Timewaster's Guide Archive

I remember that we often wanted to be Wonder Woman.

I'm suddenly VERY VERY glad I'm a couple thousand miles away from you now.

It's definitely true. Watched a commercial for it in my car during lunch (I tend to hide in there during lunch, otherwise, my jerk supervisor thinks she can come ask me to do things while I'm on my break. This way, I can catch up on Sabrina the Teenage Witch instead of watching Wolf Blitzer, who (while he has the coolest name in existence) has gotten on my nerves since he doesn't have anything new to say. Yes, that's how bored/annoyed I am with this war: I would rather sit in my cramped car and watch SABRINA (and not even the cartoon, the live action one) on an 6" screen than CNN.

Anyway, I saw a commercial for theatrical presentations of Spirited Away. Go to. I'm hoping to do so as well.

There's a lot of good player campaigns out there? Where I haven't even thought to look. I haven't played with it for many months because I had lost the install discs. Give me information! NOW!

Fell, uh... we're ALL embarassed you know that much..

My new gaming group has been under a spell of disruption. We only plan to meet twice a month, but even that seems difficult, as two weeks ago one of us was sent to go shoot at Iraqis (reluctantly so, both his characters he recently made were simple merchants disinterested in any sort of "action," an interesting view into the psyche of the military gamer). Then, our other military member had to work because of the war. But anyway, we have had one session, where we decided on two games (alternating sessions) and made characters. Hopefully we'll find another player and be able to meet more often. But anyway.

The idea of our group was that none of us have a lot of time, but REALLY want to game. Also, the only two of us who want to referee also want to play, so we figured if we only had to prepare an adventure once a month, it'd be all right. Hopefully this works out despite our first session being postponed. *shakes fist at Bush for interrupting his gaming session with his petty war*

Game #1: Fulminata
Fulminata is set in an alternat history Ancient Rome where gunpowder was discovered pretty early on. My character is a centurian, kinda slow witted, but not stupid, and of good lineage and legendary speed and dexterity. He's pretty darn handy with a spear, in other words, but don't expect him to beat you at chess, which is why he only gets 100 men despite his birth. He is accompanied by a spy who has been assigned to his unit and a body guard. We had a merchant attached to the unit drafted to produce/find our fulminata (the gunpowder), but again, the player got shipped to Iraq, hopefully he's safe and we'll get another player. We find out what their adventures are in 2 weeks.

Game #2: I'm running a game of 3rd Ed. D&D, using a campaign model I borrowed from EUOL, so people like 42 and Fell will recognize this one.
Every 1000 years there is a contest of the three main gods: Ryderin (the nature/chaos/forceful god), Irecus (Judicious but caring, cunning but good), and The Dark One (I renamed him). The first god to win two contests (fought, of course, by champions) gets permanent possession of the world. The Dark One was the victor of contest one, and thus dominates the next 1000 years, the end of which is approaching: this means the elves (followers of Ryderin, mostly) are nearly wiped out (except the drow, who follow the Dark One) and the gnomes are an enslaved and degraded race. There are no more halflings, and orcs, ogres, and demons are common enough in cities (guess who they serve). Most people don't believe in magic (aside from the drow and demons, who are given use of it by the Dark One), and many don't even believe in Ryderin or Irecus -- those who do practice in secret for other worship is punishable by death.
Enter our heroes (unnamed, as yet). A Drow who lost his position of honor due to court politics. He naturally wants revenge, but it hasn't hurt his faith any as this sort of thing is supposed to happen, just a result of normal intrigue. He has some magic at his command, but he's not going to tell the people he's recruiting to help him (all of which are below his station, as no one else can be compelled to do it).
The first guy he has to help him appears to be mostly ogre. About as sharp as a sack of wet mice, he pretty much does anything he's told. Big brute. Yeah, that's about it. (although we'll learn more about him later -- and yes, if you know about Zhom, he is very much modeled on him, the player rolled 4s for Intelligence and Wisdom, just like I had when I made Zhom, so I thought I'd give him the option, he took it).
Then there's the brute's buddy. The brains of the outfit, and on the make, he's a con artist dwarf. He managed to avoid any real work assignments mostly by hiding. He sees the value in keeping a big, strong brute around to defend him when things get hairy. He smells a chance for some coin, and helping the drow out certainly beats another night in the sewers. Though he's about to find out what the Drow really wants.
Again, we really hope we find another player, but action doesn't start for a month.

Will anyone hate me if I tell you that I think the Oscars are a waste of time even for people who glorify wasting time?

In an interesting development, I couldn't find anything about it on Slashdot. Which was weird. I submitted the story, "anonymously." Which means if my search was correct, I don't know if they'll even put my "masked platypus" moniker on the story. Whatever. I kind of have a subtle self loathing for every nerd who reads that regularly anyway. We'll see.