I'm back from vacation, tanned, rested and ready to rock!
So to speak.
Look for blog posts regarding my current fantasy game, especially some of the props I use/have created for it.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
The Usual Middle of the Year Burn Out
Yeah, lots going on, not all of it RPG related and I'm hitting the wall.
I've got some home improvement stuff that has sidelined me lately, as well as some vacation-oriented stuff and the usual time-consuming things I do throughout the week.
I was hoping to get up a new Bounty Hunter of the Month before the end of August, but we'll have to see if that materializes. I'm working on prepping for me next tabletop RPG as well...so...yeah. Lots of stuff going on and I'm needing a break soon.
Anyway, for the two folks out there that follows this blog and the website, just thought I would give you a heads up...enjoy the current fiction I posted and all fo the other offerings we've acquired over the last eight years, I'll let you know when something new pops up.
I've got some home improvement stuff that has sidelined me lately, as well as some vacation-oriented stuff and the usual time-consuming things I do throughout the week.
I was hoping to get up a new Bounty Hunter of the Month before the end of August, but we'll have to see if that materializes. I'm working on prepping for me next tabletop RPG as well...so...yeah. Lots of stuff going on and I'm needing a break soon.
Anyway, for the two folks out there that follows this blog and the website, just thought I would give you a heads up...enjoy the current fiction I posted and all fo the other offerings we've acquired over the last eight years, I'll let you know when something new pops up.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Why So Serious?
You know, I read a lot of blogs. Being fortunate enough to have a job that literally allows me to work on my hobbies while paying me a crazy amount of money, I fill about six of the eight hours of my day at work by surfing the web, working on fiction and reading the musings of others gamers.
And one thing I noticed is this:
People take this hobby or ours way too damn seriously.
Really...for all of the rhetoric, discussion and emotional investment I've seen people make, in the end, it's just something to do for fun. Now, if arguing and beating your head against the wall is your idea of fun, so be it. But me? I like to just sit down and toss some dice. That’s it, pure and simple.
Sure, I run a website based off an old campaign I used to participate in, but again, that’s more so that I can continue other hobbies I have, namely writing and creating art. The website simply offers inspiration.
But man, a lot of people seem to have a lot to say about something we all seem to do just for fun, and not always in the nicest or most respectable of ways.
I guess it's the need to be heard. Or the need some feel for validation of this hobby, or something. Hell, maybe it's just to try to feel smarter than the next guy because you can stat out a 13th level half human, half dragon wizard blindfolded while sucking on a Popsicle, I really don't know.
Funny thing, and I guess this gives rise to why we hear so much about the Old School Renaissance lately, is that ultimately, the pen and paper RPG is going to die.
Sure, it might take a while, and yeah, there are going to continue to be those who play it, and even those who write homebrewed stuff, but eventually, as technology advances and the generations get further and further away from the original RPG roots, the demand for something as archaic as a pen and paper rpg is going to die off. Hell, it's already happening. You see how small publishers struggle and try to adapt, only, ultimately, to fail (or publish their stuff for next to nothing on the web as PDF's). Even the big daddy, Wizards is struggling and constantly adapting it's business model to try to keep up with the changing desires of its consumers. But that's also just delaying the inevitable, because ultimately, the cost-to-profit ratio will make producing these books bad business, and Wizards will turn away from P&P Rpg's and become enveloped into other areas of Hasbro (which I think is happening already-gradually). It may not be in the next few years, but eventually, as video games continue to evolve (see Project Natal for the 360, but I know you already have, haventhcha?)the new generations of gamers who grew up on video game RPG's won't even look twice at a dice bag, or if they do, they'll wonder what the hell you do with it. That's technology filks, and it's not just hitting the RPG industry...look at Baseball cards, or any other hobby that falls into the category of a "niche" hobby...they have their heyday, then, gradually, disappear as something else takes their place.
