The Day After Ragnarok

"Know, O Prince, that between the years when the Serpent fell and the oceans drank America and the gleaming cities, and the rise of the Sons of Space, there was an Age undreamed of, when nations guttered low and flared brilliant across the poisoned world like dying stars – California and Texas each claiming the flag of the West, France torn asunder and facing the desert, harsh Mexico, slumbering Brazil, Argentina where the seeds of Thule lay waiting, ancient lands of Persia and Arabia and Iraq between two empires, the coldly clutching Soviet Union whispering behind its Wall of Serpent, Japan whose warriors wore steel and silk and khaki. But the proudest kingdom of the world was Australia, the last green and pleasant land, ringed around by its dominions and bulwarked by the sea."

Doesn't that sound nice? A new Savage Worlds setting from Atomic Overmind written by Kenneth Hite. I've been itching for a post-apocalyptic game since FallOut 3 came out, and I was toying with the idea of converting that setting, but The Day After Ragnarok sounds too cool to pass up. Find out more at www.atomicovermind.com.

Trip to San Francisco?

Still thinking about it, still planning on it, but I need at least 2 other people to "commit," with a maximum of 3 other people (4 total with me). I'm thinking Friday August 28th through Monday, September 7th. Leave on that Friday, drive through to San Francisco by Monday, spend Monday through Friday in San Francisco, drive back on Friday and be back around Sunday September 6th. Monday September 7th is Labor Day, for reference.

So start thinking. Like the Boston trip this will be a budget vacation, staying at campgrounds and hitting the cheap but interesting sites around town. Gas will probably be the most expensive ticket, probably, but with four people it's much easier to bear.

Quarter Campaigns REVISITED

I think four campaigns strung one after another is a bit ... ambitious for us. For everyone, players and GMs included. So, while maintaining the concept of quarter campaigns, I'd like to propose the following general schedule:

January, February, March: Quarter Campaign

April: No campaign

May, June, July: Quarter Campaign

August: No campaign

September, October, November: Quarter Campaign

December: No campaign

This schedule allows for more flexibility while also avoiding potentially busy months. It also allows for more seasonal thematic campaigns to take place, such as the summer campaign or the fall campaign. December always tends to be pretty busy anyway, so picking things back up in January usually happens regardless.

If you haven't noticed, I like schedules and structures - it helps me know what to have prepared when and not not let things slip through the cracks.

Given the above schedule I'd like to propose the first Quarter Campaign - Pirates of the Spanish Main, a Savage Worlds game. Start in May, like Sunday May 3rd, and go on from there.

Star*Drive On the Horizon ... Again!

So I've been wrestling with what system to convert the Star*Drive campaign to. I like the setting a whole bunch, and I've been on the fence on whether to move to GURPS or Savage Worlds. GURPS is a much more complex game with rules and math to handle every situation, while Savage Worlds is light and easy to run and understand. You sacrifice the technical aspects of a sci-fi game with Savage Worlds, but you sacrifice ease of play with GURPS.

This has plagued me for going on two years? A long time. And I was working on it again last night when I came to a startling revelation.

I think I'll just keep Alternity. I'll need to tweak the system to remove levels but ... maybe I'll just use that. More thoughts required, but it certainly would be easier.

May 1st- Party Down in Mankato

Hey, everyone, I'm almost done with my semester down here in Mankato, and I think a good way to celebrate would be to invite some people down here for some fun stuff. There are a couple of disc golf courses we could try in the Mankato area (weather permitting) and perhaps we could play my or David's recently published adventures, or just some Apples to Apples and board games. Anyway, expect food, drink, and entertainment. Well, I hope to see some people down on May 1st, then (sadly, I only have room for about seven- any more than that could get a bit cramped). See ya!

Harris

http://www.inkato.com/page/kato_frolf.html

Quarter Campaigns?

I've got a lot of stuff I'd like to do when it comes to RPGs. Lots of settings I'd like to try out, lots of cool books to utilize, lots of stories to tell. So I would like to propose the following concept: Quarter Campaigns.

The concept follows the fact that we can divide a calendar year into four quarters - Jan/Feb/Mar, Apr/May/June, July/Aug/Sept, and Oct/Nov/Dec. Each quarter gets three months, or about 12 weeks, which I think is a good length for an RPG campaign from start to finish. At least a campaign people haven't played before and aren't quite sure how it would work for them.

At the end of quarter I'd like to have some sort of retrospective, probably over a meal at some moderately fancy restaurant. Sort of a "hey we just completed a campaign how did it go" kind of thing.

Since we're into Q2 of 2009 I'm going to propose we just keep plowing forward with Call of Cthulhu: Day of the Beast for this Quarter Campaign. We can DEFINITELY finish it up before the end of June if we keep up with regular sessions - Sundays or Fridays when there's no Star Wars seem to be the best. But maybe Saturdays.

For the Q3 2009 Campaign I'd like to go with a swashbuckling 7th Sea type game using the Savage Worlds rules. Not sure if I'd actually use the 7th Sea setting or just go with a more real-world type setting (with a healthy dose of unreality in there as well). Suggestions welcome.

My Blog

Some of you (now that its been established that more than just me check out the blog) have expressed interest in viewing the project I've been working on recently. It is a record of my attempt to read the various religious texts of the world to get a better understanding of the world's faiths and beliefs. While I would greatly appreciate any interest or feedback, my writing is mainly for my own practice and is probably fairly boring for anyone but me. I make no pretenses to any great insights into the spiritual, or even good writing. Oh well!

http://spoonbridge.wordpress.com