Carrion Crown

My gaming group is back and we are following the new Paizo Adventure Path Carrion Crown! This is a dark, moody and wonderful story in which your characters are called together to a foreign land after the death of a professor.

So, what do I do faced with this Dark Shadows of the gaming world... I go completely against my normal routine and make a non-human, a gnome! I'm playing a gnome alchemist and believe me I have to be careful to not inject too much levity into this game. Our GM is doing an awesome job and the other players and I are having a lot of fun with this path.

Hummus, wine and a character sheet...ah, the high class world of Pathfinder gaming...

Normally I would give a game recap here, but since this is a set Path I don't want to give out any spoilers. I haven't been tempted to get the book and peek ahead, but I can't wait till we finish this first book so I can check out the art and more of the story!

Zombie Game Design

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. I enjoyed some gluten free corn casserole and mashed sweet potatoes (my brother made the casserole, yum!)

I have actually been working a lot on graphic design for various projects at school and some side projects with a very talented professional (top secret though).

In the rest of the free time I've been trying to get everything done for my game at school. I have to finish the chipset music for it and my Mr. Geek is recording some metal riffs. I'm not ready to unleash my guitar playing on an unsuspecting world (who would cover their ears!).

Here's some of the early design stuff for one of the zombie PC's in the game.

This is a quick sketch that I did and scanned into the computer. From there I cleaned up the area around the image. When I was working on the sketches I left the sketchbook out and my cats walked all over it, smearing the paper.

Since this game has low-res graphics and is not a full screen game I kept the drawings very simple.

Next, I began to color them in Photoshop (I have Elements student edition).

I wanted the zombie to have paradoxically gentle coloring compared to her goals in the game itself and so I went with soft colors and textures.

I am also making all the backgrounds and the npc's. So I better get back to work!

IT Crowd...v1.??

This doesn't look like the typical scene from your average computer repair lab, now does it?

Today we had to use DBAN to wipe the drives on those poor monsters we hack up on a regular basis. The professor had warned us it would take awhile and an awesome classmate of ours brought an N64 and a TV. God Bless 'em.

We played Smash Bros (I ran as Samus and later Kirby) and Golden Eye while DBAN ate up the drives like a slow acid spill.

Aside from this life in the IT program continues on as incredibly busy. We are deep in the throes of working on our Java games. I am making the art right now and coding and coding and coding.

In the past few weeks I have been privileged to hear from some amazing speakers at my clubs and at conferences here on campus. I also got to teach a group of 11-13 year old girls the fine art of basic computer networking and setting up WiFi.

Here's a view of the Smart Board with the presentation loaded up. It was an amazing experience. The girls were engaged and willing to learn and 3 of them hope to work in engineering or IT. I also got to meet a professor who has been on sabbatical. She was very inspiring and I enjoyed working with her and the other two students for the presentation.


At an Innovations Conference two weeks ago I got to hear from industry leaders from Microsoft to Motorola and a really awesome Crash Space speaker with a Maker Bot:

He had a photo of it with a "Tea, Earl Gray Hot" cup on it, but I didn't get a good picture of it. Yes, this 3-D printer that you see before you could very well be the forerunner to the Replicator...

So, that's my busy life right now. I'm planning on going to the midnight showing of Harry Potter despite the fact that next week our campus is closing down early due to financial strains, thus interrupting my job and putting me in a very, very tight spot for what will turn out to be most of December and January. I must persevere!

Java, Java, Java

I made a game!

In my Java course our final project is a fully working game along the lines of a 2D sidescroller. We've been learning how to write code at an accelerated pace. We got into GUI's after a few weeks. The challenge of the class is that it's a teaching style I have never encountered before called problem based learning. Essentially we know just enough to start a project and then must figure out the rest on our own. While progamming languages like Java certainly involve a lot of logic and math (thankfully!) there are also certain things that are very specific and not easily derived. Sometimes this feels like it might if you were learning Spanish and knew how to say Dónde and you knew that estar was a verb, but didn't know the conjugation rules nor the word for bathroom.

In the last few weeks the workload has gotten intense leading up to this very simple game. Figuring out how to write code for the specific requirements for this program is our last assignment before we begin working on the final game.

