Shameless Plug!

My business partner and I, for our joint birthday gift a couple weeks ago, brought to life a new company called Beta|Read.

It is a fiction manuscript review and accreditation service. A cheap but welcome birthday gift idea for us: Visit our Facebook page and give it a "LIKE." In lieu of cake, please share the page with your fiction author friends and tell them about us!

Thanks in advance!

https://facebook.com/betareadreview

http://www.betaread.com/

[The Stronghold 'Zine] Issue #3 is One Step Closer!

Gentle readers, Issue #3 is one step closer to reality!

Both figuratively and literally (at least, in a literary sense).

Last night I received the digital image for the cover from +Jim Magnusson. It is, in a word, fantastic. I gave him the barest of suggestions (include a monster and the Stronghold) and he delivered in spades and with bells on. the artwork means I'm down to waiting for just one last image. And the monster in question, is leaving footprints. Big ones.

Sorry, folks. No teaser image this time around.

It truly made my day, and I needed it. Family crap again; trying to divide up my parents' estate is nearly killing me. The sheer greed and childishness that has come to light is...well, ludicrous, but also absurd to the level of humorous. I needed some good news after the emotional wringer that was my Saturday and Sunday.

Back to Issue #3: start gearing up and spreading the word. It's coming; can't you feel the earth shake?

[The Stronghold 'Zine] Issue #3 Update and a Dance Break

A quick update on Issue #3 of The Stronghold 'Zine: I have received 1 of the last 3 pieces of artwork. It looks fantastic, courtesy of +Ripley Stonebrook.

Here's a teaser: a snippet of the art accompanying the new class presented in Issue #3: The Warder.

I'm really excited about this class, designed by a long-time friend of mine. It'll be presented in 3.x format. I'm seriously considering finding someone to translate into an OSR-compatible format as well. If there's any interest in this, let me know ASAP!

In other news, Holy Crap. I'm getting old. And I'm feeling every single day of it today, and then some. For our most recent anniversary, I bought tickets for my beautiful wife to a Howard Jones concert. I had never been a great fan back in the day; nothing against him—I didn't listen to '80s music back then, I was listening to '50s and '60s music. My wife, on the other hand, is a HUGE fan.

But, y'see, back...oh, 28 years ago or so he came through town and my (then) wife-to-be went to the concert with a guy. Her then-boyfriend became jealous of the attention she was showing Howard Jones, even though they were probably 100 yards away or more in an open-air, mountainside venue, where he was about an inch tall or so from their seats. But Psycho-boy became jealous and forced her to leave the concert three-quarters of the way through the concert to "beat traffic down the canyon."

That was the breaking point in their relationship, and she's never forgiven or forgotten. So I agreed, mostly knowing that she would have fun.

And she did. So do I, frankly. My wife danced through all 90+ minutes. I tried to keep up. I've never danced that long in my life. And today...I'm feeling it. 18 hours later and I still can't hear from one ear. (It was a fairly intimate venue with IMMENSE speakers.) I am stiff and sore. And exhausted.

But Momma's happy...so the Stronghold is happy.

Need Some Time

Just when I thought I'd reached rock bottom, emotionally, my mother passed away yesterday. I'm going to need a little time.

As far as the giveaway, the dice horde spoke randomly and declare +Taylor Frank   as the winner of the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bestiary Giveaway!

What did he win? A copy of Paizo Publishing's Occult Bestiary ! (See here for more detail.) It's a Campaign Setting/Bedtiary chock full of psychic and occult monster goodness!

Congratulations, good sir. Your new treasure will be winging its way to you shortly.

Shamless Plea for Help

OK, dear readers. I realize that I've dropped off the face of the planet. I barely have the energy to make this post, but I really need some help. Here comes the "shameless plea."

Well, actually, it comes as part of a great big "thank you" to you all in the gaming community. A great big "thank you" because of what you all mean to me, and how your unspoken--and possibly unrealized--support has gotten me through some bad times.

I've had a bad couple of years. After a dozen-plus years slaving for a modern day Ebenezer Scrooge, I bought him out and hung out my shingle. Then I slowly realized, more and more, that he'd taken advantage of me, and had incurred a lot of secret debt that now had my name stuck to it. In the past couple years I've sunk everything I have into this firm and have finally come to the conclusion that my desire to help people has not been outweighed and overcome by my inability to bring in business. I haven't made a mortgage payment in a year; heck, I've not taken a paycheck home in a year. There's been game-related spending, but it's been driven by extreme depression.

You see, I've been suffering from depression for nearly 5 years. I will confess, I was always one who kinda scoffed at depression. I was raised by parents who were nearly a generation older than most of my friends' parents, and were of the "pull up your boots and get back to work" mentality of the Nineteen Forties generation. I'll tell you, that mentality lasts only until the moment you realize that it's all true: depression has a definite mental, emotional, and physical effect on your life.

Then add to that the food allergies that hit about the time I bought out the old man, "Grampa Asshat" as my staff calls him. Severe food allergies. To the point that I have maybe a dozen things I can eat...at most.

I'm not saying this because I'm craving sympathy or pity. I'm getting to my point here soon.

Putting together The Stronghold has helped, putting out this blog has helped, proven a distraction, at least.