I think this whole "OSR" as it's being called is simply older players trying to come to grips with the fact that their hobby will one day be as dead as they will. In many ways, I think this has whole movement is spawned not from a sense of nostalgia, but adult gamers trying to come to grips with their own mortality. And I think what gave it rise with the death of Gary Gygax. When we saw the father of the RPG die, followed by the death of Dave Arneson, it resonated with us, reminding us that we are all mortal, and to a degree, their death foreshadows the death of the RPG as we know it.
So, players and lovers of the game do what we ALL do when faced with the imminent demise of something we love: We try to resurrect it in some way.
Thus the OSR.
At the end of the day, I think we should all put differences, preferences and rhetoric aside and just sit down and enjoy what we have for as long as we have it. And if blogging endlessly about it is your way of taking the game off of the table and into a place where you can enjoy it, well, I guess I can get behind that too.
But the "old school" versus "new school" discussions are laughable, because at the end of the day, on a long enough timeline, it's all "old school".
So seriously, just game.
And one thing I noticed is this:
People take this hobby or ours way too damn seriously.
Really...for all of the rhetoric, discussion and emotional investment I've seen people make, in the end, it's just something to do for fun. Now, if arguing and beating your head against the wall is your idea of fun, so be it. But me? I like to just sit down and toss some dice. That’s it, pure and simple.
Sure, I run a website based off an old campaign I used to participate in, but again, that’s more so that I can continue other hobbies I have, namely writing and creating art. The website simply offers inspiration.
But man, a lot of people seem to have a lot to say about something we all seem to do just for fun, and not always in the nicest or most respectable of ways.
I guess it's the need to be heard. Or the need some feel for validation of this hobby, or something. Hell, maybe it's just to try to feel smarter than the next guy because you can stat out a 13th level half human, half dragon wizard blindfolded while sucking on a Popsicle, I really don't know.
Funny thing, and I guess this gives rise to why we hear so much about the Old School Renaissance lately, is that ultimately, the pen and paper RPG is going to die.
Sure, it might take a while, and yeah, there are going to continue to be those who play it, and even those who write homebrewed stuff, but eventually, as technology advances and the generations get further and further away from the original RPG roots, the demand for something as archaic as a pen and paper rpg is going to die off. Hell, it's already happening. You see how small publishers struggle and try to adapt, only, ultimately, to fail (or publish their stuff for next to nothing on the web as PDF's). Even the big daddy, Wizards is struggling and constantly adapting it's business model to try to keep up with the changing desires of its consumers. But that's also just delaying the inevitable, because ultimately, the cost-to-profit ratio will make producing these books bad business, and Wizards will turn away from P&P Rpg's and become enveloped into other areas of Hasbro (which I think is happening already-gradually). It may not be in the next few years, but eventually, as video games continue to evolve (see Project Natal for the 360, but I know you already have, haventhcha?)the new generations of gamers who grew up on video game RPG's won't even look twice at a dice bag, or if they do, they'll wonder what the hell you do with it. That's technology filks, and it's not just hitting the RPG industry...look at Baseball cards, or any other hobby that falls into the category of a "niche" hobby...they have their heyday, then, gradually, disappear as something else takes their place.
I think this whole "OSR" as it's being called is simply older players trying to come to grips with the fact that their hobby will one day be as dead as they will. In many ways, I think this has whole movement is spawned not from a sense of nostalgia, but adult gamers trying to come to grips with their own mortality. And I think what gave it rise with the death of Gary Gygax. When we saw the father of the RPG die, followed by the death of Dave Arneson, it resonated with us, reminding us that we are all mortal, and to a degree, their death foreshadows the death of the RPG as we know it.
So, players and lovers of the game do what we ALL do when faced with the imminent demise of something we love: We try to resurrect it in some way.
Thus the OSR.
At the end of the day, I think we should all put differences, preferences and rhetoric aside and just sit down and enjoy what we have for as long as we have it. And if blogging endlessly about it is your way of taking the game off of the table and into a place where you can enjoy it, well, I guess I can get behind that too.
