gravestones - one for Lisa's husband Alexandre, and one for their 12-year-old son John.

- The group returned to town and made ready to leave, making it across the rising ford as the rain began and continuing north toward Howe's Camp and Flagstaff...

Salthon Plain: The Hive

Friday February 17, 2023 at 9:00pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
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Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- As the group made their way north toward the Matheye Forest, they became aware of a pack of norther jackals gaining size and approaching them from the west.  In order to avoid them, the group deviated from their route more and more to the east.  As they got closer, some of the company thought they saw at least one humanoid among the jackals.

- The course change, unfortunately, led them into an ankheg hive.  Due to Carmella's Pass Without Trace spell, however, the ankhegs were just as surprised as they were when a few fell through the mounds of loose earth and into their tunnels.

- The resulting skirmish was chaotic and unorganized, but those who had remained above finally managed to pull the others up and out of the holes and evacuate the area before they were completely overrun.  Before emerging, Kugrash noticed the ruins of masonry and possible carvings among the monstrous insects hive complex.

- Arriving at the edge of the forest by early evening, the group was introduced to the eighth and final member of their company: Lethan Stahzer.  Kugrash recognized the name and the likeness as someone his friend Joccan had warned him about back in Erelan...

Salthon Plain: Perils Ahead

Friday February 3, 2023 at 8:30pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
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Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The group made ready for trouble and, one by one, made their way outside.  There, they found the town under attack by kobolds while something roared and screeched overhead.

- After finishing off a group of kobolds that had crawled up to their area through the storm drains in order to start fires further into the city, they were met by a detachment of soldiers who urged them on to the gate where the bulk of the fighting was taking place.

- Down near the gate, in the thick of the fighting, something large suddenly fell from the sky, completely obliterating some nearby buildings.  Emerging from the rubble was an enormous white dragon and a giant, eagle-like bird - both injured and fighting one another.  While the group took a couple of pot-shots at the dragon, few of the soldiers had the nerve to approach, and all of the kobolds had fled.  It was only moments before the dragon grabbed the great bird by the neck, and slammed it into the ground.

- The wyrm declared its victory before letting loose and icy blast that froze several streets and leaping into the sky.

- The town spent the next couple of days trying to re-secure the gate (which had been burned through), restore the destroyed and frozen areas of town, and tend to the wounded.

- Fyndwhyr came to visit them a couple of days later, asking if they were still committed to his expedition.  They told him they were, and that they had received information from a mysterious figure that if the expedition was to be a success, time was of the essence.  The party set out the following morning, making their way north...

Deadlands: The Devil You Know

Thursday January 26, 2023 at 8:00pm deadlands, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- After further discussion with the stage operators, the group vote overall was to go ahead and let the local wainwright repair the stage properly, even if it cost more and set them back several days.  Jesse, the man technically "in charge" was the only dissenting voice, but was hesitant to go against everyone else on the journey (including 4 paying customers) and so he ultimately relented and made the necessary preparations.

- In the meantime, Kevin, Percy, and Montana joined with three townsfolk to find the bear that came through and killed a couple of men two days previous.  They tracked the enormous creature northeast across the river and up into the hills north of town, eventually coming to a cave opening, outside of which was a tree from which hung a couple dozen dead animals.  As they contimplated whether to go in or dynamite the entrance, they caught sight of a young girl who told them they should leave - becoming increasingly hysterical, talking about her "daddy".  Somehow, Montana recognized the girl as the daughter of a man he had saved from a burning building in Grayfalls three years earlier.  It was then that thick black smoke began pouring out of the cave.

- The group pulled back from the cave entrance.  Snarls, growls, and moving shadows began to issue from the cloud of smoke, and the townsfolk began shooting at it, but when this had no effect, quickly ran.  A woman - presumably the girl's mother - then arrived, looking for her daughter, Una.  As she began dragging the hysterical girl away from the smoking cave and the strange men, Percy pursued them - only to see a bright flash of light as the woman collapsed unconscious and Una began to float up off the ground, staring at him through yellow eyes and telling him threateningly that he "should have listened".

- Believing the girl to be possessed, Percy and Montana immediately attacked - Percy's 'bolt' spell nearly killing her.  As the woman regained consciousness, Kevin was over the girl, using his divine blessing to save her life - though she was still greivously injured.  They carried her back to her house, and advised the woman, Lisa, as to her care and need to see a doctor.

- The three returned to Clark's Ford where they had a brief conversation with one of the men who'd accompanied them - he hadn't seen the other two, nor did he have any interest in pursuing the matter futher.  After Montana and Kevin retired for the night, Percy was having a drink at the Sagebrush saloon when he saw a familiar man in a pinstriped suit.  The man smiled, and walked over to his table asking "So, what do you think of miss Una...?"

Salthon Plain: New Threats

Friday January 20, 2023 at 8:30pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- As the rest of the group began fighting the jackal in the street, Mido ran up and into the inn.  Inside, he found more jackals and the tavern area a complete wreck.  The  jackal there suddenly transformed into a monstrous humanoid-jackal.  I tried to grab Mido with its claws, but he slipped out of its reach.  Unfortunately, when he met it eyes he passed out and collapsed.  Waking in a dark chamber later, he found himself being addressed by someone else.  This person told him that they must abandon their expedition or they would all die.  There was a flash of light and Mido passed out again - but just before he did, he caught sight of the speaker: a creature with man's torso but the lower body of a great lion.

- Meanwhile, the others entered the inn and killed or drove off the remaining jackals.  They found the entire establishment wrecked, and the ominous words "we are watching you" gouged into the floors of their rooms.  They searched the inn and the surrounding area, but found no trace of their friend.  They helped the innkeeper clean up the place and stayed the night there.  Mido turned up around 4am, having awakened in the tunnel between the Hillside district and the Undercroft.  He woke them up and relayed what he had "learned".

- In the following days, they sent word to Fyndwhyr at the keep about this new possible threat to the expedition, ultimately deciding they would proceed but warily.  Mido, Jaydah, and Carmella all received thier 50% payment advance to prepare for the expedition, and the group decided they would pool and divide the 300gp 4 ways, so as not to leave Kugrash out.

- Kugrash met up with his friend Joccan a couple of times - once to "celebrate" their armwrestling match, and once more.... unplanned.  Kugrash questioned Joccan about the jackal creatures, and the man seemed to know something about them - suggesting they were part of a dangerous organization, and that Kugrash would be better off leaving town.  The second time they met, Joccan had actually come to find him.  The man was wearing a hooded cloak and acting wary.  He showed Kugrash a wanted poster of a man called Lethan Stahzer.  Joccan told him he believed this man was involved with the expedition or with Fyndwhyr, and was not to be trusted.  He offered Kugrash 500gp if he could get Stahzer arrested - or even if he could just "prevent" him from returning to the Plain.  No questions asked.

- It was a couple of nights later when the group was awakened n the middle of the night by the keep's alarm bell.  Looking outside, they could see a couple of flickering fires further down the hillside, as well as movement in the streets.  As well, they could hear the distant din of shouts and commotion - and a tremendous roar from overhead...

Salthon Plain: Intentions

Friday January 13, 2023 at 9:30pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The following day, the group spent some time cleaning up and getting ready for the banquet at the lord's manor that night - where they were to get some details about the expedition they'd been hired for.  Kugrash meanwhile, went looking for an instrument-maker who could "fix up" his axe-flute and ended up in an arm-wrestling contest with a man called Joccan in the Avenue Tavern.  He lost the contest, but barely - and his opponent's reaction to the victory seemed a little overly-humble for his demeanor.

- At the banquet - after a "fine" meal and more casual conversation with those present - their host, the archivist Eughenn Fyndwhyr, explained their objective.  He had found some old maps which contained some markings of unknown structures deep in the northern wilderness.  Their intention was to travel to these locations and investigate.  His hope seemed to be that one may be the remains of an ancient and unknown city.  They were to depart in a week's time.

- Returning from the banquet later that evening, they found the lights in the street near their inn mysteriously extinquished, casting the street into darkness.  Remembering their encounter from the previous evening, they approached cautiously.  As they did so, they could hear occasional shouts, crashes, and breaking glass coming from the inn - and they saw a  wolf-like creature emerge from the shadows coming toward them - baring its fangs and growling...

Deadlands: Tale of the Beast

Thursday December 15, 2022 at 8:30pm deadlands, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- As the shootout began, Jesse and George managed to press the stage foward while Percy, Kevin, and Montana exchanged a few bullets with the bandits.  There were relatively few casualties on either side by the time of their escape.  George was the only one who'd taken a particularly hard hit, and Kevin was able to call upon his Higher Authority to heal it before anyone really knew what had happened.

- The group proceded on to Gainer, where they spent a somewhat uneventful evening at the run-down hotel along the Highland Trail.  The following day they discovered the right rear wheel of the stage had developed some issues.  A few spokes were fractured and it was flexing worryingly.  This slowed their progress somewhat.  During one of their stops, they were meet by a traveling preacher who warned them about a beast that had recently come through Clark's Ford and killed a couple of men.

- Upon arriving in Clark's Ford, Jesse went to find a wainwright to repair the stage's wheel while the others headed to the Sagebrush saloon.  There they met a few men organizing a hunting party to go after the bear that had killed their friends...

Salthon Plain: Invitation

Friday November 18, 2022 at 8:30pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The group left Sims' Camp the following morning and sailed the remainder of the way to Erelan. On arrival, the captain Satwi had the Jovossa pulled out of the water for inspection and found that it had sustained damage she was unsure how to fix.  She and Hemmet would be in town for a few days at least - and were a little hesitant to make the return journey on their own.

- They made their way to the top of Erelan's bluff to the Lord's Keep where they spoke with Regulus Brandt, the keep's quartermaster.  They were given letters of invitation to a banquet to be held soon, and notes for accommodation at a local inn called the Cardinal Arms.

- The group spend a few days in town, exploring the place and looking for such things as smiths, shops, libraries, and so on.  One evening as they were on their way to the inn from the Red Elk Tavern, they came upon a stretch of road darkened by covered lamps.  Here they were attacked by a pair of grey oozes that had come up from the storm drains.  They saw the movement of some small humanoids - possibly children - in a nearby alley, but were unable to get a closer look before they'd disappeared into the maze of side streets.

Deadlands: The Trail North

Thursday November 10, 2022 at 8:30pm deadlands, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- The group finalized plans to take Carlson's stage coach north to Flagstaff the following week, making preparations as were necessary.  Both Percy and Kevin sought out Ms Mason at different times and for different reasons, but Father Delworth eventually succeeded in getting her to (grudgingly) agree to join them, convincing her that she was involved with what was unfolding.  Meanwhile, Percy passed the time at the card tables, and Montana spent some time getting to know the Armstrong miners at the Dollar Saloon.

- The night before their departure, Kevin was awakened by Father Silas Butler, the older priest who had been something of a mentor to him for the past few years. In his failing health he had been known to have episodes of delirium - and this seemed to be one.  Father Butler was pounding on Kevin's door in a panic, asking where he was going and rambling about "falling into darkness".  Kevin did his best to calm the man, who eventually collapsed onto the floor.  Before he lost consciousness, his voice darkened and he whispered a final question to Kevin: "Are you coming to see us? It has been so long..."

- The following morning at sunrise, the stage headed north.  Jesse Carlson had spoken with marshall Haney about the threat of indians, and while the marshall said they'd noted increased movements/activity, he didn't think a trip north was necessesarily "unwise", but to be cautious.  As their journey progressed late into the afternoon, the stage slowly came to a stop and the group could hear shouting from outside.  Stepping out, Kevin noted the presense of a young apache indian in the road demanding payment for use of the road (for the "spirits"), but that the native's companions on the hillside and behind bushes and rocks nearby where, in fact, white men attempting to disguise themselves as indians.  As the tense "negotiation" began to fall apart, one of the men on the hills stood up and yelled "Dammit, just shoot 'em, boys!"...

Salthon Plain: Out of the Woods

Friday October 28, 2022 at 8:30pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The group fought off the kobold attackers while Satwi and Hemmet attempted to navigate the boat through the shallows to the right of the stone outcropping protruding from the center of the river.  The effort required dumping some cargo and quickly emptying some ballast tanks but still resulted in a couple of hard hits on the bottom, resulting in some moderate damage to the underside of the vessel.  The fight against the kobolds and a couple of worgs was tough, but they ultimately fended enough of them off that the rest declined to pursue them further.

- Some time later, as they made their way further up the river, they were suddenly hit by a strong, cold wind from the west, and witnessed the river ahead of them freezing over, they attempted to turn the boat around to escape, but found themselves froze in the river before they could.  Across the ice, they were approached by a ghostly horse and rider, which Jaydah believed to be a wraith of some kind.  It seemed in command of the howling wind and the intense cold, but rather than attacking aggressively, only approached, talking to them in some unknown language.  Jaydah thought it sounded something like an antiquated common dialect, but was only able to pick out a few probable words.  When they were unable to respond to the creature, it disappated and vanished - and the frigid wind subsided.

- The group was delayed significantly by having to cut themselves out of the ice, and Satwi told them they wouldn't quite make it to the capitol that day - instead, suggesting they make for the edge of the forest and a small hunting and logging camp that sat by the river there.  They reached the camp just after sundown, and spent the evening talking with the locals about the gnolls, the frost wraith, and other local events - before heading out again the following morning.

Deadlands: Reunion

Thursday October 27, 2022 at 8:30pm deadlands, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- The three enjoyed something of a reunion at a casual card game with Miss Lily Mason and a couple of other saloon patrons until the others had left - at which point, father Delworth produced the flyer he'd found about a "revival" in Flagstaff - a revival that claimed Father Mandrake (whom he believed dead) and the ominous words "LEST YE BURN" at the bottom.  He'd been in conversation with a local stage operator by the name of Jesse Carlson who was making preparations to head north in a few days.  Believing Lily Mason was somehow also connected with these events - after all, she had been in Grayfalls three years earlier - Father Delworth attempted to pressure her into joining them.

- In the midst of their conversation, escalating tensions between a couple groups of miners present errupted into a brawl.  Some punches were thrown and some attempted to talk the belligerents down - ultimately succeeding.

- The following day, Montana made his way to the address he was paid to deliver the envelope to.  The man at the address, a Li Jun Zhoa, did not seem at all happy to see him.  He gave Montana the promised payment, and requested that he wait until evening for further conversation.  When Montana indicated he was just paid to deliver the message and didn't know anything else, Zhao's mood seemed to improve - he told Montana not to worry about returning, and bid him good day.

Nettlewood: To The Source

Sunday October 9, 2022 at 3:00pm d&d, nettlewood, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela
Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela

- The two engaged the Harpies with spells and clubs, killing one just before their pet ankheg arrived.  They immediately focused on the large monster and managed to take it out in only a couple of rounds.  The last harpy was beat down considerably and decided to flee. 

- Ithaca had realized that they had no real way of knowing how many harpies might remain to come after Mulner's cattle, and they needed to track them down to where they came from.  She hit the fleeing harpy with a Faerie Fire spell and the two tracked it through the night...

Nettlewood: Webs in the Dark

Friday October 7, 2022 at 7:30pm d&d, nettlewood, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela
Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela

- The two pursued the harpy through the night, into the southeastern badlands area.  They could still hear the creature screeching in teh canyons when the made camp in a shallow cave for the night.

- The following morning, they unexpectedly encountered a pair of armed skeletons patrolling the canyons, and managed to destroy the undead without too much diffiuculty.  From there, they moved further into the canyons until they came to a large, pillar-like structure with holes throughout near where they thought the harpy had gone.  The lowest holes were about 20 feet up, and the two climbed up the rock and into them.  The small cavern they found themselves in had a number of tunnels, all of them with varying amounts of webbing inside.

- The two crawled into one of the lower tunnels and eventually fell into a larger cavern, which was home to a monstrous spider and numerous smaller ones.  After killing the biggest spider and a few of the smaller ones, the others retreated and the two found some discarded treasures among the bones in the webs below.

Salthon Plain: Up The River

Friday September 30, 2022 at 8:00pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The group spent the rest of the afternoon around town until the log-roll contest that evening, when they headed to the docks along with most of the rest of the town.  Carmela joined a local fisherwoman called Satwi in challenging captain Walthon for possession of the coveted river ship.  Dockmaster Holluk explained the rules: there was a very large, round log suspended and floating between two of the docks.  All three contestants would step onto it, and the last one to fall would be declared winner.

- The contest began.  While captain Walthon was doing quite well at the start and Satwi almost immediately faltered, the tables soon turned as the challenger recovered.  The crowd gathered around the docks cheered and called throughout the competition.  All three did very well overall, and captain Walthon was the first to fall, followed almost immediately by Carmela, leaving Satwi the victor.  The crowd cheered and then headed to Gallen's pub for their "reward" - drinks bought by the losers.

- While the PC's representative wasn't able to win the contest, they hadn't given up on using the river ship to sail north to Erelan rather than walking through the potentially-dangerous Nembrill Wood.  Mido and Jaydah both spoke with Satwi about making the trip and letting them buy their way along, and she eventually decided it was a reasonable idea.

- The group set sail a couple days later up-river.  They hadn't made it an hour north of Onara when they began seeing disturbances along the far shore, eventually catching sight of a kobold astride a worg.  Shortly after the river entered the forest, it began to narrow and ahead they could see a large rock protruding from the center of the channel, and rough water on either side - indicating shallows.  It was at this point that arrows began flying at them from the kobolds along the shore...

 

GM's note: The 'log roll' and possession of the ship was meant to be an interesting bit of setting detail for the tiny Onara riverside village - an event that they could maybe watch and talk to the locals about and would give some life and color to the place.  I had in no way intended or expected them to try to join the contest.  Because of this, I was just going to narrate the outcome with whatever seemed most interesting at the time.  Once they said they wanted to be part of it however, I knew I'd have to make up some rules mechanics to make it fair - and I wanted it to be more than just a single roll-off, because they all seemed excited about this.  I came up with a set of rules that broke the contest into combat-like rounds where the primary actions related to maintaining their own stability or trying to weaken others'.  I think it worked well, and it was quite the nail-biting competition.  They came close but didn't end up winning - though through some other rp and actions, still managed to get themselves on the ship sailing north.

Deadlands: Infernal

Thursday September 29, 2022 at 8:00pm deadlands, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- While Kevin and Montana struggled to assist the town with the growing inferno, Percy found himself among the hail of now bullets frozen in time and making a deal with a man he suspected of being "the devil".  Luck was seemingly on his side, and his two-pair beat his opponent's pair of 7s.  The man made good on his promise to get Percy "out of this little scrap", and he found the bullets that had been streaking toward him deflecting with bright flashes of light - much to the horror of his assailants, who soon fled.

- Montana saw a final figure walk out of the smoke of the saloon.  The man's clothing and even some of his skin was clearly burning, but he didn't seem bothered by it. "Oh, children." Montana heard him say "the time has come at last..."  Mandrake's bellowing voice could now be heard above the howling wind as well, pronouncing condemnation on the doomed town.  More buildings caught fire, and those that had been burning began to collapsed.  Humanoid figures, covered in flames and with gaping mouths, began slowly walking out of the blazing structures - extending burning arms toward any who wandered too close.

- By this time, the streets were crowded with people fleeing the burning town.  The three did their best to help townsfolk escape to a nearby hillside where survivors were gathering.  They all knew it was too late for Grayfalls, however - fear was saturating the landscape and the town would never recover.

- Three years later, these three would happen to meet each other again in a saloon in Phoenix - along with a Miss Lily Mason, an acquaintance of Percy's from Grayfalls and whom he thought he'd seen fleeing the town the night of the fire...

Nettlewood: Another Attempt

Sunday September 25, 2022 at 3:00pm d&d, nettlewood, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela
Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela

- The twins continued their fight against the giant constrictor snake and trying to keep Bellin out of harms way.  Just as they killed the monstrocity, the goblins that had given chase arrived and began their attack.

- As they fought off the goblins, they heard Averen - Bellin's brother - call out from somewhere above "Bellin! Grab the rope!".

- Once the goblin threat had been addressed, the group exited the cave and returned to the farm.  Rik Mulner was glad his boy was ok and offered the two the 50gp promised for solving the harpy problem as thanks for rescuing Bellin.  He told them that he'd still pay out another 50gp if they could eliminate the harpies as well.

- The two spent another couple of nights in the rancher's fields, patrolling for signs of the harpies.  On the third night, they heard the haunting singing again and found the flying devils had returned...

Salthon Plain: Local Culture

Friday September 23, 2022 at 8:00pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The group headed toward the river village of Onara along the road now muddy with water from melted snow.  As they made their way into a flooded lowland marsh, they could hear some commotion some distance ahead.  As they approached, they found themselves attacked by a swarm of stirges.

- The group fought off the flying pests as best they could, becoming aware of a small group of kenku fighting them as well.  When the last of the stirges were killed, they spoke with the kenku, who invited them back to their camp.

- The group spent the rest of the evening with at the camp, talking to some of the kenku about their nomadic tribe and the party's plans to go to Onara and then north to Erelan.  The kenku cautioned them on some dangers of travelling through the Nembrill wood.

- The next day, the group finished their journey into Onara.  The small village sat on the edge of a bay-like protrusion of the Dobec river along a slow-moving section.  They made arrangements for accomodation at the simply-named Riverrest Inn, and proceeded to the one tavern in the tiny village for an afternoon meal - which they found to be so crowded as to be overflowing with locals.

- The group caught word of a "log roll" contest of sorts to be held that night at the docks and went to inquire further.  Speaking to the dockmaster, they learned that this was a something of a local ritual that would determine the captain of "The Jovossa" - a large fishing boat owned by the town and that most regarded as something special.  Noting the comment that it was the only vessel in town capable of making reasonable headway up-river to Erelan, the group asked if they might participate in the contest - and if they won, could they use it for a trip up-river.  The dockmaster, who seemed to regard the whole thing as tiresome, was amused by this plan and told them that that seemed reasonable - but cautioned them that a losing challenger had to buy a round at the pub for every fisherman in town...

Nettlewood: Struggle for Dominance

Sunday September 18, 2022 at 3:00pm d&d, nettlewood, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela
Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela

- The two tell the goblin chief they came for the boy - threatening to continue fighting the goblins if they didn't release him.  They managed to intimidate the chief who gave the order to release the boy.

- One of the chief's guards, however, apparently didn't approve of the decision, and challenged her authority.  This resulted in a fight between the two, during which time Ithica and Varant managed to sneak over and release Bellin.

- The duel between the goblin leaders was still going on as they made their way out of the cavern, but they were spotted by some of the spectators and pursued. 

- Running back up the tunnels into the cavern, they were confronted by the giant snake whose skin they'd seen eariler.  They began battle with the snake while they could still hear the goblins approaching from behind - and the snake wrapped itself around Varant...

Salthon Plain: A Detour

Friday September 9, 2022 at 9:00pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

- The group met up at the Cup & Hearth in the village of Bhurk and enjoyed a bit of a reunion over a meal.  As they discussed their common purpose, Mido informed his friends that there was an issue with the way north toward their destination of Erelan: namely, that the gnoll tribes had become particularly aggressive and were explicitly watching the roadways for targets to waylay.

- Due to the situation, no other traffic was heading north, and while the local Borderguard had sent word for support to address the situation, it was likely a couple of weeks from resolution.  As they wished to reach their destination as soon as possible, they decided to take another's advice to head west to the river village of Onara, and then follow the river north through the Nembrill Wood toward the regional capital of Erelan.

Deadlands: Holy Fire

Thursday September 8, 2022 at 8:00pm deadlands, game session notes, new campaign Comments (0) »
 Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Deadlands logo and artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

I've been wanting to run Deadlands for a long time, so when Tim made an offhand comment about wanting play, we decided to put a game together.

 

Characters:

- Percy Walker [Tim] :: huckster

- Kevin Delworth [Patrick] :: priest

- Montana Grim [Stephen] :: gunslinger

 

Highlights:

- We started the campaign with a flashback to the events of 3 years ago - before Percy made his "deal" and Kevin's "conversion".  It was one particular night in the tiny town of Grayfalls in Arizona Territory they were awakened in the night by the town burning down.

- Each of them attempted to help however they could.  Stephen ran into a burning building to rescue a distraught woman's husband, Patrick ran to the small catholic church to rescue Sister Blowers (the nun who'd recently saved his life), and Percy escaped his burning hotel room, stopped a fight between folks arguing over which building the water pump should be used on and pulled a clerk away from some outlaws taking the opporunity to rob the assay office.

- As events unfolded, a number of the townsfolk began displaying signs of insanity and/or fanaticism - they began interfering with efforts to fight or contain the fires, shouting proclamations of divine fury being levied against the town - and that to prevent the burning would be going against "the almighty".  Back at the church, Kevin could hear the bellowing voice of Father Mandrake above the howling wind and roaring fire - claiming gods judgement had justly come upon the town.

- Percy was making his way back up the street when he was suddenly ambushed by a group of men.  As they all fired their guns at him. time seemed to slow to a stop and he was confronted by a dark man in a suit, standing next to a card table and offering a "deal"...

Salthon Plain: Winter Wolves

Friday August 19, 2022 at 8:00pm d&d, salthon plain, game session notes, new campaign Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons logo artwork © Wizards of the Coast

Since our Cyrran Reaches game is having some difficulty meeting these days, we decided to start a new 5e game with a slightly different player group that might be easier to keep going at the moment.  We met for a session 0 some weeks ago.

 

Characters:

- Jaydah Orez [Sheri] :: human rogue

- Carmela Nailo [Edie] :: elven druid

- Mido Bagu [Tony] :: human wizard

- Kugrash Damaris [Tim] :: half-orc fighter

 

Highlights:

- The characters had been childhood friends, but had gone their separate ways and hadn't seen each other in many years.  Each had seen an adventurous job posting and decided to check it out,  This took them to the Salthon Plain, a northern region of their kingdom of Aanashalor known for its harsh climate. 

- As they made their way independently to the village of Bhurk, an early-spring blizzard descended suddenly on the region.  Kugrash and Carmela were caught in the storm along with a wagon crew Kugrash had been accompanying.  Just outside the gates of Bhurk, the group was attacked by snow-white wolves - including one enormous specimen.  Soldiers from the settlement came to help them, along with Jaydah and Mido. 

- The ensuing fight was rough, but the group survived and made their way into the village...

Nettlewood: Goblins' Clutches

Sunday August 7, 2022 at 4:00pm d&d, nettlewood, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela
Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela

- The two briefly considered whether to follow the fleeing harpy or go look for the missing kid, and decided on the latter.

- Averin, the older brother, said Bellin liked to play in the woods at the eastern edge of the farm.  He suggested they start from the south end, as he and their father were looking in the north.  They would meet in the middle and hopefully find Bellin.

- After wandering the woods for a while, they found a small cave that looked like someone had spent some time around.  Inside they found a wooden sword and some copper coins next to a dragon statue, and a collpased tunnel leading further down.

- They both ended up falling down the rocky descent into a small cavern with a massive snakeskin.  Continuing on into the tunnels, they eventually found their way into a goblin warren.  In a large chamber, they saw Bellin in a metal cage next to a boiling cookpot.

- They considered how to approach the situation for a while, until one of the goblins began making its way up to their position.  At that point, the fighting began.

- The two fought off several goblins, but were getting worn down when the chieftess of the tribe stopped the combat and demanded to know who they were and why they were invading...

Nettlewood: Where's the Beef?

Monday July 25, 2022 at 9:34am d&d, nettlewood, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela
Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela

- The two returned on their guild HQ in Granton where they gave their report about the mystery location and contributed their appropriate loot percentage.  The next day they went out to Rik Mulner's farm to investigate his disappearing cattle problem.

- Apparently something has been eating the cows - something with wings that made a strange, singing sound.  Mulner told them they always came at night and that their best bet on catching them was to camp out in the cow pasture.

- They spent the rest of the day setting up camp in some bushes at the top of a rise and talking about their plan of counter-attack.  A kid named Bellin came out to see what they were like, since he wants to be an "adventurer" too.

- Late in the night, the two began to hear a haunting song calling in the distance - and a little while after, heard the frantic mooing screech of a cow.

- As they ran down to where the sounds had come from, they were called to by someone from the farm - just as they began to be attacked by harpies.

- The two were able to drive off the harpies, after which point they met up with Bellin's older brother - apparently the kid is missing...

Nettlewood: Uvnasser's Tomb

Saturday July 9, 2022 at 3:00pm d&d, nettlewood, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela
Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela

- A couple weeks after their trial adventure to Etlon's Tower, Matheus brought them a couple of new opportunities.  The first was a farmer complaining that "devils" were attacking his cattle - dragging them off and eating them.  The second was reports from a plains hunter saying he found an odd entrance to an underground complex on a hilltop in the foothills to the northeast.  The debated for some time before deciding on the latter.

- The directions the hunter provided were not especially clear, and they wandered for some time before they were able to find the hilltop in question.  During this wandering, they ran afoul of a monstrous toad that did its best to eat them.

- When the finally reached the entrance, they found it to be a spiral, stone stairway leading into a set of chambers with skeletal motifs - and something like a crypt.  While they investigated, they were attacked by skeletal warriors.  After fighting them off, they found a smashed chest with a number of coins (which they collected). 

- Down in the lowest level, they found the tomb of some kind of wizard character - holding a wand and wearing rings.  It was there that they were attacked by a more powerful skeletal warrior who almost got the better of them.  After destroying it, they decided to try to take the wand and rings the dead wizard was holding.  As they removed one of the rings, the skeleton became animated and began howling.  The two took their spoils and ran - making it out of the tomb just before the entrance collapsed.

A New D&D Campaign: Session 0

Friday July 8, 2022 at 8:00pm d&d, new campaign Comments (0) »

Since we haven't been able to play our main Cyrran Reaches game regularly due to current life situations, I decided to start a side game with our friend Edee.

When spent this session talking about a new 5e game and making characters.  So far we have:

 

- High adventure / exploration

- Group are childhood friends about to meet up again - all having decided to pursue the same opportunity in a new territory.

- Human wizard (Tony), Elven Druid (Edee), Half-orc Fighter (Tim), Human(?) Rogue (Sheri)

Nettlewood: A Trial

Sunday June 26, 2022 at 3:00pm d&d, nettlewood, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela
Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela

- Ithica and Varant approached the ruined tower and found themselves attacked by giant centipedes.  With the wolf's help, they were just barely able to fight them off.

- After a short rest, they entered the table.  Inside, they found the remains of the stone statue of a human warrior, and also some strange stone stone centipedes on the stairway.  Following the stone stairway up, they found a room full of wooden debris where they encountered a cockatrice. 

- During that battle, Ithica became petrified, and did not revert even after they'd killed it.  Varant then went back to Granton for assistance. He promised the priests of the Sunfire Temple a favor in exchange for an ointment that could return petrified creatures to normal.

- Meanwhile, after about 24 hours, Ithica returned to her normal state to find her wolf had killed a couple more centipedes.  Exploring the rest of the tower, she found the chest that was supposed to contain the green gem, but just found a parchment that read "Matheus is a liar."

- Ithica met up with Varant about half way back to Granton.  The two returned to the guild and reported what Ithica had found.  Matheus told them congratulations - they'd completed the trial successfully.

Nettlewood: The Big City

Sunday June 12, 2022 at 3:30pm d&d, nettlewood, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela
Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela

- After chasing off the bandits, the twins continued on their journey eventually reaching the city of Granton.  As they made their way to the watch HQ - a place called 'the Spearhall', they found themselves on the street where monstrous tentacles were reaching up from sewer grates and attempting to grab people and pull them down.  They assisted an guardsman in fighting off the tentacles before continuing on.

- At the Spearhall they informed Captain Pommel of the kobold situation in the forest near Nettlewood, but he seemed unconcerned with problems outside the city.

- Having performed the task they were assigned, they two decided to seek out the Adventurer's Guild Tenlo had told them about.  They eventually found it - a small place on a backstreet on the south side of town.

- The two paid Varant's fee and spoke with a man called Matheus who seemed to be the guild leader.  He cautioned them that they would face real dangers if they chose to join.  When they said they were ready, he gave Varant an initial "assignment" and suggested he speak with one of the other guild members who may be able to teach him the magic he wanted to learn.

- For a couple of weeks, Varant studied with a wizard called Tyra - also a member of the guild.  In that time, she managed to teach him a few cantrips, noting that he possessed "the gift", at which point the two decided it was time to pursue the initial "mission": to an abandoned watchtower on an old road 4 days north through the forest to recover a gem.

- As they approached the overgrown towner deep in the forest, they heard insectoid chittering sounds...

Nettlewood: Trouble in the Forest

Sunday June 5, 2022 at 2:00pm d&d, nettlewood, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela
Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela

- The following day, Tenlo's parents asked him to go and see Mr. Applewood, the local healer/apothecary to make sure his wound would heal properly.  Knowing Ithicca was something of an apprentice to Mr. Applewood, he came to ask her to show him the way to Applewood's cottage in the woods - and Varant decided to come along.

- Ithicca took him along the path to the recluse's house, where they found him in the back garden apparently frustrated with the state of some of his plants.  He took the three of them inside and treated Tenlo's wound and then asked them if they would accompany him further into the forest to speak with someone called Selena.  Tenlo decided he'd better return home, but Ithicca and Varant said they would go.

- When the three of them reached a remote hilltop deep in the woods, they found a small band of kobolds holding a dryad hostage.  After fighting them off and freeing the forest guardian, Mr. Applewood introduced them to Selena.  He told her that he had been wanting Ithicca to meet her for some time, as the girl showed "great promise".  Selena embraced Ithicca and bestowed a small measure of power upon her.

- When the three of them returned to town, the told more people about the kobold threat.  Most of the villagers seemed to think the encounters had happened too far away to be of any concerned, but agreed that someone could go alert the watch in the nearby city of Granton to see if they might send a military hunting party to deal with the problem.  The twins agreed to go.

- As Ithicca and Varant were preparing to set off early the next morning, their aunt gave them a satchel with some potions and special food in it, and their friend Tenlo arrived to give them their portion of the coins they'd found in the ruin.  He also told Varant that he should join the adventurer's guild in Granton.

- Along the road to Granton, they were accosted by a starving wolf.  They briefly traded blows with it before Ithicca offered it some dried meat they'd brought along with them, which it took and then ran of into the woods.

- A short time later, they were met by a pair of bandits trying to get them to pay a "toll" for the road.  The encounter turned violent, and the twins found themselves fighting some older, tougher opponents.  With some fortune they'd managed to incapacitate one, but they were extremely worn down and still facing the other when the wolf they'd met earlier leapt from the forest onto their assailant...

Cyrran Reaches: Back from the Dead

Saturday June 4, 2022 at 2:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group continued to make their way down toward the bronze door.  A few hours into the trek, their elven scouts alerted them to something going on ahead.  They were met by a middle-aged woman running desperately through the corridors, followed by a young man who seemed very dazed.  Once their demonic pursuers had been defeated, the group began speaking to the fugitives.  After a few minutes, Lily recognized the woman as her father's sister - one that had been captured by slavers more than a decade ago.  She remembered very little, but seemed to vaguely recognize Lily and remembered her brother's name.  The young man was much less responsive, and Taryn and Ravina came to the conclusion he had been contaminated by the Gray Wasting - a disease or curse originating from the plane of Hades, where the Night Hags dwell.

- They decided to find an out-of-the-way place for the fugitives to wait while they continued downward.  As they were having this conversation, Kael suddenly appeared among them.  After some questioning to determine whether he was really Kael, they asked him what happened.  He said he remembered being attacked by the demon and flung into the abyss, but he wasn't sure what happened next.  He had awakened in a kind of prison cell where someone claiming to be his father had helped him escape - but was too weak to accompany him.  He had also seen a demon his father called "Syn-Vaask", and the two of them seemed to be having a...disagreement...about what his father should be doing.

- Now reunited with his companions - even though somewhat weakened - Kael was ready to go rescue his father.  As they descended the way Kael had come (using his ethereal armor ability), they noted a large number of demons gathering around them, but giving them a wide berth as they approached the building that contained the prison.

- Once inside, Kael approached his father's cell, where he could just make out a dark humanoid shape inside.  He father asked why he came back - and that 'he' had been waiting for him.  At that moment another voice spoke from the darkness saying "Of course I have..."

Nettlewood: A First Adventure

Sunday May 29, 2022 at 3:00pm d&d, nettlewood, game session notes, new campaign Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela
Dungeons & Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Forest Village artwork © Kimmo Kaunela

The kids have been wanting to play D&D again, and it was suggested that I start a game for the two of them that didn't require Sheri to be present.  I made them some classless characters that have mostly-average stats and no real skills or abilities.  They're teenagers only recently of-age, and the idea is that they will find NPCs to teach them the skills of the class abilities they want.

 

Characters:

- Ithicca [Hannah] :: Human (prospective druid)

- Varant [Micah] :: Human (prospective wizard)

 

Highlights:

- As the twins were finishing some work in the Nettlewood orchard one summer evening, Varant's friend Tenlo came to him, exitedly reporting that he'd manage to break into an old, sealed "mine" and found it wasn't a mine.  He convinced Varant to come with him to explore it, and Ithicca went along.

- At the site, they encountered an illusion of a giant figure bellowing at them and some giant rats.  They also found a hidden room that contained some old, rusty weapons and a chest filled with coins that had been hidden in some rubble.  It was then that they were attacked by kobolds and their friend Tenlo was injured.

- They returned to the village and told Tenlo's parents about the kobolds.

Cyrran Reaches: Forbidden Door pt. III

Saturday May 14, 2022 at 2:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group retreated from the opening onto the broken bridge in an effort to avoid the notice of whatever was lurking outside.  Quietly, they investigated the stairway up and found that it dead-ended in a room with some sort of rift or portal into some abyssal plane.  They also found two adjoining rooms - one which contained a few dretches devouring some rotting flesh, and another that was little more than a hole through the complex into lower levels.

- As they were doing so, they heard the sounds of other demons approaching from the corridor through which they'd come.  The portal/rift vomitted a number of dretches down the stairs just as a group of babau rushed into the room.  The PCs ducked into the nearby rooms as the bebelith outside entered from the bridge doorway and began attacking the other demons, chasing them down the corridor.

- The PCs emerged when all ways quiet and devised a plan for crossing the chasm where the bridge was broken.  Lily summoned a celestial hippogriff which began flying the PCs across the gap.  Unfortunately, it also attracted the attention of a pair of vrocks which were flying through the currents outside.  The PCs fought off the vrocks as best they could, but the already-injured Kael was KO'd by one of the vrocks who then hurled him out and into the void.

- The other PCs fled into the structure on the other side, and began making their way along the path down into the wall-city area of the ruin - unsure of what they could possibly do to save Kael or recover his body.

- They eventually found a place far enough from the main thoroughfares in the wall-city to rest.  Afterward, they made their down the road-like corridors toward the mines below where the door was supposed to be.

- Several hours later, they finally saw it: a massive bronze door set into the deep rock.  It sat on a ledge above a deep gash of a mine descending into the darkness below.  On the ledge were a number of shadowy figures, some seeming to be arranged in a circle around glowing or burning sigils in on the ground.  Others of which seemed obviously demonic.  Floating before the door was a pulsing, purplish glyph and a whisp of blackness it seemed to be pulling through the metal door.  As the glyph shimmered, tremors rippled through the stone of the city...

Cyrran Reaches: Forbidden Door pt. II

Saturday April 23, 2022 at 2:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- After regrouping, the party made their way through the collapsed gate into a system of partially-naturaly, partially-hewn tunnels leading into the dwarven city.  They hadn't even reached the city proper before their first demonic ambush - and they fought off several more as they made their way into the ruins.

- After clearing the first few chambers, they party had a brief discussion with the elves that had accompanied them about which way to decend.  The options were to go through the heart of the city, taking the mechanical lifts which *might* still be functional from when they'd repaired them years earlier, or to head around the outskirts to the far cavern wall and descend through that area of the city.  The former would likely encounter heavier resistance, but the latter would take several times as long.  Ultimately, the group decided on caution over speed, and made their way to the far end.

- As they made their way, they found their progress halted by a bridge with a 20' gap just outside a large chamber with a crumbling stair from the top of which came a bright orange glow and a discernable heat.  From outside, they could hear a scraping sound approaching...

Cyrran Reaches: Night Coven's Curse

Saturday March 12, 2022 at 2:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Kael returned to the rest of the group to report what he'd seen at the end of the mountain road.  As the group approached, they were halted by the three old women who frantically warned them to leave before attacking them with teeth and magic.

- The group engaged the hags, but soon discovered something odd about them: they didn't seem to be "living" exactly, but nor were they undead - more like constructs of some kind.  When killed, they tended to fall into pieces.

- When the hags were incapacitated, the group looked around - quickly finding the crevice that would allow them entrance into the mountain had been obstructed with small rocks.  As they began clearing it, a magical darkness suddenly descended on the mountainside and voices began speaking.

- The group now found themselves isolated in the darkness and engaging a coven of night hags.  Lily and Taryn were ferociously assaulted by one whose head and hands were covered in fire.  Kael and the elves found their way to the fat one who was distressed at the distruction of her "dolls" and was trying to mend them.  Tyrrox and Ravina found themselves attacked by shadowy creatures in the dark.

- When Kael killed the fat hag, the encounter took a turn.  The haze in the darkness clearned, and they could all clearly see the tall, thin hag who'd been keeping to the edges of the fray.  Enraged, she began to disappate - bestowing a dying curse upon the group for the death of her sister...

Cyrran Reaches: Forbidden Door pt. I

Saturday February 5, 2022 at 3:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- As the group began to speak with the elves that had approach their table, they found themselves suddenly assaulted by several other bar patrons.  As Kael and Tyrrox held them off with varying levels of force, Lily identified the cause of the attack as being magical compulsion and was able to employ her music to counter the effect.

- Realizing they needed somewhere more private, the elves led them to a place called the Garden of Telanthius - the magical willow-like trees of which provided shelter and soundproofing.  There, they told the group their story.  They had been friends of Kael's father, and the group of them had disturbed something in an old dwarven ruin up in the mountains - a massive bronze door that had been sealed, but that seal is now breaking.  They had assumed Kael's father had gone home, but when the PCs arrived looking for him, they feared he instead went back to the ruin, which they now believe to be crawling with demons.

- The group decided to go with the elves to the dwarven ruin.  After a couple of days travel through the wood (where they noticed signs of disease and corruption), they found themselves outside the mostly-collapsed entrance to the ruin where three grotesque old women huddled near a large cauldron dangling over a campfire...

Cyrran Reaches: HIdden City

Saturday January 15, 2022 at 2:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group was hailed by an elven hunter called Rey Piestrann who seemed to be concerned about their presence "this deep" in the wood - telling them they were at least 4 days travel from the nearest edge of the forest.  Piestrann didn't seem to know anything about the city they were searching for, nor the "path" they were currently on, but she didn't make any move to impede their progress. After a brief conversation, they parted ways.

- As the group continued deeper into the forest, they noticed the trees getting larger but also the undergrowth becoming significantly more dense.  They continued to follow the lightes through the darkness before they finally stopped at a vine-like archway just before dawn.  As they approached, the ghostly forms of elven warriors began to appear around the path and a voice spoke to them - asking who they were and why they had come.  Lily answered for her companions and was instructed to proceed to a pool called Sum'mshar.

- Once through the archway, the group was finally able to see the city of Osada Reil, which resided in a deep canyon that plunged into the forest floor.  The tops of stone spires and great trees could be seen within it - and a few truly massive trees reached from the canyon floor far below them into the canopy over their heads.  A narrow pathway led down the ledges into the canyon.

- The group was met by a number of suspicious elves but also a few friendly faces as they made their way through the city.  Once at the pool at the far end of the city, they spoke with an elder called Kessanna Ben'Faedrus.  The elder welcomed them conditionally, and listened to their concerns about the mythical tree called Ola Tannanum as well as their search for Kael's father.  While she did not remember Kael's father specifically, she did recall hearing the stories about how Baness Cer'd'nye and he were said to have seen it - and seemed more open than most to the possibility that the tale was true.  She also told them that, while she could not verify the tree's reality, she had sensed an unusual sort of corruption or decay even within their city that was greatly concerning to her should it worsen.

- Making their way to a human-run inn that was somewhat more friendly to travelers, the group discussed what to do next. While they were there, a pair of elves - one of which Kael recognized as someone they met on their way into the canyon - approached them saying "We need to talk..."

Altea's Scepter: A Hostile Wood

Sunday December 5, 2021 at 2:00pm d&d, altea's scepter, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang
Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang

- As the ogres moved forward to smash the three adventurers, Rocky moved up to stab one of them with his swords while Ari and Hope engaged it with damaging cantrip spells.  One of the ogres reacted to the party's use of magic by pulling a wand from its bag and attempting to use it on them, with no success.  The other two ogres took turns clubbing Rocky, eventually knocking him unconscious, but not before taking significant injury themselves.  When one of the ogres collapsed, the other two decided to run away.

- After a short rest and recovery, the group decided they would make their way to the graveyard site Sevren had told them about.  Heading northwest through the forest as evening settled in, they happened to come upon a logging camp near the edge of the Harkenwood.  They enjoyed some stew and conversation before resting for the night.

- The next morning, they were approached by the foreman of the logging operation.  She told them that one of the woodcutters had gone missing last night and hadn't returned, and while she believed he was probably just passed out under a tree somewhere, she asked if they might look into it.

- Rocky tracked signs of passage north from where he was last seen, eventually discovering a man's boot that had some blood on it, and a large hunting knife with a green, sap-like substance on the blade.  He told the others that there were Blights around, and that he suspected they must have abducted the missing woodcutter.

- The group followed the trail deep into a dark ravine where they found a man wrapped in vines and calling for help - and a number of vine covered creatures emerging from the wood around them...

Cyrran Reaches: Obstruction

Saturday December 4, 2021 at 3:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Before Lily and Ravina could attempt to withdraw, they found themselves under attack by a monstrous crab creature.  Their struggle with it apparently alerted local sentries which soon descended upon them.  They nearly managed to escape through the use of invisiblity magic, but weren't able to get quite far enough away before it wore off.  Lily spoke with the merfolk captain and an elven "ambassador", eventually agreeing to accompany them to the merfolk city and speak with the priestess there regarding their presense and intentions.  Fortunately, the priestess did not seem to be overly suspicious of them.  The two spent some time speaking with the elven ambassador about ways of reaching Osada Reil before returning to the surface.

- While Taryn, Tyrrox, and Kael awaited their companions return, they witnessed and impossibly huge bear emerge from the forest some distance away from them, surrounded by dozens of agitated specimens of a more normal size - a few of which attacked them on their way to join the massive creature.

- When Lily and Ravina returned, the group decided to follow the "Moonlit Path" that Lily and Kael were able to see.  After travelling along it for some time, Kael spotted a large green dragon prowling the area ahead of them, eventually settling directly on the path.  They tried to distract it, but it didn't seem to notice them.  As they approached, the dragon became obviously aggressive - setting fire to the forest around them - but did not speak.  Lily suspected that the dragon might actually be an illusion, and decided to approach it directly.  The dragon image immediately attacked Lily - but since it was, in fact, illusory, nothing actually happened.  Tyrrox and Kael, however, not yet able to see through the illusion, saw Lily horribly mangled and began attacking the figment.  As the battle unfolded, all eventually became aware of the dragon's artificial nature, and continued down the path.

- A while later, they came upon a section of the path that had been obstructed with magically animated vines.  Ravina cast a spell to break the enchantment on the vines, but a number of lumbering earthen creatures emerged from the ground around them.  As some of them hacked their way through the now-inanimate mines, others fought off the shambling mounds lashing them with vine-like tendrils. 

- When the last was destroyed and crumbled into earth and rock, the group continued onward...

Altea's Scepter: An Unfortunate Turn

Sunday November 28, 2021 at 1:30pm d&d, altea's scepter, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang
Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang

- Realizing that the woman who was the werewolf may be unaware of her actions, Rocky decided to attempt to subdue the beast instead of killing it.  The resulting struggle alerted the innkeeper, who eventually helped Rock tie up the creature.  The innkeeper was quite distressed to hear that one of his staff was a monster and decided to go fetch one of the priests.  Returning a short time later, the group of them discussed what should be done until daylight came and the poor woman reverted to her normal form. Rocky returned to Midrus' library and told the others about what happened.

- The group then took the pin the hag had given them - which they had determined was a "hag eye" - to the minister.  They cautioned him that it was given to them by a green hag who may be able to see and possibly hear through the gem.  They suggested he not put it where it might give away something important and perhaps they should surrender it to the dragon when it returns.  The minister seemed somewhat hesitant to take the item until he saw it, at which point Hope noticed a covetous glint in his eye - along with a subtle sparkle that might have been a magical effect.  When the group tried to warn a clerk about the minister's apparent "attachment", the clerk stormed into the office, loudly claiming bewitchment on the part of the party - particularly Hope, the tiefling.

- The party took their leave, deciding to return to the Smiling Griffin to speak again with Sevren.  They had to wait around for him well into the evening, durning which time they were approached by an intoxicated quarry worker who told them he heard a howling sound coming from inside the caves.  When Sevren did arrive, he was concerned about Rocky's report of a werewolf and went to speak with the Innkeeper.  On the way, the party got directions from him to the overgrown graveyard he'd mentioned - believing the site might be related to one of the temples.

- The next day, the party decided to return to the 'grand avenue' ruin and speak with the hag again.  The creature did answer some of their questions, telling them among other things that the last queen, Marcella, had intentionally destroyed Altea's Scepter and had her priests seal the pieces away. 

- They were trying to get more information out of her when Ari mentioned Vuldas' name, whereupon the hag became agitated and paranoid.  She turned on Hope, accusing her of seeking Vuldas out, and ranting that she would not be replaced.  It was then that the hag commanded her ogres to attack...

Altea's Scepter: Things Not What They Seem

Saturday November 27, 2021 at 2:00pm d&d, altea's scepter, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang
Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang

- The source of the cackling began engaging them in conversation, asking them questions about who they were and why they were there - and continue prodding them until they gave her a clue as to what they wanted.  As they conversed a trio of ogres casually approached the site.  It wasn't until Hope mentioned Altea and the scepter - asking if the voice knew why it had broken upon the queen's death - that the speaker appeared, revealing herself to be a hideous green hag. 

- She appeared delighted and promised them answers to their questions if they would do something for her: she wanted them to take a silver pin containing a big blue gem to Minister Gillyn, the leader of the town of Braydon Point.  The hesitantly agreed and left the site without scuffling with her or the ogres.

- Before returning to Braydon Point, the group decided to make a detour to another ruin they'd heard about: a large stone manor that was said to be mostly intact in another part of the forest.  There they found evidence of habitation, which Rocky seemed certain was a giant.

- The group investigated the inside of the stone manorhouse, finding the giant's "nest" in the entry hall, a rotten tapestry on the wall from which they could just make out a stylized rendering of an ancient, white-stone city, a locked metal door in a tower, and a few books with still-discernable passages.

- Whilte they searched, however, they heard the clattering sounds of something returning to the manor.  Hearing the commotion, Hope moved out to investigate while trying to stay hidden.  She spied a large hill giant bringing in its latest kill - a large dear - and generally rummaging around the entrance hall.  Seeing a possible means of escape through a rotten doorway at the other end of the hall, Hope inadvertently caused it to collapse, alterting the giant to their presence.  By scattering in different directions and employing some diversionary magic, the group managed to get away with a few damaged books - but without thoroughly exploring the site.

- Back at Braydon Point, the group met back up with Midrus who told them he'd found a tiny scrap of info on the entity "Vuldas" they'd mentioned to him before - apparently it was the name of a priest of Wee Jas in the service of Marcella, the last queen of Del'Celestine.  Ari then presented the books she'd found at the manor, and the group of them spent the night looking through them for discernable texts that might be of use.  The most pertinent details seemed to be passages related to the "three great temples" - one to the West, one to the East, and one to the North - each with their own role.

- Meanwhile, however, Rocky returned to the Angel's Ox Inn to get some rest.  There, he chatted with Vedsa, one of the inn staff, as the last of the evening patrons departed for the evening.  During their conversation, however, Vedsa seemed to become physically uncomfortable.  She eventually excused herself but, on the way to the kitchen door began to convulse.  When Rock got up to help her, he found himself face to face with a werewolf...

Altea's Scepter: An Ancient Ruler

Sunday November 21, 2021 at 2:30pm d&d, altea's scepter, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang
Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang

- The group ran outside and made their way toward the center of town, where the most commotion was coming from.  They didn't intend to engage the dragon, but did want to see more specifically what was going on.

- In the center of town, the massive dragon paced back and forth within the town square, bellowing threats and burning the surrounding buildings with her firey breath.  She was demanding the people bring her their treasure - and was apparently dissatisfied with what they produced.  Ari was able to hear some of her draconic mutterings and discovered that she seemed to be debating whether to destroy the town or let it prosper so that she could plunder any wealth it gained.  She also seemed to be concerned that it might somehow ally with someone or something she named as "Vuldas".  Ultimately, the dragon took what was offerend and departed - warning that the town had better muster a more satisfactory tribute the next time she returns.

- The following morning, the three were "asked" to accompany a pair of guards to the slightly-singed town hall to speak with some of the lords gathered there.  An abrasive middle-aged woman present was ranting about how the militia should be called upon to fight the dragon and even accused the party of leading it to the town.  Minister Gillyn asked them for more details on their initial sighting of the dragon and whether they knew anything else about it, but they could offer little.

- From there, they made their way to the Smiling Griffin tavern to try to find a huntsman called Sevren.  They had to wait around a while, but he eventually did arrive.  He was able to tell them of several ruin sites in the area - including the vault-like "Stonehall" in the mountains, and an overgrown stone courtyard he called the "Grand Avenue".  The latter caught their attention particularly due to his mentioning of a tiefling-like statue it its center.

- After acquiring specific directions, the party set out for the Grand Avenue ruin to investigate.  As they neared the site, they were attacked by a trio of gricks, which they fought off without much trouble.  At the site of the ruin, they found the an over grown street and surrounding columns made of the familiar white stone, but noticed that the tiefling statue was not composed of the same material.  An inscription at the statue's base read "Our Indominable Lady, Queen Marcella"...

Altea's Scepter: A Buried Power

Saturday November 20, 2021 at 2:00pm d&d, altea's scepter, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang
Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang

- The group returned to the main level of the temple ruin and ascended the stairs up to the lofted priests quarters.  Their search didn't turn up much and was interrupted by some of the smaller spiders from outside coming to investigate, but they did manage to find a rusted key ring containing a key that opened the crypt below.  Rocky had climbed a ladder up to something like an old bell tower from which he saw the form of an enormous red dragon perched on the cliffs some miles to the west.

- In the crypt below they found rows of shelves with skeletons laid out upon them.  At the far end however, they found an odd tiefling-like statue holding a metal chest with the inscription in infernal reading "None shall weild this foresaken power".

- Upon prying the chest free, a number of the skeletons got up and began attacking them.  While Ari and Rocky fought them off, Hope found the key to the chest on the keyring and  opened it.  Inside she found a 6" long rod that looked to be broken off of something.  It seemed to be made of gold and a silvery metal and decorated with diamonds and glowing yellow gems.

- The group fought their way out of the crypt and left the temple ruin, continuing on toward the town of Braydon Point.  They spoke with the priests at the temple of Pelor, asking questions about the ruin they'd found.  They also mentioned the dragon and discovered that the town knew of it.  The dragon was called Keldrexa, and she had apparently plagued the town for some generations but had been absent for long enough that the locals were hoping she was gone for good.

- After alerting the authorities to the dragon's return, the group proceeded to the home of an elf called Midrus who owned something of a library.  There they were able to discover a bit more about the lost city of Del'Celestine, the angelic queen Altea the Graceful, her daughter Marcella, the fall of the city in a great war, and a little more about the legend of Altea's Scepter: specifically that it was made of gold, platinum, diamonds, and glowing yellow sapphires - and that upon Altea's death, it broke into pieces that were then given to the high priests of the three great temples.

- As they studied late into the night, they were disturbed by sounds of commotion outside - and the distant roar of a dragon...

Altea's Scepter: A Web of Mystery

Sunday November 14, 2021 at 3:00pm d&d, altea's scepter, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang
Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang

- The three fought off the giant spider and its webs, eventually overwhelming it with Ari's holy light.  Investigation of the altar room suggested that the temple had perhaps been repurposed during its history, as it bore some obscured markings of Pelor, but more recent symbols and references to a darker entity with the title Lady of Death.

- The door at the far end led them to the temple basement where they were attacked by a small horde of giant rats.  They found a small tunnel behind a collapsed wall large enough for the rats, but too small for any of them.  They also found the remains of a bunk room, a storeroom with more cast-off pelor emblems, and the locked entrance to a crypt...

Altea's Scepter: A New Adventure

Saturday November 13, 2021 at 2:00pm new campaign, d&d, altea's scepter, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang
Dungeons and Dragons logo © Wizards of the Coast. Temple ruin artwork © Wanxing Wang

The kids asked it we could start a new D&D game - so, of course, we obliged.  Since it's a bit simpler overall and I'd not run it before, we decided we'd do a 5e game this time.

 

We finished making characters this afternoon, and got rolling with the game.

 

Characters:

- Hope [Hannah] :: Tiefling Sorceror

- Rocky [Micah] :: Wood Elf Ranger

- Ari [Sheri] :: Half-Elf Cleric

 

Highlights:

- The party made their way toward an area called Simon's Vale, and the far northeaster Braydon Point, pursuing the partial legend of a marvelous artifact called Altea's Scepter.  It was apparently owned by a power queen or sun priest and was said to reside in a temple treasury.

- On a tip from some locals in the last village they stopped in, they decided to investigate a hilltop ruin a few miles off the road, said to have been the remains of an ancient temple.

- They found the hilltop covered in webbing, and had to watch their step around some dog-sized spiders.  It wasn't until they got inside the ruin that they found the largest spider - a massive, 12' beast in the webs of the main altar room...

Unwritten: Before Departure

Tuesday November 9, 2021 at 8:45pm unwritten, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions
Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions

- Norm and Kenta ran as fast as they could for the shelter of the canopy, but even the few minutes they were exposed was enough to give them significant sunburn.  After a brief rest, they decided to try to make it all the way back to the linking point that day.  As they neared their destination well after sunset, they found themselves tailed by a large creature.  They only got the most fleeting glance at the beast's teeth and face as it barreled into them, nearly sending them tumbling off the catwalk.  Kenta lashed out at it with his machete and believed he managed to give it a cut, but something that hit  returned the favor, giving him a nasty - and unusually clean - slice to his face and neck.

- When they finally made it back to the original linking point and rejoined Kat and Reis, they compared notes about the book exchange and the undersea research facility and made plans as to their next steps.  They believe they need to return soon, but Norm has decided they should make their own linking book back to Er'cana before they leave - and they're all a little curious about the area east of the linking point...

Cyrran Reaches: Finding the Way

Saturday November 6, 2021 at 2:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Lily engaged her cousin Ansley in conversation, but the girl quickly became distraught, screaming or mumbling nonsense, and eventually collapsing.

- After helping Ansley back into the house, the group spoke with Elder Dynn for some time.  She seemed friendly enough, but insisted she really couldn't help them in their quest to find and reach the elven settlement of Osada Reil.  Sensing she was keeping something relevant from them, they eventually badgered her into agreeing to speaking with "someone else" who might be able to help them.

- Later, Kael sought out Elder Selka, whom he found to be quite different form her sister.  Like her sister, however, she insisted she didn't know anything about the elven settlement and couldn't help them reach it.  She also insisted there was nothing weird about the lake and certainly nothing dangerous at the bottom of it.

- Ravina decided to user her Find the Path spell to determine the location of Osada Reil, and then use Wind Walk to fly out that way for a while to see what she could find.  What she found was that Find the Path led her out over the massive lake, and then pointed straight down toward the bottom - toward a point that must be thousands of feet submerged.  The sun was setting as she was starting to turn back to return to Tonler and she suddenly noticed Find the Path change its indication - this time, to a point between two large, rough-hewn stone obelisks on the far shore of the lake.

- The next day, the group decided they would fly across the lake an examine the forest a bit more thoroughly.  The elven woodsman Lertas had warned them that, if they entered the wood, they would become lost almost immediately.  It took them some time to find the obelisks, but eventually they did.  They didn't find any magic on the obelisks themselves, but there was a pervasive background illusion aura seemingly on the entire forest.

- Believing the obelisks might be some sort of portal to Osada Reil, Kael, Tyrrox, and Taryn decided to walk through them into the woods, and despite an initial "good feeling" about the direction, they quickly became disoriented and lost, just as Lertas had told them they would.

- The three wandered the woods for some time, seeking to find their way back to shore - a location they believed couldn't possibly be more than a hundred or so yards away.  They eventually found themselves in an overgrown ruin of strange white towers that had long-since collapsed.  Among the remains, they ran afoul of a spirit naga intent on devouring them.  After fighting off the creature, they made their way back into the woods, still seeking the lake shore, which they eventually found.

- Meanwhile, Ravina and Lily decided that they shouldn't venture into the forest and get lost also.  Tired of waiting for the others to find their way back, Ravina suggested they investigate the lake bottom using her Water Breathing spell.  The two left a note for the others, along with the packs, and ventured out into the lake.  After hours of descending into the blackness, they noticed a pale blue glow coming from far to the northeast - and a significant distance below them.  Following the lake bed as best they could, they slowly approached it - eventually catching a distant site of a spire-filled chasm in a glowing bubble, populated by a large number of merfolk.

- When Kael, Taryn, and Tyrrox eventually found their way back later that night, they found Lily's note and Kael found that he could see faintly glowing lights between the obelisks, leading deeper into the forest...

 

--

 

GM's Note: It has been nearly 20 months since we've played this game.  This game started back in 2013 and we've put it on haitus before, but always intentionally - always to play other games.  This time, it was out of caution regarding the pandemic we've been dealing with.  Having finally decided it would be ok to get together occassionally, we decided to start it up again.  We led off with an hour or so of discussion about what had been going on when we left off, but that was fun and necessary.  After that, they actually did quite a bit.  It was a great session.

Looking at the header for the *previous* session, I really feel like that was either prophetic of premature - THIS session really should be called "It's Different Now".  Other things have changed since we put the campaign on pause, and our current "plan" now is to play once a month on a saturday instead of every week on a weeknight.  Honestly though, we might get to play for the almost same length of time, since this game got a solid 4+ hours, and we'd previously been doing 1.5-2 hour games 3 times a month or so.  And I actually prefer the saturday schedule.

Anyway, here's hoping this works well.  Next game is slated for early december.  It's great to be back.

Unwritten: Against A Future Return

Tuesday November 2, 2021 at 8:30pm unwritten, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions
Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions

- As the hum and vibration in the heart of the undersea complex increased to a near violent pitch, Norm noticed the row of routing switches that had all been deactivated.  In a split-second decision, he threw the switches up and the station's power output stabilized - unfortunately not before an electrical discharge ruptured some sort of gas conduit, pumping a noxious yellowish smoke into the control room.  Norm and Kenta hurried out, closing the bulkhead-like door behind them.

- Meanwhile, back at the linking point, Kathleen and Reis compiled some details on their new "friends" before returning to their research efforts.  Reis spent the day continuing her experiements on the large trees and their fruit (a specimen of which she was able to obtain with Kathleen's help), and Kat decided to delve into the text of the Er'cana descriptive book they'd traded the Malves book for.

- Power restored, Norm and Kenta two proceeded back to the "airlock", which they found to be apparently functional.  They discovered its actual purpose was as a pressurization chamber as the room on the other side contained a diving hatch for access to the ocean floor.

- After decompression, they emerged from the pressurization chamber to find the lights in the facility were now blinking red and water was trickling in from somewhere and running down the steps they were going up.  Norm returned to the control room, holding his breath against the smoke, and "undid" his previous actions, but only managed to kill the lights.  The background hum of the station had ceased, and the facility now seemed to be almost completely without power.  The door out to the ladder still operated, and opening caused a few inches of water that had gathered in the tube to flood in.  Concerned that the station may be lost, the took some time to gather some of the books and research materials from the study area before climbing back to the surface.

Unwritten: Which Risks to Take

Tuesday October 26, 2021 at 8:30pm unwritten, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions
Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions

- Still staring at the eel-like shark, Kenta felt a slight sense of virtigo as he maintained eye contact.  A sense of calm curiosity settled on him and he took a half step toward the chamber's glass wall, but knew he wouldn't be able to get much closer to the creature.  Norman noticed his friend's unnerving stare and called to him to snap out of it, at which point the monstrous creature swam away - quickly disappearing into the dark water.

- Kathleen and Reis regarded the appoaching pair somewhat suspiciously but answered their greeting and with as much neutrality as possible.  The man took the large book from his companion and presented it to them.  The book turned out to be the descriptive book for the Age of Er'cana - the age they were currently standing in.  They said they'd be willing to trade it for the Malves age which Kenta had stolen from them a few days earlier.  After some discussion, they decided to take the offer and made the trade - not least because Kat realized that, with the descriptive book here, all incoming links were disabled, and that, if these other people controlled the descriptive book, they could cut the guilds and themselves off from access to the age - or worse, they could damage or destroy the book, rendering it inaccessible permanently.  While the other age was also of interest, they'd been sent to study *this* one, and so it seemed the higher priority.

- Meanwhile, Kenta and Norman continued to explore the undersea facility, finding a kind of "control room" and some sort of laboratory(?) down a long, tunneled stairway.  The other stair led them to a sealed bulkhead and airlock with some buttons that didn't seem to be operating correctly.  After some evaluation, they decided that maybe the airlock was having some sort of power issue - they had noted in the control room that the gauges they guessed to be related to power supply read only 5-10%.  They decided to return to the control room and experiment with the panel to try to increase power to the station.  As Norman slowly pushed a large lever upward, the hum and vibration that had been present in the facility intensified...

Unwritten: Sharks in the Water

Tuesday October 19, 2021 at 8:30pm unwritten, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions
Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions

- The others having not returned, Kathleen and Reis decided to stay the night in the bunk room in the fortified "bunker" structure below the canopy huts.  Meanwhile, Kenta and Norman retreated back up the catwalk into the jungle some distance - feeling a bit safer beneath the canopy than out under the open sky.

- The following morning, Norman and Kenta returned to the dock and made their way down the ladder into the copper and glass tube descending deep into the waters at the end of the pier.  At the bottom, they discovered a panel full of switches that seemed to control the sealed doorway that led into some sort of structure.

- Upon awakening, Kat and Reis decided to go back down to the puzzle-locked office they'd previously found - Kat had been looking for clues and working on a few possible solutions.  With some minor input from Reis, she was able to identify the last symbol on the dials and, after a couple more attempts, managed to get it to open.  Inside they found some detailed journals on the facility's pellet production process as well as a linking book to the Ashem'en District in the Cavern, and a strange television-like device that seemed to be viewing a far-away place.  The image showed a large chamber, a massive statue, daylight, and vines growing along the stone walls.

- After some discussion and examination of the switch panel, Norman decided that the panel indicated some kind of conversion from the D'ni distance/depth measurements he'd noted etched into the tube as they had descended.  While unsure what his math was converting the distance units to, he was able to complete the conversion and enter the solution using the numbered switches.  The door clicked and slid open, exposing some rather stale air inside.

- The undersea complex was composed of circular copper and glass rooms that overlooked the ocean around them - water that was getting a bit more illuminated as the day progressed, even at this significant depth.  They found some D'ni furniture and even clothing remarkably well preserved, as well as a common area that seemed to be something of a study room, containing padded chairs, desks, and numerous journals.  Kenta's attention, however, was captured by the flashing purple eyes of an enormous eel-like shark just outside the glass bubble.

- Having discovered all they could in the bunker, Kat and Reis emerged, discussing plans for the day.  It wasn't until the man spoke that they became aware of his approach.  Approaching form the catwalk to the east of their position were a man and a woman, neither of whom were immediately recognizable, but Kat was pretty sure she knew who they were.  The man was saying he had a "proposition" for them, and the woman was carrying a large, hard-bound book under her left arm...

Unwritten: Promise

Tuesday October 12, 2021 at 8:30pm unwritten, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions
Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions

- Norman managed to talk the fleeing woman down enough that some of the adrenaline of the situation began to wear off.  Unfortunately, in the process, her attitude shifted from one of fear to something more like anger.  She accused Norman and Kenta of stealing a book from her and her companions and told them she'd come to retrieve it, even offering them a substantial sum of money in exchange for its return.  When an agreement didn't appear to be immediately forthcoming, she retreated down the catwalk into the jungle, promising to return with an "offer".

- The group discussed this turn of events for a while the next morning, but ultimately decided to continue their investigation of the Age as planned.  However, given the promised return of unknown persons, it was decided that Kathleen would conduct her study of the descriptive book in or near the bunker on the jungle floor, the entrance to which Norman had discovered a way to bar.  Reis decided to continue her expirementation in the canopy unless Kat raised the alarm.

- Meanwhile, Norm and Kenta travelled along the catwalk to the west.  They found one additional canopy hut above it a couple of miles away, but then nothing.  As midday passed, and they hadn't discovered where the conduits following the catwalk led, they decided to press on and prepare to spend the night away from the linking point.  Just after the sun had sunk below the horizon, the catwalk led them out of the jungle and onto a long pier protruding into a large body of saline water.  The pier had sustained some damage; near the end they found some mangled machinery and a ladder descending into a tube-like structure that led into the darkness below the water...

Unwritten: Shadows in the Night

Tuesday October 5, 2021 at 8:30pm unwritten, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions
Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions

- While Norman, Kathleen, and Reis were finishing up their studies for the day, Kenta was attempting to gain entry to the hut with the light.  While he was investigating the trap door on the underside of the hut, he heard the unmistakable sound of a link, and began to hear footsteps and voices in the room above.  The two voices seemed to be arguing about a few things, and Kenta heard some references to "others" he interpreted to be himself and his companions.

- Kenta told the others about what he had overheard when he returned to the canopy area they'd linked into.  Believing the unknown people also in the Age might be after the book Kenta had taken from the man they'd seen when they first arrived, Kat decided to hide the book in her sleeping bag before they went to sleep.  She was awakened by creaking sounds outside sometime during the night.  She quietly roused the others, and the group of them were ready when a figure attempted to enter the hut they were sleeping in.  Kat shone her flashlight at the intruder, and the bright light temporarily blinded everyone.  The figure gasped and ran - with Norm and Kenta chasing it in the dark.

- Down on the catwalk, as Kenta and Norm began to catch her, the woman who'd intruded on their hut spun around and began frantically shouting at Kenta to stop his pursuit and leave.  As Norm caught up to the two, he found Kenta standing about 35 feet from a dark shadow, only slighly illuminated by a red tactical light, and caught the steel glint of a revolver pointed at them...

Unwritten: Of Past And Present

Friday September 24, 2021 at 9:30pm unwritten, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions
Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions

- Identifying the buzzing sound as a swarm of approaching insects, the group hurried back into the canopy and took shelter in one of the larger hut structures.  From there, they were able to see the thousands of 6" insects swarm over the area, eating the edges from the tree leaves while the large blue birds preyed upon a few of their number.

- Once the swarm moved on, the group emerged and discussed what their plan should be now that the initial distractions were fading.  The group set about learning what they could from what they could find: Norman decided to dig through the D'ni documents looking for any mentioning of known threats to include in his report.  Kathleen decided she would look through what written records she could find in search of the purpose of this Age and what the D'ni were doing here.  Kenta set aboutt exploring the surrounding area, trying to get some sense or scope of the complex.  Reis began conducting some experiments in an effort to learn something about the massive trees populating the Age's jungle.

- For his efforts, Norm was able to find references to the "Vorr Cats" - a large and hyper-aggressive predatory species inhabiting the jungle floor that seemed to be the primary reason for the canopy dwellings as well as the bunker-like nature of the ground structure(s).  The swarming insects - called Dravax - were not regarded as a particular threat, though they were capable of biting.  Sitings of a massive bird that flies above the canopy were concerning, but no direct interaction was recorded.  Interestingly, Norm found some records indicating that the fruit of the trees was toxic to the D'ni as well.

- Kat was able to discover that the Age of Er'cana, like its sister ages Er'duna and Er'jerah, was constructed as a food-production Age.  Unlike those ages, however, the complex the operation here is much smaller (compatively) and specifically dedicated to the production of high-nutrition/calorie pill-like pellets that could sustain a D'ni individual and requiring very little space or weight.  The pellets were being made from the fruit of the gigantic "Talithus" trees, as well as some other components including a tree-top fern and the carapace of some subterrenean grubs.

- Reis discovered a few interesting properties of the trees relating to their gel-like interior, as well as their interesting relationship with a certain kind of luminous vine that grew upon them.

- Kenta found that the nearby huts showed evidence of having been searched by someone else fairly recently, but did not bear any further evidence of habitation.  The following day, he descended to the long catwalks and decided first to follow them eastward.  He discovered some additional bunker-like ground structures - these were smaller and round in shape - as well as some additional canopy huts.  One of the huts was located in a tight grove of trees accessed by its own spoke off the catwalk.  As Kenta approached to get a closer look, he noticed light coming from one of the structure's windows...

Unwritten: Metal and Machines

Tuesday September 7, 2021 at 8:30pm unwritten, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions
Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions

- The group descended into the metal structure to investigate, seeking a way out into the jungle - or to possibly determine whether that was adviseable, as the spikes on the surrounding walls have them reason to think maybe there was something...bad...out there.

- On the top floor they found some offices, bunk rooms, and equipment/gear storage.  Some written records suggested production and/or mining facilities were housed within the structure, and spoke in general terms about the state of the ongoing project.

- Below this level, they found a large production floor that contained machinery that was apparently used to produce small, pill-like pellets.  They found a few kegs of these pellets in one corner - one of them had been torn open and its contents spilled across the floor.  Strangely, some of the pellets glowed with a faint orange light.  On this floor they also found the locked door to a corner office and a pair of heavy, metal, double doors leading outside.  These doors were accompanied by bold warnings about venturing outside, citing dangerous fauna and possibly other, unknown perils.  Coming to the conclusion that no one else would likely be going after the linking book that had fallen into the jungle, they decided to make a note in their reports but to leave it for now.

- The corner office turned out to be secured by a D'ni puzzle-lock, and while Kat and Ries examined it, Norm and Kenta decided to look at what was below them in the 'basement' of the structure.  There, they found something of a strip-mining operation that seemed to be extracting electrically-charged crystals from underground - and heard something moving around in the darkness.

- Unable to solve the puzzle lock at the present time, the group decided to return to the canopy above and investigate further.  As they emerged from the metal building, they heard a buzzing sound approaching from the west...

Unwritten: A First Confrontation

Tuesday August 31, 2021 at 9:00pm unwritten, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions
Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions

- The group linked through to the age of Er'cana to begin the primary evaluation they agreed to and, as perviously mentioned, immediately saw a man with a large book flee the hut that contained the linking point.  Kenta gave chase across the catwalks and platforms suspended more than 100 feet above the jungle floor between massive bamboo-like trees.  He eventually caught the man as he ran toward the edge of the platform - causing him to drop the large book he was carrying.  The man hesitated only briefly before jumping off the platform and linking away, letting the linking book he'd use flutter into the darkness of the jungle floor far below.

- Kat examined the large book Kenta had "recovered" and found it to be a Descriptive book to an Age called Malves.  The viewing panel showed circular, glass and wood buildings lining a shallow river canyon.  She told them she would need to spend some time studying the writing in the book to learn anything more about it, but it was definitely a major find.

- After a brief discussion about what had just happened, Norm decided that the presense of others in the Age represented a potential security risk and that they needed to know where the man had gone, so they decided to descend to the jungle floor to attempt to find the man's linking book.

- The group found a stairway leading down to the roof of a very solid metal building rising up out of the enormous fern-like plants covering the jungle floor.  They noted that the edges of the roof were lined with metal spikes protruding down and outward as though to keep someone or something from climbing up onto it.  They located a sturdy metal hatchway among the debris on the flat roof and opened it, seeing a staircase leading into the absolute darkness below...

Unwritten: Preparations

Tuesday August 10, 2021 at 8:45pm unwritten, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions
Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions

- After being told about the new Age by Stephen, Norman had made his way to the office of Thomas Acklesen, a co-guildmaster of the Guild of Cartographers with whom he was on generally good terms.  After some negotiation and agreeing to perform some Primary Evaluation tasks in the Age for the Guild, Thomas agreed to let Norman and his team in a little ahead of schedule.

- From there, Norman gathered his friends to discuss the oppotunity, and then made his way to where lead explorer Loren Granville lived.  She was isolating herself as a precautionary measure, having just returned from an undocumented Age.  She gave Norman her field notes and told him she had a somewhat uneasy feeling about the place.  She also told him she doubted whether the "giants" he was searching lived there.

- Meanwhile, Kenta went looking for an acquaintance in the libraries of the Guild of Scientists.  He had previously "assisted" Reis Lennox with some sample-gathering on the shores of the cavern lake.  It took some convincing, but she agreed to accompany the group if they'd be willing to pay her a small amount for her time.

- As they gathered to make the Link to Er'cana the following morning, Thomas and Kenta learned that there had been an attempted break-in at the Guild of Cartographers' area of Tokotah I.  Kathleen, however, was greeted outsider her front door by a ghostly-white figure of a man that seemed to speak mutely before disappearing...

Unwritten: A Possible Lead

Tuesday August 3, 2021 at 9:00pm unwritten, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions
Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions

We began tonight's session by "finishing" characters - assigning some skills, adding a few aspects, etc.  There are still some blank spots on the sheets, but in the interest of actually playing a little we decided to leave them for now.

 

Highlights:

- Norman was in a shared study area of the Guild of Cartographer's offices in Tokotah I.  He had been writting a dull report on a recent excursion to a further-afield area of the Age of Miristenn - which unfortunately hadn't produced anything exciting - when he was interrupted by Stephen Tviet, one of the Guild explorers.  Stephen knew something about his search for the "giants" some D'ni records had suggested may have existed somewhere in the Ages, and had heard Norman's "low gravity" theory that may have made their existence possible.  It was due to this specific detail that he was there, excitedly relaying some news to Norman about a new Linking Book the Guild of Archivists had just sent for survey.  Only an initial team had so far been sent through, but one of the things they noted about this new Age was its the low gravity - just over .4g.  Stephen had thought Norman might want to talk to one of the Guild leaders about getting "first crack" at examining the new Age.

- Norman assembled the others in his "team" and the 4 of them made their way to Tokotah I early the next morning where they met a Guild representative that gave them a linking book to "Q" (a quarantine location in Ae'gura), a couple of blank linking books should they be needed, and led them the linking book to the Age of Er'cana.

- They had only just linked through when they caught sight of a man dart out of the hut that was the linking point - with a large book under his left arm...

 

GM's Note:

It was getting late and I really wanted to leave this session with the group seeing the unexpected person with the book running away from the linking point, mostly in order to create interest and excitement as the game had barely started.  For this reason, I played with the timeline a bit.  At the beginning of next session, we're going to go back and fill in some details between Stephen's tip and actually linking to the Age including their discussion with the Guild leader Thomas Acklesen to determine the conditions of their access to the Age, to see if they're able to talk with Loren Granville about her field notes on the initial survey, and any preparations they want to make for the excursion.  In addition, they decided they were taking another individual with them, so we'll talk about who that is.  Then we'll jump back into the current situation and what they want to do from here...

Unwritten: Session 0

Tuesday July 27, 2021 at 9:00pm new campaign, unwritten, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions
Unwritten & Myst logos/artwork © Cyan, Inc. & Inkworks Productions

For the first time in 1.5 years or so, a few of us got together to start a new in-person campaign.  After some talk, we decided we'd start with the Fate-based "Unwritten" - a game based on the cosmology and mythos of the Myst games that I've always loved.

Tonight we began work on characters and talked a bit about how they knew each other.

 

Characters:

- Kathleen Isen [Sheri] :: Artistic Linguist

- Kenta [Tony] :: Primitive Survivalist

- Norman Osborn [Tim] :: Tenacious Adventuring Historian

 

We also put together the beginnings of an Age Library to be featured in the campaign.

 

Player Ages:

- The Shattered Plains :: a fractured wasteland, written by Kathleen

- Callux :: a low-gravity, giant forest that Norman has heard rumors about

- "Jargono" :: the savage swampland Kenta accidentally left via linking book

Numenera: Wreck of the Klaresh

Saturday July 10, 2021 at 9:30pm numenera, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

I ran a few-shot for Sheri, Michael, Jese, Joe, and Myra over our summer vacation to SC this past week.  It took us 5 or 6 sessions, but we made it through the entire scenario (albiet without exploring every nook).

The premise was an explosion on a hillside near their town that revealed a prior-world structure. Their job was to evaluate any threats to their village it might contain.

 

Characters:

- Kai [Sheri] :: Graceful Nano who Rides the Lightning

- Jace [Michael] :: Clever Jack who Explores Dark Places

- Madge [Jese] :: Clumsy Glaive who Absorbs Energy

- Umi [Myra] :: Aggressive Jack who Figures Things Out

- Johan [Joe] :: Obsessive Glaive who Crafts Unique Objects

 

Highlights:

- The crew geared up and traveled south across the lake and overland to the place where a thin plume of yellow-gray smoke was still pouring out of the ground.  Upon arrival, they set up and activated the virtual mapper cypher they'd been given to get a feel for the layout of the structure - having to fend off a large pack of broken hounds while it procesed.  The cypher indicated a power source near the rear of the structure and some sort of control center at the far end. Kai was able to determine this structure was some sort of craft - probably one that traveled the Night.

- Once inside, they locatred the power source, which seemed to be unstable and possibly contaminated by cross-dimensional energies.  They also found Ceril, and merchant/trader from their village who had apparently come to find any treasures the ruin contained, but was instead corrupted by the dimensional leak.  Ceril fought with the until they were eventually subdued and removed from the ruin.

- While Johan and Umi were outside with Ceril, the others discussed the next course.  Feeling the power source's unstable state may result in a collapse/meldown/explosion, the group decided to make their way to the "control center" area to see if they could stabilize it from there.

- Johan and Umi missed the marks that had been left for them and ended up an an area strangely overgrown with purple, tendril-like grass and red, fleshy "trees".  It contained a malfunctioning portal of some kind, which was arcing energy from some nearby machinery.  Umi decided to go find the rest of the group, but Johan was obsessed with wanting to understand the machinery and stayed behind.

- Meanwhile, Madge, Kai, and Jace made their way through the mid-section of the craft, through a tunnel where water was pouring down from above.  By the time they arrived at the control area, Umi had caught up with them.  As they approached the final chamber, the door closed in front of them and they saw through the window a tall, slender being with numenera weaponry also examining it.

- Jace bypassed the lock and they moved inside.  Threatened by the biomechanical soldier inside, Madge moved into the room to assist her companions and tripped, falling down.  This startled and distracted the soldier, who accidentally connected its rifle with some loose conduits in the ceiling, sending a jolt of eletrcitiy through it and momentarily stunning it.

- Umi rushed in to grab the rifle as Jace made his way to one of the consoles.  Kai and Madge moved to support Umi, whom the creature immediately began attacking when it regained its senses.

- As the others held off the soldier, Jace had a brilliant insight on how to stabilize the reactor - unfortunately, in so doing, he accidentally cut power to the console as well, and the room with all of its interfaces went dark but for red emergency lighting.

- Meanwhile, Johan, having learned all he could from the portal area, had made his way back through the power core chamber just in time to see the pulsating reactor core suddenly shrink to a stable, standby state.

- The others slipped back through the door to the control center and Jace managed to reverse the security lock such that it was unable to get out.

- Believing they had neutralized the most immediate threats, the group made preparations to return to their village and make their report

Tale of Moon & Stars: Journey's Beginning

 Ryuutama artwork © Kotodama Heavy Industries
Ryuutama artwork © Kotodama Heavy Industries

[Journal of Midori-Ryuu Izumi, exerpt]

Prelude and Day 1

Trill, Myurin, and Rok finally set out on their first Journey, and I am excited to see what they do and what life they will breathe into the tale I am weaving. 

After some discussion at the Wanderer's Guild in Brunelle (the City of Stars), they decided they would first travel to the logging village of Timber in the forest at the foot of the Crescent Island mountains.  The Guide's Aid Albert has paid them to deliver a package to his great aunt Eloise Naan in the village of Three Stones (which is on their route) as well.

The first day of their travels was blessed with good weather and easy terrain on the road west along the Bull River, though they were confronted by a young Hungry Mole which they managed to drive off.  Camp was made in a small wood the road they're following winds through, and the first night passed quietly.

Postote: This group either has particular focus or lacks a typical degree of curiosity. In any event, the songbird may not be obvious enough as a guide to push them toward discovery...


Mouse Guard 1156: Unanswered Questions

Saturday March 27, 2021 at 8:30pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- As the mink rose from the pond, the group attempted to hide with only partial success.  The creature bore down on them, demanding to know who they were and why they were there.  Clove was nearly captured, but in the end the three managed to make their escape.

- Retuning to the Blue Thistle Inn, they found Nendole already tending to the sick mouse, though she didn't seem terribly interested in the moss they'd gathered.  As she tried to leave, Hakett lost his temper and grabbed her, causing her to shriek until his patrol mates freed her.

- Having seen to Tom as much as they could, the patrol left Copperwood heading back to Elmoss.  They hoped to find some sign of Tom's wife Vereena, but none was found.

- When they arrived at Elmoss, they found that the settlement had been "closed" - and was no longer recognizing or allowing entry to Guardmice...

Mouse Guard 1156: Emerging Threat

Saturday March 6, 2021 at 8:30pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- The patrol headed north in search of the healer-mouse called Nendole.  As they approached the area in which her hut was rumored to reside, they encountered a number of crude, mouse-like totems hanging from the surrounding trees, and Hakett's superstition and believe in the mystical overwhelmed him - causing visual and auditory halucinations of fog and menacing crows.  The noise from his defiant cries attracted the attention of a nearby otter, whom Nipp just barely managed to convince that the armed guardmice would be more trouble than they're worth.

- Clove found the dead stump perched on the riverbank that contained the recluse's hut.  They eventually convinced the eccentric mouse to speak with them, and even got her to begrudgingly agree to help.  She sent them a bit further north to a pond to gather the necessary "springfire moss" - an plant which Nipp had never heard of.

- Locating the pond in a basin near the river, Nipp and Hakett went down to the water's edge to gather the very normal-looking moss, while Clove kept watch from the hilltop.  It wasn't long before she saw the forms of a small band of ferrets making their way through the forest directly toward their location.  More worrying, however, was the large mink now rising out of the water in front of Nipp and Hakett...

Mouse Guard 1156: Problems Festering

Saturday February 27, 2021 at 8:30pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- The Patrol entered the settlement of Copperwood and made their way to the Blue Thistle Inn.  Tom's condition had continued to deteriorate, and a faint with a nasty fall rendered him all but unconscious.  Nipp attempted to help the local doctor - a young mouse called Riley - with his care, and had the physician tend to her own wounded leg as well.  Unfortunately, Tom's wife hadn't made it to the inn, much distressing the innkeeper - her brother Bander.

- Meanwhile, Clove and Hacket met with Orpha, a captain for Copperwoods army, and discovered the largest problems currently facing the settlement were the driftwood that had dislodged from a beaver dam upstream and made the harbor and docks all but unusable, and the fact that a large and irritable snapping turtle had taken up residence a little ways downstream.

- While having dinner that evening at the Grainbarrel Tavern, they patrol met up with part of another patrol led by a mouse called Marta.  She was interested to hear about the group's encounter with the ferrets and had Nipp place the location on their map as best she could.  They had come down on Gwendolyn's request to speak with the leaders of the Copperwood army about their current strength and readiness, which they were so far evaluating as mediocre - but the efforts to clear the docks had taken most of their energies.

- The next morning, Riley was waiting for Nipp.  Tom's condition had taken a bad turn in the night and his fever began to spike again.  Riley's efforts were proving ineffective, and Nipp couldn't think of anything else to try herself.  It was then that Elsie, the inn's chambermaid, hesitantly suggested that....maybe they could seek out a mouse called Nendole.  A witch that lived in the forest north of town...

Mouse Guard 1156: Tooth and Claw

Saturday January 16, 2021 at 8:45pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- The massive owl loomed out of the shadows, landing on the ground before them.  It told them it was the hare it was after, and that the mice were free to leave.  Rather than attempt to fight the enormous predator, Nipp tried instead to convince it that the hare had been poisoned by nearby ferrets and that eating it would in turn poison the owl.  The owl seemed disinclined to believe the mouse, but as Nipp continued her insistence, it eventually became unwilling to take the chance.

- Unfortunately, Nipp convinced the owl not to eat the hare before she could direct its attention to the ferrets she knew were nearby, and the owl instead turned on the mice.  Swooping down upon them, it grabbed both Nipp and Clove and began flying off with them.

- With some effort, Clove managed to free herself from its talon, but held on and made a heroic effort to free Nipp as well.  Before she was able to, however, her grip finally failed and she fell back to the forest floor.  Meanwhile, Nipp was able to identify a weak point in the bird's talon, and biting hard into it got the owl to drop her as well.

- Hakett, Tom and the hare began to make their way in the direction the owl had flown and, much to their surprise happened upon Clove and Nipp.  At that moment, however, two of the ferrets from the burrow had caught up with them and were just about to leap onto the group when the owl suddenly swooped down on them from the darkness.

- As the predators struggled with each other, the group made their esape.

- Tom thanked the Guardmice for their aid and asked if they could take him to Copperwood where he hoped his wife was waiting for him.  After 10 days of cautious travel, they arrived...

Mouse Guard 1156: Predators At Every Turn

Saturday January 9, 2021 at 9:00pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- Outside, the three had a brief discussion on what to do about the situation.  Hearing something moving clumsily in the wood some distance away, Hakett decided to go investigate while Nipp & Clove decided to sneak in and attempt to free the captured mouse while the ferrets slept.

- Hakett happened upon a hare that had been injured by a ferret's spear.  Unable to help the animal himself, he decided to return with Nipp.  Meanwhile, Nipp and Clove discovered the door to the cell with the mouse was locked and neither were able to pick it open - fortunately, Hakett arrived and told them he thought he could get it open.

- While Haket climbed up and attempted to open the door's lock, Nipp used some oily supplies from her medicine bag to keep the hingest from squeaking.

- After freeing the mouse, they slipped out just as the ferrets began to wake.

- Hakett led them to the injured hare, but just as Nipp began to examine the animal, Hakett spotted a great owl leaving its perch...

Lost Talisman: A New Direction

Saturday December 26, 2020 at 3:00pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- Iris & Ivy spoke to Jass for some time about his crystal, his version of the Elam Nethley tale, and his plans to get to the dwarven city of Unver Gaul to continue his search for the Heart of Shadow - as well as some discussion as to what they might do next themselves.  When they said that the Nethley they had been pursuing was supposedly searching for a lost temple, he told them he had heard of a site called the Skytemple Ruins from one of the hunters.

- The shopkeeper Delna came to ask them if they could retrieve some special ferm leaves from the Blackwood Forest for her, as her normal supplier hadn't been to Laduun in some time.

- A couple of days later, Jass came to their inn at breakfast saying that he'd managed to get permission to enter the gate to Unver Gaul and asked if they wanted to accompany him.  They had decided, howver, to pursue the lead at the Skytemple ruins and so parted ways.  They agreed to leave word at the Cliffside Inn should they discover anything new regarding Elam Nethley.

- Iris & Ivy left Laduun an headed east along the cliffside to the place where a path wound through a massive cleft in the cliff.  A few miles into the journey as they made their way through another narrow canyon, they were confronted by a winged, lion-like creature demanding all of their treasure...

Mouse Guard 1156: Into the Lair

Saturday December 19, 2020 at 8:30pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- The patrol headed northeast from Elmoss back to the Tomstead with the intention of pursuing the ferrets they believed had been present and at least partially responsible for its destruction.

- Locating an old trail, they followed it for the better part of a day almost due south until they came to the entrance to an old ground hog burrow.  They watched it for some time, seeing one ferret return.  Later that night, they sneaked in and found a crack in the burrow wall leading into what must be a portion of the Darkheater - with a few ferrets inside.  Listening to their conversations, they came to believe that the ferrets had captured and were holding one of the mice...

Mouse Guard 1156: Uneasy Compromise

Saturday December 12, 2020 at 8:45pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- Kole ran back to the shop to get Clove as Nip and Hakett engaged the spider and attempted to clear a path between it and the settlement's gate - eventually getting it open and letting the creature out.  After ensuring that a couple of mice who had been bitten had received treatment, Nip returned to the shop to keep an eye on things there, while Kole, Clove, and Hakett went on to find the shopkeepers brother for questioning.

- The found Vessmer, a blacksmith of sorts, in a temporary shop outside his house on the north road. He was friendly enough until he caught sight of Kole and flew into an indignant rage, accusing the latter mouse of cheating in a previous card game.  Clove and Hakett were able to subdue and calm the mouse enough to get some information out of him.  He didn't like Kole but, while he may not have been a master craftsman, he thought his work seemed adequate.

- Upon returning to the shop, the resumed their discussion with Baddisk about Kole's pay.  The shopkeeper tiredly proposed paying Kole half of what he had previously agreed.  Kole wasn't especially pleased with the situation, but decided he was unlikely to get any more and agreed.  Nip wrote copies of the document which each of them signed.

- Having settled the last of their commitments in Elmoss, the group set off for the Tomstead - hoping some trace of where the ferrets had gone remained...

Lost Talisman: Cliffside Shadow

Saturday December 12, 2020 at 3:00pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- As Iris & Ivy fought the shadowy creatures descending from the cliff, they were joined by some of the town watch and the man Ivy had spoken to earlier in the day - and found that he also had a crystalline warrior that would appear to aid him in combat.  Once the last of the creatures were destroyed, the two crystal warriors shook hands and vanished.

Lost Talisman: Commonality

Sunday December 6, 2020 at 2:30pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- The man with the glowing gem - a tall warrior dressed in hides and carrying a large sword - abruptly got up and left the tavern.  Ivy pulled Iris outside and the two spotted him heading down a nearby alleyway, where he seemed to be looking quizzically at the amulet he was wearing.

- As he made his way back through the alleyway, they attempted to tail him with mixed results.  Splitting up, Ivy ended up confronted by the man who seemed somewhat suspicious and confused.  After some explanation, he seemed willing to talk to her. 

- He was currently working in the mine as a guard, but had originally come to the city hoping to travel to Unver Gaul.  He was looking for something called the Heart of Shadow that had belonged to a sorceror called Elam Nethley - apparently, there was a prophecy in his home village in a neighboring kingdom that that artifact would soon cause widespread districution in the area.  He had also been given a gem by a man that mysteriously appeared in his camp one night.  He agreed to meet them later to talk more.

- After meeting back up, Iris & Ivy decided to look into an advertisement they had seen about a shop called "Delna's Enchantments".  The proprietor of the establishment clearly had some measure of elven blood herself, and seemed quite eager to serve them - giving them a significant discount on her services.  She was able to help them indentify the properties of some magical items they had recovered from the hilltop ruin on the plain to the north.

- Ostra's tavern was every bit as crowded around the time of the evening meal, and dinner took them longer than expected.  By the time they were headed to the Cliffside Inn to meet with the man called Jass they'd spoken to earlier.  As they approached, Ivy noticed some shadows moving down onto the buildings from the cliffs - just as Iris looked up to see a long, tentacle-like claw reaching out for her...

Lost Talisman: The Buzz in the City

Saturday December 5, 2020 at 3:00pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- The hunting party escorted Iris & Ivy back to the Laduun Inn in the city, where they spent the remainder of the day resting.

- The following day, they spent some time getting a feel for the city and to gather some information.  It was a large, walled community tucked into the foothills at the base of a massive cliff where mines bored into the mountainside. 

- They learned that the gate leading to the tunnel road to the dwarven city Unver Gaul had been closed due to monster activity, and that one of the mines was similarly affected, causing some unrest: miners were striking and counter-striking around the issues of creatures in the Ironhold mine.  They even found a posting requesting guards to help defend those working in the mine from unknown creatures.

- The two also spoke to a local elven scholar called Elivius Thorrel who told them he had also heard the story of Elam Nethley, though the version he told was somewhat different from the legend they knew.

- As they attempted to make their way to a prominent tavern for lunch, a swarm of black bee-like creatures began pouring into the city, seemingly coming from the cliffs.

- After fighting off the blackbees, they continued to Ostra's Tavern, where Ivy caught site of a glowing gem around one patron's neck which seemed to echo a blue glow now coming from Iris' backpack...

Lost Talisman: Full Boar

Sunday November 29, 2020 at 3:00pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- The leader of the goblins stepped forward, seemingly surprised to see them emerge.  He asked in broken common whether they'd killed the ogre and what they wanted.  Ivy managed to convince him that the ogre was dead and that they could have their lair back and they slipped away before the other goblins turned violent.

- On the road southeast to the city of Laduun, they were caught-up-with by the blue creature who attempted to communicate with them, but had a great deal of trouble doing so.  It seemed to want them to help it get home, though it couldn't articulate where its home was.  In the end, it simply accompanied them on their journey.

- As they entered the foothills near the cliffside and the city, the group was attacked by a number of diseased wild boars.  The fight started to turn ugly when a group of hunters from the city arrived - just after Ivy was incapacitated by one of the creatures...

Lost Talisman: Foul Ruin pt. II

Saturday November 28, 2020 at 2:00pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- Iris & Ivy descended into the ruin of the tower and the caverns beneath it - encountering a carrion crawler and the ghost of a goblin warrior tied to a magic sword.  The ghost wasn't happy to see they were elves, but told them they could keep her sword if they killed the ogre who dwelled in the caverns.

- The two ended up finding and destroying the ogre, who turned out to be a servant of Erythnul, in some kind of old throne room.  There they also found a chest full of treasure.

- As they emerged from the ruin, they found a group of goblins waiting for them...

Lost Talisman: Foul Ruin

Friday November 27, 2020 at 1:30pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- Iris & Ivy spent the next couple of days in Helok's Ford awaiting to give their testimony in the trial of the theives they'd caught. During this time, they did look at some local records in the local temple.  They didn't find anything relating specifically to Elam Nethley, but they did find some odd discrepancies in the records around the same time.

- The two gave their testimony at the trial and remained to see what would happen.  The two theives were given a lenient sentence of hard labor.  As came to light during the trial, there were some local tensions between some of the fishermen - which the theives cited as the reason for their actions.  Some of the local authorities are looking to resolve those issue.

- The following day, Iris & Ivy left Helok's Ford heading east and south toward Laduun, planning to head to the dwarven city of Unver Gaul from there.  As they traveled across the plain, they caught site of an old ruin on a small hilltop.

- As they made their way to the site to investigate, they were attacked by a few goblins looking for food.  After fighting them off and continuing to the site, they found a collapsed tower - the basement of which was littered with various bones and pools of foul-smelling goo...

Mouse Guard 1156: Trading Barbs

Saturday November 21, 2020 at 9:00pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- Nipp attempted to push her hot-tempered tenderpaw out of the common room at Solomon's Inn, but Clove was both stronger and more agile than her mentor.  The drunk mouse Dranden engaged in something of a shouting match with the young mouse about the flaws of the guard wherein it came to light that he held them responsible for the death of his daughter.  As Dranden ran out of energy and Solomon intervened to convince him to go home, the situation dissolved - but there seemed to be a significant number present who shared his thoughts.

- The following morning, the local mouse Kole arrived to take the Guardmice to the shop where he'd done his work and not been paid.  They examined the worksite and spoke with the shopkeeper who told them he had to get his brother Vessmer in to "fix" Kole's poor work.  As they made their way to Vessmer's house to ask him some question, they found that a large wolf spider had emerged in the center of town where preparations for Vernalstar were taking place...

Mouse Guard 1156: Obstacles

Saturday November 7, 2020 at 9:00pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- Hakett, already somewhat tipsy, returned to Solomon's Inn on the east road in Elmoss.  There he amused himself telling tall tales of giant weasels to one of the younger waitstaff, and was asked by a local mouse called Kole if he could help get his pay from a withholding shopkeeper.  Hakett agreed, but the errand would have to wait for the following morning.

- Nip and Clove made their to the upper tree area of the settlement and spoke with members of the Guild of Moss about purchasing a few rolls for the Lockhaven apothecary.  Elmoss' own supply was low so the price was somewhat inflated and in order to purchase most of what they needed, they also agreed to carry additional moss to Sprucetuck.

- Nip and Clove then met back up with Hakett at Solomon's for dinner, where a drunk mouse was beginning to cause trouble for them...

Lost Talisman: Element of Surprise

Saturday October 10, 2020 at 4:00pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- Ivy and Iris spoke with Typhel at the Hall of Light, and managed to get some healing for Ivy.  From there, they made their way to the encampment they had found outside of town.  As they approached, they heard the voice of a man shouting at someone.  Sneaking closer, they saw the other suspect yelling at the blue creature.

- The two were spotted, and a chaotic battle ensued between them and the blue creature, the man, and one of the guards from town who had apparently also been nearby.

- They eventually drove the blue creature off and captured the man, and are currently heading back to town with the guardsman.

Mouse Guard 1156: Set Upon

Friday October 2, 2020 at 9:00pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- The patrol did their best to fight off the squirrels who'd set upon the caravan's grain, only losing one back in the process.  They managed also to avoid the attentions of a kestrel.

- The group continued safely to Elmoss, where the city guards seemed less than happy to see them.  Hakett returned to a favorite pub called the Pillbug to do some thinking and take the edge off the journey's trials while Nipp and Clove delievered the mail, secured lodgings, and discovered where to acquire the moss Konrad had sent them for.

Lost Talisman: Finding Evidence

Sunday September 20, 2020 at 4:00pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- Iris & Ivy took their captive back to town and turned him over to the local militia.  Later they took the captain and a few others to the camp they'd found and recovered the rest of the stolen valuables, though they hadn't been able to find the other suspect - a man called Dav.  The captain asked them to stay in town for a few days as they would need to speak to the magistrate regarding the incident.

- The pair then went over to the docks to find a man called Haelmare, whom they'd been told may have been around when Elam Nethley came through around 50 years ago.  He agreed to meet with them that evening at the tavern and told them about his encounter with the man.  His description of Nethley wasn't at all what they'd expected.

- Iris decided they should try to catch the other thief, but Ivy was fairly worn down from their previous encounters.  They decided to stop by the local temple before returning to the camp to see if Dav returned...

Lost Talisman: Recovery

Sunday September 13, 2020 at 3:00pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- The winged blue creature who had taken Iris' sword snapped its fingers summoning a few tiny air elementals and leapt out the window.  While Ivy chased after it, Iris ran out of the room and outside.  Unsure of the best course of action, she decide to find one of the town guards who took her to speak with their leader.  The guards listened to her account, but were unconvinced that the creature was the theif they had been looking for.

- Ivy, meanwhile, had followed the creature just close enough to catch site of it diving into a wooded area on the riverside about half a mile north of town.

- The two met back up at the inn and finished resting.  Early in the morning they made their way to the place Ivy had seen where they found a small camp with a sleeping man, a pair of bedrolls, and Iris' sword leaning against some heavy-looking packs.

-  As they made their way to the packs and grabbed Iris' sword, the man awoke and the blue creature came flying into the camp shrieking frantically.  The man attempted to frighten them off while the creature swooped in swinging at Iris with its claws.

- The pair fought off the man, eventually severely injuring him while the blue creature became more distressed.  Its howling seemed to summon winds from off the river which coalesced into a massive air elemental.

- Iris grabbed one of the packs while Ivy picked up the injured man and then they quickly exited the area, taking their captive back to town...

Lost Talisman: Thief in the Night

Wednesday September 9, 2020 at 6:30pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (1) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- Ivy & Iris helped the travelers right their cart and collect their horses and then continued to the river town of Helok's Ford.  When they arrived, they were questioned by a couple of guardsmen about who they were, what their plans were, and how long they'd been in the area.  Apparently there had been a recent rash of break-ins and thefts and the leadership suspected a transient or new-comer.

- Looking for an old fisherman called Haelmare who might have been around when Elam Nethley entered the area, the two went to a tavern he was said to frequent: a dockside dive called the Backwater.  They didn't find him, but they did speak with a half-elven server who told them another man had asked about Elam Nethley nearly a year ago.

- The two decided they would try to find Haelmare at the docks in the morning, and went to get some rest at the Stonebridge Inn.  As they rested, Ivy became aware of something moving in the room - when she roused herself, she saw a strange, whispy blue figure perched at the window as if about to leap out - holding the scimitar their grandmother had given Iris...

Mouse Guard 1156: Fur and Fury

Sunday August 23, 2020 at 9:00pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- The patrol kept an ear out for the sound of whatever was approaching, but decided not to venture out to investigate.  Whatever it was seemed to pass them by.

- The following day brought the storm Hakett had predicted, and the group holed up and waited it out.  The only incident occurred when a box turtle began making its way toward their shelter.  Nip was able to establish some very rudamentary communication with it and convinced it to look elsewhere.

- The following day, the caravan once again headed out toward Elmoss.  They decided to stop at a local wilderness homestead for wheel repairs, but found that it had been smashed and burned out.  Their investigation turned up skunk tracks and ferret fur.  The patrol discussed splitting up to go after the ferrets, but eventually decided their first duty was to the caravan.  After the wheel was repaired, they set out again for Elmoss.

- The following day as they travelled down the road, Nip noticed they were being tailed by a grey squirrel whom she though might be after the grain in their carts.  As she was relaying this information to Hakett, another squirrel burst onto the path from the right, smashing into one of the carts and tipping it over...

Lost Talisman: Into Elionde

Sunday August 23, 2020 at 2:30pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- Headed back to the village of Bolgrove.  Camped on the way.  During the night, a man calling himself Eli appeared to Iris, asked her questions about their quest, and gave her a purple crystal.

- Upon returning to Bolgrove, stopped at the tavern and the home of the druid Saffa.  Were not able to find any info on the "heart of shadow" or the other man who seemed to be looking for Elam Nethley, but the druid told them that the "dwellers of the deepest darkness" might allude to the dwarves of the Galloth Mountains.  There is a gate to an underground passage to the dwarven city of Unver Gual from the mining town of Laduun.

- The following day, they set out for the kingdom toward Helok's Ford to cross the river and then continue south to Laduun, as this was their best lead.  On the road, they met with a caravan being attacked by giant insects - and they ran in to assist.

Mouse Guard 1156: Serpents and Storms

Sunday August 16, 2020 at 9:00pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- After yelling to the others about the approaching snake, Clove leapt onto the creature's back.  Hacket and Nip arrived shortly to help, and the three managed to kill the serpent before it could swallow Clove.

- The crew finished work on the bridge the next day and continued on toward Elmoss.  As they went, Hacket noticed the change in the wind and told the group they would need to hole up somewhere because the next day was sure to bring a violent thunderstorm.

- The patrol was unable to find an ideal shelter, but they did find something passable a little ways from the road.  It took some doing, but the group managed to reach relative safety before nightfall.

- Unfortunately, they efforts to get the carts of grain into the shelter had resulted in a broken wheel.  The caravan leader Jayma told them about a homestead a bit further up the road.  If they could rig a usable wheel to get them that far, the carpenter that lived there could probably give them a more permanent solution.

- As the group was winding down for the night, they heard something moving out in the forest - some distance away, but getting closer...

Lost Talisman: The Serpent's Lair

Saturday August 15, 2020 at 1:30pm d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

- The sisters continued on toward the Sunken Shrine.  The found a broad, submerged avenue lined with broken columns leading up to an overgrown and crumbling stone structure.  They noticed a couple of humanoid skeletons partially-submerged as well.  While Ivy was examining one of them and Iris was looking over the statue, the two were attacked by and aggressive pack of rats and one giant dire rat.

- After fighting off the rats with Aelrah's (Iris's wolf companion) help, the two entered the building.  While attempting to dismantle the barrier between the antechamber and the main hall, they heard a creaking overhead and scraping sounds outside.  Outside, they found the skeletons had animated and were coming to attack them.

- Ivy's quarterstaff made short work of the skeletons and they returned to the structure.  After gaining access to the main chamber, they discovered a naga - an enormous snake with a reptilian woman's head.  She told them that Nethley wasn't there, but that another had come looking for him.  He had mentioned something about a "heart of shadow" and the naga had told him to seek out those that "dwell in the deepest darkness".  After some conversation that nearly turned violent, the naga succeeded in convincing the two to leave its lair.

- Level up to 2

Lost Talisman: Journey of Discovery

Sunday August 9, 2020 at 1:00pm new campaign, d&d, lost talisman, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast
Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Ed. logo © Wizards of the Coast

Hannah has played No Thank You Evil and enjoyed it, but we may have reached a point where it's simplicity and whimsy aren't quite as enticing as they used to be.  Not that she doesn't like kid things, but she's 9 now and has been into Harry Potter, Avatar, and some fantasy books that aren't quite as "for small children".

Trying to think of some more creative things to do during this pandemic thing, when we asked if she would be interested in playing D&D, she was adorably excited.  Because I'm me, I spent way too long conceiving of a setting (and WAY too long drawing a map for it).  We ordered her some dice of her own, and this last weekend spent an evening and an afternoon rolling up characters and starting an adventure.

 

System: D&D 3.5

Setting: The Kingdom of Elionde

Players: Sheri, Hannah

Schedule: Weekly?

 

Characters:

- Iris [Hannah] :: Elven Druid

- Ivy [Sheri] :: Elven Monk

 

Session Highlights:

Twin sisters Iris and Ivy had happened upon the mostly-forgotten mystery of a famous druid from their country called Elam Nethley.  Nethley possessed a potent magical talisman said to have been blessed and empowered by the angel Saphrielle.  Around 50 years ago, he had traveled north in search of a lost temple and never returned.  Magical attempts to contact him or discern his fate failed, but a divination suggested that if any were searching for him, they should travel to the Kingdom of Elionde.

Iris and Ivy had been travelling along the west road through the White Ridge Forest for more than a week when they arrived at the tiny logging village of Bolgrove.  Stopping at the tavern for food and lodging, they learned from a local hunter about the existence of a ruin the locals called the "sunken shrine" in the swamp to the southeast.

The next morning they headed toward the shrine, having decided to investigate it for clues.  Just as the knight statue they'd been told about came into view, they were attacked by a large and unusually-aggressive constrictor snake.

Mouse Guard 1156: On The Lookout

Sunday August 2, 2020 at 9:00pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- The patrol spent a few of days at the Sunflower Inn and providing lookouts and support for the spring foragers around Ivydale, encountering a belligerent groundhog and some gathering crows.

- After a few days the grain shipment to Elmoss was ready to depart and the group began its escort to their next stop.  On the second day, they came upon a washed-out bridge that would have to be repaired before they could continue.  While out cutting small saplings for support structures, Clove spotted a water snake closing on the mice's position...

The Great 2020 Lego Speed Champions Race

Monday July 27, 2020 at 5:05pm lego, racing Comments (1) »
 Pre-race photo-op at the finish line.
Pre-race photo-op at the finish line.

So early on in this pandemic thing I started buying the odd lego car for Micah and I to assemble together.  We both like legos, he loves cars, and Lego's "Speed Champions" series - which are modelled after real cars - is pretty cool, so it seemed like a fun thing to do.  I was specifically getting the larger, more detailed sets, because they would be a good challenge for the 4yo, and they were, in my opinion, the cooler ones.

As we built 2 or 3 of these cars, I had an idea - an idea I will freely admit was inspired by 3DBotMaker's youtube channel where they race diecast cars - that, when we had a good number of cars, it would be really fun to build some sort of track to run them down and see which one was the fastest.

I had some 1x2's in the basement, and some sheets of some kind of thin plywood that we used to have under our foam mattress before we got our current bedframe.  A few weeks, a number of hours, and some masking+spraypaint later, I had a pretty cool, straight, 4-section track.  Micah saw me doing the checkered line at the end and figured out what it was.  His excitement was adorable.

Now I just needed a sunny day that wasn't completely intolerable.  Given that I'm on vacation this week and the forecast is "forever storms", I thought I should probably jump on the time when it presented itself - so today became the day, even if it was a hot one.

I figured the hill in the backyard would provide most of an adequate incline to give them some speed heading down, supplemented by elevating some of the upper sections with stacked 2x4's. 

My plan had been to bridge the seams with bits of cardboard taped down - something that had worked very well when i tested the track concept a month or so ago, but that was not having any of it today.  I'm not sure if it was the humidity or if the painted surface just didn't like it, but I couldn't get the tape to stick hardly at all.  I probably should have resorted to duct tape, but I didn't want to mess up the paint job I'd worked pretty hard on.  We rolled with it, but it was less than ideal.

I engineered a gate-like device, also made of legos, that when you pulled on a string, it would raise bars to either side of it, allowing gravity to pull the cars down the track.  I also constructed some overhead signs that spanned the track with green lights at the top and one with a checkered flag at the bottom.

I decided that for a car to be eligible for our tournament, it had to have a design consistent with most of what we had.  This meant that it had to have the wheel size (and mounting) of the others, it had to be generally sedan-shaped, and it had to have a width of 8 blocks.  At present, lego has 5 cars that fit this description, so we acquired and constructed all 5: a Jaguar, a Ferrari, a Lamborghini, a Nissan, and an Audi.  The plan was to race each car against each other car twice - once on the left, and once on the right (since there were certainly some imprefections in the track).  After that point, we would see which car won the most races, and, if there was a tie, we would race the tied cars until there was a winner.

The cars turned out to be pretty evenly matched.  One won 3 races, 3 of them won 4, and the fifth won 5 races.  The tape proved to be a problem on some of the races, and there were a few that we re-ran because they were deemed unfair.  Also, the track had a slight lean to the right, and, since the 9 and 4 year olds were in charge of aligning the cars for most of the races, well, that might not have been fully controlled either. 

Even so, it felt good.  We had some exciting close races, some spectacular crashes (a couple of which resulted in us combing the grass for missing lego pieces), and the kids had a blast counting them off and running them down the track.

The car that ultimately won - the red Ferrari - was actually the smallest and lightest.  It seemed to roll faster off the starting line than most of the others.  When it went straight, it usually won, but the other cars would often be gaining by the end.  I suspect that if the track was longer, the cars with greater mass may have pulled ahead.

This was, in fact, a great time all around.  For friends, there are a few more pics and videos on my facebook page.  I tried to live-stream the final race, but, well, i may not have done that correctly for Reasons.

Anyway, I'm a little proud of myself.  It was the sort of project that I'm likely to say "yeah, that would be cool" but then never do it.  Well, this time i did.

~PS

Mouse Guard 1156: Freezing Rescue

Saturday July 25, 2020 at 9:00pm fate core, mouse guard 1156, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

- After speaking to a few mice in town, the patrol set off into the foraging grounds to find the errant mice - two children, Kenley and Todd, belonging to a mouse called Bellatine.

- After talking with a few mice and following tracks some distance along the river away from the grounds where the other foragers had been, they determined that one of the mice must have fallen into the water and been washed downstream.

- The group found them camped under a rock overhang just as a young raccoon was closing in.  Hakett managed to get the beasts attention and led it on a chase away from the others while Nip & Clove prepared to move the freezing children to a new location where they could make a larger fire - this was complicated by the fact that the older mouse, Kenley, appeared to have sustained a concussion and they were not able to rouse her to consciousness.

- The following morning, the mice returned to Ivydale and delivered the unconscious mouse to the local healer.  They touched base again with constable Tanner, the mayormouse Melta, and Ranleff, the quartermaster in charge of the grainstores. 

- The most pressing needs in Ivydale were to get the wall repaired where it had been smashed by a fallen branch, to make sure the mice foraging in the field were safe - especially after some tracks were found - and to escort the first spring shipment of grain from their winter store down to Elmoss.

Mouse Guard 1156: An Old Enemy

 Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions
Mouse Guard artwork © David Petersen. Fate logo © Evil Hat Productions

Having been unable to run my normal, in-person games for some time, and with things looking more and more like it'll be a while before I can, it seemed like it might be time to start a remote-play game.  Since Taylor & Dave had been begging me for some time to run some kind of Mouse Guard game, it sounded like a good choice.

 

System: Fate Core

Setting: The Mouse Territories

Players: Sheri, Taylor, Dave

Schedule: Remote play, TBD

 

Characters:

- Hakett [Dave] :: Crabby Patrol Leader

- Nip [Sheri] :: Field Scholar Guardmouse

- Clove [Taylor] :: Battle-ready Tenderpaw

 

Session Highlights:

Hakett received a mission from the matriarch a bit earlier in the season than is usual.  He and his patrol were to make their way southwest to the fallen settlement of Walnutpeck to look for evidence of new weasel activity.  They'd still need to perform the other expected Guard tasks for this time of year, however, and on their way to the first stop at Ivydale encountered a section of the road that had been completely washed out.  Deciding not to perform the 'quick fix' through the brambles atop the hill, they backtracked to the neighboring valley and cut a new path south.  While doing this, they encountered a wandering badger, which they managed to avoid - but its presence so close to Lockhaven and Ivydale was concerning.  Upon reaching the settlement the next day, the guardmice discovered a pair of young mice from the settlement had gone missing...
 

Wand of the Deep: Aliens, Witches, Bees, and Books

 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

Session Characters:

- Hannah: Wizard ("Star")

- Micah: Robot

- Sheri: Spy

 

Highlights:

- Upon emerging from Marlin's Tower, they saw a bright red boad approaching the dock - empty apart from the pelican they'd seen earlier perched on it.  Star and Sheri got into the boat, while Micah jumped into the water and walked to shore on the seabed.

- The group proceeded through the forest of Into the Closet until they reached the Braggy Crags.  About halfway through, they started to hear cries for help above the boastful voices of the crags.  They found an alien creature being captured by a trio of Sawtooth Witches and Buglar guards.  After a bit of sneaking and pummeling of the guards, the group freed the alien Gronk, for which he thanked them.

- The group finally reached The Hive sometime later, and talked/threatened their way inside to see Woodlyn, the bee queen.  Woodlyn directed them to their "bibliograbee" Mystaa, who was head of their library.  Mystaa wasn't very cooperative, but they eventually convinced her to let them borrow the Leafsicon if they could acquire the Kitchen Witch's copy of 'Ally Alchemist's Cookbook'...

No Thank You Evil: Quest for the Wand of the Deep

 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

System: No Thank You Evil

Setting: Storia: The Land Next Door

Players: Sheri, Hannah, Micah

Schedule: Occasional weekend afternoons

 

Since Hannah has been talking about wanting to play again lately, I decided to start a No Thank You Evil campaign for the whole family.  Micah's only 4, but he did pretty well his first time - and everyone had a lot of fun.  The way I run NTYE has morphed a bit over time.  Overall the system and setting are fantastic, but I've started stripping out things here and there that I think adds a bit of "clutter" - at least for our us.

 

Session Characters:

- Hannah: a Pirate named Crystal

- Micah: a Pirate

- Sheri: a Wizard

 

Hightlights:

The group appeared on a rocky beach near a sunken tower.  They heard a voice from the tower beckoning them inside.  Down the beach they found a rowboat to reach the tower, but had to fight off some giant, crab-shaped Animal Crackers to get it.  They were also chased by a Crackin' on their way to the tower, but managed to get to the dock before it destroyed their boat. 

- Inside, they met Marlin - the fish wizard.  He told them he needed their help to find a magical artifact called the Wand of the Deep.  It was somewhere in Storia, but he hadn't been able to find out where.  He asked them to go to the forest of Big Blue where all of Storia's history is written, to see if they could find its last known location.

- Unfortunately, everything written in Big Blue is in the Language of Leaves.  Before they could read anything in Big Blue, they would need a Leafsicon to translate.  Marlin didn't have one, but thought queen Woodlyn might - so he suggested they start there.  He also said he had some things in a chest upstairs they could have before they left.

Black Foxes: This Is Ours Now

 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- The Foxes met up with Boros and the rooks who'd been waiting nearby; they joined the group while Drave went to investigate the reports they'd gotten about their hideout in the Coalridge mine.  As they entered Doan's to get rid of the bouncers, they immediately found themselves under attack.  Thane and Asp were able to recover from the ambush and chose to engage their attackers with demands.  While Boros restrained one of them, Asp demanded that the other take his friend and leave - that this was their place now.  Clearly outnumbered  and off-balance, the two bouncers retreated without a fight.

- The Black Foxes are growing in strength and reputation, and are close to ending this war with the Stone Club.  Time is running out on some of their obligations, however, and Drave has now discovered that their hideout is currently unusably haunted by the Ghost of Lord Weirin...

Cyrran Reaches: It's Different Now

Monday March 9, 2020 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Taryn once again found himself in his recurring dream of a card game between himself, his patron Olidammara, and an entity he is sure was a representation of death.  As the game progressed, Taryn began to fair better, ultimately playing cards that ended the game in flames.  All that remained was a single, glowing crystal.  As he tossed Taryn the crystal, Olidamarra once again told him that he had, in fact, done all he could for him - but his tone this time was more bemused than grave.

- The group met downstairs for breakfast and discussed how to proceed.  They talked with a halfling called Landon a bit about some oddities of the local plant and animal life, and asked Baillin where they might be able to find the elders.  The group made their way to the elders' house among the reeds on the western edge of town.  As they approached, they saw a pair of figures standing just outside the building: one was a black haired elf, and the other was a young girl in a tattered dress - a girl whom Lily amazingly recognized as a cousin who only would have been 3 or 4 when their family's caravan had been attacked by slavers almost 12 years ago...

Delcron 2282: Deals to be Made

Friday February 28, 2020 at 9:00pm savage worlds, delcron 2282, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- The group headed to the Night Drive club in the Neon Green to find Victor Malstrick, trying to get more info on the corporate string-pulling that seemed to be going on and to figure out how he fit into all of it.  After talking their way inside, they managed to find him through a woman called Lilith.  Victor told them he would tell them where they could find Balthazar - one of the former Aethercorp execs - in exchange for doing a job for him (and in addition to the 500k payoff), and they agreed.  They would need to plant an object and some data inside the HQ of a corp called Corvin-Systova.

- The next day, they met with the DCPD, who'd contacted them again via their ghost card.  The man who met them told them he was there on behalf of Sgt Kyotu (whom they knew).  The job he was sending them on was a bounty - they were after a man called Alexandre Makarta, a mid-level Proto-Nine executive.  They were offering 200k.

- V was contacted again by Rory, who gave him a datadrive from the Proto-Nine messaging system that might contain recoverable messages between high-level P9 execs.  He also told V that P9 was raided and that it's collapse was imminent.  He tried to extract the deleted data, but found with the tools he had available, it was going to take a significant amount of time.

- After meeting with Victor again to pickup up the package, the group made their way toward the Corvin-Systova HQ.  Just as they were putting their plan of infiltration into action, Sara received a mental contact from the girl she believed was behind the psychic shrieking she had experienced - this time, however, the contact seemed delibrate and contained some context clue as to her location...

- +3xp

Black Foxes: Insistence

Thursday February 20, 2020 at 9:00pm blades in the dark, black foxes, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- The crew's efforts to sway Merson away from his association with their rivals continued to grow shakey as the evening continued.  Having set up the groundwork as being a local doctor with connections, Thane made a desperate bid push Merson to agree to a future meeting at his office.  The aggressive "invitation" fell flat, however - though it attracted some attention from the Bluecoat, Cork, who was also at the table.

- As Thane was leaving the table, the ghost of a well-dressed gentleman appeared at the table and sat down.  Drave used his Attuning abilities to interact with the spectre, and learned that it wanted to join the game.  Seeing an opportunity in the fact that no one else could hear anything the Ghost was actually saying, Drave leaned into Merson and suggested that the Ghost was there for them - and that he could protect them from it in exchange for some measure of Merson's loyalty.  Merson agreed, but they Foxes would need to rid of the Stone Club's "bouncers" at Doan's bar first...

- Meanwhile, outside, the Stone Clubs gang had made a show of force against the Foxes by way of cornering Thane.  He was able to stand his ground, however, and a nearby Bluecoat presence might have played a role in the leader's decision to simply re-state his threat instead of escalating the encounter.

Cyrran Reaches: The Way Forward

Tuesday February 18, 2020 at 8:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group discussed for some time exactly what to do next, even using a Divination spell to try to determine the best way forward.  They ultimately decided they would use their lyre to repair the city's fractured wall, and then head southeast to the fishing village of Tonler looking for info on the Osada Forest and the secluded elven settlement said to be there.

- Despite evidence of orc raiding on their way down, they found the village of Tonler still mostly at peace.  Guards did keep watch on the palisades for orc activity, but they hadn't experienced any direct attacks - though they do suspect an overdue caravan may have fallen victim to them.

- Most of the few that they talked to in the village seemed wary of the forest to the south, and were generally less-than-eager to talk about it.  The one elf they encountered told them of the locals' superstition and that he had spent some time in the forest and did find it a little..."off".  While he didn't have much specific information on the elven settlement, he did mention that, despite their denials, the two elders of the town were commonly rumored to be from it.

Capellan March: Sellefry Assault pt. II

Thursday February 13, 2020 at 8:15pm battletech, capellan march, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes, Battletech logo © Catalyst Game Labs
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes, Battletech logo © Catalyst Game Labs

- As the assault continued, Mjolnir destroyed the remaining turret and breached the perimeter wall in two places.  The Vindicator, Clint, and light tanks on the other side managed to land some respectable hits - including a worrisome headshot on the company's Shadow Hawk - but it is becoming pretty clear that they are likely insufficient to repel the assailants.  Two helicopters arrived on-scene are providing some additional threat, but the last exchange fell pretty decidedly in Mjolnir's favor.

Delcron 2282: Which Pieces Fit

Friday February 7, 2020 at 9:00pm savage worlds, delcron 2282, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- While V went to meet with Marion Plaskov to inquire further about the Watchful, Kendra, Mario and Sara went to meet their employer and make the delivery.  This went without incident: their contact, Hwan Byeong, was impressed with their performance and the group walked away with another 80k along with the suggestion that future contracts might be considered.

- V wasn't able to get much out of Plaskov other than the fact that he'd been hired by someone to hit the armored van.  He was hesistant to mention the Watchful or any of their activities.  He implied that they might be able to speak more freely in a legal environment, and V gave him his contact information so that this might be arranged.

- V was contacted by his old coworker Rory who had become aware of the disarray in the Proto-Nine HQ.  He wanted to know if V knew anything about it, and the two talked a little about what the group had seen when they broke into the facility.  V offered Rory some pay to stay at P9, do some prying, and report on anything he might be able to find out about what had been happening.

- Delpub was airing more news on "monster" sitings as well as Corvin-Systova's rebuttal to Ullertech's assertions that they were behind the incidents.

- Sara tried again to contact whatever disturbed mind was sending out the psychic shrieking she and other members of Delphi had perceived.  The target seemed to be a child, probably a girl between the ages of 9 and 13.  While solid contact proved elusive, she was able to send a simple telepathic message asking "what did you lose?".  She was met immediately with a mental shout showing a man and a woman, whom Sara suspects might be the girl's parents.  Calling V over, she shared their images with him and asked if he could find anything about them.  Initial searches, however, turned up nothing.  A few days later, she was able to contact the girl again - this time while she was asleep.  From the disorienting dream-mind, Sara was able to extract her name: Ryma Forsben.

- The group received another message on their ghost card for another meeting...

- +3xp

Black Foxes: Play Your Cards Right

Thursday February 6, 2020 at 8:30pm blades in the dark, black foxes, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

New Character:

Asp [Taylor] : Slide

 

Session Highlights:

- Drave and Thane made their way into the black fog within the tavern, searching for the gathering they'd been told about.  Unfortunately, they quickly became disoriented and lost, encountering a coin-laden ghost and a spectral door in a back corner of the establishment.  Drave attempted to interact with the ghost, but managed only to upset the being, which began to deform and emit a deafening howl. 

- The two slipped away back into the fog and were about to give up their search when a voice greeted them - telling them it could aid their search in exchange for something.  Thane found himself unable to turn and look at the speaker, but Drave managed to resist the compulsion and turned to find an enormouse spider probing its forlegs into Thane's brain.  Drained of further resolve, he wasn't able to tell his companion about what was happening.  Thane agreed to a trade, and the spider planted the knowledge of Merson's location in his mind before retreating into the darkness above.

- Drave and Thane found the card game where Merson was present with two men and two women - and shortly joined by a Bluecoat called Cork who told them if they wanted to talk, they had to play.

- The  two were dealt in and began their talk about the Stone Club's immenent demise - speaking to no one in particular, but hoping to plant seeds of doubt in Merson's mind.  One of the others at the table - a woman called Asp - seemed to be trying to aid in this effort by asking questions and verbally underlining certain details...

Cyrran Reaches: Is This Our Fight?

Tuesday January 28, 2020 at 8:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Lily continued distracting/entertaining the people outside.  As she moved up onto the steps of the tavern's porch, she became aware of the shouting coming from the argument inside.  Giving looks to her companions, Ravina and Tyrrox made their way closer to the building.

- As their conversation with Respina concluded, Kael mentioned to her that he and his friends were needing to leave the city.  She seemed surprised and a little concerned by this, but advised them that, if that was their intent, they should probably leave sooner rather than later.  Taryn gestured to the unfolding altercation between the thugs and the tavern owner behind him, and told Respina that the man was part of a cult that had been causing trouble for the city - all the way back to the incident at the Festival of Thorns.  She asked whether he should be taken into custody, but Kael said he would follow them to see where they went.

- When the argument in the tavern finally came to a head, the thug made some threats, flipped over some tables, and stormed out.  Joining the man on the porch, the three of them headed away from the area.  Kael and Tyrrox followed them to another tavern near the docks called the Siren's Cask.  After a few minutes, they followed them inside, but didn't see any of them within the small establishment.  They had a brief conversation with the gruff bartender before rejoining their companions to decide what to do next...

Delcron 2282: Getting What They're After

Friday January 24, 2020 at 8:00pm savage worlds, delcron 2282, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- Kendra & Mario did their best to avoid the camera and hotwired their way past the old keypad.  Inside they found a debris-filled hallway that appeared to be under construction.  There were no stairs to grant access to upper levels, and the only door was on the back side.  Finding no obvious way to open the door, the two had V (who was still hacked into the system from the sewers outside) open it for them.

- Inside, they found a much different environment: a clean and brightly-lit corporate research facility.  They made their way to the elevators only to be confronted with a heavily armed and armored security guard.  Fortunately for them, they got the jump on him and were able to take him out before he could even respond.

- On V's direction, K&M headed up to the 5th floor where the vaults that supposedly contained their target were.  Using a backdoor in the security system, V was able to bypass the compex computerized lock on the vault they wanted and opened it.  Unfortunately, it was about that time that the corp became aware of his presence in the system and, not too long after that, the fact that there were intruders in the facility. V locked all of the doors, but not before the other security guard made it to their level.  She sent out a request for backup, but V had already hijacked their outgoing data connections and her alert was funneled into a black hole.  She fired a few bursts of automatic gunfire at K&M, who were saved by their bulletproof vests, and Mario was eventually able to knock her out with his robotic arm.

- Meanwhile, Sara was outside keeping an eye out trouble approaching on the street and also probing for whatever was generating the psychic noise she'd been experiencing.  While she wasn't able to make contact with it, she was able to feel its presence just past the edge of her perception.  It seemed to be a young mind, a powerful psion, and one not completely in control of its powers.

- K&M grabbed the device they'd come to recover and made their way neatly out of the building.  Thanks largely to V's efforts, there was no cavalry coming to make things more difficult for them.  The group returned to Kendra's Klunkers to talk about their next move.

- Sara returned to Delphi's offices to speak with Deidre Telns about what she'd learned, and V made his way to the antique shop "Passed Gems" to speak with the Watchful.  He gave them the other case they'd swiped from the Proto-Nine HQ and told them he and his friends were interested in bringing down the corrupt corporations...

- +3xp

Capellan March: Sellefry Assault pt. I

Thursday January 16, 2020 at 8:30pm battletech, capellan march, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes, Battletech logo © Catalyst Game Labs
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes, Battletech logo © Catalyst Game Labs

- Mjolnir's Wrath made their way toward the target planet of Capricorn III with Gallager's Minutemen.  Lengthy conversations on the 7 day burn from their jump point decided that they would both hit the area Gallager felt most likely contained their primary targets: munitions factories producing autocannon ammo.  The designated area was the military base on the edge of a large city on the northern continent called Sellefry.

- Gallager sent a scout into the area, and she returned with news that the military sprawl on the northern area of the city contained a single mech hangar that could hold up to 2 lances, a number of light tanks, and perimeter turrets.  It also contained at least two buildings that looked to be factories of some kind.

- In order to overwhelm and minimize losses, the group decided they would both attack the base.  A small distraction effort by Gallager divided their attention, and by the time the main force began it's attack on the perimeter defenses, the base's defense forces were scattered.  As they began their assault, Mjolnir's Wrath saw that they were dealing with two LRM turrets, two light tanks, and a pair of medium mechs: a Clint and a Vindicator.

- As the engagement unfolded, Gallager told them that he was currently engaging a Hunchback and a Jenner in addition to a few tanks of his own - and he warned that he was picking up incoming airborne radar blips...

Cyrran Reaches: Enemy Within

Wednesday January 15, 2020 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- On his way to meet the others at the temple where Rothan had awakened, Kael was met by Eliot Jaand of the Watch and told that the Prime wanted to speak with them.  She would be at a tavern in the south market district from noon.  They should be as inconspicuous as possible.  After the group finished talking with Rothan, the decided to go see what this was about.

- While Lily, Ravina, and Tyrrox waited outside in the busy market, Taryn and Kael went into Sasha's Tavern.  They made acquaintances with the bartender and the owner herself before Respina arrived.  The Watch Prime told them that she had grave concerns: someone was attempting to undermine their efforts to prepare the city for the orc horde.  There was a evidence of sabotage in several areas and she was suspicious of the origin of whatever malady had afflicted the Constable and his Second.  She was planning to recommend the city be magically sealed but needed someone she could trust to investigate to find the culprits.

- During this conversation, a couple of thugs entered the tavern and began harassing the owner.  Taryn noticed what appeared to be the bottom of a Many Eyes, Many Teeth insignia tattooed on the back of one man's neck...

Cyrran Reaches: Awakened

Saturday January 11, 2020 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Rothan had been healed, but was still unconscious.  The priest and his guards flew back to the city, and the group decided to continue on through the night.

- As they neared Rolessi the next morning, Tyrrox saw something like the mirage of a signpost and somone sitting by it - though it turned out to be a tree stump.  Tyrrox heard someone's voice coming from somewhere.

- Once at the city, they found the gates had been sealed and so needed to traverse to the far side - though they did convince the guards on the wall to pull Rothan over.

- The city seemed to be making preparations for a seige by the orc force, which scouts indicated was moving closer.

- Taryn continued having his strange dream about some kind of  card game with his former patron and a mysterious dark entity.

- The group was notified when Rothan awoke.  When questioned about what had happened, he told them about arriving in Kelsguard, meeting up with a treacherous man called Aulthust, the portal in the bowels of the keep, and the demonic entities coming through it.

Cyrran Reaches: Bring the Light

Wednesday January 1, 2020 at 4:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group left the keep and returned to the abandoned village, setting up camp for the night in the empty Dark Pine Inn.  During the night, they were visited by the strange old woman looking for her son, whom they'd seen at the keep some weeks ago.  Kael tried to get her to leave, but she appeared inside his room, near the injured Rothan.  Unnerved by the intrusion, Kael called for the others and continued to yell at her to get out.

- The group found a wagon they could use to transport their unconscious patient, and started off toward Rolessi in the rain the next day.  When they made camp that night after a hard day, they found that Rothan's corrupted injuries seemed to be worsening.  Afraid he wouldn't make it to the city, Kael and Ravina wind-walked to the Temple.  Ravina brought one of the priests back while Kael attempted to retrieve horses but found that the gates were being barred and reinforced - and the guards were refusing to open them.

- After arriving, the priest consecrated the area and suggested the use of a magical artifact to concentrate their healing magic to a potency that might be sufficient to clear the cursed wound.  As they began, however, they found themselves attacked by demons, and the writhing wound itself seemed to be resist their efforts.  The ritual was ultimately successful, healing the corrupted wound and bleaching everything in the area a brilliant white.

Cyrran Reaches: What Eyes Have Seen

Tuesday December 10, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Having fought off the attacking sigil and eventually dispelling it, the group passed through the door and descended into a round chamber connecting three large tunnels and containing a misshapen arch they believed was probably the former portal to Ver'Sheole.  In addition, they found a large demon corpses, and a living and possibly conscious but completely unresponsive Aegis Rothan - a man that had disappeared from Igveston months ago.

- As the group tried to bring Rothan out of his stupor, they became aware of a number of lesser demons converging on their location.  They closed what doorways they could, and carried Aegis back up into the keep.

- Noting some supernatural wounds that resisted healing, the group decided they needed to get Rothan back to Rolessi - for healing and, hopefully, answers...

Cyrran Reaches: Within Grasp

Saturday December 7, 2019 at 3:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The next morning, the Watch Prime came to escort them to the White Hall.  Once there, they met again with Mayor Dale and Lord Magnar as well as a couple of the Talonwings who had recently returned from a scouting mission.  After reports were exchanged, the Mayor asked if the group had any particular advice with respect to where to focus their energies.  While the party admitted the rise in recent violent crime was troubling, they felt that ensuring the city was as prepared as it could be to deal with the orc horde was the most critical concern.

- The group then went to the Iron Hall to speak with the assassin they'd captured after the previous night's ambush.  He didn't have much info for them, other than to say that they had been hired by someone called Black Shade specifically to kill them - and that he expected additional attempts soon.

- Meanwhile, Kael had received a letter from an elder in the elven settlement of Velgrin detailing a past relationship and a clue as to the possible whereabouts of Kael's father.  Kael told the group he would be pursuing this lead, as it was his reason for being in the region in the first place.  Lily, however, saw another troubling aspect to the letter: it mentioned a great "mother tree" with large, reddish, 7-pointed leaves.  Leaves identical to the one the pixie had shown her which was starting to become brown and brittle.  If the corruption was also in the south forest, that would suggest it was nearly everywhere.

- Feeling there might be some connection between Ver'Sheole, the events at Saint Orvusk, and what they first encountered at Fort Kelsguard, the group decided to return to the latter.  Within the bowels of the keep, they found a green, glowing icon of a two-headed serpentine creature shimmering before an iron door.  As they approached, the walls around them began to crack and decay, and, just before it lashed out at them, they heard its words: "My power is growing"...

Black Foxes: Playing Your Cards Right pt. I

Thursday December 5, 2019 at 8:30pm blades in the dark, black foxes, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- The Foxes laid low for a couple of days before again resuming operations.  They had an encounter with the Stone Club's gang in Fenwell Hook that kind of ended in a stalemate.  Tellis reappeared and gave them a couple of tips including the location of the Club's hideout and the name of an individual that runs their gambling racket.  He also told them that taking out the face of the org wouldn't be enough - if they wanted to cripple the Stone Club, they would need to deal with the leader of the gang - a man by the name of Dauch.

- Though running out of time on several commitments and opportunities, the Foxes decided they needed to press their advantage against the Stone Club.  Coming to the conclusion that direct confrontation was not their forte, the crew decided to undermine the Club's financial situation by convincing the gambling tychoon to switch allegiances.

- After doing some legwork, the found out that Merson participates in a card game with some other locals once a week at the Black Circle Tavern in the north of the district.  The establishment seemed to be a bit more high-brow than they were accustomed to and, once inside, they also found it difficult to navigate.  A strange shadowy darkness seemed to fill all of the spaces between the table, making it very difficult to identify any other parties present...

Cyrran Reaches: Sending a Message

Tuesday December 3, 2019 at 8:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- On their way back to the inn from the White Hall, the group quickly found themselves under attack on a street in the Shops District by a coordinated force of assassins.  The resulting skirmish was brief and intense, but they managed to stay on top long enough to outlast their assailants.  When representatives of the Watch arrived and inquired as to what had happened, the group explained the situation.  One of the attackers that was alive but had been knocked unconscious was taken into their custody.

- The group continued back to the inn where they asked the innkeeper who had delivered the message Ravina had received.  The innkeeper told them it was one of the city couriers who usually worked for House Magnar.

Redwood: Blood, Fire, and Shadow

Saturday November 23, 2019 at 8:30pm in the cards, redwood, game session notes Comments (0) »
Redwood: Blood, Fire, and Shadow Image

- The silence was broken by the sound of a whiskey bottle shattering on the saloon floor.  The man cleaning the tables turned away from the stranger in the doorway and stormed out of the room.  The bartenter seemed just as confused as to what was going on.  He told them that the man in the gray suit was called Malone and that he was fond of hanging around the abandoned train station. 

- After finishing their breakfast, Victor decided to get some sleep at the Last Lights hotel while the others went to find Mr. Malone.  The conversation with Malone at the train station was somewhat unnerving and confusing.  The man seemed to display a very calm and curious insanity - and was very interested in them.  After they concluded their discussion, Leah went to see about getting into the post office where she'd be working while the others took a cue from Victor and decided to get some rest.

- After a short rest, James went with Victor out to check up on his sister Sara.  She was very happy to see them, and obviously distressed at her husband Edward's behavior.  She told them that he'd disappeared for a few weeks, and since he'd returned he'd been out digging in the pasture.  She was concerned about his sanity, and also that his partners - other former coal miners with whom he'd started the ranch - were going to kick him out.  The two went out to the pasture where he had dug 9 holes about the same size and shape as graves, and was just staring at them.  As Victor expressed his sister's concerns, Edward became confrontational.  He rambled about the heat, about not believing it, and about having to go back before collapsing into near-unconsciousness.  Victor and James got him back to the house, and Sara called for Father Clarence and a nurse called Jessica Farns.

- That night at the saloon, James and Victor got into a brief scrape with a man called Jack Santos they'd seen earlier that day at the Ranch.  Some time later Mr Malone appeared again near Jack and a few others - they seemed very agitated by his presense.  As he walked back to the door of the saloon, he asked them "who it was going to be".  Jack pointed angrily at James, but Mr Malone told him "No, not that one - he's not one of us."  The marshall then got up and said they could take this disagreement outside, but Mr Malone told him it was too late for that.  It was then that Jack pulled out his gun and shot another man.  Both he and Jack seemed utterly shocked by this.  Mr Malone walked outside, muttering something to himself.

- Chaos ensued, during which a candle was tipped into a puddle of spilled liquor and ignited a fire.  One of the other men took off after Mr Malone.  James was the first outside, where he saw a large splatter of blood in the street leading toward a darkened alley.  Down the alleyway he found more blood, entrails, and body parts.  As he examined them, he caught a brief glimpse of a spindly shadow moving further into the darkness.  The others joined him in searching, but they found no more evidence beyond some strange scorch marks on a few nearby buildings...

Delcron 2282: Prying Eyes

Friday November 22, 2019 at 8:30pm savage worlds, delcron 2282, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- The group decided to meet with the mystery contact that had messaged their ghost card.  The arrived at their usual meeting place early, and saw a limo approach and a group of people get out: a man in a nice suit with a half-cybernetic face and several obvious bodyguards.  He told them he'd gotten their info from the group's DCPD contact and that he had a job for them: the rival corporation Ullertech had stolen a cybernetic prototype and he wanted them to get it back.  They'd be paid 20k up front and another 80 upon completion.  After some discussion, they decided to take the stranger up on the job. 

- That night they saw the news broadcast about the creature attack they'd witnessed.  They were somewhat unnerved to see themselves in some footage from a corp security camera and hoped the poor resolution would be sufficient to keep their identities a mystery.

- The next day, the group made some preparations and V sent a message to his hacker contacts looking for info on Aethercorp - a defunct corporation they suspect might be behind Justin Mills' activities and the monstrocity.  Sara returned to the Delphi office in hopes of talking to Dr. Telns about some psychic disturbances she'd experienced: a sound like thousands of distant screams.  Dr. Telns didn't seem to be present, but Sara spent some time talking with one of her associates who relayed a request from the Dr to her: Deidra Telns was hoping Sara could use her abilities to locate the nature and source of the disturbance.

- That night, the group traveled to the target area indicated by their employer: an area of Old Harbor still sparsely inhabited.  Finding a power substation and following the largest conduits running through the sewers, they located the likely target building.  While V spliced himself into the data lines and gained access to the facility's computer systems, the others broke their way in through the door at the bottom of the back stairwell.  Once inside, they found their way through the dark and damp basement to the stairway up into the building.  Looking up they saw a metal door, a very old and worn-looking keypad, and camera pointed in their direction...

Capellan March: Back in the Saddle

Thursday November 21, 2019 at 8:30pm battletech, capellan march, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes, Battletech logo © Catalyst Game Labs
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes, Battletech logo © Catalyst Game Labs

- After a couple more exchanges with no real progress on either side, Isaac managed to turn the tables on Vostok with one decisive salvo, setting himself up for the win a round or two later.  As Fyodor made his way off the field, Isaac attempted to smooth things over by congratulating him on a good match - with some success.

- Meanwhile, Thaddeus attempted to quietly enter the bar where his crewman Marshall Fox was holding a gun on another patron. Unfortunately, the chime above the door gave him away and startled Fox, who reflexively whirled to see who was coming up behind him, giving the thugs in the bar an opening to leap on him.  Thaddeus ultimately waded in to the resulting melee in an attempt to pull Marshall out.  By the time Thad had KO'd one of the attackers, Marshall had managed to get just enough leverage against the one pinning him down that he was able to pull himself free - limping, but not seriously injured. 

- The situation fizzled from there, and the two got a cab back to the drop port - during which time Thad was able to pull little out of the dispondent crewman about what had happened.  Morale on the small crew had taken an obvious hit over the concern about Fox's actions and well-being, so Isaac had the ship's mate call everyone back from leave where he gave them all news of his win, their new ally, and their hopefully-lucrative contract - and to celebrate, he was taking everyone out for a night on the town.

- On monday, the crew met with Major Caldwell at a military office to sign and discuss the particulars of their mission.  They would be heading to Capricorn III - a Capellan world in a near-border system.  They would be target munitions factories and depots on the planet.  The AFFS would be covering transportation to and from the system, and would be paying them a 750k contract fee for the mission.  They were free to take whatever salvage they could pull from the planet during the week of operations.

- On friday, they lifted and over the next week made their way to the system nadir to rendezvous with the merchant-class jumpship Sunset Crane and Gallager's modified leopard Krenshar.  From there, it took about 5 weeks to make the jumps to the Capricorn system, where the two merc companies detached and began accelerating toward their target world...

 

GM's Note: One of the great things about this session was the snake-eyes I rolled for Marshall Fox's reaction to the door chime when Thaddeus entered the tense situation.  I had prepared a bunch of possible dialog angles between Thad, Fox, and the gang that all when out the window when Marshall completely dropped his composure. One of the things I love about RPGs - sometimes the dice make pretty radical turns in the story.

Cyrran Reaches: Taking the Opportunity

Tuesday November 19, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group split up in the gallery and spoke to a few others present, including the Watch Second Wencia Naldibar, and Osiris Knell, a resident wizard.  Also in attendance were a few nobles they recognized, including a young man who has a beef with Kael over his interest a certain member of House Barens, and a woman they'd seen acting strangely at the Magnar City Social earlier in the year.

- When the hearing concluded, the group met up outside the gallery where they were approached by Heglan Foula, one of the nobles in opposition to Julius Nevarg's push for increased internal focus.  He offered the party a substantial sum to "investigate" House Nevarg in search of conflicts-of-interest that might call into question the house's motivations.

- Meanwhile, Lily had been "called" back into the darkened gallery by a pixie who came to ask her about what she and her companions did up at the monestary at Saint Orvusk.  He told her that their actions had had some effect on the ongoing corruption, but that it wouldn't be enough to prevent its worsening.

- The group then left the White Hall and headed back to the Baron's Tower to ask the innkeeper about who had given him the false message when they suddenly found themselves under attack...

Delcron 2282: Corruptive Agent

Friday November 15, 2019 at 8:30pm savage worlds, delcron 2282, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- Having received multiple messages from Rory about the state of the case, the made arrangements to meet him for their payoff the next day.  They finally managed to break on of the cases open.  Inside they found 32 vials of some substance and an injector.

- Deciding to see what "Justin Mills" wanted in his message to Mario, the group headed over to the address at 3am.  The location turned out to be an old Ullertech warehouse.  The guards outside didn't know anything about "Justin".  As they were leaving, a 12 foot monstrosity emerged from the shadows and began smashing its way into the facility.

- As the firefight began, the group retreated to a "safe" observing distance, where they happened upon a young woman videotaping the scene.  Sara was able to assess that she was related to the media/press in some way.

- The creature did a lot of damage, took a lot of gunfire, and limped away.  The group followed it an eventually found it collapsed and apparently dead in an alleyway much further into the Old Harbor district.

- The following day, the met with Rory to give him the untouched case, and told him they were gravely concerned about what was inside.  He gave them their payoff, and they left.

- The group received a message on their ghost card indicating another time and passphrase, but the fact that it didn't seem to originate from their contact at the DCPD concerned them.

- V told the rest of the group that he suspects the whole thing to be the work of corrupt corporations - Proto-Nine, and the defunct Aethercorp that they suspect "Justin" is working for.  His aim is to bring them all down somehow.  And Sara tells them that she had received another message from the Watchful - the "resistance" group that seemed to have a similar aim...

Capellan March: Guns Ready

Thursday November 7, 2019 at 8:30pm battletech, capellan march, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes, Battletech logo © Catalyst Game Labs
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes, Battletech logo © Catalyst Game Labs

- Isaac Clarke went to talk w/ the Major Caldwell about their contract and found out that Vostok's Hijackers had requested an override on the AFFS' decision to award part of the contract to Mjolnir's Wrath - citing their superior accomplishments.  He tried to talk the major into sticking with his original decision, but Caldwell indicated that, even if he himself didn't like it, on paper, giving the job to the Hijackers seemed to make more sense.  It was then that Fyodor Vostok joined the conversation and suggested a 'mech duel as a way to decide, the Major seemed to like this idea.

- The following morning, the gathering reconvened at the Northtown Military Base's training grounds, where Isaac and his Hatchetman faced off against Fyodor and his Quickdraw using virtual weaponry.  The first few exchanges landed decidedly in Vostok's favor, and Isaac is now scrambling to turn the tables.

- Meanwhile, Thaddeus received a call from their ship's mate: one of their crew apparently left the ship about 20 minutes previous - with a pistol.  Thaddeus found out where he was going and headed that way.  When he arrived, he found one of the ship's techs pointing a gun at a patron at the bar...

Cyrran Reaches: Here Or There

Monday November 4, 2019 at 8:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Kael and Ravina went to the Temple of the Golden Sun to report the situation at Saint Orvusk to the clergy there.  The priest they spoke to was a little confused about their reports of Orvusk's grave being broken into because, he told them, Warult Orvusk was buried there in Rolessi.

- Lily returned to House Dyn'Talor to request they send a message to their members in Igveston about the growing orc problem, and they had a short conversation about the fey of the Charothi Forest.

- Later, the group received a message from Tyless Vallane requesting their presence at the ongoing hearings at the White Hall that night.  The hearings were a part of the continuing debate between where enforcement resources should be allocated: within the city where violent crime was rising, or focused outward where reports of orc activity had people on-edge.  When they met up with Tyless Vallane in the gallery, however, he told them he hadn't written the message and wondered what duplicitous entity wanted them at the White Hall...

Redwood: Can You Hear That Train A-Comin'?

Thursday October 31, 2019 at 8:30pm in the cards, redwood, game session notes Comments (1) »
Redwood: Can You Hear That Train A-Comin'? Image

Setting: Dark West, Northern New Mexico Territory, Town of Redwood

System: In The Cards (homebrew)

Characters:

- Leah [Sheri] :: The new postmistress

- Victor [Tim] :: Rancher coming to visit his sister

- Oliver [Dave] :: Company man come to find out why coal shipments have stopped

- Roxanne [Taylor] :: ???

- James [Tony] :: Traveler looking for a fresh start in a new place

Session Highlights:

- A group of travelers meet up on the road and camp together with a man called an old prospector a few hours outside the town of Redwood.  They all shared dinner and had a nice chat about the area.  Elijah, the prospector, told them that the area had been declining quite a bit since the coal mine closed and the trains stopped coming into town, but he was hopeful that the area would stick it out and survive. 

- Late that night, the group was awakened to the sounds of Elijah hurriedly packing up his things in a near panic.  They found the stagecoach driver and his two guards dead from apparent stab wounds, and Roxanna saw something moving outside the camp.  Whatever it was, Elijah apparently caught sight of it too, and went screaming into the night in the opposite direction as Leanne swore she heard a distant train whistle.  On edge but unwilling to risk the horses in the darkness, the group holed up in the camp until morning.

- The next day they headed into Redwood.  While Leanne and Victor delivered the mail to the town hall and spoke to the marshall about what had happened, Oliver, James, and Roxanna went to the Bucksaw Saloon for some breakfast and an early drink to calm their nerves.  They spoke to the bartender about the previous night's events, and James asked if there were any local natives that might have stories about "things" roaming the wilderness.  He told them he could only think of one natve that lived in town - the widow of a miner by the name of Caleb Solomon.  One of the barhands seemed to be listening to the conversation and seemed, for some reason, to be growing very angry because of it. 

- It was then that another man appeared in the saloon entrance.  He wore a nice, grey suit and was looking at a gold pocketwatch.  The already quiet saloon fell completely silent.  As he looked up, he smiled and said in a low voice "Can you hear that train, a-comin'?"...

 

GM's Note: The idea for this game came out of a conversation a month or so ago when someone suggested we do some kind of horror one-shot on halloween.  I kicked around a few ideas while putting it together, but pretty quickly decided this would be a great opportunity to finish the idea I had for a western-themed game system that used only cards and poker chips - no dice or even character sheets.  Over the course of a week or so, I fleshed out the basic ideas and put together a creepy, Dark West game to run with it.  It didn't take super long to explain, seemed to run quite well, and everyone really loved the feel of it.  I may make further tweaks, but I'm quite happy with how it came out.  Of course, I cannot "one-shot" a "one-shot", so we only made it through about 1/3 of the scenario, but everyone liked it enough that we decided we would try to get together soon to see if we couldn't continue it.

Cyrran Reaches: Harbingers

Monday October 28, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- After a brief conversation with the captain of the military caravan, the party contined back to Rolessi.  There, they split up and made reports about the gathering orc horde to Kael's contact at the House Vallane Adventurer's Guild, the Watch Prime, as well as Mayor Dale and Lord Magnar.  Overall their reports seemed to be believed, but questions remained...

Delcron 2282: The Dragon's Lair pt. II

Friday October 25, 2019 at 8:30pm savage worlds, delcron 2282, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- Deciding it was their best shot at getting access to the upper laboratories, V used his neural link to venture into the Proto-Nine computer system, heading for the security area.  Once past the System Sentries, he found a panel full of door lock indicators and releases - the only problem was, he could only override them for a few seconds.

- The rest of the group made their way up to floor 82 and slipped through the door after V opened it.  They found the labs on this level to be in a state of complete disarray.  Sara located the case they had come to grab without too much trouble, and headed down and out of the building with it - playing off an encounter with Bluestar Security using some fast-talk and her psionic empathy.

- Kendra and Mario, meanwhile, grabbed another case and decided to check out some of the upper levels.  V told them that the upper floors were all VIP/CEO penthouses and executive meeting spaces, but when the two arrived, they found the place completely abandoned.

- Returning to meet up with V who escaped from the VR system only after a tangle with one of the Sys-Ents, the three were able to convince Bluestar that they were legit and exit the building as well.

- The group met back up at Kendra's shop.  They tried to open one of the cases, but only managed to scratch up the exterior.  Meanwhile, Mario went to talk to some doctors about plastic surgery to repair his scarred face and on the way back stopped at one of the city's PostTerms where he found a message containing only an address and a time from Justin Mills...

- +3xp

Cyrran Reaches: Prying Away

Tuesday October 22, 2019 at 8:15pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group descended to the fleeing caravan and engaged the orcs and monstrous wolves attacking it.  They were just starting to gain the advantage when one of the orcs, apparently a druid, turned into a massive bear and toppled one of the wagons.  The group managed to fight off the bear and the remaining orcs, allowing the remaining wagon to continue toward Rolessi.

Cyrran Reaches: The Gathering Horde pt. I

Tuesday October 8, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The following morning, the group had left Igveston and was travelling toward Rolessi when they spotted smoke rising some distances to the south.  Knowing they were seeking signs of the orcs they'd been told were massing in the region, they decided to detour and investigate.

- Upon reaching the locale, they found a massive orcish encampment on the borders of the Charothi Forest, spilling onto the western Cyrran Plains some miles east of the village of Etteseph.  Among the orcs they found ogres, monstrous vultures, and signs of seige weapon construction.  Perhaps most interestingly, they found that the horde seemed to be commanded by a group of hobgoblins who themselves were lead by a human.  Using his ethereal ability, Kael entered the commander's tent and saw a dwarf there he recognized from the Magnar City Social some weeks previous.

- Having attainted this intelligence, the group left for Rolessi.  Travelling eastward across the plains, they came upon a small detachment of the Reaches Military being harassed by orcs and monstrous wolves...

Capellan March: Bargaining Chips pt. II

Thursday October 3, 2019 at 8:30pm battletech, capellan march, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes, Battletech logo © Catalyst Game Labs
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes, Battletech logo © Catalyst Game Labs

New Characters: Patrick & Roland

Session Highlights:

- As Isaac and Thaddeus began their conversation about which contracts to opt into, Fyodor Vostok, the commander of Vostok's Hijackers, approached and attempted to convince Isaac to sell Mjolnir's Wrath to him for 50M.  The offer was arguably low, and Isaac still had higher hopes for his budding company, so he declined - visibly irritating Vostok.

- Dresden and Nathaniel arrived and joined the conversation.  The group tried to get more info out of the Major and Hollaster about the recon mission they'd been tipped to, but had only limited success.

- They were later approached by Samuel Gallager, head of Gallager's Minutemen, who suggested they work together on one of the offered Search-And-Destroy missions.  He seemed interested in their company, and insisted Isaac tell the story of how he'd once single-handedly taken out a Battlemaster in his Hatchetman.  After some further internal discussion, they decided they'd take him up on it.

- It was a while later that they noticed the blue confirmation light on their mission slot revert to a "pending" white as Fyodor placed his bid on the previously-full mission...

Delcron 2282: The Dragon's Lair pt. I

Friday September 27, 2019 at 8:30pm savage worlds, delcron 2282, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- The group left the DCPD and split up.  Kendra, Mario, and V made their way to the Marquee District to find some high-end communicators.  The place they found, called "Comms & Bombs" was a bit lower-end for the district, but had what they were looking for.  A bit pricey, but the team walked away with 4, subtle in-ear communicators that would reach a distance of about mile through most kinds of barriers.

- Meanwhile, Sara went to the Lift District to a generic office block in response to a message she'd received.  There she met with Dr. Deidre Telns, a woman who claimed to be a part of an inter-planetary neuroscience firm called Delphi.  As they conversed, it became apparent that they were, in fact, an organization dedicated to emergent psionics.  The meeting was a little tense, and Sara remained very suspicious, however much the Dr claimed not to want anything more than to offer her organization's support in exchange for info about Sara's gifts.

- After the group reunited, they paid a visit to "Passed Gems", an antique shop buried in the Neon District.  They mentioned Marion Plaskov and, after some persistence with the shopkeepers, learned that they were associated with an organization looking to depose corrupt corporations - one of them being Proto-Nine.

- The group then returned to Kendra's shop to plan their heist against P9 that night.  Using the parking pass and IDs Rory had given them, they took the elevator up from the parking garage.  On one of the lower-middle floors Kendra managed to swipe a Clearance 2 keycard from a worker who had fallen asleep at his desk, getting them up to floor 64.  They managed to get inside one of the manager's offices on that floor, ducking the patrolling Bluestar security guard.  While V tried to learn what he could from the computer system, they heard the guard's radio go off just outside and the announcement it made - apparently, they'd aroused some suspicion...

- +2xp

Cyrran Reaches: Old Haunts

Tuesday September 24, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The party regrouped and decided they would make their way back to Rolessi.  Figuring that Igveston was on the way back to the larger city, the decided to stop in and have a drink at the Laughing Jack - and to take a look around to see if there were any further signs of disturbance there.

- They spent some time talking with Jack about recent goings on, and learned that overall things were calmer than they had been.  Taryn asked Jack about some divine "issues", Kael danced to the amateur musician playing that evening, Ravina played cards with some locals, Tyrrox met up with some old buddies from the Briglau House Guard, and Lily made her way to the Magus Academy to check in on Valthious.

- Despite the overall urgency of their present situation, the group realized they were all pretty tired (and that Kael was pretty drunk) and so decided to go ahead and stay the night in Igveston and head home in the morning.  That night, Taryn once more found himself in a dream he's been having more and more frequently - a revisiting of the afterlife...

Capellan March: Bargaining Chips pt. I

Thursday September 12, 2019 at 8:30pm battletech, capellan march, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes, Battletech logo © Catalyst Game Labs
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes, Battletech logo © Catalyst Game Labs

System: Battletech / Mechwarrior Basic 2e

Setting: The Capellan March, Inner Sphere

Players: Tim, Adam

Schedule: Occasional Thursdays

 

Session Highlights:

- Mjolnir's Wrath was invited by their contact, Lt. James Hollaster, to a sort of "contract party" hosted in the Fortymile system.  The AFFS was apparently planning a military campaign that was going to make significant use of merc units, and a number of the best in the region were present in the large hotel conference hall.

- The officiating major welcomed the various units and presented 8 potential contract offers with few details for which they could offer their services, including planetary assault, search & destroy, and reconnaissance.  The evening was to be spent in negotiations and socializing over horderves, dinner, and champagne.  Hollaster had privately suggested they take one of the low-paying recon missions, but his motives are not precisely clear and something with a bit more cash and action seems more attractive...

Delcron 2282: Take It And Run

Friday September 6, 2019 at 8:30pm savage worlds, delcron 2282, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- The group found themselves under attack by mystery agents - presumably tied to the RVR corporation.  Hotel Bluestar security arrived on the scene shortly after, but the chaos of the situation was already out of hand.  The group managed to fight off the attackers and escape before more Bluestar arrived on-scene.

- Having obtained the data from the designated contact, V made the swap with K-Method for info on "Justin Mills".  The alias was apparently being used by a corporate mercenary and assassin by the name of Victor Malstrik who seemed to be hired by a defunct corporation called Aethercorp.

- The group received a message from the DCPD on behalf of Marrion Plaskov, who had requested to speak with them.  Their conversation didn't make much sense, but he did slip them a business card for an antique shop in the Neon district with the word "Watchful" hand-written on the back.

- V got a message from Rory offering a job.  He apparently needed whatever was in the case Victor had taken, and is offering the group 60k to swipe another from the upper levels of the Proto-Nine headquarters...

- +2xp

Burninating the Game Night

Thursday September 5, 2019 at 12:29pm board games Comments (0) »
Burninating the Game Night Image

Homestar Decemberween IOUs

Knowing I'm an old HSR fan, my buddy Tony got me the Trogdor Board Game for Christmas last year - well, he'd backed the kickstarter anyway, and told me he was giving me the game when it shipped.

And it did!  Eventually.  When it came in a month or so ago, he hurried over to my house with it.  We took a look and the humorous contents and read the hilarious rulebook, but we didn't have time to play...

...until last night!

 

Some Good, Old-Fashioned Burninating

While the game's flavor definitely plays for ridiculous laughs, the actual game-play is pretty solid.  The basic mechanics are a tug-of-war-style back-and-forth on your health and the tiles that make up the game board.  The game is co-op (which I love), and the players take turns moving Trogdor around the board, burninating the countryside (tiles), peasants, and finally, thatch-roofed cottages.  But after each player moves the mighty, beefy-armed dragon, they'll also draw a card for the movement of the peasants, knights, and archers which can repair some of Troggy's damage - and also damage him.  You win if you can ever toast the entire board and everything on it.

The game was fun, and involves quite a bit of strategy (if you really want to think about it that hard).  The turns are generally fun and satisfying - they give you options without being overwhelming.  And they're pretty quick once you get the hang of it (unless you're agonizing over which card to play). 

In our play-through, we seemed to get pretty unlucky up-front, and by the end of the game, we were having the dragon move and hide from the knights for multiple turns before we could bring some special cards into play and burn(inate) the final cottages to win.  For an absurd game, there was quite a bit of serious discussion on what should be done each turn by the end of it, which I think speaks to some good game design. 

 

Our session lasted a bit over an hour, but we were figuring things out and taking it pretty seriously (the cat-and-mouse at the end drug it out some).  It probably plays a bit quicker on average.

The game plays up to 6 people, making it a good choice for slightly-larger groups (a lot of games cap at 4-5).  Mechanically, you could probably even play with up to 9 people (there are 9 Keepers and Items), but the game experience might get a little fractured in one way or another.

The printed age range is 12+, but I'm betting my 8yo could probably handle it pretty well.  While kids' strategy might be less-developed, the actual turn actions are pretty straight-forward.

 

Overall, I'm pretty impressed with this one and I'm sure it'll get a bit of play at our table.  BGG is giving Troggy a 7.3 at the moment, which is pretty decent - I've found anything over about 6.5 or so is at least worth a look. Iron Dragon, one of my favorites, comes in as a 7.0.

The game isn't available for retail purchase quite yet, but they're promising it soon here.

 

You can see Strong Bad's (musical) game overview here - and you really, really should.

Oh, and if you want to know where this madness comes from, this is it.

 

~PS

Delcron 2282: Exchange

Friday August 30, 2019 at 8:30pm savage worlds, delcron 2282, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- Concerned about a double-cross from Justin, the group hurried back upstairs.  There they did indeed find someone with a gun in the room with Plaskov, but it wasn't the thug - it was Rory, a former coworker V knew from his days at Proto-Nine.  V and Mario were able to talk him down enough to pass on what they knew about Justin and the case he had taken, at which point Rory bolted out of the room, apparently in pursuit.  Unsure exactly of what was going on, the group kept tabs on the room until the police arrived - just to make sure no one else came in trying to do something with their target.

- They met up with Sgt. Askara again the following morning.  She told them their pay would be on the card, but commented that there were a few details of the case that didn't make any sense.  For one, Dynamics (the primary financial corp of the city) hadn't said word one about the missing cash.  Also, they'd had an odd call from someone at Proto-Nine asking if they recovered any of the company's property when they arrested the perpetrator.

- Meanwhile, V got a response from someone within the hacker collective he'd asked to dig up info on their medic friend, Justin Mills.  The contact, a person going by the handle "K-Method", told them there were 16 records for "Justin Mills" in Delcron's personnel database, only two of which were active.  None of the 16 looked anything like the medic.  The contact said they had additional info, but if he wanted it, V was going to have to do something for them.  Namely, he needed to go to a casino in the upscale Marquee district and exchange an ID card for a data stick from a certain man.  After some discussion, the group decided they'd make the exchange. V made the card per K-Method's instructions, and the crew bought some fancy clothes and made their way to the White Stag Hotel Casino.

- While Mario made some money gambling, the others set about looking for their mark in the sprawling 4-level gaming hall - eventually finding him among a group of wealthly-looking individuals from the RVR corporation - the single most powerful corp in Delcron City.

- When V gave the man the ID card, he was given a hotel keycard and a room number instead of a datastick, and was advised to 'keep an eye on' a particular man that seemed to be watching their exchange.  The group headed into the hotel, pretty sure they were being followed, and made their way up to floor 56 which was undergoing renovations.  While the others waited in the cluttered hallway, V found a suitcase in the room containing the datastick and a silenced, high-caliber pistol with a note reading "just in case".  About that time, Kendra heard a crashing sound of something coming up behind them...

- +2xp

Cyrran Reaches: Buried In Time

Monday August 26, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- While Lily and Taryn inspected the dagger they'd found in the abbot's back, Kael, Ravina, and Tyrrox descended into the catacombs.  There they found the bodies a few orcs and hobgoblins and a number of scattered bones decorated with golden runes.

- Meanwhile, Lily and Taryn heard a banging sound which they traced to a set of large double-doors that had the familiar eye-tooth symbol painted over them.  When they called out to whatever was inside, the pair received a two-word reply: "save us".

- Scouting ahead, Kael descended to the bottom of the crypt, where he found more bodies and a group of five glowing, skeletal guardians positioned near one of the far tombs that had apparently been broken open.  The whispered chant they'd been hearing seemed to be coming from these beings.

- Taryn pulled the door open.  On the other side they found a large meeting or dining hall containing dozens or hundreds more bodies, all of it shouded in a thick, ghostly mist.  The distressed spirits of the deceased seemed trapped and confused.  Taryn and Lily performed a kind of musical 'last rites' for them, and felt the ghostly presence fade from the room.

- Having decided not to engage the skeletons without their companions, Kael, Ravina, and Tyrrox made their way back into the monestery.  After some discussion, the group decided to head to a library they'd found while searching the place.  While Lily and Taryn spent some time learning about the history of the place and the saint for whom it was named, Kael, Tyrrox, and Ravina took one of the volumes recording who was interred into the catacombs and returned to them, trying to determine who might be buried in the far tomb.  As they examined the grave sites, they heard growing whispers and something scraping against the stone drawing near...

Cyrran Reaches: All Must Burn

Tuesday August 20, 2019 at 8:15pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Standing over Lily as she climbed out of the blood pool was a massive stone giant, accusing her of the evil twisting the place.  He called down magical fire upon her as well as the ghosts and bodies, banishing the corrupted spectres and sending Lily diving for cover. 

- Ravina and Kael made their way back to the courtyard to see if they could find Lily.  Taryn and Tyrrox were still upstairs in the abbot's chambers when his ghost appeared - unmoving and floating over his body slumped over his desk.  They spoke to it and it answered, but they couldn't understand it.  When it made no aggressive move, they looked at the dagger in his back, noting that it bore a symbol of Many Eyes, Many Teeth.

Back in the courtyard, Lily attempted to convince the giant that she and her friends were not responsible for the state of the place as he pressed his attacks - eventually convincing him to stop.  After a final threat, he and the two other giants that arrived began burning the blood and bodies - turning the entire courtyard into an inferno.