Fast forward to about 6 weeks ago. Due to circumstances beyond my control, someone close to me--professionally--screwed me over. I felt like I was the victim in a bad prison movie. I dropped emotionally, mentally, and physically lower than I had ever before experienced. I determined that I was closing my doors. I felt like a failure, even though I knew (and everyone around me knew) that I had been set up for failure by Grampa Asshat. Since that day, I have been nearly incapable of producing any gaming material. Heck, it's been tough to even get up the gumption to game. A few of you've provided some little goodies in the mail that have acted as defib paddles. A month ago, a colleague offered me a job in his firm, providing me an open window to the door I'd just closed. This past 3 weeks I've worked harder than I have in several years; my depression and medical issues have severely inhibited my thinking and processing abilities. All of this? It's exhausted me. Severely. Exhausted. It certainly hasn't helped my desire or ability to produce, game, or think straight. In addition to client deadlines from my new firm and my old firm I also have self-imposed deadlines: editing deadlines for a couple of OSR projects, writing deadlines for several anthologies, and, of course (potentially) Issue #3 of The Stronghold. None of this takes into consideration family stuff, of course.

Now the plea: I'm relying on you all. I've relied on all your support (see above) for the past several years to get me through the past several years.

Do I keep going with this? do I keep going with the blog? with The Stronghold 'Zine? with gaming? I need some reasons. I need your support. Call it prayers, karma, or positive vibes. Yeah, it's selfish, it's self-serving, it's shameless. I think of you all as my friends, and I wanted you--as my friends--to know what's been going on and what you all mean. And yeah, to beg for some positive support as well.

Maybe this is overly dramatic. I certainly don't want to give all this up. I really don't. It's probably all emotional and mental burn-out. I'm sure I'll get past it.

Thanks for listening.

And I certainly can't conceive of WHAT I can use as a Joesky tax for this post. Hope y'all will forgive the intentional oversight.

Hello?

Hello? Is this thing on?

Testing.... 1...2...3....

Reliving the Old School Ways

This post has taken me ten days to put down on paper. Loads of personal stuff going on, all of which are sapping my creativity, energy, joy, happiness, drive, etc. Anyhow, that's a soapbox for a different day. Bear with me while I ramble through these thoughts, would you?

The one real bright spot in the last...oh...let's count it in months, shall we? The one bright spot was our game night last month. Why a bright spot? For that, we need to jump in the way-back machine.

First, some background information: I've had some great DMs over the years. I've had a couple bad ones; I've had a great one that went bad suddenly, violently, and all over the place. The last several years our group has cycled back and forth between two guys. They're both terrific at their craft. But both got a bit burned out a couple months ago and I didn't have the mental processes available to take over the screen...so another one of the guys jumped in and volunteered. The first couple sessions went great.

Now a confession.... I've told the guys this, so it's not really a surprise. My personal issues have taken some of the fun out of playing the past year or so. Don't get me wrong; I've had fun, but just not as much as I've had in the past. It's more of a "going through the motions" for me on game night.

Well, as I've mentioned before, our group plays Old School-style, with a home-brewed 3.x rule set. I will freely confess that--as much as I love the rule set--it can sometimes require some serious note-taking and attention-paying to track all the modifiers in play at any one time.

[Aside: Before anyone jumps in and points fingers with an "A HA!" moment to say, "See?!? 3.x is just TOO complex/rule-heavy/ponderous" or somesuch, take a look back at one of my previous posts wherein I shared the two-page THAC0 tracking sheet that was common in our 2E days. End aside.]

So, it can be complicated, right? So we surround the table with laptops with our character-tracking software of choice running. A few years back, we helped one of our buddies build a dedicated game room in his garage. For a while we gamed with a digital projector mounted on the ceiling projecting our maps onto an old dining room table.

Then we took the next step: the owner of the table called in some favors and, voila, we soon had a flatscreen television mounted inside the table, covered with plexiglass, and a removable cover to protect the television. A server was added and the DM suddenly had a digital tabletop map. This is how we've played for, oh, a year or more. It's a really sweet setup.

Now, we fast-forward to the present. One of our players broke his leg, requiring surgery, which would keep him from our monthly game. None of us wanted that, so we decided to take the game on the road and play at his house. When we all arrived, we found that the DM had forgotten the battlemap, one of our other players had no laptop, so he was going pencil-and-paper. A couple of us hit the road to a local game store to grab a battlemap while the others called in the Chinese food order for dinner. Yeah, we still sat around--most of us--with laptops. But it was around a gridded battlemap, the color of parchment. Wet-erase markers were the tool of the night, scribbling out rooms and hallways in the forgotten desert temple.

IT WAS THE MOST FUN I'VE HAD IN A LONG TIME. I don't know if it was the new setting, the use of the battlemap, or what it was. But it was fun. It. Was. Fun. I think the other guys all agree--we were riffing, and role-playing, like we haven't done in a while. I haven't talked to the guys about this, though, and I'm not sure what this means for the future. I don't think it means we'll be abandoning the game room, the digital table, or anything else. But it certainly raises the question for what happens next time I sit behind the screen. Do all the players need laptops? Could the DM track all the modifiers and crunch all the numbers instead? Could a battlemap and wet-erase markers, along with pencil-and-paper character tracking, be in our future? I dunno. But it certainly is food for thought.

And it certainly felt good. Really good. Really Old School.

[RPG Inspiration] Expedition to the Canaveral Cape

"I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was... We finally really did it. [screaming] You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you!" -- George Taylor

The Planet of the Apes line was the first thing I thought of when this picture popped up on my Facebook feed this morning.

