JoeGun

This is a story about Ram-Man, and more importantly how he got my son to play RPGs with me they way they are meant to be played. First a little background: My son loves rolling dice, so he has been "playing" RPGs with me for a good 6-7 months now. Although at the tender age of 3 1/2 he is far from being an avid role player. Anyway, he enjoyed rolling the dice, and basically playing out combat. It worked out really well for me, as I got into Savage Worlds around this time, and he was my always available player to test out game mechanics that were new and unfamiliar to me; I'm looking at you Mass Battles, Chases, Raises and Toughness. So while he helped me do this, and we even managed to create him a Character and introduce him into a little makeshift gaming group comprised of mostly newbies ( my little sister, my 12 year old Daughter, my Son and my old buddy through skype ), he never really got into anything other than rolling the dice, and uttering things such as ...

Well it looks like our RPG sessions might start up again after a longer than expected hiatus. It's annoying when life gets in the way of play, but it does happen from time to time. Anyway I've spent the morning making sure the server is running up to spec, and that the QJ is updated with the latest email questing Gnarr has done. I've setup a couple of sessions, hopefully we can nail both of them, but if we only get to 1 today, I'll be happy! I think it is time to ramp up the quest a bit, and push the story line a little faster. So hopefully there will be some good stuff happening in the next couple "lunch time power sessions"!

So I just got a couple more players interested in trying out our Lunch time Power session RPG experiment! It will be interesting for a few reasons: 1) they are my sisters 2) One has some limited RPG exp back about 10 years ago 3) the other has NO RPG exp at all. That being said, I think the first couple of session will need to be in person so we can work through how to use our web based system, and just get the feel of how to play the game in general. With that being the case, instead of rolling them into our current game, I think I will start them in a new game, and ramp them up a bit slower. Once they get ramped up, I will then roll them into the main game. I think this will be really cool, as both of them will bring some very different perspective to the way the rest of my group has been playing. So we shall see....

So a group of my buddies started an RPG session a while ago. Due to the typical constraints of our lives: timezones, families, kids sports, chores, work, birthday parties, holidays, and life in general, we have been running what I like to call the Lunch Time power session! Our first issue is this: we live on different sides of the US right now, so physically getting together is pretty much not an option. However this is our core group of players that started back when we were like 12 ( ok some of us started around 18 but most of us around 12 but I digress)! The point is this is the group we wanted to play with. So I configured a server, through team speak on there, and got to coding. I created online interactive char sheets that calculate bonuses, attack rolls, saving throws, damage, ect, cleaning up all the crap that we always forgot to include anyway. Then we realized that getting together at night and having an online chat session was pretty much impossible too! So we tried c...

That Hates everlong by the foo fighters? I just heard it on the radio and really don't get it. I'm reminded how much I hate it when we play guitar hero or rock band and EVERYONE wants to play that damn song! Oh well I'll just force them to follow it up with some crazytrain! Now if I could just get the radio station to always do that....

1 Charlie 2 auntie Chrissy 3 uncle russ 4 grandma 5 auntie see ya 6 uncle Riter 7 lily 8 Adam 9 auntie mermaid 10 we ran out of people to choose according to caleb

So I created my Southpark image and decided to post it up here. I still love Sho-Nuff to much to actually replace my logo for twitter, but if I ever get board of it, I think this is a good alternative. Long live Libre Fighting!

I wouldn't leave my friggin ATM card in the ATM machine! I swear I'm an idiot sometimes! It's funny I always give people crap for losing their stuff ( wallet, keys, car, ect ) because I NEVER lose things like that. I take pride that I always put my stuff in one place when I come home, so if it isn't on my person it is in that ONE location! As for losing my ATM card, I have never EVER done that! But sure enough I pulled out some cash my wife wanted asked me to pull out, then I hurried off to the store to finish off my shopping for the day. ( Note I was doing great on time! handled Costco, and Walmart in under an hour, and was on my way to finish the trifecta at VONS! ) Of course after a breezed through VONS and was in checkout 10 minutes after my arrival! I realize I don't have my ATM card....where could it be? O CRAP! still in the ATM machine at the bank anyone? Ok well there is no real meaning to this post other than I'm a dumb ass! And now I have t...

