I Declare War on the BBC and Marriage.

Did I forget to mention that NPR has made my list as well?... Okay one crisis at a time here.

Sure the Kenyans sent troops into neighboring Somali around the day of its release. All for it, I dislike the name Al-Shabob as much as I dislike Shirai Law. Fine, police are provoking riots in Oakland. Okay, I get it, somethings take precedence. But Elder Tunnels Halloween 2012 has been out for two weeks now, and neither the BBC or NPR has mentioned this earth-shaking event. While sales and response have increased a bit from last year's at this time, I expected to be living on a remote Island in the India Ocean by January off of the profits. Instead I have to do shameless plugs in my blog... sigh.

Thursday was Pery's Birthday, and I was sweating about what to do to make her day special. Couldn't do much financially. Monk and K-Bell got married in-between GenCon in August and the Carnage Convention this upcoming week. Then the was the release of that rag that I mentioned above. And it happens to be re-cert time for a couple classes required for my profession, which I love despite my avoidance of thinking about it. Needless to say, my OT has had to be spent elsewhere. But we're married, so I just felt obliged to do something. So Wednesday night and Thursday night at work, I concocted the most ill-conceived Birthday party ever. At home in the AM, I FaceBooked a few people, as well as invited my partner, Em, Pery's unofficial son, about a party at our usual hangout The Old Angle. I then freed up $30 bucks for a cake, and wallah instant awkward get-together. The place was crowded, because I suppose no one else in Ohio City has a job on Fridays, and there was only Larry behind the bar and on the floor. We had to sit in "the Castle" which usually isn't lit. About six people shuffled in, out of eight invited (not bad), but not many stuck around longer than 45 minutes and it was taking 40 minutes to get any service. Em stuck around for dinner, and Pery seemed happy with her new toys from the Amazing Spiderman cake that I had purchased. But if I hadn't been married, and if it wasn't for Monk's marriage, I wouldn't be so damned broke or have a canker sore from the damned cake icing.
Okay it since it's Halloween, my first, or second, or sometimes fourth, favorite holiday time, I figured I'd mention some of the better scary movies that might not register on most people's radars. Call it Kopfy's Kamera Kampy, err Obscura, err Obskura. Oddly enough there are some zombie movies, despite my rule "A little bit of zombies or pirates goes a loooooong way."

Dead Heist- This urban horror is definitely a Sasquatch (on a scale of Smurf to Godzilla). While I do like me some Krimi flix, what I especially like how it gets over the End-of-the-World and comes up with a way to end the zombie invasion. Not to spoil too much, but soccer shin guards are essential!

The Horde- Once again an urban horror with the trappings of a Krimi flik, but this time in French. Don't you feel cultured? This one is a King Kong. Just the scene on on the roof of the project building makes this film worth the watch, and there is a whole lot more.

And then there's Hisss- Imagine Cat People meets Bollywood. This movie is so quirky that you have to like it. Of course Pery got jealous of the hot woman I couldn't help but gawk at. Between a Sasquatch and Robo-Monster, but definitely merits a bowl of popcorn.

And so now comes Continuing Education credits... sigh, homework.

Fantasy Movies are Supposed to be Bad.

Scott Malthouse, usually a keen observer of the universe of the fantastic, has it wrong this week over at the Trollish Delver, where he states, to paraphrase, the first D&D movie is the best ever. Where he is wrong, besides just being ironic for satire's sake, is that the movie Dungeons and Dragons is the last of good old fashioned bad fantasy flix on the silver screen. The following year, big budget block-busters would pull the rug out on decades worth of low budget productions by Italian producers combing gyms and researching issues of Penthouse for their short list of stars.

It might've been the same year as the 2000 release of D&D, but when Russel Crow co-opted the sword and sandals drama, he and his gang destroyed decades of hard work by producers of some of the weirdest movies of all time, swords and sandal dramas (sometimes confused with the Toga and Torches sub-genre). Directors such as Umberto Scarpelli and even Cecil B DeMill took the success of the Biblical dramas and turned them on their heads to produce tales with scores of lush olive skinned women and an over oiled body-building man, with a few guys running around in Centurion armor. While Gladiator was about as coherently written as classics like say Goliath versus the Vampires, Ridley Scott just turned the whole thing into schmoltzey face time for a few actors, ignoring the basics.

And then the next year came my now most hated fantasy movie series ever, the Lord of the Rings series, that rejected every precedent of sword and sorcery films, by not having the characters wander over a 300 meter block of woods with a scrap wood city built in a nearby streambed, but instead making action packed video game trailer, with silly romantic interludes for the bored wife dragged into the theater and finally plenty of Man-Boy Love Association promos for the pudding eating critics. And what one got was Peter Jackson's wife's take on what would Liv Tyler, Elijah Wood and Orlando Bloom do if they ever got Viggo Morgensen alone, with snowboarding. Gone, from then on, are the days of Deathstalker and Hawk the Slayer, for long lasting scenes of Gandalf and Frodo staring at each while, while Bilbo glowers. Samwise and Gollum are in a flat out cat fight throughout the last flik of this overdone soap opera.

And from there it has only gotten worse. The Christians and the established anti-Christians began their fantasy movie wars against each other with Hollywood video-game trailers of their takes on The Chronicles of Narnia and His Dark Materials, respectively. Definitely no adult movie entertainers or former Playboy models in either of those two franchises. A bit more amusing has been the Neil Gaiman, J.K. Rowling and Terry Prachet adaptations here and there. Each showing that others can stand on the shoulders of both Clive Barker and the master JRR Tolkien to craft "new angles" in writing essentially teen fiction for the new millennium film media and have tens of million of fans without having ten fans that ever read a book. These efforts would give the Vampire subgenre a true and authentic message when crass and badly produced CGI masterpieces would soon be bombarded on the mass viewing audiences throughout the world.

Now I am not saying that any of these new takes on fantasy should be any different than they are. Believe me in ten years time, they will appear to a new crop of viewers as bad as Krull, The Odyssey with Armand Assante or Legend. What I am saying is that fantasy fliks need to stop trying to appeal to everyone at every age group all at once, well more accurately in the same flik.

