Something Wicked This Way Comes

A funny thing happened on the way to our most recent session of Hunter X Hunter...

First, about a week or so ago, Marcus, who is a part-time actor, let us know he hadn't been able to make it to the game regularly because he got a part in an indie film and would be shooting for the next few weekends.

Next, a few days before Game Day (almost always Saturdays), Lee (one of the players) stopped by Ray's job (Ray is our GM and works at our FLGS) to tell him his work schedule had been changed. Lee, for the foreseeable future, will not be able to attend our games.

Lastly, the night before Game Day, Dave sent me a text saying he had been called into work at the last minute and wouldn't be able to make it for the game either.

So that left just Ray and me.

We had a great time just hanging out and talking, something Ray and I rarely get to do because of our schedules. If we aren't gaming or I am not stopping by the store (which I don't get to do very often anymore as I am working uptown during the hours this midtown store is open), it's pretty much impossible for us to get together.

We didn't play anything, but instead we ended up talking about a lot of things including, of course, gaming.

That's when Ray gave me the big reveal...

He didn't really know where to go with or what to do with his campaign. Not because he didn't have any ideas per se but rather because he felt (and still feels) it is unfinished, a work in progress. What he had created so far was a homebrew no where near the fermentation and bottling stage.

Ray suggested that the next session of Hunter X Hunter be the last...of Part 1. We (our gaming group) will then skip a week (since the following weekend is New York Comic Con anyway) and the following Saturday I will start a new campaign to run for a while. Twist my arm why don'tcha!

This 'season off' hiatus will enable Ray to put more work into his game and then he will come back to run it at a later date. I am totally down with this and he feels it's the best way to go. We're all good.

Alas, we are left with that age old question...what should I run?

I know I said my next game would most assuredly be Star Trek but I do not feel that is the right game at the right time at this juncture. Our group seems to be in flux once more and I want something simple and flexible that will appeal to everyone while still appealing to me and giving this particular group a taste of something they may not have played before.

I've narrowed it down to Traveller and Ars Magica.

Traveller because we've had numerous one-shots, half-arsed attempts and false starts but we have yet to actually run a full on campaign. I think we are overdue.

Ars Magica is a possibility because the lot of us share that, "I wish Medieval Fantasy gaming didn't have to be just D&D". Of course the actual interest in the genre ranges from Marcus' "No Doubt! I love Fantasy!" to my, "I would rather gargle live hand grenades then play that." That said, there is one type of Medieval Fantasy I do like, Folkloric Fantasy. I love mythology, folk tales and fairy tales and Ars Magica is all that and a side order of history.

Stay with me and I'll keep you posted.

Oh and one more thing...

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Barking Alien

Freaky, awesome illustration by Keith Thompson.

Hunter X Hunter RPG - On A Roll

Before I begin with the regularly scheduled post, I just wanted to say a few words about a few subjects. Trust me, this won't take long at all...

Happy Birthday to Mark Hamill and the late Christopher Reeve, two gentlemen who each played one of my favorite heroes.

This last month or two (OK three) has been very tough financially. Business was especially weak this summer season. As a result, I may sell off some old game stuff I don't need (even though I'd really rather not). If I do, you'll be the first to know.

There is a new flavor of Oreo Cookie called Cookies N' Cream. Although they are available at my local supermarket, the only proof I could find on the internet was a package of the product on ebay. Ebay? What...The Hell? What an odd choice for a variation on the classic too. A Cookies N' Cream Oreo is a bit like tiny bits of lettuce between two pieces of lettuce, no?

Once more, not as many comments as I would like or as I would have expected on some of the subjects I posted about. Specifically, I am surprised by the low turn out on the last post about ideas for Marvel Heroic. No love for Marvel Heroic? No love for my ideas? Are you secretly a clone of Spiderman currently working for SHIELD and are afraid commenting on my blog is a conflict of interest. Well fine. You, that last guy, you're off the hook (I don't want you getting in trouble over it) but the rest of you have no excuse.