So, here it is. I made a video explaining the process and it includes footage of the "game".

Kobolds Ate My Baby at Brewfest

As you may recall I attended a small gaming convention called Brewfest which took place at a brewery on the Mississippi River on a lovely October day. The gaming was in full swing when we arrived and most people were enjoying either Pathfinder games or Warhammer. It was so cool!

Despite the name, Brewfest, seemed to mostly involve drinking brews like iced tea and soda. Mr. Geek and I did have some alcohol, but I also ended up mostly drinking my favorite version of tea, unsweetened with lots of lemon. For a small fee you could get a collector cup and drink all the non-alcoholic beverages that your gaming heart desired.

And what did our gaming consist of, you may ask. Well, we played Kobolds Ate my Baby! This is a very, very seriously light-hearted game. You play a kobold, which is a little furry beast in this game. You serve King Torg (ALL HAIL KING TORG!) and must venture out of your cave to do something related to gathering food, especially babies!

Yum! And see the baby wants to be eaten....

Kobolds do not understand human language, but as a skill can take "Speak Human" and gain the understanding of a whole SEVEN words. Your character has points in Brawn, Ego, Extraneous, and Refelxes, aka the BEER system. Very apt for the setting that day.


We had so many players that we had two GM's. Both did a really excellent job and made the game insanely fun. Our goal was to collect ingredients and then throw them into the volcano, but these ingredients included the dead body of King Torg because our side was allied to the Queen.

Queen Grot's Volcano Delight

• 1 volcano pepper
• 1 chicken alive or dead
• 1 zombie baby
• cheese
• the carcass of King Torg

To play the game you really have to be ready to be silly. You could be called upon to bark like a Kobold and upon death give a speech about your deceased Kobold. Player death is pretty common since you are basically a very stupid creature. Oh, we also at one point were put under a spell in which both sides of the table had to switch character sheets and play that character for a moment.

Somehow my stupid Kobold managed to survive most of the game and make it from our battlemap to the next table's where King Torg lived. Along the way I ran into a naked elf, ate a bunch of leather coats that were hanging up in a place I broke into and bored a hole with a spoon through a man's head... Finally, the Kobold Blehhh made it to King Torg, wrassled him (the game's term for grapple), but was tragically killed along with the King by one of his minions!

Whew. It was a real delight and we really enjoyed the company of the other gamers.

Pulsar Arcade Refurb

As part of my experience in the IT department I've joined an organization that does everything from learning game design to working on arcade machines. This is a machine kindly donated to us by our Advisor. It's a 1981 Pulsar and this is the condition it was in when we all gathered one lovely Saturday to work on it. Our advisor has an awesome house with pinball and arcade machines everywhere. Paradise!

After some fun playing the LOTR and X-Files pinball machines and playing some guitar we got down to work!

First we took everything we could off of the cabinet. There were some surprises in how things were bolted in, but we got it taken apart fairly quickly.

Most of the electrical components are in fairly good shape and the monitor needed some tweaking to get it looking sharper. Many of the other pieces like the plastic components were incredibly filthy and scratched. They needed a lot of cleaning and polishing to remove as many surface scratches as possible.

Even the marquee was somewhat banged up and really dirty before I got to work on it. I soon discovered that the back needed as much work as the front. You can see how much improved it is from the first picture. I like the image on there. It reminds me of Tron!

Here's the front of the machine stripped down. The control panel needed cleaning and some work. Although the game was running it was not running very smoothly. The joystick had some issues and ultimately needs to be rebuilt.

You might be surprised to see how simple the parts are on the bottom of the control panel. They are even mounted on wooden blocks. Once the parts were clean and the control panel had been worked on we began to reassemble the pieces.

Look at that monitor! It's really in wonderful shape after it's been adjusted. So, what happened to Pulsar? Well, now it's in a temporary home in one of the computer labs. It looks shiny!


You can see more photos including the ORIGINAL manual with specs at my Photobucket.

Cool Dice Containers

This past Saturday I spent a very fun afternoon at a brewery on the Mississippi river at Brewfest! I'll be posting a full re-cap a bit later.

For now I wanted to share with you some very cool ways that people were keeping their dice safe and cozy at our game table.








