Twelve-Hour Day Sandwich...

Monday

Wednesday

Two more days, with one off inbetween to take care of a favor I promised second-spawn a couple of months ago. That said, Monday and Wednesdays are my 12-hour days, and they bracketed the favor for the Thing#2 that onvolved driving them to another city roughly 90 minutes away to wait aorund a couple of hours to drive her back...

Not much has happened on any of these days other than I worked 24 hours and drove for another 3-4 or so. Tuesday, I got back together with a group of folks I used to game with, but I had stepped away from for personal reasons. In my absence from the group, some other stuff happened with them, and they were without game... ...and without GM as the person who had been doing had some things happen, and no longer has the ability to do so.

This is where I step in... I am coming back, and I have agreed to run a game for them. This is the fourth game I will be running currently, but this has a twist. I'm writing the system for this one because I don't have enough to do... =P

We got together and spoke a little bit about what we wanted from the game, and I explained some of where I was taking the system and background I had in mind. Then we shot the shit for a couple more hours before back pain sent me home early. I did, after banging my head on the desk for a few weeks, get more of an idea of where I am taking the game and the system, and have started laying down words. I will lay down some more later tonight. It'll be fun...

Basically a D12-based, dice pool system with some narrative elements that has a working system title of "EFF-CON12". Think White Wolf's storyteller, Evil Hat's FATE, and Pinnacle's Savage Worlds slammed together at high speeds, with whatever parts that stuck together becoming the bulk of the system, and me contributing spit and polish. Now add comic-book superheroes...

It'll be ***GLORIOUS***

peace... GopherDave

Depression and the Evil Spiral...

Don't let the shot fool you. The sweater is jet black. It just looks like a really badass charcoal gray due to lighting.
I would **TOTALLY** buy a sweater in this color, though... Just for those of you keeping score at home. =P

I had a good conversation with a friend of mine about his ongoing battle against clinical depression. As we spoke, the talk had me thinking about my mind set over the last couple of years. Looking back, I have very little doubt that I have been coping with a MASSIVE fit of depression myself for the last 3+ years. Since I am also a person with minor (untreated) bi-polar syndrome, this depression would occasionally get punctuated with a spike of manic that would last for a day or two, but then I would sink back into my malaise.

Consequently, the longer things went on, the more depressed I began to feel, but it was so slow in onset that I literally did not noticed that it had happened until earlier this year. It was, in a word, insidious. It is only with the clarity that "distance" provides that I am beginning to understand just how f****d up I was.

• My weight had a lot to do with it, but even that was just a result of my not wanting to do anything meaningful. The less I did, the more weight I gained, and the more weight I gained, the less I wanted to do anything at all. I am just now pulling out of this in a number of areas, but some damage has been done (health-wise) that will take a fair amount of time to fix.
• My realtionship with Mrs. Gopher, which has been rockier than we ever let on in the last couple of years, is showing signs of improvement because I am putting effort back into it. Part of our issue wasn't that I didn't care about my marriage, but instead it was my not realizing that I was NOT actively caring that did most of the damage. I was distant, lost, and pretty much unapproachable, and I had NO idea I had become that way.
• The store, which had slid into being sort of a dingy clubhouse, is now getting more of my attention once again, and things are slowly coming back from that. The main reason with us changing the hours back to opening at 11AM after two and a half years of opening at 3PM was to force me to be in the store more than I had been. As tired as I am, it is helping both the store and myself.
• My gaming life? That's still being worked on, but I am taking steps to address that as well.

Plans are in place to take my life back... =)

Another friend asked me if I felt my current upswing is just another manic hiccup and if I will, after a brief period, slide back into my long-term funk. Honestly, I'm not sure, but if I believe it to be, then my depression has already won the battle again. However, another part of me is saying "screw that noise". Now that I've opened my eyes to my own (in-)actions, I can address them for what they are. Knowing what they are... They're gonna get fixed, by sheer force of will and good (re-built) habits.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some life to attack... =)

peace... GopherDave

Just Over a Week In...

Thursday, Friday, Sunday, and Monday... I was off on Saturday... kind of...

So far, so good... The early opening times are slowly starting to catch on once again. After 2.5 years, it'll be slow going, but I am optimistic...

Game-wise, I am running three games, committed to running a fourth (why did I do that?), and trying to plan five events for the convention in late January. I not a glutton for punishment at all... (read: sarcasm).

Beyond that... all is as well as it could be... =P

-- GopherDave

Five Month Check In...

