This is what I get for letting the blog go so long between posts. I have a lot to blog about and not so much time with which to blog it. Lotsa schoolwork for this college boy. I know I've said it before, but I really didn't remember THIS much reading and writing in college the first time around.
So, first - the really important bit of info. Arrow has received our last bits of reference paperwork, and our caseworker has informed me we are on the list for the homestudy. This is the home stretch in a journey that has been half a decade in the making, from Mary's hysterectomy, to discussion surrogacy with Rob and Cami, to working with Marywood and finally to Arrow and our hopefully soon-to-be-finished foster care license. I am excited. Also, a bit nervous. Parenthood is a big job. God will probably maintain the balance of the universe by making sure I get stuck with kids that are just as difficult as I was for my parents.
Next, weight loss. As most of you know I started dieting in August of last year at a weight of 308lbs. I'm pretty frankly ashamed to have let myself get that large, and I'm overjoyed that 9 months later I'm lighter, but nowhere near as light as I'd hoped to be. My current weight as of this morning was 276.9, meaning I've lost 31lbs. Now, 31lbs is nothing to sneeze at, but that's a rather unimpressive rate of less than a pound a week. Problem has been tha I regained weight over the holidays and then hit a plateau earlier this year that had me bouncing the same 3-4lbs on and off over and over. So what am I doing now that's let me get past the plateau? Well, exercise is one bit. Wii Fit every day from 30-60 minutes of aerobic step. Add to that a modification of the Atkins diet. I'm doing a generally low-carb regimen, about 20-40g of carbs or less a day but I've added a caloric cap (as of this week) to keep myself from going overboard on some things. WingStop lemon pepper wings come to mind.
Mary has lost a little over 30lbs, and it's frustrating to me because she cheats on her low-carb all the time. Difference is, at her job she's on her feet all day long and gets a lot more PT than I do. She looks GREAT. Her before and after on Facebook are really telling, and she's looking forward to losing even more. Low carb has worked pretty well for her. BTW - I think she looks REALLY cute in her scrubs. She got straight As last semester, bettering my A and B+. Who knew? I'm so proud of my wife, it isn't funny.
OK, next item - on 1 MAY 11 the Royal Dragoon Guards get deployed to the Gulf... of Mexico... Dragoons, Dragoon reservists and friends are going aboard Carnival Conquest in Galveston for a 7-night cruise to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel. I'll be wreck snorkling in Grand Cayman. Mary will be swimming with dolphins there. Most of us will be swimming through a Mayan cenote in Cozumel. This is gonna rock.
OK, other cool stuff. Go check out http://www.mechcorps.com/ The folks at MechCorps are awesome. We went to Chimaera Con in San Antonio - had a BLAST - and played a lot of Battletech on the tabletop and in the 'Mech pods. So much fun, in fact, that we're hitting the pods the night before the cruise. If anybody's in Houston on the evening of 30 APR 11 come to Track 21 Indoor Karting in Houston and have some fun with us from 1800-0000. Some of us are going to go for our 25 mission qualification pins.
Heroes of Shadow released for Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition last week. I purchased it, read it, and really enjoyed the content. Now, all of you know that I'm a 1980s kind of guy. I still run a 1st Edition AD&D game on Wednesday nights with my grognard friends. Labyrinth Lord and Rules Cyclopedia are two of my favorite incarnations of D&D. My B/X Moldvay Cook books are holy...
That said, something about the shift that occurred when D&D Essentials came out really caught me. All of a sudden, I just *got* it. With the shift of martial characters back to being martial, the re-spin of monsters and the change-up in the class presentation somehow 4e just clicked. Now, to be sure, it clicked as a good GAME. I am not yet sure if it clicked as good D&D. That remains to be seen. There are three components that will allow me to test this. Component 1 - Heroes of Shadow. Component 2 - The upcoming Shadowfell boxed set. Component 3 - a good group of 5 players. #2 is on its way. #3 I am working on, but since as an adult, student and soon-to-be parent, my gaming time is limited. I can't get another campaign started any time soon. Not without killing something that's extant now.
