I’m really beginning to dislike this theme for the site. Look for it to be changed soon. I don’t know what I was smoking when I chose it.

Anyway… that’s not what I wanted to talk about today. I now have three blogs that I intend to keep up with on a regular basis. That’s the goal anyway.

• www.loreandlegacy.com - Personal blog
• www.loreandlegacy/genesis - Gaming blog
• www.bluecitydesigns.com/blog - Design and Development blog

I’d really like to get everything down to one server, but due the inexpensiveness of LAMP, it’s easier for now to use the WordPress application, than having three blogEngine.net blogs. It’s technical and boring and I’ll move on now…

I have several projects that I am considering working on. This fall will be the first in a long while that I haven’t been enrolled in some sort of higher education. I’m very excited to have time to put towards other projects. I have to be very careful this time of year. I tend to take an up-swing in the manic direction and can easily take on too many goals that overwhelm and fail leaving me delving past equilibrium and into depression. So these are things that I am merely considering.

• Write my own campaigns for my weekly D&D game.
  • I have become dissatisfied with out-of-the-box modules. They are dry and bland. I understand appealing to the masses, so these at the very least need some tweaking. My intention would be to either modify them to fit into Eberron, or completely write an original adventure.
    • Truth is that my taste for D&D may be dwindling. It’s just getting too damn hard to keep a group together. Age, real-life, video games, and interest may lead to the demise of my gaming career sooner than later.
• Record two different groups in the project studio.
  • A friend of mine from Casper College has asked me to begin recording a demo for one group and an album for another. I’m very interested in these projects. It would be awesome to sit on the other side of the sound board and use the equipment that I already own. Not like the Fostex.
    • I am really drawn to this avenue of spending my free time. It’s something that I think I could really be good at. In addition to it, it’s something that I can do in groups or solitude. At my age, I’m tired of coordinating groups to get together in order to get things done or have a good time.
• Design and Develop custom applications to publish on my .NET server
  • I’m very interested in doing some personal applications in .NET. It would not only help hone my skillz for work, but also allow me to develop apps that I might use in gaming. I could then accept more freelance work in both design combined with development.
• Self-study on various subjects
  • After watching HBO’s mini-series, I have become very interested in American History. I have begun reading David McCullough’s 1776 and may choose to continue self education on this subject. I never took a history class in college, and this content is proving to be very interesting, one that I’ve never taken an interest before.
    • Will Hunting: “See, the sad thing about a guy like you is in 50 years you’re gonna staht doin some thinkin on your own and you’re gonna come up with the fact that there are two certaintees in life. One, don’t do that. And Two, you dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a fuckin education you coulda got for a dollah fifty in late charges at the public library.” ~ nuff said
• Other
  • I have become very interested and involved with the D&D minis game. I’m not sure how long that will continue after my one friend that plays it moves to his next post, but we’ll see. I’m planning to travel to Longmont on Friday to play a constructed tournament.
  • GenCon is 21 days away. Will this turn me on to some new games or hobbies?
  • Reading - I am hungry for some new books to read. D&D novels have left me bored and looking for new fantasy to read. I picked up Terry Brooks’ First King of Shannara. Hopefully it will quench my thirst for something new.
  • Movies - This time of year I usually re-engage my account with Netflix. There are several series and movies that I have to catch up on from this last spring. Netflix will soon be available through Xbox Live. How cool is that?

Is that enough to swallow? Like I said, I get really ambitious this time of year, and it has in the past led me to trouble. I must tread lightly in the next couple weeks.

I rarely do this, but I was reading the second book in a series from a D&D trilogy. I just got bored with it, and took it back to the library. Unless a D&D book comes out that is rated outstanding, then I’m finished reading young adult fantasy fiction. The books are nothing more than the same story with different character names.

So… I was given a book to read by a friend of mine a while back called, Perdido Street Station by China Meiville. I managed to read about 1/6 of it before something came up and I stopped. The story is what they are coining as Steampunk. It’s fantasy in how an original fantasy story should be… original. It’s not a Tolkien or R.A. Salvatore knock off. Actually, I checked out two copies so my brother and I could read it at the same time. We’d like to write a campaign setting based on the book for rpg play. We’ll see if that actually happens.

