As you stand beyond the mangled corpses of those who stood in your way, a strange, yet pleasant feeling washes over you. Congratulations, d20 Dad, you've attained 2nd Level!
This is my final blog post from Blogger. The recent outage prompted me to try WordPress. Unfortunately for Blogger, making the move to WordPress is akin to leveling up. I like what I've seen so far, and I have more options and control of my content. You can find my new blog at this link. Thank you, Blogger, for getting me started in my blogging, but I'm moving on now. It's not me, it's you.
On a related note, if anyone has any tips for migrating my Blogger posts to my Wordpress blog, it would be awesome if you left a comment on my new blog.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Welcome Back to the Stage of History
Welcome back. Your absence has been noted and will be reflected as a loss of XP. I hope you will strongly reconsider the next time you need to miss game. I would hate for your resulting lack of XP to cause a TPK...
So yeah, I'm back to my blog after a several-week hiatus. During that time, my wife went back to work, we had our corporate inspection at my job, we moved, and we traded in our van for another car. Hopefully, you can see why my blog has been neglected for a while.
To catch everyone up on all the details, my wife returned to her job after over nine months of being a SAHM. The extra money will be good, and we worked out a great deal with her sister to watch Kennedy on days we both work. Looking ahead, though, I will have to get health insurance for the two of them, because we will make too much money for state insurance help. Yay America!
We moved a couple of weeks ago to a house nextdoor. More rooms, even though each one is slightly smaller. My wife is happy because the computer is finally our of the living room. Oh, and the rent is cheaper too.
And finally, we traded in our Chevy Venture van for a buick lesabre. Took 50 dollars to fill up, which is beter than the 80 it took to fill the van.
That should just about take care of the updates, next post should see a return to regular gaming/parenting blogs.
So yeah, I'm back to my blog after a several-week hiatus. During that time, my wife went back to work, we had our corporate inspection at my job, we moved, and we traded in our van for another car. Hopefully, you can see why my blog has been neglected for a while.
To catch everyone up on all the details, my wife returned to her job after over nine months of being a SAHM. The extra money will be good, and we worked out a great deal with her sister to watch Kennedy on days we both work. Looking ahead, though, I will have to get health insurance for the two of them, because we will make too much money for state insurance help. Yay America!
We moved a couple of weeks ago to a house nextdoor. More rooms, even though each one is slightly smaller. My wife is happy because the computer is finally our of the living room. Oh, and the rent is cheaper too.
And finally, we traded in our Chevy Venture van for a buick lesabre. Took 50 dollars to fill up, which is beter than the 80 it took to fill the van.
That should just about take care of the updates, next post should see a return to regular gaming/parenting blogs.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Enough is Enough (d20 Modern)
9/9/2016
This country cannot continue on its current path. The corporatocracy no longer hides behind the politicians who had their pockets padded in exchange for favorable votes on tax cuts, immigration, and the like. By appeasing the desires of Big Business, the United States of America has squashed not only the American Dream, but the American Mediocrity. The gap between rich and poor is as far as East is from West. There is virtually no middle class anymore. If you can scrape together more than $25,000 a year, you're doing well for yourself in today's economy.
Unfortunately, doing well isn't cutting it anymore. I've watched my unemployed friends search for the last five years without even being able to land a job at WalMart or McDonald's. I've watched my employed friends experience wage freezes, or even lose their jobs. If you've been unemployed for more than a month, nobody will hire you. I suppose I should be thankful to even have a job, although I'm working more hours for less pay.
Texas had the right idea when they seceded, and I don't care who reads this. I wish Kentucky could join the SSA. I'd emigrate to an SSA state, but it's not that easy to just pack up an entire family and leave the USA anymore. We would probably get pulled over before we even left the county. And that is even assuming we could afford the gas to make it to Arkansas.
I guess what I'm saying is that the government has to know that the people are fed up, and imprisoning protesters will not stop us, the dissidents. I don't care that protests are illegal, I am going to the courthouse lawn on September 11 to protest the current state of the Union, and I won't be alone. The fifteenth anniversary to the so-called "terrorist attacks" will serve as a perfect stage for our voices to be heard. Join me at the courthouse at 8:46 AM if you have had enough with the government oppression!
If you don't see me again, I want my wife and children to know that I love them very much, and wasn't afraid to stand up to the bullies and fight for what's right.
