..I Can

 

Slow day yesterday, and a night last night. Didn't do much after I got home but burn a couple of CDs for friends and just generally relaxed. Slept like a rock, other than getting up to find the bathroom, I don't think I moved the entire night. It wasn't long enough, however, I think I'm one of those who needs 8 hours to break even and then more than that to catch up. Today's a day off from running, though, which should be nice. My wife got a haircut yesterday, which got me thinking I should,too. It's been two months, plenty long now.

Going house hunting again tonight. We're buying a house this spring, and we've got one candidate already lined up that we like, out of 12 houses that we've looked at. We have another 6 houses in the queue, and then I think we'll take another look at the list of houses available, and see if there are any more we like out there. The whole process is somewhat exasperated by the different expectations of husband and wife as they want two different things in a house. Well, that's a bit strong. We agree on a lot of things, but there are some things we both don't agree on. I'm of the mind that living outside AA's city limits isn't too bad of an idea. However, she'd rather not, because of the winters, and the traffic, and the amount of time it would take to get to work in the AM. Property taxes are more expensive inside of the beltway surrounding AA, which really causes a problem with monthly payments, especially when you are paying $400 a month on it, compared to $250 a month outside the city. Depressing. Can we afford living in the city? We'll see...


posted by Jeremy at 11:42 AM

 
Broke down and ran. 4mi. 10.2 this week, with tomorrow a definite off day. Shin got sore toward the end because I pushed it under 8:30 for the whole run. It's not painful sore, just there's something odd sore. a day off will help. Might take two if it is sufficiently snowy on Saturday still.

posted by Jeremy at 1:16 PM

 
Short game last night. It was more of a cooperative, get to know your characters session last night. It was a change of pace for me, more emphasis on roleplaying. I think I have a better sense of my character for this game than I had for Mikes. He should be fun to play, though a bit getting used to, I'm used to having my character be more upfront, and this guy is going to be more in the back. It will take some getting used to, since my last fighter was in the front. However, he has a lot more hps than other characters, so we'll see. For Jim's game, it'll be an archer-type PC. Bow feats all the way. I'll take the Order of the Bow Initiate at 6th level, and he'll be a pretty bad-assed archer.

I think Eric will fit into the group just fine. He looks like he's got the right sense of humor to fit right in.

Trying to decide if I should take today off or not from running. It's supposed to stay nice until just after noon and then cool down through the evening, and snow 1-2 inches tomorrow. I'd almost rather take it light and easy today, instead of trying to run through the snow tomorrow. Maybe I will. I ran 3.2 yesterday. I ran a little bit faster than the day before. The shin was a bit more sore at the end of the run, so perhaps it is just prudent to take the day off. Hmm. We'll see.

Got my buddy Ralf coming down from Howell on Sunday. He's a good man, we've hung out a couple of times, at Blind Guardian, and again at Prog Power. We're gonna do the rounds of all of the used CD stores in town and see what we can find. I suspect the pickings might be awfully thin, but what the heck? He's a bigger metalhead than I am, and has a thousand million CDs, or something like that.

My wife and I have about 540 according to our last list, and I'm currently doing something she used to do every once in a while..I'm going through all of the CDs I like and I'm listening to them one at a time at work. I'm not doing it in alphabetical order or anything, I'm just listening to them one at a time, in whatever order I see fit. I listen to about between 4-9 CD's a day at work, so I listen to music quite a bit. So far, I've listened to about 25 CDs and only put two into the trade-me pile. bo-ring. I can always find something about a CD that I like, so it makes it hard to pitch a CD. As I noted before, I'm a metalhead, but not a traditional one, really. Being 29, I like the basics like older Priest and Maiden, but I really go for the more complicated stuff, like Dream Theater and Pain of Salvation and the like. Ralf is more of a traditional metalhead who likes some prog in his metal. I shade over a bit in the spectrum to the more complex stuff. My wife is coming along as well, and it should be quite fun to run around Ann Arbor.

Otherwise, Robert Jordan's new book is out, and I think all of the negativity surrounding his books have finally rubbed off on me. I'll buy it, but it might be awhile. There is no hurry, since there will probably be two years until Book 11. I'm currrently re-re-re-re-re-re-reading The Stand, which is one of those books that I enjoy that I just can't seem to not break out every two years or so. One of my favorite books in its own way. I might have to re-read Steven Erikson's Memories of Ice again, soon, I re-read all ofthe other books recently, but not that one. I'll comment on that series in a later log. It's a good series of books, but not for the casual reader.



posted by Jeremy at 10:38 AM

 
Good morning. Ran yesterday for the first time. Ran 3 mi in about 27 minutes--about 1 min/mi slower than I want to. Shin is not that sore. I'll continue shuffling along until it is better. Pretty sweet day out for January. It's about 42 right now, should end up about 44-47. Nice. No jacket today to run.

