Did I say, next week? I meant in under six years.

So... that was long gap between posts.

Real life has a way of putting things aside. Gaming and blogging about gaming just happened to be one of the many things that I wasn't able to do for a while.

Things have started to improve personally. I'm back living in Illinois and close to family again. I receieved my PE (Professional Engineer) license a few years back and am working at a job that I find rewarding. And despite COVID shutting down nearly everything, I have managed to get an actual face-to-face group to play HackMaster on a mostly weekly basis.

Since I am gaming again (Well, GMing anyway), I should get back to blogging about gaming again. So starting tomorrow I'm going to get in a few quick posts to catch everyone up on my campaign. After that will be a semi-regular posting about the campaign and whatever thoughts I have on GMing and writing adventure ideas.

Keepsakes

So, I was cleaning my apartment yesterday when I stumbled upon this.

It's the final character sheet for my old PC Lt. Hornsby from John Higgins' Engines & Empires Game. It's been over three years since that campaign ended and I am still holding on to this thing.

It's amazing what it is about role-playing games that turns a normal person into a hoarder. The chances that I will ever get to play Reg again is slim to none, but I still hold on to this character sheet, along with many others from numerous games that I have played in, ran or wrote but never got a chance to run. And then there's the old mud-dice, cardboard tokens and half-scribbled notes from games past. I think part of it is the nostalgia. Not only of the adventure itself, but of those times when friends gathered together to game. At the same time I discovered this sheet, I also found a slew of character sheets my brother used from the old Shadowrun 2e/3e games I used to run and the times we would gather in the living room with our friends and play. I remember each session not only for the game, but for the stuff we went through just to get things going. My fondest gaming memory is not about slinging dice, but me and three of my friends piling into my Dodge Neon and hitting every McDonald's within ten minutes of my apartment in order to get around the 'limit five per customer' stipulation on 49 cent cheeseburger day. Dinner was more of an adventure that night.

I guess that in the end, it's not too crazy to hold on to keepsakes from gaming. At least in my case, it's because it's more than just about that time my fighter got his first +1 sword.

Though to be honest, that was a good day too.

17 Days Till GaryCon! Can It Be True?

I was looking over the website for the Geneva Ridge Resort for blog topic ideas when I came upon this list of accommodations.

Accommodations
Scenic Resort Rooms & Suites
Our 146 spacious guest rooms and suites are designed with the perfect balance of rustic coziness and all the technological conveniences, entertainment, and personal comforts of home. Reflecting Mission-style Arts and Crafts traditions, each room offers a function-friendly layout, warm earthy tones, wood furniture, and these homey amenities:

• Simmons Beautyrest® pillow-top mattresses
• Cotton covered polyester New Generation pillows
• Triple sheeting
• Iron and ironing board
• Expandable cable
• Refrigerator
• 4 cup coffee and tea maker with complimentary coffee
• Hair dryer
• Clock radio
• In-room high-speed Internet
• Flat screen LCD TV with DVD player.
• In-room dining

Notice what I highlighted there. My sinuses are hoping that this is for real.

22 Days Till GaryCon! Question Time.

Okay, you sit down for a D&D game at a con. The DM lays out a set of pregens. There is one of each class available. You are given first pick out of the entire lot.

What character class do you choose?

Personally, I would pick the fighter. While I have gone on in the past about my love for the class, I also like fighters because they are the easiest class to play. There are no fiddly bits like spells and thief skills to worry about. And no matter what type of campaign the GM has in mind, the fighter fits in like a hand in a glove. Even in a game that is non-combat oriented, there is still an advantage to having a strong, intimidating figure around.

That's my choice, what's yours?

23 Days Till GaryCon! Improv at GaryCon.

Lots of role-players consider what they do to be a form of acting. But apparently there will be some actual acting going on at GaryCon. Wednesday and Friday nights from 8pm to 9:30pm, the new ballroom at the Geneva Ridge Resort will host IRPMUS Live!

From the GaryCon Forums:

In the hilarious improv show, you'll help create the characters that will embark on the adventure of a lifetime to retrieve the famed Gem of Misfortune! This is a dynamic, highly interactive old-school D&D themed improv show you have to see! Bring your favorite monster and trap suggestions from any fantasy game. If you love stories of high adventure and epic failure, you must see us play them out before you in IRPMUS LIVE! - FANTASY!

My brother and I will be attending the Wednesday show. According to the folks at GaryCon, this will also be a test to see how well the new ballroom would work with future cons. We'll just have to wait and see.

85 Days Till GaryCon! What To Do When You're Not Gaming.

So you wrap up your session of gaming, and realize that there are hours to be spent between when that event ended and the next one begins. You have all this free time now available that you didn't consider. What do you do? What can you do?

Hit the Bar
Fortunately, The Lodge has a bar that is open most of the day and night. So if you are over 21, this is definitely an option. The bar also becomes a desired social destination late at night when most people are done gaming and ready to unwind. GaryCon has even arranged a special price on New Glarus Spotted Cow while you're there. Toss some dice during the day, toss back a few beers at night. Just don't drink too much and toss your dinner afterwards.