This country cannot continue on its current path. The corporatocracy no longer hides behind the politicians who had their pockets padded in exchange for favorable votes on tax cuts, immigration, and the like. By appeasing the desires of Big Business, the United States of America has squashed not only the American Dream, but the American Mediocrity. The gap between rich and poor is as far as East is from West. There is virtually no middle class anymore. If you can scrape together more than $25,000 a year, you're doing well for yourself in today's economy.
Unfortunately, doing well isn't cutting it anymore. I've watched my unemployed friends search for the last five years without even being able to land a job at WalMart or McDonald's. I've watched my employed friends experience wage freezes, or even lose their jobs. If you've been unemployed for more than a month, nobody will hire you. I suppose I should be thankful to even have a job, although I'm working more hours for less pay.
Texas had the right idea when they seceded, and I don't care who reads this. I wish Kentucky could join the SSA. I'd emigrate to an SSA state, but it's not that easy to just pack up an entire family and leave the USA anymore. We would probably get pulled over before we even left the county. And that is even assuming we could afford the gas to make it to Arkansas.
I guess what I'm saying is that the government has to know that the people are fed up, and imprisoning protesters will not stop us, the dissidents. I don't care that protests are illegal, I am going to the courthouse lawn on September 11 to protest the current state of the Union, and I won't be alone. The fifteenth anniversary to the so-called "terrorist attacks" will serve as a perfect stage for our voices to be heard. Join me at the courthouse at 8:46 AM if you have had enough with the government oppression!
If you don't see me again, I want my wife and children to know that I love them very much, and wasn't afraid to stand up to the bullies and fight for what's right.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Rollercoasters
Yesterday you found out that your wife was pregnant with your second child, and you experienced +5CHA for 24 hours afterward. Today, you found out that the first test had produced a false positive, and as such, you take a -5CHA penalty for the duration of the week. You may make a Will save (dc 20) to resist the penalty for one day.
So yeah, I'm sure many of you saw how excited my wife and I both were yesterday when her test came back positive. Allow me to provide some perspective as to why this was to have been such an amazing outcome. My wife unfortunately suffers from some potentially genetic disorders in relation to her reproductive system. The current plan involves a hysterectomy (either partial or full) after we have our second child. This will hopefully avoid some of the problems that other women in her family have had. The problem is, the longer it takes, the less likely it will be for her to get pregnant.
My job adds to the difficulty rating by keeping my away from my wife for at least forty-five hours each week. Much of the time I am home is spent watching Kennedy so my wife can either get housework done more easily, or get some sleep. Between both of our full time jobs, there is nary a time when we both have the energy, AND Kennedy is asleep. Its like playing Tetris and you only get one "I" block every 50 pieces.
After today's revelation, I reined in my extroverted demeanor in favor of my introverted nature. My more perceptive coworkers probably picked up on it if they were paying attention. Not that work tonight helped my mood at all. I've made a conscious effort to keep details of my day-to-day work events away from my blog, so suffice it to say, it was a bad night and most everyone was irritable. But, since there is a positive for every negative, I got a head start on some of my extra duties for the month, and had a delicious chocolate banana shake. I thought I was in trouble when the Frappes came out, but this new shake has me hooked and itching for another fix.
I'll end this one with a question to you, the reader. Have you experienced complications in getting pregnant, and if so, how did you overcome or deal with your situation?
So yeah, I'm sure many of you saw how excited my wife and I both were yesterday when her test came back positive. Allow me to provide some perspective as to why this was to have been such an amazing outcome. My wife unfortunately suffers from some potentially genetic disorders in relation to her reproductive system. The current plan involves a hysterectomy (either partial or full) after we have our second child. This will hopefully avoid some of the problems that other women in her family have had. The problem is, the longer it takes, the less likely it will be for her to get pregnant.
My job adds to the difficulty rating by keeping my away from my wife for at least forty-five hours each week. Much of the time I am home is spent watching Kennedy so my wife can either get housework done more easily, or get some sleep. Between both of our full time jobs, there is nary a time when we both have the energy, AND Kennedy is asleep. Its like playing Tetris and you only get one "I" block every 50 pieces.
After today's revelation, I reined in my extroverted demeanor in favor of my introverted nature. My more perceptive coworkers probably picked up on it if they were paying attention. Not that work tonight helped my mood at all. I've made a conscious effort to keep details of my day-to-day work events away from my blog, so suffice it to say, it was a bad night and most everyone was irritable. But, since there is a positive for every negative, I got a head start on some of my extra duties for the month, and had a delicious chocolate banana shake. I thought I was in trouble when the Frappes came out, but this new shake has me hooked and itching for another fix.