OK, down to business...

***

We had our second session of Hunter X Hunter this past Saturday with Amari (Dave), the Barber (Lee*) and Smiley McGee (aka Stan - played by me), joining hundreds of other Hunter wannabes in the attempt to overcome the first of many challenges on the way to getting our Hunter licenses. If we pass that is...and of course survive.

The opening challenge was a Ninja Warrior style obstacle course, modified by the GM (Ray) into D&D-like death traps. There were 10 traps in all. Most could be taken singularly, with a partner or as a team but some required you to go 'single file' with no assistance from anyone else.

We managed to get past them all with only one or two scary moments where a poor die roll seemed to hold the power of life and death over our characters' heads. I hate that.

There was a lot of die rolling this session. A. LOT. Now I must give Ray some props because it was never boring and didn't ever deteriorate to the point where I felt like having someone else roll for me while I went to read a book or play some video games because so much was based on random luck that I felt like I didn't need to be there.

I've been there and done that, didn't like it and told the GM what he could go do with the T-Shirt.

I have a love/hate relationship with rolling. I don't want to eliminate it and play some crazy diceless thing but I can't stand when GMs make you roll for every breath you take and every move you make (thank you Sting and The Police). I also hate it when, as a player, you come up with a reasonable reason why the die roll should be altered in your favor and it feels like it was rolled straight.

Case in point, one of my least favorite gaming moments of the last three years...

OK, using a system that is a homebrew variant of D&D 3.5, we set out into a homebrew medieval world that is described awesomely but feels like every other D&D game world I've ever gamed in. Its Lord of the Greyhawk Realms basically.  

I was playing a Gnome

We come to this odd valley, essentially a very large crater with shear cliff walls. We need to explore the incredibly dense forest down in this pit/canyon. First we need to climb down. Four or five of us, sheer cliff walls, everybody first level.

We have rope and we come up with a plan using iron spikes and a cheap pulley system (thanks to a nearby tree and rock) to lower us down more carefully. It's about 50 ft down I think, maybe more.

All I know is that the GM made us each roll our Climbing skill at least four times on the way down. Now lets do the math. Four players each rolling four times to climb down a wall. That's Sixteen rolls just to get to the woods. Why? For what reason? Are we getting bonuses on our rolls for the mountain climbing ingenuity we rigged up? Didn't feel like it. One guy fell a short distance and got stuck but the rest of us helped him down. One guy fell kind of far and got hurt but our Cleric healed him.

In the end it was so tedious, so boring and so dangerous to our characters that it drove the majority of us a little bonkers. Dude, if you are that determined to hurt somebody for no reason don't pretend. Just number the PCs, roll 1d4 and deliver 1D10 damage on that guy and move on. No. We had to sit through 16 goddamn rolls.

Luckily, Ray didn't go that far but it felt very much like it was threatening to go in that direction. It started out challenging, with each player/PC trying to figure out a way around the traps based on the predicament and our own unique abilities (or at least strong suits). Eventually at some point near the end we were just rolling dice and seeing if we made it.

It's a good game and I am looking forward to continuing but I will say it needs to kick up a notch on the excitement level. It is engaging. Yes, that is a good word. It is a very engaging game and yet I am hoping it turns into a 'Holy Crap! Wow!' game.

Time will tell. 

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Barking Alien

*I still can't remember his character's name even though he told me twice already. I think it starts with an N.

A Good Day And Then Some

I want to open this post with a personal story.

Today is my 3 month anniversary with my girlfriend Jenn. She is an amazingly talented singer and keyboard player and she played live tonight at a restaurant in New York's Greenwich Village. Not only was she fantastic but I got to meet a number of her friends and they were really sweet and lovely people.

It seemed like all or most of them were artists, dancers or other creative types and as such I felt strangely comfortable with them right away.