Hmmm... Where to begin?

A lot has happened over the last five months, and most of it is not good, though some of it is pretty okay...

In a nutshell, and in no particular order...

• A good friend (and chairman/coordinator of the local game convention) passed away about seven weeks before the most recent convention. The convention went on with a few hiccups, and looks like it will continue on for a bit as a number of folks figure out and pick up the work that this man did. I am not as involved as I would like due to all of us trying to avoid the apperance of a conflict of interest (My wife and I own a local game store, and there were problems in the past when a local store owner (not us) had a sizable finger in the convention set-up/management), but it looks like it will continue for at least a few more years...
• My father has recently had a combination stroke/seizure that has left him unable to walk without a walker (and poorly at that) and has dampened his faculties to the point where he doesn't know where he is most of the time. This has caused some stress in the family as I see where this is going (my father moving into a nursing home equipped to deal with Alzheimer sufferers) and had had the temerity to voice this. My mother, nor my older brother like this concept, nor do they agree with me. For my brother, our father is his hero and my brother is having more than a difficult time coming to grips that the man he knows and loves is effectively no longer with us. My sibling is of the opinion that "dad will be fine once we get him home". My mother was of this opinion, as well... initially. The more she deals with the problem, the more she understands that her husband may never come home, or if he does, it won't be for long as he will require more care than she can give him. Normally, I take a bit of pride in being correct about many situations. This one? I honestly wish I am completely wrong and that my father makes a full recovery. Barring divine intervention, I don't see that happening...
• I been told to lose pretty much half of myself in weight or die...
• I've been diagnosed as "pre-diabetic", which is apparently a danger zone where one is not diabetic yet, but if they keep going down the path that they are on, they will be soon. As a result, I've been put on a low-carb diet that pretty much rules out anything I really like (pizza and Mexican food) in favor of yogurt, salad, vegetables, and meat. Okay... meat's not so bad...
• My pacemaker, after having been confirmed as working in December of 2015, apparently died in January of 2016, so that has to be replaced...
• My Feng Shui 2 game has been set aside due to rapid and frequent player turnover. Hard to run a serial game if characters and players change almost every session...
• My Champions game has been placed on hiatus for a variation of the same reason. Six players... Three consistent... One bailed due to health (he contracted cancer). He's forgiven. Another insisted on staying in the game even though his employment was screwing around with him hard enough that his attendence was consistently *VERY* late, if at all... A third one showed up more often than not, but never could be bothered to actually show any real interest in the game... I know some of these players read this blog when I infrequently post, and if what I have typed here upsets you, I apologize to a certain extent, but realize that some of what was happening was also causing me some undue frustration.
• I recently began a Deadlands: Hell on Earth Reloaded campaign (the Worms' Turn) that was going *REALLY* well for three runs... ...and then it wasn't. Part of it is my fault for the scenario of the evening, but part of it has to do with some of the rules (and my implementation of such, as written). That will get rectified soon...
• I also began a game of East Texas Univeristy in order to fulfill a promise I had made to a few people to run them through it once my schedule cleared up. One run down, thus far, and it is mostly good. A couple of snags here and there, but overall not bad. I'm sort of waiting for session number four to see if the other shoe drops...
• I will be starting a campaign of the Last Parsec (Eres Beta-V) this upcoming Sunday. We'll see how that goes as we have one player who has a dislike of Savage Worlds as a game system, but after a bit of badgering, he gave in and is willing to try..

On top of all of this, I still have the desire to run a superhero game. It just cannot be with my go-to game system for the genre (Hero System/Champions). As much as I love the system for superhero gaming, it requires far too much prep-time to be useful to me. I want to concentrate on story... not making NPCs. Unfortnately, I have a *DEEP* love of tactical combat for superhero games, and nothing does that better than Hero System. I don't really have time to create a system of my own, but I do want something that fits a few requirements...

• Tactical combat...
• A die-rolling mechanic that is related more to a bell curve rather than a single-die system that lends itself to a linear probability...
• A character system that lends itself to comic-book tropes without feeling too cartoony...

The setting for this game will have to be all-new. I have a background that I have used for a number of games, and it is good and solid, but it also tends toward the darker side of the genre, and I am trying to break away from that. Thus, I am planning a new background/setting for this as yet unrealized superhero game. I have a few ideas in my head. I just have to put them on paper. Here goes nothing...

peace... GopherDave

A Cry From The Dark...

