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.

A Present for Myself

Just arrived. I had most of the comic books but they went away long ago. I am pretty happy!

Now Reading: City of the Beast

by Michael Moorcock

from the Paizo website:
Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion returns as Kane of Old Mars, a brilliant American physicist whose strange experiments in matter transmission catapult him across space and time to the Red Planet.

Kane’s is a Mars of the distant past, a place of romantic civilizations, fabulous many-spired cities, and the gorgeous princess Shizala. To win her hand and bring peace to Mars, Kane must defeat the terrible Blue Giants of the Argzoon, whose ravaging hordes threaten the whole planet!

Currently Reading: Elak of Atlantis

by Henry Kuttner.

From the Paizo website:
Explore the origins of sword and sorcery with Henry Kuttner’s Elak of Atlantis! Published in Weird Tales to satisfy fans of Conan the Barbarian in the wake of Robert E. Howard’s death, these four stories depict a brutal world of flashing swords and primal magic, touched by a hint of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. Never collected in a mass-market edition since their publication in the late 1930s, these exciting tales helped to establish a genre and are a critical part of any fantasy library. Also included in this collection are Kuttner’s two rare and equally groundbreaking Prince Raynor stories from 1939’s Strange Tales.

Dive into these seminal, thrilling adventure tales from one of the most important writers in science fiction and fantasy, and discover for yourself why Elak of Atlantis is renowned by scholars as a major step in the evolution of a genre.