White Castle by Yuri Shwedoff

Unfortunately, in my pessimism, this picture paints what I fear is our space-faring future. It struck a chord with me, and not a good one. I'm one who firmly believes that mankind should be out there among the stars, exploring, learning, growing, and discovering as we have throughout our existence. I look out into the night sky now and wonder, "Where is our Columbus? Our Marco Polo? Our Thor Heyerdahl or Jacques Cousteau? Where is this generation's (or the next generation's) Neil Armstrong or Jim Lovell?" Forget what you may think of their supposed politics, alleged ethics, or remembered reputation: these men were explorers. They stretched our maps and widened our world views, risking life, limb, and possibly soul to do so. They were men of vision. They were heroes.

I still remember the thrill and adrenaline rush from the first shuttle launch. My father roused me early one morning and dragged me downstairs to watch. "Dragged" I say...I had always resented being born just a little bit late to see the moon landing; I wasn't going to miss this for the world. My father later had the opportunity to be present at a shuttle launch; he took pictures and, through his experiences--both there and as a bomber pilot--I watch the launches now and can almost physically feel the shock wave from the engine ignitions and the G-pressures from the acceleration. I remember looking at these men (and later women) as heroes. Certainly the crews of the Challenger and Columbia shuttles are heroes. Once we had vision and a drive to learn.

Now we're relegated to milk runs to a cramped little tin can in orbit. Especially as Americans, who have to humble ourselves to hitch a ride on someone else's bus to that flea-bag in space. Great way to honor the memories of the countless heroic astronauts who gave their lives to the space program and the idea of exploration.

We should be stretching out our hands and minds, embracing the wonder, the adventure, and the risk. From that activity comes growth, learning, and countless benefits to society. The other way--the way we're taking now--ultimately results in becoming Morlocks and Eloi.

That being said, the DM in me sees this image as a potential modern version of the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks. The "verticality" of the shuttle gives rise to some interesting environmental questions, though, like "how best to traverse the interior?" and "just how do we get inside that thing anyway?" Of course, the modern version of the dungeon--as suggested here--couldn't be much of a dungeon crawl; the size difference in the shuttle systems makes that unlikely.  I mean, just compare the potential maps between the two. Canaveral Cape would have to be extended to the base itself and the various outbuildings. The STS and the tank/boosters alone just wouldn't be enough for a full adventure.

Hmm. Now there is an idea.

Dang. Now I'm going to spend all day looking through online NASA files for blueprints and such. Sigh.

Post-FantasyCon Catch Up

It's been a hectic couple of months around the Stronghold. Health issues have rebounded and expanded, while stressful life- and career-related problems have stayed fairly constant. I still haven't paid myself a paycheck in three months. More ecclesiastical duties heaped on my shoulders as well.

Sigh.

This shirt may be my new favorite!

But we had scrimped and saved and, for our "summer stay-cation," attended the inaugural three-day FantasyCon, as well as the 67th annual WesterCon, both in Salt Lake City. We made it to both the inaugural Salt Lake Comic-Con last fall and the "FanX" version of the Comic-Con in the spring.

Yes, Salt Lake City hosted three fantasy/sci-fi conventions in the last 9 months. (Not counting WesterCon or LTUE.)

The Comic-Con experiences were a lot of fun, even if you had to endure a LOT of people. I hate crowds, so it was a real downer for me. But it was a blast to be around the cosplayers, the vendors, and the celebrities. Plus, I grew up with one of the founders. So, I thought that this newcomer upstart, FantasyCon, had a lot to prove.

Turns out, IMHO, that they instead raised the bar for Comic-Con to meet.

Yep. I said that. Despite being on July 4th weekend, and despite not having the benefit of public transportation ON the 4th, there was a pretty good turnout. Around 50K is the last estimate I saw. While not Comic-Con numbers, it was a reasonable result for a holiday and a convention lacking the "Comic-Con" branding. Of course, the smaller numbers were a definite plus for me. I think the planning and mechanics were better than Comic-Con, as were the panels and the exhibits. (Although some of the volunteers were trumped-up little Nazis with delusions of grandeur. Also, I didn't like being searched upon entry. Comic-Con didn't bother to check for my concealed carry; FantasyCon almost made me surrender my grandfather's pocketknife. Guess where I felt safer?)

This guy sums it up pretty well. The LARPing was amazing. As were the displays and all the "extra-curricular" stuff. It was fun to walk through the Hall and feel the thumping of the kettle drums coming from the battle arena and, simultaneously, hearing the clangs of hammers on anvils from the on-site blacksmiths. Then to randomly hear the notes of a bagpipe echoing through the Hall above everything?

The guest list was pretty stunning, too, especially when comparing it to the guests that Salt Lake Comic-Con has announced. FantasyCon had a pretty hefty line-up of Lord of the Rings and Hobbit actors. Heck, they had Elijah Wood (yes, Frodo) DJ their opening night party. The day after that was announced, Salt Lake Comic-Con announced who? Oh, yeah. Smallville's Lex Luthor. Ho-hum.

As I said, FantasyCon really raised the bar.

Of course, getting to meet some childhood and longtime heroes of mine didn't hurt. I'll have to share my conversations with John Rhys-Davies, Sylvester McCoy, and Claudia Christian. But that's for another time. Suffice it to say that not only did I have a longer beard than Gimli, but Sallah (the finest digger in Cairo) told me I had a beautiful family and took the time to speak to each of my children (and forced the photographer to break the rules about the number of people in one paid picture and forced him to take another photo). The Seventh Doctor showed me on my Day of the Doctor shirt exactly where his TARDIS was parked. And Susan Ivanova was calling us "her family" by the end of the weekend.