I'll end this one with a question to you, the reader. Have you experienced complications in getting pregnant, and if so, how did you overcome or deal with your situation?
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Time
Time is a precious commodity for any adventurer, particularly one with bardic persuasions. Your family and work responsibilities come first, and as such your writing has fallen to the wayside. You can still manage to put together at least one blog per week, but it seems to be on a downward spiral. Each day, make a Will save (DC 20) in order to make time to write. If you fail the saving roll, you cannot try again for 24 hours.
As the DM said, I haven't been able to write as much lately, but I'd like to think that just means the quality of posts has increased. Whether that is true or not isn't for me to decide.
I mentioned in the last post that character creation for my d20 Modern game was a bit unorthodox. So everyone is up to speed, in the game, each PC is playing a version of himself in 2016. Instead of using generic values or rolling, we all inserted the values that we thought were appropriate. Each person went in turn going down the list of CHA, STR, and so on, and we all weighed in with our thoughts. We gave a particularly intelligent member of our group a 15 in INT but an 8 in WIS. Another PC who is known for injury and illness, got an 8 in CON but had high INT and CHA. After everyone had taken their turn in this manner, we used the distributed point system in the rulebook to find out how many points would have been spent to get each PC to their established attribute levels.
Most of the PC's were within a few points of each other, with the injury-prone PC being lowest. The highest was the oldest of the group who everyone agreed is above average in pretty much every category. To make up for his exceptional overall abilities, he is a bit of a sociopath, and that will play into the campaign in some way. The scheduling issue remains a problem, but that at least gives me time to plan a bit more. Most of the PC's have put some thought into their backstory of what has happened between now and that point in the future, and I have a pretty firm grasp on the national and global political climate. I still need to work on local scenes to have a good starting point for everyone. I'm excited to run my first game and hope it all goes well.
Next time I'll have more pics and maybe a video or two of my girl. She's almost walking!
May the Crits be with you
As the DM said, I haven't been able to write as much lately, but I'd like to think that just means the quality of posts has increased. Whether that is true or not isn't for me to decide.
I mentioned in the last post that character creation for my d20 Modern game was a bit unorthodox. So everyone is up to speed, in the game, each PC is playing a version of himself in 2016. Instead of using generic values or rolling, we all inserted the values that we thought were appropriate. Each person went in turn going down the list of CHA, STR, and so on, and we all weighed in with our thoughts. We gave a particularly intelligent member of our group a 15 in INT but an 8 in WIS. Another PC who is known for injury and illness, got an 8 in CON but had high INT and CHA. After everyone had taken their turn in this manner, we used the distributed point system in the rulebook to find out how many points would have been spent to get each PC to their established attribute levels.
Most of the PC's were within a few points of each other, with the injury-prone PC being lowest. The highest was the oldest of the group who everyone agreed is above average in pretty much every category. To make up for his exceptional overall abilities, he is a bit of a sociopath, and that will play into the campaign in some way. The scheduling issue remains a problem, but that at least gives me time to plan a bit more. Most of the PC's have put some thought into their backstory of what has happened between now and that point in the future, and I have a pretty firm grasp on the national and global political climate. I still need to work on local scenes to have a good starting point for everyone. I'm excited to run my first game and hope it all goes well.
Next time I'll have more pics and maybe a video or two of my girl. She's almost walking!
May the Crits be with you
Saturday, March 19, 2011
My Face When...
You arrive at work today and check your messages to find that your boss has indirectly called you out to the rest of the management team. The message implies that you don't work hard enough and are too incompetent to follow directions. Upon reading the message, you are dazed (save ends). After saving, you are angered and take a -5 penalty to all CHA checks for the remainder of the night.
All my rage! I don't guess I should be surprised, though. I should have known by now not to trust anyone (at work) with even the most petty comments. Our store is competing with another store under the same ownership, so the competition should be pretty intense. I made a comment to a friend who works at that store, that I thought his store would win. That comment made its way back to my store and the GM, after which she made the implication that I just needed to work harder. This was the final straw.
Tomorrow before work, my supervisor is meeting with me and the GM. With any luck, the situation will be resolved. If I need to transfer to a different store, then so be it. I'm tired of being the one to actually enforce policies, then get chastised for enforcing them!
