Alpha Omega

My fellow roleplayers and I have recently 'finished' our D&D4 campaign. That is to say, we defeated the Big Bad Evil Guy and (kind of sort of) neutralized the threat. There are still plenty of loose ends that we can tie up, but nothing significant to prevent a welcome ingame vacation.

We've taken this opportunity to start something new -- at least for a while. The DM has become a player and yours truly is promoted to Game Moderator for a thrilling post-apocalyptic sci-fi game of Alpha Omega.

Everyone is very excited, and the effort that's being put in character creation and group building is just plain awesome -- a GM's dream come true.

Now I just hope that I can live up to the players' expectations and deliver a rich, exciting experience...

Game on!

I have the best wife a gamemaster could wish for.

Due to serious time constraints, what with a family and a demanding job, I've been deprived of my games for the last half year or so. Last week, though, I read an article about playing solo campaigns, and it suddenly dawned on me. If I could get my wife, who had played in my group sessions before, to agree to a solo adventure, we might just squeeze in sessions during evenings between dinner and bedtime.

And she agreed. We decided that D&D Pathfinder would be the best system since she was somewhat familiar with 3.5, and the Pathfinder rules don't change much. During the last couple of days, she rolled up a character she wanted to play, while I decided which adventure to run. She chose to play something completely unlike her: a male dwarven barbarian; I decided to run the first Pathfinder adventure path, Rise of the Runelords, slightly modified to work for a single player, and with the Pathfinder Beta rules.

I'm very anxious to see how this will turn out; it will certainly have a couple of positive effects. I will be able to spend time on at least one hobby again; I can improve on my GM and narrative skills; she can improve on her rules knowledge; and I finally get to see hands-on how the Pathfinder adventures play.

Baby, you're the best!

Looking for D&D players

The D&D campaign that I was playing with a couple of friends for the last year has unfortunately died a slow death. Due to some major personal changes for almost all players, it was getting very difficult to get everyone together on a regular basis. Furthermore, interest waned as the story progression was grinding to a snail's pace -- at best, we played for four hours every two weeks.

Now that our daughter is born, our free time can be shaped again around our busy lifes. I'm hoping to fit a new D&D campaign in there, preferrably a little more intensive than the previous one.

So, this is a call to everyone who is interested in playing a new Pathfinder RPG (which is a slightly modified D&D 3.5) campaign. I'm looking for 3 to 5 players who

• live near Dendermonde, Belgium;
• can find the time to play one evening (or afternoon) a week;
• would like to play seriously for an extended period of time -- it's a full adventure path, which is going to take at least 2 years to finish.

If you meet these criteria, and are willing to meet new people in a friendly and fun environment of gaming, drop me a line. Also have a look at the Obsidian Portal wiki I've set up.

I can't wait to hear from you!

Brain Teaser Paradise

A nice little discovery in the obscure shadows of the internet: the website of Vegard Hanssens.

Among a few interesting math applications (such as fractals and birth primes), he's got a number of challenging puzzles on there as well. Each puzzle type has a huge database of specific puzzles, and for each one you have the option to solve it online, print it out, or let it solve itself. I suggest to go check it out.

My personal favorites are the hashi and arukone puzzles.

D&D 4E

It's been a week since the new 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons came out, and a lot of interesting reviews have already been written:

• First Impressions (Gnome Stew)
• Dungeon Master's Guide review (Musings of the Chatty DM)

While at first I was very skeptical about the new edition, having read the reviews and skimmed a colleague's copy of the Core Rules books did convince me to at least try it out. Some of the stuff really got me interested.

Even though I don't plan on buying the books, I'm definitely willing to play the game. Perhaps I will get me a copy in the future (when they have their first, or maybe even second, revision published), but I got myself too much 3.5 material at the moment to be wanting to switch editions. Furthermore, Paizo announced that they will keep their Pathfinder products 3.5 compatible. I will probaby buy that Pathfinder RPG book.

Bonded

So, the wedding was last saturday, and I have to say it was everything it should have been. Except for the weather, maybe (there was no sun, but that didn't bother us in the least), the entire day was as perfect as it could be. Everything appeared to be meticulously planned and executed, even though we just let ourselves go with the flow and just had a great time.

The civil wedding in the morning was quite okay. It took half an hour for the official to say his thing, have us sign the papers, and congratulate us.

During noon, we went to my wife's parents' house to relax and have lunch. It was really comfortable and enjoyable, having everyone close to us be there.

The service in the church was good (no hassle with rings not wanting to slide over fingers, or witnesses not showing up, or anything). Our son stole the show, though, running around and playing in front of the altar and doing his cute little dance whenever the fanfare played their music. I think the people attending the service payed more attention to him than to what the priest was saying.

Then we went on to the reception, the evening dinner and the dance party, all at the same place. The food was excellent, the staff was courteous, fast, friendly, and clean, the place was very cozy, and the DJ did his job very well (at any time during the dancing party, there were more people on the dance floor than sitting at their tables, which you don't see all that often at weddings).

What I liked most was seeing everyone at the evening feast honestly enjoying themselves. That really gave me a kick.

Too bad you can have this day only once in your life (at least, that's the point).

Sneak attacked!

This weekend, my friends completely surprised me with a bachelor party (yeah, I'm marrying in two weeks).

It was a great evening, filled with the sweet nostalgia of staying up all night playing games and having fun. We went out for dinner (japanese) and spent the night at a friend's apartment in Leuven, where we played boardgames and console games (Wii and PS2) until sunrise.

Oh yeah, and they got me a stripper. It's weird, but you really get to know yourself a little better at a moment like that. The thoughts going through my mind when she was 'working' on me, were not the thoughts I'd have expected. Here are two:

1. "Will she stay afterwards for a chat? I'm really curious why she chose this job," and
   
2. "Damn, I hate greasy lotion, especially down my pants!"

But it was a fun experience, and I'm glad to have had it. My soon-to-be-wife had a good laugh when I told her about it the next day :).

The downside to this party was the lack of sleep. I skipped a night's rest, and with a kid to look after, catching up the next day was nigh impossible.

So I'm at work now, tired as hell, but with great memories, and the afterbliss of experiencing an all-nighter again.

Just like old times...