Saturday, September 24, 2011

Day 266 of 362

Look ma... no khaki!

It is now the main day of the MtG: Innistrad Pre-Release idiocy... I was at the store for 18+ hours yesterday/this morning. I have taken a 2-hour nap. Amazingly, though I am tired and I can physically feel my immune system hating me right now, I'm pretty much ready to get back at it.

I tend to get jazzed for "big events" and can usually power my way through just about anything in terms of fatigue while things are in the midst of happening. At the end, though, my body hates me, and lets me know how much... I remember when I ran events during all nine time slots of the local game convention. I got through it all rather handily (or so I thought), only to have my body lay the hell out with a week-long illness that had my body temperature spiking at 104 degrees Fahrenheit. That sucked bawls... there is no other way to put it.

Tonight, I'll get a bit of a break as Lo' will come oversee the store during the main part of this evening's event, which will let me come home and get a touch of rest, then I go back at it again for the finale.

Go me... yay me... ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz...

-- GopherDave

Friday, September 23, 2011

Day 265 of 362

Yep, it seems I wore a khaki sweater yesterday, as well. I hate it when cold medicine interferes with my sartorial memory... This does look good, though... 

Okay... Friday Night magic tonight, and then the insanity starts... and I haven't had NEAR enough sleep given how ill I am.

On a gaming note, Last night's Champions run was a hoot to play in. A complete change from what I had been feeling two weeks ago, when I was thinking of dropping the game due to my lack of spare time and seeming disinterest on the GMs part running it. I may stick around for a bit after all...

I wish I had more time, but I'm not getting enough done as it stands...

-- GopherDave

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Day 264 of 362


It's Thurday... We should have Pathfinder: Shackled City and Champions: Chicago 2 (Electric Boogaloo) happening tonight.

I'm up early to deal with a situation involving one of the children's places of academic achievement. It shouldn't be too terrible, I'm just not digging the hour at which I have to be awake. I swear I should've had another hour of sleep in there somewhere.

Preparations proceed apace for the ginormous MtG Innistrad Pre-Release going on this weekend at the store. We're not fully prepared, nor do I think we will be, but we'll be close... and close is good enoough for me right now, as I'm still sick. I'm on the tail end-feeling better side of being sick mind you, but still ill, and this weekend will do nothing for my immune system. Yay...

That's it for now... more as it springs to my head and I actually have time to type it...

-- GopherDave

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Day 263 of 362


Here are I am, waiting for my UPS shipment... and waiting... and waiting...

Beyond that, last night's DC Adventures game was a heaping ton of fun. It was a complete blast dealing with the time-travel jankity-jank. We have (what we think is) the last piece of it all to deal with next session, and it's not looking easy, sports fans. Task Force X, Amanda Waller, and a hyper-time construct of everyone's favorite cynical telekinetic, Marathon. Plus, as an added bonus, they are all dead and armed with Black Lantern rings... oh goody... goody... gumdrops...

Catch y'all, tomorrow...

-- GopherDave

Bones, Not Flesh...

As I sit here waiting for laundry to dry, I've begun thinking about my gaming history and how I've changed within that span on time.

When I was new (a whopping 8 years old), I had been introduced to this whole new gateway for my creativity. While I was not well versed in Tolkien and other fantasy literature (and I'm still not), I had an active imagination, and with pencils, hex/graph paper, and crayons in hand, I began to make WORLDS. All sorts of worlds, spun whole cloth out of my head. Very few of these places made sense, and in fact, all are forgotten, but I do remember creating outdoor regions, and the dungeons and ruins that populated them. Timeless places of adventure that my friends and I could explore for days...

As I got older, I grew out of the "fantasy" bug. I still liked to roleplay, but, by the time I was sixteen, I was looking for different flavors like Top Secret or Paranoia. I eventually hit my stride with superhero games like Champions, but still dabbled in other things, just to keep the creative muscles limber.

In my twenties, I began to experiment with game mechanics and homebrew game systems. How things worked intrigued me, and after dissecting numerous different systems, I came to the conclusion that I could do as well as anyone else. Systems, themselves, though, are boring as dirt. Without the meat hanging from the skeleton, all games look like the same thing... ...just bones. As a result, I became good at placing drapes in the window, making games with just enough background to make characters, but not enough to withstand true scrutiny. In my development of design, that's where I've stayed for the last fifteen or so years...

I've come up with many cool settings, but have never fleshed any of them out to be truly workable... Settings like...

Ones & Zeroes -- A take on the 80s-esque cyberpunk of Gibson, Sterling, and Williams. Elements include the stratified sections of New Madrid (Lowtown, Midtown, and Hightown), the Steel Ceiling, the Crystal Tower, as well as typical cyberpunk body modifications.

Commuters -- Time-traveling criminals who work for a futuristic government agency whose mission is to fix anomalies to history, or die trying.

Nightcrawlers -- A world much like our own, where the things that go bump in the night really do go bump in the night.

Tai'eres -- A human-centric fantasy world (think Conan) that's been invaded by crystalline aliens. The invasion has been beaten back, but in its wake Tai'eres was left with the keys to unlock the full potential of the land.

There are about half a dozen others on the hard drive (Division 6, Slidesteps, Surreality, Thump-AIIIEEEE!!!!, just to name a few), but none of them have much more than notes sketching out what they are supposed. With those notes *I* personally can run adventures, but anyone else will draw a complete blank.

I'm forty-four now, and somewhere I've lost the ability to create worlds. I can still run things with my few notes, and have a great time doing so, but I want more. I want what I was once able to do on command. Create worlds without my intellect getting in the way and bogging things down in details.

How do other people deal with that?

-- GopherDave

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Day 262 of 362


It's Tuesday, so that means order day at the store. I'm going to in and keep it as lean as possible, with our bonkers Innistrad Prerelease coming up, that will take some coin.

On the sickness front, well... I'm still sick, and it's looking like I won't be fully recovered before doing the marathoin this weekend. I will gut it out though. Speaking of Marathon, tonight is DC Adventures at the store. One of these days, I'm going to figure out how to link a PDF into one of these entries so y'all can take a look at him from a mechanics standpoint. Last I remember, we're dealing with some time travel jankity-jank, and that I need to crush Skeets for generally being too optimistic.

Later... GopherDave

Monday, September 19, 2011

Day 261 of 362

How sick am I? I didn't realize I wore this same exact combination eight days ago, until I was putting togther today's blog entry... Sad...

It's Monday... I'm still trying to hack up a lung, but I am better than I was yesterday, so that's a good sign. Still trying to puzzle out my gaming situation, but right now, I'm more focused on trying to get well and running the store.

Also trying to get things in line for the uber-stupid-what-was-I-thinking MtG: Innistrad Pre-Release coming up this weekend. We've just about got everything in place, except prizes which I am hoping to work on in a few days. Where we're going to store them is beyond me.

Anyway... I'm getting back to work. Y'all take care. I'm going to go find my lungs...

-- GopherDave

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Day 260 of 362


It's Sunday... and I am officially sick as a dog. However, I still feel better than Loquacious, so I'm the one going into the store.

I'm still putting notes together for the ACD Games Day seminars that I did attend. Some interesting stuff was said, and some of it is sinking in and being cogitated.

I am still sick, though, so not that much is getting done today on my end. Apologies if it affects you... =P

-- GopherDave