UselessTriviaMan
While I wasn't able to go to Gen Con, I do have a "local convention":http://xenocon.weebly.com that is drawing near. I tend to run a lot of games at that con:
* "*The Grindhouse Arena*":http://forums.obsidianportal.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=3971&page=1#Item_18 - I'm adding a new twist so I have a bit more prep than usual for this, but that's mostly just new signage. I'll bring 50-75 PC gladiators again.
* *Walt's Angels 3: The Mouse Strikes Back* (Savage Worlds) - _Once upon a time there were some princesses. But when their happily-ever-afters turned out to be fairy tales, they came to work for me. My name... is Walt. (cue the cheesy 70's theme music)_ This is actually the third and final episode of Walt's Angels. This time, they're not only badass ex-princesses. Now they're badass ex-princess _jedi_* and they have to stop "Emperor Mickey":http://www.ottens.co.uk/gatehouse/2012/08/dieselpunk-and-the-shadow-of-nazi-aesthetics/nazi-mickey-mouse-by-bopchara/ from taking over the world.
* *Terror in Paradise* (Dread RPG) - _You've just arrived at the most secluded island in the world for a two-week tropical resort vacation. Wait. Why are people screaming??_ I fell in love with Dread. Its Jenga-tower mechanic works so well for a suspense-filled horror game.
* *Fuzzy Heroes* (Fuzzy Heroes) - Stuffed animals vs. action figures in a simple, inexpensive and fun tabletop "miniatures" combat game. I first played this with my then-five-year-old son, and we had a total blast. I've run it at the convention before, and I've been asked to do so again. _Hell_ yeah.
And, y'know, I'm also running my "Ptolus":https://ptolus-city-by-the-spire-by-bryan.obsidianportal.com/ campaign. So there's that, too.
What's everyone else running/planning these days?
Ptolus, City by the Spire - 2016 Campaign of the Year
"Please pay attention very carefully, because this is the truest thing a stranger will ever say to you: In the face of such hopelessness as our eventual, unavoidable death, there is little sense in not at least TRYING to accomplish all your wildest dreams in life." - - Kevin Smith
Comments
"The Great Pendragon":https://the-great-pendragon.obsidianportal.com/
"Knights of Albion":https://knights-of-albion-1.obsidianportal.com/
I have a few ideas Ive been baking for the past few years but none of them have gotten the full write up yet... hopefully they will see the light of day before i die! :)
Stone Mage - if magic were real, and it were discovered at about the same time as people started to developed advanced intellect and speech (homo-sapiens ) ; what would that be like? would anyone bother with stone axes any more?
Polish resistance - Resistance fighters in WWII in Poland (hint, dont expect a happy ending...)
I guess all is relative. At the moment I am updating my character for Tuesday's "Council of Tea Leaves":https://council-of-tea-leaves.obsidianportal.com/ game and tinkering a bit with new NPCs etc on my current Midgard site, "Mysteria":https://mysteria.obsidianportal.com/characters/nosmo-king , while at the same preparing the continuation of a game for my two nephews next weekend and starting to think about implementing the new Kobold Press "KICKSTARTER PDF":https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/350683997/southlands-new-fantasy-options-for-pathfinder-rpg?ref=nav_search for continuation of Mysteria 2016.
All that and five hour's overtime tomorrow......
twiggyleaf
CURRENT CAMPAIGN: "Mysteria":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/mysteria - set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: "Shimring":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shimring
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
twiggyleaf
CURRENT CAMPAIGN: "Mysteria":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/mysteria - set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: "Shimring":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shimring
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
"Wrath of the Fallen Goddess":https://rise-of-the-durnskald.obsidianportal.com/
Also trying to help out on the OP support forum when I have time, as well as tweaking my CSS code to see if I can utilize any neat tricks that I haven't discovered yet. Still no CSS expert but I'm getting better.
-Abersade
DM of "Rise of the Durnskald - Wrath of the Fallen Goddess":https://rise-of-the-durnskald.obsidianportal.com/
GM of Rise of the Durnskald: Wrath of the Fallen Goddess - February 2016 CotM
GM of Core: The Ashes of Alcarna - April 2020 CotM
GM of Stream of Kairos
Need CSS Help? It may be covered here: Abersade's CSS Hub
-Returned to my day job, and been playing catch up there (wee, stress)
-Working on final touches for launching my own company (media production and distribution)
-Started work at my latest job with "Hunters Books":http://huntersbooks.com/ as the Community Manager
-Plotting the next phases of my Dragon Age campaign
-Cooking up another campaign I hope to launch sometime in the nearish future
My days are pretty much full now.
--
Alex
"Dragon Age: Requiem":https://da-requiem.obsidianportal.com/
Keelah Se'lai,
Keryth
"Shadows Over New York":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shadows-over-new-york
"2013 Campaign of The Year":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/2013-coty-shadows-over-new-york/
"Campaign of the Month July 2013":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/shadows-over-new-york-julys-campaign-of-the-month/
In game news:
I finally started to play another game with one of my gaming circles, 5e D&D.
