Back from the Land of the Semi-dead...

Whew, time flies by so quickly. It seems I failed to make a successful saving throw versus convention exhaustion. These past eight days I have been worn out, and haven't felt much like doing anything. However, I'm feeling much better now, and I'm ready to go.

Convention Report:  All-Con 2010

Really, I don't have that much to report now that I think about it. About the only gaming at All-Con was either console/computer gaming, Lazer Tag, or a modified version of Monopoly, called Life's Not Fair Monopoly. All-Con is more of a science fiction/fantasy/comic book convention with a few other things thrown into the mix. It is a very good con if you are into these areas of fandom.

Created by a friend of mine, Life's Not Fair Monopoly can be a lot of fun, and also really annoying. I spent most of the my first 10 turns or so in jail, lost the few properties I had acquired, and bought everyone's "dependants", which were depicted by little plastic babies. ( You can acquire dependants when you draw cards. ) Anyway, I grew bored, left to watch a demonstration of roller derby, came back, started playing again, and eventually realizing I was not going to win, I gave away my money, and the babies were just gone I guess. I pretended I sold them to white slavers, after all I bought most of them from other players.  I wandered the con a bit, but came back to watch the game.  Eventually time was called, and the player with the highest net worth won.

While I was wandering around at All-Con, I picked up a flyer for a new gaming convention in Fort Worth, Texas called Texicon . I plan on conducting an email interview with one of the organizers. Hopefully, I can get this accomplished within a reasonable amount of time. In the past, I have not had the best luck when attending gaming conventions, and had to deal with some mediocre to poor, and some down-right horrible game masters. That's if they showed up at all.  I've also had some really good experiences at gaming conventions as well, but not as many as the negative ones.  This is one area I will cover in my questions. The really sad thing is I may not get to go to this con, but I'm working on it.  Well, more on Texicon next time...

Maps!

During my "recovery" I did spend some time browsing the World Wide Web, and found a place that prints and/or laminates maps. I've never used the The Gamer-Printshop , but I may try them in the future.  I've added their link to gaming web sites on the sidebar. It looks like they support the major file formats of mapping programs, as well as JPEG, etc...

Dungeons and Dragons

I've mentioned before that I started with the original D&D, waaaaaaaaaay back when. I'm fond of the first editions of AD&D, but I wonder if I will ever find any players for it when I'm ready to start gaming again? Who knows? Well, maybe one day I'll even play Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition, but somehow I doubt it. Have you seen the price of those books???

Okay, enough for now.  I hope I can start building a following. I really want many, many readers! If not... that's okay!  I'll just keep plugging away!  Until next time, keep rolling those dice!

Cartography & Digital Map Making

Well, since my interest in gaming has returned; especially role-playing games, and being a gamemaster; I have become obssesed with maps and map making.  I have been searching for a good freeware mapping program, and I found another one yesterday.  It's called AutoRealm, and it seems it might be very good.  I experimented with it some, and there are a lot of features.  I also found a manual for it, but I haven't read it yet.

I was also experimenting some with Dungeonforge, and wasn't all that happy with it.  I was frustrated with trying to get a tile set I had downloaded into the right file.  I tried to follow the brief instructions, but they weren't much help.  I may discard Dungeonforge.  Dungeoncrafter 3 has possibilities, but I still need to work with it some more.  I also had trouble getting the tile files in the right folder, or to even work for that matter.  I am not sure what I was doing incorrectly.

I also plan on experimenting with Paint.  I can actually work on a map in DC3, and export it, and work on it in Paint.  I also want to download Inkscape, and see what that is like.  I would like some better graphics programs, but those just aren't in my budget at this time.  So far DC3 has been the best, although I haven't spent much time on any of the programs.

One thing I haven't ruled out is good old pen and paper map making.  I've started calling it analog map making, and I could get very creative doing this.  Plus, I can scan the maps, and have them printed.  If I have a particularly good map, I can also have it printed on canvas.  A nice, if not expensive option, for a player map.

During the search yesterday ( for the already forgotten object ), I found a remnant of my gaming past.  It was an old Gamma World map, the one that came with the original boxed set.  ( I forgot what I was looking for because I was excited about this map. ) My original GW book is long gone, but I still have the map!  I think I may use it in a Mutant Future campaign.  Unless, of course I can manage to replace my Gamma World book.  I'll try and get a photo of it up soon, but I've got a lousy digital camera, and it may not turn out good at all.

There is one thing bugging the heck out of me!  Is it map making, or mapmaking?  Two words or just one?  I've seen it both ways...