So with my new project and our current adventures, I'm currently the main GM for the group of players I have. It's a small group, only 3 of us including myself. But we have played together for a long time so the adventures are usually pretty full even with only a couple of players. Since we play as a small group the GM usually has a Character in the group as well, this allows for some extra firepower as well as if we ever want to rotate GM's we don't have to introduce a new char. Anyway, we got to a point in our adventure in which my Char ( a Kobold Wizard, 3rd level ) was separated from the party. Now playing in character my little wizard has an obsession with magic, and we were at the time inside an Elvin palace, so I decided the little guy would take this time to go out and find some magic ( hopefully a scroll or two to pick up some new spells ). So I talked to one of our players who has done some GM'ing in the past and asked him if he wanted to GM this secti...

So I guess the first thing I should say is: I only own a wii ( no XBox360 or PS3 ). And having 2 kids and a wife means my gaming time is not all that much. So for XMAS we got GHWT the full band kit and RB2 the game only ( since the instruments from GHWT work with RB2 no issues ). So right out of the box we fired up GHWT with the family and had a great time. We threw in the cheat code to unlock all the songs so we could choose from a bigger selection in quickplay and it was a blast. So after about 2 weeks straight of GHWT goodness, my daughter and I decide we should throw in RB2 and see what it takes. After all, according to everyone on the net, GHWT instruments are better but RB2 the game is WAY better! ( so they say ). I mean this is exactly why we bought it in the setup we did. Anyway we popped in RB2, threw in the unlock code so we could try out our favorite songs. It seemed to have a more eclectic taste than GHWT, and a couple of the song selections I actually preferred RB...

I hope everyone has a great 2008. See ya in 2009! Sent from my iPhone

Ok so in today's society it is very rare for a consumer store to impress me. Usually the customer service is rude, and the sales people don't know what the hell they are talking about. However the exception to the rule for me this year was Best Buy. I bought GHWT for my daughter for Xmas back in November. From there it sat up in my attic for over a month and was wrapped up nice a pretty for her come Xmas day. Anyway the day after Xmas the clip on the drums that hold the drumsticks broke off on the inside. Now I give Best Buy a call and I talk to a girl and ask her if they have any more GHWT for the wii in stock. She says no but to call back in a couple of days. I ask if I need to bring in my busted one now, and they say no, just wait for more to be in stock. So yesterday I'm cleaning up my garage and see the GHWT box sitting there and I think to myself ( Games and stuff come in on Tuesday I should call Best Buy ). So I call and they have GHWT wii in stock. So I te...

Ok so I'm testing the ability to write a blog on my iPhone. So far it seems to work pretty well. Just for the record the iPhone kicks the blackberry's ass any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

So a bit of a rant here. So for starters I do NOT own a blackberry, my wife does. Let me set the stage: About 2 months ago my wife started looking for a new phone. She had an old razor that was working for her, but she needed something more. As the family schedule maker, group party planner ( for all of our extended family and friends ), she really needed a PDA type phone. Now at the time I had the Samsung Blackjack which I think is an awesome phone. I had reconfigured the entire home screen via the xml files, added apps for yahoo, syncing lotus notes email, then gmail, then gcal, yahoo cal, ect. At the end of the day with my cheappy little winmo device I had every app I needed for work and home without even using a memory card! Anyway she asked me what phone to get. I said I really like my phone, the only issue I have with it is when you try and dial phone numbers not in your addy book it is a pain because the full keyboard is always there. I recomended something that had ei...

