The Summer Slowdown

- Summer time... gaming and posting has seemed to slow down. Maybe things will pick up again as we get nearer to Gencon. Not that I am going but blog traffic seems to pick up and more things happen.

- I have an advanced case of gamer ADD. It only seems to go into remission when I play which has been rare the last while. I have spent far more time buying and reading stuff. The problem (besides the impact to my wallet) is that I come up with all sorts of campaign and one-shot ideas. It is difficult enough to schedule sessions for the Northern Marches and the Dark Sun / Castles & Crusades micro-campaign much less to add anything new.

- I was reading through the comments to James Maliszewski's recent post regarding Save or Die. James does a wonderful job of posting his thoughts and ideas in a well thought out and easily understood manner but I am always amazed how the comments to his posts can very quickly veer off into us versus them. I don't know if it is because his posting is so well thought out that his blog attracts such diverse readers. I do sometimes wish people would stay a bit more on subject though. I was going to make a comment there but I decided that it would not benefit anyone but myself so decided against it. I have no problem with others enjoying their games. Hell, I like all sorts of games myself. But don't talk down to me or others because of the style of games we like. Table top roleplaying is a wonderful hobby that has done a lot of good things for me and many, many others. How can any game where people get to sit down with friends and spend hours talking together be a bad thing no matter what style you prefer?

- I have been reading the Gazetteer for Paizo's Golarion setting and the regional source book for their Darkmoon Vale. I think that the Darkmoon Vale would be a great little sandbox. Of course I would have to convert it to something far more rules-lite than 3.5E like B/X or Castles & Crusades but that wouldn't tough.

- I am pretty much done writing the next session of the Dark Sun micro-campaign. The only things I have to do now are come up with some of the props and find a hole in everyone's schedules. I figure that the campaign will cover about 5 sessions. This micro campaign is nothing like my Northern Marches campaign. The Northern Marches is a exploration based sandbox while the Dark Sun game is a more story-focused game. I do not know the entire story but I do have a general sense of the direction of the game. I make up my notes for each session based on what has happened in previous sessions. It is interesting running two very different games.

- This week is Stampede in Calgary. This is the first time I have really missed working since I left my job in January. Downtown Calgary is a lot of fun this week.