Still alive... I haven't written much for the blog as I have not had a great deal of time to do so. I have noticed something, though. When I stop writing things here, I pretty much stop writing anything and my games suffer. As it stands, I am struggling with my creative juices with regard to both my Champions and my Feng Shui 2 games, but for some reason, my brain is trying to force another game out of me... sigh...

On top of that, Winter War is coming up and I have games to prep. I have one game sketch plotted, and the characters converted from the old edition of the rules to the new edition of the rules that came out earlier this year. The NPCs need to be put together and the plot needs to be fleshed out a bit for that one to be considered done. I have another game that doesn't even have a title, but the overarching plot for the series of eight is jotted down in note form. Both of the games I am discussing are the next installments in a couple of series that I ran last year. I'd like to do one more game, but I have no idea what that would be...

Beyond that, I've been running the store, listening to music, reading some comics, and trying to spend some time with my wife, kids and dogs...

Sleep is that thing that other people do...

peace... GopherDave

Heart Still Beats... Life Goes On...

So, it's been two and a half months since my last post... What's been up? Oh... just about everything...

There's a lot, so I'm going to sum up in as small a chunks as I can...

BUSINESS: We lost a competitor here in town, making us the oldest active (8+ years) game store now. Things have been interesting, as we absorb some extra customers and work out game schedules so "everybody gets to play". It's kept us hopping. We've also been offered a game store to buy that's just over an hour away, we've been offered space (when it's ready) for a second location about 25 minutes away, and have heard about yet a third prospect that may be ready for the buying as their ship is not currently stable. Opportunities abound, but I'm not certain what path (if any) to take at this point.

GAMING: The Champions game continues to get better, though it is not without its fits of drama. If the drama with fully within the game, it'd be no issue, but it's not. One player feels picked on by a few of the others, and while he's not entirely incorrect, given what he's established his character's history to be, the way the player is playing it, the player is drawing legit aggro. The player in question does not read, nor has he ever really read, superhero comic books. He's a fine player, but he's come with a character with an extesive written history that if it gets tampered with in any way, he loses his nut. The last time he had a semi-meltdown, I told him that if he wants to write a story that he has complete control over, then he should go write a book. Within an RPG, it's cooperative storytelling and improvisational theater, and he needs to be flexible as the story unfolds during play. We'll see how it goes...

The Feng Shui 2 game is actually going fairly well. Almost lost two characters last run as the group gets thrust further into the Secret War. I have the PDF of the upcoming book, and while there are a number of questionable bits in the way of typos and little mistakes, the overall feel of the updated system is solid. I, at some level, wish they had done away with the shot cost/initiative/turn system in favor of something a little more "fair", but it still works and doesn't really slow the game down.

LIFE: Still married to a wonderful woman... still have two great kids (one of whom is now engaged)... and have increased the number of dogs in the household from one to two... and that's been a struggle. The new dog is fine. The old dog is not... He's nine years old and is pretty much the pulling the whole canine version of "get off my lawn, you punk" with the new dog. They are both absolutely sweet dogs alone, and the new one stays sweet when they are together, but the old guy is a furball of aggression. It's slowly getting better, but we have a ways to go...

MUSIC: Been seeing a few shows lately and buying music here and there. The only concise things I can say is...

FAITH NO MORE: SOL INVICTUS: BUY IT!!!
ONE-EYED DOLL: WITCHES: BUY IT!!!
PSYCHOSTICK: If you have the chance to, see them in concert!!!

That's it for now, as my sleep-deprived brain kind of wanders off to another place...

peace... GopherDave

Alive, Kicking, and Mending...

Okay... I'm not dead... Though I may have been closer to it than I thought...

Once I "recovered" from the whole sinus nastiness a few weeks back, I never really felt 100%. There was lingering fatigue that I just couldn't shake, and a barely there cough that showed up maybe six times a day, if that.

Then a couple weeks ago, I ended up in the ER with what I thought was just abdominal cramping and food poisoning. I did indeed have that, but what I didn't know was that I also had pneumonia. Whoops!

So, while I have been working, I've also been resting quite a bit more, and trying to take better care of myself. I'm not really wanting to go back to the gym, but I am eating a bit better, and I have kicked my 2-3 energy drinks per day habit I had built up.

Barring any other issues, health or otherwise, I am hoping to get back to finishing the Asylum in the next week or so. Beyond that, I promise nothing, as I have no idea how life is going to treat me...