But the "old school" versus "new school" discussions are laughable, because at the end of the day, on a long enough timeline, it's all "old school".
So seriously, just game.
Monday, July 20, 2009
New Fiction is up!!!!
Well, I've put off posting the new ficiton long enough! It's as my wife said, "If you wait until you have everything done you want to get done you won't be posting the fiction for at least another month or longer."
Well, she's right! And since this fiction has been ready to go up for the past few months, I see no reason to delay it any longer just so I can be a perfectionist. Anyway! It's here! And it's up! You can follow the link below to find it and I think you will enjoy it. Book III wraps up the Episode: 10 Rebirth story line and ushers in a new age in Raptor Squad mythology. Questions are answered, new ones are asked and the teams heads in a different and exciting direction. The tension and drama are ramped up in this one folks, and the sparks begin to fly! Friendships are broken, people are betrayed and characters die! So! Enjoy the read and of course we would love to hear your feedback.
Raptorsquad.Net
Well, she's right! And since this fiction has been ready to go up for the past few months, I see no reason to delay it any longer just so I can be a perfectionist. Anyway! It's here! And it's up! You can follow the link below to find it and I think you will enjoy it. Book III wraps up the Episode: 10 Rebirth story line and ushers in a new age in Raptor Squad mythology. Questions are answered, new ones are asked and the teams heads in a different and exciting direction. The tension and drama are ramped up in this one folks, and the sparks begin to fly! Friendships are broken, people are betrayed and characters die! So! Enjoy the read and of course we would love to hear your feedback.
Raptorsquad.Net
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Walkin' & Talkin'
My wife Elfgirl and I went for a walk the other night around our neighborhood, and the following discussion transpired. I thought it was interesting and wanted to go ahead and post it here, and to me, this sums up the difference as to why I prefer D6 above all other systems I’ve played.
Enjoy
Me: You know what I don’t understand…you and your sister used to play old school D&D when you were young, where character deaths occurred like, every five minutes.
Elfgirl: True. In the Temple of Elemental Evil we went through a few characters each.
Me: Right. So now, when your characters die, or even get close to dying, you guys act like I just ran over your kitten with a lawn mower. What gives? Shouldn’t you guys be numb to TPK’s and character death by now?
Elfgirl: Well, it’s not the same.
Me: How so? And speed up, you’re lagging.
Elfgirl: Well, in old school D&D you really had no control over your character’s stats. They were randomly generated and you had whatever you rolled. You were basically “trapped” by whatever the dice came up. In D6 you can customize your character- put your D wherever you want and in what abilities you think the character will utilize the most.
Me: Ah…
Elfgirl: Yeah, it makes you more in tune and connected to your character. When you can craft your PC from the ground up, customizing what they are and what abilities and skills they have, it’s a greater investment as a player, rather than having some random rolls determine what your character is good at.
Me: So when your creation is threatened, it’s not just some character that was effectively thrust on you that you had little real control over creating (outside of a name), it’s more disconcerting.
Elfgirl: Right. We, as players, have invested a lot of time crafting our PC’s to be what we want, so when they take a beating or die, there is a greater sense of loss.
Me: Gotcha. Well that makes sense. Still, the game is pretty lethal, so at the end of the day, your PC’s, and by extension, you the players, need to start using your heads a little more and investing some time in studying your inventory and what you have and what you can use in certain situations. It’s not my job to remind you that you have a potion or scroll that would help you out of a bind, it’s YOUR job to remember these things, and if you don’t? Well, I see that as little different than taking an ill-advised course of action that results in a PC’s death. At the end of the day, in my game, as in life, ignorance is no excuse.
So!
An interesting discussion I thought.
Enjoy
Me: You know what I don’t understand…you and your sister used to play old school D&D when you were young, where character deaths occurred like, every five minutes.
Elfgirl: True. In the Temple of Elemental Evil we went through a few characters each.
Me: Right. So now, when your characters die, or even get close to dying, you guys act like I just ran over your kitten with a lawn mower. What gives? Shouldn’t you guys be numb to TPK’s and character death by now?