As an example of a producer/director getting this axiom, I have, with much chagrin, George Lucas. This lover of midgets, seems to have understood this in his prequels of Star Wars. The first was a cartoon, with a couple adult scenes designed for the parents who could not talk about sex around their 10 year-old. Second is for 14 year-olds, the parents are still there but having a beer at Chilis at the other end of the mall. The third is flat out a 15-19 year old melodrama, who can himself to and from home-- or in Kevin Smith's case, a 40 year-old who's mother is still willing to come pick him up. But in making fantasy movies, it shouldn't be an over-funded "art school" project, released a decade after graduation, that shows an understanding the basics of photography with film production and a knowledge of Stanly Kubric films and the Flash Gordon serials. And this project should not turn into a psycho-social experiment in how much money one can squeeze out various markets over three decades... But I am diverging here.

A fantasy flik on the silver screen these days could attempt to be not "family-friendly" by not not saying the word "fuck, while providing graphic images of blood and gore for a PG-13 crowd, and it would find fans. Even if the project would not get mega-market release in all the affluent suburbs of the USA, Canada, the UK, France and the Ukraine all at midnight of the same day, and Alan Dean Foster or Michael Stackpole writing the novel-- mostly because the novel was already written!

Luckily there is the Scy-Fy channel which keeps the flix about the character types and finding the actors that can quirkily fit them. I speak of my favorite fantasy flix of late The Knights of Blood Steel and Dark Kingdoms. This leaves the family-friendly stuff for network TV, like the upcoming Once Upon a Time (how clever) and Grimm.

Sitting by the presses

And so Peryton and I sit tonight. We think CCrabb will be sending the Halloween issue of E-Tunn to us this evening, so after watching too many episodes of Star Trek Deep Space Nine after dinner we've moved to our traditional places at the computers doing much of nothing. Pery did get the cover ready, a nice piece by Jeff Cortez, who did the last issue's cover as well. Of course, back in August I set the release date at 15.Oct, so I wouldn't be surprised if it takes until tomorrow.

Been researching a lot of 1970s over the past year, mostly for something called "Nixon World" for a very niche audience, a group in Arizona that actually plays Ken St Andre's PowerTrip superhero RPG. This project has taken in two directions. There is the rather sci-fi'ish conspiracy aspect, which the Trollgod talked about that started the thing. And then the notes I am taking make from the actual history is making some good background for a realistic, well somewhat, espionage background for a game like Mercenary, Spies and Private Eyes, Top Secret or what has one. So once again on another lark (a lark from lark hee!) I outlined an MSPE scenario for Carnage coming real soon called "The Wrong Side of History" in which characters play PCs that resemble Carlos "The Jackal" Martinez, Gudrun Ensslin and a few other of the losers of the Cold War. Their KGB contact has been something of a hoot in writing up, a Pavel Moskin. I made him a one time fighter pilot during the Korean War, one of the "secret" ones who flew for North Korea. So now all I have to do is remember how to play MSPE again, I do have the book. I'll relearn it when I format the scenario after I flesh it out. With "Wrong Side" I decided not to go with WHAP! because I need to totally rework the game, to make it fun for me run. Too things going there, and not as efficient as I feel a T&T derivative rules system should be.

And for anyone that is awaiting the Powder Punk project, that is still coming along nicely. The spells, this is a fantasy game after all, are taking a while to write up, as they aren't your typical one spell does one thing. The spells are more like learned rituals, multiple spells occur in a single one, depending on a person's attributes. I think it's a nice way of showing how the magic is slipping off the world, but still have enough for plots about witches and witchhunters to be fun and not political treatises on the suppression of feminism throughout history.

Well CCrabb is on-line, wahoo she's getting the magazine ready.

And Carnage will ensue

Working a lot of overtime this season, to pay for Elder Tunnels publication and Monk and K-Bell's wedding present. But it looks like it'll be an easy task to have enough cash to make our yearly trek to Vermont to make the Carnage gaming convention. And despite the increased fatigue, the creative juices are flowing.

One thing about working in the day, is that I get to see Cleveland and environs in the day light. In previous years, my OT shifts were in support of Indian baseball games, but luckily this year this honor has been handed off to newer medics hand picked by my supervisor just to work these events-- a thought that had occurred to me years ago, I disagree with Baseball past Labor day. This has lead to some cell phone camera work to entertain Pery during her work days. Call it urban exploration on the clock. At night, it'd have to called, "living out a cop show as a side character." Still surprising to see how the day time world goes on and not have to work at baseball games.


While out on the road during these extra work shifts, I don't get to carry around my laptop PC (I know, such a Luddite no magic phone Eye-pad or what has one); but my shirt pocket notepads are filling up with notes and jots. And during my time off, the notes are getting transcribed into typing at a steady pace. Also I've had the energy to work on my epic novel, some 20 years in the making now, of an orkish invasion into the Fair Lands of a fantasy world, from the orks', and whatnot, perspectives. Not sure how far I'll get into it this time, but I'm posting the roughs in daily fashion at the Trollhalla, so next time I start it up I won't be likely to start it all from scratch once again.

Sadly my Oktoberfest activities were mostly limited to watching celebrations at nursing homes while at work, and viewing pictures of the Bayern Munich soccer team's Facebook page. Still Pery and I had an on-line party with our friends Mystic Fool, from New York, Misha the Berserker, from Russia and Khaydhiak, from Florida last Friday night and Saturday AM. A totally spontaneous party, it took us all by surprise, and there was much dancing and rejoicing.

One cannot live on bread alone, one needs BEER!!!!

Something to Sink My Teeth Into

The problem with doing this powder punk stuff is that it gets my neo-Romantic heart beating again. Back when I was stumbling about in and out of colleges, drugs, play-writing and relationships that resembled those more of cats and dogs than fully conscious beings (my late teens and twenties), one of the salient trends in my reading was that of the writings Voltaire, Goethe; and then moving up the line to Emile Zola, Anton Chekov, Fydor Dostoevsky; even further into Bertolt Brecht, Bernard Shaw and Jean-Paul Sartre. Mind you, most of this reading was fictional works and stage scripts, not books on philosophy. One director of my plays at the time once said, "You don't get out much, but when I need Chekhov you're the man to drink with. Let's revel!"

I actually got out a bit more than the man assumed, but that's not the point here.

