ChrisTalbot.com

I gave up watching the election results come in around 11:00 last night. By that point, it was fairly obvious that the Liberals were going to get a minority government. It's interesting, though -- I don't really feel like Canada has won, but I do feel like it couldn't win. Personally, I don't think Martin makes a very good prime minister at all, but neither did any of the other candidates. Whatever the case, we're stuck with Martin now until he either gets his butt kicked out (which can and often does happen to minority governments) or until the next election.

I was calling my vote a wasted vote before I even entered the school where the polling stations were located. I had decided I couldn't bring myself to vote for the Liberals or the Conservatives, and the Green Party seems pretty useless to me. So I cast my vote for the NDP. Since the NDPer running in my riding didn't even bother to put out signs until about a week-and-a-half ago, it was clear the NDP wasn't even taking the riding I live in seriously. Still, at least he got more votes than the Green Party.

Here's one that's been floating around the Internet...

Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and George W. Bush were set to face a firing squad in a small Central American country. Bill Clinton was the first one placed against the wall and just before the order to shoot him was given, he yelled out, "Earthquake!" The firing squad fell into a panic and Bill jumped over the wall and escaped in the confusion.

Al Gore was the second one placed against the wall. The squad was reassembled and Al pondered what his old boss had done. Before the order to shoot was given, Al yelled out, "Tornado!" Again the squad fell apart and Al slipped over the wall.

The last person, George W. Bush, was placed against the wall. He was thinking "I see the pattern here, just scream out a disaster and hop over the wall."

As the firing squad was reassembled and the rifles raised in his direction, he grinned and yelled, "Fire!"

The gaming group spent last night completing the Return to the Dungeon of the Fire Opal adventure, and not only did they connect with the new player character (Rawlio's Arjunan the Brown), they also found the Fire Opal, defeated the ghost guarding the inner chambers and killed the young red wyrmling lurking in the dungeon. Although the party didn't see even half of the entire dungeon, they did fairly well. Of course, the party level was slightly higher than what the adventure was really meant for, so that could explain the ease of their success.

Still, it was a good night. The only problem is that trying to hear over the noise was, at times, quite frustrating. When I was a teenager, I just would've shouted over everybody to tell them to shut up. Instead of doing that, I just pushed ahead and tried to get people to tone down the out-of-character conversations. This is exactly why five players is the most I'll run a game for. When you have six, it just becomes impossible.

I've been really itchin' to run D&D for the last couple of weeks, and now I'm finally getting my chance. Tonight, we continue with Return to the Dungeon of the Fire Opal, and as far as I know, we'll have our full complement of players, as well as a new one. Although Rawl might end up being a bit late, he now has a character for the game, which we rolled up on Friday night.

I have an idea as to how I'm going to write him in mid-adventure, but exactly how it happens will depend on when he arrives. Whatever the case, he has a spiffy 2nd level human fighter ready to enter the party.

Well, not true. Not really. I'll still have to deal with a teacher ... or two ... or three ... or ... ah, hell, how many teachers do I know? It's like fraternizing with the enemy of my childhood. I guess that's what being a "grown-up" is all about. ;)

Of course, that probably makes people think I was a bad kid or something. As difficult as it is for Jacquie to believe, I was quite the goody-goody student. I never really got in trouble, got half-decent grades (except in math from Grade 5 onwards and science in high school -- oh yeah, and physical education ... but let's not go there), was actually very quiet in class and only rarely misstepped and ended up in detention.

However, from about Grade 4 until I finished high school, I really hated going to school. During my elementary school years, I think it was just because I didn't fit in very well and I always found schools to be so cold and lifeless -- kind of like churches, which I also hate going to. In high school, I had issues simply because the cliques had formed and I never really fell into one until halfway through my secondary education. High school was a miserable time. College kicked ass, though. I loved college. It probably had to do with the feeling of starting over, where nobody knew me and I could kind of re-make my image (it took some time, but I did it). I'm sure the fact that I was studying something I truly enjoyed and working toward a career also helped make me cheerful about formal education.

Still, I always looked forward to the last day of the school year. Today is Durham Region's last day.

Three months ago was the last time I ran my D&D Greyhawk campaign. A series of scheduling problems made it impossible to get the entire group together in that span of time, and the adventuring party has been in the middle of the Return to the Dungeon of the Fire Opal adventure ever since. However, that changes on Sunday, when we'll finally have the full group together again to progress a bit further on the adventure. I'm hoping we can actually finish it altogether, but I won't hold my breath.

I'm looking forward to running D&D again, but I'm also starting to think I'd like to find a group in which I can play, as well.

I wish there was a good story to go with my twisted right ankle -- y'know, something along the lines of rushing into a blazing inferno to save a puppy from certain doom and getting whacked in the foot by a falling piece of debris on my way out. Unfortunately, there's no such story. I twisted my ankle stepping out of my parents house last night. I almost managed to rip off a small chunk of skin from my palm as I tried to stop myself from falling completely over.

I've certainly felt my share of GM burn-out before.

While the weekend was a little busy (nothing like last weekend, though), Sean was in town and we got a chance to hit Wyldstar on Saturday. Seeing as I'd just been there the week before, there wasn't much for me to buy. I picked up the new issue of Mirage's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the current issue of Dragon. In short, I'm enjoying my plunge back into the world of TMNT, and I really wish Mirage would collect the first couple of volumes of the series in trade paperback format. It would be nice to have the whole story from the get-go rather than just bits and pieces here and there. I mean, I have a couple of issues from volume one -- one that features Casey Jones and another that features the Triceratons (unfortunately, it's not the first Triceratons appearance, so it's tough to figure out what's happening -- it simply doesn't have the background).

As for Dragon Magazine, the issue looked half-decent on the shelf. However, once I bought it and started reading through it, I was quite disappointed. Honestly, it was mostly useless. I think it'll be awhile before I'll be convinced (by myself or anybody else) to pick up a copy of that magazine again.

This is just damn funny. Beware the popups on the page, but the Flash animation is hilarious.

This week on the Friday File, my illustrious editor examines the P-P-P-PowerBook scam (er...prank).

Here is another interesting article on gaming. In this one, the author talks about running extended campaigns -- ones that run for many years or even decades and may have several dungeon masters and players over the course of time. At this point, my current Greyhawk campaign has been running on and off for nearly four years. The players have almost completely turned over, and the only people left from the original group that started the campaign are Logan and yours truly.

Hey, Logan, don't you feel special? ;)

Next time a player character dies in my campaign, I'll have to remember this article.

I can't believe I'm drinking coffee this morning after all the java I imbibed last night at Just Desserts. Jacquie and I met up with Steve and Rawl for a few hours and hung out, chatting about the political debate, education, Stephen King, video games and D&D.

