Summer Seeding And Hopefully Sums Greater Than the Funds

Well May 27th was Peryton and my 10th anniversary, to celebrate she brought me 24 cans of cat food and a bag of litter, topping my special gift of single serving packages of Lorna Doons and Oreos which I swiped from work the day before. With that auspicious gift-giving, we mark the advent of the Summer season of travel, gaming, soccer, and partying in general. 2014 is going to be a low intensity, but high frequency sequence of events. Like flowers pollinating, not just us, feel the potential of the season ahead. Listing them would be boring. The season has started though, one can feel it.

Yesterday, JerryTel announced that Peryton Publishing GMs at GenCon this year will get tee-shirts for their help at GenCon, thanks to Peryton and Darkshade publishing outlets. He's lying. We knew nothing about it. That's kind of JerryTel's way of showing us, how much juice he has. Not just with the funding of the shirts, but with the insight at how to make the yearly big event more special special. It happened to be his birthday as well.

I am about to head to central Florida, the Tampa area, to attend Third Eye Games' home convention Salty Bay Con. I am looking forward to this convention. In its second year, I hope not only to see how young kids do things these days, I get to spend time with my family that has settled in the region. I am dreading the flight down, not a fear of flying thing, just a fear of seeing what the world of mass aviation looks like these days. That and strange viruses from the Middle East.

Today was our venture into the first annual Cleveland Concoction. The CLE "geek scene" is coming into its own, with the support of prominent regional conventioneers, creating a gathering for local fantasists to party and just appreciate being wonderful. It's a not a "tabletop gamers convention" yet though. Let me explain in a bit of detail. The reason I feel compelled to explain is that there is a difference between "medium" (sci-fi, speciic title fandoms, comic book, electronic games and say fantasy cinema gathers) conventions and "gamer" conventions, and its not a matter of size. While gaming can be incorporated into all of the gatherings mentioned, tabletop role-playing, heck tabletop gaming, is an after-thought. While we were there, the games in the Gaming Room had many entities awaiting potential players, while three tables filled up quickly with players who knew each other already. A couple staffers felt obligated to swing by and speak to the ignored event providers, of course being too busy to indulge in their burning desire to play, out outside of kids on a field trip from the conventions babysitting room anybody awake had other things to do elsewhere. Abstractly, if gaming isn't the focus at an event, showing up to show your game without a few of your friends already, it is going to the event is a nice day of making friends, or not, but no new interests.

Still, there is always next year.

The long and short of things, IT'S SUMMER!

The Lovecraftianness of Summer

I love the water. I've always loved being near it, and have spent some major portions of my life being in, on, or around it. But what does that mean? What do you see in this picture?

Okay maybe you see a rock. I see a see monster from Sigmund and Sea Monsters. But can you deny there is something fishy about this one?

Not only is a giant goldfish leaping away, a fish-headed something else is standing up to chase it.

You don't see it, do you? Instead you see this.

Sigh.

Paleo PopPlop

Reading this article today, which was nutritional gobbledygook, I am reminded how much I love prehistory. This excerpt will totally explain why,



"The best catch-all (the Paleo Diet)...
very little fruit, almost no grains, a lot of meat ...
as you pound away at your treadmill, imagining yourself the predator of
the steak you will later eat. Adherents (say) our
stone-age ancestors were much healthier than us, having no problems with
obesity, cancer ... .
Pedants point out that the posthumous diagnosis of cancer was pretty
patchy until the discovery of the disease in circa 1600BC ...; and, furthermore, that many ancestors were
cut off in their prime by other factors (dinosaurs!), and it is
impossible to tell how fat they would have become had they lived to (say 34)..."



Serendipitously, I have stated to re-read the Devil Dinosaur omnibus last night. Just kind of awesome in its fact-free caloric-filled goodness.

Cinco De Mayo

As we all know Cinco De Mayo is the Native America phrase meaning Walpurgisnacht (or was it May Day?), it is always a bit of fun to do something for. It's been a weekend of festivals around here. Free Comic Book Day is a big event in Cleveland, thanks to efforts of John and Carol of John and Carol's comic book store. And there was the Dazzle A District that was taking place downtown, which I think is tribute to the Berlin nightclub scene between the the wars. But we waited for today to step out.

Yes, yes, I know, the holiday is driven by alcohol distributors, unlike St Patrick's Day or New Year's Eve, but frankly I love the honesty. I don't even have to buy a card or toys or nothing so it can't be a real one. In any case, Peryton and I headed down to the Mexican Village in Parma, to celebrate a little with the only Spanish-speakers that we know that aren't from the Caribbean in Ohio. And true to form, the place was a little more crowded than usual though the night's festivities were no where near getting started.

Robin is the biggest source of light in this photo.

Our friends, The Carlos and Family, were jovial and spent a little time with us, though they were a bit in the grind of making money. To make up for it, the tequila shots were free. Pery even got over her recent extreme flare up of Marlene Dietrich Syndrome and smiled at living beings that weren't feline.

I wish more people took "food pics" like this.

Of course I got dressed up.

I was crazy before the whole crazy man in a hat fashion.

Rattling Sci-Fi Works

Never thought I'd say this, but George Clooney is protector of film making in fantasy film-making. Big name actors in moderate budget sci-fi movies have been a pleasant viewing experience of late. I tend to put science fiction movies of recent years into two categories; Pre-Peter Jackson and Post-Pete Jackson. Mind you, I put Peter Jackson's Lord Of the Rings movies into a category called "Video Game Industry Castoff," but the man's allowance from video game marketers, has been a boon to everything fantastic in the blockbuster movie industry. With the quantity of products everyone can find something interesting, of course most of it is for kids or the parents who are now missing their one-time life as sexual beings.

But for quieter, sound studio-driven science fiction pieces that delve into existential plights of being human as well our place in the universe, one has to thank George Clooney and whoever was behind the remake of Solaris. Though the amount of fantastic, err phantasmagorical special effects available could've turn this flik into a video game homage, the plodding storyline came to fruition in the same pace as in the story by Stanislav Lem, and the original film Solyaris. Even as the film degrades into metaphysical tripe and Freudian psychology, Clooney, and that dude named Sonderbergh, don't flinch, making the sci-fi about existence and avoiding an explosion for a climax.

This has made room for conventional sci-fi themes, not about puberty and popularity, to emerge trying to tackle social issues with other big name stars (Matt Damon, Tom Cruise, et al). On a mundane level, this has led to Liev Schreiber to present space zombies without a Doctor Who (The Last Days On Mars vs "The Waters of Mars"), and Sandra Bullock getting to be a space heroine in Gravity in films that strove to remain nuts and bolts science fiction.
 

