The Fifth Wanderer Diaries

I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons for two decades now. That's longer than some of the people I'm playing with now have been alive.

I remember the release of second edition, third edition, 3.5.

I've hacked and slashed my way through enough Random Encounters, ruined temples, etc, etc to fill the earth several times over.

 So far, my reaction to D&D 4th edition can be summed up as "Meh."

Nothing I've seen has really enticed me to pick it up. It feels like a great big attempt to move D&D into more 'modern' game design, while still keeping the hack-n-slash pillage-n-loot mindlessness of D&D.

I can hear the comments now. "If you don't like it, don't play it. Go play something else and leave us alone." Bah. When you guys get tired of racking up gp like points in some FPS game, let me know. It's just not as much fun as it used to be anymore.

Right now, I'm 'between games.' My Spirit of the Century game is starting soon, and the Shadowrun game I'm joining should be ready to rock in a week or so.  Still haven't made my character for SR4. The GM gave me a million nuyen and I'm wondering what to do with it all. Magicians just don't spend a lot of money on gear.

See you in the shadows...

This year, the best present I'm looking forward to is the time I'm going to get to spend with my friends and family. Yule dinner (I'm pagan), Christmas at my parents and Grandma's (cinnamon rolls!), and New Year's Eve with my friends. I've been fighting depression for a while now, and lately I've been feeling a whole lot better about myself and my life in general.

I'm feeling pretty okay, and it makes me feel even better to be able to say that.




In other news...

driving_blind and chadu are teaming up to produce  "Spirit of the Season" a Christmas-themed adventure dual-statted for Spirit of the Century and Truth & Justice, two of my favorite game systems.  I'm looking forward to this.

And Decoder Ring Theatre is producing new audio dramas in the style of the old radio dramas. If you like pulp, I recommend it. I remember listening to The Shadow late at night on the radio when I was a kid, and I still love listening to them now.

And maybe if I'm really lucky, I'll get a new copy of Spirit of the Century for the holidays. I've dropped enough hints....

Current Mood: happy

I found out today that the FUDGE roleplaying system has its own Wikipedia entry.

I think this is really cool.cool in the respect that someone wandering through Wikipedia might stumble across this and go, "Hey, this is cool, I need to check it out."  Lesser-known gaming systems such as FUDGE need more exposure, and Wikipedia's one way for them to get said exposure. We need to get people playing something besides Dungeons & Dragons. (Don't get me started on D&D.)

Though I have to admit that I also find it slightly disturbing for reasons I can't put into words...

Current Mood: contemplative

I came across Wowio a while ago, and have been enjoying it ever since. They've got a wide variety of books for download. What makes me glad about this site and think they'll stick around for a while is that they don't just have classic literature. They've got a whole variety of stuff for download.

And I'm just plain impressed by their selection of comic books and graphic novels. While there are some posted here that are just plain awful (or unsuitable for children), there's some really awesome stuff there. Two of my favorites:

Lullaby - Take Alice in Wonderland, mix in a few other fairy tales, add a dash apiece of Grimm and LSD, and you have Lullaby. Excellent reading.

Six-Gun Samurai - I just found this one this morning, but it looks to be a good read. Six-guns and samurai swords in the old west.

Anyway, check it out.

Current Mood: geeky

Normally, I avoid 'cute picture sites like the plague, but this one caught my attention:



Found on http://www.macrocats.com

Current Mood: amused

I'm gearing up to run my first game of Spirit of the Century, and I noticed that my copy of Spirit of the Century was looking a little worn. I leapt upon the obvious solution: Duct Tape! Thus:



Duct tape is like the Force; It has a light side and dark side and it binds the universe together. And it saves my copy of Spirit of the Century quite nicely.