Visit Downtown Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva is a resort town, so downtown has plenty of shops and restaurants to visit. If you happen to be one of those people with significant others that aren't into gaming, then this is going to be one of those things that might placate them while you're having fun. Even if you are just out for some fresh air and sightseeing, it's not a long distance from The Lodge for a short trip.

The Next Door Pub
Despite the name, this place is not next door to the hotel. The Next Door Pub is actually a mile from the hotel and worth the drive for some good food. I first hit this place with a bunch of con-goers at GaryCon II, and it has become an annual trek for my brother and I ever since. the pizza is incredible and a pretty good beer selection as well. If you're hungry and have friends that are available, then you can't go wrong visiting this place.

And Finally...
Not gaming? Seriously? Why would you go to GaryCon and not game? There is always something running that has an opening. Even if the tables are full, there's the open gaming area upstairs with plenty of people just looking for someone with some free time to kill playing a board or strategy game. If you really need a drink or some food, then bring it to your table. There is gaming to be done and GaryCon only comes once a year.

Time is not to be wasted. Game on.

95 Days to GaryCon!

The anticipation is killing me.

Seriously, I know that Christmas is right around the corner and in two weeks I'll be flying into Chicago to spend a week with my family and that should be a priority. I also know that last sentence was a run-on sentence. But I really can't wait for GaryCon to finally happen.

I'm a ball of nerves about it, and I can't figure out why. Money won't be an issue, since I have been and continue to be saving for it. It won't be concern about getting a room because I took care of that a while back. Plane tickets will be cheap and if I don't get a rental car, my brother can pick me up at the airport.

I'll probably spend the next fourteen weeks psychoanalyzing myself about this. I guess in the end what I really am looking forward to is the one social event of my calendar year. Getting to hang out with my friends and having a fun weekend of gaming and relaxing.

And at the rate I'm stressing, by the time GaryCon comes around I'll need a vacation.

97 Days to GaryCon! Little Things You Need To Know Before You Go.

It's always the little things that serve to derail things when you are on a trip. Especially the ones that never occur to you until you get to your destination. You can remember to bring extra pairs of underwear, your phone charger and spare cash. But some things won't occur to you until after they have occurred.

The Lodge at Geneva Ridge is a great place to stay and has been a gracious host for GaryCon for the past four years. But there are a few things you should know about the place that could make your stay a bit more enjoyable.

98 Days till GaryCon!: How to Stay Healthy at a Con.

While there are benefits to having people from all over the world gather in a small town in Wisconsin for the love of gaming, there can be a few drawbacks. It's great meeting new people, but I prefer my cultural exchanges to not be of the bacterial variety.

Despite my history of respiratory problems, I have been able to dodge the 'con flu' every time I have gone to GaryCon. This is not a case of luck or superior resistance to illness. It's all a matter of preparation. Here are a few steps you can take to make sure you get through your convention experience without spending the next week sick.

Hygiene
Your skin is your bodies first line of defense against infection. But if you touch something (or someone) that has germs on it, and then touch a more vulnerable area, such as your eyes or mouth, you will get sick. Get in the habit of washing your hands after every game, meal, and trip to the bathroom. And make sure to shower daily, the rest of the convention will thank yo for it.

Diet
Con food tends to run towards the junk food end of the dietary spectrum. I'm sure that for some people having nothing but donuts for breakfast and fried cheese for lunch and dinner sounds perfect. But the truth is, you need to get your daily supply of vitamins to help fight off infection. Hit the store in town for a veggie plate to snack on at the least. I carry a bottle of Vitamin B & C tablets as well to keep the immune system running.

Hydration
Water. Not pop. Not energy shots. Not coffee. Not alcohol. Water should be your primary drink throughout the day. Not to say you can't have a rum and cola after hours. But keeping yourself replenished with fluids is a must for keeping your body running smoothly and avoiding getting sick.

Stress
Even though most people go to gaming conventions for vacations, that doesn't mean people automatically relax once they get there. The pressure to get a bit of everything can raise the stress levels of any person, which in turn can lower your immune systems ability to ward off infection. Just remember, it's okay if you don't get to do everything at the con. Just do what you can and leave yourself some down time in between events to relax. And if there is something that you do miss, just remember to make it a priority the next year. You're there to have fun, and stressing out and getting sick afterwards is not my definition of fun.

Sleep
I'll be 39 by the time GaryCon V comes around, and my days of all-nighters are long over. You may still be young and full of energy, but it's still a good idea to get 6-8 hours of sleep every night to keep your body working right.

In the end, use some common sense. If you're feeling run down or under the weather, take a break and get some fluids in you. And remember that as much as you are trying to avoid getting sick from others, they are trying to avoid getting sick from you as well. Do your part and you'll be helping more than just yourself in this matter.

Oh yeah! The blog!

Sorry, I've been on Google+ this past month, and just got hooked on Gangs of Boomtown.

It's been... distracting to say the least.

GaryCon IV Vlog: Day One

I swear I did not Photoshop this.

The people at Google have way to much free time on their hands.