I Haven't a Damned Thing To Complain About

Not sure why, but the game of soccer has always been exciting to me.

Growing up, soccer was the sport where I showed my parents that I was well-balanced enough to be a member of a team. At the same time, I read rags about the North American Soccer League and the German publications Das Kicker as often as I ever read any comic book or fantasy trilogy. So when JerryTel asked me to accompany him as a guest to Columbus Crew home games, I couldn't say no. And since he suffers from the same affliction as I do, he's a tabletop role-player, I was able to modify these Saturday nights in Columbus into little gaming hoots.

Saturday morning Thena decided that I shouldn't be leaving, so she started the "Desk Dance" for me early. But even Peryton was ready to go twenty minutes early.

I said by 10am, this is 9:32am.

I hadn't logged into email yet.

Though we were about two hours too early, the fellow at the front desk let us check in. I think it was we connected on hanging out between Frankfurt and Dresden Germany in the 90s. To pass the time, the woman and I walked around the block, finding a Dollar Store and State-license liquor vendor, which is what Ohio calls liquor stores. There I was able to find some Guinness Black Lager, which JerryTel turned me on to last Summer at the Chelsea vs. Inter-Milan game. Pery decided to partake as well with a four pack of mudslides. And doing military math, we ended up with a twelve-pack of back-up beer just in case.

Thus begins Soccer Season.

They let me in because I wore pants?

 Jerry showed up right around 2:30pm and after a quick meal, we jumped right into my Wobble scenario "The Tinfoil Man." I expected things to go quicker than they did, so we paused it around 5:15pm to get ready for the Crew Game. Not having to buy a ticket gave me cash for more beer, and Crew shirt for Robin. The game against the Philadelphia Union, probably my second favorite MLS team, was a joy to watch. More because it was cold and there was a lager beer available, I think it was called "Crew Red Lager," than the quality of the play on the field-- the players weren't used to the cold, but it was perfect soccer weather for me. The Crew won as well.

Sorry I can't the pictures from my phone right now.

Well after the game, we ordered a pizza while Peryton finished watching a movie on the Sci-Fi channel, and we tried to finish my Wobble scenario. We didn't, but we got to an awesome stopping around 1am. We were dead tired, so sleep wasn't far for anyone.

Next morning, JerryTel and I headed to breakfast, while Peryton slept in, or so we thought. By the time we were back, she was up and dressed and the room was packed up. After a Boris and Natasha picture, everybody was once again on the road before 10am.

Thanks to Mik46 for the Boris and Natasha reference stuck in my head forever now.

Kickstart, "Quick Start," and Just Doing it

People have been asking me as to why I don't just do a Kickstarter or a "Pay What you Want" deal. Taking a break from the drudgery of making my writing coherent and slightly entertaining, I thought I'd talk about it here. Your'e welcome Bill, Tanja, and Ed.

My old answer was "When I have the work ready." These days, I have the work ready. But some things tend to nag at me when it comes to going big.

Kickstarter projects have become the TV commercials of my FacetuBe and G + accounts.  My friends, or in Google's case, various folks that are allowed to post on my monitor screen, know this or that guy or even a gal, that has this amazing idea for an RPG work that just needs a little help to get up and running. Over three years, after supporting about a dozen of these, two have come to fruition. The end products for all the hype, were kind of what would be expected without a lot of the hullabaloo around the item. Not bad, But definitely not nearly what I imagined. The price I paid was a couple times more than I would've if I'd just waited for the product, and the special perks (all the bumper stickers, autographed this or thats, and magnets I ever wanted)  are now available for a score of cents as well.

Beyond the euphoria and hype and past the the banal nature of the universe, the job of doing a successful Kickstarter seems to require at least 30-40 hours a week of diligent work, or a gang of twelve people that you can easily oversee. A lot of longtime businesses are getting great results from Kickstarter. This, last I read, was not in following the cited goal of the service, it is not supposed to be for them. For me it's a hobby, I do actually love working despite what my bosses might tell you, broken down into such a "professional" environment is just not for me. That and I want to avoid "miscommunications," as a Republican would put it, with the IRS. Frankly, the more I learn about this source of funding, the more I see see big business charging handfuls of pennies and nickles for what should be already free on this thing that we call the internet, while the hobbyists of the world assume the role of millionaire taxpayers.  It's like how cotton clothes are not made out of cotton candy.

The "Quick Start" is what I am calling the "Pay As You Will" options available at various PDF providers for RPG products. From what I understand about this option it's about promoting an item while possibly making some money for the "post-production" needs. In my mind, all I picture is a bunch of "free content" grubbers taking the author's ideas and re-publishing them later, maybe weeks, most often minutes, with maybe a word change here and there if they actually read in your native language fluently. That is with about a dozen broke RPGers bothering to start a bank account to give the writer a dollar towards the cause. Peryton tells me this is the way of the future. Okay, she didn't actually say that, but she does see merit in this sort of promotional activity. To me, it looks more like a way of getting in front of copyright pirates and would-be "frenemies" while still getting to deal with them. Once again the thought 'strangers only share credit when its a brand name that they are stealing from' jumps into my mind. Peryton's stuff sells better than mine, at least initially, so she may still be right.

I really hope I am wrong here. I hope Kickstarter is about artists with inspired visions making works worthy of investing in, not established businesses that had to downsize in the 90s. I would like to see one in ten down-loaders will give a quarter to the person that they are downloading months, if not years, worth of work from in the "Pay What You Want" format.

I hear that I suck. The one thing I don't suck at is getting it.



Now I am not ever going to say "never" to either method of money raising. I'll deal with Kickstarter when I can say "That's enough." I'll release a "Quick Start" promotion when it's "Pay At Least...(amount here)" not 'Pay What You Want."

Doing my own thing is helpful in many ways,especially when I am not playing at playing at being an independent start-up. I mean to be ridiculous here. I don't have to be a "start up." To quote Peryton, who was quoting LL Cool J (what an awesome name), "don't call it a comeback."  I have indeed been "doing this (continuously) for years" (already). Hopefully I don't have to be bashful anymore ladies. As for independent, I think besides being "gay for Ken St Andre" according to my wife, I hear I am just a wild dog. As for the "gay for Ken St Andre" charge, it's not true, but if it were, I'd be one hell of a better writer. In short I live kind of free of the heavy weight of others opinions of what I should do. I think that is called independent.

Your money has come to me by way of sales, hopefully because you like reading my stuff, not just my irresistible charm. I appreciate that money, it almost pays for the hobby. It isn't free, but it is a joy poducing it. And while I am always tinkering with what it is that I am working with, I hope you don't think I die after every release and need Gabriell's horn to be reawakened. A couple of omelets and some good coffee on alternating Sunday mornings remind me that life is worth living already every month.



