Look! A Trail...

Good morning, folks!

Don't let the happiness of the first line fool you, I'm still a mess. Now, however, I'm a mess with at least something of a plan in one area of my life, and that is usually all I need to get me started on the road to recovery from things like the crappy mental state I've been in.

Game wise, I'll most likely be running Champions every other Saturday evening. I'm looking at a Bronze-/Iron-Age hybrid in terms of tone. It will be a "team book", and as such, once I get the players nailed down, they are going help in the world-building process. I am looking at helping them as a group and individually build characters that will add some elements to the game world. In short, I'm hoping to use their back stories as a foundation/framework, and then build off of that.

Personally, I am hoping to initially come to the table with anything "pre-planned" and set in stone. I'm not even coming into this with a city/setting. That will all (hopefully) come from them. In short, I'm looking at changing my GM-ing paradigm. Instead of "here's *my* world, come play in it if you dare", I'm looking at "hey, thanks for inviting me into your world and letting me mess around in it".

It's a much different approach than what I am used to. I hope it works.

As for players, I am looking for players who *LOVE/READ* superhero comics that can show up consistently, and by consistently I'm talking like "24 sessions out of 25"-type consistency. This is the one genre where continuity is a big factor, and it ruins it for all if there frequent missing gaps.

Just sayin'...

-- GopherDave 

Wreck And Repair...

Okay... Things are... better...

I had a talk with one of the folks with whom I was having issues, and while the early part was fairly heated, things were somewhat better by the end of it. It seems that when I see things around me are mostly broken, I have to break the rest of it before I can think about enacting any sort of repair.

Trust me, this is not the best way to operate.

Things are changing in big ways. I hate change. I have not been handling much of what has been going on around me well. I needed a breakdown before I could gather up the pieces that are me. That has happened. I should be good for a while.

On the gaming front, I will be running a game. It will be happening every other Saturday. What it will be is still to be decided. I'd like to run something that will lend itself to a long-running campaign. I have ideas for "Vertigo Dreams" setting I used for one of the scenarios this past Winter War, but modern-day conspiracy/X-Files stuff does not always lend itself to an extended campaign. The other one is a straight-up superhero game using Champions/HERO 6th. It would not use anything in a historical context from my past campaigns. I might re-use some villain names and concepts, but their powers and histories would change.

The big thing about the supers game is that all players should be ready to play comic-book superheroes. No transplanted fantasy creatures... no building powers out of concept just because you can... no non-hero mindsets. Players looking for a "killing orcs for beer money" or "a White Wolf-esque political game" or  those looking to "game the system/world" need not apply. This all said, I run a game with "smart" criminals. Most of them have solid motives and distinct personalities. The disposition of the "bad guys" will vary wildly, from goofy knock-abouts to deadly-serious, vicious murderers.

Wow, the more I write, the more it seems like I am decided on what I am doing...

Writing as thought process... Who'd of thunk it...

-- GopherDave

Second Verse, Same As...

Another day in the life...

Students have left for the summer, so we'll see how that affects things such as sales and what not. Last year was the first year we actually noticed they had left from a sales perspective. The previous years, we were still growing at such a rate as to not even blink when summer hit. It was sort of a nice problem to have. Now, with the store being larger (and the expenses being larger), I'm fairly certain we'll miss the influx of income. How much we'll miss it remains to be seen...

Life-wise, I'm not entirely sure how much of a whiny, ass-hat I've been. Things are seemingly holding stable for the time being, but I am almost on edge waiting for the next big drama-bomb to hit, and I think that has been part of the problem with me. I, like most folks, enjoy living drama-free. Lately, with the store move and some changing family situations, there has been more problems, and thus, more drama crashing in on my calm. I have noticed an edge to my voice that isn't usually there, and that is beginning to worry me on some level.

On the game front, I am still toying with running something. I'm just not certain what, yet. I keep leaning to a superhero game, but the best game system for that (HERO System) is the one I do *NOT* have time for. The itch is there, though, and it's not going away easily or soon.

That's it for now... I am thinking that I will be reviewing some music soon. We've gotten a bunch in and I am starting to have some time to listen.

peace...

-- GopherDave

Currently *NOT* Abiding...

This morning started out on a... ubiquitous... note....

The boy came home to do laundry just as I went to step into the shower. Normally, this isn't a problem. We wash most things in cold water, and our water pressure is sufficient enough to handle both washing machine and shower at once. Today, he washed a blanket in hot water. In about five minutes after he started this my testicles were hanging out somewhere in my chest cavity trying to stay warm.

However, it gets better...

The blanket he was trying to wash is actually too large for our washing machine, and it gets wrapped around the agitator in such a way that it stalls the washer. Once I got done with what I had to do at the store, I went home to attempt to rectify the situation. It took me twenty minutes, but I managed to get the water-logged comforter out of the washer that was still half full with warm water. I also managed to coax the machine into a half-cycle to get it drained of water. I'm not certain if it's fully operational. I had yet another crisis to cope with...

My daughter's brand new laptop then decided to "twonk out" on her and not have a functioning mouse/touch pad. Just as I am getting things settled with the washer, she begins to lose her mind and melt down. Now I'm at a point where I am trying to get the girl to calm down long enough to let loose her death grip on the laptop so I can look at it and perhaps fix it. I manage to get her calm enough to let me have it before something else goes "horribly wrong" with it. Once I gave it a cursory examination, I poke a few buttons and it's as good as new.