Possibly the coolest moment of the evening was when Jenn announced her second song and that it was going to be special. Since she writes and performs her own songs for the most part, I think they are all special but I assumed she meant that it had personal significance to her.

It turned out to be a uniquely Jenn rendition of Rainbow Connection. I could tell many liked it but thought it an odd choice. I knew better of course. She sang it for me and it was amazing. It may not seem major to some but it was a big deal to me. I can be sentimental like that. I was really moved.

Love you baby.

Posting may be spotty here for the rest of the week (I can hear Statler and Waldorf heckling, "So pretty much the same as usual! Awhawhawhaw!"), as I prepare for RECESS.

Oddly, although I haven't run Galaxy Quest for a long while and never for anyone outside of my ol' NJ gang, I don't feel nervous about that session in the least. As always, nearly all my energy and effort is being directed at the morning festivities, The Muppets RPG. It doesn't matter how often I run it, I panic right before it's ready to roll. I feel like I can't take any chances that it could be anything less than ridiculously fun. Can't help it. It's my little obsession.

In regards to my recap of our Hunter X Hunter session last Saturday, I realize that there isn't much more to tell.

After reaching the Hunter Examination registration location (say that three times fast!) thanks to our guides, we spent the rest of the session role-playing, talking to NPCs, getting to know the world and getting into our characters. We added an NPC to our little trio of Hunter hopefuls, a 10-12 year old girl with pigtails in a sailor suit school uniform. This being Anime and Manga I can only assume she is among the most powerful and deadly people on the planet.

At the very end of the adventure, the first part of the Hunter Exam is revealed and it was refreshingly not what I expected. To pass the 'Physical Portion' of the test you have to cross a 'Ninja Warrior' type obstacle course. So cool. I plan on using my Creativity more so than my physical strength and agility to get past the obstructions and pitfalls.

***

Well hopefully I am in for a great RECESS and you are all in for a great Muppet Monday and Galaxy Quest recap new week. Back to work...

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Barking Alien

PS: Today was my dog Delilah's birthday! My little girl is 5 years old and still the cutest, smartest, most awesomest puppy I have ever seen. Happy Birthday Dee!

Truth, Treasures and Rubber Chickens

I've been promising a recap of Saturday's first session of Hunter X Hunter, The Role Playing Game, the new campaign being undertaken by myself and my group. This is the first campaign for this group that is not being run by me but rather it lies in the capable hands and smart-looking glasses of my friend Ray.

For those unfamiliar with Hunter X Hunter, it is a Japanese Manga and Anime series by Yoshihiro Togashi, better known in American Anime Fan circles as the creator, writer and artist of Yu Yu Hakusho, as well as being the husband of Naoko Takeuchi, the creator of Sailor Moon.

The main story of Hunter X Hunter focuses on a young boy named Gon, who discovers that his father, Ging, whom he believed to be dead, is actually alive and is a world-renowned 'Hunter'. A Hunter in this setting is a specialized, licensed profession for those who track down fantastic things such as rare or unidentified animal species (including many that would be considered mythic monsters like dragons), buried treasure, lost or unexplored lands or even highly sought after criminals.

Gon, despite or perhaps because of his father's choice to pursue his own dreams of glory instead of remaining with his son and family, departs on a journey to become a Hunter himself. First, he must pass the rigorous Hunter Examination and then, after he too is a licensed Hunter, he will go and find his father.

Along the way, Gon meets a variety of other kinds of Hunters, makes friends, some enemies and also encounters the paranormal and mystical.

The setting is very...Japanese. An anachronism stew as only the Japanese provide so easily and readily without batting an eyelash. Those who are unfamiliar with Manga/Anime are often confused or taken aback by the nature of many series where the world is an odd mix of times, cultures, technology and genre trappings. In Japan, this is not unusual and for the most part, no one ever wonders why the crooked Samurai in Edo period Japan appears dressed in a track suit (Samurai Champloo) or why people on a 15th century pirate ship have a radio (One Piece). To a greater or lesser extent Dragonball, Dragonball Z, Full Metal Alchemist, Naruto, Pokemon and many more have worlds that look like RIFTS if it were trying hard not to be noticed. In addition to the anachronisms and strange mix of cultural dress, the physical world of Hunter X Hunter is a parallel of ours with similar locations, nations and ethnicities. In the Manga, some of the story takes place in 'York New City', a major city in the America-like region.

