Still Alive

Look at me, still typing when there’s science to do…

To be brief:  A family emergency has kept me more or less offline for the last month.  It’s one of those things that didn’t seem like it would take long, and then kept complicating until much more time had passed than I’d expected.

New posts will resume next week.  I’ll be on a lighter posting schedule for a little while — 1-2 posts per week, rather than the previous 2-3.

Kicking things off, I have an interview with Wolfgang Baur about Open Design and his latest 4e project, Fey of the Shadow Court.

Gencon in Review

I was treated to a short adventure of my own on my way home from Gencon: my return flight was evidently booked for September 16, instead of August 16.  Of course, with a hundred thousand gamers leaving Indianapolis on Sunday, all of the flights out were fully booked.  Fortunately, a ticketing agent for Continental went beyond the call of duty and managed to get me on a flight out on standby.  I regret to say that I didn’t get his name.  I can only say that I was a bit stressed at the time.  Still, I’m very grateful and will definitely keep Continental in mind for next year.  I’ll also keep a certain ticket-brokering website in mind, in a less favorable light.

Enough about me, though.  I’ve got a couple of impressions about the convention to report about.  Some of them might merit further discussion later on, but best to get the bullet points down now, while it’s fresh.

This post is part of August’s RPG Blog Carnival, hosted by Chgowiz.

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Off to Gencon

As of this afternoon, I’m on my way to Indianapolis for Gencon.  I’m traveling light again this year and won’t have a computer along, so there most likely won’t be any posts until I return next week.  (Build up a post buffer?  That’s crazy talk!)

If you’re going too, you can recognize me by the red Looney Labs flower on my black backpack.  Speaking of Looney Labs, let me give them my usual plug:  If they’re at the convention, drop by and ask for a demo or two.  They make some great games, like Fluxx and Zendo.  (There’s often a late-night game of Are You a Werewolf? going on in the convention hallway, too.)  They’ve had a room at the con in the past, although last year they didn’t make it, and I’m not sure about this year.  Worth taking a look, though!

And if you want a preview, you can play some of their games, including Fluxx, online.

One other thing of possible interest:  It seems that Wizards of the Coast is offering a special on the 4e Player’s Handbook at Gencon.  Buy another book, and you get the PHB for $5.  This is a loss-leader, sure, but it’s a pretty good deal if you haven’t got a book yet and you’re at all interested in trying 4e.  Hell, I’m thinking about maybe picking up a spare, if the deal’s good with Star Wars Saga Edition.

Anyway, see you next week.

One Year of ABD (Plus a little…)

Somehow, I completely missed this, but June 10 was the one-year anniversary of A Butterfly Dreaming.  So rather than the anniversary post I’d had planned, it looks like I’ve got a notice about going on hiatus for a week.  Ha.

In my defense, I had a couple of other things on my mind at the time, like finding transportation so I wouldn’t miss too much work.

Anyway, in belated celebration, I offer a couple of stats:

• A Butterfly Dreaming has 159 published posts to date (not including this one).
• Among these posts, I’ve written 172,102 words.  Or about two novels’ worth.
• That’s an average of about 1,082 words per post.  Apparently I like to talk a lot.
• Four of my five longest posts are reviews:  Dreaming Cities, Martial Power, Arcane Power, and Imperium Chronicles.  The other one is Battlegrounds: Clock Tower.  That’s not counting my 4e Monk project as a post.
• My shortest posts with original content to speak of — excluding status updates, links, and blurbs — are Fox Magic: Arcane Feats and More on Skill Challenges….
• I have no posts exactly 1,082 (or 1,081) words long.  The closest is Myth Direction, at 1,078 words.
• I have 10 partially-completed posts sitting in draft form, the oldest of which dates to Sept. 9, 2008.
• The tags I use most often are:  4e D&D (101), gamemastering (73), and worldbuilding (43).  The categories I use most often are: Philosophy and Rants (29), Original Game Content (27), and Advice (25).  That’s not including sub-categories with their parents, though.  All of my published posts have a category, but some (mostly status updates and holiday wishes) don’t have tags.

Year Two will be continuing presently.  Thanks for reading!

Never Split the Party

Words of sage advice.

Of course, there’s always someone, some time, who feels they know better.  Some players are inclined to split up at the drop of a hat.  I offered a little bit of advice for handling that situation in the article I linked, but what more can you do?

Personally, I let my players know, before the game begins, that I have no compunctions about allowing players who split from their parties to die.  Ordinarily, I don’t allow random chance to kill a character outright; I’ll fudge things far enough to give the character in question a chance.  I do, however, allow a character’s own stupidity to kill him outright.  I consider splitting up an act of stupidity most of the time.  It’s dangerous out there!

Perhaps an amusing cautionary tale would help, too.

(Okay, so that was all to share a cute video and ease back into blogging.  Sue me.)