The English debate for the 2004 Canadian federal election just ended. Here are some brief thoughts...

Paul Martin got ripped down pretty bad, I think. Aside from the fact that he only answered about one in twenty questions, he was jittery, obviously panicking at times and just annoyed me to no end. I don't think he realized, but he got set up bad during that debate. Since one of the major topics in this election is accountability of government, the other three candidates focused on that and continually attacked the Liberal regimes of the last decade. However, it took me some time to realize that even when the topic wasn't specifically on accountability, the issue was still there. The following question came up from the other candidates several times to Martin: "Will you take responsibility for XXX problem?" Each and every time, Martin avoided the question and didn't take responsibility. So where's the accountability of government that Martin claims the Liberals will have in the next term?

Stephen Harper remained calm and patient throughout the debate. Overall, he made a very good impression on me as a person who would make a civil leader. Unfortunately, his obvious connection to religious institutions and his refusal to actually make a stand on the gay marriage and abortion issues makes me wary of the man and his party. I think there is still far too much Canadian Alliance/Reform Party in the New Conservatives.

Jack Layton came across as a bulldog. As a prime minister, I'm not sure how he'd be, but as the leader of the opposition, I think he'd be great. Unfortunately, that bulldog-ishness got somewhat irritating throughout the debate, as he continuously pounded his own ideas into people's heads as he was asking questions. In fact, he rarely allowed people to form an answer. That's not a debate.

Gilles Duceppe frustrated me to no end, although he put on quite a good performance. After all, what does he have to lose? He's got no chance in hell of being prime minister, and that's not what his ultimate goal is. He wants a sovereign Quebec. He's there to be the separatist voice. And that's what pissed me off. Quebec is still a part of Canada at this point (and possibly forever), yet he continuous referred to Quebec as a sovereign nation -- "Quebec and the provinces" or "Quebec and Canada." That just irks me.

Unless something big happens that warrants comment, this will be my last political post before I place my vote. On election day, I'm not afraid to say who I'll be placing my vote for. However, I won't say another word until I've cast that ballot.

I recently discovered DriveThruRPG.com. The site sells ebooks in PDF form of various roleplaying game books. The coolest thing, though, is that the site gives away at least one free ebook per week. All you have to do is sign up for an account and download away. Last week was Gamma World d20 Player's Handbook and Exalted. This week's freebie is Big Eyes, Small Mouth, Revised 2nd Edition, so any gamers that are also fans of anime might want to snag it while the cost is zip, zero, nada.

My gaming group probably thinks I'm schizophrenic, but I'm sure they're used to it by now (well, aside from Rich, who hasn't known me long enough). It was only a few days ago that I suggested to them that we take a break from our Dungeons & Dragons campaign, and now I've done a complete about-face and I've been working my ass off on gaming stuff. I worked through the outline for three sessions of my upcoming Rifts: Escape From Lone Star campaign last night. I spent a couple of hours cutting out little cardboard representations of various creatures from the Monster Manual and various Dungeon Magazines. I've been scouring the Internet in my quest to build the perfect dungeon master's screen, a feat that is much harder to accomplish than it sounds. And not only am I not giving up running my long-standing Greyhawk campaign, I'm looking at recruiting new gamers for either the main group or an offshoot group.

For instance, Rawl seems to be all over this idea of Horizon: Mechamorphosis, but the game's not out until sometime this month (assuming the publisher meets its own deadline). So Rawlio is looking at playing D&D again while he's waiting for me to get the game and run it. I'm trying to find a way to allow Sean to play his 4th level wizard, Ander Spellweaver, again, and the solution is probably to have a small group that meets once a month on some Saturday or Sunday morning/afternoon when Sean is in the area. Rawl can fall into either group. It really just depends on how often he wants to play (and with whom).

So it's entirely possible the Sunday night group will have an additional player, or maybe not. We'll have to wait and see.

Oh yeah, and I've been thinking about D&D miniatures the last couple of days. I'd like to spice up our combat by getting minis or cardboard cut-outs of monsters and running our sessions' combats on grid paper and maps.

Whatever it is, something has got my creative gamer juices flowing.

Apparently I got too much sun over the weekend. My face has been red since Saturday afternoon, and now it's starting to peel. Bleh.

Speaking of red, I read through Horizon: Redline yesterday afternoon/evening. It's actually a well-structured book. The author managed to cram a lot of information into its sixty-four pages. While it doesn't give a lot of precise detail about the setting itself, there's enough here for any game master to flesh it out. I have a whole bunch of adventure and campaign ideas. When a book gets my creative juices flowing, then the book has been well put together -- and that makes me happy. However, I must focus on building the Rifts: Escape From Lone Star campaign before I delve into something else.

I forwarded the Horizon: Mechamorphosis link to Rawlio. I think that game has a good chance of bringing him back into the gamer fold. He continues to be a major Transformers fan to this day. Hee hee!

There were only two comics I wanted today at Wyldstar, but in addition to them, I also grabbed a copy of Horizon: Redline, which I mentioned a couple of days ago. I haven't read through Redline yet, but here are my short comic reviews.

Tales of the TMNT #3: This issue kicks off a multi-part story that takes place following the death of the resurrected Oroku-Saki worm thing from the first volume of Mirage's TMNT. Bizarre -- and gross. I rate the beginning of this story arc as mediocre. The artwork is half-decent, but the story isn't really gripping me. We'll see what happens in the next issue. I'll make up my mind then.

The Punisher #7: It feels like I just read issue #6. With the first story arc over, which ended in the spectacular death of Micro, Garth Ennis has kicked off a new story with issue #7. Set in Hell's Kitchen, the new arc starts with a bomb going off and Frank Castle getting a lead that it might be the IRA trying to take out some old enemies. Considering what happened in the first six issues of the comic, this one feels like a let-down. But then again, it's hard to compete with such an important piece of The Punisher legend that was stirred up in the first story. My biggest concern is the artwork has dropped in quality. While the violence is still brutal, the grittiness and detail from the first six issues is missing. Still, I'm hooked on this title, and I'll be looking forward to seeing what happens going forward.

I've been hanging out at my parents' place all day. There's a substantial group here, too. The women are all engaged in working on Christmas crafts (yeah, I know it's June, but you have to start early with these things; otherwise, they never get done). The men have spent the day hanging out on the back deck, having some drinks, playing some Euchre and shooting some shit.

Beer, shit-shooting and barbecued food -- how can you go wrong?

I've just taken a few minutes to hop onto the Web on my parents' computer, which is actually my last computer. It's a tad old and slow. Hell, it runs Windows 98, but at least my parents have the good graces to have high-speed Internet.

Chris out.

Some further scouring of the Fantasy Flight Games site led me to this upcoming Horizon title. Take a look at Mechamorphosis and then try to tell me this isn't an attempt to do Transformers as a roleplaying game. Two words: Fuckin' sweet.