Until somebody explains the worlds of difference to me, I think the way that I am struggling through is paying off.

Toledo For the Tacos, Part 3: "Sunday, Some Day"

Sunday AM, Pery and I ran into G'noll in the Red Roof Inn's parking lot as we checked out. He was headed home and we were headed back for the last dregs of activity at BASHCon. He bid adieu and was on his way with his Kwai Chang cane in hand-- don't worry he had to explain it to me on Friday night.

JerryTel's D&D 1st-2nd edition game is evolving somewhat. Peryton got to play a sorceress, so she got to sport her two favorite fashion accessories, her nerd glasses and the 1st Edition Player's handbook. Sadly, I forgot to get a picture. Curly and I spent the second act of the game in-fighting as to which one of us actually killed the giant ice worm that we had just faced. You see, he did more damage but I hit the thing last. There were no kids around so we worked things out in the oldest D&D tradition that I know of. Some pesky frost giant got in the way of the arguing and whapping each other and before I knew it the adventure was finished. Best one of these games yet in my book.

Gary, one of the yearly D&D game players, and JerryTel and Curly's longtime friend treated everyone to lunch at a Mexican restaurant called El Vaquero. This happened to be the best restaurant that we've found in Toledo yet. Here we met Gary's friend from his writing group. We spoke writing and explained FRPG concepts to her as we dined. Gary is planning a Celtic-Norse 2nd Edition mini-campaign, which sounds interesting.

On the way home Robin kept snapping pictures of farmland for some reason, I suppose one can never get enough of that when traveling between Cleveland and Toledo. We didn't bother with the radio as our conversation about the convention flitted the miles away.

Toledo For the Tacos, Part 2: "The Incredible Loosening"

As nobody, except Curly and me, was up for a late night meal so Pery and I did our Del Taco run a night early. This joyous event usually occurs on late Saturday night. The wife perked up enough to eat tacos and re-pack, two favorite activities of hers as far as I can tell, and ended up asleep sometime after me. Upon the morn, we were actually not late for my 9am game, a pre-release Glow play-test called "Toxic Island." What happened is that I drove past a certain road and had to find a new place to park. And with that inclusion of two boring tidbits, my second day at BASHCon, began at 9:36am. I noticed JerryTel's table was already full though his T&T Stay Alive scenario "Gaslight" would start at 10am. Still being late was helpful, I had three players, including G'noll, whom had shown up before myself and was breathing easy, upon my arrival.

Glow's "Toxic Island" never got to the island mentioned in the title. We were having a bit too much fun running through the Character Creation rules. I think my approach to both mutation and androids were a strong point with the audience. Then when I started in with some of the milieu of my personal campaign, the players started running with it all by themselves. I sat back and actually started working on some notes for the weapon tables with only the occasional head pop up to do a GM thing here and there. Thanks to this session, and LinZ the editor, I have a task list of things to have done before the very close official release of this game. I also am hopefully convincing young, compared to me, TimS into becoming a GM for the game at GenCon and elsewhere thanks to this session.

My next game, Wobble's "The Eye Of the Needle" had only one player show up, A.J. . Apparently A.J. is a man to be reckoned with because I met somebody the day before that claimed to be him and the dude offering to show me his driver's license was not that guy. As it was only him and me at the table well past the start time, I refunded his ticket for the game but waxed poetic about what Wobble was and what it wasn't. I gave him the scoop on the scenario's plot, and we talked about who we were as persons. later he'd introduce me to his significant other. I want to do a "Wobble Weekend" out in his neck of the woods this year, between Detroit and Toledo, to get these scenarios worked out, and he is definitely a good prospect for a Wobbler.

I was still able able to show up for lunch with JerryTel, Pery, and Curly, once again at the Phoenicia, where two of JerryTel's friends, where competing at alluding to the most obscure tank and/or artillery battle ever, I hear that there is an award in Cincinnati for this feat. Neither did too well, as I was able to jump in and keep up nicely. I even steered the conversation towards wintertime biathlons.

Well thanks to the Wobble game washing up, I was able to jump in on Robin's, err Peryton's Qalidar Resistance scenario, "Liberation of Katum." When it comes to her game, I've been trying to learn the game system by jumping around from Class to Class and trying them out. This time I chose to play a "Tinkerer" as opposed to the "Mystic" that I tried last time. As for my player's performance in this scenario, I get the notion that I am going about things backwards. Pery described her game's Mystic as "Essentially a Jedi." Well last time I played a Mystic, and knew too little for my scope of play, and this time I was focusing on the minutia while understanding a bit more about the universe around me than possibly the other players around me. In any case, in both scenarios, I never ask the right questions. First off, I did not know the title of the adventure that I had signed up for, missing clues from there was not hard. In short, Katum was not liberated, but we did Greenpeace proud because not one of the Characters is stuck in a Russian prison.

At dinner, Curly announced that I was his favorite uncle. As far as I know, he's my only nephew, fake (nee) adopted or otherwise. I chose this opportunity to start lecturing him about my pet peeves, which, as everyone knows, one should start to get this out and in the open quickly-- I was sitting next to him at a dinner table and he was doing a muppet's rendition of how a human being eats. And I learned this doesn't work with teens. Anyway, I frankly have liked being the weird uncle, I have been that guy since I was nine years-old to my nieces.

My evening game, had only Curly and Gnoll, who was once again late and out of breath (I felt much better), so I changed the venue. Instead of 70s-Disco-Meets-IFC studios horror ("Party Nights"), I went with Hammer Horror. More fun, for me, to have ever had, I reincarnated the cheesiest NPC I ever developed (for T&T in the early Naughts) Count Vulgarr the Vampyr. Oh my goodness, never before have I been so rejuvenated by the familiar before me. Curly, does about the best Liverpool-based accent that I ever heard, and Gnoll was channeling Jeremy Iron and Boris Karloff. Wait until you see the next Crawlspace scenario.

In case anyone has never noticed, I am all about the dialect. Before I could take no more, I got to put American sub-titles under the Late English language into (current) American for the (indolent) Toledo-speaking audience. It was fun, and I am not being carcastic. Okay all the clues were ignored and I kept having to be a railroad man to keep the movie err story going, but overall it was a great time. I actually remembered why I loved Hammer Horror films so much. Mind everyone, I think that my plot twist was three steps above any ever provided by Hammer Studios and my cast was awesome despite the lack of an central European hottie willing to show some boob.