Now for the campaign, each of the players came up with a character who is heading out from the city of New DeCheigo* and travelling to far east Jappon* to take the Hunter Examination. The examination changes all the time but it is known to always be difficult and even deadly. Applicants for a Hunter License will even sabotage each other to score a shot at surviving and winning. Some Hunter wannabes will form teams to help each other succeed, as we have done...sort of.

Our PCs are...

Amari (Dave's Character) - Handsome, cool, with an air of arrogance on occasion. - He is a Treasure Hunter hunting the rarest and most fantastic treasures in the world.

Bal (pronounced Bahl or Bol as in Bollywood) (Lee's Character) - Often switching between mysterious guy and regular joe, this fellow appears to be a barber and has a set of old fashioned barber scissors, shaving blades and such. - He is an Information Hunter who claims to be hunting for 'The Truth'.

Stan, aka Stanley 'Smiley' McGee (My character) - The youngest, shortest and physically smallest, my guy hides the sorrows of a tough childhood of poor living and bullies under a jester's cap, a whoopie cushion and a bombastic personality. - He is an Information Hunter as well, out to hunt down the world's funniest jokes so he can spread laughter and joy.

As you can see, these three make for an odd bunch. Analyzing it after the fact, Dave's may be a little too basic, Lee's a little too esoteric and mine, well, it's hard to fit those into adventures with the other two but it'll be fun watching Ray try.

Anyway, we set out on a boat to Jappon with a bunch of tough looking, biker dudes and an even tougher looking, business man type fellow who we later learned was some kind of gangster or something. I am not positive of that but he was the employer or leader of the biker gang guys. He lost his lunch a few times when the seas got rocky and eventually he and his entourage abandoned ship as it seemed like the boat's captain was aiming at one perfect storm after another.

We rode out the terrible weather giving us ample time to learn Ray's homebrew system by making rolls to hold down our own meals and not get tossed off the deck and into the turbulent ocean.

Eventually we landed in Jappon and were told by the captain to head to this one shop in the port town to get passage to the site of the Hunter Examination. We hooked up with his contact at this old bicycle shop on a hill, who let us use his giant bird to get to a mountain overlooking the host city. Yep. Giant bird. He said it would take all three of us. When Lee asked, "Is it really a giant bird? How big is it?", Ray answered, "It's big enough. It'll fit three of you." Love it.

We eventually made our way down the mountain and found a log cabin. We saw lights on in side but as we approached we heard a woman scream and a gunshot (actually more like a shotgun blast).

As the big, handsome Treasure Hunter and mysterious Barber of a thousand, deadly shaving instruments prepared to leave, I, small, wiry comedian that I am, ran toward the cabin door, marbles in one hand and rubber chicken in the other. I kicked the door open with such force that even though the door opened outward toward me, it bounced open wide and I was able to rush in.

A tough older fellow with a shotgun was holding a woman and then tossed her aside onto a couch when I entered. He quickly wrapped a blanket or sheet around her wrist as a makeshift rope. I tried tripping him with the marbles but he didn't fall for it. As he tightened the impromptu restraint, I ran, leaped up and came down swinging my rubber chicken around his neck like a garrote. As my momentum and gravity brought me down to the floor, so did the gunman fall backward, dragged down by my innovative use of polymer poultry.

The other two attempted to assist, Dave's Amari missing twice and Lee's Bal getting nicked by shotgun fire as he attempted to crawl in a window.