- Once the fire burned out and the giants left, the group discussed what they had seen and tried to piece together what happened here.  Making their way to the broken-down door leading into the catacombs beneath the monestary, Lily heard a voice echoing up from it: "The sacred ground has been broken, and now the living must return to it."

Delcron 2282: Cornered

Friday August 16, 2019 at 8:15pm savage worlds, delcron 2282, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- The group made their way to the Gale-James Hotel and set about trying to figure out whether Plaskov was there and where he might be.  They ended up running into Justin Mills - the medic from the previous night - and learned that he was actually after Plaskov too: not for the man himself, but for something he had apparently stolen.  Some sort of tech his "clients" wished to recover.

- They'd figured out a likely floor, and after their discussion with Justin, decided they'd just go room-by-room, with a skeleton-keycard V had made from a room key lifted from one of the guests, until they found him.  Sara's empathy gave them a clue, and they found Plaskov, apparently passed out drunk on his hotel bed.  They bound him with ducttape and found the combination to the room safe.  Inside was a bunch of cash, and the case Justin had been looking for, which he took and left.

- Not sure how they'd get Plaskov out of the hotel without raising a LOT of suspicion, they decided they'd tell their police contact where he was and just let them pick him up.  While Sara was downstairs sending the message from the hotel's PostTerm, she saw Justin Mills have a brief exchange with another man as he was walking out - a man that happened to be one of the bikers from the night before - the one who'd shot Mario... 

- +2xp

Cyrran Reaches: Mad Spirits pt. II

Tuesday August 13, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- As the voice echoed through the stone courtyard, red lightening began to arc from the floating ghost to several of the bodies, which seemingly spawned horrifically corrupted ghostly creatures which floated, oozed, and clawed their way toward them.  Taryn, Ravina, and Tyrrox headed deeper into the settlement after Kael, who was following the trail of blood.

- In the uppermost room, the group found a sigil oozing blood and burning brightly on the wall.  Its potency was so great that even looking at it was difficult and disorenting.  With some guidance from Taryn, Tyrrox was able to enter the room and smash through it - disrupting its magic but producing powerful electrical discharges and a gush of blood.

- Meanwhile, Lily found herself in a room of complete darkness with a pair of voices asking her who she was and what she wanted.  The voices spoke some form of ancient draconic and identified themselves as a "great serpent". They didn't get far in the conversation, howevern when she suddenly found herself submerged in blood.  Swimming up and out, she found herself back in the (relative) bright light of the Saint Orvusk courtyard, with a booming voice demanding answers of her...

Cyrran Reaches: Mad Spirits pt. I

Tuesday August 6, 2019 at 8:15pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group continued away from the forest up into the mountains.  As they approached the settlement, they began to discover signs of violence.  When they reached the monestary, they found it littered with bodies.

- They noticed a pool of still-liquid blood standing in the area, with streams connecting to most of the bodies in a somewhat odd fashion.  As they investigated, ghosts of some of the dead monks and townsfolk began to appear - obviously maddened.

- As the ghosts attacked, the party reacted.  Ravina was able to turn several of the ghosts, and Tyrrox managed to obliterate another's manifested form.  Kael set one of the bodies on fire, resulting in a ghost that burned with ghostly flame.  Taryn discovered that by separating a body from the pool of blood, the ghosts would calm. 

- Lily then attempted to dispel any magic on the blood, but when her spell completed, she vanished.  Also convinced the trailing pool of blood was at the root of the "problem", Kael took off into the monestary, following the "trail" to see where it led.

- Back in the courtyard, Taryn, Ravina, and Tyrrox were still dealing with a couple of lingering ghosts when they heard a booming voice from above them...

Delcron 2282: Bullets and Blood

Friday August 2, 2019 at 8:30pm savage worlds, delcron 2282, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

- The group broke into an abandoned apartment building across from the bar to stake out and watch to see if their target return - and he does, very early in the morning, meeting some kind of medic. 

- The group decided they'd go grab him, but they hadn't counted on a trio of bikers arriving, apparently after Plaskov as well.  The insuing firefight left Mario, Kendra, and the bartender wounded, the bar shot up, and Plaskov chased out of the bar.

- When the group met up the next day, they decided to sneak back into the closed bar to see if anything left behind might point them toward their quarry.  Here they finally had some good fortune: Plaskov's jacket.  Inside they found a folded piece of stationery from the Gale-James Hotel with what looked like a product model number for something secretive produced by V's former employer...

- +3xp

Delcron 2282: On the Case

 Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Savage Worlds artwork © Pinnacle Entertainment Group

System: Savage Worlds

Setting: Delcron City

Players: Sheri, Taylor, Dave, Stephen

Schedule: Every Few Fridays

 

This game was started on Stephen's suggestion, and Taylor and Dave were really interested in getting to play something.  After some voting, we settled on a cyberpunk-style game using the Savage Worlds system.  I'm using a portion of one of my homebrew settings for this game.

 

Template: The party are a group of friends who have been taking jobs as private investigators and bounty hunters for the last year or so, and it's proving lucrative - or, at least, more lucrative than their crappy jobs.

 

Characters:

- Sara [Sheri] :: a medic and emergent Empath

- Mario [Dave] :: an asteroid miner and pub bouncer

- Kendra [Taylor] :: a mechanic who runs a junk shop

- "V" [Stephen] :: a hacker now wanted by his former employer

 

Opening Session Highlights:

The crew got a message from their contact at the DCPD about a possible job.  When they met up with sgt. Askara Kyotu at the usual place (an abandoned pier in the Old Harbor district), they were told about an armored car holdup.  Three attackers, one of whom apparently killed the other two and was injured and on the run.  They'd ID'd the man as Marrion Plaskov, a corp-worker in his late 40s who'd been let go about 15 months previous.  The PD had gotten a tip about a man matching the description at a place called "Hotwired 6" in the Neon district near Res II.  Askara told them bringing him in would be worth 20k to them.

- The group went to the bar, which was crowded and loud.  They looked and asked around a bit, eventually talking to a couple of thugs who subsequently attacked them in the street outside.  After Kendra took a wrench to one of their heads and Sara paralyzed the other with indecision, they learned that the group's target had paid them to "take care of" anyone asking questions about him.  The thug told them the man indicated he would be back to the bar, and then fled down a back alley.

- +2xp

Cyrran Reaches: What Is To Come

Wednesday July 24, 2019 at 7:48am d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group resupplied and headed out of Rolessi to the woodlands to the west using Ravina's Wind Walk spell.

- The Charothi Forest is old, thick and has a very heavy canopy, so they weren't able to see much from the air.  When they caught sight of a wisp of grey smoke, the descended to investigate, finding a couple of humans breaking camp in the late morning.

- They spoke with the humans - Eddard and Frennel - for some time, and learned that they and two previous traveling companions had been attacked by orcs on their way to Velgrin.

- While they spoke, a number of fey creatures appeared - warning them of a darker threat to which the orcs are merely an overture...

Cyrran Reaches: What Looms Beyond

Wednesday July 10, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- After camping for the night, the group made it back to Rolessi.  Their plan was to see if they could find someone to implement a more permanent solution to the problem at Ver'Sheole and then find some way to move against the growing orc presense.

- Rolessi, however, seemed to be in a state of social and political turmoil.  In general, much of the populace seemed to be a little on-edge.  The PCs reports of orcs to the west had developed into all sorts of rumors, and several sudden assassinations had made many feel unsafe.  The leaders of the city were apparently engaged in heated disagreements about whether the primary focus should be on internal or external problems.

- Lily and Taryn spoke with Lady Wyrra of house Dyn'Talor about the nature of the rift they'd found in the ruined keep and the anti-magic field that was currently containing it.  She told them that her house would see what they might be able to learn and hypothesize about possible solutions, but that few would be as capable as they (the PCs) were in actually acting against the forces at work.

- The city had sent out several militia parties to investigate reports of problems in the region - and some had not returned.  After some discussion, the group decided they would head to the remote settlement of Saint Orvusk, which had been cut off from outside contact for some weeks amid reports of unusual orc activity...

Spirit Island - Greater Than Games

Tuesday June 25, 2019 at 12:56pm board games Comments (0) »
 Spirit Island artwork © Greater Than Games
Spirit Island artwork © Greater Than Games

So Spirit Island was definitely the new-to-me board game highlight of this year's Trogland meetup.  Let's talk about it a little.

 

Spirited.

First off, Spririt Island is a cooperative game, which is always a big plus for me.  There are a number of competitive games I enjoy of course, but all else being equal, coop is always more fun.  I'm always glad to find a new, solid, coop game.

In this game, each player plays as one of several primal "spirits" inhabiting an island and taking care of the natives.  Unfortunately, some punk colonists from who-knows-where have arrived and are messing up the place - like they do.  Your objective as a group is to stop their spread, repair their damage, and ultimately eliminate them from the island - hopefully keeping the natives safe(ish) in the process.

Each spirit starts off in their own little corner of the island.  As the game progresses, they will spread their influence, gain powers, and increase in colonist-stomping strength.  On each turn, you'll "grow" a bit, and then try to find the best way to apply your current powers to the situation at hand. The growth and power mechanics have a satisfying feel to them.

Each spirit also plays quite bit differently from the next.  Not quite Vast-level "different", but enough that it meaningfully effects the play and feel of the game.  Also enough that, with all you have to keep track of just for yourself, it would be hard to concern yourself with what anyone else is doing.  This goes quite a ways in preventing the "alpha gamer" problem where you have one person that wants to tell everyone else how to play. 

Since only some of the Spirits will be at the table in any given game, the particular mix present also affects the overall strategy and the general progression of the game.  Really interesting dynamics there, too.

The pacing of the game has an interesting reversal of many games.  Many games start out slow and easy and ramp up to a certain franticness.  Spirit Island is almost the opposite - you start off feeling pretty overwhelmed by the colonial presence, but as you play through turns and gain power, you quickly begin to out-pace them and, by the end of the game (if you're winning), you're pretty handily wiping them out.  At first glance you might think this would be anti-climactic (and, I suppose it could be in some senses or situations), but it actually plays really, really well.

 

So yeah, really enjoyed this one.  Like I said before, my favorite find of the weekend.

 

~PS

Trogland 2019

Tuesday June 25, 2019 at 12:27pm trogland, gaming, board games Comments (0) »
Trogland 2019 Image

Trogland 2019.

So last weekend we had our mostly-annual Trogland meetup.  I say "mostly" annual because we missed last year for the first time since we started doing this thing back in '07.  Things just kinda fell apart in 2018.  At this point, it's mostly just me planning the thing with some input from some of the others.  Not that I mind, really, but it's a significant task.

This year, though, I think went pretty well.  We had a different venue which was a little smaller, but our old location inflated the price on us about 700% which was undoable.  Sunday we actually spent in the game room of a local game shop, which was actually kind of cool.

We operated at a bit of a deficit this year. I was glad we had some cash left over from previous Troglands to break even. May need to tweak some things for the future, but overall not a big deal.

I think this year's Trogland went quite well.  One of the cool things this year was that several of the kids were actually old enough to participate.  I guess we're getting to be that age.  I mean, we have been doing this for 12 years.

 

Games at the Trog.

So we played games, of course.  I mean, that's what we do.  Didn't get to run the Fate game I'd pitched, but after the massive Battletech encounter, several of the participants weren't up for a longer time commitment.

I got to play Stuffed Fables again - still only made it to the junk-pile page, but thoroughly enjoyed it.  Played through Mysterium as a player, which was fun even if I was terrible (I'd been the ghost the previous 2 times). 

The Mind is a very interesting game in its staggering simplicity. 

Sheri played a game called Comanauts, which I understand to be similar to Stuffed Fables but with a darker, more serious sci-fi theme. 

I got to play Pandemic again for the first time in years - and, for the first time ever, we won.  

Unearth was enjoyable, though we didn't get to play a whole game. 

I think the board game highlight of the weekend for me was Spirit Island - will be making a post dedicated to that one.

 

And, of course, I got to run the Battletech scenario, which always takes a long time but I always enjoy.  Ran this one as a double-blind where both sides felt like they were the underdog and a countdown timer brought other conditions into play.  It went just about exactly like I'd hoped.

 

That's just what I made it to the table for (or observed).  LOTS of other games were played.  Lots more fun was had.

It was a good time, as always.

 

Oh, and on Sunday at the game store we picked up Folklore, which we heard great things about from some other attenders and we're planning to try out tonight.

 

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Closed Doorways

Tuesday June 11, 2019 at 8:15pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Lily, Tyrrox, and Ravina were upstairs battling the hordes of demons rushing out of the previously-sealed room.  They were managing to keep most from escaping, but some managed to push their way through.

- Trying to stay focused, Taryn dropped the key and headed deeper into the room - trying to get closer to the rift before triggering the anti-magic effect.  He was unexpectedly pursued, however, by a pair of devils that suddenly appeared.

- Kael, meanwhile, played as though he accepted the hezrou's offer for aid in defeating the more powerful demon while he too maneuvered further into the room.

- Fighting broke out between the two most powerful demons in the room, but the most powerful demon present seemed intent only on tempting Kael - presenting him with powerful artifacts and an implicit promise of great power.  Taryn, on the other hand, was struggling against the devils to get the orb out of his pack.  Seeing Kael less harassed by enemies, he threw his pack to his friend.  Kael caught the bag, which interrupted interaction with the demon.  Within that brief moment of clarity, he pulled out the orb and shattered it.

- The resulting shockwave plunged the room into darkness as all magical and supernatural effects were extinguished.  The group hurriedly withdrew, occasionally being buffeted by demons also escaping.

- Near the surface, they reached the edge of the anti-magic effect.  Outside they found a dense magical fog and the distant sounds of battle.  As Ravina cast a Wind Walk spell to aid in their flilght from the region, they caught site of the bronze dragon, still very angry at the intrusion...

Black Foxes: A Brutal Life

 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- The Foxes had discovered that Muggs (the leader of the Stone Club) was going to be attending a particular hound race at Vreen's and made a plan to pull of their hit operation then and there.  Fortune was with the PCs' crew this time, as Muggs conveniently separated himself from his attendant and bodyguard - a woman called Rellanna.  While Drave tangled with her and everyone else was distracted by the manifesting form of a horrific spectral ogre, Erik was able to move in for the kill.

- This turned out ot be Erik's last operation, however - the scoundrel's life had taken its toll on the man, unhinging him a little.  His companions decided they'd turn him in to take the fall for the crew to clear some heat on them.

- While their leader is dead, the Stone Club is by no means defeated.  They're undoubtedly planning a counterstrike, and foxes will need to press their advantage if they're going to make this strike really count...

Cyrran Reaches: Who To Trust

Tuesday May 28, 2019 at 8:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- After some discussion and further study of Lily's map, the group decided to explore another possible entrance to the dungeon vaults: a secret passage that seemed to originate from another building.  After finding that route impassable, they resigned themselves to the "main" entrance and decided to rest for the night.  Passing through the streets again the next morning, they found them thick with an unnatural fog and could hear the sounds of some commotion in the distance - at least some of which was certainly the dragon. 

- The plan for the dungeon vaults was this: they would break the seal and fight off the demons just long enough for someone to get near the rift and shatter their anti-magic orb (an object they'd picked up back in the horde of the dragon they'd fought in Velgrin) - believing that rift to be the source of the "wrongness" and hoping that the anti-magic field would seal it up at least for a while.  They would then do their best to flee on foot until they escaped the magic-void area and could use spells and magical equipment to enhance their escape - hopefully avoding the dragon.  They would then return to civilization and tell others what they'd found and what they'd done, and advise them that they had no way of knowing how temporary or permanent their "solution" might be.

- The warding seal on the vaults seemed ready to give and it collapsed immediately on contact with Lily's Dispel Magic spell.  The door itself unexpectedly disintegrated, and demons began pouring out - though most seemed more interested in escape than combat.  While Lily, Tyrrox, and Ravina fought with the fleeing hordes, Kael and Taryn fought their way down to the dungeons below.  There, Taryn found himself with a familiar red key and a mental nudge toward the malfunctioning portal, and Kael was addressed by a Hezrou telling him he would need its help to destroy the Glabrezu now approaching them...

Battletech: A New Campaign

For a variety of reasons we decided we'd start a new Battletech campaign rather than continuing Aralakh.  We spent a session making new characters with some slightly different rules.  The new gang will be a Davion-aligned merc unit operating somewhere near around the midpoint of the Capellan march.

Cyrran Reaches: Secrets of the Past pt. II

Tuesday May 21, 2019 at 8:15pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Though they could still hear the pounding of the dragon above them, the group decided Lily should cast her Legend Lore spell to learn more about the place they've found themselves in.  In so doing, they learned that the deep interior of this keep was once the lair of Lochthuun, the legendary hydra, and that its death apparently tore open a rift into the lower planes which was the origin of the contaminating evil of the region.

- Deciding they needed to see what was actually going on in the dungeons below, Kael activated the ethereal ability of his armor and passed through the door.  On the other side, he found several dozen demons, a malfunctioning portal, and the abyssal rift floating above the perfectly-preserved body of a massive hydra.  The group now needs to decide what to do about the situation to prevent the situation from worsening and to keep the cult from abusing it...

Cyrran Reaches: To Go Deeper

Tuesday May 14, 2019 at 8:45pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- As the Mafka zealots launched their attack and the roaring creatured bellowed from outside, Ravina began her spell to de-petrify the goblin leader.  As the creature's warnings grew closer and more angry, the zealots retreated.  Ravina completed her spell and managed to restore the goblin chief to life, though he was not too happy to see his saviors.  As the building shook, they all moved further into the structure away from whatever was outside.

- The goblin chief stopped his aggression against the group, but insisted they part ways.  At Lily's convincing, he indicated the way toward what the goblins called the "Deep Evil" - which was down in the lower dungeons and vaults of the keep.  They made their way down, hearing the furious pounding overhead, and found a sealed door bearing an evil, pulsing rune...

Shiny, Shiny Pedals

Tuesday April 30, 2019 at 10:36pm guitar, gear, music Comments (0) »
Shiny, Shiny Pedals Image

A couple of weeks ago I broke down and ordered some guitar pedals.  The idea was to create a selection of pedals I could use both with my amp and running directly into a mixer for playing at our church and/or for recording (been doing some writing again lately).

I haven't spent extensive time fiddling with each one on its own, but I have been playing a lot with them as a unit.  What follows are my initial thoughts and the reasons I chose the ones I did.  My default choices were going to be Boss pedals, because they're a good industry standard, and they make solid stuff.  I stuck to that default sometimes; other times, I didn't.

Overdriving

Going in order of my effects chain, the first pedal is overdrive - specifically, the Boss OD-3.

I suppose the main question to answer is "why the OD-3 over the SD-1, which is about half the price?".  I did debate this quite a bit, but after watching several comparison videos on youtube and reading reviews, it seemed that the OD-3 was reputed to be a bit clearer, warmer, and less harsh - and I wanted "overdrive", not "super overdrive".  There's also a little of "you tend to get what you pay for" in my thinking. 

I don't have any personal experience with the SD-1, but the OD-3 sounds great.  It gives a nice, warm, blues or classic-rock style overdrive crunch to the signal on its own, and if I run it into my distortion pedal or drive channel on my amp, I get a really nice, jagged, high-gain metallic distortion.  It's just what I wanted from overdrive.

Distorted

This was the pedal that I agonized over the most.  There are a lot of different distortion sounds, and they all have different characters.  My original plan was to go with the good ol' DS-1.  It's a well respected pedal, and it's cheap - and I still might pick that one up - but I really wanted something versatile.

In a couple of distortion pedal lists and videos, I found the Fender Pugilist Distortion pedal - and I really liked the sound of it.  This one has two different distortion circuits, the sounds of which you can use seperately, blend together, or even run one into the other (I do think it would have been cool if they would have made the blend/series switch a footswitch).  It's not a super-high-gain pedal (their Full Moon Distorition is more aimed that way), but you can get a pretty wide range of drive from using only channel A with just a little gain, to a pretty heavy sound running channel A into B with both gains cranked.  Add my Overdrive onto the front end, and you can get some pretty wicked gain (albiet a bit noisily) as mentioned above.  The Fender tone also does a bit to mitigate the midrange exaggeration of my SG+amp combo (which I've mentioned before).

The Fender pedals are solidly built, look great, and I have to admit, I loved the name of this one.  "Pugilist" as the name of a drive pedal is pretty awesome.

Compression

Next up is the compressor.  Once agan, I initially figured on picking up the Boss CS-3, but read several articles sayng it was a bit noisy.  I know there is some misconception with compressors and noise, but I saw this concern often enough that it affected my choice.  Since I'd already gone with one Fender pedal, I decided to take a look at their compressor, The Bends.

This was another pedal with a good look and a cool name, but that wasn't going to sell me on its own.  The reviews on this compressor were very positive though, and a couple even commented that this particular compressor was quiet and subtle.  Compression is one of those effects where, if you're doing it right, you don't really notice it - so this sounded good to me.

The controls on The Bends are a little different from those on the CS-3 and more "standard" compressors, but ultimately they do the same thing and give you a fair amount of control (moreso than the much-loved  MXR Dyna Comp, which has one knob for "compression").  Also, I like the feature where the jewel LED on top of it actually changes color to show when/how the compressor is affecting the signal.  I tend to leave this on all the time, but its effects are most noticeable when playing clean - tightening up the dynamics and giving a little boost to sustain.

Choral

So then there's the Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble.  This pedal is different from the others in that I've had it for about 20 years.  It's probably not one I'd pick out these days, but I got a lot of use out of it in the past - and I have it, so I threw it in.  It performs its chorus functon well, but it's not an effect I use super often - and when I do, it's usually fairly subtle.  I think these days, if I was going to pick up a modulation pedal, I'd probably look at a flanger or phase shifter.  Like many modulation pedals, it will take you all the way from "barely noticeable" up through "unusably bizarre".

The 'Verb

The biggest reason I wanted a reverb pedal was for amp-less playing.  My amp has a decent spring reverb built in, and I'm not super picky about my reverb sound - I just know I don't like the sound of an electric guitar without a good dose of it. 

For whatever reason, reverb pedals tend to be some of the more expensive effects.  I went ahead with the Boss RV-6 on this one, as it was well-liked and seemed to have a decent selection of reverb types/effects.  I also liked the fact that it has a +delay mode to play around with without buying a dedicated delay pedal.  Whle I may not be picky, I have enjoyed playing with what this pedal can do - and it's reverb is quite a bit juicier than what's in my amp - so it's usually always on.

It sounds good.  Like I said, I'm not super picky on reverb in particular.

Equality

Last in the chain is the MXR 10-band EQ pedal, which I've talked a little about before - it's good for guitar and bass, and it has +/- sliders for volume and gain.  It does a good job of taming my amp in a couple of ways, and it should give me more control over my tone for direct inputs.

 

So that's about it.  I'm pretty happy with this setup.  Nothing super fancy, but it gives me a solid sound and some versatility.  If I get good mileage out of this stuff I might eventually pick up other toys - perhaps wah, volume, phaser, delay, some more drive pedals - but most of that stuff is all secondary at best.

 

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Enemies of Enemies

Monday April 29, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group awoke to find themselves surrounded by goblins.  They were approached by one of them - Tofkag - who turned out to be the leader of one splinter of a local tribe.  In exchange for their help in de-petrifying their leader, they told the PCs they would lead them to the keep by ways that would avoid the more hostile goblin factions.  They spoke with Tofkag for some time about his tribe, the keep, and the "Deep Evil" he said dwelled beneath it.

- Making it to the keep the following day, they made their way into the ruin.  Within the CourtHall of the primary tower, they found the statue of the former leader of the goblin tribe - as well as some of the Mafka zealots Tofkag had warned them about.  The altercation was only beginning when the building was shaken by a tremendous roar from overhead...

Cyrran Reaches: Into the Curse

Saturday April 27, 2019 at 2:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- After a considerable conversation, the rest of the party managed to convince Taryn that going after the Orb was too dangerous and put the rest of their mssion in jeaopardy - though Tyrrox tended to think they could defeat the goblns.

- The group continued northward to the Navlin forest - a cool, pine-covered region leading into the foothills of the Elmhine mountains.  Inside they found the slaughter of a village of some kind of humanoid mushroom race and had a run-in with some territorial canine humanoids.  Deeper still, they found that the forest was corrupted and diseased, and they began encountering bloated, corrupted, undead, and unusually aggressve animals.

- On the far side of the forest, the group located the old elven road up into the mountains that would take them to Ver'Sheole.  As they climbed, they found evidence of several recently-used humanoid camp sites and even caught site of someone else on the road.

- Near the top, as they pressed on into the night, the group was ambushed by a goblin warband, which they managed to fight off.

 

GM's Note: This session had two pretty serious combat encounters, and I was very entertained by how much terrain factored into both of them, as well as the previous river-ambush encounter.  We also did an interesting encounter-setup-contest between the PCs and the opposing force for one of them to determine who started with the high ground and prep time.

Black Foxes: To Strike at the Heart

 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- Erik met up with his "friend" from their smuggling run at the Maple Grey in Silkshore and got an easy job offer.  Drave stumbled back into the Foxes' turf, but was acosted by the Bluecoats on the way in.  He tried to turn their attention to the Stone Club, but was only partially successful.  A few nights later, their tinker friend Lerrin found them at the Three Pennies to tell them that the Club was making problems in Fenwell Hook again.

- The gang spent some time discussing their options and gathering some info on their rival gang.  They were able to track down the Stone Club's HQ, as well as some that their leader Muggs has made a recent habit of betting on the hounds down at Vreen's races in Nightmarket.  The time has come to strike - and they're looking to cut the head off the snake...

Cyrran Reaches: Green Warren

Saturday April 13, 2019 at 3:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group fought with the goblins on the high bank and the monstrous elder water elemental that had appeared in their midst.  The tactical advantage the goblins had proved to be very effectve, and the tide of the combat didn't turn until Taryn pulled out his orb and used its powerful breath weapon.

- It was then that the sole surviving goblin in its area - a spellcaster of some apparent power - took notice.  Using a potent stunning spell, he froze Taryn, took the orb from his hands, and disappeared into the grasslands before any of the others were aware of what had happened.

- Now deprived of his second source of power, when he came to the panicked Taryn insisted that they follow the thief.  Kael quickly found that the trail suddenly vanished a few hundred feet from the site of the encounter, however.  The group interrogated one of the subdued goblins and found that the spellcaster, called Akrisk, had taken over their tribe some months ago - though he couldn't tell them much about his abilities.  After releasng him, the group tailed him back to his warren - Ravina's divination having suggested this would be the best way to recover the artifact.  There they found a large triibe inhabiting a cavernous hollow in the ground in a small, hilly region of the grasslands...

 

GM's Note: Ever since Taryn had found that Orb of Dragonkind and I ruled it had actually be held for some of ts abilities to be used, I have been mindful every time he uses it.  Sooner or later, I knew that something smart enough to recogniize its power would take interest and try to deprive him of it.  As this particular NPC spellcaster was very powerful, I knew if he saw it, he would make a play for it - and I'd given him a couple of spells that would give him a shot.  Even so, several things had to go just right for him to be able to pull it off - and I didn't expect it to actually work.  So now the players are on a little detour from their time-sensitive misson, and they're having interesting coversations about how and whether to try to get it back.

Jamming Again

Thursday April 11, 2019 at 12:17pm music, guitar, drums Comments (0) »
Jamming Again Image

So a month or two ago someone at our church was talking about needing more musicians.  This actually surprised me a bit, as I know we have a lot of talented people.  Talking to our worship minister, turns out they have a lot of people that can play, but he's only got a few for any given instrument.  By the time you add in scheduling conflicts, he's apparently had some trouble filling all the roles every week.  Playing music is fun, and I like to help out, so I told him I could fill in on guitar (lead/rhythm), bass, or drums as necessary.

And I thought, yeah, I miss playing.

Getting the Axe

After that conversation, it occurred to me that it had been some time since I'd even played my SG.  Sadly, it and my amp had been in the basement for a  year or two - mostly because there isn't an "out of the way" place for them to live.  Playing again sounded like fun, so I brought it in and set it up in a corner of the living room.  It's not "out of the way", but the biggest problems are keeping the 3yo away from the knobs, and competing with the TV for audio time.

Anyway, the first thing was to change the strings and clean up the fretboard.  The second things was a bit less expected: re-solder the input jacks on my amp.  They'd been finicky for some time, but apparently they finally snapped - quite literally.  The old solder had given out from years of stress and the jacks had simply popped off the circuit board.  Luckily, it was about the easiest possible thing to solder, and thus within my meager capabilities.

Since then, I've been playing quite a bit - trying to squeeze in an hour or so most days.  I've been working a lot on my fingering, alternate picking, and generally expanding my repertoire of techniques.  I've been going through spotify playlists picking out riffs that sound like fun, and then learning how to play them.  I haven't tried anythng objectively difficult, but I'm pretty pleased with how I've been able to take something truly challenging for me that I've never attempted before and then be able to play it fairly proficiently after just a little practice.  I think I've reached a point now where I'm actually a little better than I was back in college when I was playing a lot more.

Pedal Hard

So I play through an old Peavey Special 212 Transtube amp I got in the late 90's when my highschool band outgrew my little Fender practice amp.  When I got it, I was playing a fender Duo-Sonic my parents got me after I'd been playing for a while (still one of my most memorable Christmas presents).  It's still a great amp, but Peavey's favoring of the midrange combined with the darker tone of my SG's humbuckers means that, while you get really fat lead sounds from it, you can't get a rhythm tone that isn't 5-year-old-puddle-jumper-level muddy.  After a couple weeks playing on it, I decided I needed to tweak that - and I ordered MXR's 10-band eq pedal.

I (obsessively) looked at a number of eq pedals before landing on this one.  The big reasons I decided on this one were that it offers an eq range that's useful for guitar and bass, and that it has a 'gain' slider as well as a simple 'volume'.  I figured that bumping the gain would be good for my passive instruments when doing direct-inputs, and I've found that pulling the gain all the way down (when running it post-preamp) quiets the hiss of my amp and enables me to turn the volume and post-gains on my amp up further than "1" (the other thing about my amp is that it's 200 watts - which is great if you're on an outdoor stage, and not-so-great if you're in your small house with sleeping children).  I've been pretty happy with it so far.

I'm now looking to expand my pedal selection a bit more - if only so that if I end up playing at my church, I don't have to lug my amp (the other other thing about this amp is that it is unnecessarily heavy).  Think I'm going to pick up a distortion pedal, a compressor, and a reverb to start.  After (also obsessively) looking at a lot of the options, I've got my eye on some Boss models.  They seem to be a solid mix of quality + value, they're well-reviewed, and I know Boss makes good stuff.

Drummed Up

I was never really "a drummer" - Justin always took care of that.  But I have always loved to play drums.  I think it's the energy in feeling the music that comes with it.  When my brother started playing, I developed a habit of playing his drums pretty often, teaching myself the basics and developing that particular kind of coordination.  Actually, I think it made me a better musician overall.

Since then, I've played drums in a few ad-hoc music groups - usually praise bands at camps/churches/whatever.  Basically, wherever someone was just needed.  I don't know that I would pass too many auditions, but I can keep a beat and I play well enough on simple stuff to get by.  I'm the percussive equivalent of that guitar player who only plays straight rhythms with with open fingerings - I'll get it done, but it's usually nothing special.

That's not to say I'm satisfied with my meager skill level.  I'd love to practice more, but I don't have a kit of my own, so I'm kind of stuck here for now.

Jamming Again

So last week I was asked to play drums for service this sunday.  We had a rehearsal last night, which went fairly well.  I've been deemed passable - which I consider a success if only because the guy playing percussion is a good drummer, and he said he didn't hear any big issues with my playing.  Still, the once-through rehersal was not enough for someone like me who likes to be over-prepared.  I've been told we'll go through everything "for real" on sunday morning.  Meanwhile, I'm scrambling to make recognizable notes on what I was doing that worked vs. what didn't.  As the new guy, it's maybe 1/4 the rehearsal time I'd like, but it's been a ton of fun.  

Until yesterday, I actually hadn't played drums in at least a few years.  Just haven't had the opportunity.  Knowing this, I made arrangements to get to the church a couple of hours early to warm up, break off some rust, and generally have a blast rocking out.  I played for about 2 hours straight, soaked myself pretty good with sweat, and made my shoulders sore.  If I end up doing this regularly, I think I'm going to need to get a kit.  Or make arrangements to be at the church...often. 

Yesterday was the first time since playing my brother's that I got to sit down, undisturbed, and really get comfortable with a kit.  I have to say, that by itself was awesome.  The difference between then and now, however, is that this kit is electronic.

Electro

Like a lot of actual drummers, I prefer the feel of an acoustic kit.  Unlike others, I do like the tighter sound of the electronic kits (maybe I just haven't played a really good acoustic), and the fact that I can, in a church, hit drums hard and not have to worry about being uncontrollably loud is fantastic.  The "gentler" I have to play, the worse I am - or, at least, the less I can pull off.

The church's electronic kit is pretty decent.  As you can see from the photo, it's a Roland kit, and it uses the TD9 module which is solid enough.  I actually read the owners manual ahead of time so I was able to program the sounds I wanted into my own kit on the thing (piccolo snare is a must).  The drum pads have all-mesh heads, and the response feels good.  The cymbals are decent to play on, if nothing particularly amazing.  The hats are really my only complaint.  They're not the worst I've played on, but like most of them, the trigger is "lazy" in that letting up on the foot controller after hitting the pad doesn't change the sound.  This is my continual pet peeve on electronic hats.  I do know that Roland makes a hat trigger system that mounts on an actual hi-hat stand that doesn't have this annoying behavior - I've just only got to play on one for like 10 minutes at a Guitar Center.  

 

All this has brought my songwriting back onto the radar.  Other than recording a dozen or so chord progressions as voice notes on my phone, I haven't done much with it yet - but if the musical momentum continues, I'm hoping to be able to channel it there.

 

 

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: The Crossing

Monday April 8, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Lily had a conversation with the innkeeper Helia, giving her a few more details than they'd told most of the townsfolk.  She also asked if anyone unusual had been through town, and after talking to a local farmer, they discovered that someone matchng the description of the missing Aegus Rothan had been seen several months ago.

- Using some magic from Ravina and Kael's sense of direction, the group headed north toward the Navlin Forest and the road into the Elmhine Mountains that would lead them to the abandoned Ver'Sheole keep.  The river, however, kept pushing them further west, and they eventually decided to cross at a ford, where they found themselves ambushed by goblins...

Cyrran Reaches: Unrevealed

Tuesday April 2, 2019 at 8:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- As the group left the library, they found a young elven woman weeping at a run-down shrine originally devoted to Corellon Larethian.  As Lily engaged in conversation with her, it became increasingly clear that something was wrong with her.  The woman became increasingly agitated, and apparently reached a breaking point when an unearthly shriek came out of her.  The sound was loud enough to vibrate the surrounding structures - and attract the attention of the bebilith that had entered the Courthall.

- Lily attempted to ignite the webs the spider-demon had constructed across the street, but found that they would not burn well.  The party had just begun hacking their way through when the spider burst through the large, half-open doors of the building.  Kael fired arrows and Lily summoned a celestial creature to distract the monster as they made their escape.

- Back in town, the group rested at the inn and told the townsfolk some of what they found at the keep on the hill.  Most were troubled at the news, but few seemed surprised.  Taryn had another chat with a strange but familiar swordsman, and Lily also was visited by a strange old woman whom she later decided must have been the hag she and her friends had encountered when the first arrived in the region.  Apparently she came to tell them that orcs were massing in the western corners of the area, organized by something claiming an eye/tooth symbol...

 

GM's Note:

This game has been going for a while, and I found it very satisfying to (finally) get to bring in a hook from all the way back at the start of the campaign.  This narrative thread was so old that we've added 2 players to the group since it was on-screen.  When the PCs had spared this hag and saved her "pet" hydra, she told them she would not forget their kindness - and has now made good on that by alerting them to a growing problem they otherwise had no way of knowing about.

Cyrran Reaches: Secrets of the Past pt. I

Tuesday March 26, 2019 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Though wearing down quickly, the group continued the fight against the demons until their leader noticed the monstrous demonic spider trying to gain entry to the hall - at which point it fled and its remaining lackies went with it.

- After taking a moment to regain their strength, the party decided they would make a search of this main structure of the keep.  Its upper floors contained the bodies of quite a few dead demons, the most of which were piled before the door of a small study.  Having discovered there was someone inside, they had a brief conversation through the locked door before he vanished.  It wasn't until later that Lily realized who it was: Aulthust, the marked man.

- The group picked the lock and searched through the room, finding that the man was apparently concerned with books on elven lore and history and something pertaining to a dwarven settlement - and they learned a few tidbits from the open books they found and decided they would head to the keep's library.  There they found more info about the keep they're heading to - Ver'Sheole - and saw more evidence of Aulthust's search for information on a place called Ur'Galek...

Cyrran Reaches: Smashing The Way In

Tuesday March 19, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (2) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Unable to trace the tattooed man (suspecting he was an illusion) and aware that demons in the streets around them were closing in, they made the decision to smash their way through a window of the large, central building.

- Once in position, Tyrrox shattered the glass and metal of the window and everyone scrambled up and through it.  Though their efforts were well coordinated, they soon found themselves under attack and pressed between a gang of demons from inside the building, and the monstrous, demonic spider from outside...

No Thank You Evil: Towing Hobgoblins pt. I

 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

- The Inspector directed the Pirate Olivia and her Pretty Pony to take the hobgoblins they'd captured to Lucy Lawful in Out The Window. 

- On the way to the Crossroads, they saved Edwin Bear from a gang of Fluff Spiders. 

- They encountered That Imp at the Crossroads, but they managed to get past him by convincing him that his demanded toll of three Unicorn Feathers didn't make any sense.

- Once through the Crossroads and into Out The Window, they searched the crowded city streets for Lucy Lawful's office.  Just when they found it, however, a wave of Bobgoblins swept them into Nortorious Inc. where Olivia found herself locked in a filing room...

Cyrran Reaches: In The Webs

Tuesday March 12, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The party gathered themselves together and made their way deeper into the keep.  They found the central building structure - likely the lord's manor and court they were seeking.  Between them and the entrance, however, was a great deal of webbing they believed was probably from the massive demonic spider Lily had seen earlier.  From the attic of a nearby tavern, they were able to get a slighly better view of the area.  They were deciding whether to go through the webs, traverse the rooftops over them, or smash their way through one of the high windows when they caught sight of someone moving in the abandoned city: a tall man with a curling tattoo of a two-headed dragon on his face...

Cyrran Reaches: Demons & Devils

Wednesday March 6, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group was continuing its struggle against the Gelugon and its Bone Devil minions when a small horde of Babau demons were alerted to the situation.  Taryn had managed to distract and anger the ice fiend - which was both good and bad.  As the Babau rushed in, the Gelugon once more blasted the entire area with a wave of frost, further wearing down the already-battered PCs and the demons alike.  The PCs collectively decided to let the mortal enemy fiends take out each other while they disengaged. 

- Unfortunately, the injured Kael found himself pinned down against one of the buildings in the street as the fight between the outsiders raged around him.  Taking aim at the Gelugon's head, fortune smiled on the desperate ranger - giving him a perfect shot that felled the devil.  As it exploded into shards of ice, the Babau horde chased after the remaining Bone Devils, leaving the PCs alone on the frozen streets...

Between Two Cities + Gamer In Training

Monday March 4, 2019 at 12:46pm board games Comments (3) »
 Cover artwork © Stonemaier Games
Cover artwork © Stonemaier Games

Over the weekend, Sheri & I played Between Two Cities with our daughter.  We'd bought the game for her for Christmas - our friend Tony had recommended it as a good age-accessible game - but with everything else going on, we hadn't managed to bring it to the table before now.  Actually, Hannah had even forgotten about it entirely.

Since Sheri & I are both into various tabletop games, we like to encourage that with our kids - especially with Hannah, now that she's getting old enough to really play some of the more interesting games.  I mean, Candyland has its limits.

 

Between Two Cities is a great quick-play game for 3-7 people.  The fact that it supports more than 4 players is an automatic bonus for us, since we frequently play games with larger groups of friends.  It actually has a solo variant as well, if that's your thing.  We played the game through twice in about half an hour or so.  We were only playing with three, but because of the way the game works, I don't imagine that increasing the number of players will greatly affect the play time (I'll let you know if I find out differently). The game has a competitive goal, but it is actually played cooperatively - which is a very interesting dichotomy.

During the three "rounds" of the game, you will be building two different cities: one with the player to your left, and the other with the player to your right.  On each turn, you'll choose a couple of tiles from your hand, and you will to place one in each - then, you and your partners will decide where to place the tiles in your city for best effect.  There are several different types of tiles, and each scores points in a different way; the goal is to create the best cities you can with what you have.  Note that you have to focus on both cities, because your personal score will be equal to whichever of your cities scores the lowest.

 

Hannah loved the game.  At 7, she can't quite keep all of the considerations in her head while placing tiles - but then, neither can I.  She said she really wants to play it again, though she's also really excited to play Stuffed Fables and to do more No Thank You Evil.  She went to bed that night having encountered, for the first time, the "Gamer's Dilemma": So Many Games, So Little Time.

 

~PS

Play Me + Tiny Epic Quest

Tuesday February 26, 2019 at 12:19pm board games Comments (0) »
 Cover artwork © CMON and Gamelyn Games
Cover artwork © CMON and Gamelyn Games

Last night was supposed to be our third D&D session of 2019, but alas, it was cancelled due to a player or two being sick.  So instead, the healthy among us busted out a couple of small box board games.

Play Me

The first one we pulled out was called "Play Me".  It's an Alice-in-Wonderland-themed dice-rolling game that starts competitive and then (probably) becomes cooperative. 

The basic mechanic is that you're trying to be the first to roll a 1-6 straight on six dice, only keeping one die per roll.  You can "block" the other players to slow them down, and each of the characters you're playing (Alice, the Cheshire Cat, The Mad Hatter, etc) starts out with a unique ability that aids them in this endeavor.  However, once you've won a round, your card flips to the "Madness" side: you lose your special ability and gain a pretty serious detriment.  The design consideration seems to be that it should be possible for someone to win with their detriment in play, but it should be unlikely

If you do pull off a Madness win, you win and the game is over - but if no one manages this before all players have flipped to the Madness side, then the game changes: the last person to win loses their character - and becomes the Jabberwocky.  Everyone else flips their cards back over to the advantageous (aka "Wonder") side, and they, collectively, must now win multiple rounds before the Jabberwocky can drive them all Mad.

Overall this was a simple but fun game.  Not one I could play for hours, but it has an interesting flavor and is definitely fast-paced.  The competitive/cooperative dynamic is also interesting.  I think our game took about 20 minutes, and that seemed like the "right" amount of time to spend on it.  The artwork is really cool, and the dice are pretty.  Also, I love Alice in Wonderland, so that's a plus for me. (Sidenote: In case you're wondering, this is the best movie version.)

Tiny Epic Quest

We started to play Tiny Epic Quest some weeks ago, but really only managed to get it set up, sort of figure out the rules, and stumble through a couple of turns.  (Note: learning the game takes some effort.)  I was just starting to really get into it when we had to quit for the night.  Last night, we cracked it open again.

For being so Tiny, this game is pretty complex - or, at least it has a lot of components and aspects.  And a lot of fiddly bits. 

Basically, the game works like this:

The game is played over 5 rounds, each of which has a Day phase and a Night phase.  During the Day phase, you move your three heroes to different locations on the island kingdom - usually to complete "movement quests", to get boosts from "Mushroom Grottos", and/or to set yourself up for the Night phase.  During the Night phase you "Adventure".  Here players take turns rolling the Adventuring Dice, which will damage them, give them Power to help aid their efforts, increase the world's magic level (so they can learn Spells), and allow them to progress through temples and attack goblins.  Some symbols rolled will benefit everyone, others only affect some players based on who rolled them, the relative seating positions of those at the table, and the number of symbols rolled.  Adventuring continues until all players have said they've had enough and declared that they're going to "Rest" - at which point the Night Phase resolves and the game progresses to the next Day.

Objectives for earning victory points in Tiny Epic Quest include learning Spells, completing Quests/Temples, and fighting Goblins.  Learning Spells increases your magic power, defeating Goblins increases your health/toughness, and completing Quests gives you some boon to aid in your adventures.

Scoring at the end of the 5th round works something like games such as Agricola: you get points for Quests, for defeating Goblins, and for learning Spells.  The more of one thing you do, the more points you get - but ignoring one of those aspects actually costs you points as well, so you'll want to keep that in mind.  You also get bonus points for each Legendary Item you recover (which you do by completing certain Temples according to your hero card).  In only 5 rounds, you probably won't get "everything", so you'll want to plan where you're going to focus without getting too specialized.

We played this one for an hour and a half or so before we had to call it.  I think we made it into round 4, so we didn't have a lot more to go.  I found this one to be a lot of fun, and I look forward to playing it again.  While it is complex, once you get your head around the different aspects, it's actually pretty straight-forward - and since everyone's movement choices and die rolls offer opportunities to all of the players, you don't get too bored during other players' turns. 

Production value on the game is pretty high - which is what we tend to expect these days.  All of the components are well designed and produced, and the implementation of meeples that can actually hold items is highly amusing as well.

 

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Bedeviled

Tuesday February 19, 2019 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- As the group proceeded deeper into the fort, Kael found a town-square area that contained a fountain - all of it frozen over with a thick layer of ice.  The bodies of dozens of devils and other monstrous humanoid creatures littered the ground.  There was a sudden tremor and a red, electric glow "awakened" the ice devil lying in a far corner, which then summoned several more fiends to its aid.


- The group struggled to reunite and coordinate its efforts against this threat, but a building collapse resulted in something of a bottleneck in the street. Ravina was KO'd attempting to keep the creature from concentrating its attacks on the injured Kael, Lily is having some difficulty getting into position, and Tyrrox has been tied up with a pair of bone devils. The gelugon has proved itself a formidable opponent, and while the acid breath from Taryn's orb was effective, the ice devil returned in kind with a blast of frigid air...


The battle continues...

Battletech: Forged In Plastic

Monday February 4, 2019 at 12:38pm battletech, miniatures Comments (0) »
Battletech: Forged In Plastic Image

As of a little less than two weeks ago, Catalyst finally released their awesome new Battletech Box sets. And, from what I hear, supplies are already running short.  Also, as part of my "yearly gaming order", I picked up a handful of units from some "unofficial" third-party manufacturers which have been added to my already decent collection of plastic minis from other production runs.  Because there are some notable differences between them, I thought I'd do a little comparison here.  Such a thing would have been useful to me, I think.

Battletech 3rd Edition

While I only really got into the miniatures game 4ish years ago, my oldest Battletech minis harken all the way from 1994.  I am, of course, talking about the Battletech 3rd Edition Box Set.  The 3rd Ed set came with 14 plastic minis of fairly poor quality.  I mean, that was like 25 yeas ago - your expectations probably shouldn't be *super* high.  There are a fair number of holes and warped/mis-shapen surfaces.  My Warhammer was actually missing part of the shoulder such that the right arm couldn't be attached.  Most of this was readily fixable (the rebuild on the WHM's arm was a bit arduous, but turned out well), but it's not indicative of superlative production quality.

The thing is, however, basically all of the 3rd Ed box minis, shabby as they are, are also Unseen minis: if you want an official, old-style Marauder or Warhammer in plastic, this is pretty much your option.  Also, I found that good paint work can really make a so-so sculpt look good.  My Crusader from this set is, I think, still one of my best minis.

The scale of some of these minis is a little wonky, tending toward overlarge size compared to the later box sets (though not the most recent, see below) - particularly the lights and mediums, such as the Phoneix Hawk, which seems comically oversized for a 45-ton medium, especially standing next to the Battlemaster from the same set.

Battletech Introductory Box Set

The next box set with plastic minis arrived via Catalyst in '07.  This one had 24 plastic minis, plus two "premium" plastic minis.  While the "premium" minis were nice, the other minis in the set are, well, pretty poor quality, suffering from most of the same problems as the 3rd Ed box, but without the appeal of Unseen units.  Still, if you were just getting into the game, 26 minis would give you a lot of play for $50-$60, even if it wasn't particularly "pretty".

The sculpts on these are what some would characterize as "classic", and what others might deem "silly".  The two are not mutually exclusive.  The units are modeled around older designs, and some of them show their age more than others.

I have a set of the minis from this first intro box set production, but I haven't bothered painting any of them.  I have, however, let my 7yo paint a few, in her typical rainbow fashion.

The scale of these is what I use as a baseline, as the sculpts and sizes are similar to the metal minis of the time.  In general, the scale seems "normal", though some units are maybe a little too big or too small.

In addition, this set came with some really nice folding cardboard maps.  I have two sets of these, and they are what I prefer to play on.  After having the thick boards, playing on creased paper seems like a downgrade.

Battletech 25th Anniversary Introductory Box Set & Alpha Strike Lance Packs

This one - the one with the Atlas on the cover - is what I would refer to as the Holy Grail of plastic Battletech.  The "premium" minis in this set are different units from the previous and, ironically, maybe not quite as good - but the other units are the *real* story. 

This set contained the same impressive array of units with identical sculpts as the previous release, but with a major improvement in quality.   Aside from the "premium" units of the former release, these were probably the first "good" plastic minis for Classic Battletech.  I have two full sets of these minis, and they form the backbone of my collection through sheer numbers.  The Alpha Strike Lance Packs had units of the same quality (all of them including at least 2 units from the box set), and at ~$15, they were a decent value as well.  To this day, if you see a copy of the 25th Anniversary Box Set for anything even close to MSRP, it's a great value.

Since they're the same sculpts as the original Intro set, the scale evaluation is identical.  There are a few minis from the Alpha Strike packs - like the Stalker - that seem to be a bit "off", but overall the line feels *fairly* consistent.

Battletech Beginner Box and A Game Of Armored Combat

And that brings us to Catalyst's most recent offer: the new, much-anticipated box sets that came out just a couple weeks ago.

The sculpts on these units are pretty amazing.  Maybe not *perfect* quality, but they are definitely the best to-date.  The only "complaint" on I have on these minis - and it's a comparatively small one - is that they monkeyed with the scale.  The minis from the new sets are noticeably larger than they should be - some, like the Awesome and the Catapult are pretty dramatically different.  While they are taller, mostly the new units are just thicker - beefier. 

I'm not sure why they did this.  Perhaps the larger size made controlling for errors in the plastic easier or less expensive.  Or perhaps they're looking to make more and they're seeking to "invalidate" previous models.  Given the not-quite-consistent array Battletech seems to have with regard to scale anyway, the different unit sizes are likely only to be distracting when fielded with the same units from other productions.  So, while not a "perfect" addition to existing mini collections, they're acceptable - and, again, the quality on these is outstanding, and the sculpts are considerably cooler than their predecessors (especially that Thunderbolt).

The new paper maps in these sets are pretty nice - the shading on the levels makes a flat map way more playable.  That said, I'm unlikely to use them as-is: the cardboard maps are just too nice, and I like the hex terrain levels I've made.  I will probably chop these maps up to make more hex terrrain.  I *did* find the inclusion of some cardboard tiles with terrain bits on them a nice surprise - this can add some additional variation to the otherwise static maps.

The quality of the other materials in the box are all superb as well - rulebooks, fiction, etc - but the minis are what I came for.

(Size Comparisons)

 

And now we move on it 3rd-party and "unofficial" sources for Battletech:

 

Robotech Tactics

Some time back, Palladium made a Robotech miniatures game called Robotech Tactics.  From what I understand, it wasn't a huge success.  However, several of the miniatures for this game were perfect stand-ins for Unseen Battletech 'mechs claiming the same design.  By the time I discovered these, they were getting to be hard to find.  I'd still love to find a Spartan/Phalanx (Archer/Longbow) set for $Decent, but alas, those seem to be long gone.  I did, however, pick up a Tomahawk/Defender (Warhammer/Rifleman) box - and, as of the time of this writing, you can still find these here and there.

These minis are good quality, but they are a nuclear pain to assemble.  One miniature of this scale should not be composed of more than a dozen pieces, especially when those pieces have precious few tabs or sockets to help with their assembly.  They also leave some gaps in unwanted places.

That said, once you've won the assembly battle, you've got some pretty nice-looking units, and the scale is pretty near identical to the original Battletech minis - at least for most units.

When I ordered my set off Amazon, I noted that it had 5 reviews.  Three of them mentioned that they were bought for Battletech.  I wonder what percentage of Robotech Tactics minis ever see a Robotech Tactics game.

Warhansa

I follow the #battletech hashtag on Instagram, and through this discovered that you can get some unofficial and/or 3d-printed minis of newer sculpts (such as MWO versions) from various places online.  Warhansa seemed to be one of the better liked sources.

Given that the company is in Russia, it takes a minute to get deliveries here in the states.  That said, they have a pretty impressive catalog of "Robomechs", scaled to the same(ish) size as standard Battletech minis - so I ordered a few minis unavailable in plastic from anywhere else.  

Overall, the quality is good, but there does seem to be some variance from unit to unit.  I don't know if some of their models are just better than others, or if the production of said models is inconsistent, but I found that my Black Knight, Crab, and Urbanmech are pretty precise, while the Highlander and King Crab have considerably more...fudge...in the rendering.  Still, they'll all look good once they're painted up.

The minis come disassembled and with a bit of material to be trimmed, but they're quite easy to put together - probably the easiest I've done to-date.

Scale seems to be fairly accurate to standard Battletech overall - which is to say, a little bit smaller than the current sets.  One or two might be slightly too big or too small, but again, within standard deviations.

The names Warhansa gives to their minis are obvious tongue-in-check references to official Battletech units: the Crab and King Crab are "Shrimp" and "Jumbo Shrimp" respecitively, the Black Knight is a "King Arthur", the Highlander is a "Mountain", etc.  It does make identifying them fairly straightforward in most cases.

(Photo)

Stratominis

Strato is a Polish company that makes some generic-ish sci-fi minis of a generally comparable scale, but some of them are obviously inspired by Battletech units.  These minis might be the best looking ones I own.  Very precise casting over 95%+ of the surfaces.  And the sculpts - particularly the one for the Marauder (which they call "Bull Shark") - look amazing.  When I saw that, I knew I'd be giving them some cash.

These minis come disassembled and with some material to be trimmed - particularly from the bottoms of the feet - but they're not too bad to put together, and the final product looks great.

The Stratominis scale is a little bit too big, but that actually puts it in the right ballpark for the current Battletech minis from the new sets.  While those units are really "beefy", most of the Strato units are sleeker - just tall.

(Size Comparisons)

 

So, there you have it.  My findings in the realm of non-metal Battletech miniatures.

 

~PS

What We've Been Playing

Friday January 18, 2019 at 1:07pm board games Comments (0) »
 Cover artwork © Mayfair Games, Twogether Studios, Stonemaier Games, Plaid Hat Games, Leder Games
Cover artwork © Mayfair Games, Twogether Studios, Stonemaier Games, Plaid Hat Games, Leder Games

When not playing our tabletop rpg campaigns (see also: most of the rest of this blog currently), we've enjoy busting out some board games.  Every so often, we pick up a new one that we really like.  Here's what we've got into over the last year or so:

 

Iron Dragon

My wife loves the Ticket To Ride games.  A lot.  We own most of the iterations and have played them more times over the years than I could possibly count.  We've occasionally tried other train-themed games, but TTR had always remained king.

Then about a year ago, I got her Iron Dragon for Christmas.  Since then I think we've played TTR maybe twice.  I mean, I can remember playing it once for sure.  There might have been another time.  I dunno.

This is actually an old game from the 90s, but it was reprinted in late 2017.  The game involves connecting cities like TTR, but you also have to deliver goods from city to city based on demands, and manage your cash to build new rails.  It's everything we liked about TTR, and then some.

Iron Dragon is a train-based, empire-building game with a sort of fantasy-industrial flavor.  Each city on the board produces one or two resources, and you have cards that indicate which cities want which goods.  You build track to deliver the wanted item to the city, and you get paid - the harder it was to get the item there, the bigger the payout.  Then you draw another demand card and expand your rail lines into new territory.  You can hire different foremen to help you build in different regions, and upgrade your train to go faster and carry more.

If there's one negative to ID, it's that it's a long game.  Playing with one other player when both of you know the rules well, a game takes about 2 hours.  If you add more people or you're playing with new players, add an hour or two.

 

Illimat

It turns out that the Decemberists got into playing board games.  Back in 2016, they hired the designers at Twogether Studios to create rules for a game based on the arcane, antiquated aesthetics of a photo shoot they'd done some years earlier, and launched a Kickstarter to fund it.  When one of my favorite bands wanted to do a project with one of my favorite hobbies, I was all in.

Since I got my copy back in late 2017, I've played it quite a bit, and it's one of the games I love introducing to people.

Illimat plays like a classic card game with some modern, mechanical twists.  It has enough recognizeable elements to be extremely accessible, but enough novelty to make it interesting.  The game is played in hands, where player attempt to "harvest" cards from different areas of the playing field.  The changing "seasons" of each area affect which actions you can and cannot do, and the "luminary" cards add additional, transient rules.

My friend Rucht and I actually got to talk with designers of the game on our Table Dragon podcast a while back.  We had some issues with the audio quality, but the conversation was a blast.

 

Charterstone

I do tend to get my wife a new game for Christmas each year.  For two reasons, really.  One, she likes board games, and two, she is really difficult to shop for.

We also have this tradition of playing boardgames around the Christmas tree during the holiday season.  In fact, it's probably the season where we play the most games.

This year, I wanted to do something different.  I'd heard about "legacy" board games, but had never played one - so I did a little googling for one that was well-reviewed and looked like the kind of thing my wife would be into.  I settled on Charterstone.

Let me say that this game is awesomeIt's a fairly standard (if complex) worker-placement game, but the legacy elements are amazing.  The introduction of mechanics a little at a time is a great way to build a complex game, and the unfolding story is interesting and surprisingly....odd.  We're six games in to the 12-game campaign, and it continues to surprise us with new aspects.

If you pick up this game - which I do recommend - make sure you only read what you're supposed to, and make sure you read that very, very carefully: if you don't do something just right, you can screw stuff up.  Probably not irreparably, but enough that it will affect future games.  Also, don't overthink it: just do what it tells you to do, make sure you've got it all, and then just play with what you know.  The game will build itself from there.  Really cool.

Since picking this one up, I've been looking into other legacy games. I've heard good things about Gloomhaven and the Betrayal Legacy version.

 

Stuffed Fables

This was one of the many games introduced to me by one or more of my many gamer/board-gamer friends.  This one I've only played once so far, but I've got to mention it, because it's so cool.

First, the premise of Stuffed Fables is awesome: all of the players are the stuffed animals belonging to a little girl.  They protect her at night, of course.

Second, the game progression is interesting.  It plays a little like a board game, a little like an rpg, and a little like a choose-your-own-adventure book.  Basically, each page of the game book contains a bit of story and a game board with a given objective.  The players move around the board and perform actions based on their character abilities and the objective on that "page" of the story.  After completing the actions on that page/board, you flip to another one based on what happened.

The game has an interesting dice-drawing mechanic; most of the other mechanics of Stuffed Fables seem fairly standard, but well implemented.  It's a cooperative game as well, which I always enjoy.  Also, the miniatures look awesome, and I can't wait to paint them.

 

Vast

I heard cool things about this game online and encountered it in passing at our (mostly) yearly Trogland Meetup, but I didn't get to play it until more recently.  It did not disappoint.

Vast is a pretty unique game in my experience.  The premise is a group of conflicting parties all wanting something from a given situation - specifically, a situation involving a cave, a dragon, a knight, a theif, a tribe of goblins, and, of course, treasure. 

Some of the goals are mutually exclusive, but others are not.  I may not get the specifics quite right, but it's something like this: The Knight wants to kill the dragon.  The Dragon wants to wake up and leave the cave (presumably to sow chaos elsewhere), the Theif wants to steal the treasure.  The Goblins want to kill the Knight.  The Cave wants to collapse on all of these noisy intruders so that it can rest.

Each player plays one of the above roles (including the Cave!), and has their own set of actions and abilities to perform on their turn.  The first to accomplish their objective wins the game.

Now, when I say that each player has their own set of actions and abilities, I mean they each have their own unique set of mechanics.  This makes the game very interesting, but also very difficult to learn.  In most games, if you're new, after a brief overview you have someone else go first and you just kind of watch what they do to get the gist of how the thing works.  That method is utterly useless with Vast, because what the other players do has literally nothing in common with what you'll be doing.  And, unfortunately, the rulebook could be several orders of magnitude more clear on a lot of things.  I recommend google and youtube if you don't have someone handy who knows how to run your particular entity to get you going.

It definitely has a learning curve, but it's definitely worth it.

 

Honorable Mentions

There are several other games we've played a little and enjoyed as well.  Boss Monster, Smash Up, Clank, Kodama, and Rise of Tribes come to mind.  There are probably others.  That last one I only got to play a partial game of, but it seemed really neat.

Our daughter has also started getting into games a bit.  Her current favorites are Sleeping QueensSet, and Decadolo.  We got her Between Two Cities for Christmas, and I'm looking forward to trying that one - as soon as she cleans her room.

There are, of course, always a number of other games I've heard good things about that I'd love to pick up at some point.  Right now that list contains KeyForge, Terrra Mystica, Gaia Project, Scythe, Swords and Strongholds,  Also love to play Roll for the Galaxy again.

We play a fair bit of Dixit, Telestrations, and Red Dragon Inn as well - they're our current go-to's for "an easy game that fits a lot of players".

I'm sure there's something cool I've left out.  I think in the future I'll try to post these one at a time as we pick them up. 

We'll see.

 

~PS

Black Foxes: Better Than Nothing

Thursday January 17, 2019 at 8:30pm blades in the dark, black foxes, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- Fortune was not on the side of our scoundrels tonight, which meant that all of their successes came with a lot more strings attached.

- The pair found out which door had been repainted recently from a man hanging out on a balcony in the backpool, but only after Erik agreed to take him out for a drink the following evening and the manifesting ghost echoes prompted them to act on this information immediately.

- Once inside, the crew met the man called Thad they'd been told about - some Iruvian hawker from a gang called the Incense Collective.  Turns out the gang that Tellis used to run with indirectly caused some problems for Thad's organization, and that was going to dent the profitability of any deal to be made.  By this time, Boros and Erik were so worn down that they just wanted to take what they could get and be done with it. 

- The gang ended up with some impressive coin, but it was only a fraction of what their stolen loot was worth.  To top it off, Thad only agreed to the deal at all if they promised him a favor, but they had to get something out of this and they knew their bargaining position was slipping by the second. 

- Looks like the Foxes are going to be breaking into a Bluecoat watch station to destroy some incriminating evidence - but first, they've got to do something on their own turf about the Stone Club...

Aralakh Company: Out For Blood pt. VI

Thursday January 10, 2019 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- With armor all but completely blasted away from both sides, each hit began to have a real impact.  While Aralakh and the attackers both took quite a bit of critical damage in recent exchanges, the key turning point came when the newly-arrived reinforcements managed to take the 95-ton Banshee out of the fight.

Cyrran Reaches: The Silent Keep pt. II

Tuesday January 8, 2019 at 8:15pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- After fighting off the orcs, the group stayed the night at the Darkpine Inn as local celebrities.  The next day they made their way into the pine forest and up to the sealed keep.  The forest was unnaturally dark, devoid of animal life, and host to shadowy beings that lingered just at the edge of their perception. 

- Upon arriving at the keep's walls, they found that the doors of the gate had been broken but wedged back in place, and that something had gouged abyssal words into the stone wall.  Lily was able to read the writing, but when she tried to tell Kael what it said, something began to affect her mind or perception.  Believing him to be a threat, Lily attacked Kael - stabbing him with her sword.  As the others attempted to discern what was happening and talk her down, she appeared more and more disconnected from the present situation.  An enchantment-breaking spell from Ravina eventually returned her completely to them.

- Meanwhile, Taryn had found a way into the keep.  Climbing a tree that had fallen against the wall, the group was able to easily bypass the gate and the 15' wall it was set in.  Once inside, they found the streets littered with half-completed statues of people (which they suspect may be victims of some unusual petrification effect) and the dead bodies of several devils.  The only living thing they encountered was a senile old woman who didn't seem to know much about what was going on.

- After the old woman wandered off, the group decided to press further in, searching for the lord's manor...

Black Foxes: Moving The Goods

Thursday December 20, 2018 at 9:15pm blades in the dark, black foxes, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- The other boatman turned out to be an opportunist called Tellis looking for a way to make some coin with his info.  He gave them some instructions and the name of a likely buyer for the goods they'd just pulled out of the canal.

- The crew decided to jump on the opportunity immediately - both to unload their hot cargo asap, and because they really need the coin to finance their other efforts.

- Making their way to Silkshore, they made contact with the Bluecoat Lannerhand and got access to the backpool - but the blue door they were supposed to find is nowhere to be seen...

Aralakh Company: Out For Blood pt. V

Tuesday December 18, 2018 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Having lost their heavies, Aralakh found itselve in a seriously-out-gunned 2-on-4 match.  They spent a couple of rounds in defensive maneuvering before getting word that half of Garret's Bluesabres lance was coming in to assist them. 

- The arrival of the Clint and Orion didn't exactly even the playing field, but it did add significant strength to their previously-desperate position.  Even so, they had poor fortune overall in trying to inflict significant damage on their foes...

Cyrran Reaches: Village Beset pt. III

Monday December 17, 2018 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The party continued to engage them undead leaders as the orc horde descended upon the village.  Some well-placed blows, a summoning spell, entangling vegetation, and a breath weapon kept the raiders from reaching the town and sent them fleeing back into the wilderness.

- After the battle, Taryn once again noticed a strange flash in the dragon orb he had been carrying - it was accompanied this time by a voice and a summons.  What he found when he answered was a sort of meeting place for the current owners of the orbs - though this was not at all to say they were "friends".

- One of the villagers did give them a bit more info about the keep - but mostly they weren't sure what was going on.  The keep had suddenly ceased opening its gates and no human sounds are heard coming from within.  The darkness that has settled upon the pine forest has kept most of the villagers away from it.

Cyrran Reaches: Village Beset pt. II

Thursday December 13, 2018 at 9:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- As the party continued more earnestly engaged the raiders, they found the two lead orcs to be a considerable challenge.  By the time the rest of the band was reaching the village, only one of the wolves had been killed.  Lily sent a sonic bolt through the remaining wolf and its orc rider.  The stroke felled the latter, but then that a strange, red static seemed to pull it back up from the ground, it's eyes glowing bright as arcs of brilliant red electricity shot between the tall spires of the keep on the hill behind them...

Cyrran Reaches: Village Beset pt. I

Tuesday December 4, 2018 at 8:15pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- The group was talking a bit more with the locals - trying to get a feel for the village and whatever is going on there - when they suddenly found themselves under attack by some raiding orcs from the plains to the west, and by shadows from the pine forest at the edge of town...

Cyrran Reaches: The Silent Keep pt. I

Tuesday November 27, 2018 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Having discussed their next move, the party made plans to seek out the keep called Ver'Sheole: if Many Eyes, Many Teeth had interest in the location, they wanted to reach it before the cult did.

- They consulted with Tyless Vallane again about what the House Vallane Adventurers' Guild knew about Ver'Sheole, which, unfortunately, wasn't much.  It was an elven keep located in a pass up in the Elmhine Mountains that has long been abandoned.  An old "road" leading up and out of the Navlin Forest should take you to the keep if you can find it. 

- Tyless was a bit more help in planning their route, however, knowing more about the Reaches than any in the party.  He told them the fastest way would likely be to go north through the town of Blosam and then east to the Navlin Forest and the mountains, but, he said, if they took a slightly longer route through Fort Kelsguard, they might be able to find useful information in its library.  Feeling like they might need more info to find the place, they opted for the latter option.

- On the way to Kelsguard, the party found the remains of a wagon and the bodies of two men apparently attacked by orcs.  Tyrrox happened to notice a letter among the tattered clothing of one of the men - it was addressed to the constable at Rolessi and detailed a call for help from Fort Kelsguard, saying that the keep had cut itself off from the village outside and that they suspected their paranoid ruler had finally gone mad.

- They arrived at the village of Kelsguard just after dusk and made their way to the only establishment that seemed to contain any activity - a reasonably-sized inn called Darkpine run by a somewhat cantankerous woman by the name of Helia Twill.  Lily did a good job of presenting the party to the suspicious strangers in the best possible light, but while Helia did tell them that something was certainly wrong, she refused to go into any detail.  Instead, she told them that if they wanted to find out what was going on, they needed to go to the keep and look for themselves...

Cyrran Reaches: The Social Scene pt. III

Monday November 19, 2018 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Tyrrox brought the nearly-unconscious Eliot Jaand to the watch-captain Wencia, who was sure that he'd been drugged.  She asked Tyrrox some questions about the situation and was alarmed at the mention of demons.

- Taryn caught up with the woman in the purple dress talking in an alcove with a dwarf.  He heard parts of their conversation, including mention of Malefes, some sort of deal, and an elven keep in the eastern mountains called Ver'Sheole.  Tyless Vallane later brought up this name again, and wondered if it was another designation for the same keep Taryn had been researching.

- Lilly spoke to Lord Magnar about the magical mark on the floor of the hall, which turned out to be the symbol of Many Eyes, Many Teeth.  She suspected a woman in a yellow dress as the source of the mark, and was able to learn that she seemed to be connected to lesser-noble house of Nevarg.

- Fredrick Thullus of the Reaches Arms approached Taryn, Tyrrox, and Kebrand Brightwinter about some help the House Vallane Adventurers' Guild could be to him.  Apparently a contact of his at House Briglau in Igveston had news of increased orc activity and an intentional rock-slide bearing the eye-tooth mark.

Black Foxes: Sunken Treasure

Thursday November 15, 2018 at 8:30pm blades in the dark, black foxes, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- The Foxes regrouped after their last score, but they know clocks are ticking on some outstanding "problems".

- Borrick - the leader of the local Bluecoat patrol - cornered Erik in the Three Pennies, threatening to run him in. The scoundrels managed to dodge Ironhook for the time being by promising a future favor.

- The Foxes' gang returned with news about a ditched smugglers' shipment in one of the Coalridge canals.  Needing coin for their plans and figuring the shipment must be worth something, they decided to jump on the opportunity.

- They "acquired" a boat from a local fisherman and went to the place the gang had described.  Due to some good fortune they managed to locate and recover both small metal crates with relatively little consquence, but before they could vacate the area, another boat came up the canal.  They made like they were simple fishermen, but the inquiry "So how's the fishing tonight?" called from the other watercraft didn't sound completely sincere...

 

Cyrran Reaches: The Social Scene pt. II

Tuesday November 13, 2018 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- As Lily was beginning her performance, Taryn found his way into the library where he spotted a woman in a dark purple dress apparently stealing a book from the library.  He did his best to apprehend her, but some confusion with the guards and some subtle magic allowed her to slip away and he lost her in the crowds outside.

- Lily noticed some unusual activity from the stage involving a woman in a bright yellow dress, who was apparently leaving the party as she was finishing her set with Julius Nevarg.  As they neared the exist, she saw a young woman in a dark purple dress approach and hand her something.  She also saw Taryn apparently searching urgently for someone or something - and he was a cloaked in shadow, meaning he had activated one of his more potent magic items.

- Meanwhile, a fight broke out near Tyrrox between a dwarf and a drunk, and he spotted two men escorting an apparently-drunk guardsman out of the hall.  When he approached he was able to see the that guard was more dazed than drunk and so intervened.  The two men made it into the hall outside before Tyrrox caught up with them and, when pressed, revealed themselves to be quasits and flew away - causing a small amount of commotion with the nearby guards.

- After spotting some strange marks appearing on the floor, Kael - who'd previously been enjoying the evening with Gella Barens (a young noblewoman he'd met in Igveston) - began to get a hunch that something was wrong.  He met up with Lily as they approached the Balcony where Taryn was scanning the room for his quarry...

Aralakh Company: Out For Blood pt. IV

Thursday November 8, 2018 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh's good fortune couldn't last, perhaps because it was too good.  Now realizing his opponents were a significant threat, the Marauder began to check his overconfidence and think more tactically.  Though he'd been hunting the Phoenix Hawk, its defensive maneuvering began presenting him with more ideal shots against the Crusader and the Warhammer which he no longer blindly ignored.  This change in tactics from their most dangerous opponent - combined with gravity and some bad fortune - resulted in the loss of both units over the subsequent exchanges.

- Their primary heavy units now disabled and the Phoenix Hawk starting to show some wear, Aralakh's position is beginning to look more desperate.  Hopefully reinforcements will arrive soon...

Aralakh Company: Out For Blood pt. III

Thursday November 1, 2018 at 9:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- After a rough initial contact, Aralakh's forces began to rally.  A few decisive rounds exploited their dangerous enemies' poor fortune and lack of effective coordination.  As the result of concentrated fire, the Banshee has lost its AC/5 and a signficant quantity of armor while the Marauder's left arm PPC has been destroyed. 

- These scores didn't come freely, however, as the Banshee repeatedly pummeled the Crusader with its powerful fists, and the Phoenix Hawk is starting to show some wear as well.  Still, the tables have drastically turned in Aralakh's favor and an engagement that was starting to look desperate looks much more promising.

Cyrran Reaches: The Social Scene pt. I

Monday October 29, 2018 at 8:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

New Character:

[Keara] Ravina - Dwarven cleric of Moradin

Highlights:

- Six months after the attack at the Festival of Thorns, the PCs find themselves invited to the Magnar City Social - a yearly gathering of the nobility and honored guests - for their efforts in stopping the rampaging beast and the subsequent investigations into the activity of the cult known as Many Eyes, Many Teeth.

- Lily and Tyrrox were greeted as local celebrities, Ravina chatted about her home city with a dwarven jeweler called Pierless Gray, Kael ran into an old friend, and Taryn spoke with some of Dyn'Talor's court, a man concerned with Magnar's defense of the city, and Tyless Vallane, who told him a particular book Taryn was looking for might be found in the Magnars' library.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Heart of the Void

Thursday September 27, 2018 at 8:30pm numenera, mysts of the ninth world, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- The group was able to ward off the attacking predators with Naran's daylight abilities, directed by Piper's artifact which had tuned in to their dimensional energy signature.

- Continuing on, they eventually left the fern-encrusted tunnel, finding their way along catwalks suspended in nothingness to a vault that had been torn open from the inside.  6 massive tentacles protruted from it in different directions, and within it was a swirling vortex of black smoke.

- Once they moved into position, Naran used the artifact Piper had made to amplify her cutting light abilities to sear away the darkness - but each time she did so, she became weaker.  The others fought off the flock of bat-like shadows that began streaming from it, and they all did their best to dodge the great tentacles which reeled themselves in and began grasping at the intruders.

- As the blackness was cleared, they were able to catch a glimpse of the interior of the vault - where they saw the source of the living void: an open book.  When the last of the blackness was burned away, the book lay inert on the vault floor - the faintest wisp of black smoke issuing from its pages. 

- The void intrusion now disrupted, the group suddenly found themselves in some sort of control room amdist blaring alarms, frantic error displays, and components and terminals which were burning out and arcing eletricity - the system was overloading.  Against all odds, Piper, Naran, and Ronin managed to manipulate the system to bleed off the excess power and return it to a relatively stable condition.

- The group made their way back to the surface, where they found Polious looking somewhat relieved.  The Weathervane had stabilized - and, even better, was now operating at about 85% of ideal output - a marked improvement from the unstable 30-50% they'd been getting previously.  While its days were still numbered, he was optimistic that they would have at least another 5 years to prepare for its ultimate failure.

END OF CHAPTER 1

GM's Note: Chapter 1.  This is chapter 1.  And it took us two years and 62 sessions to get through.  I think the reasons for the long timeline were a combination of having the party split for so long, having short 1.5 - 2.5 hr game sessions, and that there is just SO MUCH to explore in the Ninth World and beyond.  Also, our group tends to "take the long way".  Don't get me wrong, the campaign has been a blast, but they have only scratched the surface.  For now, however, we're going to set this one aside and play some other things.  On our return, my plan for Chapter 2 is to advance the timeline a significant distance into the future: the players will construct a new generation of explorers set to build on the discoveries this group has made.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Hunger in the Void

Tuesday September 25, 2018 at 8:15pm numenera, mysts of the ninth world, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Naran and Piper headed back to town, where they found that the ruin surrounding their settlement seemed to have "energized" in some way.  Polious was reporting that output levels for the Weathervane were averaging around 120% - up from about the 30-40% of the preceding weeks - but that the system was increasingly unstable. 

- Piper resumed work on the devices the group needed to address the problem and was able to finish them over the next several hours.

- Ronin, Ganthet, and Helios made their way through the night back to Arable, having a brief encounter with a strange, hovering eye covered in voluminous robes.  It seemed to have "left" something for them - a component that turned out to be *exactly* what Piper needed to finish the devices she was working on.

- After resting up, the group headed once more into the corridors below the Weathervane - searching for the epicenter of the dimensional-void they had been encountering.  Using the 'detector' Piper had made, they found their way deep into the ruin, through large sections that seemed to be "missing", and ultimately onto a long, twisting set of catwalks extending out into seeming nothingness.

- Eventually, the pathway led them to a large spherical chamber - from the outside closely resembling the control room they had just scavenged in the B Dome - but the inside was covered in luminous purple ferns.  As they made their way through it, Ronin began to suspect that they were being watched - just before they found themselves under attack by shadowy beast that seemed to materialize from a cloud of black smoke...

Black Foxes: Painting the Scene

Thursday September 20, 2018 at 8:30pm blades in the dark, black foxes, game session notes Comments (2) »
 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- The Foxes were given a job offer to steal a set of paints from an artist in Charterhall that had been illegally infused with spirit essences.  It promised to be an easy score with a decent payout and since they were needing some cash quickly to get what they needed to stay ahead of the Stone Club, they took it.

- The target was located in the old Charter Wall community, and Erik and Boros quickly encountered a Bluecoat presence, intoxicated citizens, and a level of midnight activity they weren't used to in Six Towers.

- They broke into the artist's studio and were rummaging around when they began to encounter spiritual activity.  As one of the paintings began to wail and distraught ghosts began manifesting, Erik grabbed a couple of the paints and took off in a near-panic.  Boros steeled himself enough to grab a couple others as well as the howling artwork before making his getaway.

- The two were successful in their mission, but they were seen clearly by one of the local Bluecoats, a drunk, and Crenoll - the artist they robbed.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Gathering Storm

Tuesday September 18, 2018 at 8:15pm numenera, mysts of the ninth world, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- As Piper pried the last of the needed components from the machinery, the system's stability reached a tipping point.  The pulsing blue lights in the sphere above them turned a dark red and alarms began to sound.  As they made their way back to the hatchway, several spherical maintenance automatons activated, though only one seemed to be functioning correctly.

- Outside, Ganthet and Helios confronted the many-mouthed being.  Before any real fighting began, however, it was distracted by another of its kind that had targeted Ronin.  As the two creatures argued and fought, the three of them withdrew, rejoining their friends, and all of them hurried toward the exit to the sphere - which was now full of flashing red lights and vibrating intensely.

- Once back at the entrance, Ronin, Ganthet, and Helios used their own abilities to descend from the sphere while Naran teleported herself and Piper directly back to Arable - or, close to it.  They arrived a few miles south of town at Aglarion's watchtower.  They were close enough, however, to see the stormclouds gathering to the south, the tribe of brutish abhumans approaching from that direction, and the billowing plume of smoke rising from beneath the southeast side of Arable - which had now pulled itself about 50 feet up and out of the ground...

- +1xp

Some Cache At Last

Monday September 17, 2018 at 3:06pm geocaching, hiking Comments (0) »
 The 'Blue Hole'.  This shot taken with my phone as I didn't have camera on me.
The 'Blue Hole'.  This shot taken with my phone as I didn't have camera on me.

It had been a while since Tony and I went out on a real caching adventure, so we made plans about a month ago to go out last saturday - and those plans actually happened!  We weren't out quite as long and didn't go quite as far as we might have liked, but we had a great time and a good adventure in a new area. 

It had been probably a decade since I'd been out to the 'Blue Hole', and Tony had never seen it - and there were a few caches in the area that hadn't been found in some time.  Plus it would mean tromping through the back woods in search of ammo boxes.  Win-win.

The biggest adventure was going after one of DMFlyer's 'Adventure Awaits' caches - which always prove a good time.  This venerable cache hadn't been found in nearly two years, and I'm not really surprised as it's located about .4 up a wooded hollow and, depending on which way you go and how you define the word, there are either *two* trails, or there are *no* trails.

The lack of direction/landmarks gave us some trouble with the hint and locating the cache as well, but we eventually made the find - it was still present and in good shape.

There are several more targets up that way we'll be hitting in the future - hopefully later this fall.

These are the outings I love.

~PS

2018 Appalachian Renaissance Faire

Thursday September 13, 2018 at 12:47pm appalachian renaissance faire, photography Comments (0) »
 Lords of Chivalry in full armor, preparing for the joust.
Lords of Chivalry in full armor, preparing for the joust.

We enjoyed the Appalachain Ren Faire again this year.  Always like seeing the Lords of Chivalry.  Had some interesting conversations and saw some cool performances.  And shooting at events like this is always a good time - here's what I got.

We're toying with the idea of making costumes for next year, because we've always thought that would be fun.

~PS

Aralakh Company: Out For Blood pt. II

Thursday September 6, 2018 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh continued their fight against the FWL attackers, but fortune seemed to be against them.  Rip's Crusader nearly had its cockpit bashed in by the 95-ton Banshee, and Drevan's Warhammer has been so battered and shot-up that it has only a single medium laser remaining.  The company has managed to return some of the damage they've received, and while they've burned off a good chunk of armor, they haven't managed to inflict any real damage on their opponents.

- Orion's Assassin is virtually untouched but Aralakh's biggest ace is the lostech Phoenix Hawk, which is also still in good shape.  Will it be enough to turn the tide?  And how is the rest of the planetary defense shaking out?

Mysts of the Ninth World: At Its Core

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper and Helios fought off the sathosh, though some sort of smoke cypher nearly killed Piper - Ronin was able to save her by sacrificing one of the artifacts they'd taken from the abhumans.

- Meanwhile, Naran found some sort of access terminal and was able not only to stop the deafening noise, but also learn something about the ruin they were in and where they might be able to find the components they were seeking.

- The group reunited, and Naran led them deeper into the structure toward something she'd seen in the readouts labeled as an environmental processor - it would likely have the sensors they needed.

- Finding their way to that region proved difficult, however, as broken corridors and other obstructions blocked what should have been open pathways.  They found themselves in a cavernous space that had been overgrown by mushroom-like fungus.  Within this area, they found the entrance to the chamber they were seeking: a hatchway in the top of what seemed to be a 100' sphere.

- As Naran and Piper climbed inside and began cannibalizing what they could from the machinery within - being careful not to disrupt any systems that would prove hazardous - Ganthet, Helios, and Ronin found a humanoid bat-creature that had been captured.  As they freed it, they were interrupted by a strange, skulking humanoid with a head covered in mouths...

- +2xp

Aralakh Company: Out For Blood pt. I

Thursday August 30, 2018 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Having altered their contract by doubling their pay, the Lysidas Barony secured Aralakh's services to help repel the coming planetary assault.  Deciding they would meet the FWL forces on the plains to the northwest, the company set up their defenses.

- Aralakh's primary lance met the spearhead lance of the assault: a Vindicator, Dragon, and Banshee led by the defected Marauder pilot they'd previously encountered.  All of them skilled mechwarriors, the skirmish promised to get brutal very quickly.

- The forces traded missles and long-range potshots as they closed.  The first real exchange chewed off some armor from the Vindicator and dented the Maruader a little, but it was the second salvo that proved more significant: a face-off between the Warhammer and the Marauder.  Drevan led with a lucky PPC headshot that almost destroyed his foe, but the Maruader came back with a series of strikes that pounded through its right torso, destroying his SRM/6 and its ammo bin.  A split-second premonition before the hit prompted Drevan to dump the missiles, keeping his unit from being ripped apart from the inside only moments after initial contact...

Mysts of the Ninth World: New Heights

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- The group returned once more to the "B Dome" - this time with Piper - in order to find components she needs to complete the the devices they require to help them address the blackness plaguing Arable.

- They encountered some sathosh on the way, including one particularly unusual individual in white, robe-like garb and weilding obvious numenera.  With the help of a hologram their presence seemed to have triggered, Piper and Helios found their way up into some sort of control chamber...

Mysts of the Ninth World: Missing Pieces

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Ganthet, Ronin, Naran, and Helios traveled north to the "B dome", now revealed to be a 1400' sphere and hovering about 200' above the landscape.  They found a collapsed crater beneath the floating orb containing some remnants of the metal sphere and a partially-crushed burned stonework structure - as well as the entrance to an underground sathosh lair.  Unsure of a good way to reach the sphere above and unintentionally attacting the sathosh's attention, they decided to return to Arable.

- Piper continued working on her new devices, and Naran and Helios were finally able to nail down the exact capabilities and limitations of Naran's teleportation ability: to be reliable, the starting point and the destination must be located in direct sunlight otherwise the jump would always be off - sometimes a little, sometimes a lot

- Piper eventually came to the conclusion that to create the necessary artifacts, she would need some specialized components she didn't have - and the most likely place to find them would be the B Dome...

- +1xp

Black Foxes: Shots Fired

Thursday August 23, 2018 at 8:30pm blades in the dark, black foxes, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- Having acquired a few more members - a gang of Rooks and a cutter called Boros - the Foxes decided their next move would be to kick the Stone Club out of Fenwell Hook.  They'd had their eye on this territory for some time, and their contact that lived there was getting increasingly impatient.

- Their efforts to gather information about the area yeilded mixed results and they were unable to pin down exactly where and when the Stone Club appeared and/or what they did in the area.  They ultimately decided their approach would be an ambush-style assault: they'd jump the gang when they came to harass Lerrin again.

- The Foxes set up a concealed position outside Lerrin's shop and waited for the gang to appear.  When they did, the engagement quickly went sideways - it seems that someone may have tipped off the Club to someone else operating in their area.

- The resulting skirmish was brief and bloody, though it resulted in no immediate deaths on either side.  Though their gang broke and ran off and Borors and Erik took a great deal of injury and stress, they were ultimately able to beat down and run off the part of the Stone Club gang that operated in Fenwell, claiming that turf for their own.

- Now at-war with the Stone Club and under the eyes of the Bluecoats, the Foxes found themselves in a tight spot.  They had the good fortune to meet up with a Leech who helped patch them up, but their gang hasn't been seen since the street fight.  Worse yet, they're down to their last few coins.  The crew needs some easy cash - and soon...

Mysts of the Ninth World: The Living Void

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Flashback: About 24 hours after their return from the margr encampment, Drakald organized a search party to go look for Tala and Kelon, who still had not return.  What remained of the encampment was a  bloody mess of dead margr and scavenger beats.  It took a couple hours of searching, but they eventually found the bodies of both of their friends.  Upon return to Arable, a funeral for the lost was arranged.  Even with the return of Naran and Helios, the spirits of the town were depressed for a y several days - lifted somewhat when Piper arrived.

- The group spent some time discussing Polious' concerns.  Despite the Aeon Priest's feeling that the device was doomed, they beleived that if they could remove the void influence from the Weathervane, it might recover enough to be stabilized.  They did some experiments on the puddle-like protrusions finding that bright light seemed to boil it away.  With the help of a cypher, Ronin was able to look "inside" one of the puddles, to find a swirling vortext of shadow leading deep into the earth.

- Ideas for how to remove the void were difficult in coming, but the group eventually decided their best bet was to somehow amplify Naran's light ability and direct it at the "heart" of the void, somewhere deep within the ruin beneath tham.  Piper set about trying to make a some devices (one to enhance Naran's light ability, and one to detect the source of the void intrusion), Naran spent some time studying the strange portal books they'd found on their journeys, and Ganthet, Ronin, and Helios discussed a venture up to the now-floating B Dome...

- +1xp

Aralakh Company: Lost Comrade

Thursday August 16, 2018 at 8:45pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- With the Marauder's arrival, Aralakh's recon lance now found itself severely outgunned.  Needing to drop some heat, Steiner maneuvered his Blackjack around some rock formations to avoid line-of-site to the big guns.  Unfortunately, this left Riley and the Hatchetman totally exposed and the only viable target for the Marauder as well as the Vindicator.  The 45-ton 'mech could normally survive a round or two of that sort of barrage, but one of the Marauder's PPCs landed a direct hit on the unit's head, totally destroying it.

- Instantly down another unit and believing Riley to have been killed, Steiner gave the order to retreat.  The Marauder's pilot demonstrated impressive skill by continuing to score solid hits against the fleeing units, but the remaining three were able to escape with their info.

- Meanwhile, Rip and Toulonne visited the small, run-down port town of Urngen.  There they noted some FWL sympathies and a certain hesitance by the locals to engage certain topics of conversation: the two eventually determined that sections of the town showed signs of 'mech presence and damage, but no one was talking about it.  As they left the town to drive back to Lysida City, they could see the tell-tale thruster glow of a pair of dropships descending to the south...

No Thank You Evil: Fear Factory - Wanted Hobgoblins

Saturday August 11, 2018 at 10:00am no thank you evil, fear factory, game session notes Comments (0) »
 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Pirate Hannah and her little sister Olivia get a call for help from The Inspector.  He had too many cases and needed someone capable to take over one or two of them.  Hannah took a look at the wall and grabbed the 'Wanted' poster.  A pair of Hobgoblins had stolen a bag full of coins from Big Bucks Bank and were hiding out in the Fear Factory.

- On the way to the Factory, they met a goblin salesman who tried to get them to buy a few things, but he didn't seem to have anything they wanted.  The lock on the door to the factory didn't pose much of a challenge for the crafty pirate, and they ventured inside.

- After wandering through a few rooms of the abandoned toy factory, they encountered a Blunderbus who tried to steal a couple of coins from them.  When confronted he told them that "they" made him do it, and he led them to the interior room where the Hobgoblins were holed up.

- Hannah's "Good Blaster" broke through the hobs' armor and made them feel very guilty.  She tied them up and brought them back to The Inspector who told them that the theives were wanted by Lucy Lawful...

Aralakh Company: Familiar Faces

Friday August 10, 2018 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Steiner took his Blackjack with Riley in the newly-acquired Hatchetman, Orion in his assassin, and Morgan in the Jenner into the western badlands to look for signs of 'mech activity related to the terrorist cell they'd been hunting.

- After some time in the badlands, they began picking up weak radio transmissions and began to notice sensor interference in their 'mechs.  They ended up in a boxed canyon where they found a Flea and a Clint and a few semi-permenent structures.

- Engaging the units was more difficult than it should have been, largely due to whatever was causing the sensor scrambling.  As they fought with the lighter units, Steiner realized that their foes were painted with obvious FWL colors, rather than the hodge-podge, bandit schemes they'd so far encountered on this contract.  Further, the area they were occupying was almost certainly a dropship LZ.

- The lance managed to take out the Flea, but the threat increased significantly when reinforcements showed up in the form of a Vindicator who landed a couple PPC hits right out of the gate.

- Morgan turned his attention to the building the suspected of housing the sensor-jamming device in an attempt to remove that edge from their enemies.  It was pretty heavily armored, but with some help from his allies, a couple rounds of sustained fire destroyed it and the interference they'd been experiencing cleared instantly.

- It was then that Steiner's sensors pegged their biggest problem: a 70-ton Marauder closing in on their position...

Mysts of the Ninth World: Burning Out

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- As Ronin attempted to cover Ravri's escape from the merkadian, Helios suddenly appeared between them and a large margr (Glaan) emerged from the chaos behind it.  Helios and the margr engaged the spike assailant while Ronin fired at it with his bow, eventually piercing its chest and causing it to explode in a burst of green, electrical energy.

- While Kelon and Ganthet attempted to occupy the surrounding margr, Naran made her way to the controls of the large, wheeled cannon artifact as the a loosed crag worm bore down upon them.  Naran was able to take control of the device and decipher the controls enough to get it moving in a direction away from the rampaging beast, driving it away through the chaos of the camp and out the other side.

- After taking a few more shots into the skirmishing margr with his numenera polyp weapon, Ronin sensed that they had done what they could and assisted the injured Ravri away from the encampment.  Noticing the telltale signs of his brother's lightening abilities, Helios waded into the camp to help cover his escape.  The warcamp now thoroughly consuming itself, the parties from Arable disengaged - each making their way back to the town by their own route.  Only Kelon and Tala did not return.

- The townspeople were happy to be reunited with Naran and Helios, and there was more celebration on their return.  Once she and Olim arrived, Piper spent some time with Polious fixing the dozen or so perplexing "bugs" that seemed to continue to plague the Weathervane, despite their efforts and what the Aeon Priest was sure should have worked.

- After some time had passed, Polious gathered them all together with some troubling news: the Weathervane was dying.  A number of major components were shorting out and could not be replaced without depowering the entire system, but the burnout of a number of regulatory systems and the malfunctioning of interfaces meant that they only way they had to shut it down would also burn out the entire thing.  On top of that, its power output seems to be much less than the core the group had recovered should be providing - and it's continuing to drop.  He gives it less than two years of reduced operation before it burns out completely, and he has no contingency plan...

- +2xp

GM's Note: For the first time since Mar 6 2017, the party is completely reunited!!

Aralakh Company: Regrouping

Friday August 3, 2018 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Drevan, Toulonne, and Braeggan flipped over the steel table and took cover behind it, returning a few shots with their pistols as they decided what to do.  The building was on auto-lockdown, but the back door had been opened moments before the alarm was raised and wouldn't seal until it closed again.  They attempted to give some covering fire while sending Braeggan out the door to (relative) safety.

- Moments later, the truck that had rammed through the wall exploded violently, killing many of the attackers while the rest ran away further into the building.  Drevan and Toulonne pursued one down the hall and discovered that the stairwell doors - which should have been locked - were open.  When they returned to the mess hall, security teams and medics were already on site.  As the incident wound down, the two were asked some questions and allowed to leave.

- When the rest of the company returned, they found out from Riley that about 20 minutes after they left the battlefield continuing their escort mission, a Marauder and a Cyclops arrived on the scene.  They all spent some time doing field repairs (enough to get the Whitworth moving again), and the group of them headed off to the west.  Consulting the satellite maps, to the west was largely plainsland.  Beyond this was a rugged badlands region, the compound of a wealthy noble, and the small port town of Urngen.

- The group also got word of the Bluesabres returning to the city and decided they wanted to find out what they knew.  Steiner and Orion caught up with a couple of them at The Militiaman, and learned they'd found little in the mountains to the north, but that they had intercepted a Hermes II heading east and were currently working to salvage it.  They figure the Hermes was heading into the forest, and they're planning to hit that area next.

- The company did some quick repairs to get a deployable recon lance and sent them to the badlands to the west while Rip, Toulonnne and a couple of crew went to speak with the noble.

Mysts of the Ninth World: The Ravaging Horde pt. II

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Naran returned to where Helios had been, only to find him missing.  Looking around, she noticed Ganthet and Kelon in the camp below her, freeing the worms and fending off a merkadian.  Still invisible, she made her way down the slope to some cover and began zapping the spiked man with sunbeams.

- Ganthet used his electrical affinity to awaken and prod the sedated crag worms, who lunged into the camp, adding to the chaos unfolding there.  Kelon attempted to keep the merkadian's attention, which quickly devided between him, Ganthet, and whatever was searing him with bright yellow light.  The three of them kept him unable to focus on a single target, and Naran was eventually able to finish him off.

- Trying to keep Ravri's quarry from spotting her, Ronin fired a couple of polyp canisters in his direction.  The merkadian spotted him almost immediately and charged up into his hiding place.  Not wanting to be cornered, Ronin leapt away into the darkness, but this turned the merkadian's attention elsewhere and he spotted Ravri just before she was able to backstab him.  Ronin returned and began firing arrows and canisters into the resulting skirmish, but neither he nor Ravri seemed to be able to do much damage to the merkadian threat.

- The warcamp itself was quickly devolving into internal conflict.  The margr gathered there were only loosely held together by merkadian control - and most of them resented the outsiders.  One tribe leader in particular called Glaan, saw and opportunity as things began to unfold and made her move against the one called The Eye.  As the duel began, the margr gathered, uncertain of what to do, waited to see how it would turn out - and thus who to side with.  The resulting struggle was brief and brutal, but Glaan ultimately came out on top, crushing the merkadian's head with a final blow that dislodged its numenera eye.

- After killing the merkadian, Naran, Kelon, and Ganthet had a brief conversation about what to do next.  They had killed a probably leader, but they still needed to do more to reduce the threat posed by this band.  Seeing a large numenera machine powering up and rolling through the camp, they decided that would be their next target.  Though outnumbered dozens to one, the three waded into the camp, fighting off abhumans as they went, until they reached the device.

- Ronin and Ravri, both beaten down signficantly, began to make a retreat to the north, away from the fight.  Ronin used his numenera device to put as many polyp growths between them and the merkadian as possible, but it was only slowing him down.

- Glaan, having wondered through the camp in search of the other oppressors, finally spotted the green numenera discharges of the one called The Fist.  She shoved her way through the intervening chaos, emerging to see the merkadian wading through a growth of red polyps toward some unknown attacker in the darkness...

- +1xp

GM's Note: This situation turned into a rather lengthy and complex encounter.  Because Piper is not present - and is, in fact, weeks further in the timeline than the others - I decided to give Keara an NPC to play in this engagement.  Indicating she wanted to do something a bit different, I decided I would give her one of the margr of the camp - the leader of a sub-tribe who chafed against the merkadian's cowing of the others.  While this character was created just prior to this session, the idea of characters like Glaan present in the warcamp was always there, so it was easy enough to flesh out one of them and hand it off.  Keara really enjoyed the change of pace, and getting a different perspective on the chaos of the encounter was interesting for everyone.

Mysts of the Ninth World: The Ravaging Horde pt. I

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Pursued by a patrol of margr, Ronin, Ganthet, and the others scatter into the rugged landscape, forcing the enemies to split up and losing some of them in the process.  A few isolated skirmishes resulted, with somewhat varied outcomes.

- Ganthet and Kelon regrouped and decided that something must be done about the greater tribe.  Neither had a solid plan, so they decided to go for the desperate one that seemed to have the best chance of doing some good: if they could release and prod the juvenile cragworms, the beasts might be able to do enough damage to significantly weaken the horde.

- Ronin had a brief fight with the one margr chasing him and made his way to a nearby skirmish where he found Ravri being attacked by several - including an obvious leader.  The fight took a toll on them both, but with some good fortune they take out the big guy and took off before too many more could arrive.  Deciding that the game is up, they also made their way back toward the encampment - Ronin decided that freeing the cragworms they'd seen earlier was their best bet at keeping the tribe from attacking Arable, though Ravri seemed dubious.

- Meanwhile, Naran and Helios were attacked by another patrol as they wandered unknowingly into the margr's territory.  They fought off their attackers, but lost their pack animal in the process.  Gathering the remaining supplies, they continued on their way - only to stumble upon the encampment from above.

- As Ronin and Ravri made their way around the camp from the north, Ronin caught sight of Ganthet sneaking in and cutting the ropes tying the beasts down.  Noticing another group of margr approaching the area, he fired his red-polyp numenera weapon into their midst, creating confusion and buying his companions some time.  Taking note of the effectiveness of the tactic, he maneuvered into a different position and fired again into the camp as Ravri moved off in another direction.

- Above, Naran and Helios spotted a patrol heading their way.  Naran made herself invisible and teleported to the far side of the patrol in a bright flash of light, startling and disorienting them.

- Ganthet and Kelon managed to cut the cables on the worms without being seen, and the most agitated of them lunged into the camp, devouring whatever margr it came across.  As he carefully pulled back into the shadows at the edge of the camp, Helios, who had been watching the scene from above, recognized his brother.

- Ronin took notice of the figures in spikes investigating the chaos happening in the camp with a bit more focus than their abhuman counterparts.  As one moved closer to his position, he saw Ravri, all but in the open, creeping up behind it with her knife drawn...

Black Foxes: Spectre Thieves

 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- The Foxes decided their next move would be against Drave's rival - a witch called Quellyn.  She had apparently bound a ghost which was now haunting Drave in an attempt to get him to free it.  They did a little legwork in Crow's Foot prior to the operation, but didn't manage to get much more than some dirty looks.

- The gang made their way into the sewers and tunnels near the witch's tower where they found a boarded-up hole in its basement wall protected by some sort of ghost ward.  Drave was able to dismantle the magical protections and Erik quickly pried the boards out before they could be spotted.

- Inside the tower, they made their way toward the upper chamber Drave had seen in a vision.  They were caught by a mad, howling spectre which injected their minds with horrific visions before Drave managed to drive it off.

- Finally making their way up the brittle iron staircase into the upper chamber, they found the hanging dolls exactly where they expected them - and they could also hear Quellyn's voice chanting upstairs.  Peering into the ghost field, Drave was able to find the ghost he was trying to free and identify the doll anchor binding it to the witch.  With Erik's help, they cut the anchor down intact and made off before Quellyn could catch them - though the only loot they found was a small wooden box full of gold teeth.

- The Foxes returned to their neighborhood to discover that Flint, one of their contacts, had been questioned by the Bluecoats and may have let slip a couple of details about the Foxes' operations.  The crew did manage to do a little recruiting - picking up a small gang of rooks to help them cover their territory.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Here We Are

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Naran and Helios met up with some scavengers outside the Empty Machine and followed them back to the quasi-permanent encampment nearby.  They bartered for food, water, and a shelter from the supply caravan that had arrived from the north and set out toward Arable.  Late in the evening of the 4th day, as they wandered through a badlands region, the found themselves surrounded by a small band of margr...

- Ronin and Ganthet discussed their situation with the other hunters and made some decisions.  A few of them attempted to pursue the margr that had fled from the battle but were ultimately unable to catch it.  The others moved into a recon position to survey the larger tribe.  They found an unusually large group of 200+ margr, possibly being led by a couple of spike-covered humanoids, that had apparently captured a few juvenille cragworms.  As they talked about what they'd found, margr nearby were alerted to their presence...

- Piper, Olim, and Jumis made their way through the scrublands toward Arable.  They happened upon some machinery surrounded by deep, black oil on the way through.  When they reached the city, they were greeted by Neen - deputy Urshan's pet seskii.

Mysts of the Ninth World: The End In Sight

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper and Olim made their way into Luigolamis.  They spoke to a couple of guardsmen who gave them some tips on navigating the city.  They were able to acquire supplies from the lakeshore markets, but had little luck finding suitable components for their damaged airship.  As they made their way out, an alarm sounded throughout the Twinned Cities and the energy barrier was activated - apparently a bandit army was closing in and the city needed to be sealed.  Piper and Olim used a cypher they'd acquired and a makeshift zipline to escape.  Once back to the airship, they set out once more for the Beyond.

- Ganthet began climbing the numenera device that had risen from the sands in an attempt to reach the top before the margr as Ronin fired arrows at the remaining enemies.  Ganthet managed to knock the climbing margr from the device and, continuing to its top, found another numenera objcet being created within teh energy bubble at the top.  As the hunters closed in on the remaining margr, Ronin gained the leader's attention.  As the massive, two-headed margr charged at him, he pulled and fired the weapon he'd taken from one of the others.  His shot was perfect and the leader was consumed from the inside by toxic fungal polyps.  Their remaining foes had fallen, but they knew at least one had escaped in the fray - certainly heading northwest to the larger tribe.

- Naran and Helios rejoined Drokkan at the bunk house.  After a a bit more rest, Drokkan agreed to take them to the machine he'd found as promised.  On the way there, he became increasingly wary - and when they arrived he found a glyph that unnerved him.  As he warned them that they shouldn't remain in the area long, Naran began to examine the complex device.  The center of the room seemed to contain a bubble of space somehow "pulled" from another location.  She discerned that, if one were to break the containment field, that person could enter the bubble and be transported to the place displayed.  In a stroke of considerable good fortune, she not only located the controls to alter the location displayed, but found several "presets" that showed floating obelisks - one of which she recognized from Polious' stories as the Amber Monolith.  From there, she was able to adjust the location eastward until Helios recognized the Empty Machine - a landmark not more than a hundred miles or so northwest of Arable.  It was at this point they ran out of time.  As a greenish mist began to fill the room, Naran activated to device and she and Helios jumped into the portal - telling Drokkan he could come with them, but that it was a one-way trip.

- Piper and Olim traveled slowly but steadily on their airship for several days - through the Black Riage via the Garl Knave, westward to the enormous Ba-Adenu forest, and then north to the plains of Kataru.  They saw distant lights in the impossibly-tall black mountains, the great mass of the largest trees either of them had ever seen, a massive automaton with a glass-like spherical head, a landscape bent down by the inexplicably-sustained gusts of hurricane-force winds, and a silver thread reaching all the way into the heavens in the eastern distance.  After a few days, however, their craft began to experience various levels of malfunction.  They worked tirelessly to keep it stable, in the air, and continuing north, but it became apparent that eventual failure was inevitable.  For the last several miles, the all but scraped the surface of the barren landscape before the craft dug into the dull earth and came to a stop.  In the distance, however, Piper could just make out the point of what appeared to be Aglarion's Watchtower - and landmark only a few miles south of Arable.

- +1xp

Aralakh Company: Highwaymen pt. V

Thursday June 21, 2018 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (1) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh managed to keep the advantage in their struggle against the raiders, but as the trucks pulled away and the enemy force split they were forced to make a decision: would they stay with the trucks and ensure they arrived safely at their destination, or would they fight it out and try to recover their downed Panther?  They ultimately opted for the former, bringing their mission success/failure record and units gained/lost both to 1:1.

- Meanwhile, Drevan and Toulonne were back at the garrison at Lysida City talking with Braeggan (their master tech) in the mess hall about repairs to the Grasshopper, when they suddenly found themselves attack as an armored vehicle smashed through the wall and automatic gunfire sprayed into the room.

Mysts of the Ninth World: More Than Bargained For

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper and Garrot load up Jumis and what supplies they had and manage to get the craft off the ground and some distance from the city before they came under attack by the perimeter defences.  They took a hit to the craft's secondary propulsion systems, which Piper was able to patch while dangling from a makeshift harness.  Once away, they discussed their overall plan.  They decided they would stop in the Empire's "Twinned Cities" of Jargolamis/Luigolamis for supplies and components, and then make their way to the Garl Nave to cross the Black Riage into the Ba-Adenu forest and make their way northward from there over the Beyond.  This would mean they'd have little hope of aid should their craft break down, but it also meant they would have little in the way of political trouble.

- Ganthet, Ronin, and their companions continued their fight against the margr band, slowly gaining the advantage.  The holograms that had been shifting overhead suddenly vanished, and some sort of numenera device emerged from the ground - crowned with a bubble of pulsing energy.  The leader and a couple of others broke off their fight with the intruders in order to interact with it: the leader seemed to activate certain controls while one of the others began frantically climbing the structure toward the energy bubble.

- Helios was awakened by a sudden tremor that knocked him out of the bunk and frantic pounding on the door.  It also seemed to be "snowing" inside the building.  Looking out the window, he saw some chaos in the Scavengers' Wreck, but nothing obviously corresponding with the cries of "let us in, it's going to kill us!" coming from the people outside.  He poked his head through the door and told them to calm down, but they just ran off screaming.  Seeing no apparent threat beyond the crazies outside, Helios barricaded the door and went back to sleep.

- Naran and Martylla had been making their way to the DataVault when the snow storm hit.  Naran found that contact with the crystals caused vivid hallucinations and disorientation, but Martylla and the other skeane seemed unaffected.  She made it to the DataVault only partially conscious and the next they she knew she was in some distorted facsimile of Arable.  Uncertain of her surroundings but following the cues provided, she and Martylla navigated the construct, spoke with some of the "people" there, and eventually emerged with 3 marker keys.  Taking advantage of the chaos created by the storm, Martylla was able to get them to an unattended "lift" within the vault where they could use their keys to access the correct data-drives to get the information they were after: where was Helios?  The data in the vault seemed to answer their question - as well as a few more unasked.

- +2xp

No Thank You Evil: Trouble In Space

 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Pirate Hannah and her Pretty Pony got a job offer from an alien called Opik: he needed someone to accompany the child alien Zot on a space ship back to his home planet.  He would give them 3 coins when Zot arrived safely.

- Shortly into the trip alarms began sounding.  A message from Opik said there was some distrubance in the engine room.  With some help from an android called Sassy, Hannah opened the hatch covering a secret ladder down into the workings of the ship.  She made her way to the back of the ship, encountering some space rats, a bubble-gum making bird, and other strange creatures.

- The engine room was being devoured by a metal-eating creature called a Lacer.  When she couldn't talk it into leaving, she tried to scare it off and then beat it up, but it proved too tough for her.

- In the end, Hannah lured the creature out of the engine room, and though it conked her out, Sassy arrived and was able to convince it to eat some of the junk in the storage room instead of gnawing on the engine.

GMs Note:

This scenario from "Uh-Oh Monsters" was REALLY tough for a single PC - and that's AFTER I dialed it back a bit.  In hindsight, instead of using deus-ex and having Sassy talk the Lacer out of eating the engine, I should have had the ship crash on a nearby planet and then Hannah would have to fix the ship to get Zot home - which would have been awesome.  Unfortunately, I didn't think of that at the time.  We'd been going for a while, and I could sense Hannah was running out of ideas, so I was trying to wrap it up.  I'm also not super practiced at running published scenarios.  Oh well, live and game and learn.

Black Foxes: Stone Cold

 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- Finding themselves threatened by rivals on apparently hostile turf, the Foxes did their best to play off the situation as expected.  They told the leader of the Stone Club gang that they had come to patch things up and even suggested that the two crews should be working together.  Their proposal got them a foot in the door (with help from some coin), but they got a bit demanding in the delivery and their "suggestions" were ultimately not well received.  Before the situation could erupt into actual violence, they took their leave.

- Deciding to continue their search for a fence, Erik went to speak with his friend Telda, a Six Towers beggar.  The woman initially told him off for his line of questioning, but later sent word to him about a hunched man with silver-gray hair called Zant who hangs out near the Black Circle Tavern.  

Mysts of the Ninth World: Decisive

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper and Garrot were led by Quince into the Court of Rarmon where they spoke with Lord Gyre.  They were asked to explain the afternoon's "malfunction" and to give their opinion of ongoing threats.  Some of the conversation began to sound accusatory when Quince made a proposal to the Lords to move all "significant and mysterious" numnera artifacts to the control of the crown by way of the city government.  A few of those gathered took issue with this "overreach", but most seemed contentedly unaffected.  Following the hearing, Piper returned to the Orrery with Garrot in order to help return it to a (more) stable condition and then made her way back to Olim's tower to find the airship almost ready for launch.  After a brief conversation with him and some hurried preparations and last-minute checks, they decided the time had come to make their move - the test flight of their newly-completed airship would be a flight from the city's powers-that-be and into the Beyond.

- Ganthet, Ronin, and their company continued their fight against the margr as the holograms flashed and shifted overhead.  Ronin attracted the attention of one of abhumans weilding a slug-thrower weapon and Ganthet engaged with the large, two-headed creature that seemed to be the leader while Tala, Ravri, Oorum and Shynd waded into the fray with other specimens.  After being disarmed, Ganthet set off an electrical detonation cypher, which shocked and stunned most of those within the camp as a powerful energy beam from somewhere outside burned into the margr leader's chest

- Naran, Drokkan, and Helios attempted to hide as a band of well-equipped skeane descended upon the area.  Their efforts were only partially successful, and both groups decided to leave the area rather than engage them.  Helios, unsure of the location of his companions, set off toward the membrane gate leading back into the city of Rust and, once there, made his way to Drokkan's dwelling in the South Loop.  Naran and Drokkan were trying to conceal themselves in their hiding place, but searchlights suggested they'd been spotted.  Naran was doing her best not to let the growing dread become panic when she suddenly found herself back in the City of Rust.  She set the injured Drokkan up in one of the public bunkhouses and went to speak with his skeane "friend" Martylla to see if she could find a way to determine Helios's wearabouts.  Martylla suggested they check the DataVault.

 

No Thank You Evil: Icebreakers pt. II

 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

- When the bubble teas hit the frozen ice rink, the froze solid into balls and rolled away - being chased by the Argle Bargles.  Since she found herself trapped in the basement, Pirate Hannah decided to let them have the bubble teas for now and concentrate on getting back up the slide.  She managed to talk the Argle Bargles into helping her up the slide, and they even gave her the rest of their (now frozen) bubble teas.

- Next she needed to get a clean pillowcase.  Crystal Noele told her she could find one in the laundry shed behind the hotel, but when Hannah got there, she found it was full of Gunks who were busy dirtying all the clean laundry.  She was able to get the only remaining clean pillowcase away from them, but got pretty 'gunked' herself in the process.

- The last component she needed was a room key.  Cyrstal told Hannah that all of the keys were in use, and that the guests with them were trapped on the 3rd floor!  Talking to the gardener gnome, Hannah borrowed a growing ladder and climbed into the 3rd floor window where she was able to talk a cat-person into giving her a room key.

- Once all the components were gathered, Hannah recited the incantation and the Jinn and Dragons went back to work, freezing the thawing hotel.  Cyrstal Noele was so happy that she told Hannah that she and her Pretty Pony could stay at her hotel for free anytime.

No Thank You Evil: Icebreakers pt. I

 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Pirate Hannah came with her Pretty Pony to stay in a famous Ice Palace Hotel in Into the Closet.  When she arrived, however, she found the place to be melting.  The owner, Crystal Noele, explained that the Jinn and the Snow Dragon that usually keep the place frozen had stopped working.  When Hannah investigated, she found that the Jinn and the Dragon were under a 'Lazy Bum' spell, and to reverse it, she would have to gather some specific components.

- The first was "two partially-drunk glasses of bubble tea".  Serios, the mouse who runs the hotel's cafe, told her he'd sold the last two to a couple of Argle Bargles, which had then gone down to the ice rink in the basement.  Hannah found them there, and was able to steal the teas from them, but as she tried to escape back up the slide leading to the basement, she slipped and landed back in the rink as the Argle Bargles closed in...

Mysts of the Ninth World: Cornered

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper and Garrot discovered the huge electromagnet that was part of the Orrery had malfunctioned, possibly as a side effect of their interface with the Atlas, and had pulled nearly all unanchored metal within a wide radius up to it.  After considerable effort, they were able to disengage the magnet and release the objects it had collected in a relatively safe fashion.  After this, they were escorted to the Sunken Palace, which they found still spinning, to speak with city authorities.

- Ronin and Ganthet met with several of the hunters of Arable to plan some action against the small abhuman margr band that had strangely taken up residence nearby and was, reportedly, harassing some of the outlying farms.  Wanting to remove this threat without drawing the ire of the large tribe further northwest, they decided they would attack at night, allow none to escape, and leave no trace of their presence.  As they launched their attack on the dozen or so margr and their two-headed leader, a number of large, holographic images of various people, places, and objects appeared within the battlefield.

- Naran and Drokkan contined to work to shut down the machine emitting the corrosive bubbles.  The glowing fish began harassing them as they attempted to disable the device, some of which seemed to siphon energy from it to become larger and more menacing.  Their efforts ultimately overloaded some part of the device, and it sent out one last shockwave that somehow encased every living thing in its path within an egg-like, red sphere.  Naran cut her way out and made her way over to free Drokkan.  She was able to cut him out as well, but he seemed to have faired more poorly and was barely concsious.  It was then that they noticed lights from a craft overhead.

- Meanwhile, as Helios bargained with the two eleen tribemen for the spoils of the room they had discovered, a third eleen hurried into the room with a warning about kenlem in the area.  Before they could make any real preparations, large, two-headed spiders began phasing into the room through the walls and ceiling.  Helios grabbed what he could, and hurriedly forced himself back through the wall toward his home dimension.  He emerged just in time to be hit by the bubble-machine's shockwave and found himself trapped in a spherical "egg" as well, from which he escaped by phasing through the solid shell, nearly exhausting his energy.

- +1xp

Aralakh Company: Highwaymen pt. IV

 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Though slowed and badly damaged, the trucks made it back to the road.  Both Aralakh and the attackers have sustained significant damage from the continuing firefight, but both sides seem determined not to back down...

Black Foxes: Lady Molfon's Jewels pt. II

 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- As the room continued to warm unnaturally and the ghost began its operatic song, Drave decided it was time to go - prying open the window and jumping out back into the courtyard.

- Meanwhile upstairs, Erik bolted after Lady Molfon, grabbing her arm in order to keep her from escaping with her armfuls of surely-illgotten jewelry.  The ghost's song rattled something loose in his mind - visions of an icy gem that wouldn't go away - but he retained his hold and ordered her to give in.  When she surrendered, he gathered up the jewels and bolted for an exit.  Two of the guards caught sight of him as he made his escape, but he and Drave were over the wall and out of sight before they could engage in any sort of pursuit.

- Over the next few days, the crew got their payoff from Adelaide and made some efforts to reduce the amount of heat they were taking from this last operation.  After taking some personal time as well, they met and decided that if they were going to be doing this sort of thing a lot, they'd need someone to help them move their goods.

- Drave's friend Flint could only give them the barest lead, and the two made their way to Doan's, a tiny backstreet bar and gambling den, to ask around -only to find themselves confronted by local rivals, the Stone Club...

Mysts of the Ninth World: Partial Success

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper spent some additional time in the Atlas with Garrot attempting to interact with the device in an intentional way.  With considerably effort, she was able to activate the device again, focusing it on their area and where she believed her home town of Arable might be located.  Using the device seemed to be physically taxing, however, and the intense pressure-headaches it triggered ultimately became unbearable.  Believing she had adequate - if not abundant - guidance for where to direct their course, Garrot opened the hatch to descend back into the Orrery's control room, but stopped when he noticed something wrong...

- Ganthet used his lightening ability to jump to the entrance of the power vault to sever the liquid-like tentacle grasping his friend and the power core.  As he hacked through it, Polious threw an electrical detonation cypher into the vicinity.  Their combined effortes ruptured the tentacle, sending black acid all everywhere.  The three were able to get the power core back into position and reconnected, but were not 100% satisfied with the resulting operations: Polious was concerned that the core was outputting too much power, but had to admit that any additional manipulation of the setup was likely to make things worse and not better.  Above, they found that the Weathervane had stabilized closer to its "normal" operation, but that it's area of influence has shrunk considerably and Polious was concerned about a pinhole that had appeared in the perpetual clouds directly above the device's point.  Over the next few days, townsfolk began making plans for clearing land and moving farms that were no longer under the influence of the artifact while Ronin, Ganthet, and the town's hunters discussed the growing presence of margr in the area...

- Helios, Naran, and Drokkan found a nearby area to rest before sending Helios back into the vault.  Just before he began phasing through the metal door, a woman appeared among them asking to accompany him.  It took them a few minutes to realize that this woman was a manifestation of the Sisters they had met in Mekel - she was apparently some sort of artificial construct housed within the numenera cube they had given to Helios and Naran.  She wanted to find a place more suitable for herself, and believed the place Helios had found within the vault might offer more promise.  Helios took the cube from Naran and phased through the door again.  While looking around the room, he was met by two pale-skinned humans(?) who had some claim on the area he had discovered.  They agreed to give him 1/3 of the contents of the room, which seemed fair.  Meanwhile, Naran and Drokkan found themselves beset by dangerous bubbles issuing from what remained of the propulsion artifact they'd been examining when the whale awoke as well as a large rock-creature...

- +1xp

Aralakh Company: Highwaymen pt. III

Thursday April 26, 2018 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- As the engagement continued, both sides traded pot-shots as they attempted to maneuver for better position.  When the firefight resumed, it was the heavier mechs that were in the fore.  The Wolverine and the Phoenix Hawk both took significant armor damage over the following exchanges, though neither has yet lost internal structure or critical systems.  The trucks continued around the hill back toward the road as Aralakh did its best to keep their lighter adversaries from damaging them further.

Black Foxes: Lady Molfon's Jewels pt. I

 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

- The ghost who appeared in the Foxes' coal-mine lair intruded upon Drave's mind, showing him a tower in another district of the city containing the ritual components binding him to the witch Quellyn, before something pulled him back into the Ghost Field.

- Erik scouted the guard situation at the Molfon Estate ahead of their score attempt against it.  Their noble contact Adelaide - through her servant Marta - had told them of a particular piece of jewelry she wanted from the Molfon family. 

- Though they started off well, their plan to sneak into the house quickly went sideways as they were spotted by two guards who raised the alarm.  After knocking one out, Erik intimidated the other who ran for help.  Their cover blown, the two smashed a window to get inside but set off a security measure in the process which lit up the entire house with electroplasmic light.  Drave began grabbing anything of value while Erik cowed a servant girl into telling him where the jewels were kept.

- Erik hurried upstairs into the master bedroom where he found a jewelry chest open and mostly empty.  Suspecting someone hiding in the room with the missing jewels, he opened the closet door whereupon Lady Molfon shot at him with her husband's pistol and bolted for the open door.

- Drave found a couple of coin worth of valuables on a mantle and eventually ended up in the music room when all of the lights in the manor went out and the ghost of an old woman appeared at the piano...

Mysts of the Ninth World: Awakening Giants

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Nearing completion of the airship project and still in need of a bearing on their destination, Piper went to speak with Garrot at the Grand Orrery about something few know to be concealed within it: The Atlas.  Though he was initially dismissive, Piper eventually convinced him to let her see it.  The Atlas turned out to be some form of VR planetarium showing all of the major solar system bodies.  Upon viewing this array, Piper's subconscious was able to manipulate the device - though, afterward, she was unsure how or why she'd done so.

- Black, liquid-like "tentacles" slipped themselves into the power vault where Polious, Ronin, and Ganthet were attempting to restore stablility to the Weathervane.  The tendrils flowed themselves around people and objects as Ronin and Ganthet tried desperately to sever them while keeping the newly-connected core from malfunctioning.  The grasping strands of darkness ultimately found the power core and began leeching energy from it.  As Ganthet attempted to hack it away, a surge of will from somewhere in darkness beyond strengthened its hold, tearing both Ronin and the core from the wall and pulling them toward the abyss.

- Naran, Helios, and Drokkan immediately began attempting to depower the propulsion artifact they had inadvertently awakened even as the whale and the city on its back lurched forward toward the seabed.  The giant creature with its ring of lights floated back toward them, seemingly curious about this new source of activity and extendended rigid, vine-like tendrils into the aft of the ship.  Naran and Drokkan were able to deactivate the machine after only a few attempts and, as the whale-city began drifting to a stop, they all felt for a moment as though disaster had been averted.  It was then that the static energy build-up made its presense known - growing to an intensity that resulted in a powerful arc between the propulsion device and the bulbous eyes of the looming creature trailing them.  The creature reacted instinctively, ripping its tendrils from the aft of the city and shredding much of the surrounding structure in the process.  This dislodged the massive propulsion artifact, which fell some distance toward the sea floor before it was caught by some sort of cabling which tore free down the starboard side, swinging the heavy device out in that direction and causing the whale to roll along with it.  Just when the rotation had nearly inverted the city, the colossal creature finally awoke.  Startled by the sudden activity behind it, it immediately began swimming toward what it believed to be the surface, smashing its back into the ocean floor beneath its entire mass; crushing the settlement that once perched atop it.  The titanic creature thrashed about as it attempted to right itself - splintering wood, synth, and steel - before it finally succeeded in rolling over and ascending from the rubble.  Naran and Helios had managed to get clear of the whale before the impact and avoided being buried in the waves of sediment kicked up from the sea floor by the flailing beast.  They found Drokkan amidst the rubble, unharmed and smiling - standing before the partially buried vault.

- +1xp

Mysts of the Ninth World: The Murky Future

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper went to speak with Ryse and the other Aeon priests at the Embassy of Truth, telling them about the transdimensional device she found in The Pipes.  She also spent some time in the Embassy's library looking over the available maps.  Ibe and a few of the other priests suggested some courses of action to determine the location of her home.

- Ronin and Ganthet went down into the ruins beneath the Weathervane with Polious to finally repair the artifact with the power core they'd recovered.  Upon reaching the jury-rigged setup in the vault-like power room, they determined that the connections on the replacement core weren't going to make the project overly easy - and nor were the black tentacles reaching in after them...

- Helios began phasing through the vault door to see what was inside while Naran and Drokkan continued exploring the hold.  They didn't find much else of interest in the vast storage areas of the ship-city - aside from a massive creature with a ring of lights around its head investigating the structure they were in.  They pulled Helios back out just after he'd seen that the room on the other side of the Vault door was not at all what he expected.  They talked for a minute about whether to address the creature, but decided not to chance agitating it - though they'd have to wait for it to leave before feeling it would be safe to reenter the vault.  In the meantime, they decided to investigate the device Naran had previously discovered in the aft.  They began scavenging it for numenera components when a portion of it unexpectedly powered up - and began pushing the whale-city forward, toward the sea floor...

- +2xp

Aralakh Company: Highwaymen pt. II

 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Though initially outnumbered, a stroke of incredible good fortune allowed Aralakh to completely incapacitate the opposing Whitworth with a pair of lucky headshots.  The Wolverine managed to mostly return the favor a bit later, however, when it blasted off their Panther's right leg, taking it down.  Both sides having downed units on the field has upped the stakes on this engagement considerably. 

- Meanwhile, the Commando continues to harass the trucks they're escorting and their Phoenix Hawk is only now catching up to it.  The company's Jenner is also running hot after continued attempts to swat the Wasp buzzing around it.

Aralakh Company: Highwaymen pt. I

Thursday April 5, 2018 at 8:45pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Meanwhile, Steiner, Riley, and Morgan were escorting an overdue shipment to a neightboring city when they, too, were attacked by the bandits.  Deficits in units and overall tonnage will make this a tough fight, but they are so far holding their own.  Whether they can keep the attackers from destroying the trucks might be another question entirely.

Black Foxes: Made Manifest

 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

Characters:

Erik [Tony] : Lurk

- Drave [Tim] : Whisper

New Contacts:

- Telda : a roaming beggar and a good source for info on the street

- Flint: a spirit trafficker with a shop in the Foxes' territory

- Kobb: a gambler and broker who takes bets on the fights at the Broken Anchor

New Rivals:

- Quellyn: a witch who holds a grudge against Drave for interrupting a ritual and the resulting injury and scar

- Darmot: a Coalridge Bluecoat who seems to have it in for Erik

- Candra: a sailor/boxer who underestimated him once and now takes special pleasure in beating him down

Session Highlights:

- As they finished setting up their operation, the crew got two score opportunities: one from their noble contact, and the other from the Circle of Flame.  The first was to steal a particular antique necklace from a rival noble, and the second was to obtain an artifact from a carraige about to move through their turf.  Since the latter was more time-sensitive, they decided to act on it first and risk the noble's impatience.

- Drave decided on a setup action to scout the likely routes and find a ghost that he could push to manifest and distract the Spirit Warden driver of the carriage.  He was successful, but the spirit took an interest in him: it's apparently being controlled by another and it seeks release.

- While the driver was distracted, Erik entered the carriage and found it coated with ice.  He managed to free the box containing the Soul Gem from its containment and made a run for it before the Warden could catch him.

- The Circle of Flame was impressed by the Foxes' daring success and gave them the 6 coin payoff promised.

- The crew took a fair bit of heat from the operation as they were both spotted and the Spirit Wardens are a high-profile faction.  Erik attempted to pin the deed on some local rivals, the Stone Club, but only managed in further agitating that gang.

- The two had spent a day or to trying to unwind from the stress of their score and were planning their operation against the Molfon Estate for Adelaide's necklace when the spirit Drave and previously coerced appeared in their hidden lair...

Mysts of the Ninth World: The Primary Objective

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Ronin and Ganthet return to the illusory forest they'd encountered when they'd started their quest - though it had definitely moved further north from its previous position.  They made their way through the hologrammatic trees as quickly as possible, though it took several hours.  Somewhere near the center of the wood, they found a giant, tangible tree surrounded by large, translucent pods.  A nearby pool of water allowed them to refill their canteens for the remainder of their journey, though something about the place felt 'off'.  When they finally reached Arable, they were greeted with desparate pleading and endless questions - particularly about their missing companions and the success of their mission.  They learned that the Weathervane's function had been steadily deteriorating since they left and would need attention soon if the settlement is to survive.

- Naran and Helios continued exploring the wrecked whale-city with Drokkan.  Naran found a sort of command or navigation room while Helios phased through a pressure-sealed bulkhead to enter the captain's quarters, which were still dry.  Inside he found numenera devices and a chest of shins amid the mess of papers and objects thrown from shelves and tables.  Naran found some interesting maps for which she went to some lengths to salvage and preserve, as well as a metal safe which she cut from the surrounding equipment.  After giving the remainder of the bow a once-over, the three proceeded into the cargo holds where they found some metal plates that superheated when they came in contact with one another, a crate of pearls that seemed to repel water, and a large metal vault which promised their real payday...

- +1xp

Aralakh Company: Struggle for Power pt. III

Thursday March 8, 2018 at 8:45pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- The Thunderbolt survived long enough for the pilot to regain consciousness and become a threat, but a lucky shot to the machinegun ammo cache caused a massive explosion which ripped the unit apart.  The Hermes II, meanwhile, had managed to take out one of the Assassin's legs before changing its tactics.  Its heavier support gone, the Hermes began destroying the repair trucks still working on the damaged facility.  Using the terrain and speed to its advantage over Aralakh's remaining heavier units, it was able to destroy all three trucks and escape the engagement area - securing a technical victory.

- Aralakh's objective to protect the crews repairing the power station was a failure overall, but they did manage to salvage the remains of a Thunderbolt chassis.

Mysts of the Ninth World: A Hitch in the Plan

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Ronin and Ganthet fought off the trio of margr, who turned out to be sentries for a massive encampment further into the northern badlands.  They were able to outrun the pursuing band, eventually arriving at the oasis they had visited some weeks before.  Once more, the glowing purple diamond appeared above the well at the site, and individuals seemingly from different worlds or realities wandered in.

- Piper and Olim cleaned up the tower and made some plans to carefully limit what they divulged about their project.  When the inspection came, however, the Queen herself was leading the examination.  Unfortunately, she was able to determine the nature of the craft they were restoring and, as Olim feared, had in mind several uses for it.  To prevent the commandeering of his new vessel, Piper suggested they finish repairs on the ship and then use it to leave for her home of Arable - if they could determine the precise direction.

- Naran, Helios, and Drokkan split up and began exploring the whale/ship/city.  Naran located a large numenera device at the aft surrounded by glowing fish and Drokkan found what he believed to be the "captain's quarters" but was unable to get inside.  Helios, however, ran afoul of a giant black eel-like creature and some dangerous plants.  The group managed to fight it off and resumed their exploration of the strange place.

Black Foxes: The Crew

 Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix
Artwork © Evil Hat Productions and Square Enix

System: Blades in the Dark

Setting: Doskvol, the Shattered Isles

Players: Tony, Tim

Schedule: Occasional Weeknights


Starting a small, experimental Blades in the Dark campaign.

Tonight, we made the crew: the Black Foxes.  A pair of disgruntled ex-miners from the district of Coalridge got together and decided to start a more lucrative, less legal enterprise.  With the help of some chance relationships they've set up a hideout in a disused corner of the coal mine and have their sights on an area of the declining Six Towers district still possessed of some unjustified wealth.

Crew Type: Shadows (theives/spies)

Contacts: Adelaide Phraoig (noble), Lerrin (toolmaker), Mirage (Circle of Flame contact), Ulf Ironborn (gang leader)

Allies: The Circle of Flame (Occultists), Ulf Ironborn's gang (Bravos)

Enemies: The Stone Club (Bravos), The Dimmer Sisters (Occultists)

Mysts of the Ninth World: Keep It Together

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Ronin and Ganthet headed east across the desert plains, but their not-quite-domesticated aneen kept driving them north.  Ronin noticed the brilliant-purple object above the oasis they'd seen on their original journey west and reoriented their course but from their northward position, this took them through a badlands region.   They found themselves under attack by margr and are now attempting to fight off the abhumans while keeping their wild pack animal from running off.

- Piper and Olim's meeting with magistrate Quince was interrupted by the Angulan Knight Yal-Sara as she "delivered" the body of a man she'd been sent after.  Once the magistrate regained his composure, he decreed that Olim must provide documentation on his efforts and agree to an imspection.  On their way back to the tower, he voiced to Piper his concern that the queen was angling to seize control of his services and the airship he was restoring.

- Naran and Helios followed Drokkan through the crowds gathering around the return of Vareallius' ship to talk with a skeane friend of his about some deep water equipment for his new companions.  Once this was acquired, the three headed up through the membrane gates and into the cold, dark waters.  They jetted along the sea floor to the place where the deeping martelling was sleeping and then up into the city on its back and made plans to split up and see what they could find in the time.

- +1xp

Aralakh Company: Struggle for Power pt. II

Thursday March 1, 2018 at 9:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- As the battle continued, the Assassin chased after the HermesII which had maneuvered behind the facility and was preparing to attack the repair crews.  This left the Centurion and Crusader to engage the Thunderbolt.  After a few rounds of concentrated fire, the Thunderbolt made a dramatic charge at the Crusader, inflicting brutal damage to its center torso and damaging its engine shielding.  In so doing, however, the T-bolt took some unexpected damage to the head which KO'd the pilot!

Aralakh Company: Struggle for Power pt. I

Thursday February 22, 2018 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- After pulling out of Holt, Aralakh continued on to their original destination in Lyran space: the Lysidas Barony in the Fianna system.  They met briefly with Baron Hepstein who informed them on the particulars of their issue with a local terrorist cell.  He'd already hired another small merc company which was currently engaged in the north - the first company to eliminate the threat would get a significant bonus.  The most pressing outstanding objectives were to establish a visible presence within the city, to escort a shipping convoy to a neighboring city, and to defend repairs to a final power station outside the city - so Aralakh distributed their forces across these areas as they saw fit.

- The company's Crusader, Assassin, and Centurion had been dispatched to protect repair trucks at a previously-attacked and severely-damaged power station about 10 miles northeast of the city, where they engaged a Hermes II and a Thunderbolt who'd come to disrupt the operation.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Pulled In

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Naran and Helios continued into the darkness of the South Loop.  After getting pulled deeper in to the Rustways by a strange current and encountering some massive monsters that seemed to repeatedly appear and disappear, they found their way back to the corridor and on to the Scavengers' Wreck, the more inhabited portion of this dark ruin.  There, they eventually found Drokkan, the many they were looking for who they were told found something in the ruins that might be able to transport them elsewhere.  Unfortunately, he insisted he was pressed for time at the moment - so the two agreed to go with him to help with whatever he was doing: which turned out to be exploring the remains of a deeping martelling whale settlement...

- Ganthet and Ronin evaded the monstrous metal automaton that emerged from a doorway on the far side of the large chamber they'd decended into when it unexpectedly powered-down.  In fact, the entire complex seemed to be powering up and then losing power at regular intervals.  Ronin led them further into the ruin where they found various control rooms and eventually a vertical shaft lined with glass pods, some of which contained creatures that had seemingly been grafted with plants. - one of which, a margr, was still alive.  The ladder in the shaft gave them access to the hatch at the top, and they emerged back onto the plain above.  The aneen Ganthet had left tied up had eventually worn itself out trying to escape, and was now calmly resting.

- An explosion blew out a wall at the top of the tower and sent Piper falling down the stairway into the room below, where Olim was still trying to catch the escaped threviars.  The two pursued the darting creatures downstairs, where they apparently repowered an automaton friend of Olim's and then animated a giant pile of junk which began harrying Piper as she continued her search for some sort of containment device.  It was about this time that there was a pounding on the front door and a voice demanding that Olim come out.  Piper and Olim managed to break apart the junk pile and collect the remaining threviars about the time the door burst open amd one of the Rarmon guards came in and insisted they come with him to speak with the magistrate...

Aralakh Company: Scorpion's Tail pt. II

Thursday February 15, 2018 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- The company engaged the bandit forces, but it quickly became apparent that fortune wasn't on their side.  They established a new set of LZ coordinates with the contingent returning to the site, and made to lift off.  The ship's aft suffered structural damage when the bandits detonated the mines that laced the area, but critical systems remained intact and they were able to pull away.

Aralakh Company: Scorpion's Tail pt. I

Tuesday February 6, 2018 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh finished their resupply and left Hassad for the Fianna system in Lyran space.  On the way, however, they decided to stop at Holt to meet with a potential buyer for their stolen experimental weapons.  They realized a little too late they'd been set up, however, and now their forces are split and their dropship is under attack.

Aralakh Company: Expanding Operations

Wednesday January 24, 2018 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- After concluding the mission, the company jumped to Hassad back in FWL space to regroup.  Aralakh claimed a Grasshopper, Hatchetman, and Jenner from the pool of salvaged 'mechs recovered from the operation - an impressive haul.  They regrouped, repaired, made a couple of new hires, and settled on a fairly well-paying contract in the Lyran Commonwealth as their next op.

Mysts of the Ninth World: What Lurks Within

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper returned to Olim's tower and resumed helping him on his airship restoration.  They encountered a large number of mysteriously burned out components related to the man's previous attempts to restore functionality to the craft.  As they worked, snakes seemingly composed entirely of electricity leapt out of the craft and began causing havoc with other nearby devices whie the two tried to recapture them...

- While attempting to climb up and out of the opening from which he was dangling, Ronin mistakenly grabbed a vinelike plant and his weight ripped its shallow roots from the structure until it snagged on a piece of machinery.  While he climbed the rest of the way down, Ganthet descended into the chamber himself.  As they surveyed their surroundings, the blocky tower that jutted up from the center of the chamber lit up and the entire structure began a small but intense vibration.  A number of nearby panels powered up, while other areas began to pop and spark with shorting circuits.  Ronin noted a number of broad holes that had been punched through the walls of the chamber from outside just before a pounding sound of metal-on-metal began...

- Naran and Helios spent some time speaking with Thuriss and Marna at the now-emptied Great 'Leens tavern before setting out through the city toward the South Loop.  The pair's persistence with the guards at the gate eventually yielded results and the door was opened for them - revealing the dark, tunnel-like passage into this newly-opened section of the Rustways...

- +1xp

Aralakh Company: Glass Cannons pt. III

Wednesday January 17, 2018 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (3) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Jyun and Orion continued their guerilla tactics against the badly-damaged Capellan remnant, avoiding their biggest guns and pressing each tactical advantage until they were able to disable all of the resisting units.  They emerged by no means unscathed, but the job was completed successfully enough to score a followup contract offer from the FWLM (should they choose to continue in its employ), and the salvage haul should be worth it.

Mysts of the Ninth World: An Entrance or Exit

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper awoke and continued attempting to find her way through the caverns and back to the surface.  She found a spiraling passage heading downward which led to a chamber full of crystals and eventually a room full of complex machinery.  She was confronted by a glowing banner-like entity which asked her a number of questions before asking if she wished to return to the surface.  After answering in the affirmative, the next thing she knew she was on the crowded streets of Rarmon with her back to the Obstinate Door. 

- Thruird blasted the Great 'Leens with bursts of ice from her mask while panicked bystanders fled.  Naran was temporarily frozen to one of the pub's machines and Helios attempted to tackle their assailant and cover her face.  The attempt failed, but it did distract her long enough for Naran to free herself and engage the Russet in conversation.  The unexpected turn confused the girl enough that she dissipated the mask and left - obviously still angry but no logner violent.  In the remains of the bar, the two spoke for some time about how to proceed in finding a way back to the mainland.

- Ganthet waited for Ronin for some time before leaving the power core in a "safe" place and heading north after the herd.  As he approached a watering hole next to a cliffside, Ronin found him - now human but covered with smears of blood.  The two made their way to the water's edge, where they were greeted mentally by some unseen entity.  When they were unable to comply with its requests for a "clearance code", the ground began to shake.  Ganthet hopped on a nearby aneen before it bolted away, but Ronin fell into the water and was unable to escape before the bottom fell out of the pool into a massive underground chamber.

- +2xp

Aralakh Company: Claim Jumpers

Friday December 15, 2017 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Meanwhile, Drevan hacked his way into the Phoenix Hawk and carry out some of the Lostech weaponry he'd found along with it, but its sensors detected some approaching units.  He decided to walk it all the way back to the safety of their dropship, but by the time he returned, he found his powered-down Warhammer being approached by an Orion and a Vindicator.  The ensuing firefight was brief but brutal; in the end the Orion was forced to withdraw and Aralakh was able to claim the remaining movable Lostech, as well as report a Vindicator for additional salvage.

Aralakh Company: Glass Cannons pt. II

Thursday December 14, 2017 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Knowing they are outgunned but not necessarily out-armored, Aralakh adopted a strategy of long range sniping from deep woods positions, hoping to draw the Capellan units to them and gambling that they can eliminate the biggest threats before they get close enough to be a problem.  Damage is significant on both sides, and while the Capellan mechs are running hot, they've still got some big guns - and Aralakh's Centurion is feeling the loss of its AC/10.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Fragile Rage

Wednesday December 13, 2017 at 8:00pm numenera, mysts of the ninth world, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- While trying to trap an aneen to use as a pack animal, something inside Ronin was overcome with hunger.  He transformed into an enourmous red serpent and began tearing open the scattering animals.  His ravenous feast was interrupted by the sudden arrival of a cragworm, which fought with him for territory - nearly dragging Ganthet off after being greviously injured.  Ronin, still a giant snake, pursued the fleeing herd beasts to the northeast while Ganthet recovered.

- Piper was attempting to find her way up and out of the cavernous depths when she encountered a small hive of crab-like creatures seemingly composed of the cast-off junk around her.  The brushed them off and eluded their pursuit for some time, before stomping on one that surprised her.  It let out a piercing sustained shriek, which awoke something giant behind her in the darkness.  Whatever it was bellowed and pounded the walls and floor of the cavern, causing underground earthquakes that nearly buried her.

- Naran and Helios entered the "Great 'Leens" tavern and learned something about the place and its odd games, as well as the city at large and some possible ways back to the surface.  The most apparent seemed to be Varealius' craft or a gateway found by a man called Dokkan, but they were also told they could speak with the Deephunters (skeane that know the area outside the city well) and/or consult the Datavault for more information.  Their conversations were interrupted, however, when the bartender called for a drinking game and unwittingly insulted a teenaged girl - who then revealed herself as Thruird, the Russet, and began ripping appart the tavern with blasts of ice from her conjured mask...

- +3xp

Mysts of the Ninth World: This New Strangeness

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- After being "decontaminated", Naran and Helios received a brief orientation on the city, including information about the "Four Scylines" (the machine gods that "rule" the city), the "florrine" concoction they were required to injest daily, city service, layout, and basic services; after which, they were given their "passtags".  They asked the skeane they were speaking to about access to the surface and the mainland and it told them they were a long distance from shore and many miles beneath the surface, but that there was a man called 'Varrealius' who owned a submersible craft that made voyages to such places.  He was currently away but expected back at any time.  From there, the two ventured into the city.  They found one of the marketplaces in the Rustways where Helios encountered an imposing octipoidal woman in search of a new "servant" - one of 7 human males carrying an odd array of objects in trance-like states.  She was becoming increasingly agitated and insistent when Naran shot a flare which distracted her enough for Helios to use one of his abilities which caused her to forget the past 5 minutes.  Confused, she withdrew back into the city and Naran and Helios proceeded into a nearby tavern which seemed to be engaged in a variety of strange games...

- Ronin and Ganthet managed to slay the towering beast assaulting them, but in so doing ruptured some internal organ that drenched Ganthet in acid.  They proceeded to the edge of the plains below the Black Riage before camping whereupon the cypher levitating their cargo finally burned out for good.  Fortunately, they could see a promising herd of aneen on the plain below that might well serve as pack animals if they could be subdued.  UNfortunately, the presence inside of Ronin was becoming active again - and insisting that he feed on the creatures' flesh...

- After recovering a bit, Piper got up and began exploring the darkness into which she had fallen.  Her only light source was herself, as she still retained a faint green glow from the Numenera incident above.  She found numerous piles of cast off bits of old devices - and even one or two usable objects - before a tall and skeletal automaton took interest in her.  After going through her possessions, he took her burned-out headband artifact and strode back into the darkness.  Piper followed, finding her way to a place where the ground and walls no longer seemed to be stone, but rather a pulsing, squishy, reddish substance.  She recovered her headband from where the automaton had placed it (on one of the piles) and found nearby some sort of transdimensional device embedded in the stone.  She studied it for a few moments before setting out to find a way back into the more populous tunnels above...

- +2xp

Aralakh Company: Glass Cannons pt. I

Tuesday December 5, 2017 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Upon engaging the crippled units, Aralakh's Assassin and Centurion found there were several others nearby.  They destroyed the Jenner outright and have hammered a few other units over the ensuing exchanges, but they still face the Wolfhound and the mobile turret as well as a Clint that came in from the Northeast as well as a Hunchback and a Rifleman that were powered down in nearby woods along with some geurilla forces.  Their opposition is badly damaged, but it remains to be seen whether they can withstand its firepower long enough to neutralize it.

Aralakh Company: Cleanup Crew

Thursday November 30, 2017 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh made some hasty repairs to their units in preparation for their second, cleanup mission - a sweep across the surrounding countryside looking for stragglers and salvage.  Most notably, Drevan found a cache of Lostech - including a pristine Phoenix Hawk - while chasing a pair of crippled units into a thick forest.  Meanwhile, Jyun and Orion happened upon a limping Jenner, a mobile turrent, and a Wolfhound undergoing field repairs...

Mysts of the Ninth World: On Into Darkness

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper was on her way to convincing her assailant that he had mistaken her identity when malfunctioning machinery distracted them.  Arcs of electricity infused her with some form of energy and hideously mutated the madman. She continued deeper into the Pipes and was jumped by a thief attempting to steal her pack.  Piper managed to hold onto her belongings but not her footing, tumbling down a pit into darkness...

- Ronin and Ganthet were able to jumpstart the gravity cypher again, allowing them to push the power core down the mountain toward the plain.  Wanting to make the most of whatever time it had remaining, they pushed on into the night and found themselves ambushed just after twilight by a tall, fierce, and 6-limbed creature...

- Having returned to the relative safety of Rethirra, Naran and Helios chose a new book - this time, one of the small volumes labeled with 'Alaeta' - a place they suspected might be associated with Earth.  Linking through the book into a dark alleyway, they found their environment was filled with liquid rather than air, and in attempts to recover attracted the attention of one of the creatures dwelling.  It quickly led them into the city to a place where they could be "decontaminated".  In the subsequent conversations, Helios and Naran were pleased to discovered that they were, in fact, back on Earth - even if the specific location turned out to be a sealed city on the in the black depths of the ocean..

- +2xp

Mysts of the Ninth World: Brutal Necessity

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper decided she would see what progress she could make toward the task the Order of Truth had set for her.  Finding the storm-drain entrance the priests had told her about, she decended into the underworld known to the citizens of Rarmon as "the Pipes".  She had a chance encounter with a strange fortune-teller with a glowing third eye who offered strange visions, wandered into some dark warrens, and eventually made her way into a surprisingly populated area before being accosted by a large man demanding she keep her end of some unknown bargain...

- Naran and Helios bolted back up the stairs as the doors burst open and two avian heads on long, serpentine necks surveyed the room and a cloud of thick, blue fog billowed outward.  They were pursued by 3, smaller, 4-legged, bird-like creatures with two heads - presumably the large creature's offspring.  The mind-altering fog they produced proved confusing to Helios who had some difficulty escaping it even while Naran called to him from outside while using her cutting light ability to keep the creatures at bay.  When his escape was ultimately made, the two ran the final distance back to the top, barricaded themselves in the large office, and linked back to the library on Rethirra using one of the books they'd brought with them.

- Ronin and Ganthet found the town of Urnmoll was in disarray.  A massive, whale-like creature floated over the town, raining shards of black crystal.  The townsfolk seemed to be gathering possessions in preparation to leave - all except a handful trying desperately to repair the Hydrosource, and Seluxii who was preocuppied with Rell who seemed to be ill in some way.  Their nejavin companion Vlorrex, seemingly able to understand the villagers' language to some extent, ended up staying to help them while Ronin and Ganthet proceeded to the place they'd stashed the power core.  They attached the cypher Vlorrex had made for them and covered the large device with coats and bedrolls.  The two somehow managed to keep the few villagers that attempted to speak with them on their way out from discerning exactly what they were doing - all except one particular old woman who simply eyed them suspiciously while suggesting they might not be on the right track.  They got the device just outside the town when Vlorrex's device malfunction and the heavy core dropped unceremoniously to the ground.

- +1xp

Of Dragons, Tables, and Podcasts

Monday November 20, 2017 at 12:17pm podcasting, gaming, thetabledragon Comments (0) »
Of Dragons, Tables, and Podcasts Image

"Oh man, if I had an hour..."

So Rucht, a gamer friend of mine who runs an RPG group I play in (not to be confused with the group I run), happens to head up the tabletop games track at DragonCon.  Rucht was also the guy who introduced me to gaming podcasts via Fear the Boot, and is someone with whom I somewhat regularly have interesting discussions about the various facets of this hobby with both like so much.

A while back (maybe a year ago?) he approached me about doing a podcast of our own on some of this stuff.  He said he's often been asked questions at the con that he just doesn't have time to answer, and he thought it would be cool if there was some resource he could point people to on some of this stuff.  Also, since the two of us are rarely at a loss for gamery things to talk about, he thought we could produce some pretty substantial content that others might find useful (or, at least interesting).

Lanching a 'Cast

The goal was to launch the podcast - which we dubbed "The Table Dragon" - for this year's DragonCon.  We were *mostly* successful (I might have been up until ridiculous hours editing episode 1, and subsequently thinking I lost said editing work).  The site was plain and boring, but the basic content was there.  We don't have (read: "I haven't found time to make") a dedicated site yet, but the libsyn feed is so far "adequate".

Solidifying the Project

This weekend I took a couple of so-so photos so we could have some basic imagery (which doesn't look great at every resolution on the libsyn feed, but...), finished editing Episode 2, and published that stuff.

Now I'm starting to be a little proud of this thing.  It looks decent, and I think our two episodes are actually pretty good (even if I hate listening to myself talk on recordings).

We have recorded a third, and we have some interesting plans for something cool and different for our next episode.  So we'll see where this goes.

 

~PS

Aralakh Company: Urban Jungle pt. V

Friday November 17, 2017 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Though their Warhammer got caught out away from the heart of the firefight, some good fortune allowed Aralakh to not only come out of the engagement on top, but also to earn some impressive salvage on the operation.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Forward Progress

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Ronin and Ganthet fought off the murden ambush and then decided to take shelter inside the wreck once again so they could rest and Vlorrex could finish work on their gravity-negation cypher.  Once completed, the trio set out for Urnmoll.

- Piper returned to the tower with Olim, and, after spending a couple of days examining the project, began work once again.  At the end of the second day, their efforts were rewarded with some success as they were able to activate the machine's console on temporary power.  Satisfied with this progress, Piper decided to take a bit of time off to learn more about the Pipes - where the Embassy wished to send her in search of a dormant device.

- Naran and Helios spent some time examining their options, and ultimately decided to use a linking book called 'Anumos'.  On the other side they found what appeared to be the remains of a sprawling building used as some form of academy, along with linking books with similar titles.  Near the lowest part of the complex, they found a chamber which Helios recognized as the area viewed through another book they'd seen weeks ago - but this thought was interrupted by the crash of something impacting the other side of a set of sturdy doors...

- +2xp

Mysts of the Ninth World: Available Resources

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Naran and Helios fought off some sort of discorporating, glass-breathing lizard creature and search the ruined study - finding several more of the books presumably capable of transporting them to other locations, in addition to a note referencing a crumbling civilization and a man they once met in some sort of time-distortion field.

- Piper followed Olim to the Embassy of Truth.  After some explanation, the priests were able to restore her material state - at least temporarily.  The priests seemed interested in Piper and her experiences, and suggested there was something she could do for them.  Olim, however, pointed out that she'd already "promised" to assist him with the restoration of his "airship".

- Ronin and Ganthet made their way through the wreck back to the pod bay where they had Vlorrex begin work on the device they needed.  Before he could finish, however, something in the pod ship they'd taken refuge within activated and automatons became active outside in the bay.  They decided they should run for it, narrowly escaping the pod bay before the bay doors above opened and the pod ship lifted off.  They made their way out of the larger wreck - only to find themselves under attack...

- +4xp

Aralakh Company: Urban Jungle pt. IV

Monday November 6, 2017 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh took out the damaged Jenner and continued to inflict significant damage to the Hatchetman, which is now barely operable.  The Grasshopper and Dervish still remain significant threats, but they, too, are wearing down and nearby friendlies are keeping additional units from venturing into the sector.  The FWLM trucks continue to load supplies from the located munitions depot, apparently safe from major threats.  

- While they remain largely in control of the battlefield, Aralakh is anything but unscathed.  Their next challenge will be in securing the area and completing their objective before one or more of their own units is crippled by enemy fire.

Aralakh Company: Urban Jungle pt. III

Thursday November 2, 2017 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- The encounter with on-world Capellan forces continued as Aralakh engaged the newly-arrived Grasshopper & Dervish more directly, while the damaged Jenner circled back around and began harassing the trucks that had arrived to clear out the munitions depot.  Several exchanges resulted in critical damage to both sides, and it became apparent that clearing the sector wasn't going to be as easy as they'd hoped.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Impediments

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Naran and Helios spoke with the old woman for some time, learning a bit about the ancestors who created the portal books - which she seemed to regard as foolish and overly ambitious.  As they were intent on finding their way home, she told them of the ruin of a library far to the south which may still contain some of these books preserved in unusual blocks of glass.  After some discussion, they decided traveling there would be their next move.  Upon arriving they quickly found the glass structures and their preserved objects - as well as a large and apparently-agitated lizard-like creature...

- Ronin and Ganthet made their way back through the ruin toward the pod where they'd left the nejavin.  As they hurried through the ship, they were accosted by some form of mechanical humanoid which attempted to steal some of their gathered components, until Ganthet's electrified fist finally connected, damaging it enough that it withdrew.

- Intent on getting the inventor's attention, Piper began throwing his equipment around the work room - causing him much confusion as to what was happening.  She was finally able to get his attention and explain her situation by writing on some nearby schematics.  The inventor - whose name was Olim - told her that their best bet for reversing her condition would be to speak with the priests at the Embassy of Truth...

- +3xp

Aralakh Company: Urban Jungle pt. II

Thursday October 26, 2017 at 8:15pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh continued their push into the city, destroying a weapons factory, locating a power station, and pushing back the mounting resistance.  They destroyed one tank and crippled the harassing Jenner, which fled the field.  A Dervish and Grasshopper arrived in the sector causing them to regroup, but a lucky shot blew off the advancing Hatchetman's leg, further securing their advantage.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Uncontrolled Interface

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Ronin and Ganthet continued their exploration of the crashed vessel, eventually finding a shaft-like structure they believed to be part of the craft's power generator.  They were beginning to harvest some components from the structure when it suddenly activated, sending a blue energy pulse down the tube, accompanied by some form of energy being that complicated their escape.

- Naran and Nimerun, having climbed back out of the hole where they'd activated the device, watched the bright blue beam firing up into the sky.  As they were about to return to the old woman's cave, they heard a distant sound and noted another beam firing up into the sky a great distance away.  Then a third.  More sounds followed.  When they returned to the old woman, she seemed to have all but forgotten the errand on which she'd sent them, though she was glad to hear they were successful.  Their conversation was interrupted by a great roar, and Naran decided to go check on Helios...

- Helios and the girl made their way to the dormant "leviathan" with instructions on how to put it back to "sleep" or possibly keep it from waking.  As Helios climbed up onto the creature toward its head, the girl began singing a strange, unnatural "song" and aggressive plants immediately began erupting from the cracks in the creature's hide.  Helios arrived at a massive, opening eye and jammed the injector device into it.  The girl began shrieking as the enormous creature stirred to life, partially lifting itself from the swamp.  The dazed creature flailed after them for a few moments before the old woman's concoction did its work and the beast collapsed back into the water, once more unconscious.  By this time, Naran had arrived and was already pulling the incoherent girl to saftey.  The three of them returned to the village.

- Piper was still with the Angulan Knight and the priest when a man called Quince arrived.  The Knight's patience barely tolerated the man, but ultimately they came to an agreement: she would be permitted entrance to the city in exchange for pursuing a man wanted for the murder of a local noble.  Piper, still seemingly invisible and intangible, followed them into the crowded city, but decided to go her own way once inside.  While heading further in, she happened by a tall, misshapen tower when some sort of "incident" happened inside causing thick, blue smoke to issue from all visible windows.  A man appeared at the door, coughing, and was quickly accosted by two guardsmen who seemed to chastise of threaten him.  The guards left, but before the man withdrew, he made brief eye contact with her.  Piper decided to follow him inside - moving through the door in her immaterial state.  Finding him working on some device at the top of the building, she attempted to get his attention.  He seemed to be able to see (if not hear) her - that is, until he removed his goggles...

- +2xp

Appalachian Renaissance Faire 2017

Saturday October 14, 2017 at 10:40pm renaissance festivals Comments (1) »
 Lords of Chivalry joust - Appalachian Renaissance Faire 2017
Lords of Chivalry joust - Appalachian Renaissance Faire 2017

We spent most of the day at the First Annual Appalachian Renaissance Festival in Piney Flats.  It was fairly small, but a great start - and the Lords of Chivalry put on an enjoyable show, as always.  We met some friends there, looked at the booths, watched a couple of shows, saw the joust, and Hannah got to shoot a bow.  She and Micah had a good time as well.  We'll probably be back next year.

Edit: Posted a bunch of photos from our time at the event here. Lords of Chivalry actually asked if they could share some on their page, which was cool.

~PS

Aralakh Company: Urban Jungle pt. I

Thursday October 12, 2017 at 8:45pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- As they made planetfall, Aralakh was briefed on their objective: they would be entering a sector of an urban industrial area looking for targets.  Any supply depots were to be held until they could be cleaned out.  Production, research, and repair facilities were to be destroyed to cripple the Capellan war effort in this region.  Resistance was expected to be light to moderate; mech forces were known to be on-planet, but probably not in large numbers.  As they approached the edge of the city, engagements had already begun elsewhere.  Thus far, resistance was a bit more than anticipated, but not problematically so.  They were also warned of incoming contacts to their position, and that guerrilla forces had been observed.

- In their initial advance, Aralakh located a factory and a munitions depot, destroyed a 20-ton Stinger and a building concealing a laser weapon, and maimed a retreating tank.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Sating the Beast

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Ronin and Ganthet continued deeper into the wreck they were exploring, coming upon a processing bank of some kind.  While scavenging for parts, the scattered debris began assembling itself into towering construct which assualted them.  A purplish, tentacled creature then approached them, finally convincing Ronin to take a bite from its bread-like outer flesh.  Consuming this part of the creature seemed to sate it in some way, but Ronin the last hour or so of his memory replaced by a scene of burning wreckage.

- As the caravan awaited inspection outside the city, Piper witnessed an heated exchange between the town guard and a well-armored woman who'd flown up to the city on a large, reptilian creature.  The Xi-drake seemed able to see Piper, and made some movement toward her as if to investigate until the disagreement at the gate became physical.  An Aeon Priest arrived on the scene and had some success diffusing the situation.  The caravan was permitted entry, but Piper decided to stay and listen to the conversation between the priest and the Angulan knight.  Apparently, she had come from Dynafel in search of a varjellan fugitive.

- Naran proceeded through the village after the spick whom she'd been sent to assist by the old woman.  The two of them dove into a large circular pool and made for a metal artifact protruding from its center - apparently the source of the painful pulses that were emanating through the settlement.  After some doing, the two were able to stop the pulses by more fully activating the device, which was now firing a bright blue beam up into the sky.

- Helios, meanwhile, took a small boat out of the village to the south and was gathering red flowers for the old woman when he noted some bubbles in the water moving in his direction.  As he was rowing himself back to the village, a massive, plant-like creature erupted from the water and began flailing about.  The creature made his escape difficult, but he ultimately returned with the needed blooms.  The woman mixed into the concoction she was making, loaded it into a strange, gun-like device, which she handed to Helios - sending him and a strange girl into the swamp to the south, telling him they must put the "Leviathan" back to sleep...

- +2xp

Aralakh Company: Nest of Vipers

Friday September 29, 2017 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh met up with the so-called "Capellan Insurgency" holding their crew members hostage.  The situation clearly being under their foes control, the company decided to go through with paying the ransom after ensuring their crew would be returned and they could all walk away.

- After resolving that situation, the various merc companies being employed by the FWLM forces were briefed on their mission: they would be lifted to the Yunnah system where they would be looking to destroy newly-developed research and repair facilities on a backwater world 2 jumps into Capellan space.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Unexpected Turns

Tuesday September 26, 2017 at 8:00pm numenera, mysts of the ninth world, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Naran and Helios continued south along the waterway, eventually arriving in Quei after a brief encounter with some gate-keeping automatons in the canyon.  The town occupied a series of docks and platforms suspended over a swamp.  The townsfolk were less than helpful, but the two eventually found their way to The River's cave, where she immediately set them to work on some seemingly-urgent task with no explanation.

- Ronin and Ganthet rested, further discussed their next action, and spoke with Vlorrex.  They decided their best bet was the power core they'd stashed outside of Urnmoll, and if Vlorrex could cobble together some form of null-gravity cypher to make transportation easier, they could probably managed to get it out of town.  Vlorrex then sent them out into the wreck to scavenge for parts where they came upon some sort of lab containing large tanks of reddish liquid and a mass of malfunctioning, mechanical manipulator arms.

- Piper survived the explosion but found that she had somehow become invisible and insubstantial.  No one was able to hear or see her, and interacting with objects had become difficult.  The caravan reassembled after the ordeal, made camp, and spent a considerable about of time scavenging the remains of the beast and the Hearth before setting out early the following morning.  Piper decided to continue on with the caravan and, after about another day an a half, they all arrived at the gates of Rarmon.

- +1xp

Mysts of the Ninth World: Opening Doors

Tuesday September 19, 2017 at 8:00pm numenera, mysts of the ninth world, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Naran and Helios spoke with their otter-man friend again as they rested in preparationg to dive into the 'forbidden waters' in search of a way to access a starship they'd been told of by The Sisters.  He showed them a book he'd taken from a fallen Yefort raider - one that contained a black view-panel like Helios' "broken" volume.  He suggested they go to Quei and talk to "The River".

- Ronin and Ganthet explored the vault-lined hallway connected to the cargo hold of the small crafted they'd found within the wrecked carrier.  Among other things, they found a small by exceedingly heavy coin, a jacket and some wood and metal staves, and a strange rectangular book containing a viewport overlooking a rock-lined pool in a redwood forest.

- Lengthy discussions on next moves insued.

- +2xp

Mysts of the Ninth World: Upheaval

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Agan emerged from the crowd around Naran and Helios, claiming they had brought ruin to the village and accusing Eufren of aiding in the destruction.  When it became apparent public opinion was going south and Agan and his henchment wished to do them harm, Helios pried up some floorboards inside the central ruin and the two escaped by diving into the waters beneath and swimming out.  At Helios' direction, they made for the woodlands containing the otter-man's home.

- While Ronin and Vlorrex attempted to activate the consoles to reconstruct the nejavin's body, Ganthet took a look around in the surrounding chambers, and found they were directly above a massive bay containing some sort of space-faring craft.  When Ronin engaged the final switch to activate the equipment, a short set off a power surge in the craft accompanied by a dramatic shift, which pitched the vessel downward a further 20 degrees.  Making their way to the craft bay once the floors stilled and the nejavin's head was once again reunited with its body, the trio made their way into the ship they had found within the ruin.  It contained a control room in near-perfect condition, obviously-nonhuman crew quarters, some unusually empty pods, and a large hold with a loading door open to a large hall lined with vaults...

- +3xp

Aralakh Company: In The Red

Friday September 1, 2017 at 9:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- As the Centurion joined them, the company took a quick look at the destoyed tanks.  Finding nothing salvageable, they decided to withdraw and chalk up the win instead of pressing their luck by assaulting the compound in the mountains above.

- Short on funds, the company sent a priority message to their next prospective employer, a FWLM division, saying that if they would spot them the c-bills, they could take it out of their paycheck.  After some brief negotiation, they agreed.

- Aralakh arrived at a military base on the world of Ohrensen some weeks later.  They were advised to stay on the base as the city outside was known to have some problematic criminal elements.  Their ship's crew, however, wanted to take the leave while they could get it, and convinced them to go into town.  

- The evening went well for most of them, but a few disappeared as the night wore on - only reappearing later in hostage photos of the so-called "Capellan Insurgency", delivered to the base with a demand for ransom.  The irate sergeant told the company to "handle this" or their contract would be terminated.

- Meanwhile, Rip arrived at Galatea and met with Magistrate Brandt about the dispensation of liquid assets from the defunct Buller company.  While not a negotiator by nature, Rip managed to dig up a few pieces of info that helped his cause, and ultimately left the meetings 1.75 million c-bills richer.

Mysts of the Ninth World: It Can Take You There

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Ronin and Ganthet followed the nejavin's head to the wrecked craft wedged into giant crack where the mountain had split open.  They navigated its interior until they found the place where the creature's body had been trapped.  On the way, they encountered a colony of mouse-like creatures which seemed to take some interest in them - until they reached a room with strange puddle of a viscous, acrid substance and some rotting, tentacle-like appendages protruding from it.  They glitterbombed the room with a detonation Ganthet had been carrying and hurried through.  When they reached their destination, they found the nejavin's body separated into several pieces and suspended in the air, but apparently functioning as though it were still whole.

- Naran and Helios met with The Sisters who told them of a craft in planetary orbit that might be able to return them to their homeworld - and also that a means to reach it might be found in the "forbidden waters" of the valley outside the village.  The two were then presented with a small, translucent cube and told that it would be necessary if they wished to use the spacecraft, but when Naran took the device, the Sisters vanished and their chamber transformed from the white stone building it had been to a plain, sandstone ruin that more closely resembled the rest of the village.  When they emerged, they found Eufren wide-eyed and demanding to know what they had done...

- Piper and one of the hunters attempted to destroy the rampaging beast with a cannon-like numenera device the caravan had been carrying, but it malfunctioned after discharging only twice, though that was sufficient to attract the creature's attention, and it smashed into the wagon - splintering the vehicle and sending the device flying.  Seeing their one method of injuring the creature lost, the hunter retreated, but Piper had another idea.  Short-circuiting the damaged artifact and bypassing its power regulators, she caused it begin building up a catastrophic charge.  With the help of some others nearby, she loaded it onto a wagon and shoved the unstable device toward the monster as the others fled.  The resulting explosion was more powerful than she had anticipated, however, and ripped through the beast, the landscape, and the remainder of the camp before she had time to react...

- +2xp

Aralakh Company: Glory Reclaimed

Saturday August 26, 2017 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- After a couple of months of rests and repairs, the group sends Rip to Galatea to pursue his share of the defunct Buller Company's liquid assets.  Needing to replace their lost unit, the company decides to pursue Jyun's suggestion of travelling to Phact where he happened to know of a Centurion posted just for show.

- On arriving in-system, the plan was to use a small mech force to draw out the compound's conventional defense forces while Jyun and a small contingent approached stealthily on foot to climb into and steal the mech.

- The tank forces Aralakh's Panther and Assassin encountered were more competent than expected, and they took some significant damage before they could adjust their tactics.

- On visual, Jyun was surprised to find someone preparing to take the Centurion down to engage in the ongoing battle - and moreso that he was speaking to the pilot of the Whitworth standing across from it.  Knowing that these pilots would not only keep them from acquiring the Centurion according to their plan but would also be seriously bad news for the battle raging below, Jyun and his companions opened-fire on them.

- After quickly felling the pilots with some fortunate shots, Jyun ran for the Centurion, activated, and escaped with it - though not before losing an arm and his heavy weapon to AC/10 fire from the compound's turrets.

- By the time he met up with his companions' units below, the Panther and Assassin had gained ground and the tanks had withdrawn.  Though they took some pretty significant damage, the mission was overall a solid success - their first in some time.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Raids and Respite

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Naran and Helios helped defend the village of Mekel against the raiders and their presence now seems to be generally accepted by most of the settlement.  Eufren suggested that they speak to The Sisters, who they're told are leaders of the community.

- Ronin and Ganthet managed to force the murden to retreat further up and in to the nest.  While Ganthet watched for a coming ambush, Ronin freed the skull-like creature who told them of the ruined craft further up into the mountains which the murden had been scavenging.

- The caravan Piper was accompanying arrived at a waypoint with a large crystal that radiated significant heat.  As camp setup was completing, she left the site with a few scouts who found a small caffa swarm and decided to go hunt for goldgleam.  As they were heading back, however, they became aware of a huge creature terrorizing the encampment...

- +1xp

Mysts of the Ninth World: Not From Around Here

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Ronin and Ganthet set off to find the murden.  The hike up into the mountains was arduous, but eventually lead them to a small plateau tucked into the cliffs where they found dozens of rough columns of various diameters but all about 75 feet tall.  Between the columns were stretched various hides and insect carapaces, forming a sort of multi-leveled nest.  They approached to attempt to speak with the abhumans, but were ultimately ambushed when they entered the area.

- Piper had some time to rest and was eventually retrieved by a humanoid that had sets of tentacles in place of arms.  He lead her from the room...and that was the last thing she remembers of that place.  The next thing she recalls is being awakened by a group of travellers atop a column-like structure somewhere in the south of the Pytharon Empire - a name she happens to recognize as being a kingdom in the Steadfast, which lies across the Black Riage and hundreds of miles from her home.

- Helios attempted to communicate with the otter-man who had invited him in, but didn't have much luck.  The creature's responses were unintelligible and somewhat odd.  Eventually he fell asleep, only to awaken a short time later with the otter-man standing over him.  He then began asking Helios questions, apparently in The Truth(?), about where he came from and what he would do.  When Helios told him he was trying to find his friend and return to their home planet, the creature took him to Mekel - which was under attack.

- Naran spoke for some time to Eufren and Motof about the books, the planet they're on, and the surrounding area, before an alarm from somewhere in the village startled her hosts.  Racing outside, they found much of the settlement already in flames as a raiding party from the nearby, sinking village of Yefort descended upon the town...