At 24 until about 31, I got my act together a bit and joined the Army, got serious about my studies, and did the adult things-- have a kid, buy a house with a satellite receiver in the backyard, drive a Ford Fairmont station wagon and whatnot. About the same time my cultural explorations became more in tune to FM Classic Rock stations, along with whatever was available at airport newsstands and mandatory textbooks. I could barely talk my party bruder in Germany, the second time around, to attend a showing of Death of Salesman, let alone an in-German presentation of Faustus.

And then getting out of Army, married life and other things, I decided it was "Me time" again. This took on the focus of being a fantasist. In case you are unfamiliar the term, a "fantasist" is, as according to the World English Dictionary is pronounced "fæntəsɪst" and is a noun that describes a: 1.) a person who indulges in fantasies. 2.) a person who writes musical or literary fantasies. I think everyone reading this knows, I fulfilled this bit of actualization with a vengeance over the last twelve years or so.

But until recently, my most important concerns have been about whether JRR Tolkien or Lord Dunsany reflected the true face of fantasy. Now with the research that I have been doing my previous interests have been coming to the fore.

Did you know that Voltaire was always gossipy about his friend Fredrick the Great of Prussia? Okay sure that's nice, let's research his reign of Prussia. And then the next day on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, As It Happens was broadcasting sex poems written (in French) by Great Fred to his boy Voltaire. I am not making that up, the mainstream media is diverging into subjects that I thought I was making up a week ago.

Sadly for me, it has always been easier to understand the causes of the European Great War an the German Counter-Offensive (often called WWII), than to relate to most folks in the arts fields of things. So I am suddenly struck with the yearning for a bit more than video-tape Filmers and digital analoguers have to offer-- godshead bless Stargate and Dr. Who, they're just the cheapest speculative fiction shows ever made.

But when the Clevelang (big stuffy and over-princed) theater runs a Bertolt Brecht piece like, The Life of Galileo, I am stuck at looking the cheap-seats for a mere $100 dinner date, for the Peryton and I. That happens to be a bit much for my tastes.

I produced a rendition, The Caucasian Circle of Chalk back in 1987. Alas, no one cares.

Think I'm turning Viennese, think I'm turning Viennese...

Wow there's a lot that happened between Febuary 1326 and July 1698, which I had already figured before I started reading more into the events within these points in time about eighteen months ago. You see in 11 Feb 1326 the very first hand-held weapon powered by gun-powder was displayed in the city-state of Florence and on 2 July 1698 an engineer fired from the English Navy, Thomas Savery, was able to patent a steam engine that would be used for industrialized applications. The time in-between these two events, I call," the Age of Powder," and I like to delve into a fantasy with it to make a forthcoming Powder Punk setting. I have to laugh, most of the people that have heard me use either of the phrases assume I am speaking of the powdered wigs.

The most fun of this process has indeed been just all the historical research. I didn't realize the gaps I had in world history even my degree in History. For all the ignoring that the US education system does of the whole cultural schisms there is a lot of stuff that would be nice if our foreign policy makers knew about obscure places with far off sounding names, like Canada. One cannot ignore that the great ethnocentric struggles of the last millennium have shaped where we all are today. We often overlook the Muslim/Christiandom antagonism, the whole Catholic versus Orthodox, and then the Protestant versus Catholic, usually skipping from the Magna Carta to Lincoln's address at Gettysburg, PA, leaving the rest for people getting a PHD or making a BBC channel 3 documentary. And the history is about as punk-ish as I can make it, St. Josaphat of the Catholic and Othodox faiths is Buddha dammit!

And besides Alexandre Dumas's story of d'Artagnan, a cycle taking over six years in serial form to complete, which would become known to the English-reading world as The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and the Man In the Iron Mask; there are plenty of works to draw from in popular culture for my Powder-Punk 'research." Russia and most of the former Soviet Bloc seems to be infatuated with the 14th through 17th centuries. The movie 1612 is about the rocking-est thing I have seen from the era. And then there is whole pirate craze in our own western climes, which is, for the most part, pre-Steampunk. I suppose the cosplay crowd at the conventions will be drawing upon the Showtime series The Tudors, which is a music video recounting of the Henry the 8th gang.

All the study itself would have been great if I stopped just at the siege of Antwerp and the various sieges of Vienna.

And big parties take care of themselves... GenCon 2011, pt II.

Sligo's text message vibrated my phone on the metal counter downstairs in the kitchen of our cottage. I groggily got up and carefully made my way downstairs. It was a little past noon and time to get up. Saturday at GenCon was well underway, and it was time for me get revived and moving. Pery stayed in bed, and I can't remember if CCrabb was still asleep on the couch bed or not. Maybe I am thinking of Friday AM. 

I found Monk and K-Bell sitting at the table where my Spacers "Attack of the Androids" scenario was supposed to take place. We faked a loud argument where we alternately threatened violence and calling GenCon staff to come to the amusement and annoyance of the tables around us. And when a couple players of his Wizards and Gunslingers "Blood Stone Quarry" showed up, we stopped abruptly. No one showed up for my game, so I chatted with the crew at the Events desk for a couple minutes before heading to the lounge in the Crowne Plaza. James, the bartender from the night before, and I talked for a bit, while I enjoyed my a cup of coffee and my first beer of the day. We both liked soccer, which meant that I could get a soccer channel on one of the TVs. Bruce Wayne showed up around 3pm, having won a free Stratego game from a 50th anniversary competition going this year. We caught up a bit and met a fellow from northwestern Michigan, and chatted away the afternoon. Wayne actually napped a little as his schedule is usually very booked.

About 5:30pm Wayne and I wandered over to Cladagh, Klahh-Daghhh or however it is spelled, the Klingon joint where you get fish and chips. We got a large area on the patio and awaited folks to start showing up. And alas a lot of folks started popping up. Monk and K-Bell were the first I believe. Chris Rowan, and his friends Chris and Jeremie. Then Caed and two more. CCrabb found the spot. Rook and the Doctor were in the joint, but they stayed inside where it was cooler and they were chatting up a couple potential business partners. Peryton was the latest. And though Ronin, my name for Chris Rowan now, wanted to talk business, I pretty much wanted to party. After dinner, our group went from a gaggle to a lot of smaller groups. I was doing the "group leader" thing until I realized that I'd probably have more fun if I didn't. Pery, Monk and K-Bell went back to the B&B, while the rest of us promised to meet at the GenCon dance.
Bruce Wayne's g/f Amy, planted the idea in our head back in January about checking out the dance this year. Alas she was in Chicago, but since Ronin and crew were heading there, it seemed appropriate enough. CCrabb stuck around as her midnight game was still way off. And Caed of course made a dazzling appearance during a James Brown song. Wayne was in a dancing mood, so I kept getting him in trouble by getting towards the middle of the dance floor, where of course the pretty and physically fit folk like to dwell. So while reliving my high school dance days for a bit, I went back to the table where the adults were sitting.