Energized by having such great players, I was overjoyed to hear that JerryTel was up to a late dinner. Curly behaved himself at the dinner table, conversation flowed. I learned that G'noll was a vampire literature addict, on top of having the best voice ever. And we met the folks that is always making him show up at my late, out of breath, and too busy to participate. They're really nice.

Toledo For the Tacos, Part 1: "Hacking Goblins"

I often say, if I don't get a road trip every ninety days or so I go a little crazy. And considering that my last road trip, farther than Parma that is, was sometime in September, I've been going crazy. And those close to me, like poor Peryton or JerryTel, have been suffering for it, because as one might garner from my writing, I am not a stranger to mad foolishness in the best of times. This last weekend though was BASHCon in Toledo, so a chance to get out and about. Pery couldn't even complain about anything because she doesn't even have to take anytime off of work to come along. Though she did endeavor to make us as late as possible, which I somehow foiled her machinations this time around by sticking to the "getting ready" schedule I have worked out in my head weeks before any convention. I can't even complain about getting into the joint this year. We arrived around 5pm and before Pery could buy coffee and muffins from the Starbucks downstairs, I was registered and paid up for the weekend.I think her registration time was over five minutes but less than six.

It was wonderful having a nice leisurely dinner at the Phoenicia restaurant in the Student Center of the University of Toledo. JerryTel and Curly, JT's stepson and a long-term gaming group member of the TOL-CLE corridor showed up at 7pm. They could only complain about having an idiot at the registration desk, not the length of time they had to wait. Met Dan Hembree, fellow Trollhallan, when he arrived promptly at 7:55pm at my Friday night T&T session, "Goblin Hack: the Bloodying." G'noll showed, as he frequently does, late, breathless, and too busy to jump in. Andy, of various sessions over previous years, swung by and decided to watch the game.

A brief aside about Prof. Dannherrrm, I am told that he is an actual professor of Geology as well as T&Tology, is that he is one of the bigger movers and shakers of our little tempest in the T&T teapot. He runs The Lone Delver Games shop. He is also the author of multiple scenarios, such as "One Of those Nights" and "House On the Hill," both of which are on my Troll-shelf. He also has been the managing editor, well THE Editor, of Trollzine for the last two, maybe three, years, which is not an easy task. If there is someone as committed to the cause as me, frankly this man makes me look lazy.

Now about my "Goblin Hack: the Bloodying" turned out to be the sort of gaming session that I live for. I had the story typed up about two weeks ago. The matrix for T&T being what it is, I wrote down four Monster Ratings (MRs) and had an algebraic equation for a battle scene, about a week ago. At the table, four very good role-players, that also were familiar the rules, who had their own pencils and dice. At the table I rolled a d6 to determine the SRs, Saving Rolls, because this was a "play-test" for publication later, which gave the session an edge of surprise for both the players and me. The flow of things went swimmingly, though the player-characters would disagree. And I had fun doing my interpretation of the Goblin King and illustrating what the cavern-fortress of the goblins was like. And then I got to dig into my very own creations once things got really low. The one flaw was forgetting to give Dannherrrm's Character 2dxd6 more points for his 2nd Level Character in this 4-6th level scenario. Of course, I cannot have perfect gaming and game-mastering come together at once-- I bet my head would explode right there. Still it was quite a lot of fun.

I've been promising my parents some pictures.

Oh the ill-gotten goodies from just sticking around.

Elvis the Son Of Kronos

Here it is the season of Saturn and I am already behind. Well, as anyone might've noticed, I am always behind. And on thing that being a David Bowie fan has taught me is that making classics is easy, but making gems requires a special angle. As in 1996, when Ziggy Stardust was the memory of a torch song while the murder mystery surrounding Nathan Alder, presented on the album Outside, was revving up the "alternative" rock artists of the day, an author needs to know when to work with strengths not glory.

Well when I am not shooting glory straight into my vein (vain glorious), I happen to be typing up a couple bits of composition. 

And Spacers (TM) has turned into Spacers: Universe. I am at about 35 pages of alien species after a dozen pages of "ship rules." I am proud of my reconstructions of popular media science fiction. From Tom Corbin: Space Cadet to Far Scape,  I think my notes have helped me craft a pretty comprehensive sci-fi RPG.

For all the brevity, the next rendition of my "role-playing game for Spacers" has like 49 alien species, random world and inhabitant generators, as well as space-navigating battleships.

One Night In Parma

Well actually it was a noon until about midnight in Parma, but the effect was the same.

For some two years now, despite friends like Rook and JerryTel being there I have been unable to attend the Holiday Game Bash, which is sponsored by our North Coast Gamers--Cleveland Chapter every year in earlier December. Actually two years I did attend for a couple hours before having to go to work that night, I remember something a large picture of Christ looming over my shoulder and having to sit in a toddler-sized chair while playing in a play-test of early Qalidar. And last year, Pery and I met JerryTel for a brew and late dinner at Applebees after my then new day shift. This year, I resolved to just go ahead and take the day off of work and have someone cover my first 4 hours the next day, to allow for so real game day festivities.

Despite having bad dreams the night before of a homeless hippie wanting to look in my diaper, the 2013 Holiday Game Bash was a pretty awesome game festival. It started at 11am, but we arrived around 11:30 because my game went first at noon. After parking up the road a bit, we didn't see the big parking lot across the street for the Rock City Music Hall where the event was being held, we made our way. Staring as I walked in was an advertisement for my game Crawlspace 13 with a lovely picture of me chugging beer out of a pitcher from GenCon 2012 (actually one of my favorites). Wow, I've never been so promoted before, and I didn't even pay for the honor. We found JerryTel setting up for his run of the board game called Rheinlander, his kraut envy surprises me often. We talked him into having a quick beer, actually he might've had a coke, before things got started.

I set up for "Corporate Raiders" which is my introduction mostly for myself into the cross genre world of time and dimension travel role-playing. I use Robin's (Peryton's) Qalidar: Resistance setting as the scenarios excuse, and this time I even tried to know some of those darn D20 rules of hers. A friend of a friend, JohnM. came over and after a few minutes talked me into running the game that I was there to run. I was reluctant because he was the only player, but Pery jumped in as a Character as well a rules coach. And what a great time it was, I finished Raiders, finally after a false start moths earlier. And that false start has been bugging me because I've never did a time/space travel RPG before. I think everyone else in the game was bored, but I was having a ball. Finally my Pyramid-heads, Glam World special forces, and Sewer Monkeys were able to sing out in their own voices!