Kitteh is hungry 4 ur dice! Meow!



















Magic scroll container? Well, maybe, but it's also a mega tube o'dice for the gamer.










Naturally we had our Dragon Chow dice bags going. While we were gaming some random figures represented wild cats on the hexmat. The random figures included this little Ewok whose "cat" counterpart in-game I really, really wanted to kill.

You can see some wedding dice from my friend's wedding and the blue dice is from Gen Con. Actually, the Ewok could have represented my Kobold since you know in the game I was playing kobolds are ugly little dog creatures that eat people. Sounds like an ewok to me.

I'm Going to Brewfest

Those of you that play WoW recognize this scene.

It's Brewfest! My DK is getting drunk, riding rams, and giving me a wicked gaming hangover with the wavy screens of doom that you get when your character gets her drink on.

What if you could go to "Brewfest" ?!

Well, when I picked up my comic book pull list today I found a flier advertising just such an event. It's a regional gaming convention happening within driving distance of me!

Brewfest 2010 is in its 2nd year. My friendly local game shop guy recounted me with some tales of last year's event when I picked up my comic books. Apparently the location is lovely and they have a dumbwaiter that delivers beer and food to the second floor. It's a local brewery and it sounds awesome. I'm not sure with the gluten issues if I'll be able to sample the beer, but the games that are going on sound like fun! I am looking forward to a day or two of table-top RPG's and checking out the Warhammer Tournaments. I don't have enough figures yet to play myself, but I will at some point!

If you live in the area registration ends Oct.1.

Clash of the Gamers!

Invariably when I get together with other table-top gamers we end up discussing problems that have arisen during the course of our time gaming. Everyone loves to share the funny stories of what happened when PC Blank ran into a wall and tried to fight it or when PC Anonymous tried to talk to a monster instead of fighting it. If you've been gaming for a bit then you know what I'm talking about.

We have all been PC Blank or the friend PC Anonymous at sometime. Even seasoned gamers end up setting off mishaps.

When that problem stays in the game then it's just a funny story. When misadventures in a game are being caused by events away from the table or due to a clash of personalities that's when funny stories turn dark and transform into unpleasant moments that can linger and haunt a group or player.

Rather than spend this post talking about what to do with other players that are disrupting the game I want to talk about how to recognize when you are causing or contributing to the problem.

A good starting point, even if no problems have come up yet, is to consider your style of play and compare it to others. Remember this is a game we are talking about. There is no style of play that is superior to any other. What there is, however, is ways of looking at the game that may not mesh together. If your group is having fun then you have people with ways of playing that mesh together.

The style you play in may not be static either. Some people will not change how they play, but others will grow and change. I would like people to at least consider adapting their behavior according to the system being played in and according to who the DM is and how he or she runs the game.

How do you know if you are a part of the problem? This is trickier. If you feel like others are being unfair it may be even harder to recognize. It could be the only part you are playing is not effectively communicating. For example if Player A is picking on Player B during the game and your group is not dealing with it then you, Player C, are part of that issue. One way to handle it is to weigh out how to approach the DM and potentially the entire group with the issue. Do this when you are not gaming. Preferably, don't do it over e-mail because that leads to misunderstandings.

If your issue is that people are not playing the game the way you want/think/"know" that they should be playing it then you are potentially creating your own private Hell that could spill into the game experience. Your style probably does not mesh with these players and you may want to consider leaving the group or forming a new group with those players that you do work with.

I think the group I was playing with this weekend summed it up best, when our DM pointed out that the players should be having fun. She's right. It is the most basic component.

T-Shirt Tuesday: GaMeRS

After a long weekend of travel and starting a new IT job I am happy to be back on campus working on projects. Sometime soon I have a new Pathfinder game that I'll be in as a swashbuckler and this weekend I will be in a very beautiful piratey/steampunky type wedding as a bridesmaid!

As for today I am sporting a shirt for the Game Mechanics Research Studio, a group that I will now represent as treasurer. Tomorrow we have a meeting about MMO's at 1 pm.

I like to kick it by the pinball machines in our small campus arcade on breaks. If you would like to check out our logo and help us raise funds to travel to game studios then check out our store. As treasurer this request is my first official act. Hehe.