The day before, both kids decided they wanted to argue with me over stupid things and then bail, saying *I* was an asshat and that I was wrong, and was frequently so, even if I never admitted such ever. On top of that, I had a couple of days with Loquacious where it seemed that everything I did (or didn't do) was wrong, and did nothing but annoy her.

Prior to the weekend, I was a giant ball of stress, anxiety, and depression due to a number of store-related things. Sunday and Monday did nothing to help the situation. I was within a hair's breath of rage-quitting life in general.

I know that as the father I am supposed to be more mature than this, and suck it up and keep slogging on. However, when the people who are supposed to be my partners in life basically treat me like persona-non-grata *IN MY OWN HOUSE*, it makes it very difficult to carry on. I also know that I should probably not put things on the public interwebs like this, but if I have no one else around to talk to about things that are bothering me, what else am I supposed to do?

Comment on this if you want... I'll likely not respond... Consider this a "dump-and-run" post...

It's about the only outlet I have left...

--Dave--

Holding It Together (With Help) Until I Can Crash Land...

There seems to be very in the way of an end in sight. Last night I went to bed early only to have my mind conjure up a bevy of old-school alarm clock sounds each time I placed my one good ear to the pillow. This is the second time in about two weeks that my brain has done this to me. The first time, my mind serenaded me with a cacophony of car horns. Either way, it made sleeping problematic.

Said lack of sleep has done *NOTHING GOOD* for my current mental state. I was in dire enough straits that Skribl came with me to help open the store and ease things until HiSign showed up a couple of hours later. Right now, HiSign has the counter while I'm tucked away in the back typing this. It will begin to get busy here in a couple of hours for Friday Night Magic, and I will need to be out there for that.

Saturday morning I will be opening for Skribl as he wants to play in the 40K Tourney we're having tomorrow. I don't mind so much, though it will mean that I will have gotten very little sleep once again. Later, I shall be playing Xia Ling-Xian, my crazy, racist, Asian bastard in Shady's Terracide game. It'll be much like last session as I will have gotten very little sleep to make this happen.

Overall, I need to make the merry-go-round stop long enough for me to get back on track mentally and get a better handle on what needs to be accomplished to make the store run better and *NOT* be the headache and stress inducer it's been lately.

-- GopherDave

Settling In And Cracking Up...

Okay... we've been here more than a month, and things still aren't as settled as I like. In that time, HiSign got a job elsewhere for twice what we were paying him *AND* benefits. He still works for us, but we are now working his schedule around his other job. It's totally understandable. He got a really *GOOD* job. That said, it means we are losing manpower at a time where we should be adding it, and we need to add it.

The new store is just too big for one person to cover well when it's busy. There is a lot of work that needs to be done, but we are slowly falling behind as business increases. I now have an office where I can do some of the behind-the-scenes work, but I frequently find myself on the floor helping customers due to the slow increase in business combined with the size of the store.

Am I regretting the move to a larger location? No, not really. The business was at a point where it *NEEDED* to grow as it had reached the maximum potential of the old spot. It's just taking me longer to adjust my mental paradigm to the new space and its requirements. I will not lie. The situation is causing me a great deal of stress, and my main mode of stress release (gaming) is something that I've hardly had the time to do as of late.

Perhaps the business has outgrown me and what I can do for it. That's definitely something to think about, but I'm almost afraid it will cause me more stress to do so.

Oyyy, vey... I think I'm going to do more work. It needs to be done and perhaps it will take my mind off of this...

-- GopherDave

P.S. -- In other news, we got more good press, and I don't sound like a raving lunatic... =P

The Lure of New Games...

Things are just slowing down at the store me now around 7:30PM...

I got a late enough start today that I missed the first pass of the UPS driver to drop off shipments this morning. He did leave a note saying he would be back later, and that worked for me at the time. Should have known that would kick me in the back side. The early part of the day was almost mausoleum dead. INCREDIBLY DEAD...

Then the shipment showed up around 2:30PM. I had no sooner unpacked things from boxes when it seemed like everyone and their mother came in to look around, browse, and buy things. Good problem for a merchant to have, but it stayed that way for the next four hours or so. Skribl came in at 5PM, so that helped give me some coverage and allowed me to get things into the system. I am just now starting to relax...

One of the new things that came in was the Exemplar Bastion Sensechal for Warmachine. Even though I have no time to play currently, I loves me some WarmaHordes, and especially dig my churchies from the Protectorate of Menoth. The figure is a metal model, and like most things Privateer Press in the way of models, comes in about five more pieces than necessary. The mold lines are good, though the piece comes with a LOT of flash to scrape off. Ability-wise... It's a pretty standard Bastion, with the addition of Jack Marshall, Defensive Strike, Iron Wall, and a small ability called Leadership. It seems that friendly Bastions that begin an activation within this model's command range heal one point of damage. With a CMD of 10, that's no small feat. Overall, this figure has got me eyeing my half-finished Bastions thinking of all the fun I could have with them...

-- GopherDave --