While there, I increased my gaming inventory. A local game store--that has heretofore gone unnoticed by me--had a booth and were running a 20% off sale. I was tempted to pick up a couple of Pathfinder tomes, but even at that price, I would have quickly blown my budget. Instead, I picked up a couple sets of dice...they were pretty and hey, as you know, I can never have too many dice. Here they are, in all their polyhedral glory: they come from Chessex, of course. "Silver Volcano (speckled) and "Purple-Teal/Gold (gemini)" dice sets, shown in that order. These latter ones are the first ones I saw, from quite a distance away. They grabbed my eyes and held on for dear life. (Of course, it didn't hurt that  They're also ones my wife fell in love with. I think she thinks I'm going to give them to her.

Hah.

Because, hey, dice. Am I right?

There was also a booth for an outfit called "Dark City Games." I didn't know anything about them, but their booth signage boasted "solo and single-player" games. The packaging was sufficiently retro to catch my attention: they looked for all the world like a 'zine stuffed into a plastic zipper bag. Now, when I go to conventions, I collect business cards. I collect them like crazy. I'd rather do my research online than be harangued by a salesperson in a crowded space. Plus, if I do see something I like, I can always get more stuff later. But all these people had on their counter space was some resin scenery, some WotC miniatures, and a display of their own wares. It looked like they had some fantasy, sci-fi, and steam-punk adventures, as well as a western and a horror title.

No business cards.  No flyers, No advertising materials of any kind.

So I asked for their contact information. The girl looked left and right and told me that, if I was really interested, she'd give me a free sample; the contact information was inside the product. Well, who was I to say "no"? So I grabbed their fantasy offering and thanked her. Come to find out, it's a $12.95 bit of gaming.  At first glance, it appears to be their own system; at least, I didn't see anything immediately obvious that denoted an outside system of any kind. It contains a 48-page booklet, outlining rules, backstory, maps, and the adventure itself; it also comes with a fairly nice (albeit small) sheet of counters and an 8"x14" map.

The map isn't great quality, but sturdy paper stock (not quite card stock weight). I haven't had a chance to really delve into the system or mechanics. Hey, if nothing else I can either throw it in the trailer for use while camping or use the background, flavor, and maps for my own world, throwing out their mechanics.

My wife was shocked. I told her, "Hey, it never hurts to ask, right?"


WesterCon was a fun experience, although the panel selections weren't as varied or numerous as those at, say, LTUE. I had the chance to sit down and talk to author Larry Correia for a while as well.

All in all, despite hurting my knee the second day (which prompted me to buy a sweet cane topped by the "Hound of the Baskervilles" in bronze), it was a terrific vacation and money well-spent.

On Ladyhawke and the Firing of Paralegals

To paraphrase Etienne Navarre, "This firm has never known dishonor...until now."

[Aside: Yeah, I know what the original line is: "This sword has been in my family for five generations. It has never known defeat. Until now." It just doesn't exactly fit the situation. End aside.]

My paralegal has been with me for a dozen years. The firm first hired her to answer phones, and she's learned and progressed until, well, frankly she's my office manager now. She knows her stuff. She's good at what she does.

I almost fired her today.

I spent a few hours this morning trying to find a reasonably priced legitimate copy of Ladyhawke on DVD. Not Blu-Ray, DVD. It ain't easy. Everything I could find online was either bootleg, "fair" used quality, or prohibitively expensive. I vocalized this grief and anguish to my paralegal.

She scoffed.

More precisely, she made a "PFFT" sound and then said, "It's not that great a movie. I'm not surprised you can't find it. I AM surprised that you WANT to find it."

My blood roils again just typing those words. You see, it was one of my favorite movies in the 80s. I remember seeing it as a teenager in the theaters. It's one of those movies, like Princess Bride that is often quoted at our game table. And my paralegal? She's not much younger than me, maybe five years. She's a gamer who worships at the altar of World of Warcraft and who played D&D in the past.

And she scoffed at this movie.

There's no accounting for taste, eh?

I've decided to leave it up to my readers: do I fire her for this? or do I just write a note for her personnel file? The poll is up on the right-hand side of the page, just below the "War Cry Generator," and my Followers list. Go to it. Let me know what should be done with the paralegal.

Miscellany

Well, It's been two weeks since I last checked in. The burnout from 31 straight days of blogging is fading. And what have I been doing? Let's see....

Well, I took great advantage of the GM Day Sale over at DriveThru RPG. Also took advantage of a referral over to Noble Knight Games...thanks Pat at Under Seige for THAT little referral. GRIN. My DM is prepping a new campaign for us and complained about not having enough gnolls...so that was another little purchase. Accordingly, I've updated my "Year to Date Purchases" page. What I haven't added to my Purchases page is all the Tarzan, Conan, and other OOP titles I've picked up in my used book store hauntings.

I'm gearing up for the A to Z April Challenge. I performed a similar random rigamarole as last year (I think--I couldn't find my spreadsheet from last year, so I had to start from scratch) and I actually have all my letters filled in with topics and names. Of course, as in years past, I reserve the right to change topics and names throughout the month to accommodate writer's block the creative spark.

As far as the real-life, personal stuff.... The nearly-eighteen-year-old is continuing to cause grief and drama. (This one is available to sale to the highest bidder.) The firm is still struggling. Ebeneezer ran it further into the ground that he disclosed, and every month new revelations continue to occur. Advertising would be key, but without money to even feed my family (my staff gets paid first, after all) it's difficult to look at advertising options. Of course, if any of my readers have any marketing or advertising experience, I'd love to chat and pick your brains. And yes, I say this in nearly the same breath as discussing recent purchases. I will confess freely that I've done some denial/depression buying to somehow ease the stress.