The game I want to run to take 4e out for a shiny new spin in an actual campaign environment (I DM Dungeons and Dragons Encounters for Rogue's Gallery once a week... this doesn't count as an actual home campaign environment) is basically Ravenloft by way of Castlevania. I think the ideas I have in mind really fit the type of high-powered dramatic and tactical feel of D&D 4e. Many people lament about the video game feel of 4e. To that I say, well, the video games descended from tabletop. The character types of Defender, Controller, Leader and Striker evolved out of the way we actually played our characters all these years. Initially, back in 2008, I *hated* that the classes had been labelled and pigeonholed. I've been running a lot of old school games since then, and realized that the labels are just a formalization of the way we played anyway. Now - I'm not going to stop loving THAC0, lower-is-better AC, or Larry Elmore artwork any time soon. I just want to see if the strengths I see in the 4e game will actually play out in an ongoing home campaign. I see the ability to tell an epic adventure story with heroes doing cinematic things that the original rules only marginally modeled. I'm willing and eager to give it a try.
But you can have my Allston Rules Cyclopedia when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. Still the best single version of D&D ever.
One more thing - we did a playtest of Mecha RPG last night. Definitely would not be in the running for replacing A Time of War in our ongoing Battletech campaign - it's much too cinematic and narrative for the amount of crunch our players like in their Battletech. At the same time, that same narrarativism and cinematic flair appeals mightily to me and Larry, and Bobby seemed to dig it. Larry said it would be brilliant for a separate campaign of its own playing to the anime-emulation strengths of the system. I agree totally.
Okay, folks. See you next time. Maybe I'll have some more info on Mecha RPG with an in-depth playtest review. Maybe I'll have more on D&D. Who the heck knows.
Excelsior!
13 April 2011
22 March 2011
Into The Second Semester - And Some Battletech Musings
My first semester ended with an A and a B+, and now, in week three of the new semester I'm enjoying both Anthro and Intro to Military History. Damn, but these 8-week semesters move FAST. I feel like I just got started, and one prof has already posted about the mid-term...
OK, most of you (that is, two out of the three readers of this blog) come here to see me post about gaming stuff. So here's what I've been tinkering with, MechWarrior-wise. I think I've sussed out that I want to borrow lots from Traveller, some from MechWarrior 1e and 2e, and then tack on some concepts from FATE. When all this comes together, it should be the MechWarrior system I've wanted to play with.
After some consideration, we'll be stealing bits of the Traveller character gen, and the concept of UPP. Something else I like is with the Mongoose tweak of Traveller, the attribute bonuses are on a fairly tight scale, which might help keep high attribute scores from creating supercharacters. One of the issues with MechWarrior 2nd Edition is that any character with a 6 ITN was godlike in pretty much anything but social interaction. The flip side was that an 'average' person with 3s across the board needed a skill level of 4-5 just to be competent at something. University Education only gave a max skill level of 3. Your PCs won't be 'average' for the most part, but unless you're going to decouple PCs from NPCs for determining skills then you want the system to reflect some sort of internal consistency... Hmmm... perhaps you COULD simply rule that the average NPC as the skill roll of a military regular at whatever it is they do and just ignore the math...
OK, next thing I want to steal from Traveller is the lifepath system. I want to find a way to make it interesting and useful, but not the amazing monster it became in MW3. I think the big problem in MW3 was the way skill points worked. If the lifepath is going to grant skills, it needs to grant skills, not skill points that must later be rectified into something else. Mongoose Traveller even has a notation for granting a skill level and no higher. I like that as well, as it allows for someone to reach a given experience level without exceeding it for certain things or types of training. As an aside - I'd like to also borrow planetary UPP codes as well.