After the game we found JerryTel at the bar drowning his sorrows at having successfully sold five more poor souls on the game Rheinlander, who'd probably never be the same again. Actually he was having a coke and checking on English Premier League scores and checking out Trollhalla on his tablet. I was in a celebratory mood so I made everyone, JerryTel and Peryton, have a fermented sugar beverage with me. We had a couple hours to hang out and be dorky gamers, and game designers, as well get to know the bartenders who jumped right in on the fun.

My favorite moment of that afternoon is when I think the owner, or one of them, saw us and the staff having too much fun, so she felt she had to come over and tell the bartenders that "The Game was supposed to be on TV because everyone here are gamers." Everyone in the place had come from the game festival from next door, and no one cared about any of the college football games on the flat screens, though a couple folk had a penchant for heavy metal on the juke box-- the Ohio State game wouldn't be on until 7pm or so.

Robin's Qalidar scenario, "The Typhon Project" drew myself, a fellow who I believe is Ken, not Ben, and the late arriver JerryTel. Robin after getting the basic plot out where we the players had to figure things out, decided she was bored and threw antroids into the adventure just for laughs. I could tell she was improvising, but we still figured out what was going on and everyone at the table was still kind of awestruck.

My "late night" session, starting at 8:30 filled up before 8:10pm, and I had to make sure all minors, all one of them, were ready for r-rated role-playing, meaning his dad was playing as well. And with technicalities finished, my official "non-playtest" of Crawlspace 13's "Party Nights" was underway. It was a very good group of role-players, but to date, I can't say that I've had anything but when it comes to Crawlspace. One of my players, Mary had to slip out early because of family necessity, but I hope she shows at later sessions because she was as strong role-playing as the strongest characters there. Before I knew it, it was 11:30 and time to wrap things up. So things didn't get as gory horror movie-like as they were supposed to, but the players had done a great job. They'll have to see what what the Apogee story-arc for Crawlspace is going to be like.

We closed the evening with a late dinner with JerryTel at Applebees once again. I had a great time and though 14 hours straight and having to be at work the next day is kind of tough, this has to become a yearly tradition. Good job North Coast Gamers. Good job.

On Silly Comic Book Material And Our Current Media Dilemmas

I was hanging with Mik44 and Peryton last Saturday night, always one of the better moments in life to be sure, and we started to pass the time with discussion on superhero movies. We all smiled about the second Thor movie, which didn't mind being a Sphere Fantasy mixed into a Dr. Who season. And then we talked about the Iron Man movies, which are doing so great at showing how billionaires can be likeable guys as well being heavily-armored war machines when they feel threatened. A little tired with this line of thought (is there really going to be a second Avengers movie?), I brought up Batman movies.

The problem that DC (National Comics, err Time-Warner Communications) has is that they hired directors and writers of too much vision.

And while Zach Snyder and D.S. Goyer are most likely bristling at this statement, every reader here knows that both of them are regular subscribers to my blog-- I just know that Putin, Obama, and Danny Woodburn have sock puppets monitoring me-- we all know that Christopher Nolan is taking notes.

Marvel cranks out movies like they're video games, using video game technology anyway, and the producers are as astute throwing in "nods" to the fan boys, and Chinese viewers, as they are about making sure a couple different formula of popular movies are followed. which Marvel's writers and Stan Lee himself already wrote into their scripts of yesteryear. Boy lives at home, Boy meets girl, Boy loses girl, Smart Girls have to be killed... et al. But the folks working on the films like to add their own touches as well. Thor 2 got downright goofy and full of weird sci-fi, that the actual plot was something of a distraction. So much so that the movies makers had to throw in a minute of Chris Evans, to remind everyone that was an Avengers spin-off, not just a chick flik for the wives of Monty Python/Red Dwarf fans.

DC's vision has been much more experimental, with the exception of Superman Returns, which for all its homage to the 70s-80s Superman flix did not go anywhere. They tried Cat Woman as a non-Batman spin off. They did the Watchmen which was anti-hero perspective on the superhero take on things. They even went with Jonah Hex, which still just strikes me as a bad idea to the point I haven't been able to watch it. And Christopher Nolan was encouraged to work in epic-proportions of scale with his Batman works as he made the franchise shake off a score of TV writers and directors and Tim Burton to re-teach an old a trick it already knew. I am not sure who or what was behind the Green Lantern movie, but for some reason its makers decided that special effects and space opera should be toned down and its villains look like something from bad 50 movies.

Okay, I loved the latest incarnation of the Bat-man, Christopher Nolan's one. It was darkness reflected my views about the corruption of the society that I sometimes glimpse around me. It's grittiness has brought many characters from the comic books to life in a world that I can imagine being my own. But the "epicness" had a little more than enough room. The villains become too omniscient and too powerful.

The Dark Knight is my favorite superhero movie to date. But it had the two ferries moral dilemma which was supposed to be a tribute to The Killing Joke story line, but did nothing but put people to sleep by being way too preachy. The hostages and captors turnabout would've been a much better place to leave things at for the Joker and then watching the last bit could have wrapped up the horror of Two-Face as a villain and we can kick and scream for the next "gritty" Batman. From there The Dark Knight Rises only got more preachy while paying less and less tribute to the Aftermath and the ultimately pointless "Bane" subplots in the many pages of the Batman comics.

The latest Superman flik, Man of Steel, was Nolan's attempt at getting beyond the cheesiness of Superman to the real stuff. And once the real stuff was gotten to, he wanted to kill it so that the franchise could begin anew. Ummm... I liked the movie, but Superman doesn't kill. This movie is not going to be the basis for DC to start coming into the limelight of real actors in front of cameras silverscreen movie-going phenomena that the Marvels have been.

The folks at DC and the movie production companies wanting to make their movies should not be thinking about the Justice League movie just yet. They should be focusing on the name sakes getting movies that prep the audience watching not to be looking at DC's version of the Avengers movie.

Batman can use a couple "krimi flx" under his belt, maybe introducing Nightwing and the Huntress, facing against Poison Ivy and Hugo Strange. The comic series Gotham Underground, the comic series that showed me that Dr Freeze was a felon not a fop, should be airing on AMC right after the Walking Dead.

Superman could take a break after the predestined World's Finest, it's kind of Superman fits into the whole superhero picture anyway. Or heck, Superman facing off against the AI behind the Terminator movies would fill up space.

Green Lantern could re-start with science, space opera, as well as his love of Carol Ferris instead of Top Gun-meets-the Muppets.

Wonder Woman and her sisters actually won WII, and she's never lost her femininity. And her transistion into the modern age wouldn't have to be followed by as many apologies to everyone not in the Republican Party in 1957 as a certain captain that we all know of.

If nothing else the Flash and the Green Arrow can show in the AMC TV show.

