A to Z 2013: Gearing Up

Oy. Where did March go?

I'd intended to do so much more with the month, but it seems like it just got away from me. At least I've been able to do a bit more prep work for April's A to Z challenge than I did last year, which was more than I did the year before. So, at least I'm progressing.

Last year I was able to map out about one-half of the month's topics before the month started. This year, I not only have all 26 topics already named, I actually used some random generation to fill out my calendar to do so. Let me try and explain just how anal-retentive I was this year.

I started with the WordPerfect calendar I used last year. Each day already had a section for the topic (Item, Spell, NPC, Monster, Locale) and a place for the name ("A is for ____ ") filled out. It was simply a matter of changing the dates to fit 2013.

Then I opened up a spreadsheet page. Not having a d5 in my collection (yet), I remembered I had "Beverage" last year on my list of topics. Then I grabbed my handful of office d6s. I can already hear the sound of many palms slapping many faces. But this is how I wanted to determine my topics this year. I rolled a total of 30d6 assigning each roll to a topic heading as well as a date on the calendar. (I'd randomly assigned each of the six topics a number.) This gave me the following aggregate results:

Topics	Quantity
NPCs	5
Spells	2
Monsters	5
Beverages	6
Items	5
Locales	6

I looked at those numbers for a long while. I really didn't want to do five monsters. Neither did I want to do six beverages. And then I thought: Maps. I haven't posted any maps in a while. This might motivate me into making some maps.

But I don't have a d7 in my collection either. Yet. So I grabbed my office d8 and assigned two more numbers: "Random" and "Map." On a "Random" I would then re-roll the d8. I stuck these randomly in my already-prepared list. This gave me the following results:

Topics	Quantity
NPCs	3
Spells	3
Maps	3
Monsters	2
Beverages	2
Random	6
Items	5
Locales	3

And would you believe the "Randoms" rolled out to be one each of NPCs, Spells, Maps, and Monsters, and two Beverages? So my final tally looks like this:

Topics	Quantity
NPCs	4
Spells	4
Maps	4
Monsters	3
Beverages	3
Items	5
Locales	3

I think I'm O.K. with these numbers. I think I can do this. However...I also reserve the right to change my mind mid-month. Occasionally something will spring up in my brain that I didn't consider at the first of April--something that just HAS to see the light of day. I'm going to endeavor to keep the totals the same; if something new crops up, I'll swap it out with an existing topic. Granted, this may require some re-naming to happen as well. But that's all wrapped up in creativity, right? And the ability to be flexible even while on a pre-ordered plan.

So, I think I'm ready for April. As much as I can be, anyway.

So bring it on. Let's get writing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[From the Mailbag] Edge of Space Review

Long day yesterday at the firm. Really long. Mind-numbingly long. Yeah...almost fell asleep sitting at my desk. Day filled with the cream of my whining clients. (Don't get me wrong: I have some really good clients, but then there are some.... Oy. But that's a post for another day.)

To make matters worse, I'm stuck in the malaise of writer's block, which incidentally is not a good thing considering the April A-Z Challenge 2013 is on the ever-approaching horizon. On top of that, I'm looking at at least another three weeks until the gaming group gets together.

And then I got home, opened the mailbox, and found this:
Courtesy of Matt Jackson over at Lapsus Calumni and his Chubby Monster Games imprint.

First of all: talk about fast. I ordered these on Friday afternoon and they were in my hands on Tuesday afternoon. Amazing turn-around. However, the mailing also was the source of one of my only complaints about the product: the mail carrier was less than careful with the envelope, so there was some minor bending and wrinkling on the "Incident" booklet. I can't figure out a solution to this that doesn't also involve a price-hike; so I'm going to put them under my unabridged Webster's for a day or two and see if that doesn't do the trick.

