New Links & Book Chatter

If you're a local friend, you'll be happy to note the addition of Dr. Ryan Clouser's LJ--Bummin' Around. He not too long ago married and is living in New Hampshire. I wish him well and hope he doesn't take too long to visit his family (and the rest of us!) back in Hamburg. Ryan participated in my D&D group for many years before college broke up that first fantastic group. Off and on he was able to play again in the first Protectorate campaign as the cunning, smart-ass elven rogue Elron Blackbane. Sadly, Ryan outgrew fantasy gaming before his passion for medicine took him away from the group (although I bet he'd sit in on a session if given the opportunity).

The other link is to Chuck Cuthbert's LJ "Captain's Mast" and I don't know why I haven't gotten it on here before this (chalk it up to laziness). Not only did 2000 bring a new edition to D&D but it brought the group Chuck and his wife Heather. The duo showed up at the drug store one sunny Saturday and asked if I was the Bret who played D&D. Seems my dad and Chuck knew each other and gaming came up. Thank goodness it did because I don't know if we would even have a group today without the Cuthberts. This was abour the time that Everquest ate up two of my other players. The Cuthberts filled those vacant spots admirably and 3rd edition also saw the return of Brad (Chilled Monkey Brains), who had pretty much taken 2nd edition off. ;) Gaming has been the best it's ever been over the last 7 years and the recent addition of Mike Ferguson makes the experiences even better.

Freelancing has been lagging as I'm pulling more hours at the store this week. No days off but it was voluntary as I need the money. :) With any luck, I'll be able to dive back into the regular routine come Sunday. There's still a Crown story to knock around and I must revise my submitted draft of Adventurer Essentials: Waterskin. No biggie but then there's always the Tricky Owlbear products to prep. Not to mention regular gaming!

In the midst of everything, I'm still trying to get some reading in. I finished Margaret Weis' Amber & Ashes a couple weeks ago, detailing the character Mina from Dragonlance's War of Souls trilogy. I've enjoyed MW's work (especially the Star of the Guardians trilogy) and Dragonlance so this seemed a no brainer. Unfortunately, the book was less than spectacular. Mina is not a compelling character without the Dragon Queen behind her and the plot is, well, laughable (the god of death is using love and eternal life to gather more followers--okay...) and the mandatory kender Nightshade is just no Tasslehoff. And have I mentioned that Mina knocked a death knight's head from his shoulders with a...wait for it...crowbar? I should have stopped right there but I really do hate not finishing books.

After that was a quick page turner from Robert E. Howard. I bought a Conan collection last year and finally got around to the first story (something about a phoenix...the book isn't in front of me). It was good, centering on Conan slaying those involved in a coup attempt and slaying a shadowy ape conjured to slay the coup's leader (and Conan pretty much just wanting to slay things in general). Following this tale comes Keith Baker's third installment of his Ebberon trilogy--Gates of Night. I've been quite impressed with Baker's stuff but the plot just for this book just isn't as compelling as the characters themselves. I'm about two-thirds of the way through and, don't get me wrong, I'm still really enjoying it but less so than if the characters were driving the story and not the other way around.

Death and Taxes

Since I'm not feeling that well today and it's time to meet with the tax man, the title seemed appropriate. :) Woke up today with some dizziness and accompanying nausea. Fortunately, a co-worker came in to take my short Sat. shift (especially since I'll be working every day next week from Monday to Sat.). The dizziness has mostly subsided now and I didn't throw up my lunch so we'll call it a victory.

On the freelance scene, I'm delving into a setting called Crown written and developed by fellow freelancer Alex Carlsson (see Wanderman's Realm in the Links). Dark Quest is ramping up the huge city-setting for release and the project is to be accompanied with a release of short stories. Yup, I'm writing one of them. Today is spent reading the writer's bible and churning some ideas in the brainpan. Tomorrow I've got to invest some time in Tricky Owlbear projects.

Hoards Review

Chris Gath must have stored up some reviews during his quiet period because we have another review from him. This time it's for DQG's treasure resource Hoards: http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=3407388

Not much going on today except work. The snow we received late last week is receding nicely thanks to almost spring-like temps (and go figure, it's spring in about 20 minutes). Tomorrow I may be taking my grandmother to the doctor as she has not been well since the weekend. It's my day off so I offered my chauffering services.

