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Tycho

Last week, I listened as a depleted Gabriel made a startling admission.  I’m surprised it took as long as it did, to be honest: for two years he has been codifying the hidden laws of this or that plane, making floating-ass orbs and shit, and generally making other dungeon masters feel bad about the prison gravy they ladle at their own meager tables.  It’s like, you’ve got pace yourself, man.  These motherfuckers can’t be thwarting draconic matriarchs every week. Sometimes they might need to spend a session just opening and closing Tupperware or choosing exactly the right flip-flops.

I wonder if this isn’t part of the (comparatively) meteoric rise of Warmachine; the idea that he can play, too.  Adjudication isn’t play any more than cooking is eating, and there’s got to come a time - two years in, perhaps? - where something in you begins to starve.

It is in this phase of rejuvenation and self-assessment that tabletop wargames have swept in, and with them the attendant trips to Michael’s (the Arts and Crafts superstore) where one can purchase driftwood and other things you wouldn’t have even considered buying before attempting to create a tiny mausoleum.  I’ve received a special dispensation for Mondays, all Mondays, which I will invest for the foreseeable future in the raising and subsequent lowering of a two-story mace.

I actually think this is my mid-life crisis, or maybe a beta of it before the final release; every loose moment is shunted into this shit.  Thus far I appear to be getting away with it.

Child’s Play is now at 1.18 million dollars for the year, which puts the project within spitting distance of an eight million dollar lifetime figure.  I can recall how happy Robert was when you cracked two million in 2006, because then he could tell people that the charity had raised “millions” of dollars, but by the end of next year it’ll be ten million.  In five years, we’ll be able to say tens of millions with no need for equivocation, a feat I intend to celebrate by making another donation.

(CW)TB out.

the strange attractors that surround her

Gabe

If you are like me you probably wait until the very last minute to do your Christmas shopping. We’ve got a special offer going for procrastinators right now that you might want to take advantage of. If you order some stuff from our store and select parcel post as your desired delivery option we will upgrade you to priority mail free of charge! That means that you have until the 16th of December to order some PA merch and still get it delivered by Christmas.

Speaking of the store, we have a new hoodie available with every one’s favorite fruit juicer.

Also those of you who have been sucked back into Cataclysm might find humor in our classic “Green is the new Purple” shirt, now $5 off. Wear it proudly as you replace those epic items you spent months getting with green quest rewards!

-Gabe out

Gabe

As Tycho mentioned above I I have decided to take a break from my normal Monday night game. Two years ago this month I approached my friends and asked if they would like to try Dungeons and Dragons. We had been getting together weekly to play the World of Warcraft TCG and I thought it would be fun to try something different. They all agreed to give it a shot and I bought myself the books I needed right before Christmas. In January of 2009 we had our first adventure, just some Kobolds in a cave. I had no idea that two years later they would be battling the five heads of Tiamat in an adventure that spans time and space.

I’ve had a ton of fun running this game but now as I get near the end of the story I’m feeling a little burnt out. The Characters are all about level 25 now and I only have a few levels left to wrap this thing up. I’ve always had an idea about how I would end it but the details just aren’t there yet and I haven’t really felt inspired. Maybe part of it is that I don’t want it to end but no matter what the reason I just need to take a break from it.

That’s not to say I want to take a break from Dungeon Mastering though. In fact quite the opposite. We have all become obsessed with Warmachine recently and in doing some research I discovered the Iron Kingdoms. Essentially it is a table top RPG set in the Warmachine world. I dug a little deeper and found a very highly reccoemnded adventure called the Witchfire Trilogy designed to take new players from level 1-7. All of the Iron Kingdoms materials are written for D&D 3.5 but there are tons of conversions available online and a with tools from WOTC like the monster builder I don’t think I’ll have any trouble getting it switched over to 4e.

I’ve already sent out pages of information about the world of the Iron Kingdoms to my players and had them start building their new characters. We are scheduled to start the adventure on January 3rd and I have not been this excited to play D&D in a long time.

My hope is that once we’re done with the Witchfire Trilogy I’ll be ready to come back to our regular game and give it the ending it deserves.

-Gabe out