So I"m pondering something. Lately my crew and I have been doing some online chat RPG sessions. The first session and the latest session ( session 7 ) were audio sessions, however sessions 2 - 6 were all chat logs. The latest audio session we recorded and created an mp3 file. The nice folks over at rpgmp3 mentioned that we could post in on their site, however I realized that that single session wouldn't make much sense as you don't have any of the previous sessions to go over. So my ponder was this: What if we got the crew together and narrated the chat sessions ( as well as an overview of the first session ) and created audio sessions for these as well to post? I mean it isn't real game time, but it might actually add some thespianism to the whole thing. Anyway anyone have any comments?

So I'm a little late in posting this, but I've been a little busy lately. So my wife walked in the 3day breast cancer walk. She had to raise 2200 bucks and then walk 60 miles, sleep in a tiny tent with her sister, eat crappy food, and be away from her family when she really needed their support. Now don't get me wrong, we were there at almost every checkpoint, bringing propel, stickers, signs, and just plain encouragement. On the second day in, she had to have her feet lanced so she could get her shoes back on and finish the walk. The medics took so long that they wanted to bus her, but she just sucked it up, ran up the hill, got yelled at for running, proceeded to walk really fast, to beat the buses, and made sure she walked every step of the way. I have no inspiring words or awesome way to finish this, because everything I wrote above is the awesome part. I'm just the dude writing it down. Good Job Honey! I love you!

So I have to start by saying this: My wife is walking in the 3 day. For those that do not know what that is; it is a 3day 60 mile walk to support research for the cure of Breast Cancer. I'm very proud of her for this, and I think it is an amazing thing, but not the point of this story.... Anyway most of the planning meetings for the walk are at our house, where the girls discuss shirts to order so they match, what shoes to wear, stuff to take to tent ect. Anyway they have these meetings and the kids are around so they pick up on things you don't think about. So the other afternoon, I'm talking to my 2 and 1/2 year old son: "where is mommy?" he asks. "She is at work." I reply. "Why?" he retorts....( currently Why? is his 2nd favorite saying on the planet - next to "Yo Joe!" ) "Because she is making money!" I answer back. "For her BOOBIES?" he asks completely straight faced! at this point I could not respond beca...

So I went ahead and tried the whole "create a canned adventure" for the Session we are currently doing. I mean I basically had a good idea of where I wanted the adventure to go and what not, so I started typing it up. On the good side, it really helped me design a quest that used the strengths and weaknesses of the chars that are currently playing. However even with spending as much time as I did planning out all the possible outcomes, they went and did something I didn't even think about. Here is where I think the "canned" adventures throw me. When your GM'ing and you are doing it off of a vague idea, or a basic set of notes, you are pretty much prepared for anything that the chars throw out there, because you are not expecting them to do anything. However when you write up the way the story "should" unfold, if they don't stick to the (your) plan, it is easy to feel like a deer in headlights. That being said, I think I'm going to con...

I'm officially a paper pushing pansy. I spent my Sunday morning and afternoon, laying Sod in my parents backyard. We laid about 1600 sq ft, and by the time we were done, I was exhausted and my back was killing me. Outside of being injured, I've never really been that sore before. It was terrible. After I got home, got cleaned up and then we took the little guy to the pumpkin patch with some friends. By the end of the night I wasn't swore anymore, but I was ready for bed by 8pm. So It's official I am now a Paper Pushing Pansy......

So in the realm of RPGs there are two main times of GM'ing: 1) PreGenerated Adventures aka "canned" 2) Top of the head Adventures So which one is better? Coming from a Palladium Fantasy background myself, we always did top fo the head GM'ing. Usually our quests revolved around whatever our current favorite movie was, or something we saw in the book and wanted to throw at the players. We only tried a couple of the "canned" adventures, and they were always way to complicated to navigate the pages, and it seemed to slow down the story. So I used to be very against them. Anyway, I have since started listening to rpg podcats, from penny-arcade, as well as rpgmp3, and I have noticed that they are using "canned" adventures. I have to say, that they adventure itself moves very fulid and the story is really good. So I though to myself, maybe I just wasn't ready for "canned" adventures when I was young. So I found myself an adventure ( ...