I went to Gen Con, didn't get to play anything, but I had a good haul from shopping. Met a few people "in the industry" as well.
Bought some sweet new dice from Chessex (Black Starlight, if you want to look them up).
Thinking up and writing down setting info and lore. Not much is making the cut to go to OP yet.
Probably going to start card-modeling FDG sets soon. I'm in a build-y mood.
Out of game news:
Work sucks. But then, it's retail at a big box store. Pays the bills alright for now.
Looking for a new, hopefully more satisfying job, working on my resume and LinkedIn.
Going through my closet and other storage and getting rid of stuff (to make room for new stuff, of course).
Playing catch-up with movies and TV shows courtesy of Netflix.
My town is doing a Summer Art Series scavenger hunt with collectable story cards, so I've been gathering those.
Video gaming, currently in a Hack n' slash mood, so I am running Warriors Orochi 2.
_~Mae_
~Mae
CotM Selection Committee
-bort
"Morwindl":https:morwindl.obsidianportal.com
Campaign of the Year - 2018
~Mae
CotM Selection Committee
Currently playing a 5e Princes of the Apocalypse (a 5e temple of elemental evil) campaign. Playing a bard, Jacob Grimm who believes the real world truly follows all the old tropes found in stories. The tv tropes website has been useful in figuring out what tropes are out there.
Preparing a Pirate based pathfinder campaign in the meantime for when the Princes of the Apocalypse campaign is done. Will be a combination of the Skulls and Shackles adventure path and the Razor Coast adventure. I expect to use some of the Kingmaker kingdom building rules for when they manage to secure a pirate island for themselves. Have the rules setup for them to either each eventually captain their own ships and if only some of them want to be captains.
"Dead Men Tell No Tales":https://dead-men-tell-no-tales.obsidianportal.com/
They are among us!
XCom: Defiance - Campaign of the Month November 2016
***if they reach they reach the bottom
* Finished two projects about three weeks ago. We cleared out the client's entire product backlog. They didn't have anything left for us to do. That is a good thing. Plus they love us. Also a good thing.
* Got a call while on PTO that I was needed for another project in Atlanta. What I thought would be easy has turned into something much more difficult. Someone way underestimated the project. And I am the replacement PM.
h3. Other Job
I wrote a software package to help GMs who use the "Hero Game System manage combat":http://www.herogames.com/index.html . I am in the process of adding new features. It is a constant work in progress.
h3. Family
My wife and I just dropped off both of our children to college. The oldest is 20 yrs old and this is his 2nd year away and 3rd year in college. The youngest is 18 yrs old and this is her first year away. We came home to an empty nest (although I traveled as soon as I got back, see above). Two of the three pets were pretty PO when we got home. One cat 'pouted' for a week. The poor dog was in a state of depression. Things are back to normal now
h3. Music gig
I play guitar for fun. Self taught. Basically a hack guitar player.
h3. Gaming
Summer is ending in Minnesota so the gaming group should start to meet more regularly again. We are playing in my campaign, "Nyonia – Pauci Fortis":https://nyonia-pauci-fortis.obsidianportal.com/ After a year of traveling around the outskirts of civilization they have returned to the biggest town/city in the area for the winter. There should be plenty of role playing and minimal combat for a while.
Oh yeah here's the link to my sparse campaign: https://defenders.obsidianportal.com/
twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
twigs
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
So... To get more non-spambot content on the front page:
Whatcha working on these days?
Me, I've got a bunch of irons in the fire again.
* For my once-per-fortnight Ptolus campaign I'm currently prepping a ginormous section of the Dungeon - I'm setting up a plot hook for them to go on an extended, deep foray below the surface to hunt down something nasty.
* I've begun serious plans to build a new and improved Grindhouse Arena. With the help of a degree in electronics, an engineer, and a laser cutter, I'm planning to automate the rings on Grindhouse 2.0 and build this one out of acrylic rather than wood. It's a pretty huge project, but I'm totally willing to put in the time to make it even better.
* I'm just finishing up a volunteer project to identify and map the graves of all of the military veterans buried in my hometown cemetery. We mark them with flags every Memorial Day, and until now we haven't had any maps or lists. Now that the big cemetery is done, I'm probably going to get pulled into doing the same for the other cemeteries in the county.
Those are the big projects for me right now. How 'bout you?
Ptolus, City by the Spire - 2016 Campaign of the Year
"Please pay attention very carefully, because this is the truest thing a stranger will ever say to you: In the face of such hopelessness as our eventual, unavoidable death, there is little sense in not at least TRYING to accomplish all your wildest dreams in life." - - Kevin Smith
Currently I'm finishing semester at university, but following the hell of finals week, I'll be resuming my work on a Star Wars Saga Edition campaign which is set to begin in early January.
I'm also gearing up to begin writing Thursday Feature articles again (this semester pretty much wrecked my writing schedule, but it's finally coming to an end). Hopefully they've been sorely missed!