Back when Dungeon Magazine was combined with Polyhedron (the RPGA Network publication), a whole bunch of mini-games were published. These were basically standalone RPGs (well, they need the D&D core books, but otherwise they were standalone games) that fell into very niche campaign environments. I picked up a few of them.

For instance, the January 2002 issue featured Pulp Heroes, a throwback to the heyday of pulp fiction in the 1920s and 1930s. The March 2002 issue featured Shadow Chasers, which is kind of a cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Vampire: The Masquerade's Hunters Hunted. May 2002 saw the return of one of my favourite D&D campaign settings as Spelljammer: Shadow of the Spider Moon. The last one I picked up interested me the least. Thunderball Rally was essentially a cross-country racing game inspired by 1970s era movies. After that, I stopped buying Dungeon/Polyhedron.

The point of this is I came across a d20 publishing company that's trying to continue the spirit of the mini-games from Dungeon/Polyhedron. Fantasy Flight Games publishes a series of titles under the Horizon banner. I'm really interested in picking these up and giving them a try.

Spellslinger is a cross between the fantasy of the various Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings and the Old West. As a fan of both D&D fantasy and western movies starring the likes of Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen and Yul Brenner, the whole idea of the campaign setting is exciting. I wonder if I can convince my gaming group to give it a try.

Grimm seems to pay homage to fairy tale fantasy, but it sounds like it's based more on the original versions of the tales than the Disneyfied versions of the last few decades (which is something I'm happy about). Actually, I've wanted to run a fairy tale-style D&D campaign for a few years. Maybe this is what I need.

Virtual strikes me as a Tron knock-off. Of course, I'm not complaining. Tron's a great movie, and the success of the cartoon Reboot proves that people can get into the idea of an entire dynamic world inside of computers. I wonder how well it would work as a roleplaying game.

Redline seems to be a cross between the Mad Max movies and Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. "The world has moved on" is how the publisher starts its description of the title, and that is word-for-word how Roland the Last Gunslinger describes his own world in The Dark Tower novels. It looks like there's a preview in Acrobat format on that site. I'm going to check it out.

I'm not sure what's more bizarre -- the fact that this Straight Dope question was asked or that it's not the first time it's been asked.

I got my first couple of review assignments for CanadianGamer.ca in the mail today -- Against Rome and Warlords: Battlecry III. I love strategy games, but I never play them enough to get really good at them. I'll have to get to work on these over the weekend if I have time.

This latest column from Rafael Velez at The RPG Times is a quick read. There are some interesting tidbits in there about dice, dice collecting and how old some forms of polyhedral dice really are.

Most gamers have quite the dice collections. I don't. I've rarely purchased dice, and my collection only takes up enough space to fill half a plastic Kool-Aid container. A quick count ... and there are exactly sixty-five dice kept aside for RPGs. I'm sure there are others in my various board games and such, but these are my RPG dice. There's nothing really too fancy here, either. The most unique ones are the Ghostbusters RPG die with a Ghostbusters logo replacing the six, a couple of casting six-sided dice I got out of a Dragon Magazine two or three years ago and a couple of dice my parents brought back from Vegas that have the Aladdin casino's logo in the place of the one.

I still have the original dice that came with my D&D Red Box, and that red d20 that was packaged is still my preferred d20 to use while playing RPGs requiring such a unit.

Now that I think about it, though, maybe I should get some more dice. ;)

While my last post on the Clarity Act is a clearly personal response (and perhaps not at all well thought out), now I'll give you the other side of the coin that is my head. I'm not sure why I bother -- nobody's reading my political posts, anyway, I'm sure. Politics is just a dangerous topic to write about -- kind of like religion.

The biggest problem with a Quebec seccession from Canada, as I see it, is simply an economic one. How will the rest of the world see this, and what will it do to our dollar and financial standing on a global scale? I would imagine it would have a negative impact on Canada and on a separated Quebec. However, I think Canada would eventually recover, while Quebec would surely not (or at least it would take a hell of a lot longer to do so).

Back in the last Referendum, companies were packing their bags and running, not walking, away from Quebec and into other provinces or even into the U.S. When and if another Referendum is called, I'd expect to see the same kind of behaviour from the private sector ... and I wouldn't blame them one bit. If Quebec actually became an independent nation, what would happen then?

However, I don't know that I actually believe Jack Layton when he says he'll rip up the Clarity Act. Politicians make promises they don't keep all the time, and I'm starting to lean toward siding with Joey Slinger's views. Layton doesn't actually have a chance of winning the election, but he might have a shot at opposition. A few empty promises for the Quebec vote is only going to help him reach that goal, not hinder it.

Traditionally, my gaming group has always had what I'll simply refer to as "the summer slump." Around May or June, interest in gaming starts to fade as the desire to be outdoors in the sunshine takes hold. In the past, we've generally put our games on hiatus between May/June and about mid-September. It's usually a couple of weeks after Labour Day that we start getting the gaming itch -- probably because the temperature is starting to cool down and most summer activities have dried up.

Anyway, the summer slump hasn't quite taken hold this year, although we have had our own problems trying to schedule gaming sessions. We actually haven't played Dungeons & Dragons since about mid-March. The next session that we could possibly resume our adventures would be the last Sunday of June, putting a three-month gap between sessions.

However, some of us have been working on getting a Rifts campaign going while the D&D game is on a break. Unfortunately, getting a campaign going from scratch takes a fair bit of work, so we've only just finished characters. I've put together the first session's worth of adventuring, but I figure the Rifts: Escape From Lone Star campaign will need about a dozen or so sessions -- possibly as many as twenty -- to play the whole story out from beginning to end.

I haven't felt a burning desire to get back to the D&D Greyhawk campaign, though. I've been weighing the pros and cons of the campaign over the last few days, and I've seriously been considering putting that game on hiatus again once we've finished the Return to the Dungeon of the Fire Opal adventure. I'll have to check with my gaming group to see what they think, but I know a couple of the players are playing in at least three separate D&D campaigns ... so I doubt they'd complain terribly about one campaign taking an extended break.

I'm not sure with what I would fill the gap that the lack of a D&D campaign would leave. I approached the idea of running a Call of Cthulhu d20 game with my group a few months ago, but only two of the four players would even be remotely interested in something like that. The group isn't really into the World of Darkness games, so that's out. And I just get rolled eyes and foul language when I mention some of the more light-hearted games I have, such as Toon or Kobolds Ate My Baby.

Or maybe I've been going through a phase the last few days that has taken me out of the D&D frame of mind.

I had heard that someone had optioned Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I had no idea the film was in progress. Interesting cast list there at IMDB. It's due to be in theatres next year. Cool.