And that's about it for life at the Stronghold. I've got some various ideas percolating that I hope to share with you soon.

2013 Totals

2013 is now a cold corpse, receding in the distance as we journey onward on horseback. I was doing some book-keeping/house-cleaning in the Stronghold and noticed that my "2013 Totals" table (on the sidebar) had not been updated since mid-June 2013. I also noticed that my "Year-To-Date Acquisitions" page had suffered in limbo since July 18, 2013.

So...I have no idea how my totals compared to 2012. But, I think I can be excused, seeing as how I purchased a law firm and became a self-employed small-business owner around the time that I stopped keeping track of my gaming milestones.

I'm going to try and do better this year. I make no promises; of course, I have no idea if any of you care about my self-congratulatory totals and inventories. If you do, then accept my promise in good faith. If not, continue to ignore my tallies.

One thing I think I will have to do is refrain from including links to products on my "Acquisitions" page. That alone was sufficiently time-consuming (between link-searching and coding) that it made updating the page a chore. Shopping sprees of free items on DriveThru RPG and similar sites also made upkeep generally confusing and frustrating, especially when you add in the afore-mentioned link-searching and coding.

As far as the biggies--Miniatures and Dice--I have found a rough estimate, made as of about mid-November: 125 miniatures and 33 dice. There were probably a few more before the end of the year, but that looks pretty good. I also hereby declare 2014 to be the year of the dice, apparently, as I've already doubled my total dice purchases for last year...I'm at 70 right now, after a mail delivery today.

I know I said this last year, but I'm going to shoot for some increased blogging. 2013 was a year of stress and frustration, both on a personal and professional level, even more so than 2012. I've already endured health issues, family issues, and financial issues and it shows no signs of slowing down. As always, though, the hobby and the friendships made through the hobby helped make it survivable.

Everyone join me in a toast: raise your dice cups high and keep them d20s dry. Here's to 2014!

Family Game: Session Recap--New Year's Edition

So, time to dust off the keyboard and get back to posting. I'm hoping to build up some momentum so that I can get somewhat regular again. "Blogging fiber" shall we say?

[Aside: Speaking of fiber, has anyone else seen the new television commercial featuring the animated graphic of the purple poo slipping its way through the intestinal tract? ~shudder~ WAAAAY worse than the "blue liquid poured out onto the 'pad' from the glass representation of the female reproductive system" commercials. I'm not even sure what the commercial was advertising. The phrase 'slippy-slidey purple poo' was much used over the holidays in my house, though. End aside.]

So, for New Year's Eve, the kids all clamored to play a little D&D. Several years ago we started a campaign using the WOTC 3.5 Beginner's Box. At the time, it was a convenient way to present the game to them. For those who may have never seen it, it comes with individual Players' Handbooks for each of the four pre-generated characters, explaining basic abilities, stats, equipment, etc. It also comes with some nice map tiles, a set of polyhedral dice, and some basic minis. The basic adventures included are geared to get the characters to 2nd-level and include an encounter with a young blue dragon. (You can read a bit more about the Basic Set at my previous post HERE.)

Unfortunately, we don't get to play as often as I would like (or as often as the kids would like) but we've had some great sessions over the past few years...the most memorable were sitting in our trailer, late at night, in a hidden meadow in the mountains of Idaho. There were some other relatives there in other camps, and all I could think of was how cozy and familial it was to sit there and play, surrounded by my children. That and what shock and horror my conservative relations would feel if they peered in at the windows, blazing with light.

Anyway, I digress. Two year's ago on New Year's we had started playing through Dyson’s Delve. (Again, reference HERE for details of that game.) In the intervening time, the home-made battle mats/maps had been destroyed and lost, I was tired and didn't feel well, so I wasn't up to picking up where I left off. So--and I ask you all to forgive me for this--I used a trite-and-foolish trope: the "wake up in an inn and realize everything that you remember from the last session was a dream." I honestly felt a little dirty about it. But it gave me a chance to use a new map I got just after Christmas (more on that later), an old map from Dragon Magazine of the "Sleeping Dragon Inn." (I got it for half off during the Great Golem Sale in November (again, more on this later).)

Wow. Digressions are afoot this morning.

Cast of Characters
Lanin: elf wizard (17-year-old daughter)
Carn: human rogue (15-year-old daughter)
Regdar: human fighter (13-year-old son)
Dothal: dwarven cleric (9-year-old son)

Plus, my 6-year-old daughter wanted to play, so I quickly statted up a halfling "bard-type" character. She wanted to play a "Hobbit" and to use magic. I asked her if she wanted to be able to "sing her magic" and she got really excited. Then as I was looking for a good mini for her, I came across a halfling outrider mini: a halfling riding a mastiff and carrying a spear. Bingo. Threw her a little bone by giving her a +1 frost burst spear and had everything ready to go: Zarra the Halfling Bard and her trusty mount "Ted" were born. Yeah, it gave her a little bit more "oomph" than her siblings, but I wanted her to be able to do something "fun" that would grab her attention and hang on to her.

The characters all awoke in the inn and wandered downstairs, where they were met by the inn's owner, Bob. I had wanted to use as my basis for the encounters the Pathfinder module: Hollow's Last Hope, mostly because I had run it before and knew it reasonably well-enough that it would balance out my poor health. The basis of the adventure is a quest to find ingredients to cure a plague infesting the town. Well, Bob and the adventurers were apparently the only ones in the inn that were NOT infected. Bob showed them into a private dining room where they were served breakfast; the kids ran into Bob as they explored the inn. Well, they found him slaughtering the pig in the kitchen, actually. My poor kids weren't quite sure what to do. My oldest boy went and talked to some of the sick townsfolk in the common room while my younger boy proposed to go up and look through some of the other rooms. I had to gently ask him what HE would do if some stranger opened up his bedroom door and started rummaging around. He thought for a moment and then said, "Oh. Right. Umm. Never mind. I'll go talk to Bob too."