Conventions

In yesterdays post I mentioned Origins 84, a national gaming convention. These days they are calling it,  Origins Game Faire , and the dates are June 23 - 27, 2010.  The deadline for entering an event submission was March 1st, but there is no way I can attend this year anyway so that's a moot point.  On a positive note I now have about a year to come up with something good to submit.  Origins has really good benefits for the GMs that run games at the con.  Work enough hours and they give you a spot in one of the volunteers room.  That would save you a lot of cash, but on the other hand you would spend much of your time running games.  It's been 25 years since I attended Origins 84.  Where did all that time go?

Speaking of conventions, this weekend I will be attending All-Con 2010, a local covention here in Dallas.  All-Con doesn't really have much gaming content; in fact very little at all, but that could change in the future.  All-Cons main motto is, "We Serve The Fan Community".  However, it really is a good convention, and supports fans of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Renaissance, Anime, Costuming, Theater, Performing Arts, Mystery, Art, Crafts, Collecting, and Film Making.

I will be giving a comic workshop on Friday, and we will be creating and publishing a "small press" comic.  I haven't done this since 2007, and look forward to the workshop.  Here's a photograph of me and one of the guests of the 2007 All-Con.  All I can say is WOOT!

The very attractive woman is Luciana Carro, she played Kat on Battlestar Galactica.  She's a very nice person, although I didn't get to talk to her much at all.

Later people, I need some sleep.

A Rainy Sunday...

It was a rainy Sunday so I spent most of the afternoon, and evening wandering the world wide web in search of gaming blogs. I was also on the hunt for a freeware mapping program. I finally found a site that wasn't "corrupted" or something, and downloaded Dungeon Crafter 3. I experimented with it a short time, and like it so far. Not really great for anything but floor plans, but I'm happy with what it can do. I know the program has been out a couple of years but it's new to me. I also found Dungeonforge, but it's downloading as I write this ( I'm multi-tasking ), and probably will play around with it tomorrow. I also plan on comparing the two for a review; a Dungeon Crafter 3 versus Dungeonforge article.

Speaking of maps, I was looking through a storage box for something, and I found an old map I had made as a prop for my Rolemaster campaign. I drew the map on parchment paper; then I aged it a bit, crumpled it, and even scorched the edges a bit with a lighter.  I then later photocopied it so I could make notes about what was in the dungeon, and be able to give the map to the players.  ( I thought it would save time mapping.  They wanted very accurate maps... )

Here is the map:

It looks like part of the northwest corner is missing!  I apparently tore it off, or the years of getting packed and repacked haven't been kind to the map.  I may make another copy, then age and distress it even more.  Perhaps add some odd markings, runes or something.  Maybe a blood spot or two...

It's not that big, and not all that impressive, but it was an effective prop for the players, and made my life a little easier.  Once I start gaming again, I plan on using more props.

A word on creativity...

If you get the chance check out the blog,  A Hamsterish Hoard of Dungeons and Dragons  , the blogger in one of their many great posts describes different kinds of unusual metals. I thought they were very original, and while I may never use those in a campaign; I may eventually create some of my own odd and unusual substances for a campaign.  Here is the description of one of the metals...

Pashken: Dull, almost pewter grey in colour, this metal is strong enough to be made into weaponry but is not recommended for armour. It is riddled through with a strange absorbent quality to its substance; a pashken sword, for example, will absorb as much as a flask of any fluid applied to it. Impact will cause the fluid to be expelled.

Imagine a dagger made from Pashken.  It could be dipped in venom, poison, or maybe even acid, and as long as it was handled carefully the next blow would deliver not only a nasty wound, but also quite a surprise!


This is one of the reasons I have started to peruse the many blogs, and websites about role-playing games. Reading what all these different GMs create is very synergistic. It really helps to jump start my creativity.  If you ever feel yourself in a creative slump it helps to see what other people are doing.

Memories

While I was searching for whatever I was searching for ( I have already forgetten! ); I found a blast from the past.  The convention program book from Origins 84!  I'm surprised I still had it, and flipped through it.  It was mainly advertisments, with a few interesting things which I may write about later.  Now, if I can just find my Crown Royal bag of dice...

Origins was a national gaming convention, and at one point apparently, an international gaming convention.  Now I believe it is called Origins Game Fair, and mainly held in Columbus, Ohio.  About the only thing I remember about this convention is that I forgot to mail in the early registration packet for me and a friend.  UGH!  When I told him about my mistake on the first day of the convention he was, to put it mildly, a little ticked off.  At least he was until we saw the line for early registration.  It was much longer than the line for people buying their ticket that day.  We were lucky, we speed through the line, and was in the convention so much faster than anyone who had pre-registered.  And if I recall correctly we got to play in all the games we wanted to.  One worry was that the slots may have filled up, but that wasn't the case.  Bwahahahahahaha!  I was soooooooo lucky...

Time for me to sign off for now.  Keep on gaming!