From MechWarrior 1e and 2e I'm taking the personal combat system. I think personal combat should be very close to 'Mech combat to keep the paradigm from shifting too much for players. Also - I love hit locations in personal combat. Gives a bit more flavor to the fighting. We're going to go for a straight +1 damage per MoS in combat, avoiding the math in AToW of 1/4 point here and 1/2 point there. Armor will be handled like it was in MW2e, since the whole BAR/penetration system is linked to AToW's system. I don't think scaling will be as much of an issue as to require us to use the whole gamut of BAR.
Skills give me pause. AToW uses a 0-10 skill level scale. I'm not sure we are going to use 10 skill levels. I'm almost tempted to use untrained, green, regular, veteran and elite (with possibly one or two levels above this) as skill levels to keep things simple. It also allows a quick assignment of target number to NPCs. OK, stream of consciousness here, in MW1e, there were 8 skill levels. If we go with 8, that means keying Regular to a TN of 5, green to 6 and untrained to 7 or 8...
I really have to stop with the stream-of-consciousness notations... I always lose focus and end up tinkering with stuff that has no direct effect on the project at hand...
OK, so chargen and skills etc. What about FATE integration? Well, we're looking at replacing the EDG attribute with something like the refresh mechanic used in the Dresden Files RPG, where the GM sets a refresh rate and 'powers' are subtracted from that number. For the purposes of MW, a 2nd Edition or AToW-style natural aptitude (roll 3d6 keep best 2) would be a power. Most advantages might be considered for powers, like sixth sense, etc. Have to make a list, I s'pose. We're also going to leave SOC and EDU as aspects. Like "Swordmaster of the House of Dencourt", which would have a value assigned to it by the GM, or "Graduate of the DeChevalier Military Academy" which would have a number assigned likewise. Why do it this way? These things I want decided on based on style and character background, not balancing a pool of points.
Hmmm... I'm starting to see a White Wolf-style character sheet for some reason... No, wait, eight bubbles next to each skill would be a bit much. Speaking of skills, the skill list needs to be pruned a bit. AToW gives for a skill list so long that every character in our party needed more space for skills and required me to make a custom character sheet to deal with it. And then a sheet of JUST skills for two of the nine PCs in the party. This will bear looking into...
This is almost making me want to... yep... I'm going to go tinker with a character sheet... I will try to post more soon...
OK, most of you (that is, two out of the three readers of this blog) come here to see me post about gaming stuff. So here's what I've been tinkering with, MechWarrior-wise. I think I've sussed out that I want to borrow lots from Traveller, some from MechWarrior 1e and 2e, and then tack on some concepts from FATE. When all this comes together, it should be the MechWarrior system I've wanted to play with.
After some consideration, we'll be stealing bits of the Traveller character gen, and the concept of UPP. Something else I like is with the Mongoose tweak of Traveller, the attribute bonuses are on a fairly tight scale, which might help keep high attribute scores from creating supercharacters. One of the issues with MechWarrior 2nd Edition is that any character with a 6 ITN was godlike in pretty much anything but social interaction. The flip side was that an 'average' person with 3s across the board needed a skill level of 4-5 just to be competent at something. University Education only gave a max skill level of 3. Your PCs won't be 'average' for the most part, but unless you're going to decouple PCs from NPCs for determining skills then you want the system to reflect some sort of internal consistency... Hmmm... perhaps you COULD simply rule that the average NPC as the skill roll of a military regular at whatever it is they do and just ignore the math...
OK, next thing I want to steal from Traveller is the lifepath system. I want to find a way to make it interesting and useful, but not the amazing monster it became in MW3. I think the big problem in MW3 was the way skill points worked. If the lifepath is going to grant skills, it needs to grant skills, not skill points that must later be rectified into something else. Mongoose Traveller even has a notation for granting a skill level and no higher. I like that as well, as it allows for someone to reach a given experience level without exceeding it for certain things or types of training. As an aside - I'd like to also borrow planetary UPP codes as well.