Stay tuned for more! I hope to have a contest up and running next week.

Zombie Dice

Do you even dare to reach your hand in a canister such as this? Zombie Dice is a putrid party game that you play with decaying dice. The dice comes loaded with fangs and wants to eat your brains or your fingers or whatever it can sink its rotting teeth into!

So now that you don't want to play this game let me tell you what it's really like.

Zombie Dice is by Steve Jackson Games and it if we want to be alliterative, a better description is that it's a portable party game. All the pieces you need are the dice and the canister (which has a very solid lid that makes storage easy).

Playing the game is simple. You draw out 3 dice at a time, throw them to get your result and depending on what you get either earn points or lose your turn .

You are trying to roll for brains. Each color of dice including green, red and yellow has a different ratio of brains to shotgun blasts to footsteps.

If you get three footsteps on the first throw you lose your turn because your victims got away. If at any time you reach three shotgun blasts you don't get any points and your turn ends. So you must be savvy about the number of brains that will satiate your zombie lust. If you don't keep your points at the right time and your next roll is a shotgun blast that takes you up to 3 hits then you don't get any of your brain points.

The more delicious brains you get the better! You are trying to be the first person to reach 13 points by "eating" 13 brains.

This is another game that can have added layers to it if you tell little stories about what's happening, but it's not necessary to do anything more than roll the dice to have a fun time.

I wonder if you could do a variation of the rules to try to kill zombies by getting shotgun blasts instead of brains? Or footsteps? In any case I think this game would be great to play with people who don't normally indulge in gaming.

Game Development

Today I attended the first meeting of a new professional development group on my campus dedicated to helping potential game developers learn and discuss many different aspects of the gaming industry.

We listened to a great presentation by Rob Craig who writes for Game Room Magazine, and restores and builds arcade cabinets.

He brought in this machine:

This mini-pin is a machine that runs pinball emulators. Rob took us through the history of arcade machines and the evolution of their boards, hacks, and emulation. Those of us in attendance discussed some of the games that we've played and Rob talked about what went into making them.

The mini-pin was set up at the side of the room and we all got to see it in action. It's pretty impressive. Something that I have not written about on this blog yet is that I'm actually a huge fan of pinball. I play it whenever I can, but I do not play it on the computer. I wouldn't necessarily call myself a purist, but pretty close to it.

That said Rob's machine was a joy to play. You got the benefit of arcade style sound, buttons, and the machine having a tilt feature (which personally won me over) and the fact that you can play such a wide variety of machines on this single device.
Here's a shot of the mini-pin in action. It's a neat marriage of traditional pinball and electronic gaming that proved to be very innovative and fun. Both the top screen and the bottom screen change according to the game that you load up.

There's a lot more cool stuff to come with this group. Rob invited those of us who want to help restore an old arcade machine to join him and I certainly want to do it. If I had more room in my apartment I would have already bought a beat-up, old cabinet and be working on it as one of my many projects.

Complete Pathfinder Conversion

It's happened. I'm completely hooked and won over by the Pathfinder system. Yes, we've been playing our converted DnD to Pathfinder game for half a year now, but the Advanced Player's Guide that I picked up at Gen Con was the tipping point that sent me from admiration to adoration.

On the left you can see some of my recent acquisitions. Red Dragon Inn is not part of Pathfinder, but I included it here because I finally got a copy yesterday. My arch-nemesis Capt. Osmotic and I battled each other into a drunken stupour last night. So it was only in-game drinking... I did have a shot of vodka to celebrate though.

Below Red Dragon Inn you can see my recent Pathfinder buys. I bought the GM screen because Mr. Geek will be running game for me and I'm hoping to run something for a few friends in the future. I haven't GM'ed since Vampire.

Harrow deserves its own post. I will tell you right now that it's a very neat concept. Harrow is a divination deck to be used in campaigns. You can use it to tell fortunes that the GM can incorporate into the story or use it as a gambling deck during game time.

Finally, the Pathfinder Chronicles book focuses on the undead. I couldn't resist getting it. Paizo has some wonderful products coming out later this year and early next year, so stay tuned.

