One year later…

Well, it’s been a while since I posted here.  Honestly not much has changed .. I lie, lots has.

1)  I’ve moved to Denver.

2) I had heart surgery and now host two pieces of metal in my chest.

3) I have not actively gamed since early February (see #1, some Skype games but only in person game so far)

4) DND Next has been into Beta, wouldn’t mind trying that again.  I’ll post something here on it after I get to play again.

Most of my gaming stuff is still in storage back in St Louis, I do have a few pieces here including a couple sets of dice but most of my books are back there.  I should be able to pick up some of it during a trip back in August for work.  I will probably grab my 1st, 2nd and 3.5/PF stuff rather than 4.0, as my main set of local friends prefer 3.5.  I’ve got to get them to get set up for DND Next beta so I can get them going that route.  Wednesdays, soon will be back to Encounters, or so I hope.  After #2 above, I have had to have a lot of down time and honestly large crowds and noisy areas are not my favorite thing right now.

This one was a bit more rambling than usual, but I figured I needed to get back on here, and get anyone who pays attention up to speed.  Next update sooner than this one, as I’m getting the mood back.

Moving…

Not the website, but rather my physical site.  I’m downsizing to a smaller place.  What’s that got to do with gaming?  Let me explain.

Moving to a smaller place means less space for games.  So for a man with 4 bookcases worth of games, what do you do?  Downsize.  I’m first selling off a bunch of my older games to some friends and then onto eBay.  After that some of the games will go into storage until I figure out what to display.  Right now, I’m giving my self one shelf to put games on.  That’s right, one shelf.

Consider this, right now the only game I’m playing is D&D Encounters on Wednesday nights.  No 4th Ed campaigns no nothing else.  So why do I have all these books out?  Who am I showing them too when no-one is coming over to play a game?  So here’s my thought; beyond my Miniatures for D&D I’m just putting out my Essentials stuff.  My core 4E books are staying in the box and going to be accessible if I need them but overall, they are going into storage.  Why should I put them out when they are not the books I’m using or that WOTC seem to be supporting?  The latest supplements refer me to the Essentials books as the “need to play” component.

Now, that said, there will be some shelf space for Settlers, Killer Bunnies, and Nuts too.  These are party games and when friends do come over type of things.  But on an RPG front, Essentials seems to be it until we sort out the space.

That said, keep an eye out on ebay in a few for game auctions from “justifiedorg” ..

Extreme Couponing – the D&D edition

First let me say this, I do shop at my FLGS.

But I do also shop at my local Border’s (even after 3 closing in the area I still have a couple to shop at in a short to decent drive range).  I am a member of Border’s Rewards Plus, and enjoy the fact I get a coupon for anywhere from 30-40% off one item almost every week.  This past weekend, they sent out a 40% off coupon, and also were kind enough to tell me I had built up $5.00 of Border’s bucks.

I signed up for and am now DMing a session of D&D Encounters at my FLGS, on Wednesdays, so I wanted to pick up the “Deluxe DM Screen”.  I did have the one out of the DM’s Kit, but wasn’t sure what the difference was, so I wanted to grab the “deluxe” one.  This retails for $9.95, so I used the coupon and Borders Bucks on it, mixed in with the extra 10% I get with the Rewards Plus (which came off after the Border’s Bucks and the original discount).

My end cost after tax?  94 cents.

And I’m glad I did.  After looking over the “deluxe” screen, I’m disappointed. Yes it is heavier stock, and has a neat picture on the back.  BUT NOTHING IS NEW.  It is the same table info as the one in the DM’s Kit.  And in that I got tokens at least.  Oh well, add it to my list of the “10″ items for Essentials that I have bought.

World of Darkness (retrospect)

Many moons ago, not supermoons (but there probably have been a few of those between then and now), one of our favorite games to play was Vampire the Masquerade.  We had Mage and Werewolf to add to our mix, and make our World of Darkness come alive.  There were other supplements at the time but we only used so much to keep our stories from wandering too far.  We moved from tabletop RPG to LARP, and my friend Ogg and I ran this along side of several other Storytellers for years (one of those Storytellers went on to great gaming duties, I won’t drop his name here though).

Our campaign was named after one of our favorite bands in a sense, it was “Justified”.  (I’ve used Justified in many forms of the years, from my website (http://www.justified.org) to my Twitter ID.)  That was probably 12 to 15 years ago now maybe even more.  We had our big story arc that ended and we turned over the reigns of the campaign to another couple Storytellers and went into the back ground.  The problem was we never returned from that background.

Until now.

I’ve started to make a new collection of the newer World of Darkness books, my brain has started to formulate stories, and characters.  Reading my way through these new rules will be the task next, fleshing out the outlines for the campaign, coming up with the lay of the land as it maybe.  Then to accumulate the players.  This looks like it will be a Skype game, some of my old players are in Ohio, some in Colorado.  Mix in a few new ones and we have a game.

I’ll start plotting and posting updates on the campaign as I have them.  Nothing that will give away the subtlety of the plot.

Welcome back WoD, I’ve missed you.

iPad2 vs iOS 4.3

I’ve been craving an iPad. I even have it allocated into my budget next month.

Something big enough for me to see, something to read my books on without the need to expand everything to two words on the iPhone4 screen. Something I can play games on, something to take to gaming and use, something ..

After yesterday’s display to introduce the iPad2, I don’t think I need one any more. I still WANT one, but I don’t NEED one.

The reason why? iOS 4.3 .. and hot spot access. For another $20 a month, I can now have a 3G data access for my laptop where ever I go. Sure it’s not the same. Sure it’s not an iPad, but it’s a full fledged screen with PDF, eBook and full application access. I can tether the iPhone4 or use the hot spot. This has changed my opinion on my purchasing of my next tech item. I have a small “iPad”, it’s my iPhone4.. I have my book reader, it’s my laptop. I have my access where ever and when ever.

As of today, I want an Macbook Pro or Air .. and my iPhone4 with iOS4.3

iPad2 vs iOS 4.3

I’ve been craving an iPad. I even have it allocated into my budget next month.

Something big enough for me to see, something to read my books on without the need to expand everything to two words on the iPhone4 screen. Something I can play games on, something to take to gaming and use, something ..

After yesterday’s display to introduce the iPad2, I don’t think I need one any more. I still WANT one, but I don’t NEED one.

The reason why? iOS 4.3 .. and hot spot access. For another $20 a month, I can now have a 3G data access for my laptop where ever I go. Sure it’s not the same. Sure it’s not an iPad, but it’s a full fledged screen with PDF, eBook and full application access. I can tether the iPhone4 or use the hot spot. This has changed my opinion on my purchasing of my next tech item. I have a small “iPad”, it’s my iPhone4.. I have my book reader, it’s my laptop. I have my access where ever and when ever.

As of today, I want an Macbook Pro or Air .. and my iPhone4 with iOS4.3

Death of D&D Mini's

With the death of D&D Mini’s announced, I’ve started to add some links over on the side of the site to metal mini manufacturers.  I’ve started with 3, Reaper (the big kid on the block), Iron Wind Metals (I used to do some work for them) and a friends company, Center Stage Mini’s.

I’ll be out hunting for some more sites to add as we go.  Small or large, I’ll post them so we gamers can find our supply of miniatures for gaming.  I”m not going to post sites that sell singles for plastic D&D mini’s just metal figs for use with D&D is my goal.