From MechWarrior 1e and 2e I'm taking the personal combat system. I think personal combat should be very close to 'Mech combat to keep the paradigm from shifting too much for players. Also - I love hit locations in personal combat. Gives a bit more flavor to the fighting. We're going to go for a straight +1 damage per MoS in combat, avoiding the math in AToW of 1/4 point here and 1/2 point there. Armor will be handled like it was in MW2e, since the whole BAR/penetration system is linked to AToW's system. I don't think scaling will be as much of an issue as to require us to use the whole gamut of BAR.
Skills give me pause. AToW uses a 0-10 skill level scale. I'm not sure we are going to use 10 skill levels. I'm almost tempted to use untrained, green, regular, veteran and elite (with possibly one or two levels above this) as skill levels to keep things simple. It also allows a quick assignment of target number to NPCs. OK, stream of consciousness here, in MW1e, there were 8 skill levels. If we go with 8, that means keying Regular to a TN of 5, green to 6 and untrained to 7 or 8...
I really have to stop with the stream-of-consciousness notations... I always lose focus and end up tinkering with stuff that has no direct effect on the project at hand...
OK, so chargen and skills etc. What about FATE integration? Well, we're looking at replacing the EDG attribute with something like the refresh mechanic used in the Dresden Files RPG, where the GM sets a refresh rate and 'powers' are subtracted from that number. For the purposes of MW, a 2nd Edition or AToW-style natural aptitude (roll 3d6 keep best 2) would be a power. Most advantages might be considered for powers, like sixth sense, etc. Have to make a list, I s'pose. We're also going to leave SOC and EDU as aspects. Like "Swordmaster of the House of Dencourt", which would have a value assigned to it by the GM, or "Graduate of the DeChevalier Military Academy" which would have a number assigned likewise. Why do it this way? These things I want decided on based on style and character background, not balancing a pool of points.
Hmmm... I'm starting to see a White Wolf-style character sheet for some reason... No, wait, eight bubbles next to each skill would be a bit much. Speaking of skills, the skill list needs to be pruned a bit. AToW gives for a skill list so long that every character in our party needed more space for skills and required me to make a custom character sheet to deal with it. And then a sheet of JUST skills for two of the nine PCs in the party. This will bear looking into...
This is almost making me want to... yep... I'm going to go tinker with a character sheet... I will try to post more soon...
28 February 2011
MechWarrior meets Pendragon meets Traveller?
Last night, I ran a one-shot of MechWarrior First Edition. It took me back... waaay back. And while I was running this one-shot I was making mental notes on some things I'd like to do with a MechWarrior game. I've made posts before on message boards about how I love the original feel of the MechWarrior universe. The Dune-inspired post-apocalyptic neo-feudal universe where 'Mechs are the lords of the battlefield and can no longer be constructed- or at least constructed on a small-scale.
This has given me some ideas for what I would consider "my" version of MechWarrior, or MechWarrior 1.5, as it were.
I want to use the 1st edition rules as a basis and I'll admit its out of nostalgia. Let's start with that and take a look at the things I'd like to keep or modify.
The MechWarrior 1e game was often criticized for not being able to do much more than make MechWarriors and pilots. Something that crossed my mind while reading Pendragon the other night was that Pendragon is a game that makes Knights. Only knights, pretty much. Pendragon is touted as one of the greatest genre games ever made. So... what the heck is wrong with MechWarrior being designed to make... MechWarriors?
Now, don't get me wrong. I think there's a LOT more to the Battletech universe than BattleMechs. There's so much history, culture, so many nooks and crannies in the universe to fit into that have nothing to do with 'Mechs at all. I've run a couple of campaigns like this and they were brilliant. The deal is, if Greg Stafford could design Pendragon to handle the Knights of the Round Table, why can't MechWarrior be designed to deal with the Knights of the Inner Sphere- IE, MechWarriors?
Pendragon gives me some inspiration here. Each character is assumed to be a landholding noble. Isn't that really the feel of the original MechWarrior universe? That MechWarriors were the landed nobility by virtue of having a BattleMech?
So why tweak the game to assume that the characters are either these landed noble MechWarriors and Aerospace Pilots or their retinue?