I know, no blogging in a while. I just drifted off for a while, but I’m back. Sometimes I’m either too uneventful or busy to find time to write or anything to write about. Wierdly I find that sometimes I just don’t want to. I’ve been playing a lot of D&D and DDM lately and I’m loving the new edition! I’m playing in the band again as just a sideman. I’m really digging that and it’s working for me right now. Later this fall, I’m going to be actually recording a country band in my project studio. That will be interesting.

Even bigger though is that GenCon is in 29 days! I’m signed up for 6 rpg games and True Dungeon. I may be joining a DDM tournament  if I have time. My geek-o-meter is certainly pegged!

Right now I’m enjoying the summer and having my son here with me. It’s been great having him here and I will surely miss him in the next couple of weeks while he’s gone.

Well I broke down and bought a new guitar on ebay. It’s a Fender Nashville Tele with the sunburst color. It’s been a couple of years since I bought a new guitar and this time I am getting exactly what I want. A versatile tele with the sunburst color. Now can’t wait for it to get here.

Tomorrow is the first D&D 4e session. I’m not sure how far we’ll get into the adventure, but I am SOOO looking forward to it. We should get all the characters created and then maybe into one encounter, but we’ll just have to see. I’m working diligently on putting a website together to chronicle the sessions and adventurers, so stay tuned with that.

As for now, I’m going to go put some liticane aloe on these burns…

I know it has been a week since the D&D 4e books came out, but I’ve had barely enough time to read them, much less blog about it. So last week for D&D game day, Craig and I drove down to Stonebridge Games in Longmont, CO. We played our first 4e game with none other than the creator of Eberron, Keith Baker as DM. It was a great time, and I learned a lot about the mechanics of the game, but much more about HOW to play and DM the game.

In the months leading up to the release of 4e, a lot of gamers have speculated and voiced opinions about the mechanics. How will healing surges work? What are they going to do with multi-classing? How are skill checks affected? What is this marking crap? I will admit that I’ve been among that group ~ although I think I’ve leaned a lot more to the optimistic side than most. Maybe it was by choice, but I hadn’t paid much attention to the changes in fluff.

What I learned from the game that Keith ran is that I’ve barely even thought about the storytelling side of the new edition. Here’s a guy that, although his core setting is now published and collaborated among several writers and developers, knows what’s going on in his campaign setting. Much more is he understands the tone of the setting and how to effectively communicate it to the players.

Keith forced us to role-play through skill encounters. He set the scene very well and depicted the NPCs in a way that I wouldn’t forget meeting them anytime soon. One trick he used was when we delivered the killing blow to a foe, we had to describe what happened. “The chillborn skeleton melted and sizzled as my fireball choked it into blackened ash”. These are awesome techniques that I plan on using in my games to help facilitate the role-play of the game. Finding ways to encourage role-play is the job of the DM and is of the utmost necessity in making sure that the game isn’t a tactical miniatures board game.

I learned a lot from my first 4e session and I plan to do some real storytelling in my upcoming adventures. It may even come down to actually writing something again. Hey… all I have is time right? What a concept, me actually getting back to creative writing!

If you ever get the chance to play a game with one of the designer/developers, do it. As long as you keep your mind open to it, you’ll have a great time and learn a LOT.

I still haven’t decided wether I’m going to take classes next fall or not. I’m constantly back and forth on the issue. On one hand I don’t want to do any more school. On the other hand, I get paid to go…

Pros:

• I get to use the last of my VA benefits and get paid to go [I have till 2010 to use up the last remaining 4 months of bennies]
• I get to take classes that I’ve always wanted to take, but never had the chance [I've always been into the liberal arts... hippie]
  • Cultural Anthropology
  • Sociology
  • Economics
  • History [an actual collegiate level history class]
• There’s no pressure because I’m not degree seeking

Cons

• Ugh… more school - I want to focus on getting better at the guitar, recording, and playing games.
• We’re going to Orlando in December - right around finals week
• Making time for studying and going to lectures that I’ll actually have to work at. The computer classes came easy.

I think that I’ve used this list to make up my mind. At the present time, it’s better if I take a semester or two off from school. I still have another 4 semesters that I can use for my GI Bill. It’s time to take some time for other things than higher education.