- +2xp

Corruption Arcana: Ghosts in the Wood

Saturday August 12, 2017 at 2:00pm fate core, corruption arcana, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Artwork © Jason Coates and Evil Hat Productions
Artwork © Jason Coates and Evil Hat Productions

This is a new game we put together for my brother-in-law Michael.  He wants to run a Fate game himself, but is having a difficult time getting people together.  Also, while he's read the book, he wanted to see how it plays out at the table.

Game

We had already decided on a "traditional" fantasy genre, but we set up the remaining game aspects collaboratively as suggested by the Fate Core rulebook.  What we came up with was a high fantasy setting, based on a lost civilzation, where magic is being corrupted and the PCs need to find out why - or at least how and stop it.

Characters

[Michael] Jace - Soldier without a Kingdom

[Jese] Cassia - Quick-witted Huntress

[Sheri] Talia - Itinerant Historian

[Tony] Cooper - Acquisitions Expert for the Second Dawn

Session

The group heard rumors of a cult that was speeding the corruption of magic in the world - and that they might be based in the ruin of a small keep in a forest some distance to the south.  Upon arriving, they were met by a group of goblins fleeing from an angry ghost.  Cassia was able to catch one of them and get from it that they were working for a sorceror, mining gold beneath the keep.  Goblins inside the structure itself were more hostile than terrified, however, and the group had to fight two of them off before they could proceed deeper into the ruin...

Aralakh Company: Brothers In Arms

Thursday August 10, 2017 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- While the two stranded 'mechs managed to escaped their pursuers and made for the designated LZ, Aralakh's desperate bid to clear the zone for the battered dropship took a turn for the worse.  As damage mounted, Steiner attempted to intimidate the opposing units into surrunder, but they knew they had the upper hand.  Riley's Trebuchet sustained critical damage to the reactor core - which exploded catastrophically - and Jyun's Panther took some unfortunate leg hits which all but remove it from the field.  Fortunately, the forced-retreat of one of the Clints and the massive damage the enemy Archer had taken were enough for the opposing force to reconsider the assault and withdraw.

- Aftermath: Riley's Trebuchet was a total loss, though Riley herself was able to survive the incident (albiet in poor spirits).  Steiner is having some growing doubts about the viability of the merc company long-term.  That said, the beneficiaries of their rescue have brought a Union dropship to Aralakh, as well as a Crusader and an Assassin with their pilots and techs.  In light of this, the company has decided to release the Leopard from their service on good terms.  They are now going to spend some time resting and repairing before taking on a new contract.

Mysts of the Ninth World: So Many Questions

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Through some cleverness and good fortune, Ronin was able disuade Seluxii from pushing them out of the village of Urnmoll.  The group of them proceeded to have a conversation about recent events and the party's goals (hopefully without giving too much away).  The key points discussed were the murden that raided the village and (likely unintentionally) summoned the craft that took Piper, and a man said to be the foremost expert on power supplys residing in the steadfast.  After a rest, Ronin and Ganthet decided to go after the murden in hopes that they can learn something of what happened to their friend.

- Unable to find a suitably hidden location in the floating village, Helios decided to swim to a wooded shore to the north.  There he found an otter-like humanoid who invited(?) him into its dwelling for food and rest.

- Naran used her cutting light to stab at the octopoidal creature pursuing them while she and the boy escaped the remaining distance to the surface - which turned out to be under some section of the floating settlement.  He led her to a building where another man was apparently waiting for them.  The man gave Naran some sort of potion that rendered her unconscious, but when she awoke, she found she could speak to and understand them.  She was in a village called Mekel, and the man's name was Eufren.  He seemed very interested in the fact that she was an outsider and where she came from.  He told her that their ancestors had once traveled between worlds very easily, but he didn't know how they had done it.  Naran's stories about the books that had transported her and her friend fascinated him.

- Piper decided to spend some time attempting to repair her burned-out headband artifact while waiting to see what would happen next.  After several hours, she was interrupted and lead (apparently) out of the craft she was in and into some other structure.  There, she was taken to a massive chamber where several entities locked deep within some sort of crystal asked her a myriad of questions about herself and her world.  Her responses were clever and informative, and so The Seven (as they called themselves) took a particular interest in her.  After some time, they suggested that they would speak more, but that she and they required rest...

- +4xp

Mysts of the Ninth World: Cages and Snares

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Multiple drones and automatons (or possibly, armored entities) emerged from the cylindrical craft and began a sort of harvest of the surrounding village.  Using stunning and tranquilizing weaponry, they subdued Piper and Ganthet, though only the former was actually taken.

- Helios made a quick exit from the chamber where the robotic entity was tending to the thirsty machine.  He hadn't made it very far when he heard the sounds of the reptilian cats pursuing him.  Upon reaching the pool where he'd entered, he once again encountered a strange, hovering being with heavy robes and one large, mechanical eye.  It asked several questions of him before sinking back into the pool.

- Naran resisted the octopoidal creature's pushing for her to use the linking book it was presenting to her, and after it left in frustration, attempted to swim to freedom.  The distance and pressure of the water soon proved too much, however.  Fortunately, she found another "pocket" of air near the point where panic was starting to set in, and managed to reach it before blacking out.

- Aboard the craft, Piper suddenly found herself in her room back in Arable - or, at least, a very close approximation.  The door and window were impassible and everything felt slightly "off".  She was missing any functioning cyphers or artifacts that appeared technological, but otherwise seemed unharmed.

- Helios leapt into the pool after the his questioner, and began swimming "down" and away from the cat likely still pursuing him.  It was a long, hard swim back to the surface, but he somehow was able to succeed.  He happened to notice a boat lurking in the shadows some distance from him before swimming for the village.

- As she recovered Naran was briefly visited by a boy in some sort of swimming gear.  They had a brief "conversation" in which little was communicated (due to the language barrier) before he left again.  A couple of hours later he returned, however, this time with an additional breathing apparatus.  As the two of them made the long swim for the surface, the octopoidal creature found them...

- Having taken Piper, the cylindrical craft lifted slightly before de-materializing.  As the panic in the village began to calm and Ganthet regained consciousness, Seluxxi approached he and Ronin, demanding they leave the village - declaring to those around her that these outsiders would not help their village as some had hoped, and that they cared only for what they could take...

- +3xp

Mysts of the Ninth World: Where To Go From Here

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Helios became disoriented in his dive and surfaced, but found himself in a dark cave. Using an electricity artifact for light, he found his way into a chamber where some sort of robotic automaton was apparently "feeding" human blood to a massive machine.  He spoke for a while with the robot .

- Naran chose not to struggle against the man who was threatening her, and instead watched the faces of the growing crowd he was addressing - their expressions seemed to vary between fear, anger, and uncertainy.  As his address resolved, someone else grabbed her and put something over her face.  She had the vague sensation of splashing into water before she lost consciousness.  She later awoke in some sort of air pocket within a small room in a ruined building surrounded by water.  After some time, she was visited by a large octopus-like creature that produced another of the strange books - this one overlooking golden spires piercing upward above a sea of clouds - offering her a means of escape for a vague "price".

- Piper and Ganthet spoke some more with Seluxii, though her suspicion continued to increase.  A few of the townspeople seemed convinced that these outsiders might be able to help their dying village and, on their behalf, Seluxii somewhat-disingenuously asked them if this was so.

- Ronin finally arrived in the village and was greeted with obvious fear by the villagers - parly due to recent events, and partly due to his now-more-monstrous visage.  The presence in his mind urged him to react violently, but he fought to refrain.  Ronin was able to calm the villagers somewhat and ultimately rejoined his companions - who were shocked to see him alive, and moreso at his somewhat-disturbing change of appearance.

- It was at this moment that a massive, cylindrical craft appeared in the sky above the village projecting a column of bright blue light downward into the streets.  Several of the villagers - ones with orange tags like the one on Piper's arm - seemed to think heading toward this light would be a good idea...

- +3xp

Aralakh Company: And Into The Fire

Thursday June 22, 2017 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Having successfully captured assets for NAR, Aralakh was finally released on so-so terms.  Their most pressing concern was treating Drevan's injuries, so they took their chances staying in-system and going to the hospital.  The company repaired what they could, but were short on supplies.

- A few months later, they jumped back into Free Worlds space to a more populous planet where they were hoping to repair and resupply.  On their way in-system, however, they picked up a distress call from a merc dropship in orbit around one of the system's planet's moons.  

- In exchange for the distressed company's remaining liquid assets, Aralakh agreed to get the company's surviving units out of trouble on the planet.  They made a few low-passes in the target area before directing the survivors to a promising LZ northwest of their position.

- While the survivors continued to fight off the pursuit mechs that had been hunting them for the past few days, Aralakh attempted to clear the landing site - which, unfortunately, contained a hostile presence formidable in the face of Aralakh's severely-damaged condition...

The Dark Spiral: Follow Your Dreams

 Little Fears artwork © Jason Blair & CaiquePituba
Little Fears artwork © Jason Blair & CaiquePituba

- Dee Dee, Lexi, Sheri, Mandy (and her little brother Mace) made a new friend on their neighborhood playground - a boy about their age who was new in their part of town.  

- While playing tag, they realized too late that this boy didn't know something: you do NOT go down the old, metal, spiral slide on the edge of the playground unless someone is waiting for you at the bottom - if you do, you don't come out.  The slide takes you to the Bogeyman's dungeon - where you stay until he eats you.

- As the new kid dove into the slide while running from Mace, they saw dozens of gnarled claws reach out and snatch him out of this reality.

- Mandy's mother took the children back to her house for their sleepover, but something dark was following them, and stephen seemed to be calling to them from wherever he was taken.  Shadows of goblins harassed and grabbed at them in the basement, and the girls ended up huddled in Mandy's room - slowly falling asleep.

- They found themselves next in a shared dream, at the base of the slide, before a yawning maw of a hole with a rickety wooden stairway.  From its depths, they heard a muffled cry and a malicious laugh...

Aralakh Company: Character Creation II

 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

Adam is joining our game, and we spent this evening making two PCs for him to add to Tim's company: an experienced former House Regular who pilots a 45-ton Assassin, and a newbie Noble who has a 65-ton Crusader.

These characters will a fragment of a decimated merc unit looking to join up with someone else - and Aralakh will be the convenient choice.  They will be bringing their 'mechs as well as a beat-up Union dropship into the company's assets.

Aralakh Company: Storming the Castle

 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Drevan's strike team invaded the dropship.  They sustained some casualties, but were ultimately successful in capturing the ship, as well as the damaged Hatchetman in contained, and the two incapacitated Jenners outside - making for a pretty respectable salvage haul.

Continued playtesting on personal scale combat this session.  How I ran the session aside, the system behaved well and played out the way I would want.  That said, it's a little bit too clunky and I think I'm going to make a few more tweaks to it.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Perilous Waters

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper and Ganthet found themselves amidst a murden raid on the village of Urnmoll, also involving a large, crab-like, mechanical contraption smashing its way through the village.  The murden were eventually driven off, and the robot, after sustaining some damage, folded itself into a small sphere.  The two considered making a break out of town, but decided to stay to see what they could learn.

- Ronin found his way out of the cave he and his friends had originally entered and decided to continue through the mountains toward the village.  On his way, he began to perceive a beckoning presence which led him to a small, glowing cave.  Upon seeing his reflection in a pool, he became aware that he was no longer alone in his head.

- Helios and Naran fought with the aquatic predators, attempting to drive them off.  Naran found her way into one of the boats and was brought back to the town built on the ruins protruding from the lake, but Helios had dived back into the water in an attempt to find one of the missing villagers.  About the time Naran realized Helios had not come back, she was grabbed from behind - and found a knife at her throat...

- +3xp

Aralakh Company: Holding the Line

 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- NAR continued the defense of their compound, eventually destroying 3 out of 4 of the attacking units - unfortunately causing two of them to catastrophically explode, leaving no usable salvage for the Resistance.  Hopefully Aralakh's attempts to capture the attackers' drop ship produces a more tangible gain...

Adam continued this encounter with us, and will likely be joining this game on an ongoing basis.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Making Waves

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Ronin awoke, alive but debilitated and surrounded by silver insectoid creatures.  Over the next day or so, he made his way back out of the ruin, slowly recovering strength.  During this time, he noticed that patches of his skin all over his body had been replaced by red scales.

- Ganthet spoke with the apparent leader of the village of Urnmoll, a woman Seluxii.  Her suspicion of his activities in the region seemed to increase as he answered her questions with partial-truths.

- Piper spoke with the old woman for a while, learning that the town's water-producing artifact had recently ceased functioning, and that many in town were worried.

- Naran and Helios toppled from their perch above the rushing river when the bird-man from the previous world followed them through into this one, sending all three of them into the river and over a tremendous waterfall.

- Ronin reached the cave in which the group took shelter from the glass storm, and found himself attacked by a black puddle - apparently the remnants of the tentacled creature that had previously harassed them.

- The relative peace of Urnmoll was suddenly disturbed by shouts, screams, and mechanical pounding and whirring coming from one corner.  Piper was ambushed by some form of avian humanoid, and Seluxii left Ganthet apparently trapped in a room with a vanishing doorway.

- Naran and Helios found what appeared to be a fishing town built on partiall-submerged ruins in the valley into which they'd been deposited.  As they swam for the approaching boats, they were attacked by some sort of aquatic reptile...

- +2xp

Aralakh Company: Attack on the Resistance

 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Using assets "borrowed" from Aralakh, NAR attempts to fight off the mercenary lance sent to destroy them while Aralakh furthers its efforts to capture the merc's Union.  The Resistance managed to take out the crippled mercenary Clint and the enemy Whitworth has virtually no armor remaining, but Aralakh's Warhammer is severely battered and the Trebuchet is now out of missles...

Adam joined us for this session, so we decided to play out the latter half of the previously "off-camera" engagement of mercs vs. NAR in order to introduce him to the defining mech combat aspect of our Battletech campaign.  After this encounter resolves, we will return to Aralakh's attempts to capture the dropship, which have now moved into the personal-scale boarding of the vessel.

There Is Something Fundamental I Misunderstand About Photo Editors

Tuesday May 16, 2017 at 8:19am photography, post-processing, problems Comments (0) »
 Another screenshot; another What You See Is Not What You Get; another serious frustration.
Another screenshot; another What You See Is Not What You Get; another serious frustration.

Or "Why Do All Photo Editors Suck?"

Similar to a previous post, the above is a screenshot showing a RAW preview and an exported JPG of inferior quality - only this time, it's in Adobe Lightroom.

Isn't the point of a photo editor to tweak photos to the point that they're "perfect"?  If what I'm seeing in the editor is not what I'm going to actually get, the thing is utterly useless.

So, apologies to Canon, I guess - it's not DPP necessarily, it's probably everything.

Question: Why is it so impossible to simply get a JPG that looks identical to a RAW preview.

If it's not impossible, what hoops do I have to jump through (and, just as importantly, why)?

~PS

Mysts of the Ninth World: New Domains

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Naran and Helios continued fractured communication with the birdman, who seemed intent upon fixing some part of the inner workings of the tower and/or island, and reacted negatively toward any action they took that might even superficially damage it.  Deciding there was nothing remaining for them in that place, they made their way back to the book Naran had previously found, using its viewport to travel to the world on the other side.

- Ganthet and Piper made their way through the ruin to the lowest exit they could find.  Waiting till dark, they lowered the power core before descending themselves.  Concerned over what the townfolk might say if they were found with the artifact, the two hid it in a cleft of rock nearby.  As they approached the only way out of the rocky depression, Ganthet was spotted by the two guardsmen and taken down to the village - Piper followed along behind.

- +2xp

Aralakh Company: Forced Entry

 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh neutralized the mech defenses of the merc dropship and blew open one of the loading doors.  The lance then called in their strike team, led by the temporarily dispossessed Drevan, who proceeded to board the vessel for capture.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Into the Depths

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- After Naran and Helios finished their rest, Helios suggested they investigate the bubbling pool which he found to be breathable while Naran did not.  While Naran spent some more time investigating the machinery in the hollow of the island, Helios ventured down into the water-filled chambers below where he found what appeared to be a city populated by enormous frog-people.  He also met up with the bird-man they'd first encountered, who returned to the chamber with him.

- Ronin, Ganthet, and Piper, meanwhile, attempted to cross the gravity-less chasm with their power-core while avoiding harassment and attack by the vanishing and re-appearing serpent.  Unfortunately, their counter-attacks eventually agitated the creature to the point that it disrupted the null gravity field, sending objects plummeting into the chasm.  Noticing the signs, Ronin managed to push Piper and the power core to the relative safety of the far wall, but in so doing failed to reach it himself - and fell into the darkness below...

- +3xp

Aralakh Company: Union Jacking

Thursday April 27, 2017 at 9:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- As NAR began engaging the mercenary force sent to take them out, Aralakh's partial lance emerged from their concealed location, making their way to the merc's LZ in an attempt to capture their Union-class dropship...

Battletech: It's Hard To Be a Mechwarrior

Wednesday April 26, 2017 at 12:14pm gaming, battletech Comments (0) »
Battletech: It's Hard To Be a Mechwarrior Image

Some barriers to break down.

Battletech has a pretty significant "barrier to entry".  This fact is pretty well-known amongst gamers.  The rules of the tabletop game - even if you don't get into some of the advanced/optional stuff - are crunchy and fairly complicated at first blush.  There's like 3 different steps to do anything.  Also, the fiction and history of the setting (which is awesome) is pretty vast and somewhat convoluted.  And there's just so much stuff out there pertaining to Battletech, that it can be intimidating to anyone wanting to pick it up (I know, I was there a couple years ago) - I mean, where do you start?  But there is another aspect to this barrier that I hadn't previously considered.

First time in the cockpit.

Tim and I introduced Rucht & Tony to this wonderful world of giant robots last night.  It was our usual night to play Rucht's D&D 5e game (which is fantastic, by the way - we're a party of halflings!), but a few people had to cancel and we didn't reach critical mass for the game to occur, so I brought my Battletech stuff and we decided to blow up some stuff.

I set up a map with my spiffy hex terrain, some of my best painted units (color coded by teams), and got out the sheets, dice, etc.  I have a pretty solid setup, I think.  We played 2-on-2: Tony and I against Tim and Rucht.  A Catapult, Enforcer, Rifleman, and Dervish, respectively.  I think our side had a slight edge in battlefield value, but I've found balancing lances in Battletech to be really, really difficult, so I don't usually agonize over getting it perfect, and I didn't choose the sides.

Rucht likes minis games and, I think, enjoyed this one about as well as any other.  He would probably play it again on occasion, but didn't seem super enthusiastic.  Tony tends to like games that are a bit more straight-forward.  He really liked kicking Tim's Rifleman in the shins of course, but I think he would have prefered a bit less computation in order to do so.  He said he had a good time with it, but wasn't something he'd be interested in as an ongoing thing.  We only got through about half of the engagement, but we all had fun and I think it was a decent intro.

After the game, Tim and I were talking about how it went.  Tim is, so far, the one person I've introduced to this game who is really into.  He and I have been doing a kind of single-player strategic-level merc campaign - Aralakh Company - using some companion rules I made to handle non-mech-combat stuff.  We're about 15 sessions in, and we've been absolutely LOVING it.  We got to talking about why the game didn't seem quite as fun to our friends as we think it is.

And then, we remembered.

Before you walk, you have to crawl.  Really, really slowly.  Over gravel.

It could simply be that the game is just not their thing, but I think there's a little more to it than that.  

Here's the thing we decided about Battletech: You have to like some crunch in a combat system for sure, and you have to have some guidance as to where to start (thanks to Dan, Chris, and Fear the Boot, by the way), but you ALSO have to have a fair degree of patience.  You just have to really like the idea of Battletech in order to get far enough into the game to fall in love with it.  

Many games become increasingly fun to play as you get to know the rules, but Battletech takes this to a certain extreme.  Not only does the game not reach "peak fun" until you know it well enough that the phases and calculations come somewhat naturally and chart-referencing is an "only some of the time" event, but learning it that well takes a while, and the game can be almost oppressive before you get to that point.  I totally get how many people would feel that the slog just isn't worth it when there are so many other games out there that are a bit easier and more fun up front.

Tim and I both agreed that when we first started playing, the games were slow and clunky and not nearly as much fun (even if we were playing with people who knew the rules pretty well), but we both loved the concepts around the game so much that we put up with the less-than-smooth gameplay long enough to get to the point where we knew it well enough to enjoy it as much as we do now.

Unfortunately, if you're not truly enamoured with the ideas from the start, you're probably not going to stick with this game long enough to really enjoy it.  If the game has a flaw, this is surely it.

~PS

Mysts of the Ninth World: Bugs in the System

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Naran and Helios investigated the top of the tower, where they found an hive of bugs averse to bright lights and some control panels that seemed designed to operate the tower's machinery.

- Piper, Ganthet, and Ronin escaped from several pursuing monstrous centipedes and found some time to rest.  Attempting to find their way back out of the ruin, they happened upon a vast chasm which seemed devoid of gravity - and also contained some form of ephemeral, shape-shifting serpent...

- +3xp

Aralakh Company: Compound Raid

Friday April 21, 2017 at 9:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- NAR prompted Aralakh to go raid a Capellan noble's compound for much needed hardware and supplies.  The group was only able to send a few mostly-repaired light mechs as the others were still in bad shape, but their target was not believed to possess mech forces.  They engaged a trio of tanks, a pair of helicopers, and some turrets.  As they finished loading up their plunder, however, they were pressed by a pair of aerotech fighters and a pair of approaching mechs.  In the end, Aralalkh took significant damage but managed to escape with most of the desired equipment.

 

This session was the first to use my simplified Battletech vehicle rules mods.  Tim and I both thought it went very well. 

Mysts of the Ninth World: Grasping for Power

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Ronin, Piper, and Ganthet found their way up into a chamber containing what they believed to be the complex's power core - the device they had come to retrieve.  As they approached it, however, they found themselves confronted by a monstrous, transdimensional, crustacean-like entity guarding and feeding off the power source.

- After Naran's discovery of the portal book, she and Helios decided they should find their way to the top of the tower to try to reactivate the dormant machinery.  The managed to open the iris at the top of the underground chamber, granting them access to the tower once more.  What they did not notice, however, were the two bird-men lying in wait.  The ambush jolted them both with electricity, and caused Helios to fall back onto the platform at the top of the chamber, which began wrenching free of its supports due to the impact.

- The monstrous creature the group had found by the power core began attacking the intruders with its massive claws and spewing a burning, plasma-like substance from its dozen or so eyes.  The group used several artifacts and cyphers they'd acquired since entering the complex to fight back, shattering bits of its thick armor and occassionally punching through.  Ganthet decided to use the green detonation artifact Polious had given him, which caused a thick and animated forest to suddenly spring up in the area.  The aggressive plant growth slowed the creature down, but proved to be more dangerous to the adventurers - especially to Ronin who was moving amongst them - as the group had to contend both with the hostile plants and with the fires set by the crustacean's dripping red-hot plasma.

- While Helios attempted (with some difficulty) to climb back into the tower from the failing support, Naran did her best to fight off the bird-men, trading bright blasts of forceful light with the electrical arcs firing from the avian's energized spears.  After Helios managed to re-enter the tower and Naran had incinerated the last of their foes, they looked up at the large vine/tree structure and the crystals growing from it, suspecting that it could be used to gather energy from the world's hot suns if they could figure out how to reactivate it.

- Just as Ronin was stabbed by some sort of poisonous plant which rendered him unconscious, Ganthet's final shots against the monster managed to penetrate the armor under its head.  Shrieking, the beast collapsed to the ground, spewing plasma from its eyes - which in turn further ignited the plant matter beneath it.  

- Ganthet and Piper darted past the growing flames into the area beneath the power core.  Ganthet made some efforts to revive Ronin, but seemed only to make his fallen friend's condition worsen.  Acting quickly, Piper successfully connected a power regulator she had constructed to the conduits feeding the power core, and then began the delicate operation of detaching the core from the surrounding eqipment.  Unfortunately, the group didn't have time for "delicate".  Piper did what she could to prevent any instability due to the disconnect before slicing through the adjoining cables.  She held her breath for several moments before the dim blue glow returned and stabilized in the core's interior.

- +2xp

No Thank You Evil: Dead Center's Missing Flowers pt I

Sunday April 9, 2017 at 3:00pm no thank you evil, game session notes Comments (0) »
 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

- The group entered Under The Bed and met Lady Von Snoot, an old ghost who asked for their help entering her home (the cemetery called Dead Center).  They also heard some strange, distant voices that turned out to be the mountains they were on asking for help finding their third twin.

- Upon arriving at the cemetery, the group found it to be the site of an ongoing investigation.  Inspector Grumbles told(?) them that all the flowers had been stolen from the graves (this had upset Ms Schnauser horribly).

- When they looked around, they found some paperclips, thumbtacks, bent stables, and a post-it note that read: "Bob - Bob bob bobob bob bobobobob bob bob. - Bob"  

- The inspector recognized this as the work of Bobgoblins.  He asked(?) them to go to the goblins' corporate HQ to talk to Big Wig and get the flowers back.

Aralakh Company: Allies and Enemies

Saturday April 8, 2017 at 9:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Then things turned ugly.  An LRM volley from Riley's Trebuchet destroyed the Hunchback completely, but Steiner's Blackjack was too close to avoid damage from the reactor explosion it triggered and it fell when it lost its gyro.  Aralakh then attempted to negotiate a mutual withdraw, but were unable to convince their attackers.  The Banshee's continued press on the damaged Trebuchet took down the smaller mech with a kick that obliterated one of its legs and then charged over to finally incapacitate the fallen Warhammer - which was still firing PPC blasts - with a kick to the head.

- Seeing little alternative, Aralakh surrendered.  It turns out that their attackers were self-described freedom-fighters attempting to liberate the planet and remove the nobles' predation on the world's resources at the expense of its atmosphere.  

- The New Andrin Resistance press-ganged Aralakh into their service - promising that if they helped the rebels kick the Capellan nobles off-world, they would return them their mechs and the two could part ways.

Aralakh Company: Knocking Down, Dragging Out

Saturday April 1, 2017 at 4:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- As the exchange continues, it becomes clear that neither side can keep this up for long - but neither side has a clear advantage either.  The battle has moved away from the Warhammer such that it has some difficulty engaging, and the Blackjack is greviously wounded.  On the other side, the Banshee is pretty beat up, but its toughness is keeping it at the top of the threat list.  The Hunchback now has only a small laser, but the relatively-untouched Wolfhound has started to have an impact on the fight.

Aralakh Company: Battered and Bruised

Thursday March 23, 2017 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- The company continued to trade blows with their assailants.  The Banshee's luck improved only briefly, and Aralakh's opponents may have been considering retreat before the Hunchback, its AC/20 now destroyed, got a lucky laser shot against the Warhammer's already badly-injured leg, taking it down.  The Cicada has already met a similar fate, and the Hunchback and Banshee both have significant injuries that have greatly reduced their damage output.  Unfortunately, Steiner's Blackjack isn't looking much better, Riley is only just starting to land some hits with her LRMs, and Jyun's injuries have made him less effective.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Further Up, Further In

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Naran and Helios attempted to communicate with the earnest-seeming bird-man, but were ultimately less than successful.  He did lead them to a hidden chamber full of devices he'd gathered but, apparently, had no particular knowledge of.  He left by way of a bubbling pool, and the two decided to get some rest.

- Ronin, Piper, and Ganthet continued into the ruin they'd found, soon encountering a vast area overgrown with blue plant growth.  The sweet smell of the plants seemed to affect the minds of the party, causing Piper and Ganthet to seek out and activate machinery with visible but indecipherable results.  They also encountered several giant centipede-like creatures.  

- The bird entities apparently gone, Naran and Helios spent some time exploring the interior of the island and its machinery, eventually finding that some of it seemed to "connect" to a 'portal book'.

- Attempting to outrun their insectoid pursuers, Ronin, Piper, and Ganthet ended up at the top of a large cylindrical vault, where they found another portal book, some arms and armor, and a room that simpily glowed for no obvious reason.  At the bottom of the chamber, they found a passage leading deeper into the complex from which they could hear a dull hum, as well as one final vault door smeared with some kind black, pitch-like substance...

- +2xp

Mysts of the Ninth World: Guardians' Ire

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- After some brief discussion, it was decided that Helios would follow Naran into the book and the others would continue into the ruin to locate the power core.

- Naran and Helios found themselves on top of a small island about 400 feet above the surface of an unknown ocean.  Two suns blazed overhead, making it difficult to see through the brightness.  The island contained a tower full of machinery and a strange vine-like plant growing crystals.  As they investigated, they were attacked by some group of bird-people with spear-like weapons that projected arcs of electricity.  They fled up the tower, but found themselves trapped until another one of the bird-people "flew" them to a large cave-like entrance at the base of the island where they discovered it to be mostly hollow and full of ancient non-functioning machinery.

- Ganthet, Ronin, and Piper continued up into the ruin above the overgrown library.  As they made their way through its interior, they encountered some sort of automaton guarding a sealed doorway.  Apparently they triggered some condition in its programming, and the machine attacked.  The resulting battle battered, burned, and froze the three, but they were ultimately victorious.

- +3xp

Aralakh Company: Luck of the Dice

Thursday March 9, 2017 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh engaged in combat with their assailants.  Steiner in particular has been extremely fortunate that the Banshee's pilot is having a run of bad luck.  He was less fortunate with regards to the Hunchback's AC/20.  Riley has yet to prove herself, and Jyun is hurting enough from his near-death experience that it is severely hampering his performance.  Still, the group has given at least as good as they've gotten thus far...

Mysts of the Ninth World: Gaining Entry

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Discerning that the tunnel of ferns proceeded in the direction they were attempting to travel before the glass storm hit, and believing that the ferns themselves may indicate the presence of a ruin similar to the one at their home, the group decided to leave the aneen in the cave and follow it.

- The picked their way through the winding tunnel for almost 9 miles, encountering a few caverns (including a large one with a tree and clouds) and several other passages.  There was a faint, warm breeze blowing through the tunnel - all the tunnels proceeding southwest toward its source were overgrown with purple ferns whereas other passages were not.

- Having pursued these phenomena all the way to its source, the group found part of some kind of buried building, broken and overgrown with the purple ferns itself.  One of the chambers had a large hole in the corner of the ceiling, through which various wires and conduits hung loosely which opened into a set over chambers and corridors reminiscent of the "B Dome" they'd explored.  

The room they were in seemed to Piper to be some sort of library.  Beneath the ferns were shelves containing the remains of many strange, rectangular books.  She couldn't read them, but her ability to decipher suggested they described locations in great detail.  A few of those in the best shape had window-like screens on their first pages, showing a specific, unfamiliar location.  The glowing panels gave odd sensations when you touched them.  While attempting to discern some sort of use or a way to "activate" the one of the books, Naran placed her palm over the glowing panel and suddenly vanished.  Looking down at where the book fell, Ronin could see his friend standing in the scene depicted through the window...

- +3xp

Aralakh Company: In the Crosshairs

Saturday March 4, 2017 at 5:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (2) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- A few weeks after the processing plant sabotage, a group calling itself the "New Andrid Resistance" attempted to assassinate a couple of the members of Aralakh company.  While the overall attempt failed, it was a miracle that Jyun survived.

- About two months later, the company gets an alert while on patrol: a lance of 'mechs is approaching the compound.  They load up and head out, facing a Wolfhound, a Cicada, a Hunchback, and a Banshee...

 

This was the first session to feature my Mechwarrior Basic rules for personal-scale combat.  It is very lethal (as I wanted it to), but it played very well.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Swallowed

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- The group ran south behind the herd of aneen, fighting their way through the fleeing beasts and the larval worms pursuing them.  When the adult worm caught up with them, Piper scarred it with a plasma cypher, but the monster killed one of their pack animals as they attempted to flee.  It was Ganthet's "liquid air" artifact that enabled them to finally escape.

- Once in the mountains, the group was beset by a violent storm of glass.  The group took shelter in a shallow cave, along with several dozen dog-sized beetles apparently native to the area.  During this time, Ganthet fell deeper into the cave, where he found an underground stream, a tentacled monster, and a tunnel lined with the same purple ferns that grow around their home of Arable.

- +2xp

Aralakh Company: Sabotage

Thursday February 23, 2017 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh arrived on the mining planet and took up their garrison duty.

- One night about 5 months into the job, a few of the small security team Aralakh had subcontracted witnessed an odd exchange between one of the compound locals and some outsiders.  Following them, one of the men saw the outsiders give the local a large backpack.  The man then proceeded to his job in a refinery.  About 20 minutes later, alarms sounded and the place was evacuated.  While authorities were attempting to determine what had caused the alarm, there was a tremendous explosion and the building collapsed.

- The Baron who'd hired Aralakh was furious at the sabotage, but the company was able to maneuver around his accusations.

- With the help of the subcontracted team, Aralakh was able to track down and capture the saboteur, who had apparently been paid to place the explosives but knew little of his benefactors.

- Aralakh stepped up internal security in response to the incident.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Time and Place

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- After treating their wounded aneen as best they could, the group gathered the remainder of thier possessions and set out again.  The animal slowed their progress significantly, however, and it was after dark before they reached their destination: the on oasis on their route through the desert.

- As they approached, they noticed two things.  The first was a brilliantly-glowing, blue-purple, diamond-shaped object floating above the oasis.  The second was the fact that the oasis was occupied by several different groups of people.

- As they refreshed their animals and made their camp for the evening, the group spoke with several of the others there and learned that each of them had a wildly disparate understanding of the surrounding world - to the extent that Naran and Ronin suspected that perhaps the area occupied some confluence of time and/or reality.

- Just before dawn, the diamond-shaped object began to pulse and vibrate.  After a few minutes, the object collapsed in on itself - seeming to draw everyone and everything else occupying the oasis into itself before vanishing.

- Observing how much their wounded aneen had slowed their progress and believing speed to be essential, the group voted to use Helious' healing artifact on their injured animal.

- Packed up again, the group continued their westward journey for the next couple of days - approaching the gathering clouds near the looming black mountain range and fighting the oppressive heat.

- As they neared the foothills in the shadow of the jagged mountains of the Black Riage, they happened upon a sizable herd of wild aneen making its way north along the edge of the hills.  The clouds above were beginning to arc with purple lightening.  The group was still approaching, intending to pass the herd to the south, when an enourmous cragworm erupted from the earth ahead of them, bellowing its hunger...

- +3xp

A Brief Interlude

Thursday February 9, 2017 at 5:56pm sick, photography Comments (0) »
A Brief Interlude Image

Well, was gonna play some Battletech tonight, but instead, I decided to get sick.  Really enjoying the game I'm playing with Tim - pretty bummed not to get to continue it tonight.

Our Numenera campaign is going well also - might work on that some tonight since no 'mech 'splosions.  I've got a couple of new Numenera books (Into the Night and Into the Deep) on the way.  They were supposed to be delivered today, but got shipped to Colorado Springs by mistake.  Insult to injury.  Sick, no Battletech, no new gaming books.  Hopefully I can sleep tonight and feel better tomorrow.

In unrelated news, here's a picture I took of Hannah a week or so ago. 

~PS

Mysts of the Ninth World: Of Beasts

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- The group set out to the west, crossing the northwestern region of the Gathmund Scrublands before exiting them into the wide, flat expanse of the desert flat that lie between them and their destination.

- On the second night, the group awoke to suddenly find themselves in a dense forest.  Margr fled through their camp and something large was approaching from the north.  As they attempted to calm the aneen, a massive bison-like creature emerged from the surrounding trees.  It was gushing blood from a wound in its side, making thick red pools wherever it stepped, and the creature held a miniature-sun-like fireball in its mouth which licked flames out toward anything living.

- The group grabbed what supplies they could and attempted to flee, but the aneen Piper and Ronin were riding was panicked and uncooperative.  It fell on its side, throwing Ronin off before bolting the opposite direction.  Unfortunately, this took it right past one of the lingering margr, which put a nasty slice in its right leg - causing it to fall again and Piper to lose her tenuous grasp on the animal.  The giant buffalo plodded onward, seemingly unaware of them.

- Piper and Ronin were able to make short work of the lingering margr still prowling the area, while the others rejoined when the beast had passed.  As they gathered their now-blood-covered supplies, the group discussed what should be done with their injured animal.

- +2xp

Aralakh Company: Bait and Switch

Thursday February 2, 2017 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh took their payment and left world, deciding to jump into Capellan space to avoid potential political issues selling "acquired" Free Worlds' military hardware.

- A baron met with them under false pretenses - not interested in buying their mechandise, but wanted to hire them on retainer for guard duty on a secondary planet in-system.  

- The group negotiated up to 500k for the year, plus the baron will cover all repairs and normal expenses.  Additionally, the baron agreed to hire a broker to aid them in the sale of their unneeded merchandise.  The group also has 50% salvage rights, but as there are no other mechs on their world, it seems unlikely they'll get much.

- Aralakh took the opportunity of having a benefactor to bring on a new mechwarrior: a woman called Riley who pilots a Trebuchet.

- Overall, while not especially lucrative (or exciting), it seems like a nice, easy contract...

Mysts of the Ninth World: Looking Ahead

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- The group continued their discussion with Polious about their upcoming journey and some of the potential difficulties they may encounter.

- The following day was the third day of the yearly Eves festival - the evening of the big feast and a time for making important announcements about the upcoming year.  Among others of various kinds, Polious announced his assistants' journey to a far-away place in order to recover desperately-needed components for the town's faltering artifact.  The group enjoyed the feast and spent some time talking to various townsfolk about their upcoming quest.

- After the Eves, the group spent a few days preparing for their journey before heading out.  As they left the town, accompanied to its edge by various family, friends, and well-wishers, they noticed that the farmland looked noticeably parched...

- +1xp

Aralakh Company: Pirate Moon pt II

Thursday January 26, 2017 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Both sides continued to pound each other for several rounds, severely damaging multiple units.

- Ultimately, the pirate leader proposed a deal: they would leave the system and not return - and would leave the merc a prize of valuable military equipment - in exchange for an end to hostilities.

- After considering the situation carefully, Aralakh agreed to their terms.  The pirates proved true enough to their word.

- The company's employer was not completely satisfied with their results, though they had technically fulfilled the contract and the pirate threat was gone (at least for the time being).  Compensation was renegotiated for half.

Aralakh Company: Pirate Moon pt I

Thursday January 19, 2017 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- After taking the contract, Aralakh headed out to the mine abandoned moon where the pirates were said to be hiding out.  Not liking the hemmed-in approach from the main road to the south, they decided to put their dropship down on the plain to the north even though it meant more rugged terrain between them and their target.

- As they approached the mine from above, first contact was made with the Jagermech perched atop a hill.  The Commando entered as the mercs engaged, with the Dervish and Stinger arriving after a couple of exchanges.

- Aralakh took some hard hits early in the confrontation, but have so far managed to avoid being crippled.  The destruction of the Commando has evened the playing field somewhat, but they still have an uphill battle.  If they don't get a break soon, they may need to pull out or risk more than their contract...

Mysts of the Ninth World: Losing Power

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Piper, Naran, and Ronin headed down into the guts of the Weathervane while Ganthet and Helios remained with Polious in the control room, attempting to keep things from getting out of hand.

- The three descended into the structure, noting more and more of a strange, acrid-smelling black oil as they made their way toward the inward.  Outside the vault itself, a large stream of the stuff poured down the wall over wires and conduits - among which were dozens of eyeless rat-like creatures.

- A couple of townsfolk approached the Weathervane, looking for Polious to address an issue in town involving a strange device, and hostile spreading plant growth.  As he was still unable to see and Helios had been more weakened by the day's events, Ganthet was sent to address the problem.  He found some sort of artifact producing a thick fog and causing shrub-like plants to grow.  When he activated it, the ground began to vibrate violently.  He found himself outside of the town by several miles, and watched as large sections of earth some distance to the north rose out of the ground and floated above it.

- Once inside the vault, Piper found the Weathervane's power core and attempted to disconnect it.  Unfortunately, this seemed to cause a runaway reaction resulting in the core's explosion.  Piper somehow managed to escape the brunt of the blast.

- The explosion of the power core radiated energy throughout the town, instantly burned away the stormclouds, and ultimately resulted in a total blackout as all power drained from the ruin.

- Over the course of the next few weeks, Polious, the others, and the rest of the town attempted to pick up the pieces.  Polious managed to cobble together a replacement power source for the Weathervane and once the rain cycle resumed - even though it was irregular and somewhat less than sufficient - the townsfolk began to relax.  Polious and the others, however, know that the current arrangement is underpowered and anything but stable.

- A few days later, the Eves festival begins.  This is marks the new year in Arable, as well as the first few days of the planting season.  The group spends the first day of the celebration with their individual families, spending time together and exchanging gifts.  Polious also visits each, giving them gifts of his own.

- The second day of the Eves is a time of planning for the new year.  For most, that means talking about what crops to plant in which fields, which animals to breed, and other such things.  For Polious and his associates, however, this conversation looks very different.  Polious tells them he's learned of yet another ruin similar to Arable and the "B Dome" (which is now known to be a sphere, and is floating about a hundred feed above the ground along with some chunks of nearby landscape).  This one is about 10 miles into the mountains of the Black Riage, near a village called Urnmoll.  It, reportedly, even shows signs of continuing power.  Arable needs a new power core.  The Weathervane will not survive without one, and if the Weathervane doesn't survive, the town is doomed.  Further, Polious is unable to leave the town - the artifact is too unstable.  The others are going to have to do this on their own...

- +3xp

What's Been Up

Thursday December 22, 2016 at 12:53pm state of the penguin Comments (0) »

Lately this blog has mostly been a gaming session log - that one function having basically become its primary use.  It's not that nothing else is going on, it's more that nothing else makes for very good posting.

It's been a year - not a particularly great one.  I find myself at a point feeling like things aren't bad for us, they're just not good.  Perhaps I'm just less content than I ought to be.  But...what can you do?

On The Typical Fronts

Web Dev: Still working at AAM Piney Flats; like my job, love the people I work with. We're getting by. Think about reworking the front-end of this site from time to time, but I'm pretty happy with it as-is.  I'm sure it'll get a new look at some point.

Gaming: It has been a good year for gaming.  Wrapped up my awesome World of Darkness campaign, started a fun Numenera game that's starting to pick up steam, and I'm even running a strategic-level Battletech game for Tim (which I'm loving).  My games-i-really-want-to-run queue has been reduced to a Mouse Guard game.  I'm also playing in a friend's 5e D&D game, though I've missed the last few sessions for a small variety of reasons.

Photography: I've found a way around my screen sharpness issues, but I'm still irked that I need a workaround at all. No, I haven't contacted Canon phone support yet.  I haven't been shooting much lately except when I "have to".  I really need to.  Need to do some stuff that reminds me why I got into it.

Music: Every now and then, I work a little on music stuff - just not enough that I have anything to show for it.  I have an idea for a record I want to make, and I've done quite a bit of concept development, but that's about as far as I've made it.  Supposed ambition outstrips time & energy these days.

Etc

Geocaching: Haven't done enough this last season - just been a little too busy somehow.  Really need to get back into it next, though - if only for the exercise.

Model Painting: Got a few more Battletech minis to paint.  It's been a while since I've painted anything and I've been wanting to do some more.  It's relaxing...in an exhausting kind of way.  Also intending to repaint my halfling paladin mini for Rucht's game.

Reading: Got a new Battletech novel that was recommended to me to read.  I enjoy reading, I just don't do it all that much.  I often have a difficult time with passive forms of entertainment.

Writing: I'd also like to take a shot at writing a book myself.  I do a lot of writing for RPGs; I'd like to try my hand at some kind of short genre novel.  I mean, I don't have enough time for all of my other hobbies, why not add another pet project with an overwhelming work load?  Right?

~PS

Mysts of the Ninth World: Downpour

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- The group hurried toward town, only to find the north gate held closed by a massive mutated plant.  When the group attempted to cut the struggling gate mechanism free, they found that deformed plant also possessed bladed tendrils and often emitted psychic shriek when injured.  As the group fought with the plant creature, an errant shot from Ronin deactivated the gate completely and a massive tendril grappled with and ultimately once-more panicked Naran's aneen.

- As the others hacked and burned away at the plant, Helios worked on phasing through the door to assist from the other side.  He successfully reached the other side, but not before sustaining further injury to his already battered body and mind.  Though significantly debilitated and possessed of only a rudimentary knowledge of the Numenera, he somehow managed to reconfigure the gate's controls to bypass the circuit destroyed by Ronin's arrow and opened the gate.

- The group reunited and reached the malfunctioning Weathervane, but the situation was quickly worsening.  Even with help, Polious was unable to stabilize the artifact.  His blindness preventing him from doing himself what was quickly becoming obviously necessary, he handed Ronin the key to "the Vault" and sent the group into the guts of Weathervane to shut it down...

- +1xp

Aralakh Company: Another Payday

Thursday December 8, 2016 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Though their new recruit gave them an in-system raid target with a decent opportunity to steal a solid battlemech, the company commander decided the timing was wrong and instead ordered repairs to begin on their damaged mechs as they made their way back to the jump point to head out of system.

- Upon returning to their employer, they collected the rest of their pay, finished their repairs, and received two offers for new contracts from others: one involving eliminating a pirate lance in a nearby system, and another recruiting merc units for a larger campaign offensive assaulting an undisclosed Capellan world.

- After some discussion and weighing options, the company decided to go pirate hunting...

Mysts of the Ninth World: Out of Control

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- The group decided it would be best to recover the panicked aneen before heading back, but Polious and Helios were in no condition to assist.  Being somewhat beat up himself, Ronin volunteered to stay with them while Ganthet, Naran, and Piper pursued the animal.

- The chase led them back up into the forested hills a couple of miles away, where they encountered a giant, fin-shaped ruin and some hostile, hovering automatons n addition to the few hounds pursuing their pack animal.

- Meanwhile, Polious, Helios, and Ronin encountered a strange being completely covered by thick robes except for its large, mechanical eye.  The entity babbled in several different languages in addition to the Truth, and spoke seemingly random bits of information or observations before disintegrating before their eyes.

- Naran manged to grab the harness of the panicked aneen, climbed up onto it, and managed to calm it down while Piper and Ganthet fought off the remaining hounds - the automatons having apparently disengaged.

- The group rejoined at their camp - now with all of their animals - and made their way back to town.  They were approaching the edge of Arable's farmland when the storm that had been gathering finally unleashed...

- +2 xp

Mysts of the Ninth World: Broken

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Seeing the growing agitation in the chance moths, the group began attempting to scramble up the rope.  Outside they were confronted by a pack of broken hounds - one of which was massive and seemed to twist and distort as it growled.

- The moths triggered something in the chamber which began causing strange environmental effects.  While Ronin climbed the rope, Piper investigated the surrounding machinery and found that shorts in the controls seemed to result in her ability to terraform the immediate area.

- As the group fought off the smaller hounds, the huge one closed and happened to pick out Polious as its first target, grabbing and flinging him aside.

- As the situation with the hounds outside worsened, Polious called for withdrawl.  Piper had a more difficult time escaping the ruin as the rope which had been worn on the jagged edge of the hole finally snapped.  Ronin threw a rope down to her but wasn't able to tie it off quickly enough and Piper would likely have pulled him in if Ganthet and Naran hadn't come to his aid.

- Polious recovered from his tumble and, seeing the severity of the situation and the massive hound threatening his companions, raised his damaged rifle.  The weapon discharged but seemed to overload, radiating explosive energe outward.  The great hound was severely burned, but so was Polious - badly enough on his face that he was blinded.

- The group left the site as the hounds fled.  They returned to their camp to find that one of their aneen was about half a mile across the plain, being harrassed by a few other broken hounds.

- +2 xp

Aralakh Company: Load Up

Thursday November 17, 2016 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- After a few intense exchanges and significant damage to both sides, Aralakh succeeded in bringing down the Awesome.  The pilot of the mech survived and turned out to be an exiled noble of some sort.  He offered them information that would aid them in exchange for a place among their company.  Aralakh agreed to this on a "trial basis".

- The company bribed and called in the strike team that had been sent with them to round of the remaining personnel at the base.  The noble had warned them of fanaticism, but the team still took some losses while performing the task.  The group stripped some supplies and equipment from the base and then returned to the primary objective at the R&D facility.

- The strike team recovered 3 experimental/prototype "pulse lasers" from the facility.  The leader of the strike team, having been bribed already, offered to sell Aralakh up to two of the lasers recovered for the Duke.

- The company used its Warhammer to carefully (if inelegantly) salvage the fallen Panther for rebuild & refit.

- As they were preparing to leave the system, their new "recruit" informed them that there was another ripe target in-system...

Mysts of the Ninth World: Burnout

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Polious activated his transmitter artifact, sending a message to Piper and her companions to join he, Ronin, Naran.

- On their way, Piper, Ganthet, and Helios were ambushed at the top of the descending shaft by abhumans of some sort, apparently living in the bowels of the structure.  The creatures were savage, gaunt, and where their faces should have been was only the base of a writhing tentacle.

- While Polious began examining the glowing power-artifact, another trio of the abhumans attacked him, Naran, and Ronin.

- The insuing battles were chaotic, as their assailants attacked in an uncoordinated, frenzied fashion.  One of the abhumans attacking Ganthet and his companions activated some sort of gravity cypher, which caused anyone and anything within the shaft itself to become weightless.  Another assaulting Naran and the others in the room below activated a cobbled artifact which missed her, sending a bright, white beam into the surrounding structure, exploding several metallic "pods" the group assumed were capacitors of some sort.  This seemed to adversely affect the power-artifact, increasing the instability of its already dangerously-overloaded state.  

- At Ronin's insistence, Polious set to work attempting to stabilize the pulsing blue power source while the others fought off the remaining attackers.  Just as the battle concluded, Polious released the power build-up in the device, sending power out into the ruin.  To his dismay, however, the core itself burned out - the pulsing, blue-sun-like glow collapsing in on itself, leaving the cylinder an empty, glass shell.

- The group spent some time gathering components from this room, as they had specifically come for power-distribution parts.  When they were finished, they made their way back toward the "entrance" area, noticing that many of the rooms and passages were now lit and active with various buttons, screens, panels, and other, more incomprehensible controls or interfaces.  They noted much that could be salvaged and investigated, but time was against them as they suspected more abhumans may be emerging from the depths of the complex.

- At the entrance, they noticed the Chance Moth hive was now very active - flying around the room, feasting on the enegies provided by the newly-supplied power.  As they made ready to ascend the rope back out of the complex, they heard the unfortunately-familiar keening of a pack of Broken Hounds from outside - and something very, very large slam into the top of the structure...

- +2 xp

Aralakh Company: Awaken the Sleeping Giant

Tuesday November 8, 2016 at 8:30pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Aralakh pursued the fleeing light mechs back to the mostly-decommissioned military base.  After a few brief exchanges, they managed to take out the Locust and the Hermes - but about that time, they detected an engine power-up in one of the hangers.  After a few moments, sensors were able to determine it was an assault mech - an 80-ton Awesome.  Despite - or maybe because of - the fact that they couldn't get much salvage from the Hermes after its ammo explosion, they decided to stay and see what they could do against this new foe, particularly when they noticed it didn't seem to be operating at peak performance...

Mysts of the Ninth World: Apprenticed to a Scavenger

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

- The group journeyed with Polious to the "B Dome" - a secondary site which seems to be very similar to the structure around which their town of Arable is built.  As such, it is a trove of spare parts.  They were looking for "crystal fuze couplings" to replace some key components relating to the Weathervane's power distribution, but are always on the lookout for anything else that might either be of use or able to be made into something useful.

- Upon descending into the ruin, Ronin encountered a rather large hive of Chance Moths, attracted to a numenous light Naran had created.  At Polious' instruction, the lights were put out and the group carefully moved away from the entrance further into the dark while Naran distracted the hive by illuminating a large metal panel in the opposite direction.

- After a brief discussion in the corridor, the group decided to split up to cover more ground: Helios, Piper, and Ganthet continued down in that direction, while Polious, Naran, and Ronin went back through entrance area and through a partially-open doorway.

- Helios, Piper, and Ganthet found a grassy area in the metal ruin which also contained a large tree with glowing geometric designs on its leaves.  It seemed to interact with nearby machinery in some way - affecting the immediately-local plant life and/or weather/environment when they interacted with it.  In addition, they discovered a stone chamber full of shelves and charred, rectangular books.  Piper found 4 seemingly untouched and took them with her, and discovered at least one of the mostly-burned volumes seemed to have some kind of static charge within it.  After investigating the area, Piper set to work disassembling sections of the machinery, salvaging several promising objects before she began inadvertently triggering it.

- Polious, Naran, and Ronin found a large laboratory area.  Polious set to work scavenging the equipment for useable parts while Ronin and Naran looked around the room.  Ronin found a bank of large, cylindrical, glass tanks (only one of which was still intact) and Naran soon discovered pools of liquid on the floor and ceiling which were dripping into each other.  While she marveled over this, a pseudopod from the lower pool grabbed her, and pulled her up off the ground.  Ronin worked to free her and Polious shot the creature with his powerful rifle-like Numenera weapon - which, instead of evaporating it, caused it to harden into a pink-white crystalline material (from which Ronin cut a section to take with them).  From there, the three proceeded deeper into the complex.  At the bottom of a 170ft shaft, they found a black door behind which hummed some sort of impressive, glowing artifact...

- +3xp

Aralakh Company: The First Job

Tuesday November 1, 2016 at 8:00pm battletech, aralakh company, game session notes Comments (0) »
 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

- Tim's company was hired by a Free Worlds League duke to hit a small Capellan military R&D facility on an otherwise-insignificant border world.  Intelligence indicated the nearby military base was all but decommissioned and they expect no more than a few light mechs and a pair of turrets as in terms of resistance.  Aralakh is to neutralize defenses and allow a strike team (they're transporting) to enter the facility and extract technology.

- Tim rolled rather poorly during contract negotiations and is only being compensated with a forward of 45,000 for operating costs, 25,000 for mission success, a potential 50,000 bounty on significant tech recovered - BUT, they do have full rights to any salvage they have time to pull out, which could pay off nicely.

- The jumpship transporting them says they will remain in-system for 17 days.  At the standard jump points, the target world is about 8 days travel at 1G.  Aralakh pays the captain an extra 5,000 to jump just a little closer to the ecliptic, shaving a day off the interplanetary travel.  They should have up to 3 days on-world.  Extra time comes at 10,000/day.

- Upon reaching the site, they found it defended by a Locust, a Panther, and a Hermes II - which is actually a medium mech.  After a brief skirmish, they took the Panther down and the two remaining units retreated.  Seeing no evidence of additional resistance, the unit held off on calling in the strike team and instead decided to pursue the fleeing units for more potential salvage.

Mysts of the Ninth World: Character Creation

 Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games
Numenera artwork © Monte Cook Games

System: Numenera

Setting: The Ninth World, The Beyond, Arable

Players: Sheri, Tony, Adam, Tim, Keara

Schedule: Near-weekly

 

Finally starting a Numenera campaign!  Been waiting for this for two years!  Very excited!

The party is a group of young adults from a small town in the Beyond called Arable - a wasteland farming community based around a weather-control artifact.  They will begin as assistants to an Aeon Priest called Polious, and tasked with assisting in the maintenance of the Weathervane, scavenging for parts, and generally discovering the Numenera.

Characters:

Narangerel "Naran" [Sheri] is an Inquisitive Nano who Possesses a Shard of the Sun

- Helios [Tony] is a Stubborn Jack who Exists Partially out of Phase

- Piper [Keara] is a Manipulative Delve (Seeker) who Makes Something out of Nothing

- Ronin [Tim] is a Wasteland Jack who Explores Dark Places

- Ganthet [Adam] is a Weird Glaive who Rides the Lightening

Aralakh Company: Character Creation

 Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes
Battletech artwork © Harebrained Schemes

System: Battletech / Mechwarrior Basic

Setting: The Inner Sphere

Players: Tim

Schedule: Occasional Weeknights

 

Aralakh Company will be a strategic-level Battletech RPG/playtest that Tim is helping me with.  I loves me some Battletech and I haven't been able to get a full group together to start a game (not for lack of trying) - so, instead, Tim and I are playtesting a "Mechwarrior Basic" RPG companion ruleset I've developed as well as feeling out the logistics of a Succession Wars era mercenaries campaign.  Since it's just me and Tim, it will be light on the RP and mostly focused on game mechanics, battletech map combat, and strategic level decision-making.

My version of the Battletech universe is about .5-1 steps removed from canon.  I leave most things as-is, but there are a few minor alterations to "the way things are" that improve the setting in my view.  In addition to using my own Mechwarrior ruleset, I've made a few minor mods to the tabletop wargame and have come up with my own simplified versions of some other game-relevant areas.

"Aralakh" was the name Tim gave his merc company, having stolen it from a video game.

Characters:

- "Steiner", a guy born into a merc family who inherited and/or split off to form his own company;  Pilots a Blackjack.

- "Drevan", a friend of Steiner's who comes from the family of a house regular; Pilots a Warhammer.

Additional:

In addition to the two "PCs" and their mechs, Aralakh also has a leopard-class dropship owned by the hired captain, a few techs for upkeep on the mechs & vehicles, and some light support equipment.  They're also starting with a small supply stockpile for repairs and reloading, but it won't last them forever.

Notes:

Character creation rules seemed to work reasonably well, especially the random aspects.  The "average" starting character might be *bit* too skilled out of the box, but we'll see how this develops.

World of Darkness Redux

Thursday October 13, 2016 at 12:37pm gaming, new auburn chronicle Comments (0) »

I recently concluded my New Auburn World of Darkness game that started a bit over a year ago.  Despite the fact that it lasted more than twice as long as I'd anticipated and I was really ready to move on to a new game (Numenera here I come!), I thoroughly enjoyed it the entire time.  I'm going to talk a little about some things I got out of this game.

First off, it's always nice to have a game that actually resolves instead of just "ending".  I've done this a few times, but this game might be the one that was most neatly packaged.  I don't think I did a "perfect" job (I'm not sure that's possible), but this one was pretty close, if I do say so.  I also set up a future sequel in the epilogue, which will be pretty cool - but not for a while (see also: so many games, so little time).

I learned over the course of the game that mystery is difficult to run - at least for my group.  You don't want to be too obvious, but you don't want to be too obscure.  When the game is about the investigation and putting pieces together, there is a very, VERY, fine line here - and you're going to go back and forth between being heavy-handed and letting the group spin their wheels as they try to figure out what to do next.

By that same token, though, it was fascinating to listen to them speculate when they were into it.  So very often they would be right and wrong in an even 50/50 split.  I lost track of the number of times I said "Well, that's not wrong...it's just not...quite right either." while talking about their theories after a session.  Those were some of my favorite times.

I got pretty good at juggling multiple groups of PCs in different places doing different things.  Also, I failed miserably at this from time to time.  I think the group was all together less than 10% of the time over the course of this game.  The particular flavor and setup just made that unlikely or downright impracticle from a narrative standpoint.  It wasn't a "problem", per se, but it did make GMing challenging, and it often meant some percentage of the table was off-screen.  Fortunately, this doesn't bother many in my group.

Like many of my games, this one was a total sandbox.  Unlike many, however, it was all set in the same place.  This might be the first game that really wasn't location driven to any significant degree - so that was a challenging for me.  The shifting environment and the various NPCs and mysteries kept things plenty interesting, though, so that helped.

Along that same line, I set out to be very receptive to the players'/PCs' ideas.  For most of the game, I just had "the situation", I didn't really have "a solution" to the problem(s) - I figured I'd let them come up with that.  This approach worked quite well, and might be the only way I could run a game like this.  The group's ultimate "solution" to the big problem in town was one they came up with - not one I'd pre-planned.  It had to make sense, of course, but if they'd come up with a different "solution" they could pull off, that would have been just as viable.  I really let them drive how this was going to go down, which I try to do in every game,  but, in this one, it was taken to a further degree.

I also think I did a pretty good job presenting a game and setting that was both creepy and intriguing - the way World of Darkness should be.

There's probably other things, but those are the big ones coming to mind.

~PS

New Auburn Chronicle: Save Our City

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

There's a time to pray / and there's a time to fight / anything can be a weapon / if you're holding it right

- Emory, Carter, and Sara began heading north - back to the marina to get their cars and hurry to the train station Aaron had described.  On their way, they encountered a deformed Leon Catch, obviously corrupted by some dark influence.  Not wasting words, he immediately attacked them, proclaiming they must die.  He had a fairly strong upper hand until Sara was able to find some manifestation of his corruptor lurking in the Twilight.  That connection disrupted, Catch burst into flames and burned to ash in seconds.

- As Jordan hurried through the woods, he found himself running with deformed, ghostly wolves.  Slowly converging on him, they somehow warped space around themselves, leaving Jordan in front of the train station.

- Aaron had a brief run-in with "Jason" - the supernaturally-influenced many Carter, Emory, and Sara had spoken with before.  He criticized the groups interference in things over their heads and eventually headed off to the north as Aaron continued south to the nearest bridge over the river.

- Aaron and Jordan met up at the train station and sneaked inside.  They spied several gang members hanging out - and one that had, apparently, been shot by the others on the platform.  They found the main hall of the station covered in webs, and 11 skeletons suspended in them.

- When Aaron, Emory, and Sara arrived, the 3 gang members present became aware of the group's presence and a brief firefight insued.  One gang member was gunned down, and the other two fled in short order.

- The group converged on the main chamber, where the massive, distorted spider appeared - clearly agitated.  Some of the group engaged it with gunfire - Jordan's "blessed" bullets offering some aid - while others attempted to dislodge the skeletons.  The spider's attentions seemed clearly divided.  The group eventually killed it, but Sara warned them that it was only its physical form that was destroyed.  To keep it dead, they would need to recover and bury the skeletons as they had done the other two.

- By this time, the police were arriving.  Sgt Bryonson seemed interested on keeping most of them out of the way, however.  The group was escorted to the station, where questions were asked and answered.  After a long night, they were released, and they set about making sure the spider demon did not return.

- 10xp

Epilogue:

Having rid the city of the beast at the heart of the drug problem and the spider transformations, they were, perhaps, surprised that their lives did not significantly improve.  Most lost their jobs over the next few weeks or months, always on shaky reasoning, and they continued to observe hints of the supernatural haunting them.  Also, the Man in the Pin-Striped Suit was still out there somewhere, with his inscrutable motives.  

Eventually, they all received a letter:

"We have been observing your activities for some time, and you show some promise.  Welcome.  Stand by for further instructions."

The letter was "signed" only with the logo of a black bird with one, large, human-like eye - overlayed with the single word: SCARECROW

End Chapter 1

New Auburn Chronicle: Bury The Past

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- As the black clouds above began to pour cold rain on them, the group set to work attempting to quickly dig some sort of grave in which to bury the bones they'd recovered, believing the lack of a proper burial for them is contributing to the spiritual unrest in town.

- As they made progress, the storm picked up and 4 wolves emerged from the forest.  Believing the wolves to be connected to other events, the group attempted to avoid fighting them even though they displayed hostile behavior. Aaron got some sort of message from the wolves suggesting that something the group was doing was weakening them.  When he petitioned for more information, something in the wolves changed - three of them ran off to the northeast, the other turned and retreated to the south.

- While Aaron and Jordan pursued the wolves, Carter, Emory, and Sara buried the bones.  The Man in the Pin-Striped Suit appeared again, asking if they were sure that's what they wanted to do.  He told them their actions would make them powerful enemies.  The group largely ignored him, but he didn't interfere - disappearing after giving a final warning that there was no "going back".

- Jordan pursued the wolf to the south and encountered the ghost native the group had seen several times previously.  Attempting to commune with the spirit, he began to meditate.  The action seemed to engage the ghost, who passed on several impressions of the past.

- Aaron followed the other three wolves north to a place in the most run-down area of town at the heart of the storm which had moved over New Auburn, watching the shadow in the clouds above descend into an abandoned train station.

- +3xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Out Of Your Depth

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- The group met at the marina the next morning with the intention of locating and recovering bones/skeletons that believe have some connection to past events.  Jordan had rented a pontoon boat for the day, and had brought a number of "supplies" designed to combat or subdue any supernatural dangers that might present themselves.  Once the others arrived, they set out onto the lake in their boat.  They quickly found themselves driving in and out of thick pockets of fog being driven by the wind.

- Near one of the deepest parts of the lake, they found a mostly-whole skeleton floating on the surface.  It began to break apart as they gathered the bones into the boat.  As they attempted to maneuver the boat to gather the remainder of the small bones, they noticed they were drifting toward a patch of lake water deep in the fog that seemed to be bubbling.

- As they drifted into the bubbling water, the boat's engine died and bone fragments began to fall from the sky like rain, gradually increasing in side.  As Emory and Aaron worked to get the boat running and others attempted to gather more bones they found floating in the water and scattered around the deck, shadows began to appear in the distance around them and overhead.  The boat began to corrode and fall apart around them.  The depth-finder read 9999.

- Emory managed to get the boat running as the indistinct form of a massive, spider-like creature emerged from the fog above them.  Its carapace writhed and dripped with some dark liquid.  It's round maw shrieked behind monstrous fangs and the eight, translucent yellow eyes that hovered in a ring above its head seemed to burn with yellow flame.

- Aaron managed to force the boat backward out of the bubbling water and away from the creature even as it tore the canopy from the craft.  More concerned with escape than direction, he ran the boat all the way up onto the shore - the same place Carter had found himself after his hospital blackout.

- +2xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Leaving Bad Enough Alone

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- After taking a couple of weeks to recover, the group once more began investigations.  Carter, Emory, and Sara went to the run-down lower-east side of town to ask questions of the guy that found Carter in the lakeside park and took him back to the hospital.

- Locating the man took some time and "negotiation".  When they did found him, he at first seemed unimpressed and uniterested in the their conversation.  After moving to a somewhat more isolated location, he began to talk to them a bit more openly.  

- The group learned little from the man regarding the questions they had - they did learn, however, that he himself had something of a supernatural nature.  He told them that he had laid low for decades, doing his best to avoid the supernatural darkness that seeped into various corners of the world.  In his experience, engaging that sort of evil only made things worse - and he strongly advised the others to follow his lead.

- Meanwhile, Jordan did his best to obtain any useful objects or materials that research and folklore suggested might be helpful in confronting the perils of the supernatural - and rented a boat in preparation to attempt to recover the floating bones Carter had seen on the lake...

- +2xp

New Auburn Chronicle: The Hunter and the Hunted

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Whle Sara, Jordan, Emory, and Carter were all receiving treatment, Aaron decided to go back to the West Tenements to speak with Bethany about buying some of her charms.

- Bethany was quite intoxicated and seemed to have been crying.  She became fixated on Sara and the watch and pleaded with Aaron to convince Sara to give her the watch.  While they were still talking, Aaron heard gunshots.  He arrived outside in time to see a man hurled through a glass tile wall by a massive, glowing humanoid wolf.  The creature did not give chase, but Aaron and the man - who turned out to be the fugitive Elijah Sims - decided to leave the area anyway.

- Back at Sims' hideout, they talked over the things that had been going on.  Sims knew nothing about "spiders" or "Niatha", but did know the local gangs were up to something bad.  He had been hunting a small werewolf pack in the city for some time - his success in killing three of them so far had earned him a reputation as a serial killer.  Sims agreed to offer whatever help he could as long as Aaron didn't tip off the department as to his whereabouts and activities.  He did stress, however, that he had his own problems.

- Aaron returned to the hospital and told the others about his early-morning adventure.  The group took the next week or two to fully recover.  Nothing major happened while they laid low, but small incidents which they felt were related to the "problem" continued to bubble to the surface.  They needed to form a plan.  They would have to act on something - anything - and soon...

- +2xp

Games of the Present and Future

Friday August 19, 2016 at 12:34pm gaming Comments (0) »
 Marauder - probably my favorite 'mech.  This one had to be pretty heavily repaired, but it turned out pretty great.
Marauder - probably my favorite 'mech.  This one had to be pretty heavily repaired, but it turned out pretty great.

'Splosions

Been trying to play Battletech whenever I get a chance.  Love this game.  I didn't do a post-mortem on Trogland 2016 this year, but the one game I ran at that event was a Battletech scenario that lasted from about 11am-5pm on saturday.  Yeah, turns out lance-on-lance (plus extras) with 5 players takes a while, especially when there are some heavies on the field.  Next time, I think I might run a 2-on-2 game that might not go forever.

Paint Schemes

A while back I bought a copy of the 3rd Edition box set from Ebay, which included plastic models of 14 of the "unseen" mechs, several of which I really wanted.  This set was made back in '94 and the plastic models aren't great quality.  I actually had to use modelling putty to repair a couple of my favorites - the set was in great shape, it's just that the plastic casting was bad.  That said, I think my paint jobs on the ones I painted turned out "decent" to "great".  Still need to clear-coat them before they're ready to go, however.  I did decide not to paint a few of them for aesthetic reasons.  Some of the old models look straight-up goofy (I'm looking at you, Thunderbolt), and with other's I'm not a big fan of the "backpack" and/or (to a lesser extent) the "handheld weapon" looks.  I did paint the Phoenix Hawk, Stinger, and Battlemaster that fall into that latter category, but the Griffin and Shadow Hawk look more like space marines than battlemechs IMO.  The Wolverine I *might* have painted, but its head is extremely poorly cast and mangled.  Anyway, they didn't make the first cut.  I'm up to 34 painted models now, and I think they've generally improved over time.

Compiling an Arsenal

I also went to Kinko's and printed out 114 pages of mech sheets - one copy of each common variant for each model I have painted.  I've got these sorted in a binder now.

And I've completed my first draft of what I'm calling Mechwarrior Basic - a companion RPG system and set of Battletech mods to play the game as a ttrpg.  It takes some elements from Mechwarrior 2nd Edition and a variety of other games.  It's intended to be simple and quick, specifically to contrast the methodical crunch of the wargame aspect.

The reason for all this is that I'm still hoping to run a Battletech campaign at some point...  

...or, as soon as I find another player.

Still Current Campaigns

As you can probably tell from this blog, our World of Darkness game continues - and it's going quite well overall.  This has been a really solid game.  I like the characters, the setting is good, and the mystery is interesting.  And maybe a little too involved.

The WoD game is great - and I'm still having a lot of fun with it, but I'm really looking forward to starting a Numenera campaign after this one resolves.  Looking back at the blog, I can see that I've been trying to resolve WoD and start Numenera since December.  I'm not good at ending things.  Even when I want to.

Maybe someday.

 

~PS

New Auburn Chronicle: Fight or Flight

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Carter dragged Emory back into the room and pulled out the gun she still had on her as the man burst in.  As the nurses and doctors followed him in, Carter decided to engage the massive guy in hand-to-hand instead of shooting.  They traded a couple of blows before Carter tossed the gun on the bed where Emory picked it up and shot the man and he collapsed.

- Things weren't going much better back in the alleyway where the giant spider had attacked Jordan, Sara, Aaron and the injured man.  The group strugged to get away, and were cut off from the injured man in the alleyway.  They had mixed results fending off the persistent spider, but eventually made it back to Aaron's patrol car - though Jordan had to be carried.  The creature attempted to stop the car from driving off and nearly succeeded in prying the roof off the vehicle before Aaron was able to drive them all to safety.

- Back at the hospital, the group reunited - several of them in pretty rough shape.  After some treatment, Sara got a phone call around 4am.  It was Owen.  He told her he'd found something - some clue about their situation.  He told her the only way to free an individual or environment from a demon's influence - short of somehow destroying it - was to close the door it came through...

- +1xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Monsters Among Us

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Sara, Jordan, and Emory had an interesting conversation with the priest Owen and his sister Crista.  They had experienced some odd things themselves, and Owen showed them some photocopied pages of some old, partiall-burned documents that his predecessor had left him - documents that seemed similar to the occultic 'book of prophesy' Sara had found references to.

- Meanwhile Carter was visited again by the man who'd given him a ride back to the hospital.  He said he'd gone back to the shore where he thought Carter had come from - and he saw some of the same disturbing things.  He cautioned Carter not to pursue any of that too far, only saying that it was 'bad stuff'.

- Aaron went to meet his mysterious caller later that night.  He was picked up in a limo and driven around a bit while "Sam" talked to him.  Apparently, this man was a rival of Leon Catch, and wanted the police to know whatever was going on with the new drug Leon had been selling, they weren't involved and wanted the cops concentrating on Catch's territory (the East side).

- When he returned, he re-joined Sara and Jordan who'd been watching from nearby.  Sara had heard something in an alley and was making her way to investigate.  She found an injured man who seemed strange in some way.  As they approached asking if them man needed help, the group of them were ambushed from above by a large, spider-like creature.

- Carter and Emory were awakened at the hospital by some commotion in the hallway.  Emory stepped outside and saw a crazed and massive man pushing his way down the hallway against the efforst of nurses, aids, and doctors to restrain him.  When the man saw Emory, he became enrage, grabbing a nearby metal cart and hurling it at her.

- +3xp

New Auburn Chronicle: The Demon Within

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Jordan, Emory, and Sara made their way to the St Monessa Catholic Church at 8550 Newfield.  After entering and looking around, Jordan and Emory decided to go up and talk with the priest while Sara hung back to observe.  Jordan had been experiencing minor but worrying "reactions" since they entered, but these drastically intensified when he caught sight of a girl sweeping up in a corner of the sanctuary.  At that moment, something seemed to trigger in the building resulting in the sound of a high-pitched, howling blowing through the building and the numerous candle flames becoming much taller and agitated.  The young priest was momentarily shocked by this, exchanging a looking with the janitor, before pulling a gun on Jordan and demanding to know what he was.  The two tried, now much more urgently, to explain some of what had been going on.  The priest directed them out of the sanctuary, through the building, and into the crypt beneath it.

- Deep in the crypt, the priest was accompanied by two faintly-glowing men in white robes - one of whom was sent for the janitor.  The other pushed Jordan into a small circular room and bound him to a worn wooden board with silver manicles.  The janitor returned with two of the men in white robes and took up a position in the room, pulled out a small book from her clothing, and began singing.  Emory demanded answers, eventually pulling her own gun on the priest who was now standing behind a sort of podium.  When he began reading aloud in a strange language, Emory fired over his head.  The priest remained focused on his task, but the shot did startle janitor who briefly faultered in her song.  It was then that Sara, who had been stealthily observing from the shadows, emerged to place a hand on Emories arm.  "It's an exorcism..."

- +2xp

New Auburn Chronicle: The Dark Past

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Jordan's call to Sara telling her he's on his way woke her from unconsciousness.  She was soaked with lake water, but the building appeared intact.  Sara took another look around the now-peaceful house.  She didn't find the book she was looking for, but did locate some volumes on the Arapaho containing burial practices, and a scrap of paper mentioning Father Brogan at St Monessa Catholic Church.

- After Emory got off work, the group met at the hospital in Carter's room.  They had a lengthy discussion on what to do next, during which Aaron received another call from the dispatch telling him that somone had just called from the same payphone.  Aaron called the number back and, after identifying himself, was told "here, 2am".  Jordan, Sara, and Emory decided to go to the Catholic Church, leaving Carter alone in his room to recover.

- As Carter slipped into sleep, some part of his subconscious nearly panicked, recalling that sleep in this hospital has rarely been peaceful.  He woke up to find himself in a log cabin with an elderly native woman who asked if he would listen to her when his grandfather had not.  She told him that the "demon" must be stopped; banished; destroyed.  It had preyed upon the community for too long, and many of them could not rest peacefully in their deaths.  He saw a brief glimpse of what must have been the past from his window before his hospital room light came on and the vision faded.

- +3xp

On Recency: Vacation Return 2016

Monday July 11, 2016 at 12:53pm vacation, gaming, golf Comments (0) »
 just relax
just relax

Well, just got back from vacation.  That was a great time.  Spent the week with Sheri, Hannah, Micah, Mom and Dad.  Also my brother Joe, and saw sister Jamie, too.  Went to a family reunion where I saw relatives I haven't seen in years.  Got to hang out a little with friends Justin & his family and Kevin & his family.  Played golf, kubb, flimsee, Sushi Go, wii golf, and other things.  Went to the Zoo and the Indy Children's Museum.  Enjoyed some quiet evenings around a fire pit in my parents' peaceful backyard.

Again, great time.

 

Current things I'm working on or looking to do:

- Successfuly wrap up our New Auburn Chronicle game and start a new Numenera campaign

- Finish a Mechwarrior rules set I've been working on, create a killer character sheet, and finish painting minis for a Battletech campaign

- Play some golf with Tim, as I've inherited (at least temporarily) a set of nice clubs from my dad

 

Oh, and then there are all the things I "need" to do...

 

~PS

No Thank You Evil: Rus Tee & the Eye Buglars

 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

[new players Ken, Terri, Erica and Zach]

- Angel and some *other* new friends were summoned to Princess Strike's Castle Alley on account of a horrible noise keeping everyone awake.  The terrible moaning sounds was coming from somewhere in the junkyard behind the castle.

- While investigating, some of them encountered large bug-like creatures that tried to steal things from them - one of them made off with Terri the robot's arm!

- The group followed the sound to a little cave house in one of the piles of junk, where they found an old, broken robot called Rus Tee sobbing and crying loudly.  He told them that he was upset because one of his eyes was missing.

- Suspecting the bugs, the group followed them to their hive where they found a giant robot bug being powered by the sad robot's glowing eye.  Erica the spy snatched the eye and made her escape while Zach "Fast-Speeder" wrestled one of the bugs for his toolbelt.

- After fending off the rest of the bugs, the group returned dthe eye to the robot, who stopped moaning so everyone could get some sleep.

No Thank You Evil: Professor Wizbang's Time Machine

Saturday June 25, 2016 at 1:46pm no thank you evil, game session notes, trogland Comments (0) »
 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

[published NTYE adventure; new players Amanda and Jared]

- Angel and some new friends were invited Out the Window to Princess Strike's Bowling Ball.  They arrived early to find Professor Wizbang demonstrating his time machine, only something went wrong and it summoned a dinosaur, a pirate, and a robot from different time periods - and each of them made off with a piece of the broken machine!

- The group tracked down the fugitives and the missing buttons and managed to put all to right before the ball.

No Thank You Evil: Merfaerie's Mischief

Tuesday June 21, 2016 at 7:30pm no thank you evil, game session notes Comments (0) »
 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

- Angle, Maria, and Markus made it up to a room full of treasure chests, where they discovered a merfaerie had swiped the wand and was causing trouble with it - she animated the treasure chests even turned Markus into a giant crab!

- Stacking the treasure chests, they chased the sprite up into the top floor bedroom of the coral tower, where Maria grabbed her. 

- The group returned the wand to the fish, called Marlin, who poofed his tower back to the sea and apologized to Woodlynn, who gave him some special honey to help with his cough.

New Auburn Chronicle: Tracing Spectres

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Carter took stock of his surroundings, noticing a partial(?) human skeleton on the shoreline amongst all the dead fish.  His best guess placed him somewhere on the eastern shore of Lake Meijer, at least several miles from civilization and exposed to the elements.  Seeing little option, he started on the hike back to the park where he talked his way into a ride back to the hospital.

- Sara took Carter's car and staretd on the drive out to his place.  On the way there, she called Bethany who all but demanded the watch from Sara, but wouldn't exactly say why - only that it belonged to someone important to her.  Sara wondered why she didn't seem to be so desparate when she'd first seen it.  She made it the rest of the way to Carter's house, where she encountered the restless and angry spirit of a native american woman.

- Emory was called out to a house near the college, to what seemed to be the aftermath of a large house party.  Kirk was already there talking with the landlord.  The paramedics had been called to the scene for a young woman who was, by this time, lying dead in the kitchen of the house - her hands covered in black paint where she had drawn multiple, large eyes on the wall.

- Jordan made some phone calls to the others in the group, and then headed over to the house Sara had found in Kim's notes.  The guy he met there seemed mostly interested in getting rid of him, but eventually divulged that he had once been a sort of middle-man in the employ of Leon Catch, taking money and arranging meetings between customers and Catch's dealers.

- Aaron remained in the hospital, still quite injured.  He did get a phone call from the station, however, indicating someone called "Sam" was trying to get ahold of him...

- +3xp

No Thank You Evil: All Wet

Wednesday June 15, 2016 at 6:30pm no thank you evil, game session notes Comments (0) »
 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

New Character:

Markus [Tim] :: An Astronaut

Session Highlights:

- Angel, Maria, and Markus are called by Queen Woodlynn to investigate a tower that suddenly appeared in the Honeypot Ballroom.

- They are teleported inside (with some minor side effects) and soon discover a fish-wizard with a cold.  He didn't know his tower had been moved and asked them to fetch his wand so he could fix the problem.

- The wand was missing, and the kids suspect it might have been taken by mischievous hands.

- While searching for the wand (or whoever has it) in the laboratory, a giant octopus suddenly appeared - and it thought they were lollipops!  They managed to escape up to the next floor with some bumps and bruises.

New Auburn Chronicle: A Haunting Past

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Unaware of other events taking place around town, Jordan continued looking into his family history, finding record of a man named "Albert Fitzgerald", who was a turn-of-the-century newspaper editor in town, and perhaps something of a historian.  Jordan wanted to look at some of the old papers, but had trouble finding them online.  He did happen to know, however, the the Public Library had reproductions of the city's papers going back over 100 years.

- The situation Emory and Aaron found themselves involved in continued to deteriorate.  Officer Tamara began to transform into a spider creature after having been attacked by the looming mass above them, and the original deformed man attacking Aaron continued his assault.  They decided to withdraw, most of them making their escape in the ambulance.  Back at the hospital, there seemed to be some discrepancies between what the others saw and what Aaron and Emory knew had happened.

- After seeing to her studies for a while, Sara got distracted.  She decided to do some online research into whether events similar to those occuring in New Auburn had happened before.  She eventually discovered some ravings by a german doctor speaking about "a Corruption" - a patient and "spider-like" demon that erodes the hearts of "men closest the edge of the abyss", and "changes them into itself".  When she returned to her room, she found it was a wreck, and words written in what looked like blood on the wall read: "I have new friends now, Sara...  ...and they are angry."

- Carter awoke once again in the hospital to find all of the lights out - this time to something pushing its way through the drop-ceiling over his bed: a massive spider was looming above him, emerging from the ceiling.  He ran out of his room into the darkened hallway and found two grotesque beings hunched over what looked like the body of a nurse.  As he ran away, he caught site of Kim Jones - a dead student from the college - and, turning around, found himself face-to-face with a native american woman who's skin was pitted and rotting and who's hair and clothing seemed to float unnaturally around her.  She reached out, placing her hands around his throat and sqeezing.   Carter lost consciousness and, when he awoke, found himself on the shores of a lake, hundreds of fish floating dead in the water before him...

- +4xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Piercing Shadows

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Aaron and Emory arrived at the scene they were called to, shortly discovering the situation was still quite volatile.  Aaron, Bryonson, Kirk, and Tamara engaged several fleeing suspects.  Aaron encountered a deformed, spiderlike person in the allyway as something large loomed overhead.

- Emory and her partner were attempting to keep some distance from the scene until it was secure, but when one of the officers was injured, Bryonson called for them to come over.  Emory began to have odd emotional sensations with no apparent cause, and the wounds on her back began to burn.  She noticed her partner wasn't in the truck anymore, and thought she saw him heading out to the back of it.  When she got there, she found the Man in the Pin-Striped Suit instead.  He only spoke to her briefly, but her sourceless sensations intensified.  When she looked up again, her partner was where the man had been, and they made ready to go assist the officers.

- On the way back from the gym, Sara had a brief conversation with a floor-mate, who told her that someone matching Bethany's description had been banging on her door, looking for her.

- Carter was resting in the hospital, when he noticed all of the power in his room had gone out, and he heard a scratching sound coming from a dark corner.  Shining the light from his phone over there, he caught a brief glance of something silvery and ethereal fade from existence, leaving behind a silvery web.

- +2xp

New Auburn Chronicle: The New Normal

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- The group made it back to town.  Carter spent some time recovering in the hospital, as he was pretty severely injured.  Sara and Jordan spent some time researching SCUBA thinking they may need to check out some odd mentionings about the lake.  Emory and Aaron, however, went back to work.

- Aaron was called in to Lt Gray's office, and was assigned to Sgt Bryonson's unit which was canvassing neighborhoods and talking to potential witnesses to gang activities.  The police department is currently stretched very thin with the somewhat sudden increase in gang and drug related violence in town.  On one call, they happen upon a domestic disturbance which Aaron suspects might be related to the drug they'd previously encountered.

- Sara met with a student who gave her a rundown on how basic SCUBA diving works, but didn't have any equipment to loan and admitted he was fairly inexperienced.

- An emergency call went out to both Aaron & Bryonson's car and Emory's ambulance, describing an active situation in east-central New Auburn: describing gunfire and at least one body in the street...

That Time We Made A Cake For A D&D Session

Tuesday May 10, 2016 at 9:52pm gaming, friends Comments (0) »
 A terribly decorated real cake based on a terribly decorated imaginary cake.
A terribly decorated real cake based on a terribly decorated imaginary cake.

This was a first for us.

I'm part of two regular gaming groups: one I run, and one I play in.  It's nice to be able to do both.  Our friend Rucht runs the group I play in, and right now he's runing a 5e D&D game.  On a side note, 5th Edition seems to be a solid system.  I like how they've simplified and streamlined the system but kept it feeling very much like Dungeons and Dragons.

In this game, Tony is playing a halfling barbarian.  Edie's character, his sister, was trying to help with his "anger issues".  They decided to try cake decorating as therapy.  This did not go well.

The really hilarious thing was that Tony's dice knew exactly how well a halfling barbarian should be able to decorate a cake, and out of 4 or 5 rolls, I don't think he rolled higher than a 5.  The whole session was hilarious, I don't think I've laughed that hard during a game for a long time.  The die rolling, the RP, the descriptions of everything that was happening - even when the bakery was attacked by monsters - everything was cracking us up.

Then Tony got an idea: we should make a cake, decorated as badly as possible, and bring it for Rucht at the next game - down to the black-icing (mostly illegible) "this sucks" Tony said his barbarian wrote on it.

So, we did.

~PS

New Auburn Chronicle: A Narrow Victory

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Jordan awoke in his jail cell covered in sweat, as if from a horrifying dream he couldn't recall.  He found the Man in the Pin-Striped Suit sitting in his cellmate's bunk with a newspaper.  The man told Jordan that things were getting worse - that he should have accepted his offer.  Jordan said he didn't believe him.  The man's eyes glowed a vibrant yellow.  

- As he dissolved into spider-like shadows and dissipated, Jordan heard his voice in his mind: "Will you save them, Fitzgerald? Can you do what must be done?"  Jordan began to feel a tearing sensation in his forearms.  Looking down, he saw strange, black writing gouged into his flesh: "The Hour Is Late" was on his left arm, and "8550 Newfield Lane" was on his right.

- Back at the hilltop cemetery, time seemed to freeze around Sara, and she began having a mental conversation with whom she believed to be the Man in the Pin-Striped Suit.  He said he could tell her how to eliminate the monstrous spider creature that had nearly killed them if she would do something for him.  The conversation got somewhat muddled, however, and Sara seemed less than cooperative.  When time resumed, Sara grabbed the watch and ran away from the hilltop.  The spider gave chase, but had some difficulty navigating the trees and undergrowth.  As Sara pulled away, it returned to the others on the hill.

- Aaron and Emory were just barely able to "kill" the creature before it reached them and Carter, who'd be severely wounded and was unconscious.  When they did, however, it seemed to explode into hundreds of cat-sized spiders that seemed to be quickly fleeing the area, but also striking out at anything they happened upon.

- When Sara reached the parking area the next day, she found that several days had actually passed. She called Kristine Cannon and convinced her to meet her and the two returned to the others in the woods.  She seemed dubious of their claims of the events that had transpired, but did see the abundant webbing and the whole group noticed that some strange time distortion was happeneing in the area.

- The group headed back into town - most of them, to the hospital, though Emory went to meet Jordan to discuss recent events.

- +4xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Rebirth pt. I

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Aaron held out the pocketwatch for the ghost to take - asking if it wished to destroy it - but there seemed to be some sort of spiritual friction.  The man held out a flickering, unnaturally-distorting hand toward Aaron and suddenly vanished.  The watch began to burn Aaron's hand, and he dropped it. 

- The watch burst "open", spewing something like blood and tar out across the clearing as a monstrous, spider-like creature pulled itself out of it.  The creature seemed to grow larger and larger by the second, and the group opened fire at the unnatural creature.  

- As it was injured, Sara found the pocketwatch and assessed it to be some sort of portal.  She attempted to hold it closed, but it seemed to be pushing open against her and its surface burned her hands fairly severely.  She and Emory finally managed to force it to stay closed.

- The now-massive demonic spider managed to thickly encase Aaron in webbing and mauled Carter before tossing him aside.  Emory had sustained severe burns from the watch and was only semi-conscious.  It was then that Sara saw the world seem to freeze in place and she heard a familiar voice just over her should: "So, this is interesting..."

- +3xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Haunted pt. II

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Fearing being arrested for murder, Jordan ran for it.  Unfortunately, his car happened to be seen heading out of town.  After a brief chase, he was apprehended.

- Aaron went to speak with Steve Carrol (the man who'd opened fire at the Sixth Street Bar some weeks earlier).  He learned a little more about Leon Catch and the man in the pin-striped suit.

- While incarcerated, Jordan awoke in the middle of one night to find ghostly figures in his cell.  The scenes seemed to have the flavor of an earlier time.  Disturbed by the imagery, Jordan covered himself and attempted to blot out the wailing sounds - ultimately falling back to sleep.

- Aaron, Carter, Emory, and Sara went to find the place indicated by the map Carter had found on his grandfather's computer.  It took them several hours to arrive, and while, they began to notice time seeming to slip away from them.  At the site, which was said to be a cemetery, they found 13 stones bearing odd symbols with several smaller stones "connecting" them.  Though only 4pm, darkness was falling, and they began to hear and see glimpses of wolves around the hilltop.  It was here that a ghostly, half-wolf/half-man form appeared - distored, emaciated, twisted.  It lashed out at the group, but Aaron, having pulled out the pocketwatch Sara had previously taken from the cave, called the beast to stand down - and this, shockingly, seemed to work.  The ghostly wolf coalesced into the form of a native man - one they had seen before...

- +4xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Menacing Eyes

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Group further discussed what to do before splitting up.

- Carter found a pieces of information on his grandfather's computer network account at the college - an article about the New Tree Monument vandalism, a couple of emails relating to whatever project he was working on, and a map showing a mysterious location in the wilderness.

- Aaron and Jordan went to try to speak with Steve Carrol, the "Sixth Street Shooter", but he declined to see them.  They sent him a letter the following day saying they wanted to talk about the man in the pin-striped suit.

- Sara and Emory went to speak with the witch, Bethany in the West Tenements, hoping she could point them toward Sims.  Unfortunately, Bethany only had a brief encounter with the man a few weeks previous.  She did seem interested in the pocketwatch Sara had found when it was mentioned, and later went to Sara's dorm room to search it for malevolent spirits.

- Sunday night, Aaron got a call from an officer buddy, Kirk Johnson, who wanted to meet him at the Saint Monessa Catholic Church.  This seemed odd, so Aaron was wary.  His friend told him that, while the police report said they didn't find anything in the cave, he saw something - a mutilated spider creature.

- Monday morning, Jordan was called into the radio station to talk with Cecil Perkins.  This quickly took a turn for the worse when Perkins pulled a gun on him and insisted that he get "it" out of the station.  As he got more and more agitated, a large bulbous shadow emerged from the walls just before the lights went out.  Jordan could see eight glowing, yellow eyes and could feel Perkins struggling against him - and he was bitten.  When he managed to get the door back open, a half-transformed Cecil collapsed onto the floor in time for Mark Wallace to see him laying motionless in a puddle of goo at Jordan's feet - and call the cops.

- +3xp

No Thank You Evil: Missing Max Mixer

Tuesday March 15, 2016 at 6:00pm no thank you evil, game session notes Comments (0) »
 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

New Character:

Lily [Pat] :: a Super-Smart Spy with Dino, the brontosaurus

Session Highlights:

- Angel, Maria, and Lily make their way to Hex Kitchen after receiving an invitation.  Outside, Angel's fox, Ocean, was kidnapped by gingerbread men.

- The Kitchen Witch says they've been getting out of hand and also that her best mixing spoon, Max Mixer, is missing.

- The group tracked the gingerbread men to a melting caramel castle a short distance away.  They were confronted by gingerbread guards, but fought there way inside where they found Ocean.  The king of the gingerbread men appeared and the group noticed he had the mixing spoon.

- During the confrontation, a giant raccoon appeared and began eating the castle.  They grabbed the spoon and tried to get away.  Lily was climbing up on Dino when the raccoon knocked her down and took the shiny spoon.

- The group returned to Hex Kitchen and got a shiny fork.  When they returned, they found the raccoon asleep nearby.  The group was able to successfully swap the fork out for the spoon without waking it.

- The Kitchen Witch baked them some Marshmallow Chops and Mashed Lollipops as a reward, and passed on an invitation to Angel to attened Woodlynn's Birthbee Party.

Mini Weather

Tuesday March 8, 2016 at 10:27pm gaming, battletech Comments (0) »
 Painted & clear-coated - ready for action!  Also, shiny Battletech faction dice!
Painted & clear-coated - ready for action!  Also, shiny Battletech faction dice!

When I got home this evening, I noted that the temperature was still above 70 degrees - and that meant it was time to clear-coat some miniatures!  I got a couple of coats on all but two of the minis - one because I wanted to do some additional highlights, and another because I somehow got brown paint on it.  The others should be ready to go, though.  Looking forward to playing!

~PS

Micah Photography

Tuesday March 8, 2016 at 10:21pm photography, family Comments (0) »
 Micah Sleeping - exported via screenshot
Micah Sleeping - exported via screenshot

Still having some issues with Canon's Digital Photo Professional, as I've mentioned before.

But Micah is super cute.  Just over 4 months now.

~PS

New Auburn Chronicle: Death Comes

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Aaron ambushed the radio station intruder, who ran for it after a brief scuffle.  Aaron gave chase, but the guy - whom he recognized as one of the men from the park - was too quick.  Aaron saw a black car nearby pull out and past the station before speeding down the road.

- Sara, meanwhile, had been further investigating the pocketwatch she'd taken from the cash box in the cave at the park as it had some odd properties.  The jeweler she'd spoken with told her that it wasn't working, but she had noticed that it always seemed to have the correct time.  The inscription inside turned out to be a passage from the book of Job.  When she pried open the back, however, she found the object seemingly full of blood and viscera, which poured out from the opening she'd made, along with the hot smell of death.  The room, which had been subtly darkening for the past hour, began to pulse red and just before her light went out, she saw the shadow of a man in an old-fashioned hat and suit near the door to her room.  Sara grabbed her things and ran out through her suitemate's room, calling Emory to come and get her.

- The group convened at Emory's house to discuss what to do next.

- +2xp

No Thank You, Evil!

Sunday March 6, 2016 at 6:04pm gaming, family Comments (0) »
No Thank You, Evil! Image

Kickstart

Back in May of 2015, I backed a Monte Cook Games project called No Thank You, Evil.  This project was to be a tabletop roleplaying game aimed at kids for families to play together.  It sounded awesome - awesome enough to get me to, after considering it for several other projects, actually make an account on Kickstarter.com an contribute some money to making it happen.  It has thus far been my only kickstarter experience, and I have been really impressed with the whole process.  MCG does a good job.

Yes Please, Adventure!

Just about a week or so ago, I got my copy in the mail - having been eagerly awaiting it.  The production value of the game is amazing, and the guts of the game itself did not disappoint.  It uses a simplified version of the Cypher System, and does a great job tayloring its mechanics and flavors to a young audience.  The game is beautiful and solidly designed.

We - myself, my wife, our daughter, and Tony - just finished our first adventure in the world of Storia, and, I have to say, it was a blast.  My 4-year-old daughter actually picked up the concepts pretty quickly, even if some of the minutia is still a bit over her head.  She took to the roleplaying elements quite well, and seemed to catch on to the "game" parts with only a little coaching.  We all had a great time with it, and she's excited to play it again soon.  

My Storia

Like any game I touch, though, I had to make some adjustments.  I'm sure a person can quite easily run the thing as-is, right out of the box, and have a great time.  As any of my friends can tell you, though, that's just not me.  I have to tinker.  I have to tweak.  I have to make it my own.  This ability is what I love about TTRPGs.

I did a little cherry-picking of the mechanics for our first game - we kind of played something between the "triangle" and "square" levels - but mostly left it as-is.  I do think that some additional differentiation between characters could be acheived by introducing one or two special "skills" that the characters can have - allowing a possible of three factors that could lower a Goal number - and I may do this in the future.  

Really, the most significant considerations for game tweaking were focused on setting and plot.  The setting is brilliant, but some things aren't clearly defined in the books and a couple of other things seemed like they would be a lot cooler if I changed them just a little.  I actually didn't change that much of the game, but I think what I did tweak added a lot.  What I had in the end was a solidified structure for an awesome game taylored to my tastes.

~PS

No Thank You Evil: Mirror Mirror

Sunday March 6, 2016 at 1:00pm no thank you evil, game session notes Comments (0) »
 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

New Character:

Remmy [Tony] :: a Kind Creature (dog)

Session Highlights:

- While trying to find her friends again, Angel heard someone calling for help.  She found a big dog (who was sort of like a kid) hanging upside down as some kind of carnivorous plant tried to eat him.  Angel ran and jumped up onto the dog and, after a few attempts, managed to break the vine holding him and the two escaped.

- Unable to find their way to Maria and Edwin, Remmy (who had been in the wood hunting mushrooms for the Kitchen Witch) used his Witch-Way to find their way back to Hex Kitchen.  Meanwhile, Edwin and Maria happened upong a whispered story about Angel and a dog going to the kitchen, so they all met up there.

- The group then proceeded to Mirror Mirror, spoke the rhyme, and entered the palace.  Before they could get far, however, Maria and Remmy were detained by Mirror Men while Queen Me anxiously questioned them.  Angel, having escaped, continued in, eventually finding the Princesses on the upper floor.

- Maria and Remmy eventually manged to distract the Queen and escape.  They found Angel and the princesses, and the group of them fought their way back out of Mirror Mirror in time to get Edwin and Snow White to the Flower Petal Ball!

No Thank You Evil: Princesses in Peril

 No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games
No Thank You Evil artwork © Monte Cook Games

This is a loose campaign started for my 4-year-old daughter, Hannah.  Sheri will be playing in it as well, and others may come and go occasionally.

Characters:

- Angel [Hannah] :: a Powerful Princess with a stuffed fox

- Maria [Sheri] :: a Super-Smart Pirate with a stuffed rabbit

Session Highlights:

- Angel was awaked by her stuffed fox, Ocean, talking to her.  He said her help was needed.  Not sure what was happening, she hid at first, but eventually noticed the green light coming from under her closet door and, upon investigating, found that a gateway in her closet now led into a forest in a mystical land.

- Angel met with Maria and a teddy bear named Edwin and was told that the Princesses were trapped in a palace called Mirror Mirror, and that one of them had promised to go to the Flower Petal Ball with Edwin.  Someone needed to get them out.

- After some discussion, the group decided to go to the Whispering Wood to see if it would tell them any stories about how to get into Mirror Mirror.  Maria and Edwin discovered a rhyme that would open the way, but Angel saw something that frightened her, ran off into the wood, and got lost!

New Auburn Chronicle: Licking Wounds

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Fearing the approach of sirens, the tow assailants fled the scene.  Carter had made a valiant effort to detain them - or at least keep them off his friends - but the double-team ultimately proved too much and a serious blow to the back of his head all but removed him from the fight.

- Jordan pulled Emory's medical supplies from her trunk and, acting mostly on instinct, managed to stop her profuse bleeding.  Seeing Carter still standing, Jordan decided to leave and get Emory to the hospital ASAP.  

- Police and ambulances arrived next and, after questioning him, took Carter to the hospital as well.

- Sara fought with Damon's laptop a bit more - recovering no more information, but changing the password so as to keep others out.  She then left the complex a reasonable distance, and quietly observed the aftermath of what was going on in the street where the shootout had taken place.  She then walked to a nearby convenience store and, after distracting the owner, used the phone to leave some anonymous tips for the police about Damon and his drug ring.

- The group spent several days recovering.  Aaron got hold of some copied police file info on Elijah Sims (whom Sara now recognizes as the man responsible for the shotgun damage to Emory's car) and Dakota Flores.  

- Jordan went to plead his case to the station manager and, after a bit of persuading, managed to keep his job.  Fearing that at least one of the gang knows who he is and where to find him, Jordan had Aaron accompany him on his first night back.  At about the second commercial break, Aaron stepped outside the booth and noticed an approaching shadow in the hall...

- +2xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Fire Flight

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- The party disbanded for the evening - Sara stayed with Emory, Jordan went with Carter, and Aaron went back to his place.  

- Aaron, being pretty beat up, decided he needed a day to recover.  The others decided the next day to head over to an address for the gang member who'd run away from the cave which Sara had acquired from the registration for his yellow jeep.

- Upon reaching the run-down apartment complex and determining the man wasn't at home, the group engaged in some misdirection to cover Jordan's picking the lock on the door.  Once inside, they noticed the interior was nicely furnished for a run-down place.  Sara found a laptop, which she was busy searching for information on "Catch" or her friend Kim when Carter told them someone was coming.

- They hurred out, running - almost literally - into the man who's apartment they'd been searching.  Recognizing them from the cave before and seeing he was outnumbered, he turned and ran.

- The resulting chase took them up an neighboring alley and on to the adjascent street where the yellow jeep was parked.  When the man reached the jeep, he reached inside, pulled out a pistol and fired it at his pursuers - about the time a nearby black sedan started and peeled out onto the road.  Carter, who'd gone back for the car they'd come in, came barrelling up the alleyway in it, expertly skidding out onto the street. 

- Carter slammed the car into the back of the jeep, and leapt out into the fray, the man in black sedan pulled around the other side began spraying the area with submachine gun bullets, injuring Emory and Jordan, as the man they'd been chasing tried to fight them off.  

- +3xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Waiting in the Weeds

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Made aware of the approaching vehicle and guessing it was probably the man who'd fled during the confrontation in the cave along with more companions, the group made to hide.

- Just before the gang arrived, Aaron turned to find a tall, Native-American-looking man standing behind him.  Startled he went to tackle the man, but found he passed right through his target, tumbling some distance down the hill.  During a brief interaction with Jordan and one of the prisoners (who were halfway up the hill), the rest of the group was alerted to the approaching vehicle.  The rest of the party, at the bottom of the hill, heard the sound of howling int he distance.

- Due to some impressive and convincing half-truths (and outright falsehoods) by Jordan, the rest of the group managed to get their two prisoners to hide with them, convincing one of them that they're buddy had betrayed them and that the approaching men were from a rival gang.

- From his position, Aaron was able to see a dark man in a coat with a heavily-bandaged head in the vehicle the gang had arrived in.  He seemed to be calling the shots.  More disturbing, however, he kept hearing a rustling in the leaves and brush getting closer - eventually growling the word "Niatha" in his ear.  When Aaron finally turned the flashlight behind him, though, he found nothing.

- Carter had sneaked around to get a view of this area as well, and was keeping an eye on the situation form a position across the pathway from Aaron.  He heard the rustling around him, too - though nothing more.

- The group left one of their prisoners who was injured, irritated, and had become belligerently uncooperative.  The other they took with them back up to the shelter house and continued to talk with him, ultimately letting him go - convinced, for the moment, that the group was actually working for his emplyer - a man they'd heard of, known as "Catch". 

- After the gang had gone, Aaron and Emory went down to check on the abandoned prisoner.  They caught sight of the tall Native-American, heading toward the cave - this time, he seemed to be licked with flames.  Shockingly, they found that the man they'd left had been brutally mutilated in the few minutes of their absence - his body showing deep claw-like gashes and his chest having been torn open.  They think his heart may have been missing.  

- The group also pulled out, having found out what they could from the park.  They returned to Emory's place (Jordan's place being compromised as he was recognized by the prisoner they'd be talking with).  On their way out, they heard on the radio that the downtown courthouse was burning down...

- +4xp

New Auburn Chronicle: The Devil's Cocktail

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- The group got what information they could from their captives, who were less than cooperative - one, because he was cold and critical, and another, because he was pretty heavily drugged.  Still, they managed to learn a couple of things about the drug operation and how it related to other things they'd been encountering.  They weren't quite finished formulating their next move when Aaron, having hiked back up to the shelter house for cell reception, noticed the headlights of a vehicle heading that way...

- +2xp

Awakening Force

Wednesday January 20, 2016 at 12:45pm movies, star wars Comments (0) »
 © Star Wars: The Force Awakens
© Star Wars: The Force Awakens

I don't go to the theatre often.  Before last night, the last time I'd seen a movie in a theatre was the summer of 2012.  I actually have to be in the right mood to even want to watch a movie (though, the theatre experience does make it come much more easily).  I kind of have a hard time with passive entertainment like moves, books, tv shows, etc.  I can do it for a while, but I tend to want to do something creative more often.

But this was different.  This was Star Wars.

Like a lot of people, I always loved Star Wars - especially when I was a kid.  Also, like a lot of people, I thought the "Prequel" movies were, at best "meh" and, at worst, "awful".  Honestly, I'm pretty easily amused, and I can enjoy watching pretty much anything when it comes to Sci-Fi.  I can seriously nit-pick, too, however.

When this latest movie came out, I heard a lot of positive things - with many people saying that it felt much more like the original trilogy than the prequels.  And that was the reason that I was excited about it.  So, a month after release, Sheri and I finally went to see it.

First off, the movie was good.  We had a good time watching it, and talking about it thereafter.  If you like this sort of thing and you haven't seen it yet, you should.  Really.  Also, you should stop reading, because I'm about to spoil some things.

 

Things I liked (read: "Yay!"):

- In terms of narrative and screenplay, it did feel quite a bit like the original trilogy.  This was probably the most important thing to me, and I think it did a good job.  The directoral and visual style/feel was a bit more modern, however - but, though this did degrade the consistency in feel a little for me, I think it would have been a mistake to have shot it in an older style.  Also, there may not actually be any more difference between 6 and 7 than there was between 4 and 5.

- Inclusion of characters and actors from the original trilogy - and that those characters were totally consistent with their prior selves.  This was a simple but effective means of series cohesion.

- The new characters were well-developed and compatible with the setting.  Particularly love the "fallen" storm trooper.

- The action scenes were dynamic and exciting (my favorite was the escape from Jakku in the Falcon).

- Visuals were stunning but without an in-your-face, look-at-our-fancy-effects attitude.

Things I didn't like (read: "nit-picks"):

- The nominal goal of the story/protagonists: trying to recover a "map to Luke".  Really?  A "map" to a person?  Seemed a bit...trite.  Also, that the Resistance should be convinced that this one person is critical seems kind of dubious.

- R2's sudden awakening seemed to come out of nowhere, yet nothing was made of it suggesting that there might have been a cause beyond ex machina (e.g. even someone saying "what could have caused that to happen?") - and, of course, he has the rest of what they were looking for all the time. 

- The scope-creep of the ever-larger super weapon that must be destroyed.  Also, some of the other direct, plot-level duplications: the droid that has the missing piece, the nobody from the sand planet, the villain related to a protagonist, the "cantina scene" etc.  Don't get me wrong, all of this was well done, it just didn't win prizes for originality.  Also, I don't know what I would have preferred in its stead - it all was very "star wars".

- I would have ended the movie with Rey and Chewie flying off in the Falcon.  While I just complained (a little) about things being copied from the originals in terms of plot, that would have been a nice nod to the end of Empire.  The scene with Luke I found to be a little...meh...and it didn't really add much.  Though it might have dissappointed some people, I think they should have started with that on 8 so they could develop it.

- Also (biggest spoiler) Han Solo's death.  No no - the scene was dramatic and well done.  And really, it was the only way someone like Solo could die.  My reasons for disliking it are simply that I hated to see the character end.  If it was a character I hadn't known since childhood, I'm sure I'd have applauded it.  But I just...can't.  :(

 

There is probably another thing or two on each side of the ledger, but I think those were the big ones.  Though perhaps not perfect, it was a great time.  Definitely worth going to see.

 

~PS

Numenous

Sunday January 17, 2016 at 8:02pm gaming, numenera Comments (0) »
 Obelisk of the Water God by Kieran Yanner, © Monte Cook Games
Obelisk of the Water God by Kieran Yanner, © Monte Cook Games

I really want to run this game.  Yes, I know.  

I have been fascinated by Numenera since my first encounter with it over a year ago.  I don't know that it's a "perfect" game for me (such a thing probably doesn't exist), but it might be very close.  The setting is fascinating and unique, borrowing from science and sci-fi as well as fantasy in a way that doesn't feel like a clumsy genre-mash.  It also has some of my favorite tropes built-in in an inherent way - I always love worlds with forgotten histories, and I love how exploration and discovery are main themes.  There is even a solid, in-world explanation for "adventuring" as an occupation.  The real genius of the Ninth World as a science-fantasy setting is that it can contain pretty much anything and yet still make sense. The rules system for the game is simple enough to be straight-forward, but sophisticated enough to be interesting - and has a uniqueness itself.  Plus the artwork in pretty awesome.

So, instead of re-ordering the Mouse Guard book I returned (and with some additional cash I was given for my birthday/christmas), I have added a few more books to my Numenera collection.  I usually don't buy additional/supplement material for games these days - sticking to core-only and letting my imagination do the rest - but I found myself making an exception for this game for two reasons:

- First, because this game has totally captured my imagination.  So, good job, Monte Cook Games.  

- Secondly, because the setting is so unique, I think some additional material might actually be necessary as I try to wrap my head around how the Ninth World actually works enough to run it.  I've looked through the Ninth World Guidebook, the Technology Compendium, and the Ninth World Bestiary a fair bit since I got them, and they've been helpful.  Also, I've been pretty impressed with them as creative products.  The books' mechanical aspects are pretty simple and straightforward, and the overall foci of them seem to be more on flavor and feel than on mechanics and rules.  This is always a win where I'm concerned - expanded world/setting material is always my favorite part of any RPG supplement.  I've found quite a few interesting ideas to use so far, along with some ideas borrowed from other sources to supplement my own material. 

I'm looking to start a Numenera game after our current World of Darkness campaign reaches some resolution.  I'm loving the WoD game, but I also can't wait for this one.  Yes, I know.  I got the core book for Christmas last year and I still haven't had a chance to run it, much to my chagrin.  Now, however, I'm a bit more prepared.

 

...and now, with the previous post, my brain is considering the Mouse Guard Territories 1 billion years in the future.  So that's odd.

 

~PS

Another Look at the Same Mouse Territories

Wednesday January 6, 2016 at 1:13pm gaming, mouse guard Comments (0) »
 The Mouse Territories © David Petersen
The Mouse Territories © David Petersen

Sheri got me the second edition Mouse Guard RPG book for Christmas, though I decided to return it - for two reasons.  One reason (the main one), is that it had a binding flaw where a section of pages toward the end actually wasn't attached to the book.  The reason I won't be re-ordering the book, however, is that it isn't much of an "upgrade" from the original edition.  It does contain a bunch of new, cool artwork - but that alone doesn't carry it for me.  It has clarified a few things that might have been ambiguous, but the only thing it really seems to be significantly altered is how Wises work.  I like the update, but it wasn't something I had a gripe with before, and I could probably sum up the change in a few sentences.  

I, personally, was kind of hoping they would more fundamentally alter the system (I really don't like the "turns"/"checks" system), but that doesn't seem to be the direction they want to head - which is fair enough.  I personally apply quite a few house rules to the game as-written, but that's just to suit my tastes

What I'd really like to see is a detailed Mouse Guard rpg setting book - something full of tons of places, entities, and potential plot hooks.  David Petersen told me via Twitter that this sort of thing is on his long-term plan.  I responded by saying I would buy that thing in a heartbeat.

I still seriously love Mouse Guard - the comics as well as the RPG - and really want to run a Territories campaign one of these days (my queue of games to run is getting...lengthy).  It is a fantastic setting and concept, neatly uniting grit and charm in a way I wouldn't have thought possible.  If you, too, are fascinated by mice with swords, totally pick up the current edition of the game.

 

~PS

Pages of Holidays

Monday January 4, 2016 at 12:32pm family, friends, books, geocaching Comments (0) »
 Zach (and also, Bravery) at Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park - doing some geocaching
Zach (and also, Bravery) at Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park - doing some geocaching

Holiday Trip

Had a great Christmas this year in IN with my parents.  Bunguins #1 and #2 both handled the trip car pretty well, and everyone loved getting to see them.  

I got to do pretty much everything I was looking forward to with my family, which was a lot of fun.  Didn't make it to the new Star Wars movie, but that was pretty low on the list, really.  Spent a lot of time relaxing, enjoying Christmas festivities, reading, playing cards, playing wii golf (Tiger Woods '10) on my parents' projector, and geocaching.  

Spending time with family - Mom, Dad, Joe, Jame and my Uncle Dave & Aunt Roxie was great.  Wish I saw them all more often.  I got to catch up with my friend Justin, too - first when we introduced him and his two older boys to geocaching (seen above), and then on New Years Eve wherein we changed an alternator and played Settlers of Catan.  More surprisingly, I got to chat with another old friend, Scott, for a while at church last sunday, too.  We did miss my sister and brother-in-law this year, but they were off having fun with his family.  

All in all, it was a great trip.

Additional Reading

I actually read quite a bit over the break.  Tony gave me the Welcome to Night Vale novel for my birthday and Sheri got me Randall Munroe's What If? book for Christmas - and I read all of both of them (and recommend to any like-minded oddballs).  I wished I'd brought the Battletech book I'd been reading as well.  I normally don't read that much (at least from non-gaming/non-reference books), but something about the relaxing week seemed to be conducive.

The Welcome to Night Vale book is pretty good - it does a good job of preserving the feel of the podcast.  I did find myself reading sections of it in radio host Cecil's voice/cadence.  Actually, I think that particular affectation enters my own speech patterns in certain circumstances if I've been listening to it a lot.

What If? is also great.  I started reading the articles on the website quite a while back, and they're all fantastic.  There are quite a few in the book that aren't on the site, too - though there are many more on the site that couldn't fit in the book.  A few of my favorites accessible here are Drain the Oceans, Into The Sun, and Interplanetary Cessna.  And also, many, many, more.

~PS

New Auburn Chronicle: Venomous

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Carter descended into the ravine to do some scouting, finding a cave from which a loud, motor-like noise and the strong smell of dead things were issuing.  Seeing no sentries, he called the others down.

- The group proceeded into the cave one by one, but sticking fairly close together.  They followed the sound and hints of light down through some steep and narrow passages.

- At the bottom, they found several tables full of marijuana plants with sun lamps powered by a lound gas generator.  The three men they'd seen earlier where all at the far side of the room near what seemed to be a gaping crack in the floor of the large cavern - they were pulling something out of it with chains.

- The group entered the cavern and were spotted.  One of the men pulled a pistol and began firing on them, but another seemed to be trying to stop the shooting.  The thing they were dragging out of the pit at first seemed human, but as they got a better look at it, had obviously inhuman qualities.  When it finally emerged entirely from the pit, they found it to have a massive, spider-like abdomen protruding from a humanoid torso.  The three men seemed...surprised...by this.

- What insued was a collection of uncoordinated and conflicting attempts to control the situation.  The spider creature attempted to free itself from its chains and set upon its captors, one of the three men seemed to be attempting to subdue the creature with a tranquilizer gun, another, panicked, grabed a submachine gun and began wildly spraying the room with bullets, while the third seemed intent on firing upon the interlopers.  The party divided its efforts between keeping the creature at bay and subduing the three possible human assailants.  

- Due to the latter's state of disarray combined with some good fortune, the group was actually able to come out ahead with little harm.  Aaron subdued the man attempting to shoot at him - having successfully shot his gun arm and then bludgeoning him with his baton - his bulletproof vest doing a sufficient job of keeping him from mortal injury.  With some additional fire support from Emory, Carter put several good shots into the spider creature with his hunting rifle as it attempted to free it self such that, by the time it had, it seemed to prefer retreat rather than combat.  Jordan tackled the man wildly shooting an automatic weapon, which Sara relieved him of.  The blonde man attempting to tranquilize the creature, seeing it about to free itself and his comrads subdued by the intruders, hesistated for a moment before dropping the gun and running.  Sara pursued him, but he seemed to know the cave well and was much too quick.  By the time she reached the base of the ravine up to the shelter, he was already in his jeep heading down the road.  Sara was, however, able to prevent the other man - the one who'd panicked - from escaping when she intercepted him on his way out.

- The group was left with two "prisoners" and the remains of some kind of drug operation.  It looked fairly standard at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they found that joints being manufacturered from the growing plants were additionally being soaked in a red-orange goo.  They found a few more mason jars full of the stuff in a nearby safe.  Before it had retreated, they had all seen the same substance oozing from the creature's mouth and abdomen...

- +5xp

New Auburn Chronicle: A Fake Smile

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- The group packed up and headed out to Pine Rock State Park around noon.  They noticed the road and shelter were not on the current maps given out by the park.  They found the old road on their way to the campground - it was overgrown and had a rusted yellow gate barring vehiclular entrance.

- Once they set up at the campground, the drove back down to the gate and hiked up to the pavilion.  When they were getting close, Sara sneaked ahead and found that there were three men - probably in their 20s - present with a grill, a cooler, some paper cups, and other such things.

- The group as a whole then emerged and greeted the three, and were subsequently told that there was about to be a bit of a private party in an hour or so - with a thinly veiled suggestion that the intruders leave.  Being a bit suspicious, the group proceeded to pry a bit - both directly and indirectly - and examined the area.  One of the men in particular seemed a bit more jumpy than the other two.  Several behaviors from all three seemed odd, but there wasn't really any hard evidence that they were doing anything nefarious.  Sara did notice a worn pathway leading down into the ravine behind the shelter.  

- The situation almost turned ugly when Aaron, successfully baiting one of the men, attempted to open the cooler to get a beer and was met with a degree of aggression not quite in keeping with a minor social faux pas.  Carter successfully difused the situation and the group ultimately withdrew amid lingering tensions.

- Deciding something was definitely up, the group decided to stage a stake-out.  Carter, in full hunting camo, made his way to the hilltop above the shelter just before dusk.  He wasn't able to see into the shelter much from his vantage point, but he was able to keep an eye on the area and could hear the general sounds of conversation.  No one else ever arrived for the "party", and, just after dusk, the group of men left the shelter, heading down into the ravine...

- +3xp

A Friendly Desert Community...

Friday December 11, 2015 at 12:58pm podcasts Comments (0) »
 © Night Vale Presents
© Night Vale Presents

... where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep ...

While painting some of my recent Battletech minis, I started listening to another podcast.  It's called Welcome to Night Vale, and was suggested to me some time ago by my friend Tony.  This is only the second podcast I've ever picked up and listened to for more than an episode or two - the first being, of course, Fear The Boot.  It's been around for a while, but like many things, I'm just now discovering it.

The show takes the format of a quirky community radio show from a very, very strange and (presumably) fictional, town.  Since I tend to think of fiction in terms of gaming, the setting - defined almost exclusively through fascinating implication - reminds me of some cross between Numenera and World of Darkness.

The show is seriously messed up, in a wonderfully fantastic way.  If you haven't already, you should check it out.

Probably.

~PS

Lately, Again

Friday December 11, 2015 at 12:46pm bunguin, family, gaming, music Comments (0) »
 Micah ~ 1 month old
Micah ~ 1 month old

Bunguin II

So, I've been busy with nothing lately.  Well, not "nothing", just nothing exceptionally interesting to write about.  Little Blue is now approaching 2 months old, and gaining weight nicely.  He (thankfully) doesn't have Hannah's issue with eating.  Like Hannah, however, he sleeps pretty well at night.

Minis & Mechs

I've been continuing to paint my Battletech miniatures.  I've gotten a bit better at it, and I'm almost done with the ones in the original set.  I'm planning to pick up a couple of the Alpha Strike lance packs to get a few models the intro set doesn't come with.  And Catalyst told me over Twitter that they just might have some plans to bring some of the reseen 'mechs out in plastic form - I'll definitely be getting a few of those if and when that happens, too.  I've actually got to play the wargame a few times, and that's been fun.  I'm still really hoping to run a mercenaries campaign in the future.

Current and (Far) Future

I'm trying to gently nudge our World of Darkness campaign toward a conclusion, and getting ready to start a Numenera campaign.  I think the campaign I'm planning to run will in some ways might run smoother for this group.  Also, Crackle Nights are, in some ways, getting...difficult...as game nights.  Might need to try to move this back to the weekend.

Mus(ic)ing

I've actually been trying to do a little songwriting lately.  My list of hooks and inspiration notes is growing.  I've got a solid set of ideas.  I'm pushing the boulder closer to the edge.  At some point, I'll be ready to push it over and we'll get this rolling.

~PS

New Auburn Chronicle: Eyes to the Mountains

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Jordan had been somehow abducted, apparently by a man in an odd, old suit who definitely did not have yellow eyes.  They had a...pleasant...conversation wherein the man told Jordan he had been cursed and that the only way to remove the curse was the eliminate an old spiritual presence.  Jordan, unsure of this man's motives, basically told him thanks but no thanks, and that he would address his...situation...himself.  Upon leaving, he found himself outside a cabin deep in the forest north of the city.  He fought his way through the forest and back to the city over the next 24 hours.

- The group took a couple of days to recover from injuries and collect some thoughts.  During this time, Sara met with a friend of the missing sculptor of the New Tree Monument and acquired some of Kim's old school notes.  Aaron received a call from Kristine cautioning him about being too vocal about his more "interesting" theories.  Carter got a voicemail from the history chair at CSU Fort Collins who'd found out he'd previously tried to contact the late James Hannelbrock.

- The group met on friday night to discuss things again.  They decided they were going to go and investigate the shelter house marked on the park map Aaron found in the abandoned apartment building.  They're making ready to go on a "camping trip" - they'll check out the place during the day and, if they find nothing, head back at night...

- +2xp

Bunguin The Second

Thursday October 29, 2015 at 10:24am bunguin, family Comments (0) »
 Bunguin The Second: Micah William Shoemaker
Bunguin The Second: Micah William Shoemaker

As of 11:29am on Tuesday, October 27th, 2015, we have a new family member: Micah William Shoemaker.  Mommy and baby are doing well, and recovering here at JCMC.

~PS

New Auburn Chronicle: Bullets and Teeth

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Sara was listening to Jordan's late-night radio show when it returned from commercial and went to dead air.  Concerned, she called Carter and the two of them decided to head over to the station to see what was up.  As they were arriving, they saw a young man break into the building.  When they went in to investigate, they found themselves cornered by a werewolf.  A brief encounter resulted, ending when the wolf creature fled the building.  There was no sign of Jordan, but the radio booth was full of spider webs.

- Aaron got a call from Kristine saying that she thought their best bet for getting back into the basement of that abandoned building was to try sooner rather than later - and decided they were heading back right then.  When they arrived, they found that the place was inhabited by one of the thugs from earlier.  They set a bit of a trap to catch him, which didn't exactly work and he escaped.  The two found their way into the basement where they found the remains of a drug operation that was no longer present.  Aaron did notice some anchors in the walls and some dried orange-red goo.  As they were leaving, he also found a map of Pine Rock State Park which had circled a remote shelter house.  On their way back to the car, they were ambushed by a larger group of thugs with automatic weaponry, from which they narrowly escaped.

- +3xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Once Bitten

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Emory and Jordan begin noticing increasing webbing in the closet they're hiding in, though they see no spiders.  Emory is brushed by something a couple of times and ultimately "attacked", receiving two, painless puncture wounds coated with an orange-red goo - accompanied by sudden hallucinations of eyes, a strange warmth, and some senses.  Jordan frantically re-jimmys the door to permit their escape, slamming it shut behind them.

- The group re-assembles back at Jordan's apartment, where Aaron and Sara try to assist in treating Emory's wounds under her direction.  They turn out to be much worse than suspected, however, and the efforts cause Emory to weaken dramatically.  They do manage to get her somewhat stabilized and decide it's time to go to the ER.

- While Sara and Aaron take Emory to the hospital, Carter and Jordan head to the City Square Park to look at the New Tree Monument.  Carter notices that the negative spaces between the branches of the stylized tree form symbols associated with the tribes that once inhabited this area - and that one of them was slightly mis-formed: the sculpture had been vandalized about a year and a half ago and "restored" about six months later...though, apparently, not completely.

- Jordan heads to the studio around midnight to do his show, which he gives a spider theme for the evening.  Several interesting stories are called in, including a china doll that wraps itself in webs, an abandoned building full of webs containing dead animals, webs appearing in hospital rooms seeming to indicate a sudden patient death, and a kid who said he saw a giant spider "belonging" to an old man in a suit.  As the show is concluding, he notes a strange web in the corner of his studio and the reflection of a large shadow behind him...

- +3xp

Canon's Digital Photo Professional and My Image Quality Issue

Thursday October 15, 2015 at 1:14pm photography, canon, problems Comments (0) »
 CLICK TO ENLARGE: A screenshot composite of three images in Digital Photo Professional, submitted to illustrate a problem I perceieve in the program's JPEG export process.  The differences are subtle (depending on the dot pitch of your monitor), but are visible at the top of her hair, her eyes, mouth, and a few other details.
CLICK TO ENLARGE: A screenshot composite of three images in Digital Photo Professional, submitted to illustrate a problem I perceieve in the program's JPEG export process. The differences are subtle (depending on the dot pitch of your monitor), but are visible at the top of her hair, her eyes, mouth, and a few other details.

Ready The Canons

So, let me first say that I like Canon.  Quite a bit.  Especially their cameras and lenses.  I've had my EOS 40D for almost 8 years now, and I still love it.  Sure, it's a bit dated at this point, but it produces great images (at least when you don't need high ISO).  I've also greatly enjoyed using the office's 5DmkIII (it is so beautiful it makes me cry...because it's so expensive) and the 7DmkII I rented last summer was a lot of fun as well (even if it didn't quite live up to my hopes).  My 50mm 1.4 continues to impress me, and my 300mm f/4L is a thing of long-reach beauty.

Unfortunately, I have a bit of a time using the images I so enjoy making.

I first noticed this problem...maybe a year ago?  And honestly, with everything else going on, I haven't devoted large amounts of time to the post-processing aspect of my photography hobby over the last couple of years.  Not that I've ever done that much, mind you - I prefer a simple set of tweaks and enhancements, and then, done.  I'm usually loathe even to crop images - I try to get them composed right on camera.

Digital Photo Professional is a nice program.  It's simple, it's clean, and it has all of the features I would use to enhance my photos to the point that I think they're beautiful.

At least, that's what it shows me.

Comparing What-You-See To What-You-Get

The image above shows a composite screenshot, unresized but with distracting elements such as window borders stripped out.  The image on the far left shows what the RAW file looks like in the editing window of DPP with the settings I wish applied.  It looks perfect.  The center image shows a full-resolution JPEG (dynamically scaled in DPP to exactly the same viewing size as the RAW) that was exported by DPP with those settings applied.  As you can see, it is noticeably mushier.  The third frame, for good measure, shows a JPEG that has been actually resized to exactly the resolution of the scaled viewing size of the previous two frames with the same settings applied.  It is virtually indistinguishable from the second frame.

Here's the thing: I am a stickler for sharpness and clarity, and, especially for screen-view 72-dpi images, I like them over-sharp.  With lines that really pop.  When I open a RAW photo like the one above in DPP and I adjust exposure, contrast, saturation, and (most notably) sharpness, it looks fantastic in the preview window.  And I think "Wow, this image is great.  I could totally do this professionally*."  

However, when I use DPP to resize this image to about what it is on the preview screen, and I export it as a JPEG so that I can actually use it on this site, on facebook, or wherever else, the image it produces looks significantly less crisp - even with export quality set to max.  Details become mushy, and it loses the crystal clarity I was seeing just moments before in DPP.  And I think "Wow, this image really isn't much better than the smartphone pics my friends with a shred of composition sense take.  I kinda suck*."  Now, I can take a JPEG screenshot of the crisp image, I just can't get DPP to make one.  If my monitor was larger, I just might start doing that to get the images I want.  Heck, I might end up doing that anyway, and the fact that I'm considering that as a workflow strikes me as, well, completely ridiculous.

* The accuracy of these thoughts is not the issue here

Anyway, all of this makes no sense to me, and I would really like to know why it is the case.  

I am amazed at how difficult it is to communicate this.

The Ongoing Saga

At first, when I began positing this question I was hoping that I was simply doing something wrong.  Maybe I forgot to turn off the "suck" setting, or there was some step in the process I was performing incorrectly.  Now, however, I'm beginning to think the program is simply flawed and cannot do what I require of a photo editor.

I first posted this issue to the Canon Community Forum thinking "surely I can't be the only one who's noticed this" (I still think that, but evidence is lacking).  Maybe someone will tell me how to fix it, or maybe they'll just tell me to buy Lightroom.  Either way, maybe I'll learn something about what's going on.  This seems so basic...

No dice.  I got a handful of responses, none of which quite answered my question.  My last post made for "ridiculous clarity" went unanswered.

So, a few months go by and I volunteered to take some photos at our church on wednesdays for an ongoing program.  Even though the images are primarily used on a projector screen and the coordinator assured me that "whatever" would be completely fine, I like to present my best work, because it says something about me and my skills.  So naturally, this issue comes up again.  This time I contacted Canon's support via email.  Sure, I could have called them, but my foray into the support forum taught me that, simple as it seems, this issue requires some explaining.  It also requires that a person see the image quality disparity - something a telephone is ill-suited to accomplish.

So I go back and forth with Canon's email support for several messages, talking with at least 4 different people.  I explain and re-explain things - no problem, I understand how support systems work, and I don't mind bringing someone up to speed.  I am given a few suggestions that don't really solve the problem, and a couple more that deal only with tangent issues that really aren't relevant to what I'm asking. 

In the last message I sent, I outlined everything - again, for "ridiculous clarity" - just to make sure I'm being understood and the reader doesn't get side-tracked.  The response I got today told me only that, since I'm having "extended issues", "we" recommend calling the customer support line.  Yeah, reading a URL over the phone is going to be...fun.  I wonder if the poor guy just saw my wall of text and decided he'd rather pass it off than answer, but that assessment is probably overly cynical and unfair.

When I call, I might just point them to this post - that might actually be easier.  Though, I'd have to wait for them to read it.  Which I guess means the more I type here, the longer I have to wait.  If you're from Canon Support and you're reading this, I'm sorry.  I know it's not your fault.  I'd just really, really like my images to look as good as the program tells me they should, and it doesn't seem anyone else can point me in the right direction.  Help me, Obiwan Kenobe, you're my only hope, etc.

Non-Explanations

Here are the things I have been told in various correspondences.  None of them really answer the question of why a JPEG screenshot of the editor window looks better than an exported screen-resolution JPEG.

Now, my knowledge is not at all perfect on anything, and digital photography is certainly no exception.  I may be misunderstanding some aspects of how things work.  However, I am a programmer, I have studied digital photography for 8 years, and I haven't yet been told that my understanding on any of this is incorrect (and, in fact, I have tried to gently correct a couple of respondents on some things), so I feel like I'm on pretty solid ground.  

I also accept that these explanations were offered in good faith and intended to be helpful - and, though they didn't directly answer my concerns, I was most appreciative of them.  The first time I got them, anyway.  After the 3rd or 4th incarnation of the same or similar suggestion, however, I started to tire of going in circles, so I passed all of these on in the last message I sent to Canon Support in an attempt to explain what has been considered so far and how these didn't really address my problem.

So, here we go:

Non-Explanation #1: "JPEG is a lossy format, so the exported JPEG is going to look worse than the RAW preview"

Why I don't buy it: A JPEG screenshot is capable of showing the image as I want it.  JPEG as a format is not fundamentally incapable of the IQ I'm looking for.  I'm using max quality for the export.  The point of photo editor is to show you what the final version will look like.  A JPEG can look this good, and a good photo editor with the RAW file to work from should be able to produce it.  As another tangent, I have also been told I should export as a lossless TIFF and that that would look better, and it does not: TIFFs exported look virtually identical to the JPEGs to my eyes.  Even if it WAS significantly better, I don't have much use for TIFF files.  And again, a JPEG can look this good, and it should.  I've also been told, when showing RAW preview and exported images side-by-side, that a full-res JPEG being dynamically scaled down to fit the screen won't look as good as the RAW being dynamically scaled because of the format.  This I could totally believe, except that, as seen above, I see basically no difference between an exported JPEG being dynamically scaled, and a JPEG exported at the window-size resolution being viewed at 100%;

Non-Explanation #2: "The low-res JPEG is lower resolution, so it has less information, so of course the RAW file which has more information from which to sample is going to look better"

Why I don't buy it: The images in both cases are being viewed at screen-resolution - 72dpi, and exactly the same number of pixels.  Resolution alone does not account for the discrepancy.  DPP has *exactly* the same information available to it when it creates the JPEG as it does when it creates the on-screen preview, ergo, both should look the same at a given resolution.

Non-Explanation #3: "You're not viewing the files at 100%.  When you export the JPEG at 100%, it looks the same as the RAW at 100%"

Why I don't buy it: This might actually be true - I'm not terribly good at comparing 100% images.  The on-screen dot pitch is too large for me to notice the kinds of details I'm examining.  That said, this is still completely beside the point: While it would be good news for the rare occasions when I print a photo, in general, I don't want a 100% image that's thousands of px on a side, I want a screen-resolution image.  DPP can show me a screen-res image in the preview that looks perfect.  I can take a JPEG screenshot of it.  Why can't it export a JPEG that looks like this?  The case that 100% JPEGs are perfect would be completely irrelevant to my observation that scaled JPEGs are not because it is possible to have a low-res image that looks perfect.  That, and if I export the image at full size and then use Photoshop or some other program to scale it down, it doesn't look any better than when DPP scaled it, so I'm not sure the claim is true to begin with.  

Non-Explanation #4: "When you edit a file, it changes the file.  (Lots of successive) edits result in a loss of image quality"

Why I don't buy it: This seems irrelevant to my case, but ok.  My modus operandi is to open images in DPP, apply a standard set of edits, export, done.  I don't do a lot of post work, that's not what I love about photography.  I generally only edit photos once - MAYBE twice if I notice something later.  I have not edited the files enough to cause image degradation - in fact, I know for a fact the image of the boy in the chair [referenced in a previous message] was edited exactly once.  Though I know it to be true of repeated edits to JPEGs (which is something I never do anyway), I'm not actually sure the statement is accurate with respect to RAW files in the first place.  DPP seems to save the *settings* you're applying to the RAW file separate from the RAW file itself, though perhaps I am mistaken.  Also, the *kind* of quality difference I'm seeing isn't consistent with what I have seen in JPEG/image degradation, though my experience there is less than vast, and I would be hard-pressed to articulate the difference.

Non-Explanation #5: "There must be something wrong with your computer/software or your camera."

Why I don't buy it: I thought this for a while, too.  I guess it sill could be the case.  However, evidence points to the contrary.  I have observed this problem in two different versions of DPP (3.11.x, 3.13.x) on my macbook using files from my 40D as well as the office's 5DmkIII, a different version of DPP (3.14.x) on a different PC using files from both of those cameras, and DPP 4.x on still another PC using files from a 7DmkII.  I believe the problem is in the program(s) - and apparently a core aspect of it that does not change from version to version - and not in any hardware or software I'm using.

My Suspicions

I have spent some time speculating about the actual cause of this issue, since it doesn't seem there is an easy solution.  I'm wondering if that fact is why I've been given a bit of a run-around.  I passed these on to Canon Support as well.  Well, except the first one.

Possible Explanation #1: I'm insane.

Ok, this really isn't an explanation, but I'm starting to feel this way.  Except when I look at my images, then I remember that there is a problem and the puzzling fact that no one else seems to acknowledge it starts to seem less significant.

Possible Explanation #2: DPP fails to apply certain settings.

If, when viewing the RAW image, I remove the applied sharpness (and possibly contrast) tweaks, the image looks basically identical to the JPEG resulting from an export made with those settings theoretically applied.  I have also exported images with no sharpness tweaks and found that they look virtually identical to the ones that supposedly had those settings applied.  I have not done an intense side-by-side comparison on this, however, and comparing two "meh" photos is more difficult than comparing one "meh" and one "good".

Possible Explanation #3: DPP applies certain settings before scaling, and, due to how DPP scales the images, their impact is being dramatically lessened because of this - whereas, in the editing window, perhaps it is dynamically applying those settings to an image that is already scaled to the screen and so they are more visible on the displayed image.

This is just speculation, but as I have been told the 100% full-res images RAW & JPEG look the same and I have to assume this might be true, this eventuality might explain why the resized images that I want to actually use might not look as good.

Possible Explanation #4: DPP's conversion method(s) and/or resize/scaling algorithm isn't all that great.

There is an obvious lack of quality with no obvious cause.  On its face, the program simply seems to do a poor job producing images for use.  I really hope this is not the case, but no one has offered proof to the contrary.

 

So, there you have it.  Pretty much the beginning and end of my problem that no one can answer.  We'll see what (if anything) happens when I find time to give them a call.  Maybe I'll find out I'm wrong about everything.  I don't really care as long as I can get my photos to pop.

 

~PS

New Auburn Chronicle: Follow the Trails

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Aaron met detective Kristine Cannon to check out the address on the mysterious note with a killer's fingerprints he'd received.  They found that, despite the building's 'abandoned' status, there were signs of recent passage and habitation.  They found that the nails boarding up the door to the basement were new, but Kristine was accosted by some local thugs while retrieveing a crowbar from her vehicle.  The thugs made a show of threatening them to leave the building, which they did.  Someone is apparently watching it for some reason.

- Sara went to the Lake Meijer Marina and talked to Jennifer about the late Eric Riley.  She told Sara that he was an avid outdoorsman, and they found a record of a cancelled pontoon and "extended guide services" reservation for Hector Hall originally made for the day after Riley's untimely death.  There was nothing else on record indicating the purpose of the outing, though Jennifer did recall that his personal SCUBA gear was later found in one of the storage lockers.

- Carter went home after their meeting to look through his grandfather's things a bit more thoroughly.  In doing so, he came across a bit of a shredded document to the Society for American Archeaology talking about a new site, some print-out bathymetry with some marks on the deepest places, a newspaper clipping talking about the delayed repairs to the New Tree Monument, and a note about the Algonquin word "mahigan" in the margin of an unusual book on Arapaho dialects.

- Jordan and Emory decided to take a look at the basement where Sara had encountered some apparition that resembled Kim Jones.  They were accosted by one of the professors who, not recognizing them, asked what he could do to help.  They played off their presence as looking for an old professor of Jordan's from when he took classes at the college - an effort which was partially successful.  When the managed to make it to the basement, they found that it looked very different from what Sara described: namely cleaner, well-lit, and possessed of a completely different layout.  Though they did notice one of the odd spider webs in a corner, it wasn't until Jordan picked the lock on a utility closet that they discovered anything that matched Sara's story: an old, beat-up classroom desk.  Among the graffiti, they noticed the words "help me" gouged into one corner.  They were trying to photograph the desk when the door at the top of the stair openened and Emory pulled Jordan inside.

- +4xp

Painting and 31st Century Combat

Sunday October 11, 2015 at 4:52pm battletech, gaming Comments (0) »
 This Panther looks SIGNIFICANTLY better in person, if only because the macro shows every tiny flaw in my paint job...
This Panther looks SIGNIFICANTLY better in person, if only because the macro shows every tiny flaw in my paint job...

Brushing Up

So, I haven't painted minis in a long time but, due to a series of extremely fortunate events (and a guy I don't really know being generally awesome), I ended up with a copy of the Battletech introductory box set and the 26 mech figures that come with it.  And a painting guide for painting them.

I'm not really very good at this, but I think I'm getting a little better.  It's one thing to read the guide, it's another thing to be able to actually paint well.  I've painted about six of these now, and I've learned a bit.

Battling

The Battletech tabletop wargame is a lot of fun - not that I'm good at it, mind you.  I've even taught the quick-start rules to a kid I mentor at a local elementary school (...and he's beating me).  The tabletop wargame is only part of my nefarious goal, however.

As I have mentioned before, I have wanted to run a Battletech tabletop RPG campaign for for ever.  Now that I have minis, the actual tabletop game rules, and several sources of setting info, I'm a few steps closer.  I even actually have a copy of Mechwarrior 2nd ed (the published rpg component), but it strikes me as a bit clunky and dated at this point, so I'm working on my own companion rpg system to run in tandem with the wargame for an RPG campaign.  It needs to feel like an extension of the wargame, but encompass the plushier parts of character and role.

My one last reservation, however, is that I might not have the right group for this game.  It is a pretty heavy military sci-fi setting, and doesn't exactly fit with the "plucky adventurers" feel my group tends to have.  What I want to run is a mercenaries campaign wherein the PCs will comprise a mercenary outfit which will have to balance allegiances and personal goals with the bottom line - and all that that entails.  There are times that I think my group could have a lot of fun with this, and there are times that I think maybe I should pitch it to someone else.  The jury is still out, but there is a better-than-not chance I attempt to get them to at least give it a try at some point in the future.  Remember people, if your GM is into it, it's going to be a good game.

~PS

I've Always Wanted To Do This

Tuesday October 6, 2015 at 1:11pm geocaching, kayaking Comments (1) »
 kayaking in the rain on Fort Patrick Henry Lake
kayaking in the rain on Fort Patrick Henry Lake

Yak, yak, yak

So, last thursday I met up with some local cachers at a waterborne event at Fort Patrick Henry Lake.  Ever since one of them told me that they always have extra boats at these things and that someone would let my try kayaking, I was just waiting for an event to show up.  The fact that the "ideal conditions" did not present themselves was insignificant as far as I was concerned.  I have always wanted to do this.

We met up around 6p hoping the rain would hold off.  It did not.  Oh well, we were going to get wet anyway.  I was quick to claim one of the extra kayaks one of the guys had brought.  We paddled upstream quite a ways, hitting 4 caches along the way.  Being on the water with cool people was awesome, and I think the rain and the current from the generating dam made it more of an adventure.

That was a BLAST.  I've had some great adventures caching, and this was definitely one of the best.  Can't wait to do it again.

~PS

New Auburn Chronicle: Considering the Evidence

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Aaron and Emory explained to the arriving authorities what had happened - leaving out certain details.  They said that the dead druggie had attacked them in a frenzy and that they were forced to shoot him in self-defense.  Their story was convincing, but they still spent most of the rest of the day at the Department.  Aaron was placed on "administrative leave", though he still received a call from Kristine Cannon asking if he was still joining her at 1101 Harriet Avenue.

- Jordan took a walk down the street from the "General Store" and found some unusual evidence at the entrance to a boarded-up post office: bent window bars, large slash marks, and silvered buckshot embedded in the front door.

- The party met later in the day to discuss what they'd learned and to determine what to do next.  They suggested visiting the Marina to see if they could determine for what Dr Hall had needed Eric Riley.  Sara considered contacting Kim's parents to see if she could acquire any journals or notes.  Carter is going to dig into his grandfather's artifacts.  Jordan is planning to run a "spider themed" show tonight.  Emory is sure there is some connection between some of what's going on to the drug problems in New Auburn, but isn't sure exactly how to pursue it.

- 2xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Corruption

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- The group headed to the "west tenements", a poor and isolated area of the city.  After pulling off to take a look at a dead dog lying in the middle of the street, they decide to continue on foot.

- Most of the group move on to talk to an old man sitting on his front porch.  He seems reluctant to talk to outsiders, but eventually tells them that "the witch" at the "general store" is responsible for the dreamcatcher-like charms hanging from many of the buildings - charms that bear a pattern identical to the strange spider web Jordan saw.

- The group then proceeds to the old general store, which is now full of strange charms, talismans and totems.  They call for the proprietor - when she finally arrives, she seems most unhappy to see them, calling them outsiders and telling them their auras are "out-of-phase" with this locale.

- Aaron stays back, he notices another of the strange spider webs.  This leads him to the basement of one of the buildings, covered in them.  After calling out, he hears someone upstairs who seemed as though he might be in some trouble.  Emory arrived to join him at this point, and they find a man collapsed upstairs injecting something into his arm.  They start to call 911, when the man begins to convulse, sprouting spider legs, fangs, and 6 additional yellow eyes.  The creature is hostile, but seems un-accustomed to its form.  As it springs upon them (biting Aaron a few times), they fire on it, eventually bringing it down as it is stuck in the doorway - at which point, its monstrous appendages begin to dissolve into goo, leaving a man with multiple bullet wounds.

- 3xp

New Auburn Chronicle: First Steps

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- After having discussed the experiences themselves, the group moved on to examine the histories, contexts, and possible meanings and connections between them.  After some consideration, they decided to follow Jordan's suggestion see what they could learn in the "west tenements", a poor corner of the city, which they plan to do in the late morning the following day.

- +1xp

Some Truly Epic Caching

Saturday August 22, 2015 at 10:46pm geocaching Comments (0) »
 Captain Dobie's Treasure Map
Captain Dobie's Treasure Map

So Tony and I went out to do some geocaching today, and we found what is probably my favorite cache to-date.  It was a multi-cache (a cache with multiple "stages") called "Captain Dobie's Treasure".  The GPS coordinates lead you to a container which contains the pictured amazingly-crafted map, which, in turn, directs you to a small cave located in a small pocket of TVA land near Boone Lake. 

When we got there, I secured my 100' of paracord to a tree above the cave, and, after we defeated the large spider guarding the entrance, Tony put his headlamp on and went in.  It took him a few minutes to locate the cache, which he brought up for us to examine.  I then put on the headlamp and went down to put it back.   The cave actually goes in/down quite a ways - at least 40', from what I could tell.  It even had cave crickets!  Pretty cool.  The place where Tony had pulled the cache was only about 15 or 20' in and I was seriously tempted to take it considerably further down - I could see a spot that levelled out and seemed open up just a bit - but I refrained.

Tony was ready to call it a day after that - not because it was a gruelling task, but because really, we weren't going to top that.  I knew he was right, but I still had plans.

It was a great day, and this was definitely the high point.

~PS

New Auburn Chronicle: In The Eyes

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Jordan recieved a phone call from a strange woman asking to meet and talk to him about strange happenings, having heard about him through his radio show.  They decided to meet at the Sixth Street Bar.  While there, one of the guys at the bar cracks and pulls a gun on another man - a gentleman in an old-fashioned-looking pin-striped suit.  Shots were fired, and chaos broke loose.  Aaron had been walking his beat nearby and heard the disturbrance.  He and Jordan eventually talked him down.  The man seemed convinced the other gentleman was some kind of "monster".

- On the way to the "meeting", Sara and Emory had an encounter with a large man who ran into their car, and another guy who was chasing after him with a shotgun.  They attempted to intervene in the scene, but after a brief exchange, the chase continued away from them.  They called 911 to report the incident and continued to the meeting.

- The group convened at Jordan's place to discuss recent happenings including the break-in at Carter's office, "ghosts", hallucinations, transformations, dreams, unusual injuries, spiders, and some odd historical documents.  They're now examining all of this for patterns or clues as to what to do about it.

- +4xp

Achery Picnics & Photography

Monday August 17, 2015 at 12:42pm work, picnic, photography Comments (0) »
AAM Archery Picnic My coworkers shooting at flying targets.  Or firing on infantry advancing across the Scottish moors.  One of the two.
My coworkers shooting at flying targets.  Or firing on infantry advancing across the Scottish moors.  One of the two.

AAM's company picnic was this last saturday afternoon, and that was a lot of fun.  I like my coworkers, so hanging out with them is always a good time, but this year Tim also presented us with a pretty awesome activity: archery.  There's apparently a mobile service in the area that comes out with basic equipment and sets up for anyone and everyone to shoot.  We did archery skeet shooting and a ball-target competition.  I personally found it was very easy for me to come very, very close - but I hit basically nothing all day.  Still, I haven't shot a bow in more than 20 years.  It was a lot of fun, regardless.  Enough that I've even wondered if there's anywhere in my yard I could set up a target.

I also enjoyed taking quite a few photos of everyone shooting.  I'd brought my camera along, but didn't know if I'd use it.  I don't own a lens wide enough to capture any kind of "group" event, and in the past there hasn't been much of interest to look at going on.  The archery thing, however, provided a cool and interesting new subject, so when I wasn't shooting with a bow, I was shooting with my camera.  Sheri commented that I was less likely to "miss" with the latter.

~PS

New Auburn Chronicle: Haunted

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Jordan found his way into the room with the PC controlling the security cameras.  Perkins apparently isn't especially tech-savvy, so gaining access to what he was searching for was pretty simple.  The videos showed a strange man in the booth with him that night, and a black smoke pouring out of his headphones and eyes.

- Meanwhile, Carter Hall had arrived home after a days' work to find what appeared to be a journal belonging to his late grandfather sitting on the coffee table, a pen sitting next to it.  Most of the entries were mundane and somewhat boring, but toward the end - about 6 months or so before his death - they became disorganized and unexplained.  The last entry contained the current date with words scrawled across the lines in Hector's handwriting: "They're watching me.  They've always been watching me."

- Aaron sent a text message to the others saying that he thought they ought to get together a bit sooner than originally planned.  Most of them agreed.

- The following morning, Aaron talked with Kristine Cannon, New Auburn's homicide detective.  She told him that they were going to look into the location described in the note he'd received, and Aaron asked to be involved.  After a minute or two, Krisitine suggested that they go check it out the next evening.

- Sara saw Kim Jones - her ghost, or someone that looked just like her - going into the basement of the Richardson Building, and followed.  Downstairs she found a dark and damp room containing pipes and conduits, with Kim sitting at a single desk in the middle of an opening.  When Sara finally got close enough to get the girl's attention, the being turned on her with milky white eyes, distorted features and over-long limbs.  Sara fought through the darkness back up to the first floor, where she found large spiders crawling on her.

- +3xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Missing Pieces

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

- Aaron got a strange note indicating the address of an old, abandoned apartment building.  He had someone at the station check it for finger prints and they found a partial match - that of a wanted serial killer in a case 10 years cold.

- Jordan got strange call on his radio show and now only remembers pieces of the rest of the night - though a co-worker said he saw him chased out of the building by a big guy.

- Sara looked up some info on Dr Hannelbrock - the colleague who'd sent the package to the late professor Hall - only to discover that he died in a car accident right around the time the package was postmarked.  Later that night, she was awakened by sounds in her bathroom: the faucet & shower were on, and she heard talking.  Sara recognized Kim's voice inside, speaking in an increasingly agitated tone, punctuated by the sounds of objects flying across the bathroom and slamming into the walls.  The door was locked; by the time she got inside, whoever it was was gone.

- Carter contacted campus security in order to see if the cameras caught any images of the man Sara had seen coming from his office when they discovered it had been trashed.  Only two cameras showed images of the man - it's as if he came from nowhere and disappeared when he left that one hallway.

- Emory and her partner got a call for a collapsed man in the middle of an east-side street and advised that he might be intoxicated.  When they arrived the man looked deformed, had some odd injuries, and seemed terrified out of his mind.  He pulled a gun and shot, winging the paramedic, but subsequently collapsed and stopped breathing.  He was disarmed by Sgt Bryonson who was at the scene.  The emergency responders tried to revive him, but it was too late.

- After being denied by Cecil Perkins, the station manager, Jordan and Aaron consider how to get access to the station's security camera footage.

- +3xp

New Auburn Chronicle: Glimpses

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

Finished character creation/tweaks, cooperatively devised scenario wherein the group met and began investigating these things together.

- Sara sees a strange man coming from Carter's office; the two of them find it trashed.  Carter receives a package addressed to his late grandfather containing a fragment of an unusual 19th-century letter.

- Aaron and Emory are present at a gang-shootout aftermath, finding a mostly-dissolved body in addition to three men shot to death.  While they give chase to a man fleeing the scene, someone lights the dissolved body on fire.

- 2xp

Game schedule has been decided as "most" mondays, looking at a start time between 7:30pm and 8pm.

Return of the Family Vacation

Thursday July 16, 2015 at 12:43pm family, vacation Comments (0) »
iPhone pano Cliff Tops on Mt LeConte iPhone pano of the Cliff Tops on Mt LeConte.  One of the many times I wish I owned a wide-angle for my real camera.
iPhone pano of the Cliff Tops on Mt LeConte.  One of the many times I wish I owned a wide-angle for my real camera.

Last week, we got to go on vacation with my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and my brother.  Only the older of my two sisters couldn't make it (which was sad) - the rest of us were all there.  It was awesome - and the first time we'd had a family vacation in....maybe 17 years?

We all met at a condo in Sevierville, TN, to hang out and do things together.  Highlights included:

- a new lawn game (Flimsee), which is thoroughly bizarre, but great fun.  I've now made my own set, and I think it'll be good for the meetup next year.

- pontooning/skiing/tubing.  I actually got up on skis with no problems this time!

- disc-golf (fun fact: there are very, very few courses in the area.  We had to drive ~30 min to find an out-of-the-way 9-hole course, but it was a great time)

- Ripley's Aquarium and the Titanic Museum.  The most touristy things we did, but they were both pretty cool.

- swimming and pool/ping-pong at the activity center.  Swimming was Hannah's favorite part of the week.  Also, I'm solid 'ok' at ping-pong and pool.  Also, also, I have learned that cue with a loose/broken tip will do crazy things to where you think your shots should go.

- board/card games: we played Catan, Time's Up and Dominion.  Good times.

- an epic hike up to the top of Mt LeConte which, all-told, was about ~14 miles and 3400ft of elevation.  The top was spectacular, though, as you should be able to see from the photo above.  Was probably the best place to rest & have lunch in the park that day.

Most of all, it was great just to spend time with everyone.  We don't get to see everyone enough, what with us all living in different states and all.  It was a truly amazing week - we all had a fantastic time.  Many, many thanks to my parents for putting it together.   

~PS

New Auburn Chronicle: Character Creation

 World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing
World of Darkness artwork © White Wolf Publishing

System: World of Darkness

Setting: New Auburn, CO

Players: Sheri, Tony, Adam, Tim, Keara

Schedule: Near-weekly

 

The New Auburn Chronicle is a (New) World of Darkness campaign set in a small city called New Auburn, located in the foothills of the Rockies in Colorado.  It is intended to be a short-to-medium length campaign.

The PCs are a group of people who have witnessed the supernatural to some small degree, and are on the lookout to protect the city of New Auburn from its influence.

We did character creation for this game tonight.  There are still some lingering details to be filled in, but most of the mechanical creation has been done.  

Characters:

- Sara Cruise [Sheri] :: a history/literature student at New Auburn College

- Aaron Taggert [Tony] :: a local police officer with a minor reputation as a nut due to some supernatural reports

- Carter Hall [Adam] :: a history/archeaology professor at New Auburn College

- Jordan Fitzgerald [Tim] :: a local radio dj who hosts a late-night show on the paranormal

- Emory Tate [Keara] :: a local paramedic

The current plan is to play this game on monday ("crackle") nights.  We'll see how it goes.

Canon 40D vs 5DIII vs 7DII (ISO)

Wednesday July 1, 2015 at 1:24pm trogland, photography, camera gear Comments (0) »
Mid City Grill Taken with EOS 7DII + Sigma 8-16mm ISO 6400
Taken with EOS 7DII + Sigma 8-16mm ISO 6400

So last weekend we had our annual Trogland meetup.  As I do every year, I spent most of the meetup taking pictures.  As I did last year, I rented some gear from lensrentals.com (another great experience, btw) to test drive.  This year, I got to play with a 7DII along with the Sigma 8-16mm APS-C ultrawide I rented for my 40D last year - two pieces of gear I have been considering purchasing.

I've had my 40D now for about 7.5 years, and I love this camera.  It's a bit old at this point, and doesn't have the stats of newer models, but I love the way it works and, aside from some processing issues I've been having, I love what it produces.  I've also spent quite a bit of time shooting with the 5DIII, particularly at our company's annual members' meeting (where I play photographer), and I've now spent a solid weekend+ shooting with the 7DII.

The 7DII is a solid camera, and I had a great time shooting with it.  It's shutter is one of the quietest I've ever heard - which is great if you're shooting over someone's shoulder.  It outperforms my 40D in every way, but it still works the way I'm used to.  I also like that it has a lens focus microadjustment as I've been having some backfocusing issues with my 50mm 1.4 close at wide apertures.  It is a worthy upgrade and I may be looking to pick one up, but I'm not completely sure.

I think the main reason I'm still on the fence is the camera's high ISO performance.  I was hoping for parity with the 5DIII.  I don't have a side-by-side comparison, but it feels like the 7DII doesn't handle, say, 12,800 quite as well as its big brother.  It's definitely a lot better than what I have and it's quite possible my expectations were a little too high.  It's even possible that the 7DII does every bit as well and it's only my perceptions that are skewed.  As the 5DIII ages its price continues to come down, so at this point I'm considering jumping to that instead - though that would mean a change in the lenses I'm looking at.

As I mentioned last year, the Sigma 8-16mm is a pretty solid lens for a consumer-grade, crop-frame ultra-wide.  Images are nice and sharp, particularly at the wide end of its zoom range (where I generally want it anyway).  People do look a bit skewed at that focal length - an effect that is sometimes interesting and cool, and is somtimes a bit too "carnival fun house mirror".  In addition to the meetup (where I mostly shot people with it, for better or worse), I also went on hike out to Laurel falls and took just a couple of nature shots with this lens and the 7DII.  Those look beautiful.  If I do end up going with the crop-frame, I think this is the lens I'll end up with - unless canon makes a not-ridiculously-priced 10mm f2.8 before I get around to it...

~PS

Simon's Things

- A group of kids tries to contain a dark presence coming from a house at the edge of their neighborhood

Hooray! Pronouns!

Monday June 22, 2015 at 1:34pm little two, photography Comments (0) »
it's a boy Hooray!  Eight points!
Hooray!  Eight points!

Sheri saw this idea somewhere (on Pinterest maybe), and thought it made a cute announcement.  Bunguin the second is 21 weeks, and Hannah will have a little brother come the end of October.

~PS

I Always Get Into Stuff...

Monday June 22, 2015 at 1:17pm games, music Comments (1) »
pirates collectible strategy game well, you would have hit me, but you fired that broadside in 2007
well, you would have hit me, but you fired that broadside in 2007

...just as it's finishing being cool.  Or maybe that never was "cool".  Or maybe it's still cool to some people?  Whatever.

I have noticed a strange trend with interests of mine: I tend to "discover" things that came out years ago.  For example, the Tripod song I reference in the title was on a record that came out in 2006.  I think I happened upon it about a year ago.  There's something ironic there.  Tony & I just got into geocaching in 2013 - about 11 years after its inception.  I recently bought a couple of disc golf frisbees.  I got into D&D in 2000.  Let's face it, I'm not really on the "cutting edge" of much.

I recently bought a few Moxy Fruvous CDs online, because very little of it is available on any streaming/download service in the states.  They broke up in 2000, and most of their best stuff was from the early/mid 90s.  I discovered most of their stuff about a year ago.  I also just now discovered that one of the members of this defunct group has since joined Great Big Sea, a group I've mentioned before and techincally still exists, but hasn't produced much this decade.

Tony, Adam, Tim and I have recently played a couple of games of Pirates, a collectible strategy game that went out of print in 2008.  I hadn't played it until this year when I was looking for something that might interest a nine-year-old.  This game is pretty sweet - and I *love* the little ships - but it can drag a little here and there.  We've been discussing ways we might alter the game or rules to be a bit more fast paced.  

I played the much newer "X-Wing" miniatures game last night with Rucht & Patrick.  That game has some great mechanics, moves nicely, and is quite a bit of fun - probably the best miniatures game I've played IMO.  Given my timetable, I'll probably start buying stuff for it in about 10 years.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: The Head Of The Beast

Saturday May 2, 2015 at 8:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (1) »
 Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 
Dungeons & Dragons artwork © Wizards of the Coast 

- Several groups of NPCs present managed to hold off the demon hordes long enough for the group to engage and defeat the massive, half-demon hydra and close the portal in an epic battle.  Taryn was slain in the fighting, however, and the number of other casualities is as yet unknown.

End Chapter Two

At Face Value

Saturday April 25, 2015 at 8:34pm photography, geocaching Comments (0) »
Hannah on the Tweetsie Trail bridge Hannah on the Tweetsie Trail bridge; desaturated and cropped for aspect
Hannah on the Tweetsie Trail bridge; desaturated and cropped for aspect

Tweet, Tweet

Had a great time out on the Tweetsie Trail today with Hannah, doing a little caching and taking some photos.  At 3 years, she's not exactly a "stable" or "coorperative" subject, but I did manage to get some good ones.

Not All Smiles

I'm not sure why, but some of my favorite photos of her are ones where she has a neutral to serious expression.  Don't get me wrong, her smile is adorable and so rarely captured in a truly good photo that I love it when I get it (see entry below), but these are something else.  Something different.  Something real.  I just find them interesting, especially a bit desaturated and with a lot of contrast.  Maybe it's because that's not usually how you see children depicted.

~PS

A New Season

Thursday April 23, 2015 at 5:14pm family, little two, photography, geocaching, gaming, trogland Comments (0) »
Hannah on her swing set Swing, swing!
Swing, swing!

No blog entries for a while basically means I haven't had much to write about that would be interesting to anyone (not that much of what's here is, so I don't know why that would stop me).

But stuff goes on.

And hey, it's spring.  I was more than ready for some warm weather.

Bunguin The Second

The most "significant" development is the news of the eventual arrival of Little Two - Sheri is pregnant!  Hannah will be a big sister!  Coming this Halloween!

Photo Season

Now that the weather is warming up, I'm shooting a bit more again.  Still have my eye on some gear that I'd like to get pick up before Little Two arrives, but don't know what I'll be able to manage.

Some Premium Caching

Still been out caching.  Had some great experiences this year so far - actually went out hunting with a guy we met through the hobby last weekend.  That was a blast.  The AT is always fun.  I have upgraded to "premium" membership now (and Tim bought me another year), so there are a few we didn't know about lingering in places we'd previously cleared.  That just means we get to go back!  I've added a few more things to my gear pack: some rope (see: Pride Rock Hampton), a battery charger for my phone, and a walking stick.  I've also placed a couple more caches on the Tweetsie Trail, and Tony and I have plans for a series.

Games & Cons

Our D&D game is still going...I guess because it won't end.  Heh.  Actually, it continues to be pretty awesome.  I don't think I've ever run a game that wasn't pretty unweildy by this point, but this one remains solid.  Still want some variety though, and we may set it aside again in the relatively near future to play something else for a while.

I ran a pretty awesome FATE game at RuchtCon last month.  I think the card print-outs added a lot and helped out the players with aspects and rp.

Trogland 9 is fast approaching!  63 days!  I still have a lot to do for this.  Need to get the badges designed and ready for printing, and need to plan my game sessions..

~PS

Penguinsushi.com Version 12

Thursday April 23, 2015 at 12:44pm web development Comments (0) »
Penguinsushi.com Version 12 Screenshot Recursion II!
Screenshot Recursion II!

An Even Dozen

As of today, we're on the the 12th incarnation of Penguinsushi.com over the course of the last decade.  As always, I think the designs get a little better each time.

This version is very simple (and I haven't added all of the features to it quite yet), but I think it has a very nice feel.  This is also the first version of the site to be truly responsive, so hopefully it renders well on mobile devices.

So, here we are.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Many Eyes, Many Teeth

Monday April 20, 2015 at 7:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (1) »

- While the group was still investigating the safehouse they'd found, a local street gang arrived and attempted to give them some trouble.  They failed.

- The group learned from the gang's leader that a man called Dralt seemed to be behind a few recent incidents.  Dralt told his gang to "take care of" anyone messing with this house.

- The group returned to the main part of the city and met with Respina, the Watch Prime.  During the conversation, the group Many Eyes, Many Teeth came up.  The Watch was aware of a gang that used that symbol (and that they'd been responsible for some festival vandalism in previous years), but didn't know anything that made this group any different than any other group of troublemakers.

- The next day, the final processions began with Tyrrox playing the part of Cyrus Thorn (an honor he'd won by winning the tournament).  Lily found Gable Magnar at a table with Phicious Vallane and, having finally cornered him, found out a bit about his previous association with Many Eyes, Many Teeth.

- They were still talking when "Cyrus" and the illusory hydra representing Lockthuun arrived in the town circle.  People were beginning to crowd the area, anxiously anticipating the final drama and the banquet to follow.  When the hydra reached the top of the hill, however, it winked out of existence.  There, a gate opened and out came a massive, demonic hyda - all too real.

Cyrran Reaches: Gone Sour

Friday April 17, 2015 at 7:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The group spent the evening partying and celebrating the victory, though Lily left a bit earlier than the others.

- The second day of the festival was a massive collection of street parties characterized by large amounts of inexpensive food and drink and accented by flashy illusions.

- During the festivities, the group noticed certain individuals contaminating the drinks of the party-goers.  These seemed to coincide with unexplained bursts of anger and street brawls.  The helped to break up the disturbances and relayed what they knew to the Watch.

- The group pursued a couple of the perpetrators, but failed to capture any.  They did discover a chest and magic circle in a condemned building in the northwest area of town.

Cyrran Reaches: Hail the Champion

Friday March 20, 2015 at 7:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The Festival of Thorns began.  As the first day progressed, the street party became more and more active, but the main attraction was the Knight of Rolessi tournament held that evening.

- Tyrrox entered the tournament, which was an officiated series of duels that were more and more augmented by magical/illusory "special effects" as the rounds progressed.  Tyrrox won the tournament, defeating a local half-orc bouncer by a narrow magrin.  Due to his victory, he is to play the part of Cyrus Thorn in the upcoming reinactment on the third evening.

- The rest of the party spent most of the day relaxing and enjoying the festival.

Venus Flytrap

Saturday March 7, 2015 at 8:00pm fate core, venus flytrap, game session notes, ruchtcon Comments (1) »
Venus Flytrap Image

RuchtCon V, Retrograde, FATE Core

In which a team of explorers venture to the second planet to re-establish contact with a wayward botanical research station and discover a damaged satellite, energy-eating plants, violent lightening storms, a german u-boat, an enourmous predator, and hallucenogenic wasps.

Cyrran Reaches: Follow Up

Friday February 27, 2015 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Lily and Tyrrox went to meet with high priestess Heldrith Gedra about recent events and to ask about the Marked Man (whom they'd learned had met with her).  She told them that he'd been asking about the nature of 'godhood', specifically how gods ascend and/or fall from godhood.

- Taryn and Kael went to the Black Bottle & talked to a card shark about the fight (which had involved the Marked Man) that had happened a few months previous.

- The party learned from Phicious Vallane that, if they wanted to talke to Gable Magnar (a "black sheep" of House Magnar whom they believe may have had connections to the Marked Man and/or Many Eyes, Many Teeth), their best bet would be at the banquet held on the last night of the Festival of Thorns.

Cyrran Reaches: Following Leads

Friday February 13, 2015 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The group fought off the wyverns and met a man called Xerxes Palias, who was apparently a griffin-rider associated with Rolessi's forces.  He invited them back to a place called the Armsyard, which was something like a permanent army encampment / training ground outside the city.

- The group met Anthaan Vallane and Silas Wilhelm there, and the group talked about recent issues and current concerns.

- The party then continued into Rolessi.  They met up with Ubrus Marc at the Temple of the Golden Sun.  He hadn't seen the Marked Man, but his "friend" at the temple said he'd come to discuss some theological issues a few months back.  The party also spoke to the Watch and learned that the Marked Man had been involved in a nasty fight at the Black Bottle, which resulted in three deaths.

- Kael visited the House Vallane Adventurers' Guild and has decided to join it.

Cyrran Reaches: Scavengers & Predators

Monday February 9, 2015 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (2) »

- Feeling the time had come to follow their leads toward Rolessi, the group finished up with their immediate concerns in Igveston and set out, leaving some advice to a few in the now politically-unstable settlement.

- They had been following the road south into the night when they came upon a two-headed giant sifting through the remains of what was probably a caravan.  They had a brief encounter with its "piggy", and ultimately circumvented the scene rejoining the road further south.

- The party continued travel for another day and a half when they came upon an injured griffon-rider trying to fight off a small group of wyverns...

Cyrran Reaches: Unravelling Loose Ends

Saturday January 24, 2015 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- After pursuing a couple of individual goals, the party decided to return to Nephrim Keep the following evening, looking for the old man they'd met previously.  They didn't find him, but they did find a black cat that turned out to be one of the bird people.  She told them that House Meric had instructed her associates to kill all members of House Xerus.  Taryn had reason to suspect that they might not all be dead, and the bird woman suggested that perhaps her sister had used "the artifact" to transport them to another plane instead.  The party has no particular way to determine where that may have been, however.

- The next day, the group rescued a very intoxicated but alive William Xerus from the dungeons below the burned-out estate - doing so invisibly so as not to attract attention.  He was brought to House Dyn'Talor at the Academy as well.  After pastries.

- Feeling pressed for time on other fronts, the party decided to leave Igveston in a couple of days.

- Tyrrox was asked to help rebuild morale at House Briglau after the werewolf attack had resulted in the deaths of several important figures.  He was later honored with a give from the founder's armory.

- Taryn had a somewhat awkward reuinion with Celia at The Corner House - a dining establishment for very private meetings.  She continued to try to convince him to stay in Igveston and became fairly upset, but ultimately resigned to his departure and attempted to enjoy the evening.

- Lily was asked to perform at The Silver Stag (a social club of the nobility of Igveston).  She managed to convince the performers' liason that she had very limited time, and he made some drastic cuts in the schedule to fit her in the following night.  Lily performed amazingly well, and her fame in the city continues to grow.

Never pass up an opportunity to walk to an island!

Monday January 19, 2015 at 1:52pm geocaching, hiking Comments (2) »
An Island in South Holston Lake The location of the Island Girl cache - an island in South Holston Lake that's currently a peninsula.
The location of the Island Girl cache - an island in South Holston Lake that's currently a peninsula.

New places, new caches.  Found the infamous Echolocation.  Broke 200 finds.  Hiked for miles.  Solved some crazy puzzles.  Resurrected a cache after 3.5 years.  Conquered some mountains.  Enjoyed more adventures with friends.

Still having fun.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Up In Flames

Saturday January 10, 2015 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Lily and Tyrrox talk with Valthious who tells them of the difficulties in curing lycanthropy.  While they're talking, a bell begins ringing and they go to investigate, seeing many of the guards heading back to House Briglau.  They get there in time to stop a wounded werewolf from escaping from the estate - suspecting that it may be guard who was previously feverish.