So the default character type would be a MechWarrior. Other possibilites would be aerospace pilots, tankers, etc. There would be a clear social like between MechWarriors/Aerospace Pilots and everyone else. Much as knights had serjeants, I think every MechWarrior would have a small number of tankers as retainers. And maybe some infantry. These would be to support the 'Mech, and to guard the household when the 'Mech is away.
Which brings me to the 'Mech being away. Just as a Knight was required to serve his lord for a period of time per year, why not have MechWarriors required to serve a certain amount of time in active duty to their liege. In fact, one could even take some of the household mechanics from Pendragon and even include something like "The Winter Phase" for the fortunes of the house and the household members.
Now, at this point, I have to mention that I've cribbed a lot from "A Song of Ice and Fire" about houses and house fortunes, etc. I think we might look to MechWarrior 1st Edition and come up with some additional ideas for building landholds and figuring house fortunes.
I'm ruminating on possible projects around this. MechWarrior 1st Edition sourcebooks, maybe. Or maybe start with an article a'la Battletechnology covering governing a landhold. I can take a look at Pendragon and it's sourcebook Lordly Domains, plus the Song of Ice and Fire rules, and see what we've got going on to adapt. I think it would be awesome to come up with something retro, but useful...
This has given me some ideas for what I would consider "my" version of MechWarrior, or MechWarrior 1.5, as it were.
I want to use the 1st edition rules as a basis and I'll admit its out of nostalgia. Let's start with that and take a look at the things I'd like to keep or modify.
- The game uses 2d6 task resolution. This I want to keep because it's the core of the Battletech game, with which my version of MechWarrior should remain compatible.
- The ability scores run on a 12-point scale. I think it's possible to keep this scale, or even to expand it to 15 a-'la Traveller for an old-school hexidecimal UPP scheme... Hmmm... Traveller-style systems for MechWarrior...
- The basic system of ability scores giving a modifier to target number works for me. The challenge here is to create a scheme by which ability scores have an effect, but not as much of an overpowering one as MechWarrior 2nd Edition had, where a character with a 6 ITN was godlike.
- I like the HTK system, and having HTK by body location. A Time of War has overcomplicated what should be a simplification by reducing the number of damage points a character has, then having margin of success add 1/4 point or 1/2 point to damage. Why not just keep a larger pool of hit points and count full points?
- I have been looking at the Battletechnology article on character creation. It gives a variable number of CP for character creation based on the throw of 2d6-2. This gives a range of 145-225 CP rather than the 150 CP normally alotted by the original MechWarrior RPG. It also gives several different training possibilities with differing skill packages. This is terribly old-school in its complex crunchiness. I may or may not keep some of this just out of nostalgic grognardism.
- I like having experience classes. They give the old-school feeling of "Levelling" without really having a bunch of levels. There's Green, Regular, Veteran and Elite. I like that.
- Crunchy as it is, I like giving out XP for skill use, combat damage, etc. But I am going to alter XP rules to allow for more non-combat XP for non-combat characters.
The MechWarrior 1e game was often criticized for not being able to do much more than make MechWarriors and pilots. Something that crossed my mind while reading Pendragon the other night was that Pendragon is a game that makes Knights. Only knights, pretty much. Pendragon is touted as one of the greatest genre games ever made. So... what the heck is wrong with MechWarrior being designed to make... MechWarriors?
Now, don't get me wrong. I think there's a LOT more to the Battletech universe than BattleMechs. There's so much history, culture, so many nooks and crannies in the universe to fit into that have nothing to do with 'Mechs at all. I've run a couple of campaigns like this and they were brilliant. The deal is, if Greg Stafford could design Pendragon to handle the Knights of the Round Table, why can't MechWarrior be designed to deal with the Knights of the Inner Sphere- IE, MechWarriors?
Pendragon gives me some inspiration here. Each character is assumed to be a landholding noble. Isn't that really the feel of the original MechWarrior universe? That MechWarriors were the landed nobility by virtue of having a BattleMech?
