Here I am again. What is the purpose of this blog? That is an excellent question and one which I find myself asking again and again...
I have no good answer.
Originally, my crazy madcap idea was to blog and blog and blog my little heart out, assemble the entries - organize them, categorize them, type them all up again spiffy and shiny and put together a little book on Lulu.com so I could feel better about myself as a writer...
As a writer, right now, I am plagued by worry and doubt. Too many ideas and not enough organizational skill or some such thing and a job that is draining the life out of me. I come home five nights a week and unplug. I spend two days trying to recharge the battery and then worry about having to go back to work on Monday. It's not healthy and it sure as Hell needs to change.
So what am I going to do?
I am going to keep writing.
I am going to keep moving forward.
No matter how slowly...
Friday, January 4, 2013
Friday, December 7, 2012
Lost In Time - RPG
Ah...
So.
Once upon a time when I was a misbegotten youth and attending college in Mankato, the gaming group I was part of took up playing a game by BTRC called "TimeLords." It was whatever their original system was (as I know things have changed since 1992-1993). Anyways, some people got into it a little too much and took it too seriously...
I suppose the trouble was that we were playing ourselves. It was an interesting notion which I believe the game actively offered as a character option but you started to find out who people really were. Don't get me wrong, none of these guys were bad guys and I'm actually still in touch (via Facebook for what it's worth) with one of them.
Eventually, through no fault of the GameMaster's, I just found myself getting bored with the whole game and just wanted to get out of the gaming group or at least move on to something else... I thought I had found my opportunity. I took a rocketship to Mars.
We, my college buddies and I, now found ourselves in the future (or it may have been an alternate timeline) during some kind of apocalypse. I don't remember too much except that I was separated from everyone else and I somehow found my way to a rocketship that was fleeing the planet. Truth be told, I probably found a way to separate myself and saw an opportunity to escape. Or so I thought...
The GameMaster didn't want me out of the game and I got to play out my dying days as old man living on Mars when I told him I didn't want to leave Mars... yay. And so I was back into TimeLords for a little while longer (as an alternate version of myself) but I don't really recall what happened after that and it really doesn't matter...
Another fellow player wanted to continue my adventures on Mars so we had a spin-off campaign. The spin-off diverged from me dying on Mars to just getting off of the rocket once I made it to Mars. This campaign was converted to AD&D (2nd Ed. I think) and it started with some sort of Red Dwarf-inspired opening with me recreating the DM's favorite lines... that is also another story for another day although I doubt if I shall tell it as I cannot recall many of the details.
In the end I thwarted an Illithid (Mind Flayer) invasion of Mars. I honestly wish I could remember more. When I said that Mars in D&D wasn't Mars without Illithids, this is what I was referring to. An entertaining experience whilst gaming on Mars many many years ago.
Apologies for rambling... I really do wish I would have taken notes back then... but, anyways, if I ran a D&D campaign on Mars I really do think there would have to be Illithids... I could see them all living below the surface. The first race of Martians or perhaps their conquerers... I like that.
So.
Once upon a time when I was a misbegotten youth and attending college in Mankato, the gaming group I was part of took up playing a game by BTRC called "TimeLords." It was whatever their original system was (as I know things have changed since 1992-1993). Anyways, some people got into it a little too much and took it too seriously...
I suppose the trouble was that we were playing ourselves. It was an interesting notion which I believe the game actively offered as a character option but you started to find out who people really were. Don't get me wrong, none of these guys were bad guys and I'm actually still in touch (via Facebook for what it's worth) with one of them.
Eventually, through no fault of the GameMaster's, I just found myself getting bored with the whole game and just wanted to get out of the gaming group or at least move on to something else... I thought I had found my opportunity. I took a rocketship to Mars.
We, my college buddies and I, now found ourselves in the future (or it may have been an alternate timeline) during some kind of apocalypse. I don't remember too much except that I was separated from everyone else and I somehow found my way to a rocketship that was fleeing the planet. Truth be told, I probably found a way to separate myself and saw an opportunity to escape. Or so I thought...
The GameMaster didn't want me out of the game and I got to play out my dying days as old man living on Mars when I told him I didn't want to leave Mars... yay. And so I was back into TimeLords for a little while longer (as an alternate version of myself) but I don't really recall what happened after that and it really doesn't matter...
Another fellow player wanted to continue my adventures on Mars so we had a spin-off campaign. The spin-off diverged from me dying on Mars to just getting off of the rocket once I made it to Mars. This campaign was converted to AD&D (2nd Ed. I think) and it started with some sort of Red Dwarf-inspired opening with me recreating the DM's favorite lines... that is also another story for another day although I doubt if I shall tell it as I cannot recall many of the details.
In the end I thwarted an Illithid (Mind Flayer) invasion of Mars. I honestly wish I could remember more. When I said that Mars in D&D wasn't Mars without Illithids, this is what I was referring to. An entertaining experience whilst gaming on Mars many many years ago.