Elfgirl: Well, it’s not the same.
Me: How so? And speed up, you’re lagging.
Elfgirl: Well, in old school D&D you really had no control over your character’s stats. They were randomly generated and you had whatever you rolled. You were basically “trapped” by whatever the dice came up. In D6 you can customize your character- put your D wherever you want and in what abilities you think the character will utilize the most.
Me: Ah…
Elfgirl: Yeah, it makes you more in tune and connected to your character. When you can craft your PC from the ground up, customizing what they are and what abilities and skills they have, it’s a greater investment as a player, rather than having some random rolls determine what your character is good at.
Me: So when your creation is threatened, it’s not just some character that was effectively thrust on you that you had little real control over creating (outside of a name), it’s more disconcerting.
Elfgirl: Right. We, as players, have invested a lot of time crafting our PC’s to be what we want, so when they take a beating or die, there is a greater sense of loss.
Me: Gotcha. Well that makes sense. Still, the game is pretty lethal, so at the end of the day, your PC’s, and by extension, you the players, need to start using your heads a little more and investing some time in studying your inventory and what you have and what you can use in certain situations. It’s not my job to remind you that you have a potion or scroll that would help you out of a bind, it’s YOUR job to remember these things, and if you don’t? Well, I see that as little different than taking an ill-advised course of action that results in a PC’s death. At the end of the day, in my game, as in life, ignorance is no excuse.
So!
An interesting discussion I thought.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Days of Future Past
Small update this time. Cleaned up the Links section and doctored up some code on various pages. Wow, in deleting some of the links from the site it appears the state of SWRPG websites is kinda depressing. No worries though, your pals here at RS will be around for quite a while.
The above sentence was written almost eight years ago.
Man how things have changed- and not necessarily for the better.
I’m not going to waste time reminiscing about how the SWRPG community used to be, suffice to say though, that it was a hell of a lot better than it is now-especially because there was a community. Now? Now I honestly can’t say that.
It’s sad really, to see sites wither away and die off. Hell, the laundry list of great sites that have disappeared goes on and on:
StarwarsRPG.net
Tales of the Lost Star Warriors
Jedi Sanctuary
SWRPG Reviewed Sites
Elrood Sector: Tales of the Freespirit
Servais Sector
Just to go to those pages and see 404 messages or placeholder pages makes my stomach churn.
Yeah, I know a lot of it is because people get older, responsibilities change and they lose interest. But that doesn’t make it any better.
Ultimately, I know Raptor Squad won’t last forever either. I’m sure, some day in the future I’ll fall prey to the ravages of real life (and have already in some cases) and the site will cease to be updated with new content.
But I can guarantee you this folks: As long as it’s within my power, the site isn’t going anywhere. And I have a few things to do before I hang it up for good. We’ve been going strong for over eight years and too much work and sweat and effort and cash has gone into this site for me to just shut it down and walk away.
I’m proud of what I’ve created, because I feel like it’s unique and special and not something you can see just anywhere, and to let it die off like some sites have would be a disservice not only to the community but to what the site stands for and the people who have worked hard to make it what it is.
So! We’ve still got some gas in the tank, still have a few destinations to hit before we wrap up this crazy wild trip, and I can keep going for a few hundred more miles at least (course’ every now and then I might need to pull off at a rest stop and take a break), hopefully you folks will sit tight and see where we take you.
I promise you it will be worth it.
The above sentence was written almost eight years ago.
Man how things have changed- and not necessarily for the better.
I’m not going to waste time reminiscing about how the SWRPG community used to be, suffice to say though, that it was a hell of a lot better than it is now-especially because there was a community. Now? Now I honestly can’t say that.
It’s sad really, to see sites wither away and die off. Hell, the laundry list of great sites that have disappeared goes on and on:
StarwarsRPG.net
Tales of the Lost Star Warriors
Jedi Sanctuary
SWRPG Reviewed Sites
Elrood Sector: Tales of the Freespirit
Servais Sector
Just to go to those pages and see 404 messages or placeholder pages makes my stomach churn.