So, if nothing else, this is an update post... Take it for what it is...

peace... GopherDave

In Sickness and In Health...

Work has been delayed due to a combination of MtG: Khans of Tarkir pre-release events and my getting heinously ill for a week plus soon afterward...

The KTK pre-release events did go well, though, and were our best events of that type in two years. The set is slow, but good, with a fair chunk of value within, thus insuring that sales will be steady for the coming period.

As for the sickness, in a day I went from having an annoying sore throat for the day to having my sinuses take a surprise dump into my lungs at the end of it. Drippy, draining, coughing misery followed... yay.

I am finally on the upswing. Still sick, but doing well enough to catch up on work. I've been reading through the contract that HERO Games sent me for all of this. It's pretty standard, though I am finding little bits that are apparently outdated according to their head honcho. That basically means once I parse it all out, we begin the contract back-and-forth and get things situated on that end. By the time that happens, I should have the Asylum done, the Gateway Guardians up and started, plus outlines for one of the other (now three) projects that are on the burner at least sketched out. Yeah, contract issues can take that long to work out to both parties' satisfaction.

I figured folks would like an update, and I wish I had more to provide, but extra-curricular work moves slower than pace of real life...

peace... GopherDave

Constructive Revalations...

I'm slowly learning how to use the phone camera... BLEH...

Another day, ummm... another day?

Seriously though... I *BELIEVE* things are beginning to get better internally. I still have not grieved for my friend in my usual ways, but I began to think about things a bit, and I may be grieving without realizing it.

My friend, Josh, was/is a gamer. He did a great deal of his work in the Pathfinder realm, including being the layout guru for AdventureAWeek.com for a long time. Josh was a large reason why they put out their first "deluxe" product this past year at GenCon. Rise of the Drow is a gorgeous book, and the AAW guys should be proud of what they accomplished.

Anyway, to get back on track, Josh also did a bit of design work. Again, mostly in Pathfinder, but one of his last projects was a line of supervillain write-ups for Mutants & Masterminds 3E called the Theta Files. Josh only got three of them completed before his health deteriorated to the point where he could no longer work. In an effort to honor Josh, I contacted Rogue Genius Games in order to see if Josh had left any incomplete Theta Files in their possession, with the intent to finish them. When RGG got back to me, it was to indicate that they had nothing left unfinished from Josh. I was more than a little bummed...

Then, I found myself turning toward the plethora of villain write-ups I need to do for my Champions campaign, and actually *WANTING* to do them. Thinking about it more, I realized that, perhaps subconsciously, this is how I'm dealing with my grief... in a constructive way. Hence, my idea for an idea for a series of "Enemies"-style PDF publications for some villains that I have used in *MANY* Champions games, and a few that have never been more than a concept in my head and a "name" on a page.

Now, and here's my largest obstacle with this, I am *NOT* an artist. In fact, it is a crime in at least eleven states and three other countries for me to even attempt art. Thus, if you know of any artistic folks who can do comic-style art poses for *MEGA-CHEAP*, drop me a line and let me know...

peace... GopherDave

Uncle...

Found a new way to take pictures with my phone that is easier than before... Shame they look like crap... The sweater is dark green, the tie is gold, and the shirt is blue in reality.

Yeah, the hits just keep on coming this year. Had a good friend pass a couple of weeks ago. The funeral and memorial services have all passed, and everyone is getting on with their lives. Me? I haven't grieved yet. I expect it to come at the most inopportune time. That's the way the year has gone.

Game-wise, things are decent. Most of my recent issues stem from the morass of depression that I cannot seem to get myself out of...

Side note... I've seen Guardians of the Galaxy seven times now... I have a problem... Also, if you haven't seen it, do so... NOW!

Back to games... Tai'eres is in a good place story-wise, though I am about ready to "publish" another revision. I need to figure out where that will fall, as I don't like to change rules on players too much in mid-campaign, and this is looking like a significant update/change.

The Champions game has gone through yet another reboot. This time around, I've given it more structure from my end. There is still one more character to introduce (his player has been out of town on business for a bit), but things are looking better than they were. I am also looking at taking my villain write-ups and collecting them up in a "Enemies"-style sourcebook. That would take me a lot of work on my end, as many of the backgrounds are lost to old file formats and the physical copies were most likely tossed in one of our many moves over the years. I started on this a bit, and created a nice "government file" format that looks good on the screen. Unfortunately, it looks like crap printed out, so I may just chuck the whole government aesthetic of what I am doing and put it together in something that is basic, readable, and appealing. The basic idea is to do booklets that cover a villain team of four to seven bad guys, and perhaps compilations of solo villains with five to ten in each. This is still in the working stages...