Jacquie and I went out last night for a rather lengthy walk. We walked east for awhile and then south all the way to the lake. Then we came west and back up north to our place. It's a long walk. We were gone over an hour. By the time we were heading west, Jacquie was starting to get quite tired. By the time were heading north, I could've crawled faster than she was walking.

Apparently her legs are sore today. As for me, I'm doing fine. :)

Take a look at Joey Slinger's column. I'm not sure Slinger's got it all right here, as I've talked to a lot of people over the years that really don't have any love for Quebec and the separatists. In fact, one of them is me. Quebec gets special treatment at every step of the way, but still all many of their politicans do is whine for more.

Remember the phrase that the rest of Canada used during the Quebec Referendum several years ago? "My Canada includes Quebec."

Well, I have an extension to it: "My Canada includes Quebec, but only if they want to be here."

It's difficult to tell if Jack Layton is really pandering to the separatists or if he really believes Quebec should be allowed to make up its own mind in this. If they can agree to help form Canada on their own, then maybe they should be allowed to leave Canada on their own.

Of all the game books that have been sold in the world, it makes me wonder how many of them have actually been used, for the truth is a lot of gamers are collectors. We buy books that look cool -- core books we'll never play, supplements we'll never use, adventures we'll be lucky if we run once. When we're teenagers, we'll save like crazy just to pick up the latest rules supplement for Dungeons & Dragons. When we're a bit older and have jobs, we'll see a title on the shelf with a cool title, neat artwork or just a really wicked concept ... and we'll buy it then and there. After all, because we've never seen it before, we might never seen it again ... right? Or that's the logic, anyway.

Thankfully, many of us either never fall into this trap or eventually grow out of it when gaming drops down a couple of notches on the priority list. As for me, I grew out of it, although I will still on occasion purchase something that I'm never actually likely to use. Still, between Sean and I (the latter being the bigger collector of the two), we have enough games to keep us busy through the next couple of lifetimes.

Our collection consists of titles such as: Dungeons & Dragons (the old Red Box and the four other boxes leading up to the Immortal Set, as well as a handful of adventures); Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition (the core Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide, as well as a shitload of Monstrous Compendiums, rules supplements, class and race supplements, guides to developing campaigns, the odd adventure, a handful of campaign worlds and supplements for them, including Dark Sun, Spelljammer and Greyhawk: Out Of The Ashes); Dungeons & Dragons, 3rd Edition (the core books, adventures, rules supplements, the Greyhawk Gazetteer and other materials); a ton of Dragon, Dungeon and other gaming magazines; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness and a handful of supplements and adventure books; Star Wars (both the West End Games d6 version with a bunch of add-on books and the Wizards of the Coast d20 version); Shadowrun and a bunch of supplements detailing different aspects of being a runner; Call of Cthulhu (both a Chaosium edition and the WotC d20 edition); Cyberpunk 2020 from R. Talsorian Games (as well equipment books, a game master's guide, some rules supplements and the Night City campaign setting); Palladium Fantasy and supplements; Rifts and a whole bunch of world books, sourcebooks and dimension books; the GURPS core book and about thirty supplements detailing historical, sci-fi, fantasy and horror campaign settings; Paranoia and a bunch of supplements; Systems Failure; It Came From The Late, Late, Late Show; Marvel Superheroes (both the old TSR boxed set and the new diceless game that Sean has been starting to collect); Cadillacs & Dinosaurs; HOL: Human Occupied Landfill; Big Eyes, Small Mouth; Kobolds Ate My Baby; Ninja Burger; Toon and a couple of add-on books replete with settings for the game, as well as nifty toys to use while playing; Chill and a bunch of supplements (a game I've barely even glanced at, but I bought it, nevertheless); Vampire: The Masquerade and half a shelf full of books for it, including Vampire: The Dark Ages; Wraith: The Oblivion and supplements (a game that's really cool, but it's also one nobody will play with me); Mage: The Ascension (yep, and supplemental books); Werewolf: The Apocalypse (yessirree, and supplemental books); Changeling: The Dreaming; and whatever I'm missing, which there is bound to be at least a couple of game titles that I've neglected to mention here, especially seeing as I was doing most of this by memory.

And I'm not even the worst culprit. You should see The Law's collection of RPGs. Others focus on genres or specific game systems. Logan has every Rifts book ever released, and I believe the count is up around fifty at this point.

Thankfully, I've more or less given up collecting roleplaying games. Occasionally, I'll buy a new game or some supplements or adventures for ones that I do play, but the days when I would pick up anything and everything are over. Unfortunately, there are dozens of gaming books on shelves and stored in boxes that will never be played. Perhaps the biggest joke is I still can't bear to get rid of them.

When you get down to it, Curtis was a pretty lame character, but he was my first character for Vampire: The Masquerade, and a first still means something to me. I remember building the character one afternoon at The Law's apartment, and the Gangrel ended up being probably one of the most stereotypical Vampire characters I've ever made. Since then, I've come to understand the game a bit more, and I try to construct more interesting and deeper characters.

Curtis was, simply put, a drifter. Dressed in a red-and-black lumberjack jacket and faded blue jeans, the long-haired Gangrel had enough skill in his Protean Discipline to sink into the ground when daylight approached and enough combat skills to put up a fight against other vampires, as well as other supernatural nogoodniks that went bump in the night.

Also as the stereotype of Clan Gangrel goes, Curtis wandered to and fro, stopping in various towns and cities for no more than a few months or a few years. Then he'd casually put foot to pavement and start on his way to wherever his legs would take him. Additionally, Curtis had a werewolf companion, a Ronin that would pop up here and there to offer advice or help out in some other way.

For good or for bad, I only got a few months worth of play out of Curtis. I joined The Law's Chicago Chronicles game near the end of the second chronicle, and the third (and last) chronicle never really got off the ground.

I think I'm about AC/DCed out for awhile. I'd say I've lost track of how many times I've listened to the three AC/DC albums I own over the past couple of weeks, but that would suggest I was counting in the first place, which I wasn't.

Now I just feel like some peace and quiet for the rest of the day.

After a few months of getting things ready to run the campaign, making characters and trying to find a suitable date and time that would work for everybody involved (quite a feat, I must say), The Law finally ran the first session of his Mutants & Masterminds game this afternoon.

I'm generally kind of wary about superhero RPGs, mainly because I've not had much luck with them in the past. For the most part, they follow a very simple formula -- some supervillain starts doing something naughty, the heroes find out and go to stop him/her/it, a battle is joined and eventually a winner is declared. Adventure over. While that type of thing is fun for a few session, it gets old quick.

It's still up in the air whether The Law and his Freedom City M&M campaign will follow that same pattern. Our session today was essentially three-and-a-half hours of fighting superheroes-turned-supervillains. The action was good, and the four of us did fairly well against established Freedom City characters (taking down two, but letting the third get away). Still, the combat was a little long, but I've often noticed that when playing RPGs at The Law's place, combat takes a lot longer than in my group -- no matter what the game.