"I'm Here to Game"

Last Thursday I attended two seminars about women and gaming at Gen Con. The seminars at Gen Con were really one of the best aspects of being there. I don't often get to sit in with a group of people who know games and discuss issues inherent to the culture and,or process of gaming.

Girls Just Want to Get Their Game On

The panel for this seminar included women with a wide range of gaming experience. There was a panel member who works for Wizards of the Coast, a woman from Game Salute, All Games Considered, Married Gamers, and Geek's Dream Girl. They recorded the panel for Game Salute and handled the session as an open Q&A.

From this panel I learned that there's a trend for librarians to run RP's for kids. That's pretty exciting news for me. We heard stories ranging from playing Magic in the back of chemistry class to women feeling free to be ultra-violent in games to reduce stress in life. One interesting story came from a woman who played a female character back in the early days of D&D. During a session the DM brought out a male NPC who was from a culture that controlled women. From then on while this NPC was present her character was not allowed to look at him. Those are all the details I know, but wow, there is a lot to unpack with a story like that.

One last tidbit. I was excited to hear that the man sitting in front of me had written his dissertation on women, sexism and gaming.

Best Quote of the Seminar: "I'm here to Game".

Women in Gaming

I had to hurry to get to the next panel and was glad to see some friends had arrived as well. This panel again included women with a wide range of gaming experience. There was someone from Gaming Angels present, a PhD student, and several other professionals. My notes on this panel are a little patchier because we got there late enough that we had to sit in the back of a huge room and I couldn't always hear what was going on. (My hearing issue, not the fault of the staff).

This panel covered everything from gender issues in cross-play during LARPS to defining the hard core nature of those who play casual games.

Something that came up again and again was women being demanded to prove themselves both as competent gamers and even as women. Why do women have the burden of having to prove themselves to be as good or better at things? What makes men the default? These gender issues are not unique to games, but are prevalent in American culture.

Many women reported that Geek Culture was more accepting of people who are different than wider American culture. I was delighted to hear one panelist compare it to the Metal community. When I got into the metal scene I found the people to be the nicest people I had ever been around. Geek culture can be the same way.

This panel also discussed the phenomena of industries that look for gamers. One of the panelists had secured her position because of her experience with online gaming. The issues of management and technical skill that gaming takes can translate in the right industry to valuable skills as an employee.

Ultimately we seemed to agree that everyone had stereotypes that they needed to confront. I heard several women critiquing the appearance of other women and wondering how to relate to them. This is a hard issue. Hopefully, the internet and events like Gen Con are helping women connect with others. I argue that the internet is our greatest cultural potential for furthering true equality.

Conclusion

I hope panels like these happen again next year. It was eye-opening to hear from other people and get a variety of experiences and opinions discussed.

The Beast and the Bestiary

Wow. I think this picture speaks for itself. We will never get this book back. She's activated some type of arcane spell craft. You can tell because her normally blue eyes have gone red.

Ok, crisis averted for now. She is resting with her treasure. Actually this is pretty dangerous. I've lived with many cats over the years and this is the first one who likes to eat paper. She's consumed some IT homework and recently I discovered that she's eaten some chunks out of my Power Girl figure. She's probably bored of her toys and needs a new one. Maybe one of my readers under a shrinking spell??

Who wants to volunteer!

Building a Warhammer 40k Army

When I decided to build an army in the Warhammer 40k universe I had some concerns about the cost of the endeavor. However, I decided to go slowly and collect figures as I could and then spend as much time as possible on painting each one.

I've learned some valuable lessons from checking game stores and observing e-bay listings. It is possible to find the books you need at very low prices used and that's one big expense that's nice to get out of the way. You'll need the core rulebook and then the codex for the army that you wish to build. I'm putting together an army from the Witch Hunter's Codex consisting of the all-female Sisters of Battle.

Now when it comes to buying the figures be warned that just because it is on e-bay does not mean you are getting a good deal. I have scored some Sisters Repentia and Sisters of Battle on e-bay for a much better price than the cost new, but I have noticed that many sellers are actually selling their listing for the same price or more than the cost of the figure new from Games Workshop. So beware.