So why tweak the game to assume that the characters are either these landed noble MechWarriors and Aerospace Pilots or their retinue?
So the default character type would be a MechWarrior. Other possibilites would be aerospace pilots, tankers, etc. There would be a clear social like between MechWarriors/Aerospace Pilots and everyone else. Much as knights had serjeants, I think every MechWarrior would have a small number of tankers as retainers. And maybe some infantry. These would be to support the 'Mech, and to guard the household when the 'Mech is away.
Which brings me to the 'Mech being away. Just as a Knight was required to serve his lord for a period of time per year, why not have MechWarriors required to serve a certain amount of time in active duty to their liege. In fact, one could even take some of the household mechanics from Pendragon and even include something like "The Winter Phase" for the fortunes of the house and the household members.
Now, at this point, I have to mention that I've cribbed a lot from "A Song of Ice and Fire" about houses and house fortunes, etc. I think we might look to MechWarrior 1st Edition and come up with some additional ideas for building landholds and figuring house fortunes.
I'm ruminating on possible projects around this. MechWarrior 1st Edition sourcebooks, maybe. Or maybe start with an article a'la Battletechnology covering governing a landhold. I can take a look at Pendragon and it's sourcebook Lordly Domains, plus the Song of Ice and Fire rules, and see what we've got going on to adapt. I think it would be awesome to come up with something retro, but useful...
One Semester Down...
Well, that was a quick eight weeks. And a challenging one. COLL 100 Foundations of Online Learning and HIST 300 Research Methods in History are under my belt, leaving me 61 hours to complete my degree. I have 35 credits I can't use which represent a significant amount of time and tuition I used a decade ago that aren't doing me any good right now. Kinda frustrating. Oh, well.
These two classes I've just completed were eye-opening for me. They really showed me it's time to kick in the spurs and get back to serious academics. These classes aren't the walk in the park I thought going back to college would be. I did a lot of reasearch and writing in the last eight weeks, and I'm proud of my paper on the history of the roleplaying hobby and all the hours of reading and researching that went into it. Oh, and the $100+ of old books I purchased to help in that endeavor.
My next classes up for bids are MILH201 Introduction to Military History and ANTH100 Introduction to Anthropology. I'm looking quite forward to both of them. This will be my first course specific to my major. Huzzah.
I get a week off. Then it's back to the books. Things are going quite swimmingly.
These two classes I've just completed were eye-opening for me. They really showed me it's time to kick in the spurs and get back to serious academics. These classes aren't the walk in the park I thought going back to college would be. I did a lot of reasearch and writing in the last eight weeks, and I'm proud of my paper on the history of the roleplaying hobby and all the hours of reading and researching that went into it. Oh, and the $100+ of old books I purchased to help in that endeavor.
My next classes up for bids are MILH201 Introduction to Military History and ANTH100 Introduction to Anthropology. I'm looking quite forward to both of them. This will be my first course specific to my major. Huzzah.
I get a week off. Then it's back to the books. Things are going quite swimmingly.
17 February 2011
09 February 2011
Time, time time... See what's become of me...
Time does get away from me. At this point, I'm past the mid-term in my 8-week semester. I'm on the downhill rolling toward the two research papers I have to write for my final exams. One is on the use of gaming in education, the other is on the history of the D&D game. Both topics I have quite a bit of interest in, but it's been over a decade since I have had to write a scholarly work. I'm trying very hard to get back into the swing of things academically. Mary being back in school makes things interesting around the house, as she requires a LOT more homework and tutoring to overcome her learning disability, and I end up spending a lot more time doing some of the housework I took for granted before she started school. I was always the cook of the family, and helped with laundry - but now things are totally flopped since I want to give her the maximum amount of study time and support I can.