We only made it through half of the adventure, though, so we're going to try to set up a time to play in July. Considering how difficult it was to set up the first session, I'm a tad concerned about the likelihood of getting a July session booked. Summer months are just too busy.

A group of us took in Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban last night, and although much of the book was transported into the movie, the sheer length of the novel made it impossible for the director to fit in everything. Unfortunately, that means that the movie felt a little rushed at times. There were also some poor choices in what to cut, such as any description whatsoever about where the map came from originally, who made it and why Professor Lupin knew what it was and how to activate it. I felt that was an important piece of the book, and it was kind of a shame to see it go.

However, I'd hazard a guess that the majority of the people that see the movie have read the book, so they already know what happens. Seeing it on the silver screen just allows them to sit back and see the story at play without the necessity to do some re-reading.

Since the books after Azakaban get longer and longer, I'm somewhat worried about the quality of the Harry Potter movies going forward.

Jacquie's report cards are due next week (for kids in Durham Region, nothing else matters for the rest of the school year -- stop thinking now *wink*), and she's been working on catching up with her marking for the past week or so. However, she has actually been staying at the school later on some nights, which is kind of cool. She's usually hopping in her car once the school buses have cleared out and she's home by around 3:30, making it difficult for me to concentrate on my own work.

Federal election crap continues. I've been doing some reading to find out what all the stances are. It's really odd that abortion has suddenly become such a major issue again. I thought we were over that, but I guess not. Me, I'm stuck in who to vote for. I like bits and pieces of the two main parties' platforms, but there are other things within both those platforms that make me feel ... icky.

On the subject of abortion, Paul Martin of the Liberals seems to want to push through right-to-choose legislation, which is something I'm all for. However, Stephen Harper and the Conservatives (a new party formed from the Progressive Conversatives and the Canadian Alliance) is pushing for an open vote on it. Harper's stance on it is smart politically. He's able to avoid giving his own opinion and push for a more democratic solution, something that has been going over well with a lot of people, as I understand it. However, the strong religious overtones from the old Canadian Alliance (previously known as the Reform Party) are still there, and I'd say it's fair to guess Harper and his party would fall on the right-to-life side of the issue. That's something that frightens me, as this is also Harper's way of dealing with the gay marriage issue. Abortion and homosexuality -- I can't believe these are still two major issues. I obviously fall into the pro-choice and pro-gay marriage areas, and I frankly think it's just wrong to have an opposite view on either of those issues. In this case, I just can't vote Conservative. I have to look toward the Liberals or even Jack Layton and the NDP (as a side note, this is the first time I've ever even considered voting NDP, as I typically don't like the party's social reforms and its affiliations with labour unions).

However, Harper is calling for the removal of the gun registration laws that came into effect under Jean Chretien. This is a very important area for me, as I've been a licensed hunter since I was fifteen years old, and being treated like a criminal just because I happen to have access to firearms annoys me to no end. The Liberals really pissed me off when they bent over and took in the ass from the anti-gun lobbyists. Hey, dumbshits, all you did was make more criminals, not fewer of them. One hell of a lot of people have adamantly refused to register the firearms they use for hunting. Gun legislation like this doesn't take the guns that are being used to kill people off the streets, you fucking idiots. Anyway, I doubt Martin is going to backtrack and get rid of the gun registration laws, so I find myself looking to Harper for this. Thankfully, Layton seems to be against the gun registration. I don't think he's said anything about repealing the law, but he has said he thinks there's a lot of money being wasted on it. However, he wants to continue to put some emphasis on gun control of the illegal firearms out there. Anyone who wants to quit bothering hunters is okay in my books.

In the marijuana issue, I'm all for decriminalizing it. This is something my parents and I vehemently disagree on. Everything I understand about the drug says it's no more harmful than alcohol or cigarettes. Harper is against decriminalizing it. Martin has said he wants to bring it back up for debate, and he's also said he supports the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana (I assume this means personal use). In this case, Layton kicks ass. Although he wants to introduce a "non-punitive education program," he's all for full decriminalization of the drug. I wonder if he was a hippy in his past life. He wants to restrict use and production of marijuana through regulations, not the Criminal Code. Cool. It would be nice to hear from someone other than the Marijuana Party about actually making the drug legal, but I can settle with decriminalization for now.

Taxes -- that's another important issue. Harper wants to reduce personal income tax. Martin says he wants to do so if the debt-to-GDP ratio improves, which I highly doubt will happen under a Liberal government. I'm not sure I understand Layton's stance on taxes. If I understand it correctly, it's a "more taxes for the rich" type of thing, but that's just a silly idea. If he taxes banks higher, that'll just filter down onto us poor sods again. No matter what, the average person is getting fucked. I'd really like to see my taxes reduced, but I don't know that anyone is actually going to do that. Governments have the tendency to like to hold onto tax money. Remember when one of Chretien's biggest promises a few years ago was to get rid of the GST? I've got two words to describe him: Lying motherfucker.

The CBC has a good pop-up window that lays it all down as to what the basic issues and platforms are. Check it out here.

In the riding in which I reside, I've only seen three different signs -- Liberal, Conservative and Green Party. I've heard the NDP have a candidate in my area, but I haven't seen a damn sign from him or her. Assuming there is an NDP candidate, I currently have four choices -- Liberal, Conversative, Green Party or NDP. I still have a few weeks to make up my mind. This is the first time I've ever seriously considered voting NDP, and it's also the first time I've ever considered just submitting an empty ballot.

Here's your only warning, readers. The character I'm about to describe was a cruel, brutal, mean son of a bitch who engaged in all manner of devious activities, including murder, slavery and the sale of a female character's body to a bunch of nasty demihumans. Nasty, little fucker, was he. If you're easily offended, don't read this. I've never played a character that was more vile than this one.

My most diabolical character, who I now refer to as The Black Priest because I quite frankly can't remember the character's name (and because the son of a bitch was so fucking cruel), was so evil and so antisocial that the gaming group begged and pleaded with me to give up the character. After a failed assassination attempt on the lives of half the party, I agreed and retired him forever.

In a way, The Black Priest was the polar opposite of Father Edwards, and I know for a fact that the character came much later during one of Sean's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition campaigns. The rest of that party consisted of Tom's elven ranger, Steve's elven mage, Logan as a swan may cleric (the only time Logan ever played a female -- keep reading for why) and Tim as a human fighter (as always).