Content:

• Edge of Space: Science Fiction Roleplaying Game Manual: 
• The content of the game manual itself is quite nice. Presented very neatly and concisely written, the system is, to me, pretty tight. It's certainly not a WotC-esque "cover every eventuality in the rules" kind of game system. Instead, it's got just enough crunch and fluff to give a GM a foundation on which to build. Character creation and -options seem fairly straightforward and generation seems like it would be fast. I could easily envision using this with my group at one of our New Years' Eve family parties without needing any advance character/player prep time.
• There is only a single race of aliens presented in the manual. Therein lies another of my complaints, albeit a minor one. We are presented only with "bugs" (and "The Master"--the BBEG Bug) in this instance. I would have liked to have seen a wider variety of aliens; perhaps only one or two more would have done the trick. However, I've salved my complaint and told myself three things:
• One--this is only the introductory material. More aliens are likely forthcoming. For an introduction, do you really need more than a "standard" alien race?
• Two--although one "type: Bug" is presented, there are actually five different bugs here. The Master, the Grunt, the Shooter, the Brain, and the Recon. So, technically you're wrong about only "one" alien. Now shut up and play.
• Three--the content itself says that the "Bugs...are by far the most common aliens encountered." That implies that there are other aliens and we might see them later. (See 'Thought One,' supra.)
•  Incident at Intrepid Station Adventure
• My first thought? Hey look, self, new aliens! Matt provides a really nifty "infection" rule. Although I don't often like the "GM takes control of the PC" idea, this one makes sense and is not an arbitrary rule.
• There's enough fluff here again to provide a good foundation on which a GM can build--or not, if she chooses not to do so. There's enough backstory that most players will be satisfied with the information.
• I particularly like the fact that Matt's specifically using "Space Marines" here. Most of my OSR readers will understand my glee at this jab. If you don't, pick your favorite search engine and look up "space marine", "copyright", and "Amazon"--you'll get a pretty good overview in the first few search results. Again: Go Matt!
• Matt's also included one of his fantastic maps. My readers know my fondness for maps; there are a few mappers out there whose works I keep on my metaphoric cartographic 拜拜 (bài bài) stand: Three of those mappers are Dyson Logos, Tony Dowler, and Matt Jackson.

All in all, I'm more than happy about this find. A great, tight system that I can quickly teach to the kids and have some good laser-pistol-blasting fun. One punctuation error jumped out at me, but I'm anal-retentive that way. The layout is easy to read and the self-made booklets are a great size. They're really well-executed and well-made. (While you're at it, jump on over to Lapsus Calumni to read about his efforts in book-making. I found the whole idea kind of inspiring.) All of this for only $7.00.

In addition, he's also offering a PDF download that includes the manuals, a nice embiggened map, and an "image version" of the map for your favorite virtual table top program.

For all that, I give this four hammers out of five. (I would have gone five out of five, but I'd like to see what comes next from Chubby Monster Games and Edge of Space. This way I can save room for that final star...I figure that's better than giving something 6 out of 5 stars.)

Buckle up, boys and girls...we're going on a bug hunt.

The Thing in the Basement, Part II

After I wrote this post on Monday about my childhood neurosis and ongoing phobia about the basement in my childhood home, my wife goes and posts this image to my Facebook page.

 

She thinks she's pretty funny. She got a good laugh out of it. Me? Not so much.

The Thing in the Basement

Dylan Hartwell, the Digital Orc had a post last week that I somehow missed until this morning. It brought to mind a memory from the past.

Some may call it a memory, others may call it "emotional scarring." Tom-ay-to, to-mah-to.

The home where I grew up had a partially unfinished basement. There was the family room at the bottom of the stairs, then the room doubled back, following the stair-wall to a bathroom and my oldest brother's bedroom. Then there was a door that led to the hallway under the stairs. This area, nearly two-thirds of the basement area--was known as "the messy room."

Immediately inside that door on the left was a series of built-in shelves, attempting to make use of the space under the shelves. On the right was the "fruit room." Straight ahead was the furnace, water heater, water softener, and the laundry. The rest of the space was piled with boxes, clothes, old toys, dad's table saw, etc. There were two pathways through and around "the mess" which led to my father's study.

That room freaked me out.