Apologies for rambling... I really do wish I would have taken notes back then... but, anyways, if I ran a D&D campaign on Mars I really do think there would have to be Illithids... I could see them all living below the surface. The first race of Martians or perhaps their conquerers... I like that.
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Mars Revisted... Sort of...
I was going to write some more about Mars and my thoughts of gaming on Mars and elaborate on the whole Mind Flayers on Mars thing, but...
I can't at the moment.
I met John and Carole Barrowman on November 3rd of this year and I'm still a bit gobsmacked.
Um, yeah... more about that and Mars another day.
I can't at the moment.
I met John and Carole Barrowman on November 3rd of this year and I'm still a bit gobsmacked.
Um, yeah... more about that and Mars another day.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
A World Crimson - RPG
Recently, despite reviews suggesting I do otherwise, I purchased the "Sundered Reaches" campaign setting by Fast Forward Games. (It was cheap and I found it on eBay.)
I am not sure if it is a defect of my character or bad wiring in my brain (was that redundant?) but I've actually managed to find a little, a little mind you, inspiration...
If I were to let the Sundered Reaches stand on its own I don't believe I could play it. It's an odd mish-mash of Dark Sun and Gamma World, but it does have some ideas I like and will use. Ideas like Mars being a dying world, the remains of a once-great civilization and several races competing for the planet's remaining resources.
I'm torn between unpacking all my d20 stuff and building a new Mars campaign or just scribbling notes furiously into a variety of notebooks and maybe, someday, assembling them into an actual campaign. If I had people to play with I might be more inclined to actually unpack my game supplies rather than scribbling which, I know, is what I am going to wind up doing.
If I were to run a Mars campaign I think I would...
1. Use many of the weirder creatures I have looked at in the Monster Manuals and wondered, "WTF?"
2. Use beholders more. I might make them a little more Spelljammer-y. I liked those beholders.
3. Might even use the Neogi.
4. Will use the Feral Cyclops species found in an issue of Dragon magazine.
5. Will probably use another race I found in Dragon. I think they were green-skinned and were supposed to be old when the elves were young and if I did that I think I might...
6. Use elves or some kind of proto-elf race.
7. Will need to pour through other sources for other races. On the whole, there will be no native gnomes, halflings, dwarves, orcs, humans or elves (unless of the proto variety - see #7 above).
8. Possibly use the Illithid... it wouldn't be Mars and D&D, to me, without Illithids. I shall elaborate another day.
And that is really all I have for now...
I am not sure if it is a defect of my character or bad wiring in my brain (was that redundant?) but I've actually managed to find a little, a little mind you, inspiration...
If I were to let the Sundered Reaches stand on its own I don't believe I could play it. It's an odd mish-mash of Dark Sun and Gamma World, but it does have some ideas I like and will use. Ideas like Mars being a dying world, the remains of a once-great civilization and several races competing for the planet's remaining resources.
I'm torn between unpacking all my d20 stuff and building a new Mars campaign or just scribbling notes furiously into a variety of notebooks and maybe, someday, assembling them into an actual campaign. If I had people to play with I might be more inclined to actually unpack my game supplies rather than scribbling which, I know, is what I am going to wind up doing.
If I were to run a Mars campaign I think I would...
1. Use many of the weirder creatures I have looked at in the Monster Manuals and wondered, "WTF?"
2. Use beholders more. I might make them a little more Spelljammer-y. I liked those beholders.
3. Might even use the Neogi.
4. Will use the Feral Cyclops species found in an issue of Dragon magazine.
5. Will probably use another race I found in Dragon. I think they were green-skinned and were supposed to be old when the elves were young and if I did that I think I might...
6. Use elves or some kind of proto-elf race.
7. Will need to pour through other sources for other races. On the whole, there will be no native gnomes, halflings, dwarves, orcs, humans or elves (unless of the proto variety - see #7 above).
8. Possibly use the Illithid... it wouldn't be Mars and D&D, to me, without Illithids. I shall elaborate another day.
And that is really all I have for now...
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Wandering Wonderings
Far away from where I am, I is.
A distant mem'ry and shore fer'sure.
Cheeses that be easy or be whiz
Now leave me with this prose quite manure...
IN a funny place right now. Far away from where I would like to be - physically, emotionally, spiritually, artistically, (and you've seen above) poetically...
A distant mem'ry and shore fer'sure.
Cheeses that be easy or be whiz
Now leave me with this prose quite manure...
IN a funny place right now. Far away from where I would like to be - physically, emotionally, spiritually, artistically, (and you've seen above) poetically...
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Previously on A Joy In Darkness...
Umm...
I am back.
Not quite sure where to start or what to say.
I've become hooked on Mad Men and Dexter. My desire to play role-playing games has come back and I miss the story-telling, the dice, the pizza, the soda, the whole kit and kaboodle. More about that another day.
Slowly working on a novel. Trying to keep it to one but I have a few that are telling their stories to me. Need to take more notes, more notes...
Take care.
More soon...
Wes
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