Just to make it clear and certain to anyone coming here by accident...I have closed this blog, and now am on a MT installation
at http://www.all-roads-lead.net/jvstin/blog.

Please update your bookmarks, and keep your tables locked and your seats in the upright position...

http://www.all-roads-lead.net/jvstin/blog/

CAESAR Set on; and leave no ceremony out.
SOOTHSAYER Caesar!
CAESAR Ha! who calls?
CASCA Bid every noise be still: peace yet again!
CAESAR Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,
Cry 'Caesar!' Speak; Caesar is turn'd to hear.
SOOTHSAYER Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR What man is that?
BRUTUS A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
CAESAR Set him before me; let me see his face.
CASSIUS Fellow, come from the throng; look upon Caesar.
CAESAR What say'st thou to me now? speak once again.
SOOTHSAYER Beware the ides of March.
CAESAR He is a dreamer; let us leave him:

JULIUS CEASAR, ACT I, SCENE II

"Building my own guillotine"

I haven't blogged much from work the last couple of days because I have been building my own guillotine so to speak.

Oddly, uncharacteristically of my Type A personality Boss, she has delegated something rather important to me

--the training of my possible replacement. Naturally, as a result, I have not had the opportunity to do any extracurricular activity at work, and thus the blogging has flagged.

Just so you know I am still alive and well.

A vocabulary test via Ginger (and Jenn)

I got 153 out of 200. Most of the people in our circle, though, did better, and sometimes much better. Maybe I would have done a little better if not at work. Still, though, shows just how much I have to learn

Welcome to the Donutverse?

That is to say, in the shape of a doughnut.

Maybe I should run for Congress?

No, seriously. I would try to stop such inanity and insanity as this change in the House cafeteria menu.

I know that during WWI sauerkraut became "liberty cabbage" and hamburger became "salisbury steak" (the latter still exists, as a distinct item from Hamburgers, though). But no one changed Russian dressing during the Cold War...

And besides, French Fries are literally as American as Apple pie! And French Toast isn't French, either.

"Congressman Weimer from Minnesota would like to speak about the changes in the House cafeteria menu..."

Role Call 9: Dream on!
If profit wasn't an issue, what sort of products would your dream roleplaying game company publish?

Ah, this is more cheery than the death of roleplaying one that was the last Role Call.

All-Roads-Lead Press would publish, perforce, supplements and products that I, myself, want to see. So this question, I feel, really is asking what sort of gaming products I would most want to see out there. The products I would want to see would have, in common, to be relatively stat-free and multi-platform. I'd love something that I could run for a D20 game...or an Amber game, given some guidelines in the text to make it happen. Given that in mind, I'd have ARL Press publish:

1. License and publish well written guidebooks to author's universes.
Of course the author herself has to agree to this, but we are imagining, right? Who wouldn't want to explore the Confederation of Peter F. Hamilton? Or visit Pern? Or a myriad of universes from authors. While certainly, as a GM, I think that the best universe is the one you create yourself for your players, having the flexibility to have a session set in Sanctuary or on Tschai or Urth is something many people would clamor for.

2. Jvstin's guides to building a world, A series
This would be a series of books that, taken together, could help anyone of any skill level and experience in GMing come up with a fantasy world of their own. Book topics would cover all sorts of things--rational cartography and geography, religions, political structures, systems of magic and technology. Examples would be given throughout, which would be ready to plop into a world if the players want to test the waters with pre-conceived creations. You don't HAVE to play in the Forgotten Realms or Kalamar or any other published fantasy world, if you can make your very own. And these books would show you how.

3.People, Places, Portents.
This is similar to Ginger's idea. These would be books which the GM could use to place new NPCs, locales and events into the game as game ideas, across a wide variety of genres and tastes. Sample spaceports for you Traveller fans. Taverns, Inns and other places adventurers are almost bound to go before or after looting the Ogre's dungeon. Cities in worlds that would attract scheming Amberites. It would be more of a guiding hand than full adventures, enough to give the Gm ideas. "Okay, so Taziz is shady, he could be spying in the pay of a Chaosian House given his affinity for Serpents, yeah..." "That library in the old harborside city is perfect to hold the dark book that the Deep ones and the PCs are going to fight for..."

WISH 37: Schedules and Circumstances

How do you prioritize gaming in your life to make sure it happens on an ongoing basis? Are there circumstances or scheduling issues that make it more or less likely for you to participate in a gaming session or a campaign? How do you work around these issues, or can you?

Time indeed is a precious resource. Every second you spend doing something is a second you don't do something else, even if you are multi-tasking.

I am unlucker than many in the WISH circle in that I do not have any FTF games, either Gming or playing. This is of course due to geography. It should be noted that, before the severing, TGFKAB and I did game, both with her friend Sandie (who moved to Florida not long after I arrived) and between ourselves. It came naturally to us, we set up a one-person Amber game that I Gmed for her. An experiment in a dual PBEM, When it rains it pours, proved that Bonnie is good at ideas but doesn't really have a desire or a taste to actually manage a world. I, on the other hand, do. So it was natural that in gaming between us, I would take the GM role.

In any event, aside from a couple of irregular games back East, I haven't Gmed a campaign or regularly FTF in quite a long time, actually. Its part of the reason for the rust and lack of polish sometimes when it comes to the con. My Gming skills have been in the crucible of PBEMs (with doing occassional stuff in IMs) for a long time. So, when it comes to prioritizing gaming in my life, its almost always in that context.

Its a matter of discipline and not letting oneself get too far behind when it comes to managing a PBEM. Arref rightly notes that many PBEMS die quickly for various reasons. Two games that I co-Gmed in PBEM, Oaths of the Unicorn and When It rains it Pours died because of time limitations on the part of myself and my co-conspirators, rather than anything else. I thus don't foresee GMing in PBEM anything new until and if SB concludes. On the other hand, I did manage a slow PBEM scenario for a few players, Gywddbwyll, and managed that while still doing SB. The pace of Gwyddbwyll, however, was more on the pace of Bete Noire than a regular PBEM, and it must be said that with a 5-7 day "return time" on turns, SB is slower than many PBEMs.

My pace, however, usually seems to suit the players. This return time does allow me freedom to respond to turns at less than a breakneck pace. There are days when I can't wait to plow through turns and continue the game, and others when other interests dominate. I am not a fan, as I have said elsewhere, of the "one line" turn. I much prefer meat on the bones of turns I give players, and vice versa. Of course, sometimes, especially in conversations, when it isn't possible to do otherwise.

I do realize, of course, that when I move to Minn., Jeff, and Dawn, and Scott and Felicia might all try and get me to run a FTF game, or join one as a player. We'll see what happens and how it integrates into my new life.

A pretty interesting weekend, with not a lot of free time to Blog...other things held my attention and interest

--Mailed a box of my stuff to Minn.

--Watched a couple of movies thanks to Netflix (and I have to cancel the subscription too):

One of the Avengers Discs. (one of the 1966 ones)
The Fifth Element (big bada boom!)
Big Trouble in Little China (Lots of fun, underappreciated in its time)