The next cost involved once you have the figures is painting them and adding terrain elements to the base. Once you decide the color scheme you can buy paints accordingly. It's also possible to mix them to create the colors you want and I've been doing that.

I have a long way to go to build up even a 500 pt. army, but I am enjoying the process.

Here are two Sisters Repentia that are ready to die for the Emperor. I consider these figures finished, but I am going to take the extra sand off of the sides of the base. When gluing the sand on I managed to affix a strip of it to my finger. That felt wonderful, let me tell you...

Oh Gamers

I haven't run a T-shirt Tuesday in a bit and I missed this week, so ....

Here I am off to game te other night with my Dragon Chow bag, a new Wil Wheaton collab t-shirt from Jinx, and my Pathfinder book. Never mind that giant pink lamb in the background. You don't need to know! *snicker*

Our resident funny girl, the gorgeous Beth (in-game the manly cleric) debuted a new gaming tool that may well become essential gaming gear for everyone: The catch phrase board of pointing. Here's the experimental proto-type:


Oh believe me that thing came in so handy while the Barbarian and the Bard went to buy some ropes and chains from ye olde sex shoppe in the town we are stuck in. Yes, that was an RP exchange to remember...

Con Dining: Beyond PB&J

After four days you will be tired of sandwiches....

SDCC is about to hit the west coast while all across the globe the convention schedule for fans of almost anything continues to grow with new events and old favorites.

In the heat of battling for exclusive items, attending seminars, meeting your idols, and taking it all in it's important to remember to eat. How does the savy attendee solve the dilemma of finding easily accessible food and yet also saving funds for that got-to-have collector item?

I have given this a lot of thought as this year some of my gaming BFF's and I will be attending GENCON. I don't want to spend the time and money tracking down restaurants compounded by the fact that I have to find gluten free and vegetarian fare for my dietary needs.

Let me introduce you to some foods that would make either good snacks or great meals for those on a budget. Even if your hotel room doesn't have a microwave almost all hotels have a microwave in the lobby. Your first step is to make sure you stay at a hotel with some kind of free breakfast as that will simplify some of your food needs.

SNACKS:

There are a lot of good meal bars that you could stash in a bag of holding or your Cthulhu waist pouch. Some good options that also happen to be gluten free, healthy, and taste pretty great are Soy Joy, Luna Bars, and Cliff Bars.

Cliff bars lead the pack as they have more calories than the others, a number of added vitamins, and are quite filling. Paired with an apple from your free hotel breakfast this would make a fast and healthy lunch between seminars.

Other good options would include trail mix, microwave popcorn, tortilla chips, and of course cookies (which for the gf person there are many options these days).


DINNER:

Here is the beyond PB&J, beyond ramen, part of the post. If your hotel room does not have a fridge it may seem like you are very limited in your food choices. However, a trip to an International Grocery, larger chain store, or a co-op/natural food store will yield amazing choices that are not perishable. These foods will give you a full complement of nutrition and even veggies.

First up on my recommended list are the meals by Tasty-Bite. They make items in the vegan range, gluten-free range, etc. Can you imagine after a long day coming back to your hotel room and fixing a fast, hot-meal of Indian food?! There are a lot of meals to choose from in this line and they cook in 1.5 minutes.

These meals can be paired with microwave rice such as Anne Chung's Rice Express for a full meal that you can share.

Other brands that make good non-perishable food that comes in gluten-free include Amy's Vegetarian Chili's and Soups (you'll need to bring a can-opener), Thai Kitchen, and A Taste of Thai.

Hell, if you bring a jar of pickled Japanese veggies it's even possible to make a passable and very cheap mountain of sushi to take back up to your hotel room with this kit. All you have to do is microwave the rice for the sushi.
BE EARTH-FRIENDLY:
Conventions, like any large gathering of people, tend to create a lot of waste. Be mindful of this. Ask about recycling at your hotel or at the convention center. If possible stash any plastic, cardboard, paper, or glass in your trunk to recycle when you get home. Bring your own water bottle and refill it and if you are microwaving food at your hotel consider bringing a small bowl from home and a knife/spoon or spork. You can wash it out in the hotel sink and re-use it each day instead of throwing away paper or plastic disposables.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
As you consider the type of convention, the means of travel, and the amenities of your lodgings decide ahead of time how much food you can bring and what type. At the very least bring along snacks and re-usable water bottle.