SoSA vs. AA-Z

So I actually managed to get through the September of Short Adventures and vanquished the mustache dragon once and for... well for now. I am pleasantly surprised that I pulled it off given that I never completed the A-Z Blogging event from April. Though I think I have a good idea why that is.

First, in April I was unemployed. So blogging wasn't a huge priority compared to finding a job. Now that I am employed again, I feel a bit more comfortable using my free time to blog about games again.

Also with the A-Z event, you are limited to whatever letter you are supposed to blog about that day. I tapped out after S because I was struggling to come up with T-Z, and come out with them on time. With SoSA, I could blog about what I wanted when I wanted. Which is kind of the idea of blogging. if you think about it. If I wanted to blog about booze-running PCs, I could blog about booze-running PCs. If I wanted to blog about fighting a giant shark, then by God I will blog about fighting a giant shark!

Overall, this was a fun event. Big thanks go out to Matt at Asshat Paladins for getting this organized. Hopefully out of all the short adventures you will find something that fits your group.

A little side project I will be working on the next couple of months.

Before I packed up my things and moved out East, I spent Father's Day weekend in western Illinois with my Dad. Dave the Elder is a contractor and farmer who built the home on the 150 acre land that he and my stepmother now live in. They have a lot of stuff in that house, and some of it belonged to my brother and I from when we were children that he asked us to take with us when we went home.

Want to see what I got?

Back again.

Sorry for being away for so long my loyal reader. May has been a busy month for me, including the motherboard on my laptop dying on me.

I'm a bit disappointed in not finishing April A-Z, but at least it gave me some ideas for blog topics. Hopefully I can keep things up in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I have something that might be of use to the gaming public in general. I was looking to create a table for determining the level of magic-user and cleric spells on things like spell scrolls and items like a ring of spell storing. Specifically, I was looking for a table where the chance of getting a lower level spell was exponentially greater than getting a higher level one. Being a bit of a math geek, I actually came up with a mathematical formula for creating this kind of table:

For those not familiar with calculus; this formula is the sum of all iterations of x to the ith power, where i is all integers from 1 to n, with the sum equaling 100. The lowercase n represents the highest level of spell; nine for mages, seven for clerics. My goal was to use this formula to find the value of x, and develop my tables from there. The only drawback that I have with this is that I have to figure out the ranges in reverse, for a 1st level mage spell I use x to the 9th, not x to the 1st.

(Thanks to Gratuitous Saxon Violence for pointing out a slight error in my placement of i and n in my summation. It has been fixed.)

Now at this point, I realize that I have lost most of you. If I have learned anything from April A-Z is that most of my readers and followers are literary types. So I imagine that you are all reading this going, "David, what the hell are you talking about?" or "Get with the damn tables already!" All I can say is, trust me the math works! Here you go.

(I re-ran the calculations for the tables on a spreadsheet. The following should be a more accurate representation of 

Mage (x=1.476)	d% Roll	Cleric (x=1.708)
01-33 34-56 57-71 72-81 82-88 89-93 94-96 97-99 100	First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth Seventh Eighth Ninth	01-42 43-67 68-82 83-90 91-95 96-98 99-100

Q is for Q

Sorry, I got nothing for this one.

Planning ahead.

So far the April A-Z Blogging Challenge has gone fairly well. But I know myself well enough to know that two days of blogging doesn't equal consistent blogging. I need to think and plan things out beforehand if I want to keep up with this. So here are the A-Z blogs for the coming week.

• Monday- C is for Character
• Tuesday- D is for Dice
• Wednesday- E is for Engines and Empires
• Thursday- F is for Friendly Local Game Store
• Friday- G is for Geekpreacher
• Saturday- H is for HackMaster

At the very least, this list will remind me that I have some blogging obligations. I'll also try to do some non-challenge blogging this week as well.

Sad News

Amber Blackburn, daughter of Jolly and Barbara Blackburn, passed away yesterday at 5:30pm Central Time.

Jolly is the creator of Knights of the Dinner Table magazine and the co-creator of HackMaster. His wife Barbara is the editor of Knights of the Dinner Table.

A charity auction site to raise money for the Blackburns has been set up here.

D'oh!

Only took me three days to realize that I forgot the second 'R' in wizardry. Which considering the fact that this is a blog about role-playing games, makes me feel like an idiot for not figuring it out until now. Kind of hard to make a clever play on the phrase "weekend warrior" if you can't have the presence of mind to spell a single word correctly.

It's fixed now, but I still feel like a doofus.

And so it begins...

Hi internet, I'm Dave.

I've been a gamer since 1987, started on the Mentzer Red Box version of Dungeons and Dragons. Since them I have played and GMed AD&D (1st and 2nd editions), Shadowrun (2nd and 3rd editions), HERO System (4th edition), Marvel Super Heroes (TSR) and HackMaster ("4th" edition and Basic). I currently play in John Higgins' weekly Engines and Empires game at The Griffon in South Bend.

I hope to use this blog as more than simply an ID system for posting comments on Blogger. If I'm lucky, I may actually have something useful to say to the table-top gaming community.

We'll see.