Anyway, The Black Priest's first and last adventure sent us to a small-ish dungeon to retrieve a rare plant that only grew in the confines of that dungeon (apparently the lack of sunlight never dawned on Sean -- but hey, fuck it, keep reading for more unreality *grin*). As the five party members set foot in the dungeon and began the treacherous journey underground, The Black Priest started laying down the law. He was in charge, the others would do as they were fucking told and there would be no lip -- or there would be some slit throats. Steve's mage immediately sided with the Priest (smart man, that mage).

The trouble began almost at once. Tom's ranger wasn't about to take any orders and took issue with the Priest's leadership. Well, such insubordination was not to be tolerated. A warning was in order. The Priest drew a dagger, reached out and slashed the ranger's bowstring, rendering the elf's most useful weapon useless. I remember Tom glaring at me with wide eyes at what my character had just done to his, and he was on the verge of throwing a real-life temper tantrum. Thankfully, he calmed, remembering it was just a game. Furious, his character turned on his heel and stormed out of the dungeon, the rest of the party following.

The ranger had decided that if his bow was useless, he wasn't going down into that dungeon. That's when I nudged him with the idea that a true archer would have at least one spare bowstring. With everything calm once again, the ranger restrung his bow and we continued down into the dungeon, with The Black Priest giving warnings against further insubordination.

I don't remember the first couple of encounters, but as the party neared a rather large opening, the adventurers noticed that the room ahead was full of orcs. It was about this time that Logan had to leave (the poor guy -- he'll never forgive me for what happened next). The Black Priest turned to the group and, not wanting a long, drawn-out battle with a bunch of orcs, he offered another option. They would negotiate with the orcs for passage. And they did. Handing over the swan may as a prisoner, the orcs were quite happy to allow the party safe passage in and out of the dungeon. Unfortunately, the topping on the sundae was the Priest put the idea into the orcs' heads that the swan may would make an excellent sex slave. ... Ahem. Moving on now... (I told you he was an evil bastard.)

With the party now down to four and the orcs engaged in some not-nice-things with the swan may, the adventurers continued down through the dungeon, killing monsters and stealing treasure until they reached a simple, human-sized door. Peering inside, the description given by Sean was "you see a hydra." Eek! The party retreated a bit to discuss things. The Black Priest was sure as hell not going to risk his life against a hydra (a dragon-like beast with multiple heads and a lot of hit points) over the few coins he would make by getting the plant.

The decision was made quickly -- the Priest and the mage would not go in, but the ranger and the fighter would. Expecting death and dismemberment, the party was in for a surprise. According to our dungeon master, it was just a "little hydra," a beast with only one head (so basically, it wasn't a hydra but a big lizard -- but how did it get into that room through such a small door?). After a fit of laughter from the players, the battle commenced, and the fighter and ranger quickly slew the monster and found the plant. While they cleaned their weapons, The Black Priest told the mage he had a new plan. Since the beast was dead, and their comrades had found the plant and were no doubt exhausted from the fight, they would slip in and kill them both. That way, the profit for the successful mission would theirs, all theirs.

As the ranger and fighter rested and cleaned up their weapons, the cleric and mage slipped into the hydra's lair. The mage tried to cast a Sleep spell to make the battle simple, but the fighter made his save and the elf ranger was practically immune to such things. Sean described the scene like this to the ranger and fighter: "Your eyes start to get tired, but then you wake up instead." Basically, that's about right.

Tom turned and looked right at me, vengeance in his eyes. He said, "Now you're dead." And that's when the discussion broke out about the effects of a failed Sleep spell. Would the victims know, or would they not? In the end, Sean sided with the nots, and events were reversed. Seeing himself up against two warrior classes with only an inept mage on his side, The Black Priest opted not to do anything further to enrage his enemies/party members.

Unfortunately, night was coming, and the party had moved up to the entrance to make camp. However, because of the distrust, there was a very long argument about who would take first watch. Everyone seemed sure that whoever took first watch would kill half the party. In the end, meta-gaming saved the day, as I suggested I retire The Black Priest (a suggestion that had been made a few times throughout the adventure). Since Steve's mage was also on the outs with the other party members, he would also retire his character, and we would both roll up new ones. The adventure ended with The Black Priest taking first watch, but he and the mage snuck away from the camp during the twilight hours and vanished. I think they stole the plant, though.

It almost scares me to think that The Black Priest and his mage bitch are still wandering around out there somewhere, causing mayhem wherever they go.

// posted by Chris @ 4:14 PM 1 comments

Last summer, I vowed to myself to do more photography. It didn't happen. Buying and moving into a house, being laid off from my job and then being busy doing the job hunt thing are my excuses. This summer, my vow is to do more fishing, which is something I've wanted to get back into seriously for the last couple of years. Well, I think I finally have a potential fishing buddy, which should make easing back into the hobby that much simpler.

Just like me, Rawl enjoyed fishing when he was younger. When we met up for coffee/tea last night, we ended up talking about camping and angling, and we're hoping we can get out together on both counts at least once or twice this summer. We'll see what happens. I'll have to re-learn a few things, such as tying a lure or hook onto a fishing line, but I think it should be fun. I'm also hoping to learn the basics of fly fishing this summer, but I don't really have a teacher for that.

I'll have another "rogue's gallery" entry up sometime tonight. I'm just about finished chronicling the adventures of a character I call The Black Priest (Sean seems to think I named him Thaddius, and I do remember having a character by that name; I'm just not sure it was my chaotic evil cleric). It'll be a bit of a long entry, but I've only got a few more things to write down. I won't have time until this evening, though. Look for it then.

Built with the Red Box rules, Father Edwards was a cleric that I ran for awhile in a D&D campaign that Sean ran. Come to think of it, Father Edwards was probably my first character that was built specifically to provide personality and roleplaying opportunities instead of a specific role in a hack 'n' slash group. Before that, on the few occasions I played, my role was usually that of the stereotypical thief. My thieves stole from party members, picked locks, acted greedy and backstabbed every monster they could with twin daggers.

Father Edwards was different. A man in his early forties, Father Edwards led most of his life as a holy man in a monastery. Dressed in a monk's habit and having short-cropped, monkly hair, he was a strict religious man. However, as he started to enter his mid-life, the aging (1st level) cleric had picked up the adventuring bug and soon set out from his monastery to join an adventuring party. However, the strict life of a monastery and a life moving up through the monastic pecking order had left him pious and somewhat arrogant. Father Edwards would scold the adventurers when he disapproved of their actions, and in the end, the middle-aged cleric ended up leading the group more than following it. I even had a tagline quote for him, although I've completely forgotten it.

From all of the characters I've had over the years, I probably remember Father Edwards most fondly. A few years ago, I came across his character sheet, although I've since lost it again. A pity.

Religious organizations are probably the seed for most ignorance about Dungeons & Dragons and related roleplaying games, and it's unfortunate that such a small vocal minority is able to affect public institutions, such as schools.