The last few nights, I’ve been brushing up my chops on the guitar. I’m not sure why, but it seems that I’ve made some positive strides in my ability to hear and pick out licks from songs. Does it have something to do with my hand-eye coordination from Call of Duty 4? Am I rationalizing here? Truth is, I’ve always wanted to be a better guitar player. I’ve always just gotten by as an acoustic player who can accompany myself or a band. It also seems that there is a shortage of really good country lead guitar players in this part of the country. At least in the circles that I’ve been traveling in.

As far as school goes, I have to once again quote a line from one of my all-time favorite movies, Good Will Hunting. “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for a buck fifty in late charges at the public library.”

You don’t need a college professor in order to learn. All you really need is a library card…

I don’t talk much about my family life here on lore and legacy, but today is an exception. My wife Denise threw me a surprise graduation party on Saturday and it was awesome. My closest friends and family were there to just hang out and enjoy each others’ company. I had a really good time, and it was a nice capstone to a [needless to say write], journey. Thank you Denise… I love you and you rock!

I feel a little better today than I did last week. I’ve began working on yet another project for work and getting back on the motivate-train. I’m not sure what that was last week, but I didn’t like it and it worries me a bit.

Tomorrow is the day that the first adventure for D&D 4e comes out. Damn am I excited! I can’t wait to get it and start preparing for the campaign. I haven’t been able to do much in the way of getting NPC’s and the town of Winterhaven fleshed out. I did set up a blog for the campaign here. I’ll be using that to post my gaming stuff. Having three blogs to keep up with may be daunting, but at least I have the right content for the appropriate audience.

I’ve been reading Barack Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope. It’s an intriguing read, and very inspirational. I’ve never read a book of this genre [political biography], but it’s proving to be an educational and entertaining read.

That’s all for me this fine day. I spent the weekend with Denise, Lance, family and friends. It was much too short and I hope to be able to do more of the same this summer. What’s the point of having five acres of land if you can’t share it?

So it’s my lunch hour and I’m sitting here in the library listening to the soundtrack to the movie Road to Perdition. I’ve found that listening to orchestral music doesn’t distract me when I’m reading or writing, as opposed to commercial music with lyrics. I’m still in this holding pattern of un-motivation. I’m not sure what the hell this is. I wish it would go away. I feel utterly useless when I’m not getting things accomplished. If this is just downtime after school, then I’ll be damned if I ever go back to the institution of higher learning. Is this what burnout feels like? How do you overcome it?

Several months ago I put together a list of things that I was getting to do this year. I wanted to re-visit the list and add/subtract to it. Maybe that will help…

1. Sharepoint Training - This was January in Denver. It was good training, but I’m still not caught up to the point that I need to be in order to actually apply the training.
2. Carnival Cruise to the Bahamas - One of the best experiences that I had with Lance and Denise. I’ll never regret the choice to go on this cruise. There are so many memories that I will take with me when I go.
3. Trip to Kansas to see Heidi and the grandparents - This probably won’t happen due to the fact that I don’t have enough vacation time to get away that long. Time will tell, but it doesn’t look promising.
4. D&D 4e Release (couldn’t resist putting it on here) - The first module comes out next week, and then in two weeks, the core books. I’m still very excited about this!
5. GenCon Indy 2008 - I have my hotel room, airline ticket, 4 day pass, event tickets, and spending money. Bring on August.

Let’s add a few more items to the list for the year 2008.

6. We’ll be taking Lance to see High School Musical in Denver.
7. Denise and I will be spending the first part of December in Orlando. Can you say awesome!

I’m sure there will be more added to the list… stay tuned!

As you can see, I’ve once again started making some changes around here. I’d become bored with the last theme so I have to re-arrange the furniture every once in a while. I’ll be honest, I’ve been very slow to get motivated in the last few days. I wonder if it’s the jet-wash of finishing school. Today I’m making a push to get back to my tutorials.

Last night I worked on some guitar riffs for a few songs that the band is playing. I’ve noticed that I’ve unlocked some skill because things are getting easier to hear and play. Oh… Did I forget to mention that I have re-joined The Untamed? Music is in my blood and A year-and-a-half is all I could stay away. I’ve missed it and that’s all I’ll say about that…

Only four more days until Keep on the Shadowfell is released. There are several reviews out there from people that got an early look at the module. I hope that I’m not disappointed. It sounds like it might be a meat grinder and that’s something that I don’t want, and neither does my gaming group. I have to make sure that the NPCs offer enough role-playing opportunities. From there, it’s up to the players.