At around midnight, Amy called and was back in town. Bruce Wayne bid CCrabb and me adieu. We ended up at Scotty's, her midnight game didn't happen. It was a funny time. I was wearing my Army ring on my left ring finger, instead of my wedding ring. It's a habit of mine since my right hand has gotten to fat for rings. But since it was hot and the day was all but over, I took off the ring as we sat down at the bar and placed it in my shirt pocket. The waitress and everybody else at the bar noticed this. Arched eyebrows ensued. And minds went straight to the gutter I am sure. The waitress we had had an agenda as she took out orders when the other woman slipped off to the bathroom.

"So have you two been married long?" She asked.
"Oh we're not married, " I answered blankly. " To each other."
"Ah you two do make a nice couple." She went on. "So what are you two drinking?"
"Make it two beers." I answered. "I think she wouldn't mind a Killians. We haven't known each other long."
"Anything else to make the evening special?" She asked.
"Some nachos." I answered. "And if you could call us a cab, to get back to the hotel?"

Back at the cottage, CCrabb and I made a point to wake Pery up with loud "shushes" and slurred whispering. Pery stayed up for a couple minutes while we recounted the events of the evening, and our steamy drink at Scottys, and then she stumbled back to bed. We were having too much fun, so we had a couple more beers before ending our reveling. We either talked about the fantasists of the early 20th Century or the Middle East, I get our late-night drunken discussions confused.

Sunday morning rolled around. Peryton and I both had games at 10am so got out the door quickly. We said "bon voyage" to CCrabb who would be driving out with fellow Green Mountaineer Nik Palmer, Dr. Nik. And we both showed up almost on time.

Pery ran another iteration of BEAN "Aqua Teen Hunger Force and the Book of Beards." Monk was mixing things up with B-13 "The School Days Of Napoleon Dynamite And Friends." And I was doing my victory lap with CoC "Rat-Pack versus Cthulhu IV: Lilith Be a Lady Tonight." Dan the usual Sinatra was a little later than me, so I didn't know which table I would be running at. But Russ, Lisa, Matt and Adam, mostly from New York City, if I remember correctly found me. And Dan did show up.

The thing about "Lilith" is that Frank Sinatra has been the heavy-weight for the past three years, with Dean Martin playing his Spock. So this year, the fourth of a supposed trilogy, I mixed things up. Lilith knew "Charm" better than the Chairman, and worked her feminine guile and seduced the hapless crooner within seconds of meeting her. And poor Dan, Frank's PC, couldn't make a resistance roll this morning to save his character's life, which was a lucky thing for me. The other Rat-Packers got to work and cleverly managed to foil Lilith and her minions, not once but twice to save our dude in distress. Sammy Davis Junior showed some amazing swordplay when defeating two of the Dark Templars. And even a nightgaunt couldn't distract the Pack from saving their friend. Juliett Prowse, this year's new 'Easy on the Eyes' member, did some rather jujitsu moves with her purse and high heels at that.

At the wrap, there was Monk, K-Bell, Sligo and I alone in the little conference room where we had been playing all weekend. I almost felt sad, but then remembered the victory dinner at Champions. Pery made her way there after finisher her before Christmas shoplifting of Dr. Who items. Trollgod and Corencio showed up as well. Paul Haynie, G'noll from Trollhalla, did a cameo with his lovely wife, seriously one beautiful woman. His performance at either end of the table was impeccable, but alas he would not stay to partake in the meal.

I spent some time back in the Exhibitor's Hall purchasing the books that I had promised to buy on Thursday. I ran into the guy behind Pagan Press, one of the joys, of so many, of my life. Pery also helped me find David Nett of my favorite Web series Gold: The Web Series. Nett, from here on out, thanked me for my pathetic sponsoring of his show, and I also a northern European to his northern European descent rebuffed him duly. Still I got an autographed copy of the DVD and kewl character cards. I also met the future superstar James Paul Xavier, who happens to be my favorite actor of the series.

Sligo then took us around town and showed us his favorite local game store, the whales of the Adventure Gaming world these days, the Arsenal. I liked it the moment I walked in the place, because I like the soccer team. Besides having a kitchen to keep the some revenue flowing in between sales of game products and gaming events, the place is just crawling with rooms for gaming-- both electronic and tabletop. This place is a treasure. Expect a future Hoot or Holler to be located here in the near future folks, first Frito-pie is on me.

We then were able to Sligo into hanging out with us at Bruce Wayne's new abode. Here we played Stratego, some new marble game called Stomp, and K-Bell and I played Rummy. Jordan likes to complain that we never hang out with him enough. Well, I'll have everyone know, he had to kick us out. I hope Sligo is still married the next time I see him. 

Monday, we drove Monk and K-Bell to airport and headed home. Poor Pery had to head to work the next morning, whereas I had the next two days off. Hence my long and winding blog recounting GenCon 2011. I almost want to be depressed, but now it's time to get ready for Carnage 14. 

Take care of the little things... GenCon 2011

Wednesday AM arrived finally and I wasn't over-worked the night before, nor were Peryton and I running late when we pulled out of the driveway to get to GenCon 2011. I was a little more than happy. To start the celebration, I asked Pery to text message CCrabb obscure quotes from 1930s spy novels, in German, to tell how close to the meeting point we were. Oh yeah, this year we were picking up our favorite and all powerful Editor, Christine Crabb. And after a stop at the Strongsville Mall, in front of an Applebees, all three of us were en route Indianapolis, while her family was en route back to Vermont. Everything was coming together nicely and it wasn't past 10am.