Hawkman and Hawk Woman, come on. Does Thor get all the chick flik/sphere fantasy writers in the world? I don't think so. The first Thor should've been a web-series anyway, so this project could be the best meeting of Harry Potter and Wuthering Heights online to date.

There is just so much more to be done before the Justice League movie gets made. DC has always had better rounded characters and earth-shattering problems than Marvel. The latter was always more about friends fighting, then first kisses, then smart chicks dying, and then relatives in the hospital. DC had all the great archetypes and dilemmas and worked things out from there.

And don't get me started about getting a decent Shazam movie in there one of these days.

The Drag of Gravity In Fall

I cannot go to Carnage this year. Peryton is depressed and looking at knots in trees instead of climbing them. Cohorts are distracted. If it weren't for bad news, I'd have no luck at all.

I think I am capable of handling things. I'll let you know later.

And Now About Ben Affleck As the Bat-Man

As much as I love Christian Bale I have always loved Adam West. And as much as I hated Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck has the jaw. Don't expect a lot of rage out of me since I supported Heath Ledger as the Joker after I hated the choice of Jack Nicholson. Allow me my churlishness, but I am more surprised that the next big DC movie is based on World's Finest themes and the usual incoherent Frank Miller tripe, not the interesting stuff.

Okay, Frank Miller might really rock with his self-hating view of the world with works about Marvel comics Wolverine or three hundred scantily-clad Spartan warriors, but not everybody who likes DC comics agrees. Beyond looking to retarded views of the 1930s as the justification for your mindset in life, for Batman, and Superman, he sucks. He doesn't do much for any real Batman fan. And I am not sure where the man ever did anything for any Superman reader.

Now some Time Warner sponsored writer is going to point out the Miller theme of Superman and Batman fighting. These writers will point out that is always what superheroes do in the comic books of their youths. What they forget to point out is that they were reading Marvel Comics, and never really liked DC comics. Disagree? Prove me wrong? DC heroes tended to really like one another, and Superman and Batman never fought until they were both about 90 years old in a world that resembled Mitt Romney's version of a brave, new world.

It kind of pisses me off, even more, that everyone holds DC to a standard that they do not hold Marvel comics to when it's about films. Spider Man appeals to the 14 year-old movie goer, while the Iron Man appeals to ever shrinking crowd of casual comic readers with wives and kids, and daydreams of illicit affairs-- like James Bond, but silly. A franchise of really bad movies can culminate in a really spectacular marketing campaign that culminates in the Avengers being made. And we forgot about it the next year despite the best efforts of a bunch of PHDs thinking Iron Man 3 was awesome.

Do not talk to me about the money behind anything. Marvel comics' Electra was competing with DC's Cat Woman, and the production crews showed that they were out of touch not anything good to watch. But somehow DC character movies are either not the mainstream DC (The Watchmen and Jonah Hex) or are simplistically trying bad movie tricks. It worked for Batman but it hasn't worked for Superman nor anybody else. And this trend ignores the strength of the folks around the brand misplaced  conceptions based off of the last Marvel movie. And the Hollywood formula is only only providing us with substandard Green Lanterns and crap about Thor.

Now I have explained my problems, but if you want to hear what I think would be better, let me know. I do have some ideas.

GenCon '13: Aftwards

Bluebirds: Monday morning went smoothly. I was able to get the car and head out quickly. We had brunch with McLea and Power Girl. I used the morning to reacquaint with him. Peryton so loves hanging with her brother and sister-in-law. Amy turned her menu into a GM's shield and we played the last game of GenCon 2013. I am not making anything up here. And tamales, tacos, and pancakes were had. There was much rejoicing. We almost forgot that we were on parking-metered time.

On the way home, we stopped off at JerryTel's house for a sit down. The man was in his undies and sucking up air conditioning and soccer. Obviously, imploding a day before I could. The bastard.We made plans for Peryton's B-Day festivities in October.

And Upon the End of Things: I wasn't able to hang with friends like Ken St Andre, Todd Rooks, or Jeff Combos. But I'll work on that next year.

Many of my other friends don't get GenCon anymore it would seem. Monk no longer likes running into strangers. The Butkas are busy raising a family. The folks that I know that do come find the event's immensity rather daunting and detracting from me spending time with them. None of these situations I can answer to, except that, I'll make time for anyone on Sunday night after GenCon AT 7:30 PM AT THE BOURBON STREET RESTAURANT.

GenCon '13: Nooks and Crannies

The Hotel:  I keep having very favorable impressions of this place though there is some cognitive dissidence going on. Well, the place is trying to sell itself as the 1920s beset by the 21st Century that has happened to fall around its ears. For the most part I get it.
My room was nice single with a large-assed bed with a little room to move around because they were able to remove the TV cabinet for a flat screen. But if you opened the front door, people could stare at your wife stepping out of the shower... without her and you being paid first. And resort-style services, like towel replacement or someone nice at the front desk, was dependent upon the people on the clock whenever you thought to bother them.
The pub and grub joint was stepping up, even if they weren't quite certain who was supposed to be reading the menu that the hotel management was making them hand out. I speak to a certain chef, or cook, or whatever dude standing in front of an open flame with a spoon, who made a wait person walk back twice to show that the menu promised "Biscuits and Gravy All Day" on Sunday morning. Don't get me wrong here, the Canterbury's restaurant bar is wildly world class in essence. Luckily the staff doesn't know it, because it was one nice place to hang out for the likes of me. Even if I was the one guy who didn't order scrambled eggs for breakfast.

At the same, I'd be awoken at 5:15am by sulfur fumes from a dump truck outside after falling asleep at 4:10am. The maids liked to hide clocks after setting their alarms, while not picking up towels. And then there was a telephone in my bathroom. Hard core space utilization. Hard to say if I like the place or not. Apparently the hotel is still trying to figure things out.

The Bonfire: As parties go. I really have nothing to complain about. And in case that you haven't noticed, I'm into parties. Whether or not you're into them, I am not all that concerned. And if you haven't noticed yet, we need to make this clear (Sligo).

Old Home Eve (the night before the convention), was a success. Peryton wanted Cladagh as our spot, I ensured it. Bruce Wayne made sure that we got there. Eloy Lasanta, John Kenedy, Jerry Telehe, Robin Fenner (Caed) and about 18 other folk showed up to show how much fun can be had on the night before GenCon. This year, other folks friends added on about 6 others, I think the pictures are available elsewhere... . John the waiter mentioned that the table was reserved for 14, not 22 at the end of the night. I think I made things right.