Tootles for now...

-- GopherDave

72 Days Gone...

It's been 72 days since my last post... So much for "rebirth". I still have not replaced the camera, and while my phone can take pictures, I hate taking "mirror selfies" and I can't see the touch screen while trying to actually snap the photos, so I frequently send my phone back to the home page... sigh...

Life-wise, the store is still the store... Could be better... could be a lot worse. I'm doing okay. I am (badly) following a diet to try and shed some of my 325 pounds, which is the largest I've ever been. It's the most I've ever weighed, and it means I've outgrown the bulk of "the uniform". Not sure what to do there except try to lose weight and exercise in my "copious spare time".

Back in early July, "Bullet", my car of ten years was totaled. It was twelve years old, but it still ran well enough to get me from point A to point B. No, it was parked on the street minding its own business one Saturday morning when someone hit it and drove off. The police found the guy, but the damage was done. With the help of some friends, the car situation was rectified in short order, but it was hard to say goodbye to an old friend. Bullet deserved a better ending than that.

Game-wise, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that my homebrew fantasy campaign, has not only stabilized, but has gained direction and steam. The bad news is that my current Champions game is about to go through its second reboot in a year. It lacked direction, and has suffered through spotty attendance (both players *AND* GM) and questionable plot choices on my part. I'm hoping this attempt at the kickstart will take hold, because if it doesn't, I'm going to stick a fork in it and call it done.

And that is a written snapshot into what has been happening as of late... Hopefully the next one comes sooner than 72 days, hmmmm?

(next deadline for post...  November 2nd, 2014)  =P

-- GopherDave

Waking Up With The House On Fire...

Day 2... Step 2...

Lately, things have been rough from a business standpoint. I won't lie. A new competitor hit the scene and has really given us what for. In an effort to retain the business they were taking away from us, we altered and evolved our approach to be more like them. Then, out of blue morass of one of the longest depression fits I've dealt with in recent memory, a thought occurred to me...

I had lost sight of who I was as a person, and by extension, lost sight of what our store is as a business.

We had become a poor imitation of another store, and we've never been that. Armored Gopher Games has always been uniquely... Gopher.

So it shall be again... It is going to take a long time to recover from the mess I've led it to, but I, as a person, and we, as a store, are no longer going to concern ourselves with what "they do over there". We're going to concentrate on what we can do to make our store better...

Which is as it should be...

peace... GopherDave

Boo...

Okay, This is sort of a check in...

The month of March sort of went like this for me...

Life: "Dave... Do me a favor and plant your feet about two... two and a half feet apart, okay..."

Me: "Why?"

Life: "Just humor me..."

(Like an idiot, I spread my feet to the requested distance)

Me: "Okay, now what?"

Turns out, "what" consists of life proceeding to spend the better part of a month kicking me straight in the proverbial nut-sack. I hate when that happens, and it has pretty much driven my bi-polar ass right into a swamp of emotional morass. I could reach a greater level of depression than I am already in, but that would probably involve a bullet to the head. Luckily, I have a few things in my life that will prevent that from happening.

• One, I have a kick-ass wife who is my rock. If it were not for her, I very well would have just said "screw it" and left the area with everything that has been happening.
• Two, I have three kick-ass kids (yes, I am counting the dog) who are more than worth sticking around for. 
• Three, I have a group of friends that keep my ass in check, and check in when I get the way I am now. Thanks, guys...
• Four, my access to guns isn't what it used to be. I can still get them, but it's more difficult than it used to be, and by the time I got ahold of one, my mood would change enough that I wouldn't need it anymore. Plus, I would remember a promise I made to myself just over 26 years ago and get some damn help.

As it stands, there are some aspects in my life that demand that I be a leader in order to right the various ships. I just don't know if I have the capacity within me to do that currently.

Completely changing the subject, on the musical front, a couple of  things happened to add to my depression, and one thing happened that has helped. First, two gentlemen from bands I have enjoyed for a long time passed away. Bob Casale (a.k.a. Bob 2) from Devo and Dave Brockie (a.k.a. Oderus Urungus) from GWAR have both shuffled off this mortal coil. I look to write pieces on both of them here soon. I just need to carve out the time and mood to do so. The good thing is that I finally acquired the new album from the reggae-metal band, Skindred, and it kicks ass! Kill the Power is one of the best discs to hit my player in some time, and I'll take all the small victories I can get at this point...

peace... GopherDave

Retract... Refocus... Recover... Reemerge... Represent!

