The Waking Hours...

Not only do I look all business-like, but I wrote an employee memo this afternoon. I may turn into an actual businessman yet...

The post is titled the way it is due to a bought of mania-induced insomnia I had last night. It was 5AM before I actually went to bed, and then I just sort of laid there for two hours until it was time to get up to take care some errands that needed to be attended to before I hit the store to open. So basically, I am operating on pretty much no sleep again. Yay...

I wrote and sent off a couple teaser write-ups for the potential DICEBAG campaign I will be running here, soon, with the idea that the players would choose one. One person has responded with a "I'm cool with whatever", and another person "liked" that response. I swear, getting gamers to make actual decisions sometimes is like trying to herd cats. A lot of effort for little to no feedback.

That aside, whichever ends up being chosen, I need to write the setting document for. Unfortunately for me, writing mechanics is easy, but writing fluff is difficult. I can write it. The process of doing so, though, is almost painful. It is also quite time consuming, and spare time is something that is constantly in short supply given how my life operates.

We are starting out with DL:R next week, so getting things kicked off should be easy. During that session, I can pin down what the other game will be and that will give me a week to write what I need to.  As much as I like Tai'eres, I am leaning toward Unveiled, which is sort of an odd Hunter: the Vigil/X-Files mash-up. The teaser bit I wrote for that one is below...

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UNVEILED

In this modern world of technology, science, and rational thought, things still exist that come off as… …unexplainable. These odd phenomena defy logic and reason, and stay hidden under cover of darkness and disbelief. Everything has to feed eventually, however, be it on flesh, fear, or something altogether unknown, and to feed, the things in the dark must either come out of the shadows, or drag someone into them, kicking and screaming.

            Most people have no idea what is really going on in the world around them, either by ignorance or denial, but you… you know better. Something or someone has opened your eyes to it all and now you cannot shut them. You see the things that go bump in the night and now you have no choice but to bump back. It’s the only way to end the nightmares, after all.

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-- GopherDave

Surviving...

Okay... It's been a few days, but the MtG: return to Ravnica pre-release events have all been survived. There was a point in the weekend where I had been awake and animate for 41 hours straight. It is from that time period that I am still recovering.

In other news, apparently the Pathfinder game I had been playing that had been on hold due to my crazy schedule is going to continue to be on hold. In its place, I will be running two games. One is looking to be a Deadlands: Reloaded game, and the other is still up in the air. I'm still semi-debating on the Deadlands game. I like the game, but the last campaign I ran ended up in a TPK of explosive proportions. Granted, some of that was NOT my fault.

As for the other game, it is my plan to do a couple of write-ups for the DICEBAG system in terms of settings. It is either going to be Tai'eres (post-apocalyptic fantasy) or Q-Division (think of an odd cross between the X-Files and Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D.). If I can get some stuff done here at the store tonight, I can get those write-ups pumped out in short order.

It actually feels odd jumping back into the GM chair when I think about it. Thing is, when I was helping Shady run Terracide events at GenCon, it felt very natural. The difference? I didn't think about it then, I just did it. I think that just doing it is the key. I have been overthinking things for three months now...

Do... or do not... there is no use in pondering the imponderable...

-- GopherDave

Argle-Bargle...

 

 

Not much is going on here at the store as folks are saving up for the new Magic: The Gathering set and the new Warhammer 40K Chaos Space Marine figures that are releasing next weekend. The next few days are looking pretty nutty with Pre-Release events for said MtG set happening this Saturday. I am looking at spending roughly 40 hours straight in the store. For that alone, I deem myself crazed.

 

I am looking at starting a couple of campaigns here in the next few weeks. At least one of these will involve the game system I have been working on, though I would prefer it to be both. One of the groups has been recently turned on to Savage Worlds, more specifically Deadlands, and they are interested in trying it out. I may very well indulge them as I have a fair amount of stuff for Deadlands lying about. I'd consider doing Deadlands: Hell on Earth (Reloaded), but that book doesn't actually come out until November. I scored a couple of copies at GenCon, but the Loquacious one absconded with one of those tomes.

 

Overall, I should be running nothing by playtest games, but I am fairly certain I will not have time to actually write for the system if run multiple, concurrent playtest games.

 

This will have to be cogitated upon... after this weekend...

 

-- GopherDave

It Makes My Medulla And My Frontal Lobe Wrestle A Japanese Death Match...

I went out and bought the Avengers on Blu-Ray last night. Normally, I don't buy a lot of movies. The Avengers though, was a lot of fun, and it is something I will probably watch at least a dozen more times during my ownership of the disc. Last night was the first. Midnight release + 2.5 Hour movie + travel time to and from store = a very late night.

Today, got to the store and took in shipments. Nothing of major note came in. Most folks are sort of waiting for the Magic: the Gathering: Return to Ravnica storm to pass. Not Games Workshop though... Nope. Wanna guess when the new Chaos Space marine stuff comes in? Oct 6th. The same weekend as the release of the new MtG set. Now... Wizards of the Coast announces the release dates of new MtG product almost six months in advance. GW sent me an e-mail with a confirmed date yesterday, less than two weeks prior to release. So, most games stores are stuck with TWO heaping gobs of cash flowing out of the door on that same weekend instead of one. Yes, in this particular instance, 95% of the stores will make that money back in spades, but it still seems... I don't know... inconsiderate, and more than a touch unintelligent.

WotC makes no secret when new releases are happening. GW does. So wouldn't it make sense for GW to adjust those dates (that none of us supposedly know about) as needed to account for less overlap? Never mind the easing of financial burdens for their retail partners. Basically, going up against a new MtG release just makes your product the SECOND most talked about game release for the week, at best.