While I didn't cause the fellow any real damage, he was of balance long enough for Amari to get up on him and notice something gleaming gold inside his jacket. Turned out he was a policeman and the young lady was resisting arrest. But there were holes in that story. Where was his police car? Surely we would have noticed it around this log cabin in the middle of nowhere. After a few other questions the man and the woman basically said, "OK, OK, they've been through enough. They pass."

The two were guides from the mountain to the examination site. First they give a little test to see if the Applicants they come across even stand a chance. You have to be smart, perceptive, think fast, act fast and move fast to past the Hunter Exam. They thought we had a chance of passing, so they told us exactly where to go and even drove us there in a truck they had hidden in a part of the cabin that turn out to be a workshop garage.

OK, more to come tomorrow...

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Barking Alien

*Jappon is the name of this world's fictitious, pseudo-Japan. New DeCheigo is the home city of Dave's character and mine. Lee's character got on the boat there but he is not from there. He gave me the impression of a wandering, martial-artist/pilgrim like Caine from Kung Fu. New DeCheigo is my own creation, a merging of Detroit, Chicago and a bit of San Diego.

The Enemy Within

I originally posted this much early today but I was in a hurry to get to work at the Learning Center and I don't feel I got to say what I meant to say. As such, I am updating and reposting this entry. Thank you for indulging me.





I know, I know, my next post was supposed to be a recap of yesterday's quite excellent Hunter X Hunter game run by my good friend Ray. And it was excellent I must say. The players, Dave, Lee and myself, and our respective characters, were also pretty cool, although I'll confess that I don't know if I 'got' Lee's character 100%. In this instance however, I'll attribute that to his PC being a mysterious sort with a dark secret that I don't yet know, instead of my usual inability to comprehend what it is Lee is thinking or doing.

I'll try to do that recap tonight but I had this burning need to take a moment and say something else first.

My next game will be Star Trek. I am not sure when or how and it's very possible I will only get two players out of the four in the group but that's OK with me. If I am right in considering the two people I have in mind, I would rather have those two than a dozen players who just aren't into it.

The realization I have come to is that the one person who is really preventing me from running Star Trek is me. I came to that realization some time ago. Why am I bringing it up now?

After the Hunter X Hunter game the group started discussing various approaches to running a campaign and I realized that no matter how I tried, now matter what approach or angle on my arguement I took, my friend Lee just didn't understand the core of what I was addressing at one point. Try as he might, he couldn't get me to understand his point of view. It was not a question of agreement and disagreement. It was like I was talking about how to brew the perfect pot of coffee in Japanese and he was responding to the subject of turn of the century architecture in Italian.

This happens a lot and it frustrates me to no end and, I have to suppose, it frustrates him as well.

The problem is I keep trying. I keep trying when, at some point, you'd think I would know better and simply drop it or just barrel on ahead without waiting for that moment of confirmation that would tell me he comprehended what I was talking about.

I tend to adjust my style of play and my content to accomodate this player and honestly, any other player who I am having trouble gelling with. I alter what I would normally do and how I would normally think about adventures. My campaigns have been catering to the players in my group who aren't used to my more story driven, fast paced, don't-worry-about-the-rules-worry-about-what's-happening nature.

Considering this I have come to an epiphany. This sucks.

Not only I am not pleasing myself but I am not pleasing the players who do get into the game, who can keep up and who add a great deal to the campaign in the form of story ideas, drama and action. Making it easier for one, as an example, makes it feel far too easy and unchallenging for the rest of the crew that handle more. Why should a majority suffer an inferior game because one or two people can't keep up? They shouldn't. You can't please everybody and I certainly feel that in the case of my last few games, I didn't completely please me and I am an important customer. I mean, I've been with me 43 years now.

The final analysis on this is as simple as it is difficult for me to accept. I can not please everyone, no matter how hard I try or how much I tweak things. In the end, even if I do manage to adapt the game to the likes of players who don't get me, I end up alienating the gamer I am closest to.

Myself.