The after party of Old Home Eve is worthy of mention. I was hanging with JerryTel, Caed, and Sligo (F. Scott Grant) after the big party and reconnecting with reconnecting with them. Luckily, when Sligo wasn't worried about about being burnt at the stake for being a Christian, he was trying to sell Amway through a game that he was designing, and then after that he was more than willing to hang out with debauchees. I frankly was being provocative. The other two friends waded through things with notable patience. But it was still a good after party.

By not running a "Cthulhu versus the Ratpack" scenario, a group of folk decided to not talk to me. I suspect this handful of folk were responsible for my no-shows on Friday for a game that was sold-out.  During the day before at the booth, I noticed each of you that scrambled by making sure to give me ominous stares. Well, I am working on something else these days. I've had you go up against Yog Sothoth, Dagon, and Glaaki. You've resurrected important personages and had a remake of The Highlander. What have you got in your pocket? I'll play in it, just let me know.

Two, no three times I held JerryTel up while I found things to party with him about. Running next to him was awesome for that. We definitely have to make this a tradition. I had the most fun when it was him, David, Cram and me discussing intricate T&T details after my Saturday night game.

That same evening, I got to know a lot of the bikers in Indy for the weekend. Jordan, Batman, pulled me to a bar about half a mile away from where I was running games. We didn't end up getting any beer because apparently bikers en mass don't drink beers darker than Bud. But hey, I didn't drink but I got to dance before getting back to my games.

Now the break on Saturday between 9-Midnight is notable. First off, it was a surprise. As you might have noted before, I dropped off a single player showing up at my game off at Peryton's Qalidar session. But I headed back to the Canterbury's bar. They had, according to the menu that got me into so much trouble over the weekend, "Live Jazz."

Michael, me, and the ever sexy Victoria.

And once again the restaurant-bar did not fail to provide . The live jazz was provided by a trio of music students, from probably the best of Indianapolis-based students of higher culture. How would I know this? Because I heard the best renditions ever of Blue Note records from 35 years ago, sticking to how the songs were originally played. I closed my eyes to hear how the trio was doing rendering some classics. But every time I peeked, certain people were watching me enjoy the music being played. Finally, I just opened my eyes. Though not anybody working the bar would've noticed that I was isolated. This is because people wanted to talk. 

From there, the party of Saturday night started creeping towards me. The band had stopped playing while gamer dorks thrust forward to work their magic on the female saxophone player and the cellist. The drummer had nothing else to do so he just drank. So, from my single chair in the bar, I ended up getting intimate with Steve Bergeron, his beautiful and learned wife Cait, Cameron MacDonald and the every sexy Ashley Dinning. And this group was hanging with Chris Birch of Achtung Cthulhu fame. I ran into Steve and Angelia Parenteau from Carnage, which only made matters worse. Now more people wanted to party because I was hip with gamer hepcats. Not a good night for music. And though I wanted to fall into the spiral that is the Ennie awards and being an insider gamer at the Canterbury, I had a midnight game to get to. Amazingly, my drinks and socializing worked right on schedule, as I went into radio news mode, a job I had in college. I was not late to the game.

The whole of Sunday was pretty much a party. Peryton made a point that it was her day to open the booth. I chatted up a fellow at Canterbury's restaurant while enjoying their Sunday special of "Gravy and Biscuits All Day". Then Jordan and I did lunch with James and Dawn Sutton, Sligo and Cram showed up just in time to come along as well. We did the lounge at the Crown, funny how popular that place is for folks trying to avoid the crowds.

The booth breakdown took all of 15 minutes, which took Colts Gal (Jordan's Amy) and Bruce Wayne by surprise, as they had ordered lunch at the Canterbury while waiting for us. Sligo and Jordan had some secret scheme that was going to make everyone very happy. Peryton threw her support in because she was on a buzz from her massive successes this year. So it was a "Let's make a non-Tom plan" kind of like party. When it entailed no one being able to rest or eat at a nice sit-down place without games in front of them, it mostly just annoyed everyone that was not Sligo or Jordan. But I did get to demo a game that was pretty awesome called Spark 500.

Back in the car I felt compelled to lecture Jordan that I didn't like being driven around to meet local friends of his who didn't feel compelled to go out of their way to meet me either, while sticking to some haphazard schedule that kept me busy after a long weekend of keeping to a strict schedule and talking to strangers who wanted to talk to me. Constantly maximizing potentials works with investment and in maybe in corporate social functions, not people on a vacation. If only Caed was around, she is very good at seeing these sorts of situations coming. She'd have whispered to me, "Go catch a nap" before I agreed to the group dynamics of earlier. She is my youngest sister for a reason.

At Bourbon Street, and on time, the place where I told a number of people that I was going to be that evening. It'd seem that none of my intimates wanted to be there, though no one had told me, except Cram. I had the pleasure of being dumped off on the corner with Peryton and McLea and his Amy, while the Indianapolis natives sped off for elsewhere. Mike and Amy were kind of the lost souls in all of this. They had just wanted to go out to eat, but the man's leg is a little gimpy and the restaurant is about a mile from our hotel. We thought that we were going to have to call a cab not having our own rides. Luckily Jordan swung by again, wanting to say good night properly. He gave the two a ride back to Canterbury, the spot that he had had his second lunch in three hours, watching them starve while waiting for him to drive them to where they thought they were going to get diner earlier. McLea and I would speak of the afternoon's events where he'd conclude, "You and I were the only two people that knew what we wanted, while everyone else drove."

Now able to sit back and enjoy the evening with Peryton, and a couple from Arizona and another from Kentucky, which I can't name for "game security" reasons, we were having fun again. Being out on the balcony was awesome. A bikers' party and our own blended together, and jokes about the structure collapsing commenced when a fellow named Alex expressed anxiety feeling a little bounce when rumbling vehicles, like his own motorcycle, went by.

After our new traditional walk from the Bourbon Street to where ever we are staying, we hooked up with McLea and his Amy, let's call her Power Girl from now on for obscure reasons. Cocktails were had, and I played butler with cheese and crackers. I got a kick when I realized that their bathroom had a window just meters away from a walkway to the mall. With the shades open the whole world could admire my awesomeness. Pity no one was there at that time. One has to love the Canterbury.

GenCon '13: Is it Satyrday Yet?

The Fireworks: Did you hear that I like to run games?

Well, I happened to run only eight of those this year. A measly 26 hours worth of labor at that. But these substitutions for having any real life seems to make up for everything else missing elsewhere in my life. Let's talk about these sessions for a bit.

I used T&T to get the blood flowing on Thursday night. Had a pretty good handful of players, three, jumping in to play "The Sorceress and the Chimera." A kid, below the age of not being protected by privacy traditions, if not actual laws, in Western culture, flattered me by figuring out the math that I was playing with. Yes the 8th grader might have not been doing calculus but she did make the gamer "geeks" around her look like posers. I am sure it's Obama's fault.