Let me know any other easy food options that have worked for you in the past or ones that you plan on trying.

Table-top Updates

Our Call of Cthulhu game has not had a session in quite some time. Ah, scheduling. The other game, our DnD turned Pathfinder game of the past two years, has had two sessions since I last posted about it and we are going to run again tomorrow.

The background on our game is that the original group (my Ranger and the Bard are the only two surviving original members) was hired to kill Orcs. Oh, but it's never as simple as that, is it? In the midst of our questing we, or if I want to be specific THE BARD, unleashed an ancient and not so delicious horror. Ever since then we have been used by various factions to try to fix this. Many terrible and some terribly hilarious things have happened including my Ranger accidentally being owned by the Lord of the Hunt when we traversed into an Other World. Still, she did what she thought was best in the situation and ended up having to make a pact with him to save her party from a fight that we could never win. My Ranger favours women more than men, but hey if it comes down to it maybe being owned by the Lord of the Hunt won't be so bad for her...*dirty*

Well, during our last two sessions we reached the Fell Lands and entered a keep in which all hell broke loose and we discovered that someone (*cough*magic-user*cough*) had been keeping secrets that lead to all manner of awesome events. Our entire party "died" temporarily and we found ourselves in a weird state of suspension in which we met a very powerful and ancient magic-user who presumably told us what was really going on. Of course my character gave up trusting anyone a long time ago. She is so battle-scarred that aside from being happy near any forest she just basically wants to kill until her time is up.

Suffice it to say there is a god on the loose who needs to be bound and the hearts we have been going after are integral to this.

After returning from our trip to the world of the not-quite dead we found ourselves resurrected about as far away from our target as possible within the known geography of the world. Yay! Oh yeah, and we had Resurrection sickness too...hehe. After some willow bark tea at an inn, some business in town, and then a visit from an Elf that was beautifully described by our DM we found ourselves for at least the second time causing an inn-keeper to flee and having to run the place. The Barbarian and the Cleric have been trying to learn instruments and work with the Bard. Meanwhile our Druid has a huge grizzly bear sitting in all his glory inside the inn demanding honey covered fish. Naturally, the whole evening was capped off by the appearance of a whole bunch of undead that were hard as hell to kill.

Oh boy I bet the Knights of Kahn will NEVER figure out where we are after that little scuffle. Yes, we also found out that there has been a wanted poster circulating for some time with our original party members on it.

Tomorrow when we game we just have to figure out how to sneak in and kill someone very important. Yeah, that should be easy.

Geeky Soap

You've probably seen these on other blogs and geeky sites, but here's a fresh reminder about some very unique soap!

Geeky Clean has an amazing assortment of soaps to choose from. I'm excited to see their booth at Gen Con and I'm even more excited to have soap with a treasure inside of it!

Yes those are d20's in there. I love this idea! I will be giving away the Health bar in a contest this week. So stay tuned!

Next up is Geek Soap! A few days after I ordered my soap a new WoW hearthstone soap appeared on the site. It's awesome. I have to admit that I want it pretty badly. I got two very cool soaps from this site.

The Star Trek bar is very cool. It's wrapped in plastic still hence the weird squiggles. The cartridge soaps make great display pieces in my very eclectic bathroom. It also really does resemble the actual thing in great detail. Here's a comparison with my Game Boy:


Over at Luxury Lane there is even more great soap including Hello Kitty! This is the site where you can get the awesome Carbonite soap.
This picture doesn't do it justice and I left it in its packaging so it's a bit shiny. It's a display soap for me as well since it contains wheat and I am gluten intolerant, but it was well worth it. The level of detail is really awesome.

**I've also found out that both Geek Soap and Luxury Lane will be at Gen Con together in one booth under the G33Kmade banner. Yay! Gen Con is going to rock!**

All three soap makers create little works of art. These soaps are vegan friendly, fun to have, and smell wonderful. Any of these would make great gifts for your gaming buddies.

If you know of any other geeky soap makers let me know. These three are truly artisans at what they do. Having soap like this just adds another bright spot to every day life.