Keep Smiling

I missed this post from my Great Grand Uncle's WW I diary, so I am posting it late.
Entry #2
I left for Finner Camp in the advance party. Finner is in Co. Donegal, an ideal camping site, as the soil is very sandy.Our first experiences of soldiering left nothing to be desired, as our daily training included a bath until the weather got too rough. We were in tents and experienced some very rough weather, as we were on the coast of a very wild part. Our training continued steadily and we had some very nice route marches to neighboring towns, including Ballyshnnon, Bundoran, and Beleek. We remained in tents until the December 3rd.

Keep Smiling

Keep Smiling, that was the personal motto of W. McCormack my grandfather's uncle. One hundred years ago on September 9th he enlisted in the British army. I know this because I have a copy of the transcript of his diary from that time. I will try to post all his entries on a day by day basis for the next four years. This is big project and hope I can stick it out till the end. Some Entries like this first one are only one line but others are longer. There are some large time gaps and you will just have to manage as I won't "speed up time" for this project. I know its not roleplaying ( and I was going to put it in its own blog ) but its something people might like to read. I might move it over to a separate blog later sometime.

Entry #1

Enlisted at old town hall and drilled in Davidson's Yard Until the 27th September.

Summer Time

As the song goes its summer time and the living is easy. Except it isn't. The kids are home from school (yes I have kids, and they are very distracting). Reenacting season is going full swing. I do War Of 1812 reenacting, or as a friend calls it "1 to1 scale wargaming". I don't game much during the rest of the year but during the summer it's even less than that. I still think about gaming and I could still write about gaming. But I hit a wall of sorts back in the spring. I stopped posting for a while (I didn't feel like posting) and the weeks went by. The longer I didn't post the harder it felt to try and post something. That's it. Nothing happened, I didn't get sick or die or my computer blew up. I just stopped. To those of you whom still check this blog for new posts; thank you for persistence and patience. Consider this an ice breaker to get things flowing again. I have written down some ideas for future posts.

Here is the list :

-Homeless demi-humans, making your Drawves, Half-lings and Elves vagabonds in your world
-Spells as living entities, something Vancian this way comes
-Divine PCs, something to explain the hit point problem
-Building a background for the rules, making your world fit the game
-A new look at armour, coverage not type matters more
-Game mechanics as story elements, letting them bleed for art

 P.S. now I will have to commit to these as they are in print

I'ts NOT Dead Jim

Yeah OK, a long time without posting makes you wonder. No I haven't gone the way of the dodo. And there hasn't been any big personal crisis. I had an attack of; laziness, apathy, writer's block, alien intervention or whatever. I still have things to say about RPGs but I have been thinking of including war-games as well. The inspiration for this blog was the other RPG blogs. But role-playing is only part of my gaming life. I do very little dungeon delving (space ranging, mystery busting etc.) right now so it makes sense to me to include the other stuff I do. I won't replace anything, it will just supplement it. I thought at first to create another blog to accommodate this other material. That is still possible, but for now I will post some stuff here. Kind of like a test run. I will sort stuff with labels to make it easier to find what you are interested in. Please feel free to post feedback on this or anything else.  And as Robocop says; "Thank you for your co-operation."

Tempted by FATE

I have been tempted by FATE. I am still deciding on which of my favorite rules light generic systems to run a game with. That list has grown by one. My list now comprises of ;
 1. Risis by S. John Ross
 2. Story Engine by Precis Intermedia
 3. Fate by Evil Hat Productions

I downloaded the two books and some other goodies. I only paid a few bucks for them (currently the game is pay what want).
 I can justify this by knowing that I will buy the hard copy when its out. Fate comes in two flavours Core and Accelerated. The Core book comes in at whopping 310 pages! Kinda of much for a light RPG. This is however at the pocket book 6 by 9 inch format. And much of the book is give over to help in running the system and not the rules. The other book, Accelerated clocks in at just 50 pages in the same 6 by 9 size. More of what I expect from a system of its type.
  I'm not crazy about the cartoonish style artwork in the book, it's kind of a put off. It makes me think that the system is not for serious role-playing. I haven't had a chance to read it in depth yet. But at a glance so far I like what I see. Accelerated ditches the skill system of the core rules and replaces it with something called approaches. Approaches are a set of dice modifiers based on how you approach a task rather than which skills you use. I was at first skeptical. But however I have always detested skill systems in role-playing games. Approaches can help define your character without resorting to skills or stats allowing greater flexibility in design and play. I haven't made up my mind yet. Whether or not this is the system I will use. But I do consider it to be a solid entry on the list. I might just have to go pick up some fudge dice and fire up the printer and print out a copy of the Accelerated edition.

P.S> thanks to all of you still reading this blog during the long gaps in posting.

Too long of a Break

Hello, yes I know its been a while. I took a break. A short break that ended up being a longer break. After not posting for some time it became harder and harder to post something. So I just let it go for a while. I didn't mean to go this long but stuff happens. My fancy new speech to text program was supposed to help but it actually made it worse. Its kind of awkward talking to no one with people around. So I had to try to post at night. But its summer and the kids are up later. And I would get too tired to post so I would put it of til another day. That other day ended up being months later, sorry.
I am flattered that people kept looking at the blog despite not having written anything new. Thanks for hanging in there and waiting. Next stop new posts.

Appreciation Day

I own close to 300 rpg books. From perhaps two dozen systems. They all sit on shelves in my basement games room. Except for one. My Swords and Wizardry White Box rule book. It resides in my bed room, on a shelf near my bed. I read it frequently. It will be my choice rules for when I finally run a game again. Why? Well because I am a lazy GM. Its light and I don't have to remember a lot of rules. And its progressive, ascending AC is an option. (its one of the few things from 3rd ed liked). And Class as race is something that fits with my current ideas of a classic fantasy world. And its free. I'm not cheap but why pay when you don't have to. I will have to wrap this post up for now. A storm is coming in and I don't want the power to go out before I post this.

 -I will post more later.