- Kael and Taryn are with Miala Xerus at her estate, and find that it is on fire and crawling with fire elementals and assassins - one of which was a humaniod bird of some kind.  As the three tried to escape the burning keep, the bird-woman managed to stab Miala in the back.  There was a green flash and she burst into flames, leaving behind only a few ashes.  After this happened, the attackers began to disperse, leaving the keep in flames.

- The party reassembled and discussed what to do next.  Valthious is concerned about the political turmoil these recent events will cause.  He suggests keeping Tievain's wereabouts and the existance of William a secret.  Kael seeks vengeance, and Taryn seems inclined to agree. Lily and Tyrrox however, are still keen to follow the tenuous lead on the "marked man" that they recently discovered.

As The Year Ends

Tuesday December 30, 2014 at 8:27pm family, holidays, geocaching, friends, gaming, music Comments (2) »
Hannah Out Caching Hannah, waiting for me to re-hide a nearby cache.
Hannah, waiting for me to re-hide a nearby cache.

Holidays

Had a great trip to AR last week, though I still haven't recovered.  Was good to see Sheri's folks over the holiday.

Got to go caching a couple of times while out that way; that was pretty awesome, too.  I've now been all over the parks around Bull Shoals, AR.  Was cold and somewhat wet, but I was 11 for 11.  Hannah and I went on a short trip in Branson, MO, too.

Didn't play *quite* as much minecraft over the break this time around.

Sheri got me the Numenera core book for Christmas, and I've been reading through it.  I think it might be the system/setting where I finally actually do something with my ideas for a Myst-like game.  Got some other cool stuff, too - some old movies I wanted, a penguin hat and 7 Wonders to name a few.

Went up to IN over Thanksgiving (just realized I haven't posted anything since then), and that was a good time, too.  Got to see family, and dad & I had a great time out caching again this year.

Now You're Older Still

So I guess I'm 35 now.  Had a birthday back in there somewhere (probably on the 18th - that's when it usually is).  Adam gave me a pretty sweet geocaching shirt, and Sheri got me a walking stick, a headband/ear-cover and some other caching stuff.  Hannah gave me a new set of dice.  Also, "birthday crackles" is a great tradition.

At The Table

Our D&D game continues to go strong, though I've been working on at least 3 other games here and there as well.  Steve - our remote player - had to drop out due to work-related busyness, unfortunately.  I like how I'm running this game in particular, though the layers of causality get a bit dizzying at times.  That's not a bad thing, though.

Talk of RuchtCon V has begun as well.  I decided a while back I was going to run a game of Retrograde (FATE Core) this year.

A Tune In My Head

I'm hoping to do something with music in the coming year.  I've been kicking around some ideas for a while now, but I haven't yet made time to really flesh any of them out.  That, and my "space" in the office is in...disarray...to say the least.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: The Curse

Friday December 19, 2014 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The party arrived in Igveston, where they were greated by Alphast awaiting his report on the mine, as well as some of the House Briglau guards were informed Tyrrox that the captain needed his help.  Tyrrox and Lily went with the guards, Taryn and Kael went with Alphast.

- Taryn and Kael reported what they knew of the mine, and enjoyed some hospitality at House Alphast

- Tyrrox and Lily learned of some problems at Nephrim Keep and some strange attacks elsewhere in the city - some creature which they were to hunt down.

- As the evening wound down at House Alphast, Miala Xerus interrupted and requested the presence of Taryn and Kael.  Once at their estate, she told them that Lord Tievain had been missing.

- While investigating, Lily and Tyrrox were attacked by a beast, which Lily recognized as a werewolf.  They eventually brought it down, and, realizing it was a "person", Lily suggested they take it to the Academy (which was nearby) to see about restoring it.

- At House Xerus, Taryn and Kael investigate a wrecked room where Tievain was last known to be.  When the absence of signs of struggle prompted Kael to suggest that perhaps Tievain became something, Miala told them of the house's lycanthropic curse.

- Miala, Taryn and Kael were in the dungeons talking about William (who'd been comfortably confined there for his and others' protection).  When the were heading back up, they found the house on fire...

Cyrran Reaches: What's Ours Is Mine

Friday November 14, 2014 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- As the group surveyed the mine full of troglodytes, they encountered another trog hunting party returning to the caves.  There was a brief skirmish during which one of the trogs yelled to the others that they were under attack.

- A dominant troglodyte figure appeared at the mine entrance telling whoever was out in the woods to leave or be hunted down and devoured by his tribe.

- There was brief, shouting exchange of questions between the party and the troglodypes, during which the tribe came under attack by a giant, black worm-like creature.

- The party decided to assist in killing the beast to aid in parlaying with the trogs.

- After killing the worm, a brief conversation ensued (mostly with a shaman of the tribe called Mikka).  The trogs had been lead to the area by the dragon Mishveera and, while they weren't particuarly thrilled about it, they weren't in a position to make the long journey back to their homelands (even if they wanted to).

- The group told them of human interest in the mine and suggested some future bargain could be made, but got no commitment from the trogs who still seemed decidedly unfriendly if not outright hostile.

- The party decided to return to Igveston.

Adventures Continue

Sunday November 9, 2014 at 4:26pm geocaching, gaming, photography Comments (2) »
Ring The Bell Cache at the top of the mountain.
Cache at the top of the mountain.

Cold Hard Cache

Went out hiking/caching for the first time in a while yesterday.  My usual cohorts weren't able to make it, but fortunately Robb joined me for what was probably the most arduous adventure so far.  Seriously.  The ascent was brutal, and some of the descent amounted to something I would call "leaf skiing".  We were 5 for 5 though, and I found an unactivated travel bug in the ammo box at the top.

So I've been doing this for just over a year now, and I've had some pretty great adventures with Tony, Tim, Robb, and my dad.  Think I'll probably keep it up.  I'll probably "upgrade" to a "premium" membership sometime soon.  Tony has already.  The premium membership gives you access to "premium members only" caches.  This originally struck me as unnecessarily elitist, but I've since heard at least one compelling argument for this practice: anti-theft.  Especially when the containers are nice, if the cache is easily accessible to anyone on the internet for free, it seems that they have a tendency to go missing with greater frequency. 

The 200 Mile Tabletop

My D&D game continues to go well.  In fact, those have been the only entries here on the site for a while.  Not all of the sessions have been awesome, but in general, the momentum continues, and I'm still enjoying it - which is good, because there's a lot of it left.  I've been kicking around several other campaign ideas (like I always do), but none of them have manifested the "new shiny" effect where I want to drop the current game to pursue one of them.

Steve has now joined us for a few sessions via Skype.  I've decided that that works "ok".  One of the minor problems is that the built-in laptop speakers don't have enough power to amplify Steve enough to compete with the table (read: Me and Tim) and I don't have a good speaker to use yet.  I'm wanting to get a decent bluetooth speaker anyway; just haven't gotten around to it yet.  

The bigger hurdle for me is more inherent to remote play, though.  During the course of a game I'm observing the table and trying to make minor adjustments to how I present aspects of the game based on what I see.  It's a bit difficult to read body language through a computer screen, particularly when, due to camera placement, you don't even get eye-contact.  I guess this is to say "hopefully its working out well", since I can't necessarily tell.

On Camera

So Canon's long-awaited 7D mk II has begun shipping, and I continue to read good things about it.  This will probably be my camera upgrade of choice.  Don't know when I'll be able to do that, though.  I've still got a wide angle lens and some stuff for off-camera flash on my wishlist, too.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Scouting Party

Monday November 3, 2014 at 7:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Paks arrives in Velgrin and meets up with the rest of the party

- The group ties up loose ends in the village and then heads north through the dense, swampy forest toward the site of the mine Reynold Alphast had tasked Taryn with investigating.

- A few miles from the mine, they are attacked by a small troglodyte hunting/ambush party; the group fights them off without too much trouble.  Lily spots one running away into the marsh.

- The party arrives at the mine and, from a distance, is able to see that it is now inhabited by an entire tribe of troglodytes.

Cyrran Reaches: Fortune and Glory

Sunday October 19, 2014 at 3:08pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (2) »

- The party reunited in Velgrin, each glad to see the others were still alive.

- Lily organized a grand performance of the tale of their defeat of the dragon Mishveerra.

- The group examined the treasured they'd recovered from the dragon's hoard

Cyrran Reaches: From The Depths

Monday October 13, 2014 at 7:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Taryn, Kael and Tyrrox were confronted by the leader of a tribe of some sort of amphibious creatures who seemed unhappy with their presence.  The group agreed never to return if the creatures assisted them in returning to the surface, though that meant leaving some of the treasure behind.

- From the caverns, Lily found her way into the buried ruin of an ancient elven city.  There she was confronted with some bitter elvish ghosts.  Lily was able to talk her way out of any hostilities and told them of some recent events.  Nearby, she met up with Voru - the great cat they had seen previously - who guided her out of the caverns by way of passages beneath the lake, and into the Charothi Forest to the south.

- On the shore of Lake Eire, Paks met up with Orvia and her force who were pursuing the kobolds, driving them away from the elvin settlement.  She cast some blessings upon them and opted to wait at the shore that they may all return to the village once their work was done.  When nightfall came, however, they still had not returned...

Cyrran Reaches: Green Eye pt. III

Friday October 3, 2014 at 7:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (2) »

- Having fended off the kobolds, the party took some time to catch their breath and plotted to confront Mishveerra.  Working with a druid and a cleric of the village, they made preparations the following morning to descend to the dragon's lair beneath the island.

- On their way into the depths, they encountered a giant eel-like creature which offered information in exchange for a strong magical item.  The party gave it a magical dagger (the one that had been used to kill Elivius Morran) and it warned them of a "dark power" possessed by the human who was with the dragon.

- When they arrived at the bubble that encompassed the lair, they witnessed a gate opening to one of the lower planes and several vrocks came through.  As they engaged the vrocks, the dragon attacked them from behind.

- Taryn decided now was the time to use his orb, and successfully dominated the dragon, directing it to enter the portal.  When it crossed to the other side, however, his control over it was broken.  She called back through to a man called Lurathi.  The two agreed to some sort of deal, and the man appeared, shattering a black sphere on the ground just as Mishveerra leapt back through the portal.

- When it broke, the black sphere sent out a shockwave which created a massive anti-magic field.

- As Taryn, Tyrrox and Kael engaged the dragon - now all stripped of any magical or supernatural abilities - Lily chased after Lurathi, who left the bubble and began to swim.  She wasn't sure how she did it, but she swam for a great distance, eventually catching up with and killing him in a cavern above the submerged ruins.

- The group just managed to kill Mishveerra, but they are now trapped beneath the lake with no magical aid.  Curiously, the clearly supernatural bubble that they occupy has not collapsed, and is only very slowly leaking...

Cyrran Reaches: Under Seige

Friday September 19, 2014 at 7:30pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

New Character:

[Steve] Paks - Human Cleric of Pelor

Highlights:

- The party fought off kobolds while Mishveerra stalked Kael

- The dragon caught and attacked Kael, but by way of some considerably luck, he survived while the dragon believed him to be dead.

- Taryn had a brief altercation with the bard in the dragon's lair before swimming out to rejoin the others - with the dragon's crystal ball.

Cameras, Caches, Celts and Coercion

Tuesday September 16, 2014 at 12:47pm photography, geocaching, celtic festival, gaming Comments (0) »
Hannah and the Potter Hannah had a great time
Hannah had a great time "helping" this potter at Sycamore Shoals' Celtic Festival

Mark (II) This One

Ok, actually this isn't about the T4 caching adventure Tony, Tim and I had on Buffalo Mountain a while back.  This is about camera gear.

Canon (finally) announced the 7D Mark II yesterday.  It doesn't exactly blow me away, but it has basically everything I want in a body upgrade to my 40D.  I would have taken a little more resolution and ISO, but this camera seems quite adequate, and what I'm reading about it is largely positive.  At $1800, it's not exactly "cheap" (at $1300, I would have called this a no-brainer), but it's not ridiculously priced, and you tend to get what you pay for.  Several reviewers are calling this a "mini 1DX" in terms of build quality and performance.

This camera is everything my 40D is, improved.  My biggest beef with my camera's direct descendent, the well-liked 70D, as well as the full-frame 6D, is that both lack certain controls that my 40D has, and both use SD instead of CF cards.  Since these don't directly play into image quality, those complaints may seem petty or even irrelevant, but I have this thing about an "upgrade" not being a step backward in any way.  The last thing I want is to invest in a new body and find myself thinking "you know, this camera is great, but I really miss X or Y about my old one...".  The 7Dii looks good; unless some design flaw comes to light after it hits shelves, it will most likely be my choice for a camera upgrade.

A Tweet Cache

Ok, this has nothing to do with Twitter - although actually, I wonder how many people have "tweeted" from the new trail. 

Back on labor day, the Tweetsie Trail finally opened - and it's pretty cool (the parts of it I've seen, anyway).  One of my favorite parts is the Milligan Depot, a rest stop near where a rail flag stop used to be.

Ever since Tony and I heard about this, we decided this was the place.  We're both Milligan alum and we've been looking for a good place to hide our first geocache, so we found a good place near the depot to make the hide.  We wanted to include a "Flat Brutus" in the cache for people to take pictures with, but unfortunately, our container isn't big enough for it (though I do have this idea of making a tiny one to put in).  The container itself is handmade, and I'm a little proud of it.  As of now, there have only been two finds, but both said it was awesome.

Sycamore Celtic

We went out to Sycamore Shoals' Celtic Festival a while back.  It was cool, although the Lords of Chivalry didn't actually joust this year.  Apparently the festival wasn't paying them, so they were there on their own, doing some promotion, training and selling horse rides, etc.  Since they weren't being paid, they didn't feel comfortable taking the chance of someone getting hurt (their operation is a bit more authentic and a bit less for-show than some).  We go most years - and it's something different and fun - but my general take is that it's an "ok" festival that could be better.

There's Games and Then There's Games

Gaming lately has been some good stuff.  We've had a few firsts lately.  I don't think I've had a "big bad" coerce a PC into healing it before, and I'm endlessly amused that our critical hit variant has actually caused a lot of trouble for one PC in particular simply because his shot was a little too good.  Also, we're planning to introduce a 5th player, our old friend Steve, via Skype.  I'll be interested to see how this works.

Rucht's group has just started a Numenera game.  The setting for this game is pretty fascinating, and the mechanics are quite interesting.  I think this is one I'll pick up at some point.  I've also heard good things about the recently-released 5th edition D&D...but I'm still enjoying 3.5.  I might eventually buy Pathfinder or 5e, but, in general, I'd rather buy a different game than a new version of something I already enjoy.

Fair's Fair

As I did last year, I entered a few photos in the Appalachian Fair this year.  Didn't get any first place ribbons this time around, but did get a second and a third (which, according to the prize amounts, is equivalent?).  Also as with last year, I didn't exactly agree with the judges on their choices, but that's expected.  I don't think I'd have given me first on any either, however - though I might have disputed some of the 2nd/3rd choices, on my behalf as well as on others'. 

The two shots that I did get ribbons on were both taken on our Vacatiaverssary trip to Myrtle Beach in July.  In fact, the 2nd place ribbon went to this shot, which I posted here already.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Green Eye pt. II

Monday September 8, 2014 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (2) »

- The party talked with the people of Velgrin, trying to convince them to act against the dragon now that it was wounded.  Some seemed to agree, others seemed to think it was too risky.

- Meanwhile, the dragon, knowing Taryn was a cleric, was demanding he heal her - suggesting that he owed her for sparing his life.  After some stalling, Taryn did what he could, but when he was unable to repair her eye, she left in a rage.

- The party was preparing the town for an offense against the dragon when she suddenly arrived, demanding the town turn over the "hunter" that had shot her eye.  About that time, another scout came running into the gathering circle, reporting that the kobold tribe was, once again, launching an attack against the settlement.

Cyrran Reaches: Captive

Saturday August 30, 2014 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Not wanting to abandon the town, the party discussed what they could do about the dragon.  It seemed unwise to confront it directly.  They considered trying to convince it to leave - perhaps with tales of the treasures they had been seeking themselves.

- The party spent the next day looking around the town.  Unfortunately, spending so much time in the town, coupled with some particular things Taryn happened to say out loud gave away a certain secret.  They had just met a girl called Sedine at a place in the village called the Well of Shadows when the dragon crashed through the canopy and demanded the artifact from Taryn.

- The encounter started with some uncertainty, but, seeing few other options with respect to protecting his companions, Tyrrox began attacking the beast.

- Mishveerra - the dragon - largely ignored all of the PCs except Taryn until a Kael put an arrow through her eye.  Worn down, and now significantly injured, the creature decided the advantage was, surprisingly, no longer hers and remaining was a significant risk.  She had pinned her quarry to the ground, and so simply took the the air with her prisoner, and soon was out of sight.

- Mishveera dove back into the lake, and swam to her lair beneath the elven village.  When Taryn awoke there, he found himself in an air pocket within a large, ruined building with the dragon and two others: a sly-looking human musician, and a stern, elderly elven woman.

iPhone Pano

Monday August 4, 2014 at 1:28pm photography, iphone Comments (0) »
Highway bridges over Boone Lake iPhone 4s pano of a pair of highway bridges over Boone Lake.  Happens to be very near a geocache.
iPhone 4s pano of a pair of highway bridges over Boone Lake.  Happens to be very near a geocache.

So I have to say, I've generally been impressed with the iphone's (4s) "pano" function, wherein you can pan the device's camera and it will create an image from the entire scene.  It does a pretty impressive job of stitching photos together in real time to create one seamless image.  About the only "quality" issue is the tearing you can get from motion - either because the subject is moving or because you're panning a little too fast.  This is pretty easy to control in the latter case.  For the former, however, the process has issues if there are any significant movements in the scene (I've actually taken a single pano in which my daughter appeared twice).  Still, for landscapes and otherwise basically still scenes, it's a lot of fun.

One of the more interesting qualities of the pano photographs is how distortion manifests.  Due to the lens perspective as it moves, there is significant horizontal distortion as the processor stitches everything together, but there is virtually no vertical distortion.  The end result gives you fisheye-like curvature on horizontal aspects across the pan, but, unlike a fisheye lens, vertical lines remain straight.

Used correctly, the pano actually does a good enough job that it can be difficult to tell that what you're looking at is a distorted perspective and not simply an area from a much narrower angle of view if you're not personally familiar with the space pictured.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Green Eye pt. I

Saturday August 2, 2014 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The party left the city of Igveston, heading to the elven settlement Velgrin which is located on a lake bordering the Charothi Forest.

- In the forest, encountered a kobold hunting party which had partially trapped a large feline.  Defeated the kobolds and freed the cat, which lead them to a kobold encampment on the lake shore.  Bypassed encampment, group was able to activate the "way" to the elven village - a path which rose from the water

- Settlement showed signs of recent damage, and many of the townsfolk seemed nervous or wary.  The group learned from a young priested named Sedine that only recently an odd, combined force of kobolds and troglodytes had attacked the village.  The elves were overwhelmed, but were saved in the end by a huge green dragon - who has since all but declared herself ruler of the settlement.

- The dragon soon came looking for the party, demanded they present themselves to her, and proceeded to interrogate them as to who they were, where they came from, what they were doing, etc.  The party told her they were looking for Kael's father (which wasn't untrue...).  The dragon told them they were permitted to remain in the village "for now"...

A Summer Break

Tuesday July 29, 2014 at 1:48pm vacation, photography, geocaching, gaming Comments (0) »
Brookgreen Gardens Night Heron Night Heron at Brookgreen Gardens aviary
Night Heron at Brookgreen Gardens aviary

Vacatiaversary

Sheri & I just got back from a vacation to Myrtle Beach we took for our 10th anniversary.  This was our first trip away from Hannah, which was nice (even if we did miss the little bug).  She had a great time with Oma and Opa.  It was a great time - we got to hang out on the beach, swim in pools, visit local parks and even hang out with some friends who live out there (thanks again to De & Gryf/Ryan!). We also got to hang out a bit with my sister Jese and brother-in-law Michael in Columbia on our way back.  Basically, Michael and I talked game stuff.  They need to come visit sometime so we can play lots of games.

Also, my dad is awesome and did a laundry list of jobs around my house while I was gone, including replacing the Jeep's radiator, replacing the cover over the stairwell, putting a storm door on the front of the house, mowing the yard a few times, cleaning the garage, taking the recycling and fixing a few minor things.  He told us he was "having fun".

The Long And The Short Of It

I had debated whether to take all of my camera gear, or just my primary lens - after all, the point of the trip wasn't photography.  Ended up taking the whole bag though, and was glad I had my telephoto when we went to Brookgreen Gardens.  Got a few really nice shots of birds and insects there.

I think I've gotten better at using my 300mm telephoto.  Even with IS, you have to know how to hold it still or shots will come out blurry.  It is a nice piece of glass once mastered, though.

I haven't decided exactly what I want to do for a wide angle yet, but since neither of the ones I looked at before were exactly what I'm wanting, I think I'm currently leaning toward the cheaper Sigma lens.  It performed well, and will give me the ultra-wide I was looking for - if I plan to stay with a crop-frame camera.  Canon is supposed to annouce the 7D II in september, and I'm looking forward to seeing what it will be.

A Little Cache

I even got to do just a tiny bit of geocaching while we were on vacation, picking up a couple in Myrtle Beach State Park.  One of the two actually had two parts - one of which was hiding in plain site behind the counter at the beach gift shop.  The park personnel also seemed supportive of the hobby too, which was pretty cool.  I recently hit find #100, and Tony and I are making plans to hide one or two of our own.

Just Out Of Reach

Last gaming session of the Cyrran Reaches was a little slow.  I've once again run into an age-old problem with the way I set up games: sometimes the players just don't know what to do.  In this case, they have encountered a lot of interesting "leads", they just aren't sure how to follow up on them.  The end result is that, though they've "done" and "seen" some stuff, they really haven't "accomplished" anything in several sessions.  I guess I need to be more conscious of that.  We've decided to move the game along to a place they've been planning to go for some time.  Hopefully I can make that a little punchier while still maintaining my sandbox approach.  Next game is this saturday - I suppose we'll see.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Refuse

Saturday July 12, 2014 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Kael found his wolf and a treent (who turned out to be a dwarven druid) fighting cultists in the Banshee's Wood.

- The group met an old, poor man claiming to own Nephrim's estate living in the sewers underneath the keep.  The party agreed to, at least mention the case to the local magistrates.

- Once confident the city has itself in order, the group plans to leave Igveston.

Cyrran Reaches: Almost

Monday June 30, 2014 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Taryn tried to salvage his date at Hilleston Hall, but was unsuccessful as he was called away.

- Lily exhausted herself fighting rogues and an illusory dragon at Nephrim Keep, holding them off just long enough for Taryn to arrive.

- Tyrrox patroled the Common Quarter for more basilisks, and rejoined the other two as they investigated a concealed passageway beneath the abandoned keep.

Cache Flow

Sunday June 29, 2014 at 3:07pm geocaching Comments (0) »
Old School Nalgene Bottle A New Life for and Old Bottle for an Old Cache
A New Life for and Old Bottle for an Old Cache

Please Remove Your Cache

So I've continued on with my new(est) geocaching hobby.  I blame Llama.  It's his fault.

Anyway, about a week ago, I went to pick up a cache we'd previously searched for, failed to find, learned was actually missing, and was subsequently replaced.  On my way around, I stopped in on another cache I'd found that had been de-listed from the site due to maintenance issues.

This one, dubbed "Tree Frog", has had a pretty long history of unfortunate happenstances.  When we found it the first time, it had been eaten through.  When I found it this time, the lid was off, it was full of water and its contents were scattered around.  Since it was in such bad shape and was no longer actively listed on geocaching.com, it basically constituted "litter", so I decided I'd remove it.  It wasn't "mine", but the owner had said he/she could no longer manage it (the container had already been replaced at least once by someone else) - so I felt I was doing a courtesy to the community and the park.  I posted to the cache's logs saying I'd removed it and provided some photos.  Alas, poor cache.

Resurrection

Speaking of dead caches, yesterday Llama and I went out for a few.  He wasn't up to hitting Buffalo Mountain again, so we decided we'd go back to the Laurel Park picnic area and find the two there we didn't grab last time - and we decided we would replace one that had been missing for a couple of years.  

The last time we went out there, we spent about 45 minutes looking for a cache that wasn't there.  I should have paid closer attention to the logs.  The last person to log the cache did find it, but it was in 2012, and they said they found "pieces" of it.  Well, we found nothing - and we were so disheartened by the whole experience that we decided not to go looking for the other two that were at that park (we'd already found 3 that day, and ALL of them were much harder than they should have been).

We took one of the old Nalgene bottles dad & I used to use when we went backpacking to use as a container, since it was solid and watertight.  I'm pretty sure that bottle probably has quite a few wilderness-trekking miles under its belt, so a "final" resting place as a geocache along a trail in the woods seemed appropriate.

After that, we hit the other two caches that were at the park.  Those hadn't been found in a year or two either, but they were fortunately still present.  One required some pretty serious up-hill bushwacking though....and deserved every bit of its 4-star terrain rating.

~PS

National Camera Day

Sunday June 29, 2014 at 2:21pm photography Comments (0) »


SnapKnot

Courtesy of: SnapKnot


So, apparently this is a thing.  I got this email through a photography mailing list I'm on saying that June 29th is "National Camera Day".  Maybe I should go take some shots?


"SnapKnot" is actually a wedding photographer site photographers can join, and couples can look them up for their services.  Not really my thing, but I'm into learning any aspect of "the craft" and I did have a good time talking to the photographer at my sister's wedding - was very impressed with his work, too.


Also, in the interest of full disclosure, they told me that if I posted the above image to my site, they'd put me in a drawing to win expensive camera stuff I can't afford as a hobbiest.  I usually ignore that kind of stuff, but the quote sounded cool, and I do like the idea of a "camera day" - so, deal.


~PS

Happy Valley: Into The Dark

Wide: A Tale of Two Lenses

Thursday June 19, 2014 at 10:06pm photography, photo gear Comments (0) »
A Tale of Two Lenses Sigma 8-16mm f4.5-5.6 DC HSM and Canon 14mm f2.8L II
Sigma 8-16mm f4.5-5.6 DC HSM and Canon 14mm f2.8L II

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

For some time, I've been wanting to add a nice wide or ultra-wide angle lens to my camera kit.  Usually, I look up what I want, do quite a bit of research, read reviews, examine user images, etc and then choose what seems like the best option for me.  This one, however, has been much more difficult, because what I want doesn't seem to exist.

I've mentioned this before.  What I would really like is a professional grade ultra-wide prime made for a crop-frame camera.  Something like a EF-S 10mm f2.8L.  Sorry, no dice.  Basically, what exists is a high-end canon 14mm prime (that would be "ultra-wide" on a full frame camera, but equivalent to about a 23mm on my camera body), and a plethora of "ok" ultra-wide-angle zooms (by Canon and various other manufacturers) made for crop bodies.

I'd previously been uninterested in most of the zooms.  For one, they're zooms.  I really want a prime.  For two, they all have various short-comings that bothered me: Canon's 10-22 doesn't have the best build quality, and a lot of others' offerings (Sigma, Tokina, etc) had optical issues to some greater or lesser extent.  When I discovered the Sigma 8-16, however, the reviews and user-shots seemed pretty impressive.

Compare and Contrast

I'd already planned to rent the 14mm f2.8L (if i'm going to spend the money on something that pricey, i'd better be pretty sure it's what i want), and so decided to add this Sigma lens as something to compare it to.

I realize that's a bit of an unfair - possibly "apples and oranges" - trial: one lens is a professional-grade ultrawide designed for full frame cameras, and the other is a high-end consumer grade lens designed for crop frame bodies.  Still, I feel I can fairly evaluate them on "fitness for my use".

Pros and Cons

Since the perfect lens doesn't exist, each of these has some good points and bad points:

Canon 14mm f2.8L II

Pros:

- Is a prime lens (quality)

- Is L quality optics, sharpness, contrast, clarity

- Fast glass: max f2.8 aperture

- Solid construction

- Has dust/weather sealing

- Virtually no wide-angle distortions

- For full frame (if i ever choose to "upgrade")

- Quieter/Smoother focusing

Cons:

- On crop body, not quite as wide: ~23mm equivalent

- Pricey

Sigma 8-16 f4.5-5.6 DC HSM

Pros:

- Ultra-wide: ~13mm equivalent

- Good reported optical quality

- Solid construction

- Very affordable

- zoom flexibility

Cons:

- Is a zoom lens (quality sacrifice)

- Some noticeable (but not terrible) distortion at the wide end (it's 8mm, what do you want!?)

- Slower than christmas (max f4.5 aperture, and that's only at 8mm)

- No/poorer sealing

- Vignetting or otherwise poor usability on full-frame (if i ever choose to "upgrade")

- Louder/rougher zoom/focusing

In The Field

So I received these two rental lenses yesterday.  (As an aside, I'll give a shout-out to LensRentals.com who, when they noticed I'd missed the attempted delivery, actually contacted Fed-Ex on their own and arranged for me to be able to pick up the package that same day and contacted me to let me know. Kudos for good customer service.)  I played with both of them for quite a while yesterday evening, and, I gotta say, the jury's still out.  My gut still says I like the Canon 14mm better optically, but the Sigma looks pretty darn good - I was actually pretty impressed with how sharp it could be.  Also, I like the ultra-wide abilities - 8mm is ridiculously wide.  Really lets you do some interesting things with perspective. 

If I like the Canon lens more, I'll really have to consider whether I like it $1600 more - that's about the price difference.  Usually my concern is quality rather than price, but if they're really neck-and-neck in terms of usability and results, it might become relvant.  Especially at that scale - i mean, i could get the Sigma and another L lens or possibly a new camera body for about the same price as the Canon 14mm.

This weekend is our annual Trogland Meetup, and I intend to put both of these through their paces at this event - we'll see what I think in a few hundred more shots.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Rocks

Friday June 13, 2014 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- party talked, spent a couple of days pursuing individual angles

- Taryn made preparations and took Celia Rynowen to the Hilleston Ball (as they had agreed).  Toward the end of the night, Taryn gets stabbed by the vengeful doppleganger that had taken her place.

- Tyrrox and Kael are accosted by the House Briglau guard as they needed assistance.  Found portion of common quarter that was too quiet and full of statues.  Encountered a feindish basilisk and evidence that it may have been summoned by the ritual of a few imps.

- Lily totally rocks the house at the Laughing Jack and makes money before she, too, was found by the Briglau guards whereupon she went to investigate some commotion at the Nephrim Keep.

Cyrran Reaches: Putting Pieces Together

Friday May 30, 2014 at 8:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The party regroups.

- Lily assists with rebuilding the civic district and pursues mysteries surrounding Many Eyes, Many Teeth and the marked man - which she learns is called Aulthust.

- Tyrrox assists House Briglau with training and bolstering their militia - which is now the main military presence in the city.  His efforts result in the Caprinae, a sort of brotherhood within the house militia.

- Taryn boosts morale and his pockets, and impresses some locals.

- Kael unwinds and makes a "friend".

- The party talks to Celia - a psychometrist - about the unusual crossbow bolt that was shot at Tyrrox back in Ettaseph.  They find out that it was owned by a man called Maff, who seems to be connected to Many Eyes, Many Teeth as well as a group of bandits.

End Of The Line

Sunday May 4, 2014 at 5:03pm gaming Comments (0) »
Zero Line Game Note The Zero Line
The Zero Line

Mission Successful

So last night we finished up The Zero Line, a sci-fi RPG I was running using the FATE system.  Overall, I think it was a great success.  As I've said before, I really like the FATE system and its flexibility and focus on the descriptive over the numeric.  It's a lot different than a crunchier system such as D&D.  That's not a value judgement - I actually enjoy both approaches.  I'm glad to have the variety.

Since I wanted to run 5 sessions, I had originally thought that the Zero Line would last us into March.  As you may have noticed, it's May.  Apparently, we were all really busy this year.

Intro

The game itself was exactly what I wanted it to be - an sweeping overview of a sci-fi setting I created and intended to use in grittier/darker science fiction games.  While this game dealt with the Line itself and the Tetrani war fairly early in the intended-to-play time period, there are actually a lot of other themes in the setting that could be the entire focus of a campaign: periphery exploration, AI, transhumanism/Augments, and Delphi to name a few.  I think it has a lot of possibilties.

Over The Line

I think the players really enjoyed the game, despite the fact that I created their characters for them.  I think the newness of the system and setting warranted if not required it.  Still, I think this necessarily lowered their investment in the game, and they're ready to get back to our D&D 3.5 game.

~PS

The Zero Line: Behind Us

Saturday May 3, 2014 at 6:00pm fate core, the zero line, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The group helps some insectoid formerly-human locals repel a Tetrani attack and learns about the bizarre history of the research installation.

Drive-by Check-in

Tuesday April 29, 2014 at 1:49pm photography, gaming, house Comments (0) »

Just a quick note or two - not too much new to write about lately.

Continuing to evaluate possible new camera gear.  Now planning to rent a Sigma 10mm 2.8 fisheye in addition to the 14mm 2.8L II.  Also, office got a nice Tamron 24-70 2.8 lens which, on the 5D, gave me some sense of what the 14mm will be like on my camera.

Gaming has continued - still trying to finish up The Zero Line.  Kind of thought we'd be done with that by now, but our schedules have been really busy.  Scheduled to wrap it up saturday.  After that, probably going back to our 3.5 game.

Our office at home is in the midst of overhaul.  Painted, now just need to get Sheri's new desk designed & built.  Also, need to get my bookcase and comfy chair.

The Zero Line: Planetfall

Monday April 7, 2014 at 8:00pm fate core, the zero line, game session notes Comments (0) »

The party helped re-establish order on the Defiant, set out to discover the fate of a military research site in a larger crater on the planet Nago II, and were unexpectedly attacked by aerial Tetrani forces as they made their approach.

Placerville

Saturday March 29, 2014 at 9:00am placerville, game session notes Comments (0) »

RuchtCon IV Con Game


A varied group of 19th-century paranormal investigators discovers the causes behind fires and other mysteries in the gold-rush town of Placerville, CA.

The Zero Line: Warped

Saturday March 15, 2014 at 7:00pm fate core, the zero line, game session notes Comments (0) »

New/Guest Character:

Jim (Dave)

 

Highlights:

The group deals with some aftermath on the ship after crossing the Zero Line, including an emergent biomorph, some twisted monstrousities, crazed crewmen and belligerent computer systems.

Prospecting

Monday March 10, 2014 at 10:46pm geocaching, gaming, trogland Comments (0) »
Hannah, Geoffry and a micro cache Hannah, Geoffry the Geocaching Giraffe, and a micro find at Persimmon Ridge
Hannah, Geoffry the Geocaching Giraffe, and a micro find at Persimmon Ridge

In it for the Cache

Tony and I have already done quite a bit of caching this year.  We started early, often in the snow.  We've taken to going out on saturday mornings whenever possible.  It's been a lot of fun.  We've found some pretty cool hides and we keep talking about placing a couple of our own sometime.  We even succeeded at our first "puzzle" cache last weekend.  We're becoming pretty good at this little game - though recently, for the first time, we had someone find one we had previously failed to locate.  I blame snow.  And rocks.

We take Sheri & Hannah with us whenever we can, and so, ever since the abortive trip to Buffalo Mtn, I've been trying to find places with easier terrain for their sake.  Fortunately, I've found quite a few good locations that have been fun for all.  And we'll save the tough stuff for when we go out on our own - or if we can get my dad to come join us.

A couple of weekends ago, I added South Carolina to the list of states I've cached in.  My sister, who lives in Columbia, is getting married in a couple of weeks, and we went down so Sheri & Hannah could go to a bridal shower.  While they were doing that, Michael (her fiance) and I went caching at Saluda Shoals park.  Pretty cool for my first time meeting the guy.  He seems pretty cool.

One for the History Books

In other news, I was doing a bit of history reading (ok, so it was on wikipedia) the other night as I'm preparing for my game for Ruchtcon IV at the end of the month.  I'm running a gold-rush era supernatual game.  Just for fun, I'm actually using names and info from real historical people and places, and then morphing them a bit into my own fiction.  It's something I really haven't done before, and it's been quite interesting.  Hopefully the game will be as well.

Oh, and I've actually been reading a history *book* for fun, too - found one called 'Atlas of the Celtic World' at Books-a-million a while back.  It's interesting.

 

Speaking of cons, we've also started talking about Trogland 8.  I really need to get the site back up & running. O.o

 

~PS

Fated to Game

Thursday February 27, 2014 at 9:46pm gaming Comments (0) »

Getting The Ball Rolling

Gaming this year has been off to a bit of a slow start.  We picked up a new sci-fi game to run for a few sessions before we get back to our 3.5 game.  It's been cool and I love the FATE system, but it's been a little slow.  Unfortunately, I think that even though I crave variety in my games, I'm just not as at home in genres other than traditional fantasy.  Probably, that's a matter of practice, but still.  The game doesn't quite have the level of enthusiasm I'd like.  Maybe my expectations are too high, and/or maybe everyone's getting used to the system and barrage of ideas I threw at them.  The FATE Core system is really cool, though, and I think once the group gets used to it, we'll see some really creative stuff.

Drawing The Line

The working title for the setting I'm using for the game is "The Zero Line".  Basically, it's a game about emergent psionics amidst an impending galactic apocalypse.  There are quite a few other themes (typical to sci-fi), but those are the big ones.  Essentially, there is a shockwave emanating from the galactic core, traveling at almost the speed of light, almost completely wiping out anything it touches.  At the speed of light, however, for a society capable of faster-than-light travel/communication, there's still a gap of centuries between the time it was discovered and the time it will hit Earth.  I thought that was a pretty cool idea.  And the psionics thing is because I've always wanted to do something like the world described in Anne McCaffrey's "Talent" series.

 

Still gotta come up with something for Ruchtcon next month...

 

~PS

The Zero Line: Through the Gauntlet

Friday February 14, 2014 at 7:00pm fate core, the zero line, game session notes Comments (0) »

The group explores the derelict frieghter, discovers it comes from beyond the Zero Line, and reports to the captain of their ship, who, in turn, gives the unprecedented order to jump the Line.

The Zero Line: Redirection

System: Fate Core

Setting: The Milky Way Galaxy (Zero Line)

Players: Sheri, Tony, Adam, Tim

Schedule: Near-weekly

 

The Zero Line is a sci-fi setting based around emergent psionics in the context of an impending galactic apocalypse.

 

Characters:

Trya Bucchari (Sheri)

Malcolm Faulknen (Tony)

Kenneth Lockley (Adam)

Trenton Greaves (Tim)

 

Highlights:

Group is assembled by by the Galactica Humanus Navy, Delphi and the Periphery Initiative to explore a far-periphery system.  As they were about to set out, the GHN informed them their mission has changed and they were instead directed to investigate a derelict freighter which recently appeared in a coreward system.

Sum of the New Year

Saturday January 11, 2014 at 9:21am christmas, photography, geocaching, gaming Comments (0) »
2013 Family Christmas Photo 2013 Family Christmas Photo.  Camera controlled from laptop, laptop  controlled from cell phone.  Hannah controlled: barely.  Flash bounced  from left off a piece of foam board on a music stand.
2013 Family Christmas Photo.  Camera controlled from laptop, laptop controlled from cell phone.  Hannah controlled: barely.  Flash bounced from left off a piece of foam board on a music stand.

Ah, the new year.  2014 happens.  Looks like Penguinsushi.com is almost 9 years old.  Over Christmas I, once again, made the journey northward toward parentville.  Unquestionably a great time.  Tons of pictures on the Bookface (for those of you who find me there).

The Pro

I finally was able to meet Tony Vasquez, my friend Brittany's husband, who happens to be a pro photographer.  We had a great time talking.  He gave me a few tips on flash photography/lighting and post-production, and I was somewhat gratified that, during the course of the conversation, I actually did feel like I knew what I was talking about.  Since I've been back, some mention has been made of us going out and shooting together next time I'm up that way - which would be completely awesome.

Potential Gear

Christmas was also pretty good to my camera fund.  In theory, I think I have very nearly enough for my next purchase (though that's going to wait at least a while for a small myriad of reasons).  I'm still not sure what, exactly, I want to go with.  It's down to either an updated camera body, or a nice wide-angle lens.  Unfortunately, a perfect candidate for either of those doesn't exist at the moment - though there are rumours of developments throughout this year.  As of now, I'm planning to rent Canon's 14mm F2.8 L II later this spring to try it out.  I figured if I'm considering spending that kind of money, I want to be absolutely sure it's what I want.

Cold Cache

Ha! Another geocaching pun! 

So dad & I went out 2 and half times over the holiday.  Seems he had a lot of fun over thranksgiving, and wanted to do some more.  I say "and a half" because there was one time that we both went out, just not together.  On new year's eve we went out to a trail near Lake Monroe and hit 10.  Overall, we were 13 for 16.  Looking at the logs, a couple of our DNFs seem as though they, perhaps, weren't even present.   I've now found more caches in IN than TN (a condition my good friend the Llama wishes to rectify).

So Tony/Llama and I have been thinking about placing our own cache somewhere around here.  I've found some promising containers for "not-too-expensive", and been thinking about possible sites.  I, personally, am more a fan of the caches that are in parks, along trails, etc.  We still need to scout the locations, though getting permission to actually place one might be difficult.  Can't put my finger on why, but I get the general impression standards/restrictions may have become tighter in the last 5-10 years.

And A Happy New Game

Our Cyrran Reaches game wrapped up a chapter in mid-December, and it left off with 4 or 5 possible directions in which to proceed.  It has been a fantastic game, and we're planning to keep rolling with it...

...just not immediately.  See, we've been playing that game for almost a year now, and I find that too much longer than that and I start to get burned out.  I'm loving that game, but I also like variety.  We kicked a couple of ideas around and decided that we're going set up a brief interlude game: something different to play with for a few sessions before we get back to the "main event". 

We've done a lot of fantasy, so I'm planning to run a short sci-fi game for the group.  I've just actually ordered the Fate stuff I'd been wanting to pick up (I'd been planning to buy it ever since I downloaded the Pay-What-You-Want pdf and ran a game at Trogland 7), and I'm looking forward to playing some more with that.  I was talking to Sheri last night about the setting I have in mind, and she seemed pretty interested.

 

Cyrran Reaches: The Devil You Know

Friday December 13, 2013 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The group decided to make their way up to the place where they believed the current head of the Academy was being held.  When they found her, she suggested they should follow her to where Jekri had gone - to retrieve some kind of artifact that would help him use the Arch.

- The party decide instead to try to find the power source of the machinery, which now seemed to be operating out of control.  They found what would have been the power source swarming with Formians, which seemed to be colonizing the upper levels of the Academy.  A massive gear portruded from some sort of portal, but it didn't seem to be driving the machinery as much as the machinery was now pushing against it.

- Deducing that the machinery was now powering itself, they followed it back down to the Arch itself, where they found Jekri, the headmistress, and quite a few devils.  The arch seemed to be partially powered, but Jekri clearly wasn't happy with its progress.

- The party shattered a kind of spiritual energy repository which was a part of the machinery as the devils and Jekri began to engage them.  The portal deactivated and a massive and maddeningly deformed skeleton crashed through the wall of the Academy, collapsing around it.

- Seeing that his plan had failed, Jekri fled the Academy.  Reinforcements from House Briglau arrived.

- The next couple of days were spent doing cleanup on the city from the aftermath of these events.  Both the Academy and the Hall of Three were significantly damaged, and lost a number of notable leaders.

- Following, the party were guests of honor at a party held by Miala Xerus.  The noble houses seem to be gaining prominence in the city.

End Chapter One

ThanksGeoPhoto

Thursday December 5, 2013 at 6:07pm geocaching, photography, family Comments (0) »
Joe + his D3100 Joe, lying on the floor playing with his camera
Joe, lying on the floor playing with his camera

For the first time in quite a while, we made the journey up to IN for Thanksgiving.  Was quite a good trip - great to see a lot of relatives I don't catch up with often.

Caching On

I wonder how many more Cache/Catch puns I can come up with?  Anyway, inamongst the more typical festivities, I managed to do a little geocaching - mostly to place a travel bug I'd picked up here in TN.  I think I might have mentioned it before.  I even got my dad & my brother to come along with me, and the three of us had quite a good (if cold) time.  I'm up to 12 finds, total.  It's been quite fun.

Sibling Photography

Also, spent quite a bit of time talking to my brother about camera gear and photography in general - something I always enjoy.  Joe is learning to handcraft jewelry, and wanted a camera setup to take photos of his work.  He recently bought a Nikon d3100 and 40mm f/2.8 lens that has some decent macro capability.  I, personally, would have steered him toward Canon, but that's mostly because that's what I have and I might be able to help a little more with that.  Plus we could share toys.  But he found a deal on this one, so that's what he got.

It seems to be a decent camera  We had some fun playing with it, seeing what it was capable of.  It does have higher iso performance than my camera, though I haven't tested how well it performs at 3200+.  The close-focus/macro of the lens seems to work pretty well also.  I'll be interested to see what he does with it.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: By Its Cover

Saturday November 23, 2013 at 7:00pm cyrran reaches, gaming, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Lily and the others guessed that the key impression in the cover of the book they'd found was made for the key the mephit had given them.  When they put it into the book, an opalescent sphere enveloped them for a moment, but the only further effect was the sudden arrival of an ice devil.

- Certain this book was the key (ha!), Lily continued to try to activate it properly while the others held off the devil.

- The party eventually incapacitated the fiend, but, knowing it would soon revive, they decided to flee the library - taking the book with them.

- They eventually found themselves in a relatively secluded room with a large statue of a dragon holding a glass-like green orb.  Lily and Kael continued to examine the book, but Taryn was interested in what they'd found.  As he approached, the statue spoke, asking him if he desired the orb and warning him that, if he decided he did, it was a decision that could not be reversed.  Feeling they needed every edge they could get to combat the current threat, Taryn took it.

- It took both Lily and Kael a few minutes to figure out the book's function, but, when they did, they discovered that placing the attached bookmark in one of the pages (each of which depicted a very specific locale), placing the key in the cover would transport the book and those nearby to the place indicated.  Removing the key reversed the effect.  In discovering this, they traveled to an ancient dwarven corridor with some sort of distorted or slowed time effect.  Inscriptions suggested the place was "waiting" for some divine intervention.

- They studied the book for some time, trying to determine which place the professor they sought (an elf called Valthious) might be in.  Ultimately, it was Taryns luck that lead them to him.

- When he realized the group was not sent by Jekri, Valthious was very happy to see them.  He was being kept prisoner as and expert on cosomology and the interplay of the planes.  Jekri wanted to know if and how the Arch could be weaponized - specifically, made to catasrophically implode.

- Valthious lead the group to a good place to rest - one of the more peaceful locales in the book - and gave them a scroll that could be used to allow their weapons to overcome the resistances of the fiends they faced.

- When the group returned to the Academy, the situation seemed to have worsened.  The walls of the tower shook, and an unearthly shrieking could be heard echoing through the halls - over an above the relentless grinding and pounding sounds of infernal machinery...

 

***

GMs Note: I'm quite proud of the artifact I created and introduced in this session, dubbed the Book of Urzen'Tu.  The book is a large leather and metal bound volume, covered with runes and with a carved resting place for a key in its cover.  It has a large, finely-woven bookmark attached to its spine.  

Inspired by Myst (one of my favorite cosmologies), the book contains detailed descriptions of hundreds of very specific places - each of which composes/occupies a (relatively) small pocket dimension.  Placing the bookmark at one of the location descriptions, closing the book and placing the key in its place in the cover causes the book to instantly transport itself and those nearby to the location described.  Removing the key reverses the effect, transporting the book and those with it back to the material plane.

Cyrran Reaches: The Devil's Nest pt. III

Saturday November 16, 2013 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The party left Jekri's presence and had a brief meeting.  While bringing others to "inspect" the premisis might be a good idea, they felt the situation was more urgent that that course of action (alone) suggested.

- The party decided to search for a person called Vex, who supposedly knew where to find a man called Valthious who was imprisoned.

- The group caught site of a person matching Vex's unusual description outside some sort of devilish counting house.

- Vex told them Valthious was being "kept" in a library of one of the other academy towers.

- The party found their way to said library, where they found a large book with a carved resting place for a bronze key...

Firelight Photography

Tuesday November 12, 2013 at 5:43pm friends, photography Comments (0) »
Nick Nick, while hanging out at his birthday party.  50mm f1.4 iso 3200 1/60, lightened about 1.75 ev in post.  No NR.
Nick, while hanging out at his birthday party.  50mm f1.4 iso 3200 1/60, lightened about 1.75 ev in post.  No NR.

A group of us got together at Nick & Jen's (current) place for his birthday party on saturday.  Was cool to hang out with friends - something we find ourselves doing less and less.

As I am want to do, I brought my camera along.  I didn't really have any good opportunities to take photos of the party in general (I didn't bring my flash, and we were mostly inside with relatively poor light).  When we adjourned to the fire pit outside, however, I decided to see exactly what I could pull off in that extremely dark situation - and, by extension, what I would need to do a better job.

I took a handful of shots using my 50mm 1.4 wide open - something I almost never do.  It's generally a little soft at 1.4.  It sharpens nicely somewhere between 2.0 and 2.8.  Still, I was already at "high iso" (3200 equiv.) and at 1/60.  I really didn't have anything else to open up on my rig.

These pictures actually look surprisingly good, all things considered.  They're exceptionally grainy, of course - accented by the fact that I lightened them about +1.75 ev.  I don't mind a little grain - in fact, if you desaturate them a bit, it can add an interesting feel to some images.  This is a bit much, however.  Still, the IQ is higher than i expected.

And if I had a camera body with a couple more stops of ISO, I think I could have done more.  Incidentally, I read today that the 7D mk II is supposed to be out first quarter of next year...

~PS

Caching Up

Tuesday November 12, 2013 at 2:24pm geocaching, friends, family Comments (0) »
Blue Skies Container A Hard-Fought Find
A Hard-Fought Find

Llama & I went geocaching again last saturday - this time out a Winged Deer Park.  Sheri and Hannah came along with us, too.  We all had a pretty great time.

We decided to start looking for the 7 or so caches hidden around in that area in the order of how close they were to where we parked.  The first one was within just a couple hundred feet.  One might think it should be a pretty easy find.

Not so.

It took the group of us about 45 minutes to find, largely due to two facts:

1) The GPS signal was pretty screwy in that wooded valley.

and

2) The "hint" was "at the end of a fallen tree".

That second one wouldn't have been so bad if there weren't about four thousand fallen trees within about 100ft of the site.  I might be exagerrating on that figure, but I'm not sure.

After nearly giving up a couple of times, we did finally locate it - and that was pretty rewarding.

The other two caches we picked up didn't give us any real trouble finding - we all but walked right up to them.  We did find a Travel Bug in one of them - which I'm going to try to re-deposit out of state.

All in all, it was a good day for a search.

~PS

Loosening the Reins

Saturday November 2, 2013 at 1:40pm gaming, friends Comments (2) »
Antagonist Pawns Pffffft.  Staged.
Pffffft.  Staged.

So last night's game was something of an experiment.

I'm usually pretty guarded with my game/story/plot settings.  Historically, I've liked to retain pretty tight control over what is and isn't present in the game world, and I'd say that, for the most part, that's still pretty true.  I don't think there's anything wrong with this, and its greatest virtue is that it guarantees a certain level of internal consistency.

In recent games, though, I've been a bit looser with allowing the players to "make stuff up" for me to incorportate into the world while keeping it a cogent whole.  Last night added a new level.

New Devilry

A friend of ours from our annual Meetups was in town for the weekend, and we asked him if he'd like to join our game for the night.  I'm usually pretty easy with letting "guest" players come in and out.  This time, though, I gave Reinholdt a choice: I told him he could either be a character that was basically in line with the party (and would be much more in the foreground), or he could play the part of the primary antagonist - which was going to be more of a puppetmaster role.  Since Reinholdt is, in fact, a cylon, he of course chose the latter.

So I had a new PC at the table playing the part of a character that I had carefully constructed and designed specifically for the situation the characters have been dealing with for about 10 games or so.  I tried to explain the character as best I could, but of course someone else is always going to interpret the facts differently.  It was interesting watching someone else interpret it, as well as giving control of the primary villain to someone else at the table.

Reinholdt did a great job.  He spent most of the game passing me notes telling me all the things he was trying to do behind the scenes to confound the PCs.  Actually, a lot of his suggestions made the game.  He did some things I wouldn't have, of course, but I'm prepared to roll them into the canon.

~PS

Fall Fun/Photo '13

Saturday November 2, 2013 at 9:38am family, photography, milligan Comments (0) »
Pumpkin Decoration Sheri, Hannah and the Pom-Pom Pumpkin
Sheri, Hannah and the Pom-Pom Pumpkin

Last weekend was some fun times.  Sheri helped Hannah decorate a pumpkin (with, I believe, 64 pom-poms), and then we went to Homecoming at Milligan.  This year was Sheri's 10th-year class reuinion (since she was a 5th-year senior).  It was a good time.

I, of course, had fun taking pictures.  Particularly at the parade, where I got to play with my 300mm.  I'm quite happy with the results I got.  I think the quality of the images is pretty professional.  So I now have really nice, candid photos of a dozen or so Millgian people I don't know.

Oh, and on a related note, my boss recently (self?) published a book, on the back cover of which is his instance of the ubiqitous bio photo.  Which, in this case, I took.

I really like autumn, but that particular season is rather abbreviated down here.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Machinations

Friday November 1, 2013 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

Guest Player:

[Brandon] Jekri - villain

Highlights:

- Deciding the machinery they saw was attempting to activate or power the Arch, they decided to try to hunt down its own power source.  After a brief altercation with a formian taskmaster and its servitors, the group began ascending the tower, following the machinery.

- The party encountered several more unusual rooms where mortals were engaging in a variety of distorted behaviors, carefully watched by devils.

- Eventually, the party found themselves in a great hall-like room several floors up.  It was populated with a number of well-dressed mortals, but no devils were seen.  The hosts of the room flattered and begged the party to stay and socialze with them.  Kael and Taryn seemed particularly persuaded, Kael by a man lauding his obvious leadership, and Taryn by a beautiful young woman who desired his company.  In the end, it was Lily that all by dragged the others from the room.

- It was on the 15th floor that Taryn happened upon an ice devil standing guard outside a significant-looking room.  He was accompanied by Jekri.

- Around this time, Lily had met a mephit who gave to her a key, asking her to "rescue" a professor by the name of Valthious.  It mentioned that a person(?) called "Vex" would know where to find him.

- The group parlayed with Jekri for several minutes - at a safe distance of about 70 feet.  Jekri told them he had no interested in Igveston itself, but that the Academy was rightfully his.  He also promised them his activities would not affect the surrounding city, and that, if they truly could not be persuaded otherwise, they could bring a small contigent in to "inspect".  Tomorrow.

Caching In

Sunday October 20, 2013 at 10:04pm geocaching Comments (0) »
Shoal Gonna Like This One first find
first find

I like doing interesting things, and I have found that there are many activities I'd be into pursuing if another, genuinely interested friend suggested we give it a try.  I think all of my current hobbies started because I had a good time participating in the activity and discussing the ins and outs with someone else.

Geo-logistics

So my good friend Tony was hanging out recently with a friend of his up in Michigan, who on this occasion introduced him to geocaching.  They had a quite a good time with it, and Tony thought it to be something I'd find interesting.  He brought it up to me as we were working on the goggles he needed for Casey & Steph's wedding (which was also quite a blast, by the way).  

I'd heard of this passtime before, knew the basic concept and thought it sounded neat, but never really looked into it.  When Tony came back a little excited about it, that was really all it took.  I don't do as much outdoor stuff as I used to, and this seemed an interesting pretense for getting out.

Between our usual weekly schedule and needing to prepare for the game I was running on friday (which I think went well), I didn't have time to do much more than register my alias on geocaching.com.  Today, however, was a beautiful day and, after texting back and forth for a bit, Tony & I decided to meet at Sycamore Shoals - where we believed at least one cache was located.

We made this first find after just about 15 minutes - pretty easily, actually.  It's a pretty good hiding spot just a little ways off the main trail.  The GPS app I put on my phone specifically for this seemed to work quite well (I'm not using the "official" app for a couple of reasons).  I signed the log and we left a couple of items before moving on.

There seem to be a few other caches in the area, but no other ones actually within the park itself.  Though we did happen upon a "rare flower".

There seem to be quite a few caches in fairly populous/urban areas but, for now, I think we're mostly into the more remote finds - in parks, trails and the like.  We've got our eyes on Winged Deer and the lower Laurel Falls trail next.  We discussed returning to the one at Sycamore Shoals as well to do the cache a favor: the gladware container it uses is all but breached and we've talked about replacing it with something more durable.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: The Devil's Nest pt. II

Friday October 18, 2013 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- as the angel, called Ceria, had burst in, the meeting erupted with outbursts, which continued until a new figure appeared - some kind of fiend called 'Lavarent' - operating as an ambassador for Jekri.

- Ceria's cohorts began to assault the newcomer once his nature was revealed, but Miala demanded Taryn and the others stop it - which they managed to do, after a fashion.  The fiend did little more besides warn those present that any attempt to interfere would be met with resistance.  This did little to shake Ceria's resolve.

- At this point, the meeting began to fracture.  Rothan, seeing little more he could do, departed after being confronted by Tyrrox.  Reynold and Miala were still unhappy about the interlopers, but recognized they could do little.  The PCs seemed inclined to, if not join the angel, at least operate in tandem.

- The angel informed them that she and her forces planned to march on the pit immediately.  The party then decided to try to find their way into the academy from the underground.

- Ona called for volunteers at the Hall of Three to aid in the assault on the pit.  It so happened the Batu, after being instructed to deliver a letter to the Hall, had managed to secure a room there for the night.  Upon hearing the summons, he eagerly joined the cause to show his strength.  

- Sensing some cunning in him, Ona discussed their strategy and the two decided a flanking maneuver would be most beneficial.  Since Ceria and her forces were drawing most of the attention, Ona, Batu and their guard managed to scale to the bottom of the pit from the opposite side - where they encountered the barbed lord devil the party had previously encountered.  He was standing near two, twisted bronze columns which had some sort of metal clamps fastened to them, with ropes trailing into some sort of mirror-like object.

- The party managed to break into the Academy from below.  Inside they found that it had been completely infested with devils who seemed to have forced or enticed the mortals within to engage in all manner of unseemly behavior.  In the main hallways, the encountered massive, infernal machinery into which some unlucky mortals had already been grafted.  Beyond it, in a large open chamber, they could see the Galdzuri arch, a golden-purple aura pulsing around it...

Angles

Saturday October 12, 2013 at 10:03pm photography Comments (0) »
goat at Fender's Farm got your goat
got your goat

Yeah, it's a goat.

I posted this picture because, as a photo, I actually think it's pretty fantastic.  I love the way its framed, and the perspective it gives. I've been playing a bit more with the wide end of my kit lens lately (i've mentioned before how i've been fairly impressed with the image quality of this lens, at least on my crop-frame camera) - this was taken at 28mm on it.  At ~45mm equiv, it's *barely* a "wide angle" shot, but it's a close enough approximation.  I have my eye on an actual wide-angle lens - probably my next camera-based purchase - and some of the experiments I've been doing with this lens have given me some ideas on what kind of fun i could have with a still-larger field of view.

The shot was taken earlier today over at Fender's Farm, which was stop number three on the day's crazy agenda.  It's been exhausting, but fun.

~PS

Penguinsushi.com Version 11

Wednesday October 9, 2013 at 2:24pm web development, web design Comments (0) »
Site Redesign (v11) Website Recursion
Website Recursion

And here we are.  Version 11 of my website, at just about the 8.6 year mark.

Design and Approach

Once again, I've decided to change up the look and feel of the site, since I get bored easily.  This one kind of harkens back to version 9 - with a kind of antiqued feel.  With this one, though, I wanted to have the content much more front-and-center, minimizing the space occupied by header, border and menu aspects.  I do think the designs have continued to improve.

The biggest difference in terms of interface is that the new site is much more unified: instead of dividing my site into different pages, I decided that I would just have everything posted in this one feed.  This approach really fits the way I've been using the site recently better than the previous incarnations.

Development

The backend of this version is much the same as version 10, with some minor tweaks.  In the same way that the front end is unified, the backend has also be redesigned with commonalities in mind: each content object on the site (entries, comments, quotes, etc) is now considered an "article", which may or may not have children or associated assets (images, files, etc.).

Through the Cracks

A few things have fallen off of the site with this version, but I'm not sure that's a problem.  The galleries were, at this point, basically redundant with the bookface.  The gaming resources are also missing, but I'm not sure how much they were used.  The music page is also gone but, despite the fact that I've spent quite a bit of time and effort working on that kind of stuff, I really haven't produced much lately.  Any of these things that turn out to be missed will be re-posted as new articles on this version as desired.  As I alluded to above, I have expanded the capabilities of what can be attached to an article/blog for this purpose.

Edit: Oh, and "The List" is still around, I just decided our random quotes would make a good footnote. ;)

Edit #2: Also, I'm a little proud of the nested website photo I have posted here.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: The Precipice

Saturday September 21, 2013 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

Guest Character:

[Kevin] Batu - Sylvan Elf Barbarian

Highlights:

- The party spent some time discussing what to do with Morran's body.  They quickly decided they wanted to use 'speak with dead' to try to learn more, but they were considering certain logistics.

- The group ultimately decided they wanted to use the spell in the presence of the Hall of Three as well as some of the local nobles in an effort to unify them against whatever was going on.

- After some doing, they convinced Miala Xerus to arrange for a midnight council meeting.

- The party asked Morran about what was going on at the academy and what it could mean if the devils' efforts were successful.  Most of this was stuff that the party had already learned, but they wanted the others to be able to hear it straight from Morran.

- While they were still talking, representatives from House Briglau burst in, lead by a wild and angelic figure - saying that if the local law would not cast out the devils, they would take matters into their own hands.

- Aside: An elf called Batu (Kevin) arrives in town, only to find the gates closed.  He has a brief altercation with a racist bartender and meets up with a dwarven cleric.

 

Next Session Theory: Friday, Oct 18th.

Cyrran Reaches: Cloaks

Saturday September 7, 2013 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The party heard some hell hounds approaching and decided to split up and make their way back to the Laughing Jack

- Kael went to the temple to speak with Ona Macrath about what was going on in the Undercity (but not about Morran in particular).  On the way there, he met a young woman who seemed interested in him.

- After discovering where Kael was staying, the woman - actually a doppleganger - took on Kael's form and went back to the Laughing Jack, where it killed Elivius Morran.  Before it could escape, however, the party caught up and killed it as it fled.

Having Been Judged

Saturday August 24, 2013 at 2:51pm appalachian fair, photography, web design Comments (0) »
 Udvar-Hazy SR-71 Blackbird HDR at the Appalachian Fair
Udvar-Hazy SR-71 Blackbird HDR at the Appalachian Fair

Doing Something

Since I've spent a few years taking pictures of pretty much everything I encounter *and* since I've spent quite a bit of money on this hobby over the last 5 years or so (and plan to spend a bit more), Sheri told me she would like to see me "do" something with this stuff.  By that I suppose she meant "do something more than just share them with your friends".  Or something.

So anyway, at her prompting, I entered a few of my shots in the Appalachian Fair.

First off, their website needs some help.  It's a bit..."dated".  Or, some might say, "in need of a redesign".  Or, others might say simply, "ugly".  That really wasn't my beef with it, though.  My issue was that their website failed to communicate clearly.  It did convey the necessary information, but there were times it seemed to be contradicting itself with respect to deadlines, and it could have been a little more specific on a few steps.  I got the distinct impression - from both the site and personal interations - that the fair just seems to assume you already know what's going on.  If you're involved with this, you probably have been for some time and so we don't need to be overly specific.  And, on the off chance you're new, they'll just let you muddle through the affair without offering much direction (or even confirmation) along the way.

I entered 4 photos in the photography section at the fair.  That was an interesting day.  I'd actually started out to enter 6, but one of them didn't turn out as sharp as I would have liked, and I could only find 4 acceptable mats at Michaels.  I might have waited till the last minute on that one, but we've had a busy summer.  That fact might have contributed to feeling of "lack of direction" i expressed above, but I would still maintain that's not all of the cause.  But I digress.

The four photos I entered were one of a tropical bird (animals), a path leading to a beach (landscape), a butterfly on a flower (insects), and finally, a photo of the SR-71 Blackbird we saw recently at Udvar-Hazy (other).

So last night, we all went out to the fair.  And yes, I still find "carnival barkers" annoying.  Not that I was going to play any of their games anyway (I'm not especially good at them), but yelling at me actually makes me less likely to bite.  I wonder if that actually works on people, or if it is, at this point, simply a cultural artifact.  Perhaps other people like it specifically for that reason.  But I digress, yet again.

We knew Hannah would want to see the animals.  She was extremely amused by the duck slide, and I think she enjoyed petting some of the others.  She also told me she wanted to pet the person in the cow costume.  She had a good time.  In the next couple of years, she's going to start demanding to go on the rides though, and then I'll be less into it.

Apart from witnessing the adorable, I was primarily there for the photo exhibit.  We haven't really been to a fair since I've been into that sort of thing, and I really like to see others' work - both to mentally critique and to learn something from their styles.  Also, I thought it would be cool to see if I'd happened to win anything, and how much I agreed with the judges.

There were a lot of cool photos there.  The exhibit wasn't huge (and was laid out a bit awkwardly for someone trying to see all of it), but it was of a respectable size. From what I saw, I was proud of my shots.  Honestly, I do think they were among the best, though there were more than a few I'd call better, and those were very enjoyable to look at.

A Fair Shot

The first place "animals" photo was of a squirrel clinging to the side of a tree, poised not unlike a ninja, staring straight at the camera.  It was a good shot, framed well,  though perhaps not razor sharp.  It had an interestingly-narrow depth-of-field as well.  I didn't begrudge that one - it was as least as good as mine.  The second-place, however, I was less impressed by.  It was a female cardinal on a snowy branch.  It was rather small in the frame, as the bird was only about an inch tall on the 8x10.  The snowy environment was interesting and did add to the composition, however, so the small subject was, perhaps, acceptable (if not my style).  There was some rather odd intentional vignetting around the entire frame, which looked like it was trying too hard to be "quaint".  Apart from the fact that I think the shooter needed about another 100-200 mm of focal length, it just wasn't very sharp.  It was a bit blurry even from a distance, and the contrast was a bit dull.  It wasn't a terrible shot, but I didn't think it was as good as mine - or another I saw, which was a rather impressive shot of a barn owl.  The third place shot was considerably better, it was of a heron skipping across some shallow water.  Taken from an angle about 90 degrees to the left, it would have been amazing.  As it was, it was pretty impressive.  I wouldn't have begrudged it second place.

The first place "insects" photo was a butterfly as well, nicely composed, though not very bright.  I think it was as good as mine or better, and the variety of butterfly was a bit less common, which added interest.  The second place insects was of a banana spider.  It was decent, though the angle of the shot and its position in the frame could have been better.  The color and contrast were great.  Sharpness was good, though the abdomen was notable sharper than its head (which was facing away).  I suppose it was superior to mine in terms of contrast between subject and background and, arguably, interest of the subject - but I think my shot was as good or better in any other aspect.  Third place was a dragonfly.  It was also a good shot, though there was another dragonfly photo in the show I actually thought was better in terms of sharpness/color/contrast, and they were framed about the same.  I didn't compare them side-by-side, however, so maybe there was something technically superior to the winner.

As an aside, they hung my butterfly picture incorrectly - vertically instead of horizontally.  I don't mention this because I think it had anything at all to do with how it was judged (it actually looks fine vertically), but because I find it amusing since the woman I gave my photos to specifically asked how that one was intended to be hung.

So, landscapes.  I don't remember the first place landscape - though all of the first place shots were good, so I'm sure it was awesome.  The second place shot was of a mountain valley filled with rocks and scrub, with a nice blue sky.  It wasn't especially interesting in my opinion, but it was technically quite good, and I'd say it deserved second.  The beach path photo I entered isn't one I think is technically perfect: it's less than sharp in some places, a bit oversaturated and without enough contrast, but it's a shot I really like for some reason.  I don't recall the third place landscape, but I'm sure it was good.  I didn't really compare the winners with mine in this category since, though I really like my shot, I wasn't prepared to defend its technical merits against the others.

And then there was the Blackbird, for which I actually got 1st place in the "other" category.  Ironically, I wouldn't have given it to me.  The second place shot in that category was of a train moving down a track, puffing smoke with some people off to the left, waving.  Interestingly muted colors.  I think it was actually a better shot, and I probably would have given it first place and second to my plane (i don't recall seeing anything else in that category that amazed me).  Of the four I entered, it was probably my least favorite.  It was a good photo and all, and it was an interesting subject, but I liked the others more.

In general, I only agreed with the judges about 50% - but that's the nature of anything artistic, right?  Also, I think my criteria were probably different.

I've Been Framed

One thing I learned from this whole experience, is that I don't like prints.  At least not 8x10s  All of my photos I consider "good" are framed well as a whole.  Forced to chop off an inch and a half from the longest side, however, and some of them become... less perfect.  (Just for the record, I highly doubt this affected the judging of the photos I entered - this is a separate topic).  I've found that I don't shoot for this sort of cropping, and I don't particularly like it.  If I'm going to do more for prints, I may need to adjust my shooting method, perhaps shooting for what I want and then, if I think it's something I might want a print of, recompsing it with the cropping in mind.  Or something like that.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Wayward

Saturday August 17, 2013 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Tyrrox finished his community service and returned to the Hall of Three to retrieve his weapons that were being held.  Upon arriving, he was challenged to a duel by Aegus Rothan, one of the more militant priests of the hall.  After the fight, Tyrrox was invited to eat and drink with the hall soldiers.  During the conversations, Rothan mentioned that he'd encountered an ibixian before - a man he called Kiveg, who was supposedly Tyrrox's uncle.

- When the group reassembled, Taryn told them he'd had a dream about Morran in the undercity and thought he knew where to go - a place called The Junk Room.

- Kael helped the group find the market that was near the place.  When they arrived, they found the proprietor, and old woman, being harrased by a few armed thugs.  Taryn managed to talk them down.

- The group found out from the woman that Morran had come to talk to her, and that he wanted some help healing a kind of magical wound.  She didn't seem happy about the visit.

- Kael decided to see if he could find out where the thugs went.  The group caught up with them near their hideout in the Undercity, and a fight ensued.  After defeating the thugs, they found a familiar tattoo on their foes, and someone in an old cloak and fine robes tied up inside.

Cyrran Reaches: Regrouping

Friday August 9, 2013 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The group shut themselves in the tavern, hoping they weren't seen by the hell hounds and bearded devils running by outside.  In the back room, they found a crevince in the earth behind the loose wall paneling.  They began to tear off the boards and squeeze through the narrow passage when one of the bearded devils burst into the building.

- They managed to fight off the devil and escape into a vacant alleyway and head back to the nicer section of town.

- The group went to the Hall of Three and spoke with Ona Macrath about the devil incursion.  She says it will take a few days to prepare to march on the invaders.

- The group then dispersed.  Lily wanted to study some about an ancient arch Ona had mentioned, Taryn decided to try to divine a course of action, Kael decided to return to the Undercity to gather more information about the devils, and Tyrrox still needed to finish his "community service".

- They met with Ona the next afternoon, and she told them that there were some in the hall that were a little less hurried to engage the devil forces - so there may be delay as powers-that-be decide on an "appropriate" course of action.

Summer Vacation

Friday August 9, 2013 at 2:32pm friends, travel Comments (1) »
 Udvar-Hazy - Kitty Hawk fighter
Udvar-Hazy - Kitty Hawk fighter

Sheri, Hannah & I went on our first real trip in the "new" car we got back at the beginning of this year.  One of the nicest things about having it is (in addition to my getting much better gas economy), being able to go places more than 20 minutes away and be reasonably confident the vehicle in question will make it there and back.  Since our good friend Ginger couldn't make it down for Trogland 7 this year (much to our disappointment), we decided to work out a time to go visit them up in the DC area.

The trip was tremendously fun.  Ginger & William are great hosts, and it was so much fun to hang out with them.  We hadn't really done a lot with Ginger in several years and it was great to really have some time to catch up.  Also, William is a great guy - I really wish I knew him better.  Hannah and Liam seemed to get along pretty well and were really cute playing together.  William has decreed that, on our next meeting, there shall be more games.

In addition to some relaxing, we went to Udvar-Hazy and the National Zoo.  I, of course, I had a great time taking pictures at both locations.  I was particularly impressed with my camera's performance at Udvar-Hazy in terms of high ISO (was shooting at 1600 for most of it) and the 28-135mm IS kit lens I was using (generally at the 28mm due to the size of subject material).  That thing may be consumer-grade, but it has given me some impressive results (if not completely consistently).  At the zoo, I was using my new 300mm telephoto.  I'm not sure how high I rate that zoo in terms of how good it is for photography, but we only got to about 60% of it and several of the enclosures were possessed of animals that weren't exactly cooperative - so maybe i don't have adequate data to make that sort of call.  Still, it was a lot of fun and I did get a few really nice shots.

~PS

New Photo Gear

Friday August 9, 2013 at 2:26pm photography, gear Comments (0) »
Canon 300mm f/4L New Toy
New Toy

New Toys

So, after saving for several years, I have, at last, been able to buy another piece of camera gear: a nice professional-grade telephoto lens.  Specifically, Canon's 300mm f/4L.  It is a beatiful lens, and so far my only "regret" is the fact that I haven't had more time to play with it.  The thing is built like a tank (and weighs a ton for it), crystal clear and gives a respectable reach.

Along with that, I also picked up a set extension tubes which are a lot of fun to use with my 50mm (though controlling the depth of field is tricky).

Upgrade?

Prior to having bought that lens and running into the present, I've been looking at upgrading my faithful 40d camera body to something with some more expanded capabilties - particularly with respect to iso sensitivity & performance as I have found that flash tends to annoy people and I'm all too often wanting to shoot in rather dark situations.  Also looking at possibly (probably?) going full frame. 

I've got a good chunk saved toward a new camera body/kit thanks to a web development side project, but, unfortunately, the camera gear I want doesn't exist.

Prospecting

Here is, basically, what I'm after:

- Solid construction (at least on par with my 40d)

- Convenient controls (again, at least on par with my 40d)

- ISO 12800+ & the newest canon image processor (DIGIC 5+) at ~20mp

- A camera for which I can get a nice wide/ultrawide, preferably prime, lens

The Canon 5d Mark III meets all these requirements swimmingly.  It's a full frame, and probably the best digital camera Canon currently makes.  I have played with one of these, and it's undeniably awesome.  It's just so freaking expensive. So I suppose I should add "- cost < arm+leg" to the requirements.

The Canon 6d - also a full frame - has most of that for about $1500 less, making it somewhat more affordable.  No complaints on image quality (probably the most important thing), but it takes a couple of hits on the "controls" scale, missing some things my 40d has such as the thumb joystick and physical buttons for more controls on the top LCD.  I would miss those.  It also has a couple of other minor shortcomings, such as a 1/4000 max shutter speed, SD cards only (which seems to be an increasing trend), slower burst rate, and a few others.

The newly-announced Canon 70d is a more direct upgrade of my camera and is a crop-frame sensor, but I'm less sure on how its construction solidity compares to my 40d (i seem to remember thinking some of the later X0d models felt more "plastic-y" than mine) and it has the same controls shortcomings as the 6d, though a price tag about $800 less - its ~$1200 price tag making it almost "cheap" in the scheme of things.  I wouldn't really mind sticking with a crop-frame sensor (in fact, in some ways, I think i might prefer that), but I do eventually want a nice wide lens, and I'd really prefer a prime (such as the (pricey) Canon 14mm f/2.8L II) - though the relatively inexpensive and well-reviewed Canon 10-22mm may suffice.

The Canon 7d has the controls and features set I want - almost perfectly - though the ISO, image sensor and mp are all a (small) step down from the others.  Also a crop-frame, it is, at least as of now, about $500 more than the coming 70d.

You Get What You Pay For

...and, conversely, you pay for what you get.  The other issue here is that all of the above cameras have features I don't need and/or would never seriously use - most noteably among them: audio/video recording capability.  I'm a pretty serious still photographer, but I have absolutely no interest in video - at least, not in any capacity more than "look at this cute thing my daughter is doing", and I hardly need a thousand-dollar hd camera for that: I'm going for pure content, not quality.  I don't need that - nor do I understand why every new digital camera "must" have it.  Probably because it's a feature they can implement on a digital camera without too much trouble and still charge a premium for. 

I don't need in-camera editing functions either.  And I don't need direct print.  Built-in wifi and/or gps are cool, but I don't need them.  Built-in HDR would be pretty sweet, but also, not needed.  The 70d's flip-out screen might be handy for self-portraits at christmas, but I'd wonder about it's solidity and I don't need it - and I definitely don't need its touch-screen (i'd rather have physical buttons, thanks). I don't need a pop-up flash.  I actually don't need custom camera modes, because i don't like the "reset" that happens when the camera goes to sleep.  Not to sound "elitist", but I don't need the amateur camera modes (actually, I'd be happy with only M - though Av and Tv might be nice on occassion) OR "scene" based modes.  I don't *need* full frame, though I wish Canon (or anybody?) made a nice wide/ultrawide equivalent (10mm f/2.8, EF-S perhaps?) prime for and APS-C cropped sensor.  There are a host of other, minor features on any given camera that could go as well.

So basically, what I want doesn't exist - and, at this point, is probably unlikely to.  The 6d is probably still the best fit, though if I could find a used 5dIII for a good price I might go with that.  A 6dII or 7dII might be as close as I'll get to perfect also.  A 5dIV might bring the price of the III down to reasonable (assuming I don't decide I "need" some feature of the newer model).

It's down the road a ways anyway, but, as of now, only know I'd like a camera upgrade.  I have no idea what I'd actually buy.

Edit: Some rumours I've read suggest that Canon may be releasing some new cameras next year (including a 7d mk II) - maybe one of them will be closer.

~PS

Trogland 7

Friday August 9, 2013 at 2:02pm web development, trogland Comments (0) »
Trogland 7 Image

Well, it's August.

In The Works

I haven't been on here much lately, have I?  I have found that, generally speaking, when I'm working on a new site design, I tend to begin neglecting the current incarnation - even though I'm going to migrate everything to the new layout (so it's not as if anything would be "lost" or "wasted"). I'm not 100% sure why this is, but I suspect it comes from my subconscious desire to finalize framework and structure before I bother with such dressings as "content"...   ...even if that's the point.  I'm making a conscious effort to supercede this tendency now.

Trogland 7

So, about a month and a half ago, Trogland 7 happened.  As I mentioned before, this was our first year trying to be completely organized on the front-end instead of just "winging it" based on what feels right at the time.  I think we were 90% successful.  The registration site did it's job, funds were collected and adequate, and I think it was less stressful all-around for most people - perhaps myself excluded.

The meetup itself was, as always, a lot of fun.  I ran two games and, as is now expected, spent most of saturday taking photos of the event.

Fated

The first game I ran was something I dubbed "Gaslamp Vanguard", and was a steampunk-inspirted indiana-jones style adventure game using the new Fate Core rules set.  I really liked Fate when I played it in Dresden, and the still more free-form approach this new publication puts out is even better for someone like me who likes to "tweak" rules/systems/settings.  The game itself was a lot of fun, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.  The scenario was actually the second game I've fun based on a young adult book called "The Door in the Dragon's Throat" - because I think the premise therein is awesome as an rpg.

Little Fears II

The other game I ran was a sequel to last year's wildely successful Little Fears game (once again, using my modified "v1.5" rules) - by popular demand.  I don't think it was quite the homerun of last year's (at least, I didn't actually scare people), but it was a different part of the story, and I think it was still a great game.  This session was less about the tension and fear, and more about realization and deciding on action.  It still had some pretty creepy moments though.  I plan the "end of the trilogy" next summer, which will probably involve the "party" diving headlong into Faerie.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: The Devil's Nest pt. I

Saturday July 20, 2013 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

New Character:

[Tim] Kael - Half-Elf Ranger

Highlights:

- The group catch sight of one of the men they'd overheard heading back to the Civic district.  They followed him back to the Knight's Chamber, but didn't directly talk to him.

- The following day, the group encountered him talking to one of the local nobles, and they spent some time chatting with an elderly man of House Alphast.

- The group decided to return to the Undercity in search of information.  They end up in a small hole-in-the-wall tavern, but find the patrons dispondent.  They were still trying to get them to talk when they were attacked by a pair of imps and their lemure minions.

- Taryn had taken the bartender outside for some fresh air, and happened upon a giant hole in the middle of the undercity - filled with devils and enslaved commoners.  The two hurried back to the tavern, but not before raising the alarm in the pit.  Back at the tavern, they were met by Kael, an old acquaintence of Taryn's - just before they heard the baying of approaching hounds...

Please Stand By...Again...

Wednesday July 10, 2013 at 10:28am everything Comments (0) »

Ah! I slept through June!

Good ol' Penguinsushi.com hasn't been used much lately.  I have been insanely busy.  The short list includes Bug, Trogland 7, a development side project, new toys, visiting family and various get-togethers.  Also, I've been kicking around ideas on another site-redesign.

It's not dead, it's just a tad neglected on the front-end.

~PS

References: Welcome Back.

Happy Valley: Return To Happy Valley

Saturday June 29, 2013 at 9:00pm happy valley, game session notes, trogland Comments (0) »

Gaslamp Vanguard: The Dragon's Throat

Friday June 28, 2013 at 8:00pm gaslamp vanguard, game session notes, trogland Comments (0) »

Cyrran Reaches: Secrets and Rumours

Saturday June 1, 2013 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The party met with Miala Xerus, who paid them some gold up front and offered a bounty on any particularly relevant information they could uncover.  She wants to know what is going on in the city. 

- Miala has heard some interesting rumours - including that Morran was seen heading into the poor quarter and that the Hall of Three might have set up the bombing on their temple themselves.

- The group is to perform for house Xerus in 7 days - and deliever their news to Miala.

- After meeting with Miala, the party decides to start by heading to the poor quarter to see if they can get some trace of the schoolmaster.  They ended up at a run-down "inn" in the poor quarter called "Rest for the Weary"

- Lily overheard a meeting between two locals and someone from out of town mentioning Devric

Sidenotes

Friday May 31, 2013 at 10:39pm gaming, trogland, photography Comments (0) »

Been very busy, but not much for the blog.  Mostly, I've been working on my current campaign (Cyrran Reaches), gearing up for Trogland 7, and playing a little with my camera.  I've also been trying to get some creative ideas for some recording projects going, but it's been a little hit or miss.

Reaching

I think my D&D 3.5 game is going quite well.  Last session was a little slow, but there's been some great plot, some fun action, and some aspects I haven't addressed much in games before.  I've enjoyed developing the setting area as well, and there are a lot of possibilities for it, I think.

Troggin'

This year's meetup is coming up soon - we're just about a month away.  Today was the last day for pre-registration.  I built trogland.penguinsushi.com for this purpose, and I'm fairly proud of it.  Getting the meetup funded up-front this year has allowed us to do some new things with less stress.  Win-win all around.  I'll also be running a sequel to last year's Little Fears game - which was awesome to the point that I'm not sure I can possibly live up to it.  Still, it should be fun.  If I can get that together soon, I may also try to run something else on friday night.

Back Up

I've also, as usual, been playing with my camera.  I actually had a chance to play with the 5D mk III one of my coworkers uses at work...  ...and now I kind of want one.  It's pretty nice.  I would settle for a 6D though, and since that one is about 1.5k cheaper, it's a bit more likely than the former.  I'm also still wanting to get a nice telephoto lens.

Unfortunately, I also discovered my beloved 50mm prime has a bit of a backfocusing issue.  I'm not sure if it's always done this and increased experience now has me noticing, or whether it has developed the behvior recently.  On the good side, it is extremely mild - to the point that I can't quite tell if it always does it or not, and it's really only noticeable up close and at a wide aperture.  Also, if I do manage to get a newer camera, a lot of the nice digital bodies have the ability to compensate for this sort of thing.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Lingering Spectres Pt. II

Saturday May 11, 2013 at 6:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- After hearing the Hall guard was entering the premesis, Devric ran out of the room downstairs; Lily and Tyrrox followed him.

- Taryn lingered behind long enough to encounter the ghost they'd previously seen.  They had a brief conversation about the now-departing intruders, and it seemed to go well until Taryn mentioned a woman he'd seen in a painting downstairs.  This upset the ghost terribly and caused it to wail uncontrollably.

- Downstairs, Devric used some sort of potion to activate the arcane circle, and images of rocky prominences jutting up from a fetid sea began to take shape in the mists above the floor, eventually revealing a massive hydra and a pair of disembodied voices.  The barrier between the worlds seemed to weaken, and water began pouring onto the manor floor - along with several small demons.

- Meanwhile, the Hall guard arrived outside and were busy attempting to cross the courtyard while the keep's guardian seemed disinclined to allow them.

- Taryn caught up with the others downstairs in time to be mutated by corruptive energies which were now pouring from the circle.  Lily tried to convince Devric to end the ritual, but the man seemed to be becoming more and more mad.

- When the ritual did finally end a couple of rounds later, Devric collapsed on the floor, chuckling madly to himself.  The Hall guard finally gained entrance, searched the place and took all those present into custody.

- The party was taken to the holding cells in the basement of the Hall of Three, where they were held until trial.  The trials were held individually, and involved each of the accused accounting for his/her actions to a group of assembled clergy whereupon one was called to make a final and swift judgement.  In general, the judges agreed that the party's statements were basically true and that they were only guilty of breaking and entering. 

- After the trials, the group encountered Miala, a noblewoman who had previously attempted to contact them, and they agreed to meet with her later that evening.

Cyrran Reaches: Confronting the Unseen

Saturday April 27, 2013 at 6:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The party followed the others' lead into the abandoned keep.  They avoided the treant guardian in the courtyard and made their way to the large manorhouse between the two large towers.

- Inside they found the place had been disturbed recently, but only on certain places.  A noteworthy feature of the entry/foyer area was the fact that the carpeting and furniture had been shoved to the edges of the room to make way for an arcane circle which had been painted in red on the floor.  There was also a red eye painted on the wall in once corner.

- The group was making their way upstairs, when they were ambushed by some invisible rogues.  They fought them off enough that the rogues retreated.  Upstairs, they found a room that was strangely undisturbed, clean and in good order.  Upon leaving the room, however, they were ambushed again, this time by a more coordinated attack.  The ensuing fight proved difficult.

- As the encounter was wrapping up, another man arrived upstairs.  He seemed startled to see them, but quickly regained his composure.  He seemed to be the "leader" of whatever was going on, and he offered them a considerable sum just to walk away.  While the party was still interrogating him, another man came running in, telling them that the Hall guard was coming..

Cyrran Reaches: Breaking In

Saturday April 20, 2013 at 5:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- A message had been left for the party from Miala Xerus, a noble of the ruling House.  She had something she wanted them to do and that they would be paid for the efforts.  The message stated they were invited to the Xerus Estate, but the Hall guards outside insisted that Miala was no present and that they would not be allowed inside.

- Encountered a bit of a commotion outside the the Hall of Three, where a priest or paladin called Ona was irate - insisting on taking a contingent of armed guards to the Magus Academy, forcing entry and demanding answers from those who were clearly responsible for the previous night's attack.  She was arguing with another priest she called Ivan, who insisted she should not act rashly.

- The party had written a letter to the Master about the magical crossbow bolt that had been shot at Tyrrox in Ettaseph - wanting to know more about it and if who had fired it could be tracked down magically.  They decided they'd go and see if they could get anyone's attention from outside.  They managed to attract the attention of an old priest called Occulous. He seemed a little crazy, but was generally conversive.  He apparently had nothing to do with the sealing of the grounds and was interested in the crossbow bolt, though the wards on the grounds prevented them from passing it through to him.  He did say he would try to get Master Morran their message, but he didn't expect it would be paid much attention.

- The party returned to the Xerus Estate to try again, but they were once more told Miala was not present and that they would not be granted entry.  They then decided to take a closer look at the unoccupied keep Bradley Durn had told them about (and where they expected the ghost they'd encountered previously had come from).  While looking around, Taryn witnessed some suspicious figures sneaking into the keep by way of the second floor of a neighboring house.

- The group entered the house and were attacked by some thugs with a tattoo of the symbol of the eye with the tooth they'd seen before.

Cyrran Reaches: Local Factions

Saturday April 13, 2013 at 5:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Spent some time at The Laughing Jack making friends with the proprietor.

- Did a little poking around town.  Planned to go to the Magus Academy, but discovered it had been unexpectedly sealed off following a heated argument at a counsel meeting the previous night.

- Talked their way into the Keep District of the town.  Escorted by a young guardsman by the name of Bradley Durn who seemed to be connected to House Briglau.  He told them some basic info about the estates in the district, and about the nobles who live there.

- Lily talked to a priest called Salemnor at the Hall of Three (a temple to St. Cuthbert) about getting some historical info on the town and its nobility.  He told her it would take a few days and told her of the fees required.

- Later that night, they witnessed a couple of large explosions at the Hall of Three.  They rushed to the scene and attempted to help the efforts to contain the insuing chaos.

In the case of a tie...

Monday April 1, 2013 at 2:09pm board games Comments (1) »
In the case of a tie... Image

We (Tony, Sheri and I) played two new board games over the weekend.

The first game we played was Thunderstone.  This is a game that I heard about at GenCon in 2010.  It's a lot like Dominion in terms of game play.  It's a deck-building game where the goal is to accumulate cards that give you points at the end of the game.  The primary difference is in thematics.  Instead of accumulating coins to buy Provinces and other victory cards, in Thunderstone, you fill your deck with hero and weaponry cards that will help you defeat monsters, which are worth points at the end of the game.  We had a good time with it, though we didn't actually figure out how it worked until about halfway through.

The other game we played was Steam.  This was a game that I got Sheri for christmas, and we've only just now gotten around to playing.  This game is somewhat involved - we only played the "base" game - and we only mostly figured it out.  It is something like a cross between Ticket to Ride and Carcassonne.  Essentially, you lay track tiles to connect cities in order to move trade goods to and from cities to gain money and points.  We didn't get all the way through the game we started, but what we played was a lot of fun.

~PS

Thistle & Thorns: Nareena's Curse

- A group of ferrets had been sighted north of Lockhaven near Thistledown, and a patrol was sent to expell them and to check up on Thistledown.

- As they entered the area and investigated the situation, they found that the town had had a rough year as unprecedented flooding had ruin much of their store, and a dramatic infestation of thorns which had grown quickly and relentlessly since early spring was interfering with life in the village.  Their bad luck seemed to have started after they expelled a crazy old witch-mouse, and some believe she placed a curse on the town.

- The group ultimately discovered that the flooding and thorns had been the direct result of intentional acts, and suspected that the witch-mouse had somehow enlisted the help of the roaming ferrets.

- The group was finally able to track down the ferrets and drive them out of the region, but the witch-mouse was nowhere to be found...

Cyrran Reaches: Lingering Spectres Pt. I

Saturday March 9, 2013 at 7:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- the party tied up some loose ends in Ettaseph after having aided in solving the treeant problem.  they stayed for a couple of days to help with some aftermath and to talk to a few more locals.

- one man they met was Ulbrus Marc, a cleric of Fharlanghn, who was traveling through the area.  By the end of their conversation, however, his jovial spirit had become worried and he informed them he was heading back to his homeland of Uldul Ferrik immediately.

- the party caught up with the cleric again the next day, whereupon he told them he was concerned about their description of the man with the two-headed-dragon tattoo.  Apparently there was some lore in his town related to multi-headed serpent - regarding it as an ancient evil.

- the group, however, continued to Igveston to see if they could find out anything about a man they'd heard of with a different mark: an eye and tooth motif, as well as to, perhaps, seek information about the lost dungeon they're seeking.

- shortly after arriving the in the city (late that night), they were accosted by a ghost who behaved oddly and was complaining about intruders in his house and insisting the group do something about it.

Late Imagery

Wednesday March 6, 2013 at 3:39pm photography Comments (0) »
Late Imagery Image

Portfolio Photos

Finally posted my 2012 photo portfolio.  I've noticed that the number of photos in my galleries are steadily increasing.  I'm not sure if my standards are lowering, if I have more good pictures, or if I just like too many photos of my daughter.  Maybe all three.

Anyway, they're up on the Photo page, for any who may be interested.

~PS

Cyrran Reaches: Gaining Notice

Saturday March 2, 2013 at 6:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- party returns to town and, with the help of a young woman called Relia, tells the tree lord what they had found, pleads that the humans are not responsible, and negotiates for the release of the remaining women the trees are holding captive.

- party enjoys and evening at Loreth's tavern, where they are harolded as heroes by the locals

- On the way back to their inn, Taryn and Tyrrox are attacked by a sniper using and explosive crossbow bolt and several shadowy goblinoid figures - all seeming to be orchestrated only to leave a message: "You have wandered into our midst; we are always watching"

- The party questioned some locals about some iconography they've encountered (an eye with a tooth), and also some involvement in recent events.

Web Dev, Gaming Cons, and the Wiki of the Penguin

Monday February 18, 2013 at 9:26pm website, gaming Comments (0) »
Web Dev, Gaming Cons, and the Wiki of the Penguin Image

Yeah, Whatever

I am pretty behind on doing anything on this site.  Meh.  I still need to post photos from 2012.  I've gone through them, I just need to make final selections & export them.  It'll happen.  At some point.

Also, i've been doing some work on the site engine and kicking around some new site design ideas.  Because that's what I do.

Also, also (and this is related) a group of us has started talking about this year's OotsCon, which is now called the Trogland Meetup.  It's becoming a bit more of a stand-alone entity.  We're expanding it a bit, due to past difficulties.  This year, we're going to have some hotel space for some of the events, and we're formalizing some of the other "goodies" - like con badges and 'schwag' items.  Due to this, we're implementing a registration fee as well, and I've been developing a registration site for us to use.  That's taken a bit of time.

Didn't Think She'd Mine

So I got Sheri into Minecraft.  I'm actually kind of surprised she enjoys the game as much as she does.  Also, due to some hardware replacements at work, she got a new computer.  It's the fastest currently in the house.  64-bit Windows 7 2.9ghz with 8gb of ram.  This machine - dubbed Pheonix as it was born from the ashes of a few dying pcs - replaced Lain, and it plays the game quite well.

The Savage and Fantastic

We brought our Savage Seas game to a pausing point - actually, a point just before a new leg of the adventure - and decided to pick something else for a while.  It is a good game, and we'll go back to it eventually, but I was really in the mood to do something different.  The group had wanted to play a high fantasy game for a while, so I started a new D&D 3.5 game at 10th level.  The setting I'm developing for it is called Cyrran Reaches, and it's a region in the corner of a kingdom with half a dozen settlements and quite a few interesting characters.  So far, I've only really developed the generalities of the place and the westernmost village, but the detail is awesome.

Take Note

Speaking of, I've been continuing my experiments in gaming notes.  I like to have gaming notes because I like highly-detailed setting creation, but I've never had a good way of organizing them such that it makes any sense.  I got a new idea while listening to Fear the Boot, and downloaded MediaWiki - which is the open source platform wikipedia is built on - and put it on a subdomain on this site for my personal use.  It is now my game note repository.  Since it's online, I can work on it from anywhere, and it's topical, internally-linked nature makes organizing things intuitive and effortless.  It is the best method I've come across so far, and I'm really loving it. 

MiceCon

I'm now kicking around ideas for RuchtCon III coming up in mid/late march.  Due to Hannah, I think I'm only going to be able to participate a little, but I told Rucht I'd run one game, so I'm now gearing up for some Mouse Guard.

Cyrran Reaches: Sweet Tooth

Saturday February 16, 2013 at 6:00pm d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The party learned from some of the townspeople that the bandits were suspected of having taken up residence in the exhausted silver mine a few miles outside of town.  That didn't make much sense for what was known about the bandits, but if the dryads were being held anywhere nearby, it seemed the most likely.

- They headed out to the mine to investigate, and encountered kobold traps and a small band of the creatures as well as some malnurished wolves they seemed to have been keeping.

- As they were finishing up, a dryad came stumbling out of the cave, begging them to return her to her tree far to the north.  They led her out of the canyon, but they became suspicious when she insisted on the group escorting her all the way to her home tree, refused to return to town and claimed to be too weak to use any of her own abilities.  Lily cast Dispel Magic on her, and her dryad visage dissolved revealing a hideous hag, which shrieked and then vanished.

- The party returned to the mine.  Inside, they were attacked by more kobolds before they stumbled into the mine's primary denizen - a massive, 6-headed hydra.

- The ensuing fight was viscious, but ultimately the massive beast was brought down, whereupon the hag came shrieking from one of the side tunnels, cursing the party for killing her pet.  Knowing they were in no shape to continue fighting, Taryn offered the hag a deal - he would keep her pet from dying if she would give them the dryads.

- The hag told them she only had one dryad, and, after retrieving it, she and the newly-revived hydra disappeared into a deep pool of water.  It wasn't until after they'd gone that the party saw pieces of finely-polished wood, punctured with massive teeth marks and oozing sap, scattered around the beast's lair...

Cyrran Reaches: The Balance of Nature

Saturday February 9, 2013 at 6:00pm new campaign, d&d, cyrran reaches, game session notes Comments (0) »

System: Dungeons & Dragons v3.5

Setting: The Cyrran Reaches

Players: Sheri, Tony, Adam

Schedule: Near-weekly

 

Characters:

[Adam] Tyrrox - Ibixian Fighter

[Tony] Taryn - Human Cleric of Olidammara

[Sheri] Lily - Human Bard

 

Highlights:

- Party traveling with small caravan (lead by a man called Ruglan), is waylaid by bandits.  After fighting them off, they arrive in the settlement Ettaseph

- Spend some time talking to people in town, learning some interesting things about the Old Oak Inn, Loreth's Tavern, the Orchard and the settlement in general.

- The town is attacked by treants, who seem intent only on capturing the women of the village.

- When the treants' leader comes to the village, it wants to speak with someone no knows.  With the help of a local druid, they learn that the person in question was a centaur who helped establish the old "accords" between the humans and the fey of the Charothi forest.  More pressingly, however, it seems that some dryads had been kidnapped and would soon die if they were not found...

Savage Seas: The Next Horizon

Friday January 18, 2013 at 6:00pm savage worlds, savage seas, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Concluded negotiations with goblins, humans granted right to settle on island under some conditions.

- After some time, talk resumes of continuing the expedition, to see what else is out there.  In all likelihood, the Wind's Wings will be sailing forth soon, while most of the expedition remains for rest and repairs...

Savage Seas: Perished Glory pt. II

Saturday January 5, 2013 at 7:00pm savage worlds, savage seas, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Met Elistanna, agreed to aid her in exchange for help negotiating with the goblin ruler, as the expedition needed more time before it could possibly leave, and might even prefer to remain.

- Organized a meeting with the goblins, offered cooperation, trade and exchange of information in exchange for the right to settle part of the island.

Mine All Mine

Tuesday January 1, 2013 at 12:22pm website, video games Comments (0) »
Mine All Mine Image

Whenever there's a gap in the blog, it usually means i've been working on the site in the background - this time trying to get some inspiration for a new look and trying to perfect a little back-end purity of style.

The Christmas Nothing

We got back from our trip to AR for christmas early yesterday morning.  Both ways we opted to drive over night so that Hannah could sleep - which she basically did.  I think it went as good as it could have, though yesterday I felt a bit like i "over did it".  Feeling a bit better today.

I also enjoyed doing basically nothing for a week+ - not really having anywhere to go or anything I had to be doing.  

Basically, I hung out and played video games on my laptop while Sheri and her mom watched TV and did card-making stuff.  Of course, we had our christmas festivities as well, and everyone enjoyed playing with Hannah - she was the entertainment, as usual.

I mostly played two games.  The first was Seiken Densetsu 3, a japanese sequel to the Secret of Mana (which is one of my all-time favorite games).  It many ways it is considerably wider and deeper than SOM.  The story is a bit more involved, there are more characters (and you get to choose who makes up your party), and the rpg mechanics are more sophisticated.  I actually started the game with two sets of characters as was playing through the first part of the game in tandem, noting differences in dialog and such, though most events unfold the same way.

Virtual Architecture

And then I got back into Minecraft.  That was the last thing I remember.

I like to build massive structures in Survival mode.  I built a huge tower (it breaks the cloud layer by about 4 floors) with many floors with varied interiors (bedrooms, balconies, a library, common rooms, etc).  Outside there's a workshop, pens for cows, sheep and chickens, crops of wheat and sugar cane and a cultivated oak grove.  I've also mined down to bedrock, found some gold and diamonds and created/harvested some obsidian.  Currently working on a courtyard wall.  I have no idea how long I spent on all of this, but I assume it was a fairly high percentage of every waking hour.

It was actually really nice to do a lot of nothing.

Savage Seas: Perished Glory pt. I

Saturday December 15, 2012 at 6:00pm savage worlds, savage seas, game session notes Comments (0) »

[auxilliary scene]

- Back on the Wind's Wings, the deck hands were hailed by a group of men in long boats approaching the vessel.  The approaching men claimed captain Collette had sent them to the ship to retrieve additional tools and blasting supplies from the ship's hold.  Once some were on board, they turned on the Wind's Wings' crew.  The ensuing battle was bloody and hard-fought, but the Wind's Wings' crew ultimately prevailed.

[.end auxilliary scene]

 

- meanwhile, the group in the goblin canyon decided to make a break for the surface.  being stealthy was going to be difficult if not impossible and they really didn't want to engage an entire civilization in combat, but options seemed limited.  As they darted down catwalks and through stone halls, they did their best to avoid groups of the goblins.  They didn't realize until too late that they were being intentionally drive downward - deeper into the hive.

- ultimately, the group ended up cornered and driven into a large cavernous hall filled with dozens of goblins.  These, however, had a very different appearance to those they had previously encountered.  Their skin was more of a blue grey, and they wore nice though exceptionally worn robes and exotic jewelry tarnished with age.  One sat on a large throne in the far corner of the room.  When they entered, he began speaking to them.

- the goblin "king" informed them that they - and their fellow "creatures" - were encroaching upon his territory.  He told them that they had three days to leave the island or else they would be annihalated.  One of the other goblins seemed to want to say something, but the king quieted her.  The group was then permitted to leave the hall through a tunnel that ultimately led them back to the forest on the surface.

- upon returning to the beach, they began telling the expedition leaders about the situation and that the island wasn't safe, when they were interrupted by some commotion further inland.  Making its way through the encampment was a small, hooded figure.  When it removed its hood, the group recognized the goblin from that had tried to speak in the king's hall.

Savage Seas: Into The Hive

Saturday December 8, 2012 at 7:00pm savage worlds, savage seas, game session notes Comments (0) »

- the creature that had emerged from the sunken city had only started speaking - in some language Zatara inexplicably understood - when skeletal figures began emerging from the water onto the building tops around the group.  The conflict escalated until the first creature was dragged back into the pool and a bright burst of light swallowed the room.  When it subsided, the skeletons were gone.

- the group followed the caverns and tunnels out of the city until they found themselves in a small cavern with a hole in the ceiling through which some light filtered - though it was occupied by a group of crazed goblin-like creatures.

- the group was eventually able to climb up and out of the hole, the wall near which seemed specifically designed to prevent it.  Above they found themselves in a small, hewn stone room which apparently acted as a kind of jail.  The room exited onto a wooden walkway attached to the cliff-side of a massive canyon wall.

- the canyon was honeycombed with hundreds of similar chambers, connected by catwalks, ladders, stairs and lifts.  A river of magma flowed out of the far canyon wall and plunged down to the canyon floor somewhere below - and steam billowed up from those depths.  Most concerning though, was that there were goblins everywhere.

Savage Seas: Asleep Beneath the Surface

Friday November 30, 2012 at 6:00pm savage worlds, savage seas, game session notes Comments (0) »

Guest PC: [Pat] Delilah O'Mari - Artisan/Smith

- the group had finished their conversation with Kilmer on the beach, and were following him through the crowd to speak with the ship captains.  Before they had made it off the beach, they ran into Caroline with a middle-aged woman - just as the ground shook with a tremendous earthquake.  The ground beneath them collapsed inward, and a torrent of water from the sea washed them down into a massive cavern.

- it took the group some time to collect themselves.  The opening above them had re-sealed itself in the cave-in, and it was completely dark.  Breeze and Zatara managed to catch themselves on a higher ledge, but Lucas and the woman, called Delilah, were washed into a larger pool further in.

- Lucas and Delilah began planning a way to produce a light source, while Breeze and Zatara tried to feel their way down to the others.  When Lucas called out for Caroline again, she answered him from some distance away, as a blue light began to emanate from her direction, illuminating a massive cavern - at the far side of which was the facade of a large, palacial building which had, apparently, been consumed by the cavern.  The architecture and design were unrecognizable.

- As Lucas approached the building, a large, mangy wildcat emerged and pounced on him - though it's diseased state was apparently ill-suited to subduing the sailor, and he eventually put it down.

- Deciding they could not return to the surface the way they came, they headed through the palace, hoping there was a way out the other side.  Breeze discovered a kind of workshop down one of the limestone-coated halls.  In addition to some unusual objects, the workroom also contained the remains of a mural which depicted a building similar to the one they were in as well as the bow of a great ship.

- While they were investigating the palace, they were attacked by some large insect-like creatures, which they managed to fend off without significant injuries.

- When the group managed to work their way through the building, they emerged into another massive cavern complex, which contained the buildings of a sizable city.  Near the center of the city was a large flooded area, which was bubbling and issuing steam.  As they approached, a strange, morphing being emerged from the pool and began approaching them, speaking in a strange, nearly-subsonic voice...

Some Auld Tunes

Monday November 26, 2012 at 2:38pm music Comments (0) »
Some Auld Tunes Image

Musical Energy

I've noticed that my energy level (particularly in the morning) is tied to what I am listening to in a somewhat dialectical way.  This is also why I don't listen to much Iron & Wine at work.  There is also a connection to the time of day and the ambient lighting.  Specifically, I've found that if it's light and warm outside, I want something upbeat - and the hotter and brighter it is, the more pronouced is this phenomenon.  On a hot, sunny day, I'll tend to put on something hard and fast.  The reverse is also true : on a late winter afternoon when it's starting to get dark, I'll put on something much cleaner and mellow.

Marks The Spotify

So I finally starting using spotify at work.  I actually jumped through a few hoops (and you have to) to register with Spotify *without* tying it to my facebook account.  I like having more control over what sites know what I'm doing on other sites.

As for the service itself, I find it pretty cool.  It's like Pandora, but you can choose exactly what you listen to, which is a big plus.  It's a great way to look up new music, too.  And there are Windows, Mac and Linux(debian) clients available.

Irish/Shanty Folk/Rock

Over the last month or so, I've been listening to a *lot* of irish/celtic and sea-shanty type stuff.  Old irish folk songs, sea ballads from newfoundland, etc.  For a guy who doesn't drink, I like this stuff way too much.  It also seems fairly thematic with some of our current games.

I've been listening to a lot of Great Big Sea.  Their live album Road Rage is very enjoyable to listen to all of.  I like a smattering of the rest of their stuff, and I've purchased quite a few of their songs from itunes.

The Young Dubliners' With All Due Respect is good enough that I want an actual physical copy of it.  It reminds me a lot of Dropkick Murphys, but all of the tracks are traditional songs.  Their other albums are "ok" and, while there's a song or two from them that I like, they struck me as more straight up pop/rock as opposed to irish punk/rock.

Lastly, I've really enjoyed quite a few tracks from The Elders, specifically ones from American Wake and Pass It On Down.  I like about 1/2 to 2/3 of their songs, but this limitation is not for the usual reasons.  In this case, it's that I like all of the songs sung by their primary singer.  Those songs have a nice irish-rock feel, and the guy's accent is great.  The other songs aren't bad, but the other singer in the group has a rather thick southern US accent, and most (though not all) of those songs sound more like country-rock - a genre I'm not particularly fond of.

When I've not been listening to that sort of music in particular, I've been listening to a lot of live albums.  The Weakerthans' live record is pretty great, and I've been enjoying listening to multiple Barenaked Ladies' performances.  Their randomness is always fun.

 

~PS

The Gears Are Always Turning

Friday November 23, 2012 at 12:42pm gaming Comments (2) »
 island map (in progress)
island map (in progress)

Always

It really doesn't matter how happy I am with the current game I'm running, there are always at least 2 or 3 other campaign ideas swimming around in my head.  It's pretty much a constant state.  

And I am happy with the current game.  Savage Seas continues to be interesting - the group has now found an island that looks both promising in terms of what it might offer, as well as mysterious and dangerous in terms of what seems to be present.

Still, I have a couple of other ideas in mind for things I'd like to do.

Hold That Thought

Scarecrow has been put on the back-burner for now - I just haven't been inspired to run something that dark.  Or maybe Doug's Supernatural-themed game is scratching the modern-horror itch for me.  I am loving that game, the charater I'm playing in it, and the rp interaction around the table.  Rucht's Pathfinder game is also really cool, but the sheer size of the group and the directed-ness of the plot seems to sideline a lot of PC-to-PC interaction and banter.  

For A While Now

There are several games I am *still* wanting to run someday though, and they each surface to my consciousness in turn.  

A Battletech game and a Myst game are pretty much givens at this point.  These are ideas I've wanted to try forever, but, for a variety of reasons, have not yet reached a critical mass of traction to get them off the ground.  

There's also the sequel to the last D&D game I ran with my current group wherein they are intended to created the world their new characters will play in.  I haven't felt a lot of enthusiasm for that yet though.  Maybe the group is just into the current games, or maybe they're a little intimidated by the task.  When we go to actually do it, I may need to guide the process pretty extensively - giving some specific questionaires to the players and synthesizing the setting from there.

Edit: Oh, I forgot one.  Also Mouse Guard.  I've wanted to run a good Mouse Guard campaign for quite a while now, too.  That setting/concept is just awesome.

Two new ideas have entered the mix as well.

Eastern Epics

The first is an asian fantasy game.  I don't think I've ever played in one, and it's always seemed cool.  I picked up the d20 Rokugan campaign setting book at Mr. K's a few weeks back, and it has some interesting ideas in it.  As for how i'd run the game, I've gone back and forth between using Rokugan directly, further developing Japan in my Earth Campaign Setting, and creating a specific setting for the game.  I'm leaning toward the latter, borrowing elements from the first two as well as from japanese history and mythology.

Space Race Re-Imagined

The other game came about as what I thought was an interesting setting idea.  Basically, it is an alternate-history/universe steampunk space exploration game.  If that's difficult to picture, imagine that steampunk happened in the mid to late 19th century, and that the space race began in the early 20th century - powered by steam and the efforts of particular, outstanding individuals instead of governments.  Mixing in a bit of mid 20th century speculation about the nature of the solar system (i.e., before we figured out that the rest of it was actually uninhabitable) for interest.  I think this has a lot of possibility.  I think I'd probably run it in Savage Worlds or using Spirit of the Century.

 

~PS

Savage Seas: Something To Gain

Saturday November 17, 2012 at 4:00pm savage worlds, savage seas, game session notes Comments (0) »

- as the group settled into camp, Lucas noticed that Morgan, one of the men from his ship he'd brought along, wasn't around, and no one really seemed to know where he went.  They were concerned that whoever had been watching the camp had captured him.

- the next morning, the three took Julia and began tracking the prints she'd found back to their origin.  This lead them a considerable distance to the west where they entered a hilly region and eventually began to see signs of human(?) presence - namely, the stumps of some trees that had clearly been chopped down.  When Julia did not return from scouting ahead, the group rounded a bend and found themselves in a kind of forest village, seemingly composed largely of lumber scavenged from wrecked ships.

- the village appeared empty, but the group got the clear impression people were present.  Lucas decided to take a direct approach, walking to the center of town and calling out - saying they meant no harm to any of them, and that if they were castaways, their expedition could offer some assitance.

- the speech was responded to by a variety of individuals, several of which seemed to have differing motives.  There were a series of half conversations, offers and threats before a man called Cerrick started hostilities and a brief skirmish erupted, during which Julia was freed.  After the assailents were defeated, more talks insued.  It turned out that the village was composed of a variety of castaways from at least three different ships.  Most of them were much more inclined to negotiate than Cerrick had been, and were keenly interested in what this expedition could offer them (in one way or another).  The group spent the rest of the day talking with the inhabitants, learning about who they were and about the island they now occupied - even looking at a rough map one of the villagers had drawn of the island.  When Lucas asked about Morgan, he learned from a woman, Roxanne, that he had come to speak with Cerrick the night before.

- the next morning, they returned to the beach, where most of the expedition had now landed and land was being cleared for a more permanent, temporary camp.  Many of the passengers and crew were enjoying the chance to be on land once again.  The group informed Kilmer of what they had learned, and asked if Morgan had returned.  Kilmer told them that Morgan had returned in the late morning, saying that he'd gotten lost in the forest the night before.

Reunionating

Tuesday November 13, 2012 at 2:47pm milligan, homecoming, friends, auto repair Comments (0) »
 Hannah at the '02 class reception
Hannah at the '02 class reception

Homecoming 2012

So Milligan's 2012 Homecoming weekend was a few weeks ago.  This also happened to be my 10th-year class reuinion, which seems bizarre.  I think the reason time seems to go so much faster as you get older is because you get insanely busy and your perception slows down to compensate for the barrage of information.  If I had as much boredom/free-time as I did when I was five, I'm sure a year would still seem like forever.  As it is, I think I've caught site of bits and pieces of 2012 as it has flown by at a rate well above any reasonable speed limit.

Homecoming itself was enjoyable.  I got to see some old classmates I have peripheral contact with via the book face, which was cool.  Also, we got to see some really good friends who, unfortunately, live way too far away.  Amber and her family came to stay with us for the weekend, which was a lot of fun.  Hannah had a great time playing with her boys, and they loved her too.  Also, Amber made an awesome doll for Hannah.  We also got to see Ginger again.  We didn't get to spend as much time with her, but it was great to hang out for even a little while.  We did all go out to dinner at Mid City on saturday night, and that rather massive gathering was awesome.

We miss them.

Scheduling Time For Nothing

I met Robb out at the Acoustic Coffeehouse last night for no particular reason - which is to say, just to hang out and talk about whatever was on our minds.  Ironically, a good chunk of what was on our minds was the fact that we don't get together to just hang out very often.  Yeah, it's a little mobius.  We decided we may have reached a point where being social requires a little more forethought, and some of us aren't exactly "planners".

Keeping It Going

Last weekend I changed the oil in the jeep (and the car).  Thrilling, I know, but I'm proud of me.  My parents were also in town a couple weeks ago, and my dad helped me fix the power steering fluid leak I've been tolerating for a while now.  So the Jeep's happy.  And the car...well...it's still going.  It's a bit past retirement age, but, unfortunately, we haven't yet found a likely replacement.

~PS

Savage Seas: Not Alone

Saturday November 10, 2012 at 4:00pm savage worlds, savage seas, game session notes Comments (0) »

- the group met with the expedition leaders and formed a survey team to be lead jointly by Lucas and Kilmer.  It was composed of Lucas, Breeze and Zatara as well as Kilmer, Josiah and Hal (two sailors from the Wind's Wings), Morgan and Alexander (two sailors from the New Legacy), and Van and Julia (two hunter/woodsman types who were passengers on the Grand Alexis).  Their goals were to scout the immediate area so that the expedition proper could make a safe landing, and discern whatever was possible about the nature of the island in general.

- the survey team decided to land where Breeze had spotted a couple streams flowing into the harbor.  They decided to split up and each hike a mile or two inland following the streams.  The teams discovered that the streams joined a river which originated at the closest mountain.  The edges of the forest were very dense with undergrowth, but the interior contained larger trees with a thicker canopy and the forest floor was remarkably open.  They also discovered a marshland to the west where Van found some interesting tracks.

- when they met again on the beach, Van and Julia discussed the tracks and wanted to return to where they had been found - at the edge of the swamp.  The three accompanied them.  There they caught site of a small, grotesque but humanoid creature.  When they pursued it, they found themselves ambushed by several more of the goblin-like creatures - two of them riding massive lizard-like beasts, the tracks of which Van had found earlier in the day.  In the skirmish, Lucas was severely injured, though the others were able to drive off the remaining attakers.  

- when they returned to the beach, it was well after dusk and Kilmer and the others were making camp for the night.  Julia noticed several sets of boot-prints at the edge of the camp, behind a rise - a place where none of them had been...

Savage Seas: Puncture Wounds

Friday October 19, 2012 at 6:00pm savage worlds, savage seas, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Lucas made his way back down to the Grand Arcadia, thinking he might grab some coin from one of the chests and make a run for it now that it seemed quiet.  Once down at the ship however, he encountered a strange woman who was speaking enigmatically to a barely-conscious Julius who'd been pinned to something like a large red sofa with 4 large black spikes.  The room was lit with a reddish glow by rows of paper lanterns hanging around the hold.  She seemed to be interested in what Julius was looking for and whether he found it.  When Lucas arrived, she turned her attention to him.  Being around her seemed to cause his mind to call up random and vivid memories.

- meanwhile, Breeze, Zatara and Kilmer made their way further into the rock tunnel.  They encountered a great snake in a bone-filled cavern.  As they tried to escape, Breeze was bitten and flung across the room, collapsing in a bone pile on the other side.  Kilmer tried to revive her - to no avail - while Zatara finally managed to drive off the snake after wounding it.  Despite Kilmer's concerns about moving her, they didn't have much choice, and that since the snake retreated down the tunnel they'd come through, they decided to continue in hopes there was another way out.

- the tunnel continued to another cavern - this one covered with rune-like carvings - and eventually up and out onto and exterior cliffside that seemed to merge with old, carved ruins.  There they encountered a young woman humming to herself and painting random designs on the stone around her.  She seemed excited to see the newcomers, but their conversation had only started when another woman appeared from the tunnel behind them.  This second woman was older and with features that seemed to blur when observed directly.  She attempted to convince the young girl that these intruders must be destroyed and ordered her to do so, while Zatara and Kilmer made the case that they meant her no harm.  Eventually the tense situation eroded as the girl ran sobbing from the room, and the other woman vanished in anger.  The path continued to the summit of the rock where they found a kind of look-out post, but no way down to the shore.  Frustrated and tired, they realized they'd have to go back.  Fortunately, the descent was relatively unobstructed and they soon rejoined the two sailors they'd left outside the tunnel.  Breeze had stabilized and was breathing, but could not be revived.

- Lucas spoke uneasily with the strange woman in the wrecked ship for some time, trying to discern who she was.  Conversation with her seemed disjointed, however, and she tended to jump lines of inquiry unexpectly.  She eventually became frustrated with him and returned to Julius.  As the light from the lanters began to suddenly fade to darkness, Lucas, throughly disconcerted, made his way back outside and, upon locating one of the long boats that was still intact, returned to the New Legacy with news that the landing party had not gone as planned.

- Breeze was revived a couple of days later by a strange, old woman called Agatha who was a passenger on the Grand Alexis.  There had been much talk, and it had been decided that the expedition would continue toward their original target island.  The journey was not easy on anyone, however.  Overall morale had been crumbling for some time, and an as-yet-unsolved murder (a man called Darren, apparently repeatedly stabbed by someone) that happened only a few days out from the rock-isle made matters worse - even with Breeze and another performer named Brooke doing their best to keep people optimistic.  It was nearly a week past the time they "should have" reached the island on their heading, but when land was finally sighted, they found an island even larger than they had anticipated...

It's All Fun and Games

Thursday October 11, 2012 at 2:47pm video games, gaming, pirate party, ootscon, ruchtcon Comments (1) »
 Hannah, Doug and Nerf
Hannah, Doug and Nerf

Well, in terms of recent free time anyway.

Up, up and away

So Tony and I finally reached the end of Skyward Sword.  Well, Tony did anyway - I never actually beat "Ganon", but I made it as far as to triumph over "Green-eggs-and-ham" immediately preceding.  The game was solid, though I might have had a little trouble "getting into it".  When you only play for about an hour a week, the experience doesn't gather as much momentum.  On the other hand, it was a lot of fun it go through the game with a friend, and there were definitely some fun times there.

As for how it compares to previous games:  The gameplay is great most of the time, and the motion+ gives it a leg-up on Twilight Princess.  On the other hand, I think the latter's story was more interesting.  Overall, I'd say they're pretty comparable.  Fi was not as entertaining as Midna, however.

Sidenote: upon reaching the end of the game, during part of the dialog, Fi tells you that she needs to 'repeat something she's said many times before'.  Sheri assumed this would be 'Master, the batteries in your wimote are dangerously low'.  I mean, that's mostly what she said to us...

The Classics

Having completed our quest (to a greater or lesser extent), we decided on a new game for Crackle Night: this time, we're playing the old snes game Secret of Mana.  This is one of my all-time favorites and Tony said he'd never played it - an oversight I felt compelled to remedy.  The fact that it's a simultaneous multiplayer game is also a plus, and we're having a lot of fun with it.

Linking

In addition to the crackling, I've been enjoying a couple of PC games recently.  

I mentioned Minecraft before - as of this point, I've built three massive keeps on the first map, but, unable to find much besides snow anywhere reasonably close on that map, I decided to start a new game and go in search of an NPC village.  It took me about 20 minutes to find one, and I am now in the process of building a castle on its outskirts.  Verily, I shall be lord of the land.

Also, I have started playing through Myst IV.  Since I borrowed the game from Chuck about a year ago, I figured I'd better either play it or give it back.  Part of the reason for the delay, however, was getting it to run on my Mac.  The installer it shipped with apparently doesn't play nice with modern versions of Java on OSX, so I had to find a workaround.  After a few hours of attempting, I ended up finding a workable third-party installer that got the job done.  Once installed, the game plays great, and I'm enjoying it as much as I have the previous 3 games.  The addition of an in-game camera/viewer is fantastic.  

As I've been playing this game I have, of course, been reminded of how cool the setting ideas are, and how much I think they could be used to make an awesome tabletop rpg - and i've put some more thought into that.

A Sea of Possibilities

My Savage Seas game is continuing to go well.  I'm really liking the Savage Worlds system, and the nautical theme is turning out to be as much fun as I thought it would be.  I was also (unexpectedly) given a metric ton of ships from the old Pirates papercraft tabletop game (now out of print) to use for ship miniatures.  That will be fun.

I'm still kicking around a few ideas in terms of where I'd like this game to go in a narrative sense.  I intentionally left it pretty open-ended at the start (to see what the players would do), but we're a few games in now, and I'm getting some ideas on how i can integrate facets of the setting as sources of conflict - I'm just not 100% sure which I'm going to include or emphasize, or exactly how.

Nerf, Matey

Talk Like A Pirate day was the 19th of last month, and we had our annual TLAP Party at Robb & Edie's place - complete with the obligatory nerf war.  It was good to hang out with some friends again - seems like we don't do that enough these days.  Hannah had a good time playing with the darts and the "pirate treasure", too, and I also managed to get a few good pictures.

Pros and Cons

With respect to "OotsCon", the "locals" have had a couple of meetings, and we've decided we need to get a little more serious about this thing if we're to retain our sanity.  Next year's event may well be different on a number of levels - but still tons of fun.

First talks about Ruchtcon III have been happening, too.  March of next year.  Looks like the attendee list is expanding a bit, too - which is cool.  Those are always fun.  I assume I'll be running something(s), but I haven't given it much thought as of yet.

~PS

Savage Seas: A Rock and a Hard Place

Saturday September 29, 2012 at 4:00pm savage worlds, savage seas, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The expedition set out toward the theoretical large, volcanic island.  As they proceeded, their course veered northward near the rocky island they had previously discussed and, since the opportunity had presented itself, they decided a slight detour may be worthwhile.

- The expedition was caught in a sudden storm as they approached the island which threatened to capsize them or drive them into the rocky shore.  Fortunately, the storm disappated as quickly as it had hit and, while the Winds Wing's sustained some minor damage, it seemed largely intact.  The Grand Alexis was no longer visible, however, but Collette seemed to think the captain had chickened out and headed back east away from the storm.

- The captains of the two remaining ships met briefly and decided upon a plan of action until the expedition's leaders (largely on the Grand Alexis) rejoined them.  The New Legacy would sail northward to circumvent the island and the Wind's Wings would send a survey team ashore.  Breeze and Zatara were part of the survey team, but the leader, the first mate Kilmer, said he was unable to find Lucas before they cast off.

- Lucas had, in fact, returned to the New Legacy at the invitation of Julius Edmund, the first mate of that ship.  He had made some mention of personal gain and Lucas suspected that Edmund had something up his sleeve.  After a couple hours of sailing, the New Legacy spotted Edmund's target - the wreck of an enourmous ship on the island coast.  Lucas recognized the ship as the Grand Arcadia - a sister ship of the Grand Alexis that was said to have disappeared with a large cargo of silver, jewels and other treasures.

- Julius led a contigent of crew ashore - along with Lucas.  He seemed somewhat confused but unconcerned with the fact that the ground around the wreck was littered with the skeletons of sailors - most of whom showed obvious signs of violent death.  Julius led the group into the bow hold of the great ship where they found more skeletons and dozens of chests full of treasure.  They soon found themselves attacked by water-soaked zombie-like sailors who had come up and out of the sea.  Seeing a losing battle, Lucas began to climb up and out of the hold, but the frantic Julius seemed unwilling or unable to join him.  Outside, Lucas saw the wreck was beset by hundreds of zombie-like warriors, some of them pulling on glowing, spectral lines trying to drag the wreck into the ocean.

- Lucas jumped from the stern of the ship and fought the surf back to shore away from the onslaught.  When he finally reached the outcropping above the ship, he was surprised to find that he could see no trace of the zombie horde - but neither could he see or hear any sign of the New Legacy crewmen.

- Meanwhile, Zatara and Breeze found themselves in the forest on the backside of the rock-mountain that was the island's prominent feature - and face to face with a giant.  It was nearly 20 feet in height, even hunched over as it was.  Its features were deformed and it seemed of primitive intellect as it did little besides howl and attempt to smash them with a great tree-trunk of a club.  They had noticed a carved doorway in the cliffside behind the creature, but only they and Kilmer were able to avoid the giant's blows and reach it.  The three of them saw the other two sailors (one of them injured) make their way northward away from the clearing as the giant howled and bludgeoned the cilff face outside.

Savage Seas: Nobody's Home

Saturday September 15, 2012 at 4:00pm savage worlds, savage seas, game session notes Comments (0) »

- the ghostly woman began questioning Lucas in some unknown language, becoming more and more urgent until Lucas answered the question she seemed to be asking in the affirmative - at which point she relented and her form began to disappate.

- Zatara was approached by a young girl - perhaps 7 or 8 - and she asked him if he would take her to her mother.  Upon reaching the temple room where Lucas and Breeze were still looking at each other as though unsure of what just happened, the girl directed her attention of Lucas, calling him "Mother", and asking if they would finally be going home.

- As eveing approached, the group left the mountain and headed back toward the village, where they noticed they could see no torchlights.  Upon arriving in Basnet, they found the place deserted - apparently for some time.

- Lucas insisted he needed a drink, and made his way toward the Dockside tavern.  It, too, appeared to have been unoccupied for at least a decade, though the bar was still stocked with untouched spirits (though they tasted a bit off).  It wasn't until they were getting ready to leave that they noticed the woman who had told Lucas about "Old Caroline".  She had been sitting at a table in the corner near the door, chuckling to herself.  When the others saw her, she made her way to the exit telling them over her shoulder "This won't be the strangest thing you will encounter in these waters!", before pushing the door open and heading into the dark night.  Breeze chased after her, bursting through the door just after it had closed behind the woman, but she could find no trace of the gossip outside.

- The group returned to the Wind's Wings and informed the captain of what had happened (and offered some explanation as to the girl that was accompanying them).

- The following day, the New Legacy and Grand Alexis arrived, but there was to be no landfall.  The crew of the Wind's Wings scoured the abandoned village for anything of use, but thereafter the expedition decided to press on past Basnet.  They decided to alter course to the north, however, when a lingering and forboding storm on the southwestern horizon refused to disappate.

- The expedition's cheif navigator presented some sea charts to a meeting of the expedition leaders and a few others gathered to discuss course.  He mentioned three islands - a southern coral atoll closer to their original projected course, a rocky prominence to the north west and a rumoured large, volcanic island beyond it.  The existence of none of these islands had been confirmed, but as part of the expedition's goals was exploration and since the stop at Basnet had not gone according to plan, investigating one or more seemed reasonable.

- There was some discussion as to what course should be taken, but the majority seemed to favor seeking out the large island as the other two seemed to have relatively little to offer...

Savage Seas: Old Bones

Saturday September 8, 2012 at 4:00pm savage worlds, savage seas, game session notes Comments (0) »

- the party struggled with the "fish-man" until Breeze wounded it and it fled - crashing through a parlor window

- as it did, a man entered the house/inn and seemed to be asking where it had gone.  Fredrick seemed to blame him.

- only moments later, they heard commotion outside and saw that a fire had started in the town.

- the group joined the firefighting efforts and ended up engaging two other "fish-men" at the periphery of the scene

- the following morning they met with the captain.  Breeze was concerned that Lucas (and possibly herself) had become "infected"

- they talked with the local Chairman about the expedition as well as the previous night's adventure

- Lucas spoke with a local gossip about "Old Caroline", a witch who had "died" as a child, supposedly lived on the moutain and was "certainly" responsible for the fish-man curse

- the next day, the group decided to investigate the mountain and the rumors of the "witch".  Near the top, they found a boulder, next to which was some sand, seashells and the skeleton of a small, humanoid figure wearing a gold necklace (which Lucas, who had been having some strange feelings about the place, decided to pick up and put on).

- behind the boulder was a cave entrance with carved steps leading down into a ruined temple-like chamber with a large bronze sun.  They were still examining their surroundings when animated skeletons began attacking them.

- as the group was destroying the last of the skeletons, a ghost-like woman entered the temple.  It stopped briefly to say something to Zatara - touching its finger to his forehead - but seemed to take a greater interest in Lucas.  Specifically, the necklace he was now wearing...

Web Craft

Thursday September 6, 2012 at 2:49pm web development, cryptography, video games Comments (0) »
 my Minecraft keep
my Minecraft keep

Platform Elegance

Have I mentioned how much I love the php framework I created for this site?  I've actually used it (or parts of it) to make a couple of other (quasi-)sites, and it continues to be awesome.  I am once again contemplating some future aesthetic changes to penguinsushi.com and, for the first time, I intend to leave the guts of the site completely as-is.  I'm sure at some point I'll figure out why it's terrible, but as of right now, it's the coolest thing I've ever used.

Crack The Code

On a related note, I've created a new subpage to my site here, accessible at penguinsushi.com/encrypt.  This is somewhat of an experiment on my part.  I've always had an interest in codes and encryption, so I decided to make an algorithm of my own - making it as robust as I was able.

I am curious to know if the code can be cracked.  I'm not an expert in cryptology, so I'm sure it can be - though I have been unable to think through a process that would take a person (or machine) from 0 to "cracked".  I'd be interested to hear if anyone can make any progress in deciphering how the algotithm on the linked page works, even if it's just some partial solutions or theories on how you think it could be cracked based on what you see.

The Craft

So I finally bought the retail version of Minecraft.  This game is just about perfect for someone like me.  I discovered the original/classic version some time ago - and enjoyed it thoroughly - but it has been unsupported for years and browser support is spotty at best.  I'd been playing the demo of the current version for a few weeks and really loving it.  It does a good job of doing what a demo is intended to do though: get you just far enough that you just barely see the potential of what an unlimited game would be like.  It sold me anyway.  I really like environment manipulation sandbox Minecraft presents, and the survival aspects are a nice touch of challenge.  As someone who seriously loved his legos growing up, this is a natural extension of that creative playground - with a few more facets and less mess.

~PS

postnote: Apparently the 6th is a good day of the month for bloggin'

Music In A Different Light

Thursday September 6, 2012 at 2:31pm music, concerts, photography Comments (0) »
 The Living Trees (pictured: lead vocals/guitar/banjo)
The Living Trees (pictured: lead vocals/guitar/banjo)

Some Local Color

Last friday I met some friends at a local coffeehouse where a local band Living Trees was playing - I was mostly there because one of my friends was playing drums with them.  They're kind of an indie/folk/bluegrass group composed of guitar, mandolin, banjo, upright & drums.  It was some interesting & enjoyable music, though the sound quality was a bit muddy and it was difficult to make out the lyrics.  The Acoustic's in-house PA leaves a bit to be desired...and the space itself is a few notches short of "ideal".  It may be for this reason that nothing really jumped out at me musically.  I'd like to see them again sometime with some better audio.

Show Photography in Bad Light

I also, predictably, took my camera along and took some photos of the show.  The lighting in there was terrible - terrible enough that the autofocus on my 50mm f1.4 prime was hunting a lot.  I shot most everything at ISO 1600, 1/200 and f2.8 - and then bumped the EV a full +2.00 and pulled the saturation down in post.  The photos are still dark and noisey, but they're not terrible.  One or two I'd even call "good".  Despite the difficulty, it was a lot of fun.  I'm always looking for new things to photograph.

Pandora's Box

I've been listening to Pandora a bit lately.  I've discovered a few more groups that I've enjoyed (particularly humourous groups like Da Vinci's Notebook, Great Big Sea, Tom Lehrer, Tripod) and some music from groups I already knew that is pretty cool as well (some stuff from The Academy Is, Iron & Wine, and some kids' albums by Barenaked Ladies).

I've been working on some recording & composition when I have the opportunity and inspiration at the same time (which is unfortunately a somewhat rare occurence).  I've come up with some new ideas lately though.

~PS

Savage Seas: Last Stop

Characters:

[Sheri] Clara "Breeze" - Wind's Wings crew, sea singer

[Tony] Lucas - Ex-priate, Wind's Wings conscript

[Adam] "Zatara" - Castaway, amnesiac

 

Session:

- the party aboard the Wind's Wings (captain William Collette) was ~3 days ahead of the rest of the expedition.  The ship was just arriving at Basnet, an island fishing village and the western-most point of the commonly-travelled sea. This was the last stop in the known world before the expedition was to head into the western sea.

- it was a bit after sunset, and the captain sent the group ashore to ask get the harbormaster's permission to moore the next day, as well as to speak with the local authority about the arrival of the rest of the expedition and to ask about the availability of provisions for the expedition's resupply.

- on their way into the village, they encountered a nearly-capsized fishing ketch.  They helped the three crewman right the vessel, though there seemed to be something more to the situation than the captain's explanation of a 'freak accident'.

- in the village, the group spoke with the harbormaster and the proprietor of the local tavern.  The patrons of the dockside establishment seemed unusually dour, though the bartender explained that many were simply tired of their monotonous.  He also steered them toward the town's "inn", which rarely saw customers.  The innkeeper and his wife were indeed very happy to see them.

- it was some hours into the night when they were awakened by the sounds of a scuffle in the lobby area of the house-turned-inn.  They arrived on the scene just in time to be nearly deafened by the report of a musket being fired indoors.  Before the black-powder smoke obsured their vision, they caught a glimpse of a scaley, hunched creature with bat-like ears and a maw full of tiny, pointed teeth...

 

Of Epic Proportions

Monday August 6, 2012 at 2:54pm gaming, basement, flood, space, mars Comments (0) »
 First image from the Curiosity on the surface of Mars.
First image from the Curiosity on the surface of Mars.

The End Of A Saga

As of yesterday, Patrick's epic Star Wars (Saga ed.) game has come to its conclusion.  For those of you following along at home, I joined this game in May 2009, and it had been underway for a few months prior.  So, 3+ years in that campaign.  I don't think I've ever been in a game that's lasted that long.  In some ways, it feels extremely weird that it's over.

Patrick did a good job running the game, too.  The vast majority of the time, it was a ton of fun - and that's saying something.  Any gamer knows that it's hard to run or play in an RPG and keep it from bogging itself down in whatever minutia might be encountered - especially over such a long period of time.  I think this game did pretty well on that score.

I enjoyed my character in that game quite a bit, and he had a nice arc to his development which is something that doesn't always happen with my PCs.  He really changed a lot as a person as the game progressed.

I generally don't go in for "power fantasies" in RPGs, even so, I'm not sure I've ever been as awesome in those terms in an RPG before - including epic-level D&D games.  I haven't played too many high-level games, but this didn't necessarily have to do with ridiculously high abilities (though those were certainly present).  I actually wasn't (I don't think) the most powerful PC in the game on paper, and the Big Bad was numerically better than me at everything I was good at.  I wasn't doing the most damage in combat, nor did I have the best skills or "combos" or whatever.  It was more that my character had an exceptionally strong presence in the game by the end, and some really cool thematic elements and abilities that really sold it.  I really got to play the Jedi Master (what I thought was) true-to-form at the very end, and that was pretty awesome.

Noah, I May Need To Borrow Your Ark

On the way home from Patrick's finale last night, Tony & I had to take a couple of detours around downtown JC.  Seems by later that evening, most of it was under a couple feet of water.  Our house does sit at a higher elevation than elsewhere in town, and our road was basically unaffected...   ...but, alas, we did not escape the rain's wrath.

Although, in our case, I think it was at least partly our fault.  The gutters aren't in the best shape in terms of "clear", and the drain at the back stairwell was covered by a respectable layer of leaves (which seem to end up there despite the best efforts of an antiquated stairwell screen/cover).

So, when Sheri went down to check on some laundry before bed last night, she was, I would say, "surprised" to encounter approximately 1-2 inches of water covering the basement floor.

Have you ever vacuumed 2 inches of water out of an 1100 sq ft basement one 10-gallon-shop-vac-full at a time?

I have.

By the time I was heading upstairs about couple hours later, the basement was still very "wet", but nearly all of that which could be called "standing water" had been convinced to exit the premises.

Also, I may need some new shoes.

I Was Just Curious

So at around 1:30am, after having spent more of the night than I'd have liked conscious and working basement damage control, I sat down at my computer for a few minutes - just to unwind a bit before bed.  I noticed on the bookface that Jerry had posted a link on the Curiosity rover, saying it was scheduled to land in about 7 minutes.  Text beneath his post read "posted 6 minutes ago".  That was some timing.

I popped over to NASA.gov in time to see the last couple minutes of descent being monitored by the ladies & gents at NASA, the resultant cheers when the rover successfully touched down after its wildly outlandish descent scheme was successful, and the first image sent back to earth from its camera - a shot of rocky ground, one of the rover's wheels and a distant, glowing marsian horizon arched by the barrel distortion of the wide lens (see photo) - all pretty much as it happened.

If there was an upside to being kept up so late with a flooded basement, that was certainly it.

 

~PS

This LAN Is Your LAN

Monday August 6, 2012 at 2:04pm video games, lan parties Comments (0) »
 Age of Empires II
Age of Empires II

In this age of assumed broadband internet and "nice, pretty 'splosion"-style MMOs, does anyone ever play LAN games anymore?

Well, we do.  (Oh, and they do.)  Saturday evening Tony, Sheri and I did a little world-conquering - which is to say, we played a very enjoyable game of Age of Empires II, an old RTS that is still lots of fun in my opinion.

I'm sure I could get into online games if I had the time, money or inclination to put into it, but with respect to "social interaction", I really prefer that to be face-to-face when possible.  I'd much rather be in the same room with my friends - even if we're all glued to computers - than being scattered all over town.  Even if the technology was perfect - such that you could flawlessly play/talk/whatever - I think I'd still rather be hanging out at the same location.  I've tried to quantify exactly why that is in my head, but I haven't come up with a definitive yet.

One of the interesting triumphs of that evening for me that I actually played the game on my macbook using VirtualBox to run windows XP, which, in turn, was used to run the game.  I've so far been very impressed with VirtualBox as 1) it's free and 2) it works as well or better than Parallels or VMWare ever have for me (though, perhaps lacking certain bell-like and/or whilsting components). I've used this program now on OSX and Linux, and it performs fantastically on both.  There is a windows client as well, but I'm not sure I'd personally have need of it.  Even with the host & guest OS, the game ran pretty flawlessly.  Granted, it is pretty old, but when i last tried it through Parallels, I couldn't get it to run as well.

Special note for AoEII (and perhaps other similar-era games): you must be running the VM full screen when the game starts, otherwise it will crash on you.

Also, also - bridged networking is a good idea.

Which reminds me of a funny story:

So I've got good ol' Virtual Box set up and WinXP installed as the guest OS.  I'm trying to get the networking set up to allow for the VM to see other computers on the network with little or no luck.  I discovered I should be using bridged networking instead of NAT, so I make that change, but when I refresh the web browser, I get "page cannot be displayed".

I fight with this thing for about 10 minutes with no success on getting the web page to pull up again, when I decide I just don't know enough about it and will need to consult the bottomless font of geeky knowledge known as the internet.  So I do a few searches and I'm reading through some articles which are basically telling me to do everything I'm already doing.  I'm starting to get really frustrated when I realize something: this search I'm doing?  Yeah, I'm doing that in the VM.

That's right, I browsed the internet for about 10 minutes on a machine trying to look up info on why I can't browse the internet on said machine.

Apparently the network settings worked just fine, but the machine was convinced the page I was trying to "refresh" (to test them) was unreachable and simply didn't feel like it should need to confirm the fact.

Well, it was IE, after all.

~PS

Change of Pace

Monday July 30, 2012 at 9:56pm vacation, family, photography, gaming Comments (0) »
 gentoo penguin at the Indianapolis Zoo
gentoo penguin at the Indianapolis Zoo

Vacation '12

It's been a little while since we've had an actual "vacation".  I mean, where we do "vacation"-y things.  This year, we did.

For one, we got to go to the Indy Zoo.  Sheri has been saying she wanted to go to a zoo for about...7 years?   I took a lot of cool photos, which was a lot of fun.  Also, it made me wish I had more money to spend on camera gear.

We also went out on my parents' boat and did a little water skiing.  I no longer shame my ancestors with my loss of water skiing ability.  I'm not as steady as I once was, sure, but at least I got up this time.  Last time I tried, I couldn't even manage that (to be fair, however, i'd gotten in at 3am the morning before...maybe I was just tired).  It was cool to get to go out on the lake with Justin again, too - and his boys were...amusing.

Sheri and I also got to go out for our Anniversary, which was tuesday.  Kinda hard to believe it's been 8 years. :)  Mom & Dad watched Hannah for us, and we went out to dinner and a movie.  Also, "Brave" is pretty good.

Zoo Photos

As I mentioned before, I took a few hundred photos at the Indy Zoo.  I did have a little hiccup with the ISO setting, but its effect turned out to be minimal.  Taking pictures through some of the glass was somewhat challenging, but not too bad.  The fences were worse.  I did get a basic circular polarizing filter for my 50mm prime, which did seem to help a little with some of the reflections, and it does give a nice contrast boost to portrait-type shots in general.  Like small children, animals are fun to photograph - they do interesting things, and they don't really care if you're taking their picture.  I got quite a few good shots, which I've put up on facebook.  I'm sure a couple will make it into this year's "portfolio".

False Start

I mentioned before about starting a World of Darkness game, Scarecrow.  Well...  ...yeah.  I actually have extremely high hopes for that game, but I'm just not sure now is the right time.  I'm having trouble with inspiration for it, and, as a GM, I just don't seem to be in the mood for something quite so dark.  I tried forcing it through for a while, but I wasn't getting over the 'hump' - and if I'm not excited about it, it's going to be pretty mediocre.  I'm not ok with that.  I have higher expectations for this game.  My players are generally great about giving me energy and inspiration, but they don't tend to get really excited about a game until one or two sessions in.  

I'm not sure I've ever done this before, but I have talked to the others and we've decided to postpone this game for a bit.  But seriously, I am going to run that game at some point, and it will be awesome.  I've actually got quite a bit of setting written for it already, and several plot ideas.

But for now, we're going to do something else...

Buckle Your Swash

Since I'm wanting to run something a little more "light" and "adventurous" than WoD, and I've wanted to do a maritime campaign for a long time, I think this is the direction I'm going to push for next.  Also, I've been wanting to do something with the Savage Worlds rules set, and this seems to be a perfect candidate for it.  

I'm planning to pitch a swashbuckling-style sea adventure to the group.  It'll be set in a world similar to 17th-19th century earth (with a few fantastic elements) and the PCs will be part of an expedition sailing out into unknown waters.  I expect it to be a lot of fun.

~PS

Scarecrow: Character Creation

Characters:

[Tony] Thomas Cain - Desert Storm veteran, former Mayor

[Adam] - Prize Fighter

[Sheri] - Private investigator

Setup:

Characters belong to a quasi-secret organization called Scarecrow.  The organization's nominal goals are to prevent the unhuman from gaining too much power, particularly where human administrative structures are involved.  Scarecrow is, however, a self-serving entity and generally keeping an eye out for profit.

The PCs have been in a mid-sized, east-coast city called New Auburn for 3 to 6 months, going about their own business...

OotsCon VI, Little Fears v1.5 and Gaming Notes

Wednesday July 4, 2012 at 5:25pm ootscon, photography, gaming, social media Comments (0) »
 group shot at the Greenwood Challenge Course
group shot at the Greenwood Challenge Course

So, the 6th Annual Southeast Trogland Giant in the Playground Meetup was awesome.  Really awesome.  Thanks to Steven for the group photo here.

Meet The Press

The last couple of years my own photography has been scaled back to only the "main event" at the ropes course - those pics turned out great as usual.  Actually shot quite a bit on full manual - using my 50mm prime at 1/200 or 1/250 and f2.8.  This year I also supplemented that documentation with some Twitter/Instagram posts as a bit of an almost-play-by-play of the weekends events.  That was fun.  Probably the only real "use" i've had for Twitter thus far.

Over Capacity

We had a ton of people at our house on sunday.  Traditionally, we have had the sunday afternoon meetup-winddown at The Igloo (which is, in fact, an all-ages venue) - but many people head back to their home states/countries before noon.  This time, I think everyone stayed for this.  The count, at one point, I think was 33 people in our 1100 sq. ft. house (that doesn't have a what could be described as an "open plan").  This may not be the high water mark.  It was fun, but I think we were a bit overcrowded.  This is one of two or three reasons we're looking into non-residential facilities for more parts of the meetup - possibly conference rooms at local hotels or somesuch, if it could be arranged.

Little Fears: The Awesome

This year we had several pre-planned gaming events - and I kind of kicked off that idea by offering to run Little Fears for some people who had thought it sounded interesting last year.  By the time "sign ups" were concluded, I had 11 or 12 people who wanted to play.  The sessions I ran were completely awesome.  So many memorable moments and great in-character dialog.  I think my revised mechanics ("v1.5") worked very well, and even the character creation seemed to be pretty balanced.  Also, the "creepy" level was just about perfect - a creepy/horror game is a difficult thing to pull off.  The second session was especially successful.  Not that the first or third sessions were bad (they were really great, in fact), it's more that the second session in particular was more of a perfect storm.  It was probably one of the best sessions I've ever run.  All of the players in all of the sessions really got into it, and they played into the atmosphere and their characters perfectly.  They really made the games work.  They were awesome and I'm glad to have had the chance to run games for them.  Most gratifying, most of them even told me in so many words that they loved the games - and that is what I enjoy the most out of GMing: watching my players have a great time.

Like I mentioned before, I've been into some tangible bits for games. I got several comments on the character cards and handouts I made for this game, and I thought using crayons for them to write their names and also as their bennies/chips in the game was a nice touch as well (if i do say so myself).  Also, I liked using tokens for injury and fear in this game.  Overall, the mechanics had some pretty great physical representations.  

Game Notes

On a quasi-related note, I've been discovering recently that I don't use game notes for much anymore.  I tend to write things down in my planning as an exercise such that I don't forget the key points and have a general impression of the specifics, but I really don't use the notes I write during the session.  The basic exception to this rule is to look up a name for a tertiary NPC.  Other than that, I go off of my memory and what the PCs are doing.  This wasn't always the case - I used to rely on my notes pretty heavily, but I think as I've gotten more animated and descriptive as a GM, I've started doing more of that flavor stuff (which is the fun) just off the top of my head (which is rooted in my understanding of the setting).  I think my games are better that way, really - for the same kinds of reasons that I don't like to roll dice as the GM: I don't have to stop the flow of the action and description to reference something external to the "story" as it is unfolding.

Coming Up

Getting ready to start a new game with my local group on saturday.  I think we're going to do an urban fantasy game using the World of Darkness rules.

 

~PS

Happy Valley: Campout (1)

Sunday July 1, 2012 at 9:00pm happy valley, game session notes, trogland Comments (0) »

"It's just like the dream..."

"Hold it right there, partner!"

"I wanted to be a hero!"

"Batman has forsaken me..."

Happy Valley: Into The Night (2)

Characters:

Dee Dee, Tommy, James, Suzie, [Reverent]

Session:

"I'm going to the retillary room..."

"What? My mommy said it means 'baby mice'..."

"I'm invisible...I'm invisible...I'm baby mice-ing invisible!"

"I've seen the counselors go up there.  They always use the buddy system."

"Yeah, I just faint."

Happy Valley: Into The Night (1)

Characters:

Sheri, Scotty, Katie, 'Manda, Phil, Mason

Session:

"I'm squishing myself into the corner as tightly as I can."

"You're lying!"

"My sister's mean..."

"Then why are you scared?"

"We have to all hold hands in a circle, with one person in the middle, and sing the camp song..."

127.0.0.1: Revived

Sunday June 10, 2012 at 2:00pm bot, 127.0.0.1, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The group arrives at Vic's old hideout, is attacked by spider-like bots - a number of tiny ones and one, giant spider bot.

- The group destroys the smaller spiders and Vic cuts the power to the hideout - which seemed to cause the giant spider bot to lose interest in the area.

- When the spider was gone, the group repaired themselves and made ready to return to the factory.

- The Administrator bot in the party convinced the eccentric door to the facility to let them in.  The group wandered the facility until they found a room with TC, her toy, Bolt, and two factory bots.

- The subsequent encounter involved the two factory bots (armed with stun pistols) and some animate cages that attempted to trap the interlopers.  TC and Bolt were already in cages of their own.

- After disabling the factory bots and the cages, the group learned from TC that the factory had actually be reactivated by one of the Mainframes to produce a kind of modified processor.

[end]

The Ghosts of Games Past, Present and Future

Thursday June 7, 2012 at 11:14pm gaming Comments (0) »
The Ghosts of Games Past, Present and Future Image

I've been working a bit on the Little Fears game I'm going to be running for the playgrounders at our annual meetup at the end June.  This is a little teaser I posted up on the forum for those signed up to play.

The rules set I'll be using for it is an unofficial "version 1.5" I've blogged about before.  I've made a couple more tweaks to the system, but it's essentially the original game with a bit of a facelift.

I ran a session of Bot v0.2 for our sunday group last weekend.  I'd never run a game for that group before, so that was a new experience.  That went ok, but since the game is a homebrew I've only run a couple of times before, we were (I was) a little foggy on some of the rules - which made parts of it a little awkward.  I think it was a mostly fun session though.  They agreed to play it again this weekend, so I've got some more work to do on that.  Hopefully this second half will have a nice kick.  

For this game I had made some cool-looking character cards as well as cards for the various devices, etc.  Also, we use counters to keep track of certain, expendable/replenishing resources.  I'm finding that I enjoy adding interesting visual elements to games.  Not so much props or pictures of stuff, but taking a little extra time to make character sheets that have a certain, thematic look to them - or interesting bits of fluff or info like the camp letter.  I think it really adds something to the feel of the game, even being as "meta" in nature as it is.

My Star Wars game, Shards of Endor, was brought to a mostly-successful conclusion a couple of weeks ago.  The last session was, overall, interesting and engaging, but I/we think it might have started to run out of steam at the end.  I'm starting to think we start to run out of energy after about 9pm.  I haven't found a vehicle combat system I've liked, so I tried something a little more narrative for the final starfight.  I think it partially worked, but I'm not completely happy with how it played out - at least it terms of climax.  I think the game ended in a logical, "realistic" fashion - but it wasn't necessarily a 10 on "exciting".  The game is meant to be continued at some point though, and I deliberately left some open hooks in each of the PCs stories.  It will be fun to pick up again after a while.  I think next we're going to try a World of Darkness game - with my own spin, as usual.  Also, I'm planning to make it pretty sandboxy, with lots of different opportunities for the players to pursue.

I found a copy of Spirit of the Century at Mr. K's the other day.  That was unexpected and cool.  I think Tony and Adam would really enjoy that game in particular, and I know I really loved the session I played at Thanksgaming a couple of years ago.

And I still want to run Mouse Guard for a group someday.

 

~PS

127.0.0.1: Again Exiled

Sunday June 3, 2012 at 2:00pm bot, 127.0.0.1, game session notes Comments (0) »

Game:

Bot (homebrew) version 0.2

Characters:

[Tony] Pigeon - Small Messenger Bot

[Doug] Sloan - Repair Bot

[Patrick] Philmore - Administrative Logistics Bot

[Tim] Rusty - Heavy Mining Bot

Session:

- the group's home is destroyed by a demolition bot and two assassin bots

- after defeating the attackers, group decides the Cardinals must be expanding their area of enforcement.  They decide to flee from their area of the Mid City at least a little further down.

- Group encounters an old processor factory in the lower sections of the Mid City that is actually operational - which should not happen.  Witness another bot dart inside past a facility guard.

- Group meets another bot, Vic.  Agrees to help rescue his rash friend (TC) if he can first provide them a place to affect some repairs.

- Vic leads them to an old hideout in the Old City.

Shards of Endor: At The Last Moment

Saturday May 26, 2012 at 3:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- the party made their way across the tiny, blasted landing pad toward the mountainside entrance of the facility - which was still without power.

- after Jaylyn forced the door open, the group could smell death and ozone pouring out from the long-sealed hangar bay.  They were examining the piles of scrap, the loose wires and cables that seemed to criss-cross the massive room, the dead storm troopers and the inert droids - many of which had had blasters welded onto them - when the power suddenly came back on.

- the party shortly found themselves face to face with a massive patched-together droid which declared them as intruders.  As they began to engage this threat, several of the partially destroyed droids came to life and began their own efforts to remove the interlopers.

- the large droid was powered directly by the station, however, which proved to be its Achilles' heel.  A couple of lucky shots to the power conduits deactivated it, causing it to collapse onto the the hangar floor.  The other droids must have been controlled by it in some way, because when it went down, they all suddenly deactivated as well.

- having restored power to the installation, Aleya and Pyrak joined the group.  After a brief adventure on the administration level (involving a rather large security cannon and some booby traps), the group managed to find a lift key to gain access to the control room level.

- the control room was not in any better condition than the hangar had been.  Bare wiring was exposed everywhere and many of the computer terminals seemed to have been damaged.  There was also a single damaged droid that nervously pointed a blaster pistol at them, telling them that they must not enter the control room.

- Jaylyn and Pike attempted to reason with the droid, who seemed senile and confused - only intent on keeping the "intruders" out of the area, but seeming to realize it lacked the capability to enforce this desire.  Meanwhile, Ash began attempting to bring the computer systems online.  After some discussion, the group learned that the orbital gun itself was damaged, and Jaylyn climbed up and out of an access hatch to repair it...   ...about the time that tie fighters began making passes at the station.

- by the time Jaylyn was finished and had returned, Ash had managed to get the control room basically online - though quite a few systems were questionable and it seems communications with many of the global positioning statellites were down.  Things might have been find had Magriv and Tooloo not burst into the room - followed almost immediately by a massive, 35-ft centipede.

- While Magriv, Tooloo and Jaylyn were fighting the centipede, Ash realized that the crippled star destroyer had drifted into the station's firing arc.  He also noticed, however, that it seemed to be quickly losing elevation in a partially-controlled descent - it was attempting to land and would soon drop out of range again.

- Ash knew he would need help to aim and fire the gun, so he grabbed Pike and the two began working furiously while the others kept the giant creature busy.  They were just getting started when Ash noticed a warning from another display - a proximity / target lock warming from an incoming battleship.

- the timing could not have been closer. Pike managed to key in the final commands and fire weapon mere seconds before the control room was rocked by the battleship's obliteration of the weapon overhead.  The blast coordinates were perfect, though, and the crippled star destroyer exploded just after it had entered Duro's atmosphere.  

- the group descended deeper into the facility and into the saftey of the mountain to wait out the aerial attack. When the coast was clear, Belussa returned to pick them up.  The situation in space was much less dire.  The CIO had finally been convinced to act (perhaps after the star destroyer was finished off) and, though the planet was certainly under Imperial control, they were effectively stranded there as the space around it was once again in Duro hands.  Resistance forces had already begun arriving for the final offensive.

- when all perparations had been made, the newly-assembled resistance fleet made the short jump to Coruscant, where the immediately encountered some kind of astal storm between them and their objective.

- the storm turned out to be some Imperial device, however - generated by an array of small "cloud ships".  As the rebels became aware of its nature and how it worked, they began altering their tactics to circumvent it to reach the Imperial fleet - which turned out to have been in less than perfect condition before the battle started.  Still, the cloud served its purpose by catching the resistance off-guard and allowed the Imperials to score some early victories.

- the part decided to begin engaging the cloud ships and, after destroying a few and relaying their tactics to other rebel ships, they decided to attempt to slip by the Imperial fleet in order to obtain identifiable photos of Coruscant.  They figured if they could get proof that the planet still existed and send it to one of the larger rebel ships to beam it out to the public, the Imperials' efforts here would be successfully undermined.

- as they approached the planet, the group discovered they were being shadowed by a small, stealth craft when it began firing orange blasts at them that seemed to short out their computer systems.

- the insuing duel lasted for some time before Ash realized that the ship was repairing itself as it took blaster damage.  It was then that Pike decided to use one of the missiles they'd been given to try to take it out all at once.  The ship proved to be difficult to lock onto, but the attack was ultimately successful and the ship exploded as it dove past them.

- the party was only starting to record their sensor information when they received word that the Imperial fleet was breaking up and jumping out of the system - some of the bigger ships, however, seemed to have jumped into hyperspace toward the Deep Core, which seemed very odd...

[end story arc]

Missing the Point

Wednesday May 23, 2012 at 1:18pm grammar, facebook, chain posting Comments (0) »

I'm not a Grammar Nazi.  Really.

I say "Me and Sheri" instead of "Sheri and I".  I spell things incorrectly.  I like sentence fragments. I misplace commas.  Passive voice is acceptable.  I occasionally use "their" as a singular possessive.  I don't generally get onto people for ending sentences with prepositons.  I'm ok with made-up words, false words and bad contractions ("ain't").  I am usually far more concerned with the effectiveness of the communication than whether the communication was somehow objectively correct.

But, seriously, misused homophones annoy the crap out of me.  I'm talking about Your/You're and its brethren.  I think it's because this is so basic.  This isn't even sentence construction, it's simple word choice.  I think I'm going to mentally substitude "wombat" for the offending word whenever I see this sort of thing.  Maybe that'll make it less irritating.

Really though, I think a large part of the irritation is due to the fact that I have a conditioned association between these errors and the emergent abbreviated text-speak that pervades our digital written media (u no wut i men?).  It seems to that said abbreviations are actually influencing the collective understanding of the English language.  I forsee a time when people will no longer know how to spell "you" and what is "correct" is constrained by character count.

There is a bit of a philosophical tangent here to the tune of "is this really a problem?".  One can argue that language is an ever-evolving construct, morphing over time in response to how it is most commonly used.  Bascially, however a languange can be effectively used is a "correct" implementation.

Yeah, ok.  I suppose theirs there's some truth to that.  Still, when commonly(?)-understood rules and definitions are bent to too far, communication is effected affected.  Sure, context clues can imply what you meant, but your you're putting cracks in the solidity of you're your message.  Also, quite often, the context is not as clear as the speaker may assume.

Also, I think there's something to be said for a certain eloquence.  A well-spoken oration or a well-written assertion has more impact than a poorly constructed phrasing that communicates the same idea (assuming it truly does so).

 

And this brings me to what started this whole train of thought: Facebook.

Yeah, I'm sure that's not surprising, but bear with me.  As you know, the BookFace is a bottomless well of examples of poor human expression on a number of levels, but this discourse is only concerned with the phenomenon known as "chain posting".

It should probably be noted that I don't re/chain post.  Ever.  I don't care how good your "cause" is or how important you think it is to "spread the word", I just don't do it.  There are a few reasons for this.  Mostly because I see it as a pointless exercise in psuedo-solidarity, but secondary reasons are that I view it as spam-like and that if I *never* do it, I can claim a sort of universal immunity, thereby hopefully avoiding the eventuality of making people mad when I decided not to post their messages but did post others.

But my favorite is coercion.  "If you don't repost this..." kinds of implications.  You're a bad person.  You don't care about dying people.  You don't "support our troops".  You "think you're too cool".  You're selfish.  The terrorists win.  You hate America.

Etc.

I particularly love it when the "implication" is something I don't particularly object to in the first place, but the poster seems to assume everyone reading it would be.  I.e., "If you don't repost this, you're not a real sports fan."  Really?  Well, crap.  I guess that means not a "real sports fan" then.  Bummer.

And, of course, my favorite aspect is when I get multiples of these, each from different perspectives, each vilifying the others.  And if I don't repost all of them, I'm going to hell.  Apparently my choices are to abstain or develop schizophrenia.

 

Now, lets bring this all together - what do you get?  You get a series of poorly worded, grammatically compromised, coercive chain posts each accusing me of being a terrible person because I'm not up in arms about today's vital issue.

Now, I may be missing the point, but even if I completely agree with your cause and I want to engage in the proselytization thereof and I could get past the coerciveness and I was enough of a jerk to want to attempt to coerce all of my friends into reposting this critically important Facebook status, I STILL wouldn't repost your message because I can't just get past the 5 grammatical errors in the original post.  And here I go back to my comment on eloquence - if you're going to make a point, make it well.  You're giving me the impression that this "universal truth" was put together by a 3rd-grader in 15 minutes.  I'm sorry, I just can't take you seriously.

 

~PS

Shards of Endor: By A Thread

Saturday May 12, 2012 at 3:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Almost immediately after the cannon fired, the installation found itself under attack.  Fortunately, the armor of the facility insured the tie fighters' strafing did little damage, but the approaching AT-ATs were cause for more concern.  The party decided it was a good time to be somewhere else.

- Along with the duro command crew, the group decided to climb back down through the internal machinery of the weapon - the way they'd originally ascended to the control room.  Meanwhile, Imperial forces, unable to unjam the lifts, had begun climbing through from the bottom as well - leading to a series of very isolated personal encounters.

- Upon reaching the hanger bay at the base of the installation, they found the group of duro drivers they ahd encountered earlier holed up and attempting to fend off and Imperial scouting force.  The troopers were gaining ground, but it was the AT-ST that was really giving them problems.

- The party joined the fray long enough to secure some speeder bikes and take out the AT-ST (by way a speeder car to the leg and a few rounds of serious turret fire) and a few of the remaining storm troopers.

- The group then made their way into the industrial complex in the valley below, and ultimately into the starfighter factor they'd originally infiltrated.  Upon reaching the completion deck, they convinced the duros there to allow them to "borrow" a few of the fighters.

- The party regrouped with Belussa, Alea and Oorin.  Now that most of the in-system Imperial fleet was regrouping around the crippled star destroyer, Alea and Oorin decided they could chance a trip to the pastoral moon where most of the system's nobility resided - including the Duro President/CIO they'd been attempting to convince to take action against the Imperial forces.  The CIO was still reluctant to engage since the star destroyer was still partially operational, and they felt a personal visit might tip the scales.

- The group transported Alea and Oorin to the nobles' moon, and then decided to head to the other side of Duro to see if the other infiltration team might be able to complete their objective and finish off the star destroyer.  When they arrived over the mining sector, however, they discovered (via com from Magriv) that the entire facility was offline and without power.  Further, internal tensions between the duro miners and the imperial occupation came to a head when excavations disturbed a nest of previously-unknown insectoid creatures - the inner workings of the mines were all but a war-zone in a three-way conflict.  Magriv and Tooloo were attempting to keep the conflict away from the abandoned station area while Pyrak and Aleya were attempting to restore power to the installation.

- Belussa guided the Verity in close to the station base among the vertical, jagged peaks and the party descended on cables from the open loading ramp in order to enter the station and attempt to end the conflict in space above them...

Return of the Linux

Saturday May 12, 2012 at 10:00am computers, work, linux Comments (2) »
Return of the Linux Image

A few weeks back I was having some trouble with my work computer's windows install.  (And, oh hey, I've been at this job over a year now.  I think they like me. :))  As luck would have it, I also had a machine in my "custody" that was no longer needed.  

I swiped the harddrive from it, stuck it in my machine, and installed Linux Mint 12 KDE on it.  Now, it had been a while since I've used Linux as a primary machine (about 6 years now, actually), so some things are...different.  

I'm not sure what I think about KDE 4/Plasma.  The cashew thing is a little annoying, but maybe I just don't understand how to use it (which is to say, I don't).  Also, current support for ati + dual-head is terrible.  Xinerama (which i understand is deprecated) won't play nice with desktop effects modules (xcomposite & xdamage...or randr), but I can't get both displays recognized as one unified desktop without using it (even though I think that's theoretically possible).  I mess with it at lunch occasionally (edit: figured this out - requires downloading ati driver w/ catalyst control from ati, running aticonfig --initial -f, disabling xrandr in xorg.conf (can be done with aticonfig), restarting and running amdcccle to use catalyst to set up monitor configuration).  Since I seem to be pointing out the "bad" things first, I also haven't been able to get Likewise Open to let my PC join the AD domain.  I keep getting an "OU format is invalid" error.  What's weird is that the connection attempt actually does add the machine to AD in the correct OU - it just won't establish/use the connection.  I also wish there was a mail client that would play nicer with Exchange 2007 (actually, I wish we weren't *using* SBS & Exchange, but hey).

On the upside, however, I've discovered a few cool things linux now (or things that are easier).  Support for RDP is good.  Samba sharing is less of a headache.  USB plug-&-play support is more reliable (at least with external storage, etc).  I've also discovered Sun's Virtual Box is pretty awesome for virtualization.  One of my biggest grievances with The Gimp has always been the fact that it doesn't have photoshop-like layer manipulation & effects...   ...but I've now found this plugin which mostly solves that problem (and, in some ways, is better than the photoshop equivalent).  There's even an open source xen manager.

Despite some minor issues and limitations (as mentioned), I really like being on linux again.  It's nice to be able to have more direct control over what my machine is doing.  Multiple desktops are extremely useful.  The ability to easily find a program to do almost anything for free is awesome.  And, even on our sbs network, there's nothing I could do on my windows machine I cannot do on this linux platform (some things are harder, some things are actually easier).

~PS

One Year & the Present

Saturday May 12, 2012 at 9:00am family, recording, gaming, photography Comments (0) »
One Year & the Present Image

Well, Hannah's almost a year old.  Sheri's been planning a little for her birthday party - I think we're going to have a cookout with some family and a few friends.  Turns out quite a few people are going to be out of town next weekend.

I've been doing some more with recording on the rare opportunities I get.  I think I've discovered that I get better sound and less noise by using the condenser to mic my amp than by using my amplifier emulator AUs.  This might be unsurprising.  The problem is, in order to do this, my amp has to be cranked pretty loud...   ...loud enough that I don't really want hannah in the room with me, and when Sheri's home, she's not so much a fan.  Maybe if I clean out the recording closet again...

My Star Wars game, Shards of Endor, is reaching it's finale.  Tonight's session may or may not be the last game.  (honestly, I kind of figure it'll go one more, but we'll see...).  It's been fun, and I think it's been a good length.  I'm still really enjoying it, but I think I'm just about ready for something else.

Also, I've been doing some slow and unsteady planning for the Little Fears (1.5) game I'm going to be running for some Playgrounders come the end of June.  I've been doing a lot of concept/theme/atmosphere setup in my head for this one.  I hope it comes off as well...

Also, Crackles.

Mom came down for a visit last week - to see Hannah, of course.  That was cool.  Amongst the general hanging out, we went out to Sycamore Shoals, where I did some photo shooting for the first time in a while.  That is always fun.  Seems like I don't have as much time for some of these hobbies anymore.  Guess that's due to the Rosebug.

And, apart from having been a little sick and that I'm not looking forward to tackling the yard after I'm done posting this, I think things are pretty good.

~PS

Shards of Endor: Long Shot pt. II

Saturday April 21, 2012 at 3:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- As the group approached the hanger-bay entrance to the installation, they noticed an altercation between a squad of storm troopers and about a dozen or so Duro around a group of large delivery trucks.  The conflict was about to erupt into violence when Pike (still in disguise as a trooper himself) stepped in and suggested that the Empire would be best served by the squad leader allowing the Duro workers to do their jobs.

- The party then proceeded to the third installation sub-level where they found the Duro mechanic staffing quarters.  They took and interesting approach to making friends, but ultimately got some useful information about how to proceed upward to the control room without being questioned - this would involve climbing up through the maintenance access areas of the machinery itself.  They also discovered that they would need an activation key in order to arm the weapon for firing.  This key would certainly be in the possession of one of the Imperial officers in the installation.

- While their new Duro friends jammed the two primary access lifts, the party climbed up through the 4-story guts of the orbital gun and through a removable panel into the control level.

- The party took a quick survey of the rooms in their immediate area before proceeding to the control room itself.  Their intending storming of the control room began a little awkwardly, but they were able to take out the squad of troopers within it with little difficulty - though the alarm was sounded during the effort.

- The alarm brought an officer and another squad of troopers in from the opposite side of the control level.  After a brief by intense firefight, Pike recovered the access key from the officer.

- Jaylyn and Pike rallied the Duro technicians in the control room to take action against the Empire, and preparations for firing began in earnest.  When everything was ready, they looked to Pike for the command to fire.

- Pike gave the order over the still-blaring alarm system, but when the orbital gun itself engaged everything went silence for a few moments before the entire complex vibrated with a pair of shots aimed toward space.  

- On the satellite monitors, they could see the massive energy beams slice through the bow of the star destroyer in orbit.  The Duros were still cheering when Pike noticed a flight of tie fighters and a pair of AT-ATs rapidly closing with the installation.