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!! (And to my Players: this means STAY OUT.)

Once the kids got their bearings, and got some information about the two healers in the town, they set about on their search. They told me their plan, and I warned them about splitting the party. To no avail: half of them went to the herbalist's shop while the others went to visit the local cleric at the temple. The cleric was ineffectual at healing the plague, so my son's questioning offended the cleric. When they met back up at the herbalist's place, my oldest daughter assumed he had screwed up and went to the temple herself; her meddling made the cleric even MORE upset. Meanwhile, the herbalist told them there were three ingredients she needed--strange ones--and that they could help her by finding them. One was to be found near the oldest tree in the forest, one at an old dwarven monastery to the north, and one at a witch's home deep in the forest. My oldest daughter immediately wanted to split the party and send one group to the old tree and the other to the monastery (which is intended to be the climax of the adventure). I asked her if she was sure, and she replied that it was the most efficient use of time. I decided not to pull my punches; I'd already warned them.

The group heading to the monastery ("Group A") traveled deep into the forest before they had a random encounter: a kobold zombie. My littlest one had the highest initiative roll and immediately charged the kobold. She hit first, then the dog savaged the kobold a bit. Then the other two kids in Group A missed their attack rolls and Zarra attacked with her spear again. Well, I'm a bit proud of myself; the image just came to me. This is what I described to them:


Just imagine a cloud of ice crystals coming up from that turkey, and you'll have it exactly: a partially-frozen, completely rotten kobold zombie being burst open. You cannot imagine the gleeful horror expressed! Oohs, aahs, and "Oh, gross"-es. My littlest one started cackling. I felt like a successful dad at that moment. (They had just seen it before Christmas...I knew the scene had made an impression on them and was still fresh in their minds, so I ran with it.)

Group A made it to the monastery grounds just at twilight where they were attacked by two wolves. They dispatched the wolves fairly quickly, again with the help of the halfling and her doggie. She was definitely the star of the night.

Group B, meanwhile, traveled to a logging camp and endured some verbal abuse from the loggers and the foreman before speaking to a woodsman who knew the locations of the tree they were seeking as well as the witch's home. He drew them a map and promised whatever other help he could give; his nephew is suffering from the plague and he was anxious to help the adventurers find a cure. Shortly thereafter, Group B was ambushed by a bugbear. Our rogue got hurt and broke her bowstring (with a natural 1, of course) while the fighter soon dispatched the bugbear with ease.

And that's where we had to leave it, as it was close to midnight. When we pick back up, Group B is in for a nasty, nasty shock when they run in to one of my new favorite critters. Group A will also have a bad surprise when they meet the current residents of the monastery. In both cases, I think they'll learn the wisdom of keeping the party together. I'm just worried that I'll be looking at a TPK.

I'll give you some updates when we manage to play again. Hopefully by this weekend.

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?

Painted Lead: Harapan, the Elephant Man

I picked up the brush Sunday for the first time in eleven months. Yes, I said ELEVEN months.

I spent a few hours relieving stress with this guy. And by "a few" I mean "7.5" or so. "This guy" is a limited edition release from Reaper Miniatures: 01411 Harapan, Elephant Man. This was a fig released in January 2005 to raise funds for Red Cross following the Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004. I picked up a couple of these--partly because of the good cause and partly because, hey, cool miniature! They've been hiding in a box for the last 8 years.

Saturday, I was bored and exhausted. A bit depressed. My personal and professional life(s) had me stressed to the hilt. So I decided to paint. A bit of digging in my lead pile uncovered Harapan, the Elephant Man. My mind started spinning and color schemes started flashing through my brain. My hands itched to hold a paintbrush.

Yeah, I'm serious. Itching.

Don't laugh. You mini-painters out there know exactly what I'm talking about, I'll bet.

I think I'm done with the miniature except for the base/basing...haven't decided out what to do there yet. I haven't decided whether to simply paint the broccoli base, mount it to a new, larger base and do some basic terrain basing, or to build a small diorama around it (rock towers, grass, rocks, etc.) for display. Getting the right base is important, as you know.

Oh, I probably have to hit him with some sealant for a bit of protection.

I would appreciate any honest feedback, etc. from y'all. Please let me know what you think. I have to be honest, it was my first time trying out a few different techniques.

Also, I know the pictures aren't the best, but they were the best and most well-lighted of the four sets I tried.

Again: let me know what you think in the comments. Constructive criticism is more than welcome.

2012 Totals

2012 is now in the rear-view mirror, and just barely beyond the first hill. It's time to tabulate the year-long game-related accomplishments.