- Kallak
Working through playing the second session of my Southlands adventure in Mysteria. Should end around or just after New Year, with the players encountering a God. After that I will take a few months to prepare the third and final section of the Southlands campaign before the players move back to the northern continent, hopefully at LEVEL TEN.
2018 will be ventures into the Mharoti Empire (ruled by dragons).
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
Yeah, job thing takes up more time than I like!
As far as games, working when I get the inspiration on my New York Nightmare campaign. Will be an episodic campaign that we'll play till the players complete the episode, then it'll be back on hiatus until my turn comes around in my gaming group. Think I'll actually run it around summer of 2017.
Continuing to work on my Deadwood Deacon campaign. That's an on going every other Wednesday night game. We're playing this Wednesday with the PCs having to fight a vampire.
Also working on my Champions of Erth campaign which I normally run once a month.
I have a few other campaigns that I'm working on here or there, but not enough to include them in the list. I also craft gaming terrain and am currently working on some brick columns for fantasy gaming. I need to get off my backside and work on some sewer terrain modules for the New York Nightmare game as well, but since I've got till around summer, it's not a priority.
Forgot to mention I'm playing in two different Pathfinder campaigns in our rotation group. The first GM had a play that he was involved with that traveled the country and so he had to put his game on hold till he got back, so one of the other GMs started a Pathfinder Adventure Path, till we could go back to our primary game. Which we've since gone back to.
Johnprime
Where the west is really wild!
The Valley of Life
Kallak, they have been missed.
Twiggy- 2018? Wow, you plan ahead.
We are still going, on our 5th year of Rebuilt, but year 6 will bring a close to it in October 2017!
Just trying to help out.
What's it gonna be after "Rebuilt"?
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
Right now i'm creating an in game calendar in CSS to provide a better idea of what is happening when in XCom since researching alien tech,, traning skills, and rebuilding Trump into a cyborg body controlled by an alien AI ( https://x-com-defiance.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log/the-six-million-nuyen-man ) all take time so having a good ingame calendar will be useful.
My initial 5 minute attempt at it can be seen
https://x-com-defiance.obsidianportal.com/wikis/dec-2016
I'm currently using an ordered list since it automatically enters the numbers for the days, but i think it might be easier for me and the players to edit/add to the calendar if i use an unordered list and manually enter the numbers.
They are among us!
XCom: Defiance - Campaign of the Month November 2016
I use my personal website to host the calendars for my games. I can do a lot more because I have PHP running on my site. I used TableSmith to generate the weather and moon phases after finding out what phase the moon was in at the start of the year. I had to do a little tweaking to the code that generates the table so that it would use my CSS classes when generating the parts. To see an example of my calendar, visit, https://www.johnprime.com/deadwood_deacon/calendar/. I'm in the process of changing the code on the landing page so that you can choose which date to view. I've already set up the calendar for 1877 as the PCs will get through 1876 pretty soon and it'll be time for a new year. I need to do some more tweaking to the code as I want to tie the date entries to my adventure guide on Obsidian Portal but so far have not had much time to work on it. Something for my 2017 to do list!
By the way, notes for the game start on August 2nd.
Johnprime
Where the west is really wild!
The Valley of Life
I tried the coding solution. Too much effort for the potential gain.
So now I use this!
https://unconquered-kingdoms.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log/adventure-calendar
Unconquered Kingdoms, July 2016 CotM
We did a coding solution in our very first OP campaign back in 2011. There actually wasn't too much effort (I programmed excel to create the html/texttile needed for each month) and the gain was huge for that campaign.
http://geek-the-mage-first.obsidianportal.com/wikis/calendar-june-2072
This time I'm trying out a different coding solution since I have a week and a half before our next game.
They are among us!
XCom: Defiance - Campaign of the Month November 2016
I understand that it's not for everyone, but since I do it on a daily basis, it's my profession, I'm very used to the syntax and can sometimes grab code snippets from other projects to use for my site. But I know it's not for everyone.
My biggest issue is having to take the time to do that personal coding! I actually have a page set up on my personal site where I coded a solution that would take the first few words of a larger post and display that looking like an old west newspaper article, but after starting to use Obsidian Portal, I really haven't been using that part of my website. Might have to revisit it one of these day for my adventure logs, which is what I originally designed it for!
I developed a whole site years ago for a Gamma World game I ran. It was set up to allow the players to post adventure logs and I had one of my players doing that quite a bit. I was going to post the location of the site, but there are a few PHP errors I have to correct first due to a PHP upgrade. But I'll post the link hopefully around the first of February. Got to fix those errors first and don't have the time right now. :-(
Johnprime
Where the west is really wild!
The Valley of Life
That calendar looks great John. I think I've gotten mine to how I want it (at least for now).
https://x-com-defiance.obsidianportal.com/wikis/dec-2016
They are among us!
XCom: Defiance - Campaign of the Month November 2016