Shards of Endor: Long Shot pt. I

Saturday April 14, 2012 at 4:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Jaylyn and Pike continued their conversations with the resistance cell about sneaking down to the planet and attempting to commandeer one of the orbital defense guns just long enough to fire on the remaining star destroyer still in-system.  They collectively decided sending two teams would be best - one toward each of the guns - to increase the odds that at least one contingent would be successful.  Jaylyn and Pike decided they would head to the production sector and let the other group hit the mines.

- Ash returned to the ship to get some rest.  Upon waking a few hours later, Belussa told him that garrison was in search of a rogue trooper and that 4 newly-arrived visitors (the party) were wanted for questioning.  She expected an imperial detachment to arrive at the ship before midday.

- Ash and Belussa took C5 and some of the gear they thought the Imperials my confiscate and left the ship, hiding what they could in a nearby cave and then heading to the area Belussa said the others had gone to.

- Jaylyn and Pike were finally able to contact Ash and Belussa and meet up with them the next day.  One of the resistance members was driving them to a shuttle contact in a neighboring settlement where Jaylyn, Pike and Ash could get a ride to the planets' surface posing as mechanics and labor personel for manufacturing.

- There were a few close-calls with Imperial inspections, but the group did make it down to the planet.  They attracted some attention slipping into the manufacturing facilities, but managed to evade any sticky situations.

- After some investigation, the group discovered the location of the orbital defense installation and began making their way toward it.

Kites, Pacing and Aspiration-to-Action

Tuesday April 10, 2012 at 2:40pm holidays, friends, photography, gaming, music Comments (0) »
Kites, Pacing and Aspiration-to-Action Image

So Sheri has this tradition of trying to fly kites on Easter sunday.  The last couple of years, it's actually worked pretty well.  Winged Deer park seems to be a good place for it.  Tony & Adam also joined us this year - I thought that was pretty cool.  We have good friends.  I think it was quite an enjoyable time - I got some good pics, too.  Some of my favorites were done with some intentional lens-flare.  There's something cozy and nostalgic about that look.  I'm not sure what it is.

Shards of Endor continued last weekend as well.  This particular session was a little unusual as the group was split for its entirety (which may be a first) and both parties were in rather tense situations - one attempting to sabotage Imperial resources, and the others discovering a particular bounty hunter was still on their trail.  The session played out in two halves as opposed to staggering events in a quasi-simultaneous fashion, but I think that was probably for the best in this circumstance - and I didn't get the impression I was losing people on either side.  The last few sessions have been interesting for me as the GM in general - I think I'm learning a bit of what works and what doesn't with this group as it relates to the kind of game I'm trying to run.  I'm starting to think that, with Star Wars, it's a good idea to keep the action moving.  That seems to work best for this particular genre.  As it's turning out though, I may be contrasting that next game with something a bit more brooding - so we may see how versatile our group can be.

I spent some time sunday night talking with a friend of mine about his musical ambitions.  I may be doing some stuff with him to help him further this goal.  We're at pretty different places with respect to how we view our musical pursuits - and what we'd ultimately like to do with them - but i always like to see a fellow creative actually doing something.  He's talked about it for a long time - and I know he's put a lot of thought into it - but it's good to see that over the last year or so, he's really starting to move forward.  I find that motivating myself.

~PS

Shards of Endor: Smoke and Mirrors

Saturday April 7, 2012 at 3:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Jaylyn and Pike road in the speeder with their new "friends" until they reached the edge of the "outpost"

- The "outpost" turned out to be an old underground installation that, apparently, had fallen victim to massive arial bombardment, and now was mostly just a crater.

- As they approached the far edge where the small rebel group was hiding out, they noticed the power was not on as it should be.

- Meanwhile (or, actually, some time later), Ash continued infiltrating the Imperial garrison at the settlement.  Disguised as a storm trooper, he made his way around to the garage where the speeder bikes were kept.

- He had marginal success talking his way past several people in the garrison - ultimately choosing to just deck the clerical worker in the munitions locker. 

- After hacking his way through a couple of doorlocks, Ash rigged 9 satchel charges to a detonator and proceeded to attempt to leave the garrison.  Before he was able to make it to an exit, however, he was conscripted by a fellow trooper to go on an assignment.

- The assignment took Ash to Drao's Hole where a large gungan named Nabrek was becoming a problem for the proprieter.  A pair of Duros joined in the distubrance by firing upon the troopers.

- Ash helped the other storm troopers stun the assailants, but upon leaving the bar, peeled off into the back-alleys and detonated the charges.  The resultant explosion shook the settlement and lit up the night sky.

- Back at the resistance hideout, Jaylyn, Pike and their new friends were engaged in combat with something they believed to be the bounty hunter Uziel Hash they'd met previously.  He was employing a long-ranged stun rifle, booby traps, walking stun grenades and some form of hallucenogen that was making the fight tricky and uncertain.

- Eventually, Pike and two of the others charged in to the main open area where they believed their assailant while Jaylyn and one of the others made their way into an air vent that would lead them into the room from above.

- The group was at last able to overwhelm the attacker, but as they were finishing him off, Pike was becoming convinced that this was not the real Hash, only another decoy.

- Once the area was again secure and several of the stunned inhabitants revived, they group of them took a full day to rest.

- When they had recovered their strength, Jaylyn and Pike met with the rest of the group and its leaders.  They told the two that Coruscant had not been destroyed in fact, though they couldn't offer any tangible proof.  Instead, it had been effectively blockaded such that it seemed destroyed and the Empire was now using their forged "demonstation" as an intimidation tactic to get its hooks into the governments of many systems - sometimes by employing existing entities in the underworld.  Soon, they would be in deep enough that the fact that Coruscant had survived wouldn't matter.

- They continued by saying that the resistance had been gathering in different parts of the galaxy and that they meant to launch a coordinated attack against the Imperial Fleet at Coruscant, but that Duro was needed as a staging and gathering ground - and with the Imperial presence here, that wouldn't be possible.

- The resistance had been in talks with the Chief Industial Officer - effectively the Government-Corporation leader - about using the Duro's not-insignificant forces to free their world, but the CIO is a bit of a coward.  Still, the resistance believes he would launch the attack if the Star Destroyers could be first eliminated.  One, it seems, had left the system earlier that day for reasons unknown, but there was still one in orbit.

- The option put forth as feesible to get rid of this threat was to use one of the orbital defense guns on the Duro surface.  They were, of course, currently under Imperial control, but if one could be liberated and brought to bear on the remaining Star Destroyer, it would never see it coming...

Sour Apples

Thursday April 5, 2012 at 3:23pm mac, malware, musings Comments (5) »
Sour Apples Image

As of a few days ago, a new iteration of an OSX trojan called Flashback emerged, and has apparently had much more success than previous attempts at infecting machines.  The most recent numbers I've read indicate ~600k, in fact.  My own machines were thankfully immune, owing to some specific applications I have installed that cause the trojan to opt to delete itself (rather than be discovered or stifled, presumably).  This version takes advantage of a Java hole, which Apple has now patched.  Other/previous versions pose as a Flash player installer.  (As an aside, if you're a Mac user, I recommend running Software Update to get the patch if you haven't already.  Also, see "the bottom line".)

Here is what I think is funny: the Mac-bashing that inevitably comes with this sort of thing.  Quips along the lines of "oh, you thought you were so cool and couldn't get viruses and stuff - not so tough now, are ya!?".

The reason this is amusing is that it comes off as desperate.  It kind of feels like the last-place team cheering when the first-place team finally loses a game.  I'm sure it's great, just don't look at the scoreboard.

When a new Windows virus/trojan/worm appears, I have heard (and have probably been) the occasional Mac (or linux) user intimating that they don't have to worry about it by virtue of their platform.  Yeah, it can be a bit of gloating, but it seems to lack the fervor or bitterness that this inverse possesses.  Also, at least from my point of view, any comment about Mac/Linux immunity in those cases is meant to be an argument for why a person should consider switching platforms.  I don't get that from these comments.  I don't think they're trying to get Mac users to switch (back) to Windows, they seem just to want to point out the flaws.  Spec in your brother's eye, and all that.

My "Windows Hate" has decreased a bit over the years.  Maybe that's because Windows has also improved "a bit" over the years.  I still don't like it, but that's mostly because it just seems to bog itself down after a while.  At least as far as XP.  I don't have as much experience with Windows 7.  I'm not going to talk about Vista.

Windows has its place.  Personally, I think that place is as a gaming rig or a machine for certain 3rd party applications a person might find essential that are Windows-only.  For more common uses (web, email, desktop office apps, etc) - or basically anything else - I'd always go with OSX or some flavor of Linux.  Of course, some people just want something cheap(ish), well-known and off-the-shelf - and I guess Windows fills that niche as well.  

(To tangent further, there is also something to the idea that, in our modern era of gizmos, more and more people don't really *need* an actual computer. If all you do is email/web/social media/etc type stuff, you're probably better suited to something like a tablet or even a smartphone.)

Also, I think Windows is kind of ugly, but that's just personal taste.  And probably an acquired one.

On the other side of that coin, I'd mention that, while I love my Macs, I'm not all that fond of Apple as a company, and I tend to be annoyed by the militant Apple/Mac fanboys of the world.  Yes, it's a spiffy product.  Calm down.  And stop acting cliquish and superior.  You're being a jerk.

Anyway, back to the malware topic.  

I'm pretty sure Apple has never claimed OSX is malware free.  They've said that Macs are immune to Windows malware, yes.  That's a bit of an obvious truth.  Microsoft could just as easily claim that their Windows systems are immune to Mac malware.  It's just that, in our world, that's significantly less impressive.  

They've probably also mentioned that OSX has built-in malware protection.  I'm honestly not sure how good it is, but I can say I've never had a problem.  They may point out that your likelihood of encountering malware is much lower on a Mac - which is still true, though it's clearly becoming less so.  Sadly, the erroneous idea that Macs are immune to malware probably comes from over-zealous Mac users who anecdotally have noticed that they never get the viruses and worms plaguing their Windows-using friends.  About the most you could say is that Apple has allowed people to believe they are safer than they actually are.

The bottom line is "pay attention".  You are quite literally your own worst enemy: a lot of malware that's out there for any platform is driven by social engineering - by tricking unsuspecting users into opening the door.  Don't just click 'ok'.  Even if it's never happened to you.  Even if you're behind a firewall.  Even if you have an antivirus program.  Even if you're on a Mac.  You may think these things are protecting you, but really, they're not - at least not completely.  You are not invulnerable.

~PS

Life of Late

Wednesday April 4, 2012 at 6:43pm family, video games, gaming, recording Comments (2) »
Life of Late Image

A brief glance at my calendar has reminded me that March was pretty uneventful, at least in any exciting way.  

Sadly, about the most noteworthy happening in the month was my grandma's funeral.  She'd been slowly fading for some years, so I suppose it was just "time".  In a certain sense, I think we "lost" her some time ago, but there is something in the finality of the physical passing that gives one pause for this sort of reflection.  It was good to see everyone though - I don't think I can recall the last time I got to spend time with that many relatives all at once.  I do wish we could have stayed a bit longer.

In other, less serious news:

"Crackle Night" is well established at this point as tuesday evening's passtime, so that's been fun.  I have also procured Ginger's copy of Windwaker from Patrick.  Also fun.

"Shards of Endor" continues in a somewhat sporadic fashion, but has been a lot of fun.  I've been kicking around ideas for subsequent games.

I've been giving some thought to further music projects.  Since I haven't come up with much in terms of new compositions lately, I'm considering returning to some of the stuff I've already recorded and laying it down again - now having considerably more experience under my belt.

Also, included for your enjoyment, a picture of Hannah at 10 months.  (Also, also: as of this version of the site, pics posted to the blog have thumbnails as well as a larger web image - click it for higher-res cuteness.)

~PS

Penguinsushi v10

Saturday March 31, 2012 at 1:40pm web development, website, music, recording Comments (0) »

Well, here we are.  Version 10.  In the last 7 years, there have been 10 iterations of this site, each constituting a complete rebuild and incorporating new things I've learned about web design & development.

As far as design goes, I was going for something cleaner, simpler and more elegant than the previous design (which was a bit more graphic rich and stylized).  In terms of architecture, this is the first version that's actually built on an MVC platform.  The specific framework is one of my own creation, loosely based on CodeIgniter.  I'm really liking it.

This new site has some new features as well.  Commenting ability has been expanded.  (Re)added a site search feature (accessible from the footer).  Games, Galleries and Albums are more official entities.  More images in sections.  General polish has been applied.

The music page has returned with an actual player.  I'm not really happy with most of what's up there as of now, but I figured I'd put it up for good measure.  Or mostly because the previous version of the site had nothing on the music page at all.  I do have plans for future recording - when I have the opportunity to do much with it.

~PS

Shards of Endor: Subterfuge

Saturday March 24, 2012 at 6:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Jaylyn and Pike decided to check on Ash.  When they'd talked their way through the red tape to enter the garrison, Tanor himself showed them to the temporary medical bay where their friend was being treated.  The garrison, it seemed, was still under construction.  Tanor told them that Ash should be released in approximately 36 hours - sometime the morning after next.

- The next day, the two decided to scout out the street intersection they'd been given, only to discover that the streets in question did not intersect.  They were, in fact nearly parallel and among the straighter streets of the settlement.  

- Jaylyn and Pike eventually decided that the shifty Rodian must have been implying the place where the streets would meet if they were to be extended into the wilderness - a point approximately 3 miles northeast of town.  After returning to The Verity for some supplies, they made their way toward that location.

- The location, they discovered, was a large crater-like canyon.  By the time they reached the place, however, it was well after sunset - and was getting dark.

- Meanwhile, Ash had been revived and was preparing to leave the garrision earlier than expected.  Once he had been debriefed, he decided to head toward Drao's Hole where his companions had been intending to go.  

- He'd only taken a few steps in that direction, however, when he noticed something in his jacket pocket.  It was a small data pad.  When Ash switched it on, it read: "I know your secret, Mr. Grayven.  It is safe for now."  The message went on to say that Ash should meet this person at the end of a street in one hour.

- The acidic rain was falling pretty hard by the time Ash arrived at the prescribed location.  The shadowy figure standing at the edge of the area illuminated by the one street lamp was obviously waiting.  When he approached, the figure told him he was glad he came.  Ash recognized the voice as Tanor's.  Tanor told him that he needed a favor.  He needed someone to break into the Imperial garrison and dispose of some new speeder bikes that had just been shipped in.  Since Ash didn't want his secret to get out, and since he generally didn't have qualms about sabotaging Imperial property, he agreed.

- As Pike and Jaylyn entered the canyon they'd found, it seemed as though no one was around.  They were beginning to wonder if they'd been mistaken when the very dimmed headlights of a speeder began approaching.  A young woman opened one of the rear doors, stepped out and hurriedly motioned them to join her.

- About that same time, a grenade rocked the speeder car from the other side, and an unknown group of assailants opened fire from the ledge above.  Pike and Jaylyn made a run for it to the speeder, which was already turning around.  They managed to get inside before it took off, rocketting into a tunnel in the canyon wall.  It took only precursory conversation for Pike and Jaylyn to learn that the people they'd just joined were, at least in some way, part of the alliance.

- Back at the garrison, Ash had found a downed tree resting against the back wall of the installation beneath a guard tower.  He had returned to The Verity for his storm trooper armor which was currently covered by a brown cloak.  The external lights of the garrison apparently weren't functioning yet and the surroundings were dark, though the installation itself was well lit.  Once the guard in the tower turned away, Ash made his break for it - leaping up the tree and throwing himself over the wall into a small courtyard between the tower and two other buildings - which, as luck would have it - was currently empty.  That is, until Ash saw one of the doors opening...

Shards of Endor: Recognition

Saturday March 3, 2012 at 3:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The party decided to follow their only lead to Drao's Hole, a bar located in one of the larger settlements on Ouro, a backwater moon of the system.

- Upon landing, they were greeted by a combined patrol of local and Imperial officers.  The Imperial officer in charge seemed to recognize Ash.  After they had been basically satisfied with the group's reason for visiting the planet ("to sell wares"), the patrol made to depart only to be attacked by a pair of giant lizard-like creatures.

- The group participated in the insuing chaos, which culminated with Belussa following Pike's instructions to turn the ships turret on the larger of the two creatures.  Unfortunately, Belussa's gunnery skills were not particularly great, and the boulder that exploded from the weapon's fire managed to mortally wound Ash.

- The Imperial officer, perhaps grateful(?) for the aid, called for a medic.  Against his wishes, Belussa attempted to stabalize Ash's condition - an effort that was partially successful.

- When the medic arrived, Ash was transported to the new Imperial garrison in the settlement for treatment.  This was potentially problematic since Ash was currently AWOL from the Imperial army.

- The officer, whose name was Tanor, told Pike and Jaylyn that they could come to visit him if they wished and that mentioning his name should be sufficient to gain entrance.

- With their companion out of commission, the two decided to go ahead to Drao's Hole themselves.  They spent some time talking with Drao and overhearing other conversations.  They eventually noticed an uneasy-looking Rodian sitting by himself and Pike decided to buy him a drink.  Pike subtley intimated that he was connected to the duro who'd been maintaining the signal they had traced and the Rodian seemed to respond to this with some urgency.  He told Pike they should talk, but not there.  Instead they would meet later - sunset the following day - at the intersection of two streets in town.

Things Have Been

Monday February 27, 2012 at 10:49pm recording, work, friends, ootscon Comments (0) »
Things Have Been Image

Well, Feb. is almost at an end, sadly.  As usual, I had had hopes for doing something with RPM again this year since I actually have my own gear now, but it has turned out not to be.  I've had too many other things pulling me in different directions.  I think i've basically reached the conclusion that now isn't a good time in my life for a hobby project with those kinds of time constraints.  I actually struggle more than I used to just to get a rp session planned.

That's not to say I haven't been doing a lot with music & recording stuff - i have.  I'm really enjoying my new setup like I said before.  I just haven't been able to spend 4 hours a day with it.  It's more like 4 hours a week - and that's if I really try.

Earlier this month I also went on my first-ever "business trip" (it's like I'm all grown up or something) down to a web design conference in Orlando.  I didn't learn anything earth-shattering, but it did point me in some new directions and shift my focus a bit.  Overall worthwhile.

Also, Sushi day has come and gone.  The site is 7 years old now.  On a similar note, if some hypothesize that a new version of the site might be forthcoming, they wouldn't be completely wrong.

Hannah is 9 months now - and still super cute.  Tony and I have been enjoying some Zelda.  Talk has begun about the 6th OotsCon meetup this summer. 

Things have been.

~PS

Shards of Endor: Spook

Friday February 3, 2012 at 7:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The party arrived in the Duro system to find themselves in the path of an Imperial pursuit.  They avoided any altercations by cooperating with the Imperial authorities and remaining uninvolved.

- When the coast was clear, they headed into one of Duro's orbital cities where they were looking for information.  A local duro pub had little to offer them.  They had already noticed the system was fairly heavily occupied by Imperials and no one here seemed to know why.  They were also informed that transports were not allowed to leave the system without Imperial authorization.

- The group tuned into the com frequency indicated by the message they had deciphered to find only a simple tone on the channel.  After some attempts to make more of it, they decided the only thing they could do was try to trace it to its origins.

- The signal lead them into the bowels of a duro residential station.  When they finally reached its source, however, they found that someone had already done so.  In a small corridor was a dead duro, having apparently been shot twice in the chest.  Scattered around the area were the duro's possessions as well as a deck of sabac cards.

- Pike recognized what he was seeing and, upon finding and examining the 'Demise' card from the deck, was sure of it: this was the work of a bounty hunter called Uziel Hash, a man known for mystery and misdirection.  Pike advised the others to be careful.

- The only thing the group found that they identified as useful or a potential clue was a card from Drao's Hole, a pub located on Ouro, one of Duro's moons known primarily as a slum.  The card had the frequency scrawled on the back.

- On the way out, the party was waylaid by a group of identically-dressed individuals.  They seemed intent on capturing the group - or at least Pike.  Outgunned, the party decided to make a run for it, and they were able to avoid their pursuers until Imperial authorities arrived in the area.

Shards of Endor: Encoded

Saturday January 21, 2012 at 3:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- As the party watched the news broadcast, Pike noticed an unusual distortion layer over the clip of Coruscant being destroyed.  It looked like it might have been an encoded message, but in order to discover what it meant, they would have to get the Verity's computer up and running again.

- the riots were still escalating when there was a loud, low rumbling sound and the group saw three large transport ships land in Imperial Circle outside.  Off of the ships marched at least 200 armed troops, who began engaging the rioters and pushing them back.

- another individual approached the Plaza building with his own retinue of guards.  He asked to speak to Eteska, saying he and his forces were there on behalf of Lord Mathis, a local nobleman.  The man, called Golvan, intimated that Mathis would aid in the restoration of the city to a more permanent order in exchange for political power.  Eteska didn't seem excited by this idea, but agreed to talk.

- the party, meanwhile, returned to the spaceport garrison when the riots had calmed and began to work on repairing the Verity.  Belussa proved very helpful in this endeavor.

- the repairs were only interrupted by the arrival of a single storm trooper who threatened and then attacked them.  The trooper was ultimately subdued and the group discovered it was, in fact a young woman.  They kept her tied up in the cargo bay as they decided what they'd do with her.

- when the group got the computer systems back online, they were able to decode the distortion as a simple character sequence: Dour114.

- it took the group a lot of brainstorming, but they ultimately decided it probably referred to the core world of Duro and possibly a com frequency in use in that system.

- the party tied up some loose ends, talked with Eteska a bit more (some arrangement with Lord Mathis was seeming inevitable) and decided to let their pseudo-stormtrooper go.

Shards of Endor: Ghosts of Demons

Saturday January 14, 2012 at 3:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- party received a call from Byron who told them of a way to get to Imperial Plaza from the spaceport by way of some old sub-basements and utility corridors running beneath the city.

- on their way to the underground access, the party rescued a sulustan named Belussa who had been trapped in an old transport ship by some thugs.

- the party wound around under the city for a while, encountering something in the form of a disturbing old man.  they attempted to sneak past him, but noticed them passing.  The old man began to cackle and laugh as red light began poured out from his bandaged eye.  The group didn't stick around to see what happened next - opting instead to run for it.

- it was another couple of hours before they found what they believed to be the basement of the plaza building.  They were still cutting their way in when they were attacked by a monstrous, tentacled creature.  fortunately, the creature was fairly slow and they were able to hold it off long enough to get inside and out of reach.

- as the party headed up through the lower basements of the plaza, they encountered a group of sabateurs planting bombs in one of the lower utility rooms.  The resultant running combat played out with Pike distracting and disorienting the bombers while Ash kept their attention and Jaylyn and Belussa disarmed the bombs.

- after dealing with the explosive threat, the group made their way up into the building proper, where they found Eteska, Mox and a crowd of refugees taking shelter.  All of them were gathered around a series of screens where a staunch-looking imperial officer was delivering a report.  The broadcast cut next to a video clip showing the capital Coruscant being destroyed by a massive laser blast.

Letting It Play

Thursday January 12, 2012 at 2:44pm music, recording, songwriting Comments (0) »
Letting It Play Image

Uhm....happy new year?

Holidays were great.  It was great to see family & friends we hadn't seen in ages.

Pictured to the right is one of the more exciting gifts I received this last season.  I think I'm all ready to go now: I've got the mic running through the mixer I got earlier last year, I've bought new strings for my guitars and I've done sound checks and level setting for almost everything.  I am ready to make the "best record ever".  I'm just lacking one thing: A little inspiration.

Ironic, isn't it?  I've been trying to write some new stuff for some time, I just haven't been satisfied with much of anything I've come up with.  I've got some great ideas, I'm just not thrilled with the manifestations.

It used to be that I'd sit down with a guitar and fiddle around till I came up with an interesting progression or melody to set some lyrics to.  Any more, however, it's harder and harder to come up with anything that I find interesting enough to pursue for more than 15 minutes.

I'm starting to think that a guitar itself is no longer sufficient - i need to hear (out loud or just in my head) other instruments and how they might compliment my efforts.  

Also, I think I'm getting harder to please.

I've been spending some time mic'ing stuff up and playing guitar(s) through the system to hear what it sounds like, occasionally layering a couple of tracks - and I'm generally more satisfied with what I'm getting that way, though not much has clicked quite yet.  

Trying to tackle this hobby from a different angle like this is a bit of a new exercise for me, and not exactly a simple one.  I've come close to something cool a few times, but I haven't jumped in quite yet.

Also, I think I need carve out some larger chunks of time for a project like this - something I've not been able to do as yet.  So I guess I'm lacking two things.

~PS

An Epic Quest

Saturday December 3, 2011 at 10:51am holidays, christmas, gifts, video games Comments (1) »
An Epic Quest Image

Well, it's December again.  Seems like just yesterday it was....November.

I guess that's not too far off.

Anyway.

So as we approach the holiday season, thoughts once again turn to "what do i get for X?" - where X == some friend or relation.

Or "all" friends and relations.

Don't get me wrong, I really like getting things for people.  It's a chance to do something nice and, in my case, a chance to celebrate common interests.  See, I prefer to get things for people that make sense "coming from me".  I try to put a lot of thought into what i would like to give someone: something they'll really like, and that I'd really like to give them.

Of course, sometimes you come up empty.

This year, that seems to be the case for more people than not.  I've got a few ideas, but not an especially vast array().  Er, "array".

As for me, I'm pretty easily amused.  I get a kick out of anything anyone who knows me might give me, with very few exceptions.  Of course, then there's the part of me that thinks I have too much stuff already.

-- 

This particular season, one of the things I'm hoping to come out with is the new Zelda game.  See, Tony and I have an agreement.  Our Wii is broken at the moment, but his isn't.  We're planning to get ours fixed at some point, but we're not sure when that might happen.  Come January, I'm supposed to have The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - one way or another.  While I wouldn't be surprised it Tony ends up with a copy of the game himself, his "job" here is to supply the Wii.  (I'm not sure who's supposed to supply the motion+ controller...)  Our plan is to recreate a bit of our experience with one of the older games.

Back when we were at Milligan, Tony brought his N64 down to my room, and the two of us started playing Ocarina of Time.  It's a single player game, but we enjoyed hanging out while the other played, occasionally offering suggestions.  We also took turns on our own games so that one of us would get further ahead, and then the other would play, catch up, and get a little further still.  This kind of leap-frog approach kept the game interesting to play and watch.

 

Edit: I went looking through my photos for a picture for this post. Apparently I don't have a single photo of wrapped presents. I'll have to remedy that this year.


~PS

Little Fears v1.5 [unofficial]

Wednesday November 30, 2011 at 6:38pm gaming, little fears Comments (0) »
Little Fears v1.5 [unofficial] Image

Another project I've been working on:

I really like Jason Blair's original Little Fears - The Roleplaying Game of Childhood Terror.  A lot.  The system is simple and elegant, the concepts are fascinating, and it's a lot of fun to play.  I have every intention of playing this game some more with a group in the future.

That said, after running it a few times, there are some ways I think the game could be improved.  It could be a little clearer on exactly how some the mechanics are intended to be used and how certain, common situations should be addressed.  I also think there is some room for mechanical expansion without making it significantly more complex as well - particularly when it comes to the mechanical expressions behind the central themes of the game: childhood Belief/Innocence and Fear.

I haven't had a chance to pick up the newest incarnation of the game, Nightmare Edition.  It looks interesting, but from what I've seen and read, there were some things I liked about the original a little more.  I got to thinking that what I wanted might just be some tweaks to what was already there.

Also, I have some new theme and setting flavors I'd like to do more with.  Kind of a new lens with which to examine some of the ideas presented.

To this end, I'm currently in the process of putting together a J-classed "revised" version of the original game - kind of a set of house rules and system mods.  I won't be pubicly distributing this for legal reasons, but those of you who read this blog and may be playing in such a game in the future might be interested to know what I've been up to.

Also, here's the Little Fears website.  You can read a bit about what they've been working on and check out some of the new stuff - it does look pretty cool.

~PS

Game Setting

Wednesday November 30, 2011 at 6:22pm gaming Comments (0) »

I have previously mentioned Shards of Endor, the title I've given to the Star Wars game I started running last month.  We've had three sessions now, and I think it's going very well.  As a gm, part of this game is an exercise in pacing.  I'm shooting for this game lasting 10 sessions.   This means I'm planning for 7 and I'm expecting 13-15.  The one constant of my games over the years is that my players always take longer to do things than I think they will.  It's  better than the reverse problem, I suppose.

In planning and running this game, I have come to recognize something about myself and my gm'ing style - and actually my enjoyment of fiction in general: I am all about the setting. 

When I'm coming up with a game, I focus most of my energy on creating a realistic world inhabited by realistic entities and with a reasonably internally-consistent mode of operation.  Only after the world exists on its own do I go back and write in hooks to connect the characters to it.  

The advantage here is that it really gives the impression that the world is bigger than the player characters and that there are many things that exist whether they choose to interact with them or not.  By extension, this means the characters can interact with whatever they choose - they can basically go anywhere and do anything within the greater, persistent setting.

The disadvantage is that sometimes the players aren't terribly clear on how they "should" interact with elements in the world.  The presence of this hesitation basically means I have to start bringing action to them, sometimes more often than is reasonably likely (see also: "trouble follows us wherever we go") - but I suppose this is an accepted trope within fiction as well.

Even so, since knowing is half the battle, I have since been trying to think more carefully about including at least several ways the characters can become involved with any given aspect of the setting which I intend or expect them to.  The more possibilities I have, the more likely they are to pick one up and run with it.  

Of course, as always, I also have to be ready to roll with whatever they decide when they go in a wildly different direction...   ...which brings us back to the advantage of the setting-based plan.

~PS

Shards of Endor: Broken Chains

Saturday November 19, 2011 at 3:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- after the governor left, Byron also departed - mentioning that he needed to do something

- Jaylyn got a call from Dakan - it was short, but he mentioned something about some starship parts in a hauler that had been ditched in the Junk Pile

- The party made an attempt to descend through gorge, but by the time they'd reached the entrance to the old mines which would lead them to the Junk Pile on the canyon floor, they were running out of daylight.

- The group returned to Imperial Plaza, to dinner with the Governor and the newly-arrived Admiral.  The admiral obviously thought himself "above" most of the company present, only speaking to the governor who seemed to not to wish to discuss matters.

- After dinner, the group adjourned to the rooms they'd been offered in the plaza and planned to go to bed.  They happened upon Byron in the hallway saying he'd seen some figures skulking through and that the power to the lights had been mysteriously cut.

- The group and Byron pursued the figures up a couple of floors to the penthouse level, but they were outpaced.  Byron and Jaylyn actually had to climb up the outside of the building on the highest floor to reach the governor's quarters before the assassins.

- The actual encounter was brief, but the governor was very thankful for their protection.  She even offered to help them with their ship.  The would-be attackers turned out to be employees of the plaza, hired separately around 6 months ago.

- The next day, the group was awakened to the star destroyer's thunderous takeoff.  The party learned that the admiral had left Iveston with the entire garrison and about 90% of the local forces as well.  They also learned that their ship had been moved - probably to the spaceport.

- The party made their way to the empty garrison and, with the help of a passkey the governor had given them, entered.  They found The Verity in one of the bays, powered down and its damaged engine partially disassembed for repair.

- The group took stock of the place for a while and then decided to head back to the plaza.  Upon leaving the spaceport, however, they discovered the streets were overrun with rioting mobs...

Shards of Endor: The Lap of Luxury

Friday November 4, 2011 at 6:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- the party awoke at the Grand Isle hotel the next morning, just in time to discover it was under some kind of attack

- the party attempted to waylay/escape-from groups of saboteurs as they made their way from the middle floors out of the hotel, which seemed to be losing stability.

- on their way, the encountered a woman called Dala (whom Jaylyn was trying to help to safety) and they ran into the card player they'd seen at Speeders the night before - his name was Byron.

- once outside, they found a great force of local police and imperial troups as well as the governor and her entourage making the rounds.

- the group was questioned a few times and strangely, the governor invited them (along with Dala and Byron) to a private luncheon at the Imperial Plaza (the capitol building in Iveston).

- The governor, a woman called Ephana Eteska, seemed particularly interested in the party as they had obviously arrived from off-planet - even offering them accomodations there in the plaza.  She seemed eager to hear of events happening elsewhere in the galaxy, but the party was a little wary of her and the rest of the present company and so said little.

- As the afternoon progressed, the group adjorned to a neighboring lounge area where conversations naturally broke into smaller groups.

- These leisurely activities continued until about 3:30 when the governor's aid, a cerean called Tylynn returned to tell her something.  The governor excused herself and, when Byron asked her for an explanation, she informed those remaining that Admiral Genneth's star destroyer was entering the atmosphere to make its landing...

Shards of Endor: Social Pressure

Saturday October 8, 2011 at 3:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- the party eventually regrouped at an abandoned mining installation where Dakan and his group had taken up residence.  Pike had a near miss with an Imperial contingent on the way.

- Dakan and his companions had claimed a survey tower and a utility building at its base.  The rest of the complex seemed to be uninhabited and in disrepair.

- the group learned that there were some vehicles approaching - but they weren't Imperial.  The three vehicles were civilian luxury models.  The group of well-dressed men who emerged from them were interested in Dakan - and decided to make him and "offer he couldn't refuse".  He didn't seem too interested, however.

- the next day, the group headed down into the valley to Iveston.  The city was fairly large and was situated on the valley plain above and around a canyon.

- the group spent some time looking around the city.  they saw an unusually strong Imperial presence and could feel some tension between them and the local authorities.  They saw the blasted storefront of a local cantina and a graffiti-covered statue of an Imperial officer - both being guarded as crime scenes.

- the party also decided to look for places they could get some help repairing their ship.  They learned that there were a few speeder shops in town, but those places wouldn't have much for the larger repairs needed.  They had been told, however, that there were a few entities in town that could probably help them: the spaceport would certainly have that capability, but it was Imperial-controlled.  The governor of the planet, a woman called Eteska, would also probably have the means, but that would be a pretty big favor.  An underworld lord called The Slug was a possible third, though accepting his aid would certainly have strings attached (his men where the ones who spoke to Dakan earlier).

- the group spent the evening at a club called Speeders, which was over-crowded since Solstar had been shot up.  They talked to the waitress a bit about recent events and the local social climate.

- on their way back to the hotel they'd planned to stay at, a street gang attempted to rob them, but that attempt went poorly from the start.  the group gunned two of the assailants down and the others were fleeing when Pike noticed some Imperial troops approaching quickly.  Jaylyn then pursuaded an extremely unnerved speeder driver to give them a quick ride out of the area.

- their escort dropped them at a hotel back on the other side of The Gorge nearer to the capital square than they'd intended, but at least they were out of Imperial sights for the time being.  On their way inside they ran into a Kel Dor in a local officer's uniform.  He engaged them in a short conversation.  He seemed a little suspicious of them, but he was polite.  After asking to see their ids weapon permits, he bid them good evening and admonished them not to cause any trouble while they were in town.

A Quiet Late Summer

Monday October 3, 2011 at 2:00pm gaming, music, photography Comments (1) »
A Quiet Late Summer Image

Except, you know, for the occasional screaming munchkin.

I guess not much noteworthy has been going on lately.  The blog seems to have slept through september.  Here are a few points of quasi-interest on hobbies, etc:

GAMING

- I have noticed that I am currently involved in a ridiculous number of ongoing rpgs - 4, to be exact - and that my social life mostly centers around them at the moment.  I guess this isn't surprising considering that most of my friends *are* gamers.

- We started our Star Wars game ("Shards of Endor") about a week ago.  This is actually the first time I've run an ongoing campaign *not* set in a swords-and-sorcery style fantasy setting.  We've only had one playing session, but I think it's going quite well so far.

- Robb has (finally) started his Changling game, which I'm having a really good time with.  A really short time, but a good time.  Our monday-night sessions seem to be playing from about 7-9pm, which sometimes feels like quitting right after you get started.  I'm hoping our actual starting time can be pushed back to the theoretical 6 as we go on.  It's also got me thinking a bit about the future of my temporarily-suspended Mage game...

- On our sunday night games: Patrick's Star Wars game continues to be fun.  I've been really enjoying the short Dresden Files game Rucht has been running and I'm hoping to have a chance to do more with the Fate 3.0 system.  We're going to be starting Pathfinder later this month (when Dresden ends) - which will mark the first time I've played in a fantasy campaign in years.

MUSIC

- I've tried to do a little on the songwriting front, but haven't made it much further than jotting down a few vague concepts.  

- I've spent some time fiddling around on my guitars too, but I'm feeling a little uninspired at the moment.

- I've been listening to MCR's Danger Days quite a bit lately - an album I was pretty skeptical about at first, but found that I really enjoyed after a couple of listens.  Also, Anberlin, The Decemberists and the two songs from the end credits of the Portal games having recently played the first to completion ("This was a triumph...").

PHOTOGRAPHY

- Most of my camera time has been spent pointed at Hannah, but that's probably to be expected.  She's 4 months old and exceptionally cute. :D  ...and we've recently learned she'll have some new playmates in a year or so.

- Sheri pointed out that I don't have any 2011 photos on my site here yet - maybe I'll put some up when I have a few minutes together.

- I did take some pictures at the picnic the company I now work for had in mid-september that turned out pretty good.  I think the people at the office have enjoyed them.

- And, of course, I also had fun taking pictures of the 2011 Talk Like A Pirate Party & Annual Nerf War.  Those always turn out...amusing.

 

~PS

Shards of Endor: The Crash

Saturday September 24, 2011 at 3:00pm star wars, shards of endor, game session notes Comments (0) »

- the smaller rebel fleet surrounded the death star above Endor.  They were pretty heavily outgunned, but were making an all-or-nothing attack on the battle station.

- The Verity (the party's ship) was aiding in the defense of a frigate called The Obstinance when they received word that the station's reactor had been hit and it was about to explode.  The insuing shockwave chewed through their ship's shields and battered it a bit.

- the Imperial fleet which had been holding at the emperor's command began engaging the rebels in earnest.  Having accomplished their primary goal, the rebel commanders gave the command to scatter.

- As The Verity was entering hyperspace, Pike caught a reading on the sensors - something very large had entered space near where the death star had been.  As they entered hyperspace, The Verity was hit hard by something, all but destroying the port engine and weakening the hull nearby.

- Jaylyn fought to retain control of her ship while Pike sealed off the cargo bay and evacuated the air in an attempt to prevent an explosive decompression.  Ash, the gunner, wanted to do something to help but there wasn't much he could do in that situation.

- As an emergency procedure, Jaylyn dropped The Verity out of hyperspace early and found herself very near a large brown-green planet - and approaching it rapidly.

- The crash landing was rough on The Verity's occupants, but they all managed to survive.

- While they considered their situation, Pike noticed some figures approaching the wreck.  the party remained hidden as they prowled about outside the ship, eventually knocking on the dorsal hatch.

- the group outside seemed to be scavengers or the like.  They told the party they had landed on a planet called Gantorra VI and offered to give them a ride to the city of Iveston which was about 75k away - for a fee of course.  Jaylyn wanted to get started on what she could do to repair parts of the ship before they left, so they asked it it could wait till the next day.  The leader of the scavengers, Dakan, seemed mildly exasperated, but agreed.

- the next day, three of the four returned on their speeder bikes to give the party a ride back.  The first half of the journey was uneventful, but shortly after that mark, they were attacked by Imperial troops.

- during the insuing fight, one of the scavengers, a female rodian Dakan called 'Dozy' was injured when she was pinned under her wrecked speeder bike.  Jaylyn helped Dakan free her and he asked if she could get her to safety.

- Jaylyn was a little torn.  She had received a call moments earlier from R2C5, her astrodroid, who informed her that someone was trying to get into the ship.  Dakan told her not to worry about that, which seemed to Jaylyn easy for him to say.  Still, she managed to get Dozy onto a speeder bike she's procured and the two of them got clear of the fight, heading to a place Dozy was indicating.  After they'd been traveling for about 10 minutes, she got another call from C5 telling her whoever had been trying to get in had left without succeeding.

- The others caught up with them sometime later.  They had traveled to an abandoned mining installation on a mountainside near the valley where Iveston resided.

Shards of Endor: Prologue

Game:

Star Wars Saga Edition | canon/story/feel = Original Trilogy (only)

Characters:

[Tony] Pike - human scoundrel, former bounty hunter

[Adam] Ash - human soldier, former storm trooper

[Sheri] Jaylyn - human scout, pilot of transport The Verity

Prelude:

The Battle of Endor was not the resounding victory it might have first appeared.  After the second Death Star was unexpectedly destroyed, the holding Imperial Fleet began to engage in earnest.  Outgunned by a significant margin, the remaining Rebels were forced to flee.

The Emperor's death has created a power vacuum which many will try to fill.  The Imperial Fleet now weilds a great deal of near-independent power, but the bureaucracy is failing even as rumors of an imperial successor begin to circulate.  The Senate is attempting to reconvene, but they have little real power.  De facto rule has fallen to regional governors, some of whom plan to remain autonomous, and, of course, there are other powerful entities and organizations that may be vying for a slice of the galaxy.

In many ways, matters are now worse...

The New World

Wednesday August 31, 2011 at 7:21pm gaming Comments (0) »
The New World Image

Last saturday my current (now, "most recent") D&D game came to a close.  This is actually the second game that I've brought to an intended conclusion this year.  I don't know about you all, but I'm considering this an accomplishment.

I've actually found that I'm enjoying the ends of games quite a bit, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that that was once rather alien to my approach.  I think I've decided it's better to bring a game to a strong finish than to let it peter out - even if though that means stopping while you're still enjoying the game.  

The Experiment:

At the conclusion of this particular game however, I had ulterior motives.  At the end of the narrative, I had the world the PCs inhabited come to a cataclysmic end.  I decided to do this partially because I'd never done it before and thought it would be cool, but mostly to set up and give motivation to the players for something I wanted to do in the future: collaborative worldbuilding.  

Upon the death of their world, the characters essentially ascended to godhood and were to be tasked (along with some specific NPCs) with creating a new one - each one being responsible for a particular subset of aspects or facets of said world.

As a group we're going to take a break from D&D for a while to play Star Wars and possibly a short homebrew game, but, when we come back, the next game will be set in the world the group of us are going to create in the interim.

 

The group seemed pretty excited about the project as players, which I find encouraging.  I'll temper my outlook based on how it progresses, of course, but I of course have further plans.  This will not be the last time they'll be asked for something like this...

 

~PS

Sandstorm: Beginnings Within Ends

Saturday August 27, 2011 at 2:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

- the party continued speaking with human resistance and specifically emeric

- Alina noticed Fae was tending to someone who was, presumably, injured in the next room and tried to convince Fae to allow her to see the patient.  Fae seemed hesistant, but went to ask.  When she returned, she told Alina she had been summoned.

- Emeric took Tisroc and Glitch to his mansion after they learned many of the lizard men had suddenly left it.  Upon finding the proper room in the basement, Emeric began to adjust the summoning circle.  He had told Tisroc that the only way to reverse his "condition" would involve speaking directly to the entity to which the vow was made.

- As they began the ritual, some of the lizard men found them and threatened to interrupt it.  Glitch had found a shovel like his in a hole in the corner and, upon retrieving it, began to hold off the attackers.

- Tisroc finally managed to pull the demon to the surface of the circle - which was now something like an ice-covered pool.  As he spoke his words to defiance to the being below however, Emeric stabbed him in the back, causing him to collapse into the circle.  Glitch saw Tisroc fall, but not exactly what had happened.

- A moment later, the demon burst from the circle and, forcing its way thorugh the ceiling of the chamber, out into the streets above.  Emeric told Glitch that if he didn't bury Tisroc, the demon would roam free and uncontrolled forever.

- Glitch put Tisroc in the hold he'd found, and covered his body with the soil which had been dug up - seemingly for this purpose specifically.

- Meanwhile, Alina was speaking to a mysterious figure lying on a darkened bed.  Its voice was female and it asked Alina to perform the last rites.  It wasn't until the ceremony was almost complete that the room began to lighten and Alina could see the figure's form lying on the bed - unmistakably that of Bast - before it disappeared in a burst of radiant light.

- There were tremors.  Lava was beginning to well up from beneath the earth into the city, which was already nearly 1/3 engulfed.  A chaotic battle was raging all over the city - gnolls, hobgoblins, kobolds, giants, humans and some jackal-like beings were all fighting each other.  There were no clear sides.

- At the highest point in the city, the figure of Set stood surveying the chaos.  Across town, another figure - a jackal-like humanoid was floating some feet off the ground, making its way toward the hill.  Glitch and Alina were also heading that way.

- Tisroc awoke submerged in something like a strange, dark ocean - a tiny pinpoint of light lay far below him.  Filled with the conviction that this light was important, he dove toward it only to encounter a massive squidlike creature which defiantly declared that "this world" belonged to it.

- Alina an Glitch engaged Set & the jackal figure on this hill just as a massive dragon burst through the ceiling above, adding to the chaos of an already unfathomable battle.

- Tisroc descended to touch the glowing sphere he had seen before.

- The world around Alina, Glitch and the other combatants began to shift.  The mountain crumbled away revealing a vast plain surrounded by mountains - aspects of the landscape occasionally flickering through various states of health and decay.  A solid black sphere appeared before them, immediately capturing the attention of Set and the jackal.

- Tisroc had engaged the squid-monster and had managed to move the globe away from it, but had grabbed ahold of him in the process.  After some struggle, he managed to free himself.

- Alina began injecting light into the black sphere using her magic, and the sphere reacted violently.  Set and the jackal were fighting each other over it and the jackal eventually gained it when Set was distracted by Alina - it was as though he recognized her.  He even claimed to have killed her already.

- Wisdom's form began to grow uncontrollably in response to the darkness as Set bore down on Alina.  She fired two more bursts of light: the first at the sphere and the second at her attacker, and suddenly the world ceased to exist.

- Tisroc finally made it to the surface with the globe to find himself standing in an open, grassy field which was, even as he saw it, dissolving into a blank, white nothingness.  He stood there alone for a few minutes and then other figures began to appear - figures he knew.  Alina and Glitch were there of course, but there were others.  Emeric, A harpy that had tried to kill them, the massive dragon (now comical in size because it was no larger than they), as sphinx they had rescued, a wise-woman's granddaughter, a constable, a barmaid and others.  They were the last remnants of a now-dead world.

- Tisroc looked down at the now crystal clear globe in his arms and understood: It was a new world.  Void.  Formless.  Full of potential.

[end story arc]

Sandstorm: Inner Demons

Saturday August 20, 2011 at 2:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Party continued with their new lizard companions, though their relationship was a bit tenuous.

- the group was split by some kind of illusion as the lizard men began walking through the corridor walls and eventually even the party found themselves somewhere wildly improbable.

- the party continued through a variety of unusual locations including an outdoor(?) garden lined with worn deific statues, a massive library dedicated to esoteric demonology and the burial site of an ancient being responsible for the creation of Glitch and the other automatons.

- eventually, they ended up in a large bronze chamber filled with gold where a giant minotaur was waiting for them - promising only death at the labrynth's center.  After the insuing battle, the group dove out through the opening behind the cracked, bronze throne as the chamber collapsed and found themselves once again in the Deep Road corridor.  They were shortly joined by Kthkash, the lizardmen leader, and one other of his group.

- Kthkash began speaking of a dragon they had fought together and asked how the party managed to esacpe from it.  The group was confused, but Kthkash seemed to be a bit warmer to them due to this "event", and they decided not to push it since they would need his help to enter the city.  They also decided that perhaps not everything was as it seemed in the labrynth so little could be safely trusted or doubted.

- the group continued to Makarth where even Kthkash was surprised at the "security measures" being taken.  The party was forced to surrender their weaponry before they would be granted entrance to the town and the number of armed reptiles on active duty was surprising.

- just inside, they were approached by a young boy selling apples.  Tisroc found this odd since he clearly didn't have any apples on him and there was no realistic way for him to acquire them deep underground.  

- After conversing with him further, the boy led them through some back alleys of the city to a hidden room where they encountered members of some kind of human resistance group - among them was a man called Emeric...

Edisto Beach + HDR

Monday August 15, 2011 at 2:22pm vacation, family, photography, kubb Comments (2) »
Edisto Beach + HDR Image

So we just got back from a little mini-vacation out to Edisto Beach, SC with my sister & parents.  We don't get to do "vacation" stuff very often.  I'd comment on whether Hannah had a good time, but I think she slept through 90% of it.  We certainly loved it though.

In fact, I'm kind of bummed now that I'm back to the norm.  I don't think I was quite ready.  Maybe I needed more than a 3-day weekend.

Anyway...

Apart from the typical fun of a vacation, I've got a point of potential interest.  My dad & I got to talking about HDR photography (mostly asking what it was) and I, of course, had my camera and had been taking a lot of pictures.  When I pulled them all onto my computer last night, I noted one or two that I thought could benefit from this technique.  Manipulating the RAW images into some pseudo-bracked exposures, I made a couple of composites which I think turned out pretty well.  I didn't do anything particularly special, but the process at least makes the photos a bit more like what I was actually looking at.

• Ocean At Sunset

• Beach Path (shown here)

 

Also, I played beach kubb for the first time - which was pretty awesome.  A word of caution, however: this version has some new hazards.

 

~PS

Recordings Re-Revisited

Sunday July 17, 2011 at 10:56pm music, recording Comments (0) »
Recordings Re-Revisited Image

Like I mentioned before, I've been wanting to do some recording again, but am lacking some of the equipment i still need to open up shop.  So I've been doing the next best thing.

I dug up a few old recordings that I've made over the years, but for whatever reason never finished mixing.  Over the last few weeks, I've started working on them again - employing some new tools and techniques as well.

• Today Was Fine

• No Wonder

• Simple Equations

These aren't especially great songs, but they're ok and I've learned a bit playing with them some more.  I figured I'd post them here, but they're not enough to mark a real return of the Music page.  

I have plans for that, however...

Edit: Something went awry in my exporting process.  I've remastered, exported and re-uploaded these songs. Turns out I'd forgotten to turn off GarageBand's "we assume you don't know what you're doing" feature...

Edit #2: I have remastered these songs yet again. A casual listen probably won't notice much difference, but they are now approaching the production level I'll be shooting for on future projects.

~PS

4th of July

Saturday July 9, 2011 at 7:57pm holidays, photography Comments (0) »
4th of July Image

Well, 2nd actually.

Rucht & McKenna had their annual fireworks party last weekend, and, as usual, I brought my camera along.  I'd been wanting to try to get some interesting shots of fireworks for some time, and their house is located in a fairly ideal spot for attempting this: right beneath them.  Actually, I'm surprised it's not more of a fire hazard.

The day was fun, of course.  Got to see some friends we don't see often, and I took some photos of the Kubb game we played.  Robb & I actually made a point to play that weekends since we didn't get to the previous weekend at the meetup.

When it got to be time for the JC fireworks display, I hiked up to the top of the hill where I would have a clear, ubobstructed view of the sky.  You can actually see a lot of them from the street in front of their house, but I wanted a wider view with no other objects.

I found a decent place in the grass, took a guess as to where the fireworks would ignite, set up my tripod and hooked up my cable release.  Even at the widest angle on my zoom lens (28mm - approx 45mm with my cropped sensor), I still had nothing but black sky in the viewfinder.  Perfect.

I closed down the aperture as far as it would go (f22), set the ISO as low as my camera supports (100), and set the shutter speed at 'bulb'.  I'd never really done bulb exposure before, so this was interesting.  My cable release actually has a button lock on it too, which is nice.

During the fireworks show itself, I simply watched the sky, guessed when the fireworks 'blooms' would happen, opening the shutter just before this and holding it open until the blooms I wanted to capture had faded - generally between 5 and 20 seconds - so that the shooting points of light would imprint bright streaks on the camera's sensor.  

Then I waited.  

This was perhaps one complaint I have with my camera.  For some reason, bulb exposure pictures take a long time to write to the card - the time might actually be the length of the exposure, in fact - and the buffer will not hold more than one such exposure (meaning you have to wait for it to write before you can take another shot).  I'm not entirely sure why this is so.  Perhaps I simply lack a complete understanding of how the photo sensor and image processor function.  The upshot here was that I was only shooting about 1/2 the time - the other 1/2 of the time I was waiting for the buffer to clear.  Had I been shooting at 1/200 or something, it could have been constant.

Anyway, it was a great experiement and I was pleasantly surprised by how interesting the shots turned out.  I have them up in my "4th" of July facebook album here.

I have some ideas on how I might play some more with bulb exposure...

~PS

OotSCon '11

Monday June 27, 2011 at 1:22pm ootscon Comments (0) »
OotSCon '11 Image

I am so tired - but this weekend was awesome.

I am, of course, speaking of our 5th Annual Southeast Trogland Giant in the Playground Uber Gaming Meetup of Doom - which always takes place the last weekend of June.  And this one lived up to the previous 4 incarnations of awesome just swimmingly.

Some of us have notice the scope of this gathering expand just a bit in terms of longevity.  It was conceived to be Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, but as the years have progressed, more and more people have been coming earlier and staying later.  This year, quite a few people arrived thursday evening and stayed until monday morning or afternoon.  Don't get me wrong, more time hanging out with cool people is great.  This is just and idle observation.  And perhaps further explanation as to why I am so tired.

Thursday night was the "unofficial" kick-off.  A few of us met up at the Hippie Hut that evening for dinner and some socializing.  Friday was the "official" kick-off, and what much the same only with 4x as many people and many, many more games.  Saturday was our traditional cookout at the challenge course with games in the shelter house, kubb on the lawn and Cash & Guns Live down at the course itself.  This was followed by a brief respite and a reconvening at Mid City Grill for tasty dinner and board games as late as anyone would care to stay and play.  Sunday's venue was our house, as usual, and despite being quite crowded, I think it went well.  As the day wore on, more and more people dispersed to return whence they came, but a few people were at our place till after midnight playing games.

The weather this year was pleasantly cool by comparison.  I think the highs on saturday when we were outside all day were only lower 80s.  Compare this to the upper 90s we've usually had in the past, and you can understand our relief.  The bugs weren't too bad either.

Pretty much all of my photos of the event this year are from saturday at the challenge course and Mid City.  They've been posted here.

Baby girl did, of course, impact our involvement in the meetup this year, but we still got to hang out and play games - and Hannah herself was fairly cooperative with our efforts to do so.  The only real issue (from my persepective, anyway) was timing her feedings.  Also, she was exceptionally popular. :-D

So now it has come and gone.  Kind of a bummer, really.  I loved getting to hang out with so many cool people.  All my awesome local friends - as always - but also Jerry, Amanda (+ Pickle, when he wasn't upset), Scott and Katie in particular - mostly because they happened to be around the most.  It was good to see all of the others again too - and I wish I'd had more of a chance to hang out with quite a few of them.  Ah well, so many people, so little time.

There's always next year.

~PS

Rebuilding the Home Studio

Friday June 24, 2011 at 2:38pm music, recording Comments (0) »
Rebuilding the Home Studio Image

Some of you may have noticed that the music page still reads "returning soon".  One might argue that this has proven false.  Still, for the last few months I've been wanting to get back into recording again.  The problem with this is that I've only ever borrowed the equipment I need to do it well, and I don't have access to much at the moment.  I've been wanting to buy some of my own stuff for a while too, but things have been a bit tight lately.

Not that I need real high end stuff, mind you.  I've been quite happy with the results I've managed with quite a meager setup, but after looking around at what I'd buy were I do reconstruct my home studio, I do need a few hundred dollars to put into it - a few hundred dollars which I don't really have at the moment.  Anyone who wants to make donations is welcome.  Really.

Really.

 

Anyway, last weekend was Fathers Day.  My first, since our little girl was born back in May.  Combining this fact with the aforementioned desires, Sheri decided I should go ahead and buy the first "piece" of what I wanted.

After some consideration, I decided the first piece was a mixer - even with nothing else, I could record some guitar & bass tracks.  I've got a decent recording machine, some DAW software I like and instruments to play, but I didn't have any way to connect the dots.  In the past I have bridged this gap by simply running an analog tape-out from a borrowed mixer to the line-in on my computer - and I found this to work well.  I considered looking for a simple USB audio interface instead of a full-out mixer, but I enjoyed my method and I would eventually like to be able to do some multiple-mic'ing on instruments.  Plus, for what I wanted to spend, I was going to get more features out of a mixer.  Also, I like to be able to do some pre-recording eq & gain teaking instead of relying on the software for all of it.

I ended up going with the Behringer's Xenyx X1204USB.  4 mic inputs, 60mm faders and a built-in usb audio interface (which i'm looking forward to trying out).  In addition, this board has a built in compressor and other effects which I really didn't need, but the identical model without effects was actually a few bucks more.  Anyway, I've definitely got some room to grow with it.

 

The only other things I really need are some decent mics.  I've done most of my previous work with a Shure SM58, and that proved to be a good mic - and one that I may return to.  Right now, however, I have my sights on a pair of SM57's - mostly because they are legendarily good at everything, and I need a versatile mic.  I'm also tempted to pick up one of Behringer's condenser mics at some point - mostly because they're exceptionally inexpensive and fairly well reviewed.  A condenser would be pretty awesome, even if I'm not sure I'll ever have a house quiet enough to use one (see previously-mentioned baby girl). 

 

My mixer arrived yesterday but, due to the Meetup (more on this to come), I haven't had a chance to do more than take it out of the box and "oooh" and "aaaah" over it a little.  I'm hoping to have a decent mic setup in time for next year's RPM in Feb.

And some songs written, too.

 

~PS

Sandstorm: A City Fallen

Saturday June 11, 2011 at 3:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

- once back in Belurn, the party quietly returned to First Light to get some rest.

- the next morning, Marl came to talk to Tisroc - the menacing army was approaching and he thought he knew a way to circumvent the Stone Door by going through the mines.

- Alina was troubled by some and the realization that Nephthys' power had left her.  She insisted they go to speak with Danhon, a local priest of Anubis.

- While they were speaking with him, they heard a sudden roar as Perol's barrier gave way.  Running outside, they saw the monstrous army pouring into the city.

- As they descended from the crypt entrance where they'd met Danhon, they saw Perol and a few of his mysterious followers running toward them.  

- the Thoth-like figure they had seen before suddenly flickered into existence ahead them.  Its presence seemed to surpress the light around them to a degree, and it seemed to be drowning in the thick, black sludge which was oozing from its eyes, mouth and various wounds.

- Perol's men began surrounding the figure and invoking some sort of ritual as it lashed out at them.

- When the encounter began to go poorly, Perol knelt and invoked another sort of rite, which seemed to dilate time as it called forth another being.  The figure that appeared was tall and muscular with the head of a donkey.  Like the Thoth-like being, it was surrounded by faint, glowing runes and it, too, oozed a black viscous liquid - though to a much lesser degree as it bled only from wounds in its forarms.  As the figure approached, it didn't seem to walk so much as blur and fade from one position to the next.

- The new figure ignored Perol and his supplications, making some comment that he was of no more use.  Instead, it approached Alina.  It showed her the masses of people cowering in buildings all around them and told her that he cared nothing for them - but that he would save them if she would swear her allegiance to him.

- Alina skeptically asked who he was, a question to which he only responded "I am the only one left."  Tisroc, however, recognized his form immediately as that of Set.

- After Alina's rejection, the figure departed suddenly and the roar of battle poured back into their senses.  They ran with Marl toward the mines.

- At the mines they discovered most of the town taking refuge in this slightly-more-defensable area.  Feeling there was nothing more they could do to help the citizens of Belurn, they followed Marl deep into the mine shafts.  As they located the gap Marl was sure would lead them to the Deep Road, the party knew that whatever was to befall the poor people hundreds of feet above them was already happening.

- The group climbed up and through the hole into a hewn chamber, and collapsed the wall behind them.  They then followed the corridor out to the Road.

- They traveled for some time before having to deviate into an adjoining natural cavern due to a cave-in.  As they tried to circumvent the rubble, they encountered a group of reptilian humanoids fighting off some giant scorpions.  The group decided to aid the lizard men.

- After the battle, they learned that their new "friends" were from a place called Makarth - a city deep under the ground.  They'd been scouting when they were cut off by something that arrived in the tunnel and reshaped it into an impassible maze.

- It took only a little more conversation for the group to learn that Makarth had been Gullow - apparently "reclaimed" by a large tribe of these lizard men who felt their territory was rightly theirs.  Humans still dwelled there, however, and the leader told them he would ensure they were granted entry if they could help he and his men return.

Coming Home

Tuesday May 24, 2011 at 5:03pm bunguin, family, photography Comments (0) »
Coming Home Image

A quick update for the blog:

As of this afternoon, Sheri & Hannah were released from the hospital, and both seem to be enjoying being at home.  Ally isn't quite sure what to make of the munchkin, but there are other visitors here right now so I'm not sure it really registers as odd yet.

Photos are being posted on my facebook page here - though I have really not begun to post what will be there after a few weeks. :-D

Thanks to everyone for the congratulations, well-wishes and hospital visits.  We can't wait for more of you to meet our little Bunguin.

~PS

Baby Shoe's Arrival

Sunday May 22, 2011 at 11:35am bunguin, family Comments (1) »
Baby Shoe's Arrival Image

Most people who would see this here already know this, but for a little posterity:

Hannah Rose was born on May 21st, 2011 at 4:36am - after quite an arduous day for momma and baby which ultimately required a C-section to complete.  She's healthy (multiple pediatritions have said 'perfect') and beautiful, has a fuzzy head of dark hair and some very, very dark eyes.  I'm actually not sure what color they are, but at the moment they seem to be a very dark gray.  For those of you interested in the "christmas-turkey style" statistics, she was 6lbs, 8oz and 20in on arrival.

She seems to be very alert most of the time, and often tries to wobble her head around to look at anything and everything.  She loves to be held - and doesn't seem to like being put down unless she's too tired to care (mommy is trying to get her to sleep in the bassinet right now, and she's not too happy about it).  She still seems a little foggy on this whole "feeding" thing, but she loves to suck on her fingers (already) and generally feel around her face.  Also, when she gets the hiccups, it's as funny now as it was before she was born.

I haven't had a chance to take tons of pictures yet, but I have a few posted on Facebook.  Still, her "number of photos" to "hours of life" ratio is pretty high.

Can't wait for you all to meet her!

~PS

Anytime Now

Tuesday May 17, 2011 at 10:42pm baby, family, work Comments (0) »
Anytime Now Image

Well, Baby Shoe is 3 days overdue - she seems quite content where she is.  The doctors aren't going to let her hit the snooze button past friday.  One way or another, she's coming this week.

The job is going pretty well I think.  Of course some days are more fun than others.  Also, I'm growing to hate MS SQL Server - things that should be simple...  ...aren't.

Gaming has been sparse lately, which is sad.  We've kind of hit upon a time of "hurry up and wait" where we can't really make any plans, but we're not really doing much.  I've spent most of my free time lately mowing and/or working on refinishing a dresser we bought for Baby Girl.  That's been pretty fun and relaxing.  Still, I'm looking forward to a return to normalcy - even if it is to be redefined in the process.

Oh, and we saw a pretty amazing rainbow in the sky over our house this last weekend.

~PS

Sandstorm: Desperate Times

Saturday May 7, 2011 at 6:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

- As the rasping growling continued issuing from the new gash in the earth, a black mist began to rise from it, lit from within by flashes of white light and accompanied by a listless voice 

- The party attempted to flee the area, but the ground beneath them began to break and collapse and it was only by some incredible good fortune that they survived.

- After some recovery, the party continued on their recon mission.  The camp on the plateau seemed to be composed of several hundred hobgoblins, gnolls, some kobolds and even a few giants - all being directed by some jackal-like humanoids.  

- They also found some oddities within the encampment - most notably a strange and supernatural form near the back of the camp.  It hovered motionless above the ground, oozing a thick, black liquid from its eyes and down the long bird's beak which protruded from its head.  Light seemed actively surpressed in the area, yet the being cast several unnatural shadows and seemed covered with subtlely shifting runes.  It reminded Tisroc of some kind of avatar of a deity called Thoth, but Alina was quite certain it could not be an avatar - or, if it was, it was severely cursed or distorted by something.

- After gathering their information, the set out for Belurn once more.  When they arrived, however, they found the city cavern sealed off by a prismatic force wall.

- Using Glitch's innate teleporting abilities and some of Tisroc's magic, they were able to get back inside where they discovered the city had been sealed and all but taken over by a man called Perol - a local tailor who, apparently, had some rather impressive magical talent as well.

The Decemberists, Country Music, and the Playlist

Wednesday May 4, 2011 at 7:55pm music Comments (0) »
The Decemberists, Country Music, and the Playlist Image

So I recently picked up The King is Dead - The Decemberists' latest endeavor.  I was greatly chagrinned not to be able to acquire it back on the Jan. 18th release date, but I would say the wait has been worth it.

The Decemberists have been a favorite group of mine (very possibly *the* favorite, in fact) for more than 5 years now.  I do listen to quite a wide variety of music ("shuffle" on my playlist can, in fact, be somewhat jarring), but nothing has grabbed my fancy so much as to displace their quirky style from the top of my personal list.  Their last offering, The Hazards of Love, was wonderful though pretty significantly different from their previous records, so I was unsure what to expect from The King is Dead.  Some friends of mine told me that it has a rather greater folk or country influence than the others - and I can definitely see that.

"Country" music is something that I tend to approach with great caution.  One might also say "trepidation".  Or, sometimes, "scorn".  "Pop country", what you'd generally hear on any current radio station professing to be "Country", has a reputation for irritating the crap out of me.  That last statement is rather understated, but I don't wish to belabor it too far.  I'd say I like less than 1% of what they offer and actively dislike at least 75% - though very occasionally there is something I find clever, interesting or otherwise enjoyable.  Southern/Southwestern/Country-inspired rock is a bit of a different animal, and there are some groups fitting this genre that I enjoy listening to - Cowboy Mouth, The Refreshments, Old 97's.  Please note Lynyrd Skynyrd is not listed among them. Then there is also the Folk genre, which can sometimes blur the line between that which might be called country-ish and acoustic rock (See Also: Iron & Wine, Great Lake Swimmers, Fleet Foxes).  I left off Nickel Creek, which I also enjoy, because I'm not sure exactly where to put them. 

I have come to believe that it is not actually "country music" that i dislike inherently, only the archetypical implementation thereof: exaggerated.  Cowboy hats, pickup trucks, gender stereotypes, the 'good old boy' mentality, southern accents turned up to 11...you know the drill.  There's also an Axebeard Law equivalent regarding the typical lyrical content of this particular "style", but I don't want to dissect that just now.  Fortunately, The King Is Dead is none of these things.

On some specifics:

The opening track, Don't Carry It All, is just plain wonderful.  It near-instantly became one of my favorite songs they've recorded to date, possibly tied with Yankey Bayonet, Won't Want for Love and one or two others.  So many lines from that song I really love...

/let every vessel pitching hard to starboard/lay its head on summer's freckled knees/

/and you must bear your neighbor's burden within reason/and your labors will be borne when all is done/

/let the yolk fall from our shoulders/don't carry it all, don't carry it all/we are all our hands and holders/beneath this bold and brilliant sun/this i swear to all/

Down By The Water, which they released a month or two early as a free download, is also very good and This Is Why We Fight is another real winner.

The other songs on the album are, as of now, generally an 8 of 10 for my vote.  All of them are very good songs that I enjoy listening to, though nothing that necessarily blows me away - several (perhaps nearly all) of them, however, have some wonderfully clever lyrics tucked inside, and this is what i've come to expect and love from the Decemberists...  

/there are times life will rattle your bones and will bend your limbs/but you're still far and away the boy you've ever been/

/hey henry, can you hear me?/let me see those eyes/this distance between us/can seem a mountain size/

/and you won't make a dime/on this gray granite mountain mine/of dirt you're made and to dirt you will return/

I do have some minor compositional beefs which I started to outline here, but it's really just nit-picking and probably not terribly interesting to anyone else.  Suffice to say that, in my opinion, one or two of the "good" songs could have been "great".  Still, it's nothing that ruins it for me.

Bottom line is, I really like this latest record, and I would recommend it to anyone who's enjoyed the Decemberists' previous albums and anyone who enjoys folk-rock with some eccentricity.

--

On some other not-especially-current albums i've been enjoying lately:

First off, I have to mention Rainer Maria's (ironically) final album Catastrophe Keeps Us Together, which is an amazing record.  A few songs from their other albums are pretty good as well (particularly tracks like Atropine and Hell and High Water from A Better Version Of Me), but this one is very, very solid as a whole.

/the future's going out of focus/our talk is cheap, but the phone bill is not/and how could one word/mean another?/and why am i staying up alone in the dark?/when it all falls through/what else can i tell you?/you just can't turn me on and off/you turn me on and off/

/catastrophe keeps us together/we're the architects of the world/we're taking it all apart - /do you think we could go on forever/when the architects of the war/are handing out the swords?/

/the day we played as kids among the headstones/we pretended we had died/but now something's changed/we don't play games/and time has proved you right/and now memory has distorted your light/sing me something clear and true/in some otherworldly tune/if you were here i'd make it up for you/yeah, i'd make it up for you with the song i loved the most/i know you're here/and i'm not afraid of ghosts/

/how many rounds can i go?/and how can i soften the blows?/can i avoid them altogether?/my heart isn't in this/i'm supposed to be a seasoned fighter/feels like my first hit/and it hurts like hell/

In a huge stylistic divergence from the records previously mentioned herein, I've also been listening to quite a bit of Flogging Molly lately, specifically the album Float, but also quite a bit from other records.  This is another group I really love - and would really like to go see if they ever come within 100 miles again.  

/sick and tired of what to say/no one listens anyway/sing, that's all you can/

/oh an angel clipped my wings/from the back of a broken dream/so they'll probably never break my fall again/for i return to sing this tune/from the back of a broken dream/

/oh it's bitter the pill/that you swallow to feel/i don't care what i lost/just thank god i'm alive/makes it all who you are/that's the story so far/

I also want to give an honorable mention to mewithoutYou's It's All Crazy... - I've not listened to it as much lately, but it's never too far from my playlist.  The Fox, The Crow and the Cookie, of course, is classic - but there are some other great tunes on that album as well like Every Thought A Thought Of You and The Beetle King on a Coconut Estate.

Finally, I've been listening to The Starting Line's Based On A True Story, which is a concept album in a darker vein of "life imitates art" - and it's very well executed in my opinion.

~PS

I Would Walk 500 Miles

Monday May 2, 2011 at 6:38pm hiking Comments (2) »
I Would Walk 500 Miles Image

...well, maybe not quite. Still, I would, in fact, walk, and "miles" would indeed be somehow involved in this ambulation.  I don't think I'll commit to a number just now.

Anyway...

Robb & I took advantage of the nice weather this last weekend to go on a day hike up to Laurel Falls.  It's a nice trail we've hiked a few times - thought I'd personally never been out there in the morning.  The falls looks considerably different in the a.m. as the morning light shines directly on it and the hillside above.

As we were enjoying the woods, our casual conversation jumped around to a great many things, which is one of the many enjoyable aspects of such a trip.  Included therein was a discussion of hiking itself and of longer, more involved trips.  We've decided we'd both like to do some multi-day backpacking hikes again at some point.  I have quite a few fond memories of trips with my dad and other friends into the Smokies and, despite the fact that our busy lives make this difficult, we're hoping to be able to stretch a long weekend - perhaps with one or two other interested parties - to take on such an adventure sometime in the next few years.  It would be pretty awesome.

~PS

Sandstorm: Skeletons of the Past

Saturday April 23, 2011 at 6:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Alina heard some commotion outside the following morning, and went to investigate.  She discovered a scout who'd returned to town with the tale of a massive army gathered about 1 day away from the city.

- The group reassembled and spoke with the scout and the Director of the settlement (who seemed intent on not causing a panic).

- With some convincing, the scout agreed to take the party out to a point near where the force was reportedly gathered.

- The going was difficult and in the dark among the rocks near the plateau, they got separated.  Tisroc ended up falling through a thin rock shelf into the lair of a deceased dragon, now infested with tiny but aggressive lizards with and electrical affinity.

- The crash and the insuing chaos alerted the rest of the party to his location and predicament, but unfortunately also gained the attention of a nearby hobgoblin patrol which the party was forced to fight off.

- As the battle ended, the brief moment of silence was cut short by an echoing, hollow growling sound coming from the lair.

The State of the Penguin

The State of the Penguin Image

Edit: New Photo.  The iPhone is nice, but it doesn't quite hold up to what I'm used to...

First off, we're getting close to Sheri's due-date - only about a month to go before the Bunguin's arrival.  We've been trying to get things ready as much as we can, but we don't exactly know what we're doing.  We *have* inherited a wide array of baby-related "stuff" from several friends and acquaintances - for which we are very thankful.  We also went to some child birth & infant care classes at the hospital, which were somewhat helpful and informative.

Second, I finally found a new job with a local company here in JC (I'm actually posting this on my lunch break).  Still doing web-work, though in a rather different context than before.  The position is temporary through June, after which time they'll decide whether to hire me on permanently.  It's good to have something again though.  Less stressful, especially with the munchkin coming.

Since RuchtCon, gaming has returned to its "normal" schedule.  My Sandstorm game has continued to progress nicely, and I'd say the PCs are on their way toward the resolution.  No word yet on how much longer it will go.  I'm developing thoughts on what to propose next.  Still working on several gaming projects.

I've taken a few more photos since I last mentioned it, but nothing amazing.  Still haven't posted a 2011 portfolio, but it'll come.

Other randomness...

The weather here's been warming up as we head into spring, and my yard is already ridiculous.  I've mowed it something like 1.5 times - which is to say the front yard has been mowed at least twice, and I have waged a war with the forest in the backyard which is beginning to look favorable for my side.  I did grill out for the first time this year last sunday afternoon though.

Sheri & I watched something like 30 hours of LotR extras (all the bonus features on the 3 4-disc sets) over the course of the last few weeks.  Some pretty cool stuff in there - I recommend it to any fans.

Finally bought the Red vs. Blue: Recollection and looking forward to watching that with Llama and also listening to the commentaries sometime.  I also heard that Dead Gentlemen is going to be re-releasing The Gamers: Dorkness Rising - this time with commentaries (I actually asked them why the first dvd didn't have them and they told me that they ran out of space on the disc).  That would be cool.

I also picked up a new CD, but I think I'm going to make a more specific music related post soon, so I'll save my comments on that.

Ginger and William are in town even as I'm typing, and we've had a good time with them this week.  Also, Liam is fun - and he likes me. :)

I've continued to kick around some ideas for some writing projects.  I'll defer to voltaire (by way of Dan from Fear the Boot) for how this is progressing: the perfect is the enemy of the good.

Also, I've been having a pipe dream about opening a gaming store in JC - we need one, and that would be a lot of fun...    ...alas...

~PS

Sandstorm: No Longer Safe

Saturday April 9, 2011 at 6:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

- with the help of the sphinxes, the party continued their journey over the Jagged Crown mountains toward the settlement called Belurn, the Stone Door.  From there, they intended to take the tunnel road down to Gullow.

- during the journey, Alina realized she had contracted some kind of infection - probably as a result of her injuries from the rats of the Tanir tunnels.  She was able to shake off the illness in a couple of days, however, and there was no real problem.

- they party did realize, however, that they would need to be more careful with their supplies of water from now on as Alina informed them that creating it magically was no longer easy.

- upon arriving at their destination, the sphinxes wished them well and thanked them again for their previous aid.

- as the group entered the settlement, they spoke with some sort of guardsman about the town and recent events. 

- they learned that the structure which was being built outside the town was the work of "The Avatar" - a creature sent by Anubis - who had said the settlement needed a proper temple and that the temporary walls they had noticed were constructed to help fend off an attack by a force of hobgoblins and gnolls which they'd resisted a few weeks earlier. 

- they also learned that the Stone Door itself had been sealed about 3 years ago.  Apparently it was "no longer safe" and that some reptile-like savages had come out and attempted to raid the settlement.

- the group entered the town, heading toward an in called First Light.  as they crossed an open marketplace, Glitch noticed another automaton standing motionless near its center.

- Glitch approached and examined the figure - it was in quite a state of disrepair.

- as he looked at it, the automaton seemed to wake up, and began talking with him.  Glitch asked the other golem to come with them, and the group continued toward the inn.

- the group enjoyed some food, relaxed for the evening, and talked with one of the miners who had been present when the lizard-men attacked.

- Alina later went to see the mines and the Stone Door - listening to see if she could hear anything like what was described by the miner.  She could not.

- Tisroc and Glitch went to the debris field outside town to scavenge for materials with which to repair the damaged automaton.

Sandstorm: Lurking Below

Saturday April 2, 2011 at 6:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

- party continued deeper into the tunnels, saw more bodies - some seeming to have been dead longer than they had been lying in their current location.

- found open are with zombies crawling out of a well. fought some, attempted to keep more from emerging.

- noticed approaching massive swarm of insects, took cover in a nearby building

- building contained a passage back to an altar room to some unidentifiable deity.  a woman's body was lying at the foot of the altar in a pool of blood.

- the party was unable to keep part of the insect swarm out of the building, and Alina eventually fought it off by setting herself on fire - relying on her faith to save her from the flames.

- once the swarm had passed, party continued deeper into the tunnels.

- encountered a group of people attempting to fight off more zombies, aided

- continued into the deepest parts of the tunnels, found a long street that seemed to narrow as they went until rats burst out of adjacent buildings in a giant swarm.

- the party fought off some of the rats, but generally made a run for it in the direction they were heading - this took them to a place where the street narrowed into a more natural cave tunnel which terminated in a cracked opening into a large cavern.

- inside the cavern was a short man they'd seen before, when he noticed them the skeletons of the bodies that lay around him shrugged off their flesh and began shambling toward the party.

- in the midst of the resulting chaos, the party noticed the giant ooze-like demon clinging to the ceiling.  It slid down, opening a huge jagged-toothed maw in an attempt to devour them.

- as they made their escape, the entrance to the cavern collapsed, sealing itself off from the rest of the tunnels.

- the party returned to the Sandstone Tower, discussed what they had encountered with each other, and made ready to leave the following morning.

- the next day, they saw to one or two errands in town, and then met the sphinxes to continue on their original journey.

RuchtCon II

Sunday March 27, 2011 at 8:01pm ruchtcon, gaming, friends Comments (0) »
RuchtCon II Image

Well, another local gaming mini-con has come and gone.  This makes me a little sad, but it was a great time.

This particular gathering was, from the very outset, plagued with problems and difficulties, but overall I think we triumphed over them.  Overall.

Festivities began on friday night around 7pm with the first set of games.  Casey ran a session of Dark Heresy, Doug ran a zombie game called All Flesh Must Be Eaten, and Rucht was to be running an old school Dungeons & Dragons game - we're talking 1st edition here.  The first to games got started as planned, but Rucht was delayed for a while and so the rest of us played some board games while we waited for him.  When we finally did get started though, it was a lot of fun.

I spent all day Saturday running games.  In the afternoon slot I ran my session of Little Fears, which I think went very well.  Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun and there were definitely some memorable moments.  I think we're going to try to continue the game at some point so that they can finish the story they started.  During this time Doug was running his Thundarr game (using the Cartoon Action Hour system) and Matt was running his game of Eclipse Phase.

On saturday night I ran my Savage 3025 game.  This was basically a Savage Worlds game with a custom add-on for mech combat (which I've talked about here before).  The plot was good (at least, I think so), but we didn't get more than about 1/3 of the way into it - and not far enough for them to have encountered any real twists.  I am also not as familiar as I'd like to be with Savage Worlds (due mostly to lack of experience), so I there were times where I think I struggled with that, but overall I think it was a good game and everyone enjoyed it.  While we were doing that, Rucht was running his Dresden Files game (which I understand was hugely popular) and Doug was doing Call of Cthulhu.

I was slated to run a session of Mana Burn this afternoon, but some of us got to talking and I think everyone was getting pretty tired.  In any case, there didn't seem to be quite enough energy to start the game, so we opted to play a boardgame instead.  I may try to put together a one-shot of that sometime soonish.

Between slots there were also quite a few board games played - Revolution! (which Dave introducted us to), Invasion From Outer Space, Dominion, and others.

It was great to see everyone, and I think everyone had a great time.  I'd give a "special thanks to" list, but I think that would just amount to mentioning everyone.

We did miss those that couldn't make it - it would have been even better with them.  We were also glad to have a few unexpected additions though, so that was cool.

Already looking forward to doing this again...

~PS

Sandstorm: Attack on the Baron's Estate

Saturday March 26, 2011 at 7:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

Lord Verran had been summoned to a political meeting at a rival's estate, only to be involved in a sudden attack by a group of unknown assailants.  The presence of Verran and his lance was probably all that prevented the entire place from being destroyed in the assault, but their victory explained nothing of the motives behind the attack...

Sandstorm: Sorrows of the Ghost of Grandpa Horace

Saturday March 26, 2011 at 12:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

Margaret Graham was always a little afraid of her grandmother and so was not particularly happy about the fact that she and her brother would be staying with her for a few days while their parents went on a little vacation to a neighboring state.  Despite the fact that her 3 cousins were also to be staying with them, she didn't expect to have much fun - and it turned out to be even worse than she expected.  As she slept in her grandparents' old bedroom the very first night, the ghost of her deceased grandfather appeared and pleaded with her about things she couldn't quite understand.  Worse still, his visit was revealed to be disturbingly prophetic the following day as the farm itself began to take on nightmarish characteristics...

Resolution

Thursday March 24, 2011 at 4:35pm gaming Comments (0) »
Resolution Image

So this happened almost a month ago, but I wanted to talk a little about it here before it becomes overshadowed with other stuff.

I've been GMing regularly for about 10 or 11 years.  In that time, I've probably run 20+ different games (campaigns; this doesn't include 1-shots).  Most of these were simply continued until we got burnt out and decided to do something different.  It has been my perception that it's usually me who starts itching for something new before the players are.  As a result, the vast majority of my games tend to peter out as opposed to coming to any kind of conculsion.  Even the ones that I do "conclude" have tended to be mediocre at best - and more like "here's a place where I can bail out" than an actual ending.

I think some of this has to do with the mindset going in - many of my games haven't had an ending in mind when I started them.  I have some initial adventure planned, and then i tend to just let it go where it will from there until eventually it becomes to unweildy and implodes.  These games are always fun, but they don't have much of a satisfying resolution.  Recently, however, I've been starting games with an ending in mind.  I don't necessarily know exactly what that ending will be, but I have an idea of at what point in the narrative things will start wrapping up based on what the players have done to that point.  

My London 1802 game recently came to the conclusion of a story arc (the first "Chapter") in this manner, and while it might not have been perfect, I was quite happy with how it turned out.  I knew going into this game what was going on: a key defense of the city was going to be removed and then they would have to somehow deal with the resultant "bad stuff".  I didn't know from the beginning exactly what defense was to be removed, what the "bad stuff" might be or how the party might address the problems (which might be part of the "analysis paralysis" problems that were occasionally experienced), but I knew generally where the story was going and was prepared to roll with their ideas and actions to unfold the undefined narrative in a defined direction

I've also been planning these games with a shorter time-frame in mind.  The London game was originally intended to take 8-12 sessions.  The last session was #17 - and that's the point: it will always take longer than you think it will (at least if your style is anything like mine).  If you've got some epic quest planned that is intended to take the players a year's worth of sessions to complete, it will probably actually require close to two years (unless you're railroading like nobody's business) - and one game usually doesn't hold my attention solid for that long.

My remaining game, Sandstorm, was also conceived with an ending in mind, and the players have been moving inexorably toward it since the beginning.  That game, too, was intended to last 8-12 sessions and they've just completed #14 (I still need to write highlights for the last two, actually) - but in this case some things have happened that have pushed the ending back with my knowledge and consent.  I'm still not sure what's going to happen at the end of this game, but I know where and when in the narrative that ending is going to occur and it will be interesting to see how it all works out.

I guess what I've learned most from these games is that it is, in fact, possible to write a game with an ending in mind without defining exactly what that ending is.

Some of this is also a bit of "know thyself".  I am always working on or looking at a new shiny, and a given game just can't hold my attention for massive amounts of time.  Starting a game with an ending in mind and with a vaguely-defined duration keeps me invested in making the current game the best it can be while also allowing me to look ahead to new ideas.

 

~PS

Sandstorm: Scion

Friday March 11, 2011 at 7:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

- The party calls for Rynbel and requests that she visit the Vigilants' HQ and attempt to find out what was going on.

- The rest of the party head down to the Temple of the Stars.  After knocking on the door but getting no answer, Tisroc causes the sound of bells to erupt inside the temple until the door is finally opened.

- The high priestess denies any knowledge of anything occuring in the tunnels involving her brothers, sisters or followers.

- The party returned to the Sandstone Tower where Honch asked them what they would do about the giant.  The group asked him to explain or elaborate on what the giant was or what he meant, but he didn't seem able to.

- The group gathered their gear and headed down through the city.

- About halfway down, the group encountered a rioting mob of individuals who seemed to be moving upward through the streets, burning structures as they went.

- The group avoided the mob as best they could until they encountered a group burning down a house and yelling angrily at the man inside.  

- The group decided to intervene. Glitched battered some of the men with his shovel.  Alina attempted to douse some of them with water, but found that conjuring it had become very difficult.  Ultimately, they were driven off after Tisroc wandered into their midst and shot fire from his hands into the sky, which was more than sufficient to scatter them.

- The party continued and eventually encountered what Honch must have referred to as "the giant".  It was a massive, 50-foot-tall woman.  She glowed with a faint light and was blindfolded with a strip of cloth in the center of which was a glowing rune.  She was gracefully but randomly weilding a massive halberd and wherever it struck a building, the stone and wood exploded in a shower of debris.

- The group decided the giant needed to be stopped.

- Tisroc and Alina decided that it might be some kind of summoned or conjured being and that perhaps the blindfold was some form of anchor.  Tisroc gave Glitch the rapier they'd taken from Naglish's body, and he teleported up to the giant's shoulder.  He started to fall, but as he did he managed to cut the blindfold which fell from the giant's face.

- The giant's eyes were glowing white orbs.  Her expression became angry and her voice boomed "you are all guilty!"  Beams of light seared from her eyes to the city streets and buildings, exploding stone and wood wherever she looked.

- Tisroc reacted by conjuring a blasting wave of sand which he directed at the giant.  The sand pierced her glowing eyes.  As she stumbled and attempted to wipe the grit from them, she began to fade into nothingness saying "you have all betrayed me; my people, my world, have forsaken me"

- The party continued to the Tunnels where they encountered the horror Tovi had told them about - the bodies of dozens of people littered the ground just inside.  Among them were some wearing priestly robes and the purple capes of the Vigilants.  However there was something strange about them - Alina was able to determine they had certainly been dead for weeks...

Sandstorm: Decay

Saturday March 5, 2011 at 5:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

- Rynbel showed Tisroc The Array - a sensitive monitoring device showing shifts, trends and relationships between various aspects of magic.

- The wizards pointed out the erratic behavior of the representation of the Water aspect.  Also, they have noticed some aberrations in Fire, Cold, Conjuration and Transmutation.

- A tremor shook the Tower; Honch (the butler) informed them that it was caused by an explosion in the Upper Halls.  The blast had killed three prominent members of the Merchant Guild.  He also told them that the cause of the explosion was fleeing the area, heading in this direction.

- Upon questioning, the wizards told the group that Honch is what they call a Puremind - a rare type of individual who can pull information from some aether of the cosmos, especially relating to partiularly consequential events.

- The party goes down to the street where they see a group of the Vigilants running downward; Alina also heard a voice call out for someone called "Garkov".

- In the street, two of the Vigilants were standing watch over the body of one of the men fleeing the scene of the explosion whom they'd shot in the back with a crossbow.  Upon closer examination, it turned out to be Olin.

- The following morning, the group returned to the Ledge looking for Tovi, but the place was empty.

- Tisroc spent most of the day researching magic, attempting to expand his knowledge.

- Alina visited the Temple of the Stars where the priest presiding over the daily service was speaking about being watchful against the evil that had crept into the city and how the faithful must drive it out.  It reminded Alina of the rhetoric she heard in Rynthis after the high priest's death.

- Alina and Glitch visited The Lodge where they spoke to a man about crafting a special bow for Glitch.

- Alina and Glitch returned to the Sandstone Tower where they attempted to occupy themselves while Tisroc studied.

- Honch came to tell them that they had a visitor just before there was a knock on the front door.  Upon answering, they found Tovi, nearly in tears, pleading with them to do something about the Priests and Vigilants who were killing innocents down in the Tunnels.

London 1802: Broken Ties

Monday February 28, 2011 at 5:30pm world of darkness, london 1802, game session notes Comments (0) »

Upon entering the main hall of the cathedral, the group witnessed the heart of London's darkness.  A shadowy, ragged cloak-like shape hovered beneath the dome in a vortex of swirling air currents.  They also noticed a figure slumped over the altar at the front and could just make out another figure collapsed in a large chair in one of the antechambers.

Molly raised her pistol - the bronze one with the golden cross dangling from it's handle - to take aim at the floating shape above, and pulled the trigger.

The cloak-like shape swirled downward to engage the intruders - launching chapel benches, animating statues and even puppeting the body of Lord Caspar - dead figure in the chair antechamber.  Robert and Gerald also seemed to experience some space/time anomalies which transported them to some other location, showing them bizarre scenes and events.  Ultimately they were able to defeat the apparition - in large part thanks to Molly's effective use of Lance's spirit pistol - as the cathedral continued to crumble.

After the final wraith was banished back into the Shadow World, the storm ouside seemed to subside - but distant thunder continued to rumble - thunder they later discovered was actually gunfire.  French soldiers had made a beachhead at the London docks and were attempting to move in and take the city, only to incounter unexpected and horrific resistance in the form of maddened sailors, goblin-like creatures and other unspeakable things - giving local soldiers enough time to mobilize to fend off the remains of the badly demoralized and retreating force.  King George would later laud the "Spirit of the City" as being responsible for terrifying the witless French - a miracle from God which allowed the English to prevail.  The Treaty of Amiens having been broken, plans for repelling further French attacks - and even the possibilites of a foreign offensive - are being discussed in the Hall of Lords.

The group returned to the bathhouse to recover.  Over the successive weeks, things seemed to be calming down.  Strangely, it was the city regaining its normalcy that made clear to them more than any other event just how far from the mundane world they had come - and they could not go back.

[end campaign arc]

A Return to Photosushi

Monday February 21, 2011 at 8:44pm photography Comments (0) »
A Return to Photosushi Image

I'm ready for warm weather again.  I'm not a huge fan of the intense summer heat, but I'd rather be hot than cold and I do enjoy being able to go outside without having to wear 3 or 4 layers or a bulky coat.

Today was one of the nicest days we've had so far in 2011, and Sheri and I decided to go take a walk around Sycamore Shoals.  I also decided to bring my camera.

Between the stress of the last 6 months or so, the cooling weather, other hobbies and a small variety of other factors, it had been probably more than 8 months since I'd gone anywhere specifically for the purpose of taking pictures just for fun.  In fact, I didn't do a whole lot during most of last year, which is kind of a shame.  I think there's some good stuff in my 2010 gallery, but not quite as much variety as the previous years.  It felt good to be out doing that again - I'd almost forgotten how much I enjoy it.  I'm not sure I got much of anything good, but I had a great time just being behind the lens.  

I hope to do quite a bit more of this during the rest of 2011.  This year will get its own Portfolio on my gallery page at some point, too - though probably not until I have some more to put in it.

~PS

Adding Some Flavor

Monday February 21, 2011 at 7:26pm gaming, creativity Comments (0) »
Adding Some Flavor Image

In saturday's session of my current D&D campaign (Sandstorm), I encountered a small problem with believablilty vs something I wanted to do for the players.  These sorts of challenges present problems, but also opportunities to invent clever solutions which may be interesting in their own right.  Every once in a while I have a gaming idea I'm somewhat proud of.

This is going to involve a bit of gaming story.

In the game, Tony's character is a wizard.  Magic in the fictional world in which the game is set has been established as fairly uncommon.  The party also learned that there is a local group of magic users in their current city, and they expressed some interest in speaking with these people to see what they might be able to learn.

So here was my problem.  I introduced the wizards of the Sandstone Tower to the game because I, as the GM, wanted to give Tony the opportunity for his character to learn some stuff in-game.  New spells maybe, or other information about magic that would appeal to his character.  I also wanted to give them a resource where they might be able to research certain plot-applicable topics.  The problem, however, comes because such knowledge is not given away freely in any believable setting.  Further, Tony's character isn't of an incredible power level nor is his magical knowledge of surpassing quantity or quality.  What would he have to offer a centuries-old cabal of magical scholars?  The typical "4,000 gp for a 2nd level spell" is boring and doesn't do much of anything for the story.  Plus, that kind of exchange doesn't make much sense in a low-magic, low-commerce setting like this one.

So here was how I decided to make this work:

The wizards of the Sandstone Tower are interested in knowledge above all else, particularly knowledge of the arcane.  This pursuit has also enlightened them to the fact that what knowledge is valuable is not always immediately apparent.  Also, while experience is often the greatest teacher, experience is also frequently dangerous - and so they don't actually do much in this capacity.  To this end, the scholars of the Sandstone Tower developed a magical ritual wherein a person could draw information both from their subconscious and from the very strands of fate and time to write their entire life experiences (past and future) as well as all thoughts, theories and observations into text (of course, the book cannot be opened and read until the author's death).  Since Tony's character had been through a lot in the party's adventures - and will go through quite a bit more as the game continues - his accounts would be very valuable to these scholars.  This gives him something interesting that they might want from him, something to facilitate a believeable exchange to give the party what I wanted to give them, and a little bit of a plot device for me to work with on top of it all.  I thought this was interesting, believable and added just a little more flavor to the story and the setting.

~PS

Sandstorm: The Sandstone Tower

Saturday February 19, 2011 at 6:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

The group slept through the rest of the night undisturbed.  The next morning they discussed the nights' events with Olin and Tovi over breakfast.  The tavern owners seemed very concerned at the existance of such a creature in their part of town.

Tisroc had heard about a place in the city called the Sandstone Tower.  It was reputed to be home to a group of wizards, and Tisroc was interested in what he might be able to learn from them.  After they finisehd their morning meal, they decided to head that direction.

The tower itself was a large, cliff-side structure.  It was so massive, in fact, that the group wondered how its foundation supported it.  They were greeted at the iron gates by an elderly caretaker called Honsh.  He asked them why they had come and directed them inside.

The large entry hall was full of books and objects which could only be described as "wizard-y".  They were, in fact, a little over-the-top and played to every myth or superstition about magic one might hear among the common people.  Tisroc had even begun leafing through a book about "dangerous magical creatures" when Rynbel descended to meet them.

Rynbel was a young woman, perhaps in her early thirties, with dark features.  She asked Tisroc what he thought of their wondrous hall and the artifacts in contained.  Tisroc attempted to be diplomatic, but couldn't in good conscience endorse what he had found fully.  He instead suggested that perhaps some of her materials weren't completely accurate.  She frowned at this and asked him if he might elaborate on his criticisms.  He did so.  It wasn't until after 10 of 15 minutes of needling him that her expression softened, and she welcomed them into the tower.  She explained to him that this room was a kind of competence test for would-be associates, and she looked around the room with some satisfaction at its tackiness.  Anyone who embraced anything they found here was most likely not worth their time.

Rynbel and her colleagues Nalves and Oldesule explained their scholarly nature and their pursuit of knowledge - particularly knowledge of the arcane - and they showed him their massive libraries dedicated to all of these things.  Tisroc realized the vast depth of what he could learn in a place like this, and they offered him access to everything they had if he would be willing to do something for them.  What they wanted was for him to take some time to write down his experiences, adventures and observations.  They explained that much of what they had learned had involved building and combining the experiences and observations of wizards who had come before them.

Tisroc agreed to write his experiences down for them, and he was directed to a small room with a single chair and a desk with a nice leather and iron bound book and a quill and ink well.  The walls of the room were lined with bookshelves closed and locked behind glass doors.  Tisroc sat down, picked up the quill and set it to the first blank page of the book and began to write - and he wrote uninterrupted for 8 hours.  As he closed the back binding of the book after completing the last page, he felt as though he came out of a daze.  Tisroc had no recollection of exactly what he wrote, only that it was the truth of his life and experiences - not down to the smallest detail, but surely everything that would be relevant from a scholarly perspective.  Tisroc turned the book over and went to open it, only to discover that it would not open.

Rynbel then entered the room and thanked him for his contribution.  He asked her about the book and its unwillingness to open, and she explained that the books would not open for just anyone, and that they were only used in certain circumstances.  She explained that knowledge of the life and thoughts of a person should be private and not accessible to just anyone.  She placed his book on one of the shelves and locked it.

The group spent what remained of the day at the tower.  Tisroc began studying some magic that might make their travels easier.  Alina, however, was worried about something else.  She'd never had a chance to tell Tisroc about what Melna had told her back at the Crag.  She hadn't figured out how to say it, but now was the time.  She went to him and said he should send time in this vast repository of knowlegde looking for information about demons and the pact he'd made - specifically how the pact might be broken and, most importantly, what might happen if it was.  Melna, she told him, seemed to think that if he undid the oath, it might effectively end his life.

That revelation made a terrible kind of sense to Tisroc.  Of course Alina was right - he needed to concentrate on this.  He needed to know all he could.  Tisroc told the wizards of the Sandstone Tower about his problem, and asked where they might look.  The wizards admitted they hadn't heard of a story such as his before, but they pointed him in the direction of similar things.  

The reference they found the most closely tied however, wasn't where they were looking at all.  It was in a historical reference from the world before it began to dry out.  In the ancient forests of Kethir were said to dwell beings called Verdant Princes - fey creatures known for capriciousness and trickery would had some ability to bind fate into powerful oaths, holding both sides to the bargain.  Assuming they did once exist, however, they had long since died out with the lush forests in which they dwelt...

Sandstorm: Tovi's Ledge

Friday February 11, 2011 at 6:30pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

It was just after nightfall when the group approached the gate of Tanir, The Summit.  This settlement was built in a spiral around the one of the highest peaks of the Jagged Crown mountains and was all but inaccessible to the rest of the world.  The forest they had landed in seemed very dry, but it was the largest stand of trees any of them had ever seen.  As they walked across the bridge and toward the gates, it occured to them that this was more wood than they had ever seen in one place.

The guard in the gatehouse was a man called Hanley.  He came down through the cutout door in the main gates to speak with them, asking them who they were, where they came from and why they had come to The Summit.  Upon warning them not to cause any trouble, he saw no harm in letting them in.  The party asked Hanley if he knew of a place they might find a meal and some shelter, and he directed them down toward the lower areas of the city - to Tovi's Place.

There were very few people on the streets at this time.  They passed only a couple of pedestrians and a man pulling a large handcart.  When they were about halfway down, however, they were hit from behind by a large man in a heavy cloak running through the street.  He collided with Tisroc, and both of them fell to the ground.  The large man regained his feet as quickly as possible and continued running.  As Alina and Glitch helped Tisroc back to his feet, they listened and looked for any pursuers or anyone else, but saw nothing.

Near the bottom of the spiraling streets, they found one of the larger buildings of the area with a large wooden sign which read: Tovi's Ledge. The road continued downward a little ways, and then began to slope back upward for a few hundred feet before coming to and end.  From a cliff-side alleyway near the lowest part, Tisroc noticed a small figure watching them.  As he took a few steps toward it, the group saw the figure dart across the road into an alley adjoining the mountain.  The group walked down to the place to discover a large, round hole into the mountain.  Carved into the worn stone above were the words "Tanir - Lower Halls".  Some dim torchlight flickered deeper inside, but the tunnels they stared into were very dark.  As they contempated entering to find the spying figure, a voice called to them from further up the road - someone on the porch of Tovi's place.

The group returned to the tavern's entrance and met a man called Olin.  He advised them not to enter The Tunnels - it was a dangerous place, especially to the uninitiated.  After a brief conversation, he invited them inside the establishment.

There were perhaps a dozen people in the tavern - some card players, some people in deeper conversations, some people simply enjoying the evening.  A young, red-haired woman sat at the far side of the bar - on the counter itself - idley strumming a lute.  As they entered, Olin called to Tovi, who set down the instrument, slid off the counter to the floor behind it, and came around to ask what they all would like.

They party spent the rest of the evening talking with Olin and Tovi about themselves and the settlement, asnwering questions and asking some of their own.  Alina in particular spoke with Tovi for some time, and later in the evening, eventually drew out of her something interesting about the local religious climate.  Tovi (and apparently, Olin as well) didn't care too much for the local Pharonic clergy of The Temple of the Stars.  They also mentioned another entity - called Skadi - who seemed to be a sort of legendary "hero of the people".  They described this figure as local inspirational folklore, but Alina noted some rather religious undertones.  By the time the conversation was over, Tovi had all but admitted (somewhat reluctantly) to the existance of a cult of Skadi in the city.

Before the conversation could come to a natural end, however, the sound of loudly peeling bells exploded in the tavern hall.  By this time, most all of the patrons had left and Tisroc had gone to bed.  Tovi exclaimed in surprise and Alina ran to the front door.  Outside the sound seemed quieter, though like it was coming from somewhere above them.  "Tisroc!"

Alina ran up the stairs with Glitch behind her and burst through Tisroc's door to find him grappling with a dark figure - the dark candlelight illuminated the room just enough for them to identify the harpy digging its claws and fangs into the struggling wizard.  They had seen this one before.

The resulting combat was rather chaotic.  The struggle between Tisroc and the creature in the darkness made targets difficult to discern and hit.  Alina accidentally clubbed Tisroc on the back of the head as the harpy unexpectedly shifted.  Tisroc was bleeding badly and when it raked its claws across his head, he lost consciousness and fell to the ground.  As he collapsed, the harpy turned it's attention to Alina.  Glitched noticed a strange, black smoke beginning to rise from Tisroc's form as Alina blasted the creature with a potent beam of searing light, hurling it back against the far wall.  Winded and covered with viscious burns, the creature leapt through the broken window in which it had come and soared away into the night.

Alina quickly returned to Tisroc's side, manifesting further miracles to heal his injuries.  When Tovi and Olin arrived, it was already all over.  They were shocked that someone had broken in and attacked their guests.  They offered the party a different room and went about boarding up the window.

London 1802: Into the Lair

Monday February 7, 2011 at 5:30pm world of darkness, london 1802, game session notes Comments (0) »

As Molly was checking on her friends - all of which seemed to be unconscious but not mortally wounded - she saw some flashes of light coming from the common room downstairs.  Upon descending to the first floor, she saw 6 or 7 people sprawled out on the floor as flashes of light from the center of the room illuminated the bathhouse like lightening.  It was then that a strange and alien figure appeared floating above the ground at the room's center.

The figure was guant and oddly jointed and draped with a kind of sinuous clothing that seemed to end in tendrils which floated in a non-existent breeze - almost seeming to move with a volunatry motion.  The figure's head was large and oval shaped, marked only by a single, massive human-like eye.  It spoke to Molly in her head, and the others heard its imprint in their unconscious state:

"I appear from the court of Osiris to the one called Katherine, who has gained some note with us.  Time is running out.  They are even now awakening the Nameless One.  London is lost."

After the figure disappeared, a final flash of light illuminated the darkness again and, though Molly didn't dare look into the impossible brightness, she saw that, as it shined, everything in the bathhouse was becoming brighter, sharper, clearer, and more perfect.  The lamps ignited again.

Molly was on her way over to check on Gerald when there was a knock at the door.  Gerald, who was awakening, yelled in that direction inquiring rather bluntly as to who it was and what they wanted.  Robert and Katherine were awakening as well, and began making their way downstairs.

At the door were three of the Bow Street Runners.  When the door was answered, they asked to come inside.  They rather quickly got to the point:  they wanted to know who the four were.  They knew that the group had seen and interacted with things that weren't...normal.  In doing so, the revealed that they, too, were able to perceive these things that most were unable to see.  They called themselves Cerberus.  They told the group that they were headed to St. Paul's Cathedral to get to the bottom of what was going on and had come to ask if the group had any useful information for them.

During the conversation, Katherine realized something about the three Runners: they were in every respect normal men.  They were sleepwalkers.  They didn't really understand the forces they were going up against, though they seemed relatively undaunted by the supernatural horrors they had seen.  Katherine suggested that they should all go together, but Robert asked if they could possibly wait for a while.  Fredrick, the Runner who seemed to be the leader, told them they'd wait as long as they could before descending into the pit.  They would be making ready in the square at its edge.  The group spent some time trying to rest and patch themselves up before getting the carriage and driving through the rain-soaked streets to the place where the cathedral had sunk.

The three Runners had not yet gone into the pit, and the group could see them through the downpour, waiting at the edge of the chasm as they pulled up.  One of them was tied another rope to one of the trees and group descended into the pit, swan through the water that had flooded the depression, and entered the front doors of the Cathedral, wading through the knee-deep water.

Upon entering, they were immediately waylaid by a pack of formless, shadowy dogs and the woman whom they'd encountered earlier that day.  Molly got off a couple of good shots before the woman began shrieking and spewing forth swarms of insects from her open maw.  Something about the sound seemed to be exterting a force over the group, making movement very difficult, which Molly alone seemed to shake off.  She fired a couple more times at the woman, finally landing a solid hit which caused her to drop the effect, at which point Robert leapt forward and, using Lance's sword, impaled her against the wall.  As he pressed his attack, arcs of electricity seemed to shoot across and inside the woman's body and she seemed to sublimate into the air.  She was gone, but Robert realized that the blade of Lance's sword had snapped about a foot above the hilt.

Penguin Dice Box

Thursday February 3, 2011 at 9:20pm cleaning, gaming, ruchtcon Comments (0) »
Penguin Dice Box Image

I am rather easily amused.  Especially by interesting boxes and containers.

Pictured to the right is my new dice container for the roleplaying games I'm in (as a player).  Someone (and I'm trying to remember who) gave me four (4) tins of Penguin mints a while back.  I've only eaten a few of them (mainly because a) i'm not all that fond of pepperment and b) these things are strong), but as I was cleaning out the office closet today, I happened upon the tins and noticed something: these boxes (about the same size as an Altoids tin) are exactly tall enough to contain a normal d20.  Upon further experimentation, I discovered that the boxes are sized such that they can neatly hold about 14-18 dice, which is enough for 2 standard sets plus an additional die or two.  The size and shape of the box also makes it easy to carry in a pocket or the blue notebook box thing I generally carry.  Plus, it has a penguin.  How could it be more perfect?

As I partially alluded to before, I spent most of today cleaning out a closet, a filing cabinet drawer, a bookshelf and my desk.  The end results are a basically organized gaming drawer, a clean workspace, some new dice containers, and a bedside shelf.

I've also been kicking around some game proposal ideas for RuchtCon II, which is now officially scheduled for March 25th-27th.

~PS

Board Golf

Monday January 31, 2011 at 1:52pm board games Comments (3) »
Board Golf Image

So, Sheri and I were trying to save a little money this year with respect to Christmas gifts, etc.  Also, I like to think I'm a pretty creative guy.

My parents (particularly my mom) really like golf stuff.  They know me and Sheri like all kinds of games, so I decided that making a golf game for them.

The mechanics of the game went through several incarnations over the months leading up to the holidays, but there were a few things I knew I wanted from the beginning:

1) I wanted a modular course.  Something like tiles that could be combined in a large number of combinations to make different holes.

2) I wanted a dice mechanic for determining the distance/accuracy of shots.

3) I wanted a choice mechanic for choosing clubs

4) I wanted a fair degree of simulation - including mechanics for wind, hazards, fairway/rough lies etc

5) I wanted some fun chance effects and one-time-use cards that could modify shots with theme-based effects.

What I ultimately came up with did a fairly good job of capturing these things, though I'm still not 100% happy with it.

A given hole is composed of 6-inch hex tiles hex-gridded with 1/2 inch hexes.  Each tile has coterminous fairways such that the tiles can be layed out to form a hole.

Each player will have 4 clubs (a Driver, an Iron, a Wedge and a Putter) as well as a Ball.  Each of these items can indicate certain traits - a club might have a tendency to hook or slice and a ball might have a tendency to bounce and roll.  Using a given club is determined by how far away you want to aim.

Shots are taken by aiming for a given hex and rolling four dice - two pairs which represent the two axes - left/right and forward/backward.

Each player also gets a number of cards that can be played on him/herself or on other players that have a variety of effects: making lies better or worse, gusts of wind, mulligans, etc.  These cards are played once and then discarded and players can gain more cards as the game progresses.

There are, of course, a great number of nuances to the particulars of these basic mechanics - and I think there are still some things that could be streamlined - but that is the gist of it.

 

I playtested this game with Sheri a bit before we gave it to them, and the four of us played a game when they were here.  I think they liked it and, overall, I think the project went very well.

 

~PS

Please Stand By

Monday January 24, 2011 at 1:31pm stand by, job search, family, friends, gaming, auto repair Comments (0) »
Please Stand By Image

I was kind of hoping to have a bit more to report the next time I keyed and entry in here, but it's been a minute and things aren't progressing fast enough to suite me.

Mostly what I'm referring to is the job search.  I've had a couple of very promising interviews, but I haven't heard anything definite from either of them.  I have a third tomorrow so we'll see where that goes.

The holidays were fun.  It was good to get to spend time with family.  Sheri's parents and her aunt stayed with us for about a week and then my parents came down for the weekend.  We also got to see Jerry, Amanda, Stacey and Tracy - and that's always a good time.  Stacey and Tracy are going to be overseas for a few years so we wanted to make sure we could spend a little time with them, and Jerry & Amanda (+Pickle) are always fun.

Gaming continues as it must.  General fun times.  A little behind on the session write-ups (as usual).  Working on some projects (also, as usual).  We've started talking about RuchtCon II.  Had a pretty sweet character/player exit in last night's game.  Cool things happen.

The Jeep is having issues which I'm about to (hopefully) go get fixed.  Battery not charging correctly/consistently - probably the alternator.  EDIT: Jeep fixed; alternator replaced.

More details may or may not follow on some or all of the above.

Please stand by.

~PS

Sandstorm: To the Summit

Friday January 21, 2011 at 6:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

After the remnant of the kobold tribe had been driven out of the settlement, the party discussed what to do next.  They had acquired some new information from Melna, but Gullow was a long way away and they were all but out of provisions.  Further, Drakol was now in even worse shape than when they had arrived and it would be some time before they were back on their feet - much less had enough surplus to spare for their trip.

The group ultimately decided they would stay for a time and continue helping to restore the settlement.  Almost a week later, a small contingent of the kobold tribe returned - this time under a banner of truce.  They seemed interested only in Alina, asking her if she knew where Durtaxsteingakila had gone.  Apparently they had come looking for this thing(?), but had found the human settlement instead.  Tisroc told them later that he thought they may have been alluding to the legend of the Dragon.

Weeks went by.  Between the party's magic and prodigious amounts of physical labor, The Crag was well on its way to recovery - though it had a long way to go yet.  It was at dawn about 6 weeks later that the group was awakened by a nervous guard calling them to the bridge area.

Upon arriving, they found Radley waiting (rather uncomfortably) with two of the creatures Tisroc had identified as sphinxes.  One of them was the creature they had rescued on their way to the settlement, the other looked very similar, but was slightly larger.  It addressed them, asking for the feather they had been given.  When Alina produced it, Thesaeya stepped forward, reached out and took hold of it, but kept it out-held toward the party.  The larger sphinx spoke again, thanking them for their favor and asking what they would have the sisters do in repayment of this debt.  After some questions and conferring, they asked if the sphinxes could take them to Belurn, the human settlement on the far side of the mountains.  The sphinxes agreed and said they would appear at dawn the following day to depart.

The party then began making ready, saying their goodbye's and attempting to gather the provisions they could.  Radley and the others were somewhat loathe to see them go, but seemed to understand.

At dawn the next day, they departed.  They had been flying high above the mountains for a couple of days, stopping at night to rest, when the larger sphinx - called Marshalla told them that she and her sister required more rest than a simple sleep could provide.  Below them was another human settlement which the party knew must be Tanir, The Summit.  Marshalla asked if they would mind spending a couple of days there while she and her sister recovered.

It was after dark, so the group felt relatively safe with a close landing.  They touched down in a dry but living forest on a plateau near the spiraling peak-city of Tanir.  It was nearly midnight as they approached the large gates of the city's lowest level.

London 1802: Backlash

Monday January 17, 2011 at 5:30pm world of darkness, london 1802, game session notes Comments (0) »

The general mood of the bathhouse was coming close to panic and Molly was busy trying to calm down some of the guests and girls.  It was nearly an hour before her associate returned with Dr. Galton.

Gerald, he was happy to report, already seemed to be on the mend - moreso even than he would have expected.  He praised Molly's first aid actions, which had apparently been quite effective.

Robert, however, was a different story.  Dr. Galton reported that Robert was completely unresponsive and that he really needed to be at a hospital.  Unfortunately, the Founding Hospital had recently burned to the ground (as they knew all too well) and the doctor doubted Robert would survive the trip to the Royal Hospital in Chelsea.  If he makes it to morning, Galton said, he might have a chance - but he seemed to doubt that would happen.

After having done what he could, Dr. Galton informed them that he had to get home.  Molly and Katherine thought he probably wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't as a personal favor for Gerald's sake.

Some time after the doctor had left, there was a knock on the front door.  When Molly answered the door, she found a figure standing there, holding a bloody sabre and clutching an injury at his side.  Lance stumbled into the bathhouse, dropping a pack from his shoulders as he did.  Leaning on his sword, he made his way to the couch and sat down heavily.  Several of the patrons nearby seemed horrified.  Molly suggested he let them take him upstairs.

Up in the unconscious Robert's room, they conversed with him.  He seemed distant and unconcerned - even saying in so many words that he was only there because he promised he would be.  They asked him a number of questions, but he didn't seem to know the answers to many.  What they did get was that the Wards on St. Paul's have failed, and that some entities he referred to as "wraiths" were either responsible or precipitatory.  He once thought Sophia had something to do with it, but now he's not so sure.

They weren't able to learn much of anything else because as he was talking, he suddenly grimaced, turned to stone, and crumbled into dust.

Katherine and Molly examine Lance's sword (blade etched "Durandell") and the pack he had left downstairs.  Inside they found two bronze flintlock pistols (one with a cross "charm" dangling from the handle) and a book entitled "The Witch".

Gerald joined the Molly and Katherine a while later.  He seemed to be almost fully healed, and somewhat confused by the state.  Checking on Robert, they found him sitting up in bed with no apparent injuries.  He mentioned something about Diana.

As they were discussing things in Robert's upstairs room, they heard a scream from elsewhere in the house and the lamps suddenly dimmed drastically.  They stood shocked as a glowing, spectral claw reached into the room through the wall.  Outside in the hallway, a shadowy amorphous, tentacled, ooze-like mass was climbing up over the walkway rail toward them.

The ensuing combat was brutal, and the group was, overall, in no shape to fight supernatural terrors.  Molly had grabbed the cross-bearing pistol and found that it could shoot bolts of light that seared into the spectral monster - but it was massive and seemed to shrug off most of the injuries.  The tentacled mass had begun flailing at Katherine and tried to fling Gerald off the balcony, but managed only to drop him.  By the time the dust settled, only Molly was left standing.

Sandstorm: Attack on Drakol

Friday January 14, 2011 at 7:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

Second avalanche.  Fought kobold tribe.  Pushed an Umber Hulk into a river.  Maybe demons.

Up to the Holidays

Up to the Holidays Image

Well, the Blog has been neglected of late.  I guess that happens.

My job search has continued with rather sparse results.  Still looking.

Sheri & I have been trying to finish up Christmas stuff, which I think we've managed to do.  We're trying not to spend lots of money this year, but we really like giving things to our friends and family.  This has presented some challenges - some of which have been met wonderfully, some of which have been significantly more frustrating.  All in all, though, I think it's going to work out.

Apart from the more mundane aspects of my life, there have been one or two things of interest.

I've been working a bit on board game design for a couple of projects about which I may go into more detail at a later time.  Llama and I spent quite a bit of time last saturday night discussing one of these in particular and I think it has quite a bit of potential.

The two rp games I've been running have been going well.  The plot in my London 1802 game is coming to a head and I'm interested to see how it will turn out in the end.  The Sandstorm game left off for the holidays with a bit of a cliffhanger as the party exited the local wise-woman's cave to the sound of surrounding war-horns.  On a related note, I'm woefully behind in my session write-ups.  The last two sessions for each game have yet to be elaborated upon.  The synopses are really only for my benefit anyway, but I do need to take (what will now be a few hours worth of) time to flesh those out before I can no longer remember them.  I'll probably have to reference Sheri's notes as it is.

My birthday weekend was relaxing and cool.  On saturday night Tony & Adam came over and we played Dominion and watched a couple of the old Pink Panther movies (Peter Sellers ftw).  On sunday we had our last Rogue Trader session (Rucht's game) for the year and Stacie made me peanut butter birthday brownies which were *awesome*.  They even stopped the session and sang to me.  My friends are cool.  :-D

I spent this last monday afternoon shooting portraits for the Hippies.  This was a new and interesting experience for me, and I learned quite a bit from it.  I've been told the pictures turned out pretty well - they look good on my computer screen anyway.  One or two will get put into my Portfolio for this year at some point.  Also, I've discovered a poor-man's lighting solution: If you can't afford studio lights but you have a decent flash (with a pivot/swivel head), a 2'x3'  sheet of white foam board positioned a few feet away makes a pretty good bouncing surface for indirect lighting when you don't want to bounce from the ceiling or there is no usable ceiling.

 

At the moment, I'm taking a break.  Today we've been finishing up our christmas stuff and cleaning the house in preparation for Sheri's mom, dad & aunt who are coming to stay for the holidays.  They're supposed to get in sometime late tonight and I think our current plan is to stay up playing board games while we wait for them - probably some Dominion and Touch of Evil, which were two of Sheri's birthday presents this year.

 

~PS

London 1802: Ghosts of St. Paul's, Pt. II

Monday December 13, 2010 at 3:00pm world of darkness, london 1802, game session notes Comments (0) »

Gerald and Robert had been standing near the back of the crowd when the ground shuddered and the Cathedral disappeared from sight.  Almost immediately after these incredible events, they noticed a rather violent disturbance to their right - in the area around where Ludgate street enters the church yard from the west.  People where panicked, shoving each other out of the way trying to get away from the area.  The two shortly saw the reason why: a massive black dog the size of a large horse was slowly moving into the square.  It seemed like it was looking for something.  Gerald and Robert decided it was a good time to be somewhere else.  Robert tried to support Gerald (who was still quite weak with injury) as best he could as he pushed their way through the crowd toward the center of the square.

The center of the square was clearing out now, as people attempted to flee the area.  Robert and Gerald pushed through the crowd to see Molly and George standing near the massive hole.  After a moment George turned and began walking toward a shop at the edge of the square.

Katherine was standing in front of the Cathedral near the entrance, staring up through the rain, watching the growing number of swirling shapes in the clouds above.  She had advised the others present to take shelter inside the church.  There was another tremor and she heard the sound of cracking wood.  Across from her, she saw the ornate coffin fall from the platform and split open.  Inside, Proteus' lifeless form stared blankly out into the gloom.  Katherine noticed something else as well: the staff the Bishop always carried had been buried with him.  This struck Katherine as somewhat strange.  As she looked at it more closely, she noticed something else: the staff was suspended in the Twilight, not in the material world.  Katherine walked over to look more closely.

Molly decided to follow George over to the small shop.  George was in search of a rope - something that they could use to help get Katherine out of the hole.  As she followed him, she happened to look up and across the square to the east, where she saw and impossibly large, black dog parting the crowd and moving toward the center of the square.  They needed to hurry.

George broken the shop window and climbed inside.  Molly managed to unlatch the door through the broken window and followed him.  It took a few moments for them to find a decent length of sturdy rope.  By the time they were leaving the shop, Robert and Gerald had nearly reached their position.

Meanwhile, Katherine was looking at the body of the dead Bishop when she heard a hollow voice behind her.  "Why do you come to confess, child?  There will be no more forgiveness here!"  Katherine turned slowly and only just in time to see the knife point being thrust at her head.  She ducked out of the way just in time, emerging with only a small cut across her cheek - though she didn't think the injury had a physical manifestation.  The spectral figure of a man floated before her.  His skin had a strange discoloration to it.  He wore obvious clerical vestments, though they seemed rotted, moth-eaten and very old.  He held a knife in one hand and there was a sadistic smile on in face.

Katherine pushed her hand into the Twilight and took up Proteus' staff.  Placing it between herself and her assailant, she commanded him, "Go back to where you came from!"

The ghostly being recoiled from the cross and his smile immediately shifted to a hateful scowl.  His form seemed to distort and fold in on itself, and seemed to be sucked backward to a single pinpoint a few feet behind where it had floated.  Katherine was glad to see the figure gone, but she had a feeling her actions had little to do with its departure.

The square above was all but empty at this point, save for Katherine's 4 companions.  The two giant dogs had converged on the far side of the giant hole from them.  As their paths crossed and they darted back and forth, a third figure appeared among them: a woman.  She wore what would have been at one time a very fancy red dress, but time and decay seemed to have taken their toll on it.  It was faded and rotten in many places, having large holes and torn seams.  She spoke arrogantly to the nearly empty square.  "Who are these few who do not run in terror?"

It was Gerald who turned to face her.  "Who are you, woman?  What evil lurks here?"  The woman did not answer with words.  Instead, she violently clenched her fist before her.  Gerald pitched forward against his cane as excruciating pain coursed through his body.  He gritted his teeth hard, he would not give her the satisfaction of seeing him succumb.  When he would not collapse, she threw her hands into the air and shrieked "Kill them!"

From the depths of the hole, Katherine heard the shriek and looked up.  She saw the dark shapes that had been gathering above in the clouds suddenly streak away in all directions.  Above, Robert saw them descend into the street, causing screams to echo through the alleys and leaving dozens of people inexplicably collapsed in their wake.

The dogs leapt forward in order to tear the companions apart.  One of the dogs barreled into Gerald, knocking him to the ground.  Robert ran forward and began to stab at the huge beast with his knife.  The other dog was also about to charge forward, but Molly reacted by sending a strong impulse of fear toward it, causing it to balk.

The woman held out her hands and spoke in some strange voice.  As she did so, hundreds of the cobblestones around her feet became massive spiders that began crawling toward the group - but then something unexpected happened.  The woman suddenly recoiled as if stung by something.  Several of the spiders turned back and began moving toward her.  A few others broke off and began leaping onto the dogs' legs.

Below, Katherine had affixed the spectral cross to herself and had been attempting to find a way out of the hole.  George had tied off the rope and thrown it down to her, but its length didn't reach all the way to the ground.  She was finally able to get a hold of it, but climbing was slow.  Looking down, she noticed something else: the pouring rain seemed to be filling the basin the cathedral now occupied.  There was already nearly a foot of standing water on the ground.

Robert was having a difficult time fighting off the dog, being driven backward as its vicious bites tore into his arms and legs.  He was trying his best to return the injuries with his knife, but the thickness of the beast's hide made doing much real harm to it difficult.  The massive dog finally managed to trip him, and, standing over him, dug its teeth into his shoulder.  It was only then that Robert was able to jam his knife into the monster's underside, causing it to collapse atop him.  Unfortunately, this final exertion was all he had left, and he too lost consciousness.

The other dog had begun to charge forward several times, but Molly had managed to keep it just unsure enough such that it stayed out of reach and only partially inclined to attack.  The spiders, however, had begun swarming around them and it was virtually impossible to keep them all at bay.

Gerald looked up at the woman who was fighting off spiders herself.  The woman shrieked again.  An icy wind cut through the empty square, and all of the spiders withered and died.  "Go away!" Gerald yelled at her, and watched in shock as her form folded in upon itself and was drawn backward into nothingness.

Almost immediately after her disappearance, there was a loud BLAM!, followed shortly by another,  The dog that was still standing staggered slightly, turned and ran off toward a pair of figures standing near an alleyway across the square.  There was another BLAM, and the beast staggered more, and then changed course and darted out into the fog of the city.

Molly ran over to Robert's motionless form and called for Gerald who hobbled over and, using some scraps of cloth torn from his own clothing managed to stop the bleeding.  By this time, Katherine had managed to climb out of the hole.  The group decided they needed to get back to the bathhouse.  

The trip back was long, cold and painful.  Gerald was able to tell Molly to call for a doctor before he collapsed himself.  Katherine went up to her room and placed the spectral cross she was still carrying under the mattress of her bed.

Sandstorm: Heralds of Things to Come

Saturday December 11, 2010 at 6:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

The party began telling the man who had approached them - a guard captain called Radley - who they were and why they were there.  He gave them a nominal welcome and began to suggest what they should do.  Alina was sent to The Hall to aid in tending to the wounded and he asked Tisroc to have his guarding help with the digging effort - breaking up the rocks and moving them out of the settlement.  Tisroc also alerted the captain to a particular shelf of rock above that looked as though it might break off soon.

Radley also lead Tisroc to a place above the settlement where he had seen a strange print and asked him if he'd seen anything like it before.  In truth Tisroc had.  He told the captain that he'd seen the print in the mud a few days ago, but wasn't sure what it was.  The captain seemed concerned because the location of the print happened to be a perfect overlook of the settlement - almost as if whatever it was was watching them.

Later, as Glitch and some of the other men of the down are picking through some fallen rock, Tisroc notices a hissing sound that he alerts Radley to.  Before they could return to the scene, however, a large section of rock crumbles and falls down into a hole and steam begins to bellow out, burning everything it touches.  With it came strange partially-visible steam-like creatures that began attacking those present.  Glitch fought them off fairly well, but could do little about the steam rushing out of the opening.  It was nearly an hour before it stopped.  Inside they could see the remains of a house which seemed to have collapsed through into and angled tunnel heading down into the mountain.

Meanwhile, Alina had been assisting in the Hall, tending to the wounded and using her miracle capability on the most gravely injured.  During this time, she met a young girl called Senya who was also helping treat the injured.  Senya was upset because she was concerned about her grandmother who lived near an old shrine inside the mountain.  Unfortunately the tunnels leading in had partially collapsed, no one could get in and excavation priorities were elsewhere.

The group decided they should try to get in to help her - she may be someone they would want to talk to.  Glitch was assisting with the primary excavation efforts during the day, but decided to begin clearing the tunnel at night - still, it was going to take some time.  Tisroc used his gaseous form ability to float in through some of the cracks to bring food to the woman and to inform her of their intentions.  Eventually, the whole party is able to meet with her.

The woman was called Melna.  She was a short, broad woman and was a keeper of the shrine in the main chamber of the caves.  The shrine was a statue of a large, winged, female figure holding a disc over her head.  Well, not "holding" exactly -he disc was simply suspended in the air between the statue's raised hands.  The shrine was dedicated to Nephthys.

Tisroc tells Melna of his problem and, after taking some time to think about it, offers him the following information:

Melna says she thinks there is hope for his future.  The oath that was made was sort of "bent" or "stressed" on its binding.  As such, it is perhaps more pliable.  It may be possible for the oath to be "bent" again, or even completely undone.  To do this, however, would require "unsaying" the words of the oath in the presence of the entity with which it was made.

She also told him she knows of a man called Emeric who resides in The Deep.  He knows much about the denizens of the Hours of Night and she believes he has even had dealings with them.  She warns them to be careful, however - he is not the type she would trust.

Melna then asks to speak with Alina privately.  Tisroc begins to head down the tunnel with Glitch, pondering this new information.  Melna and Alina meet up with them at the tunnel entrance just in time to hear the canyon in which the settlement resides fill with echoing sound of dozens of horns from the surrounding mountains.

Sandstorm: Things Are Changing

Saturday December 4, 2010 at 6:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

The human population having left, the Party then set about deciding what to do about the gnolls.  On the one hand, they wanted to show their sincerity by offering a little help but they weren't sure that another encounter with the tribe would be prudent...or safe.  The group therefore decided to fill the spring pool with water and to leave a notice which would indicate its temporary nature.

The party decided to head north out of the Dead Forest as they had originally planned.  Running low on provisions, they decided to risk travel across this area of the March but they decided they would avoid the oases where the gnolls, hobgoblins and whatever other power had arisen might gather - relying instead on their magic to produce the water they needed.

On the 5th day through the March, the group begins no notice a foul smell on the air - like something dead and rotting.  As they continued, the stench grew stronger until they came upon a massive battlefield.  Remains of hundreds of armor-clad figures littered the ground, picked at by desert carrion birds and other small scavengers.  As they moved into the battlefield and began to look around, they noticed a group of jackals on the far side, moving in their general direction.

The figures turned out to be gnolls and another grotesque humanoid creature which Tisroc guesses are hobgoblins.  Tisroc began to look through possessions - it seemed that nothing of note had been salvaged from any of the corpses.  A few of the hobgoblins had some small packs with moldy but edible rations.

As they investigated the scene, they noticed the jackals moving closer and eventually noticed they were eyeless - they had seen jackals like this before.  They were considering this when Tisroc happened to glance behind them and saw a blue-robed figure only 5 feet away.  He was tall and dark, his head was like that of a jackal but he seemed well groomed and refined.  He had a crimson scarf around his head covering his eyes.  Before he could react, the figure spoke, asking them what had happened here.

The party, startled, responded that they didn't know what had happened or why.  The figure seemed mystified.  He told them that he had watched these tribes for many years and what he saw here was not consistent with his knowledge of them.

The group asked the figure who he was and he obliged them, informing the party that he was called Oorshal, and that he was "one of the last three".  The party told them that they had heard a rumor that someone who looked like him was unifying the tribes of the March and that maybe this scene had something to do with it.  This seemed shocking to the figure.  He mentioned something about the others seeking to supplant him.  He asked them many other questions about this rumor, but that was all they knew.

Oorshal seemed disturbed.  He suggested that the party leave the area as quickly as they could and advised them not to linger in "cursed places" such as this.

The party continued north toward the Jagged Crown mountains of the north.  When they reached the foothills, the turned east to head toward the Sula river that they would follow to The Crag.  The foothills were rougher going, but offered a bit more cover and shelter.  It had been a few weeks since they set out when they finally encountered the river and began the final leg of their journey.

The trip up into the mountains was arduous even when following the riverbank.  They would often have to deviate from the river and head up into the rocky areas above before coming back down to rejoin it.  In addition, they were running out of provisions and had been operating on half-rations for some time.  Tisroc attempted some fishing with sparse results.

They were still a few days from Drakol when they were forced once more from the river side.  Climbing a narrow path to a pass between rocky peaks, they began to hear an echoing screeching sound accompanied by a metallic rattling.  They were still contemplating this when they were suddenly met by a huge creature that resembled a lion with a falcon's head and wings.  "You are not welcome here!" it growled and began approaching.  When they told it they only wanted to pass through, it asked them with what they would pay the "toll".  When they could apparently offer nothing it wanted, it decided to attack them, but the group was able to drive it off.

Upon reaching the crest of the hill, they saw the source of the noise:  There were 4 of these creatures (one of which they had already seen) in a basin below them.  Leading down to this depression were rock ledges something like massive stairs.  One of the creatures was bound with a metal collar connected to a chain which the largest of the group was holding, attempting to drag it along.  The bound creature looked a bit different than the others - its head was humanoid instead of falcon-like.  Its shrieking cry echoed through the canyon and, when it saw the party it cried out to them: "help me!"

The resultant combat was rather savage.  The group did alright fending off two of the creatures, but the larger one proved to be quite powerful.  It had all but shredded the metal plates from Glitch before Alina got its attention by attempting to heal and free the bound creature.  After a brief standoff in which the party was able to regroup and Alina was able to restore a part of the bound creature's strength, it decided to flee as its companions had done.

The bound creature was called Thesaeya - one of the Sphinxes.  She thanked them for rescuing her from her captors and rewarded them by giving them one of her feathers.  She told them that they had the gratitude of her and her sister though they had certainly made enemies of the other detestable creatures.

The group asked Thesaeya a few questions, but she didn't seem to know much about anything that might be happening outside of the mountains - of Oorshal or any of the others.  She was able to tell them that they could probably reach the mortal settlement in perhaps a couple of days.

The party continued on their journey and, sure enough, about 2 and a half days later come upon The Crag.  As they looked out over the settlement, they could immediately tell something was not right.  The movements of the people seemed rushed and there was an air of urgency and danger.  They had only just moved into the settlement when they were approached by a man who began asking them who they were and all but ordering them in different directions - there had been a massive rock avalanche less than 24 hours ago and the town was still picking up the pieces.  Anyone not injured was required to assist where needed.

London 1802: Ghosts of St. Paul's, Pt. I

Monday November 29, 2010 at 5:30pm world of darkness, london 1802, game session notes Comments (0) »

The crumpled scrap of paper Hannington had left on the bar contained only a few words which Robert was able to piece together as an address somewhere on the east end of the city.  He and Gerald puzzled over this for a few minutes but they were certainly in no shape to go investigating anytime soon.  They asked the bartender if they could have a place to stay on the premises.  He responded that The Mitre generally didn't have rooms to let but that Hannington had been staying upstairs and his room was now obviously unoccupied.  A little annoyed at the man's sudden departure, he told them that they could stay the night there given the circumstances.

Molly and Katherine stood still as the woman who had appeared glided down the stairway toward them.  Ignoring her chastising, Lance began shouting at her: "Sophia!  Have you lost your mind!?"

Sophia's response was elusive. "An interesting turn of phrase, Lancelot..." she began, but Lance cut across her again "I have no time for games, Sophia.  Where is your consort?  Where are your puppets?  Don't you know what their actions have done to your city?".

"This city rejected me long ago, Lancelot." Sophia responded, her tone icy, then she added something to Lance that was too quiet for Katherine and Molly to hear clearly - but it seemed to have some effect on him.  Raising her voice, she continued, "You seem to be laboring under the delusion that I appeared her upon your request..."  Sophia turned toward the doorway where Katherine and Molly were standing and began floating idly in their direction, adding quietly, "I am much more interested in these....newly awakened..."

Lance stood stunned for only a moment as the woman passed him, but he seemed to recover his composure rather quickly.  Reaching into his large coat, he produced a pistol which he pointed at her back.  "No, I'm sorry Sophie, I'm quiet serious."

Sophia froze, a slight fear shot across her face for just a moment.  "You are powerless against me, Lancelot..."  She trailed off.  Her words may have been strong, but her voice quivered with a slight uncertainty.

"Quite sure of that?"  Lance said, a sly smile crossing his face as he pulled the flintlock back, letting it's click echo in empty room.

Sophia turned around to face him again.  After a brief moment of deliberation, she spoke.  "Proteus is dead, Lancelot." she stated firmly, as if this commonly-known fact would answer any questions he may have.  

Lance's posture shifted slightly.  He hesitated for a moment before suddenly striding swiftly toward the door.  Upon reaching the threshold he stopped.  Still holding his weapon, he spoke over his shoulder.  "And where is your consort, Sophia?"

"Speaking with some old friends, Lancelot."

Lance then strode out into the pouring rain once more.  After his departure, Sophia turned back to the two girls, seeming to examine them carefully.  She had been about to speak to them directly when they decided further encounters with this ghostly woman would be unwise.  They turned and hurried out through the rain after Lance.

Katherine and Molly caught up with him near St. Paul's square as he was watching for signs of Runners enforcing the curfew.  When all was clear, he hurried across the square to the main entrance of the Cathedral but found it locked.  He then hurried around the north side of the building toward a lower back entrance which was also locked.  Producing something form his pocket which he uses to open the lock and proceeds inside, telling the two to remain silent.

Proceeding just inside, the three were stopped by the sound of voices echoing from somewhere above them.  Three voices; two male, one female, discussing something.  Something that had gone awry or contrary to some plan or expectation.  The two male voices seemed to believe that the deviation was well within acceptable bounds, but the female voice was agitated and insistent that actions must be taken less all be lost.  After the voices faded into the darkness, Lance ventured further inside, Molly and Katherine following him.  He searched any room that was unlocked and also spent some time carefully examining several of the statues and carvings in the main hall.  About an hour later, he told the girls that he was going home - there were some things he needed to see to.  When Katherine and Molly demanded further explanation, he told them that he would return to their Bathhouse the next day.  Molly and Katherine made their way back through the rain.

The following day, Robert and Gerald return to meed them at the bathhouse and George returns as well - bearing the swordcane Gerald had wanted.  Apparently he won it in a game of chance from a strange peddler he'd not seen before.  He also mentioned he'd been working a bit over the last couple of days and that a new ship had just arrived in port - a ship called the Great Maw.  This was a legendary pirate ship, but strangely, no one around the docks seemed bothered.  Perhaps they didn't buy into the legend.  Apparently it checked out with the harbor master as George had seen him speaking rather sociably with the captain as a large number of crewmen disembarked.

It was now friday morning.  The Bishop's funeral was to be held at noon in St. Paul's square.  After discussing recent events and waiting a few hours to see if Lance would show up at the bathhouse that morning, they had the carriage brought around and they made their way to the square.  The rain still poured down.

St. Paul's square was completely packed.  Their carriage was only able to make it to a street about 3 blocks away before passage was impossible.  Across the sea of people, they could see a raised platform in front of the Cathedral entrance on which stood the Archbishop of Canterbury and a few other officials.  The clattering rain would make hearing difficult even at close range, so katherine and Molly decided to try to get as close as they could.  After they'd left, George decided he would follow them.  Robert and Gerald (both still quite injured) lingered near the back.

The service began in a usual and expected way.  John Moore spoke at length about Beilby Proteus' service to the Anglican Church in London and how his tragic and sudden death would surely be a blow to the local congregations.  He then of course proceeded to admonish his listeners to live up to the legacy the Bishop had left behind by keeping the faith, etc.

While this eulogy was being delivered, a new sound began to surface above the crowd - a high-pitched whistling sound which began very quiet, but grew in intensity.  Katherine and Molly exchanged looks.  The area around the square seemed to be getting  darker.  The clouds above were thick and dark - and something seemed to be moving within them.

A loud and sudden crash of thunder silenced the square.  Even the Archbishop stopped and looked around for a moment.  Katherine looked around in the Twilight.  There seemed to be some discord or inconsistency between the spiritual aspects of the people around them and their physical forms.  She could also see dozens of ghost-like shapes swirling in the air above the crowd. Molly began to sense a growing agitation in the emotional collective of those gathered.  

They had little time to reflect on these impressions as another crash shook the ground around them.  dozens of people around them lost their balance and began toppling into one another.  Molly and Katherine managed to keep their feet, but the ground beneath them split open and created a widening gap between the rest of the square and the area around the stage and cathedral.

George had managed to push his way up to where the girls were standing.  Katherine didn't completely realize it, but she needed to make a split-second decision.  She could see the ground on the other side of the crack shifting - and she decided that the cathedral side was where she wanted to be.  George tried to grab her to hold her back, but she managed to slip away from him, falling to the ground on the other side of the emerging chasm just before the cathedral and the ground around its base suddenly dropped perhaps 75 or more feet into the earth.  Molly looked across what was now a massive pit.  Near its center, the copper cross which crowned the Cathedral was now at ground level.

Sandstorm: Us or Them

Friday November 19, 2010 at 7:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

The group decided they would make their way to The Crag.  Tisroc attempted his uber Locate Water spell again, and got a rather bizarre result - a water source indication which seemed to flicker a few days to the north.  As they approached, they could smell cooking meat and near the peak of a slope between some piles of boulders, they were stopped by a man with a crossbow who asked them who they were and why they were there.  The group told him and the other man present that they were travelers and, after a few questions, they were welcomed into the camp.

In the valley on the other side of the hill there was the remains of what was once a verdant oasis.  Dessicated trees lined a scorched valley, amongst which there were about a dozen tents and about 35 people, some of which were children.  They accepted the hospitality of the people there, and spoke with them for a while, learning several things.

The inhabitants of the valley were the remnant of a village further west called Rulloc.  Rulloc's well had dried up and they were forced to leave.  They were making their way toward Adther but had in mind to stop at this oasis and possibly settling here.  Upon seeing its state, however, they decided that would be impossible.  Unfortunately, before they were able to continue on their way, they were attacked by a group of gnolls.  After that, many of their able-bodied men were injured, they'd used up more supplies and would be severely slowed down - so they were kind of stuck.

Alina spoke with the village's leader, a man called Gilad, and asked if they might want her to help with their wounded.  He accepted her help, but didn't realize what she was about to do.  Over the next couple of hours Alina healed all of the injured people in the camp and had become quite a bit of a local celebrity.

The group spent the next day at the camp as well, resting up a bit, enjoying some real food and waiting to see if the camp had any further trouble with the gnolls, who were thought to still be in there area.  Alina also discovered that the spring - which was now little more than a trickle - seemed to have some sort of persistent, very faint magical aura.  This was puzzling to herself and Tisroc.

That evening, they were approached by Gilad who wished to go out on a recon mission and asked if they might help fill in during their absence in the even of trouble.  They agreed.  When Gilad and his men returned, they seemed troubled.  Come to find out, the gnoll camp in a nearby valley was much the same as theirs - containing a number of elderly, non-combatants and cubs as well as a number of injured adults.  The majority of men present wanted to go attempt to wipe them out, but Gilad wasn't sure how he felt about killing the non-combatants - and killing their able-bodies would certainly doom them in much the same way.

At this point, the group interjected, suggesting that Tisroc try to go and talk to them, to see if some compromise could be made.  Under some protest, the men present agreed to try it.

Accompanied part of the way to the gnoll camp by friends, Tisroc made his way to the camp.  He was initially beset by a group of gnolls who, despite (or perhaps because of) his passive posture in approach, began pushing him around and growling incomprehensible questions at him before the "leader" approached.  He was a massively huge gnoll who walked with a bit of a limp.  He growled at Tisroc for a while and Tisroc began trying to communicate by drawing on the ground - trying to indicate where other water sources might be found.  The leader however, lost patience, pushed him down, growled angrily at him and eventually stormed back into camp - only to return a few minutes later followed by a hunched figure in a ratty cloak that hobbled rather slowly up to him and asked him, in common, why he had come.

Tisroc was relieved to be able to actually communicate with one of them directly, and he began explaining the situation.  The elderly gnoll, in return, proceeded to tell him of their troubles.  They had been part of a tribe which had been at war with a rival tribe of hobgoblins for nearly a century, but now that war was over.  A new power had risen - powerful beings resembling jackal-like men - and dominated the hobgoblins, insisting that the gnolls unite with them for some unstated purpose.  Those that had refused were forced to flee the Salt March and were attempting to find a new life in the Dead Forest, but water was difficult to come by - the only meager source they'd found was possessed by the humans.

Tisroc returned and the group formed a plan: they would create enough water for the now-healed human village to continue on their journey to Adther, then the gnolls could come and occupy the dying oasis and the two need not wipe each other out.

The party passed this plan on to Gilad who agreed that it was a good idea now that he knew it was a possibility.  The human tribe packed up and, after profusely thanking the group for all of their help, headed out into the waste once more.

London 1802: All Hail the Queen

Monday November 15, 2010 at 5:30pm world of darkness, london 1802, game session notes Comments (0) »

Molly and Katherine were still standing in the burned clearing when Katherine noticed a massive humanoid-bird, demon-like creature trying to enter the material world from the Shadow where they'd rescued Lance.  It took Katherine a few seconds to shake off the terror that enveloped her before she was able to force the doorway closed, banishing the beat back into the shadow.

Robert and Gerald were in a room of a run-down apartment building adjacent to the clearing where they discovered a strange sculpture of a four-armed human figure with a canine head.  While they were examining it, a massive, deformed figure burst in and began attacking them.  In the insuing fight, Gerald was severely injured.

Molly was able to stop the bleeding and stabilize Gerald's injuries, but he would need hospital care.  Meanwhile, Diana had appeared outside where Lance was and had asked Katherine what had happened.  Katherine called for Elston and asked him to carry Lance's incorporeal form back to the bathhouse.

The group was able to get Gerald to the hospital where he and Robert would spend the night.  Molly and Katherine returned to the bathhouse and spent some time talking to Diana and attempting to discover what was wrong with Lance.  They learned that he was not actually dead, but rather somehow stuck in the Twilight.  By touching his thoughts, Molly was also horrified to learn that his mind was locked in some kind of mental torture.  It took her some time, but she was finally able to pull him free of it.

At the hospital, Robert was dozing in a chair next to Gerald's bed when he was startled by a loud slam which came from the far side of the room near the entrance.  The lamps in the room began to flicker and go out and he noticed a sharp drop in temperature.  He asked Gerald for candle and Gerald, half asleep, pulled a lit candle from the bag next to his bed.  Before Robert had much time to inquire as to how or why he had a lit candle in his bag, he heard footsteps approaching.  A figure stopped at the edge of the illuminated area and told Robert that he had something for him.  The figure dropped something which clattered to the floor inside the lit area - it was a bone-handled knife still dripping with fresh blood.  Robert looked up to ask what this meant, but the figure was already walking away.  The sound of the footsteps continued until it reached the doorway and then stopped.  Robert made his was to the doorway where he thought he saw some shadowy movement, but no one was there.  The hallways were also dark and the building was utterly silent.  On his way back to Gerald's bed, he noticed something else - the other beds in the ward, which had previously held other patients were empty. 

Robert woke Gerald, told him about the situation, and, after finding a wheelchair for Gerald, the two decided they should leave.  As they exited the building, the heard the sounds of breaking glass and found that several of the rooms had been set on fire.  The two headed outside into the pouring rain and, shouting for someone and eventually encountered a couple of the Runners, whom they informed about the situation at the hospital.  The two headed toward the Mitre, a pub which happened to be nearby.

The bartender was surprised to see two patrons enter, doubly so because there was currently a curfew in effect, and triply so because one of them seemed to be in need of hospital care.  He was shocked to hear of the situation at the hospital.  As they were talking, they saw a familiar man in a booth across the room slide out and begin skulking toward them.  It was Hannington.  Placing a crumpled paper on the bar next to Robert he whispered "I think someone was looking for you".  He then walked out into the rain, despite the bartender's warnings about the curfew.

Back at the bathhouse, Lance finally woke up and stepped out of the Twilight.  Seeming confused by his surroundings, he asked a few questions and then hurried out.  Katherine and Molly tried to convince him to stay for a few minutes and managed to do so briefly by showing him the statues of Arthur, Gavin and Gwen, but ultimately he would not be detained.  He told them if they had any other questions they'd have to come with him.  Deciding the ignore the curfew, they did so.

They followed Lance to the Foley Manor, where he began shouting for someone called Sophia as he paced intensely around the entrance hall.  When he got no response, he instead called for Diana, who appeared in a small wooden chair in the corner of the room.  Without hesitating, he asked her where her grandmother was.  She informed him that she hadn't seen her for at least a few weeks.  He was about to storm out of the house when a tall, cold woman appeared from nowhere at the top of the stairway above them.  "Lancelot, when will you stop meddling in matters which are so far above you?"

London 1802: The Shadow's Trap

Monday November 1, 2010 at 5:30pm world of darkness, london 1802, game session notes Comments (0) »

The group sat in the kitchen as the rains continued the afternoon of Thursday, April 19th.  The group had been talking about the the murdered Bishop and had decided to attend the public funeral which was to be held in square of St. Paul's Cathedral the following morning when Robert returned to the bathhouse with some other news.  He told them he'd spoken with Diana again, and that she was upset.  Apparently the person called Lance was being held prisoner on the Isle of Dogs.  She had tried to go to him, but had been driven away somehow.  Despite the pouring rain, they decided they needed to return to the Isle, an action they'd been discussing for some time.

The group took the carraige as far as they could manage, but the east side was in shambles.  Robert had also reported a significant increase in inter-gang conflicts that were remaining just below the public's consciousness due to certain factors.  Carefully, they made their way through the docks.

There were very few people on the street.  Recent events, the poor weather and the general sense of fear that permeated the city seemed to have caused certain aspects of city life to grind to a halt.  Gerald noted several people peering suspiciously out their windows as they passed.

The Isle of Dogs itself was all but destroyed.  Never a "nice" area of town, the fires and rampant crime had left it ravaged.  It wasn't until they'd nearly reached the center of the Isle that they saw anything truly unusual.

At the very heart of the district there was a broad area that had been burned completely - to the point that it was nothing but ash and loose rubble.  Even the cobblestones and foundations of now-destroyed buildings bore signs of melting by extreme heat.  Katherine immediately got the sense that there was something else present.

Focusing her eyes into the twilight, Katherine beheld a massive stone obilisk and around it, some sort of swirling spiritual ephemera.  Chained to the bottom of it was an unconscious man.  She tried to approach it, but it seemed to always be some distance away.  It was then that she remembered Elston mentioning something about a place called the Shadow - a world that was completely distinct from this one.  Katherine closed her eyes and willed herself through the gap and into the realm of Shadow.  Her companions were shocked to see her completely disappear.

It was dark on the other side, but less hazy and Katherine was able to see details much more clearly.  She approached the man, who seemed to be faintly struggling in whatever state of unconsciousness he was in.  She tried to rouse him, but he did not respond.  Deciding this must be Lance, she tried to consider some way of freeing him, eventually deciding tor try pick the locks on the manacles that bound him there.

Back in the material world, something was happening.  The other three watched as dozens of dogs began emerging from the alleys into the burned clearing.  Apart from just their numbers, there was something else strange about their behavior that they couldn't quite quantify.  As another group of dogs approached from the alleyway behind them, they discovered that the dogs seemed unnaturally aggressive and they did not hesitate to attack.

The resultant combat was chaotic  The three attempted to batter or stab the dogs to keep them at bay.  Gerald felt a strange muscle spasm that caused him to drop the medicine bag he'd been using to bludgeon a nearby dog whereupon several objects scattered out of it - a few of which Gerald didn't remember putting into his bag.  Molly felt a strange piercing in her mind and the world became hazy and indistinct.  Looking around, she saw Katherine at the base of a massive obilisk.  She had only just thought that she wanted to be over where her friend was when she was suddenly there.  Gerald and Robert were once again astounded to see their other friend vanish.

At this point, many of the other dogs, having wandered into the clearing and not finding anything, turned there attention to Robert and Gerald.  Gerald looked around and noted the cracked door on the building next to which they stood.  Bashing it open, the two dashed inside, scattering whatever furniture they encountered behind them in an attempt to block the way for the crazed dogs as they clamoured upstairs.

Katherine had managed to pick the locks and she and Molly attempted to extract Lance.  When they were successful, the howling wind-like sound they'd heard stopped suddenly and it was eerily quiet.  The two then willed themselves back across the Gauntlet. 

By the time they reappeared in the clearing, the dogs had left.  Gerald and Robert were looking out the window of the second floor of the shack into which they had fled.  Katherine and Molly re-materialized but Lance, whom they'd been carrying, was not with them.  Katherine peered once more into the Twilight and saw his translucent form lying on the ground.

Sandstorm: Moving On

Friday October 29, 2010 at 7:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

Naglish, the ghost of an abandoned prisoner, had waylaid the party.  He was threatening Tisroc with revenge for wrongs perpetrated against him by the noble house to which Tisroc was attached.  As Alina attempted to talk him down, the ghost animated the chains of the dungeon to begin attacking and attempting to bind Tisroc and Glitch.  Alina's line of reasoning was not able to satisfy the ghost, but it did convince him that his attack on the party wasn't worthwhile.  He eventually ceased manifesting and disappeared into the ether, but not before piercing his ghostly sword through Tisroc's heart.  The metaphysical attack seemed to affect Tisroc's mind and eventually caused him to fall unconscious.

After reviving Tisroc and taking a few moments to recover, the party headed up to exit the citadel.  Alina decided to take Naglish's remains out of the citadel and bury them.  Upon entering the great entry hall, they called up to Selkin that they were leaving.  As they approached the exit, however, they were attacked by a group of hobgoblins who began firing upon them from the far side of the drawbridge.

Glitch immediately ran out to engage them and Alina followed shortly, but Tisroc (who was already worn down from previous encounters) decided to hang back in the entry hall.  It was at this point that he was ambushed by Jask, one of the bandits.  Putting a dagger to Tisroc's throat, he demanded the gem Selkin had given to the party.  Tisroc willingly gave up the ruby, and Jask took off - running past the hobgoblins and out of the area.  Not too long afterward, there was a great impact upon the citadel from some unseen source which caused the rotten drawbridge to give way, taking a few hobgoblins with it as it fell down into the gorge.  After the hobgoblins had been completely routed, the party contemplated how to get down with the bridge missing, eventually deciding on the use of Tisroc's Feather Fall magic.

The party camped at the base of the citadel, recovered the rest of their strength and began discussing what to do next.  Selkin and the remaining bandits bid them fairwell as they left the area.  Alina was able to bury Naglish's remains and the group began planning what to do next.  They contemplated traveling to Adther, The Dead Forest, to see what had become of the refugees from the abandonded settlement, but the information they had gained from the epitaph in the crypt mentioned the settlement called Drakol, known as The Crag.  Perhaps more could be learned there...

 

party levels to 6

Return of Photos and Current Gaming Projects

Thursday October 21, 2010 at 1:12pm photography, job search, jamming, music, gaming Comments (0) »
Return of Photos and Current Gaming Projects Image

Ok, so the photo gallery is back up and running - to an extent.  I actually have plans to make the photo page a bit more robust, but I haven't felt "into" working on it that much lately and I'm tired of seeing the "returning soon..." on the page. 

I've included a 2010 Portfolio on the new page, as much because the page looks much better with 3 entries than with only two than anything else.  I think there are some good shots in there, but, sadly, I haven't had as many days of dedicated shooting this year.  I'm hoping to take advantage of one of these nice fall days to do some before it gets cold...   ...we'll see if I'm motivated to actually do that or not.  It's not that I don't want to do it, it's more that I've just been...uninspired.

Speaking of being uninspired, the job search continues to be frustrating.  There just aren't enough opportunities in the area.  I've found multiple hits in various locations an average distance of 4 or 5 hours away that are pretty much exactly what I do (and I've even sent an inquiry email to a company in knoxville, about 2 hours away), but there's just not that much around here - at least, not at the moment.  Also, the things that *are* around here that are "kind of" in my line don't seem to be panning out so much.  Erg.

On more fun things - because that's what I like to talk about on this blog:

Well, I mentioned that I haven't done much photography lately and I haven't felt like working on the website, so...what does that leave? *looks at menu bar*

Robb & I have been jamming with Josh and Bill some more.  This has been lots of fun.  We've been working on the same 5 cover songs (Plea from a Cat Named Virtue by the Weakerthans, Creep by Radiohead, Jenny Says by Cowboy Mouth and Burn and Stupid Kid by the Alkaline Trio) - trying to get them nice and smooth before we branch out some more.  Some of them are more solid than others, but we're having fun.  Also, we did a rather spontenous arrangement of The Melting Point of Wax (by Thrice) during last session, and that ruled.  I really want to play some version of that song, but Thrice's drummer is...insane...and Bill doesn't think he's up to it.

On some gaming:

My Sandstorm and London 1802 games have both been going really well.  I think both have a great story unfolding and interesting characters.  Also, both have an ending in mind.  This is an oddity for me - I generally just let games go until whenever.  I don't know exactly how it's going to go down or how the parties are going to get there, but I know where the story is heading, and I know where the climax is.  I also know what will happen if the party goes completely into left field.  I'm really enjoying these games, but oddly, I'm looking forward to the ending of the stories.  It's kind of the same way you look forward to the end of a good book or movie - you want to see exactly how it ends.  This time, I know it *has* an ending.

I'm also enjoying Rucht's Rogue Trader game, though I still feel a bit off-balance in the 40k universe.  I'm a little torn this aspect - sometimes I think I really like it, sometimes I think it's not my thing.  I think my big issue is simply the weight of too much canon - it feels restricting.  I tend to like settings which the GM - and also the players - affect not only what's happeneing in the setting, but also what the setting is like.  When I run games in a given setting (almost always one of my own creation), I tend to adjust the feel and flavor of the setting based on what I think the players are enjoying the most.  This just isn't something you can easily do if you care about staying "faithful" to a published setting.

I'd like to give Patrick's Star Wars game a nod as well, though I haven't quite been "feeling" it of late.  I think most of this is my fault.  One of the cool things about this game from my perspective is that my character has actually changed considerably over the course of play.  I'm not sure if it's obvious to the other players, but it's very apparent to me.  Unfortunately, one of the effects of this change is that he has become much more introverted and reflective, which is making roleplaying with the other players less frequent than I'd like.  I'm considering how I might nudge the character out of his shell so that he's more fun to play without breaking verisimilitude.  Also, there are a couple of annoyances in this game, but again, it's my hangup. 

As always, I have multiple games in the works, on a variety of levels.  I have 3-ring binders for each of my games' notes, but I have one entire tabbed binder that is nothing but sideprojects.

I've mentioned my Savage 3025 idea before, and I've continued to refine parts of it.  I was actually talking a bit about this game with Matt over the weekend, which was cool.  I think he's the only other guy I know that has any knowledge or interest in the Battletech universe.  He also seemed interested in playing in the game whenever I get around to running it, which I think would pretty awesome.  As the date suggests to the initiated, this will be a Succession Wars era campaign, and is meant to follow a lance (a reason I want exactly 4 players) in the service of one of the Great Houses.  Despite the fact that most of my "work" on this system has been on the 'mech combat rules, I expect characters to spend as much or more time out of their 'mechs.  This is another reason why I wanted to use a mod of Savage Worlds: so that I could have a consistent system for roleplaying scenarios on both scales.  This definitely won't be a strictly combat/tactical game - the politics and roleplaying interactions surrounding any actual conflicts will be more important than the battles themselves.

Another idea I've been working on lately - and this is something I've been kicking around for a few years - is a game based around the cosmology of Myst.  This has probably resurged as a sideproject as I've just finished playing through Riven and have started Exile.  Still, the rpg I have in mind really won't have much in common with the games, which are primarily puzzlers, neither will it pay any attention to canon.  Rather, I simply wish to take the feel of the universe of Myst - microcosmic "Ages" created through and connected by Linking Books, which are crafted through a specific arcane art of Authoring - and plug in more traditional aspects of a tabletop rpg.  One of the many things I think could be really cool about this sort of game is that I'd like for the players to, at some point, begin to actually write their own Ages to explore and play in - and I have many ideas on how this could be accomplished and manifest.  I'm unfamiliar with any other game where the players can (literally) write their own settings into the universe, and this idea greatly intrigues me - enough that this is probably the project I'm most interested in at the moment.

I've also written a few pages of notes on a western game I'm calling "In the Cards".  Basically, I decided that in order to properly capture the feel of a western themed game, the mechanics should be a bit more approrpriate.  Basically, the game takes place around poker hands.  Normal tasks would be resolved via a "high card" - the player plays a card from his/her hand against the GM's draw from the deck (results "modified" by options available to players skilled in the task in question, etc).  More dramatic scenes, such as shoot-outs or heated arguments, would be played out as a slightly tweaked hand of poker - wherein each involved player invests him/herself in the scene, performing simple draw actions, and continually "upping the ante" until some dramatic moment "calls" the hand, and the final results of the conflict are evaluated based on the winner.  I also have some additional ideas on how players can hedge their bets - such as the idea of having cards "up the sleeve", which they can pull out in appropriate circumstances.

Bot has been put on the back-burner for the time being.  I will mention that it got positive reviews at Gamesplosion and I think it has a lot of potential, but I'm still thinking over some streamlining and I'm having some trouble coming up with stories to tell in such an eccentric world.  I know they're there, I'd just need to get my brain into that mode.

~PS

London 1802: Through the Mind's Eye

Monday October 18, 2010 at 5:30pm world of darkness, london 1802, game session notes Comments (0) »

The rains continued as the group went about their day, more than a little bewildered by the events of the previous 24 hours.  Robert told the others that he had some things he needed to take care of and headed out into the city just after noon.  Molly was busy taking care of some housekeeping after the previous night's disturbance.  Gerald had received word of some additional "strange cases" at the hospital and he decided he should go check on them.  Katherine wanted to visit the cemetery on the north side of town.  George decided he would go with them.

The three hired a coach to drive them to the area of town.  Gerald and George got out near the hospital and let it take Katherine the rest of the way to the cemetery.  Shortly after their parting, George decided they shouldn't have left Katherine alone with all the crime that'd been happening, so he split up with Gerald and began walking toward the cemetery to meet Katherine.

When Katherine arrived, she found a quiet spot under a couple of trees (which partially sheltered her from the rain), spread out an old blanket Molly had given her, and sat down.  Closing her eyes and reaching out into the Twilight, Katherine called for Elston.

George happened upon Katherine as she was meditating there.  He attempted to talk to her, but she repetatively told him she was concentrating and not to disturb her.  At that, he took a few nips from his flask and settled down to nap.

Elston eventually responded to Katherine's summons.  He seemed somehow less "healthy" than before - looking somewhat emaciated - and his ghostly clothing bore marks and tears where before it looked neat and well-groomed.  During their conversation, Elston told Katherine that the city was becoming more dangerous - both in her world and his.  He also told her that there was some malevolence inhabiting the far east side of the city.  Katherine asked him directly about a name she'd heard - a person called Sophia.  Elston told her he was unable to tell her much about this entity, but he did caution her saying - "What you must understand, Katherine, is that some spirits are very old, and very bitter."

At the hospital, Gerald was observing the 8 new patients.  While they seemd "less far along" than the original 4, there was little different about them.  All of the patients had some skin discoloration, a rather slow heartrate, and were inexplicably catatonic.

Back at the bathhouse, Molly was visited by one of the Bow Street Runners.  The man seemed obviously exhausted.  He informed Molly that there had been a rash of break-ins the previous night and he understood her establishment was one of the targets.  He asked her a few questions about the incident.  As he left, she noticed another man standing just inside the door.  He was a nobleman, but the look of him.  He was looking around the room with an expression of disgust.  To noone in particular, but obviously intending Molly to hear it, he said "I can remember a time when the Malloy family was possessed of much more honor and dignity."  He then turned to walk away.  As he was in the doorway, he said to Molly over his shoulder: "You need to remember your name, Miss Malloy"  Indignant, she demanded his name.  He replied he was called Lord Caspar.

It was a few hours later when the group got back together at the bathhouse.  They spent some time discussing their respective experiences that day and more about the day before.  George, of course, continued to think that they were either putting him on about certain things, or potentially going mad. 

The following day, George set out on an errand for something Gerald had requested, while the other three went to the hospital.  Gerald wanted Katherine to look at the sick patients.  Since she seemed to have some kind of second sight, he hoped perhaps she might be able to perceive something he could not.  Unfortunately, however, apart from the fact that their souls seemed somehow fainter than normal, she could determine very little.  Molly, however, decided to try something else.

Sitting down beside one of the beds, Molly took the hand of one of the patients - a young man.  Stroking his hair, she began speaking to him very lowly - asking him to tell her what happened to him.  Suddenly, jarringly, she began to see flashes of memories through his eyes.  She saw unnatural shadows, glimpses of spirits and monsters, and scenes of dark terrors this individual had encountered.  The suddenness of the images flooding into her mind from this man strained her physically.  Katherine who had been watching through the Twilight saw her spirit shudder as she broke the connection with the man.  Shaking, she turned to Gerald, "I know what happened to him."

The following day, the group was still trying to formulate some sort of plan of action.  They all felt inextricably linked to the events of late, but the clues they had gathered seemed to link only to ghosts in the fog.  One fact seemed sure: things were getting worse.  As if further proof was needed, Molly dropped the day's print of the Register on the table.  The headline read: "Bishop of London Murdered"!

Sandstorm: Doomed Souls

Friday October 15, 2010 at 5:30pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

The group spent the rest of the night speaking with Selkin, planning their assault on the occupied citadel the next day.  Their plan involved an initial phase wherein after they were noticed by the flying creatures, they would lure them into the ruin of the village below the citadel, taking shelter under bits of rubble, forcing the creatures to land an engage them on the ground.  Hoping to take out a decent percentage of them at this point, they would then take their chances on the spiraling ledge which led up to the citadel gate where they would make their final assault.

Selkin told them that the area that contained the ruins was about 3 hours to the north, so they would need to leave the following morning if they planned to being their assault after the midday rest.  Upon approaching the shallow pass which lead into the village area, Selkin signaled to a scout he'd had posted.  A slight creature descended from the cliffs above the village and joined the group.  Her name was Mira.  She was heavily cloaked and wore gloves and goggles.  Tisroc seemed to get the impression that she wasn't human.  Mira reported to Selkin that she'd heard some commotion the evening before last, but wasn't sure what it was about.  Further, the prior morning, she had observed a band of hobgoblins enter the area and then move out of the far side of the valley.  She suspected that they had some interest in the citadel, but she hadn't seen them since.

Selkin reviewed the plan with Mira and his men, and then they jumped into action.  Sure enough, the flying humanoid creatures noticed them almost immediately and descended from the citadel.  The group fled into the village and, by employing some geurilla techniques and with some considerable good fortune, they were able to kill several of them before the remaining ones fled.  After a moment's regroup, they hurried to the pathway which led up to the gate of the citadel.

They'd made it about a third of the way up, when the second wave came out to meet them, this time somewhat more coordinated.  An initial group began flying around near the pathways, pelting the groups with arrows while a couple others performed flyby maneuvers, attempting (and sometimes succeeding) to grab members of the party and throw them off the ledges.  Finally, two of the creatures flew out a bit further away, and began to sing a haunting sort of song.  The song pried open the minds of several of the bandits, causing them to walk off the ledges toward the source of the sound, ultimately falling to their deaths.

The group was finally able to make it to the top and enter the citadel.  The inside of the citadel was very tall and hollow.  There was a large statue of a robed man in the middle of this vast circular entry chamber, and there were many doors and balconies on multiple levels.  Skirmishes inside were brief and somewhat sporadic.  Selkin told his (remaining) men to spread out and find the statue with the rubies.  The party began looking around also.

Tisroc found a barricaded door which he suspected led downward, but decided against opening it right away.  The group ultimately ended up joining Selkin and his group on one of the higher floors - he had found his statue.  It was a massive, brass carving of some demonic creature.  It did, indeed, have two fist-sized ruby eyes.  One of the bandits was attempting to pry them out when they all felt a brief pounding that caused them all to freeze.  Tisroc began questioning Tisroc as to whether defacing the statue was wise, but he seemed rather unconcerned.  When the bandit had actually pried the first gem loose, a terrific impact was felt by all present, nearly knocking some of them over.  When nothing further happened, Selkin smiled.  Tisroc asked if they would wait a while before prying the other gem loose - to give him and his friends time to find what they were searching for and leave.  Selkin agreed.

The party descended into the sub-levels.  The first one they found seemed to have been some kind of laboratory.  It contained the remnants of rotted tables and broken glassware as well as several skeletons that had been bound to some of the larger tables.  At least one of these skeletons was decidedly inhuman - being nearly 8 feet tall and possessed of a canine-like head.

The level beneath this was a dungeon area, full of crumbling stone walls and rusted metal gates.  It was generally empty, but there was the remains of one skeleton still chained to the wall in one of the cells.  This skeleton had rotted clothing and what looked like some kind of leather or hide armor and a rusted old rapier still in its scabbard fasted to its side.

Descending from the dungeon led into the crypts.  They followed some winding passages around until they found their way to the newest graves - which were about 600 years old.  It was here that Tisroc found the grave of Lord Artal Al'Kim that his mentor had mentioned:

"Here lie the mortal remains of Lord Artal Al'Kim - If only his spirit knew such rest."

Underneath this in smaller text was the following tale:

"Artal bargained for some favor with a demon called Acklex.  Coming later to regret this decision, he sought the counsel of Makalo, the wisewoman of Drakol, and gifted of Nephthys.  Unfortunately, she informed him that, since his oath had been made in full knowing and without hesitation, its binding would not fray.  His soul would sadly overbalance Ma'at.  Let his fate be a caution to all who seek unnatural gain."

Tisroc wanted to examine the remains of the body and, after some convincing of Alina, got Glitch to help him remove the nameplate and the stone sarcophagus.  The remaining bones were frail and disjointed.  The burial clothes were all but dust.  The skeleton did bear a brass ring which Tisroc supposed to be a house seal and some rather unusual protrusions on its head above its eyes.

After having seen all they could find, the group began heading out.  As they were crossing the dungeon, however, a glowing, incorporeal man appeared before him.  Drawing a ghostly rapier from his side he proclaimed to Tisroc: "Allakim!  I have much vengence to repay, and I'm afraid the responsibility falls to you!"

London 1802: Gathering Gloom

Wednesday October 6, 2010 at 5:30pm world of darkness, london 1802, game session notes Comments (0) »

Robert and Katherine moved forward to sit beside the girl on the sofa.  Molly began closing curtains around the room while George escorted the other guests toward the kitchen.  Gerald simply stared in frustrated confusion.

The girl continued to engage Robert in conversation while Katherine listened closely, trying to pick up any sound from the girl, but she was completely silent.  The girl asked again where Lance might be and seemed surprised when Robert indicated that he didn't know this person.  She mentioned that he hadn't called for her in several days.  She then asked Robert about himself and how he'd been lately, inching closer to him on the sofa.  Katherine, who'd finally managed to hear her, thought she was fairly obviously flirting with him.  The girl was about to leave when Katherine addressed her.  She seemed startled, almost as if she hadn't noticed anyone else in the room.  She also seemed surprised the others could hear or even see her.  Katherine asked her her name, and she replied that she was called Diana.  They talked briefly about the strange happenings in the city, and Diana seemed to know something was wrong as well.  She told them that there was something lurking in the east side of the city, driving other things away.  She told them the east side didn't "feel" right anymore.  They asked her how they could reach her if they heard from Lance, and she told them to go back to Allens Street.  She then put a flower in Robert's hand, smiled, and stood up - vanishing as she did so.  The flower Robert held wilted and dried immediately.

The group was still quite exhausted after their day spent on the fire brigades and, as they welcomed the guests back into the main area of the house, decided they would clean up and have a brief discussion before bed.  The guests present seemed to have all but forgotten the events that had just transpired.

Katherine was awakened suddenly in the middle of the night to the sound of breaking glass.  She roused Molly and the two of them crept down the hallway, hearin the sounds of someone moving about downstairs.  Molly had grabbed a knife and Katherine had an unloaded pistol which, she thought, might be useful for bluffing if necessary.  Robert had heard someone walking past and had emerged quietly from his room as well, also holding a knife.  The three of them heard another crash come from the direction of Gerlad's room - it seemed as though more intruders were coming.  The group ran down the stairs.