The whole basement did, actually. The family room was where my oldest brother dragged me on Saturday night to watch "Thriller Theater" or somesuch program with him. It's where I was exposed to great, bad horror movies. It was where I later peeked over the couch as I watched my brothers watching Alien on our very first Betamax. (It was rated 'R' of course so I was restricted from watching it.) But it wasn't just the movies. I was convinced that there was something that lived down there...somewhere. (Actually, I KNEW where it lived. It lived under the stairs, in the space behind the folding chairs and card tables. It lived back there between the decades-old cocktail napkins and paper plates. It lived back there and KNEW, somehow, when you were alone in the basement.)

It also didn't help that the stairway itself wasn't square. One wall gradually slanted inward, so that the bottom of the stairway was narrower than the top. It wasn't really noticeable except to your subconscious mind.

The lights to the entire family room and hallway "complex" were controlled by light switches at the bottom of the stairs, but on the family room side of the wall. Very early in life I mastered the art of hitting ALL the light switches at once as the sprint upstairs began. Just typing this, I can feel on my right arm the sensation of "something about to grab me" that I was always convinced was just about to happen. And you know the worst times? When you'd MISS one of those lights and have to go back downstairs to turn just the one off. Because then, you know, the creature was AWARE that you'd been down there and AWARE that you had to come back down and he was closer to the stairway than he normally was and....

Well, you get the picture.

The basement was finally finished nearly two decades ago. I have a wife and kids of my own. The "messy room" no longer exists. Dad's gone now, but mom still lives in the home. And do you know, even now, some 40 years later, I still feel like my 3-year-old self, fighting the desire to sprint up the stairs as I hit all four light switches with my "about to be grabbed" right hand?

A to Z: Round Three

Yep, it's almost time again for a little self-imposed creative flagellation daily post writing.

I've got to spend some time today setting out and planning my post titles. It takes some effort and time to do that; unfortunately that seems to be the easiest part of the April A-Z blogging challenge.

As they say around my firm: "If it wasn't for procrastination, nothing in the law would ever get done."

What is the "A to Z Challenge" you ask? Well, if you don't already know:

The brainchild of Arlee Bird, at Tossing it Out, the A to Z Challenges to post the letter of the alphabet every day during the month of April, with Sundays off for good behavior. Since April 1 falls on a Sunday, that will be the day we start with A. Whether you go with a theme or freestyle, your post must match the letter of the alphabet for that day....This is a great opportunity to discipline yourself, grow as a blogger, and make new friends -- come join us!

It's four years old this year; I've played along three of the four. I'm truly looking forward to pushing myself again, even in spite of -- or perhaps because of -- the effort it takes. It's a great discipline and growth process. Jump aboard! It's blowing up! (I'm three weeks early and I'm #997!)

Sign up HERE.
-----------------------

Game Night: Highs and Lows

Ahhh. It's game night. I need this tonight. Real life has been extra tough lately, as I may have mentioned in previous posts. It's a game night of highs and lows, however.

• High: The start of a new campaign, with a new DM rotating into the seat behind the screen.
• Low: The announcement last week that a member of our group was hanging up his dice and PHB.
• High: The joy of a new character, and a new character class for me. I've never played a rogue before.
• Low: The miniature for my new character has still not arrived at my FLGS and so I'm stuck with a pre-painted plastic miniature that doesn't really represent my character.
• High: I get to use my new dice. Oh yeah, I got new dice. Picked up the set at my FLGS when I went to check on the miniature for my new character. 
• Low: Some nagging physical ailments are causing me repeated "breaks" and "intermissions" from the table.
• High: Hey...it's a game night. That outweighs everything, right?

It looks like my highs outweigh the lows. It's a good night.

Here's hoping you all have a good gaming weekend. Keep your dice dry, eh? And give us a report when the weekend is over.

LTUE Wrap-Up

I don't suppose any of you are really sitting on the edges of your sofas wondering what happened to two days' worth of posts from LTUE: Life, The Universe, and Everything Writing Conference. But there may be a couple of you interested: well, I wish I could really tell you. Unfortunately, the morning of Day Two dawned with some manner of gomboo bug inhabiting my body.