Perhaps my worst encounter with anti-D&D sentiments had to do with the formation of a D&D club back in 1992. During my Grade 11 year, I met a guy named Chris Chesher at Pine Ridge Secondary School. Chesher was a major social outcast, but he got along well enough with those on the fringes that he made a few friends. One of them was me, although a couple of years later, we'd gone our separate ways and generally regarded each other in negative manners.

I remember first being introduced to Chesher by Harley Preston in the Pine Ridge library. Harley knew I was a D&D player, and he had met Chesher in one of his classes (obviously one of the few Harley attended regularly *grin*). Since Chesher was a gamer, he connected the two of us, and an instant friendship was struck. Chesher and I soon set to work to put together a D&D club where we would host a game during lunch hour once a week. Chesher volunteered to dungeon master the campaign, and we quickly put together a group -- Harley, the trio of "Scott, Scott and Not-Scott" (Not-Scott turned out to be another Chris, actually, but we didn't learn that for months), Steve Campbell and yours truly.

This was sometime during the second semester of the year, and we simply asked the librarian -- Mrs. Cotter, as I recall -- if we could use one of the study rooms every Tuesday at lunch for D&D. Although the game kind of sucked and players came and went, we played more or less regularly during that semester. We had a good reputation, weren't too loud and were generally polite. The summer came and the group stopped.

In the fall of that year, as Grade 12 got going, we approached Cotter to ask if we could once again use one of the study rooms for a D&D club. The answer was no. We were quite shocked and asked for an explanation. Cotter was nice enough to give us one, but we were outraged at the answer. Apparently the faculty of the school had caught wind of the club's existence and it came up at a staff meeting. Several teachers had voiced concerns because of the various beliefs that D&D was evil and a corrupting influence on youths. I don't know if anybody stood up for the group, and I don't even know which teachers were against us, but the decision was made to put the D&D club down like a mangey dog.

We tried once or twice to play in the hallway outside of the library just to spite whichever staff members had ruled against our harmless gathering, but the constant comings and goings of staff members and students made it a less-than-ideal setting to run a game. The D&D club folded.

In addition to the letter to Global Television I mentioned in my previous post, here are some other things worth checking out on the topic of D&D and anti-D&D groups...

Tracts Unsuspecting People Read by Pierre Savoie

Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance's refutation of the claims of anti-D&D groups and the linkage to cults and Satanism

A newsgroup discussion about Christianity and D&D, with Jeff Freeman's post (Concerns Christians Should Have About Dungeons & Dragons) ending the discussion

Dark Dungeons by Jack Chick

Dark Dungeons is still one of the funniest things I've ever read, but it's also frightening, in that Chick actually believes the shit he shovels onto his unsuspecting readers. The tract was first published in 1984 and is still available on the Website and in print. I've been tempted for years to order a batch just to hand out to gamer friends, but I haven't been able to bring myself to give this nutball money. Of course, I'd really like to see the treatment he gives Harry Potter.

In 1991, I got my first computer modem, a cheap US Robotics 2400 baud device that took me a week of frustration to install. I used to pick up copies of Toronto Computes specifically for the BBS list (I would eventually become the managing editor of TC for over a year-and-a-half near the end of the magazine's run -- I'm still quite happy about getting that chance, even if my departure from the company was unpleasant). From that BBS list, I discovered a BBS dedicated to roleplaying games called The Crystal Gryphon (named after a novel by someone -- I'm too lazy to look up the author right now, but I think it was Andre Norton). It was run by a guy in Scarborough named Norm McNearney, and just now thinking of TCG inspired a lot of fond memories about those days. It's where I first learned to play in and run games via message posts online, an aspect of the hobby that I have pursued off and on since then.

However, on that BBS, I discovered several essays and articles written by a local D&D crusader named Pierre Savoie. As a for instance, I'll point you to this letter from Savoie to Global TV about a program that had run that painted D&D in a fairly bleak light. After my own experiences with religious intolerance of roleplaying games, particularly Dungeons & Dragons, I dove into Savoie's work with a passion.

In college, I used my interest in roleplaying games and the controversy surrounding them to contact Savoie for an article for one of my reporting classes. On the phone, the man was quite simply paranoid. At first, he was convinced I was being sent by an enemy to talk to him and hurt him in some way. It took a fair bit of convincing on the phone before he'd agree to an interview. Then, one afternoon after class, I drove to Savoie's home (oddly enough, it was actually not far from Centennial College, where I went to school) and spent hours talking to him about D&D, the various accusations made by groups and individuals about the game and Savoie's own experiences and research. He lived alone in a basement apartment of a house at the time, and although he didn't trust me much when I arrived, I think he had at least given up on the idea that I was out to hurt him by the time I left four or five hours later.

Through talking with Savoie, I was able to start my own file of research on the problem with anti-D&D groups and the effect they've had. If I can find any of it, I'll post it at a future date. I'll also try to track down the college article I wrote on Savoie.

Savoie earned my respect. He was nothing short of a crusader for Dungeons & Dragons, and he wasn't afraid to speak out against those who would try to create their own truths about the game and what it was.

As regular readers know, one of my favourite blogs to read is Wil Wheaton's. Well, since we're on the subject of D&D here at christalbot.com, I'll point to this post over at Wil's site. Basically, Wil Wheaton will be writing for Dungeon Magazine.

That's good for Wil, bad for me. I'd like to read his column, but I don't know if I can justify buying that magazine. Maybe I should go into the gaming shops, read Wil's column and then put the issue back on the shelf. ;)

My gaming group almost fell apart a couple of times between 1987 and 1992 or so. It wasn't because of lack of interest or the inability to afford new supplements or simply because members moved away and I couldn't replace them. Ignorance is what caused my group to come to the brink of folding several times.

Perhaps it was only a few months -- or maybe it was about a year -- after I bought the famous Red Box and began running my own D&D adventures, but I do quite distinctly recall taking the game and one of the adventures over to Tim's house (Tim actually lived right next door, so it wasn't far) and setting up the game one Saturday afternoon. His parents came and went, asked what we were doing and did their own thing. We played for a few hours and then gave it up -- probably to go eat dinner or maybe to go do something else.

The next day, after Tim came home from church, he told me his parents had forbidden him to play Dungeons & Dragons ever again. The way I remember hearing it was that Tim's parents had heard of D&D before, and they'd heard the bad things -- the supposed suicides linked to the game, the real black magic hiding in the pages of the rule books and the other rumours that make most old-time D&D players roll their eyes these days. Before or after the morning's church ceremony, Tim's parents had asked their pastor about D&D, and they got the response you would probably expect -- it's a demonic game that teaches kids to hate god and to learn black magic from Satan and blah-de-blah-de-blah. You have no idea how many times I've heard that crap since then.