Okay... It's been longer than I anticipated since an update, so I figure anyone who is "listening" (all 34 of you) might actually want to know what is happening in Gopherland...

A few months back we had another game store open up in town. It is a franchise of a small chain from a nearby city, owned by two guys, who honestly, are pretty good people. This store makes three game stores in town. In the 35+ year history of gaming in this community, I have never known the community to be able to support that many retail game establishments for terribly long. When this store opened, I knew we would take a hit. What I didn't know was how big of one... The hit has far exceeded my expectations...

I had an inkling of the trend a month ago, but didn't want to believe it could get much worse than what it was. I was wrong. Sadly, because of this, I had to do something I desperately didn't want to do. We laid off three employees, and cut hours to the other two (besides me) in an effort to stop the bleeding. Truthfully, I should have done this a month ago when I first witnessed the trend. I, however, don't like to let people I call my family down. It makes me ache inside...

That said, if our business is to survive, I did what I had to do, and on some level, I hate myself for it. Now that it's done, it is time to get back to the task at hand, and that is righting the ship...

• Retract - With the layoffs, we've just done this to some degree. There is a little more room to go if necessary, though I am truly loathe to do to it.
• Refocus - Left with a crew of myself, Loquacious, Skribl, and Snowlady, the workload just increased for all of us, and yet there's still a store to put back on track. Lo, Skribl, and myself have already begun tossing ideas about. We've also taken some input from some of the regulars and former employees. An attack plan is forming, and we hope to have enough things in place to enact it, at least in part, by the beginning of December.
• Recover - This is the long stage where we take back what we consider ours. I'm not one to begrudge anyone their success, and we're willing to share nicely, but not to the point of endangering our business. Sorry. Not happening.
• Reemerge - This stage is where we begin to reacquire some (if not all) of the family members that have been left by the wayside due to the recent happenings. This WILL happen... sooner, rather than later if I have anything to say about it.
• Represent! - Gopher Mafia REPRESENT!!! Weather the storm, come out not only none the worse for wear, but stronger than ever, our family by our side...

We've taken the first few steps, and more will be taken in short order. Do not, however, wish us luck.

Where we're going, we don't need luck...

-- GopherDave

The Weight of the World...

Things in Gopherville are okay as they stand. My psyche is having issues, but that is nothing new at this stage. I'm not going to over it too much here. I'm just trying to vent a bit...

I've semi-fixed a missing item issue that cropped up yesterday, when said item was to ship. Turns out our order for the item got lost in the system and we were kind of s**t out of luck. That made me into Stab-Man for a bit, but as usual, I persevered and found an answer. The solution will be here in about four business days, but it beats waiting 2-4 weeks for a "potential" restock of said item.

The other issues going on are minor, but there are a lot of them. It's the collective weight that's making it difficult.

On happier news... I should be able to do some work on Tai'eres in the next day or so in anticipation of tomorrow night's run. We ended the very beginning "plot arc" of completing a caravan run through three villages. Next up, well... I have some ideas that need to be fleshed out.

One final note, I have been listening to a *LOT* of Ghost/Ghost BC lately, an odd band from Sweden whose Satanic tongue is planted VERY firmly in their collective cheeks. Ostensibly a metal band, this group sounds NOTHING like its image and/or origin point indicates it should. Take a 1970's rock groove, add King Diamond-esque high-range vocals (minus the screams), and make all the songs about the devil himself. Personally, I walk with God, but I am no longer a member of any church as I refuse to subscribe to any form of "groupspeak". The good Lord gave me free will and the ability to think for myself, and I aim to exercise those gifts to their fullest. Hence, I can enjoy "Satanic" rock'n'roll to my heart's content, for I know where my heart truly lies...

Coming Out Of Hibernation...

Okay... I've been away for a while. My apologies for that, but all the drama bombs I had spoken about previously pretty much paled in comparison to what has been happening lately... A great deal has happened as of late, much of which has had my guts tied up in knots.

I wish I could put things in nutshells to explain, but most of them are not short stories... Here are some highlights, though...