More on this in the near future. For now, I am off to teach a class and play Superheroes with a bunch of young kids. Life is good.

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Barking Alien

Return To Tomorrow

Darn, I came home from today's game too late to get this in on the proper day but no matter. I am still a fan and as a fan this is still my duty.






It is an honor to remind every reader of this blog that Saturday, September 8th, 2012
celebrated the 46th Anniversary of the Original Series of Star Trek.

If you didn't get to see Google's tribute, here it is...




I personally think it's adorable. There was a number of other variations of it as I understand and I highly recommend doing a search for them. You might want to use, hmmm, let's see now, perhaps...Google? It's so crazy it just might work.

Tomorrow (er, that is, today...I am so confused) I will recap our first session of my buddy Ray's Hunter X Hunter game. I was really, really good. From me, that's like three cheers while I jump up and down tooting on one of those New Years Eye horns that sound a bit like a kazoo.

Hope you are all enjoying your weekend. Live long and peace out.

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Barking Alien

*Top illustration by the very talent Robert Grabe.

Updated Musings

My gaming anniversary has passed and I am now in my 35th year of gaming.

This will mark my fourth post in four days. A trend? Possible, even likely. With no major campaign to prepare material for and business not yet back to full, I have a bit more time in my schedule to blog.

But what to blog about? Ah, the age old dilemma, going as far back as blogging itself.

Well, let's see what is on the agenda...

A new school semester means a new Sunday Program at the Learning Cente

r in Brooklyn. We had a short but pretty successful run with Superheroes and I think I may make that the new offical game for at least the first part of the Fall/Winter season. I am debating whether to stick with my simplified ICONS variant or go with a new Marvel Heroic variant I've been thinking about. I really like the idea of the kids experiencing some of the mechanics of the game like the Doom Pool and gaining Plot Points when they purposely activate a weakness or negative distinction. There are lessons to be learned in there somewhere.

September 15th is just around the corner and it brings with it the next RECESS Game Day 'mini-convention'. I will be running my Muppets Role Playing Game in the early half of the day and my Galaxy Quest RPG in the later half. I am extremely excited to be revisiting both of these games. My recent gaming experiences have not been nearly fun enough for me and I am looking forward to running some games which embrace a very different mindset from my groups' recently completed, deadly serious Champions campaign.

Other than that...

I intend to give you some info on our new Hunter X Hunter campaign once we've started it. I don't think I will do full recaps but I might. I will continue to discuss Star Trek, Traveller and other Sci-Fi games, Superhero gaming and whatever other weird RPG subject catches my fancy.

I am also going back to my oft put off project of developing a game to self-publish.

In the end this post was more fluff and filler than I had intended. I assure you that ideas with more meat to them are coming up soon...

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Barking Alien

Champions - United They Stand, Divided We Fall

Tomorrow is the official, last session of my Champions campaign, "The New Champions", based on the world setting created by my friend Will and which I last played in my first year of college prior to resurrecting it for this game.

It's been a pretty wild ride, with as many amazing highs as face palming lows. What started out as one of the best campaigns of any kind I've run in a while slowly turned into a game I simultaneously enjoyed and dreaded.

Somewhere at the half way mark of this nearly year long, a least one a week campaign, the player dynamic shifted and I don't think the game ever quite recovered. This can be attributed to both myself and the two remaining original players. Without the third, the drive of the campaign lost its way somehow. The new PCs who joined us were just not the cult of personality our missing man was and it made those left behind stumble and have difficulty finding their way without him.

Add to that the fact that the new and original players didn't always see eye to eye in their approach to how to play and what to do. I'll admit to getting both frustrated and bored at the play style of one of the new additions, and it caused me to lose momentum and enthusiasm for what was happening a number of times.