Yeah, I know a lot of it is because people get older, responsibilities change and they lose interest. But that doesn’t make it any better.
Ultimately, I know Raptor Squad won’t last forever either. I’m sure, some day in the future I’ll fall prey to the ravages of real life (and have already in some cases) and the site will cease to be updated with new content.
But I can guarantee you this folks: As long as it’s within my power, the site isn’t going anywhere. And I have a few things to do before I hang it up for good. We’ve been going strong for over eight years and too much work and sweat and effort and cash has gone into this site for me to just shut it down and walk away.
I’m proud of what I’ve created, because I feel like it’s unique and special and not something you can see just anywhere, and to let it die off like some sites have would be a disservice not only to the community but to what the site stands for and the people who have worked hard to make it what it is.
So! We’ve still got some gas in the tank, still have a few destinations to hit before we wrap up this crazy wild trip, and I can keep going for a few hundred more miles at least (course’ every now and then I might need to pull off at a rest stop and take a break), hopefully you folks will sit tight and see where we take you.
I promise you it will be worth it.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Ep 10 Book 3 is DONE!
Finished! Completed!
However, not quite ready to post yet.
Still working on the artwork for this installment, but start to finish, Episode Ten (all 3 books) has weighed in at a whopping 547 pages.
WOWZER!!
I'm really happy with it as well, and I think this fiction really was a breakout for me..in terms of plotting, pacing and overall craft I think I really made some strides in it's creation.
I still have a lot to learn in regards to writing, but I'm also of the mind you never really quit learning in life, so I'm comfortable with that. I learned a lot while writing this fiction and in the eighteen months since I began. One of the most important things I learned is that when you hit a wall and the words just aren't coming to you- forge ahead. Get past the writers block and keep moving. Sitting around and trying to figure out how to overcome it doesn't work, you've got to put your nose down and stay focused and keep writing, because ultimately you will always come back to rewrite what you don't like anyways. What you first put down on paper (or screen) is seldom the end result...merely a foundation that gets reworked until you are happy with it.
So! Hopefully you fans out there will be seeing this new fiction posted by the time my summer vacation comes around at the end of the month and I hope you enjoy it. I know I enjoyed writing it and more importantly enjoyed advancing the adventures of our Big Damn Heroes.
For those who have already asked me, yes, I have every intention of compiling Episode 10 into one physical paperback novel you can hold in your grubby little hands. I'll post when I have more info on the cost and whatnot and you can feel free to e-mail me and I'll send you the deets.
However, not quite ready to post yet.
Still working on the artwork for this installment, but start to finish, Episode Ten (all 3 books) has weighed in at a whopping 547 pages.
WOWZER!!
I'm really happy with it as well, and I think this fiction really was a breakout for me..in terms of plotting, pacing and overall craft I think I really made some strides in it's creation.
I still have a lot to learn in regards to writing, but I'm also of the mind you never really quit learning in life, so I'm comfortable with that. I learned a lot while writing this fiction and in the eighteen months since I began. One of the most important things I learned is that when you hit a wall and the words just aren't coming to you- forge ahead. Get past the writers block and keep moving. Sitting around and trying to figure out how to overcome it doesn't work, you've got to put your nose down and stay focused and keep writing, because ultimately you will always come back to rewrite what you don't like anyways. What you first put down on paper (or screen) is seldom the end result...merely a foundation that gets reworked until you are happy with it.
So! Hopefully you fans out there will be seeing this new fiction posted by the time my summer vacation comes around at the end of the month and I hope you enjoy it. I know I enjoyed writing it and more importantly enjoyed advancing the adventures of our Big Damn Heroes.
For those who have already asked me, yes, I have every intention of compiling Episode 10 into one physical paperback novel you can hold in your grubby little hands. I'll post when I have more info on the cost and whatnot and you can feel free to e-mail me and I'll send you the deets.
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