Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Happy Holidays!

Well, here's hoping that one and all out there in the gaming blogosphere is having a great holiday season! May you get all the RPG goodies for which you may have asked!

Overall, I think it's been a great year for me as it pertains to gaming. I've had a great time exploring games old and new, digging up stuff I already had in my possession and making some purchases of new materials. I've done a lot of good experimenting with game systems, finally deciding on one or two that I really like. I've played and gamemastered games both at the table-top and online. As I enter the new year, I'm at the helm of a new table-top campaign that, for now, involves two old friends that I thought I'd never game with again! Yes, it's been a good year, and I hope 2011 will be even better!

During this time of year, many of us think about those who may no longer be with us. Beyond the family and friends I have known that have passed on, there are people that have influenced me that I have never met personally. Gary Gygax is, of course, one of those people. Another is fantasy author David Gemmell. If you've never read any of his novels, I heartily recommend them (a good starting place would be his first novel, Legend). Mr. Gemmell died in 2006 at the too-young age of 57. His work is visceral and gritty sword and sorcery, and has been a great inspiration to my own writing and gaming endeavors. Do yourselves a favor and treat yourself to his work. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Anyway, enough of maudlin thoughts! Happy holidays once again, and here's to more gaming in the new year!

Friday, December 17, 2010

Tales of the Wanderers, Session 2.5

So, let me educate my few readers about life in Southern New Jersey during the winter. We are wimps when it comes to snow. A light dusting of snow occurred last night in the Philadelphia region, in which I dwell, and of course this meant complete paralysis of the roadways! Now, to be fair, it WAS slippery, and the snow was not expected to stick to the ground. But it did. And it was very cold, so there was this weird mix of black ice and powdery snow. And since it was so unexpected, no salt trucks were sent out before the snow started. But still, it seemed to be too much gridlock for the amount of snow that fell.

My point? Last night was of course supposed to be a game night at my place. Only one of my players made it (there are currently only two, as you might know). Luckily, we are still in the small village in which the campaign started two sessions ago, so there was a good opportunity to do a "side" adventure with my friend Dan, who is playing a kender who has been magically transported from Krynn to Oerth. Again, anyone wishing to check out the campaign, feel free to check out the Obsidian Portal page for Tales of the Wanderers.

Anyway, we had a couple hours of side quest fun, with plenty of laughs of course (we are talking about a kender character, you know). I'll try to get a journal entry on the OP page ASAP. All in all, every game session we have just makes me more and more excited, and happier and happier about this return to gaming with some of the old group!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Tales of the Wanderers, Session Two

It's a busy Friday at work, so I don't have much time to write at the moment. But I wanted to say that last night we had session two of what I am calling my Tales of the Wanderers campaign. "We" refers to my two old friends and myself, as I related in my first post on this embryonic attempt to bring some of my old group back to table-top gaming. It was another good session, but a bit slow as we're still setting the stage for the adventures to come, laying down personalities, backgrounds, and relationships of the player characters and a growing list of NPCs.

If you're interested, you can check out the campaign's page on Obsidian Portal. I will try to do the next adventure log entry today sometime.

I'll check back in soon!