First Dungeons and Dragons game of the new year tonight. We start the new year with two new DMs, Deron and Jim. Deron gets the next two weeks, and Jim gets one week, and then they alternate. I'm especially looking forward to Deron's game. Its a 3E Forgotten Realms game, which I have never played in, and I haven't played in a 2E Forgotten Realms game for years. That's scary. I have all of these books, and I just don't play in the world.
It should be very fun. Jim's game should also be fun, but people say that he's awfully free with things, so we'll see.

Not much else to say...pretty busy.
posted by Jeremy at 11:46 AM

 

Another day at work today. Can't say anything exciting about work. I enjoy it, but it doesn't control my life (beyond the usual 8-5 workday). My job is as a System Administrator at a Big Ten University, working in a scientific department to keep their Unix Servers running. Very exciting stuff, but it keeps me in CDs.

Not much to say today. Not feeling bothered enough to say too much, I guess. I haven't been running lately. I ran last on Thursday of last week, my right shin was giving me problems. Probably shin splints, aggrivated by snow and ice, and running on trails on Thursday. I was so hoping to run more in January than I did in December. But, I'd rather take 4 days off now than more later, in the middle of marathon training. I'm pretty sure I know how I caused the injury this time around, and my goal is to take it pretty easy until the injury is gone. I'll try shuffling along today (it's supposed to be 32 or so), and see how that feels. Bah. Stupid me for trail running on Thursday.

posted by Jeremy at 9:51 AM

 
A good weekend. The wife's B-day was Saturday, and it was pretty good. She can't buy her luck with B-day dinners, though. Last year, it was the half-cooked salmon at Webers. This year we went to Real Seafood, which looked good, and she tried the Pan seared Sea Scallops. They were pretty bland, and she wasn't up for them very much. One of the 6 or so Scallops she did get were raw, as well. That's what you get for pan-seared, anyway, according to the cook, some just don't get cooked the way through. hmph. I had the swordfish, and it was quite tasty. I'd say it is worth trying again. It's quite expensive, but the pace is just right. They certainly don't hurry you there, with the ordering of each course after you have finished the prior course. I bought Sarah a pair of diamond earrings for her birthday, and she was very pleased. Otherwise, we didn't do much, we just pretty much relaxed and enjoyed each others company. Nothing too fancy. It looks like she will get a new Sony Clie (one of the SL20's) from her parents, which is nice. Should be here sometime this PM, and I'll help her set it up tonight, I think.

Caught a Michigan hockey game vs. Miami of Ohio. Michigan won 5-2. It was my first game at Yost. I sat in the student section with a couple of grad students, and they taught me all of the important things, like the Michigan fight song, and the proper ways of taunting the opposing goalie, visitors to the opposing penalty box, and other important things. I didn't know the words to the fight song before, and I mostly do now, which is good. At least it is an easy fight song. :-)

Hmm. Good football games this year, though it would be better if the Vikings were playing in the playoffs again. It's been two years now with the Vikes out of the playoffs. It's time for them to come back. There's hope on the horizon, with the victory of the last three games, and the number of close games that they played before this. I sense a turnaround in the franchise, and it's about time. It's not as bad as it is in Detroit, where I don't see such a turnaround. In Detroit, there just doesn't seem to be much hope. We'll see, though. Stranger things have happened.

On to other things. I've started to plot some of the future games I'd like to run in the next year or so. I have three ideas so far. Two of which are very silly. The first is a Call of Cthulhu d20 game, using the characters from Scooby Doo as the PCs in the game. Knowing my gaming group, it would probably start out very silly, and then grow more and more despairing, in true Call of Cthulhu fashion. The second would be a Spycraft d20 game, with some action heroes. I was thinking an A-Team type adventure, but I don't think it would fit well, unless I added more characters and made it a crossover with another show from the 80s' (Dukes of Hazzard?) :-) Something like that. I think it would be fun, and truly something to do to allow gamers to relax from any other serious game that is going on at the time. It would be in the classic A-team/cop show style, and something that would be fun. Make it a little corny, and cheesy. The cinematic style of Spycraft should lend itself well to this type of game, since it would be reminiscent of the TV-show genre of action that permeated the 80s. I may have to do this sooner than later. Perhaps April or May. I should work out the details between now and then.

The third game will be my next fantasy game. I think it will be set in the same region as the last game, and also set some time in the future, perhaps 10 years or so. Long enough for the Pcs prior actions to have an effect. My original concept for my first game was for the PCs to follow up on the actions of the followers of Tiamat immediately after the battle of the Gods after the Time of Troubles. However, I feel that the uneasiness that people have with the way various characters were treated after the battle, I feel that it is best to start fresh at first or second level.