The drive from Cleveland area to Indianapolis was only a conversation in duration. We found a Mexican restaurant, as everyone knows, that is one of the joys, of the many, in my life. So I think we were in the car like 15 minutes. We pulled into the Stone Soup Inn at around 4pm. Pery and I then took CCrabb on her first road march from the B&B to the convention center. The two miles, mid-90s degree temperature and high humidity, I am sure the woman caught a glimpse of how insane we are.

A staged reenactment of before leaving Cleveland and arriving in Indianapolis

My Wednesday night game, "Cthulhu Mansion" (part III) was a wash. I was about five minutes late, having picked up my badge before walking over to the game. I think another GM might've scooped my players after speaking with the room monitor on the way out; but after two seconds of thinking about it, I gave less than a damn. I stopped into the cocktail bar called "Olives" at the Omni hotel, had a vodka tonic and cooled off. Pery and CCrabb were able to find me there. I even had a cigar. Throughout the night we were able to catch up with Yoggy, Caed and Brock and a host of others as well. It was an "Old Home Reunion" evening, the likes of which we hadn't had over the past years at our beloved Con. Of course, I was seen cavorting with two pitchers of Killians all over Scotty's that evening. I think I made about 67 new friends each trip to the bar. We didn't get back to the cottage until 1am.



Thursday AM, I had breakfast with Monk and K-Bell and the three of us walked down to the convention together. Pery was ill and had to cancel her morning session, which had a full table-- Steppenwulf, of Mandy and Steve Butka. I was amazed to find that I had three players to playtest my PowderPunk setting in "The Wrong Side of the Fuse" scenario. Met a Tuki and Trevor, along with CCrabb and Sligo. It went alright, all the rules are still a bunch of pages on my laptop computer, so things were pretty loose and freewheeling. The group were all pretty ready to be in the hip version of the year 1501 A.D. and in a port just this side of Rotterdam, in the Netherlands. My cheesy accents just weren't up to snuff though.


At lunch, I called Pery to see how she was doing. I told her about the sold out table that she missed. When I mentioned that I was surprised that I had players for the PowderPunk session, she full-heartedly replied with, "Serves you damn right!"
I suppose she didn't expect staying out so late on Wednesday.

My afternoon session of PowderPunk was a wash. Monk was running his WHAP! "The Diary of Cassanova" steampunk session just a couple of tables over. Pery was on her way down for a 2pm game. I decided to head over to the Dealer's Hall and catch up with Looming Rick Loomis and Trollgod Ken St. Andre. This year Peryton Publishing, which Ken keeps calling "Peryton Press," bought a slot in the Flying Buffalo card deck, so our Sabriel-designed peryton is the two of diamonds, alongside with the Smiling Troll Joker and the Chaimail Chick Queen of Hearts; I picked up the cards from booth to lug around.

Trollgod swung me around to see the Exhibition Hall. Well mostly to bump into attractive women authors and artists, as well as find Liz Danforth and S.S. Crompton. Lordhead the man got me committed into buying about sixteen new books this year. The authors being V.J. Waks and a cast of thousands associated with the Dragon Roots magazine. Breaking free of the Trollgod, I bumped back into Sligo and we spent the afternoon lounging next to the troll statue just outside the hall. Got to know two kids in their 20s, one was the daughter of the guy behind Adamant Games. Sligo and I played up the age differences and kept having them explain this or that costume walking by. Jordan, Bruce Wayne, and his son, let's call him the Boy Wonder, caught up with us for a bit.


Around dinner time, we had a little private dinner planned. I figured no one was coming so I asked a couple more people with they would like to meet us at Acapulco Joe's. More than a dozen showed up, including Corencio, Ken St Andre's son James. The cozy little CoC session, "Cthulhu Dawn" after dinner planned just for Caed and about four other people, also burst its seams, where we had eleven players all hanging out in our cottage. I had a lethal plot worked out, where a couple of players would survive and I would have an "End of the World" themed scenario worked out, but the players did all "smart" things like stay in one place and stick together, so I had to kill them all. Of course, I did experiment with how to turn a PC into a flesh-eating zombie. As the climax of violence started, I had one player-character wield a shotgun so poorly that he killed more of the other PCs than my attacking zombies. Trollgod did try to get the gang to head to a bar, an impenetrable fortress if ever there was one.

Friday was Grind Day and Night. Sligo called to see if I needed a ride to the con, which I declined. I chatted with CCrabb while having a sandwich and coffee before rushing out the door to my T&T events. Pery was sleeping in, and she smartly would be starting later than me. The walk downtown did not get any shorter, nor did the rain relieve the heat and mugginess, but that just made the air conditioned Crowne Plaza that much nicer.

I really should follow Pery's example and start games later in the day, especially when I plan on running all night, but there is something about T&T games early in the morning at GenCon that rocks. The morning crowd that is looking for an "independent game" tend to be some of the better role-players and the like to keep to a schedule. Martin, Kat and Beau were no exception to this norm I discovered. They were new to T&T and Sligo and David, last year's Michelangelo Walking Statue, was the player coaches that helped me out immensely while they developed characters, while I could take a break to clean myself up from the walk. And the murder mystery that is "The Big Sky" worked out wonderfully. I really had a good time. It was better than coffee.

"The Bubble Pit" T&T scenario in the afternoon would turn out to be a surprise for me. I show up after lunch with Sligo and David, to meet Mike Siegel and Kevin already working on their PCs, with T&T books and no other dice but six-sided ones. Mike is Mrrrik at the Halls, err Trollhalla, to the uninitiated. David and Sligo's characters were already ready to go. So instead of spending the first hour of the game teaching people how to roll up characters for the first hour, which is essential to illustrate certain conventions that T&T has, like DARO and TARO, we were ready to jump right into the story from get go. There was the PCs getting to know one another. I was able to throw in the wandering monster with a serious ambush. Then there was a bit of a tunnel-crawl, one of the joys, of many, in life. The story twist occurred. We as a group were able to get into some advanced "rules discussion," which meant interpreting rules among well-read and already competent T&T players-- Yes Sligo and I had to work something out. All without arguing because of the T&T directive that the GM running the game is right. Mrrrik is an Army man, so my love a break every 50 minutes to an hour, didn't surprise him and Kevin one bit.