Web Review

Chris Gath continues his Behind the Spells reviews with Web: http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=3405299

Casino Trip, part ?%#^&

On Wed., Linda and I took a little trip down to Delaware Park (for me it must be the 7th time this year or so). Well, could I get any machine to cooperate? Nope! Money flew from my wallet faster than a horny guy at a prostitute convention. Linda, however, had a fantastic day; every machine she touched turned to gold and, by the end of the trip, was at $400. Although I was supposed to buy dinner for her birthday, she graciously bought for us that night (I know, I'm not off the hook yet). I may not have won but I still had fun.

So it's another snow day here in Hamburg but everything appears to be on the melt already. Thank the gods spring is not far off. Still haven't finished AE: Waterskin. Just can't seem to get enthused about it I suppose. I did start on the format for Tricky Owlbear's Behind the Monsters line and think I've outlined a fairly compelling reason for that monster's creation. Let history be my judge if my answer is better than Gary Gygax's "I named it after a plastic figure."

If you're a Dragon subscriber, you've undoubtedly received your April modron-packed issue. I'm glad these monsters are back for 3e. Ever since I saw Dave Sutherland's rendition of those geometric-shaped creatures from MMII, I've loved them. Don't ask me why my 10-year-old brain found those old illustrations so interesting but it did. Thanks to Ken Marable and the folks at Dragon for returning these little guys to us.

I'm looking forward to playing my mostly insane Traveller captain Sarz Banx tomorrow at the game barn. It's been awhile since we shared in a good space romp.

Company Formation

As Tricky Owlbear slowly winds its way through the birthing canal, I've decided to tap the general RPG public (at least in the business forum at rpg.net and ENWorld) for comments and suggestions involving online small business formation. If you or someone you know is in the pdf biz, stop by and drop your two cents: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=7044646#post7044646 or here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=190861

I'm A Patron!

If you've never heard of Wolfgang Baur (well, where have you been), he's had an illustrious career in roleplaying since the TSR days. This accomplished designer is now also designing adventures for folks who donate to his Open Design project: http://customadventure.livejournal.com/

Yesterday I signed up for the $100 patron level. This gives me exlusive access to behind the scenes posts and a hand in crafting the adventure as well. There are still two adventures vying for patronage but I'm confident that the ghouls underdark mega-adventure will pull ahead. It should prove to be a great learning experience in adventure design and hopefully a lot of fun to boot!

Snow Day & OSRIC

A few inches of the white stuff has fallen outside and, given I just washed the car on Sunday, am not particularly inclined to go anywhere today. So, it's time to work on AE: Waterskin and think about an OSRIC adventure to send to Expeditious Retreat Press (Joe Browning heavily hinted that they were accepting submissions when I mentioned wanting to pen an adventure so I might as well get in some OSRIC practice with them).

The problem I have with OSRIC is two-fold. First, where can I get some monsters? The rules for the 1st edition-compatible system were released, which is all well and good, but where are the critters? I saw there's a book on Lulu for them but does this include the classic goblins, orcs, etc.? Second, it's been so long since I played non-d20 D&D that I don't know how the heck I ever balanced encounters. I recall eyeballing them by using a monster's HD but is that in any way relevant? Guess that's what playtesting is for.

PC Death!

It turns out we were playtesting Mike's contribution to Goodman's mid-level The Adventure Continues DCC collection (not yet announced) today. It was a fun romp into a mysterious forest in search of a rogue water supply. I won't say more about the adventure but I will say that my dwarven Ftr1/Sor3 died a wonderful death! When my brother's PC was out on a rope about to be cut by a bad guy, I bull rushed the foe. Unfortunately, my bull rush was so good and the floor so slippery that we plunged from the edge of the melee area and to a 120-foot demise. At least I took the bad guy with me. :) Other highlights included a morality issue with our Lawful Good fighter (declining a chance to surrender = death to the foe in my CG dwarf's book) and trying out a couple spell secrets and one new spell from Behind the Spells. At the end of the day, I think we all had a good time; especially since my 4-hour character creation won't go to waste with a raise dead on the horizon for next time.

Gaming Tomorrow!

Tomorrow at this time we'll be knee deep in the first (hopefully of many) game run for us by friend and fellow freelancer Mike Ferguson. We'll be playing in the world of Aereth, the DCC campaign world from Goodman Games. I'm glad because it gives me a very good excuse to look through that box set tonight and get familiar with another great sounding environment. I'll be playing a sorcerer so I can enjoy actually using my Behind the Spells spell secrets and variants for my own pleasure. As always, it'll be much fun to play and not worry about DMing duties.