No, really. It was almost as if I had one of those Alien face-huggers latched onto me.
I was exhausted and I felt as if I'd been stuffed in cotton. I had a really powerful bad cough. Congestion. My eyeballs were practically throbbing, for crying out loud. I had aches and pains all over. Developed a weekend-long migraine by Friday night.

But I went anyway, because it was important to my wife. Despite my illness, I think she had fun. I don't remember anything about any of the panels, except for remembering listening to Larry Correia talk about writing action scenes. I think I may have dozed off in other panels. My sickness, unfortunately, meant that we didn't travel back down for the Saturday session. Apparently I wasn't the only one; some Typhoid Mary apparently attended the Conference because I got reports that there were quite a few attendees and possibly even some presenters that wrote off Saturday and didn't attend. I still feel bad about my wife missing out on Saturday, though, and need to find some way to make it up to my her.

One highlight that I do remember was having lunch at a little sandwich shop talking shop with Tracy and Laura Hickman. Great people and a great conversation. It had been awhile since we'd lunched and had a good chance to talke and catch up, so it was definitely a highlight of the conference.

The second highlight was this:
I was finally able to procure my copy of XDM: X-treme Dungeon Mastery. And I was able to get it signed by both Tracy Hickman and Howard Tayler. I've been trying for a couple years to get this, but the financial stars, the times, and the places have just not worked out. Until 2013.

Descriptive blurb:

The cure for the common game! Throw off your chains! Too long have your role playing games been held in the bonds of substandard gamemasters, bound in needlessly complicated rules sets, and enslaved by players who will avoid doing anything unless it counts toward leveling up! It is time to take a stand!

Learn from the masters the ancient secrets of how to:
Officially become an XDM and impress dates. (Do-it-yourself secret initiation rites included.)
Master the secrets of designing adventures that tell stories.
Create magic illusions that can even make your players disappear!
Use actual fire in your game properly.
Hijack the game as a player, and how to deal with a player revolution as an XDM.
Plus loads more!

Perhaps the best description comes from the book's Wikipedia entry: "The book is written as though from the perspective of a secret society of game masters passing on ancient secrets of role-playing games beginning in Babylonian times and extending to the present. Within the satire, the text offers advice on performance techniques, adventure game design and classical story structures." The book prescribes a system called X20: rules-light in that everything is decided by a roll of 1d20 and a decision by the XDM as to success/effect. Such a system would definitely frustrate rules lawyers, as the only rules are what the XDM decides are the rules.

It's an overly simplistic description of the book, but a good one. The book is full of humor, tips, tricks, suggestions, and great illustrations by the creator of Schlock Mercenary, which is arguably the best and funniest webcomic Space Opera on the internet. Howard autographs his books with customized artwork and this book is no different; the last page in the book was left blank just for this purpose. And here's my own, personal autograph from my book. This is Boric as seen through Howard Tayler's eyes.

Anyway, back to the face-hugger gomboo.... It pretty well put me out of commission for over a week. Then it's taken a week more to get caught up with leftover work at the office. Hopefully I can get some of my random thoughts out on paper. I still owe Tim Shorts some critters for issue #4 of The Manor. So I have a bunch of stuff to do, and Guilder to blame for it. I'm swamped.

At least I have my health...kind of. As you know, If you haven't got your health, then you haven't got anything.

Happy GM's Day

I'm sure that y'all know by now it's International GM's Day...no, seriously. It really is. My own DM didn't know that this was "a thing" until I told him.  Of course, then we had to discuss the irony and coincidence that Gary Gygax just happened to pass away in 2008 on GM's Day. Almost along the lines of Jefferson and Adams both passing away on July 4 within a few hours of each other. Even though I'm a bit late, I need to get my well-wishes in to all the GM's I know: both those who've run games I've been in and those I only know by reputation.

Kudos to you all! Thanks for all the hard work you put in, the critters you create just to watch them die within seconds, the intricate traps you prepare just to watch adventurers bypass the entire section of adventure, and for the hours competition-class paint jobs on miniatures that see a five-minute life on the table.

Keep your dice dry, and may you receive everything to which you're entitled today!