The result is one tired Old Dragoon. I get home, I cook, clean up, work on laundry, homework... I am really missing downtime. The two games I'm actively running are sandwiched in there, and the only thing that saves them is that the AD&D game is by design bog-standard fantasy not requiring extremely deep thought, and the Royal Dragoon Guards game is always bubbling and simmering in the back of my head. This last I have found to be an interesting malady that many members of the RDG suffer. Leftenants Dencourt and Eversole are always talking to me and to each other about the game, same with Sergeant Major Doyle - although he and I do also talk about The Dresden Files as well. The DF game will be making an appearance sometime soon, when we can all find time.
Ah, so many games, so little time. I have found myself lately experiencing a wave of nostalgia (imagine that) and a renewed love for the old TSR games on my shelf. Star Frontiers. Top Secret/S.I. Gangbusters. D&D BECMI or Moldvay/Cook. Hell, even Indiana Jones, which I have threatened to run as a one-shot with the Raiders of the Lost Ark module. I am thinking of taking the time to do a blog entry here on TOD about each of those games in turn, wnd what I like about each of them. If I can find the time to do so, I will most certainly begin the project soon.
Speaking of projects I'd like to get around to, Catalyst Game Labs keeps vexing me by their failure to release Interstellar Operations, and their fixation on moving past their recently-released Era Report: 3052 rather than covering the Succession Wars or anything of interest to the original Battletech set. I very much want to get back into the idea I had years ago and do a Mechwarrior RPG Boxed Set, basically, MechWarrior 2nd Edition as I would have done it. Mad Max/Dune with 'Mechs and all. Firmly set in an idealized and further explained version of the Third Succession War that detailed *how* the neo-feudal society with MechWarriors works. Fill in some of the gaping logic holes in the way the military works, maybe do some thematic nerfing of tanks etc. to make sure there's a good reason 'Mechs are Lords of the Battlefield... Oh, this is a pet project I would so love to to... But time... Time...
I have to go back to work on my research papers now. Just wanted all your readers out there (that's right, both of you) to know I was still here, still writing.
Until next time - Excelsior!
(Apologies to Stan Lee)
The result is one tired Old Dragoon. I get home, I cook, clean up, work on laundry, homework... I am really missing downtime. The two games I'm actively running are sandwiched in there, and the only thing that saves them is that the AD&D game is by design bog-standard fantasy not requiring extremely deep thought, and the Royal Dragoon Guards game is always bubbling and simmering in the back of my head. This last I have found to be an interesting malady that many members of the RDG suffer. Leftenants Dencourt and Eversole are always talking to me and to each other about the game, same with Sergeant Major Doyle - although he and I do also talk about The Dresden Files as well. The DF game will be making an appearance sometime soon, when we can all find time.
Ah, so many games, so little time. I have found myself lately experiencing a wave of nostalgia (imagine that) and a renewed love for the old TSR games on my shelf. Star Frontiers. Top Secret/S.I. Gangbusters. D&D BECMI or Moldvay/Cook. Hell, even Indiana Jones, which I have threatened to run as a one-shot with the Raiders of the Lost Ark module. I am thinking of taking the time to do a blog entry here on TOD about each of those games in turn, wnd what I like about each of them. If I can find the time to do so, I will most certainly begin the project soon.
Speaking of projects I'd like to get around to, Catalyst Game Labs keeps vexing me by their failure to release Interstellar Operations, and their fixation on moving past their recently-released Era Report: 3052 rather than covering the Succession Wars or anything of interest to the original Battletech set. I very much want to get back into the idea I had years ago and do a Mechwarrior RPG Boxed Set, basically, MechWarrior 2nd Edition as I would have done it. Mad Max/Dune with 'Mechs and all. Firmly set in an idealized and further explained version of the Third Succession War that detailed *how* the neo-feudal society with MechWarriors works. Fill in some of the gaping logic holes in the way the military works, maybe do some thematic nerfing of tanks etc. to make sure there's a good reason 'Mechs are Lords of the Battlefield... Oh, this is a pet project I would so love to to... But time... Time...
I have to go back to work on my research papers now. Just wanted all your readers out there (that's right, both of you) to know I was still here, still writing.
Until next time - Excelsior!