Some would argue that miniature gamers don't care about M:tG (or any other collectible card game), so GW shouldn't either, and for the most part, they would be correct. There is overlap, though, and those folks are pretty much forced to make a choice that week of simultaneous release. New cards that one can play with immediately, or new (albeit deadSEXY) models that one has to at least assemble, if not paint, before they see any use. Why make those customers with overlapping interests make that choice when it isn't necessary?

I'm not really trying to bash on Games Workshop here. I am just baffled by how they seem to think. With GW not confirming release dates until thirteen days prior, it affords them a sort of "market flexibility" that other companies choose not to have. Until they actually say anything, GW has the ability to avoid anything they see as major marketing interference that would keep their new releases from being THE ITEMS to be talked up during that week. So why don't they? Movie studios do it all the time. Don't want to go up against the Avengers or the Dark Night Rises? Push the release date around by a week or two. G-Dub could do the same thing. The only thing they would really have to change is to stop printing exact release dates in White Dwarf (which goes to press about three months early), and change it to printing a release "area" (coming September or September-October), or even a "coming soon".

Just some thoughts...

-- GopherDave

Gladly Done And Getting Out Of Control...

Last night was the final night of Savage Worlds playtest for Terracide, and I will be the first to admit that my heart was not into it. I like Shady. He's one of my best friends and was the best man at my wedding, but I honestly could not wait for this playtest to be over. I really don't know why, and it is rare that I feel that way about a game, but it had overstayed its welcome to me.

In three weeks, we get back to Xia Ling-Jien and the crew of the Sovereign. I, for one, cannot wait. As a result of some story bits last night, though, we have some new problems to deal with. Those'll be... fun.

Once the store closes tonight and I catch up on some business paperwork, I'll be trying to do some work on Dicebag/Tai'eres. I have some genre work to do for the Sci-Fi, Western, and "X-files" settings I am working on. Some of that will be simply finding some genre appropriate weapons and assigning some statistics to them. Given the the general simplicity of the rules structure for how weapons function in this system, it's almost totally comparative work with what I've already done.

Looking over the current working document, I may just start dividing concepts into smaller, working modules that cover various subjects like armor, weapons, skills, and other things in order to not overwhelm myself. While I am good at writing when I focus on it, as a writing project grows, I start to get overwhelmed by its ever-expanding size and shut down. DICEBAG is, counting various notes as well as the current core and genre documents, roughly about 80-100 pages in size. It is getting large enough that I have difficulty focusing and any one aspect of the and getting it right before I move onto something else. Anytime I write or change something in the game, it's like throwing a pebble in a lake and watching the ripple effect. I see the ripples and how they will change various sections, and I become obsessed to "fix everything" before moving on or even finishing the section I am in.

This is all purely psychological, and it is all on me. It's *MY* issue, but I do have ways to combat the anxiety, as long as I employ them...

-- GopherDave

Grunt...

It's uber-late as I write this. Fridays at the store tend to leave me with little time to do much extra. Currently, the After-FNM event is happening and I will be here for another couple of hours or so.

In general, I don't mind it all going down. It makes for late nights, but nights like this will pale in comparison to next weekend with the Friday night into Saturday all day pre-release events for what is looking to be the most overpowered set of Magic: the Gathering to be released yet. My basic schedule looks like I will be here all of Friday into Saturday until about 6:30AM. After a small nap, if I have time to take one, I'll be back at it at 10AM until things wrap up around 2AM Sunday morning. All told, it'll be close to 40 hours at the store for the stretch. Good thing I can sleep when I'm dead.

Beyond all of that, things are going okay. I'm just tired, and it doesn't look like I will be getting much work done on the games tonight. I kind of expected that though. Maybe when things are done, or perhaps sometime on Saturday since I don't have to work that day. I do have Shady's Terracide game, but I still don't get to play Xia Ling-Jian, my Asian racist bastard starship captain. The guy I am playing is okay, and he's good for a laugh, but it hasn't been the same... That gets fixed next month, though, from what I here.

Good... I need some role-playing bite to churn my thoughts...

-- GopherDave

Cleaning The Windows...

A better dressed GameMaster you will rarely find...

Hmmmm... Earlier today I had one of those "GM-duh" moments where a piece of GM-ing advice I had read long ago and had even espoused to others at times, just struck home with me after 36 years of being behind a screen.

I forget the exact wording of said piece of advice, but it went something along the lines of...

"As a game master, your goal should not be to wow the players with your cool story/world. It should be giving the players a good framework for them to tell their own great stories."

36 Years? Yeah... I'm a real slow learner at times...

I know of at least one other game master who currently suffers from "my cool story/world", but I also know the reasons for it. Me? There are just times I latch onto a cool concept and forget that the players have an investment in the game as well.

The best campaigns I have ever run were the ones where I would go in with an outline of a story, knowing what the NPCs encountered were going to try to accomplish, and then winging it all when the player's got in the way. Along the trail, I would try to touch on one personal detail per player character per session to get them involved and keep them interested. I need to get back to this.

Being a GM means that, for the most part, you are the center of the attention at the table, but not really for any ego-inflating reasons that you might be thinking about. No, as a GM, you are the player's only real window into the world of the story they are in. All details come from you. The challenges they encounter... the reactions of other characters... the color of the sky in the setting... Those details come from your one mind, and they have to be conveyed to players as they need/desire in order to feel a part of what you are collectively doing.

So, be a window, and not a movie screen.

-- GopherDave