Smart kid, her dad, and guy nice enough to show up.

The late-night game "Bigger Than a Breadbox" for my Crawlspace 13 game went off well. Not only did I have a full table, I had my sister Caed Phaser, Robin Fenner, there. Zach is a DJ and one of the hosts of Rockin' Comics, both the podcast and a website domain. He brought a friend, Rob, who I am going to make a friend. Then a couple other players showed up while one of them happened to be distractingly beautiful. I had to remind myself not to stare at her more than anybody else. She would actually play with my avoiding gaze showing me how neurotic that I was being. After a few minutes, after I established that everyone there was important (TALK ABOUT A MASTER OF BRETCH, Dr. Nik). Then I got more casual.
Oddly enough, that looker was only going to be around for an hour before flitting elsewhere. The game ran 40 minutes over, the looker stayed for the whole BBQ and I was running around asking "What did I miss?" to the players. Even more stranger I did not need to rewrite my plot, because the players never went off the script that I had in head.
These players were so into their roles that even when they were hiding underneath tables, which I did not tell them to do, they'd stay in character as everyone else would hear the tones of the dialog going on, though nobody knew what was being said exactly. The players above the table would suddenly burst into a new scene.  For the second time in this rendition of Crawlspace's lifespan, I had to deal with tabletop role-players suddenly becoming actors.Once again, I was a GM looking at the unleashed results of Stanislavsky-influenced methods in his story, I kind of feel like Frankenstein when this happens. I think that I kept up admirably.
The next day I found out that the looker from Doug Jean, Zach, and Rob, that the rather stunning role-player was actually a working actress by the name of Jordan Trovillion. Well I am about to take a sudden interest in Tom Cruise films. Hopefully, Crawlspace 13 will be graced with her presence again. She can even show up at a Old Home Eve if she really has to.

On Friday I started out with my single entry for Spacers (TM), which is currently in transition, called "Attack Of the Androids." The three players that I had adapted better than most when they realized that I had baited and switched them. Instead of a battle against androids they got the moral and ethical considerations of their actions when dealing with fully articulated artificial intelligence. I really want to keep in touch with these three players. The evening's offering of T&T had another three players with "The Temple of Pan." I think I sucked as a GM, the players flatteringly added a lot to the story and showed themselves so awesome adventure gamers. I made a break through in a certain "bronze-age" work that I have been at for some time. And lest I forget, the quote "Is it Satyrday yet?"  came up at 11:30pm. No one showed up for my "Hopelessly Lost" scenario for Crawlspace 13 except a fellow from Philly named Mark. I, despite being worried about not having any players for a midnight game, told the young man, that he was invited back the next next night.

Saturday was an unexpected bag of fixings to say the least. My early evening T&T game "Who's that Demigod? " had five players show up with the their their preregistered tickets. Another showed up with his friend's ticket. Yet another three showed up with generics asking for admittance to my game. And I while I had three people that knew how to play the T&T game, I had three with pre-registered tickets that were sampling the game having never played it before. I Was a little stressed. But with well-worked GM techniques and three folk dropping out of the game from texts from close family or friends, I think I did marginally well. Only one person showed up for Glow's "Out of the Bubble" with which I tossed him over to Peryton's Qalidar scenario going on at the same time. I had a bit of a party that I'll talk about later.  Mark showed up for the Crawlspace 13 midnight session, and I cheated at the cards to make sure that he'd be significant character in the story. And though I was suffering from late players and a bit of Godzilla gut, not any ill effects from my three hour hard-drinking party minutes before, there was a decent scenario to be had.

The reader should note that all my impressions are subjective.

GenCon '13: Tie Me To the Length Of That

Our Time As a Piece of Wax: "Premier Group" status for Peryton Gamers at GenCon was for me a perk for doing what I'd be doing anyway. I run games. It is what I do. Others do other things. JerryTel has assumed a role of responsibility as a PeryPubber, he's basically what could be called a "Convention Event Organizer" for us. Peryton mostly bathes in steamy mud and eats bonbons.  Now Pery, Jerry, and me all get our badges elsewhere but because of all the games that we ran on top of our badge sources, identified members of our group, Tom's Admiring Horde (Look it up for yourself), could get their own badges for time rendered at the booth and/or as GMs.

Now the fact that those promised free GM badges came at a 67% success of showing up and doing what those wanting the badges said that they'd like to do does not escape me. Luckily, I was not staying up nights like JerryTel who was living with this everyday. So next year, we'll do more of a "Show Up, Do It, and get paid cash money" sort of strategy. Though there are six folk who are on the "Insider" track, if not "Blood Relative," for free badges next year.

To quote JerryTel over Guinness Dark Lagers at Champions on Saturday, "Let's celebrate the one and only year in the premier league." But considering our performances in the past before this year as well as this year, I bet, even despite changes as to what being a premier group means, that we didn't do that terrible. Lemme whisper something, "I know people who tell me things."

Whether or not we get "premier status" next year tends to be a bit beyond the likes of JerryTel, Robin, or myself. But statistic-wise, we did not worse than anyone else with fewer than a million bucks. And for the intangibles, we had plenty of them.

My main point is, is that a tagline for PeryPubbers should be, "We don't work the system. The system works us." But in truth, we never feel the tug. We tend to be already doing what makes folks happy and willing to give good feedback. Like us or Hate us, guess what!?! We are there.
All that said; if you yanked my chain, I don't really give a damn. But buck up if you want to be show up at GenCon as someone with privilege. Think about it, we got your real name, the one with the photo that you'd have had to show up someplace that you committed to being at. Or you can start talking to someone more hippy than us.

The Grind: Our games though, were going kind of spectacularly awesome.

This was Robin's year. Every running of Qalidar: The Resistance sold out. And the premier print version, available only at GenCon, damn nearly sold out. We have like three in a box with a dozen dibs on them. In shared wanderings, I heard that someone ( a "furry" ) offered her minutes to cuddle with him, and four others with pointy ears and tails to boot, for a copy. But one needs to make a commitment and have cash on hand. Sorry Dolitltes, the woman works hard and expects some respect.

Still, "We" had a very good year. And to translate to the I-Phone generation, we had a very good !!!!!! :-) year.

W. Scott Grant ran a wonderful T&T adventure, which from all feedback, two sources to date, did wonderful. Every one of Jerry Teleha's did rather awesome.  Michael C. Lea, MC Lea, rocked the house with superheroes, from three sources no less. Mine did well, and had a couple gems in the middle of the grind.

Mostly what I garnered from my lackluster performances was material for up-coming works.