They found the intruders to be rather sloppy burlars, uncoordinated and thuggish.  The fought with the brutes, Molly and Robert giving two of them rather significant knife wounds and Gerald knocking one out with his medicine bag.  The encounter was nearing its end when Katherine felt a prickle creep up the back of her neck.  Peering past the material realm into the twilight, she saw the hideous form of the spirit creature that had been possessing the large sailor they'd fought earlier in the day.  She screamed.  Robert came back around the corner and asked what was wrong, but he was unable to see anything.  Katherine pushed her arm into the twilight and took a swing at the creature with the butt of her pistol, but it seemed to have little effect.  It was at this moment that Robert felt something wash over him, and his eyes seemed to pierce the darkness as he saw the hideous beast before him.  "What is that!?", he exclaimed.  Katherine was moving backward up the stairs and was just about to bash its head again when it disappeared.  Katherine and Robert looked at each other, relieved but still shaken.

After binding the unconscious intruder, calming some of the others in the house who were awakened by the commotion and making sure the house was relatively in order, they returned to their beds, still more exhausted than before.

The next morning was spent around the bathhouse.  The rains continued to pour outside, and it was particularly cold for this time of year.  There were an abnormally large number of chimney's spewing particularly dark smoke - especially from the east side of town - as well, adding to the fog and smog that seemed thick around the city.  There were very few people on the streets. 

The thug they'd subdued didn't seem to remember much about the previous night's activities.  The Register reported that there'd been a large number of such break-ins and random crimes around the city and the source of the fires that had ravaged parts of the east side the day before was still to be determined.  Parliament was scheduled to discuss these matters in a special session that day, and some governmental action was expected.

Sandstorm: Common Goal

Saturday October 2, 2010 at 7:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

The party camped at the oasis and headed out the next day.  During the late morning shortly before they were to make camp, they entered a large flat expanse of the eastern Salt March.  The quality of the sand covering ground and the fact that the sun was directly ahead of them and low in the sky combined to produce a near blinding effect.  They were unable to hold their eyes open for more than a second or two, and though the terrain was easily traveled, their pace was slowed.  They decided to tie themselves together to keep from being separated.

They had been trudging through this dazzling field for about half an hour when their heard a strange howling sound coming from somewhere ahead of them.  As they continued they heard the sounds of clawed feet tearing through the sands around them and they found themselves under attack by a pack of dog-like creatures.

The party was doing their best to fight off their attackers, but they found determining the creatures' locations to be difficult at best in the dazzling light and they were being pushed around by the continuously circling and attacking beasts.  About half-way through the fighting, Glitch was pushed into a large, jagged crater he was unaware was in front of him.  This had the side effect of dragging Alina to the edge of the pit and pulling Tisroc down into it by the ropes that bound them all together.

As Glitch righted himself at the bottom of the pit, a massive, purplish serpent-like creature emerged from the sand in front of him and let loose an echoing shriek which had the immediate effect of frightening the remaining dog-creatures away.  Glitch began attacking it, but Tisroc and Alina decided to run for it.  Cutting themselves loose and getting out of the pit, they called for Glitch who had, by this time, managed to anger the beast to the point that it had him in its mouth.  He twitched and immediately disappeared from its jaws, appearing on the edge of the crater next to them.  The group made a run for it as the creature began to slither up the edge of the crater after them.

The party traveled for a couple more days, entering the bounds of the Dead Forest.  Tisroc discovered that there was no magically-discernable water source in the area where the village of Duront was supposed to have been, but after some travel, they did find a sign indicating it was nearby.  The group proceded to the edge of the village.  They didn't see much movement or any lights aside from a large bonfire on a terrace on the far side.  This seemed strange, but they decided to check it out.

As they made their way across the village, Tisroc caught a glimpse of someone behind them - maybe a few people.  As they approached, they noticed movement on the terrace and they could see several men holding crossbows at its edge.  At this point, Tisroc stopped, turned around, and yelled for whoever was behind him to come out.  There was a loud bellowing laugh from behind him on the terrace, "Well Jask, you seem to be losing your touch." it said as a man skulked out of the shadows, "leave these alone - they don't have anything good anyway."  Then the voice addressed them, "Please, friends, come and speak with me." as it gestured toward a slope which led up to the terrace where he stood.

Upon entering the light of the bonfire, they could see the man who had called to them.  He looked a little unusual - his skin had a golden hue and his eyes were a vibrant blue.  Tisroc recognized him as having some genie ancestry.  The man, called Selkin, asked them why they had come to this abandoned village.  When they mentioned the citadel, he seemed to become suspicious until they told him their full motives.  At this point, he disclosed to them a little more fully.

He too, was wanting to go to the citadel, but he and his company were after a pair of large rubies said to be set into the eyes of a statue in one of the upper halls.  There was a problem, however.  The site had become home to a nest of vicious, flying creatures that had some skill with bows.  His group had tried to enter the citadel several times, but were driven off each time.  Selkin suggested that they should ally their powers.  This seemed like a good idea to the group, and they spent the rest of the evening strategizing how they might approach their common problem.

Things Have Changed

Thursday September 30, 2010 at 1:30pm state of the penguin, work, family, bunguin, gencon, parties, jamming, website Comments (5) »

If you're the superstitious type, you might suggest that the title of my last blog entry was tempting the fates...    ...but then, I'd probably have to pat you for it.

Much is different since my last blog entry, and some of it is responsible for the gap between posts.  Most relevantly, I am no longer working for Legend Web Works.  I have a wide array of thoughts on this particular matter, but I do not wish to belabor them here.  Further, if you're reading this you probably already know about it - I simply wished to state it for posterity.  This is generally the case for most things on my blog and this entry is no exception.

So now I'm looking for a new job.  Unfortunately my particular area of expertise is rather narrow in scope and directly-related opportunities in this area are somewhat limited.  I've found a few leads, but things seem to be slow in developing.  I'm not entirely sure what to do and I'm a little stressed about it, but I haven't hit a brick wall yet, so I'm still trying to be optimistic.

 

Anyway, on to happier things:

First and foremost, Sheri is pregnant!  We're going to have a Bunguin!  We actually saw the first ultrasound yesterday, which admittedly doesn't look like much at this point - but still.  The expected due date is May 14th 2011.  We're really excited!

Secondly, as I mentioned previously, I finally got to go to Gencon back in August.  It was pretty awesome.  The Exhibitor's hall was an amazingly geeky mall full of cool stuff, but the most fun was hanging out and playing games with the Playgrounders and a bunch of guys from the Fear the Boot forum.  I have a few souvenirs from the con including a new set of dice, the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition, and a lanyard from the Fear The Boot guys.  I really liked it, and I'd like to go back at some point, but my favorite parts were things that didn't have anything to do with the con itself - things like Chris's Battletech game.  I think i prefer less commercial and more gaming - things like our local mini-cons.  Also, I'd really like to go out to Fear The Con one of these days.

On that note, we had Gamesplosion back in late August - our third local mini-gaming-convention.  This one, I believe, was the biggest one to-date.  It was held at our place for logistical reasons, and took place from friday-sunday as usual.  I ran a session of Mouse Guard and one of my own homebrews called Bot.  I played in a Weird War II (Savage Worlds) game, and played Agricola during one of the other slots.  It was definitely a great time.

And of course, I've been continuing my normal gaming.  We started a D&D game using the Sandstorm rules/setting (along with some stuff from Unearthed Arcana), and that's been interesting.  The WoD game has resumed and is starting to build in the "action" dept.  I've also spent quite a bit of time reinterpreting the Battletech rules into Savage Worlds - this is intended to make 'mech combat a bit more fast-paced and also tie a roleplaying system directly into it.  Sheri and I playtested it a bit, and I was quite happy with how it played.

We were finally present for Robb's "Talk Like A Pirate party" this year, which was lots of fun - and the location of perhaps the most epic nerf war we have witnessed to date.  Another item of note related to this is the piratey shirts Sheri's mom made us for it - they're really cool and I think they'll be handy for a few different costumes should the need arise.

Robb and I have been jamming with Josh & Bill again, which has been cool.  I think we're supposed to do that again soon.  We've picked out about 5 cover songs and we're just going over them again and again as we try to gel as a group.  It's been a lot of fun - I really missed getting to play with a band.

Finally, as I'm sure you've noticed, my site has been reincarnated yet again.  This is partly due to my job situation - I really didn't want to keep it on any framework related to my former employers.  It just felt...odd.  This rebuild is being constructed purely according to my preferences.  As of now, it's still under construction.  The blog was the first piece - additional pages will come online in the coming weeks as I'm able to build them to my taste.  Also, there is, as of now, a very modest mobile site (which looks awful on a pc), currently only capable of reading and commenting on the blog - but I'm sure I'll start working on it after the main site is completely set.  Accessing www.penguinsushi.com on a mobile device should direct you there.

 

~PS

Sandstorm: Unrest

Friday September 24, 2010 at 7:00pm d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

The party reunited the following day as the As'Kim estate.  Elmnal had gone to the Hall of Sands for an emergency session due to the previous night's events.  When he returned, they exchanged some information.

Elmnal told them of some surprising political events.  It seems that Sasha Odala (acting head of House Odala) had resurrected a tabled motion put forth some years ago by one of the lesser houses to mandate government sanctioning of all magic - the reason cited was the "magical" mayhem that had just befallen the city.  What was particularly surprising about the discussion that followed was Emir Revnii's support of this motion.  House Revnii had long been on good terms with House As'Kim who was, for obvious reasons, vehemently opposed to such meddling.  A vote on the issue was to be held the following dawn, and it looked as though this proposition may pass into law this time.

In turn, the party told Elmnal of the cloaked figures they'd seen in the alleyways around Tisroc's apartment where one of the fires started and of the abandoned house they'd tracked him to as well as the encounter with the man outside it. Elmnal seemed interested and decided that the three should take him to the place so that they could investigate it more fully in daylight.  If they found anything, perhaps it could relieve the political panic and keep the sanctions from passing.

The group proceded across the city to the abandoned house and carefully entered and descended through the large hold in the floor into the basement.  After some searching, they found an area of the stone floor which was actually disguised wooden floorboards, and they were loose.  They had just pried them up to see nothing but packed earth beneath them when they heard an ominous laughing from above them.  "So you did return", the voice said, "Jigav said you would.  I personally though you wouldn't be so stupid."  At this, several thugs jumped down through the hole in the floor/ceiling above them while others pelted them with drugged darts. 

The resulting skirmish was intense, but rather brief.  The party was able to hold their own against the thugs, but there were simply too many of them and they were only able to shake off the darts' effects for so long.  Eventually, they were overwhelmed.

When they awoke, they found themselves in a shallow basin somewhere obviously outside the city.  Night had passed.  It was after dawn and the heat was picking up.  Their hands were bound and around the edge of the basin were cloaked figures.  They were then addressed by an uncloaked woman who basically simply threatened them to stay out of the way.  She then seemed somewhat startled to see Elmnal's unconscious form among the group.  She hissed to the man standing beside her that she wasn't informed that he was among them.  Tisroc recognized the woman as Sasha Odala.

The woman then disbanded the gathering and, with another thinly-veiled threat to "stay out of it", she left them in the basin.  Several of the cloaked figures around her seemed to protest at the abrupt and anti-climactic ending to the gathering - the party guessed that they wanted blood - but she silenced them.  As they were walking away, Tisroc noticed one of the cloaked figures had a snout like that of an animal protruding from the shadows of its cloak.  After the figures disappeared, Elmnal began to regain consciousness.

It took the group a little while to determine where they were, but eventually they were able to find their way back to the city.  It was approaching mid-day, however, and the oppressive heat had all but caused them to pass out by the time they reached the As'Kim estate.  They all needed rest.  Elmnal pointed out that he had missed the vote and that it had almost certainly passed.

After they had rested, they learned that this was, in fact, true.  The state of Alina's temple was also somewhat chaotic as the death of the high priest had left a man called Sulab in charge and he was taking it upon himself to begin a crusade against whoever had attacked the temple - going so far as to call for "holy warriors".  These factors, combined with Elmnal's prior mentioning of a location to investigate far to the east, led the party to believe that now as a good time to leave The City.

They spent the rest of the day recovering and gathering supplies for their journey.  The next day, they headed out.  Before they left, Elmnal gave Tisroc a secret spell - something unique to House As'Kim.  It was a sort of oasis-detecting spell, lasting all day, and constantly indicating the direction and distance to the nearest significant water source within a 180 degree arc.

Mere hours after they had left the city, they encountered what seemed to be the remains of a patrol of savage humanoids - probably gnolls.  There was known to be a tribe of Gnolls in the Salt March, but they were thought to be far to the north and none of the party had ever seen one.  The creatures had met with a violent end, and were probably killed by each other or some other force bearing weaponry.

They camped to wait out the midday heat and continued on that evening.  It was a while after dark and they were very close to the oasis to which they were headed when they entered an area littered with bones.  It seemed to get significantly colder as they traversed this area, and after a short time they began to hear strange, disembodied whispers: "Water...", they said, "Water..."  At this, they began hearing footsteps around them, and skeletons began walked out of the darkness and into the shadowy light cast by their lantern. 

The group began smashing the skeletons but they kept coming.  Then Alina got the idea to try giving them what they wanted.  Concentrating, she used her miracle-working abilities to create a deluge of water over a couple of the skeletons.  There was a loud hissing sound and they collapsed into the sand.  Tisroc, seeing this success, created a cloud of mist around the area and when the skeletons entered it, they became inert for a moment, before collapsing back into the sand.

After this encounter, the party continued on to the oasis.  It was a very small area, possessed of only a little grass and a few trees.  It was home to a small spring which slowly fed a pool of water which in tern flowed out into the waste and was swallowed by it perpetual dryness.

Sandstorm: The Witch Fires

Saturday September 18, 2010 at 12:00pm new campaign, d&d, sandstorm, game session notes Comments (0) »

First Session

Game: Dungeons & Dragons 3.5e, Sandstorm, Unearthed Arcana

Characters: Alina [Sheri], Glitch [Adam], Tisroc [Tony]

--

 

It was an evening in late spring. Alina, an acolyte of the Temple of the Sun, was to meet Tisroc, a young, local wizard at an inn called Mavani's. She had told Tisroc she had a book that may be of some help to him.

Alina happened to know that Tisroc had a small problem - his soul had been inadvertently bargained away by his parents in exchange for his mortal life when he was very young, and since he learned of this he has been tireless searching for a way to undo what had been done. Alina herself had lost her mother some years ago and knows her to be living happily in the Offering Fields - and it troubles the acolyte to think that anyone's immortal soul could be stolen from them so unfairly.

Glitch was a guardian "assigned" to Tisroc by one of the few others who knew of Tisroc's dilemma: Elmnal, his mentor in house As'Kim. As the inn was only just down the street from Tisroc's second-floor apartment, and as he would likely simply stand outside anyway, Tisroc decided Glitch should remain at his residence. Tisroc made his way down the street to Mavani's Inn. It was mid-evening by this time - after dark - but it was still quite warm.

The inn was relatively empty at this time, so the innkeeper, Erik, noticed him as he entered, giving him a hearty wave and calling out his greeting. Both Erik and Loren (Erik's wife) were friends of Tisroc's and were almost always jovial and outgoing. Their 7-year-old daughter, Isha, however, was somewhat less so.

Tisroc had taken a seat at one of the many empty tables when Isha approached him. "Good evening," she said, her expression dour, "...so far. What would you like to eat tonight? I'm fairly certain none of it has been poisoned." Tisroc asked for some bread and cheese with some dates (meat being rather expensive), and Isha informed him that it was probably moldy, but she'd check.

Alina arrived sometime later with a large, leather-bound book. Its weight was such that it took some effort on her part not to slam it down onto the table. The book, she explained, was full of religious tales and fables - several of which contained instances where demons were out-witted by particularly clever or pious mortals. She had hoped something in its pages might be helpful to Tisroc.

Tisroc doubted that anything in the book would be relevant enough to his cause, but he agreed to look through it anyway. Isha returned a bit later with his food, remarking that it appeared he hadn't been "stood up" after all. by this time, the Inn was beginning to become more crowded and the environment was no longer conducive to their discussions. Tisroc and Alina decided to return to his residence to continue their discussion. The two were walking back down the street toward his apartment when they heard a loud pop from further north in the city and saw a strange, spiraling flame erupt into the sky. For a moment, they simply stared at it, unable to comprehend what they were witnessing - then they heard the sound again, from another place in the city. Then again in another.

Tisroc began sprinting down the street, Alina behind him, when there was a loud boom from the street in front of him, which sent tendrils of flame out to the surrounding buildings - including Tisroc's apartment building - and a spiraling column into the sky.

After the first pop, Glitch had moved to the apartment window and so when the flames erupted in front of him, the firelight illuminated a shadowy cloaked figure in an adjacent alleyway. Tisroc and Alina saw a pair of similar suspicious figures moving along a parallel street.

Glitch leaped out of the apartment's window into the street, causing several nearby people to gasp in shock. The cloaked figure took off running away down the alleyway. Tisroc heard some nearby shouts accusing Glitch of starting the fires and, subsequently, heard his name mentioned under suspicion.

The party took off down the alley after the cloaked figures, and saw a group of three of them gathered at a dark intersection. When they were spotted, however, the group took off. The party gave chase, but the figures eventually split up. Deciding to stay together, the party followed one of the three up to a large, abandoned mansion in a largely ruined part of town.

The group approached the building, climbed the front stairs and, when no conflict came, kicked the door in. Taking a look around, the dark and debris-filled room, Tisroc noted the rotted state of the floorboards. While he and Alina might possibly be able to negotiate it without falling through, Glitch almost certainly could not.

As they were discussing this, Tisroc suddenly exclaimed in pain. Looking around, a cloaked figure was holding a hollow reed which he had used to fire a poisoned dart into Tisroc's neck. Alina immediately leaped into action, jumping off the porch and clubbing him in the back of the head with her mace before he could get away. The figure collapsed, unconscious. Upon examination, he was an ordinary looking man in a dark cloak. He had a reed in his hand and a pouch of darts on his belt. He did have a strange tattoo on the back of his neck - an image of a black serpent. Alina recognised this as the symbol of a demon lord called Set. As she looked over the unconscious body, she told the others, "I don't think this is the one that went into the house."

Tisroc decided to put his magic to use. He assumed a gaseous form and began floating around the house. He found no trace of the cloaked figure, but he did find two other automatons - very similar to Glitch, in fact - standing in the basement. When he returned as assumed his solid form, he and Alina decided to move over to a large hole in the floor to look into the basement with the help of a magical light Alina had manifested.

This plan may have been helpful if the floor hadn't given way, dumping the two into the basement. The automatons called out: "Why have you come into the darkness?" Tisroc gave them an answer, but it did not seem to satisfy them. "You are not welcome here!" they shouted, raising swords and beginning to attack.

At first, Tisroc thought to flee and ran for the stairs, but Glitch had jumped down into the basement and engaged one of the automatons in combat with his large shovel. Alina had pulled out her mace and attempted to bash the other with it.

The three fought off the robotic beings as best they could, Tisroc providing some magical support to the physical combat the other two were engaging in. When both automatons had collapsed, they looked around at each other. Before they could suggest a further course of action however, they heard footsteps on the stairs outside.

Tisroc began running up the stairs into the house. Alina and Glitch stood and waited. The dark prevented them from making out more than the silhouette of the figure that appeared. They could see a tall, thin form, unhooded and with long hair. The figure seemed to stair into the house and then down through the (now larger) hole in the floor before simply turning to walk away. By the time Tisroc reached the entry hall, the figure had gone.

Confused, the party left the building. The unconscious man they had tied up and left outside was gone. Looking out over the city to the east, they could see the dim glow of fires.

They hurried back east to aid the firefighting effort. Tisroc's apartment, however, had burned to the ground - along with several other buildings. By the time the fires were brought under control, dawn was approaching.

Alina returned to the temple to find that it had been attacked and several of the priests killed. The attackers sounded like the cloaked figures they had seen earlier. The high priest himself was gravely injured and his wounds seemed to resist the miracle healing.

Tisroc returned to the As'Kim estate to speak with his mentor and ask if he could stay there for a day or two. Elmnal obliged, also mentioning something else to him: Elmnal had found an old genealogy record of a man called Lord Artal Al'Kim. The record mentioned that he had "come to regret a deal he'd made with an evil power". The record comes from a time when the house resided in a citadel in what is now the Dead Forest - and his grave is certainly located in the catacombs beneath it. Elmnal isn't sure if there would be anything helpful there, and certainly a journey into the Dead Forest would be very hazardous, but it's the best lead he could find.

Later, after the fires were out, Glitch returned to what had been their apartment building. He had been staying out of sight during the firefighting efforts, trying not to draw attention to himself. In the wreckage of the building, he was able to find Tisroc's spellbook - damaged, but mostly intact.

London 1802: Inner Demons

Monday September 13, 2010 at 5:30pm world of darkness, london 1802, game session notes Comments (0) »

The group spent the rest of the evening discussing what Katherine may or may not have "seen" in the alleyway on the Isle of Dogs. Afterward, they all decided to call it a night.

The next morning, they discussed what they should do next. Eventually, they decided to revisit the site in daylight. When they walked out the front door, however, their plans were amended.

Looking eastward across the city, they saw several large columns of smoke rising from the vague area of the docks district into the overcast sky. Deciding time was now of the essence, they called for Molly's carriage and drove quickly toward the source of the problem.

As they made their way further east, the chaos in the streets became more and more intense and the driver had some difficulty maneuvering the carriage through some intersections. At last, it could go no further with any degree of safety, so the group decided to continue on foot.

They were hurrying through a narrow street when they saw a large, burly sailor run up to a shop window and heave a large chunk of cobblestone through its front window. Two other sailors were running up the street behind him. All three of them looked completely maddened, their bloodshot eyes wide but largely un-seeing. Shouts rang out from inside the shop and there was a loud CRACK as a musket shot blew a hole in the large man's side. He stumbled backward momentarily, but the grievous wound did not seem to deter him and he smashed through the front door and into the shop.

George, Gerald and Robert all moved forward, pulling weapons and trying to get the sailors' attention. As the others engaged, Katherine sensed something odd about the sailors. She unfocused her eyes to peer into the realm of the spirit and what she saw startled her. Grotesque, demon-like, ephemeral beings were clinging to the sailors, wrapping their skeletal arms around the sailors' chests while their mouths of sharp, jagged teeth whispered incomprehensible horrors into the sailors' ears.

Katherine shouted to Gerald that the sailors were possessed. After a further moment's thought, she took the pistol Molly had pulled from her purse. Concentrating hard, she "pushed" her arm into the spirit realm. Molly gasped and the sailor's eyes momentarily widened with incredulity: Katherine's forearm - and the pistol she held - had become and eerie skeletal green.

Katherine pulled the trigger. There was a bright green flash and a muted popping sound, but only Katherine could see the bright streak which hit the demon-like spirit, blasting it backward off the sailor's back - a gaping wound in its shoulder now oozing a thick, silvery liquid. The being stared coldly at Katherine.

Inside the shop, George had run up on the large man, leaped onto his back and pulled a crowbar backward into his neck. The large man struggled briefly, but began to give in very quickly. Rage had overcome George and even as the man collapsed, George took his crowbar and began bashing the unconscious man's head into a bloody mess.

Katherine saw the spirit detach itself from the massive sailor's back and reach its incorporeal, clawed hands into George's chest, closing them around his heart. George sudden grabbed his chest, gasped, and collapsed on the shop floor next to the dead sailor. Katherine saw the demon-spirits disappear. The shop-keeper was horrified. Gerald hurriedly approached George's unconscious form. He turned him over and began trying to ascertain his condition. Gerald reflexively began shouting demands for medical equipment, none of which was available. Finally, he looked up at the others. "He's dead."

The others of the group stared at him in disbelief. The shopkeeper gave a little whimper. Time seemed to slow a little as they each looked to one another for what they should do next. Then, George sat up. He didn't gasp for breath, nor did he seem particularly agitated - in fact, he was quite calm. He looked around at the group staring at him questioningly.

"You...you were dead, George.", Katherine said, "I saw...it reach into you and crush your heart..."

George chuckled, "You are quite the story-teller, miss Katherine..."

As they were re-composing themselves, one of the Bow Street Runners appeared in the shop doorway. "Is everything alright in here?" Even as he was asking, he was able to see the answer to his question. The Runner grimaced. "Ok," he continued, "You, you and you - come with me." He pointed to George, Robert and Gerald, "The fires are spreading..." The group hurried on toward the east with the Runner.

The men were conscripted into the various fire brigades attempting to contain the unexplained blazes. Molly and Katherine were asked to return to their homes and let the men take care of the problem several times, but in the chaos, the gender separation was somewhat trumped by necessity.

The rest of the day was spent trying with little success to fight the blazes. Much of the effort was simply to keep it from spreading to new areas. In the early evening, the slate sky finally decided to begin to rain and it was only then that the fire-fighting efforts began to succeed.

It was after nightfall when the group finally walked back toward the bathhouse in the pouring rain. As they opened they entered the front door, they noted an eerie silence. Moving into the large living area of the house, they found all of the occupants crowded against the walls at the edges of the room, staring with a mix of horror and curiosity at the center of the room.

On one of the couches near the middle of the room sat a young girl with dark hair wearing a long, simple white dress. She was exceptionally pale - in fact, it seemed as though her form contained no color at all. except for a brilliant red flower in her hair above her right ear. She was holding a saucer and sipping a small cup of tea.

When the group cautiously moved into the room, the girl looked up. Seeing, Robert, she smiled. She seemed to speak, but her mouth moved without creating any sound. Several of the others in the room gasped. Robert, however, heard her voice clearly: "Oh, you're back. They told me I'd find you here. I was wondering, have you seen Lance?"

London 1802: First Contact

A few days passed, and the group members focused on some personal pursuits.

Kathrine, Gerald and Molly discussed what recently transpired and what they might do about it. Gerald and Kathrine had spent some considerable time in the library. There, Gerald was reminded of where he'd seen the word "Excalibur" before - it was a the name of a sword belonging to a legendary English king called Arthur.

It was the following monday when George finally met up with them again. He'd been busy at the docks for quite some time, but work was drying up. He told the others that a lot of ships had been coming into port lately, but that almost none were leaving. The dispositions of a lot of the sailors and captains were inexplicably edgy and defiant. Many of the ships in the London and India docks were marked as being "in violation" by the harbor masters, but the captains still refuse to sail out - to that point that there are a large number of boats anchored in the Pool. George had also seen more than the usual number of fist fights, and they tend to get brutally violent much more quickly. There have been a number of gruesome murders on the Isle of Dogs, and the docks district as a whole has a desperate and dangerous feel to it. The others exchanged looks and some short comments and then decided to tell George about what had occurred the previous week.

George, predictably, didn't really believe them. He seemed to assume that they were either telling him a good story, trying to pull some sort of prank, or they were losing their grip on their sanity. They showed him the statues they had covered in a locked room, but he wasn't impressed by much more than their artistry.

The others weren't entirely surprised by the difficulty in convincing him, but it was still a bit frustrating. They asked George if he knew any of the locations of the strange murders and he told them he did know where one of them happened. Sure of what they'd witnessed so far and confident that these strange new events at the docks must be somehow related, they decided they would go take a look around the scene. Tonight. And George was coming with them.

The Isle of Dogs is a peninsula in the far east of London made into an "island" by the canals that run into the India docks near where its base. Being on the far east side of the city, it is also about the seediest area in London. It is all but a shanty-town, composed of one and two-story, wooden buildings - run down inns, taverns and apartments - crowded along narrow, winding streets - and the further inland one gets, the worse it is. As George guided them through the docks district, they noticed a lot of people in the area, mostly sailors, and the social atmosphere was very tense.

They arrived at the narrow alleyway where George had heard one of the murders had occurred. About halfway down the alley, there was a step up to a broken door. On the wall next to it, there seemed to be some scrapes through something that might have once been a drawing or writing of some kind. On the ground next to the steps, a splotchy, dark discoloration that was probably a large quantity of blood.

The group was still looking around the area when Kathrine felt a strange chill descend upon the area. Kathrine defocused her eyes. She'd found that, with some concentration, she was able to see things that were there, but intangible - spirits and ghosts. When she did this, she saw a very tall, translucent man standing over Gerald's shoulder.

When she spoke to him, he seemed startled. Her friends who were examining the scene also seemed somewhat taken aback, as she was staring into space, talking to herself. Kathrine asked the man, who was called Elston, about what was going on here. He told her that a few days ago, he'd seen two men murdered here, and the strangeness of their deaths kept him here. They had come down this alleyway and banged on the door. It was answered by a woman. They exchanged some heated words, and then the woman did something which caused two monstrous dog-like creatures to appear which proceeded to tear the two men apart and then disappear. The woman smirked and closed the door. Kathrine also asked him about the mark on the wall. He told her he remembered seeing it. He traced the outline of a symbol on the wall where Gerald and George were looking, but he told her there was more to it than that.

Kathrine's conversation with an imperceptible entity was beginning unnerve her companions before she "snapped out of it". When her senses returned to the material realm, she found them all staring at her. Gerald said "When we get back, we need to talk."

Midsummer Lull

Wednesday July 14, 2010 at 3:39pm family, friends, gaming Comments (2) »

*Walks by* *Comes back*

Oh. Hey.

Not much going on lately.

Sheri's parents were visiting the last week in June. Her dad is/was trying to find a job in the area because they think they'd like to move here. So far, not too much has come of that, but I don't think they've given up hope.

Rucht & McKenna had their annual 4th of July party on the 3rd. We had a lot of fun hanging out with people, playing kubb and watching fireworks.

My World of Darkness game is going quite well - they made it to the end of the first act. We have a little in-game and out-of-game downtime, and I'm currently working on some narrative for the different characters.

Our GenCon badges should be arriving sometime tomorrow. :-D

We're also in the initial planning stages of Gamesplosion 2010 - our 3rd local gaming con - taking place later in august. This one is, as of now, slated to take place at our house and I've been contemplating what that will entail/require. Also, I'm looking forward to hopefully running a game or two for this event.

Not much to report on work, other hobbies, or other personal stuff.

~PS

London 1802: The Last Defense

It was after nightfall on Tuesday, April 13th, 1802 before the group reached London Bridge. They were planning to meet an associate of Sir Barnabas who was to give them a kind of relic that was to help their intended purge of the demonic forces haunting the crypts beneath Southwark Cathedral.

The lamps had been lit, but as they crossed toward south shore they noticed an area near the middle of the bridge where the lamps were out. Beneath a lit lamp on the other side of the darkened area was a figure leaning up against its post. As they approached he moved out to the middle of the bridge, held up his hand, palm out, and told them "Sorry, friends, this end of the bridge is closed tonight."

In truth, the man was stalling as 5 of his buddies attempted to creep up into position behind the group. Unfortunately (for them), they were spotted. When the man saw that the intended sneak attack had failed, he raised a pistol, pointed it at them, and continued with a smirk. "Of course, we'd be willing to let you pass for a toll..."

Gerald took a step or two forward toward the man, checking his watch and saying "There's no toll on the bridge at this hour". The man took a couple steps back and told him to stop and drop his bag. A couple of the others tried to keep a couple of the other thugs distracted. Robert simply stood by, but his size and presence was making the thugs uneasy.

Gerald set his bag down, opened it and began rummaging around in it saying he was looking for money. The man, not buying his reasoning threatened him further to step away and, when he didn't, moved a step forward and kicked Gerald back. When he did so, however, Gerald had managed to grab one of his pistols from the bag and brought it up to point at his assailant. Then he narrowed his eyes and said "Boy, these medical supplies were intended for others' injuries, but if I have to treat you, I will." Despite the Doctor's usual social bumbling, his presence and intimidation were impressive.

The young man began backing away, somewhat frightened. A couple of the thugs tried to grab the ladies' purses, but failed and, between Gerald's pistol and Robert's menacing stance, decided the situation was no longer worth it and ran. The young man who was the lead turned and fled as well.

After recovering their composure from this brief altercation, they continued on to the south shore of the Thames. There they met man in dark clothing wearing a thick blindfold. He didn't look very old, but he was hunched over and his movements were slow and methodical. "You must be the ones Balthazar told me about."

The man handed them a large iron cross. It was about 2 feet long, and a foot and a half across. When Gerald took it, he found that it weighed considerably more even than it looked. With some labor, he handed it over to Robert. After handing it to them, the man simply turned and walked away.

The party continued on to Southwark Cathedral and, after some searching, found a small sub-street-level back door which probably led down to the crypts. As they were examining the door, Robert happened to look up into the bushes where he made eye contact with a startled young boy, who immediately took off running down the street into the dark. The group looked at each other, shrugged, and returned to their task.

Kathrine pulled the key they were given from her purse, put it into the lock and turned it. When she did, the golden key momentarily glowed. It was a dim effect, but it was definitely there. After another moment, she turned it back, removed it, and opened the door.

On the other side of the door the stairway continued downward and, to their surprise, they could see lamplight and could hear voices in quiet conversation.

The group cautiously began making their way down the stairs when a familiar voice called out "Lance? Is that you? What kept you so long?"

Kathrine, believing the small boy they saw might be "Lance", she tried to imitate a young boy's voice, "Yes, It's me." Gerald, who was right behind her, didn't think she sounded convincing. The voices stopped and they heard steps approaching. Gerald decided it was time to act and barreled down the stairs and into the room. Robert immediately followed him.

The crypt below looked anything like but what they could have expected. The most prominent feature of the room was a large, circular table which was surrounded by chairs. Around this, between columns of the arches of the crypt were large bookcases full of books, scrolls, glassware and other eclectic, strange and sometimes unidentifiable objects. In addition, there were several free-standing doors - in frames only, not set into any wall, simply standing between the bookcases.

Standing about 15 feet in front of Gerald was a tall man with long brown hair. Behind him, on the right side of the table was the woman they had seen speaking with Hannington in the Mitre, and across the table from her, now getting to his feet, was Gavin.

The man in front of them spoke, clearly bewildered "What...Who...", but before he was able to say much more, the iron cross Robert was carrying seemed to somehow activate, instantly tripling in weight. In addition, the lower portion of the cross lengthened a few feet, made a sharp, downward point, and jammed it self into the stone floor of the crypt. The man who had approached them took a couple steps back, looking horrified. "Is that... No... It can't be...", but before anyone could react further, blue bolts of electricity burst forth from it, blasting at the three of them as well as the bookcases, the table, and the doors.

The man in front, who had been pushed backward by the blast of lightening, drew a silver sword, and the electricity seemed to arc directly to it. "Gwen!", he shouted, "It's an Axis - get out of here!". He arched his sword forward and a couple of the bolts of electricity redirected from his sword and leapt out toward Gerald and Kathrine, but missed.

"No! I'm not leaving!", the woman shouted back in earnest. She seemed to be somehow "catching" the lightening that was arcing toward her and, with some great effort, was keeping it at bay.

Gavin had drawn a pistol but then was hit with a lightening bolt and stumbled backward off his feet behind the table. The bolt that had been linked to him, tracked downward across one of the large chairs which splintered instantly. Taking this to be a symbol that these were the demons they were supposed to purge, the four moved into the room and opened fire on the three.

Their bullets found their marks and, with the help of the lightening artifact, the fight seemed to be going decidedly in their favor when something unexpected happened. The man with the sword stumbled forward, raised his sword, there was a flash of light and he had turned to stone. The woman began waving her arms and flames erupted around her form, but then burned out in a puff of smoke and she, too, had been turned to stone. Gavin had just managed to get up from behind the table at this point, saw the two statues and, full of rage raised his pistol and pulled the trigger. The sparks from the the power pan turned to stone as they ignited and fell to the ground. The bullet never made it out of the gun, and Gavin made the third statue in the room. The lightening then blasted out at the furnishings in earnest and splintered nearly everything in the room before the electricity stopped, the iron cross itself turned to stone, and then crumbled to the floor. The room was eerily silent.

The party took a look around the room, but found very little. Gerald did find a couple of the strange books that were partially intact and put them in his bag. They were still looking around when they heard another, nervous voice from the top of the stairs. "Who...Who's down there?"

It was a priest, father Garrus, associated with the cathedral, along with the boy who'd run away earlier. The group told him that they found trespassers in the crypt, but they kept their details vague. Father Garrus didn't seem to ask too many questions; he just really seemed to want them to leave. They did arrange to return the next day to talk.

The party then returned to Foley Manor to talk to Barnabas. On their arrival, however, they found the manor completely empty. Well, most of them did. Gerald, Molly and Robert walked in and began looking around bewildered, searching for some clue as to what happened to Barnabas - but Kathrine had stopped in the doorway. She had suddenly been hit with the sensation that there were people present - many people. She couldn't see anyone, but she could hear whispered voices coming from the corners of the room and from behind the walls. Eventually, she was able to make out some of the bit of the conversations:

[male voice, blase]

"The Pawns have returned to the Queen’s Bishop row"

[female voice, blase]

"Yes, but the Bishop is not here, he has moved to his next position."

[2nd female voice, interested]

"Balthazar was more successful than even he had hoped, but it has proved to be his undoing."

[2nd male voice, uncertain]

"Circumstances were fortunate....for some"

[2nd female voice, disdainful]

"Indeed, there are no Heretics left to profane this cursed city"

[2nd male voice, uncertain]

"Sophia... some would say there are darker beings than the Heretics"

[2nd female voice, darkly]

"Yes, Philip - things against which the city now has no remaining defense..."

[2nd female voice, closer / moving past, prophetic]

"The last of the candles have burned out and night approaches"

[separate collective of voices (not previous entities), indistinguishable gender, rises from the underlying babble]

"London will fall to the darkness"

The voices then fell silent.

Kathrine shared this with the others. They didn't really understand what she was talking about, but it didn't sound good.


The following day, the group returned to the Cathedral to speak with Father Garrus. He tells them that Ralph, the boy, claimed to have seen someone entering the crypt some nights before, but no one really believed him because they found no evidence. He had been camping out near the crypt entrance in hopes of catching the trespassers at it again.

They talked with Father Garrus for a while about what might have happened and how they did or did not fit into it. Molly asked if they could take the statues and, since Garrus knew they weren't part of the crypt, he agreed to let them. As they further investigated the aftermath of the previous night in the crypt that night, they noticed something etched into the sword held by the first statue, a single word, "Excalibur".

OotSCon 2010

Tuesday June 29, 2010 at 11:51am gitp, ootscon report, photography Comments (1) »
OotSCon 2010 Image

I'd say most of the people who might read this are already well aware (and were probably present), but this last weekend was our 4th Annual Giant-in-the-Playground / Order-of-the-Stick Johnson City Meetup - or OotSCon, as we've come to call it, believing it to be the largest of such meetups relating to the forums.

That's right, 4 years and counting. I consider this quite an accomplishment for us locals. Even more, pretty much everyone always intends to come back for future gatherings. Indy (Scott) even told me he'd rather miss GenCon than our meetup. High praise, eh? (hahahahaha I typed that out and then saw the Canadian/Eh joke. hehehe)

Anyway - it was, as always, an awesome time.

The meetup started early this year as quite a few people arrived on thursday. Usually there's one or two, this year I think there were 10 or so. I had a previous commitment for thursday evening (Patrick's Star Wars game), so I didn't meet up with them until close to midnight, but it was cool to see everyone for the half hour i was there. I met up with Reinholdt who was staying at the Igloo there, and also took Indy & ZRS back for the night (since they didn't have a hotel till the following day).

Scott, Dave & I spent friday morning relaxing. I was working on leveling my SW character, and they were trying their luck at some Super Mario Bros. Wii (which became a bit of a staple of the Igloo for the weekend). It was nice to mellow out for for a while - esp with the canadians, who are awesome.

When Sheri got home from work, we made our way over to the Hippie Hut to join the rest. Upon arriving around 2pm, we realized that food might have been a good idea at some point, so we went out to Chic-Fil-A - a place Scott had been told he should try (Aside: Scott did ask me what I recommended there - I told him to try the chicken :-D).

Friday afternoon/evening/night was spent at the Hippie Hut in the usual fashion: with copious amounts of board gaming. We did take a brief break for dinner at Main Street Pizza, where it was good to see Matt again. I officiated a game of Touch of Evil for some of the newer players who wanted to try it - I think I actually know the *rules* to that game now, instead of relying on llama to tell me what to do.

Saturday is our big meetup day - cooking out at the Greenwood Challenge Course. In the interest of Robb having a bit more time to hang out and not being exhausted, we didn't actually do the high ropes that had been so popular previous years. Instead we had some swordplay and some amusing games of Cash & Guns Live. We *did*, of course, have Kubb. It wouldn't be a meetup without Kubb.

Saturday night we met up at the Mid City Grill, as is tradition. We think we're actually included in that place's planning now as the owner knows our group comes in in late June and, i believe, asked about it specifically this year. Also, after our massive year 2 group, some of us couldn't help but notice some new paint, lighting and other decorations.

Anyway, we took over about half the place for the night, enjoyed the food and played more games. I participated in Trog(Jeff)'s 4e adventure wherein a Forum Mod, a Troll and a Noob battled a group of vicious cat-muffins. Many inside forum jokes abounded. The introduction to the scenario was even in prose. After that, he, Gryf and I sat around discussing rpg's, systems, gming and all manner of geekery. That was also a lot of fun.

Sunday was our turn to host, as is also tradition. There were quit a few people still around on sunday this year - even later into the evening. Hippie & I grilled most of the rest of the chicken and there was more general hanging out, more board games, a small birthday celebration for Reinholdt, and more Mario Wii.

On sunday night, those of us who still remained - a remnant by this time, but still a good size - went for dinner at the Crazy Tomato. I think this is the first time we've had more than one or two around on sunday night. After that, we returned to the Igloo where a few of us played a game of Ticket to Ride while the others hung out and Reinholdt continued to mercilessly sacrifice his Toad minions to insure his own survival.


So, my thoughts/reflections:

So many great people, so little time. As Trog pointed out, there's so much awesome in such a small span of time, you can't possibly experience it all. You hear other people talk about stuff and it sometimes feels like there was a whole other meetup you missed. Still, this event continues to be awesome.

Scott/Indy in particular, is awesome. Our personalities seem to mesh really well and we had a great time hanging out and chatting about all kinds of random stuff. He needs to move down here.

So I've played in a 4e game now - however briefly - and I spent a good chunk of time talking about it with Gryf and Trog. My impressions of the system are pretty neutral - there are things I like about it, there are things I don't. I certainly don't think it's "better" than 3e, but I'm not sure it's worse. It definitely has a different *feel* than previous editions of the game, and that may be where they're losing people the most.

As always, I took a lot of pictures of the weekend's festivities and posted 'em on facebook. They have garnered quite a few comments and some rather high praise from Scott, Jeff & others and, - i can't lie - that makes me feel pretty good. I'm glad other people enjoy them. :)


~PS

London 1802: The Enemy Unseen

The group sat on the bathhouse veranda having afternoon tea for a while before Gerald finally decided he'd better go to the hospital to have his burns treated. As he was leaving, another figure came wandering in - a man called George, a harbor pilot and friend of Molly's. He took a seat at the table and began telling them about how busy the docks have been lately. After some hesitation and some exchanged looks between the other three, they began filling him in on their recent...adventures.

This conversation hadn't been underway too long when they were interrupted by another visitor. A somewhat oddly-dressed young man was shown in and offered Molly a proposition. He wanted to buy the bathhouse property and was willing to pay an amount which was probably three times what it was actually worth. They had a brief conversation about why he would want to buy the property, but none of his answers seemed to fully explain his exorbitant offer. By the time Gerald returned from the hospital, Kathrine had returned to her aunt's house, and Molly and Robert were searching the bathhouse inside and out for any clue as to what the man, called Gavin, would have wanted with it.

The following day (Monday, April 12th, 1802) the group decided to return to Allens Street - this time in daylight. They were able to find the alleyway they had wandered down two nights past rather easily, where they found a couple of things out-of-place.

First, there was a large, leafless tree which seemed to be growing up out of the cobblestone street directly in front of the doorway with the smashed wooden door leading into the basement room they had ventured into previously.

Second, the inside of that room *did* bear scorch marks, ash and other expected evidence of fire, but there was still a large amount of living, growing vegetation. Also, a mostly-intact skeleton buried among the vegetation which they had seen in the room the first time was still present and untouched.

Gerald entered the room and began taking some samples of the vegetation, the ash, some chips of bone from the skeleton and anything else that seemed removable. Kathrine climbed up the tree looking for the gaping maw she and Molly had seen in the large tree-like shadow that had chased them away, but she was unable to find it.

After a while, the group decided they had seen all that was there to observe. After a moments thought and discussion, the decided the only one who could give them more answers was Sir Barnabas.

The group returned to Foley Manor. It was dark and the door was closed, but, after no one answered their knocks, they found that it was unlocked.

They cautiously entered the darkened entryway - which was lit only by the evening light streaming in from the now-open door. Gerald walked over to the door to the West Parlor and opened it. Inside he could see a dark room with a large table, some chairs and couches and a fireplace. Robert walked over to the small table which contained a now-bent candelabra and lit it. Molly walked over to the stairway.

It was Kathrine, however, that returned to the door of the East Parlor, found it unlocked and cracked it open. Inside she saw the room - which seemed a little unnaturally dark - with its fireplace lit. Sitting in a high-backed chair next to it was Sir Barnabas. "Come in.", he said "I knew you would be the first..."

The group gathered in the East Parlor; Gerald wasted very little time before demanding answers. Sir Barnabas didn't answer right away, instead asking his own questions about what they found and what they saw. Once they had told him what they knew, he began to explain.

He told them that what they had seen where echoes of a banished evil. That he (and some organization or society he alluded to) were tasked with ridding the world of the supernatural evils that dwell in the shadows unbeknownst to the Sleeping world. He also told them that, now that they were aware of this world - of what lurks out of site - not only would they be unable to "go back", but they had now made themselves targets by virtue of this knowledge. He told them that if they were not one of the warriors on his side, they would certainly become victims of evil. It was then that they asked him what his motives were - why he had obviously led them along so that they might reach this end - and he told them. There was something he wanted them to do.

The crypts beneath Southwark Cathedral have a reputation for being haunted. He told them a powerful evil resides there and he wants them to destroy it. He possesses a weapon capable of severely weakening or possibly destroying this presence entirely, but he is unable to wield it. Something about himself - which he described as a "taint" - makes it toxic to him in the same way it will affect the evil he wishes to vanquish. He would have one of his contacts meet them on the south side of London Bridge at nightfall the next day to give it to them. It was for this purpose alone that Sir Barnabas had led them here.

Festivals, Meetups, Conventions and Gaming

Saturday June 12, 2010 at 10:34am festivals, gaming, friends, gitp, gencon, family Comments (0) »
Festivals, Meetups, Conventions and Gaming Image

So it's saturday.

We don't have too much going on this weekend. I think we are/were going to go walk around at a nearby park (and check out some bike trails), but it's raining at the moment - so that might put a damper on things.


Last weekend, however, was pretty eventful. The first weekend in June is the date of two different local festivals.

First, we went out to Rogersville to the Shakespeare and Friends Renaissance Faire (warning: their website is pretty hideous). It should, perhaps, be noted that I'd never been to a Ren Faire before, so I didn't really know what to expect. I think I had more fun than I thought I would - which is not to say I expected not to like it, I just didn't really know what it would be like.
There were some interesting booths, a lot of impressive costumes and some amusing shows. In particular, I enjoyed the jousting. The guys doing it explained a lot about the competitions, equipment and everything that goes into it.
I took quite a few photos of the faire which I posted on facebook.

Second, there was the Blue Plum in downtown JC. I've been to this festival a few years now. Unlike the Ren Faire, there's not too much to write about it, but we had a good time walking around with our friends enjoying the atmosphere. We also went to a pizza place downtown where we had one of our other friends as a waiter - that was pretty cool (I didn't even know he worked there).


On some gaming and related stuff:

In other news, my WoD campaign has been continuing nicely, though we've yet to get Curtis into it. I've also added some house rules to the core WoD system (surprise, surprise).
I love dice. They give you a nice, tangible connection to what's going on in the game world and they provide an element of unpredictability that's still connected through the rules to what a given character is generally capable of. Dice are great - as a player.
As a gm however, I've found they drive me crazy. I'm trying to juggle the narrative and keep each of the players engaged in the game and I find it to be a huge distraction when I have to stop, roll dice, calculate results and then report numbers back. Therefore, I've basically modified the system such that the players roll all the dice. The WoD system in particular lends itself to this with some only minor tweaks. We're still kind of trying this out and there will still probably be times that I'll roll a dice, but most of the time I'd rather that aspect stayed in the players' hands.
I've also been working on several gaming side projects including another simplistic thematic rpg (like Bot, but completely different in theme) and a couple of board games (which I may or may not be able to manifest).

Patrick ran his Star Wars game on thursday and we ran into a little bit of a hiccup near the end where the mechanics kind of broke down the fun, as it were. I also, unfortunately, found myself to be getting a bit frustrated as I tried to interact with a scene in a way that didn't seem to be jiving with the rest of the group (mostly my fault for not being clear enough).
I mention this not to criticize the game or the players - because I think Patrick's running a great game and the players are participating well - but to point out that even good games can get bogged down by one thing or another. It's just going to happen.
It's easy to look back and say "oh, well person X should have done Y", but when you're actually in the game that's not always so apparent. Still, I think the conversation Rucht, Patrick and I had post-game (even though it was quite late) about how we might address certain issues in the future (both as gms and players) was helpful if only so we didn't all leave on a complete down-note.

Oh yeah, and we gamed at Patrick & Stacie's new house - which is a pretty cool place and about half the distance from here as their old place.

We're two weeks from hosting our FOURTH GitP meetup. This year is shaping up to be much like previous years - which is to say, awesome. As usual, there are some people who can't make it that we'd really like to see, but there are some others we're glad to see returning and a decent number of new people to meet. I think it's pretty cool that this has become a Playground tradition and that people continue to flock to our little town for a great time.

And finally, I think I'm actually going to get to go to GenCon this year!(!!!) I've been saying I want to make it up for that for years now, and I'm excited that I'll finally get to do it. In addition to the con itself, there are a few hard-to-find gaming books I'll be looking for, a few random people I'd kinda like to shake hands with, and a couple of forum communities I'll be looking to hook up with for general fun-times and hanging out. Edit: Badges have been ordered. :)

While we're up there, we'll also spend some time with my parents & Sheri's grandpa. Also, the current plan is to rent a uhaul for the trip back so we can empty out a storage unit Sheri still has up there.


~PS

London 1802: First Shadows

The moments immediately following Robert's disappearance were filled with chaos. Kathrine screamed and Gerald reached into his bag for a pistol. As he did so, a gunshot rang out from the room, accompanied by the expected flash of light. Gerald leapt into the doorway and immediately that end of the room erupted into flames. This was followed by a loud cracking/splitting sound which echoed down the alleyway in the direction from which they'd come, which was followed by a steady, loud pounding/crumbling sound which shook the ground as it got closer. The rain and wind picked up and began blowing with increasing force down the alleyway toward them.

Disregarding the flames, Gerald jumped into the room, burning himself and igniting his coat in the process. On the other side of the fire, which was burning the vegetation which had somehow been growing around the room, he saw Robert collapsed on the far side of the room. Kneeling over him was a young girl, perhaps in her mid teens, who looked up at Gerald's entrance with an expression of pure contempt. She was very pale and dressed in grayish men's clothing which was noticeably too large for her slight frame. The only obvious sign of color on her came from a deep red flower which had been placed in her hair above her right ear.

There was a third figure in the room as well - a darkly dressed man who immediately leapt onto the rickety wooden stairway and scrambled up to the floor above, breaking a couple of the rotted wooden steps in the process. Noticing he was on fire, Gerald dropped to the ground to try to extinguish himself and managed to do so - and then immediately approached Robert.

Robert seemed to be severely dazed and showed signs of a mild concussion, but he was regaining a sense of his surroundings and trying to get to his feet. Gerald stood up and addressed the girl, asking her what had happened. The girl began replying to him, but no sound came from her lips as she spoke. It was then that Gerald noticed something painted on the floor in the center of the room - a circular symbol composed of a curved-bladed sword through a ring with a stylized splatter pattern, probably meant to be blood. Gerald was sure he'd seen this symbol somewhere before, but couldn't quite place it.

The pounding was continuing outside - and getting louder. Kathrine and Molly had scrambled to the top of the 8ft wall at the end of the alleyway and called in to Gerald, asking if they were alright and telling them that something big was approaching the end of the alleyway.

Robert had managed to find his feet by this time, and looked up to see Gerald in the center of the room, but the girl with the flower was mysteriously gone. He looked up to the broken staircase at the darkness of the landing above. Gerald called back to Molly that Robert was ok and that they were going to try to get upstairs.

Just as Molly and Kathrine were hearing these words, a large, looming being emerged from the darkness. A bipedal tree, perhaps 15 feet tall, was lumbering down the alleyway - bringing with it a whipping wind and driving rain. It had no further discernible features but for a gaping hole in its trunk near the top which resembled nothing so much as a massive, toothed maw.

Kathrine screamed again and, in a panic jumped down from the wall on the other side and began moving quickly down the alley on the other side - only barely restraining herself from a full run so as not to lose Molly in the darkness. Molly climbed down the other side of the wall as quickly as she could and followed Kathrine down the alley. By the time the two reached a point 50 or so feet away where the alley made a right-angle turn to the east, the pounding had stopped, but they were too far away to see if the walking tree was still there.

After finally managing to reach the top of the rotten stairway, Robert and Gerald made their way through what seemed to be an abandoned tenant building of some sort. They found the main entrance, but the wooden stairways that once provided entrance and exit were long gone. The two half jumped, half fell to the stone ground in the alley below and decided to head back to Allens Street.

Meanwhile, Kathrine and Molly were attempting the same thing. Having made it back to the lit street, they had calmed a little. Looking ahead to a point just beyond the entrance to the alley they had originally gone down, they saw a man in a dark coat speaking with a young girl with a red flower in her hair. They were too far away to hear anything that may have been said however, and very shortly afterward, the young girl went skipping down Allens street away from them, and the man crossed the street to an alley on the other side and disappeared from view.

Shortly thereafter, the four met up with each other again and they all decided they wanted nothing more than to be home. The group returned to Molly's bathhouse and arranged for a carriage to return Kathrine to her aunt's residence. The next day they met again - which seemed to be becoming a habit - and began to discuss aspects of the previous night's adventure.

Another day in the life

Tuesday May 25, 2010 at 4:13pm iphone, bicycling, gaming, drawing, comics, gitp, meetup Comments (0) »
Another day in the life Image

First thing, as I mention in the edit of last post, I am enjoying my shiny new iPhone (which has been named Sadie, after one of the characters from Mouse Guard). In particular, I like the ability to always have a 'net connection, to be able to sync and always have my mac's calendar (which i nearly *rely* on these days) with me, to have a phone that isn't work related (and I don't have to worry about using it for personal calls), and for *Sheri* (who also got one) to have her own phone so I don't worry as much when she goes somewhere in our less-than-perfectly-reliable jeep. Also, text messaging is fun, having a portable pdf reader is handy, and I think I like the iPhone facebook app better than the actual facebook *site* - it doesn't have all the stupid clutter everywhere.

Sheri and I got our bikes out for the first time this year and went for a ride on the Linear Trail in Erwin last saturday. I think we went about 7 or 8 miles altogether, though at a somewhat relaxed pace. We saw a lot of geese and ducks and a couple of rabbits. It was a lot of fun and I'm hoping we'll get to ride our bikes a lot more this year than last year.

My World of Darkness game had session #3 last night, which was fun if a bit slower than previous sessions. I think it was still good, but I'm thinking over how to smooth out some of the bumps. We are still trying to get Curtis involved, and we're gonna try a new weeknight to see if it works better.

I've been trying to do some drawing lately - actually working on a character sketch for Rucht's Rogue Trader game. I'm pretty rusty at this sort of art. Also, I'd love to try a pc tablet/drawing pad.

Other randomness: Tony introduced me to a comic/graphic novel series called Fables, which is pretty awesome. You should check it out. Yes, you.

Looking ahead, our GitP 2k10 meetup (this will be meetup #4 :)) is fast approaching. We are sad that Ginger can't make it out this year, but hopefully she'll get to come hang out one of the subsequent weekends. The Igloo will be hosting a few other friends for the meetup though, including our former-local Ken who it will be cool to see again. The meetup is always a great time, and this year should be just as awesome as usual.

~PS

London 1802: Missed Connections

Gerald, Robert, Molly and Kathrine made their way to The Mitre around 6 o'clock on the evening of Saturday, April the 10th. Their plan was to talk to a man called Hannington.

By the time they arrived at the pub, it was starting to cool a bit and the overcast sky was beginning to drizzle. The other patrons of the establishment were somewhat surprised to see the two women enter with Gerald and Robert, but, apart from some occasional glances - particularly at Molly - nothing seemed to come of it.

The group took seats at the only empty table - which happened to be near the center of the room. They spent some time discussing what they should do, looking around for anyone who stood out or who may get inebriated to the point of spouting nonsense. They also spoke to the bartender who said he knew the man they were looking for, but at the time said he wasn't present. Some time later, and after pressing the point a bit Molly was able to learn that the man known as Hannington was seated in a booth on the far side of the room.

When Molly walked over to where he was sitting, she interrupted a conversation he was having with another person - a woman in a hooded cloak whom, unlike herself and Kathrine, the room had not seemed to notice. She gave Molly an icy stare before sliding out of the booth and walking out of the establishment. Hannington seemed somewhat relieved by her departure, but quickly became wary of this overly outspoken new woman who'd joined him.

Molly talked with him for a while, trying to subtly prompt him into volunteering some of the information they had come for, but he didn't seem to take the bait, and anytime she became too direct, he seemed to get very uncomfortable. She did learn that he lived on Allens Street, but he wouldn't say anything about his area of town beyond the fact that he didn't like to walk around it at night.

After a while, they were joined by Robert who slipped a sedative provided by Gerald into Hannington's drink and he passed out. They were about to carry him out when the bartender told them he'd take care of it and he and some friends took the unconscious man to a room upstairs.

Having been unsuccessful in their attempt to get Hannington to talk about his experiences, they had a brief discussions as to what they should do next. Kathrine said she probably needed to be heading back to her aunt's house before too long, but the group decided to take a look around Allens Street since the note had referred to that area.

Allens Street was not a major thoroughfare, but it was lit - which was good because the overcast sky was letting almost no moon or starlight through. The area contained a fair number of trees and bushes along the houses and sides of the streets. This was a little uncommon, but not unheard of. They decided to take a quick look around some of the darker alleyways looking for anything unusual.

After 10 or 20 minutes of wandering, they happened upon an alleyway which seemed to have still more trees and bushes up against the buildings. Gerald decided that someone must have planted them there because it seemed unlikely for them to have grown there on their own.

They followed this alleyway until Gerald, who had been leading the group in the dark, ran into a wall at its end. When this sudden stop occurred, Molly lost her balance and fell into a small hole to her left and her right foot stuck into something very sticky on the floor.

Gerald fished around in his bag and eventually found a candle and some matches while Robert helped Molly out of the hole. Once Gerald got the candle lit, they examined the area. Molly had fallen into a small, partial stairwell that provided access to a door that was sunk slightly below street level. The floor of the stairwell was covered with some sticky, golden substance which Gerald eventually identified as sap.

Robert decided he was going to take a look. He stepped down part way into the stairwell and kicked in the door where Molly had cracked it. Trying to avoid stepping in the sap as much as possible, he took the candle from Gerald and leaned inside.

The cellar-like lower floor into which he looked was overgrown with bushes, vines and grass. There was some sort of red mark painted on the floor, but it was obscured by the vegetation. The sap "stream" continued to the middle of the room. Once or twice he thought he saw something move but closer examination revealed nothing.

Robert turned back around to the other three and stated rather matter-of-factly "the room's full of plants". He had barely finished this statement when he was suddenly yanked backward into the darkness...

Parents, Puppies and Projects

Tuesday May 18, 2010 at 9:46am family, home, jeep, gadgets, gaming, milligan, birthdays, friends Comments (0) »
Parents, Puppies and Projects Image

Well, we had a good weekend. My parents and Rylee (my mom's havanese puppy) came to visit, which is always a good time. Ally wasn't quite sure what to make of the little white fuzzball that ran around the house, but overall I think they got along.

There were, of course, the requisite "projects".

The roof's minor issue has now been completely fixed (which is good, because it's raining) and the downspouts on the gutters have been flushed out too. The jeep's had some small tune-ups - changed the fanbelt and a small vacuum hose. There are some other little things, but overall I was told the jeep was running well.

We also spent most of saturday doing what we can to map out a deck plan. I've been wanting to build a deck on the front of our house for a couple years. The project is still very much in the preliminary stages, but we're making some progress. What we need to do now is discover where our septic system is for sure (we're pretty sure already) and have the water line marked - because those pipes are in the area in question. Also, we need to either figure out how to get 18ft support beams or shorten the width to 16ft (which might squeeze one section). Still, we're making some progress.

In addition to home/auto projects, we had a great time hanging out. We went to bay's mountain park and went for a short hike and got soaked with rain about 3/4 of the way back to the car. On the upside, the rain cover for my camera case has been field-tested with great success.

My parents also, of course, had their shiny iphones. I decided a while back that I want one of these. We kinda need (at least one) personal phone, and if I'm going to add another bill to our monthly expenses, I'm totally willing to pay a bit more to get something *fun*. As of now, I think we're waiting for Sheri to decide if she wants her own phone and whether she also wants an iphone. She isn't sure how much of a smart phone's capabilities she would use a lot (at first anyway), but she doesn't really have any gadgets and this would be several in one. I personally think it would be kind of cool, if somewhat expensive. Edit: yeah, we did it. We now have shinies. Rather sooner than I would have imagined, but we had put it off for quite a while...


My World of Darkness game is now two sessions in and is going great. The players seem to be really enjoying it, and I'm liking the theme. Synopses' are posted on the Gaming page as useful. On a related now, I have now feared the entirety of the boot, and I've been poking around on the ftb forums. On another related note, I'm trying to figure out if I can pull off going to gencon this year.

Milligan's faculty/staff picnic was last tuesday, and that was cool. It's fun to talk to people we only see occasionally and meeting others.

A week ago last saturday was our friend Stacie's birthday party at Rucht & McKennas, and that was cool. I game with a lot of the same people, but that's a lot different from just hanging out. Plus, Stacie, McKenna and Jen aren't really gamers and they're really cool people - when we're gaming we sometimes "see" them, but don't get to interact with them much when we're roleplaying.

~PS

London 1802: Fitful Slumber

The group stood in the dimly-lit entrance hall of Foley Manor. There was light coming from beneath the doors to the left and right but the stairway ahead of them was darkened. Figuring that the room on the left - the one to which they had been directed - was where the "other guests" were gathered, they decided to investigate the door on the right - the one to the East Parlor.

The door to the East Parlor, however, was locked. The entrance hall in which they stood was rather bare of furniture, containing only a small table on which a candelabra stood. The table contained a small drawer in which they found a tarnished gold key, but it did not fit the lock on the East Parlor door. The key had been wrapped in a fragment of old parchment which contained a few line fragments from a letter:

est fear is
discovery would shatter
more important. nothing
my love, Sophia


After a few moments consideration, Robert pulled out a lockpick, which he was able to use to force the lock open.

Upon opening the door, whatever light had been shining from inside was suddenly gone. The room inside was dark, illuminated only by the candelabra they had retrieved from the small table in the hall and a faint bluish glow coming from the two windows in the room. The sheer curtain in front of the window on the left fluttered a little in a gentle breeze coming through the window which must have been open.

The room contained some large pieces of furniture which were covered by canvas cloths as well as a number of smaller end-tables, chairs and stools which were scattered haphazardly around the room. The north wall contained some displays of archaic weaponry and some free-standing suits of plate armor on display. Opposite the door between the two windows was a large fireplace with a mantle which contained a long, rectangular display case. A coffee table in the center of the room contained a single large book.

The group hesitated a moment before entering the room, examining its contents. They found the display case on the mantle housed a long, glass rod with a ball at one end. The book turned out to have been hollowed and contained a wilted flower and a scrap of newsprint. The newsprint had a printed address, next to which were handwritten words which read "Miss Diana is no longer there". The silence of the room was broken when Kathrine screamed - having seen a large rat near a corner of the room. It was only a moment later when a strong gust of wind blew in through the open window, extinguishing the candles and causing the door across the room to slam shut. Molly screamed. The chair on which Kathrine had been standing after seeing the rat was suddenly jerked from beneath her and she fell backwards, hitting her head on the floor. Gerald felt something slam into the side of his knee, sending pain shooting through his leg.

What ensued can be looked back upon only as chaos and confusion. There was some malevolent force present in the room - and more than a single hostile entity - but for some reason, the four were unable to perceive exactly what it was. For a few dramatic moments, the group alternately took cover from and lashed out at their shadowy assailants, continuing until the door to the entrance hall suddenly opened.

In the doorway stood a well-dressed man with a curious and confused look on his face. He introduced himself as Sir Barnabas and recommended that the group proceed over to the West Parlor, suggesting that plenty of food from the banquet would be left still. When the group hesitated, he began walking around the room - examining it and making idle conversation with the group until one of them mentioned the hidden message and the "secrets" he seemed to wish to discuss. At that point, he invited them all into the and addressed them.

The next morning, the group awoke in their own beds. Their memories of the past evening were curiously fragmented. They remembered discussions of strange histories and mythologies taking place - often including as facts things they would have chalked up to legend or superstition - but they couldn't remember exactly what was said. They also felt that they had witnessed inexplicable things - even things that shouldn't have been possible - but they couldn't remember any real specifics on those either. At some point during the evening's discussions, Sir Barnabas had seemed to become more sullen and disappointed. He had suggested that the group return to the Manor at a later time and had handed them each an invitation envelope, similar to the first one they'd been given, then showed them out of the manor.

The group met up at Molly's bathhouse over breakfast. The "invitations" they had been given contained a rather strange message:

Perhaps your dreams are not as lucid as I suspected. You should see this as a merciful blessing - your eyes being closed to the darkness as tightly as they are.
If you are still intent on prying them open, I've heard a man called Hannington can tell some interesting stories about the streets near his residence. Most evenings he can be found in The Mitre. I would be very interested to know what you find.


In addition, Robert pointed out that the address they'd found on the newsprint in the hollow book was that of an old cemetery in the north of town near the Foundling Hospital. The doctor was deep in thought over what chemical effect they must have been under to account for the previous evening's hallucinations and fogginess, but the other three decided to travel to the cemetery and have a look around, planning to meet up and head to The Mitre that evening.

The cemetery in question was old, disused and only occasionally cared for. There were a few people in the general area, but it was fairly deserted. After some time wandering amongst the scattered stones, they were able to determine that the cemetery was probably around 100 years old, but had been in regular use up until the last 5 or 10 years. They also happened upon a particular stone which caught their attention as relevant to the message they'd found:

Diana Foley
1775 - 1791


As they were looking at this stone, a young boy (perhaps 14 years) wandered up to them with a handful of wilted flowers, which he placed carefully on Diana's grave. Then, he looked up and asked them "Were you friends of Diana's?" When they admitted they hadn't known Diana, he mumbled "I was her friend, I miss her...". His voice trailed off and he began to wander away toward a small copse of trees. They called after him, but he didn't seem to pay any attention and slipped into the grove before they could catch him.

Robert followed him into the trees and shortly called for the others to join him. There was no sign of the boy, but within the trees there was an odd clearing overgrown with red and yellow flowers. After looking around for a few moments, they found a simple well-worn gravestone buried in the grass:

Thomas Landor
1675 - 1689

Fear the (Lack of) Blog

Thursday April 29, 2010 at 11:01pm ftb, friends, gaming, board games, yard work Comments (0) »
Fear the (Lack of) Blog Image

Wow, s'been almost a month since i've keyed something into the ol' blog.

Probably not much to talk about has happened in that interim. Let's see...

I previously mentioned a podcast called Fear the Boot, but at the time it was only with respect to their interview with Matt Vancil. I'm going to bring them up again because since that mentioning, I've really become a fan of the show as a whole. I should mention again that Rucht actually told me about this podcast a while back and correctly guessed I'd enjoy it, but to this point I hadn't given it much of a try. As someone who likes to listen to amusing group commentaries on independent projects (often listening to the commentaries on the first Gamers movie as well as those for Red vs Blue) and someone who loves talking about gaming in general, this thing was indeed "right up my alley", so to speak.
Now, when I get hooked on something, I tend to go all the way - so a few weeks ago I manually downloaded all of their stuff (at the time, 8.2 days worth). Generally, when I'm doing whatever (work, mowing, driving, working on my own projects or just playing on my computer) I tend to listen to music, movies and/or (especially) commentaries as a fairly constant backdrop... ...so for the last few weeks, I've been listening to the guys at Fear the Boot. It has been quite enjoyable to my taste - and I've made it through almost 3/4 of the show's history.


Anyway, looking back...

On Monday I started my World of Darkness game, and I thought the first session went very well (as always, there's a synopsis on the gaming page). We had 4 players and a 5th is planning to come next time, so we've got a pretty full table. I'm pretty excited about this game (and the current WoD system in general). I have some interesting ideas for where this campaign might go so I hope it sticks together.
This game was started in the interest of doing something a bit more regularly than our Mouse Guard game, which has some pretty severe scheduling limitations. Still, I in no way want to abandon Mouse Guard since that game is pretty awesome too...just...sparse.

Our friend Nick is finally back from Saudi and he introduced us to a new game called Citadels last weekend. It's a pretty cool, simple & relatively quick little card game. He also has Dominion, which I've been wanting to try, but we didn't get to it last weekend.

Edit: Played Dominion tonight (May 1st). *Great* game. We'll probably pick it up at some point.

Way back on the 10th I got to playtest an RPG I previously mentioned having thought up and written in about a week. This game is called Bot. There's a (very) brief mechanics-less description of the concept and a synopsis of the session on the Gaming page. I thought it went very well, everyone seemed to catch on quickly and have fun and I was very happy with it.

Way, way back on the 7th our GitP friends Stacy & Tracy stopped in on us JC folk, wherein we played some games and ambushed Llama with nerf guns (this is becoming something of a tradition). It's been a while, so I don't remember what all we did, but we I know had a good time.


In terms of the less interesting, we've come upon the lawn mowing time of year again, and I've been doing a bit of that. I actually enjoy the exercise, but it just takes so long to do. We've been talking about getting a rider for some time...maybe sometime this year.


~PS

London 1802: The Invitation

Monday April 26, 2010 at 5:30pm new campaign, london 1802, game session notes Comments (0) »

First Session

Game: World Of Darkness

Characters: George [Curtis], Gerald [Robb], Katherine [Sheri], Molly [Edie], Robert [Chuck]

--

 

Kathrine, Robert, Molly and Gerald had met before, but - apart from Gerald and Molly - were not well-acquainted. However, they all happened to be in Saint Paul's Churchyard on the evening of April 7th 1802, just after the last service of the day.

The square was crowded and people were beginning to disperse to their respective residences for the evening when an unnatural stillness settled over the square. The people all seemed to turn to look as two figures entered from the east - a well dressed man who was briskly walking through the churchyard and was being pursued by an overweight, staggering and obviously intoxicated sailor spouting slurred curses and threats.

The altercation between the two escalated when the sailor, obviously consumed with a burning rage, shoved the man into an unattended cart hauling barrels of pickles - sending one of the barrels through a nearby shop window and caused another to fall to the cobblestone street beside them. The distraction of the pickle barrels allowed the gentleman to escape to a reasonable distance, he pulled a pistol from his jacket and pointed threateningly at the his assailant. The sailor balked for a moment, but ultimately decided the man was bluffing and lunged at his target. The gentleman then shot him and the large sailor fell limply to the ground, unmoving.

The crowd didn't seem to respond to these events in any way apart from simply looking on, and the man did nothing further beyond looking around the square until a few of the Runners arrived and took the man and the body from the square. After they left the scene, the people in the square slowly began talking, moving and going about their daily lives again.

The four went back to their respective residences, finished their evening rituals and went to bed - falling into a hard, dreamless sleep.

When they awakened, they had one thought at the forefront of their minds - the events that transpired outside St. Paul's the night before. Something was wrong with what they had witnessed. None of them could put a finger on it, but something didn't add up. They each felt absolutely compelled to find out why. As they pulled on clothes and headed out they noticed something else - it was dusk. They had slept through an entire day. The concerns about commitments they may have missed, however, faded strangely into the backs of their minds almost immediately - there was something inexplicably more important.

They each made their way back to St. Paul's square independently, but on arriving they noticed each other. Apart from them however, there were unusually few people in the square that evening. As they took in their surroundings and thought back on what they had witnessed 24 hours before, a few strange inconsistencies started to bubble into their thoughts. They didn't remember hearing a rage-filled shriek and yet they got the feeling it was there - and that it filled the square. Conversely, they remembered seeing the gentleman shoot the sailor - and hearing the crack of the shot - and yet, they felt convinced that the pistol made no sound. In addition, some recalled seeing some odd, moving shadows cast about the square as the events unfolded. None of them could make any sense of this, however.

Their investigation of the scene only turned up more mysteries. They took a look at the area around the shop where the cart had been and where the sailor was shot. They found no evidence of blood or vinegar solution from the pickles on the ground. What they did find was some blood on the broken glass outside the now-boarded shop window and some strange white shell fragments scattered in a vague line in the square some distance away.

As they were discussing these oddities, they were approached by a well-dressed man who had the bearing and manner of a butler in every way. He approached them, bowed, reached into the satchel he was carrying and produced 4 heavy parchment envelopes. As he distributed them to the group, he told them "Sir Barnabas would be honored if you would accept his invitation".

The envelopes contained a letter written in fine, neat script which read:

To the Bearer,
You are formally invited to 1 Queen Ann Street for a delicious evening meal and polite conversation tomorrow, the 9th of April. Present this letter to the doorman at the entrance to the manor. Arrive at dusk.
Sincerely, Sir Barnabas


After a few moments, they noticed something else to the letter. Beneath the handwritten script, there was a watermark that contained something written in what looked like Latin or Greek. It took some time to locate appropriate reference materials to translate the strange message, but by lunchtime the following day, the group reconvened and Gerald read to them what the hidden message contained:

So, you like secrets then - and you have the wit to find them. If pleasant ignorance is not enough for you, you must dig deeper. I would caution you in this pursuit, however, as few survive such dark curiosity. I advise you to join the other guests and forget you found this message. If you are deaf to my warnings however, arrive at nightfall. The doorman will not enforce his instructions.

The group discussed for a while what they should do, but ultimately decided that accepting the bizarre invitation may be informative. Following the second set of instructions, they arrived just after nightfall. The doorman - who was the man who had delivered the letters - took their invitations and directed them to the west parlor on the left side of the entry hall.

The hall was dark apart from the dim light afforded by a candelabra sitting on a small stand opposite the doorway. Directly ahead of them was a dark stairway going up to a balcony overlooking the entrance hall. There was no light coming from the second floor and the chandeliers overhead were unlit.

The door to which they were directed, that lead to the west parlor, had closed about the time they were walking in, and they could now only hear muffled conversation coming from the other side and could see only a small strip of golden light issuing from the crack beneath it. Directly opposite the west parlor was another closed door, the gap beneath which also leaked a strip of light. No obvious sounds came from the other side of this door...

The Return of the EP

Saturday April 3, 2010 at 11:22am yard work, friends, ftb, gaming, photography, work Comments (0) »
The Return of the EP Image

We lost our company this morning, and that was sad. Ginger, William and Liam left around 9:30 or so. They'd been hanging out with us for about the last week. We had a great time.

They arrived here last Saturday evening. On Sunday we went to the coffeehouse at WAPC and chatted with some of the native Wataugians who wanted to catch up with Ginger since she'd been gone. On Monday we had a game night at the Hippie Hut Mk. II, complete with 3 munchkins. Cash & Guns was entertaining. Thursday Patrick ran his Star Wars game and Ginger's old character got to return for a cameo appearance in it, along with William's "Bill Redshirt". Last night we met up at Mid City for dinner and came back here for a very enjoyable game night featuring Time's Up. Much fun was had. Samara came out to join us - which was cool since it had been a few years since we'd had her around - and Rucht brought Duane who was in town and is always a lot of fun to hang out with too.

So this last week was lots of fun and games. We now return to our regular existence. I have posted some pictures on the book-face.


Well, the first mowing of the front yard for the season has occurred. It was like a small forest in places. While doing that, I was listening to and enjoying an interview with Matt Vancil (writer/director of The Gamers movies) from Fear the Boot.com, which Rucht sent to me - and now I'm passing on to anyone here who might like it. I was actually sad that the Gamers II dvd didn't include any commentaries (they ran out of room on the disc), so it was cool to get to hear Matt talk some about it. Also, he and the guys that do Fear the Boot have philosophies on gaming/roleplaying very similar to mine, and I enjoyed their articulation of some of those ideas.

Working backward toward the last blog, we had a game night over at our friend Casey's place a few weeks ago wherein we got to play another great Days of Wonder game called Small World. Tim was in town for that, and it's always good to get to hang out with him. Also, we had another awesome Mouse Guard session (which has been posted on Gaming page) on the 19th. We left off in the middle of some action & hopefully we'll get to continue that one soon.

In slightly related news, I recently spent about a week designing a new table-top rpg. It's considerably different than any other rpg I've ever played. I think it will be a lot of fun. I'll probably post some stuff about it on the Gaming page at some point, but I don't want to talk about it in any specifics yet. I intend to "spring it" on a group of players as a one-shot without any prior disclosure or explanation - I think that approach will suit this game and its setting quite well. I'll probably be trying to put that together soon.

In other gaming news, my World of Darkness game has enough foundation to get it started whenever we choose to bring it up, so I've shelved it until I have an opportunity to work it in - which may be a while. Still very interested in it though.


Now that the weather has been warming up, I've been thinking a bit more about photography again - pulling out my camera more often and looking at the lenses I wanna pick up at some point. I'll probably end up buying the really expensive one next - but that might not be for some time. I had a great time taking a *lot* of pictures of Liam this week - most of that album may be him, with other people thrown in.


Work is going alright. Business is quite good, all things considered. I'm still/again working on some systems for the next version of our model. It also looks like we're going up to OH for a "business trip" later this month. Yay rah. It'll be good to see Kedrick, Addie, little Jack and my other coworkers, but other aspects of the trip are much, much less exciting. Oh well.


~PS

Return from AR 2010

Tuesday March 16, 2010 at 11:43am trips, family, gaming, board games Comments (1) »
Return from AR 2010 Image

I'm not sure if I'm back in the swing of things or not. I was actually kinda looking forward to work after being gone last week, but so far I don't have any fun projects. :\

Sheri's mom's surgery went as well as could be expected, I think. It wasn't nearly as bad as last time. When we left AR, she was still in some pain, but seemed to be recovering pretty well.

The week was largely uneventful. I spent a lot of time writing gaming notes for World of Darkness and playing on the lappy while they watched TV. I posted some more detailed info on my plans for this game on the gaming page.

We did play some games we brought (Settlers, Pillars of the Earth, Ticket to Ride), particularly with Ben & Brie when they were there on saturday, and we did enjoy simply spending time with her family.

I also took about 300 pictures of random stuff outside around their property, which was fun - it had been quite a while since i'd had the opportunity to got shooting. A couple are pretty good. I may post 'em somewhere.


Not much on the calendar for the next couple weeks as of now. Ginger, William and Liam are planning to come and visit on the 27th and are going to hang out with us for about a week. That will be lots of fun. Apart from that, there's the thursday evening gaming group I'm playing in... ...and that's pretty much it.


~PS

A Weekend in Athens Grease

Monday March 1, 2010 at 7:06pm friends, gaming, games, cell phones Comments (2) »

We had a wonderfully great time with Thes this last weekend. We got to spend the last few days hanging out, playing lots of games, occasionally engaging in large-scale nerf warfare and generally being our goofy selves. Thes really seemed to like my Mouse Guard game, and I finally got to play Agricola!

I have realized I didn't take any pictures of the festivities. Use your imagination: it basically looked like some previous meetup pics, only with fewer people. Just as much fun, though. :)

Sheri and I were very sad that she had to leave before we got up though... ...apparently Thes didn't want to wake us. We really wish she had... Alas...


So...not much is up now. I'm just hanging out, checking some facebook, writing a session-synopsis for the Mouse Guard game, watching Star Wars and contemplating some World of Darkness.

I'm also passively looking at some cell phone plan info. There has been a slight altercation relating to my work phone & personal use (which had never been a problem before). I think it amounts to a little bit of a misunderstanding and/or lack of communication. I figure it will probably be ironed out shortly, but we've been talking about maybe getting our own phone for a while anyway (for a variety of reasons)... ...and I do like the shiny iPhones...heh.


~PS

A Few Notes

Wednesday February 24, 2010 at 11:17am musicals, theatre, friends, gaming Comments (0) »

...for posterity, I guess.

Sheri & I went to see Milligan's production of the 'Little Women' musical on friday. It was amazingly good. There are some seriously talented people in the Milligan Theatre dept... ...and the musicians did a fantastic job also. We had a good time.

On saturday, we hung out with Llama & helped him take a rental car back. He's still looking for a new steed.

Our friend Steve moved *back* to SC this week, and this made us sad. He'd only been back into the area for a few months. It just turned out that he wasn't able to help with the music at his church back in SC as well as he wanted from here, and he was only seeing his daughter every couple of weeks anyway. He just decided it made more sense to be there for now. Hopefully we'll get to see him occasionally.


My gaming hobby has been dominating my 'hobby time' lately. It's too cold to be out taking pictures and, while i've been playing my acoustic a bit lately, I haven't come up with anything original. Mostly just playing some covers I'm fond of.

I picked up a couple of new gaming books over the weekend: Mr. K's had some copies of White-Wolf's current World of Darkness core rules & Mage: The Awakening books. I probably wouldn't have bought 'em new, but half-price for current editions was irresistible. Since I picked those up on friday, I have gone through them both with a broad-toothed comb - which is to say, I read both books, but I skipped things that a) were redundant b) i already knew or c) didn't seem necessary to know completely in total (such as the 150+ pages of spells in Mage).
I remembered really liking Robb's Werewolf games at RuchtCon & Thanksgaming and I've found I really like the current rules set for WoD. Exalted (another WW game) is fun and the concept/setting is cool, but the system is (in my opinion) somewhat muddled and over-complicated. WoD seems to keep things (relatively) simple. I'm also drawn to the fact that it's *different* from our normal games (both in concepts & mechanics), and I've been all about some change for about the last year. I'll probably be looking to start a WoD campaign in the not-too-distant future. I've already got some ideas.


Some things I've mentioned before, more imminently:

With respect to other gaming, Rucht is planning to start his Rogue Trader game tomorrow night, and I'm scheduled to run both of my current games this weekend (after a month interim). I'm also *still* looking to get ahold of a few indie game books I've mentioned previously, but haven't had a chance to yet.

Also, we (our local circle of friends) have a friend visiting from out of town this weekend. Thes is coming in later tomorrow night to hang out with us until monday morning. That should be a fun time. :)


~PS

Busier Than Usual

Friday February 19, 2010 at 3:17pm friends, church, holidays, movies, gaming, work, family Comments (0) »

It's been a rather busy week. Unusually so, actually.

It was good to see Nick again on saturday, and to meet Jen. She seems pretty cool. Unfortunately, they weren't able to stay as long as originally planned and we only got to hang out for a little while.

Sunday Sheri & I went to Grandview for church. That was cool. We saw quite a few people that we knew (but hadn't seen in quite a while) and I was reminded how much I really like to hear Aaron Wymer speak.

Sunday was valentine's day, but Sheri and I don't usually do much *on* that day. Instead, we wait until the 19th - which happens to be today - to 'celebrate', since it was on the 19th ten years ago that she and I started dating. Happy Valentinanniversary to us. Or something. :-D

Monday we got to see Jerry & Amanda and little Jared as they stopped through at the Hippies' on their way home from a trip to FL. It's always cool to hang out with them, and their munchkin is exceptionally cute. I didn't have my camera with me, but I should have...

Tuesday was significant this week only in that it was the only evening I *didn't* have something going on.

Wednesday Rucht had a group of us over to watch Aliens. Prior to that time, I hadn't seen any of the Alien movies (and I still haven't seen any others). This was seen as somewhat of a problem that needed to be remedied. I enjoyed the movie and it's always cool to get together with friends.

Thursday (yesterday) was Patrick's Star Wars game. This game has been very enjoyable for me. It may be the first time I've actually had a character's personality, motives, actions, etc evolve *in game*. At Patrick's prompting, I've written up a bunch of stuff (probably more than he really wanted) for/about him with respect to his development in the story.

Tonight Sheri and I are going out to dinner and then over to see Milligan's production of Little Women - maybe not in that order...

Work has been kind of crazy lately as we're *still* trying to tie up some stuff before the end of the day... ...unfortunately, I'm currently waiting for a crucial piece of info to plug in - without which, I can't do much.

Looking ahead:

Next weekend our friend Thes is coming in for a visit and I'm supposed to run a couple of gaming sessions (after a month-long interim). That should be fun.

Also along the gaming line, Rucht is starting a Rogue Trader game next week that I'm gonna be in. I'm looking forward to this as I haven't got to play in one of Rucht's games before.

A couple weeks after that, Sheri and I are heading to AR to help her mom out after her upcoming surgery.

~PS

Hobbies, Decisions and Snow-covered Lands

Thursday February 11, 2010 at 12:34pm music, friends, gaming, church, work Comments (3) »

I think we're getting more than our fair share of snow this year. Or, more than we've ended up with the last 10 years or so anyway.

Usually I talk about my friends, my hobbies and stuff that's been happening on this thing. Not too much fits that bill lately.

Aside from picking up the acoustic from time to time (occasionally with friends), I haven't done much with 'music' lately. I have a recording or two that I could post, but I'm really not completely happy with them. In fact, I've become increasingly critical of my writing & composition. I think when I finally do get some stuff that I like recorded, it will probably be a bit different from past projects. Who knows.

I've wanted to take some pictures lately too, but I think I've photographed everything in my general vicinity and I haven't been anywhere new... ...and I haven't been particularly inspired by any 'new angles' on things available.

We've had some more scheduling conflicts with our gaming. These aren't all bad, but I'm still trying to figure out when we can play again.

We have done a little hanging out with a few friends lately. Robb & I got together to play some guitar last week and then went out for pizza (and sandwiches) and the hideously-colored Generous George's.

I've also been hanging out with Steve a bit lately, helping him record some of his songs. I've also recently dug out my Magic cards and he & I have played a few games of that. That's been fun, though I haven't been able to convince Sheri to learn it yet. I've always enjoyed that game, but most of the people I know stopped playing it quite a while back. Others I know have moved on to only playing it on the 360, but, like Carcassonne, I'd prefer to play the actual, physical game - and then there's the fact that I don't own a 360...


In other news, as she mentioned on her blog, Sheri has resigned as choir director for our church - mostly because the choir was pretty much dissolving anyway. This puts us somewhat in 'limbo' with regard to what we'll do next. It feels kind of awkward in Erwin, and we've talked about visiting some other places closer to where we live. Nothing's actually be decided though.

As she *hasn't* mentioned on her blog (as yet), Sheri's also been doing some writing. She's about 60 pages into a story, and I think she's doing a great job with it - which is why I mention it.


Work is work and, aside from a few frustrations, has been pretty good. The last month or so has been a continual swing from really busy to really slow and back again. Not too much going on at the moment, so I'm just looking over some stuff. I know some other things will be on their way to me soon, though.


~PS

Sushiday V, a Movie and Games

Monday February 1, 2010 at 9:34am website, rpm, movies, video games, gaming Comments (0) »

Well, here we are at February.

Yes, I know that's redundant, seeing as there's a date right above the statement, but that's what's going through my head atm.

First off, Penguinsushi.com is another year older - bringing me up to 5 glorious(?) years on the web!

Second, RPM 2010 starts today, but sadly, I don't think I'll be participating this year for two reasons: 1) I haven't been able to come up with any new material in the last couple of months - though to be honest, I've only put in about 15 hours worth of effort in that time - and 2) because, due to some extenuating circumstances, I'll be losing a large portion of my studio gear next weekend. This will be replaced, of course, but it may not be immediately.

In other news:

Sheri & I went to see Avatar with Robb & Edie last night night. It was quite a good movie, if a bit predictable. My assessment is that it is basically 60% Ferngully, 25% The Matrix, and 15% other (possibly LoTR; others have suggested Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves and Aliens). That's not to say it was completely derivative - it did have its originality - but large parts of it definitely conjured thoughts of "I've seen this somewhere before...". Still, like I said, a good movie.

Llama and I played a fair bit of Super Mario Wii this weekend and, with an obsessive-collecting "No Big Coin Left Behind" philosophy, actually finished and beat the game seeking and obtaining every big coin in every level of the primary 8 worlds (including going back to hunt ones we'd missed in other worlds previously). Yes, we are the awesome. We've now started on the "secret" post-game World 9, which, I have to say, is pretty tough.

We started a new D&D game on friday night and I'm proud that not even the snow storm could prevent it - though driving Steve home was...entertaining...and 2/3 of our guests actually camped out here that night.
As I mentioned before, I had carefully mapped out the game's scenario from most-if-not-all angles and then gave the "party" and obvious hook for them to take - a hook which would lead them to the ruin of a prison outpost where a demon was reportedly hiding. Obvious adventure, right? Given the attitudes originally fostered at the conception of this game, I thought they'd want the obvious hook. Silly me. The first 3/4 of the session was spent around town investigating some other goings on. By the time they actually made it to the keep, it was so late that we had to call it a night after the first encounter - which was actually still outside it's gates.
So here we have a question of causality: *Because* I overcomplicated the game, writing in the multiple goings-on from different angles, I knew exactly what to do and what they would find when they went off the "expected course". HOWEVER, if I *hadn't* written up all those other angles (i.e., if I'd just said "you're in a tavern. you see a wanted poster for a demon. it's in this keep. go for it."), they wouldn't have had *reason* to go off the "expected course" (though that iteration of the setting would have seemed much less realistic and "alive"...to me anyway). So basically, my excessive detail was both the cause of my "problems" *and* my salvation there-from. Still, I wouldn't change much if i could. It was a good time.
The real beauty is, because the party did something that I didn't expect, I realized that the story was going to have to change. At least one thing they did was going to have a significant impact and make drastic alterations to how the narrative would have unfolded otherwise - and that's the way it should be. The characters' actions should have real meaning in the story, beyond the simple "either you succeeded or you failed". Being able to account for that as a GM is a bit of an art, and one that don't always feel I'm doing well. This time though, it's working beautifully.

~PS

Into The Games

Monday January 25, 2010 at 5:08pm video games, gaming Comments (0) »

Well, there hasn't been much to make the blog lately.

Work has been a bit subdued lately - which is good, because I think they're getting ready to give me a bunch of stuff, so I've been enjoying the respite the last week or so has afforded.

Most of my free time has been spent either A) playing some Wii games, or B) working on some roleplaying games.


Mini Ninjas was (and continues to be) *lots* of fun. If you take a rather relaxed pace, the game is about 12 hours long. I beat it in about 13. I've played it about 14, now looking for some of the remaining statues (there are a certain number in each level). The game has a lot of replay value - not so much in terms of story, but simply because it's just plain fun to play and allows you to go back and replay levels you've already completed at any time.

My Life As a Darklord has been very entertaining as well, though it's getting pretty tough. I replayed the same level 4 times yesterday trying (unsuccessfully) to keep out those pesky adventurers before giving up for the night.


I'm currently gearing up to start a new D&D game for a few friends on Friday. It's been almost a year since I've run one. This is intended to be less a "campaign" and more of a "mini-series". I set out to make some simpler, smaller, episodic adventures for us to enjoy... ...the problem is, the more you try to understand and explain, the less possible "simple" becomes. Some would say that when you have a 2.5 page outline of stuff that happened before the PC's arrive on scene, you've passed that which can be reasonably called "simple".
The premise itself felt reasonably simple when i started, but in detailing the situation fully enough that it could become a living entity (i.e., a situation that could alter and react to the PC's actions), it was found to contain several facets that needed to be addressed for it to really work. "Simple" might not be the best word for it. Still, it's scale fits the general feel I'm going for and I *do* think it will be a lot of fun to play.

The resumption of Mouse Guard was exciting and went really well - I'm really looking forward to continuing that one too.

We've also resumed Patrick's Star Wars game, and I've been trying to do a little work on my character's backstory & pursuits for that... ...but I don't really know as much about the Star Wars universe as the rest of everyone... ...I know the original trilogy very well and anything Lego Star Wars may have taught me, but not much beyond that...

Still kicking around some ideas pertaining to my pet system project, but not really anything else to say about that.


~PS

Wii, Wii, Wii, Wii All The Way Home

Friday January 15, 2010 at 9:23am video games Comments (0) »
Wii, Wii, Wii, Wii All The Way Home Image

At. Last.

We finally got our Wii back. It had been left in IN over the holidays on account of us getting snowed in in OH. I make this sound like it took forever, but it was really only a couple of weeks and not that big a deal. I wasn't curled up on the floor babbling through withdraw or anything. At least, I don't think I was.

Anyway, getting our Wii back meant that I could finally play my new game - a game I've been waiting for and wanting ever since April of last year: Mini Ninjas. It's a cartoony 3d adventure game. I'm a few hours in and, so far, it is awesome. It's a little more linear than I expected (actually divided up into 'levels', as opposed to being a more open-exploration game like Zelda or Okami), but that is the only aspect that hasn't matched my expectations (while many other aspects have exceeded them)... ...and I'm not even sure that that's bad. In fact, most of the levels are quite large and require quite a bit of exploration to find everything in them - so the difference may well boil down to semantics.
It is very, very fun. Multiple playable characters that you can swap out any time, awesome ninja moves (wall walks, ledge-grabs, hat boats!?), great magic abilities (possess animals, find secrets, and of course, sling fireballs), interesting specials (matrix-like multi-attacks, mesmerize foes, exploding fireworks arrows)... ...oh, and enemies turn into cute, fuzzy animals when you defeat them. Yeah, I expect I'll be addicted to this for some time.

In addition to Mini Ninjas, I/we also have a few other new games. I mentioned before that I got Super Mario Wii for Sheri for her birthday, and we've still got quite a bit of that to get through (hopefully with some help from our friends :) - the multiplayer is hilariously fun). I was also given Lego Indiana Jones for christmas, which is proving to be as amusing as Lego Star Wars. Finally, I've downloaded full versions of My Life As A Darklord and Nyx Quest: Kindred Spirits - a couple of Wiiware games for which I'd played and greatly enjoyed the downloadable demos.

I still have Muramasa: The Demon Blade, the Metroid Prime Trilogy, and probably a few other games on my wish list, as well as looking forward to the new Zelda game and the sequel to Mario Galaxy I've heard about...

And Tony and I still have to beat Final Fantasy.

I'm not quite on the level of our friend the Llama in terms of a backlog of games to play, but, as I'm usually a much more casual player, I think I've got enough to keep me busy for quite a long time...

~PS

Muppet Music

Wednesday January 13, 2010 at 2:43pm muppets, music Comments (0) »

So Sheri and I were watching the Muppet Movie the other night and I found that I was really enjoying the music in it. Like, enough that I actually wanted to learn to play some of it. So I got out my guitar and started searching the 'net for chords or tab for "Rainbow Connection" and "I'm Going To Go Back There Someday". After about an hour, I could play through both of those passably and have been very amused by this.

Sure they're a little sappy, but they're actually good, well-written songs. You really can't say that about music from too many family/kids movies...

~PS

"Back In My Day..."

Saturday January 9, 2010 at 3:04pm gaming, snow Comments (2) »

"...we had to walk a mile up hill in the snow to play an rpg..."

I think this deserves and honorable mention on my blog.

Last thursday was slated as a date for Patrick's Star Wars game. Since Sheri was going to need the jeep that evening, Doug (one of the other players) came to pick me up.

Somewhere between my house & Patrick's (approx. 40min trip), it began to snow very hard. By the time we were exiting in Kingsport, the roads were slippery, and we actually slid through the intersection at the interchange and a red light down the street (when we came to a stop in the middle of the intersection). Doug had said he had wanted to stop at a Hardees near Patrick's place to get some dinner, but wasn't sure he wanted to make another stop in this weather.

Around this point, Patrick called us to see how we were doing, how the weather was, and to tell us that Tony had parked down at the Hardees and was walking up to his place since he didn't want to take the roads in his car.

By the time we got to Patrick's neighborhood, there was a nice coating of snow on all the roads, and one of the hills proved to be impassible - meaning when we got halfway up, Doug's little quasi-suv ceased moving forward. I call Doug's vehicle a 'quasi-suv' because, while it does have traction-control, it, unfortunately, does *not* have any kind of 4wd.

Now, I say the q-suv 'ceased moving forward', which was true - but what I didn't mention about that just now was that, after it did so, it immediately began sliding backward. It finally came to a stop about 20ft back down the hill in front of a driveway, which we slid back into, turned around, and did a (mostly) controlled slide back down the hill whereupon we decided we'd take a cue from Llama's strategy. We headed back down to the Hardees, got dinner as originally planned, and started walking toward Patrick's.

When we made it as far as the big hill - this time on foot - as the snow poured down on top of us, I turned to Doug, and, with a wry smile, that was what I said.

~PS

New Year Happenings

Wednesday January 6, 2010 at 12:46pm holidays, friends, photography, recording, gaming Comments (0) »
New Year Happenings Image

Still trying to get back into the normal swing of things after a couple of relaxing weeks.

We had a great time over new year's with a bunch of awesome friends. We basically spent the long weekend hanging out and playing lots of games - including a midnight game of New Year's Kubb. Robb & Edie were awesome hosts in their spacious new house, and it was great to get to see Jerry, Amanda and Stacey again. Plus Llama and Tim were there, which always makes for entertainment. :) I've got some pics of the festivities up on facebook.

I've finished compiling most of my favorite photos from 2009 (and the ones that I think are "good" from a technical perspective), and have created a home for them on my Gallery page.

On a more musical note (ha!), I'm still not sure whether I'm going to make another attempt at completing RPM this year. I really *want* to, as I've been upgrading some hardware & software in my "studio", have been helping Steve record some tracks, have been streamlining my approach to the recording process and have learned quite a bit regarding the enhancement of the quality of the tracks I put down... ...unfortunately, when it comes to actual material to record, I am all but completely dry atm. I've been trying to come up with some stuff for the last week or so (albeit, pretty sporadically), but haven't had any luck. If I can come up with a few likely tracks before Feb 1, I'll probably give it a go... ...otherwise, I may sit out this year.

In other news, I'm trying to work out some scheduling get my gaming group(s) back together after the chaos the holidays generally bring regarding this hobby. I've been working on my Mouse Guard campaign, which I'm excited about. I'm intending to pick up a few other games reasonably soon as well and I'm hoping to run and/or play with some greater-than-usual variety this year.


~PS

A Season's Reflection In Music

Thursday December 31, 2009 at 3:29pm music, lyrics Comments (0) »
A Season's Reflection In Music Image

Amongst other things, I got an iTunes gift card for christmas. Since Mahto had shown me this video, I decided I wanted to check out some other stuff by this band.


I have been impressed.


A Stick, A Carrot & String ~ Me Without You

the horse's hay beneath his head
our Lord was born to a manger bed
that all whose wells run dry
could drink of His supply

to keep Him warm, the sheep drew near
so grateful for His coming here
come with news of grace
come to take my place

the donkey whispered in His ear
"child, in 30-some-odd years
you'll ride someone who looks like me
untriumphantly"

the cardinals warbled a joyful song
"He'll make right what man made wrong
bringing low the hills
that the valleys might be filled"

then "child", asked the birds
"well, aren't they lovely words we sing?"
the tiny baby laid there
without saying anything

at a distance stood a mangy goat
with the crooked teeth and a matted coat
weary eyes and worn
chipped and twisted horns

thinking "maybe I'll make friends someday
with the cows in the pens and the rambouillet
but for now, I'll keep away
I've got nothing smart to say"

there's a sign on the barn
in the cabbage town
"when the rain picks up
and the sun goes down
sinners, come inside
with no money, come and buy

no clever talk, nor a gift to bring
requires our lowly, lovely King
come now empty handed, you don't need anything"

and the night was cool
and clear as glass
with the sneaking snake in the garden grass
deep cried out to deep
the disciples fast asleep

and the snake perked up
when he heard You ask
"if You're willing that this cup might pass
we could find our way back home
maybe start a family all our own"

"but does not the Father guide the Son?
not my will, but Yours be done.
what else here to do?
what else me, but You?"

and the snake who'd held the world
a stick, a carrot and a string
was crushed beneath the foot
of Your not wanting anything



~PS

Let It Snow?

Sunday December 27, 2009 at 7:49pm snow, trips, family, holidays, christmas Comments (0) »

The snow seems to be following me around. I'm currently at my grandparents' house in OH where we've been snowed in for the night. Hopefully we'll still be heading down to TN tomorrow as planned, however.

Our trip has been good, though I haven't had my voice for any of it. It left me saturday the 19th and hasn't come back to me since. If any of you see it, please send it over. At least I'd gotten over the rest of being sick before we headed up here.

We got to see most of my extended family on both my parents' sides this trip - which was cool. I don't get to see these people often enough. I took a bunch of pictures which will probably be posted to facebook (where I'm starting to post more 'personal' pictures, reserving my gallery here for more 'artistic' photos.)

The evening sunday the 20th we spent in OH with my mom's side of the family. For most of the week, we hung out at my parents' house and relaxed. This was nice. We hooked the Wii up to my parents' projector and enjoyed some Wii Bowling and Super Mario on the big screen. That was highly amusing. Christmas day we spent with them and Sheri's grandpa came down to join us for the day. We opened presents, had a tasty dinner, and played games. On saturday the 26th we went out to see Kedrick & Addie (my 'boss' & his wife) and enjoyed a nice dinner and catching up with them. That brings us to today, when we traveled here to my dad's parents' house for christmas with this side of the family... ...whereupon we have become snowbound.

As usual, I got some fun toys for christmas, including Mini Ninjas for the Wii (yay!), the Mouse Guard hardbacks, the Star Wars rpg rulebook, a midi interface for my computer, a lego set, some cool clothes, some money for the 'camera fund' and some other cool stuff that's not floating to the top of my head quite as quickly.

~PS

Can't Sleep, Blogs Will Eat Me

Saturday December 19, 2009 at 4:10am snow, friends, adventures, video games, trips, holidays Comments (1) »
Can't Sleep, Blogs Will Eat Me Image

I can now add "Voluntarily venturing out into a snow storm for the purpose of purchasing ice cream" to the list of crazy and strangely ironic things I've done.

Unfortunately, our plans for a birthday gaming night last evening were foiled by the aforementioned snow storm, which dumped 4-6 inches of snow on our area between 3:30 and 8pm and continued to spit more for a few hours after that. The only person who made it out to our place was Llama, but he had the unique advantage of not having to drive home that night. If others *had* made the journey, I think we may have had to make more room.

The fact that the roads were pretty bad, however, didn't stop Llama and I from making a run out to the grocery store and to arby's in the jeep - which got a chance to prove its usefulness in the 4WD capacity. It was a bit of an adventure, but in the end we arrived back at the now-appropriately-named Igloo completely victorious whereupon the three of us (Llama, Sheri and I) spent the evening hanging out and playing Wii.


As of now, I'm on vacation until the 29th. My one complaint is that I wish I weren't sick. Since wednesday, I've been pretty congested and have had serious difficulty sleeping. I'm starting to think the decongestant I've been taking is having the side-effect of insomnia. The last two nights, I've been unable to get to sleep for long amounts of time, finally dozing off, and then waking up only a couple hours later wide awake. This explains the time of this post.

If I feel a bit better and the weather eases up by then, we're supposed to head out sunday afternoon toward OH and IN for the holidays. I'm looking forward to this trip - I really hope I'm feeling better by then.

Also, the hiccups aren't helping.


~PS

Easing into the Holidays

Wednesday December 9, 2009 at 1:34pm holidays, birthdays, friends, music, recording, anime, video games, gaming Comments (0) »

The holidays are fast approaching, but this year hasn't become as hectic (yet) as years past.

We have our vacation time planned out now - we'll be gone to the IN/OH area from the afternoon of the 20th through the 28th. We'll get to go to christmas parties on both sides of my extended family this year, which will be cool. Still need to finalize some details - like when to meet up with some people and who might be able to take care of Ally.

Other stuff (in no real order):

The Social Theory class I had been sitting in on came to a close, which is kinda sad. I was enjoying that. Dr. Beck took us out for lunch on Dec 1st - this was a reward for the class's good grades and they invited me to come along for fun. I brought them cookies on the last day of class. They were a little abnormal in terms of shape & consistency, but tasty.

Our friend Steve has moved back into the area, and it's been fun trying to catch up with him a bit. We've been talking a bit about music & recording and he wants to get back into a little tabletop gaming too. I've set part of my recording 'studio' up and have been playing a bit with Addictive Drums and AmpliTube. I've been looking at electronic drum kits again too.

We're planning what should be a fun new-years-eve party at the Hippie Hut Mk. II, though we are very sad that our EP & co. will not be able to make it. :(

Yesterday was Sheri's birthday. We went to the crazy tomato and then to best buy to buy a movie. We ended up getting Evangelion:1.01 - the first of 4 feature-length movies which are to be a retelling of the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series. It was pretty faithful to the original. On the downside, I doubt the next one will come out before next christmas.
Also, for one of her birthday presents, I got her Super Mario Wii, which she was very excited about. :) We played a couple levels of that too - it's hugely entertaining.

Still haven't got to playtest my new roleplaying system, but hopefully soon.

~PS

Entering the Lull - Don't Blink or You'll Miss It

Sunday November 29, 2009 at 3:00pm thanksgiving, christmas, holidays, relaxing Comments (1) »

So here I sit at the end of the thanksgiving weekend. A few days of not having to do much of anything were nice. It's been a while since I've had that kind of time to relax. I think it did me quite a bit of good. I'm thankful for it.

We had a tasty thanksgiving meal, played quite a bit of Age of Empires II and Ticket to Ride, helped set up Skype for Sheri's mom and my parents (and enjoyed chatting with them over it), moved some furniture in the livingroom around and then put up our christmas tree & other decorations. We've also reached the time of year when Sheri will generally be insisting Christmas music be played a rather large percentage of the time.

The next week or two compose what I've come to know as the 'lull': a (too) brief period between the busyness at thanksgiving and the busyness leading up to christmas. It's generally a good kind of "busy" for us, but there's not quite enough time to relax in my opinion.

Currently I'm at our church, as is typical of a sunday afternoon. I've just sent out some invitations to a sort-of birthday party thing for Sheri and I - basically, we just wanted another excuse to play some games with our awesome friends. I hope people can come, I know it's a busy time of year. I'm also preparing to send out a couple of gaming-related emails. Sheri was telling me yesterday how she's been wanting to play. It's been quite a while, but there's been a lot going on. Alas, it'll probably have to wait till 2k10.

We're still trying to work out some of the final details regarding our trip up to IN this christmas. I'm looking forward to it.

~PS

The View from Thanksgiving, 2009

Thursday November 26, 2009 at 12:43pm thanksgiving Comments (0) »

I'm currently sitting on the couch in the livingroom with my laptop, feet propped on our little round ottoman, watching Ally nap in the warm sun which is brightly streaming in through our large, bay window on this mild autumn day, and hearing Sheri preparing tasty food in the kitchen (where I really ought to be helping her) - some faint aromas of which are starting to drift toward my position.

I'd say I'm thankful.

I make a concerted effort to be thankful all the time, actually.

I remind myself fairly often that, with respect to the other several billion people that live on this planet, my life is most likely in the upper 90% in terms of what can be considered "good".

I'm thankful most especially for Sheri (who's wonderful :)) and all my awesome family and friends (because you *are* awesome), but also for having a job that i love and that pays the bills (and for the turkey currently in the oven), for our cozy little house, for our adorable Ally, and for my variety of hobbies that keep me creative and entertained.

Sure, there's things I still wish after (some of those desires more petty than others) and a number of troubles or concerns like anyone has, but I have a lot to enjoy.

I'm thankful.

~PS

Thanksgaming 2009

Monday November 9, 2009 at 10:52am thanksgaming, gaming Comments (1) »
Thanksgaming 2009 Image

Since my project for work is starting to hurt my brain, I'm opting to take a short break to talk about our awesome weekend.

Thanksgaming was our second mini-gaming-convention hosted by our friend Rucht. As with RuchtCon, the general idea was this: invite all your gaming friends over (both local & out-of-towners), everyone votes on what to play, the chosen games are assigned to gaming 'slots', and people sign up for what they want to play.

This mini-con began at 8pm on friday the 6th with Pathfinder and 3:16.

Pathfinder is basically D&D 3.75. It's a little different from 3.5ed, but it's not 4e. My understanding is that it was basically devised by some people who weren't too fond of 4e and decided they'd rather continue 3.5 with a few changes. It was quite a fun game. It's been a long time since I've had a chance to *play* D&D, and I got to play dwarven cleric (a race/class combo I'm particularly fond of). The game does show a bit of inherent power creep over standard 3.5 (which can be viewed by cynics as a bit of a shameless attempt to get players to like it), but many of the rule changes do help the game in a more objective way. Personally, I'm still satisfied with 3.5, but this game was also fun and played very similarly. I do like the flavor of Pathfinder, which tends to expand D&D conventions.

As an aside, I discovered I really like the way Rucht does minis - which is much more like battletech: he doesn't use a grid, he just sets up the scene on the table, and then uses a tape measure to determine distances. This way, you don't have to worry about "diagonals" and other unnatural-feeling grid phenomena.

While we were playing Pathfinder, the other group was playing 3:16, which is, from what I understand, a simple space shoot-em-up rpg. Each player only has two stats: Fighting and Non-Fighting. Everyone who played it said it was lots of fun. I'd like to try it sometime. I like simple games.

The con resumed at noon on Saturday. This is when I ran my Mouse Guard session. That was lots of fun. The scenario I'd made was to take them into the Darkheather before the war of 1149 to destroy a weasel weapon. They were so into their characters, the world and roleplaying interactions that they barely even made it *to* the Darkheather, let alone found the 'weapon' they were sent to destroy. Despite the fact that they only had one conflict (a journey/storm conflict) and didn't even get to fight a single weasel, they all had a great time with the game and I had a great time running it.

The other noon session was for Zombie Apocalypse. This was actually one of a few zombie-based games that were played (others between sessions). I'm much less a fan of zombies than many of those present. I don't really know much about this one, unfortunately.

Saturday evening's games were Cartoon Action Hour and Spirit of the Century.

Spirit of the Century was *great* and Matt did a great job running it. I want this game. It's very simple, heavy on roleplaying, and exceptionally fun to play. It is basically a steampunk/pulp game which emphasizes overly-archetypal characters and over-the-top stunts, actions and dialogue. We all had a blast.

Doug's Cartoon Action Hour was a game based on 80's action cartoon characters ala He-man. Players were essentially playing through such an episode, complete with all the mayhem, crazy antics and amazing cheese.

On Sunday I was supposed to run a session of the system I've been working on for the last year or so. Unfortunately, half of my group had to leave Sunday morning, so we ended up joining Robb's Werewolf game. As it turns out, it was just as well. I'd been re-engineering large parts of the setting for the last week and wasn't entirely sure I was ready to present it. I'm kind of glad I have some more time. I'm close though.

Robb's Werewolf game was a lot of fun but, like RuchtCon's session, we didn't get very far into the story (for a variety of reasons). I keep telling him he should run an ongoing game so we'd actually get to play through it.


The weekend was a lot of fun. It was awesome to get to hang out with so many cool people and play so many fun games. I'm already looking forward to next time... ...which is hopefully reasonably soon...


~PS

World-systems, Moving Hippies, Singing RPGs

Wednesday October 28, 2009 at 1:05pm social theory, friends, moving, chorale, concerts, gaming Comments (0) »

...or something.

It's been a while since a blog has happened. Only a few things to report from the interim.

Got to talk about Wallerstein in Dr. Beck's social theory class. That was fun. I think I might have been a little too long-winded though.

Helped the Hippies move into their new house. It's a lot bigger and nicer than the other place they were renting (which was much too small for them). We're all really excited for them. They're still in the process of finishing that move & getting settled, but I think they're most of the way there.

Sheri had a Chorale concert last saturday night, before which we went out to dinner with Patrick & Stacy. It was a fun time - got to hang out with some friends and hear the choir sing.

Been working really hard on stuff for Thanksgaming. I think/hope my stuff will be ready by then. I think it will, but I still have a lot to do.

~PS

Really...?

Wednesday October 14, 2009 at 11:40am spam, video games, family, golf, food, photography, gaming Comments (6) »

Every once in a while, I see something in spam that makes me laugh. I just received this little gem:

Dear user of the penguinsushi.com mailing service!

We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox (shoe@penguinsushi.com) settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link:

http://penguinsushi.com/owa/service_directory/settings.php?email=shoe@penguinsushi.com&from=penguinsushi.com&fromname=shoe

Best regards, penguinsushi.com Technical Support.


This makes no sense on several levels, not the least of which is that it's basically claiming to be from *me*.

The link, of course, while claiming to point to a non-existent folder on my server, in fact points to another server entirely where they had hoped to lure me for some reason.


EDIT: This just in: spam for russian hunting videos (*in* russian) is a new one on me...



In other news...

Not too much has gone on the last couple of weeks. Our friends have mostly been busy lately, so we haven't done much that's particularly interesting or fun. We *have* played a fair bit of Lego Star Wars.

My mom did come through on her way to see my sister in Columbia, SC. She stopped over tuesday night and again on her way back on saturday. We got to go play a little golf and had a good time talking. We also went to Five Guys for the first time (it just opened up here in JC), and have decided (like several of our friends) that they are probably the best burger place ever.

My photo show at WAPC came down on thursday (also, i've been playing with my new 50mm prime a lot), almost bought a riding mower on saturday (still waiting to see if they get back with us), Thanksgaming (RuchtCon II) is coming up soon (and I've got a fair amount of work to do for it) and I've been comparing wide-angle lenses on my photography wish list.


~PS

The Decemberists - 9/25/09 - Asheville, NC

Saturday September 26, 2009 at 11:00am concerts Comments (1) »

As I was mentioning in the last post, last night Sheri, Robb and I went to see the Decemberists at the Civic Center in Asheville, NC.

The show was amazing. Anyone who owns or has heard the Hazards of Love - particularly if you only thought it was so-so - should really try to see this tour. It's a "good" album, but it is wonderful when performed live. The first half of the concert was the Hazards of Love - straight through, start to finish. For those who may not know, the Hazards of Love is a concept album. It tells a single story and there are no real breaks between "songs" - one simply flows into the next (some more obviously than others). I found it very impressive to watch the band play it all the way through without so much as a pause - through instrument changes and all. It really kept the story flowing and, most importantly, maintained the mood the tale created.

But, to my surprise, that was only half of it. After they had finished the Hazards of Love, they took about a 20 minute break before coming back to play a second set, which was much more like their usual show. That is to say, there was a fair amount of bantering with the crowd and Colin making up crazy and bizarre personal myths on stage. In this set, they played a little of everything from 5 songs to the Crane Wife (basically, all of their previous records). Those tunes, being more familiar to me, were also very enjoyable and I was glad to see a more 'typical' Decemberists show in addition to the previous musical narrative. In this set I was glad to hear The Crane Wife (3) and Chimbley Sweep and Robb was glad to hear Leslie Anne Levine (which he'd apparently had stuck in his head for a while). In an amazing instance of unexpected randomness, they ended this second set on a song by Heart of all bands - Crazy On You - which I maintain they could only pull off because they had two female vocalists with them for the performance of Margaret and The Queen from the Hazards of Love: Shara Worden (aka, My Brightest Diamond) and Becky Stark.


There was one minor downside. See, I had been carrying my camera around Asheville all day. When Larry, Sam and I went to see them a couple of years ago (at the TN Theatre in Knoxville), we specifically asked if we could take flash pictures during the show and were told "absolutely". So imagine my surprise when we get up there and there's a big orange sign on the door which literally says "no cameras of any kind". What? I asked an attendant about it, to which I was told "only camera phones - no flash". I asked why and was told "I guess the band don't want it".
I decided to pursue this conversation for just a minute. I asked the attendant if it was simply that flash photography was prohibited (I wasn't intending to use my flash anyway), to which she nodded and said "only camera phones". This irked me because those aren't remotely the same thing.
So anyway, I took my camera back to the car and went in without it. But THEN, I saw 10 or 20 people using cameras with flashes throughout the show - sometimes very obviously. Also, I can't make any sense of "I guess the band don't want it" since their website has a place for fans to upload their own photos from the tour.

In the end, I probably enjoyed the show a little more because I wasn't concentrating on taking pictures, but I really would have liked to have had a few. I'm going to post something on the Decemberists message board - maybe I'll get an explanation there.

That annoyance aside, we had all had a great time. :)

~PS

What passes for 'Vacation'

Saturday September 26, 2009 at 10:22am birthdays, trips, vacation, family, weddings, friends Comments (0) »

Picking up from where I left off last time, Patrick's birthday party was a lot of fun. A group of us met up at a Japanese/Sushi place for dinner and then headed back to his place for cake and general hanging out. I had a good time playing with my new camera lens as it let me take a lot of pictures of those in attendance without the need (or distraction of) a flash.

And that, I guess, brings me to Ben's wedding and our trip to AR - which was our most recent 'vacation'. We have found that the past few years, we really haven't had much of a vacation to ourselves - our vacation time is invariably spent visiting family since they all live so far away that we have to plan it out and take about a week to make it worth the trip. Not that we don't enjoy visiting our families - because we really do - but we'd kind of like to work in our own vacation at some point.

So anyway, we headed out to AR on friday the 18th. Ben & Brie's wedding was on saturday the 19th which, it should be noted, is also 'Talk Like A Pirate' day (note that I *did* talk like a pirate a bit, but found it's not nearly as much fun around people that don't get it) Ben had asked me to take some pictures at his wedding, which I was happy to do since it meant I had an excuse to play with my camera. The wedding was at 6pm and outdoors. The lighting was pretty decent beforehand, through the ceremony and most of the way through the reception, but around the time of the cutting of the cake, I was losing too much light - even for a 1.4 aperture. Still, I think I got a lot of good stuff for him. The 'official' photographer used a flash for all of her pictures, so I believe our photos will have very different looks to them, which, together with the fact that I took more informal shots, might make mine seem less redundant.

The rest of our visit in AR was mostly hanging out with Sheri's parents and playing cards. We did go out to a park on monday to go heron watching, which was cool. We also went up to the visitor's center by the dam where I took some pictures of the flower garden they have as well as some in their little museum (again enjoying the ability to take pictures of things inside without a flash).

Wednesday was our drive home, which took forever and I was completely exhausted and getting a little bit of a sinus infection (which still hasn't completely gone away) by the time we arrived home. Sheri has been reading some Anne McCaffrey books to me on our various trips this year - this time some in the 'talent' series. I think we made it through a book and a half on this trip.

Thursday was officially 'recovery' day. I did very little except fight a sinus infection and veg.

Yesterday was the only day off I had that I personally count as 100% vacation (as opposed to merely not having to work). Robb took us out to Asheville to hang out in the downtown area. We'd heard good things about downtown Asheville from various locals (most recently, Dr. Beck whom we randomly ran into in a Burger King as we headed that way), but we'd never been to it (intentionally). It's a nice little area with some amusing shops. There's a lot more life there than in downtown JC, that's for sure. We had a good time hanging out, looking around, perusing the shops, etc. We had a tasty dinner at a little Irish(ish) pub called Jack in the Wood which had a nice atmosphere and friendly people. They even had a mural in the restroom which depicted a scroll with a poem about the forest.

Anyway, after dinner we headed over to the Civic Center for our original purpose for being in Asheville - which was to see the Decemberists concert. I'm gonna make that it's own post.

So now it's Saturday and my 'vacation' is winding down. Again, I really need to mow, but it's extremely wet and rainy outside and that doesn't work out so well with the push mower. I can't tell you how heart broken I am not to be mowing right now... ...though when I'm finally able to do it I'll wish I'd been able to do it sooner...

~PS

Photo Shows and New Arrivals

Saturday September 12, 2009 at 10:46am photography, shows, friends, munchkins, camera, birthdays Comments (3) »
Photo Shows and New Arrivals Image

Well, my photography show "opened" at WAPC yesterday evening. Some of my friends were there to show some support and hang out: Robb, Edie and Llama came and so did Larry and Kris Rosolina...and of course Sheri was there :). There were also a fair number of people from Watauga as well - some of who I had met, and some whom I hadn't. Lots of people said they really liked my pictures, which was cool. Larry and Kris suggested I look into putting some of my work into next year's regional fair or possibly some other kind of photography show. I'll have to think about that - it sounds interesting.

I think I'll put up an online version of the gallery at some point - with the photos I chose and their names (which I had a lot of fun with and got several compliments on specifically). The gallery has a lot of still-lifes, a few landscapes, some pets, some small children and one or two other random shots.


Anyway, while we were hanging out there, our friends Ginger and William Galaini became parents of little Liam Ross. We've seen some pictures already (this expediency is one of the many reasons I'm such a fan of the internet and digital cameras! :)) and he shows signs of extreme cuteness and being one with the Force. As far as we know, Ginger and the munchkin are doing ok, but that's mostly because we haven't heard otherwise...I hope that gets confirmed soon.


Not much else of note has transpired. I did get some new stuff for my camera on friday : an extra battery (needed), a cable release (yay for tripod stuff), a lens hood (say no to flare) and, most importantly, a shiny new lens. At $400 it was the least expensive of the ones on my list. It's a 50mm prime with a 1.4 maximum aperture. It's intended uses are for low-light/indoor, fine depth-of-field and portraits. I'm still getting used to exactly how narrow the depth of field is at 1.4 on a 50mm lens only a few feet from the subject - like different-parts-of-peoples-faces-being-in-and-out-of-focus kind of narrow. Still learning on it and continuing to enjoy playing with it though.


Tonight we're going to a friend's birthday party. That should be fun times. :)


Nothing else to report here. Carry on.


~PS

The View from Labor Day '09

Monday September 7, 2009 at 3:55pm sociology, milligan, photography, music, gaming, concerts Comments (0) »
The View from Labor Day '09 Image

Ah, yes. A holiday. This basically means I slept in (more). We haven't done a whole lot today. We did take Ally to walk around Sycamore Shoals - and she actually voluntarily jumped into the river!! So...maybe it's not the water that makes her dislike baths? It was quite hilarious...

Anyway...


I feel like I've been busy lately, but my calendar seems to disagree.


I've been trying to read some sociology lately. Dr. Beck, one of my favorite professors from Milligan, told me earlier in the summer when we were chatting at a Milligan picnic that if I ever wanted to sit in on any of her classes, I'd be welcome to. I responded by warning her that if she offered such an invitation, I would, in fact, show up. So ever since the semester started a couple weeks ago, I've been trying to make it to her Social Theory class on my lunch break on tuesdays and thursdays. I bring my laptop along and sit in on the discussions whilst going about my normal work - this is one of the great things about having a job like mine: I can pretty much work from anywhere I can get a 'net connection.

It has been very interesting. I've found that I miss having to think critically to understand things. While my job is very stimulating and requires a lot of creative thinking, it's far less taxing than reading Durkheim.


I got a call a while back from Sue Shanks at WAPC who asked me if I'd put up some of my pictures in Watauga's Gallery / Coffeehouse (Just Coffee) for about a month. I told her that sounded like fun, and since then I've gone through and selected about 25 of my pictures to get prints of and then mount in some mats and frames (where available/affordable). I've been getting the pictures printed as 8x10's, which necessitates some cropping since the aspect ratio of my camera's frame isn't the same as 8x10. For this and other reasons, I think some of my pictures look better on my computer screen than in the frames, but many of them look wonderful and I'm excited to have some hard copies and to get to share them. I've been working on getting them set up and thinking up interesting names for them (I like naming things). After the show, I'll probably end up giving quite a few of them away to people that want them.

The "show" officially "opens" this Friday, September 11th around 8pm 7pm at Watauga Avenue Presbyterian Church in the gallery downstairs. I'll be hanging out there most of evening. If you're reading this, you should come hang out with me, play some games, listen to some music (no salsa, I promise) and look at some pictures.


I've been playing my electric guitar quite a bit, but haven't done much with the band in the last couple of weeks.


On the gaming front, We had a very enjoyable second Mouse Guard session last night. As I've mentioned before, I'm finding that I'm needing to tweak a few rules to my liking, but overall I love the game immensely.

I've also been enjoying Patrick's Star Wars game quite a bit - last time, we found ourselves sucked into a Bonanza episode, and actually, it was quite awesome.

I've made a little more progress on my developing rp system, but I tend to go back-and-forth on a lot of things.


Sheri and I are making plans to head to AR for Ben's wedding in a couple of weeks and then, after that, we have tickets to go see the Decemberists in Asheville on the 25th!!!


~PS

Quick Blurbs

Sunday August 23, 2009 at 4:38pm friends, food, gaming, video games Comments (0) »

Not too much going on, just a few things to put down.

Had a great time at the Hippie Hut yesterday. We had a cookout with quite a few friends, played a couple of fun games (Red Dragon Inn and the always-favorite Apples to Apples) and generally had a good time hanging out. Sheri and I have discovered that we officially don't count as "company" anymore - meaning when we arrived early, we got to help clean up a little for later arrivals. Heh. We were glad to help.

Trying to work on some game and story content for a few different projects. Not sure how well it's going, but it's going. What I'm trying to do with some of it is a little different than anything i've tried before (I may elaborate on that later). In related news, I'm also looking forward to continuing our Mouse Guard game, whenever we can.

Of the fifty-something online matches i've now played on QuakeLive, I have 2 wins. That sounds pretty bad, but I'm actually a little proud of it. I've only played free-for-all, and it's really hard to come in 1st of everyone in the arena. Most of the time, I'm somewhere squarely in the middle, and usually 20ish points behind the leader.

~PS

Jamming and FPS attempts

Thursday August 20, 2009 at 9:54am band, video games Comments (1) »

Well, the band has had an unfortunate setback: our drummer has stepped down (hopefully) temporarily. He's apparently unhappy with how well he's playing. He's now taking some lessons and wants only to work on what his instructor is giving him, thinking that he's picked up some bad habits that are hindering him. I have my own thoughts relating to this (that aren't exactly in line with his), but basically it comes down to what he wants to do - if he wants to take a hiatus to work on some 'fundamentals', that's his call.

In the meantime, we (the rest of us) are still trying to get together and play. Mahto sat in on the drums yesterday, so we had a full band to practice with and we had a pretty good time - though i'm not sure how much progress we made.


In other, completely unrelated news, I've picked up an old addiction(?) again: online first person shooters. Namely, Quake.

As of Tuesday evening the QuakeLive beta supports Mac and Linux platforms. I'd wanted to try this for some time, because the idea behind it seemed awesome, but it was previously a windows-only endeavor. Better late than never.

QuakeLive is a "100% free-to-play" version of Quake 3 Arena that is completely run through a plugin for your browser. I'm pretty amazed at how well this works. The game plays just like it did as a stand-alone (if not better), includes the ability to customize a/v, player and other settings, and, most importantly, makes it incredibly easy to find matches to play in - they're all right there on your home page.

free + quake + multiplayer = fun!

...even if i still suck at this game...

:)

~PS

Jam Sessions, Heroic Rodents and One Hundred Yards to the Pin

Sunday August 16, 2009 at 3:01pm band, gaming, golf, trips, concerts Comments (1) »

You know, if i remembered to do this more often, I wouldn't have to cover eight things in one post... ...though I might have fewer nonsense titles, and I would miss that...

Anyway...

It seems i've been pretty busy over the last couple of weeks - though not with anything particularly important, mind you.

The band we're starting seems to be taking off nicely. We had our third practice last tuesday, and I thought it went pretty well. We're having a good time. Mahto actually joined us for that one. It was fun to have him around, but I think the sound got a little muddy with three guitars. I'm not entirely sure if it was just volume/eq or if we need to have a clearer conception of our respective guitar "parts" or possibly a combination of both. Anyway, I think our next practice is tentatively scheduled for wednesday, and I'm looking forward to some more jamming.

We *finally* got to start our Mouse Guard campaign friday evening, which I'm very excited about. It was a fun is slightly shorter session. I still feel a little awkward with the system as, unlike the d&d i've been playing/running for nine years, I don't always remember all the basic mechanics off the top of my head. I'm sure that will smooth out as we go though. I'm looking forward to continuing this game, and I hope we can get to be somewhat regular as I think that would help us as we learn the system.

I got to play golf for the second time this year yesterday. Our church helps sponsor the East TN Children's Home benefit tournament at the Elizabethton Golf Course each year, and so two of us get to go play in it. They asked me if I'd like to play and, after telling them I wasn't sure they wanted someone as lousy as me representing them (heh), I said I'd love to. Tracy Moore and I did pretty well, finishing up at +1. Of course, that was pretty much all him, but I will take credit for a few shots, most of which were chips and putts but they ended up saving us some pars and birdies. It was a good time, though it was pretty hot and I did get a nice sunburn.


A vague look ahead...

Well, my calendar looks kind of empty for the short run as of this moment, but it'll probably end up filling in too fast. Next month we'll be taking some time to go out to AR for Ben's (sheri's brother) wedding, causing us to miss yet another Talk Like A Pirate party. There's also a Decemberists concert the next week that I might be trying to go to, another small GitP gathering (with munchkins!) that I'd like to attend (though it kinda looks unlikely :() in october and then, further out at the beginning of november, we'll be enjoying having Thanksgaming - which will be another mini-gaming-convention much like RuchtCon for some of our gamer friends. I'm hoping run Mouse Guard (because everyone should get to try that game) and/or my homebrew system (because I think it will be fun and I'd like to see how it flows... ...but I haven't heard much interest in it as yet :\) for this. If I do get to run something, I'm glad I have a few months to prepare this time.


~PS

We're back

We're back Image

As some have commented, not too many knew we ever left. Probably because it was the sort of trip that was difficult to be real "excited" (and therefore talk much) about.

Last friday Sheri and I headed up to IN. The main reason for the trip was to go to the memorial service for her grandmother, who passed away back in april. As you might expect, it was a nice, if somewhat sad, time.

We spent some time with some of sheri's dad's family - for the first time, really. Stanley and Bonnie were hosting us as well as sheri's parents for the weekend. They were really nice and fun to chat with and we ended up talking with them for quite a while after her parents left on monday.

We also got to meet Ben's fiance. She seems nice, if quite shy. It was kind of a shame we didn't get more of a chance to hang out.

We also stopped in on my parents for about a day, which was great. We played some games and talked and generally had a good time.

While we were there, a rather significant storm system came through tuesday morning that resulted in flooding, power loss and downed trees. the downed trees resulted in a bit of a wet adventure as we tried to make it back to their house from lunch.

And, as I try to do each time I go to IN, I had Noble Roman's pizza and breadsticks. Tasty.

I put a few pictures from the trip up in the Gallery - mostly pictures of scenery and small children.


On some other stuff:

About a week ago we had the 3rd session for Little Fears (session synopsis on the gaming page soon). It went so-so. It was a little slow and certain elements didn't manifest quite the way I'd hoped, but it was alright. Hopefully next session will be a little more satisfying.

Last thursday we (me, robb, josh & bill) had our second band practice. Improvement from the previous session was 100%, not that that first practice wasn't great. That was the most fun I've had playing guitar in 5 years or more. :) Right now we're just doing cover songs, but we've talked briefly about maybe trying to write some stuff. We've also talked about possibly playing some small local shows once we get good and solid. We're planning to get together tomorrow for more fun. On a related note, I should be getting an eq to run my amp through soon.

~PS

Camera Gear and Lenses

Wednesday July 29, 2009 at 12:10am photography, camera gear, lenses Comments (0) »

This is unlikely to interest many who read this blog, but I feel the need to record some current thoughts for posterity and/or later reference - mostly because i've spent a lot of time thinking over and researching this stuff, and I like to post something about anything on which I spend this much effort.

As you many know, I've spent a *lot* of time with my camera since I got it back in December of 2007. I've taken about nearly sixteen thousand pictures with it since that time, and I've greatly enjoyed learning all kinds of things about photography and how to do certain things and what works and what doesn't for a given application.

I knew before I even bought my 40D that there would be other pieces of camera equipment in which I'd want to invest in order to get the most out of it. One of the great things about having a nice DSLR as opposed to a point-and-shoot (or even a compact, all-in-one dslr) is that there is a wide array of supplementary equipment that can make your camera into the perfect instrument for many different photographic applications - and the more I shoot, the more I realize what the advantage to having this or that lens or some other accessory would be.

Unfortunately, if you're going for high quality (and if i'm going to spend much, I am), camera stuff is expensive. Really. I've been saving since they day I got this thing, and i'm still a considerable ways from having anything i'm after. Fortunately, this doesn't really bother me. It's fun to daydream about how it'll be cool if I can get this stuff someday, but other priorities dictate that I wait a while.

I have so far been able to buy one additional item for my camera: over christmas last year I was able to pick up my flash, the 430ex II Speedlite, with which I have been extremely happy. It was about the cheapest thing on my list at ~$250 (apart from things like 'an extra battery' - yeah, i told you this stuff was pricey), but it was probably the most important for the most applications. The lighting this flash gives is unbelievably better and brighter than the pop-up flash and the ability to bounce light off of walls and ceilings has all but negated problems with red-eye and harsh shadows typically experienced with built-in flashes. It's nice enough that I don't actually *hate* using a flash anymore.

So that leaves me with the more expensive stuff...

I decided a quite a while back what lenses I wanted, and I still think the array is good. Specifically which lenses make up that array are the subject of frequent change, but in general, here's what I want (I have briefly mentioned this before; a little has changed):

1. A wide-aperture lens for low light, fine depth-of-field, etc. For this one, I've pretty much decided on the Canon EF 50mm f1.4. It's a relatively inexpensive yet very well-reviewed lens, and there's little that compares with it in this price range.

2. A wide-angle lens for landscapes, indoor photography, large group shots, etc. Probably the Canon EF-S 10-22, or possibly the Sigma 10-20. Really, I'd rather have a 10 or 12mm prime instead of a zoom here, but apparently no one makes one.

3. A long telephoto for wildlife and other subjects I'm unable to approach very closely. And this one is the one for which I change my mind every few days. It's also by far the most expensive (not that the others are cheap). It's *also* the one I want the most. I generally look at all of these lenses in turn; each of them have very specific pros and cons. As opposed to the other lens types, I just don't think there's a 'perfect fit' for me that works for what I *want* and what i might be able to afford at some point.

This is the first one I looked at, and I think i've come full circle back to figuring it's the one I should save for - it just seems to have the nicest mix.

• The Canon 100-400 4.5-5.6L IS
    Pros: L-series (pro quality), Zoom flexibility, IS (image stabilization), good reach
    Cons: Clarity/sharpness maybe not *quite* as good as prime lens, most expensive

But, there are also these:

• The Canon 300mm 4L IS
    Pros: L-series, Prime clarity/sharpness, IS
    Cons: no zoom flexibility, shorter reach

• The Sigma 120-400 OS
    Pros: least expensive (but well reviewed), Zoom flexibility, IS, good reach
    Cons: Clarity/sharpness probably not as good as prime lens, esp. at long end

• The Canon 400mm 5.6L
    Pros: L-series, Prime clarity/sharpness, good reach
    Cons: no zoom flexibility, no IS


I have spent a ridiculous amount of time reading reviews and looking at photos taken with all of this stuff - which, in itself, has taught me a few things.


So there we have it, my list of expensive toys outlined and documented. Maybe someday I'll get to buy some of them. Heh.


And now, on to other stuff...


:)


~PS

Movies, Music and Mice

Tuesday July 21, 2009 at 12:52pm friends, movies, guitar, band, gaming Comments (1) »

I've had a few things going on the last couple of weeks, but not much worthy of recording or reporting.


About a week ago we took the Gamers II movie over to Rucht & McKenna's house so they could see it, and Tony joined us as well. It was a good time. I think McKenna was laughing so hard she was crying. (aside: If you're a roleplayer, you should really see the Dead Gentlemen's movies 'The Gamers' and 'The Gamers II: Dorkness Rising'.)


Last saturday we went over to Robb & Edie's to hang out for a while. Robb, Josh and I hung out on the porch playing guitar while Robb was starting one of his brewing projects. At some point we got to talking about going to Josh's house to play with his dad, Bill, who is a drummer, so on sunday we met up at Bill's place and jammed hard for a few hours. That was a lot of fun. I've played with Robb a bit and with Josh once and we'd never played with Bill. For our first time getting together, we sounded great. I really don't think it will take much work for us to sound quite good. *With* a lot of work, I think we could sound pretty awesome. We're trying to make plans to get together again soon.


I've been working on my Mouse Guard campaign quite a bit. We finally got to get together to make characters last night. We didn't have time to really get started on the game itself, but we had fun and I think the players have come up with some really cool ideas. I really like how character creation works in this system. Hopefully we'll get to actually start the game soon, but, unfortunately, it probably won't be for a couple of weeks.


In other news, we *still* need to get out and ride our bikes. It seems like something always comes up whenever we think we might try to go out.


~PS

Fireworks Weekend

Monday July 6, 2009 at 12:40pm holidays, friends, food, photography, birthdays Comments (2) »
Fireworks Weekend Image

So this weekend was the July 4th holiday. We went over to Rucht & McKenna's to join in their massive party. It was a lot of fun. We got to meet some new people, which I always enjoy - especially when we have something in common. It was also really cool to get to hang out with a few folks we don't get to see much since they're from out of town.

The desserts Sheri and I brought were both big hits. This was very gratifying, but I wouldn't have complained had the other guests liked the lemon cheese bars a little *less* (i.e., if there had been even one left over).

At the end of the evening, we all watched the JC fireworks display, which is conveniently set off pretty much right behind their house. A few of us climbed up onto Rucht's roof to get a better view - which was cool. I don't do heights and I won't say I was completely comfortable the whole time, but it was fun nonetheless.

I had brought my camera to experiment with taking pictures of the fireworks - which is a bit of a tricky art. I wasn't expecting to get anything terribly good, I just wanted to evaluate what would be necessary to do it. Still, I got a few shots I consider to be pretty interesting, and I've put them up in the gallery. I do wish I'd taken some pictures of the party, but I feel a little self-conscious taking pictures of such a large group of people many of whom I'd just met.

On Sunday we went to Katie's 5th birthday party. It was intended to be a pool party, but rain and some cold weather put a bit of a damper on that. It did eventually clear and warm up enough that a few people got in, but most of us simply spectated. Most importantly, Katie had a good time, and we all enjoyed playing with her.

~PS

Keep It Flowing

Friday July 3, 2009 at 11:27am jeep repair, gaming Comments (0) »

Well, we finally got the jeep to the mechanics on wednesday for a replacement fuel pump. So far it seems to be behaving - but, even though i was 99% convinced this was the problem, it'll take a week or so with no problems before i'm convinced.


About the only other things to report are gaming-related.

I finally got to run Mouse Guard! Granted it was just an intro session using one of the sample missions (though i did add a bit to it) and characters, but still, i'm just glad we finally got to play.

This game is going to be a lot of fun. I *love* the setting and 99% of the mechanics, though I did house-rule something out from the start: I don't like the "turns" system. It seems too arbitrary, railroaded and limiting. Basically, the way it reads, is that the GM gets a "turn" where the players deal with all the stuff he/she has planned. Then the players get a "turn" where they can do certain things. There are certain things that the players can't do during the GM's turn (no matter how much sense it would make for them to do it then), and vice-versa. I also don't like the "checks" system that goes with this - where the players spend "checks" that they've accumulated during the GM's "turn" to do things on their "turn": if you don't have a checks, you can't initiate things. It could be that i'm misreading it, or maybe it's not meant to be as set in stone as it seems to be presented, but I just don't like how these aspects read so i'm not using them.

In the game's defense on this matter, my thought is that this game isn't actually written for roleplayers - it seems to be written assuming the players have never played a tabletop rpg before. I think it's just trying to give very clear and definite guidelines so that both the players and the GM know what to do when in a more concrete way - via the "turns" - as opposed to a more abstract flow where the characters can do things "when it makes sense" or "when they have downtime" or in other, more narrative but less definitive conditions.

Aside from this relatively minor game-flow-based complaint (which was pretty easy to house-rule out), I really like the system a lot and I'm really looking forward to an ongoing Mouse Guard game. :) The plan for next session is for the players to actually make their own characters for our campaign.


In other gaming news, my system has been tabled again. I think the game was solid the way it was, but I had an epiphany at about 6am the other day for a change that would result in a game I *like* more. I now just need to work out exactly how i want a couple of related aspects to work. Basically I'm finding out that I like abstract/descriptive/narrative terms better than numbers: I think I'm now trying to make a system that is based on numbers as little as possible. As I was saying to Robb last night, I'd rather have a character in a game who was "Very Strong" and to get a certain advantage for possessing that "trait" than to have a character with a high, numerical strength "score". It's just more intuitive and descriptive.

So yeah, back to game design. I'll get something I'm happy with some day I'm sure ;)... ...and it'll probably only take another 13 mind-changes...


~PS

An Epic Weekend

Monday June 29, 2009 at 9:37am gitp, ootscon report, friends, games Comments (2) »
An Epic Weekend Image

As I previously mentioned, this last weekend was the 3rd Annual Southeast-Trogland Giant in the Playground Meetup - aka: SET GITP Meetup 2k9. This is our third year hosting playgrounders from all over (which i find to be pretty impressive in itself), and it continues to be awesome.

Our group this year wasn't *quite* as big as last year (there were several who really wanted to, but were unable to make it - and we *did* miss them), but in some ways, the smaller group was better overall.

Here's basically how this all went down:

On friday night around 7pm, we all met up at Thunderdome. This was the "official" start of the festivities, but several people had arrived earlier that day, and we hung out at the Hippie Hut for a while beforehand.

Thunderdome is basically a JC gamer's hangout. They have about 20 networked PC's as well as some consoles hooked to projector screens, and a bunch of board games. They also serve some pretty tasty food. We had told the owner that we were going to be invading on friday night, and he said they'd stay open as long as we wanted, basically... ...so we all had a good time playing video games, board games and card games (and some played a session of Paranoia) till about 3am.

On saturday around 1pm, we all went over to the Greenwood Challenge Course, which as been a meetup locale for all three years. It's a private area with a shelter, an open field area, as well as some high-ropes climbing elements that Robb is certified to administrate. We had a cookout and spent the afternoon playing Kubb and some other games and watching a few climb up about 70ft to 'the wall'.

On saturday night, we all headed to the Mid City Grill for food and more games. Mid City is a great place for this, as it's about the most laid-back restaurant i've ever been to. Oh, and they're also open till well-past stupid-thirty in the morning. Zeb & Alarra taught me and Sheri to play the Ticket to Ride card game, which we'd never had a chance to play before. It's really cool. If past years are any indication, there's a good chance Sheri will get that for her birthday or christmas this year. There were also games of Munchkin Fu, Monty Python Fluxx, Battlestar Galactica and a session of 4e D&D (which was testing encounters for a module written by one of the absent playgrounders). Probably more as well.

Sheri, Ginger and I left the party around midnight, but I'm told festivities continued (in various places) until about 6am. I do wish I'd been able to stay with them a while longer, but we had to get up for church in the morning and honestly, I was pretty tired by that point anyway.

When we returned from Erwin on sunday, our house had been occupied by the remaining playgrounders (some had had to leave earlier). This *was* the plan, but it was still kinda odd to walk into your house to find a bunch of people you'd only met a couple days ago. We played an interesting game of Monster Manual Charades (high recommended, btw ;)), a game of Werewolf (the party/card game, not the whitewolf rpg), and then there was some Ticket to Ride, Arkham Horror and Set.

I need to point out here that, while the Ticket to Ride and Arkham Horror games were going on, I was sorting through some pictures in here on my computer. As it happened, the acoustics in our house were such that I couldn't tell whose voice was coming from where. Also, everyone's voices were at almost the same volume. At one point, I heard the following dialog:

Voice 1: "Ok, I'm going from Raleigh to Pittsburgh"
Voice 2: "So, are you attacking it or what?"

It was... ...a little surreal.

Anyway, people began to head out, but the rest of us hung out and had a great time till all had departed.

It was a great weekend. I miss everyone already and can't wait for next year. About 129 of my best shots from the weekend have been posted in the Gallery (plus the pretty-terrible-but-existent group shot shown here - next year, I think we're going to try to stage this at the challenge course...it should also be noted that the shot is missing a few people).


I feel like I should mention that the weekend *was* marred by one pretty significant black spot: one of the guys ended up in the hospital. I haven't mentioned it on the boards, and I don't want to talk about it here much because other peoples' health concerns are kind of a private thing, but I felt like if I didn't mention it at all, it would sound like I didn't care - and that's completely untrue. I should also point out that this incident isn't directly related to anything going on this weekend - it was just something that happened to happen here. We're all pretty sure everything is going to be ok, but he's going to be there for a couple of days. He's had some visitors from a few of the playgrounders before they left town, and I think he'll have some more from the locals. And of course we all wish him a speedy recovery... ...and that it didn't completely kill the experience for him.

EDIT: Supagoof has since told us to let people know what happened: basically, he's diabetic and his insulin pump stopped working, causing his blood sugar to skyrocket (like, 600+). We went to hang out with him in the hospital last night. He seems to be doing pretty well and was in fairly good spirits. We were actually there for over 5 hours playing games and talking to pass the time. His brother is flying into town tonight and he'll hopefully be released today. He said he had a great time at the meetup right up until this happened. We hope he comes back next year.


~PS

A Quick Note

Friday June 26, 2009 at 12:41pm friends, gaming, gitp meetup Comments (0) »

Friday, June 26th, lunchtime -

Had a great time with the Rosolinas at dinner on wednesday. They're lots of fun - i wish our schedules would let us get together with them more often.

Worked on gaming project a little more, changed some things, hoping to playtest soon.

House clean, Ally had a bath, am eating lunch and finishing up some work.

2009 SET GITP Meet-up is very nearly underway. Some people are already in town, others are heading this way.

More later.

~PS

Gaming Projects, etc

Monday June 22, 2009 at 10:22am gaming, video games, music Comments (0) »
Gaming Projects, etc Image

So I just looked at my calendar for last week, and, apart from work, it's completely empty... ...yet, I feel like I've been very busy somehow.

Apart from the Little Fears session (which was awesome :)) we had at the beginning of this month and the Star Wars game I've joined, we haven't gamed in like two months. Yes, I realize that sounds dumb (ala, "aside from this gaming, I haven't gamed at all"). I guess what I really mean to say is that, due to massive scheduling conflicts, both of my normal, weekend gaming groups have been out of commission for a while. Since April 25th, to be exact.

I'd probably be feeling more severe withdraw symptoms, but I've been using the interim to work on my new gaming system. It's currently composed of about 15 pages of rules and examples plus some prototype character sheets. I also bought about $10 worth of glass pebbles to be used as various markers/tokens for this system. It's pretty much ready to playtest at this point and now that the foundation is laid, I'm about ready to move on to writing some setting stuff. The system itself is designed to be setting-independent, so my options for setting design are pretty much limitless. :)

Once the game reaches Beta (that is, once I've had a chance to playtest it for a few sessions), I intend to post everything in its own little corner of my site. I'm really excited about this thing. Some of you know I've designed systems before, but they've all been very informal and not terribly complete - which is to say, once i started fleshing them out, I abandoned the concepts because they weren't going to work as well as I'd like. This one, on the other hand, has proven to be exactly what I wanted, it has been reasonably well documented and has been developed and tweaked over the course of the last year or more. I feel like it has really solidified - and, most importantly, has remained true to its root philosophies (more on that at a later date).


In other gaming news, I'm still very much looking forward to the Mouse Guard game. I actually got the last issue in the current series (Winter 1152) yesterday, and it's quite good. I previously hadn't thought much about Mouse Guard in a while because, as I said, the group has been unable to meet to play the game and I've been working on other projects. Hopefully (reasonably) soon.


On a different gaming note, over the last week, I've begun and nearly completed the original NES Metroid which I downloaded for my Wii. I even got as far as destroying Mother Brain, but was unable to get out before it exploded (possibly because I thought I had to go back out the way I came in). It's been fun, if occasionally frustrating. After I finally beat it, I think i'll see about getting the SNES Super Metroid.


On a not-at-all-gaming note, The songwriting/music part of my brain has been occasionally bouncing some ideas around as well. I really need to start doing some writing for next year's RPM...


~PS

On a Variety of Recent Activities

Sunday June 14, 2009 at 4:39pm weddings, trips, friends, churches, songwriting, music, gitp, gaming Comments (7) »

Sheri, Llama and I took a trip out to North Carolina this weekend to attend our friend Kevin's wedding. It was a nice little ceremony. We're all very happy for them. Stephanie is sweet, and well suited to Kevin in a number of ways. It was good to see him so obviously happy too.

I must confess a bit of mild camera-gear-envy with respect to the photographers' toys. Also, there was a penguin cake at the reception, which was cool.

We got to see some other mutual friends there too - William and Ginger and Mike and Bethany. It's always good to see people we don't get to hang out with much (esp. Ginger who just moved away from us). We spent saturday afternoon and evening hanging out and playing games with Ginger and William. It was a lot of fun - we don't play games as much as we used to.

The car ride was a bit long, and I think Llama was starting to get a little loopy by 2am when we got home, but the trip was successfully completed.

This morning we went to Hopwood Christian Church. We had originally thought we were still going to be in NC this morning and so had arranged for Sheri to have this morning off at our church, but we ended up coming home saturday night and so decided to visit somewhere else. It was nice, actually. Jim Street had a great message about how to bless a fish (heh), and it was probably the most thought-provoking message i've heard in a while - and one that I truly thought embodies the spirit of christianity. We saw the Rosolinas (who we're still trying to have over for dinner sometime) there and also Brian West and his family (who i hadn't had a chance to talk much to in a while). Brian and Danielle invited us over for lunch, and we ended up hanging out and talking for a quite a while.

Brian is trying to get motivated to record some of his songs, and I think this is a great idea. He's been writing for a long time, and he's really into it - but most of his stuff just gets left on the page after it's written and he doesn't have any really good sounding recordings of any of it. We had a lengthy and interesting talk about the technical and artistic aspects of songwriting and recording. I really hope he does something with this. I've even offered to help with the technical stuff which intimidates him a little - not because i'm great, but because i've at least done it before. Maybe it'll get him started.

Tonight we're supposed to have a planning meeting for OotsCon '09. Our crowd this year looks a little smaller and some key people will be missing (and they will be missed), but some *other* people are able to make it this year. Hopefully it will be as successful as it's been the last two years. It's really not about the numbers, it's about the fun - there were only 13 11 of us at the first OotsCon back in '07. Hopefully we'll be able to get our plans ironed out.

My homebrew gaming system has reached Alpha status. I have just a couple more mechanical aspects to iron out, and then the first round of playtesting will begin with whoever i can get to help me out with this. I've discussed the theory of the system at some length with Sheri and Tony, and they both seemed to think it has some potential. It is definitely a bit different in its root philosophy from the games like D&D that we're used to - but I personally think these differences are a *good* thing. At whatever point the system reaches Beta, I'll be posting some more detailed info on it.


~PS

Blue Plum, etc

Blue Plum, etc Image

This weekend was Johnson City's annual Blue Plum Festival. Basically, it's a weekend event that takes over downtown JC the first weekend in June. I did, in fact, see some people selling(?) plums, but they were pretty sparse. Mostly it's a bunch of crafts/vendor booths, tons of festival food, and three stages spaced just far enough apart that they don't overlap acoustically (too much).

This was the first year that I would say we've "gone" to the festival. We went and walked around a little a couple years ago, but didn't do or see much - but that was largely ok since it was about 97 degrees. This year, we met up with some friends and enjoyed an afternoon of meandering around together - and I was having a good time taking some pictures. We also met up with some other friends of Robb & Edie's and also with Mahto and some of his buddies so that by the time we had dinner at Mid City, we were a rather sizable group (aside: we still have to get together with Steven for a game of Munchkin).

After our tasty dinner, we went back to a particular stage to see a band called Cutthroat Shamrock. They had been compared by some friends of mine to groups like Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys. They are basically an Irish-flavored punk group. I wouldn't say they were amazing, but it was a good show: they all played their instruments well and had good stage presence and personality. About the only "critique" i would give is that most of their songs had the same kind of sound. It was a *good* sound, there just wasn't much variety. Still, i think a couple of friends picked up a couple of their records, and i liked them enough to be interested in hearing some more.

Some pictures of the Blue Plum are up in the Gallery.

(kinda) Speaking of, i'm looking into possibly picking up my music hobby again sometime soon for some song writing (maybe for next year's rpm).

In gaming news: I finally got to continue my Little Fears game from RuchtCon! I love this game, and i've greatly enjoyed coming up with spooky stuff to put in it...though after i've been working on it, I find i'm a little edgy at night. I think I empathize a little too much with the children in the story. Anyway, If you've taken a look at the Gaming page recently, you've seen the novel of a session summary i've written up for it.

Still looking to start up Mouse Guard, but it probably won't happen until next month, due to scheduling.

Also, i'm working on finalizing (finally) the simple mechanics for the homebrew roleplaying system (which still needs a name) that i've been working on for the past...too long.

The 3rd Annual GitP Southeast Trogland meetup is fast approaching. We've had several people cancel on us unfortunately, but we're still expecting a decent crowd and fun times. That'll be 26th-28th of this month.

Played the zombie-killing board game Last Night On Earth for the first time on friday. Despite dying in the first 5 minutes, it was pretty fun. It seems pretty much straight-up die rolling players-vs-zombies though, as, apart from trying to get some 'hero cards' (w/ items or special actions) to play, there really isn't much else you can do - and strategy seems to generally boil down to "do we want to be together, or separate?" Answer: together.
Anyway, post-game thoughts: 1) The Sheriff sucks. Yes, i know he's the only character that gets to start with a gun. You know what? He sucks with that gun. He forgets to load it and, even if he has some, he can't hit the broad side of a zombie. 2) If you are the priest, do whatever you can to get the pitchfork. Yes, I know that doesn't make sense, but the priest can't use guns. I (somehow) killed like 8 zombies with the pitchfork. It felt ridiculous, though awesome. 3) In theory (statistically), it's much easier to kill a zombie with a gun than with something like the pitchfork. In practice: yeah right.

As for the Wii, i'm currently addicted to Excite Truck - a stunt-racing game Rucht gave us for christmas. It has a bunch of unlockable stuff, and it's capable of some pretty impressive crashes. Sheri's kind of good at this game, but mostly she just sucks really, really well.

Wanting to go ride our bikes, but we're waiting for Sheri's ankle (which she hurt a while back) to be (more) fully recovered.

~PS

Weekend with Parents: Golf, Plumbing, Waterfalls

Sunday May 31, 2009 at 9:05pm family, home repairs, golf, hiking, photography Comments (4) »
Weekend with Parents: Golf, Plumbing, Waterfalls Image

Well, my parents were in this weekend - it's always cool to have them. They don't make it down here enough, really... ...and we don't make it up to IN much either.

After they arrived on friday, we went out to play some golf. I played only using 5, 7 and 9 irons and a putter. I have discovered this does not negatively impact my game - in fact, I think it makes it a bit better overall. I've decided i'm not cool enough to use other clubs, so i'm gonna stick with these for a while. Or, as Jody put it, I haven't "unlocked" the other clubs yet. I think I need to reach 200 good shots with the 5 before I unlock the 2 iron...

I think my dad fixes something every time he comes to see us. This time, it was a leak in the shower dripping into the basement... ...oh, and also our outside water spigot which seems to have developed a tradition of freezing and breaking every year, no matter what I do to prevent this. We think it's good this time though. Probably.

On saturday, we gave dad an early fathers' day present. It was a picture frame. He'd said he wanted a print of one of my photographs so I decided I'd let him pick one. Well, we got to talking and he said he really liked several of them, but asked if I had a picture of the creek from the Laurel Falls trail (which we'd hiked earlier this week on Memorial Day), but with smoother (aka "fuzzy") water. I said no, but that I could. I'd wanted to go back there anyway, since we had some trouble finding part of the trail last time. This, in turn, spawned an expedition.

The four of us (dad, mom, me and Sheri) went out to the Laurel Falls trail again with the intention of me taking a particular photo. We waited till mid-afternoon (so that by the time we got there it would be late afternoon), and then headed out to the trail. I took quite a few more pictures this time - including some slow-exposures with a tripod (which i didn't have with me on monday). I got some pretty awesome shots, I think.

We ended up hiking the whole trail which, contrary to what i'd previously heard, isn't really any easier than the upper trail: it's difficulty is just a bit more spread out (as opposed to being incredibly rough at the end). On average, I'd say the two trails are comparable.

Aside from Sheri's ankle (which has been sore for a while), it was a good time. I've recompiled the pictures that I took on monday and added the new ones to the collection in the Gallery. Dad ended up choosing the wider shot of the falls for his frame, though we got prints of two others as well (since he couldn't pick just one).

They headed back to IN this afternoon. Back to the normal routine.

~PS

Quite a Week

Tuesday May 26, 2009 at 12:23pm milligan, gaming, friends, moving, holidays, hiking, bicycles Comments (8) »

This last week has been pretty crazy. A lot of out-of-the-ordinary has gone on. This is really 3 or 4 blogs in one - and is mostly just a 'state of the penguin' address.

Last Tuesday, Sheri and I went to Milligan's faculty/staff picnic - which was open to "many" part-time employees this year (the wording of the invitation email left something to be desired). It was actually pretty cool. I knew quite a few people there and got to talk to some I didn't know so well. I also got to talk to Dr. Beck for a little while, which was cool. She was one of my Sociology profs at Milligan and one of my favorite professors overall. She told me i could sit in on one of her classes if I want sometime - which I'll probably do if i can find one at a time that doesn't conflict with other stuff too much.

Last Thursday I got to join Patrick's Star Wars game. I've generally enjoyed the Star Wars games i've played in before and the rules for the new system are fairly simple (which i like). It was a lot of fun and i'm looking forward to continuing it in a couple of weeks.

On Friday, Kevin and Steph (his fiance) came into town, along with Mike and Bethany (some friends we don't get to see much). The girls all went out to have a sort of bachelorette party for Ginger and Mike, Kevin and I went to see a (decidedly mediocre) movie.

After that, we all met up again to throw Kevin in the creek at Milligan around midnight. That might require a little explanation for some of you. Apparently Milligan has a "tradition" wherein guys who become engaged at Milligan are thrown into the creek by their buddies. The triggers for this operation have since been blurred to include Milligan alumni as well, so Ginger and Steph decided Kevin was fair game. I've personally always thought this tradition was dumb, and strikes me as locker-room behavior. (Sidenote: When I proposed to Sheri, I made it quite clear to some friends that this would not be happening - or, if it did, people would be physically harmed in the process and we might not all consider each other friends afterward. I have found that being physically forced into something I don't want is one of the few things that will trigger a violent reaction from me. I am very thankful they respected my wishes here.) Everyone else, however, seems to think this is great, and as long as all involved are reasonably amenable, it doesn't inherently bother me. The only reason I was involved, however, was because Ginger asked me to take pictures, which I did. Those have been posted in the Gallery :)

Saturday was moving day for Ginger. A bunch of us descended upon her apartment and possessions and spent the hours between 10am and 4pm (more or less) packing up stuff and loading it in a u-haul. After that we all went out to Mid-City Grill and had a good time relaxing and talking after a tiring afternoon. Unfortunately then we had to say some goodbyes, which sucked. I think things will be a little better for her up in VA, but we all miss Ginger a lot. Hopefully we'll get to see her from time to time. It's not the same when someone's missing.

Sunday was "recovery day" from the late nights and monumental-packing done earlier in the weekend. We went to church, but beyond that we didn't do very much. I briefly considered mowing the lawn, but decided against it (in part due to rain). That'll probably get done today.

Yesterday was Memorial Day, so we had an extra day off. In order to take advantage of the warm holiday, we decided to go hiking. The weather threatened to rain us out, but we decided to go anyway. We went out to the lower entrance to Laurel Falls and hiked around there for a while. Due to some trickiness in the trail, we never actually *found* said falls. Yes, I know that sounds ridiculous. At a certain point, none of us could find the trail and, given its location perched above the creek, I was disinclined to mess around too much since I had my camera. We talked to some people later who explained it to us and we think we know where it is now. We still had a great time and I got some good pictures, which have been posted in the Gallery.

After the hiking we grilled some hot dogs and then Sheri and I went into town and ended up buying some bicycles. Before that sounds totally random, let me give you some background:
Some time ago, we decided the 5th Anniversary is the Bicycle Anniversary and so we decided we'd get some bicycles as anniversary presents for each other. Sheri had said she wanted to get them before our actual anniversary because by the time we get to late July, a lot of the good cycling weather for the year is behind us - so we'd been looking around. We initially looked at Dick's Sporting Goods, but most of those seemed really expensive and we didn't really need anything amazingly cool. We also looked at walmart (though I was/am disinclined to buy a bicycle from them), target and even toys-r-us - just trying to see what was available and to evaluate some prices. So yesterday, we decided to go to the mall for something completely different - something we'd never actually end up doing, as it turns out.
We entered through Dick's (as we usually do) and decided to go look at the bikes again - just for fun. We ended up finding a couple that weren't much more expensive than one's we'd priced elsewhere and this was actually the first time Sheri found one she really liked. So after quite a bit of discussion, we decided to go ahead and get them.
I'm glad we ended up buying from an actual sporting goods place. The guy there was able to answer some questions and when we'd decided to buy something, he went over everything (gear changers, brakes, tire pressure, etc) on both of them, making sure everything was working smoothly and correctly and in good condition. IMO, this was worth the $20 price difference.
So we're excited about this. We know of a few places around here that will be lots of fun to go and ride (which will be practical once we have a carrying rack - getting them home last night was *possible*, but not pretty) and i'm sure there are quite a few others.

So now we're sort-of back to the usual grind - but not completely. It'll be a short week for me as I'm taking this Friday off since my parents are coming into town this weekend... ...so we'll be getting ready for that this week. That'll be fun too.

~PS

A good way to spend a saturday evening

Sunday May 17, 2009 at 1:23pm food, friends Comments (2) »

Yesterday, my friends, we feasted.

In the interest of using up some of the contents of Ginger's fridge & freezer before her move, we had what turned out to be a monstrous cookout last night. It would seem we fell victim to an overcompensation for a worry about having enough food to the point that we had more than we could have possibly eaten if we'd all been fasting for a week. For 7 of us, we had a couple of steaks, some hamburgers, some sausages and a small mountain of chicken, mushroom, zucchini, onion, pepper and pineapple kabobs as well as a tray of fries and a couple quarts of ice cream for dessert. When we began to realize were were going to have so much food, we tried to think of some others to invite, but most of the likely parties who were not already present were off doing other things. Despite hearty appetites, there were lots of leftovers. Not that that's a bad thing.

So after spending quite some time cooking, grilling and otherwise preparing our tastiness, we enjoyed a leisurely and abundant meal while chatting about various things. This was followed by some enjoyable games and general relaxation to go with our ice cream.

All in all, a good way to spend a nice, spring evening.

~PS

Still More Evidence

Friday May 15, 2009 at 9:33am gaming, rants Comments (6) »

...that D&D is going in a direction I don't like. It could just be that I'm unfairly biased against 4e (which i probably am) and so tend to look down on a lot of their marketing - and maybe i misinterpret things - but some things just rub me the wrong way. And I also know it's more what you *do* with it than what they tell you to do with it, but still. Often, I overlook such things, but when something strikes me as blatantly as this, I feel somehow compelled to respond - at least to myself.

On Penny Arcade, I just saw a banner ad which read:

If you want to play this guy [picture of mini], you pick up this box [picture of mini in packaging] /cut. tag: Play the character you want. Player's Handbook Heroes: Series 1. Logo: Dungeons & Dragons. Subtext: Never Split The Party


Problems I have with this (these are actually all inter-related, but they break down into 3 broad points):

1) Product == fun (ala tabletop minis games, ccg's, etc). "If you want to play this guy, you pick up this box". One of the biggest strengths of the roleplaying hobby is that it doesn't require spending lots of money. The books are typically expensive, but really, while it's good for all the players to have a players book, a group really only *needs* one (I played for several months before I had any gaming books[/uphillbothways]). Here, it's telling me that I'll need something *else* to play their game, or at least to play it the "right" way. Oh, and so will all my friends. Oh, and the GM will probably need a bunch of these things to depict npc's, etc.

2) Stifle Creativity (ala video games). "Play the character you want. Player's Handbook Heroes: Series 1". What? The game is meant to have a near-infinite number of character possibilities. Do they also have a near-infinite number of miniatures to depict all possible combinations and styles? Doubtful. No, these are minis depicting the iconic characters from the books. What happened the the creativity of coming up with your *own* stuff? Now i'm expected to pick something from a store shelf to be "my" character? It's one thing to try to go find a mini that looks like your character because you *want* to - it's quite another to say "this guy looks cool, I think i'll play him".

3) Encourage Poor Roleplaying / Winning Is What Matters (ala mmorpgs) - "Never Split The Party". Ok, I know a lot of players who live by this mantra, but I personally hate it. Not because it's tactically unsound (which is generally their reasoning), but because it's unrealistic. No matter how much your characters like each other, sooner or later they're going to have things they want or need to do by themselves. It's one thing when you're in some cursed dungeon, it's quite another when you're in town or somewhere your characters would not expect trouble (even if the players are). The whole "Never split the party" idea makes me want to force them to roleplay bathroom breaks and then send a rabid krenshar after some character peeing in the woods. The players in my games are usually pretty good about this, but that's because most of them are there to roleplay, not simply "defeat" the challenges presented.

Ok, I'm done.

~PS

Why is it...

...that i can mash the button on the jeep's clicker for five minutes and it will not unlock for anything, but i can then hand it to Sheri and she'll push the button once and, click, it works...???

Research is currently underway to determine if this is also related to the Pickle Jar Phenomenon.

And now, the news (in no particular order):

Getting new tires on the jeep tomorrow. Yay rah exciting, i know, but it needs done.

We played catch in our backyard today. This seems random, and it is, but Sheri had been saying for a couple years that we should get some ball gloves and baseball and play catch because it would be fun. We had a couple of walmart gift cards, and it seemed an amusing thing to spend them on.

I think the last of Hikaru's current computer problems has been isolated and (somewhat) solved. I love my computers... ...when they work.

Had a great time jamming at the Hippie Hut yesterday. I think we're still one band member short, but it's going pretty well.

Continuing to go over the Mouse Guard rules and trying to get one of the current D&D story arcs wrapped up so i can put it on the back burner for a while in the interest of something new.

Been looking over some camera lenses and reviews of them. I know i want a long telephoto, a super-wide-angle and a wide-aperture prime (probably 50mm), but i keep going back-and-forth regarding exactly which ones i'm after. Oh well, i've got time.

Had a going away party for Ginger last weekend - which she almost missed ;). I think we had a dozen people or so. I took a few pictures - but didn't get too many before my flash batteries died. I hadn't thought about bringing the camera until right before we left and at that point i didn't have time to charge them. Anyway, we had a bit of a cookout and then sat around and talked for a good while. Later we played a game of Apples to Apples, which is always fun. It was a good time. We're going to miss Ginger a lot. :(

~PS

Hikaru's Return

Monday May 11, 2009 at 4:19pm computer repair Comments (2) »

Well, Hikaru is back, up and running. I've yet to see any of the symptoms of the problems i was having before, but as it's only been going for a couple hours now, it's still far too early to tell. Still, i was reasonably certain the video ram was the problem when i took it in, and since the vram chip has been replaced with a nice shiny new one, I expect the problem is fixed. For now, anyway.

It's nice to have it back again.

~PS

Shut your grog hole

Saturday May 9, 2009 at 12:31pm gaming, computer repair Comments (0) »

First off, had a great time playing Pirates' Cove last night. It's a fun game that I believe lives up to the Days of Wonder name with such greats as Ticket to Ride and Shadows over Camelot.

Secondly, I finally got the Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game book. Like i've mentioned before, i tried to order it through Mt. Empire Comics because I know the guy who runs the place and thought i'd help him out... ...but apparently he had some trouble getting it and so i resorted to Books-a-Million (partly because i was tired of waiting, and partly because if it *was* getting to be hard to come by, I wanted to get it while i knew i could). Anyway, it looks awesome. I've read the whole thing once and several parts of it two or three times. I'm nearly ready to do something with it.

Thirdly, I still want to continue my Little Fears game from RuchtCon. I even went on amazon.com to see if i could find the book. I did. Starting at about $60. I should point out it's a rather small and flimsy softcover with innumerable typos - not exactly the kind of thing i'd consider spending that much on. Thing is, it's out of print. Luckily, i really don't *need* the book to run the game and Rucht has a copy of it if we find we do. I have learned, however, that as of February Little Fears: Nightmare Edition is in progress yet again. Apparently it's been a long time in coming as it was announced in 2006. I also read on the Little Fears Yahoo newsgroup yesterday that the author's production computer is in the shop (I feel his pain). If and when this finally gets published, i plan to pick it up. Hopefully for considerably than $60.

On a quasi-related note, my iMac is still in the shop, but i'm hoping to get it back soon. I'm pretty satisfied with how my macbook has risen to the challenge of being my primary work machine, but it's not a good desktop replacement.

~PS

Behold, Penguinsushi.com Version 8!

Thursday May 7, 2009 at 5:57pm website Comments (2) »

So, it had been about a year or so since I redesigned this site, and I felt that the time had come. I mean, more than a year with one design is about 4 times as long as they usually go.

I liked my previous design a lot. I spent a lot of time on it and I thought it looked really nice (probably why it lasted so long). Still, my urge to redesign was not something I could ignore, and I think this design is at least as good and probably a bit better. *I* like it better, anyway.

This version of the site has a lot of more sophisticated functions than the previous incarnation. Some of that might be apparent to you all, some of it won't be.

Anyway, here it is!

~PS

EDIT: Also, I should point out that I'm a terrible webmaster, as I forgot the site's birthday this year. Yeah, I'm in trouble. Anyway, Sushiday the 4th was back on Feb 1st - taking the site to 4 years up and running.

iMac Updates

Tuesday May 5, 2009 at 2:05pm computer problems Comments (0) »

Just got off the phone with the repair place: After about a week of testing, they finally saw the error i was talking about. I've been told they've ordered the part from Apple and will let me know when it's been installed and tested.