My PS3 has made such an outstanding impression that I see no need to keep my 360. The one thing the 360 does better (games), is the one thing I don't have time for. Netflix on PS3 is better, the internet on PS3 is better, and I don't have to pay a yearly fee to use either of those. Yesterday I used it to play one of my YouTube videos for some friends without having to crowd around a computer monitor. I also used it to get "Like a Boss" stuck in my wife's head. Thanks PS3!
Kennedy can't stop getting sick. She had tubes put in and now she has bronchitis. I hope she doesn't end up as sick as I was as a child. If so, we're in for some difficult years. On a positive note, the doctor said her ears are looking great, and her speech has improved dramatically since the tubes!
Oh, and Nigel still hasn't had his final night. We ended up doing some prep work for my d20 Modern campaign, which I'll write about next time. We took a pretty unorthodox method of character generation, but then, this is going to be a pretty unorthodox campaign.
All my rage! I don't guess I should be surprised, though. I should have known by now not to trust anyone (at work) with even the most petty comments. Our store is competing with another store under the same ownership, so the competition should be pretty intense. I made a comment to a friend who works at that store, that I thought his store would win. That comment made its way back to my store and the GM, after which she made the implication that I just needed to work harder. This was the final straw.
Tomorrow before work, my supervisor is meeting with me and the GM. With any luck, the situation will be resolved. If I need to transfer to a different store, then so be it. I'm tired of being the one to actually enforce policies, then get chastised for enforcing them!
My PS3 has made such an outstanding impression that I see no need to keep my 360. The one thing the 360 does better (games), is the one thing I don't have time for. Netflix on PS3 is better, the internet on PS3 is better, and I don't have to pay a yearly fee to use either of those. Yesterday I used it to play one of my YouTube videos for some friends without having to crowd around a computer monitor. I also used it to get "Like a Boss" stuck in my wife's head. Thanks PS3!
Kennedy can't stop getting sick. She had tubes put in and now she has bronchitis. I hope she doesn't end up as sick as I was as a child. If so, we're in for some difficult years. On a positive note, the doctor said her ears are looking great, and her speech has improved dramatically since the tubes!
Oh, and Nigel still hasn't had his final night. We ended up doing some prep work for my d20 Modern campaign, which I'll write about next time. We took a pretty unorthodox method of character generation, but then, this is going to be a pretty unorthodox campaign.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Nigel's (truly) Final Night
In a few short hours you will play your Lasombra for the final time. Scheduling conflicts have restricted your ability to attend game nights, and tonight will be your final night in attendance thanks to being on vacation. You know that Nigel will die tonight; your Storyteller has already told you this. However, you may still be able to make a difference for those who will remain in the campaign long after Nigel is gone. With trepidation, you arrive at game night. What do you do?
With no uncertainty, tonight will truly be Nigel's final night. The Storyteller has something planned for his demise, and hopefully it will be good. Nigel's sire is another PC in the campaign so his death is sure to affect his plans, as well as the plans of the pack. There will still be six PC's after I'm done, so its not like they will be hurting for people. Perhaps the group is getting large enough that it could be split to two groups, one of which could game on a day I could work with?
I've currently thrown my name out to the Quilt City Ogres as interested in an upcoming D&D 3.5 campaign on Tuesday nights. The setting is described as "Forgotten Realms-ish." Should be a refreshing experience playing with a completely new playgroup, assuming I do play.
Kennedy had a 102-degree fever today, which is the highest she's had yet. She has another ear infection, and was prescribed yet another antibiotic. Maybe soon the infections will finally stop and this mess will all be over.
I uploaded some new videos to my YouTube page. Check them out!
With no uncertainty, tonight will truly be Nigel's final night. The Storyteller has something planned for his demise, and hopefully it will be good. Nigel's sire is another PC in the campaign so his death is sure to affect his plans, as well as the plans of the pack. There will still be six PC's after I'm done, so its not like they will be hurting for people. Perhaps the group is getting large enough that it could be split to two groups, one of which could game on a day I could work with?
I've currently thrown my name out to the Quilt City Ogres as interested in an upcoming D&D 3.5 campaign on Tuesday nights. The setting is described as "Forgotten Realms-ish." Should be a refreshing experience playing with a completely new playgroup, assuming I do play.
Kennedy had a 102-degree fever today, which is the highest she's had yet. She has another ear infection, and was prescribed yet another antibiotic. Maybe soon the infections will finally stop and this mess will all be over.
I uploaded some new videos to my YouTube page. Check them out!
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