I Ought To Be Ashamed....

[Number Three]

Something that should have been in the Fantasy Craft Navigation thread, and has already been answered several times.

Now back to your regularly scheduled shame.

[TheAuldGrump]

EDIT:  How the heck did I post that in this thread? 

At a guess... multiple open tabs.

That has, of course, never happened to me.... 

The Auld Grump, possibly lying....

[Krensky]

I have sunk to a new low of nerddom.

I spent twenty minutes, during a session, installing and setting up a Skype connection for a player who was a three hour drive away.

Speaking of which, anyone know a good, inexpensive, USB or Bluetooth speakerphone? I have a spare Motorola T305, but I'm not sure how well it will pick up the table or if it's full duplex.

Yes, we'll be doing it again. With a scavenged 17" LCD and a cheap USB camera rather then my netbook display and built in camera.

[Bill Whitmore]

We have been doing this for the better part of 3 years.  One of our long time gaming buddies moved from California to Reno, NV.  He bought me a decent web cam so he could stay in our normal Friday game from there. 

[TheAuldGrump]

It is odd just how often a given conversation can come up.

One that I swear I have had at least three times, more if you count online, in the last year is 'How did people do gaming books before there was desktop publishing, page layout programs, and the like?'

Gods, I think I may start dreaming about the days of beeswax, razorblades, Linotype, and lightboxes.

In case anyone wonders - page layout is both a hell of a lot more easy now, and the results tend to look one hell of a lot better. Even Quark is better than doing it all by hand.

The Auld Grump, and then there was the joy of hunting for the Linotype disks, and wondering why the hell somebody had left them on top of the circuit breaker box. Again.

[TheAuldGrump]

No games this past weekend, or the week before. I was supposed to be performing at a 'Love Gone Wrong' concert with my girlfriend on St. Valentine's Day, but the concert got canceled because of an electrical problem at the venue - they also had to cancel Mass*. (We would have been in front of the mikes six times, two together, and two each alone - her singing, me  spinning yarns.) We would then have celebrated her birthday a few days early.

Instead we got together this weekend to celebrate her birthday a few days late. I knew she was coming, so I baked a cake - forty candles for her birthday, and I decided to use a different color to represent how long we have been seeing each other....

So, eight special candles, right?**
Well, no - and I am glad that I decided to check my math, using a mental landmark.... We had gone to see Fisher King together in the theater. I have been thinking that we had been together for about eight years for more than ten years now - nineteen years together, almost half her life. I am enough older than her to still feel guilty about it... but then she was the one who did the pursuing. (There needs to be a happy blushing emoticon....)

Happy 40th Jackie!

The Auld Grump

* I'd say that it was a miracle that the place didn't burn down, but it was a U/U church, and didn't burn down because somebody noticed the water damage, and remembered that the electrical box was directly below in the basement. A prepared mind trumps a miracle, every time.

** The 'special candles' were the sort that relight themselves - a hopeful conceit.

[Crafty_Pat]

Well played sir, well played - especially the bit with the relighting candles.

[Sletchman]

  ?

[Eärendle]

Happiness!

Never feel guilty about receiving the love of a good woman nor about being able to sincerely return it.

Sounds like a fun time. I hope everyone enjoyed the festivities.

[TheAuldGrump]

It would have been nice to do the concert too - she is much more musically inclined than I am, and I was looking forward to it.

The Auld Grump

[TheAuldGrump]

Today I bought one of those round American Idol Coca Cola bottles, even though I don't much like Coke.

Just because it would be so easy to turn the bottle into a prop for a 17th or 18th century cast iron grenade or mortar shell... even though I have no need or use for such at the present time....

Black primer, some dark metallic paint, and a cheap brush to use for drybrushing.  A bit of lamp wick, a red LED, some wire, some tape, some black and a AA battery, and I can make it look semi pseudo sorta like it has been lit.

The Auld Grump

[Sletchman]

Back when I played 40k, I bought some kids toy because one specific bit would go perfect in my landspeeder conversions, so I know exactly where you're coming from.

[TheAuldGrump]

I... I... I suddenly have a strange urge to watch Manos The Hands of Fate. 

Again.   

The Auld Grump

[Rossum]

Last week I finally gave in to temptation in my Scoobypunk game - the 'Phantom' turned out to be Mr. Whithers from the Museum, wearing a mask. When captured he told the team that 'I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you meddlers!'

Scoobypunk?  That intruiges me- I am planning a Spycraft campaign with a Scooby Doo/ Josie and the Pussycats feel.

[TheAuldGrump]

Last week I finally gave in to temptation in my Scoobypunk game - the 'Phantom' turned out to be Mr. Whithers from the Museum, wearing a mask. When captured he told the team that 'I would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you meddlers!'

Scoobypunk?  That intrigues me- I am planning a Spycraft campaign with a Scooby Doo/ Josie and the Pussycats feel.

Heh - that was my pet name for my long running steampunk paranormal investigator game. Somehow, after the first couple of weeks, the team just started to give off these strange vibes of 'It's a mystery gang! Let's go solve it!' Often the session was about actual magic and hauntings, but they still kept that Scooby Doo feel - not something that I planned, it was just something that happened.

They avoided combat at every opportunity, talked, sneaked, and, in my favorite example, danced their way out of conflicts. (This last involved waltzing, two partner swaps, and some quick illusionary disguises.) There was never any doubt that they were the good guys, no moral ambiguity, but a whole lot of team spirit! It drove me buggy at the time, but in retrospect was some of the most enjoyable gaming I had done in a long while. I was hoping for edgy tension, paranoia, and distrust, but what I got was, well, Scoobypunk. Even the soldier talked his way out of fights. Three mages, two as their classes, the third by chosen feats (using Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth).

After complaining about it for so long, now I am really hoping that my Gargoyles game manages to catch some of that same flavor. Heck, I may run a short (2-3 session) Scooby Punk game if I need a breather from Gargoyles, even though they are now something like 18th level or so.

The Auld Grump, the highest level that I have run a SC game....