• Mostly due to the two of us being very much alike, I almost completely destroyed my relationship with my son. It is on the mend now, but it is not out of the woods, yet...
• We have another game store joining us in the confines of C-U. It is a franchise of a chain not known to be amiable to their competition. In this case I know one of the franchisees on a cursory basis, and we welcome healthy, friendly competition, as it makes the scene better as a whole. This does give us three game stores in the area, and I've never known the local scene to support that many for too terribly long. We shall see...
• In addition to trying to fix my Champions game, I am gearing up to run yet another set of games in my home-brew fantasy setting, Tai'eres. Yeah, because I have TONS of spare time lying around for that...
• One of my ex-roommates passed away in his sleep at the age of 52. We haven't been close for a while, but his passing was a blunt reminder of my own mortality. Stupid mortality...

In the middle of everything, I have become a big ball of stress, which makes me very prone to a heart attack. I have had heart issues all my life, and I can pretty much recognize when my heart is prime to start giving me problems. I am not where I was roughly fifteen years ago, but I am at a close enough stage where I could will myself into a heart attack should I desired to.

I did that a couple of times as an adolescent, with one time requiring defibrillation. I can say this with the certainty that comes from personal experience... Avoid being defibrillated at all costs. It sucks the high, hard one. Basically, every muscle in your body is electrically forced to contract simultaneously at the moment of shock, and let me tell you... That. Shit. Hurts.

So, as I have typed this, and writing has become catharsis, I have come to the resolution to care about only what I can control, which is the direction I take socially with my family and friends, how I react to adverse situations that require my attention, and the direction our business takes. Beyond that, well...

...it just isn't worth the stress and the energy...

peace... GopherDave

Checking In...

Another day, another thing full of stress... but it's minor stress, so  it's okay.

I spoke with the player whom was most affected by the darkness I instigated in the Champions game this past Saturday. While I have a way to return him an untainted version of the character, he still has reservation about it, so he would like to bring a new character. It's totally understandable to me, and this is a mistake I will learn from. The idea I had, though, can be modified to bring in his new character *AND* lighten up the tone of the current campaign, so, it's still viable, and is going to be used.

Tomorrow will mark the 22nd anniversary of my marriage to the lovely, Loquacious one. We've been through a lot of things in our lives together, both good and bad, but I cannot think of another person I'd rather weather those storms or bask in the sunshine with. Loquacious is a large part of what made me who I am today, and I am all the better for it. Love you, sweetness... now and always.

-- GopherDave (a.k.a. The Dude)

Time? What time...

Another day, another Friday...

We recently found out that we will have another game store opening up in town soon. From what we can tell, the projected opening is happening in about 3-5 weeks, but we have no idea where in town they will be. This will be part of a small chain of stores from the NW suburbs of Chi-Town. According to all accounts, it will be a company store, not a franchise, which means they can pour profits from five going stores into the store located here until it either succeeds or they determine that they are throwing good money after bad. Either way, it should be fun.

I was also supposed to work on game stuff last night, but ended up talking to a cousin I hadn't spoken to in about 15 years or so. It was good catching up, but it will probably be another decade or so before we talk again. We're two very different people with very little in common anymore besides kinship. It is what it is.

That all said, it also meant that I got exactly ZERO prep work done for the Champions game I am running Saturday night. With it being Friday, I will be here until about 3:30AM or so, and am scheduled to open at 11:00AM. So I could either sleep, or work on game stuff. Knowing me, I will probably try to work on game stuff and stay up until late Saturday night for I am stupid like that.

Go me!  =P

-- GopherDave

Drama Bombs...

Remember when I said last post that no news equals no drama? Yeah? Well, feh... There's another life theory shot all to hell...

Basically, the last few weeks have been filled with all kinds of drama ranging from financial to family, and it looks like more might be on the way. In between it all, I *DID* manage to start a Champions campaign...

The drama, I will not delve deeply into as it involves more than me, and several parties have said they are uncomfortable with me just blurting things out to the net even though I typically change names to protect, well, everybody but me. I understand it, and am trying to comply with it. I will say that the drama did involve Skribl and I making a 1100-mile round trip in about 19 hours to solve one of the issues in question.

As for the Champions campaign, that is fair game to discuss.

The Place

Indianapolis (a.k.a., the Circle City)

The Group

• The Fro - Smooth-talking 70's-based Black Sampson, except his hair grants him healing powers instead of strength.
• A.C.E. - The world's first extranormal, the Advanced Combat Entity is a cowboy-themed immortal, energy blaster.
• Torque - A bike-wrenching gearhead with the ability to be his own hydraulic lift.
• AKA - A hoodie and hockey mask-wearing mentalist that tries to stay out of direct battle and affect things from the fringes.
• Fahrenheit - Half-Jewish, half-Japanese temperature-based energy projector.