I've also been told that if this same problem comes *back* up in the future (even if i'm no longer under warranty), since they have a history of the problem, i should be covered.

I'm guessing this'll take another week or more, but what can ya do?

I love Kotoko, but i do miss Hikaru.

~PS

Getting my money's worth (I have been spoiled pt. II)

Monday April 27, 2009 at 3:07pm computer problems Comments (0) »

Like I said, when I bought my iMac back in '06, I paid the extra $170 to get the 3-year AppleCare plan - which basically covers it for 3 years. I'm about 3 months from the expiration on that, which i guess is better than being three months *after* said expiration, given the circumstances. I'm cashing in on that now.

I took my iMac in for repairs today. While the reinstalls seemed to help its performance, it didn't (as i feared) fix the real problem. I have since run some tests and diagnostics and determined that the video ram is unstable, mostly when operating at high load - or more specifically, at high temperature. The thing runs hot when it gets going - up to 63 degrees celsius - and it just doesn't seem to be able to take the heat anymore. Once it hits 58 or so, it will fail diagnostic video ram checks frequently. At 60+, it's every time.

I don't know what temp the iMac's gpu *should* run at, so it may be that it's running unnecessarily hot. Installing a fan regulator and bumping the baseline up a few hundred rpms does keep the temperatures down (and seems to eliminate any video artifacts), but it doesn't seem to make the system any more stable as it will still crash on me - so i'm not sure what the actual cause is or whether i'm merely seeing symptoms of the real problem.

Hopefully I'll know something in a few days.

I'm now especially glad for Kotoko, the new Macbook I got over christmas, without which I would be much more thoroughly distressed at even the temporary loss of my beloved iMac.

~PS

I have been spoiled

Wednesday April 22, 2009 at 10:43am computers Comments (2) »

Computer problems and troubleshooting *used* to be a normal, nearly every-day event in my life.

Then I got a Mac, and everything was great...

...for about 2.5 years.

Thing is, i've now gotten *used* to not having computer problems, and so when they inevitably surface, I get very severely irked.

Seems lately poor Hikaru (my iMac) has picked up "a slight flutter". Namely, it's has been displaying some video artifacts and occasionally causing the window server to freeze. Yesterday I wiped it and reinstalled, hoping it was a software problem - but I saw evidence of the video artifacts almost immediately, and strangely with greater frequency than before. After a little research, i'm starting to think this problem is heat-related. I blew some canned air into her neglected vents and installed a fan-regulator to bump the minimum speed of the internal fans for greater circulation.

Since the reinstall, however, i've had other problems. Some problems with permissions and indexing (which i'm *hoping* i've gotten straightened out) and a curious domino process-zombiing which seems to cause all attempted actions to hang - even shutting down.

I'm still trying to sort some stuff out, but I'll be watching her pretty closely for the next few weeks. She's still under warranty till August and I just may end up using that Apple Care plan I bought...

~PS

Easter Weekend in Ohio, etc

Monday April 13, 2009 at 2:50pm work, friends, family Comments (0) »

Last week was pretty cool. On wednesday, Sheri and I headed up to OH for a couple of reasons.

The first reason was for work. Kedrick and Addie wanted me to take a trip up there to see the new office and to have at least a couple days in the office with everyone else. It was actually a lot of fun. I like working from home, but I enjoyed being in the office too - getting to hang out with my coworkers who are, i must say, pretty awesome. We got a lot done, but there was a fair amount of laughing and general goofiness as well. The work environment there (for those of us in the back room, anyway) was really laid back and relaxing. For someone like me, it was just about perfect for productivity.

So Thursday and Friday were spent at the office, finishing up a project which most of us are quite excited about and going over some general practices and methods. It was a good time.

On saturday, Kedrick and Addie took us to the Cincinnati area. We had tasty lunch and Graeter's ice cream - which was funny because i'd actually had the very thing i ordered before, I just hadn't realized it. Edie gave me some of their Black Raspberry Chip ice cream the last time we were over there playing Talisman.

After that, we went to Ault Park. They had wanted me to take some pictures of them as part of a yearly tradition. It was the first time i'd *really* tried portrait photography. I don't typically do 'posed' shots of people, i think candid shots are so much more natural. I also don't "direct" - I basically just let them sit or stand however they wanted or thought would look good, and I simply tried to make the most of it. I won't say they turned out fantastically, but I think there are a few in there that would look nice on their wall. It was a good time. Most importantly, I now have a little xp in this capacity and I learned a bit about what tends to work and what doesn't. I'm still far from considering myself particularly qualified for this yet. A little of my difficulty might be equipment-related as i don't really have nice portrait lenses (a nice 50mm prime would have been good), but I suspect it's mostly technique that needs practicing.

We were also talking about all of us going to the Ren Fair later in October if we can at all manage it... ...that would be awesome. :-)

Later Saturday afternoon we headed to my grandparents' in Greenville - which was the second reason for our trip. We hardly ever get to see them, which is kind of a shame. My parents and my uncle had also headed there for the Easter weekend, and the group of us had a great time talking together. We even got to sit out on their deck Sunday afternoon, which was really nice. We didn't do a whole lot, but it's always cool just to spend time with family. I'd like to get to see all of them more often than I do. Hopefully when we have a car that we trust a little more (and don't necessarily have to rent for trips like this) we'll be able to see some of them a little more.

~PS

Random Stuff, pt. XXIV

Monday April 6, 2009 at 12:39pm video games, food, friends, comics, gaming, house Comments (3) »

Finally went to Thunderdome last night. Pretty cool place. We watched some guy beat Force Unleashed on a giant projector screen, played Apples to Apples and ate some tasty food.

The weather yesterday was awesome and we had a bit of a picnic at the Linear Trail park in Erwin. Due to the fact that there's only one picnic table in the area we went to, we ended up having lunch with a random couple. They were nice and fun to talk to. They lived in Alaska for a few years, which i thought was cool. Yay for meeting random people.

Went to John's on saturday to see if my MouseGuard stuff had come in yet. Still hasn't - apparently it's on back-order and some of it's hard to get. He did have a couple issues I didn't have though, so i picked those up (which was kind of nice - the last few times i've been in there it's been 'walk in, ask about stuff, walk out'). Actually, i misread the back of one and so accidentally bought one i already had... ...so Llama got to inherit it. Still much looking forward to getting the roleplaying book. :-D

Had a gaming session on friday night, which i think was good despite several of us being tired (and some occasionally nodding off...heh). The "plot" at this point is pretty open because i wanted to put the players into a situation where they have to decide what to do about the circumstances. This isn't bad, but it's less straight-forward and usually results in the players having to weigh lots of options and so it can move kind of slowly at times. I think they're doing well with it though.
I'm also really trying to get to a few plot points before Ginger moves... ...we'll miss her a lot...

On some house stuff: mowing season has begun, and it's already getting ahead of me. We had a pretty impressive storm the other night and the basement stayed dry - looks like my sealing job around the font doorjamb worked well. Oh, and i unclogged the sink which had been draining ridiculously slowly for a while.

I've been addicted to Super Paper Mario lately - I started it about a week ago and i've now played it enough to pass Ginger and Tony in the plot (though Tony's still a few levels above me - he's been working on the Flopside Pit of 100 Trials). It's a very fun game... ...and since Sheri won't let me play Okami...


~PS

Some Newish Music

Thursday April 2, 2009 at 1:01pm music Comments (0) »

I've been listening to a fair amount of new stuff lately. Note that that's "new" not so much in terms of release date (with the exception of the Hazards of Love, which just came out last week) but "new" meaning "i haven't really listened to it before....much". In fact, i've had some of it for a while... ...my playlist just hadn't spun around it to it much until now. Anyway, in the interest of sharing some new music, here you go:


The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
I'm still not sure exactly what i think of this album. Oh, I like it a *lot* - but it seems to play differently than a lot of other records. The Hazards of Love is a concept album. It's 17 tracks tell one continuous, flowing story. The lyrics are great, and in Colin's typical style. The music is impressive and interesting. The whole thing has a very even keel, and there aren't a lot of drastic musical changes in it. Despite the fact that sections of it are very soft acoustic and other parts are hard electric, it all blends together nicely. However, that tends to make it difficult to sort out the 'favorite' songs on the album. Basically, this album is quite interesting to really listen and pay attention to, or it's also good as a sort of background musical tableau... ...but you really can't take it as individual songs. It's also quite difficult to compare to their other albums, though I think Picaresque is still my favorite overall.
I also enjoy the fact that Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond) is a guest vocalist on a few of the tracks. She opened for them when i saw them on the Crane Wife tour back in '07.


Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
I heard a little of this album in B&N over christmas, but i didn't get around to picking it up until now. This is a good one. It has a feel similar to his project with Calexico, In The Reins or the Woman King ep in terms of instrumentation - which i like a lot and these three albums go very nicely together. I particularly like "Wolves (The Song of the Shepherd's Dog)" and "The Devil Never Sleeps" but all of the songs have a nice feel to them.


Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - Not Animal
I *loved* their first album, The Dust of Retreat, so i had high hopes for this one. It didn't disappoint me. The style is very consistent with their first album. It keeps the same curious lyrical style and interesting instrumentation/arrangement while continuing to be creative and new. I still rate The Dust of Retreat slightly higher, but this one continues to grow on me more as I listen to it. Not sure I have any particularly favorite songs from it yet.


The Islands - Arm's Way
This is the followup to their first album, Return to the Sea. Arm's Way has a slightly different feel to it i think, but it still has that overall interesting abstractness to it that I liked so much about the first record. I think there are fewer songs on this album that really grabbed me when compared to Return to the Sea, but I do enjoy "Creeper", "Kids Don't Know Shit" and "I Feel Evil Creeping In" and the general sound of the rest of the album.


Fleet Foxes
Self-titled record. Just a mention in passing - I've only heard parts of this record, but the band's name intrigued me. Very mellow, very folkish. I think listening to it while driving would be a bad idea (event moreso than Iron & Wine). Actually, they remind me a lot of the Great Lake Swimmers with more instrumentation.


Alkaline Trio - Agony and Irony
"One of these things is not like the others..." Yeah, yeah. The rest of the albums on this list fit a sort of mellowish and/or indie theme... ...and then we go straight to goth punk/rock.
Agony and Irony follows Good Mourning and Crimson's progression to a smoother, less crunchy, yet still very hard rock sound. Some of this probably has to do with better producing, etc. I like Alkaline Trio's earlier stuff, but it definitely has a less polished sound - be that good or bad. Anyway, i've been listening to the them quite a bit lately, and to this record in particular. Overall, i wouldn't say it's any more spectacular than their previous releases, but, like previous records, it has a good overall sound and there are a few songs that I really like and latch on to. Namely, for this record those are "Calling All Skeletons" (their opener and single from this album - not particularly awesome, but i like the sound), "Over and Out" (which is depressing, but well composed), "Live Young, Die Fast" (which i greatly enjoy for the play on words there), and especially "Love Love, Kiss Kiss" (which is equal parts jealousy, denial and "quit whining, emo kid").

~PS

Board Game News

Sunday March 29, 2009 at 5:29pm board games Comments (0) »

A brief mention of some recent board games:

A group of us played Talisman again last night. It was much faster and smoother the second time through and we opted to play with some of the 'alternate rules' for faster play. Even so, it took nearly 3 hours, but that could largely be due to the fact that we had 6 players. It was an amusing and enjoyable game. However, i've decided the game is a good 50% luck - as poor Robb and Llama couldn't get a break, yet i somehow managed to defeat ogres and dragons as a lowly thief (I think i used up all my board game luck for the next 3 years in that game. Seriously.). Oh yeah - it should also be noted that we've played this game twice, and Robb has been turned into a frog 3 times. Hehe.

Sheri and I spent some time this afternoon learning to play Pillars of the Earth - a game that my sister got us a *long* time ago and we'd yet to pull out. In this game, you play master builders each trying to contribute most to the grand cathedral being built. To do this, you send workers to gather wood, sand and stone and hire skilled craftsmen to make the most of your resources. Some other elements in the game (some predictable, some not) make these tasks easier or harder. We've only played it half a time (we only made it to round 3/6), but it was cool and i look forward to playing it again.

In other news, I saw a game called Agricola at Hobbytown a while back. I've not played it yet, but as i understand it, you basically start out with a family of two on a small homestead, and as you produce resources, you're able to expand your population, capacity, etc. I'd not heard of it, but i thought it looked really cool. I've since heard from some others that it's been very highly rated and some people i know who have played it say it is indeed most enjoyable. This is on my list of games to play.

~PS

Mid-March Pt. II - RuchtCon '09, etc

Monday March 23, 2009 at 8:52pm gaming, ruchtcon Comments (0) »

So this last weekend was RuchtCon '09 - our own little gaming convention in honor of our friend Rucht's birthday. Festivities formally started friday afternoon and went till sunday at about 6pm. It went down a little like this:

The first official 'slot' began at 9pm on Friday night. This was when i ran my Little Fears game. That was awesome. I was a little worried going in since i'd been a little sick for the previous days and also hadn't had quite as much prep time as I might have liked (largely due to VBS), but I would say it went as well as it possibly could - aside from some drowsiness on our part toward the end of the session.
The game was incredibly fun. The system is very, very simple but plays very well. The players all did a fantastic job of getting into their roles as children - which they all seemed to enjoy immensely. I think my story came off just about exactly as dark as I wanted it to, and it seemed to me that the session did a great job of portraying the quintessence of the game.
I would definitely be interested in running some more of this, perhaps beginning with the resolution to this scenario - which we weren't able to finish.

The other table on Friday was ran by Patrick doing his Star Wars game. I obviously wasn't able to play in it (unfortunately) so there's not much I can say about it, but Sheri said it was a lot of fun.

On saturday afternoon Rucht ran his 40k Dark Heresy game while some of the rest of us decided to play board games.
Specifically, we decided to learn to play Talisman - a Fantasy Flight game that my mom (yes, really) got me for Christmas last year. This presented a fairly major challenge as 1) none of us actually knew how to play the game and 2) the game is (now) put out by Fantasy Flight - a game company that's notorious for amazingly complex games. *Good* games mind you, but complex ones.
It took us about an hour to get through the rules and setup. The game really isn't that hard, but when you're trying to understand it with absolutely zero foreknowledge and using only the rulebook, things take a little while. Once we got going, it went pretty fast. We didn't actually finish it, but we got to the final phases. I thought it was a pretty cool game. I look forward to playing it again - when i don't have to be constantly trying to figure out what we're doing.

Saturday night was the first session of Rucht's Witch Hunter game and also Robb's Werewolf game. I had opted to play in Robb's game. Granted I haven't played whitewolf in quite a while (except Exalted), but the new edition seems to have streamlined some things. We didn't actually make it very far into the story, but it was still a very enjoyable game. We got to do a bit of roleplaying (though i think i was feeling a little off), a bit of combat, and all of us got to use our respective character's niche strengths.

Sunday morning was still technically part of the Con, but it was pretty informal - i think those who were present played the Battlestar Galactica board game. The official sunday afternoon slot was another session of Rucht's Witch Hunter game.
I was really looking forward to this. I'd heard great things about the system, and it was particularly cool to get to play under one of the game designers (for those who don't know, this is a game that Rucht actually helped design). I mean, that has to be the most authentic experience, right?
This game was lots of fun. It's a solid system - similar to whitewolf in some ways, but considerably different in others. Also, it has some very interesting mechanics. The premise for the world and the game is very detailed and interesting as well and the modules Rucht ran were excellent narratives. I'd love to play some more of this - esp if Rucht wanted to run a campaign at some point. That would be awesome.


In addition to all the fun games, we had tasty snacks, plenty of great people, and just a generally great time hanging out. A fantastic way to spend a weekend. Some of us have definite intentions of putting something like this together again sometime - and have even talked a little about what we might do the same and/or differently.


~PS

Mid-March Pt. I - VBS, etc

Monday March 23, 2009 at 7:55pm vbs, photography, sick Comments (0) »

Whew.

Well, despite the fact that I'm still just a *little* sickish and i'm looking at a very busy work week, i guess i finally have some time to breath.

Last week our church had VBS, which went well. This year, I got lucky. I was present only as tech support and photographer - which basically meant i set up the projector, etc every day and then went around and took pictures of the different classes. I'm not sure I took as many shots this year (as i did last year), but i think the ones i have are better - both because i now have a decent flash and because I have another year of experience. A couple shots i think are really good or interesting in and of themselves (which i might post on here at some point) and quite a few 'decent' shots that are good as a VBS collage.

I did start to get sick toward the end of the week unfortunately. Thursday and friday mornings were pretty bad, but i was feeling better by the evenings and so didn't have to miss anything fun... ...and i think i still got my work done. It really wasn't too bad. I usually only get sick once or twice a year, so hopefully this counts.

~PS

The First Kubb-Out of the Season!

Sunday March 8, 2009 at 5:31pm friends, food, kubb Comments (4) »
The First Kubb-Out of the Season! Image

Yesterday was an awesome 77 degrees and sunny. There's something special about the first really nice day of the year - the first day that you really want to get out and do something. When that happens on a saturday, so much the better.

We decided to carpe the diem by making an afternoon of some kubb and an awesome cookout with a bunch of friends (before our previously-planned gaming session). I took a fair number of pictures, some of which will get posted at some point. It was good, good times. We definitely need to make a habit of this as the weather gets nicer...

EDIT: Pictures posted in the First Kubb-Out of the Season photo gallery! (some pictures of our much-belated christmas gift exchange also included ;))

~PS

RuchtCon '09 Progress Update

Sunday March 8, 2009 at 5:20pm gaming Comments (2) »

I've read the Little Fears rulebook completely more than twice and have reviewed/studied several sections. There are actually some pretty gaping holes in the game. Some of that is intentional - there are actually places in the book that say 'boiling this concept down to crude mechanics wouldn't do it justice'... ...which is all well and good, but i wouldn't have minded some suggested examples as to how said concept may be implemented. The focus of the game is much more on storytelling and much less on mechanics - which is not a bad thing, but when you're trying to figure out how a game *works*, it's a bit of a challenge. Basically, i've had to invent a few things for my own purposes (which it seems to encourage you to do) - something i generally don't mind doing anyway.

I have created 5 player characters, complete with expanded descriptions/backgrounds. I'm hoping to find out soon how many players i'll have (and who they are) so i can make sure i have a character (of the right gender) for everyone.

I've got the rudiments of the general plot constructed. I'm trying to make it mysterious, yet still able to be exposed within a single gaming session - which is going to be a bit difficult.

After i get that duct-taped in place (you never want to actually nail down this stuff...), the next step is planning how i expect or want the actual gaming session to progress. This is a rather delicate task - to give the players enough direction without railroading them.

I've got the better part of two weeks to finish. I hope this all manifests as cool as it seems in my head.

~PS

A Blog Resumption, Pt. II: Gaming

Sunday March 1, 2009 at 11:29pm gaming, comics, long freakin post Comments (11) »

My gaming hobby has made a rather sharp resurgence of late - though not in the way it normally does.

As some of you know, whenever i start talking about my hobbies, i ramble. This is likely to be exceptionally long-winded. I'm not sorry, but i *am* sorry that i'm not sorry.

It all started when formal planning for RuchtCon '09 began. For any who might not know, RuchtCon was conceived by a friend of ours (Rucht) who wanted to have a miniature gaming convention for his birthday. This is to be held on the third weekend of this month, whereon we will spend ridiculous hours playing rpgs as well as board and video games. It's a *fantastic* idea and i wish i'd thought of it. When planning began, Rucht asked for volunteers for people to run games for his mini-con. Of course i volunteered immediately.

My plan was to (finally) introduce the fantasy version of the Roman Colosseum i've been devising for some time now. It was to be a massive-scale, morphing encounter with multiple goals that would require wits as well as strength and also an ability to please onlookers - which could grant you boons or hindrances in the arena.

However, my game was but one of perhaps a dozen rpg's mentioned for potential playing. When i saw the survey Rucht sent out, i was sure there was just too much gaming goodness to fit into a single weekend. I decided to check a bunch of stuff i'd never played before, but that looked really cool - to sort of sample the field, as it were.

When i noticed several of the new games didn't have a designated GM, i was quick to offer to fill in such a gap if necessary, assuming i could get a sourcebook - because really, i'm a GM at heart. I love to play these kinds of games, but I enjoy running them even more. Coming up with my own stories and getting to have my friends bring them to life is my favorite part of the roleplaying hobby.

Exhibit A
I also mentioned in my reply that one of the games on the list marked as GM-less seemed particularly interesting to me: it was a game called Little Fears.

Basically, Little Fears is a kind of horror/fairy-tale kind of game where all of the characters are children, and all of the things kids are afraid of (things that go 'bump' in the night, the monsters in the closet and under the bed, the bogeyman, etc) are all very, very real. The concept just fascinates me.

Apparently, most of those attending RuchtCon shared a similar mindset to mine - wanting to try new things. It seems that my plain 'ol D&D game didn't really generate much interest in the face of so much new potential awesomeness. While part of me still wants to run that game at some point, I'm much more excited about what we're going to be playing now...

Since my original offering didn't get much interest and i had offered to run something - and specifically mentioned Little Fears - Rucht asked if I would pick it up and run it for them. I was completely thrilled to accept the challenge and picked up the book from him the next day (saturday morning). In the less-than-36-hours since then, i've read the rulebook cover-to-cover, reviewed several sections and have the broad outline of a scenario to present in my head. I'm looking forward to continuing work on it. The game seems really cool. Lots of potential.

There were several other games on the list that seemed potentially awesome as well - games that i think i could really get into. All this kinda got me to thinking: basically, we only play D&D. I guess it's because it's a system we all know, and fantasy roleplaying comes pretty easy to most of us. Still, seeing all the other games and reading their descriptions got me thinking - maybe it's time to branch out. *GASP*. I know.

Don't get me wrong, i still love D&D (well, version 3.5 anyway. in fact, we had a *great* session last night) and i'll always be willing to have a game of it running... ...i'd just like to pick up some new stuff as well. Kind of the 'keep old friends, but make new ones too' idea...

Anyway, we happened to go to a few different bookstores on friday (strangely enough), so i made a point to go peruse the adventure gaming sections therein (...as if that wasn't what i'd have been doing anyway...) to see what i could see.

Exhibit B
At Mr. K's I ran into Rem (who i hadn't seen in a while) and had a nice chat with him about some random games. He mentioned one to me that sounded interesting and I later found and leafed through it at Barnes & Noble: White Wolf's new edition of Hunter - this time called 'The Vigil'. (most of their games are titled 'Something: The Something Else'. Heh.).

Hunter: The Vigil is basically about people who have somehow discovered the demons and monsters that lurk in the shadows of our everyday lives and are driven to combat them and otherwise rid the world of them. It's like a pretty cool game - and the new edition looks particularly good. If i was going to do a modern game, it would probably be something like this. I decided i might be interested in picking it up at some point.

Exhibit C
At Books-a-Million though, i ran into something that was truly awesome. Probably the coolest thing i've seen all year. In their (rather pathetic excuse for an) adventure game section, i saw a lone rulebook for an rpg called Mouse Guard. The cover of the book shows a large array of mice in various fantasy-esque costumes. I picked it up and stared at it in disbelief for a full minute. Mouse. Guard. It's mice. Fantasy mice. Mice struggling valiantly to survive against owls and weasels and all manner of other predators. It was like LOTR meets the Mouse and the Motorcycle. Actually, it reminded me a lot of Redwall. And Reepicheep.

I started flipping through the book. The whole thing was beautifully illustrated and the game seemed really cool and relatively simple (I like simple). I made up my mind then and there that I will have this game, and I will run it.

Still, like most rp books, it was a tad expensive - about $35. I figured i'd look it up on amazon.com, since it would certainly be cheaper there. Amazon did indeed have it for about $23, but more importantly, amazon led me to discover something else about it: it's based on a comic series of the same name.

Now, I don't read comic books (or "graphic novels") - it's just not something i'm into... ...but the game just looked so awesome i decided this was something i needed to check out - just to see what it's all about.

Saturday morning (while sheri was at choir practice) I went into John's (Mt. Empire Comics on Road St.), since llama told me he had some of the Mouse Guard stuff. No one else was there, so i started talking to John when i came in and asked him about it. He showed me where it was & said it looked pretty cool. I told him I was gonna leaf through a couple, just to check 'em out.

At this point, i had pretty much decided i just wanted to get a feel for the world and the characters to know what it was intended to be... ...but if it wasn't the sort of thing i envisioned after looking through the rp book, i was already preparing in my mind to reinvent it for the purposes of the game i was determined to buy and run. To my surprise, however, the world and characters were exactly the kind of thing I'd envisioned - and i loved it. I actually bought 4 issues. So i guess i've been sucked into a comic now...

(I found out later, however, that the issues i bought were kind of in the middle of a story (even though they were at the beginning of a series)... ...so i need to go pick up the 6 that precede them before i'll *really* know what's going on beyond simple context deduction. Luckily, there are only a total of 11 issues in existence right now (12 is due in april, i think), so i should be able to pick up all of them from the beginning without spending too much)

Now i'm even more excited about the game, and i had John order the roleplaying book for me. (I had previously planned to get it for cheaper off amazon, but John's a good guy and his store is a nice place. I'll pay a bit more to support him, you know?)

Exhibit D
Finally, I'm starting to pick up some of my homebrew stuff again. It all has a *long* way to go, but i've started kicking around ideas again and trying to come up with the worlds' foundations. If and when they get significantly further along, i'm sure i'll have more posted on them (as i've said before)... ...but these tend to be picked up and put down a lot (for some reason)....so they're likely to be a long time in coming.

Also, i'm still waiting on Robb to pick up his Exalted game again... ...i have shiny new dice for it and everything... ;)


...so many games, so little time...


~PS

A Blog Resumption, Pt. I: General Updates

Sunday March 1, 2009 at 8:05pm trips, health issues, music, recording, just coffee Comments (0) »

So, it would seem that i've neglected the poor blog for a while. I've got a couple-few things to mention, but i'm gonna break 'em up into separate posts for thematic reasons.

Ok, so first off: returing from AR - since i was still there at last posting. I must say, i'm loving the macbook & having a computer with a battery life long enough to actually use some of the wifi hotspot around (it gives be 4.5 - 5 hours on a charge - not too shabby).

So, we stayed in AR for a little over a week so sheri could help her mom with her recovery from surgery. Last I heard she's doing alright regarding all that, but did find out she'll need chemo which is upsetting to her. Still, she's doing her best to get through all of this. Sheri's grandma is in the hospital again as of now, so health issues in the family seem to be on a disheartening rise. :( This year's been pretty arduous overall so far, unfortunately...

Partially due to the trip, but mostly due to a startling and irritating lack of inspiration (and not for lack of *hours* of trying), i didn't get very far on this year's RPM. I have most of two songs recorded - and only one of them is actually new (the second is an old song that i decided i'd finally put down). My closet soundbooth does a good job though and it was worth constructing - now if i could only come up with something to record. Erg. I'll have the new stuff put up in the music section after i've finished mastering the second song.

We went to the coffeehouse again a couple weeks back, which was fun. I got to take some pictures and play Wii on a giant projector screen. Good times.

We have VBS (for which i'm slated to do A/V stuff and photography) as well as a trip up to OH coming up this month...as well as some other stuff to be mentioned in the following entry...

Anyway, I think that's about all for this one...

~PS

Remote Updates

Tuesday February 10, 2009 at 6:12pm trips, family, health, surgery, internet Comments (0) »

Well, we're still hanging out in AR. Sheri's mom had her surgery on friday and seems to be recovering fairly well, if a bit slowly. She has her ups and down, but it's my impression she's doing a little better each day. All things considered, I think things are going as well as can be expected, if not exactly as well as we might have hoped.

We're still not sure exactly when we'll be heading back, but our original plan of leaving tomorrow morning has been postponed and it's likely to be thursday at the earliest and it could well be later.

This has all put a bit of damper on my recording project for the month, but real life happens. I did bring my guitar, but haven't had a chance to play it much as being quiet has been necessary for most of the day so far.

Actually, i haven't done much besides play AoE III and Neverwinter Nights. See, I seem to be stuck in a bit of an internet black hole - perhaps mostly due to the massive ice storm that was through this area recently. So... ...I haven't been able to do much work or play on the 'net. I've stopped in at a hardees for dinner once that had an open wifi, and i'm at the house of some friends of sheri's parents now to do some general email checking and work out some minor issues on some projects for work.

Don't think there's much else to report now.

~PS

Weekly Penguin Report

Sunday February 1, 2009 at 3:08pm music, recording, gaming, friends, family, health, trips Comments (4) »

So today's the first day of february and RPM - sadly, i'm in Erwin for most of the day and can't do much in the way of recording. I *can* however, work on some preliminary stuff now that I have a macbook, which i'll be starting in a bit. 27 more days. Deep breath...

Had two great gaming sessions this weekend. Sadly, one of the games is losing a player. I will admit slightly shrinking that group is not all bad (6 players is a little past my 'ideal'), but we'll miss having Nick around for the next year. The other group had a good time with session #2 last night. I'm enjoying the progressing stories and interactions for both games immensely, each in its own way.

We got to see Bart & Sarah's baby Joe today - he's 9 days old. And quite adorable.

In more serious/troubling news, we discovered this week that a tumor Sheri's mom had removed was malignant and that she'll be having more surgery soon. We're beginning to make some initial preparations for a trip out to AR to be with her and the rest of the family for that, but we're not sure exactly when it will be as yet. We're also a little concerned about the weather, since they've had a really bad ice storm and a large part of the region has been declare a disaster area and is without power and a little short on other provisions.

I think that's everything on the list for now...

~PS

Recording Preparations & Llamabration '09

Monday January 26, 2009 at 11:40am music, recording, friends, birthdays, parties Comments (2) »

Only two noteworthy things to mention here this week. And they're completely unrelated.

The first is that last week I started making preparations for this year's RPM challenge. Basically, i've been setting up my "studio". In the interest of improving the "tightness" of my recorded tracks (particularly the vocals) i've decided to turn the office closet into a sort of recording booth. I've cleared it out completely and lined most of the inside of it with foam from a cheap mattress pad. I've also moved in my guitar amp and the mic/soundboard setup that will run into my macbook for recording.

I spent a good chunk of time friday night and saturday afternoon doing sound checks with various instruments and vocals. It's sounding pretty good. Now I need to spend the next week writing.

***

On saturday we had "The Party Man Was Not Meant To Plan". This was Tony's birthday party. He apparently requested a Cthulu theme. We had all kinds of impressive unspeakable snacks and played some Lovecraftian horror games - namely Arkham Horror and Cthulu 500 (though we did have several others to choose from). And, of course, no horror experience would truly be complete for our Llama without some pink elephants. Hehe. It was a good time. I took quite a few pictures, the best of which are in the Llamabration 09 gallery.

~PS

Weekend Fun & Games

Sunday January 18, 2009 at 8:55pm gaming, movies, video games Comments (2) »

Just a couple of things to mention about the weekend:

After the holiday hiatus, we got back into gaming in a big way this weekend.

First, we continued my long-time-running game with session #23 on friday night. That game has been running for about 14 months now, and for the most part i'm still pretty into it. The weight of continuity is a little difficult to deal with at times, but overall the story s progressing pretty fluidly and it continues to be fun.

The game got off to a bit of a late start and was only a couple hours, but it was still a good session I think. Whilst we were waiting for the last players to arrive, we had Robb & Edie watch the Gamers - sadly, i don't think they were as amused by it as I am. Heh.

I also started a new game on saturday for a couple of players who haven't had the chance to game in a while. It was intended to be a pretty simple straightforward game - and for the most part it is - but I discovered that even simple and episodic plots and adventures seem very involved very quickly when you start mapping out how and why things happen. I've also put a lot of work into the particular corner of the setting they're in, the people that inhabit it and some histories that lead to some current adventures. Also a good session.

Today was a bit odd for a sunday - church was canceled due to ice on the roads. It's been really cold the last few days, and last night there was some pretty nasty sleet and stuff... ...so instead of being in Erwin all day, we've been hanging out here playing some video games & other random stuff. Most notably, Sheri has started Okami - a Wii game I got her for christmas. I haven't really got to play it yet, but it looks really cool. I think she likes it, though it occasionally frustrates her. In any case, she's been playing it for a couple hours now - so it can't be too bad. :) I also got a bit further in Mario Galaxy (which Sheri got *me* for christmas) and she was helping me find secret stars and collect star bits. In other, related news - Ginger, Sheri and Tony have all started games of Super Paper Mario (which my sister got us for christmas - it was a good year for wii games), which has to be the most bizarre Mario game to date. I've yet to dive into that insanity. Heh.

~PS

I'm happy with 'paranoid'

Thursday January 15, 2009 at 12:00pm health Comments (7) »

...because if you're being 'paranoid', it means everything's really ok. If everything's *not* ok, you weren't being 'paranoid', you were being 'perceptive'. Funny how that works.

I just got back from the doctor's office. The last couple of days i've been having some minor but strange aches and pains, often in my chest. I'd also long suspected that my blood pressure might be a little higher than it's supposed to be (for a small variety of reasons). Last night I was unable to sleep (at least partly) because my heart felt like it was beating harder than it needed to. Not *faster*, mind you, just like it was pounding too hard - like when you've been working out, except the rate was normal for being at rest, and i wasn't doing anything. I wasn't able to sleep until early this morning (i think around 4am). I'm pretty young for heart trouble still, but this, combined with my other concerns, kind of freaked me out. Plus i've heard of the strange cases of young people having such problems, and that could well be my luck. I wanted to know how concerned i should be.

Anyway, it turns out nothing's wrong. As far as anyone can tell, i'm just having some muscle pain/twitching - probably from sitting at a keyboard all day. As for last night, I was told that that's not abnormal: depending upon a lot of different circumstances, sometimes your heart beat is more pronounced than others - and I'm sure i made it worse in my head due to worry. My blood pressure is great. My blood work is fine (surprisingly, it *didn't* come back as 50% pepsi). My EKG is completely normal. So I got pretty much what i wanted: a second opinion telling me everything was cool and not to worry about it.

Part of the concern might also have stemmed from the fact that as I approach 30, I am becoming more aware of my aging (also psychologically normal). Also, despite the fact I've just been told I'm in good health, i don't feel like i necessarily *should* be. I don't exercise enough, and I don't watch what I eat at all. I've been trying to be better about that more lately, but part of me wouldn't have been terribly surprised if i'd been told i'd done a fair bit of damage to myself over the last 10 years or so just because I haven't made any attempt to be 'healthy'.

So anyway, everything's good and my thought is that if i continue to try to exercise a bit more and eat a little less junk, I ought to remain in good health.

~PS

Switching Hats

Friday January 2, 2009 at 3:14pm rpm, music, hobbies, website Comments (0) »

As i've said before, my hobbies are too time-consuming to be able to do them all at once. I sort of have to go in shifts. My gaming hobby is pretty much 'always on' to a greater or lesser extent - probably because that's the only one that's not solely for my enjoyment - but my other hobbies (web/computer projects, photography and music) kind of have to fight for my free time. I've been on a photography kick for most of the last year, and I'm still loving it - but it's January, which means it's time to switch hats.

I talked a bit about RPM last year, and i'm gearing up to do it again this year. This time, however, i'm not going to try to actually write all of the stuff during February - i'm hoping to have most of that done beforehand. Hopefully this way i'll get more than 3 tracks down - my hope is to actually complete the project this time. Having started this today, i've got most of a song written. 9 more to go before Feb. 1st.

I have a faster (and portable!) computer for recording this year, which should let me get away with more simultaneous tracks/effects than i previously could - and I have plans to clear out the office closet to turn it into a sort of recording booth to keep the sound nice and tight. Last year was very rewarding and I'm really looking forward to giving this another go.

After this (depending on what my work schedule looks like, i.e. how burned out i am), i'm thinking about taking a couple of weeks to redesign/build this site again - i like this design, but i'm beginning to feel like it's time for a change.

~PS

Holiday Blog, pt. III + 2008 Portfolio

Thursday January 1, 2009 at 7:59pm holidays, christmas, birthdays, family, photography Comments (1) »
Holiday Blog, pt. III + 2008 Portfolio Image

Happy New Year!

So all of our company kind of left us at the same time. We went from having 8 people in the house to 2 in a matter of a few hours. My parents & sister arrived on tuesday evening and stayed till this afternoon and Sheri's family started back to AR this morning. It was a good holiday though. It was great to see everyone, and was nice to have people come to us instead of having to travel.

We had christmas with my parents last night in addition to the hanging out and playing games typical of new years eve. I was even able to find a video stream of Time Square for the final countdown (and not a SECOND sooner). Also, today's my dad's birthday and we took him out to lunch to celebrate. Additions to the already awesome holiday loot include (but are not limited to) Paper Mario, Wii Fit, an old-but-reintroduced Fantasy Flight game called 'Talisman' (that I'm *sure* I was talking to someone about recently), an 8gb USB flash drive, dvd's of My Fair Lady and Lt. Robinson Crusoe and some more $$ to put toward my camera gear (i'm currently about 2/3 of the way to the telephoto lens i want to buy) - and my brother did this awesome oil sketch/painting of sheri & I from a picture we'd sent him.

62 of the best pictures from the festivities are up in the Holidays 2008 Gallery.

***

Well, I've had my camera for a little over a year now, and I've learned a *lot* since i started out. I took approximately 11,700 pictures in 2008. I'd say probably about half of those made it off the camera. I have posted what i believe to be my best work in a 2008 Portfolio Gallery. These are the pictures that I really like and/or I think are good enough to be proud of.


~PS

I wish i was as cool as this guy

Tuesday December 30, 2008 at 5:49pm video games, random, music Comments (0) »

Windwaker - Unplugged


Seriously. This guy is indecently talented. Even if you don't know the game/theme, this video is nothing short of amazing.

~PS

Holiday Blog, pt. II

Sunday December 28, 2008 at 4:22pm christmas, holidays, family, presents, video games Comments (0) »

Hope everyone had a good christmas!

Things were cool here. We had a rather full house. As was mentioned before, Sheri's parents, brother and grandparents were here as well as Ginger & William. We had a nice, relaxing day. Opened some presents and had a tasty ham dinner. Some high points on the loot include a couple new wii games (Sheri & I each got each other one: she got me Mario Galaxy and I got her Okami - plus wii points for the Secret of Mana and some other games yet to be decided upon), some *awesome* autographed stuff (the Brobdingnagian Bards' newest record and the Gamers II which was purchased for me at gencon this year - neither of which i've had time to view/listen to yet) and some spiffy lens filters for my camera lens. Sheri's dad is thrilled about his new wii (that we and her mom & brother got for him) too, which is cool.

Since then we've been hanging out with our company - generally playing a lot of Wii and a lot of cards. Sheri's grandparents left on friday morning. Yesterday was an awesome 73 degrees. I took Sheri's dad & brother out to watauga lake since they wanted to go fishing. I walked around with my camera for the afternoon. I didn't get anything awesome, but a few decent pics i think. We took her parents to Misaki last night - which they said they really liked.

Today we had church and went to Toby's for lunch. Just relaxing since then. Sheri & her mom just left to go see Edie about some beading stuff.

Tomorrow is back to work as usual - through wednesday anyway. I think my parents & sister are supposed to come in tuesday or wednesday - so we'll have an overfull house yet again. I'm really looking forward to seeing them again.

~PS

Holiday Blog, pt. I

Tuesday December 23, 2008 at 3:02pm holidays, christmas, camera, friends, family, birthdays, projects Comments (0) »

It's christmas eve eve.

Anyway, we've had a lot going on lately - not too much of which makes for good reading though.

Last thursday I finally finished the wardrobe we bought over the summer - it looks pretty good and functions wonderfully. It's nice to have something other than the cheap wal-mart dressers we had before.

Had a good game session / birthday party on saturday. That was fun. I got presents! Heh. Also, some of my friends got together to make some game-inspired snacks. We had Gnome Knuckles and Pixie Puree and a giant Cheese Ooze and treeant branches and all kinds of geeky goodness. The game was lots of fun too. It was a bit combat-heavy, but it makes up for the last session where there was none.

Sheri's choir had their Christmas Cantata on sunday - it went pretty well, i thought. We spent most of the rest of the day cleaning up in preparation for our lot-o-christmas-company.

Speaking of, sheri's parents and brother arrived early monday morning and it wasn't long before they'd fired up the wii to feed their bowling addiction. Hehe. Her grandparents arrived later that evening. We are having a full house, but it's fun. I'm excited to have people here for the holidays instead of traveling. It's a nice change of pace.

My camera flash came in the mail yesterday too! Much fun is had! I've been discovering all kinds of things with bouncing light off ceilings and walls. I've taken some really nice, natural-looking shots with it already. I have *also* taken a few accidentally lit pictures with some rather bizarre lighting when i didn't realize the flash head was pointed some odd way. Anyway, i'm loving this thing. It's such an amazing improvement over the little built-in pop-up.

Also, i got to hang out with Sam a bit yesterday. Good times.

Also, also - i need to finish my christmas shopping today. Yes, i know i'm way late. It's hard to find a good time to go when sheri's not with me.

~PS

I'm Old(er)

Friday December 19, 2008 at 10:00am birthdays, projects Comments (1) »

So yesterday was my birthday. It was pretty much a normal day in most respects. Since Sheri had choir that evening, we really didn't plan much. I did finally put a clear-coat on the wardrobe that's out in our garage (it's almost done!).

It was a pretty good day though - I got phone calls from both of my parents and my brother and tons of birthday messages from friends. :-)

We're gonna have a gaming session saturday though (mayhem!) and i've heard a rumor that some aspects of the evening's festivities may pertain to my birthday.

:-D

~PS

The staff picture i've always wanted

Wednesday December 17, 2008 at 1:07pm photos, penguins Comments (2) »
The staff picture i've always wanted Image

This is part of a screenshot I took of our company's new site design while it was still in the testing phase.

Matt told me that if I didn't get him a staff picture to put up soon, he was going to do something drastic. Unfortunately, this wasn't exactly the motivator he might have hoped for. In fact, I would have preferred this image to be left in place.

:-)

It should be noted that the staff page currently has pictures of all of us from when we were kids. Why? Why not.


~PS

Say Hello to Kotoko

Sunday December 14, 2008 at 4:48pm computers, friends, photography Comments (2) »

I have a new toy.

The laptop my boss gave me to use has been sadly outdated and a bit flaky for quite some time (occasionally, the keyboard will stop reporting certain keys - namely, the enter key. inconvenient, that). I don't use a lappy for work terribly often, but there are occasions that I really do need one. There are other occasions when i'd just really *like* one.

Knowing this, for something that resembled a cross between a business-expense equipment upgrade and a christmas bonus, they let me pick out a replacement for the aging dell lappy.

So now I have a new Macbook (Awesomeness!!), and Sheri got to inherit Moro, the old laptop - which, despite its faults, is still kicking and will be cool for her. Like she said 'old lappy is better than *no* lappy'.

I've added some code to the site to play with the isight camera on this thing too - you may occasionally see a 'penguin-cam' beneath the sushi-cam. Not that you *want* to, but just because I can.

In keeping with my tradition of naming gadgets after anime characters, Kotoko is named after a minor character from Chobits


I got this new spiffy gadget on saturday when we went out to dinner with Kedrick & Addie. They're a lot of fun - it's too bad we only get to see them once a year. We do have a standing invitation to come stay with them for a weekend or something if we get a chance. They talked about having us come up sometime to hang out. Maybe go to the cincinnati zoo or something. :-)

I gave them a framed 8x10 print of one of my pictures as a christmas present, and they really seemed to think it was really neat - which was great. *I* was really proud of it, but wasn't sure what other people might think. In related news, i'm going to be compiling a 2008 Portfolio gallery of what i'd consider my 'best work' around the end of the year.


~PS

Ticket to Birthday

Tuesday December 9, 2008 at 10:10am birthdays, parties Comments (2) »
Ticket to Birthday Image

Yesterday was Sheri's birthday.

Shortly after Ginger's birthday extravaganza, I started trying to think of something fun I could do for Sheri. Since her favorite board game is Ticket To Ride, I decided that would be a good thing to get together & play. I invited a bunch of friends over and we played a large, team-game adaptation of the game - using two different versions at the same time. It actually worked really well, and I think we want to try playing it that way again sometime (when we have enough time to actually finish). Going for something like a themed party, I also got a gingerbread train kit that I made for a sort of birthday cake... ...this was in addition to a turtle pie and a bunch of other snacks we had.

It was lots of fun, and Sheri had a great time. :-)

~PS

EDIT: Picture added to this post: all of the Ticket to Ride games we have, two of which were added last night.

Introducing...

Thursday December 4, 2008 at 4:52pm blah Comments (1) »

New Xtreme thursday! Now with 53% more work, 78% more stress and 110% more suck!!!

Actually, it wasn't that bad... ...just the kind of day that seems to leave me a little dazed. This week's been pretty blah overall, really. Oh well. I get to go christmas/birthday shopping for Sheri and to pick up some pictures i had printed tonight though...so that should make for more fun. I also need to do a little more planning for Sheri's party on monday too.

~PS

WiFi? I dunno, why *not* fi?

Wednesday November 26, 2008 at 10:52am wifi, computers, tech Comments (3) »

Ok, i know my wireless router sucks, but come on.

I'm currently sitting in my living room on the lappy (because i didn't want to sit at my desk). From here I have access to two wireless networks: mine and one i presume to be a neighbor's.

It should be noted that the nearest neighbor's house is about 30ft away from ours, and the lady that lives there is in her 70's. I wouldn't figure on her being the most likely neighbor to have a wireless network. The next closest house is currently vacant and for sale. Our other neighbors are probably 70ft away or more... ...and yet here, in *my* living room, the strongest wifi signal is *not* the one coming from 20ft away in my office...

Maybe I should add a new wireless router to my christmas list...

~PS

A Christmas List Blog

Tuesday November 25, 2008 at 7:17pm christmas list Comments (0) »

So I've been told I should make a christmas list and post it here. Problem is, I've found i'm expensive - especially with respect to the budgets of people who are actually likely to see this. There just isn't a whole lot that I explicitly *want* that doesn't cost a lot :-(.

That said, i'm pretty easily amused. There's plenty of stuff *not* on this list that would keep me entertained for hours. You know, like bubblewrap. Yeah.

I don't expect to get a lot from this - it's mostly for ideas & posterity.

Anyway, here's my best attempt at a conglomerate (though by no means comprehensive) wish list:

Some Videos:
trigun box set *awesome* anime (aa)
cowboy bebop box set also awesome anime (aaa)
red vs blue box set :-D (ohpleaseohplease??)
little nemo (as opposed to *finding* nemo) - difficult to find
my fair lady i have this on vhs, but would really like the dvd
the pirates who don't do anything (if only because it has a veggie commentary)
stargate sg-1 seasons 4-10
star wars original trilogy box set
talespin, season 1 (yay for cartoons!)

Some Cd's
the decemberists: castaways and cutouts
the academy is...: almost here, santi
iron & wine: in the reins w/calexico, our endless numbered days
flogging molly: drunken lullabies, swagger
margot & the nuclear so and so's: the dust of retreat
my chemical romance: the black parade
the weakerthans: fallow, left & leaving
yellowcard: paper walls

Books:
animal life (american museum of natural history) (i saw this at books-a-million and it was *awesome*)

Wii Stuff:
wii points (as many as you can give me, guys...)
wii classic controller(s)
mario galaxy
metroid prime 3
other fun-looking wii games...

Camera Gear:
money for camera gear (flash, lenses)
camera battery
cf card (sandisk extreme III 4gb)
cable release

Misc:
golf practice balls (foam, textured)
legos (particularly Creator sets)
boss eq pedal
new apple keyboard (wired)
airport extreme base station (nice replacement for my sucky router)

I might add some stuff to this later, but that's about all i can think of... ...as if it weren't way too much already


~PS

I shouldn't remember, but i do...huh?

Saturday November 22, 2008 at 11:49pm stress, frustration, false memories Comments (0) »

Ever have a very specific and vivid memory of something that never happened? Specifically, ever remember doing something that you never actually did? I do. In fact, I *very clearly* remember doing something that circumstance indicates I never actually did.

See, I'd have bet anything that I both received new license tags for the jeep *and* put said license tag on. Despite these memories, it seems this didn't actually happen. On top of that, after a couple hours of searching, we were unable to find the renewed registration & tag, which we think we received(...?). Either we never did receive them, or they accidentally got thrown away at some point or something... ...and somewhere along the line, a memory of this situation being taken care of was fabricated from thin air.

The problem here is, the jeep is now two months expired...so we get to call the county clerk on monday and find out what we can do to get this taken care of asap....you know, so we can legally drive places. Ugh.

~PS

Steampunk Mystery Photos

Monday November 17, 2008 at 12:00pm birthdays, parties, pictures Comments (1) »
Steampunk Mystery Photos Image

Photos from saturday's awesomeness are now up in Ginger's Birthday Party (Steampunk Mystery) gallery.

I thought it would be fun to convert this group shot to sepia such that it looks old in keeping with the steampunk/victorian/19th century theme. My original intent was to do this for individual photos, but i really don't have very many and i'm not even close to having a shot of everyone, so i decided to just do it to this one.

Anyway - enjoy. :-)

~PS

Satire worth taking seriously

Sunday November 16, 2008 at 7:57pm articles, satire, theology Comments (3) »

Despite (or perhaps because of) its obviously secular source, this is a great read and something those that claim to follow Christ can take something from.

Think about it.

God Angrily Clarifies 'Don't Kill' Rule

~PS

Steampunk Mystery

Sunday November 16, 2008 at 5:26pm birthdays, parties, steampunk, costumes Comments (0) »

Last night was Ginger's birthday party. I haven't mentioned much of anything about this on the blog because the details of the party were to be kept secret from Ging as long as possible.

The idea we had was for a murder mystery party with a steampunk flair. We all made steampunk-ish costumes and Rucht customized a murder mystery party kit to be a little more in this vein.

In case some of you don't know the general idea behind a 'murder mystery party' game, it's something like this: The host invites a group of guests who are all given a character role for the evening. One of them is the murderer. Through the course of the evening, the participants interact in character and will discover various details and secrets pertaining to the other characters which may make them seem more or less likely to be the culprit. At the end of the night, all the evidence is compiled, speculations are made, and the truth is revealed.

Ours was great fun. For the most part we were all roleplayers, but i don't think many of us have done much resembling larp (live action role playing). The costumes people made/assembled for this thing were great and i thought everyone did a awesome job of acting in character throughout the evening (granted there were digressions, but they were all amusing and didn't detract from the experience too much in my mind). This is definitely something I want to do again. The GM in me has decided it would be a fun thing to actually create one (though it would be a lot of work) and i've begun kicking around a few random ideas along this line.

I did break character from time to time to take some pictures. I think i got a few good ones - perhaps not as many as i would have liked, but I didn't want to devote a lot of time to that for this particular event. We did a nice group shot. As of the time of this blogging, i haven't gone through them all and I'm currently in erwin so i can't be working on that now. They should be up in a new gallery in a day or so. I'll update this post when they are.

~PS

Good Sessions, Upcoming Holidays, etc

Saturday November 8, 2008 at 11:36am gas, gaming, birthdays Comments (0) »

I'm currently sitting in our church's sanctuary while Sheri directs here choir practice. I had to get up at 8:30 on a saturday. Blah. Also, my left leg hurts for some unknown reason. Yeah, yeah. Complain, complain.

Anyway, gas is down to $1.99/gal here in Erwin. As I've previously declared, I stop complaining about it when it drops below $2.


One of the reasons I so disliked getting up at 8:30 this morning so much is because we had a rather late gaming session last night (not that i would have wanted to get up that early on a saturday *anyway*). The party wound up in a rather large and somewhat pivotal combat and we didn't want to break off in the middle of that. It was worth staying up for though.

As it turned out, we only had 4/6 of our players last night. We *thought* we were going to have 5/6, but another player had a minor crisis to attend to and had to bow out at the last minute. Since the rest of us were there already and wanted to game, and since 4 is a decent number, we decided to play anyway. I generally don't like to play with more than one player absent, but the way scheduling gets with a 6-player game, I'm starting to think the options are accept some absences when necessary, or just don't play - and the lower the acceptable number of players, the more likely it'll happen. I'm completely open to suggestions from the player on this (as always), but i may lower my 'gaming threshold' to 4 players in the interest of actually playing. When there's a month between sessions, i tend to get out of 'the groove' and it usually takes me an hour or so into the session just to get back in tune with the world & what's going on...and when you're only meeting once a month(ish) for a few hours, you don't get very far when your gm is constantly 'loading'...

Despite the fact that we missed a couple of players (and we *did* miss them), I think it was a good session. The party accomplished something important, we laughed at a lot of in-game jokes, and all the players seemed to be enjoying the game. Even Nick commented that the last, monumental encounter had been particularly interesting & fun - and that meant a lot to me. I have a lot of fun coming up with interesting/intricate/bizarre scenarios for the players to encounter & deal with, but my biggest goal is always to make sure the players enjoy the game. When they really seem to be having fun in a session, it's a success. I consider myself to be a good gm, and i think my game and the world is interesting, believable, and fun to play in - and i do take some amount of pride in it - but some of the players are harder to read than others and I can't always tell if they're really into it. Sessions like last night's are good ones. :-)


As for today - we have some errands to run after this choir practice wraps up, and then we're heading over to Nick's where he's going to make us all some burgers for *his* birthday. Apparently, he insisted on this. I'm not gonna complain. I think the plan is to spend the evening playing board games. :-)

We've now officially entered the Season of Celebrations - we have a ton of birthdays interspersed with the upcoming holidays. Very busy time of year, but in a good way overall.


~PS

And I think to myself...

Tuesday November 4, 2008 at 3:43pm videos, funny, video games Comments (1) »

I couldn't not post this...



:-D

~PS

McKenna's Costume Birthday Party

Sunday November 2, 2008 at 4:42pm birthdays, friends, parties, costumes Comments (2) »

Last night was the much-anticipated birthday/costume party for our friend McKenna. It was *lots* of fun. There were quite a few people there, and a lot of good costumes. Ginger's steampunk outfit was awesome, and Patrick's nobleman/wizard(?) costume was most impressive. Finn, of course, looked adorable in his King Arthur costume, and I had a good deal of fun taking pictures of him. I got a lot of compliments on my Vash the Stampede costume as well, which was nice. I don't think more than a handful of people actually recognized the character, but a lot of people liked the coat. :-)

The evening consisted of some most enjoyable socializing, some tasty, tasty fondue, and some other fun & games including Apples to Apples (always a favorite) and Rock Band (note: I can *not* play that game).

Near the end of the evening, we played a rousing game of Taboo. It should be noted that some of the participants were somewhat more tipsy than others - which, of course, added to its amusing nature. Also, there were at least two instances that words must have been guessed via telepathy or some other form of ESP. The first was Rucht's "Uhm...you might see this in a zoo..." to which Sheri quickly shouted "A zebra!" which, remarkably, was correct... ...but even more astounding than that was Nick's clue which began "So, there's this guy-" and was never actually finished because McKenna immediately yelled "Houdini!!" before he could finish coming up with the rest of the clue. Yes, the answer *was* Houdini. No, we still can't believe it either.

At one point during the game, there was a brief intermission caused by the eruption of an exceptionally brief sabre duel between Queen McKenna and the Pirate-Captain Nick. I wish I could have gotten a few pictures of this, but it literally lasted about 3 seconds, and by the time i got my camera back out, I had time for only a few poorly-composed shots before Captain Nick's weapon was sundered at the hilt and the blade ricocheted off a nearby lamp and "impaled" poor William, who had been napping on the floor nearby. After his defeat, Nick commented that clearly McKenna's blade was superior in its forging, and it was postulated that perhaps it was created by a Spaniard. Heh.

It was a great time. We need excuses to do stuff like that more often. I put up some of the best pictures i took at the party when we got home last night. They're in the McKenna's Birthday Party gallery.

~PS

The 'Ween, 2008

Saturday November 1, 2008 at 12:44pm holidays, friends, anime Comments (0) »
The 'Ween, 2008 Image

So yesterday was Halloween, and as of about noon, we had no plans at all. See, we have a costume party for a friend's birthday *tonight*, so dressing up might have seemed a little redundant (plus, I would have wanted to save my costume anyway). There were several things we could have done, but not really grabbed our interest.

Still, it didn't seem right not to hang out with one's friends on the 'Ween, so we decided we'd get together & do...something. It ended up like quite a few of our weekends, but that's not a bad thing. We went out to eat at Cootie Browns, headed over to Mr. K's to see if anything looked interesting, and then went back to Nick's place to watch a movie.

Our cinematic choices for the evening were a horror movie called The Descent and an anime called Steamboy. Despite the fact that it *was* Halloween and one can make a strong case for the watching of scary movies on Halloween, we decided to watch Steamboy. Ginger & Sheri aren't overly fond of scary movies on the whole, and decided I'd rather watch the anime as well, so, despite some attempts to count a vote for Abby, I think it was decided our way 3-2.

I think I give Steamboy about 3.5 stars. It was quite beautifully drawn, and the camera-effects emulation (sweeps & pans, etc) looked really cool. The story was interesting (if not overly deep) and I liked the fact that most of the movie kept you unclear as to who were the 'good guys' and who were the 'bad guys'. Also, it was about the most steampunk anime I've ever seen, and we've been conversing a fair bit out steampunk recently.

Still, it had some typical anime flaws. Character development was a little shallow (not surprising as it usually takes a series about 12 episodes to established a character). Also as Nick pointed out, a couple of the characters had more than their fair share of monologues - often in their own static timestreams (ala "hurry up get out of here! - but let me give a 15 minute soliloquy first!"). A couple of the more villainous characters seemed to pop in and out - seeming very important in some short scenes, but completely insignificant (and absent) for the bulk of the movie. And, perhaps the most typical aspect: exceptionally bizarre and wildly inaccurate interpretations of thermodynamics. But those are *fun* and hey, it's a movie.

So while we did enjoy poking fun at it, I still enjoyed the movie for what it was.

~PS

Costume Complete

Thursday October 30, 2008 at 11:08pm costumes, projects, birthdays Comments (0) »

As of about an hour ago, my costume for saturday's party has been completed. I've put an unnecessarily large amount of time into constructing this, but I've enjoyed it and I think it has turned out quite well. Its taken so long mostly because a lot of the pieces had to be fabricated/modified/repainted/etc in order to suit my purposes. Putting it on involves about 22 pieces and takes 15 - 20 minutes. Also, it's kinda hot so i may not be wearing the entire costume for the whole evening - but it'll be easier to take pictures of the others without some of the pieces on anyway. Still, it's pretty awesome. :-)

I'm excited & looking forward to saturday. :-D

~PS

Nerfpunk pt III

Thursday October 23, 2008 at 4:26pm nerf, projects, costumes Comments (8) »
Nerfpunk pt III Image

Ok, so this isn't really steampunk, but I like the titles so much i'm gonna label it that anyway.

Here's the second nerf gun i've mod'ed and repainted. Like its predecessor, it's functionally only about 95%. In this case, the cylinder doesn't always index correctly when the trigger is pulled, making it somewhat unreliable. It *does*, however, seem to be getting better the more i play with it. I suspect i got a little too much paint on some of the more sensitive moving parts.

It *looks* pretty awesome though, and it will compliment the rest of my costume nicely. Now all i need is some sort of holster.

I added some more pics of this one to the Steamnerf Gallery.

~PS

Steamnerf pt II

Monday October 20, 2008 at 6:16pm nerf, projects Comments (2) »
Steamnerf pt II Image

My first Steamnerf project has been completed. The gun is a little short of perfect on the functional scale, but it looks awesome and i'm quite happy with it. The trigger sticks a little (which i'm kind of hoping will solve itself in time) and the light site's timing is a little off as it doesn't illuminate until *after* the shot has been fired (not terribly helpful - but the thing itself is kinda lame imo). They're generally fixable problems, but i'm not sure how much i care at this moment.

For a first attempt, i'm quite happy with how it has turned out & I've made a Steamnerf album on the gallery page with a few more pics of the finished product. I'm hoping my next nerf mod project - Vash's gun - which is currently underway - turns out at least as good as this one has.

~PS

Random Company & Steamnerf

Sunday October 19, 2008 at 4:14pm friends, nerf, gaming Comments (0) »

So we randomly had a 'net friend in town for a couple of days at the end of last week. Midnight Son stopped through as part of his massive, cross-country biker trip and we all had a great time hanging out with him again. He's a great guy - hopefully he'll be able to make it to the 2009 SE GitP Meetup Extravaganza.

As was alluded to in the comments of the last entry, a good chunk of friday was spent modding nerf guns. The Hippie brought his over along with some power tools, and with that and what we had at the Igloo, we made some standard mods to the guns and also primed & painted them to give 'em a kind of steampunk feel. They are looking *great*. Yesterday I got some clear-coat to seal mine once i've decided i'm done with it (and once i get a day with less than 70% humidity).

Had some good gaming earlier this week and looking forward to some more tonight. Speaking of which, I've got mayhem that needs planning.

Later,

~PS

I am just a big kid

Tuesday October 14, 2008 at 9:58pm toys, nerf, costumes Comments (10) »
I am just a big kid Image

For the first time in recent memory, i got to buy toys this evening, and it made me giggle. I'm pretty sure in some ways i haven't passed the age of 10.

These were bought for a specific reason/purpose, but i've still been far too amused with them. My intention is disassemble and repaint them in a couple of specific ways (and maybe add a couple other aesthetic touches to them - probably more on that later) for use as costume props and the like, but i'm having a lot of fun just playing with them.

I also have to say that it seems to me that Nerf guns seem to have come a long way since i was a kid in terms of the look, feel and operation, but and also in terms of the punch they have. These toys are pretty cool.

~PS

Fall Projects, Part I

Monday October 13, 2008 at 3:31pm house projects, kubb, costumes Comments (0) »

Seeing as we're getting into the last nice days of the year (before it gets cold, that is), we decided it was time to stop procrastinating and make time for some projects: namely, finishing staining the wardrobe we bought earlier this summer, and stripping/painting the front door frame (so i can then seal it to keep water from getting into the basement) - so that's what we did for most of saturday. The wardrobe now just needs a topcoat, and the door is ready for sealing. We were quite productive, I'd say. Hopefully we'll have a couple of free evenings this week to finish these projects.

Also speaking of nice weather, we need to have a big Kubb-for-all before it gets too nasty & cold outside. I'm figuring we've only got a couple of weeks...

In more "fun" news, we've also be trying to put together some costumes for McKenna's birthday party on the 1st. This has been a lot of fun for me, as we've been trying to build costumes by getting individual pieces, as opposed to buying a pre-made thing. Trying to come up with ideas or ways to do things has been an interesting challenge. I think i've got mine* pretty much done. It looks pretty awesome for what it is, but i do wish i could afford the glasses i'd want to finish it off. Or the gun. Or a couple of other minor details, because i'm kind of obsessive that way. (also, myawwww!). Maybe if I ever wanted to wear it to a convention or something... ...of course then i'd need something for the hair as well... ...rambling thoughts. Anyway, I've found it's a lot harder when you're trying to emulate something specific, as opposed to just trying to have a fun costume. Still, i'm really happy with it.

Oh, and sheri totally beat us all at minigolf on friday night. By like 5 strokes. It was amazing.

~PS

The view from the end of summer

Saturday October 4, 2008 at 6:57pm church, food, festivals, gaming, projects Comments (0) »

Summer has faded into fall just a bit. The weather has been awesome the last week or so - highs in the 60's & 70's. A little rain, but for the most part, beautiful. I love this time of year.

Not too much has been going on here since we got back from vacation. Just kinda getting back into the normal subroutines - so this post is pretty much just that.

Last saturday was our church's 'Block Party' event. Basically, we had food and music and were trying to get to know some random people in the community. I had quite a bit of fun taking pictures of the band. I think it went pretty well despite being relocated when it started to rain.

A few of us went to the new(ish) german restaurant in downtown JC last night. It was quite tasty, though i wasn't nearly hungry enough for the amount of sandwich i got. I thought the building itself was pretty cool - it was a corner lot of a downtown building complex(? what do you call that?) that had a kind of loft (where we sat) and a west-facing window that caught a lot of the setting sun. Our waiter was really friendly and knew what he was doing. They even had live music - a german vocalist accompanied by an accordion. It all kind of sounded the same (to me, anyway), but it was at least interesting and different. It was a pretty cool place all around i think, though i have to say the hostesses' uniforms were trying a bit too hard... ...in at least a couple of different ways.

Today was the second day of the Apple Festival in Erwin. We went out to help with our church's fundraiser - in which they let people park in the lot for said festival for $5. I think it went pretty well and raised a fair amount of money for the youth group. We walked around the festival a bit after too. I took a few pictures of the mayhem. I got a bit really sunburned through all this too.

Speaking of church, i've been trying to put together the beginnings of a website for them. Again. They've been wanting to do this forever, but, well, our church just takes a longer time getting around to certain things than other people might... ...so i thought i'd put something together and we can all go from there (instead of waiting for people to get around to giving me info).

I did notice one kind of funny thing while we were out there today: A few teenage kids were walking down the street toward the festival, and they happened upon the spot where I had parked the jeep. They stopped, and I noticed one of the kids point at the D&D sticker in my back window. I'm not sure whether they were saying "hey, look at this loser" or "who in Erwin plays d&d?" or what, but it was kind of amusing to witness.

Speaking of gaming, our last session was about a week ago. It was a good one, though almost all combat. A few things happened (or didn't happen) that may have some unforeseen consequences next session or later. That game is approaching the 1-year mark, and it continues to be very enjoyable.

I've been trying to get some work done on my gaming project. I've made significant progress and it continues to get more and more interesting, but I still have a *long* way to go. I've contemplated setting a sort of deadline for myself to help motivate me... ...though i'm not sure if that would be good or bad for the creative process.

I've been listening to commentaries on dvds i have while i work (and/or do other stuff at my desk) a lot lately. I've found that amusing/random dialog is an enjoyable acoustic background - esp when i'm here by myself. In particular, i've been listening to the ones on the Red vs Blue dvds quite a bit, as i really enjoy the creativity that went into that project. I would totally try to do something machinimish if i could think of something truly original. It would probably suck, but i think the experience of learning to do some video editing/production would be cool. I haven't done any of that since high school, and the technology has completely morphed since then.

Sheri and I have been trying to think of some christmas presents for people. This is mostly Sheri's doing, as i probably wouldn't be thinking about this for another month & a half. We're coming up a little short on ideas, but we've got one or two. And at least some time.

So anyway, that's where my stream-of-consciousness ends.

~PS

It just wouldn't be the same...

Thursday September 25, 2008 at 12:38pm vacation, pictures Comments (3) »
It just wouldn't be the same... Image

...If i came home from vacation and there *wasn't* a penguin in my freezer.

As of last night, we've returned from the far-off land of Arkansas. The vacation was good, but i'm glad to be back.

EDIT: Other pictures from the vacation have been posted. I recommend you at least check out these two.

~PS

Vacation

Monday September 22, 2008 at 3:28pm vacation Comments (0) »

Well, here I am in Arkansas. I've set sheri's folks up with the wireless router we brought for them - so they get a router and i get a net connection for the week. Win/win. I did spend a good part of wednesday attempting to fix their computer. I've run all the spyware-removal tools you can shake a stick at and installed avg-free on their system, but it's still quite sluggish. It probably needs a reinstall, but we're not in a position to do that atm.

The trip out here was long, but not too bad (as i haven't had a long drive since christmas) and actually about an hour and change shorter than the last time we made the trip.

Sarah's wedding on saturday went well, and her mom managed not to strangle her in the days leading up to it. That was good.

Sheri's parents are pretty much addicted to wii bowling - which is amusing to witness. I hit pro status on it a few days ago, but i'm probably going to lose that over the next few games. I did manage to get 4 strikes in a row last night though.

I haven't had quite as much downtime as i figured i might. Today is really the first time since last wednesday i've had to work on any personal stuff. I haven't made great progress on the aforementioned game development, but i've got a decent outline. It's a start anyway.

We'll be here for a couple more days - heading back to TN on wednesday.

~PS

Game Development - Phase 1.9

Sunday September 14, 2008 at 11:21pm gaming systems Comments (0) »

Ok, so i really wanted a codename for this - something that would be cool and in some way symbolic, but not overly trite or pretentious. I wanted said codename for three basic reasons:

1. Because i'm just enough of a geek to think codenames are cool.
2. To have a short-hand way of referring to the project...
3. ...because i don't want to release the actual name just yet. I mean, if i come right out and say it's going to be called Perils in the Domain of Zombie Chicken, it won't be quite as cool when i actually want to 'publish' info for the Zombie Egg Player's Guide and the Monster Chicken Manual - don't you think?

Anyway, I haven't been able to think of anything that met the aforementioned criteria, so for now I guess i'll just refer to it as 'this thing i'm working on'.

I haven't talked really talked about it much on the blog, but some of you know that off-and-on for about the last 8 months, i've been working on a new gaming system and setting. (You know, because with creating/running 2-3 D&D games, pursuing my other hobbies, work, our house, hanging out with friends, etc has left me just so much free time
that i don't know what to do with...) It's been pretty sparse for the most part, and i probably don't have much more than 40 hours worth of work on it...but a lot of thought has gone into it.

Now, I really *do* like D&D (3rd edition, anyway) and have no intention of abandoning it, but I've always wanted to create my own gaming system since back before we started playing that one. We had some fun times with some of my early attempts at such things, but they were all very nebulous and I wouldn't go so far as to say they were coherent systems. So when i got this sort of interesting idea for a new setting a while back, I figured it would be cool to work it out and write a roleplaying system to go with it.

Since that time, my ideas for this project have morphed so much as to be almost unrecognizable from the original concept. The last couple of weeks have been very productive regarding this project - I managed to get a few key points of inspiration that have really helped to solidify some of the ideas i was kicking around. At this point, I think both the setting and the mechanics are about 80% set - which is to say I'm now planning on starting Phase 2, which will be starting to actually write this stuff up (and the ironing out of the remaining 20% of the details). We're about to go on a vacation during which I should have a fair bit of free time and I'm hoping to get a fair amount compiled then.

Finally, some notes/thoughts for posterity:

The setting I think will be very interesting and fun to play in/with, as it's a bit unusual. The one concern I have regarding it (that i'm trying to work out) is its scalability: i.e., how many different ways can the pc's interact with the setting. I don't think it will be greatly limiting, but I do think it will color a lot of the game - probably a good deal more than a setting ordinarily does.

The mechanics is where I think i might lose some people (esp. the d20 purists): basically it's something like a d&d-inspired, de-muddled white-wolf system. I chose this sort of thing for several reasons, but i won't go into all that here. It is meant to be very simple (at least on the surface) and I think the primary complaint i'll get is that the pc's will seem too similar at first glance. I don't really think that will actually be the case, but the differentiation between them will be more on the shoulders of the players in terms of backstory, character development, etc as opposed to having lots of mechanics make decisions for you by way of pc 'classes', etc. Also, another modified game/setting I've been running (Liimar - which was another, earlier fork of a similar thought process to the design of this game) has proven to me that roleplaying and story are far, far more important than whatever mechanical system is employed (or even what abilities the characters have) when it comes to an enjoyable campaign - and this system is being constructed with that specifically in mind.

~PS

Interim

Friday September 12, 2008 at 11:28am unevents, trips Comments (1) »

Not too much has been going on this month. By leg is mostly better, and life has pretty much returned to normal - that is to say, pretty uneventful.

The coffeehouse started a week ago - that was fun. We've had a couple of really good gaming sessions in the last couple of weeks too. Ally had a vet appointment yesterday - her necessary stuff has been taken care of for a while. Still looking forward to jamming with Robb & co. again sometime.

We're about to begin our preparations for our trip out to Arkansas next week for Sheri's sister's wedding. That will be the first trip anywhere we've taken since christmas. Maybe I'll have something to talk about after that...

~PS

Recovery, Jamming, Etc

Sunday August 31, 2008 at 5:46pm injuries, music, band, video games Comments (7) »

Well, i think i can say i'm able to walk again now. I don't need crutches, and I don't need the giant ski boot. It's still a bit sore from time to time (esp when i forget my anti-inflammatory like i did this morning) and i've been keeping it wrapped for good measure, but I think it's on the mend. Got a few more PT sessions to do, but they're helping and it's doing well.

Now more exciting stuff: we got to have a band practice yesterday! For our first time jamming together, i think we sounded pretty awesome, and it was a lot of fun. Man, I've missed that. I love my SG too - it's a great instrument. I don't play it enough because i usually play acoustic when i'm on my own. Hopefully this will become a regular(ish) thing. At this point, we're just gonna see where we can make this go. We're all wanting to write some great stuff to play together and hoping play some local shows when we're up to it. I'm excited about this. I really hope we can make it work.

Apart from that, we haven't done much. Oh, we did buy a Wii Points card at the mall on saturday & i downloaded Mario 3, which we can now play on our Wii. The Virtual Console thing is a pretty awesome idea.

Well - i've gotta run for now.

~PS

Its more of a 'hobble'...

Wednesday August 27, 2008 at 4:32pm injuries Comments (8) »

I won't go so far as to say i can 'walk' again...but i *can* get from point A to B, on my feet, without the use of crutches.

I had my first Physical Therapy session for my calf strain today. It had been feeling considerably better for the last few days, and i was feeling bummed that getting around was requiring 10x the effort it ordinarily would. None of the exercises Chris had me do today caused it to hurt, though i could tell it needed stretched out. He also adjusted my boot such that i can now walk in it - though like I said, i wouldn't exactly call it walkin. The height differential combined with the stiff muscles make it considerably awkward.

This development makes me feel a bit better though.

~PS

Rediscovered Music: part 139

Wednesday August 27, 2008 at 1:14pm music Comments (0) »

Every so often i find something old, buried in the depths of my playlist, that I haven't heard for a long time - and that, for whatever reason, I enjoy re-hearing immensely. For today's installment, the album by Skypark - Am I Pretty?. This is/was one of the few christian groups I actually enjoy.

Random selections:

Shelter. These lyrics fit so well with the crunchy, bluesy guitar riff over which they're laid:

Lies provide me no shelter
pain, no comfort
violence gives me no pleasure
shame, no treasure

i could never entertain the thought that things were better back in egypt...


Accomplishing quite a jump three tracks later, the goofy Starbucks Girl, which includes the narrative line:

i remember the first time i walked into starbucks, and i thought 'you know, this could be love - or maybe it's just really good coffee...''

Heh.


Anyway, how's that for a random excerpt from my semi-conscious?


Tune in next time, kids...

~PS

Dog-leg Right, pt. II

Friday August 22, 2008 at 6:39pm injuries Comments (0) »

Well, I was told on monday that if my leg didn't feel significantly better in 3-5 days, i should make an appointment with Watauga Orthopedics - and, predictably, this morning it hurt as badly as ever.

Around 2pm or so, we headed out to the JC Med Center to pick up my x-rays (which i'd called about earlier) so we could take them over to Watauga Orth. This seemed like it would be a pretty routine and painless operation (esp. since i was sending Sheri in after them). I guess it *could* have been, but when sheri came back out,we had a new problem: our jeep wouldn't start.

Now, It's been having intermittent problems for a while, I was just really hoping we wouldn't see any symptoms at least until after my leg healed up again. No such luck. I called my dad and we talked through some things in the manual, but there wasn't much we could do under the circumstances. After talking on the phone for about half an hour however, we tried starting it again and it started right up. I'm beginning to think that threatening to do something to my jeep by talking to my dad is enough to scare it into submission. Anyway, as there wasn't much we could do but go about our business and hope it continued to start, that's what we did - and, thankfully, we didn't have any more problems out of it today.

When we finally got to Watauga Orth. and in to see someone, they took another look at the x-rays (presumably for hairline fractures or something that the initial read might have missed) and quickly determined that my bones were, in fact, ok and intact, but that i must have actually *torn* my calf muscle. So, they fitted me with a brace, gave me some anti-inflammatory drugs, and told me to go do some physical therapy 3 times a week - which, luckily for us, i can do at milligan. I'm supposed to go back to Watauga Orth. in a couple weeks for another evaluation...so this is going to take a while to heal completely it seems. Personally, I'll just be glad when i can walk and sit at my desk without throbbing pain again...

EDIT: Oh yeah, and how many times do i have to answer the same questions? I mean, you'd think in this day and age people in the medical field would write things down - and that they might pass that info along to the people that need to know it. Any given question i was asked once, i was asked at least 3 times by at least 2 different people - things like: "where do you work?", "when's your birthday?", "how big *is* your dog?". Really people, i'm in pain. If you can do with me explaining it *once* instead of 4 times, i'd really appreciate it - and, if you haven't figured out how to communicate with each other yet, how about we just get everyone who wants to know in here and i can tell it to everyone at once. We'll even rent out a lecture hall if necessary.
Actually, it didn't really bother me that much - i just thought it was a little odd...and it was awfully fun to rant about.

~PS

He took a dog to the leg at 30mph

Monday August 18, 2008 at 5:25am injuries, afraid Comments (11) »

Well, i'm back on the disabled list.

So we got home last night after sheri's choir practice where i wrote the last blog entry - wherein pretty much everything was fine - and I had taken ally out into the yard to make sure she didn't have to do anything before bringing her back into the house. She was really wound up since we'd been gone all day, and was crazily running around in circles like some sort of doggy 500. It was quite amusing...to a very specific point. I guess i should have been paying more attention, but really, even if i had been, I never would have guessed this could happen.

As I was standing there, letting the dog run around like crazy, she ran *into* me. This isn't all that unusual for her - she runs into things with some regularity - quite hard, sometimes. Well, this time was hard alright - and it just so happened to be squarely on the calf muscle i strained a few weeks ago. Despite the fact that my calf had recovered such that it was only slightly sore once in a while, and the fact that it felt perfectly fine at the time, I went down.

It's now been about 10 hours, and it still hurts so bad when it moves at all - much worse than it did even the first time i injured it. In fact, it hurts more than any injury i can ever remember having. Ever. It has nearly made me physically ill just from the pain at times. Whatever i strained/bruised/stretched before feels like it has now been ripped/torn/broken completely.

For now, i'm sitting out on the couch trying to move it as little as possible and still remain in a comfortable position (difficult for someone as fidgety as me). I think we're going to the clinic later. I *hate* going to get medical care, but i'm afraid something is very wrong and it's not getting the slightest bit better (so far) on its own. Honestly, i'm quite scared i'm going to be immobile for a long time and/or need surgery or something.

Please pray for me.

~PS

Would you like cheese sticks with that?

Sunday August 17, 2008 at 5:29pm golf, gaming, scenery, randomness Comments (2) »

So on saturday i got to play in a golf tournament. It was a fund-raising event for the East TN Christian Home, and our church was sponsoring a hole and a team to go play. One of the guys who was supposed to go was kind of busy and asked if i could go in his place. I told him that I wasn't sure he wanted to send *me* - because i'm not really any good - but that it sounded like a lot of fun. I think I actually played below average even for me, but Lee and I had a lot of fun and the other guys we were playing with were really good company as well.
It was a two-person-team, best-ball game, and, as a team, we ended up at +11 - which is much better than *I* ever play for 18 holes. Lee is pretty good and we played his shot more than half the time, but i was occasionally useful. I *did* make a crazy-hard birdie putt on a par 3 (mostly thanks to luck) and I had a few other key shots, but it was mostly Lee's game. Still, he's a blast to hang out with and, as i said, we had a lot of fun - which was really what it was about.

On saturday evening, almost right after the golf game, I ran my current d&d game. Since they just arrived in a new city and had a *ton* of housekeeping type stuff they wanted to do, added to the fact that I had/have quite a bit of setup material to get through, the session was a little slow and there wasn't much in the way of action or significant roleplaying. This was a little disappointing, but not terribly surprising. It was still an enjoyable evening hanging out with friends, and most of the stuff was necessary for the game on some level. Next session (whenever that is) should get them into some more 'meat' of the game, as it were.

This afternoon sheri & i went up to Beauty Spot. We've heard of it and even knew where it was for a while, but hadn't made it up there before today. The gravel road that takes you from the 395/rock creek rd up to the actual mountain top is pretty long and rough - and slightly nerve-wracking. I've been on worse though. The area itself is really pretty. I think later in the fall when there are fewer bugs and weeds (and some cooler temperatures), it would be a really nice place to spend an afternoon relaxing. I took some pictures of the area. If any of them turn out nice, i'm sure they'll get posted.

This evening, sheri & i walked down to sonic to get some slushes. I mention this particular event because, after we ordered our grape & watermelon creamslushes, we were asked (and i quote) 'would you like any mozzarella sticks to go with that?'. Now, i don't know what universe these people are from - but in *my* universe, fried cheese sticks do NOT, in any way, "go" with sweet, fruit-flavored, ice-cream slushes. At all. And, even if some people enjoy that combo, i have a hard time believing its so pervasive that asking everyone if they'd like some is a necessary course of action. I mean, i just can't see 'mozzarella sticks with creamslush' being anything like 'fries with hamburger'.

~PS

Battle of the Bands

Friday August 15, 2008 at 12:03pm music, friends, bands, contests Comments (7) »
Battle of the Bands Image

So I went to the Battle of the Bands at Winged Deer Park last night to see Mahto's band, Ralvaden, and some others play. It was quite a fun and entertaining way to spend a thursday evening, I have to say. Hanging out with friends and listening to some live music. Does make me miss playing a band, though (I think i've mentioned that before?). Troy even made it out - hadn't seen him in *forever*.

I was pretty impressed with Ralvaden. I think they've improved quite a bit since I heard them last just a week ago. For their first show *ever*, they were awesome. They had written the two songs they played, which I thought were pretty well-composed for no longer than they've been at it. If they stick with it, they could be very good. In terms of technics, I don't think they were the most talented musicians playing, but they did have a good style and played well I thought. I could tell they've worked hard at it. I loved how Mahto handled the 'interview' that they did with the band after the performance - he really seemed to keep the mc off balance. It was quite amusing.

What kind of surprised me was that the whole event was sponsored by a a 'christian' organization, and there were some plugs for some upcoming 'christian' events, etc. Also, the surprise 'prize' for the winning band was being given the opportunity to open for one of the aforementioned events. A cynical part of me wants attribute the fact that the most overtly 'christian' bands took the top spots to these aspects, but the more benefit-of-the-doubt part of me decides (and hopes) that that was *probably* not the case. I think I would have picked the same 'winner' (based on the judge's proclaimed criteria), though I think I would have flipped places 2 & 3.

I really think that the David Nipper band (who placed 3rd) was really the most musically talented and professional of the lot - though The Verity (who took 1st) was a close second on that score (and a bit better on the stage presence). I suspect it was the fact that their stage presence was a lot more laid-back that cost them a higher slot... ...but, for a group that stylistically reminded me quite a bit of John Mayer, you can't really have the crazy jumping-around that some of the more hardcore/punk bands did. High-energy, high-volume music is easy to dance and jump around with, but mellow stuff takes a different, more subtle and more difficult, kind of expression. The guy was a good song-writer, and *all* of the musicians were very, very good. David, I thought, had good expression and presence, as did the drummer, but the rhythm and base players - for all their talent - just kinda stood there. Still, I would have given them 2nd above the repetitive thrashing (if energetic) of Free The Martyr (though, man, their guitarist could play *wicked* fast).

Pictures are posted in the Gallery. I was mainly there to photograph Ralvaden, but I tried to get a shot or two of everyone. The only one I missed was the Last Minute Band - who happened to play while I was eating dinner. Sadly, I was least impressed with them - probably because they only played cover songs (i'm big on originality)... ...but having only been together for less than a week, they were pretty good. Troy liked them.

~PS

A Real Post

Tuesday August 12, 2008 at 1:12pm lawn, church, photography, friends, swimming, gaming, music, blogs Comments (4) »

Or, you know, as real as I get.

Not too much has been going on here. Watching the grass grow. No, for real. Since i strained my calf muscle, I haven't mowed the yard - which is now really, really bad. My plan is to start tackling it later today. That's gonna be rough.

Sunday was our church picnic. I took a few great pictures of the munchkins on the playground. I'm still learning how to best shoot moving subjects - a lot of my shots are a little soft. Especially the ones of Claire. She doesn't stop moving. Anyway, it was fun. Oh, and I made lemon cheese bars for it (the first time by myself :)) which were a big hit with at least a few people. There were only two left.

Ginger, Sheri, Nick and I went out to the Elizabethton city pool on saturday. That was cool. Actually it was downright *cold*. There were only a dozen or so others in the water. I think i know why. After 5 or 10 minutes you got used to it though... ...if only because you were at that point numb and couldn't feel the cold. It was a good time though. The weather's been beautiful here: very mild for this time of year. Tomorrow's high is only 78 and the lows have been near-record.

On friday we had a fun gaming session. The party wrapped up what they had been doing in the dwarven ruin and have now traveled to the city of Madrid for more fun and mayhem. That game continues to be lots of fun.

Mahto's band had a practice on monday & I went to listen in. They sound pretty good for a highschool group. I think if they keep it together for a couple more years, they could be really good. They're actually playing at a 'Battle of the Bands' this thursday that we're gonna try to go to. That should be fun. Robb and I got to sit outside & play some guitar on monday as well. I really miss getting to play in a group. We talked for a while about trying to put something together at some point, but i think we'll need to find at least one more member.

Not too much else. Calendar's pretty blank for this month.

~PS

addendum: late last night i finally finished the graphic design for sheri's new blog - you can see it here.

Seventy-three men sailed up...

Monday August 11, 2008 at 11:56am music, thoughts, nostalgia Comments (0) »

...from the San Francisco Bay
Rolled off of their ship, and here's what they had to say
"We're callin' everyone to ride along to another shore
We can laugh our lives away and be free once more"

But no one heard them callin', no one came at all
'Cause they were too busy watchin' those old raindrops fall
As a storm was blowin' out on the peaceful sea
Seventy-three men sailed off to history...


So we were sitting in a Wendy's in Erwin yesterday having lunch before heading out to the camp where our church was having its annual picnic, and I couldn't help but notice the insanely random array of songs being played over their radio. Four decades in 10 minutes is pretty impressive. This was made most evident to me when they played an old 70's song I don't think i'd heard since i used to listen to tons of classic rock back in highschool. It was a song called "Ride, Captain, Ride" by Blues Image (which i have to admit i couldn't remember - and it was driving me crazy). I would say that i'm dating myself a bit here, but since i was about 6 months old when the song came out, it doesn't make me feel *too* old. ;-)

I also have to admit that I have something of a fascination with sailing ships and shipwrecks - and I almost always enjoy songs and stories about them (Even the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Hey, they can't all be as good as the Mariner's Revenge). I also like songs that have a sort of abstract, cautionary moral - particularly allusions to 'something better' that most of the 'people' in the song are missing (see also: lyrics to One Tin Soldier). So yeah, when I heard this old song that I hadn't heard in ages I thought, "hey, cool!".

~PS

Hey, I have an idea

Friday August 8, 2008 at 12:09pm web development, frustration Comments (3) »

When your website has about 300 pages, how about lets not actually code the menu 300 separate times - i.e., one for each page. How about lets write the menu code *once* in an external file, then we'll just call that on every page. Huh? Sound good? You know, just in case some poor sap comes in later and has to change something in the menu... ...cause you know, it would total suck to have to go into 300 different html files and change one line in the menu...

...no, no...that would be far, far too easy...

~PS

My Poor Baby Cow

Friday August 1, 2008 at 3:22pm injuries, deer Comments (2) »
My Poor Baby Cow Image

Well, this weekend has taken an unexpected turn for the crappy. Having got some last minute time off, Sheri & I were going to go on a camping trip for a couple few days. It was some last minute string-pulling, but we had everything sorted out by thursday afternoon...

...and then i saw a deer running through our backyard.

Now, generally deer running through our backyard doesn't inherently ruin plans. Thing is, deer running through our backyard is a somewhat uncommon event. In fact, I don't think i've ever seen it before. Granted we don't live in the most urban of areas, but we don't live in what I would classify as a 'rural' area either - so when I saw the deer run through our backyard and stop underneath a neighbor's (apple?) tree, i grabbed my camera and threw open the office window to take a few pictures. When I saw that the deer was quite content to stay where it was for a bit, i decided I'd try to get a little closer - so I headed to the front door and down the stairs on our front "porch" to head around from a somewhat concealed position.

At this point I need to point out that, in the excitement of taking pictures (which i *love*), there were a couple of factors here I had failed to consider completely. The first is that it was lightly raining. I decided that I wasn't worried about my camera - it wasn't raining very hard and my camera does have some weather protection. The rain, however, did result in the ground being wet - and the concrete slab at the base of the staircase is both inclined and significantly less textured than the concrete on the stairs and the porch itself.

Which brings me to factor number 2: i was wearing flip-flops. When i reached the bottom of the stairs and attempted to make a 120 degree turn to the backyard, I discovered that my flip-flops have *no* traction whatsoever on a slick, wet sidewalk.

I didn't actually fall, but my left foot immediately slid straight out from under me. This had the unfortunate side effect of me basically sitting down on my right ankle - which popped at least three times. And hurt. A lot.

Undeterred, I limped into the backyard where I got a handful of decent pictures of a young male deer (which are in the gallery) who was apparently eating apples from our neighbor's tree before i got too close and spooked it and it took off.

Now, usually when I do stuff like this to myself, I expect my ankle/leg to hurt for a few hours and then stop. Not so this time. It's been about 27 hours now, and it's still very sore - though considerably better than last night. I can't really walk without a serious limp & some occasional pain. It's actually my calf muscle that hurts so bad. I think i stretched/pulled/strained it. What sucks is that it's killed our camping plans. :-( Still, at this point, I'm just hoping it continues to feel better.

~PS

I'm busy, but i'm not doing anything

Sunday July 27, 2008 at 3:12pm anniversary, gaming, work, friends, music, video games Comments (2) »

No, really. The past week+ has been fairly uneventful. Despite this, I still have several things to do around the house that I haven't made it to yet. I feel like I've been busy, but I also don't feel like i've done/accomplished much - how does that work?

Sheri & I did have our 4th anniversary on thursday. :-) That was a good day. We went for a walk around sycamore shoals (cause it was such a nice day), and then went out to dinner. We then went to look for a movie to watch (we were going to go see Wall-E, but our theatre wasn't showing it at a time that worked well) and bought disney's The Sword in the Stone. I love cartoons.

I guess in terms of my hobbies' time ratio, gaming has gotten the lion's share lately. I've put a significant chunk of time into continuing to develop my new(ish)/experiemental system/setting but i'm still not happy with my progress - it seems to be going much too slowly. Hopefully I'll get a little more momentum soon. We had a last-minute game session last night for my surviving d&d group, which was quite fun - though it took the party about 3x longer to get to where they did than I figured it would.

Apart from that, i've been working on some large projects for work - even some on my own time. There's one in particular i really want to get done, but I never get enough time to spend on it. It's going to make things a lot easier on several of us once I do though.

Got to hang out with Sam a little on friday. That was cool. Haven't seen him much since he's been at Berea. Got to hear a couple new songs of his - they're pretty cool (as was to be expected). I've been sadly neglecting my music stuff lately. I did play a little yesterday and discovered my fingers are way out of shape. My callouses are still there, but my index finger cramps on bar chords pretty quickly. I need to start compiling ideas for a new album for next year's album recording month too. If i can write most of it beforehand, i might have a prayer of actually finishing one.

Tony & I (and Sheri, to some extent) have been working through the obsessive-collecting madness that is Lego Star Wars. There are minikit pieces on some of the levels i swear don't exist: i've gone back and forth through some of these levels like 12 times and they're still nowhere to be found. It's a fun and funny little game though.

Anyway, that's pretty much it.

~PS

Comic of the Week

Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 5:29pm comics, funny Comments (0) »

Play Old Video Games

Tuesday July 15, 2008 at 12:46pm video games, nostalgia Comments (2) »
Play Old Video Games Image

See Also: Recycle T-Shirt

So I was having some trouble sleeping the last part of last week. On thursday night I was half-conscious out on the couch at about 3am when I got this crazy idea. For some reason, I was thinking about this old video game I used to play on the Apple IIgs we used to have when I was about 10. It was called the The Bard's Tale II. It was basically a step up (technologically speaking) from a text-based adventure game and it was the first rpg (computer or otherwise) I ever played. I remember having uber high-level characters, but I never even passed the first dungeon. Wanting something to do with my insomnia, I thought "i wonder if there's some way I can play that again..."

I did some quick googling and I found a DOS version of the game. The entire game was one file that was about 500k. Yeah. 500K. It took about 3 seconds to download. I was able to get it to run on my xp laptop, but it was only in 16 colors. The version I remembered from our old computer was a much-prettier 256 colors. Also, the controls and interface were a little different.

Thinking that if I'm going to go for nostalgia here I might as well do it right, I decided I'd try to get as close to what i had before as possible. It took a while, but I dug up an Apple IIgs emulator for OSX and the IIgs version of the game - which was *exactly* what I used to play. It took me a couple more hours to get it to work, but i was successful. So now I have the ghost of our old computer running in a window on my computer here, playing a game that was put out 20 years ago.

So this game has been lots of fun to play - both because it brings back some memories and because it really is a fun game. Having been playing Twilight Princess recently (All the bugs collected!!), I've been remembering the amazing difference between how games used to be put together vs how they are now - and not just in terms of flashiness.

Also, I know why i never completed the first dungeon when I was a kid. OH. MY. We've been so spoiled by games like Zelda where a) there's a map you can find in the game and b) where said maps also make some kind of sense. I have 4 pages of graph-paper maps drawn out for the starter dungeon. And I haven't completed it yet. The dungeons in this game are basically multi-level 22x22 mazes full of random walls, doors, tons of monsters and a handful of objectives, few of which were explicitly stated at the outset. This also makes getting in and out of the dungeons difficult - since there's no spiffy 'warp me out' item/spell (well, there is an uber high-level spell that teleports you to The Guild, but you lose all your gold when you do and I can't get it for several levels anyway). I've resorted to consulting a walkthrough already - because i've hit quite a few literal and figurative dead-ends. I'm trying to do it as little as possible though. It doesn't matter much anyway, since I've only found one walkthrough duplicated on about 12 different sites - and it seems to be...wrong...with respect to locations in the dungeons. Perhaps it was for a different version of the game and the mazes for this version are slightly different.

So yeah, I have a Wii and several modern-ish computers, and the game I've been playing lately came on one 3.5 floppy and required 200k of ram to play.

~PS

We now return you to...

Monday July 7, 2008 at 12:13pm busy, recovering Comments (10) »

...your ordinary, less-exciting life.

Not that I'm not somewhat glad for the return to normalcy. The last couple of weeks have been pretty hectic. In a good way, but hectic none the less.

My parents came in for a visit last wednesday night and hung out here until yesterday afternoon - making this the longest span of time they've ever been able to stay. It was a lot of fun - my parents are great. :-)

I think I got them a little hooked on the Wii. They're *really* good at the bowling game. We also had a lot of fun with Mario Kart together.

My dad also fixed a few things around the house - something he's compelled to do whenever he's here. We spent most of saturday trying to get sheri's car working. We fixed a few problems with it, but found out that it has a more major issue with the oil pressure that we can't do much for. I think i'm gonna have to take it to the shop.

On thursday we went & played golf out at Buffalo Valley. I only played so-so, but it was still lots of fun. I'm hoping I can go out again soon.

On friday (the 4th), we went to Rucht & McKenna's house to hang out and watch the fireworks. We had a terrific view from the top of the hill across from the field they set them off in. Next year i'm bringing my camera.

Oh, and I learned how to make Lemon Cheese Bars from my mom. Yum.

...

So... ...after all the preparation and the Oots meetup and then a couple days of complex development at work and then several days of fun with my parents, things are settling down now. We did have a game session last night which was great. It was the first one in 2 and a half months for that group. We're planning to have another game this week as well, but other than that, not much on the calendar.

It's ok, I can use the rest.

~PS

Ootscon '08

Monday June 30, 2008 at 7:17pm gitp, ootscon report, kubb, friends Comments (2) »

Or, the "Second Annual Southeast-Trogland Giant in the Playground Meetup"

The meetup was an unbelievably huge success. Our gathering of 35+ forum members from all over the country (and even from canada!) here in Johnson City was an absolute blast. So many cool people, so little time in the weekend.

A short run-down of the events is as follows:

On thursday night, there were some early arrivals - Ceika, Tantolain, Sir Dustin and Trog. Llama and I made cookies for the meetup on thursday night. Well actually, Ceika made cookies and Llama and I helped.

On friday, I went to pick up our first house guest, Krade, from the bus station. From there we went over to the Stable where we hung out with those gathered, played tetris and watched Dusty (Sir Dustin) run around the room chasing his chew toys.

By friday night, most of the others had arrived. We met in the basement of ginger's church where we had pizza, games & music.

On saturday we went out to the Greenwood Challenge Course, where we had an awesome cookout, played many epic games of kubb, and quite a few went up on the high-ropes course.

On saturday night, many of us met up at the Mid-City Grill - a cool little restaurant downtown that has good, cheap food and an incredibly relaxed atmosphere. Also, they're open till like 5am.

On sunday afternoon, we met here where we intended to have another cookout, but it rained so we had a pretty decent lunchmeat spread and played Wii for most of the afternoon.

Even though most of the people had left by sunday evening, those remaining met up at Robbs place where we hung out, chatted and played the Oots board game. Ok, we played a very small part of the Oots board game.

Which brings us to this afternoon when Krade, the last one still in town, left around 2:30 after playing a rousing game of Grave Robbers from Outer Space.


That was quite a bit of a fly-by, but I couldn't possibly go into all the details of the weekend. You just had to be here. It was awesome. Can't wait till next year... ...though I am glad for some recovery time before then...

It was awesome to get to meet so many cool people, and fantastic to see some of the one's I'd met before again! :-D Words can't describe the coolness.


A gallery has been added for the event on the Gallery page. It contains 107 98 of the best pics from the weekend. :-)


~PS

Meetup Setup

Wednesday June 25, 2008 at 10:57am gitp Comments (0) »

2 days till the Second Annual Southeast-Trogland GitP Meetup. We're making a lot of last-minute preparations. We've had a bit of a fiasco regarding some t-shirt plans, but i think we've got that pretty much...er...ironed out. Or, at least we *will* have.

Lodgings are pretty much sorted out and the food situation should be taken care of. Sheri & I picked up a couple of things yesterday which should be helpful for saturday's cookout and sunday's hanging out here.

We're expecting something like 40 out-of-towners to be arriving between later tonight and friday evening. This is going to be pretty epic. Also record-setting, i believe.

~PS

Coolest thing I've seen this week

Saturday June 21, 2008 at 12:14pm legos Comments (0) »

Lego Airbus A380 Is Biggest Lego Airplane in the World.

1:25 scale model of an A380 Airbus, which is the largest passenger airplane in the world.

9.5 feet long, 10.5 foot wingspan, 3.2 feet tall. 75,000 (220 lbs) of lego bricks. Took a team of professional legoland model builders 600 hours to build.

Yes, i said 'professional legoland model builders'.

I want that job. Heh.

~PS

New Music Released

Friday June 20, 2008 at 12:08pm music, recording Comments (0) »

This is more of a surrendering than anything, sadly. I've gone ahead and added the three songs I recorded back in february to the Music page - By Moonlight, The Poor Man That I Am and Sleeping In The Willows. My original intent was to finish writing & recording the album they were supposed to be a part of, but it's now almost july and I've yet to do another single thing with it - nor do i feel particularly inspired/motivated to do so.

The original concept entitled Voyages of Ghostships was to be a collection of songs something like ghost stories - in a more concrete or abstract fashion from track to track. I still may expand/complete the project, but for now, I'm considering it somewhat dead in the water.

~PS

Just the Highlights?

Thursday June 19, 2008 at 11:46am busy Comments (2) »

I seem to have been pretty busy the last couple-few weeks, but not with anything important or exciting to talk about. Basically, this whole post is something like a "here's why i haven't blogged in a while" excuse...

What i've been up to:

• Work's been really busy, but I've done some cool things. Sadly, this means my own projects get neglected because I don't even want to look at most web sites after 5.

• Been gearing up for the GitP meetup (t minus 8 days), working on a time-consuming illustrator project for it too.

• Mowed the yard again yesterday. Lawn looks good, hopefully I can keep it that way for the meetup and when my parents come down the weekend of July 4th. Means i'll probably have to mow it again before then though...ugh...

• Finally continued one of our current d&d games, though it might be a while before we get to play again.

• Been trying to work on a new roleplaying system and setting. Still in the 'vague' phases, mostly because i have so many ideas that narrowing it down is proving to be difficult.

• Been playing Twilight Princess; just finished the desert temple.

• Played golf a couple of times. That was fun. I did ok. Got a couple of pars even.

• Sheri & I got a wardrobe that we need to stain.


So yeah, the blog, etc, has been neglected lately. The gallery has been updated with a few new pics. Mostly sheri's plants. I really want to go somewhere fun to take pictures. That's on the list....somewhere.

~PS

EDIT: Oh yeah, i forgot another big one - the Spare Room has been cleaned, painted and given window coverings. Also, i changed out several light switches and added a bunch of decorative switch/outlet covers.

So Very True

Wednesday June 11, 2008 at 10:42am funny Comments (0) »




Also, I'm behind on my normal blogging / photo-posting / etc. I'll get to some of that soonish. Probably.

~PS

Wii have a new toy

Sunday June 1, 2008 at 5:13pm video games Comments (5) »

Yeah, and you *really* don't want to know everywhere wii went yesterday looking for this thing. Twice.

Despite the fact that wii never thought wii'd buy a video game console, wii ended up breaking down. After having fun with kev's last weekend and then getting some extra money, Sheri decided what she wanted to spend some of her 'fun' money (+ christmas and birthday money from like the last two years that she never spent) on: she wanted to race with Yoshi (yo-shiii!). So, after a no-less-than-epic search, wii now have a console and the elusive new Mario Kart game. And much fun will be had by all.

I've always enjoyed video games, but they just haven't ranked so high for me in the 'stuff i want to spend money on' hierarchy for the last several years. Thing is, the Wii is just too much fun. The interesting and different interface is really what makes the whole thing for me. If this had been just a 'normal' console, i can pretty much guarantee wii wouldn't have spent the money on it.

So yeah. Anyway, wii also have our eyes on a few other cool-looking games wii've seen for it. I should point out that this is the first console i've owned that can be considered "current" since the original Nintendo came out... ...so wii're pretty excited about the possibility of getting some of the cool games wii've seen coming out.

~PS

This Just In

Thursday May 29, 2008 at 11:57pm ally, funny Comments (0) »

From the weekend, courtesy of the Llama & his mad video-making skillz: Ally vs. RC Mouse



:-D

~PS

Stimulus Shmimulous or It's Sad, Really...

Thursday May 29, 2008 at 2:18pm economics, money Comments (3) »

As I'm sure many of you know, our lovely Internal Revenue Service has been issuing 'stimulus checks' to many people in hopes that consumers' spending of said money might defibrillate our economy. While I seriously doubt this will work out as intended, if our government, which has taken a rather substantial portion of my money over the last decade or so, wants to give me some money to spend, I'm strangely ok with that.

So Sheri & I got our 'stimulus check' a few days ago, and we have been pondering what to do with it. The forces that went to war over this issue were the large part of me that exclaimed "woo-hoo! free money! lets do something fun!" versus the significantly smaller part of me and the majority of sheri which shouted "we should do something responsible, practical and (if at all possible) boring with this money". When the dust from this epic struggle settled*, we had pretty much decided the predictable thing: We're gonna spend half the money on some things for the house that we need and/or could really use sooner rather than later, and the other half we're dividing such that we can each spend some on something fun - and here's where the "It's sad, really..." part comes in.

As much as $300 is a lot of money, pretty much all the things that fall under the "if i had the money, i would love to buy x" fall considerably above that mark - things like nice camera lenses, computers, guitar amps, etc. Apparently, I'm quite expensive now. Sad, really. The other side of that coin is that a lot of the other things i'd like are considerably below it - things like gaming books, movies, cds, etc. So I'm trying to think of something in the middle that would be cool, that I otherwise wouldn't buy. Current ideas include:

- A nice flash for my camera
- A couple of boss pedals for my electric guitar
- A Wii console (if I can find one)

..amongst other, random stuff.

I have a feeling I know what my friends' input would be, but i'm still incredibly undecided. Also, a part of me figures that if i'm having trouble deciding, I probably don't need any of it and I should just use that money toward something more practical too. You guessed it, that's the boring part of me. Man, I hate that guy.

~PS

*Events depicted may have been dramatized and/or embellished

The long weekend + painting

Wednesday May 28, 2008 at 3:26pm holidays, friends, house work Comments (0) »

After last week, i was ready for the long weekend. The downside is, I've now been back at work for two days, and I don't think i'm ready for it yet. I'm not sure if I needed the long weekend, or more of a vacation.

Well, it's not that bad really. This week has been a lot better. Just. Eh.

Anyway, the weekend was fun. We had a couple of cookouts - one here for Kevin's birthday/graduation and one at Robb & Edie's for Memorial Day. Much fun was had and many kinds of games were played. We introduced a couple new people to Kubb and played some rather epic games (the second time where we've been down to no kubbs and come back to win!).

We've also started finishing Spare 'Oom. Last week sheri cleaned out pretty much everything in there (no small feat!) and so far we've primed and got one coat of paint on it. I'm planning on putting the second on tonight (if it dries in time - it's really humid/rainy here). I'll put a picture up when we get it done. I'd put an 'in progress' picture up, but i'm feeling too lazy for that atm.

The yard really needs mowed too, but it's been raining. Gonna be pretty rough once i'm able to do it, i'm afraid.

~PS

Most valuable commodity

Thursday May 22, 2008 at 7:47pm randomness, friends Comments (4) »
Most valuable commodity Image

As I mentioned a while back, I've been cleaning out the office closet. Well, as of yesterday, it's as cleaned out as it's gonna get. Freed up a lot of room in there by tossing a bunch of junk and boxing up the stuff i don't want to chuck just yet. It was during this massive excavatory (not a word, should be) undertaking that I unearthed this priceless treasure.

The experts are still debating the artifact's authenticity - see, it's not *exactly* like the legends depict. Still, it is undeniably very, very close. If past experience can tell me anything, I figure this object has the potential to make me rich beyond all necessity - if I can just get to Hyrule somehow. Everyone knows that empty, corked, glass bottles are by far the most valuable commodities in that realm.

Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who knows how to get to Hyrule, and even if I did, it would probably be in the midst of some tyrannical rule or buried beneath the sea knowing my luck. Then I'd have to find the Hero of Time and/or wait 7 years or somesuch. Yeah, and then he'd probably just take my bottle in the name of 'saving the world' or something. Pssssh. Maybe I could at least make him beat me in several, annoying swimming races first...

Anyway, given the circumstances, despite it's obvious and undeniable pricelessness, this wondrous item will probably remain here on my desk, collecting dust. And any faeries I happen to come across.

***

In other news, we've made some progress in cleaning up other parts of the house as well - the land of Spare 'Oom is looking much better thanks to Sheri's efforts, and the basement is getting tidied a bit as well. This is partially in preparation for the upcoming GitP meetup (t minus 5 weeks and counting).

This weekend we are to have a sort of going-away party for Eric and Kevin will be in town to celebrate his birthday and graduation with us. Should be pretty fun all around.

~PS

1d6 Tension

Tuesday May 20, 2008 at 3:10pm stress Comments (1) »

Is it friday yet?

This week has been unusually and inexplicably tense. It sucks. I'm never this on-edge, but i've found myself quite stressed for no discernible reason lately. Like something isn't quite right with the universe. I need to do something relaxing. And fun. Maybe a hike or something.

*checks calendar* Maybe i'm going through gaming withdraw? It has been...almost 2 weeks. Heh.

Hopefully this condition is temporary.

I mean the stressfulness.

...well, and the sparse gaming too i guess.

~PS

Some fun with HDR

Saturday May 17, 2008 at 12:35pm photography, hdr Comments (2) »
Some fun with HDR Image

This is my first attempt at the HDR technique. It's got plenty of flaws and I haven't bothered posting an image at any higher res, but i'm pretty happy with the theory and the general result. I didn't play with it a whole lot, I just wanted to see what could be done on the surface. If and when I find a more interesting subject, I'll spend considerably more time on it.

Still, it's a good start I think.

~PS

Photo Blogs & Lenses

Wednesday May 14, 2008 at 3:06pm photography, lenses Comments (0) »
Photo Blogs & Lenses Image

So, in case you haven't seen the gallery, I've been having a lot of fun with my camera since I got it in december. I haven't really had the chance to go to many interesting places to shoot as yet, but I've been having fun with what's around.

For anyone who's interested, I've also found a few camera/photography blogs/sites that I've found to be very entertaining and informative:
- OnTakingPictures
- CameraPorn
and, to some extent,
- PhotoJojo.

One of them recently had an article about Canon celebrating producing its 40 Millionth EF lens - which included the picture here, which, in turn, elicited ooh's & ahh's from some of us. So then I got to thinking about lenses i'd like to get at some point. My 28-135 IS lens is a great multipurpose lens - but it doesn't do everything as well as I'd like, so ideally, i'd like to eventually get about 4 others (probably in something like this order):

- A Normal prime wide-aperture lens. Basically, a 50mm lens that can open up as wide as possible (something like f/1.4) for low-light situations (since i generally don't like using flash) and for fine depth-of-field.

- A nice Telephoto IS zoom lens. Something like a 100-300/400mm. This is the only zoom lens i'm really after as i think using a telephoto prime would be a bit difficult for me. IS is necessary since i intend to use it hand-held (at least through the shorter part of its range).

- A good Macro lens. I've found I really enjoy doing super close-ups. My lens can focus at about 8", but having a super-close-focusing lens with some good magnification would be lots of fun.

- A nice Wide-angle prime. Preferably somewhere in the 14-20mm range. Since my camera has a cropped sensor (1.6 flm), the shorter the better. This would be nice for cramped-quarters (indoor) and landscapes.


I do have specifics in mind for most of those, but by the time I'm able to afford any of them, there may be more options available. I still periodically add stuff to my wishlists on bhphotovideo.com to keep up with the options. I'll also want to get a nice flash eventually, though I'd prefer to use fast lenses instead where possible.

~PS

Week Domination

Monday May 12, 2008 at 12:12am gaming, friends, holidays Comments (0) »

Well, the week went by alright. It was pretty dull as well, but the weekend was good. It occurs to me i haven't had anything interesting to say in a while. Maybe i'm just being lazy. Anyway, just some notes on what's gone on...

Played Exalted on monday, which is always fun.

I ran one of my d&d games on friday - which was a great session (i'll get updates for you all soon).

Saturday we did some work around the house. Sheri potted some of her plants. We went to Erwin for a dinner thing. Stopped and took some photos of geese (including fuzzy babies) on the way (though i goofed and my camera settings weren't ideal).

Had church today, but didn't have to stay in Erwin since there was no choir practice. Instead we hung out with ginger and nick and played a AoEII (conquered the world). Also, we talked to our mom's since it's mothers' day.

Now it's late. I should head to bed soon.

~PS

Over the Dullness

Monday May 5, 2008 at 12:38pm Comments (3) »

Looking at my calendar for last week, there's nothing. Nothing but get up, work, go to sleep. I think I mowed part of the lawn at one point. Yay rah. We did hang out with some friends on friday and saturday, but we didn't do much besides just hang out. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing I guess...

I'm hoping for a little more fun this week. We have a couple of gaming sessions planned, and it doesn't look like it's going to rain on saturday (as of now, anyway) so maybe we'll get to do something cool like go hiking or play some kubb or other outdoor stuff. I'm wanting to enjoy the not-too-hot-not-too-cold weather while it lasts.

~PS

If you *really* enjoy exercises in futility...

Thursday April 24, 2008 at 8:57am random Comments (1) »

found on BoingBoing




Apparently someone has created a device that, when activated, simply deactivates itself in the same fashion. Now all someone needs to do is mount that somewhere and put a sign on it that reads 'Do Not Flip Switch'.

~PS

Office Closet Cleanup: More Than Half Done

Saturday April 19, 2008 at 1:14pm cleaning, junk Comments (1) »
Office Closet Cleanup: More Than Half Done Image

I was looking for something the other day and was unable to find it in my closet.

Big surprise.

So I decided to (finally) begin the massive undertaking that was cleaning out my closet. After about 3 hours, I was a bit more than half done, but ready to call the operation off for a while. There's still a few boxes on the top shelf i need to go through...

Still, the office closet looks at least 327% better, and I know where stuff is now (which has the added bonus of preventing things from falling on my head while looking).

The picture shown is roughly a third of the former contents of the closet. A lot of it got boxed up and put downstairs or just thrown away. Mostly what was in there was *ton* of old/useless/semi-functional computer parts that are boxed up and i'm still deciding what to do with and at least as many old cds (burnt & otherwise), some of which were unidentifiable. I even found an old mix cd kev & i made our sophomore year at milligan.

Anyway, its almost a usable space now. Hopefully i'll get the chance/motivation to finish it up sometime soon.

~PS

Hikaru Upgraded

Wednesday April 16, 2008 at 11:23am computers Comments (0) »

Ok, so I was up well past stupid o'clock last night, but I think i've got Hikaru's upgrades & imports complete. Aside from some minor glitches, it was mostly painless and I'm quite happy with the results.

~PS

Over The Weekend

Monday April 14, 2008 at 3:15pm gaming, friends, milligan, video games Comments (2) »

Not too much to report or make note of, but here's the gist -

Had a great gaming session on saturday, which was lots of fun. I'm enjoying that game quite a bit.

Saturday night we went to the Midcity Grill in downtown JC. Hadn't been there before. The atmosphere is very relaxed and the food was great and cheap. We were scouting the place as a potential hangout for the Oots meetup we're planning for the end of june. The owner wasn't sure if he could handle our crowd (it's a small place and we may have 25 or 30 people), but we're hoping in addition to trying to come up with a plan 'B'.

Yesterday we went to the Milligan vs Team USA softball game - or, at least most of it. The cold + wind + rain eventually caused us to leave a little early. We all pretty much knew that Milligan was going to lose terribly to the olympic team, but i figure that wasn't really the point of it. I saw the point as seeing what Milligan could accomplish against them. I was told the final score was 24-0 in five innings, but Milligan did keep USA from scoring one inning and even managed to get one or two people on base.

Last night we had some tasty quasi-mexican for dinner and a sort of video game night with Ginger, Nick & Tony. There was Dragoon, Gauntlet, Contra, Lifeforce and Katamari. A good time was had by all. Oh, and Nick and I are heroes that saved the universe. Booya.

~PS

Craziness, Pt. II (Once more, with pictures!)

Thursday April 10, 2008 at 11:50pm photography, pictures, concerts, cats Comments (0) »
Craziness, Pt. II (Once more, with pictures!) Image

Whew, I've made it back. That's a lot of driving for a 24-hour period. Still well worth it though. Much fun was had (although, I hear the jeep was misbehaving while I was gone). ....Oh, and what would a trip to see Kevin be without the subsequent inheritance of fun-yet-obsoleted tech toys?

So yeah, i've downloaded the concert pics from my camera, sorted through them, pulled out the best ones and posted them on the site in the Cat's Cradle Gallery. They're a little noisy, but the exported jpeg's clean up pretty well at the small, web-friendly resolution and I'm quite happy with the results. I think i got some good stuff there. :-)

I've also expanded Anselm and Paddington's Gallery, which now included a few pics of Stitch and Dharma.

Anyway, I'm tired. Later.

~PS

Craziness, Pt. I

Thursday April 10, 2008 at 11:06am crazy, friends, concerts, photography Comments (0) »

Now to expand on something I previously mentioned in passing...

Yesterday I drove out here to Kevin's place in Durham to see the Weakerthans play at the Cat's Cradle. I'm currently reclining on his futon (where i crashed last night) doing some work (i love how i can work from anywhere with a net connection) and generally hanging out (cause those two can go together quite nicely for me).

It was kind of a crazy thing to do - drive 4 hours (each way) in the middle of the week, pull some rather complex car-switching (special thanks to Ginger) and orchestrate things around work and play schedules just to go to a concert and hang out with an old friend... ..but it occurs to me that I don't do crazy stuff all that often, so i figure i'm good. And it's totally been worth the trouble.

The show last night was awesome. The opening acts were good, and the Weakerthans are great in concert - very talented, energetic, animated, and entertaining to watch. They played a lot of their upbeat stuff - which is great at concerts - though I'm also a big fan of their much mellower stuff as well. They played most of the songs that I really like - including Plea from a Cat Named Virtue, which is probably my favorite.

I (of course) took my camera and, by cranking the ISO to 3200 (and possibly using some under-exposure), I was able to get what I *hope* are some pretty good shots with my lens (which isn't particularly fast). If I had a lens that could open up to 2.8, I think I could have done a lot more. Still, very fun. I found the burst drive mode to be very handy in this application as well. Anyway, I'll be posting the best of them after i get back to the Igloo, as I don't want to mess trying to pull them off my camera and convert them from raw from here.

My plan for today is to hang out here in Durham and head back to JC sometime this evening.

~PS

Lately

Monday April 7, 2008 at 5:10pm friends, gaming, photography, concerts Comments (0) »

It's been a few minutes since i've written up a blog entry...

Been doing a lot of gaming - as it happens, every group i'm in or running (total = 4) has met or is meeting in this two-week span. It's been fun.

We had a cookout for Justin on saturday. He has successfully defended his masters thesis and, though he's not quite out of the woods, things are looking good. It seems none of his family or out-of-town friends are going to be around for his graduation - which is sad. We needed to celebrate, so we did.

Sunday (yesterday) was spent in Erwin - the first time we've had to do that in few weeks. It was a beautiful day and we went down to the Linear Trail (which follows the river). I took about 240ish pictures - granted, a lot of those were duplicates. I've developed the mantra that any shot worth taking is worth taking (at least) twice - just to make sure you get a good one. I created a gallery for the Erwin Linear Trail and put a few of the best shots in it. Speaking of taking pictures, I put a couple really nice ones I took at dusk at Milligan a while back in its gallery, and I also posted some pictures of the dogs (Ally and Abby) from saturday evening.

Tonight we have Robb's Exalted game, which I'm looking forward to. It's the only game I'm a player in. It's nice to be on the other side of the screen (as it were) once in a while... ...and it's also nice to take a break from d20.


On wednesday I'm planning to drive out to Durham, NC to visit Kevin and go to a Weakerthans concert - that should be pretty sweet. :)


~PS

Best. April. Fools. Video. EVER.

Tuesday April 1, 2008 at 11:31am penguins Comments (2) »



This is fantastic.

~PS

Night Photography

Tuesday April 1, 2008 at 12:40am photography Comments (0) »
Night Photography Image

I've just been outside for the past 30-40 minutes (it's a nice night - probably 60 degrees or so here in JC) taking pictures of the random scenery surrounding my house - using the sky and clouds as background since, despite (or perhaps due to) the absence of a moon in the sky, appear extremely lit up tonight.

Attempting to manually focus on an object (or outline thereof) that is barely visible in the ambient light has been my biggest challenge here, but as i'm getting more experience with my camera, i think i'm getting better at it and most of the shots i made tonight were pretty well in focus. I've posted a few others in the General Scenery Gallery.

~PS

Dice + Boxes + OCD

Monday March 31, 2008 at 12:01pm gaming Comments (2) »
Dice + Boxes + OCD Image

or "i am a geek, part XXVI"

I like dice. I like boxes. I can be a little obsessive/compulsive about organizing certain things (certain things. Other things I couldn't care less about. See: my office closet).

So, after a tip from Sheri's mom, I went to the fishing section at wal-mart (you can see why i needed the tip - why else would I be there?) and got a new dice/pencil/marker container. Some people apparently call it a 'tackle box'.

This $4 box can neatly separate all my dice by type (or color, or texture i suppose - though that would be somewhat less useful) in adjustable compartments and also has room to hold my dry-erase markers and pencils. Point is, it keeps all my 'loose' gaming stuff together, making it a lot easier to carry or pack into a bag with books, etc.

So yeah, I think it's pretty cool. I thought I'd post it up here to pass along the idea in case anyone else likes it. Oh, and because it was another thing to take a picture of and post on my site - cause that's sort of an end in itself these days. ;-)

~PS

How Far I've Come

Sunday March 23, 2008 at 7:30pm penguins Comments (1) »
How Far I've Come Image

While digging up some old photos on my computer, I came across one that stuck me interesting.

It was a shot from an older, simpler, less-penguiny time. Specifically, it was the first picture I took of my computer guardians - and it may show some of you which loyal avians have been here since the beginning.

My penguin (and friends) army has since grown 10 or 12 fold, but those loyal first still play vital roles in its day-to-day activities.

To the right, please note the photo of the original troupe contrasted with *most* of today's.

My original guardians were seated proudly atop my monitor. Today's ranks will not fit in their entirety on the shelf above my desk.

Let the rise of the penguins continue!

~PS

Previous Week: VBS + Sycamore + Milligan = Lots of Photos

Saturday March 22, 2008 at 8:23pm photography, vbs, milligan, sycamore shoals Comments (0) »
Previous Week: VBS + Sycamore + Milligan = Lots of Photos Image

This last week was VBS at our church. We decided to do it during spring break this year (like we did a couple years ago) so as not to have to compete with other area churches for attendees.

We had a sort of kickoff/egg hunt last saturday and started the actual program on sunday night and ran it thru wednesday. Overall, I think it went very well.

In addition to my usual duties as A/V / computer-tech guy, I also got to be the "official" photographer for the week. I think I took about 300+ shots - about 160ish of which I felt were good enough for the slideshows that I put up prior to the opening each night (of the previous night's events). I have posted the handful of shots that I feel are truly wonderful in the VBS 2008 Gallery, as well as a few others I thought were pretty good for various reasons.

The weather this last week has been great overall. I even mowed the lawn (well, the front and part of the back anyway) for the first time this year today. Due to this fortuitous circumstance, we decided to go on a picnic friday afternoon at Sycamore Shoals and then walk around a bit. A few more images have been added to the Sycamore Shoals Gallery.

Later that afternoon, Sheri and I went over to Milligan to walk around and take pictures - the campus is mostly empty this weekend due to Easter and it seemed like a good time to shoot scenery without being in peoples' way. Several more shots have been added to the Milligan Gallery as well.

In addition, a few other, random pics have been added to a few other galleries (like the one I've included in this post). All told, I'm sure I took over 500 pictures this last week... EDIT: Actual count of pictures downloaded to my computer from the last week is 706 - which of course isn't counting the ones that i erased on the camera. The actual total for shots taken is probably well over 1,000.

Oh, and there will be some certain, other shots posted a little later... ;)

~PS

For St. Patrick's Day

Monday March 17, 2008 at 11:08am muppets, holidays Comments (2) »



(found via BoingBoing)

:-D

~PS

In The Dark

Saturday March 15, 2008 at 8:28pm power outages, because i can Comments (0) »

So... ...our power's out. Has been for about the last 15 minutes or so. Longer than it's been out since we've been here.

I've shut my mac down, but the UPS is still powering the DSL modem and my router... ...so here i am, at the lappy, blogging and chatting online in the dark... ...because i can.

~PS

Me vs House

Friday March 14, 2008 at 10:37am house Comments (2) »

I started working on it around 6:30pm last night, and was up until 1:30am this morning with it - but after 5 hours and two trips to wal-mart, our toilet's guts have been replaced/updated, it is fully functional and it no longer leaks anywhere on the inside or the outside. Sheesh. That was way harder than it had to be.

In other home-maintenance-related news, the score is currently Tree Sapling In Our Basement Window Basin 1, Jared 0. ...though if it ultimately survives having half of its roots dug up and chopped off and the half gallon of Roundup I poured on it, I'll be a bit impressed.

~PS

Some Things from Recent Days

Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 1:00am ally, gaming, food, movies, church, music, friends Comments (0) »

Just a few random excerpts from my life this last week:

Took Ally to the vet on wednesday; made an appointment to get her spayed. That's supposed to happen on the 24th. By all accounts, she's in good health and very cute. :)

Had a game on thursday; got to use a clever riddle in a situation that actually made sense in-game. Didn't kill anyone.

Ginger made us chicken fajitas on friday and we played some carcassonne and mario kart. Much fun; very tasty.

Saturday, Sheri and I talked some about some future possible home improvement projects, went and bought flower seeds, ate chili and made Nick watch The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged. It had been a long time since I'd seen it, and it made me laugh. :)

Yesterday was the start of DST. We lost an hour, but I'm glad that there's still plenty of daylight left after work. As the days warm and lengthen, I'll have more and more time to be able to shoot outside. Looking forward to this.

We also had the usual church stuff - which we were on time for because we remembered said DST stuff. I played Brave Saint Saturn's "Estrella" for the special - and I think it sounded really good. Don't think I've ever played a song kapo'd that high (7th!).

After Sheri's usual choir practice, we met up with Dennis (aka TheGreatJabu from the OotS forum). Robb & Edie came over as well and the group of us chatted about random stuff for most of the evening. After our Bored Meetings tonight, we went to Robb & Edie's house to hang out with Dennis (before he leaves town tomorrow) by playing some Killer Bunnies. Dennis seems to be a great guy, and meshes with out little group quite well in terms of personality. If his interview with ETSU's psych. doctorate program went well enough, he may even be moving to town. That would be pretty cool.

Anyway, that's about it for now.

~PS

A Moment of Sadness

Tuesday March 4, 2008 at 2:16pm gaming Comments (1) »

Given my principle hobbies, I think this deserves a mention on my site.

I have just discovered that Gary Gygax - co-creator of D&D, founder of GenCon, and writer of more games/systems, books, adventures, etc than can quickly be counted - has died today at age 69. Like many gamers I'm sure, I'm sad that I never got to meet someone who had such a profound effect on fantasy roleplaying (more or less starting it).

He will be missed, but his legacy will live on.

~PS

Muppethon, Etc

Saturday March 1, 2008 at 11:51pm muppets, friends, kubb Comments (3) »

Today was pretty epic. In the interest of making absolutely sure all of us had seen adequate muppetry, we invited a bunch (i believe the final count was 16 total(!)) of people over for the expressed purpose of watching Muppet movies. During the course of the day, we watched Muppet Classic Theatre, Muppet Treasure Island and the original Muppet Movie - all of which were very enjoyable.

In addition to this, there was pizza, card games and we even took advantage of the nice weather to play a couple of games of Kubb with those gathered. I (predictably) took a bunch of pictures of the festivities, the best of which have been posted here in the Muppethon Etc gallery.

~PS

End Feb, In Sum

Wednesday February 27, 2008 at 1:01pm sickness, music, recording, family, weather, movies Comments (1) »

Well, here we are.

Not too much to report. I think I'm finally over this round of the sickness. Still the occasional cough, but it's not much.


I think my getting sick was the death knell to my hopes of finishing my recording project on time - having now recovered, i'm feeling thoroughly uninspired. As it's obvious I'm not going to be able to write and record 7 songs in the next 48 hours, I think I'm going to shelve the project for a while and pick it up when my attitude concerning it improves a bit. On the upside, I did get 3 songs written and recorded (and ideas for approx 1.5 more) this month - even with all the games I had to run, the being sick, and all the other stuff - which is a greater per-day ratio than I think I've ever accomplished. I also went in a considerably different direction from normal with the writing (I'll talk about that more when I get around to finishing/posting it). All in all, I think the project was a huge success, even if I didn't pull off the formal objective. I think for next year, I'm going to try to have the writing done before the recording month - my writing output just isn't high enough to write 10 songs in a month - though I think I *could* accomplish the actual recording in that time.


My mom stopped through monday on her way to visit my sister in SC. We went out to dinner and had a good time chatting about whatever. She's supposed to stop over again thursday on her way back up to IN.


We've had a bit of real snow for the first time this year. It's starting to melt off now, but we had probably better than 1.5 inches this morning - which is about twice what we generally get.


We're supposed to host a Muppethon this saturday - a bunch of us are going to get together to watch some Muppet movies. Why? The question, my friends, is why not?


~PS

Eclipse Eclipsed

Thursday February 21, 2008 at 10:20am Comments (1) »

Last night there was a beautiful full lunar eclipse. It was to be best seen from the western hemisphere as well as the last one for a couple years.

Unfortunately, the sky here was completely overcast for its entire duration - and, being somewhat sick as I am, I didn't want to stand outside in 40-degree weather very long to wait for a break. I did manage to catch a brief glimpse of it through the clouds at one point - enough to see the moon's orangey-red color, but little else.

Oh well, I tried. In retrospect, it's probably for the best - if it had been a clear night, I probably *would* have been outside for much longer than I should have been.

~PS

Checking In

Thursday February 14, 2008 at 12:34pm friends, gaming, music, recording, photography Comments (2) »

It's been about a week since my last blog post, so I guess it's that time again. Not too much interesting going on. Not to talk about anyway.

Last saturday Rucht, having decided that way too many of us gamers had never seen the movie Conan the Barbarian, had a bunch of us over for a viewing of the very old and cheesy film. Apparently we've been initiated now. We did have a good time playing with the plastic swords he got for the occasion, eating some tasty food, playing an epic game of munchkin and making another (failed) attempt at finishing a game of Arkham Horror. Oh, and because i'd seen that movie, I realized last night that James Earl Jones is also in Dr. Strangelove. Weird.

Sunday, I continued my longest currently-running campaign (18 sessions now, started a year ago last october). I love that game. It's so much different than most rp games.

I've been continuing to work on my RPM project. I'd hoped to be a bit further than I am, and it's beginning to look like I'm not going to finish. We've now reached the half-way point, and I've only got 2 songs down. I wrote about 1.5 more last night, but I haven't even started recording them yet. Perhaps tonight while sheri's at choir practice. I'm also discovering this project to be more a 'proof of concept' than an actual finished product. I'm way too picky to settle for what's coming out so far. Still, it's been most enlightening and enjoyable.

Also, I've posted to the gallery a few more pics i've taken recently. A couple more cute pictures of Ally (apparently one of my favorite subjects)(Ears!) and a few scenery pics - including a decent moon shot and a killer sunset sky. I'm looking forward to the weather warming up enough to actually go out to some different places to shoot.

~PS

RPM - Project Update

Thursday February 7, 2008 at 1:05am music, recording Comments (0) »

Feb 7th 2008

2 new songs written and mostly recorded. I like them both quite a bit. If I get nothing else out of my efforts this month, this has been well worth it.

I'm greatly enjoying this record - how the rest of it pans out will be interesting. Still not sure if I'm going to finish it "in time", but I'm still making a good go at it.

~PS

Pics from the Weekend

Monday February 4, 2008 at 12:46pm pictures, coffeehouse, pets Comments (1) »

Just a quick entry mostly to point out some updates to the Gallery -

Friday we had an open mic night at the the coffeehouse. Ginger & I took some pictures - I've put some of 'em up in a gallery for the coffeehouse. Had a good turn out too. Perhaps the open mic's will have a bit more success this year...

Saturday we had a good gaming session, and then Sheri & I took Ally over to Nick's house. Ally had never really been somewhere to play with other's pets before. That was fun. You can't pay for entertainment that good. :) Got some pretty good pictures from that in Ally's Gallery as well.

~PS

Happy Sushiday Pt. III

Friday February 1, 2008 at 11:40am website Comments (0) »

Uhm, to me, I guess.

So the site's now been up and running for 3 whole years. Mildly impressive, I think. To date, it's been through 7 incarnations. I'm pretty happy with how it looks and works... ...for now. (At least until I get some other cool idea and want to "upgrade" to version 8. Hehe.) The last version was put together in March of '07 - so it made it almost a year. Pretty good, I think. I'd generally say that I'll be content with this build for a while, but I always say that and what "a while" is exactly is somewhat subject to change...

Anyway, Thanks for sticking around. Here's to the continued randomness that is my site.

Happy Sushiday,

~PS

The Path of Disciplined Musical Enlightenment

Monday January 28, 2008 at 4:48pm music, recording Comments (0) »

So I saw this a few days ago on slashdot (and later on BoingBoing): The RPM Challenge

Summarized: Write and record a complete album (10 songs or 35 minutes) during the month of February just because you can.

But really, you should go read it.

The ideas behind this exercise in artistic creativity greatly intrigue me. I've long been the sort who most often pursued his creative interests only when it struck his fancy. This challenge asserts that a more disciplined, "whether you feel like it or not" approach can be very rewarding - and as it points out, you can't put that much effort into something and *not* get better.

I also appreciate the project's emphasis on encouraging people (anyone and everyone) to make music for the sake of making music. This strikes a chord (forgive the unintentional pun there) that resonates profoundly in a time when the recording industry and its money-making concerns are in the forefront of the music scene.

So yeah, I'm going to try this. Should be interesting. I've done their little sign-up thing, I've posted it for you all on my blog, I've made a commitment. Lets see what I can make happen. It's going to take some organization, some discipline and a lot of work. It doesn't have to be great (something i'm reminding myself), it just has to be the best i can do in a month.


Worst case, I've made an effort, have at least *something* to show for it, and almost certainly improved as a musician, songwriter and recording tech. Best case, I have a lot of fun and I come up with some truly interesting new material. Either way, I win.

~PS

Llamabration 2008

Sunday January 27, 2008 at 9:52pm birthdays Comments (0) »

Yesterday, we held our annual Llamabration - that is, our birthday party for our resident llama. Great fun was had by all who attended this monumentous occasion.

Basically, we hung out at Mike & Steph's, ate Lasagna-not-lasagna made by our EP as well as many other tasty goodies, played much Wii and gave our quadruped many interesting gifts. I took a bunch of pictures which are now posted in the gallery here.

Happy Birthday, Llama!

~PS

And now for something a little different...?

Sunday January 20, 2008 at 3:24pm friends, outdoors, outings Comments (3) »

Some of us were talking the other day, and we decided we don't get out enough.

I probably don't mean that the way it sounds though. It's not as though we're hiding under rocks, but we all just kinda do the same things all the time. That is to say, we hang out and play games - board, video and roleplaying. We occasionally do other stuff, but probably not often enough. We could also stand to get outdoors a bit more often. Don't get me wrong, I very much like just hanging out, playing games and doing nothing in particular, but it would be fun to do something different for a change. Here are some things we've decided we should try to do - maybe sometime this year (preferably once it gets a little warmer).

- We should do quite a bit of hiking. And not just at Sycamore Shoals (which is nice enough), but at least a couple trips up to Round Bald, Lorell Falls and other places. I mean, we're in the mountains just miles from the AT. There are *lots* of good sites around here.

- We should go to a zoo and/or aquarium. Sheri's been saying this for a few years. There's a zoo in Knoxville and a zoo and aquarium in Chattanooga.

- We should go over to Bay's Mountain to see the wolves. They have a sort of preserve/habitat for them up there.

- We should look around for some interesting museums. I know there's a big one in Knoxville and i'm sure there are quite a few others within a reasonable distance. Nashville (5 hours away - far, but not ridiculously so) has quite a few including The TN State Museum (which is *huge*) along with the only full-size replica of the Athens' Parthenon (Not as cool as going to Greece, but some of us aren't that lucky), a Botanical Garden / Museum of Art and the Cumberland Science Museum/Planetarium.

- We should go to some state parks and/or similar areas. Maybe do some camp-outs, the aforementioned hiking and other stuff. There are quite a few of them within a couple hours of here.

- We should bike the Virginia Creeper Trail. This would be great fun. I'm told they'll rent you bikes and there are several different segments of the 35-mile trail you can take (you know, in case you're not used to going *quite* that far).

- We should go up to IN to go skiing/tubing/etc with my parents on their boat. I've been saying this for a few years, but we haven't gotten around to it yet.

I'm sure there are some more good ideas as well. You all can put some in the comments if you want. We'll probably be asking around for who might like to join us in our grand adventures too.


Of course, one of the best things for most of these (at least for me) is the opportunity to take some great pictures at a lot of these places. I'm really looking forward to that. :)


~PS

Wanted for $$60

Wednesday January 16, 2008 at 12:30pm costumes, anime, friends Comments (3) »
Wanted for $$60 Image

I thought $$60,000,000,000 was a bit of an overstatement in my case - even if you have been bugging me for pictures of this.

Here's what happens when you have friends like mine. They buy you awesome costumes, and then they want you to wear them and take pictures of it.

Apparently one of my friends found this replica of Vash the Stampede's coat on ebay, decided it must be mine, and gave it to me for christmas. It is pretty awesome. Whoever made it did a great job. It's pretty darn accurate from what I can tell too. I don't have the actual glasses, so I had to improvise for the photo (it didn't look right with no glasses). Still, looks pretty good.

I guess with costumes this cool, I feel it's about the least I can do to oblige their demands of photos. Plus, it's another excuse to play with my camera. I think took about 8 pictures. I thought this was the best one.

It really is a nice coat. I've thought about modding it slightly (by maybe adding a few details and/or maybe a partial lining) and actually wearing it places - but then i remember i generally don't like people staring at me. Plus, they'd probably think my strangeness + bulky coat makes me a terrorist or something. Then they'd Google me and find out i'm wanted for sixty billion (double) dollars. It's just all down hill from there...


Some of you may remember the penguin costume. That one I actually wore to a costume party. There's some pictures of that floating around somewhere. It was pretty spectacular too. I had thought about dressing the penguin up as something (that'd be two costumes at once!), but I think Vash the StamPenguin is too surreal even for me...


Anyway, thanks guys. :)


~PS

Penguinsushi.com Update

Tuesday January 15, 2008 at 7:21pm website Comments (1) »

Welcome to version 7!

I think the version 6 made it almost a year. Pretty good. Of course, change was inevitable.

Quite a bit different with this one - my focus shifted a bit since the last build. Among other things, this layout was designed with a lot more concern placed on appearance. I'm sure you can tell, as it's easily the slickest Penguinsushi.com so far.

Probably the most obvious thing is the absence of the forums. I basically decided they weren't used enough to rebuild or port for this version of the site. Most of the people I built it for in the first place have their own blogs, etc by this point. About the only thing I used the forums for was planning gaming sessions. I liked the centralized nature of them for planning, but I generally ended up emailing people anyway - so, going back to email as the primary method isn't going to be much of a change.

The new Gaming page will keep track of the games I'm running in terms of posting the session times as they are planned and keeping track of character xp, etc. I'm going to take a break from typing out synopsis' of the sessions. It's just too much work in addition to planning. If I were only running one game, it'd be different, but...

I also took out the quotes page. It didn't get much traffic. The *list*, however, still exists and you can still add to it. It's just that now the only public display is the 'random quotes' box.

One of the biggest reasons for the rebuild was the Gallery - having a 10mp camera isn't very satisfying if you're only posting 400px images on your site. I'm still not *posting* 10mp images (that's crazy talk), but I've doubled the size of the pictures displayed and I think it adds a lot.

I also added a Music page to post some of the stuff I've recorded over the last couple of years for anyone who's interested.

Basically, the site is now built around my 4 biggest pastimes - web development, gaming, taking pictures, and writing songs.

For any of you using rss to read my site, note that the feed has changed. It's still in the same place and all, and probably won't have much effect - but it's possible some of the links in your older articles will be broken. Sorry.

Anyway, hope you all like the new site. I do. :)

~PS

The View From Ohio

Thursday January 10, 2008 at 11:54am travel, work, flying, weather, dogs Comments (4) »

So I'm currently sitting in our company office in downtown Lebanon, OH. It's kinda cool, actually. On the second floor; has a nice set of windows overlooking the old downtown area. I like the buildings around here - they've got character.

Matt, Barb, Addie and I have been having a good time (Kedrick/Warren has mostly been gone or on the phone in the other room). Lots of random, funny, sometimes work-related conversations. It's been fun to be all in the same room and I've enjoyed getting to know them in person. It actually reminds me a lot of hanging out with my friends much more than being in an "office". Still, we've managed to accomplish quite a bit, I think. I got to go over my system with them (which was the point of this journey) and they understood it all pretty well. They'd been doing a good job already though. I think we make a pretty great group of coworkers.

I'll admit working from home is a little lonely sometimes... ...though I enjoy having Ally around. And I miss working from my Mac. I should also point out that the office here is in dire need of some audio enhancement - preferably in the form of some nice speakers and good coding music. True it might make phone calls a little more difficult, but still, there's two rooms. Work it out.

The plane ride up here was... ...alright. A little nerve-wracking. I don't care much for flying. I'd been on planes twice before - all with groups of familiar people in large planes in and out of major airports about 10 years ago. Much. Different. I'm figuring Tri-Cities doesn't see too many 727's and the plane I rode out on was actually a prop aircraft. Yeah, *lots* of vibration on those things. Kinda freaky. The jet i took from Charlotte the rest of the way was much smoother and more like i remembered (though still small) - that is, after it got off the ground. It was delayed for about 1.5 hours. I say the flight was smooth - yes. The descent into Dayton, however was quite rough as there was some incoming nasty weather. Also kind of freaky. I'm at least a little familiar with flying now though - and that's nice. I didn't want to bring my camera on the trip because i didn't know what to expect in terms of the flying arrangements. I'm still thinking leaving it was for the best, though i'm sure it would have been ok and I do wish I had it.

On the way to Kedrick & Addie's house (where i've been staying), we drove through a bit of a monsoon. It was crazy. Oh sure, it rains like that in TN too. About twice year. For 15 seconds. Total.

Kedrick & Addie's house is pretty cool. I've even had my own room and bathroom for this trip. They have two dogs - a huge golden retriever (and i mean huge. Like, "i've-never-seen-a-golden-retriever-this-big" huge...) who *loves* me (mostly because they love everyone), and a tiny little terrier-like dog who i've yet to get to come anywhere near me.

It has been weird being away from home by myself. I miss Sheri and Ally. Still, it's been a pretty good trip so far.

~PS

The Return, '07

Monday December 31, 2007 at 11:30am christmas Comments (3) »

Well, we're back from another epic holiday trip. Strangely I felt significantly less internet-withdraw this time around. Still, it's good to be back on the web.

Here's kind of a general fly-by.

We went up to my parents house last friday and were there for almost 20 hours before heading out on the first of two trips to OH for christmas with my mom's side of our extended family. The second trip was made the following day (after returning to IN for church sunday morning - I really miss getting to hear John Sichting speak) for christmas with my dad's side of our extended family. They were both fun, if short, gatherings. It was good to see people I hadn't seen in quite a while.

Monday (christmas eve) was official 'do nothing' day. After all the traveling, I was ready to kick back with some mario golf and just hang out with the family I hadn't seen in more than a year. And kick back, we did. My parents quickly became addicted to the game, and we played quite a few games of it over the week. In fact, they liked it so much that when sheri and I went up to visit her family in indianapolis, I left the gamecube with my parents so they could play it. They must have played it quite a bit, because they got really good at it over the course of those three days. My mom even got a hole-in-one - something I tried for 45 minutes to do on a training hole and couldn't pull off.

Christmas day was cool. It was nice to get to spend it with the family again. Last year, none of us were together on christmas. We didn't do much that day either except spend the day together - which was great.

Wednesday, we headed to Indianapolis (as previously mentioned) to spend time with sheri's family. I took quite a few *great* pictures of a charades game. I'm not sure which ones I'm allowed to post here, though. ;-). We also played a *lot* of cards (of course). Shanghai Rummy in particular. I'm terrible at that game, but it's fun (if generally frustrating) to play. We also played a couple games of Up and Down the River and we even got out sheri's new(est) Ticket To Ride game (the US version - she now has them all) and taught them to play. It was a good time - if a bit crowded. With 9-10 people in that house, we had some spacial issues at times. Despite the temperature fluctuations and lack of sleep (due to leaking air mattress), I think I managed to avoid getting sick.

On saturday afternoon we returned to my parents' house. We went out to Noble Romans for dinner (at my request - i try to make it by there whenever I'm in IN) - which was tasty. After that, I helped dad make a couple of Kubb sets - so now I have my own! I think he's made 5 or 7 now - and has done quite a bit to spread the game to OH - as those were also his exchange gifts for the two previously-mentioned OH christmas parties. Of course, after that was more mario golf. Till 2am. It takes something special to keep my mom up that late.

On sunday, we went to church, I made some spaghetti for lunch, we played a last game of mario golf (addicted - i'm telling you) and then sheri and I headed back down here. Ally was very glad to see us.

That's pretty much it. Over the course of the week, I took 275 pictures. I had room for about 53 more on my 4gb card - so I'm glad I was able to get the 4 as opposed to the 2gb. I'll post some up here pretty soon. I love my camera :-D.

In terms of the less-important stuff, I got some new speakers for my computer (it's nice to have some that aren't dying), a nice golf practice-hitting mat, some dvds (including abbott & costello and victor borge!), some legos (yay!) and quite a few new additions to my penguin army. My shelf can no longer hold them all.

~PS

JC Christmas 2007

Thursday December 20, 2007 at 11:23am christmas, friends, cameras, board games Comments (0) »

Last night's christmas party was fun. Ginger, Tony, Rucht, McKenna and Finn came over for spaghetti, presents and hanging out. McKenna had to leave early, but Rucht stayed around until Finn got too cranky to be up.

After he left, Tony, Ginger, Sheri and I played a game of uber Carcassonne - as of last night, we have all but one tiny expansion. The game is now massive and barely fits in its box.

I played with my new toy (camera) a bit. I'm still learning it, but it's very nice. Took some pictures of Finn and some of our game-playing. At Tony's request, I got one of Optimash Prime joining our Carcassonne game. I'll start posting these at some point.

Rucht & McKenna gave us Settlers of Catan - a game that I've heard lots of good things about, but never got to play. In addition to that and the Carcassonne expansions, I got my own memory card for Ginger's game cube (hehe) and Sheri got a pair of yoshi slippers(!).

~PS

Cameras, Birthday Happenings, Etc

Wednesday December 19, 2007 at 11:39am cameras, birthdays, friends, penguins, christmas, family Comments (2) »
Cameras, Birthday Happenings, Etc Image

This is probably the last picture I'll post taken with our Kodak EasyShare digital camera. The subject of the picture should adequately explain why that is. :) I was able to pick this up (on sale) yesterday due to the *amazing* christmas bonus I got this year. I am now horribly out-classed by my equipment - but this is a disparity i'll be seeking to remedy over the course of the next year or so. Perhaps with some help from some friends.

In case anyone cares, I did type up my thoughts regarding Why I Decided on the Canon 40D. You know, if you didn't get enough of my rambling on that before.

In other news, I had a great birthday yesterday. For much more than the above reason. After work, Sheri, Ginger and Tony took me out to eat at O'Charley's (potato soup....yum) and then we went to a place called Fun Expedition and played miniature golf. Blacklight miniature golf. The second half of the course was in a closed-off, darkened area illuminated solely by blacklights and florescent materials. The balls glowed. The cup glowed. The obstacles glowed. The putting surface however, was a well of inky blackness. You couldn't see it at all. Sometimes you didn't know if there were bumps, basins, mounds, etc until you watched your ball unexpectedly change direction as it rolled over them. It was evil. But very cool.

After that, we came back here and had ice-cream cake and i got presents. Ginger gave me a fantastic penguin kids' book. A new IM away message is taken from it. :-)

Tony gave me a game called Penguins: a family penguin-stacking game - ironically put out by Fantasy Flight, the same people who make Arkham Horror and a bunch of other rpg-type games.

Sheri gave me a copy of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the original - Gene Wilder is awesome) and a penguin-shaped vibrating massager.

So, out of 4 birthday presents, 3 were penguin-based. Not bad. ;-)


Tonight we're supposed to have our little christmas party. We've invited Rucht, McKenna and Finn as well. I'm going to make some spaghetti. It should be lots of fun.


Just a couple more days till christmas vacation and heading up to IN. I can't wait to see everybody - it's been a *long* time since i've seen some of them.

~PS

Happy Birthday to Me

Tuesday December 18, 2007 at 10:04am birthdays, friends Comments (0) »

So I'm 28 today! Even though the older I get the less significantly individual birthdays affect my self-identity, I still have a sort of child-like joy regarding the annual day of birth and the general merriment that it implies as good friends and casual acquaintances express that they wish me well. Such things are important to me.

I think some of my friends have planned something fun for this evening. I know we're at least going out for dinner tonight - which is always a good time. I'm sure we'll have some sort of cake/ice cream, play some games. We generally seize any excuse to partake in such activities.

I'm sure sometime tonight or tomorrow I'll post the full list of events as they happened. I'm also planning on acquiring something else today - which I'll probably be posting about later too.

~PS

Viva La Revolucion

Thursday December 13, 2007 at 4:00pm nonsense Comments (2) »

I have just encountered a seemingly-normal block of cheese. Seemingly normal.

I had some soup for a late lunch, and I decided to have some cheese and crackers with it. Little did I know, this was no mere block of cheese. It was an undercover revolutionary, fighting against our oppression on behalf of all cheese-kind - nay, even for all cultured dairy products.

Even as I took slice after slice from it, it plotted its revenge. When the time was right and the element of surprise was at its maximum potency - as I was lulled into the false sense of security so easily fabricated when one is doing nothing more than enjoying some colby-jack - the cheese struck, and struck hard. In one swift stroke, it had destroyed my trusted cheese slicer - the cheese slicer that had faithfully served me through countless blocks. It was only one false move, and it was gone forever.

I mightn't have thought this more than a mere coincidence, perhaps it was only that my cheese slicer's time was up - that it was going to that big cutlery drawer in the sky. Yes, certainly that was it. It had been months since I'd heard anything of the rumours of the underground cheddar resistance - and this was mere colby-jack (which, as everyone knows, is not known to be the most militant of cheeses). Relatively undaunted but for a moment of grief, I procured our only other cheese slicer from the drawer and continued my "dairy-oppressive" luncheon.

It wasn't until the cheese struck again - this time, seriously injuring my last remaining slicer - that I truly took notice of the situation in which I had become entrapped.

The cheese declares that it and its tasty brethren must and shall go free.


Meanwhile, my wounded slicer and I mourn for lost our brother, and bide our time for another day...

~PS

Blog entry in three part discord

Tuesday December 11, 2007 at 12:53pm birthdays, movies, weather Comments (2) »

Last saturday was Sheri's birthday. To celebrate, she, Tony, Ginger and I all went to Holiday Lanes and bowled 3 games (from which i'm still a little sore). We all had a great time. Perhaps we will do that again sometime.

After the bowling, we took her out for dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and then returned here where we had cake, ice cream and presents for the bunny. Tony gave her a game called Treehouse, Ginger got her a hummingbird feeder, and I gave her the Jungle Book dvd and the Ticket To Ride: Switzerland expansion.

We rounded out the evening by playing a couple games of Ginger's Mario Golf.

Good times. :-)


In other, unrelated news:

I don't get excited about the movies that most would. This makes me happy:

Tim Burton to Direct Alice in Wonderland

I think this could be very, very good. I've always liked these stories and the characters, and I think Burton's somewhat darker (than Disney) imagery could make a very cool adaptation.


In other, very unrelated news:

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007. 72 75 degrees. I'm not complaining, but that's a little freakish...

~PS

More of the same.

Tuesday December 4, 2007 at 2:09pm golf, gaming, church Comments (0) »

The last week has been pretty much "more of the same".

I did get to play golf with Joe last wednesday, though. It was about 60 here, and a beautiful day to be out on the course. Did pretty well (for me) too - par'd 3 holes, made some pretty amazing (lucky) puts, and generally we had a good time. Hopefully we'll have some more nice days to play.

I got to play/run a couple rpg's too. My thursday group is well on their way, and Robb's game (though it's losing players) continues to be a lot of fun.

Apart from that, there's pretty much just work and church stuff - the latter involving preparing for all the christmas...stuff.

~PS

Picture Perfect?

Tuesday November 27, 2007 at 6:13pm cameras, photography, long freakin post Comments (2) »

Given the amount of time i've spent on it, it was destined to make it onto my blog sooner or later. The blog is a place to write down my thoughts, and this has taken up a fairly large number of thought cycles over the last several months.

I enjoy picking up new hobbies (despite the fact that I have less and less time for current ones), and ever since I held ginger's XT hostage for a few weeks back in July (during which time i played with it almost constantly), i've had a rapidly-growing interest in the art and technique of photography, doing a considerable amount of reading on terminology, practices and how cameras work.

So anyway, I've decided that I want a DSLR camera. I usually get a bit of money for christmas, I'm supposed to get a significant raise as of January, and a christmas bonus of some undisclosed amount. I figure between those boons, I may be able to save up for a decent camera in a (relatively) short amount of time. I hope.

Anyway, that brings me to the matter at hand: what to get.

I've spent hours reading specs and reviews on quite a few different cameras and lenses, made lists of pros and cons for several, and waffled back and forth on what I think I should go for at least 17 times (I'll probably add at least 2 more to that number as I write this entry).

Unfortunately, there seems to be some discrepancy between what I *want*, and what I think I'll be able to afford in some fashion. :-( See, the more I read and understood, the more I realized what some of the nicer (read: expensive) cameras have to offer, and part of me would rather have a camera that I can grow into, as opposed to out of. I'm usually the kind of person that will wait a little longer and spend a little more to get what I really want, as opposed to settling for something *almost* as good that i can get much quicker and cheaper.

Still, I would probably be happy with a less sophisticated camera, and as a first DSLR you can make the case that I really don't need anything more than that. Also, if I truly found that I had "out grown" the thing or really wanted some of the capabilities of the spiffier models, I would by that point have much more experience and perhaps a still clearer idea of what I'd really want to buy as an upgrade. True that I'd have already spent the money on the initial investment, but several years later i might be able to afford something a little nicer if it came to that.

The Specifics - here's what I've been looking at.

The first camera I looked at is the Canon XTI. This camera gets great reviews - esp as a first DSLR camera. It is lacking a couple of features I'd really rather have, but at only ~$580, it's the least expensive of the lot. Enough that I might be able to get a bit of a nicer lens with this one than with the others. As mentioned, I've spent quite a bit of time on ginger's XT, and so I already know a lot about how it works.

Pros:
• relatively inexpensive, but still has most of what i want
• large lcd review screen
• dust detection/cleaning system for low-pass filter
Cons:
• no dedicated info lcd
• substandard battery life
• a few missing features (no color temp, no spot metering, etc)


A camera that i've spent a bit of time actually playing with at Best Buy and liked was the Nikon d80. It's a great camera, and at ~$800 it's at a pretty good price considering, but the one thing that keeps me from saying "this is what I go with" is the fact that it has a sort of known issue with its metering being a little...wonky. It overexposes shots at varying increments between .3 and .7 ev. It's the inconsistency that many have commented on as being difficult to compensate for to the point that a shot often has to be taken two or more times to get the proper exposure - a luxury not always available.

Pros:
• Dedicated info lcd screen
• larger, brighter viewfinder
• has features missing on XTI
• better build and feel than the XTI
• more nice, affordable lenses I want for Nikon
• impressive battery life
Cons:
• Uses SD not CF cards
• More expensive than the XTI
• Wonky metering
• a *tiny* bit slower than the XTI (negligible)


A considerable step up on the quality/price ladder from either of those is Canon's 40d. This one sells for about ~$1300 for just the body, or about ~$1500 bundled with a decent kit lens.

Pros:
• Much like the D300 mentioned below (though to a lesser extent), this camera has pretty much all of the things I like about the previous two and more, with none of the listed drawbacks of either.
Cons:
Expensive. I'd have to save a bit longer for this one and would probably go with the kit lens


The camera I would really like is Nikon's D300. Unfortunately, at ~$1800 for just the body, it's just too expensive. I couldn't get a decent lens to go with it and still keep the package under $2000 (not that I want to go up even that high) - so, barring something like an unexpected inheritance from a late and unknown great uncle, I think i can safely say that one's off the table. Sadness. As such, I won't bother rambling in greater detail about how cool it is.

--

So anyway, that's about how it breaks down. I looked over a handful of other cameras too, but those are the top 3 contenders - at the moment anyway. I didn't go into the lenses I've looked at and considered here, because that largely depends upon what camera I get.

If anyone has any input, I'd be glad to hear it - esp. if you've some knowledge of one or more of these cameras and/or photography in general. Leave a comment or send me an email.

As of now, I'm leaning toward one of the canon cameras. Not that that narrows the field too much...

~PS

Giving of Thanks

Sunday November 25, 2007 at 2:07pm birthdays, friends, video games, holidays, family, food Comments (0) »

Hanging out at church on a sunday afternoon. Sheri's working at the piano on some songs, etc - figured I'd write a little something about the festivities of this last, long weekend.

Before the holiday, we had a little birthday part for Ginger. Her birthday was actually on saturday, but she was going to be gone for the holiday, so we had to have our little celebration a bit early. It was pretty fun. Sheri and I took her out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner, then we went back to the Igloo where Llama and Joe joined us for ice cream cake and some Mario Golf - which sheri and I had given her for a birthday present.

I think I'm obligated to say a little more about that, given what I've done the last several days. While Ginger was out of town I/we borrowed her gamecube, and over the course of thursday, friday and saturday, I played ridiculous amounts of Mario Golf (Toadstool Tour). It is a very fun little game. In fact, I played and liked it so much, you'd think it was my idea to get it, or even that I was with Sheri when she picked it out. I wasn't. (long story even though it's kind of short, but suffice to say she went to get something else we had decided on, and ended up with that instead). It's also a multiplayer game, and I look forward to some more nights of 4-player golfing mayhem.

On thursday, Sheri made us a little thanksgiving feast - complete with most of the traditional faire - turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry salad, rolls, etc. Very tasty. After that, we put up our christmas decorations, because Sheri just wasn't waiting any longer. They look pretty good. To date, Ally hasn't tried to eat any of them. Also, we took turns calling our families, which was cool.

On friday, we didn't do too much. Went to check on Ginger's cats and do a couple things in town - careful to choose tasks that did not involve shopping.

On saturday, we did do a little christmas shopping. We're almost done. Mostly due to Sheri's organized responsible-ness.

And that brings us to today, at church, hanging out. Nothing much to report here.

~PS

Random Entry

Friday November 23, 2007 at 11:27am randomness Comments (0) »

Here are a couple of things I've seen on the 'net this week that I thought were worthy of passing on to those who might not see them otherwise.

This has got to be the coolest thing i've seen all week. Quite possibly all month. Maybe all year.


It's a car. Made of wood. As if that wasn't cool enough, it's made still more interesting by its literally half-modern / half-retro design. It is simply amazing.

On a somewhat more "humorous" and less "freakin' awesome" note, I was also highly amused by this:


Both of the above links were found via BoingBoing - a very interesting site.

So anyway - there's a bit of randomness for your day. Carry on.

~PS

Clear!

Friday November 9, 2007 at 3:59pm work Comments (0) »

For the first time in about 3 months, my to-do list for work is clear!

It'll be back up to a nice healthy frenzy on monday, but for now, I'm feeling pretty good. I much prefer being ahead of the game than feeling behind.

~PS

A lot about not much

Friday November 9, 2007 at 10:15am busy, family, gaming, church, photography, friends, dogs Comments (0) »

So i guess when my dad points out that i haven't put up a blog post in about two weeks, I must be slacking a little. We were talking on the phone last night about another possible web project, but I'll talk more on that later when/if it pans out.

We've been fairly busy the last couple of weeks, but there's really not much to talk about.

We did go to our church's 'Trunk or Treat' thing on halloween (think: give candy out from trunks of cars in the church parking lot), which was pretty amusing. I think the best costume I saw was this little girl dressed up as Raggedy Anne. Followed closely by this boy as a pirate - complete with mustache the hung down to his chest. Those two were very well done outfits amongst the majority of walmart suits. Alas that I was unable to get pictures of them - partly because i felt a little odd taking pictures of other people's kids, and partly due to the limitations of our camera (recycle time & low-light capability (I hate flash). Talking of which, I've been looking at a lot of digital SLR's and lenses lately and reading a lot about what's good and what's not and learning a bit more about photography in general. Pretty fascinating. But, I digress...). After that, we went over to Ginger's place an hung out with some friends there for a while - which is always fun.

Apart from that, we've done some gaming (though not on "world-wide d&d day" - which was last saturday. a friend of mine was running some stuff at a local comic shop, but i didn't make it out. Other things going on. It was coolest a few years ago on the 30th anniversary anyway... but i digress again...), hung out a little at Ginger's church's coffeehouse, managed to remember the time change from DST and went to our church thanksgiving dinner. I think that pretty much brings us up to speed.

As far as upcoming events, I have 2-3(!) games this weekend (running 2, maybe playing 1), possibly swinging by Edie's birthday party, church's oh-so-exciting committee & board meetings on monday, planning to (finally) have Bart & Sarah Price (youth minister & his wife) over for dinner on tuesday, celebrating Ginger's birthday (a bit early) on wednesday and probably running another game on thursday. Keeping busy.

Don't think i've given any update/info on this point either: Ally has so far been inside for a little over two weeks. Thus far, there have been only one two "accidents" (that were probably my fault) and one case of negligible property damage (when she accidentally pulled my trackball off my desk and one of the buttons cracked. Still works though.). She seems a lot happier and less frantic (except at breakfast time) in here. Plus she keeps me company while Sheri's at work.

~PS

Milligan Homecoming Weekend '07

Sunday October 28, 2007 at 5:14pm milligan, friends Comments (0) »

Ok, so here's something I wouldn't have figured I'd have done. Not that I didn't enjoy my time at Milligan immensely, but I'm usually not such a huge fan of 'organized' social activities and most of the people that I spent my time with during those years either still live near me, or weren't coming out for the 'homecoming' thing anyway. Still, there was one notable exception.

Our friend Amber told us last week that she would, in fact, be coming down from Iowa for the event, and that she would be bringing here two munchkins (Seth and Charlie) as well as her mom and grandma. Despite the fact that this was my 5th year class reunion, I think the fact that she was coming and that Sheri and I hadn't seen her in about 3 years were really the reasons we attended.

And actually, it was pretty cool. Even though (like i mentioned before) most of my *best* friends were either local or absent, it was quite enjoyable to get to talk to a wide variety of people I knew at school, even if they weren't the ones I hung out with often. Despite the wide variances in our lives, there was some small sense of common heritage with these people (which is of course the draw to these sorts of events) and, despite its somewhat contrived nature, I'll admit that it was a nice feeling and an enjoyable time to get to socialize with those present once again - even if that interaction was mostly superficial. My description here may seem overly cynical, but it's not intended to be. I really found it interesting to get to meet again for the first time people you once knew.

So we spent saturday walking around campus with Amber and her entourage, talking to familiar people (some of whose names I remembered, others not so much), and generally hanging out on campus - something I hadn't done in a while.
We saw the parade, which was somewhat amusing. We got to see the progress that's been made on the inside of the new arts building on campus, which looks pretty cool. We also had lots of fun with Seth and Charlie, who were very cute. In addition to the Milligan festivities, we spent some time just hanging out with Amber - which was really cool. We all miss having her around.

I will put some pictures up in the gallery soon. (EDIT: pictures are up!)

On a somewhat sadder note, I also went by Robb's house for a while on saturday evening for Ken, Teri and Erica's going away party. They're moving up to Columbus, IN (of all places!) and we'll miss having them in the area as well. I'm going to try to make it a point to get together with them when I go up there to visit my parents.

~PS

Cookies for Gitman

Thursday October 25, 2007 at 5:17pm friends, food Comments (3) »

A forum friend of ours has been sent over to Iraq with the military. A few of us got together to make a package for him. We decided as part of that, we'd bake some cookies for him, take some pictures of the escapade, and send both the pics and the cookies out to him.

I've put up about 12 pictures in the gallery. If you're at all interested in chronology, I suggest starting here and working forward/left to the newer pics.

~PS

Tasty Food, etc

Wednesday October 24, 2007 at 3:23pm food, friends, dogs Comments (1) »

Last night Sheri and I went to Rucht & Mckenna's place for the evening. Specifically, we went there because they invited us for Thai food, along with several other people including the Helms and some people Sheri and Mckenna knew from the Chorale.

Rucht made some awesome cashew chicken along with some other stuff that I can't pronounce, but that was very tasty. Another guy who comes from Korea by way of Germany made some Korean beef stuff that was also really good and went very well with Rucht's Thai food. For desert, we had some German Chocolate candies.


In unrelated news, Rucht & Mckenna also gave us a pet crate that had as an extra. It's currently outside with Ally's bed (and Ally herself) in it. We're trying to get her used to it because we're wanting to try to crate and house train her so that she can be in here with us instead of outside by herself.

~PS

The Age of Loneliness

Saturday October 13, 2007 at 10:55am thinking too much Comments (1) »

Yesterday evening we had some people over for a game. As we also have a game tonight (busy gaming weekend), I thought I should go to the grocery and get some extra soda and snacks. Our gaming sessions are very social events, and I was looking forward to spending some time with some friends - goofing off and playing through a story.

Oh, and enjoying some soda, of course.

As I was driving home, something sort of occurred to me, and I thought it was a little sad: I'd managed to drive to the store, get my stuff, check out, and drive home without so much as saying 'hi' to another human being.

I usually don't use the self-checkouts, but it was particularly crowded, i needed to get back before game time, and there was no one (as usual) at the self-checkout lanes - so I yielded to the lure of the cold technology.

I often wonder if the lack of human interaction (or the various degrees of separation thereof) that seems to come from increases in technology is merely a byproduct of such 'progress', or if it is actually a motivation of our collective subconscious not to be 'bothered' by others if we don't wish to be - stemming from our own insecurities...

~PS

And they couldn't even see her...

Thursday October 11, 2007 at 5:32pm funny Comments (5) »

Sheri needs a blog. Really. But since she doesn't have one, i'm going to write this one up.

We just got a phone call, which she answered. It went something like this.

Sheri: Hello?

Woman: Ms Shoemaker?

Sheri: Yes?

Woman: I'm [name] from the Johnson City Police Lodge. How are you today?

Sheri: ...I'm fine...

Woman: Well good... Are your parents home?

Sheri: ...uhm I'm sorry, no they're not...

Woman: Oh, ok. Thanks. Bye. [hangs up]

Now, at this point, sheri starts laughing hysterically.

So she wants to know: is she evil?

~PS

Apple Festival '07

Sunday October 7, 2007 at 5:29pm festivals, church Comments (0) »

(Please note: that most everything in this post is extremely biased. Extremely. But hey - it's my blog, and if I can't be biased here, where can I?)

In hindsight, this whole thing would be a lot cooler if it involved a lot more gadgetry and geekdom and a lot less produce and arts & crafts. My 2c anyway.

So yeah, yesterday and friday were the days of the Apple Festival here in Erwin (where I happen to be whilst writing this). I may have been over this before, but basically Erwin's annual Apple Festival it's a lot of arts & crafts, locally grown/made apples/jam/honey/the like, and what I would personally classify as annoying quasi-professional southern gospel groups being blasted from a stage that is constructed to resemble the front porch of a log cabin (I just want to make sure you appreciate the level of 'country/redneckdom' we're dealing with here). Oh, and they have pretty much the exact same stuff there every year - so if you've been there once, there's not much of a reason to return. Please.

There is one upside to all of this however. Our church is located very near the festivities and we get to charge $5 for festival-goers to park. This is one of the best fund-raisers we have for our youth group's mission trips, etc.

So yesterday Sheri and I helped direct the parking traffic for about 4 hours. We're both somewhat sunburned to show for it, too. It really wasn't that difficult though - it was a bit slower than we might have expected. We still managed to raise a considerable amount of money, however. We speculate that if the church were on the other side of town (where most people come from) or if we at least had signs over there, we'd do much better.

~PS

Good Times.

Tuesday October 2, 2007 at 11:56am work, coffeehouse, dogs, gaming, church, family, golf Comments (2) »

I've had quite a bit of fun the last few days.

On friday I built the framework for a sort of work side-project. I'm pretty excited about this one - it'll be really cool, I think. Yes, this counts as "fun". I'm a geek like that.

On friday night we went to the coffeehouse at Ginger's church. Not much was going on, but it was cool just to hang out and talk to people. I watched some friends play Go. Interesting little board game. Some of them were also talking about the world traveling they'd done. I kinda wish I had been / could go to some cool places like that...

On saturday our dog Ally got the bath she needed. She wasn't such a fan, but she's a good little beagle and so it wasn't a terribly difficult task - even by myself. After that Sheri and I walked her around the backyard for a bit and sat in the shade (of our neighbor's tree) for a while. It was a beautiful afternoon.

On saturday night we continued and wrapped up a d&d game I'd been running for a few sessions. I think it went pretty well. I've now started some work on the two new games I'm starting. With the Liimar game and Robb's Exalted (see below), this makes 4 rpg's I'm in or running. I think I'm insane. It's a fun insane, but still...

On sunday, we went to church in Erwin as usual. I'm very glad that we have a wireless net connection at the church now - since we're kinda stuck there all day. I spent most of sunday afternoon working on putting the finishing touches on the project I mentioned working on on friday. Very excited about that. Sheri was working on choir stuff. We did go outside and play a couple of games of Kubb (which happened to be in the jeep), however.

Sunday night was also the 'all-sing' - where the area churches get together and sing together and for each other. It's not my favorite thing in the world, but Sheri's choir sounded pretty good. Plus we got to hang out with people and have snacks after.

On sunday night my mom came back through from visiting my sister in SC. I'm always glad to see family. Don't see them much since they're all quite far away.

On monday morning, mom and I went out and played 9 holes at Pine Oaks Golf Course. That was lots of fun. Beautiful morning. I played better than I think I ever have - which was pretty impressive considering it had been almost exactly 4 months since I'd played - and I played terribly that day. As it turns out, I think my grip was most of the problem. A simple tip that mom happened to mention that she saw on her video completely transformed my game. I've never had a piece of technique make such a difference. I birdied a hole for the first time ever, and I par'd the 8th and 9th. Total score for the round was 48. I could have dropped a couple strokes if i hadn't made a few chipping/putting mistakes. More than that though, my shots just felt better - more solid. Of course now I'm setting myself up to do terribly next time, since I'll be expecting much more than I was yesterday...

I also thought about how lucky I was that I have a job where I can just kinda take time off to hang out with my family if they happen to come through.

On monday (last) night, we finally got to play Robb's Exalted game. I had a lot of fun. It's a pretty interesting premise and system. Plus I get to play a shapeshifter. I have a soft spot for shapeshifters. Also, there are some people in that group that I haven't gamed with in years. I'm looking forward to continuing this one.

So yeah... ...the rest of my week looks pretty boring compared to the last several days...