However, Tim was a defiant youth. Instead of doing what his parents told him do, we started playing without their knowledge. D&D was a taboo subject for the group from then on whenever we were in earshot of his parents. We kept things quiet and went on our merry way, adventuring to our hearts' content.

The next problem we had was in early high school. Steve had joined the group, and the story is quite similar to that of Tim's. His parents had heard bad things about D&D, learned Steve was playing it and then forbade him to ever play it again. Steve was a little more goody-goody than Tim, and he was sure if he continued to play, he'd eventually get caught. Well, he didn't get caught playing D&D, but when Steve had collected a few Shadowrun books, he was not careful enough in hiding them. At one point, he had left his core Shadowrun book out (SR is kind of a futuristic fantasy game), and his father had discovered it. At least his father was somewhat forgiving. Instead of taking the book away and destroying it, he offered Steve a hundred bucks to throw his thirty-dollar Shadowrun core book away. Simple bribery.

Unfortunately, the idea of bribing someone to hand over a book like that isn't a very sound idea. Just do the math. Steve handed over the Shadowrun book, took the money and was soon at the store buying a replacement copy, which he learned to keep hidden. After all, he had other Shadowrun books stashed away that weren't much good without a core book.

To be continued...

Although my first pen-and-paper roleplaying game group (the term computer roleplaying game was probably around at that time but not all that well-known) was that foursome that rolled up characters and mashed skeletons in my parents' garage, it barely counts, considering we maybe played two or three times during that first summer.

In 1987, I bought the D&D Red Box. Technically, it was called the D&D Basic Set, but the Red Box is the name gamers everywhere gave it, and it's a name that stuck. Why? 'Cause it was frickin' red with a big-ass red dragon on the front (although I've seen other Red Boxes that had a mage on the cover, I believe). Seeing as how my first dungeon master had moved away, there was nobody left who was familiar enough with the rules to run the game. While Sean (my bro, not Smith) and Tim were still keen on playing, the dungeon master's mantle fell on my shoulders -- probably because I was the one foolish enough to buy the box in the first place and because I was the keenest to play.

I started using my little bit of allowance money to buy adventures, supplements, dice, graph paper, hex paper, maps and eventually other roleplaying games that were not Dungeons & Dragons. My early years of dungeon mastering mainly revolved around using the often complicated (for an eleven-year-old) modules published by TSR at the time. Most of the adventures took place in either the Greyhawk or Blackmoor settings, but I interpersed things as I saw fit and never really bothered to consider the continuity of the tales we told.

At times, when Tim wasn't available, my brother and I tried recruiting our elders for a game session. I remember my mother's fighter character named George, and I remember trying to explain the game to my grandmother on a rather lengthy road trip to Orlando. You just haven't played in rough situations until you've tried to roll a d20 in a car that's riding on pothole-ridden roads.

For a few years, my gaming group would meet after school up to four or five nights a week. We'd start from the time we got home and finish when our parents started calling for dinner. The core group remained Tim (usually playing a fighter), Sean (almost always a mage) and me (generally the dungeon master/game master), but other players came and went before we hit high school. Brian Patterson, a guy I haven't seen in years, and Rawlio joined here and there to play D&D or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, which was the second full game I purchased after the Red Box.

As I started high school, we took on another core member of the group. Steve stuck with the group for a very long time. Tim dropped out around the middle of high school, but Steve only left the group a couple of years ago.

During high school, the gaming group got big for awhile. Although my groups usually consisted of no more than four or five players at any one time, the biggest group I ever ran for was nine players. And that's where I learned to control my explosive temper. Being a game master while nine different players, each with his own strong personality quirks, were yelling constantly for attention, each voice getting louder and louder to be heard over the increasing volume, is enough to make anyone flip out a couple of times. Patience in such situations is very difficult to learn, but you either learn it or your group becomes accustomed to violent outbursts. For years, it was the latter case.

Although I've forgotten many of my adventures playing the various roleplaying games that now adorn my shelves (and hide in boxes in the storage room), I do recall a few characters, a few situations, most of the friends I made whilst playing and, most importantly, how I started out.

As near as I can tell, my roleplaying fixation began in the summer of 1986. As a ten-year-old boy whose best friends lived in the same neighbourhood and went to the same school, I had always been somewhat imaginative and had dragged most of them into one form of make-believe world or another. My brother and I used to make up elaborate stories while playing with action figures, and then, for instance, we'd have G.I. Joe go head-to-head with the Galactic Empire's stormtroopers. It really shouldn't have come to anybody's surprise that Dungeons & Dragons would eventually fall into my hands and that I'd find the imaginative worlds buried within its many books too intriguing to simply ignore.

My original group started with just four of us -- myself, my brother Sean and a couple of friends -- Tim McColm and Sean Smith. I was the oldest of the group, but it was the youngest, Smith, that had the game. One afternoon, he asked us if we'd be interested in trying a cool, new game he had. Since we all rather loved board games and card games, we were in. That afternoon, we sat inside my parents' garage, rolling up characters under Smith's watchful eyes. Once we were finished, Smith ran us through what he probably thought of as an adventure at the time. Today, we'd class it as no more than an encounter in a larger story. Essentially, he took out a piece of paper, made two or three rows of X's and told us that each X represented an animated skeleton. What he told us was that we had to go through those skeletons, and they didn't want to let us.

We chose targets, rolled against THAC0s and tossed various multi-coloured, polygonal dice to account for damage and to-hits. That was my first exposure to Dungeons & Dragons, and my imagination was quickly lost to elven wizards, dwarven warriors and cunning human thieves (the latter became my preferred class for several years whenever I played).

Unfortunately, Smith moved away that fall, and by that point, we had only played a couple of times. My interest in roleplaying games went on hiatus. It wasn't until the following summer that I strolled into Leisure World in the Pickering Town Centre (a store that hasn't existed there for many years now) and found the Red Box that I had been introduced to barely a year before. Scrounging away my allowance, my dungeon mastering days were about to begin.

To be continued...

The Law came up with a great motto for the upcoming Canadian federal election. Here it is:

"The 2004 Canadian Federal Election: How would you like to get fucked?"

This is just silly. However, whoever it is that has come up with the idea of the blog Andy Kaufman Returns should be applauded. It seems he's already received a fair bit of media exposure. The May 20th post has 657 comments, after all.

I've been listening to a lot of AC/DC the last couple of weeks. Unfortunately, I have so few AC/DC CDs that I'm listening to the same three albums over and over again -- Blow Up Your Video (which actually was the first AC/DC album I ever bought way back when -- I only recently replaced that cassette with the CD), Back In Black and For Those About To Rock. Listening to the same thirty (give or take) tunes again and again isn't really bothering me, although I really should look at getting a few more of the band's discs.

There's just something about heavy metal music that puts me in a good mood.