Adventures written: 2
Creatures created: 15
Dice obtained: 26
Games played: 10
Game sessions DM'd: 16
Items created: 9
Maps drawn: 45
Miniatures painted: 2
Miniatures purchased: 121 (+4 metal received as gifts)
NPCs created: 19
Spells scribed: 13
Feats Learned 1
Tables drafted: 1
Terrain constructed: 0

So...how does this compare to 2011? Well:

• I drafted only 6.5% of the adventures this year; I chalk that up to the loss of the Short Adventure September.
• Nearly four times the number of critters was born.
• There was "only" almost 25% of the number of dice obtained. This was either self-control or lack of effort.
• I played in double the amount of games this year, almost one per month. This is, for our group, pretty good. 2011 was a bad year because of some DM issues.
• I managed almost 1.5 times the number of DM sessions, due mainly to the continuation of an PBEM campaign.
• While I managed only two more items created this year, I scribbled out almost four times the number of maps. I'm kinda proud of that number there.
• I doubled my "painted lead" output this past year; I hope to blow that total out of the water this year.
• I increased that miniature horde this year, and barely eked out a total barely over last years total. However, I'm amused by my prediction from one year ago: I was not overly impressed by the Pathfinder miniatures and didn't expect to have a high miniature total in 2012. Hah! Pathfinder managed to increase the quality of the sculpts and paint jobs, as well as issuing some unique and interesting sculpts.
• Again because of that pesky Short Adventure September, only 50% of the NPCs were born.
• My spellbook grew in size with 6.5 times the number of spells scribed versus 2011.
• Only 33% of the number of tables was drafted. (That sounds better than saying "only one.")
• For the second straight year, no terrain was constructed. Sigh. 

I'm going to shoot for some increased blogging; January hasn't been too productive, but I've still got time. 2012 was a year of stress and frustration, both on a personal and professional level. Health issues, family issues, and financial issues all came to bear on me, but again: the hobby and the friends made through the hobby helped make it survivable.

Everyone join me in a toast: raise your dice cups high and keep them d20s dry. Here's to 2013!

Obligatory Apology Filler Post

My head seems to be spinning around non-stop lately.

I just realized how long it's been since I've actually posted anything here. And, yes, I know that I post one of these apology posts every so often; but heck, we all do, don't we?

Just to let you know what's been going on, at least, as much as I can at this point:

Work: Everyone here at the firm is soundly convinced that we will be unemployed before Christmas. I've been working and struggling to find some other options that will help me keep my kids fed and my wife's gas tank filled.

Finances: See above. There's a grundle of cool gaming stuff that I really want to shell out for--from dice made from rare, exotic woods to limited edition reprints of books I already have. Unfortunately, the "other options" I'm investigating don't really leave a lot of discretionary income. There's still a bit out there, but not much.

Health: I've been undergoing some really weird health issues. I don't think they're anything too serious, but the chronic nature of them is getting me a bit worried. However, thanks to over-regulation of the insurance industry (as well as a few pre-existing conditions), we had to cancel our family health insurance plan a couple years ago. Even with insurance, we weren't the type to run to the doctor for every sniffle and ache; now it's gotta be really serious to go to that waiting room. And frankly, no...I don't want my government to give me health care and no...health care is NOT going to get any easier around here any time soon. But that's a post for a different blog.

Family: I've got a teenager failing classes; she's a Junior in high school and we're not sure what the problem might be. She's smart--insanely so. I'm proud of her, but feel like we're pulling our hair out to try to help her succeed. I've got a Boy Scout now as well as a Cub Scout; merit badges and pinewood derby cars take a lot of time. I have an aged mother who I'm trying to help finalize the purchase of a headstone for my late father; the problems and follow-up come because the purchase was made from a monument company that now, apparently, is suffering huge financial issues itself, which tends to make me worry that we'll never actually SEE the stone. Add to that a Christmas letter or two that has to be drafted, as well as stuff for our Church....

Church: I won't even go into the time that my position with the Church requires.

Gaming: The group hasn't gotten together for over a month, now. The campaign is in the last chapter, but seems to have stagnated. There's been some odd things happen--weird dynamics and all--with the group that we're still trying to smooth over and put behind us. Nothing serious, but it took its toll. Even the PBEM I've been running with a friend has been on hold since August.

There's more that I could share, but I'm fairly certain I've lost most of my readers at this point to the [NEXT BLOG] button up on the top of the page. Suffice it to say that in my spare time I'm still noodling things out. Maps are still being doodled. NPC backgrounds are still being thunk up. And just this week I've realized that there are still a few things left undone from the 2011 OSR September Challenge--a few NPCs that need stats and I'm working on a template to put together a PDF of the entire month's creations. Again: I just need to find the time to put the stuff on paper. I'll be here and there, posting as time and creativity permits. I'm really hoping that life settles down a bit after the New Year.

Of course, I believe that I think--and say--the same thing EVERY December.

Sigh.

Keep your dice dry, my friends.

NaNoWriMo: IT BEGINS!!!!

Or it SHOULD be beginning, anyway.
It ain't happenin' here this year. I'm a little bit bummed out about it but also a little bit relieved. I think I need to step away from the "forced imagination production" for a year to recharge my batteries. I also need to step away for a year because of personal issues that just won't quit. Between my ecclesiastical duties, responsibilities to my family, concerns over my mother's health, concerns over MY health, not to mention financial worries and the looming potential that this attorney may be out of work soon...between all these things, I just can't justify spending the time, sweat, blood, and tears to pound out 1,334 words per day over the next month.

Especially when I fear that most of those 1,334 words would simply end up on the editing room floor anyway, simply because I couldn't be trusted to focus and concentrate on my craft.

It's a little bittersweet; as hard as it can be sometimes, it is still fun to sit side by side with my wife and compete for daily word count, all while helping each other with our respective budding novels.

The creative output can be cathartic, but in this instance I fear it will be a distraction instead.

And now that I read this post, I realize that this is all a bit personal and it's likely that none of my readers really care that I'm not participating in NaNoWriMo this year. On the off chance that one of you out there actually did care...well, I guess this post is for you, to help allay your frustration. For the rest of you, I guess this frees up a bit more time this month for some gaming-related creativity, which The Stronghold typically lacks during the month of October. Expect a few more posts at least this month.