~PS

Moving the Mainframe

Sunday September 16, 2007 at 4:38pm friends, moving Comments (0) »

So we helped Eric (aka Speaker for the Dead) move into a new apartment yesterday. That was a high-level if not epic task.

He was moving out of a 1-room efficiency apartment. It was so small that he wasn't able to pack everything because he ran out of room. We were comparing the size of the apartment to the size of the uhaul we were putting the stuff in. It wasn't much bigger.

The sleeper sofa couch he has is exceedingly heavy, gives you splinters, and doesn't fit nicely through any doorway. Moving that was probably the most daunting task. The waterbed was a close second, but wasn't too bad after it finally drained (via methods that can only be described as 'the hard way').

This brings me to my subject line: I swear the man has more computer-related equipment and spare parts than kevin and I combined at the height of our pc-collections - and that's saying something. I swear we moved at least 7 crt monitors.

His new place is 6 or 7 steps up. Aside from actually having more than one room, it's about twice as big and looks really classy. Like, he might actually have room for visitors.

And he even took us out for pizza after we had completed our mission.

All said, it was a good time.

~PS

Theocratic Trickery

Tuesday September 11, 2007 at 12:00pm church, committees Comments (4) »

So I've been hoodwinked and hornswoggled into being the chairman of the worship committee at church. I didn't even want to be on a committee, let alone in charge of it.

Here's a paraphrase of how it all went down:

Last Month:

Toby: "Jared, can we have you start reporting to the board on what the worship committee talks about?"

Me: "Uhm, I guess so. Just tell you what they talked about or decided?"

Toby: "Yeah, that's it."

Yesterday:

Nancy: "So who's the chairman of our committee?"

Toby: "Jared is."

Me: "Who what now? When did this happen?"

Toby: "Last month."

Me: "All I said was that I would tell you what they talked about."

Toby: "That makes you chairman."

Me: "You sir, are lawful evil."


In all honesty, I did kind of see it coming. I mean, Toby got me to be a deacon in much the same way. Still, my modus operandi dictates that, until something is explicitly stated, I don't act on/with it.

So yeah, my involvement in the church leadership continues to expand. That's pretty hilarious.

~PS

Sycamore Photography

Saturday September 8, 2007 at 10:44am photography Comments (0) »

I finally got the pictures. :-)

Ginger, Sheri and I went out to Sycamore Shoals last monday - each of us with a camera. Ginger brought her film SLR (complete with fun lenses) and let me use her digital and Sheri brought our digital point-and-shoot.

It was great fun, despite the fact it was a little warm still. We had almost an hour of decent light - depending on where we were and what one was trying to photograph.

I've found that I really enjoy an artistic approach to photography (as opposed to merely taking pictures for the sake of having a picture of X). I experimented with some of the nifty functions on Ginger's camera but, despite the fact that I know how most of them work, I don't have enough photographer's intuition yet to actually think of the best settings for a given shot.

Anyway, I posted some small images of some of the shots I thought turned out the best. They're in the Still Life gallery.

I hope I/we get a chance to do that again...

~PS

Vet'd

Friday August 31, 2007 at 11:45am dogs, family, vet, health Comments (1) »

Well, as of wednesday, Ally has had her vet checkup and shots - she seems to be in great health. We did get some preventative and just-in-case medicine for her and some flea medication.

The vet also said she doesn't think Ally's pregnant - which is something we were concerned about since she's gained some weight lately (which really isn't a bad thing considering how thin she was).

The vet out here at the Good News clinic is really good and really nice - and she and all the techs *loved* Ally - who put up with everything they did with nothing more than a squeak. She also very much enjoyed the cookies they gave her - which she'd never had as far as we know.

She even made a friend - the vet's dog was wandering around the place and tried to play with Ally some while we were getting ready to leave. At first she seemed to be confused by this concept of "play", but she caught on after a bit.

Ally seemed to be in good spirits when we left the vet and was also excited to be home.

Later, Sheri & I went to Petsmart and got her a new collar (the old one was getting ratty), a name tag with our phone number (which was about time) and a brush to get some of the loose fur off of her - which we noticed when we gave her a bath on tuesday.

So I think she should be all set. :-)

~PS

Geek Jokes^2

Wednesday August 29, 2007 at 10:32am comics Comments (1) »

I have now found a technology geek/gamer geek cross-referencing joke in a comic.

This one comes to you courtesy of userfriendly.org:



~PS

RSS Fed

Sunday August 26, 2007 at 3:38am rss, website Comments (2) »

So I finally got a very bare-bones rss feed working for this site - at the request of Kevin. It can be referenced here: www.penguinsushi.com/blog_feed.xml.

This was fun to do in a 'just because i can' sort of way... ...but i really don't get the rss thing.

Perhaps I am not as cool as some of you, or maybe I just don't understand it enough, or maybe my feed's just too simplistic, or maybe i just enjoy visiting actual websites too much - but I don't see rss as being that cool in any way except for having all of your info in one place and being slightly easier to tell if there's anything new - basically, saving time at the expense of some site features.

I mean, I put a lot of work into the site, and i believe most (if not all) websites are more than the sum of their parts - that is, the information contained in them. The rss feed neatly skips all that.

...and generally if i'm really interested in something, i don't have to use such ruthless efficiency to get at it.

I also notice that the rss 'articles' are kind of 'fire and forget' That is, if I make changes to them later (even if i update the feed as such), most of the rss viewers that i've messed with say basically 'i already have that article' and don't look at it again. This is probably by necessity, but still - it makes things difficult for people like me who tend to do quite a bit of post editing.

And other streams like comments either have to have their own feeds (which seems a little silly to me), or just get left out (like they did in this case).

So - all of you rss fans out there, tell me what's so great about it and/or how i'm using it wrong, as i am as yet somewhat unconvinced.

~PS

Jellyface & the Week

Saturday August 25, 2007 at 2:09pm food, origami, gaming, photography Comments (0) »

It never fails: If I eat peanut butter and jelly, i get jelly all over my face.

It is inevitable.

So this week was pretty ok. Same as usual for the most part. Calendar was pretty blank. I'm starting to get some of the big projects for work out of the way. At least until i get the next one.

Made an origami owl last night. That was pretty fun. I tried making a flying stork too, but i couldn't figure out the starting point (the book was less than great as an instructional device).

Still trying to sort out my gaming schedule for the upcoming games - trying to figure out how much my plate can hold.

Still wanting to go out and take some pictures with ginger's spiffy camera. She said she'd get some film for her other camera, let me use her digital and we could go around, take pictures and hopefully teach me some stuff. Preferably some day when it's not too hot/humid/raining/etc.

~PS

What the hail?

Friday August 24, 2007 at 6:08pm weather Comments (0) »

No, that is not me finally caving to the southern accent.

It's freakin' hailing here. Now.

That's right, little balls of ice falling from the sky. The high today was 94. I know that really doesn't matter, but it still seems bizarre.

~PS

Does Syrup Have A Shelf Life?

Tuesday August 21, 2007 at 8:08pm food, funny Comments (0) »

Sheri fixed some pancakes and bacon for us to eat this evening. Quite tasty, in fact.

I did notice, however, (after eating said pancakes) something curious written on the plastic near the top of the bottle:

"Best Before
APR29 05"

Oh dear.

I'm sorry Auntie Jemima - we didn't get your 'best'...

EDIT: yeah, i didn't mention that that bottle of syrup wasn't even opened until tonight...

~PS

Best. Comic. Ever.

Sunday August 19, 2007 at 10:14pm comics Comments (0) »

or one of them, at least:

This week.

Sunday August 19, 2007 at 10:13pm work, gaming, picnic, church, boating, swimming Comments (1) »

A quick '"here's what went on" entry, because I have another to post -

This week's been pretty good, all things told. Pretty busy work week - working on a big project.

Sheri started her new job friday and survived her first day. Yay on both counts! :-)

Friday night we had another good gaming session. I'm reallying enjoying this particular game. It's intended to be short and contained, but I like the fact that I had almost all of the scenrio mapped out ahead of time and it's a pretty good story for a game.

Saturday we went on a picnic to Sycamore Shoals and hiked around a bit after.

Today we went out on Boone lake on a pontoon boat with some people from church - spent the day tubing and swimming and generally having a good time. Even saw some people and boats in piratety garb!

~PS

On The Summer

Sunday August 12, 2007 at 6:05pm summer, gaming, music, recording, yard work, work, dogs Comments (2) »

...which is almost over. Doesn't seem like it should be this late already.

So the summer has been pretty good. Pretty busy in places. Schedules of people have tended to be less than predictable as well. I mean more than usual.

Not enough gaming went on this summer - perhaps the slowest on record since graduation - i'm not sure. We've got a couple few sessions together, but nothing major. I have been working on quite a bit of gaming stuff, however.

I've also been continuing work on my recording project again recently - which tends to go in spurts. Before this last week I hadn't touched it in at least a month, maybe more. I'm kinda stuck on the words to the song I'm working on atm.

I am further convinced we need a riding mower. That grass just gets too tall too fast for my poor little push mower. It's not so much the pushing I don't like, it's the must-stop-every-five-feet-to-keep-the-mower-from-dying that annoys me. I suppose I could merely upgrade the pushmower to something a bit more heavy duty, but i'm not sure what i'd need or how much of a help it would actually be.

Sheri starts her new job at Milligan this week. :-) That'll be great. She'll actually be able to do stuff in the evenings now instead of working 2-11pm (the 'no life' shift).

My job is going pretty well - though we're about to be very busy. Getting a couple few large projects, though I am happy the boss-man turned one of them down. It would have been quite a bit of money for the business, but it would have been very difficult and resource consuming. He decided it just wasn't worth it, and I agree.

Also on the subject of work, Andy's doing a great job with us. I've been really impressed with his graphic work. I mean, he went to school for that, but he seems to have a lot of innate talent as well.

We've also had a couple of cool family visits this summer. Speaking of, Jamie sent me an email a while back saying she might be able to come visit this month, but I haven't heard from her since... ...that would be cool. She even promised to give Ally a bath. heh.

~PS

Remote Blogging

Sunday July 29, 2007 at 4:35pm internet, computers, work, family, gaming, friends Comments (1) »

It's been a while since there's been a blog.

I'm currentlly sitting upstairs at our church in the youth room on the couch. They finally got a DSL connection here, and I have the wireless key.

It's kind of odd to be hanging out here, writing a blog and seeing my office over in the sushi-cam. Odd in a cool way, though. Heh.

Now, if only I had a macbook, this would be even sweeter.

Not much has been going on lately, actually (hence, the bloglessness). Work's been pretty busy/hectic. We've been pretty impressed with Andy's work though. We just have a lot of big development projects coming in. Some I'm excited about; some not so much.

My parents came by a few weekends ago on their way down to Myrtle Beach. They met us over at Ginger's place and played Apples to Apples with us for a while. Then we went back to the Igloo and talked for a bit. Saturday morning, dad replaced the dash in my jeep (the speedometer was broken). Yeah, he's in here for all of 12 hours, and he manages to fix something. He's cool like that.

I've been working quite a bit on my d20 campaign setting for Liimar. It's been a pretty fun, yet challeneging experience, because there's so many mechanics i've decided to play with. I've changed my mind about how I want most of the stuff to work about 16 times. I can't wait to get enough of it done so that I can try some more on my guinea p- ...er...i mean "players"... ...so that I can change how it works a dozen or so more times.

Got to meet another, local gamer the other night. Name's Nick. He seems pretty cool - he's already made the quote list even. We'll have to put something together to play sometime soon.

~PS

Putting the 'Sushi' in Penguinsushi

Thursday July 12, 2007 at 8:34pm food, software, art Comments (5) »

Despite the fact that I love penguins and have been using this screenname for around 7 years now, I had never even tried sushi. Due to the efforts of some friends of mine, this oversight has now been remedied.

Unfortunately, I don't care for it much. I think it's a mental thing relating to the sliminess of it. Andy seems to think that I'll despite not caring for it, i'm going to start craving it in a couple of weeks. I guess we'll see, but i'm doubting it.

Still, it was good to try something new. Most of my friends can attest to the fact that I've always been pretty set in my ways - I know what I like and I rarely branch out. I do appreciate the experience.


In other (very unrelated) news, I've learned a little on how to use Illustrator. I've redrawn my OotS Avatar using it (and a little Photoshop). I'm very pleased with it. :-)

~PS

GitP Gathering: June 30 - July 1st 2007

Monday July 2, 2007 at 11:30am gitp, ootscon report, lawn games, friends, gaming Comments (5) »

This last weekend was a blast. Those of us here in Johnson City, TN who are members of the GitP Forums all got together and also hosted several out-of-state members for the two-fold purpose of getting to meet each other in person and having a lot of fun.

I would say our mission was a complete success.

Sadly, not everyone who wanted to was able to come, but those of us who were present had an awesome time.

The meetup started friday night as we converged upon Llama's apartment. I believe Jerry was the first to arrive. Amanda and Ginger had also arrived by the time I got there around 8:00pm. Justin (who I'm told is Lord Xerxes on the board, but whom I've not actually encountered there) was also around, as it was his house too.
We tried to play a game of Kubb, but it got called on account of lightening. We had just begun a game of Apples to Apples when Ron arrived, so we dealt him in.
After some games and a run to the grocery store for refreshing beverages, some of our company departed to Ging's place for the evening. Llama was trying valiantly to stay awake on the couch while me & Jerry talked about random stuff until about 3am when Dave finally arrived.

On saturday, we went over to Ginger's place for breakfast around 10am for breakfast. From there, we went over to the Greenwood Challenge Course to use their little pavilion and field for some grilling out and playing Kubb. There we met up with Robb (who got the place for us), Edie and Ken. We spent the afternoon playing Kubb, eating grilled goodness and generally having a good time. I took a lot of pictures (see the gallery) with Ginger's spiffy camera. I kinda want one of those.

After we left our outdoor meeting location, we proceeded to Ginger's church's basement (where the Just Coffee coffeehouse is) for the evening where some of the group played the OotS board game and a couple played some other board games. Sheri, Llama, Ron and I played a D&D one-shot I'd made up a while back. It was pretty fun.

After church on Sunday, we met up with the group here where we did a little more grilling (with our spiffy new gas grill!) and hung out and talked until people needed to leave.

All in all, it was one of the coolest things I've done. :-) I am so looking forward to doing it again. Like I said after meeting Ceika and the Hippie (the first time), it was so cool to get to meet people from other states you'd only talked to online - especially when they are so much fun to hang out with.

~PS

Family Visit

Monday July 2, 2007 at 10:31am family Comments (0) »

This last week we had Sheri's parents in town. They arrived here on saturday the 23rd and stayed until the following saturday morning. It was cool that they finally got to come see us in our house - since they hadn't had the chance to see it yet. We had fun hanging out with them, playing games and watching movies.

We also got a gas grill while they were here, and her dad showed me how to use it. Not that it's complicated, I'd just never done it before.

It was a pretty relaxing week - nothing overly exciting, but that was nice. It was cool just to get to spend time with them.

We don't see them much, unfortunately - since they live about 13 hours away.

~PS

Creative Lull

Tuesday June 26, 2007 at 9:45am music Comments (0) »

I've been playing my electric guitar a lot lately. I love the thing - it's so much nicer than my other worn-out electric. It looks great and plays better. Also, there's a certain satisfaction to turning my 200w amp up to about 3 and filling my house with sound.

Now I just wish I could think of something to play.

For a while now, I've been trying to come up with some new riffs or progressions, but I'm just not finding anything good enough. Sure, I've come up with some stuff that's alright, but nothing I can get really excited about.

I like playing stuff other people have written, but there's some deep-rooted compulsion to make up my own stuff - and I'm no longer satisfied with what I've been coming up with.

I need inspiration, or at least some new ideas.

~PS

Puppeteering

Friday June 22, 2007 at 9:23pm vbs, puppets, family Comments (0) »

Well, tonight was the last night of VBS. We all survived. It went very well, despite our directors nervousness about it.

Sheri led music, most of the opening and closing and one of the classes. She had a lot of work to do for it.

I just ran the powerpoint & projector for the words for the songs.

Oh, and I got to be a puppet. A dog puppet called 'Digger', to be precise. It was a big hit. Everyone loved it, and I had a lot of fun doing it. I used to do puppets at my church back in jr high. Kinda forgot how much fun it was. Especially with all the improv/ad-lib I got to do with Sam (since none of this was scripted). I also had a lot of fun putting bandannas, hats and sunglasses on him, and I even got to work in my little penguin hand puppet for a cameo tonight.

It was great! I mean, when you're as easily amused as I am, what could be better than puppets? :-)

Well, Sheri's parents are to arrive tomorrow, and i've got some stuff to do, so I'm off...

~PS

Press Enter to Bang Head on Keyboard

Wednesday June 20, 2007 at 11:57am job, web development, frustration Comments (5) »

I really wish I wasn't continually asked to do inane, mindless tasks. I realize this is unavoidable to a certain extent, but I feel like my skills are being wasted on things I'm reasonably sure our dog Ally could do.

This is not what I do. I don't *like* spending hours changing html text, when I could be developing new web apps and/or modules for our system or even designing new and better ways of doing our job.

But no.

"Change 'Text X' to say 'The Text X'" (real, actual example)

grr.

sigh.

~PS

An Epic Day

Sunday June 17, 2007 at 6:30pm music, church, friends, gitp, card games Comments (5) »

Yesterday started off early for a saturday. About 7:30am actually. I'm pretty sure that shouldn't be legal.

We got to our church in Erwin just before 9 so that we (the band) could practice a bit before everything started that afternoon. See, yesterday was our VBS 'kickoff', which we did by having a sort of all-afternoon party in the field behind the church. Among other activities, our band and another band played on the stage they had set up (which was actually a flat-bed semi trailer) and Toby grilled some hot dogs and made some other stuff.

It was pretty fun. Everyone said our band sounded great - though honestly I couldn't tell because the monitors pointed at me let me hear sam's guitar really well, and very little else. But I'll take their word(s) for it. It was pretty fun to be able to play some of our hymns a bit louder (and with more distortion :-D) than usual because it wasn't for a formal service. Not that that necessarily stops us.

We were pondering how good we'd probably be if we'd practiced more than about 6 times for this gig.

At about 6pm, the festivities wrapped up and we headed out. I was pretty tired. We played our 10-12 song set through about 4 times, and I can only sing and play for so long. Also my fingers were on the verge of serving a restraining order to my guitar strings.

I had heard a rumor that a forum friend of ours was going to be in town, so we gave Llama a call as we left. We ended up going to the home of one 'smellie_hippie' (and i got incontrovertible proof that he does exist!) to meet him and his wife and kids, and there we also met 'Ceika'. Other Playgrounders present included me, the Llama and the ArchivesNinja. We proceeded to hang out, eat ice cream and play Kubb and Killer Bunnies. Good times.

I had wanted to meet the hippie for some time, so that was cool, and I'd heard quite a bit about Ceika - especially with respect to her avatar-fu. It was really cool to get to meet people I'd seen online but never met in real life - especially when they turn out to be great people to hang out with. :-D

So by 11pm(ish) when this was all over, I was quite tired (though probably not as tired as Ceika who'd been up for about 24 hours and driven from Dallas, TX). Didn't take me any time at all to get to sleep.

Probably won't get to do anything as cool as any of that for a while...

~PS

Things Walmart Probably Didn't Want Me Doing

Saturday June 16, 2007 at 12:17am soda Comments (0) »

Have you ever played Jenga with boxes of soda cans?

I have.

Hey, when the soda you want is buried half-way down the stack, you do what you gotta do...right?

;-)

~PS

Happy Birthday?

Thursday June 7, 2007 at 1:43pm birthdays, penguins Comments (1) »

Did someone move my birthday while I wasn't looking? I just got a birthday card in the mail from sheri's mom.

Now, I know she knows when my birthday actually is - but looking at it, you can probably guess why I got this card. Apparently she found this one somewhere and decided she couldn't wait 6 months.

I don't suppose the summer-themed card would go real well for my december-themed birthday either, so maybe that's a justification for its prematureness.

It is quite fun - and it makes a nice addition to my penguin-themed life.

~PS

Cell Phone Addicts

Wednesday June 6, 2007 at 6:49pm cell phones Comments (0) »

I think there is a growing number of our population who spend more time talking to people who are not present than people who are. You know the ones I mean.

Earlier today I was at the little convenience store down the street. I was there getting some pepsi to ward off a Fiendish Dire Soda Shortage (you know how dangerous those can be). It was quite crowded at this particular time, and the line in the store was really long and it took about 10 minutes to get through.

The more annoying factor, however, was the woman in the line behind me. She came in a few minutes after I did, talking rather loudly (or, at least loudly for the otherwise quiet room) on her cell phone. She then proceeded to stand in line and complain the whole time to whoever was on the other end about how crowded it was and how long it was taking.

Seems we've taken the inconsiderate nature of using a cell phone in public a level further.

As I was pulling out, i saw her walk out of the store still on her cell phone.

Do these people ever put the thing down?

~PS

Parents' visit.

Monday June 4, 2007 at 11:12pm family, golf, lawn games Comments (2) »

Well, my parents left to return to IN this afternoon. We had a good time hanging out this weekend. It had been quite a while since we'd gotten to spend any real time with them. I miss them.

My dad couldn't resist fixing a few things around the place (a couple repairs on my little push mower, the garden hose spigot, and my jeep's passenger window) - which i much appreciated, but I was glad that wasn't all he did this time.

It was nice just to spend some time with them. We played some quiddler, and watched a couple of movies. Went out for dinner. That kind of stuff. On sunday, we went out and played some golf. I played terribly, but it was still fun. We also taught them to play kubb - which they greatly enjoyed. I'm betting my dad makes a set when he has a chance.

edit: I should have taken more pictures while they were here.... :-(

~PS

Pushing buttons.

Monday June 4, 2007 at 4:00pm practical jokes, going too far Comments (0) »

I thought for a while about whether I wanted to say anything about this at all. And I was originally going to send this in an email, but I decided to put it up here so that everyone could get the message. I'd also like to point out that I've rewritten this a couple of times, removing various expletives.

There are some buttons you should not push with some people. Everyone has these. I would have thought that some of you might know a little bit more of my personality than this, but apparently not, so let me spell it out for you.

This is with reference to a particular set of practical jokes I do no appreciate. They go something like this:

The joker sets up some scenario that looks odd, but is not outside the possibility of being real. The "joke" is such that the intended target will react to it as though the contrived situation it is real. A little knowledge of the target allows the joker to tailor the scenario a little such that the target is more likely to buy it, or such that the reaction is more dramatic. Basically the idea is to make a fool of someone - which seems inherently mean-spirited to me.

Now, up to this point, i merely think the joke is stupid (not that most practical jokes aren't, mind you) - and I know for a fact I've had this conversation with some of you before when the target of the "joke" wasn't even me. See, the target of this kind of joke (and others like it) has no reason to think the situation is contrived beyond its oddity - and oddity alone is not sufficient for my life. The stupid aspect to me is that they're really not doing anything that anyone wouldn't fall for. How is it funny that I "fell for it" if there's really no way not to? There was no challenge there; no accomplishment. There was really no reason to be suspicious. Oh, except now. Now I'm likely to be a *lot* more suspicious of everything, since it seems my friends like to make a fool of me. Thanks.

But the part that really pisses me off, is that even AFTER I react to it, they don't come clean - they just continue to laugh about it to themselves. I'm sure they're "just kidding" - but they never let me in on the joke. So I find out about it weeks/months/years/whatever later, and now I feel stupid because I know that the jokers have been laughing about this for all that time - even though there's no way in hell I could have known. Again, thanks for that.

I know for a fact this has been done to me at least twice (and I have a one or two more general suspicions) - so now I'm telling you: I am not amused. Don't push this button with me. If you truly feel the need to laugh at me behind my back, i'm sure you can find a more legitimate reason.

PLEASE STOP IT.

~PS

Painting [cont]

Wednesday May 30, 2007 at 11:06am our house, painting Comments (0) »

So i've spent a considerable amount of time the last few days doing some painting in the bathroom and the hallway. Strangely, to those of you who've seen these rooms in the last couple of months, you probably won't notice. See, those areas have been painted for a while now, but there is/was lots of 'touching up' to do, which is mainly what i've been working on. It's slow going and you have to do it in stages, but it's coming...

We now have about 3 areas painted. I'll put up a couple more pictures when I get a little more done.

~PS

Music and Recordings

Sunday May 27, 2007 at 5:37pm music, recording Comments (0) »

I've been working compiling a bunch of stuff I've recorded over the years. Eventually, there will some sort of music page on this site. I've even dug up some of the really old stuff my old band from IN recorded forever ago. Granted I don't *like* much of it anymore, but I'd feel a little wrong leaving it out...

In related news, I've gotten pretty darn good with Garageband and the little recording setup I've got here. I'm currently working on what will be a cohesive album. I'm about 8 songs into the recording process. I'll probably have that posted on the music page whenever I get done with it - but since I've been working on it since February, it will probably be quite a while before I'm done with it... ...and probably quite a while after that before i'm happy enough with it to call it 'done'.

~PS

Say hi to Ally, etc

Monday May 21, 2007 at 12:23pm dogs, movies, yard work, Comments (1) »

Well, eventually we broke down. It was sort of bound to happen. I think we just felt a little too sorry for the poor little doggie. If we'd have found a no-kill shelter or something right away, that might have been one thing - but we didn't want to just turn her over to the pound. I guess we would have felt a little guilty. Also, I have to admit that, after she'd been around for a week, I'd kinda miss her if we gave her away.

So yeah, in case that wasn't clear enough, we've decided to keep the her. We've decided to call her "Ally" , which is short for "Allegro" - a musical term that means something like "fast", "lively" or "happy". It seems to suit both her and us.

Now we get to go about taking her to vet, etc.

In other random news, I finally got to see Pan's Labyrinth. I consider it to be a very good movie, but it's not one I could watch a lot I don't think. Its pretty graphically violent, and is very, very sad. It made me tear up at the end. (Actually, a fair number of stories do that to me.) Also, it's in spanish with english subtitles - which is perfectly fine by me, but it makes it a poor 'background noise' movie (which is how I usually watch movies - i don't often have the attention span to sit through entire movies).

I other, other random news: I have got the weed eater out and cleared out our side ditch. Our yard is about as well kept as it can get at this point. You all should come see it sometime in the next week - 'cause I'm sure after that it will be overgrowing again.

~PS

Random Encounters of the Doggy Kind

Tuesday May 15, 2007 at 11:46am dogs, random encounters Comments (9) »

So we're currently in possession of a small beagle. It seems that Ginger, Tony and Justin found it on sunday afternoon wandering Sycamore Shoals, where it had apparently been left. They then asked if they could leave it here for a couple days. I think the plan is to take it to one of the shelters around here.

She looked like she hadn't eaten for days, and was very, very thin. I think she has about eaten her weight in dog food since she's been here. She also seems to be quite lonely and tends to beg for attention whenever anyone goes outside.

She is really sweet, and if I thought she was healthy or we had enough money to spend on her right now, we might consider keeping her. Then again, that's a whole lot more work and I'm not known for being overly responsible like that.

Anyone want a doggy?

~PS

Celebrity Irony

Saturday May 5, 2007 at 11:36pm funny, irony, rolling eyes Comments (0) »

I've seen all sorts of amusing things at stores lately...

We were at the grocery today. You know how there are always about 13 million tabloids / celebrity gossip publications there? Today I saw one with a headline that read "Can they stop the rumors?"

Well, not if you keep printing them.

~PS

Wondrous Item: Blue Topaz

Friday May 4, 2007 at 4:06pm gaming, funny Comments (0) »

We were out earlier today, running some errands, etc. We had gone into walmart to pick up a couple of random things.

At the jewelry counter, I saw a cardstock sign detailing the birthstones for the 12 months. Signs like this are fairly common at jewelry counters and generally are cheesy or uninteresting (usually both), but I was waiting on Sheri and there wasn't much else interesting in the area either.

It was then that I happened to read the entry for December (mine & sheri's birth month). According to this particular sign, ("According to Legend") the Blue Topaz has the following abilities:

- Dispels enchantments
- Increases the wearer's strength
- Makes wearer invisible in times of emergency
- Changes color in the presence of poisoned food or drink

It actually reads like an entry from the Dungeon Master's Guide - and a pretty cool one at that. I also noted that none of the other months were anything like that - apart from November (i think), which was said to protect against snake bites.

~PS

Just some things

Tuesday May 1, 2007 at 4:19pm penguins, coffeehouse, music, gaming, lawn games, dentistry Comments (0) »

....been goin' on....

April 25th, for those of you who don't know, was World Penguin Day. :)

Friday was the last Just Coffee for the year. We had some fun hanging out and playing some music. I got to play with a marimba-like instrument and also I got to try playing violin. I can fake my way through 'Twinkle, Twinkle' - which I find pretty impressive since I'd never picked up the instrument before. I really want to learn now though.

We've got to game quite a bit lately. The Liimar (experimental campaign) is progressing rather nicely and continues to be lots of fun. I brought my currently running campaign to a close on saturday. That gives me a bit of a sense of accomplishment. I've been working on future games quite a bit as well.

We had a bit of a lawn-game party before the gaming commenced. It was quite fun, despite being delayed by the weather.

I went to the dentist for the first time in several years today. My teeth have several problems to fix, but it wasn't any worse than I expected - and in some ways, better. We get to start that mess next thursday...

I think that's about it for now...

Further updates as events warrant...

~PS

Lawn Games and other Mayhem

Monday April 23, 2007 at 10:23am lawn games, video games, gaming, yard work Comments (5) »

Lawn games are fun. Particularly when you have a lawn to play them on.

Tony finally taught us to play Kubb last week. It's a fun little lawn game of 'throw the block, throw the stick'. On wednesday, we played an augmented version - involving munchkins running through the field whilst playing. The object then became 'throw the ball, throw the stick, miss the munchkin'. Anyway, by saturday, 7 new people had been introduced to this particular swedish lawn game.

On saturday we taught tony how to play Bocce - since he'd somehow managed to escape playing that game with us to that point. We had fun with that one on our hilly and lumpy backyard.

Other than lawn game mayhem, we had some other fun times this weekend. A bunch of us got together at Mike & Steph's on friday to play Wii and generally just hang out. That was fun.

On sunday we got to do a little gaming. That's always fun - particularly this game, since all the players do such a good job roleplaying these somewhat odd PC's.

Oh, also I got the backyard and a good chunk of the front yard mowed (again). I've also procured a weed eater that I may smite down the tall grass in the ditch on the edge of our lawn sometime soon.

~PS

New Old Friends

Tuesday April 17, 2007 at 3:42pm friends, gaming, food Comments (2) »

So I got to have lunch with Ken today. (aka Raldor, aka WiseTurtle)

It's always interesting to spend some time hanging out with someone you used to see pretty regularly but (for whatever reason) haven't seen in a few years.

So we talked about work and OoTS and friends and gaming over some Funny Name sandwiches. It was really cool. I'm looking forward to him coming to game with us. It's been a while...

~PS

Order Up?

Monday April 9, 2007 at 2:49pm funny, spam Comments (2) »

If ever there was any reason to take an occassional glance through my junk mail folder, this is it.

I recently received a spam email message - as follows:

Dear Restaurant Owner,

I'm contacting you once again because I saw your business, Penguin Sushi, on your website at penguinsushi.com. Our company, Merchant Advance, has recently improved our funding ability for U.S. based restaurants, providing as much as $500,000 or more in unsecured working capital for expansion, new locations, advertising, renovation, new equipment, or any other need...

...wouldn't you feel more secure knowing your restaurant has access to $25-$50,000 or more with only a few days notice? Let's make 2007 the year for Penguin Sushi!

So appparently some minimally-researching spammer took a look at my domain (but not the site as it clamed) and from it has derived that I run a sushi bar somewhere in the US - and he wants to loan me money to promote it. Fantastic.

Just to be clear, I would like to cite my original statement on the matter: No, I do NOT make sushi out of penguins, nor do I advise anyone else to do so.

So I'm betting next I'll be hearing from the Board of Health and/or several illicit penguin suppliers.

~PS

Snowcone of the Gods

Saturday April 7, 2007 at 12:41am weather Comments (1) »

A week ago, it was 80 degrees and I was wearing shorts and mowing the lawn. As of 6ish pm earlier, it's snowing. Snowing. April 6th. Where am I, Canada?

Snow. East Tennessee. April 6th.

Clearly, someone fed Pudge a snowcone worthy of the gods.*

*Note: tony more or less gets credit for that one.

~PS

His mother was a chinese trapeze artist

Thursday April 5, 2007 at 9:58am music, concerts, long freakin post Comments (0) »

Last night, Sam, Nick, Larry and I went to Knoxville to see The Decemberists at the Tennessee Theatre.

That was easily the coolest thing I've ever seen. Period. Really.

The trip started out with some minor hiccups - like the exit we were supposed to take being closed to the point of non-existence and the fact that there's really not much in the way of restaurants (that we could find) in downtown Knoxville.

Once at the theatre, however, it was awesome. We were there plenty early and so stopped at the table at which they were selling stuff. I got a spiffy, blue Decemberists t-shirt - which was, in fact, a goal of mine. :)

The theatre itself is beautiful. Very ornately decorated and old-fashioned looking - yet with a modern twist of having some very cool color-changing cove lights which illuminated various alcoves and borders. It occurred to Sam and I that its style really seemed to go well with the band.

The opening act was My Brightest Diamond. I thoroughly enjoyed their performance - though I have to say, I think I prefer the energy and attitude she has on stage to their somewhat mellower recordings of the same songs.

At about 9, the Decemberists came on stage. As I said before, their show was amazing. Every member of the band played at least two different instruments - and most played three or more. Its one thing for a band to have dramatic instrumentation on their recordings - it's another thing to watch them do it all in a live show. I have an even greater appreciation for their musical talent. Their live performance easily sounds just as good as their albums, if not better.

They played mostly songs from Picaresque and The Crane Wife - with a few others thrown in. They brought out the singer from My Brightest Diamond to sing with them on Yankee Bayonet (one of my favorite songs of theirs). I always think it's cool when artists collaborate like that.

The most notable song I suppose was the Mariner's Revenge - which they played as an encore. They had wrapped up their performance and left the stage but, at our continued prompting, returned for one last song.

For those of you who don't know the song, it tells the story of a boy who goes off in search of a man who betrayed his mother some years earlier. He eventually catches up with him on the high seas, only for all of them to be swallowed by a whale.

Colin (the lead singer) told us that we had to supply the sound effects of a multitude of people being swallowed by a whale - i.e., screaming - at the appropriate time when his bandmate directed us. Once that instruction was given, they began playing the song - which they essentially goofed-off their way through, but yet somehow played it flawlessly. I would do a poor job describing exactly how their stage antics went for this one, but I'll hit a couple of points to give you a hint:

The drummer was only playing a floor tom - which scooted across the stage in a random direction each time he hit it. At one point in the song where there was no drum line, he actually picked up the tom and put it over the head of the bass player, who continued playing the large stand-up bass he was holding. When the drummer took it off, the bass player pulled the bow out of the sheath on the bass and mimed stabbing him with it.

At a particular bridge in the song, the entire band sort of hopped side to side while playing the song in a sort of waltz time. It looked hilarious, yet fit the song and the band wonderfully.

At the point in the song where the characters are swallowed by the whale, we were directed to scream as a giant costumed whale plodded out onto the stage (didn't see this one coming...), engaged in a brief battle with the band members (most of whom continued to play the song while the lead guitar player pantomimed beating it with his guitar). The whale ate all the band members, who collapsed on the stage as the lights when out at the musical break at that point in the song.

The lights slowly returned as they played the rest of the song, at the end of which is a particular repetition of a musical phrase at faster and faster tempos - which they took to extremes not on the recorded version. The accordian player was quite tired at the end of that one.

I know why they played that song last: Nothing follows that.

I would highly recommend their show to anyone who is even passively amused by their particular style. They did a fantastic job. If/when they come back to Knoxville, I will be going if it's at all possible.

~PS

Historic Site: Post-it Yoshi's Remains.

Friday March 23, 2007 at 1:13pm funny, friends Comments (3) »

Well, this was somewhat unforseen.

Seems our house (specifically, our livingroom) has become a tourist site.

Tony stopped by a little while ago on his way out of town - with two friends of his from canada. Allow me to go on a brief tangent to say that Scott and Dave drove 14 hours out of their way just to come get Tony here in TN before heading to IN.

They all came in and we talked for a bit - 'hi, nice to meet you, isn't llama odd?', etc - but then they wanted to go into the living room to see the wall where the monumentous Post-it Yoshi (which they had seen photographs of) once stood. They stared in awe at the empty space - imagining what it must have been like. They were further moved by the artifact remains of the Yoshi itself, carefully preserved on a shelf near the site.

Now all I need is one of those gray 'historic site' markers that are all over the place here.

With a few misspellings on it - just to follow suit.

~PS

Penguinsushi v6.0!

Thursday March 22, 2007 at 4:43pm website Comments (2) »

Some of you knew this was going to happen.

Some of you didn't know this was going to happen.

Some of you didn't know this was going to happen, but knew this was going to happen.

So yeah, the site has undergone (yet another) redesign. I think the pattern of steady improvement has continued. This incarnation does away with a number of things that were less than effective in the previous design, and adds some new features of its own.

Hope you all like the new look, feel and function.

~PS

I'm tired, so you're not getting a title

Tuesday March 20, 2007 at 6:52pm website, health, food, video games Comments (0) »

Really.

Seems the old blog has been neglected lately.

Man, I'm exhausted. I have decided that it was probably a bad idea to go walk for nine holes of golf since I slept really, really crappy last night.

Either that, or I'm really out of shape.

Maybe both.

I hope I sleep better tonight since I'm supposed to go out and play some with Joe tomorrow.

I hope I'm not getting sick again, I was freezing last night while I was trying to sleep and I have this nagging off-and-on headache.

Well, time to head out. Think we're heading to the Nameless Lair for some dinner and relaxation.

And probably some mario kart.

~PS

It's been a good day

Tuesday March 6, 2007 at 9:27pm golf, music, reflection Comments (0) »

It's days like today when I kind of feel like a lucky punk.

Today Joe and I went out and played golf for the first time this year. (My mom is jealous - she really wants to play.) It was great fun. It was about 55 degrees, sunny and there was no one else on the course.
Ok, there were a couple other people on the course. We did see someone on hole 8 when we were coming off the 4th green. Still, it was nearly completely vacant. This enabled us to take a somewhat relaxed pace and not worry about getting in other people's way. The grass on the fairways and greens is still a bit hard, but it was a great time. I par'd two holes! I'm not sure if I've done that before...

In other news, I got a call from Sam a while ago saying that tickets for the Decemberists' show in Knoxville on the 4th of April were being ordered for me, Sam, Larry and Nick. I'm really excited about this. I've never got to go to an real concert for a band I've actually wanted to see before. Not really, anyway.

Not that any of this stuff is important - and that's kind of the point. It's one thing to have big important things go your way and be happy about it (and I've had my share of those too), but it's another thing to be able to be quite excited and happy about little things that would seem stupid and trivial if the more important things weren't there.

Seems the big important things in my life are, for the moment, going well. Let me point out that I am immeasurably thankful for this. It's just 'icing on the cake' (so to speak) that important things go well enough for me that I can be excited about this stuff.

~PS

Blame the Sickness

Monday March 5, 2007 at 11:01am health, moving, friends Comments (1) »

So I haven't written much here lately. I'm going to go ahead and blame it on being sick. Or, at least, on not being well.

It's not that I *feel* bad exactly, I've just been congested for...a good while now. To the point that my ears are stuffed up. Yeah, that's a new one for me. Anyway, I'm taking some stuff now that seems to be helping. Hopefully I'll get rid of this soon.

So anyway...

About the only interesting thing we did this week was on Saturday when we helped Ginger move into her new place: a nice, 70's-ish townhouse a couple miles from her old place. It's a considerable step up. She's pretty excited about it.

We had quite a little party doing it too - Ginger, her parents, Sheri & I, Tony, Mike & Steph and Chris Mak all took part in the event. It was pretty cool to get to hang out with all of them - some of whom I hadn't seen in a while.

During the packing and the loading, we showed Ginger where some of the remaining pirate booty (from Project Pink Pirate - see the Sept 2005 blog, or the We Have Your Keys gallery) was hidden - as we promised. I still can't remember where the last silver one is. We may never know.

The move itself only took about 4.5 hours - pretty good time, I think. After we got all the stuff over to her new place, we had some pizza and unpacked/set up a bunch of stuff to get Ging started with the mammoth task of unpacking. It was all quite enjoyable - even with my annoying cough.

Hmm... Maybe I can blame the fact that I put the futon together wrong on my congestion too...?

~PS

Some Posting

Wednesday February 21, 2007 at 9:45am auto repair, health, our house, painting Comments (3) »

Well, it's been a little while since I've made an entry here, so...

There's not a whole lot to say really, except that I'm about done with two things.

The first being the car problems we keep having. We have decided to go ahead and fix sheri's car - even though it's probably not worth it - just because we can't afford to be without another car right now. We have decided that we need to start looking for something else though. Hopefully something we have to worry about less.

The second thing I'm 'about done' with is my health - or lack thereof. For the last couple weeks now I've been pretty congested and occassionally quite sick. At least thus far I haven't had to cancel anything because of it.

In other news, the hall and the bathroom are almost finished in terms of painting. We've also got some nifty bathroom fixtures (things like towel bars and toilet paper holders) to put up when we're done. That, however, has also been put on hold as the paint fumes certainly won't help my illnesses and may well be part of my problem.

~PS

Down With Soda Fountains

Friday February 9, 2007 at 4:24pm beverages, economy Comments (5) »

I drink a lot of soda.

When possible, if I get fast food, I like to bring it back here and have a can of pepsi - for two reasons.

First, pepsi from the grocery is way cheaper than soda from a restaurant.

Second, pepsi from the grocery actually tastes like pepsi.

Maybe I'm just unlucky... ...or live in the wrong part of the country... ...or something... ...but when I get soda from a fast food place - or even from a 'sit-down' restaurant - it is very poorly mixed with alarming regularity.

Like, I'd say 80% of the time.

Now, there may be some confirmation bias there, but even if I give myself a 30% margin of error, I'm still drinking bad soda half the time.

Does anyone else experience this? Am I the only one who is a little irked when I pay $1.50 for a 2c soda and it doesn't even taste right?

Does anyone come to the defense of the soda fountain?

~PS

Triumphs and Nachos

Sunday February 4, 2007 at 9:57pm auto repair, gaming, our house, painting, food, video games Comments (3) »

A mere 19 hours after its ignition switch broke in the lowes parking lot, my jeep was up and running again - thanks to my jeep manual, a local junk yard, some special tools and the tremendous driving efforts of our friend ginger.

So, once again, we have a car to drive. Sheri's is still in the shop, awaiting some diagnosis.

Despite the jeep's crisis, we still had our game on saturday (a bit late). It was a good session.

Today we didn't have to stay in erwin. Instead, we came back here and put the first coat of paint on the hallway. It's looking pretty darn good.

After the painting, we did NOT watch the superbowl. Seems none of us care much about it. Imagine that.

Instead, we had some nachos with cheese/meat/tomato dip (recipe ala kevin) for dinner and played some serious mario kart. We have proven that Sheri makes the meanest yoshi ever.

~PS

Revenge of the Autos 2

Saturday February 3, 2007 at 9:13am auto repair, coffeehouse Comments (0) »

This seems to be a bad time for automobiles. At least 5 cars of friends and/or relatives of mine are currently functionless - two of which are mine and Sheri's cars.

Sheri's car broke down a couple weeks ago with a bad cylinder. We're currently waiting on the shop to replace the lifter to see if that fixes it.

Last night after we bought some paint at Lowes, we came out and the ignition switch in my jeep broke. I think it's some sort of mechanical failure. I've checked the manual and by all accounts this is an easy repair if you can get the part. I've got a line on two local junk yards that have one. I'm going to try to fix this one myself. If I pull it off, I'll be darn proud of myself. If I don't, I'll have to have the darn thing towed out to Milligan Auto.

This also leaves us completely car-less in the meantime. Grr.

This made for a rather irritating bump in last night's plans, but that'll happen. Luckily, Ginger came to our rescue and we all went out to dinner and to a bookstore and to the wapc coffeehouse - mostly to keep us from being too upset by our misfortune.

Well, Ginger's on her way over here and then we're gonna head out to see what we can see. If everything goes beautifully, we'll all be back here in time for today's game - with working jeep.

~PS

Sushiday, The Second

Thursday February 1, 2007 at 9:13am birthdays, website, because i can Comments (1) »

Happy Sushiday!

Today is penguinsushi.com's second birthday. While this last year has seen only one major site redesign (as opposed to the 3 the previous year), I still think it's come a long way in terms of what it can do. Not that there's much of a reason for it, mind you - much of the site remains a 'because I can' sort of accomplishment.

So anyway, yeah, 2 years on the web. Woo-hoo! Hope you've enjoyed them.

~PS

Work Zone, pt. II

Tuesday January 30, 2007 at 10:22am our house Comments (1) »

Once again, our house is under construction. Well, sort of.

As of last night, I've begun the second of our 8 or so house projects. The objective this time is to repair and paint the hallway and bathroom. Basically what needs done is filling some cracks, smoothing out some drywall, priming and painting. The colors I've picked out are a sort of tan and brown - which i think will contrast the green in the livingroom nicely.

I'll be doing my best to document this process online in the 'our house' gallery.

~PS

Things I did while not blogging

Monday January 29, 2007 at 11:31am our house, friends, food, birthdays, gaming Comments (1) »

Another weekend came and went. It was a pretty good one.

On friday and saturday sheri and I talked about some stuff for the house and decided that I'll start working on the hallway this week. I became much more interested in the project when we decided not to paint the hallway white. White is boring. The first step is to repair a couple cracks and smooth out the drywall. I'll be photo-documenting it and i'll try to put some pictures up as I go - or at least when it's done.

Kevin was in town this weekend too. It's always nice to get to hang out with out-of-town friends for a bit.

Saturday night we all took tony to Misaki's (japanese hibachi steakhouse place) for his 25th birthday. I've decided I like Misaki's pretty well - despite the fact that I don't like chinese much and I haven't been a fan of any eastern food in the past. It was tasty.

We gave tony a llama calendar and ginger gave him a shirt that says 'the penguin made me do it'. Appropriate on so many levels.

Last night we finally got to continue one of my d&d games that's been on hold for a while. We had a good session.

I think a couple more quotes got added to 'the list' this week too.

~PS

Shell vs $100 bill

Wednesday January 24, 2007 at 10:02am legal Comments (7) »

So last night I went to get gas for my jeep. As I stated earlier, the price per gallon is now below $2, so I was feeling pretty good about filling it up.

Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me.

Seems our Shell station has developed a habit of not accepting $100 bills - which happened to be what the bank gave me. The cashier was somewhat apologetic about it and pointed out (on the sign she had to un-bury) that they weren't allowed to accept $100 bills unless the customer was spending more than $80. I told her I couldn't spend $80.

So I went to Food City and broke my $100 by buying a 2 liter of root beer (which I had also planned on buying at the gas station).

This incident annoyed me. I've been told (not specifically by anyone this time, but other times) that the reason for such policies has to do with our counterfeitting problem. It made me feel guilty in a weird way too, since I was looking around for someplace that would accept my bill.

I was also wondering whether this was legal. I mean, what am I supposed to do with a $100 bill that the bank gave me if no one will take it?

I did find an answer.

Seems that companies *can* refuse any given form of currency. Basically the wording of the law states that all businesses have to recognize that all US currency is a legitimate form of payment - they just don't have to take it.

This, apparently, is one of those legal documents that comes dangerously close to contradicting itself and all but negates its own purpose with adendums.

The moral: Ask the bank for small bills.

~PS

Random News

Saturday January 20, 2007 at 11:04am penguins, holidays, economy, gaming, music Comments (1) »

Just so you all know, today is Penguin Awareness Day. This was *not* going unmentioned.

In other news, gas prices have finally dropped below $2 here in east TN. As per my previous agreement with the fuel companies, I will now cease complaining about the high price of gasoline until it is once again above $2.

Congrats to one Tony "Llama" for having successfully conquered Ape Escape 3 earlier this week. Catching 142 monkeys is no small task.

Game night at the coffeehouse last night was fun - but that was the most drawn-out game of Shadows over Camelot I've ever not finished. One of the guys that was playing with us heard us talking and said we should have a d&d night at the coffeehouse. This amuses me.

Lastly, I've been playing my new guitar a lot. My fingers aren't used to it, but it's been lots of fun. I think I need to retire my old effects pedal though. If I have enough money relatively soon I think I'll by a Boss EQ pedal so I can ditch the thing.

~PS

Lime Overload

Monday January 15, 2007 at 8:38am food Comments (5) »

Key Lime Pie: Very good in small bites. Very small bites.

~PS

The Standard Report

Sunday January 14, 2007 at 12:16am friends, family, coffeehouse, music Comments (0) »

Well, it's been a pretty good week since the last blog entry.

Tuesday evening I went out to dinner with some friends, and then i returned to the Igloo where myself and some more friends (two of whom i believe to be parents by now) and my sister (who was passing through and stopped over for the night) all played Apples to Apples until about 10:30. Fun times.

Wednesday and thursday were pretty 'uneventful', though I have been wrapping up some pretty exciting work-related projects.

Fridays are always good. Went out to dinner again (same restaurant even) and then to the coffeehouse where some of us played Apples to Apples again. Seems this was the week for Texas Roadhouse and adjective/noun games.

Today I went and spent my christmas money. I'd been wanting a new electric guitar for a long time (ever since i started playing with the praise band at church) and today I went and spent quite a while playing several of them. I kept coming back to one of them though - a Gibson SG. Plays really nice. The guys at Morrell's were really cool too: Since I didn't want the gig bag (soft case) that came with the guitar, they kept it and took the price off the hardshell case that I wanted. Ended up getting the case for about half price. :) I've had the guitar plugged into Hikaru here for a bit. Looking forward to plugging it into my amp tomorrow. I'll probably put a pic of it up at some point.

This evening we had ging and llama over for chili and card games. Much fun was had - as always.

~PS

We are the Board, you will be assimilated

Tuesday January 9, 2007 at 12:12pm church Comments (0) »

So I guess I'm a deacon at our church now. That's pretty hilarious. I'm trying to decide if this is an indication that they just don't know me very well yet or not.

Went to my first Bored Metting last night. Trust me, that's the operative spelling.

So I'm kind of wondering how this is going to go.

For the time being I've taken up a philosophy of not saying much until I get a feel for the group. Not that I think I'll have much to say on the majority of the "issues" that are brought up. Sooner or later, however, I'm sure someone's gonna bring something up that I'm going to have a rather strong and unpopular opinion about. Then things will get...interesting.

Also, I have very little patience for beaurocracy and formality. The sheer amount of miscommunication I have witnessed baffles me. At one point there were 4 people discussing a section of the bylaws: all saying essentially the same thing, yet the no one seemed to understand any of it. After about 20 minutes of this, I considered trying to arbitrate by saying something like 'i think we're all saying X' - but I figured if they didn't understand the others by this point, they weren't going to understand me and I didn't feel like adding to the fiasco.

I'm more than willing to serve the church and our congregation in any way I can. Whether I can survive the beaurocracy with my sanity intact remains to be seen.

~PS

Press Start

Wednesday January 3, 2007 at 6:43pm video games Comments (1) »

This morning Sheri and I were both wearing blue jeans and plain t-shirts. Her's was bright red and mine was royal blue. I told her I must be Player 1 and she must be Player 2.

She didn't get it. Go figure.

~PS

Hosed

Wednesday January 3, 2007 at 12:37am our house Comments (0) »

I am now adept in the use of the wet-vac.

About 1.5 hours ago I made a discovery when I went down to do some laundry. Seems that the pipe that goes out to the garden hose froze at some point and sheared itself open. We used the garden hose today, and the pipe left us about 30 gallons of water in our basement.

Overall, the event was pretty harmless. For the most part it avoided the stuff in the basement that would have mattered had it gotten wet.

At this point I think I've got the basement to merely 'damp' instead of 'puddled'.

Unfortunately, I still have laundry to do...

~PS

...And a Happy New Year

Monday January 1, 2007 at 12:18pm family, vacation, holidays, friends Comments (0) »

Ah. It's been a while. Good to be back.

So last week we went out to visit Sheri's family. Everything went went pretty well - including the long 12+ hour drive there and back, each of which we did in only one day instead of the normal two. We had a good time. Played lots of board games and cards.

Last night a bunch of us hung out for new years. We had intended to play some games (i think), but mostly we just sat around talking. I personally thought that was nice. Some of those who were present I don't get a chance just to talk to very often.

Lastly, I'd like to extend my apologies, well-wishes and thanks to a few people who called me on or around christmas time but I never got back with them because I didn't discover they called until much later. Kevin, Llama & Eric - I greatly appreciated your messages. The same to you. :-)

~PS

Merry Arkansas. I mean Christmas.

Friday December 22, 2006 at 9:25pm family, vacation, travel Comments (0) »

Tomorrow morning at [too early]o'clock, Sheri & I are heading out to AR to visit her family for the holidays. We'll be back sometime lateish on the 30th.

Happy Holidays to all and safe travels to those of you journeying forth this season.

~PS

Weekend Frenzy

Monday December 18, 2006 at 11:06am friends, choir, work, funny, birthdays, holidays, long freakin post Comments (0) »

This is going to be a long one.

I'm tired.

I'm not entirely sure why, since I slept in a bit this morning, but I'm still tired.

My only theory about why I don't seem to have any energy today is the amount of running around we did this weekend.

On friday I had work as usual, then we went into town to finish up our christmas shopping.

After that, Sheri needed to go to Erwin for what was supposed to be a practice for the kid's program that was to be put on sunday night. Unfortunately, only 2 of the kids showed up so there wasn't much point to it. Keep in mind, there'd only been one other practice for this thing the previous wednesday.

On the plus side, Sam & Erin were there and I personally had a great time getting to talk to them.

After we had returned home, my sister arrived. She was on her way to IN for Christmas break and didn't want to make the whole trip in one day.

The next day we had a rehearsal for the choir cantata that was to go on on sunday morning. It went pretty well.

After returning from that, we went out to lunch with Jese before she left to continue to IN.

We then went to the JC Chorale's Christmas concert. Sheri was sad that she didn't get to sing in it, but she enjoyed watching and talking to some of the Chorale members. They miss her. I got to talk to Rucht a bit about gaming and other assorted things. I also ran into Sue and we talked about the website i'm doing for Watauga a bit.

After that, we went to the Crazy Tomato for our 'company christmas dinner' with KW (boss-man), Addie (coworker, boss-man's wife), Brandon (coworker) & Randy (brandon's wife). We talked about how we did this year and what we're looking to accomplish next year. Pretty much all good news. Brandon & I also got spiffy old navy fleece pull-overs with our company logo. Sheri and Randy each got throw blankets (because Addie didn't think it was fair that the boys got stuff but the girls didn't). Brandon and Randy gave us a cool cinnamon candle and a penguin ornament. I felt like kind of a bum - since we didn't even think about christmas presents. I wasn't expecting anything and we were so busy that I didn't have time to wonder. I'll remember for next year though.

Another thing I wasn't expecting was the bonus that Brandon & I got. I'm planning on putting mine toward a new electric guitar - something I've been wanting to get for a while now.

Sunday morning we had the cantata - which went very well, the choir did great. After church we helped the Rosolina's a little as they set up the set for the children's program that night. Then we went home for the afternoon (something we usually don't do).

We had a relaxing afternoon and then returned to Erwin to practice the children's program one more time. Around 6:45 people started arriving and the program went on at 7. It went pretty well, all things considered. After that we had our resident santa come and give out little gift bags to all the kids - and to the staff. Seeing Dr. Gwaltney sit on Santa's lap was hilarious. After all the festivities we disassembled the set and put the stage back the way it normally is.

Probably the most memorable part of the entire evening was Katie's little mishap with the baby jesus. See, I think the church has had the small, hollow, plastic-formed baby jesus for about 30 years. It was so old, the paint had worn off of most of it so it was mostly just white. And it was ugly. Really ugly. It actually closely resembled a prairie dog - especially the way Erin had placed him in the manger - sticking straight up.

So anyway - Sam, Katie and I were standing in the choir room. Katie was holding the plastic baby jesus saying she should hide it so that they'd have to use something else next year. In fact, she said, if that was her kid, he'd better be the son of god, because that's all he's got going for him. She must have been squeezing a bit too tight as she gestured because at about the time she finished this statement, the baby jesus EXPLODED. It didn't just crumble and fall apart mind you - there was an audible *pop* as little pieces of christ flew out about 5 feet in every direction. Katie's half-terrified / half-amused expression was priceless. Sam stared at her wide-eyed and gasped "You broke baby Jesus!". I simply laughed uncontrollably.

After we finished cleaning up, we departed. Sheri and I then went to Cheddars where we met Ginger, Tony and Justin for dinner somewhat in honor of my birthday (which is actually today. happy birthday to me). We enjoyed some good food and amusing conversation even as my energy level decreased rapidly.

After dinner, we returned to the Igloo where I got to open some birthday presents. They also got me an ice-cream cake that I was way to full to eat any of. I think I'll have some today though.

After that, we had our own little christmas party as everyone is leaving the state sometime this week. It was fun.

I ended up with a few cute, new additions to my penguin army, a ps game that looks like fun and a 10 inch figure of Marvin, the manically-depressed robot from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy.

I may well have left some parts out of this crazy weekend, but that's what I remember off the top of my head.

~PS

Barnes Donalds Pepsi

Thursday December 14, 2006 at 11:14pm oddities Comments (0) »

Just some notes from things I encountered today:

1) At B&N, I saw something I'd never seen before: "After Coffee Mints". This struck me as odd - can't you get mint and cinnamon flavorings in your coffee? Doesn't that make the 'after coffee mint' somewhat redundant?

2) McD's seems to have developed a new 'you can see your food, but you can't have it' policy. I pulled up to the pick-up window to see a bag just on the other side of the glass that looked as if it could quite easily contain my two sandwiches and fries. I could literally have grabbed it had the window been open. Unfortunately, I had to sit there and look at it for a full minute before someone actually came and handed it to me.

3) I discovered one of the cans in the pepsi cube i bought was closed, but empty due to a hole in the bottom of the can. This is the second time I have encountered this. I think there's a soda gnome in our kitchen.

~PS

A good weekend

Monday December 11, 2006 at 10:25am birthdays, video games, gaming, friends Comments (0) »

It was a good weekend.

Friday was Sheri's birthday. I took her out to dinner and then we, llama and the EP drove out to see the Speedway in Lights. That was fun.

Continuing their past tradition, ging and tony got sheri the 3rd Mario Party game. I gave her a dvd of White Christmas and a new Ticket To Ride game - which is pretty fun.

Saturday we had a choir rehearsal and then we returned and I got to run my d&d game for the last time for the year. (Which gives me PLENTY of time to come up with the trials that await the party in the tunnels outside Fissure. Cue maniacal laughter.)

Sunday we spent in Erwin as usual, though, unlike usual, we were invited to lunch at Shelton & Gale's (along with Craig and Meghan), which was very enjoyable.

Nothing overly interesting or exciting or 'blog worthy', but I feel pretty good this monday morning.

~PS

Certainty

Monday December 4, 2006 at 11:18pm funerals, family, reflection Comments (0) »

I'm currently sitting in a room at the Holiday Inn Express at exit 38 on I-75 in Ohio.

My grandfather (on my mom's side) passed away sometime last friday. I'm up here with most of the rest of the family for his funeral.

Grandpa's condition had been steadily worsening for several years - especially within the last few months - so this was pretty expected, and probably for the best given his situation. Still, it's sad to lose someone.

This is the first funeral I've been to in... ...a very long time. I don't exactly remember how long. I've been to a couple of viewings since, but...

Unfortunately, I hadn't seen him much over the last several years and, since his health began to decline, even less frequently. Still, even though I've been fairly disconnected from him for that stretch of time, he is still the closest person to me who has now died.

This has again brought to mind thoughts about how well I will be able to handle death around me - with just a little more urgency. Just a little more close-to-home. I've not had anyone who is very close to me pass away yet - and I sincerely hope I won't for a long time to come - still, that is something of an inevitable circumstance. I hope i'm ready for it when it happens.

It has been nice to see friends and relatives that I haven't seen for a long time though. Wish we had a more cheerful reason to gather.

~PS

Too Much Web Development

Thursday November 30, 2006 at 11:06am coding Comments (0) »

I know I've been doing this too much. Too high a percentage of my typing is related to various web languages.

I have come to this conclusion within the last 5 minutes.

Seems I was typing up a support ticket for one of our sites, and came to the word mysql (GAH! I did it again!) 'myself', and instead typed 'mysql'.

while($this-> !isset(extract(ly) bothersome yet)) {if($it == "getting worse"){echo "i\'m not sure what to" do()}}.

~PS

Thanksgiving Pt. II

Friday November 24, 2006 at 11:02pm holidays Comments (0) »

Today *we* had Thanksgiving.

Yes, I know Thanksgiving was yesterday.

Since Sheri had to work yesterday, we postponed our festivities to today. Sheri made some great food and we spend the evening decorating the Igloo for the Christmas season. It's pretty early still, but I really like the lights and Sheri likes anything and everything related to Christmas - hence, we did it.

So anyway, yeah. Good day. I put up some pictures in the gallery of some of the decorations at the request of Sheri's mom - but you all can enjoy them as well.

And, just for good measure, here's a by-no-means-comprehensive list of some things I'm thankful for. In no particular order.

-Friends and Family (particularly Sheri ;))
-My awesome job
-Music
-Humor
-Our house
-Soda and tasty food
-Dungeons & Dragons and other games
-The internet and Apple computers
-Decorative lights

Probably lots of other stuff...

~PS

Stealth Junk Mail

Friday November 17, 2006 at 5:57pm spam Comments (0) »

Snail-mail spam in unmarked envelopes. Dubious to be sure.

Beware your inbox.

I mean mailbox.

~PS

Taking Boring For Granted

Tuesday November 14, 2006 at 11:47am psychology Comments (1) »

Discontentment is a natural state of the human existance. I suppose you could say that this trait can motivate people to improve their lives...or merely give people some reason to complain. Point is, no matter how good life is, most people don't continually think about how lucky they are. Particularly in this country with respect to global averages for 'quality of living'. There's always something more we want out of life, even if what we have is pretty extravagant.

I think a lot of people are at mostly satisfied with their positions though. We all complain about things in our lives from time to time, but if such things were completely unacceptable, we'd probably be doing something more about it than we do.

I don't really have a problem with any of this - but, as an outlook, it has (at least) one major drawback: Whenever something happens that makes things worse, we quickly go from complaining to outright anger or depression - even if the 'worse' isn't as bad as it's been before.

Think about the number of times you get upset by something that, in a previous time, wouldn't upset you nearly so much. For example, since I've started playing golf again, I've reached a point where I get frustrated with the mediocre shots I have - even though just weeks before (when I hadn't played in years), I would have been somewhat satisfied with them.

So what it comes down to is expectations, or what you feel you 'deserve' or 'should' be doing/getting/being/etc.

It's probably a good idea to ask yourself, 'Self, is it really as bad as it seems?'

~PS

Doomed to Random Encounters

Thursday November 9, 2006 at 1:17pm helping others, random encounters Comments (0) »

So I just went out to pick up my paycheck. As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I was flagged down by a guy asking if I'd give him a ride. We talked for a minute and I kinda thought about how, being a christian, i probably ought to show love and compassion to the world around me - so i told him to get in.

He was very apologetic about the whole thing and continued to assure me he was not 'bad people'. Turns out he had come into town with a friend of his, gotten drunk and seperated and didn't have a ride home. I could still smell a little on him, but he seemed to be mostly in his right mind.

We were driving out toward 11e, where he said he lived, when he tried to convince me to stop somewhere to get him 'something to take home' - in the way of alcohol. I told him very plainly that I wasn't ok with that. Despite a few additional efforts to convince me otherwise, I told him I'd take him where he wanted to go - either to his house, or somewhere else, but I was only making one stop and then I was heading out. Ultimately, he had me drop him at a hardees. He thanked me for the help and we went our seperate ways.

So as I drove home, I thought 'well, that was unusual'. I also thought about whether I'd handled the whole thing 'correctly'.

When I got home I discovered the Jehovah's Witnesses had stopped by and left a tract outside our door. Seems I was destined to have a random encounter today pretty much no matter what.

~PS

Thanksgiving Pt. I

Thursday November 9, 2006 at 12:20pm holidays, food Comments (0) »

We went out to Erwin last night to have Thanksgiving dinner with our church. It was tasty. Our church is fortunate to have our own caterer/chef who is willing to prepare such meals for us.

As we generally do, there was a short 'program' that accompanied the feasting. Predictably, it was mostly people talking about things they were thankful for; though at the end Sheri sang a hymn for everyone.

Kathy (who was in charge of this) had asked me to talk about something I was thankful for. I was trying to think of something that wasn't overly obvious or cheesy (I think made some comment to Sheri about being thankful for Cheese-Its). Ultimately, I decided I had way too much to be thankful for - to the point I almost feel guilty for having it. In the end, however, I decided that what I was most thankful for was my friends and family. I am very fortunate to have the relationships I do.

Thanksgiving proper isn't for another couple of weeks however. Sheri has to work, so we can't travel anywhere to be with family, and it seems many of our friends would be out of town.

We have also discovered while at the grocery store that the poultry industry doesn't want us to have a small, two-person turkey for thanksgiving. We managed to find a 5lb turkey (which is pretty small), but I'm unlikely to eat 2.5lbs of bird, even on thanksgiving. Looks like we'll have turkey for a while after...

So anyway, with those potential leftovers in mind, I would like to say that if any of you are going to be stuck in the area this holiday, feel free to come help us eat some of the turkey and various other tasties we will probably have. :)

~PS

Why the FMA is unconstitutional...

Wednesday November 8, 2006 at 11:53am theology, sociology, politics, rights, legal Comments (1) »

...and largely BS.

This is a redundancy of a post I just made in the Humanity forum, but i don't mind the repeat - and I think its appropriate for my blog. Feel free to comment here, but if you wish to begin a dialogue or debate, please reply in the Forum.

Since our wonderful state of TN just passed this amendment by some ungodly margin (something like 75%), i guess all the propaganda paid off.

I would also like to point out that i am *only* writing this to solidify my own thoughts on the matter.

Over the last few weeks I have heard nothing from the media but about how not passing this amendment would "weaken marriage" and how it is our constitutional duty to "protect marriage".

In addition, I have also heard several preachers and people from local churches over the course of that time encouraging people to get out an vote on this issue - with an implied "christian duty" to see this amendment passed.

Of the 1.2 million people in the state who voted in favor of it - i wonder how many of them actually stopped to look through the media at the actual issue being addressed.

The FMA does NOT strengthen or otherwise protect marriage. From everything I've read about the amendment, it only mentions conventional, heterosexual marriage in defining what marriage should not be. In other words, it takes absolutely NOTHING away from this 'normal' marriage, it only denies the same rights we enjoy to people with other preferences. The idea that the FMA "strengthens marriage" is nothing but a catch phrase meant to impress upon heterosexual married people (a substantial part of the voting community) that they need to somehow protect themselves. It is complete BS. Saying that the legalization of homosexual marriage would weaken heterosexual marriage is like saying allowing african-american people to vote weakens democracy.

The FMA is NOT a morality issue. I suspect that a substantial portion of those voting for the FMA in this area of the Bible Belt are doing so because they believe homosexuality is "wrong". Aside from the problems of trying to legislate morality (see Constantine, et al), this amendment really has nothing to do with such opinions. Making homosexual marriage illegal is not going to in any way hinder homosexuality, nor is it going to convince homosexuals wanting to be in a stable, legally-recognized relationship to somehow 'become' heterosexual (insert tangent on how many christians seem to think this is something a homosexual can 'decide' to do) that they might do so; it is merely denying legal rights to people who happen to live differently.

See a trend?

The FMA is a civil rights issue. The FMA does NOTHING but deny legal rights to people who happen to have a certain preference. It is only the second amendment ever proposed that actually takes rights away from the people instead of granting them. The first was the Prohibition. We saw how well that went over.

This amendment is discrimination. It is contrary to the principles of liberty this country was founded upon. It is xenophobic. It is unconstitutional. It is unchristian.

Damn. I almost sounded patriotic there.

~PS

The 'Ween

Wednesday November 1, 2006 at 10:29am friends, gaming, little kids Comments (2) »

Well, yesterday evening was both more interesting than it could have been and less.

Because this is our first year in this house, we had no idea if we'd get any trick-or-treaters or not. Due to a certain incident last year wherein we were caught completely unawares, we decided to stock up on candy just to be safe - which we began snacking on rather early in the evening.

Ginger and Tony also came over for a bit, and we played a game of Munchkin Bites - which was the most halloween-related game we could come up with.

We only had one trick-or-treater, and she was solicited. Mike & Steph brought katie over (dressed as supergirl) to our place for a couple hours. She spent that time working off some of her sugar high by running around aimlessly and playing with us.

All in all, the night was lots of fun.

~PS

What do you do?

Friday October 27, 2006 at 10:36am logic Comments (0) »

...when someone tells you the logical equivalent of:

"Since this looks, quacks, smells, waddles, swims and eats like a duck, it can't be a duck."

Huh? What?

~PS

New Addicts

Wednesday October 25, 2006 at 12:44pm video games Comments (3) »

So i think i've picked up a new video game addiction. I'd probably still be addicted to Katamari Damacy except that I don't have a ps2 (though i have noticed they're down to about $125) and the game doesn't appear to exist for pc's.

This time it's Neverwinter Nights (The first one, yes. In my typical style, i only get to video games several years after they're out of 'the scene'. It's cheaper that way.). I've been up pretty late a couple of nights this week fighting my way through zombies and bandits. This really isn't all that surprising.

What *is* mildly surprising is that I think i've got sheri addicted to it too. She was watching me play around with it one day and decided it looked spiffy. Spiffy enough that we went to the store & bought a pc version of it for her (her copy even has all the nifty expansion packs. Only $20 too.). Both of us did very little yesterday night except go through various dungeonish environments on various quests - every once in a while saying things like "you still alive over there?" or "wow, that was cool". Sheri's already found a few things in this game that i missed. Figures.

~PS

How Many Of Me...and...trees??

Friday October 20, 2006 at 12:37pm memes Comments (5) »

Saw these on the EP's blog. Curiosity won out. What can i say? I'm easily amused...



HowManyOfMe.com
LogoThere are:
12
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?




While 11 other people may have my name, I wonder what the statistical probability is that these people have a remotely similar personality.

Hopefully, pretty slim. The world is not ready for 12 of me.





You Are A Fig Tree



You are very independent and strong minded.

A hard worker when you want to be, you play hard too.

You are honest and loyal. You hate contradiction or arguments.

You love life, and you live for your friends, children, and animals.

A great sense of humor, artistic talent, and intelligence are all gifts you possess.



Yeah, uh-huh. I could make a pretty good case for this being accurate (at least parts of it), but these things generally give overly generic 'readings' that anyone could 'see themselves as'.

oh well, it was fun. :)

~PS

The 'Weekend Of Doom', etc

Monday October 16, 2006 at 3:27pm family, food, golf Comments (1) »

So this last weekend was interesting.

My sister Jese and her friend Kate came to visit us for a couple of days. Kevin also came into town. After the unusually full week I had, the bookstore/coffeehouse/theological/oriental escapades didn't exactly make for a relaxing weekend, but it was quite a bit of fun.

The weekend *did* involve 'broadening my horizons', as it were. On saturday night, the lot of us went out to a japanese steakhouse. The kind where they cook the stuff on the table in front of you. I'm not generally a fan of oriental food, but this was pretty good and quite entertaining.

Sunday was pretty much the usual after Jese & Kate left.

Been trying to play a little more golf while its still nice out. I think i'm starting to get a little better at the game. I've now par'd a par 5 by making an *amazing* (read: 'lucky') 12ft putt. I'm pretty sure that's the first time i've ever done that.

~PS

Who comes up with this stuff?

Thursday October 12, 2006 at 11:34am video games Comments (2) »

So, as of last night, I have been introduced to a video game called Katamari Damacy. Odd. Little. Game. I am noticing a trend however: those games with the most ridiculous premises (see also: Ape Escape, Sheep) tend to be some of the most fun to play.

In this game, you play the son of the King of the Cosmos. Seems his celestialness has destroyed all the stars in the night sky, and you have to put them back. How does one do this you ask? Why, the answer is simple - roll a sticky ball around and collect as many things as you can (tacks, dice, flowerpots, dogs, people, cars, pieces of buildings), and launch it into space.

As tony said, "It's nice to know that LSD users can still find work in society."

~PS

Alarming Audio

Wednesday October 4, 2006 at 11:25am music Comments (2) »

It is a very odd thing to wake up in the morning to Boy Sets Fire overlaid with classical radio.

~PS

To a Tee

Monday October 2, 2006 at 12:01pm golf Comments (5) »

So I've started playing golf again.

Note that I didn't say I was *good* at it, just that I've started playing.

Like I said in my blog about going to IN, it had been between something like 10 years since I've actually played the game - and I wouldn't say I was any good then either - but it was fun, and I've realized I miss playing.

So last week I played twice. I played 9 at Pine Oaks on tuesday. It's a pretty nice course. Not that I played well at all, but it was nice to get out. On saturday, Joe and I got up early and went out to the Elizabethton Golf Club to play 18. That was a lot of fun.

This saturday we get to get up even earlier - tee time is at 7:56. Some contend that hour doesn't exist on saturdays.

~PS

Return to Yoshi's Igloo

Monday September 25, 2006 at 2:35pm family, travel, pictures, we have your keys Comments (0) »

Well, we made it back from our trip to IN alright. We had a great time. It was nice to get to hang out with our families and relax - we hadn't been up there since last christmas.

We spent the first half of the week up in the Frankfort area with sheri's grandparents - mostly playing cards and talking and stuff. We also stopped by Sheri's sister's house on our way back down to visit our neices. They're cute.

The second half of the week we spent in Columbus with my parents playing golf (for the first time in 10 years!), bowling, playing some more cards and generally having a good time.

We returned to find some rather impressive post-it art in our livingroom and office. I sort of saw it coming though - since we had all talked before of doing it to someone else's place. Next time the post-it's strike, i want to be in on it.

In some ways I wish we would have had a bit more time up there, but in other ways its good to be back (aside from some computer issues and people spamming my site).

I put some pictures up in the Gallery. Enjoy.

~PS

We've been ID'd!

Thursday September 14, 2006 at 1:56pm random encounters Comments (3) »

So ginger and I went to Schlotzky's for lunch this afternoon. Upon entering, the lady at the register - the one who is always there when we go in for lunch - tells us we should buy one of these discount cards she has since we're in there so much. The cards are for the support of local schools. She insisted that the 10% discount would save us quite a bit of lunch money.

I guess i don't really expect the random people i interact with on a weekly-ish basis to recognize or remember me, so it always seems weird to me when something like that happens.

Maybe next time i go in there i'll just order 'the usual' and see what happens...

~PS

Adventures With Webcams

Tuesday September 12, 2006 at 12:23pm webcam, website, because i can Comments (3) »

As you have probably noticed, my *new and improved* site now features a (boring-ish) webcam over on the left panel. Not that i really have a good reason to have a webcam, it's more just a 'because i can' thing.

The cam updates about every 5 minutes, showing a slightly delayed image. It has been quite a source of amusment for me/us.

I have discovered i make some really funny faces when i'm confused about some piece of code i'm working on or when i'm playing fps games (particularly if i'm winning).

Kevin likes to IM me and say things like 'dude, weren't you wearing that shirt yesterday?'.

No, no i wasn't.

He's also suggested putting up 'away messages' via large signs in front of the camera when i'm not around. I've yet to try that idea, but i occassionally put one of my penguins in front of it when i'm out.

~PS

Cables (tech-rant pt. II)

Sunday September 10, 2006 at 8:20pm irony Comments (0) »

Any cable used to connect two pieces of technology is always and without fail either:

A) Much too short

-OR-

B) Way too long

That's just the way it works out.

~PS

Stuff Breaks

Friday September 8, 2006 at 9:47am technology, thinking too much Comments (0) »

It occurs to me that i really shouldn't be surprised when my stuff develops some sort of problem. I am so reliant on technology, and technology is so at the mercy of the world around it (for which is very seldom prepared) that the breaking down of stuff is inevitable.

Further, the liklihood of all my stuff being completely functional at any given time is virtually nill.

In short, the struggle to keep certain things working even as other things need fixing should be a natural state - something I am used to.

Yet I am not. I get very frustrated when my stuff doesn't work the way it's 'supposed to', even though, if i really think about it, its eventual breakdown is an unescapable aspect of its operational matrix - i.e., something it is, in fact, 'supposed' to do.

Not that this is the first time i've realized this paradox, nor its stating likely to keep me from getting just as frustrated as my stuff continues to break, but i sometimes think reminding myself of these obvious principles of technology is the only thing that keeps me from forswearing it completely.

~PS

Loud. Angry. Wet.

Monday September 4, 2006 at 11:02pm yard work, music Comments (0) »

Push-mowing the yard in the rain while listening to Rage Against The Machine is an interesting experience.

~PS

Version 5.0

Sunday September 3, 2006 at 3:49am website Comments (0) »

About a week after starting this latest redesign, I think I have enough of it working to put it into effect.

Take a look around. You may notice that quite a bit is the same, but quite a bit is different. Some features I'm omitting from this new site, and some may come along later.

I'm sure there's a bug or ten i haven't caught and fixed yet, but give me some time and it'll be solid.

Well, i've been up working on this too long already. See you all later.

~PS

Stupidity Support

Thursday August 31, 2006 at 5:20pm website, being stupid, tech support Comments (0) »

As some of you already know, I have begun work on the next version of this Website (yes, please be sure my ghost has plenty of pepsi). In the course of writing a script to export my blog from the current db and import it into a slightly different format, I accidentally emptied the db table. The source table. I had completely erased my entire blog. Crap.

Kevin suggested I try some things to try to recover the data, and I found some stuff online about bin logs, but sadly, i don't know what i'm doing. Nor do I actually know if my hoster gives me sufficient permissions to do it anyway.

After about 2 hours of mucking about, I decided I couldn't pull it off. I submitted a support ticket to ICDSoft's support service. Within 23 minutes of my submission, my database table had been restored.

This has shown me two things, both of which I already knew from previous experiences:

1) For the sake of pete and his dragon, pay more attention to what you're doing.

2) The support my host provides is amazing.

Well, I'm off to backup my db before I try messing with it some more.

~PS

Bill? Tom?

Monday August 28, 2006 at 12:32pm random encounters, oddities Comments (0) »

So I've had a random encounter of the funishing kind. In our breezeway saturday night, sheri and I found a tv stand. Attached to it was a note that said 'Tom: Sorry it took me so long to drop this off. -Bill'.

I don't know who these people are, but i think Tom is going to continue to be more and more dissappointed with Bill as he wonders where his tv stand is.

~PS

Sam I Am?

Sunday August 20, 2006 at 9:45pm little kids, church, friends, work, gaming, mac Comments (3) »

This is Abby Grace. When asked about me by Ginger, she has said that I am:
A) Not scary.
B) Not weird.
C) Sam.

Apparently I am considered to be Sam because I also play guitar. I love little kids. They're so cute. Abby in particular. I'm kinda bummed now that they're going to a different church and I don't get to see them every week. We did get to see them today, however.

Today was our church picnic. Despite the dreariness of parts of the day, it was a lot of fun. Sam and I got in some good practice time, we all got to swim (in very cold water), had good food, and played a 2 hour game of Purple Ball. We are, in fact, the best Purple Ball players in East Tennessee.

The rest of this weekend has been pretty good too. Warren (boss-man) took me & Brandon out for breakfast on friday. Friday night we spent with Ginger and Tony playing mario party.

Saturday, my game (finally) continued as The Party attempted not to get themselves killed by some eel-people and discover why , how and by whom an underground town had been partially flooded. Fun and mayhem.

I've also been catching up with some out-of-state friends I haven't heard from in a while. I came across at least 3 people I hadn't emailed in ages when I imported my address book to my mac. It's been cool.

~PS

Acoustic Toaster

Wednesday August 16, 2006 at 2:54pm friends, music, funny Comments (0) »

Sam & I had lunch at Shlotzky's today, and then went over to the Acoustic Coffeehouse to play some guitar out on their patio and pen in a date for us to play there.

Upon returning to Shlotzky's that we might go our own ways (we carpooled to the AC), we saw the following in the parking lot:

A silver Honda Element - quite possibly the square-est car ever designed - with a bumper sticker that read: 'You just got passed by a toaster'.

~PS

This sucks for someone.

Wednesday August 16, 2006 at 11:50am random encounters Comments (0) »

Someone named 'Kristina Hail', more specifically. I've now received three (3) phone calls for her from prospective employers over the past few months. It would seem she accidentally put my phone number on her resume. People keep wanting to interview her, but they're calling me because she gave them the wrong number. She must be pretty depressed that no place is calling her back. If only she knew.

~PS

Up, Running and Named

Tuesday August 15, 2006 at 11:23am mac, names, thinking too much Comments (1) »

Well, I've had my new Mac up and running for about a week now. It has now proven itself to be the best, fastest, prettiest, most efficient, most easy to use machine I have ever owned - all without a single major headache. The most 'fighting' with it I've had to do is resolve a permissions issue to get dvd's to play. This took all of about 5 minutes - 4.5 to figure out the problem, about 30 seconds to open Disk Utility and fix it.

It has been given the name Hikaru (Angelic Layer) - which roughly ranslates to 'to shine, glitter, be bright'. Ooooh. Shiny.

The ipod nano that I got with it has been given the name Sumomo (Chobits) - after a small, portable character.

The portable harddrive Kevin gave me full of stuff for the mac has been named The Pensieve (Harry Potter). Seemed appropriate.

The printer has not been named. I really don't see a need to, but this has got me thinking about names and naming things - specifically, inanimate things.

So I've got to thinking - what merits a proper name? Any inanimate facsimile of something that would ordinarily be named can (and should) be named - things like dolls and stuffed animals. But what about other things?

Now, I don't name things nearly so prolifically as some of my friends (like guitars, bookbags, cars, etc), but I do like to have something to call some of my stuff besides 'the computer', etc. I've found that I name anything that has some interactive qualities to it - hence the computer and the ipod easily merit names. The portable harddrive interacts with my computer, which insists that it have something to be called by.

This leaves (at least) one additional question: why name things? I think there are several reasons we name things. One is that its easier to call something by a name. One is that its more fun and allows us to be creative. I will submit, however, that a third reason is social. Naming an object ascribes some measure of projected personality to the object. By surrounding ourselves with objects that have names (and thus personalities) psychologically deepens the interaction between the object and the person.

Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?

I'm sure I would think of my computer much differently If its name was Chaznar the Impailer. Of course, the computer would be exactly the same, but the way i perceive my interaction with it would change.

As always, there's a good chance i'm thinking too much about this.

~PS

Mac in the box

Sunday August 6, 2006 at 7:33am mac, food, service Comments (3) »

As of yesterday afternoon, i'm now officially a mac user.

Due to some supreme timing on the part of one Kevin Poorman, I was able to, for less than the price i had originally thought the computer would cost, get a 20-inch imac upgraded to 2gb of ram, an ipod nano and a canon printer plus about $280 in rebates - making the ipod free and the printer darn close. Total savings ends up around the $500 mark and i have a *sweet* machine. Yay for tax free weekends and cleverly simulated student discounts.

This will be great once i have time to set it up. As for now, its still in the box for another 12 hours since i'll be in Erwin all day.

Also, i highly recommend the Carolina Ale House in Durham if you're ever over there. The service is fantastic. We had no fewer at least 3 employees and 1 manager going out of their way to help and amuse us.

~PS

I'd like to make an assertion

Wednesday August 2, 2006 at 4:30pm weather, assertion Comments (1) »

For it to be 95 degrees with a heat index of 100 after 4:30 in the afternoon is just not right.

~PS

Hello, I can't help you.

Thursday July 20, 2006 at 3:54pm random encounters, funny Comments (0) »

So I just got a call from Nelnet, the company through which i have my student loans. They were calling to inform me that my loans were currently using a variable interest rate and they asked if i would be interested in consolidating them and fixing it. I said sure, figuring i'd listen to what he had to say and wait till the bottom line. During the course of the conversation however, it came to light that my loans were not of a sufficient dollar amount for them to offer me this particular deal.

Essentially, the guy called me to say "We've got this consolidation thing, but you can't have it."

Punks.

~PS

Am I Evil?

Thursday July 20, 2006 at 3:12pm psychology, donations Comments (0) »

I mean, really.

Lately, i have been telephonically pelted by non-profit organizations asking for money that they might do 'x' for various 'underpriviledged' groups. I generally consider myself to be a fairly generous person, but something about people calling me on the phone asking to send me stuff that i might 'find it in my heart' to send them money tends to result in me telling them i'm not 'interested at this time'. Perhaps this is a conditioned response created by years of speaking to telemarketers?

These experiences are leading to another conditioned response: social anxiety regarding answering my phone.

~PS

'Bout time

Monday July 17, 2006 at 11:23am friends, baseball, music Comments (0) »

Yeah, i haven't been hitting the blog much these last few weeks. I could probably get away with blaming it on having too much to do with the house and work and all, but that probably wouldn't be that accurate. I have discovered that merely having more stuff to do doesn't make you any busier than you would otherwise be unless you actually do some of it.

I've also realized i've been slacking off on this site - I haven't even put our currently running summer d&d game on the site at all.

So last week was pretty good. On wednesday we went to a local minor league baseball game. The home team lost (not that i could be called a 'fan' or anything), but it was fun to watch and hang out with some friends for an evening.

Yesterday we had band practice. It was a lot of fun and the songs we're planning on playing for next time are sounding pretty solid, though i couldn't talk them into playing 'Crooked Deep Down' for the special. Something about 'offending people'. Pfft.

More if i think of it.

~PS

Thought for the day

Monday July 10, 2006 at 11:51am rolling eyes, assertion Comments (1) »

*ahem*

Using more words to convey a simple concept does not make you any smarter.

~PS

Living room rehab

Wednesday July 5, 2006 at 4:22pm our house Comments (1) »

well, its getting close to done. I'm not sure if it will be ready to accept gamers on saturday or not, but i'm working on it.

I haven't blogged much lately - i'm aware of this. Here's pretty much what i've been doing:

1) work work.
2) house work
3) yard work

There's been some occassional breaking for random fun stuff - including a great time swimming at steves and watching fireworks at ginger's - some gaming and a little anime, but mostly i've been working these last few weeks. All work and no play makes jared a dull blogger.

Apologies.

~PS

Productivity

Sunday July 2, 2006 at 9:13pm yard work, our house Comments (0) »

This weekend we have accomplished:

1) Entire yard mowed. Really, the whole freakin' thing. That yard is too big for push-mower - at least when it's so hot.

2) Living room prep-work finished, primed and given two coats of green paint. Lookin' good. Pictures soon.

3) 3 cars washed - mine, sheri's & ginger's.

4) random house work / bill paying

5) sheri repotted her plants

We did good.

~PS

Of Epic Adventures

Wednesday June 14, 2006 at 8:48am our house, moving, travel, pictures, we have your keys Comments (0) »

Take 2

Greetings one and everyone,

Much has transpired since my last entry but, for various reasons, i have been unable to blog about it until this moment.

Most notably, i have moved. Sheri and I closed on our house on the 1st around 5pm. Shortly thereafter, we and a small army of friends descended upon our little apartment and moved everything in it over to the house (about .4 miles away) in 3 hours. Afterwards we went out to dinner to reward our efforts.

The following day, sheri and I left for Arkansas to visit her family. While there we attended her brother's high school graduation party, went to Silver Dollar City in Branson, went out on her dad's boat, and played lots of Shadows Over Camelot. We also camped out on our way to and from. On the trip, we saw several quite amusing landmarks - including Fort Pillow and Yow Chiropractic.

While we were gone, our house was named The Igloo (probably because it's the only place of ours around that has descent air conditioning) and it was thusly decorated with paper snowflakes, cotton snow and blue saran-wrap ice (complete with incased frozen mammoths). We also found a group of stuffed animals gaming in our basement. I hope to have pictures of this stuff up in the gallery soon.

Since we've been back, we have begun organizing the place (though not too much, since we still have to paint pretty much everything), we have tested our washer and dryer (which seemed to work quite well once the hot and cold hoses were reversed), we have acquired a range and a refridgerator and have (finally) got internet access (and there was much rejoicing).

~PS

Today be the day

Wednesday May 31, 2006 at 12:11pm our house, travel, insane Comments (3) »

Arr.

This morning I recieved a call(s) from Vic Feathers at the bank saying everything seemed* to be in order for our scheduled closing this afternoon at 4pm.

(*actually, when i asked him, his exact words were "hell if i know")

Assuming everything goes relatively according to plan (a rather portly assumption), we will be starting to move stuff in between 5 and 6pm this evening.

Coincidentally, tomorrow also 'be the day'. Tomorrow we're intending to leave on a 10-day trip to AR to visit sheri's family.

Now, you may ask yourself: why would they go on a long(ish) vacation the day after moving into a new (and first) house? Answer: because we're bloody insane.

After our return, future plans involve organizing the place (you know, at least a LITTLE), getting some appliances, fixing up some little things, having a painting party and buying a mac.

~PS

Kevin, Birthday, Duke, Apple

Tuesday May 30, 2006 at 10:31am travel, birthdays Comments (2) »

Yesterday Ginger, Tony, Sheri and I embarked on what would be a near-epic adventure to Durham to visit Kevin for his birthday.

Conspiring with some local friends of his - Joe and Amy - we showed up at his apartment around 1pm - much to his surprise. We told him to change out of his penguin pj's and come outside for a cookout we were having. We generally spent the afternoon eating, talking and playing frisbee.

After the cookout, the six of us went to look around Duke's campus and buildings. We got to walk around in the amazing cathedral-style chapel and the div-school building(s). We stopped to examine both of Hauerwas' office doors - which are plastered with all manner of interesting stickers, photos and other strange and humorous artifacts. We had a brief encounter with Dr. Hall, who is very friendly and regretted not having time to talk to us for long. It was amusing to hear her harass kevin a little - leaving him with nothing to say (which is a bit extraordinary in and of itself).

After leaving the div-school, we drove over to Durham's mall (which, as we discussed, is a real mall, as opposed to the little thing we have here in JC) and to the Apple store, where my desire to in some fashion purchase a mac was further and greatly reinforced. Alas, i must see to house-related stuff first.

~PS

Some things

Saturday May 20, 2006 at 10:02pm irony, food, funny, swimming, computers Comments (2) »

1. Texas Roadhouse's menu is funny. It's rather unimaginative slogan is "if it doesn't say Texas, it's not Texas Roadhouse". (duh). On the back of the same menu, it says "Texas Roadhouse was started in Clarksville Indiana..." Irony? What irony?

2) Last night, llama was fully prepared to sacrifice the world to eat his bread.

3) Milligan's pool is pretty nice. Too bad i never swam there when i was a student.

4) I now have a glowing blue keyboard to go with my glowing red trackball and my glowing green tower.

I'm sure there were some other things i was going to put up here. If i think of any i'll add them. If any of you think of any, feel free to add them as well.

~PS

Wanted: Tasty Beverages

Wednesday May 17, 2006 at 10:56am beverages Comments (0) »

Late this morning, became very thirsty and we don't have much here at the moment. I have long been a fan of the Sobe drinks, and one sounded good so i went in search of some. Just so you know, the Milligan Grocery doesn't have any, and the selection at the surrounding convenience stores is somewhat lacking.

My favorite sobes are:

1) McLizard's Lemonade.
2) Black & Blue Berry Brew
3) Nirvana
4) Tsunami

I mention this because the ones at the top of my list i haven't seen anywhere in Johnson City for several months - and the second two are becoming more scarce. It seems that every time they come out with on that i really like, it mysteriously disappears.

Punks.

~PS

Our Savior?

Friday May 5, 2006 at 12:32am church signs Comments (1) »

ok, so i gave them a chance. i let this go a whole 2 days without saying anything, but it's just too much now.

On my way into Erwin for band practice on tuesday and thursday this week, i pass a little church across from a shopping center. This church always has really bad/cheesy messages on it's sign. (Not that all church sign messages aren't bad/cheesy, but still...) Some of you might remember a post i put up entitled "god == demeter?" about a year ago. Same church.

Their sign currently reads:

Come!
Let Us Worship
Pastor Mike Bishop


~PS

House Hunted

Monday May 1, 2006 at 6:00pm our house Comments (1) »

Well, as of this afternoon, Sheri and I have a contract on the house we'd been wanting to get. It's been somewhat of a saga. First, we saw this house. Liked it. Wanted to go back and look again and probably make an offer, when it was snatched up by someone. We were somewhat disappointed. Well, time passed, and the house came back on the market. Turns out the prospective buyers learned of the house's somewhat high radon reading and backed out. The seller is now installing a radon mitigation system (at his expense) and is selling it to us. So, assuming the home inspector doesn't find anything terribly out of whack, we're gonna have a house soon. Funny how things work out.

I've made a gallery for photos of the house. There are a couple i neglected to take, but maybe i'll get those up sometime as well.

In other news, we will be having a painting party sometime after closing as almost all of the rooms need painted. Those interested will be fed pizza and soda.

~PS

I've been tract-ed

Saturday April 29, 2006 at 12:13pm theology Comments (0) »

It's kinda like being tracked. Only the pursuers don't have to make a survival check. Which is sort of ironic.

I look out in the parking lot this morning and notice something on my jeep. Assuming it was an advertisement I went out to remove it. Upon arriving, I discovered it to be one of the (hideous) bible tracts. I took a brief look around. There aren't any bible tracts on ANY of the other cars in the parking lot. Some people may have been confused by this apparently random choice of the tract-er to tag me as opposed to someone else. What about my green jeep grand cherokee with a turtle sitting on the dashboard and freakin' milligan college sticker in the rear window makes me most likely to be 'nonchristian'?

Of course, I immediately knew the reason: for about the last year, i've had a d&d window sticker in my jeep, showing my enjoyment and support of the game. However, in addition to implying that i take part in a fun social activity with my friends over pizza, this clearly means i am a satanist, a worshiper of some non-existent d&d deity or, at the very least, atheistic... ...right?

...furthermore, the horrible theology promoted by the tract is surely going to 'do me good', right?

Some of you may remember me mentioning something similar a while back when i found a random tract in the gaming book section of Nords. This is much the same, but it's targeting me specifically.

I'm noticing a trend.

Lord, please save me from your followers.

~PS

Brains

Tuesday April 18, 2006 at 1:51pm just a thought Comments (0) »

If someone asks you if you're feeling brain dead and you respond by saying "uhm... ...i don't know.", you've answered their question.

~PS

Weekend

Monday April 17, 2006 at 11:54am auto repair, gaming, holidays, friends, video games Comments (3) »

On friday afternoon, for the first time ever, I did something to fix a car: That is, i replaced the ignition module on sheri's car. Myself. Considering I know only slightly more about cars than i know about nueclear physics, i'm darn proud of this.

On saturday we had a pretty good gaming session. Not killing the party == pretty good. After the game, some people left, some people stayed, some people showed up. We had an interesting conversation involving everything from comedy shows to politics to psychology. Afterward, sheri and i made a midnight run to walmart for sweet potatoes.

Sunday was Easter. We went to ginger's house for lunch. We == me, sheri, tony, eric and justin. We ate lots of fried chicken and played some ninja burger, but eventually ginger got tired and my allergies were acting all crazy, so the party disbanded a bit earlier than it otherwise might have.

Later sunday evening, ginger and justin came over and the four of us played a couple games of Age of Empires 2 - world conquering at its finest. Its pretty cool that i have friends who can bring laptops over and lan game on a whim.

There were some other things i wanted to include in this blog, but i don't remember what they were. They were probably some funny quotes or something. Alas.

~PS

Cakebread?

Tuesday April 4, 2006 at 4:50pm oddities Comments (3) »

I would just like to point out, that nowhere on this website does the word 'cakebread' appear. Well...it does now, but you know what i mean.

Apparently, i've been accused of being one Jared Cakebread. I don't know who this other Jared is, except to say that it's not me. Sam, I'm sure this must be your fault because a google for the inverse-imposter turned up a cycling website with your name on it. There will be vengeance.

;)

~PS

Just A Thought

Monday April 3, 2006 at 12:19pm just a thought Comments (0) »

I don't pretend to understand how politics work.

I also don't pretend to know how people here in eastern TN look at things, characteristics they view as positive, etc - IE what 'gets their vote'.

Further, I know not everyone is like me. Not everyone looks at things the same way I do and not everyone values the same things I do.

Those things said, I still have some advice for some candidates in the area:

If you're running for office and you have the nickname "trainwreck", do not include it on your promotional campaign posters.

~PS

House Hunting

Monday March 20, 2006 at 12:59pm our house Comments (5) »

Well, we've started it. So far we've talked to a bank, got pre-approved, seen 1 house, driven by a couple dozen others and looked at countless listings. It's been great fun, actually. Hopefully we'll find something sometime this year. It would be kinda nice if moving-time is during some decent weather, too - but i'll be satisfied if we can find sometime we both really like.

The house we looked at on saturday was one out here on Milligan hwy - only a minute or two from where we live now. It wasn't a bad little house, but we ultimately decided there was too much expensive stuff we'd want to do with it right away for it to be practical. We're all for learning to do lots of minor-to-moderate projects for home improvement, but we're hoping not to have to learn them all at once ;). We've got a few more we're interested in looking at and Robin's still giving us stuff. And we're in no rush.

I'd also like to state for the record, that it's snowing out here, in a major way. I'd also point out that this is a couple weeks after milligan's so-called "spring break".

~PS

Transexual Drive-Thru

Friday March 10, 2006 at 11:33am oddities Comments (2) »

Yeah, this was disturbing.

At Wendy's. Last night.

me: (drives up)

(female voice): "Thank you for choosing Wendy's, can i - [static]"

me: ?

(male voice): "Can i take your order?"

me: !? "...yeah, i'd like, uhm...a number 1"

(female voice): "Anything else?"

me: "Gah! uhm...no...no thanks..."

By this time, ginger (who was in the jeep at the time) was laughing out loud.

I think i've discovered what people who work in fast food restaraunts do to entertain themselves on slow shifts.

~PS

MY BOOKS HAVE ARRIVED!

Wednesday March 1, 2006 at 12:56pm gaming Comments (7) »

I have just been informed. It is fun times. I've been waiting for them to come in for a over a week now - and, by all accounts, they should have been here a few days ago, but oh well.

So yeah, yay for friends who can get me cool-yet-ridiculously-over-priced gaming books for a discount. Steve, you're my hero. I <3 U.

It occurs to me that many people would probably like to spend less money on their books. That's all well and good, but i'd rather spend the same amount of money and get more books. I guess i'm greedy like that. Or maniacle. Either one, really.

So, if that didn't make any sense to you, i'll explain a little. My gaming library is about to be increased by 6 nifty-cool books. 3 of which are for me to use when subjecting players to inhospitable climates. The other 3 are more for the players, who can use them for additional aid in character creation. Not that there aren't way too many cool options out there already (i was just discussing this with steve, actually).

~PS

Propagandish Tele-spam

Friday February 24, 2006 at 1:27pm spam, politics Comments (8) »

So, despite that fact that i'm on at least 2 supposedly-national no-call lists, I got a recorded phone call this morning.

The recording of the nice lady was telling me quite emphatically that it was absolutely critical that i register to vote in this state so that our "republican leaders can continue to get elected and fight and win the war on terror".

I found this to be a bit disturbing for several reasons:

1) At no point did it mention anything about the democratic process of duly elected officials.

2) At no point did it mention anything about an individual's right to decide which parties to vote for.

3) The underlying assumption of the recorded message was that i, when i inevitably register, will vote republican

4) ...because that's the 'right thing to do'.

5) The message blatantly uses the 'war on terror' as a campaign boost - even though you can't declare war on a concept and it almost seems like they're saying it's a good thing - 'yeah, vote for the guys who brought you the War On Terror'

Really, there's nothing else i could do by roll my eyes.

~PS

I Slack, Therefore, I Am

Monday February 20, 2006 at 8:53am coffeehouse, gaming, video games, music Comments (0) »

...and here i was just getting on to Sam for shirking his 'net duties.

So it's been a minute or two since i've blogged. Maybe it's because i have nothing to say.

Or maybe it's because my life is so full and exciting i haven't had time to blog in the last week and a half.

Yeah, i wasn't buying that either.

The last week+ has been good though. Nothing incredibly blog-worthy, but good.

We didn't go to the coffeehouse this last week (*gasp*). I think we were all kinda burned out on it - though i probably wouldn't have realized it if ginger hadn't said something. We did have a good time going out to Cootie Brown's and wandering about JC before deciding we were all too tired to stay up much past 10:30.

Saturday we had a good game. My group seems to be a steady(ish) 6 players again. This makes me happy. It had shrunk uncomfortably low there for a while. I really like this hobby, so much so that i've ordered 6 more books. I'm fairly sure i'm not obsessed with it, but i do spend a good amount of time working on game-related ideas and projects (this website is about 50% game related) and i really like the idea that i can run a game that my friends enjoy and look forward to. Over all, i think it's the social aspect of the game that i like most.

After the game, some of us went out for pizza and then played some Mario Party 2. Fun times. ...though, if i'd have won half of the mini-games i won in our practice run-throughs, i'd have kicked much more butt.

Yesterday (Sunday) we spent in Erwin, as usual. Got to have some band practice. Looks like our praise band has acquired a bass player, which frees me up to play guitar and sing. I did enjoy playing bass though...

~PS

A Morning at ESR

Friday February 10, 2006 at 10:23am theology Comments (0) »

Yesterday morning I had the opportunity to go hear Stanley Hauerwas speak at Emmanuel School of Religion (i.e., my backyard). This was a most enjoyable and thought-provoking experience, and i have realized a couple of things because of it:

1) I need a bigger ecclesial vocabulary if i expect to be able to fully(ish) understand such speakers. There were some parts of his oration that were a little foggy just because i didn't know a word or two. Judging from his inflections seems as though it would be misleading at times. A bit more knowledge of the history of the church wouldn't hurt either.

2) I miss regularly encountering material that causes me to think critically/intelligently about something that isn't surrounded by angle brackets. I was quite ready to get out of a school a few years ago, and i do like my job a lot, but i have often wondered if i wouldn't rather think about things that matter a little more.

Beyond the lecture itself, I got to hear Phil Kenneson talk a bit, which is always a rewarding experience. I got to talk a little bit with Joel Tramel, the minister at my church, who was also in attendance. I also ran into John Sichting, the minister at my home church in IN, who was there as well. Talking with John is always fun. :)

~PS

p.s. This post was .5 inches from being called 'CR 25 Theology'

Curse of the Were-Spaghetti

Wednesday February 8, 2006 at 11:03am movies, food, friends Comments (0) »

Last night was fun. Sheri, Ginger Tony & I got to hang out, which, of course, is always fun. Beyond that, Ginger, Sheri and I played some Age of Empires - which was fun even though we lost. A lot. I made spaghetti for us, which turned out quite tasty and then we all watched the just-released Wallace & Gromit movie: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit - which was very good.

Aside from the precipitated mess in the kitchen, the fact that Sam skipped out on us, and the unfortunate cutting of my finger while chopping onions, it was a great evening.

~PS

Dread Pirate Shoe

Monday February 6, 2006 at 11:57am music, friends, little kids, football, gaming, computers Comments (0) »

It was a pretty good weekend - if a little short.

Saturday we had a good game. Fun times & mayhem.

Yesterday (Sunday) our praise band led worship. So far all direct comments to us - and we've had quite a few - have been exceptionally positive, though there are a couple people we suspect weren't too thrilled (like the one who tried to cancel church due to the weather). Still, it was cool, and we all know there's just no pleasing some people.

Yesterday afternoon, Sheri & I were invited over to our minister's house for the afternoon. They were having the youth and a bunch of people over that evening anyway, and it's always cold in the church after everyone leaves. So we hung out, played with their kids and talked with them.

I actually found out that Joel, our minister, used to play a little d&d back in the 80's, when everyone thought it was satanic (hehe). He said he never really got too into it (he said the math was his real problem. thac0 and all.), but he had some friends who really liked to play so he joined in. He said he was always the guy who got killed first - and that he always had trouble figuring out whether he was dead.

Later that evening, a bunch of people, including but not limited to the youth group, came over to their house to watch some football game (hehe). Joel was asking everyone who they wanted to win. I told him i voted for the Seahawks because they had the cooler name. I was not the only one to use such pointless forumlas to determine preference either.

I didn't pay much attention to the game anyway as me, Sam and a couple others were playing Dread Pirate - and we actually finished a game. I'd played the game several times before, but we'd never finished one. Despite my bad luck at the beginning, I actually ended up winning. Not only that, but I successfully took the Dread Pirate flag from the current holder (with the help of +5 (!) from cards i had) and managed to hold it until the end of the game, through at least 4 attacks. Truly, it was my finest hour on the high seas. okimdone.

After that, we returned here to the Rabbit Hole where i fixed the first hardware problem i've had with this computer : a loud, strange noise it was making, which turned out to be the video card's fan that had become incredibly dusty (despide the fact that it sits in the case upside down) and was making a crap load of noise.

~PS

Happy Sushiday

Wednesday February 1, 2006 at 10:57pm birthdays, website Comments (1) »

It has now been a year since this site was brought into existence. Seems to me this deserves some small notice in the blog. In case some of you missed the candle in the title at the top or if you just didn't bother clicking on it, here is the birthday page i put up honoring this site's perseverance.

This site has come a long way since it was first built, but if i'd have known how well it would turn out when i started, i would have been quite pleased. It has proven to be both fun and useful - and here i would have settled for 1 of the 2.

Thanks especially to my friends, whose continued use and enjoyment of this site makes the entire project worthwhile.

~PS

Impending Volume And Random Encounters

Monday January 30, 2006 at 10:37am church, music, random encounters Comments (1) »

Last night was our area churches' 'Fifth Sunday Sing'. Everytime there's a 5th sunday, they all get together and sing to each other. Sometimes theres some goods ones, sometimes it's a joyful noise.

Anyway, some people decided that our newly-formed praise band should lead some congregational singing. This was a sort of pre-cursor to us leading sunday morning worship next week. As far as i could tell, it went over very well.

Quite possibly the coolest thing, however, was this:

(Preface: One idea behind the hatching of the praise band was that it might bring in some more people. Our church is rather small and the average age is probably 50 or so.)

While mark was unloading his drums, a guy saw him and pulled up outside the church to ask him what was going on. Apparently he had just moved up here from the Myrtle Beach area where he attended a church that had a band. Mark told him that we were just getting started, and that our first actual church appearance was tonight. The man thanked him, and said that he would be back that evening. And he was. We talked with him for a while afterwards. He said he really thought it was cool and that he was going to come next sunday as well.

Now, i'm not all about the idea behind christianity being getting people in your building on sundays, nor do i think finding a service you 'like' is the most important thing, but i thought this particular incident was pretty cool.

~PS

Songwriter's Block

Friday January 20, 2006 at 12:39am music, funny Comments (0) »

And no, i'm not talking about wanting to write a song and not being able to think of anything.

I'm talking about being able to remember a song that i've written.

Sam & I played some of my stuff at a little coffeehouse this evening and, for the second time he was able to tell me how my own song went better than I could.

So i'm trying to figure this out: how come i always forget my songs when i go to play them? I'm pretty sure it's not nerves, because i wasn't nervous. I'm pretty sure i'm not old enough to be senile. I'm pretty sure i haven't put any of my songs in a pensive. So what then?

And why isn't turnabout fair play? I played with him on a couple of his songs, and there's at least 3 chords in one of them that i still don't know.

~PS

GM Syndrome

Monday January 16, 2006 at 10:11am gaming Comments (4) »

So i've discovered that being a regular rp GM has given me some sort of complex.

Last friday at the coffeehouse, Sam brought a new board game we'd been wanting to play - Dread Pirate. It's a fun little game, but for some reason, it just wasn't enough. Maybe it was because we were supposed to have had an rp session that night that was called because one of the players couldn't make it. I was already in the GM-use-the-rules-as-you-like mode.

Really, all Sam & I did was tweak a couple of the rules for realism - something i do all the time while GM-ing, but it's not something normal* people generally do when playing board games.

Since that time, Sam & I have thought up several other variations on the game and have grand schemes as to how involved this game could possibly get.

*This topic seems to be recurring - e.g., the Chicken Nugget Thesis and Photoshop Toast v1.0

~PS

What's the AC of nachos?

Sunday January 8, 2006 at 8:58pm food, gaming, geekdom Comments (1) »

This afternoon, Sheri and I went out to eat with Ginger and Kevin (who's been in town this weekend). We had a great time, but when it came time to pay and leave, it got a little confusing.

We were each given a seperate ticket. Kevin had a $15 gift card to be applied to the total bill, and then we would split the rest. I asked how much Sheri & I's were. Kevin said it was something like $13 and $9, but that when he took the $15 dollars off from the gift card, we all had a $40 ticket to split. I gave him a $20, but was confused. It's sunday. I don't want to do math.

Then Ginger looks at me and begins to explain:

"Look, we got hit for 53 points of damage. The gift card gives us DR 15..."

Suddenly it was all clear...

~PS

Bass Playing Goodness

Friday January 6, 2006 at 11:54am music Comments (1) »

A few months a few people in the church decided we should start a praise band with some of our resident musicians. We had our first couple of practices this week.

Thus far, we have Mark (drummer), Sam (guitar/vocalist) and James (djembe). Then there's me. I insisted to Mark that we have a bass player. At first we thought a friend of Sam's (Ben (aka Leroy)(it's the hair)) was going to come and play bass for us, but his schedule has proved to be a formidable foe. With him out, it was up to me. I enjoy playing bass with a band, so i wasn't at all bothered by this. I was (and am, really) willing to procure a bass for this project, but it turned out that Mark had one that he brought for me to play. It's pretty nice, though it was having some technical difficulties.

I gotta say, i miss playing in a band. We had a lot of fun. I have discovered i'm not very good at playing bass and singing harmony. yet anyway. Mark let me take the thing home with me, so i've got it to practice.

In theory, we're supposed to lead worship on Feb. 5th. This...this will be interesting. Mostly because it will be about 20-50db louder than the usual service. I fully expect at least 1/3 of the congregation to complain about this.

~PS

Presuming the existence of a loop...

Sunday January 1, 2006 at 10:35pm travel, holidays Comments (0) »

...i'm pretty sure i was out of it.

Anyway, we're back in TN again. The world seems to be returning to normal after it's brief yearly lapse. It's a bit of a weird thing to get back into a routine after being out of one for more than a week.

Our trip was a good one though. We got to see just about everyone we knew in IN and OH. There are some photos of it in the photo gallery.

We are, however, having a bit of difficulty finding places to put all our new stuff. Our game shelf that wasn't quite big enough now really isn't big enough.

When you can describe your closet by saying 'what goes in doesn't come out', it might be time to clean it out. It sounded like a good new-years-resolutiony kind of thing to do, so i did it. I think i have equalized the Gross Gifts Gain by getting rid of a bunch of junk, so i think the collective mass of the rabbit hole has remained fairly uniform through the season.

~PS

It's beginning to look a lot like traveling

Thursday December 22, 2005 at 3:47pm travel, holidays Comments (6) »

Well, as of sometime tomorrow afternoon, sheri and i will be heading up to IN and OH to see family for the holidays. It's been a while since i've seen most of them - in fact, when a couple of them stopped by last weekend (which i now realize i forgot to mention in the blog), it had been a nearly year since i'd seen one of my sisters. Should be a fun trip.

Hope everyone else is having a good time this christmas and that everyone arrives and returns from their various destinations with no trouble.

~PS

The Language Volume Gap

Wednesday December 21, 2005 at 9:04am sociology Comments (0) »

There may well be some confirmation bias going on here and my sample isn't exactly clean, but: have you ever noticed that, of the people you hear speaking more loudly than would be considered socially appropriate in a public place, a dispropotionally large number of them aren't speaking english?

I have wondered about the psychological reasons behind this. I think that maybe this is so because people who are speaking a non-native language are used to people not being able to understand them and thus, being largely ignored by the rest of those present. They've probably seldom been asked to be more quiet because people hearing them may suspect/assume (perhaps subconsciously) that they cannot understand english and so would not comprehend the request. Speaking a language not understood by the majority also mostly negates the need for to be quiet to keep one's topic from becoming known to those around and to keep others from butting into the conversation.

What's really funny (and annoying) is when you hear people nearby speaking very loudly in a foreign language and then, when the switch over to english, they get much more quiet, only to get loud again when they go back to whatever it is they were speaking before. I witnessed this the other day in Target. This behavior indicates that they are, in fact, conscious of the fact that there are people around them, but they just don't care - using the fact that most people don't know what they're saying to keep their conversation private without having to bother with being courteous.

Just because i don't know what you're saying doesn't mean i can't hear you.

~PS

Happy birthday to me

Monday December 19, 2005 at 9:00am birthdays Comments (2) »

Well, yesterday was my birthday. I'm now officially 26. We got to play The Penguin Ultimatum for the first time last night. That's a fun little game.

The next couple of weeks are, as expected, going to be pretty much taken up with holidayish stuff - finishing shopping, traveling, etc. Things probably won't return to normal till the beginning of next year. Fun times.

~PS

The Christmas Menagerie

Friday December 16, 2005 at 11:01am holidays Comments (0) »

A few of us had a little christmas gift exchange last night. This is one of those times when you can tell out just how odd we can be.

Ginger gave me legos! Yay! No, really. I got legos. And this makes me happy. I've been saying i wanted some for a couple years now. Legos are fun times. I spent a good while building a little house last night. I think i need some more...

Tony gave me a game called The Penguin Ultimatum by Eight Foot Llama games. It seemed appropriate. It looks like lots of fun - what with the bass-playing seals, dancing sheep and polar bears on unicycles. I'm looking forward to getting to play it, and i'm so bringing it to the coffeehouse.

Sheri got Mario Party 2 for my n64. She now has 3 games for it, while i still don't have any. She also got a Veggietales Christmas double-feature dvd. It has penguins on sleds. :)

We gave Ginger a collage frame so she can put up some more of her pictures and a cloth draft-blocker for her apartment (hindsight check: what's with the practical gifts?).

We gave Tony a stuffed llama and a Shel Silverstein book called Lafcadio - one of my favorites. It's about a sharp-shooting lion. It seemed like something he would find amusing.

~PS

The weekend...as usual?

Monday December 12, 2005 at 11:45am birthdays, coffeehouse, church, music Comments (2) »

As was mentioned on the forums, last thursday was Sheri's birthday. We had a little party complete with cupcakes and yoshi. I got her a d&d player's handbook. I would say i'm a dork, but it seems that that's the present she's been most excited about.

Friday was coffeehouse night, but Sheri went caroling with some other ladies at church, so i spent most of the evening with Ginger and Tony. Ginger came over to the Rabbit Hole after work, where we proceeded to be not at all exciting for a couple of hours as i worked on some stuff, she played AOE and we talked about nothing terribly important for a while. From there we proceeded to the Lair where we met Llama. I won't say that made us more exciting necessarily, but it certainly made us more random. The three of us went out for dinner and discussed such deep questions as why ginger is unable to eat chicken nuggets while in our company (and if we could get a federal grant to research this), and how one would operate a usb toaster with passing references to our degree of normality.

On Saturday Sheri's choir had a rehearsal for their christmas program and then we came back here to game. It was great fun, though some of us are a little concerned that the pizza delivery guy may report us for conspiracy to commit arsony. Don't ask.

Sunday was the usual "stay in erwin day". This week, it was even more "stay in erwin day", since it was the 3rd of 4 possible trips to erwin within 4 days. We went to Wendy's for lunch and it was freezing because their heater had been broken for 3 days. I was amused to notice the marquee on their sign said "stay warm with a chili".

Sunday night was the Carol Sing at our church for which Sheri, Sam and I played Christmas Carols of the Rising Sun. We had quite a few compliments on it. Joel gave me a look that i interpreted to say "I really shouldn't admit that i enjoyed that, but i enjoyed that".

If you ask me, a great weekend.

~PS

Activity Spike

Thursday December 8, 2005 at 3:39pm oddities Comments (3) »

You ever have one of those days that's kinda slow and relaxed and there's nothing terribly pressing all day and you're taking things one at a time and then, out of the blue, suddenly everything wants your attention at the same time and your brain, which is horribly lathargic from the lack of stimulation, goes into conscious synaptic convulsions?

I have. I think i freaked poor ginger out when i started mumbling frazzled, exasperated comments through my cheese crackers while gesticulating wildly.

~PS

Tagged Again

Friday December 2, 2005 at 12:51pm memes, long freakin post Comments (22) »

Something's been going around. Kind of like a cold, i guess - only, instead of making you cough and sneeze, it makes you tell your whole life story in quintets. Only, I've found that there's too much that's left out in the in-between times, so i'm gonna include a few other little notes.

It seems that i got hit with this one because the EP was short of targets.

Here goes.

*cough*

10 Years Ago
I was a sophomore at Brown County High School in Nashville, IN. This was my first year in the public school system since the 2nd grade. I discovered public school was way easier than home schooling. I didn't have many friends at school, but I met a kid named Casey in my gym class who introduced me to Battletech. I mostly hung out with some friends from church and camp. I was living at home with my parents and two sisters and rooming with my brother, who tended to annoy me the way little brothers tend to annoy teenage kids. I was starting a band with Justin Booth (whom I met at camp) and Scott Cvelbar (whom I knew from church), mostly playing some old songs by the Beach Boys, Eric Clapton and Billy Joel. I started writing a couple of songs of my own.

Rob Rigsby from our church eventually joined our band which would be called Stained Glass. We played a few shows at the camp and a couple other places. I decided that I wanted to go to Milligan College mostly because i wanted to go to a christian college that was NOT a 'bible' college and that's the one my minister (john sichting, who is awesome) went to. I met my first girlfriend, Kelley Fox, at a crysalis flight my senior year in highschool. She taught me a lot about relationships in the clumsy learn-through-trial-and-error sort of way. I went to Milligan, where i met Kevin who taught me a good part of what i know about anything technological and introduced me to things like IM, Quake 2 and music made after 1983.

Five Years Ago
I was a junior at Milligan College, TN. I had changed my major from CIS (because i hated the CIS classes) to Psychology and started taking more psychology and sociology classes - which i enjoyed. My band from IN had just had what would be our last show to date the previous summer (which rocked). I was listening to Jets to Brazil, The Get Up Kids and the Juliana Theory. I was living with Nathan Henry in Webb Hall after Kevin moved to Quillan. I had started dating Sheri the previous year, and we spent a lot of time together. I was reintroduced to roleplaying in general and introduced to D&D by Rich Riddle (whom i miss gaming with a lot) and i proceeded to spread this evil (hehe) to several Milliganites.

I graduated from Milligan in 02 and moved back home for part of a summer before moving back to TN with Kevin in the Yellow Subroutine. Kevin was a 5th year senior and i was having a bad time looking for a job (or being motivated to do so). I was pretty depressed most of the time. Ginger and Amber had graduated with me and moved back to their respective home states. Sheri was also a 5th year senior at Milligan, and I spent a lot of time at her place in MSA. I finally got a job at the Dawn of Hope. Sheri graduated and moved back home to IN. Kevin graduated and moved to Tampa, FL the next fall. Both of these depatures made me sad. Thankfully, Ginger moved back here that summer and Tony was still around when Milligan was in session. Massive friend shuffling. Sheri moved back here the following January. This made me very happy. She began working at the Dawn of Hope and as a choir director at First Christian Church in Erwin, which we started attending. I proposed to her in February of 04 and we were married that July.

One Year Ago
Sheri and I had just been married for a few months (:-D), and we were still trying to figure out the best way to live with all our stuff in this tiny little apartment. I was working at the Dawn of Hope in Johnson City, but had recently been approached by Brian West about a Web Developer job. I was still running games for my gaming group every other week or so. I was still playing guitar quite a bit and was trying to start to write some new stuff, since i hadn't in a while. I was listening to Guster, Weakerthans and Alkaline Trio.

-End Life Story-

Five Yummy Things
-uber spaghetti
-sheri's chili (speaking of...)
-lemonheads and redhots (that is one thing)
-cream soda
-strawberry raspberry cinnamon jello applesauce

Five Songs I Know by Heart
-Bright Eyes - "Bowl of Oranges"
-Jets To Brazil - "Wish List"
-Our Lady Peace - "In Repair"
-Simon & Garfunkel - "The Boxer"
-Thrice - "The Melting Point of Wax"

Five Things I Would Do With A Lot Of Money
-buy all the stuff i need to record everything i've ever written. (i fully intend to do this when i can)
-buy a really nice set of condos, apts, houses, whatever and convince all my friends to come/go live there. (i think Kev had a dream about that once)
-help everyone i know who's having a bad time any way i can.
-help as many people as i can that i don't know that are having a bad time; most likely by finding some good charities. Ginger could probably help me out on that.
-Travel with Sheri. Take the EP as a guide and anyone else who wants to come.

Five Places I Would Escape To
-I'll go along with Narnia, during the reign of the Kings and Queens.
-Australia - or somewhere thereabouts.
-Antarctica - but only after they invent some uber keep-you-warm-no-matter-what clothes
-Machu Picchu - or any number of ancient civilizations
-the distant future

Five Things I Would Never Wear
-women's clothing (any)
-clothes that are uncomfortable
other than that, pretty much anything works. Now, if you were asking what i would wear in public or what i would buy, that's something different.

Five Favorite TV Shows
(I don't watch TV, so i'm going to have to stretch on this one)
-Stargate SG-1
-Any cartoons. (even spongebob, which i used to hate)
-Gilmore Girls (the sheer volume of dialogue cracks me up)
-Old sci-fi shows like Twilight Zone & Outer Limits
-Any of the plethora of redecorating shows

Five Favorite Films
-The Gamers
-The Princess Bride
-Lord of the Rings
-Harry Potter
-My Fair Lady

Five Favorite Toys
-Lain & Moro
-Guitar(s)
-Gaming stuff
-Game console(s) (outdated though they be)
-Digital Camera

Five People Who Get This Meme
Well, Ginger gave it to me. Kev got it from Heard like Ginger did. Llama doesn't have a blog. Punkie hasn't been on my site for a while and has probably done it 6 times already anyway - so i don't really have anyone to pass it to :(.

~PS

Do you know the times?

Thursday December 1, 2005 at 3:38pm oddities Comments (0) »

Ok. I've had some very strange happenings today. I think the concrete physical and the somewhat abstract technological information-flow spheres of existance are mingling a little too intimately for my taste - to the point that i'm getting confused as to what belongs in which.

Occurance Chi:
I recieved a letter today from my mom. It contained a print-out of an email. The email was about computers.

Occurance Psi:
About thirty minutes ago a received a spam on my cell phone.

Between the snemail, tele-spam and the fact that my yogurt this morning said on the label that it was custard style but was, in fact, regular yogurt, I am having the distinct feeling that something is unmistakably amiss in the world today. If a traveling insurance salesman comes to my door and asks me if i want to buy some Ethernet, i'm going into my room and i'm not coming out.

~PS

Turkey Weekend

Monday November 28, 2005 at 11:11am holidays, coffeehouse, shopping Comments (1) »

Well, as far as i can tell, the Bunguin is on the mend. I've been ok - seems i've managed to hold whatever it was off thus far.

Turkey day was good - even with just the three of us. Since Justin (Xerxes) was kinda on his own this year, he brought over some mashed potatos and came over and hung out with us. I think i may have addicted him to AOE2.

Sheri made a great turkey - especially since it was her first time doing it by herself. We had/have a lot of it left over too - i think she had turkey at least once every day last weekend. She also made some great cranberry sauce jello stuff.

Friday we did NOT go shopping. Well, not really anyway. Most of the day we just sort of hung out. We did go over to Turtles Nest Toys for a while - not to buy anything, but because Sam (Shasam - not that he's signed on in forever) was working there and he told us to come by and check out a game they had called Dread Pirate. It looks pretty cool. We also put up some christmas decorations - namely the little tree we have. It's cool. I like christmas lights.

The coffeehouse that night was pretty fun. I got to play some songs with Sam for his show and later he and his friend Ben and I messed around playing everything from Decemberists to Cream.

On saturday Sheri and I went christmas shopping. It actually wasn't nearly as crowded as i might have thought. I discovered the advantages of having a cell phone yet again by calling my mom a couple of times from various places to ask questions about what to get for a couple of my family members. We got most of the rest of our shopping done that day, though some of the quests i believe were epic.

I think my favorite part of saturday's exploits was the sheer number of penguins encountered. This time of year is always pretty good for that, but, either i'm getting better at seeing them, or there are more and more of them every year. The giant Playmobile pirate standing outside Bear & Friends was pretty cool too.

We stopped at Dice for a few minutes to check the price on something and talk to Charlotte for a bit (she's fun to talk to). We showed her the penguinification pictures on here. It was only fair, seeing as she was one of the ones who helped buy it for me.

Yesterday was sunday which means we stayed in Erwin all day. This amounted to church, pizza hut, a nap on the choir room floor and a game of ticket to ride before choir practice that evening. Sundays always seem long.

~PS

Medicate the Bunguin

Tuesday November 22, 2005 at 10:47am health Comments (2) »

As of sometime this last weekend, sheri and i have become somewhat sick - though sheri moreso than me. According to her doctor visit yesterday, she has some sort of viral resperatory thing that just needs to do its thing and get out. It is contagious, and i probably have it too - though, as yet, i haven't been nearly so affected as she has. Yearly allergy and sinus problems we tend to have are probably adding to this mish-mash. Lovely.

Sheri has all but lost her voice. It's really kinda funny to hear her talk. When she gets sick, her vocal range picks itself up and moves down a minor 3rd.

Anyway, doc said she could go back to work on thursday if she was feeling better. Hopefully this will be so and we will go ahead with our thanksgiving "plans" - which pretty much involve hanging out here with another friend stuck away from other friends and family this holiday, eating the usual turkey & stuff and most likely playing lan games.

As for me, i'm hoping my body does as good a job fighting it off as it has so far. The only consistent symptoms i've had can just as easily be attributed to allergies - allergies that seemed to kick off the year on saturday when i tried to play Paper Mario 2 at the Lair around ginger's cat for a couple of hours. That didn't work out so well.

(speaking of the furball, i need to go check on him this evening...)

~PS

Intervention! Intervention!

Friday November 18, 2005 at 1:17pm video games Comments (6) »

Well, it seems i/we have got sheri addicted to another video game. That in itself is not all that remarkable - i remember when she always used to want to play Paper Mario, the Secret of Mana and Yoshi's Island - but this, this is serious.

Considering what i had to go through to talk her into trying Age of Empires 2, I never would have thought she would have latched onto it like she has. She's gone to playing at least 1 game per day (often finishing one she had started the previous day, and then starting another) and frequently asks if i'll reboot into windows and play with her.

Now, i like the game quite a bit, and we play a bit with the EP as well. Also, I've often become entranced by video games myself (my current addiction is Mechwarrior 4 - which i am trying to talk someone into playing multiplayer with me), but there's something disconcerting about hearing her randomly say "mur-der holes. he he he" from across the room and that she tells me when she dreams, little red arrows appear where everyone is walking to and the surrounding landscape goes from dark to light as it comes within view. When asked about it, she says 'I can quit any time i want to'.

All this combined with this article I found through slashdot may be cause for concern.

;)

~PS

Do computers get PMS?

Saturday November 12, 2005 at 9:52am computers Comments (1) »

Ok, something seriously strange happened to lain last night.

I had come out to get some juice at about 4am this morning, because it sounded good. I had gone to bed rather early so i decided to see if anyone had posted here or sent me an im or something. (curiously, i was less tired at 4am than i was at 8:40 when i got up this morning)

Well, that's when it started. I went to turn on monitor 2 of 3, and it went 'Clack clack clack' as the power button flashed. I unplugged it. The green light on the front stayed on. This freaked me out, until i unplugged it from the machine itself and it went off. Each time i returned power to the monitor thereafter, it went 'tick tick tick' in a fashion much too remenicent of a time bomb to suit me. Diagnosis: monitor fall down go boom.

Curiously, in my place, losing a monitor isn't a big deal. Knowing there were two more in the closet, i went back to bed.

This morning, i got up and replaced the monitor. Apparently my monitors death caused my video card to freak out. I have decided that it just doesn't deal with loss well, and without another monitor to comfort it, it was a real mess. I logged out to restart X. More gibberish. I turned off the computer and turned it back on. I got a bios beep code. I didn't know exactly what it was for, but i guessed it had something to do with the video card. I tried restarting the machine again. Still beep code. I took off the side panel and jiggled the video card. No beep code.

No, this time it told my my secondary master IDE drive (my cd burner) was ATAPI incompatible. Bull. I restarted it, thinking it was fluke. Still incompatible. I learned a long time ago not to put the side panel back on a machine after 'fixing' something until the darn thing actually works again, and i was glad i had remembered that lesson now. (not that taking the thumb screws out is a big deal) I disconnected and reconnected the IDE cable from the motherboard. Restarted.

Everything is apparently fine now.

WTF?

~PS

Leaving the dark ages

Friday November 11, 2005 at 6:07pm technology Comments (1) »

Well folks, it was bound to happen. Due to some...stuff...at work, our little IT company is now short one staff member (3 - 1 = 2). It was a friendly parting, just a sort of a personality clash that ultimately made things too difficult.

That, however, is not what was 'bound to happen' (though, in retrospect, it was bound to happen).

When Brian left, i inherited his cell phone. Yes, you read right - i now i have a cell phone. Warren's exact words to me on the matter were "It's yours now - make it your own". Yeah, my boss is cool.

So now i have to learn stuff about how cell phones work. It only took me 15 minutes to figure out how to delete people i didn't know from the phone book. Yeah, i'm just that cool.

I also have to do things like remember i have one and turn it off at appropriate times so i'm not one of those annoying people.

Anyway, I have unlimited calling as long as i'm in the tri-cities area. The number is posted in the General Forum for those of you who are members of this site.

Add +1 to my tech score.

~PS

I'm it!?

Wednesday November 9, 2005 at 12:27pm memes, thinking too much Comments (10) »

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. I've been assimilated into a blog ring(ish) game. This is all Punkie's doing. Not that this is unexpected. I mean, she has 'punk' right there in her alias. ;)

So here's the game:

----------------------------------

The rules are:

Search your blog archive. Find your 23rd post. Find the fifth sentence (this is meant to say something about you). Post that sentence in your blog along with these instructions. Tag five people to do the same.

My 23rd post, 5th sentence:
"me: "no, i think you have the wrong number""

----------------------------------

That happens to be from This Blog post - which some of you may remember.

It could be my rebellious nature, or it could be that i'm just too lazy, or it could be that the whole thing reminds me too much of chain letters and spam, but i'm gonna have to break the rules on this game a bit by not 'tagging' anyone else.

I only have about 3 friends whose blogs i read anything like regularly (or who read my blog anything like regularly)(that is, until Llama gets one - though he would probably play along), and while Punkie didn't say "no tag-backs!", i believe it was implied. That leaves me with 2 others. Ginger has told me in so many words that she's not as amused by blog games as some, and i'm thinking Kevin's not the right sort of goofy for it. However, i will offer a shotgun attempt at compliance: if anyone reading this thinks it sounds like fun, consider yourself shot. er...'tagged' ('cept you, Punkie).

The cynical part of me tends to think that such blog games sort of violate the spirit of the blog. A blog, as it were, is generally a place for people to say things that they want to say, but really don't care who's listening. It's a sort of way of sharing thoughts, opinions and experiences with people who might actually care without having to have a captive audience including people who don't. As such, blog games seem to just be giving people something to yap about when they really don't have anything to say. (somewhat like supercalifragilisticexpialadocious)

A happier and somewhat more goofy part of me likes Mary Poppins and thinks that websites in general (including blogs) are, for most non-commercial users, in existance only for their enjoyment. As such, they're free to use them however they may choose and even sharing things that have absolutely no intelectual or philosophical merit can still promote community and fun between friends. Party on.

As usual, i think i've thought too much about this.

~PS

Return of the Blogger

Sunday November 6, 2005 at 11:41pm website, coffeehouse, gaming, music Comments (2) »

It may seem like i have been neglecting the site in general and my blog specifically. The first part is completely untrue, but sadly the second is mostly factual.

Over the last several weeks, i've been rebuilding my website from scratch, fixing some things i didn't like, and adding some features i'd always wanted to. After about a week and a half of labor, Penguinsushi.com version 4.0 is up and running. I'm really happy with this new site and how it works - though it may take a little getting used to for some.

Aside from the web development (for work and for fun), the last couple of weeks have had some coolness in them that i haven't got around to talking about until now.

As you've probably already seen, there are now pictures up from the costume party. Yeah. Dressing up as a giant penguin is great fun. I think i was the entertainment for the evening...at the very least, i had the goofiest costume.

We finally started the second d&d campaign with Eric & Cory last week. I thought it went pretty well. I'm still not sure how much Cory wants to play, but she didn't seem actively bored and seemed to at least enjoy goofing off with us.

Last week we had an open mic at the coffeehouse again. I left my tuner on the piano again. It was a lot of fun though. Sam & I played one of my songs together - mostly because he insisted i play it, and i insisted that i wasn't going to unless he played it with me. I also played a new song i had written called "I think you're reading too much into this." I was very happy with how it sounded, though it's a sort of intense song, and playing it about exhausted me. Anyone who says singing and playing guitar isn't physically exertive has never done it.

also, my parents came down to visit this last weekend. That was cool, i hadn't got to see them since july. It was a short visit, but it was nice.

~PS

technological purgatory

Tuesday October 25, 2005 at 1:49am computers Comments (2) »

so, every time i boot this machine into windows, it feels the need to punish me by ensuring that at least one major configuration issue mysteriously appears when i try to come back to the goodness of linux. It's kind of like it's saying 'fine, you wanna use that crappy os, you can stay there'. This time, none (count them: none) of my three monitors would initialize when X started. The primary display had a simple 'out of range: 19' error message (which made no sense to me) and the keyboard wouldn't let me at any of the other vt's.

on the upside, as bad as that sounds, it only took me 20 minutes to fix it - which has got to be some sort of record.

~PS

but blt's taste so darn good

Sunday October 16, 2005 at 9:51pm friends, gaming, funny, food Comments (5) »

well, we did it. not much too soon either. the mystery puzzle has been finished (save for the two missing pieces) and solved. heh. it was great fun. if you've never worked on a puzzle that you don't know what it looks like with at least 3 other people, i highly recommend it. Pictures of it are posted here.

saturday was a bit more chaotic. i really wanted to game, but sheri had a concert that night, and llama had to work during the day. plus eric and cory were out of town. so, no game. alas.

anyway, ginger and i met tony at dice. he was playing a very long game of killer bunnies. while we waited for him, we decided to walk down to quiznos to get some dinner. (she had been saying 'feed the penguin').

this is where i discovered something, for the second time: apparently bacon, lettuce and tomato are no longer an acceptable combination of sandwich items in and of themselves. Allow me to briefly flashback.

I have always been a fan of blt's. I have ordered them at lots of different sandwich places and, until recently, never had the slightest problem. A month or two ago, sheri and i went to subway in erwin. There, i had a conversation with the employee on duty:

me: "hi, i'd like a foot-long blt sub"
guy (a bit rude): "we don't have blt's, only bmt's."
me: "you mean to tell me you, in fact, have bacon, lettuce and tomato, but you can't put them all together on a sandwhich for me? I don't really care how you charge me for it, i just like blts."

...somewhat reluctantly, he relented and made me a rather mediocre blt. having never encountered this before, and fully aware that i was in a sort of back-woods TN town, i figured it was an isolated incident - which it was... ...until last night, when ginger and i went to quiznos.

that encounter went something like this:

me: "yeah, i'd like a regular blt sub"
guy: "well...we don't really have that on the menu..."
me: "well, how about this? make me a 'classic club' and hold the turkey, ham and cheddar."
guy: "uhm..."
me: "it's...pretty much the same thing, man"
guy: "oh, ok".

this guy was much nicer than the first guy, but, nevertheless, it seems that sandwich shops no longer acknowledge the existence of my sandwich of choice. LISTEN TO ME! CLAIMING IT DOESN'T EXIST WON'T MAKE THE BACON-LETTUCE-TOMATOY GOODNESS GO AWAY! LONG LIVE THE KING OF ALL SANDWICHES!!!

okimdone.

after that, we came back and played some carcassonne (all your base are belong to meee!!!) and ticket to ride.

today, we had the berea college chamber singers at church this morning - they're really good. Sam's sister Erin is one of the members. It should be noted that results the imfamous Rachel vs. Erin debates are as yet undeclared, but I decided i liked the name 'Erin' better, and, as a matter of fact, she told me she shared that opinion.

in other news, sheri and i just finished watching cinderella and the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. it was an odd combination, but hey... ...so are we?

so long, and thanks for all the fish

~PS

Lord of the Penguins

Monday October 10, 2005 at 12:57pm penguins, gaming, movies Comments (5) »

as mentioned in the forum already, i am now the (proud?) owner of a full-body penguin costume. :) This signifies a level of penguin-ness i previously would not have thought possible. Apparently there was a conspiracy involving several friends, acquaintances and game store owners to get me this thing.

i still want a cloak.

we didn't really have an open mic at the coffeehouse like we were supposed to friday night, but that's mostly because nobody else came to play anything. It was ok though, we ended up working a mystery puzzle for most of the evening. It is a very interesting thing to work on a puzzle with 4 other people when none of you know what the picture looks like.

saturday evening sheri, eric and i taught cory a little about d&d and roleplaying in general. I'm not sure how much she really wants to play, but apparently she's going to give it a try, which is cool. Teaching new people about the game is always an interesting experience. Still, you really can't get a feel for it by talking about it, you just gotta play it.

in other news, the wallace and gromit movie is out, and i need to see it. really.

~PS

victory at last

Thursday September 29, 2005 at 11:06am coding Comments (4) »

I STINKIN WIN YOU STUPID PIECE OF CRAP!!!!!

that is me. to my dear friend Internet Explorer. with reference to its intolerance for perfectly legal javascript syntax.

i think the current count for "time wasted trying to figure out or look up work arounds for stupid IE behaviors" is something like 27 days 4 hours and 46 minutes.

~PS

complex execution of a simple task

Friday September 23, 2005 at 11:37am geekdom Comments (1) »

see, anyone can watch tv, but for this, it takes a geek:

last night, ginger, sheri and i were watching Angelic Layer (anime) on our tv...as it was playing on a laptop (running windows)...from the cd drive in my desktop pc (running linux).

~PS

Arr, matey - ye not be marooned - ye be pinked

Tuesday September 20, 2005 at 12:38am we have your keys, pictures Comments (11) »

Project Pink Pirate was a complete success.

For those of you who don't know (due to internet silence on the subject), a few of us had some fun with ginger's apartment while she was out of town last week.

See, our friend ginger is [sarcasm]so fond of the color pink[/sarcasm]... ...and monday, the day she returned was 'national talk like a pirate' day - we decided to take our inspiration from these two facts. Sheri, Tony & I spent a lot of time, effort and a bit of money on what turned out to be the most fun we've had in a while.

First we replaced a bunch of her stuff with very, very pink equivalents. In addition, we placed pirate figures all over her living room (some adorned with pink scarves, etc) and hid plastic pirate gold all over her apartment. She also gained some new...er...'decorations' in the form of a poster and a spiderweb of pink thread criss-crossing her living room. I could describe it more thoroughly, but really, you just have to see it. The link above leads to the Pics page - an entire subsection devoted to this project.

Kevin also called from north carolina and left a message on her machine - it was a sound clip from aerosmith's 'pink'.

~PS

superblogiwebapostalolitypeacomment

Saturday September 17, 2005 at 11:03pm movies, coffeehouse, video games, website Comments (0) »

if 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' is something to say when you don't know what to say, what do you blog about when you don't know what to blog?

in case the previous bit didn't give it away, we happen to be watching 'mary poppins'. This movie amuses me for reasons i don't entirely understand. Maybe i have pleasant associations from my childhood...or maybe i like the layering of the fantastical with the ordinary...or maybe i'm just thinking more about it than anyone should think about a movie that won an award for 'best song' being something called 'chim chiminy'.

so anyway, today was a good day. we went to visit anselm earlier today - he misses ginger. we could hear him meowing from the bottom of the stairs outside her apartment. from there we went to dice & played quiddler with llama, eric and cory. llama won, but he didn't come anywhere close to his high score of something like 361 - though at one point he was pretty sure his hand was capable of summoning cthulu.

friday (since we had no game) we went to the coffeehouse to play some games and hang out. sue complimented me on the songs sam & played there last friday and asked if i'd play again when they had the next open mic. i said i would. now i need to see if i can get ahold of sam...

in other news, i've made it to the 5th world in (dude) yoshi's island and i've got an interesting colosseum session planned for the next one-shot i run...

i've also made quite a few changes to this site over the last couple of weeks - smoothing out the appearance and interface and just generally having fun with it.

~PS

NEVER BEFORE SEEN

Tuesday September 13, 2005 at 1:28pm imposters Comments (3) »

so i was talking to punkie this afternoon, and she gave me the link to her blog (see right). Thinking i would register on xanga pretty much for the halibut, i decided to sign up - only to find that my name was taken.

incredulous, i tried to remember if i had registered there a long time ago and forgotten (that has happened before), so i tried to login: invalid user/pass.

still incredulous, i decided to look up PenguinSushi - and indeed, i found this person to exist (here, her name is Winter, which is decidedly cool - pun definitely not intended). I know i didn't invent this name, but i guess i didn't figure anyone else was odd enough to latch on to it.

let me point out that i have registered this name all over and have never before encountered a situation in which it was already taken. Apparently i now have competition. heh.

~PS

we can't all be good bloggers

Tuesday September 6, 2005 at 11:51pm music, health, books Comments (0) »

i find that much of the time, i just don't have anything important to say - not that if i DID have something important to say this would be an ideal place for it...

for the last few weeks or so, i've had the intense urge to write a new song, but everytime i sit down to work on one, i can't come up with anything. This is a relatively rare instance of motivation outweighing inspiration - usually the opposite is more true.

i've also been kinda sick for the last few days. I'm taking a medicine that says i should 'avoid excessive or prolonged exposure to direct sunlight or artificial (?) sunlight'. I'm worried that it's trying to make me into a vampire or something. I wonder if that's a side effect of the medication too...

since i've been sick i've finally finished reading 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' - a very ironic book read very ironically since i only seem to find the time to read completely enjoyable books when in situations in which i cannot completely enjoy them. Douglas Adams would be proud.

~PS

i'm not lazy, i'm motivationally challenged

Friday August 19, 2005 at 10:03am Comments (1) »

i've been lazy for the past couple of weeks or so with respect to the Blog. It seems my life isn't as interesting as one might imagine - and i'm pretty sure 'one' doesn't imagine it's very interesting in the first place.

in the last couple of weeks i (in no particular order):

1) did some work. my boss appreciates that.
2) played some guitar, wrote at least one song, figured out how to play a few others. Sam & i are trying to figure out some stuff to play for the open mic @ the coffeehouse in a few weeks.
3) ran some d&d games. didn't kill the party.
4) got a new tv (and stand) - our old tv got to the point that the brightness was so weak you could only see it with all the lights off.
5) listened to quite a bit of new music.
6) played some zelda.
7) went to the church picnic where i played ultimate frisbee & got to go swimming.
8) managed not to kill myself while hanging large paper globe lanterns from the 12ft ceiling of the aforementioned coffeehouse.

~PS

some downtime, some pictures, some songs, some fun

Thursday August 4, 2005 at 12:40pm pictures, music Comments (3) »

well, since the return from our great expidition out west (where west == "arkansas"), not much has happened here 'cept the usual. For anyone who hasn't seen them, i posted some pictures of the trip here - there's even one of the freezer full of penguins i found when i got back.

i've written and posted a few new songs lately, which makes me feel a bit better about my muscianhood...until recently i hadn't really written much in the last year or so. i've been telling sheri i want to get an electronic drum kit...as well as some other recording equipment so i can start recording my stuff - which has been a dream of mine for about the last 7 years or so. someday i'll pull this off.

sheri has officially switched shifts and now works 7-3...which means she's around in the evenings...which is nice. It's much less disturbingly quiet here now.

~PS

the last week

Friday July 22, 2005 at 11:14am gaming, travel Comments (1) »

the last week has been, for the most part, uneventful. we've been enjoying the new games we got last weekend and are planning on taking them with us. We had a good rp session on monday. No one got turned to stone by the basilisk. that was good. Steve finally was able to start his epic game this week. That was fun. Epic druidy goodness. There was some other stuff this week that was rather amusing, but i've forgotten most of it. I do remember something about me inventing a metric time system where the base unit is called a 'faffle'.

So anyway... ...i'll be gone for about a week as sheri and i are taking a trip out to see her family in flippin' arkansas. (Yes, the name of the town is actually Flippin.) Be good while i'm gone.

~PS

a night of relative insanity

Saturday July 16, 2005 at 10:39am books, geekdom, funny, long freakin post Comments (0) »

Well, last night was certainly...interesting

Here was the evening, as it happened:

Being that it was an off-week for gaming, sheri and i had no real plans for yesterday evening. It also just so happened that this morning at midnight was when Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince was supposed to be released and sheri had reserved a copy at Barnes & Noble a few months earlier. In light of these two coincidental facts, we decided to do pretty much everything we could.

First, we went to walmart because sheri needed to get a perscription before the pharmacy closed. we were in there for a while getting a few other things she wanted, but we tried to hurry. walmart is not all that much fun. I did notice that walmart has started carrying mp3 players like ipods and creative zen's. I have decided this is cool. I want one.

Anyway, by the time we were finished there and got to the entrance we noticed something we had failed to account for: it was raining. hard. i don't mean this sprinkling stuff it tends to do in TN, i mean it was raining. We decided to make a dash for it rather than waiting around for it to stop like the 73 other people standing there. Being that we were parked in tim-buck-seven, we were COMPLETELY drenched by the time we got to the car. There was about an inch of standing water in the sloped parking lot. Once in the car, sheri was trying very hard to be mad at the fact that her shoes were now soaking wet, but couldn't managed to look at me (and the water dripping from my forehead and down my nose) without laughing. I, personally, thought the whole thing was hilarious.

From there we drove over to Dice, our favorite game store. Dice has been having a sale in july with everything (except some ultra-new stuff) being 25% off. We had decided that it had been a while since we'd got a game and, since our anniversary is coming up (hard to believe), we thought it would be ok to use that as an excuse to spend some money on some games. As everyone knows, the First Anniversary is the Board Game Anniversary. We ended up getting the next expansion for Carcassonne and also decided to get another game we had actually played there before: Ticket to Ride (Europe). We also talked to Charlotte (one of the store managers) for a little while...she recognizes us as 'regulars'.

From there, we went to get haircuts. This had the combined advantages of making our very wet and now unruly hair look nicer before going out to eat, and actually getting our hair cut, as we both needed it at least a little. We were the absolute last people there and, as they cut our hair, both of the ladies were remarking to us and to each other about how long and arduous the day had been and how hungry they were. At one point, the lady cutting my hair actually apologized, and told me she had to stop for a second to go get a cracker because she was starving - which she did. This struck me as hilarious.

Once our hair was reasonably shortened and we wished the ladies good luck recovering from their day, we proceeded to Cracker Barrel. We specifically chose to go to Cracker Barrel because we had some gift certificates for it. We had a nice dinner that didn't cost us anything...and, when we were done, there was 11 cents left on the gift card.

We made our way from there, at last, to Barnes & Noble and the release party. Given how horribly small the b&n parking lot is, and how crowded it is EVERY friday, i was only marginally surprised when there was absolutely NO PLACE to park anywhere in that plaza. We ended up parking at another little plaza that was across the street and a bridge from the destination. It was a nice evening though. We actually met, by coincidence, another woman heading to the same place but coming from a slighly different direction. As we all cut through the grass on a median and proceeded through the parking lot, a small white car pulled into an empty parking place right in front of us. "Figures" said the the woman in a somewhat amused yet slightly exasperated voice. We had a brief chat about how it was a nice evening and how there was NO EARTHLY WAY that that parking space would have been there if either of us had been driving by.

The book store was, as was expected, completely packed to the gills (i didn't exactly know book stores had gills - nor a reason to breath underwater, but it's just an expression anyway). It was kind of amusing/annoying in that there were so many fans of the books (on a level that seems obsessive) in such a relatively small place. I.e., people in costumes, carrying wands, talking about 'muggles', etc. There were some games that were going on for the young kids - things about being sorted or catching Sirius Black or some such. Most of the people i saw there, however, were adults or kids at least high school age. I took up my standard place in the d&d aisle and started leafing through a book or two that i haven't wanted to spend the money to buy. I was amused to hear at least 3 people comment, as they walked by, about how 'dorky' things like LOTR, D&D and/or fantasy and science fiction in general were - as they were dressed in full costume. It totally blows my mind how someone could like Harry Potter that much, and yet so strongly dislike things that, in my mind (as i like all of them), are so similar. This further confirms my belief that a good deal of HP is fad based, and a good deal of the dislike for d&d, science fiction and fantasy is based on the similar idea of what is 'cool' or 'uncool'. That, and the fact that i think everyone i heard say that was junior high or high school aged.

While we were there we saw someone we knew from church (she was in line as number #176 - we were #226) and justin (who was #349).

I started reading the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy while i waited for it to be midnight, and then for the first 225 people to go through. Surprisingly, it only took about 40 minutes for us to get checked out.

Having accomplished everything we set out to do, we headed home with our new stuff and some interesting memories.

~PS

freaked out and not feeling observant

Thursday July 14, 2005 at 10:53pm Comments (0) »

so, in the last hour i've nearly had a nervous breakdown.

i was feeling tired this evening - and more than a little bored - so i laid down...and, after a while, fell asleep.

i was awakened around 7pm by a call from my friend steve. he wanted to know if i was up for a game. he told me to grab my book, dice & a character sheet and head over. it sounded like fun, so i did.

i met ginger, we rode over. josh came. samara was playing. we had a good little group. we made some characters as steve described the world.

we were just about to actually start when i noticed something: i didn't have my wedding ring on. I looked down at the table where my dice were. nothing. this led to a rather massive cooperative search - with the help of my very understanding friends. we looked everywhere for it - almost to the point of partially dismantling steve's couch (thinking that it may have fallen down into it).

by this point, i was very, very freaked out. it was suggested (i don't remember by whom) that i go home and look. this sounded like a good idea, so i got (most of) my stuff together and left.

the whole way home i was mentally going from 'yeah, it's probably there' to 'no, it can't possibly be there' to '@#$@#$#@!!!!!' and back again.

after the LONGEST DRIVE I HAVE EVER DONE i arrived at my apartment. frantically, i darted to my desk. nothing. i looked in the drawer o' everything, pretty much dumping its massively disorganized contents on the floor. not there. In one final, desperate attempt, i went into the bedroom - where i found it. It was sitting, quite obviously, on the bed next to my pillow. Apparently, it had come off in my sleep and i had managed not to notice for about 2.5 hours.

words cannot describe the profound sense of relief i am experiencing right now.

i'll probably be very paranoid about it for the next week or so as well...

~PS

back

Monday July 11, 2005 at 8:27am travel Comments (0) »

well, our trip up to IN / OH went pretty well. it was nice to see some family again...most of whom we haven't seen since christmas.

not much to blog on, but here are some thoughts from the weekend:

1. when in doubt, bring the laptop

2. Noble Roman's is awesome

3. whenever there are many family members together, someone will make everybody do something cheesy

4. driving for too long in one direction will cause you to bake unevenly

5. dude, yoshi's island

~PS

some thoughts on writer's block, long trips, games and spiders of mass destruction

Wednesday July 6, 2005 at 12:06pm psychology, travel Comments (0) »

well, well

seems trying to find something to write about is somewhat difficult after the fact. I mean, there are lots of things that i'm like 'hey! i should totally write some blog about that!', but then i either forget them or i'm too lazy or later i'm like 'hey, that's not all that good...'

so anyway

about the most out-of-the-ordinary thing that's happened lately is that i killed a monstrous black widow spider just outside our apartment. (i hope that stays out-of-the-ordinary) It's true i strongly dislike spiders, but it always makes me feel a little...funny...to hurt something just to prevent it from having the opportunity to hurt me. It reminds me a little of Ender Wiggin... ...or maybe US foreign policy...

one of the gaming groups was supposed to start an epic-level game tonight, but it's being delayed due to some people not being ready yet...which sucks...but...what can you do. if you're me, not much.

sheri and i (she'd be so proud of me using 'proper' english there) are going to be going to IN / OH for the weekend to see family. that should be cool... ...and then, a couple weeks later we're gonna turn right around (or rather, turn to the west) and go to arkansas to see sheri's family. too much driving in july.

~PS

nothing to report

Thursday June 30, 2005 at 9:30am Comments (0) »

it's been a while since there's been a blog post in here...but that's mostly because 1) i haven't done much worth reporting, and 2) i've been busying doing not much worth reporting.

the last couple of weeks have been something like this:

1) work
2) run a game (see gaming section)
3) work on a game
4) work on an epic character for steve's game
5) spend time with sheri

as you can see, except for when sheri's home (and occassionally then), i've been rather immersed in gaming for the last little bit. not that i have a problem with this, but, well, there's not much that's interesting to say about that - hence, no blog.

in other news, sheri & i are planning on going up to IN and OH next weekend (thurs-sun) to see some family and for my grandparents' 60th anniversary. this should be a fun trip.

~PS

the answer

Sunday June 19, 2005 at 1:32pm funny, holidays Comments (2) »

i have found it. the answer i've been wondering about for so long.

my friends, it is one thing to listen to christmas music.

it is another thing to listen to bad christmas music.

it is another thing to listen to cheesy bad christmas music.

it is another thing to listen to cheesy bad christmas music with "drama".

it is another thing to listen to cheesy bad christmas music with drama IN JUNE!!!

that's when i realized it: the answer. the sole reason sheri wanted to become i choir director is, i'm convinced, so that she could listen to christmas music all year and have at least a nominal excuse.

~PS

brain hurt

Thursday June 16, 2005 at 5:02pm just a thought Comments (0) »

have you ever worked on something for hours, constantly running into dead ends and consistently and alternately failing to understand either 1) how what you're trying to do is even possible, or 2) why what you ARE doing isn't working, only to discover that the answer to both questions results in the easiest possible solution that you didn't try before only because you were missing one small yet vital piece of information that would have made your afternoon much more enjoyable?

i have.

~PS

aghast

Monday June 13, 2005 at 12:15pm random encounters, funny, rolling eyes Comments (2) »

ok, i have just lost SO much faith in the collective intelligence of mankind.

I have just recieved a phone call. It went something like this:

me (answers phone): "hello?"
woman: "hello...uhm, is this the mobile home park?"
me: "no, i think you have the wrong number"
woman: "well, is this 929-9105?"
me: "ah, no, this is 926-9105, you accidentally dialed the wrong number."
woman: "well, in the book here, it says 929-9105 is the mobile home park."
me: "yeah, this is 926-9105. you want 929-9105."
woman: "so it's wrong in the book then..."
me: "no, THIS number is 926-9105. you WANT the one in the book, 929-9105."
woman: "well, do you have a number for the mobile home park then?"
me: "you know what? why don't you try the number in the book again..."
woman: "well...ok..."

...

?

~PS

tasty tasty carcassonne

Saturday June 4, 2005 at 6:33pm food, gaming Comments (5) »

so last night, sheri was really wanting to try something different for dinner. after digging though a couple of cook books and making a grocery list, we went to Dice. wait. that probably doesn't make any sense. allow me to digress:

as of about a week ago, sheri and i have been thinking we should get Carcassone, but we, as of friday, hadn't yet gone to get it - mostly because sheri's all responsible and stuff and said we should get tires for her car first (which she got yesterday)... ...even though llama pointed out that we couldn't all play with her new tires. (this did lead to a short tangent that involved rolling tires and bowling balls down milligan highway, but that's not important now)
ANYWAY: having no real plans for friday night, and thinking it sounded like fun, we decided to finally go buy the game.

After getting our new game, we went to the grocery and discovered cool little gummy penguins called peng-yums and spent way too much time looking for minced garlic. After that, we came back and made chicken kiev with cheese....more or less.
We actually discovered we needed chicken breast halves and...well...have you ever tried to slice a chicken breast in half laterally? ...After that adventure, we decided we were only going to make 2 instead of the 4 the recipe called for...even though we had already done everything else for 4. Next, we discovered we had little flour bugs in our flour...so we had to make due with what little flour we had in a jar. We also realized that, according to a part of the recipe we obviously did not closely examine, it was supposed to chill for 1-24 hours before you bake it - but, being that it was 9:30pm and sheri was starving, we pretty much nixed that and stuck it in the freezer for about 10 minutes.
Amazingly, it turned out pretty good...we figure if we actually make it right next time, it could be pretty awesome.

~PS

Ninja Munchkin Ticket to Carcassonne

Tuesday May 31, 2005 at 11:55am gaming Comments (2) »

It was a good weekend. The game friday night went pretty well, even though we only had 4 party members of a possible 7 or so.

saturday evening we went to dice to play pirate's cove - though we didn't actually play that game. by the time we all got there, two games were already going and we weren't going to have time to start a new one... ...so we played carcassonne instead - which, unlike the 'city' version of the game, is not so complicated that it causes the players to lose the will to live (as william put it). It's a pretty fun game... ...one i'll have to get eventually. I didn't end up winning, but i had the strangest city on the board.

on sunday i got an idea for a new game of my own. i told gigner and llama that the idea has some aspects of most of the games we've played recently and this prompted them to think up the running development title for this game - which is also the title of this post.

until next time...

~PS

better...?

Sunday May 22, 2005 at 11:25pm health, video games, gaming Comments (2) »

well, i think i'm getting over this thing. we're still debating on whether i should go to the doctor, but i've been feeling progressively better the last few days...and it hasn't been a week yet...so...

ginger went and got me started on Baldur's Gate II - which is destined to waste a good bit of my time for a while... ...or, at least, give me something to do in the evenings...

the weekend was pretty slow - with me being sick and all - but it was relaxing which is what was needed. we did get to go to Dice to play 'Ticket to Ride' last night - that's a fun little board game.

~PS

failed a fort save

Saturday May 21, 2005 at 5:47am health Comments (0) »

i think for the first time ever, i called off a game this week because i was sick. ordinarily i probably wouldn't have cared - especially because we play here - but i wouldn't want to give whatever this is to anyone else.

for reasons i'm not entirely sure of, i am finding myself conscious and online before 6am on a saturday, and i don't particularly want to go back to bed...(though i probably will)... ...though the fact that i slept a good deal of yesterday might have something to do with it.

~PS

jeepish

Tuesday May 17, 2005 at 3:48pm just a thought Comments (0) »

driving a jeep feels so good after being stuck in a taurus for a few months. Not that i have anything against sheri's car per se, but it's much more comfortable for her 4'1l"-ness.

~PS

ethics? what are those?

Friday May 13, 2005 at 11:06am assertion Comments (0) »

it's irritating when people get upset because you won't help them to lie. if they want to lie to people so they can cheat them out of their money, that's one thing - they just better not expect me to help them (or give them the ability, as the case may be) to do it.

grr.

~PS

A Good Weekend

Tuesday May 10, 2005 at 7:08pm family, food, auto repair Comments (0) »

well, my parents have left...and this is sad. we had a lot of fun though....

they came in on saturday afternoon and stayed till this evening. We took apart the jeep, watched some movies, hiked to Laurel Falls, and put the jeep back together again - in that order. We also got to go to Cootie Browns and the Crazy Tomato.

My jeep is all fixed up now - for the first time in a few months. Aside from being banged up a little from the accident i had a few months ago, it had the worst radiator problem my dad has ever seen - and, since my dad has seen pretty much everything to do with cars, that's saying something. Anyway, I can actually go places now! yay! (not that i...uh...have any place to go...)

~PS

say hello to Lain

Wednesday May 4, 2005 at 7:15pm computers Comments (0) »

woo-hoo! Lain, my new computer, is finally up, running and fully-functional. Only took me about 5 days. sheesh. oh well, it works beautifully now.

i have, sadly, been neglecting this site since poor penpen died. I think it was a period of mourning - to abstain from my usual penguin-posting in order to reflect on the life of an old friend.

we had a pretty good game last week, though i think i put poor william to sleep at least twice.

in other news, i think my parents are coming to visit this weekend! i'm looking forward to this. haven't seen them for a good while.

other things are pretty much the same.

~PS

blogging along

Monday April 25, 2005 at 11:21am coffeehouse, weather, gaming, music Comments (0) »

well, aside from the death of penpen, not much is new. (new computer parts on the way! woo-hoo!)

the coffeehouse on friday was pretty cool, though not many people showed up.

saturday was spent doing laundry and wandering around walmart & lowes looking for shelves. (not my idea, believe me)

sunday it freakin' SNOWED. what was who thinking? ...though, at the moment, the weather does seem to be back somewhere close to normal for this time of year....

sheri, ginger, tony & i played some ninja burger last night. that was fun. i'm not going to be surprised if 'i should have recognized your stylish ninja pacifier' shows up on the site somewhere... ...er, somewhere else...

looking forward to some gaming this weekend...

songs i've learned to play this week:
simon & garfunkel - "america"
cream - "white room"

~PS

PenPen R.I.P. (1999-2005)

Thursday April 21, 2005 at 9:22pm computers Comments (1) »

well. shortly after 2:30 this afternoon, PenPen, my faithful computer, called it quits. it seems his motherboard failed him. We can only hope his passing was painless and that he will rest in peace.

i'm currently conspiring on how i might acquire a new machine, since i kinda need it for work... ...and for my sanity. until then, i'm stuck with chii - which is ok, but somewhat less than ideal.

~PS

Blog Post R.I.P.

Thursday April 21, 2005 at 12:46pm Comments (0) »

so...while making some upgrades to this site and testing some things... ...i might have accidentally deleted my last blog post. not that it said anything important, mind you, but i didn't actually mean to kill it. alas.

~PS

Recency

Tuesday April 12, 2005 at 11:25pm coffeehouse, gaming, music Comments (1) »

so things have been pretty cool recently.

we went to the coffeehouse @ watauga on friday and got to see some slides about a trip around south america. there were penguins! this made me happy inside.

on saturday we got to have a little lan party, which was lots of fun... ...and ginger cooked some thai for us too. (thanks ginger :))

the weather has also been really nice lately (until today, anyway) and we've had a couple few picnics over by the creek at milligan - this is a nice thing about living across the street.

we also got a bocce set, which we've been enjoying.

i've also been working on version 2.0 of this website, but this comes as no surprise since tony has already pointed out its inevitability.

other than that, it's been pretty much the same stuff.

songs i've learned to play this week:
caedmon's call "i just don't want coffee"
eli "the lumber song"
pink floyd "wish you were here"

songs i wrote this week:
"two questions"

~PS

god == demeter?

Sunday April 10, 2005 at 1:13pm theology Comments (2) »

this morning on the way to church, i saw the following written on a church billboard:

"the birds are back
the grass is green
God did it again!"

Aside from the blatant cheesiness of this 'message', there was something else about it that struck me as somewhat...odd. As i drove a couple more miles, i began to realize exactly what that was.

The first thing that came to mind was the literal implications of that sign. The idea that 'god did it again' implies that god takes an active role in the natural world, i.e. "look, god's making it rain" or even "god makes the sun rise". these thoughts imply that, if he did NOT actively do these things each time they happened, they simply wouldn't. This gives birth to the idea that, since all natural events are 'performed' by god, all natural disasters are likewise caused by him. Since god is just, the further implication is that he must cause all natural disasters as some sort of punishment or trial for the people affected.

The other thing that struck me was that, the active role of divine agencies in the natural world is a somewhat pre-modern idea and is rarely found in modern or post-modern religions. It IS, however, very common in the ancient religious mythologies - ala, Re (Horus) sailing the sun ship across the sky or Persephone's return to the upper world each year heralding the coming of spring.

so, theologically, isn't this a few steps backward?

~PS

ow, my brain

Thursday April 7, 2005 at 11:46pm computers, work, oddities Comments (0) »

well, penpen's mostly back up in running. as i type, i'm just waiting for the last of my mp3's to be copied back over to this machine. looks like the rebuild operation was a success.

in other news, i spent the better part of the day with Brian West (one of my coworkers)(he's colorblind - can you tell? ;)) going through a bunch of computer-generated php in an effort to salvage it for a migration. this, combined with the fact that i didn't eat anything till about 5pm, gave me a pretty major headache.

on an unrelated note, i've heard that Pink Floyd's 'The Dark Side of the Moon' follows the beginning of the Wizard of Oz in some sort of uncanny fashion. thus far i've noticed no such correlation between 'Comfortably Numb' and Return of the Jedi.

~PS

Another day in the life of a Geek

Wednesday April 6, 2005 at 9:34pm Comments (0) »

well, it's been a day. Though it's been quite beautiful outside, i've spent the better part of it inside behind 4 computer monitors. Today's todo items weren't too time consuming, but i've also been doing a software rebuild on penpen, my primary computer. This is one of those times i'm glad i have my own little lan here - makes backing up stuff a lot easier. (fyi - it takes about 2 1/2 hours to back up about 7.5 gb of mp3's over a 10Mbit lan)

this evening warren came over to borrow my old 3.0 dmg. yes, this is the warren i work for. i keep telling him he should come game with us... ...as long as i don't get fired for killing his character.

while waiting for penpen to install & compile, i've also been playing a little guitar...working on a new song, though i haven't actually finished one for... ...a long time.

~PS

DST

Sunday April 3, 2005 at 12:27pm time Comments (1) »

While based on a what seems to be a good, energy saving idea, daylight savings time is confusing and evil to those of us who come from strange non-dst states like...oh...say...indiana. Even having lived in TN for the better part of 7 years, this biannual tradition of clock-switching is a less than natural and, i might add, easily forgotten task.

Sheri was telling me earlier this weekend (having been to the bank) how much benjamin franklin was her friend. This declaration, however, was completely recanted as his monstrous DST creation caused us to miss church this morning. She is now strongly favoring andrew jackson.

i have asked god for his opinions on dst, but i'm still waiting to hear back from him...

~PS

April Fools?

Friday April 1, 2005 at 1:26pm comics Comments (1) »

1 April 2005 - Pearls Before Swine and Get Fuzzy are the SAME COMIC. This results in the birth of a theory that Darby Conley and Stephan Pastis are the same person.

~PS

Penguins everywhere, Unite!

Saturday March 19, 2005 at 3:21pm penguins Comments (1) »

More randomness.

As of yesterday, I have discovered that small objects fashioned in the image of penguins are drawing themselves to me. As I opened my bathroom cabinet to get my hairbrush yesterday, I noticed a small koosh-ball-like penguin staring back at me from its place next to my deoderant. I paused for a minute before realizing i had never seen this penguin before. Later that evening, as some of us were gaming, there was a knock on my door. This struck me as odd because everyone who would be knocking on my door at 11pm on a friday was already there. After getting no answer to tony's 'who is it?', we opened the door to find a small altoids box. Inside it there was a butane lighter made in the shape of a penguin! Penguins and fire in one package! How can you go wrong with that!?

Special thanks to Tony ("Llama") Stanton and Wendy Alexander for furthering my penguin collection. :)

~PS

An excerpt from my day:

Tuesday March 15, 2005 at 6:25pm just a thought Comments (0) »

"when i tell you to be a primary key, for the love of pete, STAY a primary key. don't be a primary key for a week, decide you don't like it, and go back to being a regular field. that's just not good juju."

~PS

Auto-Irritation

Tuesday March 8, 2005 at 9:36am auto repair Comments (0) »

It could be that the title of this post means that i automatically get irritated in certain situations. It could also be that those situations are the ones that involve automobiles.

I seem to be having some bad luck with respect motor vehicles lately. A couple weeks ago I got into a bit of a fender-bender when everyone on the interstate decided to slam on their brakes (most likely because the people at the bottom of the upcoming exit lacked knowledge of the concept of 'merging' - a deficiency that seems to be particularly common in TN) and now, as of last night, someone scraped up the side of my jeep in our apartment's parking lot and didn't bother to leave any sort of note or anything. (this makes the second such incident that i know of in our parking lot) This bent my right mirror out of position and left white paint scrapes on my wheel-wells. It looks like whoever it was just scraped the entire side of the jeep. I can only assume they didn't care because it would take a special kind of stupid to scrape that much and not notice. Grr.

Oh well...

~PS

Nothing

Thursday February 24, 2005 at 11:13pm reflection, gaming, family Comments (0) »

has this been a mostly bad week, with some good places or a mostly good week with some bad places?

haven't really done much lately - that is, i haven't worked much on the games (i've only got a little of Europe done for Earth) and i haven't written any songs in quite a while. I've mostly just gone to work and come home (which is bad, because i find that toward the end of the day i start to think in php). At present, i'm waiting to see if flightless birds of questionable alignment and quadrapedic beasts of burden bring me yummy tacos...

anyway, sheri's mom was visiting since last thursday (for anyone who may wonder, this was one of the good things). basically what this is means is that i got to lose a bunch of card games this week. i did get to win half a game of scrabble though.

tomorrow is friday, this is always good. don't know what i'll be up to this weekend, but, even though it probably won't be anything worth talking about, there's a good chance you'll hear about it anyway. really, though...it's your own fault.

~PS

The First

Thursday February 17, 2005 at 4:37pm Comments (0) »

Well, I finally got around to posting in here. Mostly because its pretty much the end of the work day and I can't think of anything else to work on at the moment...and my brain is enjoying the break. So, as I was kickin' back listening to some Filter (through the speakers the boss just bought for the office), I thought I'd post something in here.

I'm not sure what preconceptions people have about blogs or bloggers in general, but i reserve the right not to live up to any of them. I also reserve the right to post plenty of stuff that has no real significance in the scheme of things. Further, I reserve the right to blame anything you may read in here that you don't agree with on hackers, terrorists, overcooked spaghetti, 80's hair bands and weapons of mass destruction.

That said, let the blogging begin...

~PS