Nerfed Gamers

So I have neglected this blog for about a month now, and I feel it’s time to get back into the habit of writing. Quite a bit has happened since I last posted something. I went to Gen Con and came back in one piece. For my first convention, it was a blast. I attended with my friend Bunnie, her fiance, and their mutual friend. I was worried that there was going to be a bit of awkwardness in this meeting, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well we got along. I had planned on doing a Call of Cthulhu one-shot with the group, but we never really found the time to do it.

The most important information I walked away with this year was sign up the moment games become available. Although I signed up for several events, I only managed to get into one gaming session on Sunday in the morning. I believe it was a Pathfinder Society scenario designed for characters level 5 to level 7. Of course, I didn’t have a character that high nor have I played in any Pathfinder Society games. As such, I was forced to take a pre-generated character and use it for the adventure. After having come off an entire year of playing a cleric in one of my friend’s games, I went with my old favorite. The game went pretty well, although after dealing with the people in my party, I am absolutely thankful for my regular group. We had a couple of grognards in the group that seemed to go out of their way to make the game painful at times. Other than that small inconvenience, I had fun.

I foresee that next year will be a much better experience. I will definitely sign up for only one or two seminars instead of five. Although they were fun, the seminars I attended seemed to coincide with some games I had wanted to attend. The other thing I intend to do is to force a local friend (or two) to come with me to the convention. I also plan to purchase my ticket months in advance instead of one week before the convention. $600 plane tickets are not very fun.

I suppose I’ll save what I was wanting to talk about for another time. My groups’ Pathfinder game starts in about four hours and I still haven’t written up the adventure for tonight. We are currently running the Kingmaker Adventure Path with about six players on average. They are at the end of the first book, but still not quite up to level three. I figure one good dungeon run with a lot of killing should get them to where they need to be. Time to start writing!

I believe I speak for everybody when I say humans love lists. What isn’t there to like about them? They can range from long collections of foods you should try to a small catalogue listing dangerous rugs you should avoid. Informative and concise, lists give just the information you need without any of the fat.

While browsing Digg earlier, I came across a list that ended with me in shock and disappointment. I am a gigantic advocate of reading. Since I was a small child, I loved to read. I have read a large variety of genres ranging from classical literature to the Warhammer 40K novels. Looking at this list, though, I am severely disappointed in myself. While I have heard of all of these books and read excerpts from most of them, I have not actually read a majority of them. I suppose I best get to reading. The list will be found after the cut, with the ones I have read in their entirety marked through.

(more…)

Ouch. I do believe that by not posting the past two days, I have failed in some form or another. I could blame it on my newly started Pathfinder campaign that is on Sunday nights, or the fact that I did not leave work until close to 9:30P. That does seem like the proper thing to do. However, I set out a goal that I would post at least something every day, and so I admit failure to achieve this. There is a bright side to this revelation. In failure we learn, and in learning we continue to improve upon our lives. Huzzah to cheesy maxims!

In two days I leave for GenCon. This will be the first convention I have ever attended. To say that I’m not nervous is an understatement. While I am going with friends who have been before, I am usually antsy about large crowds. Throw in that this is the largest gaming convention in North America and probably the world, and I have one daunting weekend. The events I look forward to the most are Chainmaille Dicebag, Video Games Live!, and a Pathfinder Society game early on Sunday morning. When I first wanted to attend GenCon, all I could think about were the crazy games I would play with other gamers. Looking at the events I have signed up for, that really doesn’t seem to be the case. Four of the seven events I have signed up for are  seminars with three of them relating to Pathfinder. There are are couple other seminars that I will try to attend including a first look at the Deathwatch game by Fantasy Flight Games. I will definitely post my exploits and possibly some pictures if I can get a hold of a digital camera.