Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Goblin Churgery! Just in time for Halloween!

Okay, it's not that bad. My wife did under go surgery this last weekend, and after much weeping, wailing, gnashing of teeth, threats, and other misbehavin' I managed to get the time off to sit with her. I don't think I've ever had to pull so many kryat dragon's teeth before in my life. And all just to be with my wife while she got half of her thyroid removed. What's worse is the Doctors were all pretty sure that she had cancer. This is me, thanking the good Lord, (Allah, Buddha, and who ever else may intervene on behalf of the poor and downtrodden) every morning that it turned out to not be cancer.
My beautiful wife now sports the coolest scar on her neck right now, though. All she needs to do is powder up and she can be a zombie for Halloween. That, or I'm pushing for a female version of the Kurgan. Hehehe... considering the fact that I once all but got a degree in ancient history and civilization just to run a Highlander campaign through a 5000 year period, it's pretty darn cool.
Ah, now there was a cool homemade game. I don't know how many of you have ever played the old White Wolf World of Darkness game. I loved the old stuff. There are times I still pine for the old game rules. The new stuff... I'm not too into it. I think the whole "Let's end the world, and restart it, the same, but far more disturbed, twisted, and less fluid" attitude kind of turned me off. I know, I know... the world must be ending, because I got turned off from a role-playing game. Well, it's true. Sad, isn't it? The man who used to play everyday of the week at the White Wolf website (www.white-wolf.com), almost religiously, now no longer plays the game. Maybe it's because it became to hope-less. Maybe it's because it's just not as well crafted for a background as it once was. Maybe it's because there's no more Mokolé. Actually... that last one may be a major reason. You don't play Grant Tyr on the WW's WoD chat RPG rooms for years and years, and don't expect to have some attachment to the little group of were-crocs.
I've looked over the newer rules and I've been tempted to sit down one day and do an updated WoD system Highlander rules. The original rules were great. I've been debating on more than one occasion to sit down and start writing up an update for the rules. I just really don't have the time. I barely have the time to work on this blog, homework, married life, gaming and work. Though, one never knows, maybe someday I'll get off my duff and spend the sleepless hours working on that personal holy grail. Hopefully that will happen before the next Highlander movie (which will either save of kill the franchise). If I ever do, I'll probably announce it here, first (Right after I tell my wife, which means she'll giggle and jump for joy. I'm such a lucky fella.)
So, I've been looking through the Dragon Magic and Complete Mage books. Personally, I think they're must-haves for any DM. Dragon Magic has some really good crunch to it. I'm reading through it right now, going through the materials in there in depth. There are a few things I'm not overly keen on, though. I really don't see the point behind the "dragonblooded" race diversifications. Honestly, I don't think there a need for another sub-group for each of the races. Also, anyone who gets Dragon magazine regularly will notice that more than a few things have just been reprinted. I think that's great. I don't have to go digging through my stacks of back issues to find it anymore. I do wish there was a few more original ideas, though. I love the idea of the dragon pact, and the dragonfire adept. Both very interesting concepts, and many feats, spells, and concepts that I plan on taking advantage of. Even the Prestige Classes (I just see Bob shivering) make sense in this book! Of course, there's going to be dragon specific prestige classes, and the PrCs in this book are very nice, indeed.
Complete Mage, on the other hand, has a ton of new stuff. The Feats made me drool. The Spells and items gave me ideas. The Character options, background ideas, campaign lead ins... all nice and mildly crunchy. The Prestige Classes seemed to fall a little flat for me, though. I don't know, I like the Warlock class... I just wasn't expecting a slew of PrCs meant just for that class. If that was the case, why not just call this book the Complete Warlock? Other than that, I like this book a lot as well. I have plans for this book.
Now... if only I can get my hands on a copy of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft... mwhahahah...
I'm in the planning stages of continuing the young dragon D&D game I run occasionally, but I am finding myself with more and more a hankering for either Serenity, or a d20 Future game. It's an odd state to be in right now. All in all, though, I need to be good, patient, not buy nuffin', and wait for my hunners to get feelin' better. I don't think anyone knows how much I watch her surgery, just to make sure NOTHING out of the ordinary happens. I guess the side effect of having a family member pass because of a "routine" procedure.
Until next time, faith, hope, love, charity, and an ample supply ofammunitionn...

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