Saturday, September 13, 2014
Constructive Revalations...
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| 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
Friday, September 12, 2014
Uncle...
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| 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!
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
Tootles for now...
-- GopherDave
Monday, August 25, 2014
Testing HTML With Bunnymaster...
| Bunnymaster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Total Powers & Skills Cost: 153 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total Cost: 275 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Total Disadvantages Points: 30 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This is a test of exporting characters from HERO Designer into a HTML file and posting it in Blogger. I had to make a few modifications, but it seemed to go smoothly. Expect more of this in the future, complete with actual background and stuff...
peace... GopherDave
Not Dead Yet... ...But It Came Close...
This last Saturday was another attempt to reboot my long-suffering Champions game. It didn't go badly, but smooth it was not...
Out of six players, five made it. One couldn't do it due to work reasons that took him WAY out of town, and that was expected, so that was no big deal. Out of the five folks that showed, one player kept the character he's been playing for a bit, another two players reverted back to other characters they had played previously that were not their current characters, and the last two players gave me brand-new never seen-before-by-me characters right about game time.
So much for hitting the ground running...
After much character consternation, and a LOT of side tangents (which is something of a sticking point with this group), things get rolling with four characters. The fifth one never showed up as the player changed his mind about wanting to play him and decided to come up with a different concept. So it goes...
After a great cosmic event (called "the Collapse") in which several alternate timelines get shoved into one, returning hero, Ace, is transplanted to Chicago. Being connected to the U.S. Government in a fashion that no one truly understands, Ace is directed/persuaded/has-the-idea-planted-in-his-head to form a new team for the city as the old one is lost to the eons via the Collapse.
Meanwhile, in Lake Michigan, alien transplant Prince Dormin (fish-man extraordinaire) encounters a being creating sheets of ice along the surface of the lake. Prince Dormin goes to say "hello", and ends up freaking the poor guy out, so much so that he runs off to call his friend so they can turn in this alien to the government or the Tabloids, whoever will pay more. Ace, in an effort to gather like-minded supers to his cause, has heard reports a mysterious fish-man in the city.
Long expository story made shorter... Ace meets Prince Dormin on the shore of Lake Michigan. While there, they get spotted by Torque, who just happened to be cruising by on his motorcycle at the time. Torque calls his friend Jury-Rig. While waiting for Jury-Rig to show up, the fearful ice-making guy has returned with his friends to capture Prince Dormin. Hence, the newly-forming team is confronted by the (not-so) super-villain team known as Core Dump.
CORE DUMP
Iceberg -- A pretty bog-standard Iceman-like energy projector.
Sunstreak -- A speedster who can generate moderate beams of heat from his hand.
Grenade -- A limited energy projector who can explode at the end of his leaps.
Thug -- A flying strongman who's pretty much about two letters short of an IQ.
- and -
Bunnymaster -- Core Dump's dastardly leader who has enhanced hearing (big rabbit ears) and wears larger, spun-cast aluminum bunny feet. Plus, he's pretty good at Savate.
The teams clash, and in the end, Thug and Iceberg are captured while Sunstreak, Bunnymaster, and Grenade all high-tail out of Dodge once they quickly realize just how far in over their heads they were against the PCs.
Overall, not bad, but the game was sidetracked for the first couple of hours with the character issues and the *MANY* conversation tangents this group tends to take. While I myself am guilty of some of them, there was enough non-game related conversation that after being interrupted by such in my first sentence of trying to actually start the game on THREE SEPARATE INSTANCES, I almost just packed up my notes and killed the game right then and there.
I am glad that I didn't, and that I found the patience to continue, but a conversation needs to be had with a number of folks, because it is affecting at least one player's enjoyment of the game...
...and one game master's...
peace... GopherDave
Out of six players, five made it. One couldn't do it due to work reasons that took him WAY out of town, and that was expected, so that was no big deal. Out of the five folks that showed, one player kept the character he's been playing for a bit, another two players reverted back to other characters they had played previously that were not their current characters, and the last two players gave me brand-new never seen-before-by-me characters right about game time.
So much for hitting the ground running...
After much character consternation, and a LOT of side tangents (which is something of a sticking point with this group), things get rolling with four characters. The fifth one never showed up as the player changed his mind about wanting to play him and decided to come up with a different concept. So it goes...
After a great cosmic event (called "the Collapse") in which several alternate timelines get shoved into one, returning hero, Ace, is transplanted to Chicago. Being connected to the U.S. Government in a fashion that no one truly understands, Ace is directed/persuaded/has-the-idea-planted-in-his-head to form a new team for the city as the old one is lost to the eons via the Collapse.
Meanwhile, in Lake Michigan, alien transplant Prince Dormin (fish-man extraordinaire) encounters a being creating sheets of ice along the surface of the lake. Prince Dormin goes to say "hello", and ends up freaking the poor guy out, so much so that he runs off to call his friend so they can turn in this alien to the government or the Tabloids, whoever will pay more. Ace, in an effort to gather like-minded supers to his cause, has heard reports a mysterious fish-man in the city.
Long expository story made shorter... Ace meets Prince Dormin on the shore of Lake Michigan. While there, they get spotted by Torque, who just happened to be cruising by on his motorcycle at the time. Torque calls his friend Jury-Rig. While waiting for Jury-Rig to show up, the fearful ice-making guy has returned with his friends to capture Prince Dormin. Hence, the newly-forming team is confronted by the (not-so) super-villain team known as Core Dump.
CORE DUMP
Iceberg -- A pretty bog-standard Iceman-like energy projector.
Sunstreak -- A speedster who can generate moderate beams of heat from his hand.
Grenade -- A limited energy projector who can explode at the end of his leaps.
Thug -- A flying strongman who's pretty much about two letters short of an IQ.
- and -
Bunnymaster -- Core Dump's dastardly leader who has enhanced hearing (big rabbit ears) and wears larger, spun-cast aluminum bunny feet. Plus, he's pretty good at Savate.
The teams clash, and in the end, Thug and Iceberg are captured while Sunstreak, Bunnymaster, and Grenade all high-tail out of Dodge once they quickly realize just how far in over their heads they were against the PCs.
Overall, not bad, but the game was sidetracked for the first couple of hours with the character issues and the *MANY* conversation tangents this group tends to take. While I myself am guilty of some of them, there was enough non-game related conversation that after being interrupted by such in my first sentence of trying to actually start the game on THREE SEPARATE INSTANCES, I almost just packed up my notes and killed the game right then and there.
I am glad that I didn't, and that I found the patience to continue, but a conversation needs to be had with a number of folks, because it is affecting at least one player's enjoyment of the game...
...and one game master's...
peace... GopherDave
Thursday, August 21, 2014
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
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
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Back To The PIts...
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| One of the last pictures that will be taken by my trusty Nikon CoolPix S3300. Shortly after I took this, I dropped the camera on the floor and now it does not function... |
Overall, I'm still holding out. I had a fit of mania last night that left me moderately productive, but only in the sense of laundry. No real writing/gaming ideas came to mind, but to be honest, I wasn't trying to coax them out, either. As it goes, I'm going to try to get *something* creatively productive done tonight, and try to share with y'all.
So, that's pretty much what's on my mind, currently. A lotta nuttin'... =P
-- GD
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