Actually Gaming!

It's like I woke up in Bizarro world! I'm actually gaming!

I write a gaming blog, shouldn't I be gaming all the time? Well, the truth of the matter is that I work a day job and I have a wife. I love my wife (I simply HATE my job) and these things take up a lot of my time. My friends all have jobs and significant others and obligations of every sort. So, getting games together is darned difficult. I call this unfortunate state of being "adultitis" - I have used the term on this site before but I don't know if I have ever defined it. Adultitis is the condition where a busy adult does not have the time for playing games like they had when they were younger.

Having said that, I'm excited to announce that I am gaming way more than usual. I have been playing d20 Star Wars with a group of friends for a while. I started the game about, oh, three years ago. We played for a bit over a year. Then, we ran another game for a while - a less than successful GURPS Super Heroes game. There is nothing wrong with GURPS. It's me. I have tried to run Supers in the past and failed. Well, I failed again. I should know better, I know NOTHING about comic books. A couple of X-Men movies doesn't make me an expert!

One of the members of the group took pity on me and decided to start running Star Wars again and we all jumped back in - that has been going for about six months. I guess I did something of a good job with my SW game - as the new GM has introduced several story elements I created. Very cool!

Anyway, we have been regularly playing about once a month. We have a game scheduled in a week or so. We pretty much play every three to five weeks.


The day after Gary Gygax died, I got a severe case of nostalgia. I'm sure a lot of you did. You can see it in the post I made on this site. So, I sent out an email to all of my friends. I got almost no response to that email. One sent a funny music video - his only response. One said he couldn't as he is planning to go back to school - understandable. Others said they were busy; severe, inflamed adultitis - also understandable.

But I didn't hear from two people that have been begging to game, especially D&D. I found that odd.

Well, then, days later, these two are all excited! Sure they want to game! So, we settled on D&D 2nd Ed. since we had books from a game we played years ago.

Then, they wanted to invite a family member and his wife and their kid. I had no problem with the kid coming, but I don't get along well with the kid's parents (the kid could use a break from the parents, anyway!)

One of them wanted to invite their ex-spouse. Fine. They invited this person and that person's new spouse decided they were invited, too. I didn't really know this person, but I wasn't informed until day of the game that they were coming. No sweat.

Well, we had a group of six - plenty! And, frankly, we had a great time. Everyone was cool and we had good group chemistry. I think this is going to be a good game with a fun group. The best part is that they want to play often! We gamed on the 15th of March, we're gaming again this Sunday and we are looking to game again on April 13th!

The only problem this group ran into was 2nd Ed. (2E) D&D. I haven't played those rules in years, and I've gotten used to playing d20 by playing Star Wars. However, I didn't want to make people buy books, and at first, it was only going to be three of us. I had a book, they had a book - we could relearn the rules together.

This didn't work so hot when the group doubled in size. Worse, some of the players were real D&D grognards and brought what books they had: 1st Ed. AD&D books! So people start making characters with combinations of 1E and 2E books! I had totally lost control!

We got through the day and, as I said, had a pretty good time. I have spent the time since last game convincing the group to go with the 3.5E d20 rules. You can download them for free, and with 4E about to hit the market, 3.5E books are going to flood the books stores for cheap! Part of me wishes I had gone with 3E - the used book stores are swamped with those books now. But, we wouldn't have had the download option. A good portion of the group is young people with limited cash flow. As it is, I have spent about $100 on new books - got some pretty good values at Amazon, but it's still a lot of money.

So, I have ended up with a second great group and I'm having a bitchin' time learning new rules from brand new (they cracked when I opened them!) gaming books! What could be better?


How about a third group?


That's right. When it rains, it pours! I have a whole different group of friends who have been talking about putting together a game of Unhallowed Metropolis. Until they started talking about it, I had never heard of the game. But, now I have and I have been introduced to a new term: gas-mask chic. It's an interesting game concept. I haven't bought the book yet - I'm not sure the group is actually going to form up, much less form the Blazing Sword - if you know what I mean. We'll see.

Thank you, holy spirit of The Gygax - you have blessed me with an abundance of gaming. My cup runneth over!

Web Games

As any long time reader of this site can tell you - I loves me some freebies!

There are a few good web games growing up that you should be aware of. Both of the following games are free to play, but they have pay options as well. They both have some graphical elements, but are not heavily reliant on those. And, they are both a ton of fun.


First, we have TinyWarz. TW has grown and grown since I started over a year ago. They have just gone through a serious improvement to the graphical elements of the game. In TinyWarz you build an army, then take that army out to fight off bandits and other players in a real time, turn based environment. It's a heck of a lot of fun. There are hundreds of vehicles and 'mechs to research, build and add to your army. You can join guilds, chat in real time and socialize on the boards. In short a lot of fun for very little to no monetary investment. However, investing some cash does have its rewards and there are several ways to get that cash - check out the RewardGamer section in-game.


Recently, I have found Travian. As far as I can tell, this game is hosted out of Europe somewhere - I apologize for my ignorance. I've spent too much time playing the game and not enough time researching it! This idea is a little more old school. You choose a race - I like the Romans. Then you begin growing your village. You increase the number and efficiency of your production facilities, then you add buildings and eventually you raise an army. Along the line you can start other villages or take over villages from other players. It's like a fast, lite version of Civ. It's my hope that they will add more elements to the game as demand grows.

Get out there and have a good time on the web!

The Dungeon Master is Dead ...

For those of you that don't know, yesterday, March 4th, Gary Gygax died.


I've been a Role Playing Gamer for many years. I started off in 7th or 8th grade, some twenty two or so years ago. I've been a gamer for two thirds of my life. My first game, like most role players, was Dungeons & Dragons. My mom bought me the red D&D box for Xmas after I had begged for over a year. Funny, to this day when I think of the intrepid adventurer facing the imposing red dragon standing on top of a pile of gold coins, the image that adorned that boxed set - it still gives me a zing of excitement.


Gygax was not the only person responsible for D&D, but he is the one most associate with it. He worked very hard to see his vision continue in the right direction. Because of his work and his vision, I have had hours and hours, probably months of hours, of fun. Time spent thinking, conjuring up entire worlds out of pure imagination. Then, I got to share those worlds with my friends. Instead of going out and drinking or partying with my friends and then regretting my excesses the next day, I sat around a table with my friends and enjoyed their company and helped them help me tell a great story of adventure and action and excitement. I cannot think of a single night of gaming I regretting the next day. Gygax is in part responsible for that.

I slipped away from D&D to play other games. As did many gamers. Eventually I even came to criticize the game. Now, looking back, reading what happened at TSR and what happened to Gygax, I see some of the reasons that I criticized the game were valid. And, maybe, had TSR and, later, Wizards of the Coast, listened to Gygax, maybe the game would have been better. Now, we will never know.

No matter. We gamers have all lost something irreplaceable. I and many gamers like me owe a good portion of the fun we have had in our lives to men like Gygax, Steve Jackson and Kevin Siembieda.

Gary, we will miss you. Good Journey.

(This post will be cross posted on my other blog: IrateWeirdos.com)