The Villains

• Groundpounder - A strongman so imbecilic his stupidity rubs off on those around him.
• Wraith - A ghostly assassin whose abilities let her affect the living.
• Slumber - An "energy projector" whose main abilities include draining people to exhaustion.
• Sledge - Another "energy projector" who flies and and fires chunks of "psionic concrete".
• Nameless Goons - Six, oddly armed regular goons who were hired for a job.

The Setting

A small pedestrian mall in the Broad Ripple area of town. One that has a coffee house, a comic-book shop, and a bank in it. It has other places as well, but we don't care about those.

Since this was the first run, I figured I'd just throw a basic fight at the group to sort of see what their combined abilities could do. The villains they faced were not very well coordinated, and pretty much operate as "lone gunman" and hired goons much of the time.

As it stood, the Goons tried to rob the bank while The Fro, Fahrenheit, and ACE were off getting coffee and AKA was working in his secret ID at the comic book store. Once alarms start going off, our intrepid heroes (and comic shop worker) go investigate. They find a group of normal, ski-mask wearing guys packing auto-fire "blasters" robbing the bank. As the fight begins, and normal goons begin going down, support arrives in the forms of Wraith, Groundpounder, and Slumber. Meanwhile, some near distance away, Torque spies Sledge going through the air in the direction of the fight (he's running late for his bit (stupid Unluck)). Soon, Sledge and Torque join the battle and it's on kind of like Donkey Kong.

I don't remember a ton of details, but I do remember that Slumber, Groundpounder, and Sledge got captured. All of the goons also got captured, but many more are heading to the hospital than to jail. There was a bit of interrogation with Slumber, who quickly ascertained that the hero group does not possess a detective among them. The heroes came to the conclusion that all of this (including the mix of villains) seemed somewhat random but didn't really understand why. Slumber theorized, and offered up this theory, that if one considered oneself a master villain and there was a new group of vigilantes in town than what better way to see what you are up against than to hire some random thugs to confront them.

That is where left it for the evening. Tonight, I will hopefully have time to plan Saturday's run. I have some ideas in mind and some missives to fire off to various players in the next day or so in order to set some things up.

-- GopherDave

Checkin In...

Okay... the world can stop dropping rocks on my head anytime now. The lumps are beginning to show...

It's been a bit longer than I have wanted since I posted last. Part of that has been because of time, and part of it has been due to some wonky, new computer virus that my personal laptop picked up. I do not know what the issues are, but that machine seems to attract them. Anyhoo, my buddy Marko (the redneck computer technician) went and ran the machine through its paces and a couple of scans I didn't try, and we *THINK* we have the problem licked. I won't know until tomorrow though as I will not be needing the laptop until then.

Last post I spoke of my son moving out of the house, but his friend ("LittleTinyBabyMan") still being here. Well, LTBM has bolted as well. His promotion at work came through and LTBM got an offer from one of our employees ("DoubleL") to room together. Thus, we have an empty room. The boys have a limited time to gather what they want out of it, and then the great clean-up and switch-over begins. Pumpkin will grab Skribl's old room, and we will turn Pumpkin's old room into a home office/hiding place for me. As much as I need a quiet place of my own, I'll miss the boys. Dinero (the dog) already misses Skribl something fierce, and has become a little bit of a whining machine. He hurts, and there is no way I can explain to Dinero why Skribl no longer wants to be pack. Dinero will eventually get used to the "new normal", but it will take a bit for him (and me) to do so...

The upcoming Champions campaign is coming along nicely with six interested players (and one waiting in the wings in case there is an opening). The first meeting is on the 15th, and that is where we will have a "team-building" exercise to try and put together an intrepid group of heroes and do-gooders. Signed up for the occasion are... MapGuy, Rabbi, SquareHead, Ginger, Grumpy, and PapaJ... I'm not really into using the real names of my friends in my blog posts. Those who hang out at the store and read this know who those folks are. That's all that matters.

Just to get back into the swing of making characters for this game, I started playing around with some concepts. I know I said I wanted very little "pre-planned" for this game, but as I stated in an earlier post, what I am working on are "throw-away" bad guys. None of them will be very deep or memorable, but that is sort of the idea. It's not the bad guy's comic-book, it's the PCs/Heroes, and they shouldn't get upstaged in their own story...

peace... GopherDave