Heading into the evening, I was able to hang out with Monk and K-Bell, and even my wife for a bit. Friday night was upon us, and the Peryton Gamer's Apocalypse All-Nighter was about to take place. At 7pm Monk ran his RocknRole-Playing scenario "Drag Racing Zombies From Beyond The Moon." Not too far from him, I was running CoC, well my version of it at least, "Cthulhu Over Casablanca." I couldn't pay too much attention because I had a fantastically talented group of role-players in front of me, with Dan, my most recurring Frank Sinatra player, leading the party as Humphrey Bogart. Dan of course did a wonderful impression of Bogart. The group overall was wonderful. The fellows playing Paul Henreid and Conrad Veidt played into Humphrey's "the nicest Nazi I know" jokes very nicely. And I've never seen a role-playing table so full of alcoholic beverages in all my life, usually there is only mine and Dan's.



Caed promised a little zombie attack during at least one of the All-Nighter's games. She mentioned that she had two people willing to show up. At 11pm, the Zombie Walk produced about 20 attackers. We had a little LARP planned out, but it turned into a break. And despite our best eforts, we couldn't get the nurse zombie to stick around for drinks. Peryton's Doctor Who "The Web of Light" scenario started at that time during the break, so she couldn't yell at me for hitting on the undead, again.

My midnight game, CoC "The Horrible Fate of the Haunted House Hunters" player's showed up on. time. Monk's Toon horror scenario with Beavis and Butthead as other characters started as well. Once again, I had a full house, and Caed. "The Haunted House Hunters" is a tricky game to run. Mix up a police procedure, with a reality-TV satire and add copious amounts of Scooby Doo, and the GM has my influences down pat. Mind you, this is one of my scary ones, so the comedy isn't built in. Well Micha, Austin, Dallas, Jason, Caed and Diane worked in the comedy very well. What was nice as well, they took their pre-generated characters and worked from there, so to speak. As the guy having to play various NPC's I forgot I regularly forgot I was the GM, the PCs were that strong. Though we were supposed to wrap up at 3am, we went over anyway.

Luckily no one showed up for my CoC "Cthulhu Dawn" session, at 3:30am the "Haunted House Hunters" and I relaxed and got in-depth. The comedy schticks were played out earlier, and the PCs got down to the mystery(s) in front of them. Calls were made to fathers who were retired cops, and family problems role-played out. The players started checking out historical information. As the right questions were being asked, I dropped more and more of the clues. The bigger picture came together. And the sanity started ebbing away one or two points at a time. When the twist to the tale came, I had one PC this close to being committed. Despite a shot-gun mass murder attempt at the end, I think everyone survived, and the main PC, a retired wrestler turned paranormal investigator, redeemed his heroic heritage.

Peryton's 3am game BEAN "Aqua Teen Hunger Force and the Book of Beards" had a group of six or seven people come in punctually and abruptly drop their belongings on her table. Apparently about four of them were members of a cult dedicated to her ATHF games with a couple of indoctrinated converts in tow already. My and Monk's gregarious groups weren't even noticed as the Pery-Pod People began their game. As I was so wrapped up in my game, I didn't know that Pery finished her last session in less than 90 minutes. Her and her minions then worked out a sequel adventure, to fill the rest of candle burning until sunrise.


The Apocalypse All-Nighter wrapped up officially at 5:42 AM. My players, incited by Caed, were all about breakfast at Steak and Shake. I had planned on Acapulco Joe's, but couldn't resist the pull. Peryton came along as well, sated by her cultists worship, yet hungering for something more. At Steak and Shake, I wasn't sure which made the breakfast, the lack of taste in the food or the really bad service, but I was so drained at this point I was punch-drunk amazed at my own ability to smile. Peryton was pretty wiped out as well, after she ate her baby cup full of yogurt she taped her fingers and glowered at me as we awaited my apparently hard to prepare breakfast. I said, "Hey, we just pulled off an apocalyptic all-night gaming session."
She smiled.
And we used our smiles to get us back to our B&B cottage. I had even mustered up enough strength to compose a little poem to "my", I felt familiar enough now to refer to them as intimates, Haunted House Hunters, before I exited stage behind me out the door.

"Fair gents and fine ladies,
I pray thee to grant your ears.
I doth think, that tonight,
Thee have grown me dears.

Still I am weary,
Upon this morn of heat dreary.
For time beneath our willow,
I must find my pillow.

So alas, allow me my due.
To bid you, you, you, you, you
And you Caed,
Adieu."

I almost forgot to pay, and had to come back rushing in to the cash register before the cops jumped me.

The wind was blowing, but it was full of steamy humidity and not many degrees below our skin's temperature. When we hit the apartment, we were sapped.

One headlight

One more shift at work until Peryton and I drive off to Indianapolis for GenCon 2011. I really cannot say how much I enjoy this vacation. And this year, I swore things were going to easier for me while I am there, despite the fact that every year I run more and more events. But back in May I swore that I show up prepared, and up until tonight, I haven't been keeping my promise to myself. I knew this past weekend and Monday was going to be the clincher, the crunch, the... the test. And I passed it, with a "C" maybe a "B."

The scenario outlines are almost all completely done, so the typing since May has been helpful. And even the incomplete tales have the scoops, twists, bells and whistles all worked out in outline form with copious details. Of course when the plots hit the table, the players will be the ones who dictate how close things stay to my thread; which is the joy of role-playing, interactive parlor game that it is.The characters are complete for all six of the scenarios that I am running that should have pre-generated characters. And the character sheets for the other four are ready to go. And I even have a little LARP experiment worked out with Caed, my virtual sister, to spice up the Peryton clique's Friday night "Apocalypse All-Nighter."

Things are looking good.

And getting here hasn't been an easy path. We've had to postpone the Elder Tunnels Summer 2011 issue because I couldn't finish my piece being so absorbed in my preparations for the event. And our kitchen sink's elbow has a hole, and we might have mice (despite seven cats). Two big convention friends JerryTel and Andre Kruppa have both canceled their appearances at GenCon, and these guys are at least as serious as I am about gaming. Existential angst and superstition are at the edges of my mind this week.

So tomorrow, I clean up the place for the house sitter, and pack before heading off to work a shift. And then on Wednesday AM, the dice are cast.