I suppose it is a good idea if you know what I'm talking about. Here's some general context. The gaming group I participate in has varied between 8 and 9 members. They come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and everyone comes to the table with different ideas of what they want in the game. Dan, one of the players and I have had a couple of run-ins, one where we were two PCs, and one where I was the DM and he was the player. One was my fault, and one, I consider his. In the case of my game, he almost hosed the entire game (which was 14 months along at that point), because I challenged his character in a very non-standard way(partly by bending rules in the DMs favor. I was looking for a challenge for his character, since he was pursuing something I had not planned for. He didn't like it, and he decided to make his character paranoid, and run counter to everything he had wanted to do in the game to that point. It was very disturbing, and he even said that he had done it because of how I changed the rules. In the end, his character was dropped, he made a new one, and the path of the adventure changed. The aftermath of the whole process is that his PC wants vengeance for some real, and some imagined things. While it would be interesting, it opens up some paths that I don't want to go down again, and I'd rather start anew. I feel like that first group allowed people to get comfortable, and for people to find that comfort zones. I also felt that my game was much too directed. People had a good time, and I could afford to do lots of foreshadowing, and other things, because I did as much as I could to get people down a path. THere was room to move in that path, but the highway was set. Looking back, I'd like to give the PCs room to tell more of their tales than me. Now that I've got the tale I wanted to tell out of the way, now we can get to their stories.

Basically, the players resurrected an elder God from the land of Unther in the Forgotten Realms, through trial and tribulation. They didn't plan on bringing him back, it's just how it happened.
First, they awoke a mummy in an ancient tomb south of Chessenta. They thought they had defeated it, but instead it was the other way around. It had slain them to a man, utilized their corpses for ill, and then brought them back. The mummy was one of the lost kings of Unther, back in the time of the Elder Gods of Unther, when Enlil ruled. Because of the way that the gods of the Untheric people came to them in their time of need, their gods actually walked the Earth, and placed a piece of themselves in their most devout worshippers. They gave these men dominion over other men, and bid them rule. The deities themselves looked for a way to break through the barrier that prevented them from returning themselves to the planes, and prevented their worshippers from following them back to the home plane from which they all came. This Ex-King/Mummy (called Enliant) has a bit of the God Enlil in him, and Enlil was the Ruler of all of the Untheric Gods. They did some very terrible things in their time, these Kings and Gods, to try to get them, and their people home, but in the end, all that they tried went for nought. Enliant died to an elven sneak attack from the Chondalwood, and Enlil despaired from ever getting home, and passed beyond the barrier, leaving his people (and his son Gilgeam) to stay here. Gilgeam became a despot, and the Untheric nation became diminished. Finally, the PCs inadvertently wake this mummy, who, alone of all in the Realms, still contains a bit of Enlil's power. Well, later, there was a well of divine energy that was discovered in the Riders in the Sky Mountains, but that came much later for the party, and for me, as well.

Soon after, the Time of Troubles came to the Forgotten Realms, where the other Gods were cast down for some vast divine indiscrection. The PCs, one of whom worshipped Assuran, the God of Vengeance, found themselves in Assuran's service, as he united the disparate City States of Chessenta into a cohesive entity, and coerced them into putting together an army, which was to be used against Unther, who had ruled Chessenta long ago. Really, though Assuran was an Old Untheric God, from times long past, and he wanted the army to remove Gilgeam and his lackey Ramman from power, for a slight long past. He and PCs gather the army, when the Pcs learn that Enliant is indeed still alive (They were the ones slain, then resurrected). The PCs go chasing after the priest of Enlil, because they believe he is in search of a Well of Energy that Enlil might use for some nefarious reason. Besides, they don't know if he's good or evil, and Assuran could use the well, also.

The PCs get to the well and slay the Priest of Enlil, and one of the PCs taps the well for Assuran to use. And Finally, the PCs make it to the Battle of Thamon. There, Assuran fights Ramman, as the PCs battle to keep the servants of Ramman from interfering. Finally, Assuran defeats Ramman, with the help of the Energy well, yet Assuran falls unconscious from the many wounds inflicted upon him. At the end of one session, there is word that there is another army approaching from the east. It is the army of Anhur, the Mulhorandi deity of War, and Ramman's counterpart and equal. With Assuran defeated, who will the party turn to? Finally, Enliant appears, in the guise of a young Captain of the army, that the PCs met earlier. If the Pcs would allow him to partake of the energy that the PCs have tapped, he would fight Anhur off for them. The PCs, seeing no other way out, do so, and he is reunited with an energy source that is keyed to him. He sucks it dry, and drives off Anhur (who in the canon realms steals the energy of Ramman out from Assuran, making Assuran a very tragic figure indeed). Enliant is made a Lesser Power (though with not many worshippers, and the Army of Chessenta, while battered, still marches on). The Army conquers at least half of Unther in the first campaign, and both deities survive. Gilgeam is slain by Tiamat in this Forgotten Realms, but the invasion by Mulhorand does not proceed.

Anyway, I've really rambled today, it's time to stop.



posted by Jeremy at 11:49 AM