In the end (and it is the end for now - see below), I decided it was best to end on a positive note or as close as I could be to one. With an epic ending in mind, the players and their PCs proceeded to follow a completely different route than what I had envisioned (no problem) and are now going toe-to-toe against a team of some of the most powerful and ruthless villains in the world. Already, their main base has been wrecked, several major NPCs injured and the villains are holed up in their heavily armed, extremely fortified, 'Hall of Doom' headquarters hidden (though finally located by the heroes) in the Verkhoyansk Mountain of Siberia.

So, tomorrow I can look forward to one hell of a massive Superhero/Supervillain blow out bash. After that...

The next campaign for this group, as I've mentioned before, is based on the popular Japanese Anime/Manga Hunter X Hunter. The game will be run by my pal Ray and feature a homebrew system of his own design based heavily on certain attributes, mechanics and other elements actually mentioned in the Manga. A very neat idea and one I hope and believe he will be able to pull off.

The only problem is...

As I have said time and again, I don't really like to play RPGs as a player even half as much as I like running them as a GM. Actually, saying I enjoy it less than half as much is being kind.

Plus...gamemastering for me is kind of theraputic. A way to get out all those ideas for stories, images, characters and ideas I would otherwise have no outlet for. What will I do with these things if I am not running a game? I will write them down, draw them and do preparations for the games I will eventually run of course but will that be enough?

It's going to have to be for the time being.

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Barking Alien

Will Wonders Never Cease

A New Follower! Lots of Hits! Virtually No Comments!

Wait...huh?

Oh well...

A lot of things to touch upon this evening so let's get started shall we?

While walking by this small thrift store I pass by each and every work day, I decided to peek through the window at the used books. I do this one every week or two and though there has never been anything that caught my interest, I keep doing it just in case. Years ago I did the same thing at another such goodwill store near my old job downtown, periodically peering in from time to time and I came upon one of the Terra Trade Authority books. Ever since then I check out these kinds of stores in the off chance they'll have something cool.

Well luck was with me yesterday as I spotted two books I've been trying to get back ever since my copies were lost in the late eighties or early nineties. I found them both in hardcover and in very good condition for only $6.00 each!

'Flight of the Dragons' by Peter Dickinson is an oddly scientific look at dragons, with detailed theories on the pseudo-science that would enable such an animal to have actually existed in the real world. The book is full of neat illustrations, great stories and, although too science-y for my take on dragons, it is an excellent source for the kind of thoughts that go into world-building and alien creature design in RPGs. In addition, Dickinson gives scientific explanations for many of the legends attributed to dragons so, 'Ecology of the Dragon' anyone?

'Giants' by David Larkin is a book much more akin to one of my all time favorite books ever, 'Faeries' by Alan Lee and Brian Froud. Combining stories from myth and folklore with some fantastic illustrations, Giants is the perfect companion to Faeries, Gnomes and other such fantasy reference books. I am reading this one first and loving it. Very intriguing and giving me tons of fuel for an Ars Magica game (should I ever get to run one again).

Although I am not into D&D, Noisms has an excellent theory/concept of the how D&D style exploration and adventure might fit other historical eras better then it's default pseudo-medieval setting. I recommend checking it out.

It's official (although it will be officially announced at our regular Champions session this Saturday); I will not be running the next campaign my regular gaming group will be playing. Instead, one of my great players and good friends, Ray, will be running a campaign based on the Japanese Anime/Manga Hunter X Hunter. Should be a blast!

Happy Birthday to Lynda Carter! A wonder woman above and beyond her iconic role.

Sad to hear of the passing of Sherman Hemsley, gone at the age of 74. While I am not a religious man (and that is the understatement of the century), if I did believe in an afterlife I would imagine he'd be movin' on up.

Also, Rest In Peace Sally Ride, the first woman in space. A big inspiration to many in and out of the field of space science and a charming person in her own right, she leaves this Earth for the unknown frontier at the age of 61.

OK, lots more to come! Not having to work on a new campaign makes me feel so free. I have all this spare time. I think I'll...ooh, I know...I'll jot down some future campaign ideas...

Yeah, yeah I know. It's in my blood.

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Barking Alien