The Next T&T Campaign

As some of you might remember, I finished up my "playtest" campaign of 7th edition Tunnels & Trolls last winter. Using some stringent Kindred selection rules, I had taken four, sometimes five, sometimes two, players' characters from 1st to 14th level from September 2005 up to March 2011. A lot of the duration of the campaign was because of Peryton and my convention play elsewhere, and still a lot of it was due to the difficulties of getting adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s to the tabletop for a role-playing session. But now the question is, "what's next?"

Well, I haven't been in too much of a hurry to restart to begin with. I am running T&T at a few conventions, always a good fantasy fix, and have a fairly stable storyline with T&T with recurring characters through BASHCon in Toledo. I am also busy writing T&T scenarios in the Elder Tunnels periodical and elsewhere. I also am working on my Spacers(TM) sci-fi affliction. But I do feel the need to get another "not for profit (pizza and beer moneys)" T&T campaign going. And I prefer the physical tabletop to the on-line conference call, I've discovered over the last couple of years.

So where do I start? What are my fixations, like what creatures and environments will proliferate the session? Am I going to have Lovecraftian horrors? Is the Nordic mythology angle something that I am dying to translate into role-playing terms? Heck is it going to beer and pretzels with puns about Gary Gygax and Britney Spears? I'm still sorting that out, but here's a couple of the inklings I have going on in mind.

I want to explore a bit beyond the 14th level, but not base the whole campaign there. I think I'll have the characters start at around 5th or 6th level. I feel that will have the players and I start from a point of expertise and competency and our first sit-downs won't be about the youthful hero, or heroine, discovering himself and the world around him. This is especially important as I think that the most of the players in the new campaign are going to be from the old campaign. But starting anew will have the players more open-minded about a change here and there that I will be making from last time. Aside from conventional changes, the players will still have to work within the outlined T&T rules before we start exploring the free-form of Beyond 14th Level T&T role-playing (I feel there should be an echo there). Also if I started out with the PCs from last campaign right at 14th level, certain players (especially one nicknamed Lumberjack) would forget to do anything but be a munchkin.

I intend on filling up the "spaces" that I discovered in the first campaign, namely the "Higher" level challenges. By this I mean various things. I intend of finding a comfortable way of finding creatures that can deal with say a Death Spell #9 or Hellbomb Burst, with detail enough to make them translatable to other GMs that might one day run the scenario that I craft. I also want to fill some of the space that over designers and solo authors have avoided over the past decades. D&D has its planes of hells and major demons and devils, I am hoping to show a rather unique T&T high level arena that players twenty years from now will allude to just as the forty year-olds refer to the "Cacodaemon," "Orcus" and the "66th plane of Limbo" do now and expect everyone to know what they are talking about.

So yeah, this campaign is going to be ambitious. But not anymore ambitious than getting together a group of friends to role-play while they live their lives for longer than a couple months. It might as well be worth it.

TrollHoot 2011: Along the banks of the Upper Sandusky

Thursday night/ Friday morning at work, I had an inkling that it was going to be a good weekend. As for paying attention to my job versus just being good conversation with my patients, it just wasn't going to happen. Luckily it was an easy enough night and I came home to find that Peryton had packed up everything and had it ready to loaded up, so I just spent the morning keeping myself awake and packing my own things. I made the conscious decision leave my PC at home and just work from pen and paper, and the quick notes that I had made at various times over the last couple of months. Instead I paid attention on having a different shirt to wear each day of the event. Then just before noon I packing up the car; and just a little after noon I was picking up the old woman and we were headed to the wilds of central western Ohio, in search of the source of the mighty Sandusky river.

Peryton was still making notes on her upcoming Dr. Who game as we drove down, so we let the car's GPS unit do most of the talking. And just a little after 2pm, we arrived at the Comfort Inn where this year's Troll Hoot would be taking place. The hotel was nestled in the town's By-the-Highway commercial area, where a second hotel was, a truck stop and all the fast food sites one could want within a mile of each other. And despite Gamercaster's continued threats to be showing up early, Pery and I were the first people to show up. Having no company for lunch, we explored the civilized area we English-speaking peoples had established a foothold in the wildernesses that is Upper Sandusky. We made it Burger King and picked up some beer, cider, snacks and paper-plates from a convenience store across the street from the hotel.

Everyone, Caed, Gamecaster, JerryTel and a newcomer Jeff, hence forth he will be Brock, announced via the Hoot's facebook page that they were there by 5:40. Amazingly the Dinner in the New Town tradition at the Hoots was observed by all the attendants and in a punctual manner. We all jumped into Caed's minivan of death and went in search of a local (non-franchised) restaurant, which Caed had the forethought to ask the evening manager behind the desk. By the way, this woman, and the other desk people would prove to be a skilled and friendly bunch of people throughout the weekend. We hit an "Italian" place, which struck me more as a western European cuisine menu in a gasthaus set up, there was "French" dressing and German bologna (not me the dish) as well great pasta dishes. Don't get wrong here, I am impressed not being ironic, it was nice to see blackened chicken and duck drumsticks without Tabasco sauce, with a great salad. I had the lasagna and a couple Black and Tans. We were having so much fun, the Toledo boys (Gamecaster and JerryTel) were getting to know Caed, and Brock getting back into gamer-dorkiness after an 18 year absence, that the waitress didn't want us to leave.

Gamecasters play-testing game of his rather furry science fiction game Quantum started around 7:30pm. The man showed his raw talent for the table-top arena in keeping up with a rowdy group of would-be gamers on track for his game. I probably wasn't the only person who was a little loopy with a bit of alcohol in me and a definite lack of sleep. I mean everyone had a quick joke or long story, and the Monty Python quotes flowed freely. To the man's credit he was able to keep the story going, work with impromptu rules discussions of his system AND keep up on the jokes as well. Afterward, he reminded us that this was first time ever GMing an adventure. And my Space-Goat character rocked, not to be overly immodest.

Saturday AM found me awake around 5am, which was later than I thought it would be. So I spent the daybreak hours exploring the smallish hotel and its grounds. I really liked the space. The lobby isn't much more than a door, a front desk and then the breakfast/dining area with a flat-screen TV in one corner continually playing Fox News. But the conference room is nestled into a hallway not adjoining other rooms but with access to the pool. The back hallway of the two story structure is nice and wide and removed from the hotel rooms through fire doors, which have nice sound dampening qualities. The hotel wrapped itself around a smoking patio/rock garden with benches. Thoughts of very small conventions with say 30 ppl expectancy started swirling around my head.