(Apologies to Stan Lee)
14 January 2011
Updates on The Old Dragoon
My apologies for the length of time since I posted last.
Since I last blathered on to you kind readers I have begun classes with American Military University in hopes of completing my BA in Military History, with a firm intention of rolling straight into their Master's program. I want to teach, my friends, and I've waited far too long to finish my education to be able to do so. Thus far I am taking COLL100 - Fundamentals of Online Learning and HIST300 - Research Methods in History. Both have proven to be more interesting than they sound, and I've even been assigned to do my term paper in HIST300 on Dungeons and Dragons! I can't wait to dig into that.
My Serenity campaign has been taken over by another GM, and in its place I am running an AD&D game, first edition. I find it humorous that while I love AD&D, I would almost rather be playing BX or BECMI D&D so that the fiddly bits of the rules don't get in the way of the story. That's a huge turnaround from how I used to be, loving every minute crunchy rule and detail in a game. I've struck something of a balance, I think, with my other gaming that is influencing me drift ever more rules-lighter than my previous games. I'm really looking at doing something with FATE - and FATE may become the new system for the Royal Dragoon Guards after all.
In reference to the AD&D game, one of my players asked "How complicated can it be?" For those who would ask the same question, please hop over to Dragonsfoot and check out their first edition downloads. Along with a lot of great fan-made modules and cheat sheets, there's a document called ADDICT. The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Initiative Combat Table. This simple document explains all the intricacies of surprise, initiative and combat in first edition AD&D - in 20 short pages. OK, so a good chunk of that are examples, but still...
So. New Year. I've got an "A" average in both my classes so far. Haven't missed a day of WiiFit yet since starting back on my regimen on 3 Jan. Been back on Atkins with the wife, and have been cooking more. For those of you who like low carb, check out George Stella's web site for some awesome low-carb tips. I got one of his cookbooks for Christmas, and thus far everything we've tried has been amazing.
Now... to make sure I keep my blog updated with more information for all of you who actually read it. That's right, both of you. Take care, all. Hopefully my next post will have some good news about our homestudy being scheduled.
Since I last blathered on to you kind readers I have begun classes with American Military University in hopes of completing my BA in Military History, with a firm intention of rolling straight into their Master's program. I want to teach, my friends, and I've waited far too long to finish my education to be able to do so. Thus far I am taking COLL100 - Fundamentals of Online Learning and HIST300 - Research Methods in History. Both have proven to be more interesting than they sound, and I've even been assigned to do my term paper in HIST300 on Dungeons and Dragons! I can't wait to dig into that.
My Serenity campaign has been taken over by another GM, and in its place I am running an AD&D game, first edition. I find it humorous that while I love AD&D, I would almost rather be playing BX or BECMI D&D so that the fiddly bits of the rules don't get in the way of the story. That's a huge turnaround from how I used to be, loving every minute crunchy rule and detail in a game. I've struck something of a balance, I think, with my other gaming that is influencing me drift ever more rules-lighter than my previous games. I'm really looking at doing something with FATE - and FATE may become the new system for the Royal Dragoon Guards after all.
In reference to the AD&D game, one of my players asked "How complicated can it be?" For those who would ask the same question, please hop over to Dragonsfoot and check out their first edition downloads. Along with a lot of great fan-made modules and cheat sheets, there's a document called ADDICT. The Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Initiative Combat Table. This simple document explains all the intricacies of surprise, initiative and combat in first edition AD&D - in 20 short pages. OK, so a good chunk of that are examples, but still...
So. New Year. I've got an "A" average in both my classes so far. Haven't missed a day of WiiFit yet since starting back on my regimen on 3 Jan. Been back on Atkins with the wife, and have been cooking more. For those of you who like low carb, check out George Stella's web site for some awesome low-carb tips. I got one of his cookbooks for Christmas, and thus far everything we've tried has been amazing.
Now... to make sure I keep my blog updated with more information for all of you who actually read it. That's right, both of you. Take care, all. Hopefully my next post will have some good news about our homestudy being scheduled.
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