Now...back to the real world for a while.

Character Punishment.

I've been staring at a blank post page for over an hour now.

Yeah. That's what my life is like right now. There's a lot of stuff that's hit--personally and professionally--in the past couple weeks and gaming, unfortunately, has taken the back seat. We're talking rumble seat, here. I've barely had a chance to meet my financial obligations to a couple of OSR friends' products, products I haven't had an opportunity to read because of those aforementioned concerns.

Writing and creating has been squelched nearly completely.

But, figuring on vacation upcoming where I'll have severely limited access to the internet, I figured I have to get a post down somehow about something to prove I'm still alive.

Hence the hour-long staring contest with the blank screen.

Sigh.

So I go to thinking about the only gaming I've been able to do: a PBEM solo game with one of my long-time gaming buddies. And by "gaming" I mean "stolen moments here and there when my paralegals leave me alone long enough between document drafts where I can roll a die and tell my buddy what's just happened to him." And by "PBEM" I really mean Yahoo! Messenger. It's choppy and can be slow and frustrating, but hey...it's still gaming.

So, at the risk of boring some all of you, let me tell you where we are and what we're doing with this solo game. Trust me, it has some bearing on the title of this blog entry: Character punishment.

As some of you may remember from a couple posts back in October of last year, our long-time gaming group picked up out original characters, rebuilt them for "Epic" use (meaning post-20th level and certainly NOT using the Epic Level Handbook) and went off on a "last" adventure to tie up some loose ends from some 10 years ago. At the end of some well-scripted encounters, the group found itself circled around an unconscious female NPC that had caused us no small amount of grief and pain in the several iterations of our original campaign: she had been welcomed into our party when, unknowingly, she was our red dragon nemesis in disguise. Make the assumptions that you want about the trouble she caused--you're probably 90% correct. She was so much trouble that the miniature the DM used for her was permanently cursed. He tried to use it in a different campaign and we all reacted so poorly to the miniature (with distrust, hatred, and anger) that he literally had to retire the miniature.

So we had angst toward the NPC.

And found ourselves surrounding her unconscious body.

And my friend "D", the elven Rogue...cut her head off.

Well, the DM didn't appreciate that all too much. He stopped short of calling for an alignment check. Instead, he had all of our various deities appear and take away the magnificent god-gifted weapons from the entire party. Yep....*poof*...our artifact/legacy level weapons were gone. That was how our adventure ended.... That and the final retirement of our original DM from gaming.

So...it's obvious that we were all a bit unsatisfied with that conclusion. Our group's "first-alternate DM" happens to be "D" and in the week following the conclusion, he came up with a continuation-adventure hook. You see, it was a joint idea a year ago between "D" and myself to re-visit our original characters...then our original DM jumped in and took over from there. But "D" came up with a great "postscript" story line in which the deities involved with each of our characters visited the Rogue and "expressed their displeasure." They gave him a good tongue lashing, then presented him (as part of his penance) the various artifacts to be returned in person to the rest of the group. So, we all got back our stuff...except for him. He had to go on a Quest to learn, among other things, patience, wisdom, etc. I played around with the story for a bit, added some color and flavor with the gods' different voices, and then we threw it out for the other guys to approve. Obviously, all the players approved of getting their stuff back.

Then what to do with the Rogue. You see, we all agreed (after hearing the original DMs exposition on who the NPC really was, her situation, background, etc.) that the Rogue had screwed up. He may have acted in character, but it was still a huge boo-boo. Even the Rogue agreed that he should be punished, somehow. Well, as penance, the deities would take away his animal cohort, most of his abilities, equipment, etc. (or rather, force him to leave them behind) and to temporarily reduce his XP to next-to-nothing. This effectively dropped him down to first-level, although he retained most of his skills and attribute levels. As "third-alternate DM" for the group, I then proposed putting him through several modules and adventures -- alone -- and allow him to rebuild his XP back to his 26th level. This would represent his "re-education" and "repentance." It also gave him a chance to restructure his character into a new class: one that we created that better fit his idea of his character.

It hasn't been easy for him. He's confessed to me that every time he leaves the camp or the door to the inn, he feels ready to wet himself. He's alone, remember. Even though he has most of his skills and attributes, he has no feats, no special abilities...nothing beyond second level abilities. He has none of his magic items, except for a bag of holding. He has no special weapons. Indeed, he started out with darts, a dagger, and a sap. He's since picked up a short- and long-swords, as well as a crossbow, but he's been very good at limiting his weapon use. I started him in a 1st-level adventure from Paizo (I'm not going to name names here; I was at first, but I think I won't, so as not to tempt him with metagaming and spoilers.) which, while not easy for him, went quickly. I'm now using a sequel adventure, which has yet another sequel after that. He should go up a couple levels by then.

It's been entertaining to watch. I threw a gelatinous cube at him and watched him panic; I threw some darkmantles at him and he nearly fled the ruins. In the past 12 years of gaming, we've never encountered either. It's amazing what a little lack of knowledge and surprise (and creative description) can do to a player. And to a character. I've come close to killing him a couple of times--really close--but he's pulled through. No fudging on the die rolls, either. It's all been straight up. He's done some unexpected things that have made me stretch myself as a DM and make some on-the-fly rulings. And it's been a lot of fun.

So...I suppose I can open it up to thoughts and suggestions. We, as a group, have never had to punish a character before. Did we do it the right way?