I ran the first event of the day, and though the 10am start time was too early for everyone, the four hour allotted time-slot proved to be a little too short. "A Journey Through a Strange Valley" was combining bits of earlier adventure "The Bubble Pits" and though I had a Tunnel-Hack matrix (extensive random terrain and encounter tables) worked out, I was exploring as much as the players were. We, both the players and myself, never get did get to any real meat, though I was definitely having fun with my trademark side-dishes gravity factored into "tunnel delving" and marking getting there a battle all of its own. JerryTel, having been eating gravity-salad for three years now, decided it was time for his dwarf Warrior, Jerry the Great nee Good, to take up "snow-shielding," a variation of snow boarding but without the visibility and a lot of physical damage.

Lunch was at McDonald's, and JerryTel and I had a bit of fun with a political discussion on the way back. I think we scared the hotel staff at the front desk, but him and I were actually finding out where we could give on our respective ideological positions, not throwing rhetoric at one another. It was a conversation not a debate or polemic exercise.

JerryTel began his "Feast or Famine" A Game of Thrones session just after 3pm. And once again I was drawn into his apt storytelling. The guy would be a great TV writer if he put his mind into it. And I don't mean TV as anything superficial, because it is my opinion that the writers for that medium understand what appeals to people in their art and culture but have a very limited time frame to express the bits and pieces that they have to offer. I am not familiar with aGoT, but I have seen at least three medieval-toned movies with Sean Bean to get the grit, and read enough Roger Zelanzy's Prince of Amber series so I think I did well enough. Who excelled was Brock, who's real name is Jeff mentioned earlier. But it during this session where Jeff found his character Brock Oath-Breaker, and he ruled the session. And from there on out, the man will ever be Brock of Brockville, home of Brockweisser, where they only grow wheat and barley, and import hops to have a beer worthy of Brock Day celebrations, roughly every Thursday. The man was in the role-playing zone.

Before Peryton's Dr. Who scenario, "Dreams of Cybermen" , we ordered the "Saturday Night Pizza Delivered!." These two 16" pizzas not only came from Anthony's Heavenly Pizza, the boxes were adorned with the proverb John 3:16. The pizza itself was rather tasty. Once again suggested by the evening manager at the front desk.

Though we gripe about the Friday sessions of Troll Hoots being the worsts, for the last two we've had great Friday night sessions, as everyone gets there earlier these days and we get caught up earlier as well. So Fridays are becoming one of the better slots to run a game. What hasn't changed throughout the four Hoots that we've had is the fact that the Saturday night slot is a grill session. Not saying Saturday night 7pm-Midnight is a bad slot, just a demanding slot. Peryton's "Dreams of Cyber Men" was an ambitious project, not only in her quest for doing homage to the Dr Who stories that she loves so much, but in her task before her as well.

At 6pm everyone was hyped from twelve hours of gaming in an 18 hour period. We had dinner and some of us had a cocktail just before the climax, if not the finale, to the Hoot. I heard from both JerryTel and Gamecaster separately that they were sold on Troll Hoots, and what a great game. Brock had found his niche and namesake. Caed was as hyped as Pery about playing Dr. Who. And then the game started at 7pm. Gamecaster had his character generated after breakfast of the day and had been reading Pery's rulebooks whenever he could. Brock and JerryTel used pre-generated characters, though changing the names, Brock's was "Brock," by the way. Caed and I being already familiar with Pery's Dr. Who games made our own characters. Us, generating our characters took a bit too much time. Full stomachs and being in the same room all day, and some alcohol started knocking ppl out.

The scenario itself was an awesome Dr. Who story. Peryton got its Torchwood characters from 2040 to my character Dallas Rugby, third, maybe 5th, string quarterback of the 1976-79 Denver Broncos in the year 1976 and from there we ended up on Sarkis, which my PC was amazed was not a Greek Island. And then we ran into representatives of the GCE mega-corporation where Pery's Corp-Speak of the future rather knocked our socks off-- she hinted at a whole galactic arm ran through Item Lists and waivers of responsibilities. Caed's Torchwood representative proved as ruthless as any granddaughter of Captain Jack Harkness would be. And Gamecaster's Mister Magoo homage took technobabble to higher levels than I have seen in six years of delving into space opera. Brock pulled radio watch. JerryTel's "dope-pusher from the future" biochemist added a criminal element to the tale giving the whole session a rather new angle on a rather traditional Cybermen yarn. I don't want to give away too much, but there was a multi-faced blob with tentacles... I am serious this plot was worthy of any Dr. Who fan's notice. Pery's Dr. Who fixation is paying off in creative role-playing in dozens.

A little after midnight, things wrapped up and everyone was indeed tired. JerryTel stated that drinking at 6pm was a bad thing. I countered with that we should've turned 6pm-7pm into a cocktail hour and gotten some air. Brock was ready for bed, and Gamecaster was packing like the cops would be showing up soon (he had to work the Sunday AM). There was a definite energy ebb there at the end of things.

At a long, leisurely breakfast on Sunday, Peryton joined JerryTel and I. Then Brock appeared and lastly Caed. We discovered that Brock is from the Lorain area, which is promising for the next, err one of the TrollHoots for 2012, Pery and I have a couple favorite spots in Lorain, Ohio. As it looks like right now the hoots and hollering of a few gamers as an excuse to be tourists and dorks at the same time is proving to be a resilient norm around this neck of the woods.

Pery and I took the long way home. We circled around Upper Sandusky and then headed in a round about way towards Norwalk. From there we headed to a favorite spot, a new reincarnation of a mexican restaurant once named el Gran Castillo, now called el Arriero, in Lorain and then proceeded back home towards Cleveland. We let the GPS guide us back to the expressway and ended up traveling through a stretch of road that brought me new eyes to older haunts in Sheffield Lake and Avon and a route to get to or from lake-side Lorain-based activities.

Once at home, Pery and I promptly crashed for seven hours after first trying to wade through a French I-Hate-Women "science fiction" flik from the 60s. And then found out Gamecaster left his toiletries with us, in rush to avoid the cops. All and all, I'd call this weekend a success in the scheme of life.