That is all…

Yesterday I stayed home from work due to some sort of stomach bug. I still have a little bit remaining, but not enough to keep me at home.

I began reading re-reading The Last Mythal series of books on Monday, but have since decided to just hang out and wait for next Tuesday when Keep on the Shadowfell releases, instead of reading that series. I have been very successful with spending my lunch hour over at the library and plan to use that time to read and plan for my D&D sessions. This time next week, I’ll be planning for my very first 4e campaign. Pretty exciting stuff!

I’m thinking that once I’ve fully read and prepared the adventure, the core books will be out and I’ll be able to really get into the crunch of the new game on my library lunch hours. This all reminds me of when 3.0 first came out and I spent a couple hours each week at UW’s Coe library preparing for that week’s sessions.  I feel like that’s when I was at the pinnacle of DMing and learning mechanics of any previously released D&D editions. I remember getting that Relics & Rituals book, and actually using content from it (Sea Witch) for my campaign.  Then a divorce happened… and well that’s history.

I didn’t play for several years after my divorce and the advent of 3.5 came along. Ironically my girlfriend, whom later became my wife Denise, bought me the 3.5 DMG. I never fully delved into the rules with 3.5. I primarily ran published adventures and let the game designers do all the crunchy heavy lifting. Did I have fun? Most of the time. Could I have done more? Absolutely. I’m sure I would have been a lot more productive with the mechanics if I had spent time creating my own monsters, encounters, traps, puzzles, and dungeons. Hell I could’ve learned a lot of the mechanics by just creating interesting higher than 2nd level NPCs. For one reason or another, I didn’t.

That is why I’ve said the primary reason I am so stoked about 4e is because I get to start over from where I left off in 2001. I get to “get in on the ground floor”, and keep up with mechanics with everyone else. Sure I’m planning on running the released adventures for a time, but I do plan on venturing out into my own stories at some point. To be honest, my brother actually comes up with some pretty cool shit that works in D&D and I am very happy to steal it and throw it back at his character! Heh…

So this time spent in the library is very well both enjoyable and productive. It also gets me out of the office for a time so I can at least see the daylight once a day and break up the monotonous 8 hours into 4 hour chunks.

Yes… it is done. I am now a dual degree wielding monster. I completed all the coursework for my web design degree. Feels good to not only have it, but be done with school. I am now on to more pressing things like… music and D&D. More on those later…

First: A Book Report

WARNING Spoilers below

Over the last week I read the first novel to be set in the newly re-booted Forgotten Realms. The book is called Swordmage: Blade of the Moonsea, Book I. It’s a good story and has conflicted and well-rounded characters, but it left me disappointed in revealing anything spectacular with post-spellplague Faerun. To be honest, I wanted and expected a whole lot more with the FIRST novel to come out featuring 4e stuff.

Characters:

Geren ~ Human swordmage who was taught magic by the elves of Myth Drannor. He was exiled from the elven city for cutting the hand off of an opponent in a friendly duel. Geren is a Hulmaster who reign over Hulburg, just North of the Moonsea.

Hamil - Halfling friend of Geren.

Sergen - Geren’s evil step-cousin.

Grigor Hulmaster - Geren’s uncle who serves as harmach (king?) over Hulburg.

Kara - Cousin to Geren ~ She is spell-touched and has the markings of a blue serpent on her arm and her eyes glow blue. She leads the Swornguard over Griffonwatch.

Myira - Geren’s teen love. She was sister to the now deceased Jarad Erstenwold.

Sarth - Tiefling sorcerer who is responsible for uncovering the lore of the Infiernedex ~ a book of spells and rituals from the lich king.

Aesperus - King in Copper- Lich king who commands the undead around Hulburg and Phlan.

Story:

Geren arrives in Hulburg after many years to pay his respects to his best friend, Jarad Erstenwolds death. The town has changed since he left 10 years ago, with many foreign traders in the town. He and Hamil search many tombs to find the Infiernedex and is immediately taken from them by Aesperus. It is learned that his cousin Sergen, is planning a coup on the harmach with the trading council backing him. A mighty army of orcs is marching to overtake the city of Harmach and at the same time Sergen calls upon the undead to help him carry out his overtaking of the throne. There is a huge battle and the orcs and undead are defeated. Sergen escapes to Melvaunt and is greeted by a one-handed elf who wants to join forces against Geren for part 2.