Memorial Day Weekend Update & Random Thoughts

I've been quiet for some time now on G+ and here at my blog. This past month has had me busy at work and at home. With the weather warming up and the weekly yard work I've had less time to think about RPG's. We are in prime construction weather here in Illinois which means I'm staying busy at work with airport improvement projects and the seasonal HVAC issues at many of my sites. At home I've been busy with getting my Chargriller Smoker put together and varnishing the wooden bits. This Saturday I'll be seasoning up Charlie for her maiden voyage on Sunday. She'll be smoking me up a brisket for this Memorial Day weekend.

Just yesterday I made a trip to Rockford to pickup a used Char-Broil grill. It's missing a door but not bad for $60 used. This 6 burner baby retails for around $300 new. Not bad eh.

Soon I will be fixing up my front porch which will require at least a full weekend to repair then on to painting. This will have to wait after our family vacation in a couple of weeks. We're going to Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida. I'm dreading the drive. Google maps says it will take 18 hours but my father-in-law says it is more like 22 hours. I'm sure it'll be a blast once we get there but 22 hours in a car, ugh!

In my last blog post I said I was going to try to run a game of Tales from the Loop, well that game fell through. I might try to get it going again but lately I've been reading Rippers Resurrected and I'm getting interested in trying to start a campaign for this. I've played in a game of this before but I really didn't know anything about the setting so it didn't really sit well with me. Now that I've had a chance to read the first half of the players guide I really like some of the mechanics. I need to get back to writing because Con on the Cob is just around the corner on Veteran's Day weekend and I want to run a great game. I also need to work on my second Beasts & Barbarians adventure for the Fantasy Grounds Convention coming in October.

For the online FG Con, I plan to run a follow up adventure to The Curse Of Calimah. This first adventure was an introduction to the Beasts & Barbarians Pirates of the Dominions. I tried to design it so that it would ease the players into this new setting materiel without feeling like it was overly swashbuckling. This next adventure will solidify the characters' path into the murky seas of pirates amongst barbarians. They will have been Pirates of the Dominions under the tutalige (perhaps miguided) of the crew aboard Etu's Manhood for more than a month. This will allow the characters to have "forgotten" some skills in favor of learning new, more seaworthy ones to replace them. Captain Kodar has a special mission for the newest members of his carousing crew.

Lots of members from the Nerds International G+ community will be meeting up at Con on the Cob this year and I've been doing some research for a one shot I plan on running. I'm not 100% sure that I can make this work but I want to run a game titled Attack From Mars!. I've had Steve Jackson's GURPS Mars Attacks source book for some time now and have read it several times. I hope to have this adventure ready for the Con, which will include miniatures, maps, characters, bennies, and of course the story. So far the basic premise is that the Martians have landed and the players need to get to the most defensable building in town to fend off the never ending wave of Disintegrator Ray gun toting Martians.

Please take a moment this weekend to remember those that gave their life to keep this country free. I wish everyone a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend. Post your weekend pics on G+ for me to see.