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June 30, 2005
Earthdawn and Serenity So the first 2/3 of day one are over with. I'm back at the hotel, getting a little bit of rest before getting ready and heading out for the Vampire: Requiem LARP tonight. My Earthdawn session -- Journey to Lang went well this morning. I had six players; four of them were more-or-less familiar with the game, one had played a bunch of Shadowrun, and so knew about Earthdawn, but had never played it, and the last guy had never played it at all. We had a good time; my dice were pretty hot at one point, and a handful of berserk cadaver men went open-ended on several rolls, knocking out the troll Sky Raider. The party changed tactics, ganging up to take out one enemy per round, and managed to avoid actually losing anybody. The final battle in the session (against a pair of corrupt obsidimen) went very quickly (which was good, because we were running up against time at the end there). The archer scored the highest die roll of the session in that fight, doing 43 points of damage in a single hit. I did learn a few things from running the session, which should make the next events go more smoothly.  Pictured (from left to right): Theresa, Poorht, windling Thief; Dylan Norris , Targ Boneslicer, troll Sky Raider; Rob O'Meara, Corelian Sandilar, elf Archer; Dave Kirkhart, Norasu, obsidiman Warrior; Matt Johnson, Onnaro, obsidiman Wizard; and Linda O'Meara, Chiall Nevarra, t'skrang Swordmaster. I also got the chance to meet Kathy (Charcoalgrin) Czechowski who I've known through the online ED community for a number of years. (I met her husband Ed, too, but I don't think I know him from the boards.) I also played a demo of the new Serentiy game, coming this August from Margaret Weis Productions. It's an interesting little game, and while the session itself wasn't great (due in part to a GM who wasn't totally prepared, and some players who weren't really playing their characters). Still, I am intrigued by the system, and may pick it up when it arrives in August. Well, off to get ready for my game tonight! I'll give an update later! Day One  Gearing up for the first day. I have my first demo in... two hours, and we're taking care of the "5 S's" -- shave, shower, sh*t, shine, and shampoo -- grabbing a bite to eat, and then heading out to the convention center.  Last night we picked up our badges, poked around a bit, and got an idea of where we needed to be for our events. Quick update -- the books are coming!! -- we got an e-mail this morning that CafePress has shipped the copies of the EPC, and UPS tracking indicates they arrived in Columbus at 5:30am (or so). They should be delivered to the hotel sometime today. After the trials and tribulations of getting these done... well, it will be nice to finally see them. I'll post some pictures, just as I did with the demo version of the EGC. Well... off to grab some breakfast, and get in a bunch of gaming! June 29, 2005
We made it! After several hours in the air, we've made it to Columbus (along with our luggage) and have checked into the hotel. We're getting ready to head up to the convention center to check in and get our convention information. Of course, we did a touch of sightseeing before we headed out -- here's James and Carsten in front of Stephen King's house.  The trip to Columbus was interesting... thunderstorms were moving across the area, and our first landing attempt was aborted due to turbulence and heavy winds. We circled for another half-hour or so, and finally came in behind the storm. A short cab ride later... we're at the hotel and checked in. Stay tuned for future updates! Lou and lobster Hello again. Just dashing off a quick update before we head out to the airport this morning. Yesterday, we drove down to Massachusetts to visit Lou Prosperi (the former line developer for Earthdawn). We picked his brain, and had a very productive (if too brief) meeting with him.  We'd like to thank Lou (and his family) once again for his time and hospitality. On the way back home, we stopped in at a restaurant and I exposed James and Carsten to the joy that is Maine lobster.    James has a mild seafood allergy (it makes him nauseous -- tough luck for a guy from an island nation), so while he was eager to give it a try, he wasn't able to eat more than a couple of bites. Carsten, however, enjoyed it, and it certainly didn't go to waste -- James ordered something else, and Carsten and I split his lobster. We're just packing up now, off to Staples to pick up the character sheets for the demo games, then over to the airport to check in and fly to Columbus. I plan a quick stop on the way -- do the tourist thing and take a picture of James and Carsten in front of Stephen King's house. If you're going to Origins, I look forward to seeing you there! If not, stay tuned... I'll post updates about the convention, and what we cover in the seminar. June 27, 2005
Nothing is ever easy... Well, the package from CafePress arrived this afternoon... sans the copies of the Earthdawn Player's Compendium. They've been having some technical problems with the prinout, and James is in the process of trying to get the file size down small enough for them to run off a copy (or three) and overnight it to us in Ohio. If all goes well, we will have them for you to drool over at the seminar on Friday. We did get the Gamemaster's Compendium, so even if we end up not getting the EPC in, you'll have some idea what the final books will look like. Here's a picture of the new book:  PS -- The final product will not be ring-bound. It will be hardcover (and a hefty one, at that -- about 500 pages). The saga continues Well, the luggage finally arrived, which is a good thing. Of course, it didn't arrive until after we had made a quick run out to Target to pick up some necessaries... but the airline delivered it to our door, so that's good. Had an enjoyable evening. A bunch of my friends came over, we had a cookout, drank a couple beers, and -- after much persuading -- my brother-in-law Sean managed to get James to try Dance Dance Revolution. Here's a picture:  (James is the tall one on the right. The shorter one on the left is my wife, Mary.) I now expect some sort of bloody Kiwi vengeance for publishing this picture. Dammi gets in this evening, and tomorrow we drive down to visit Lou. Today will be spent finalizing the PCs for the demo games we're running at the con later this week. Stay tuned for more updates! June 26, 2005
Jim has arrived! Jim got in this morning about 10:30am... but his luggage did not. We're currently waiting for the next flight from Boston to get into Bangor (in about an hour) to see if his bag is on it. Jim is currently napping -- traveling a few thousand miles over the courseof twenty-something hours, and crossing multiple time zones is bound to take it out of you (especially when you only get about 4-5 hours of sleep during the trip). We had a nice chat when he first got in, though. It looks like it's going to be an interesting week. June 15, 2005
Mirrormask In case you didn't know, I am a big fan of award-winning writer Neil Gaiman. This fall (current release date is September 30) a new movie written by Gaiman and directed by his long-time collaborator Dave McKean will be released. The film is called Mirrormask, and it looks absolutely gorgeous. It's produced by the Jim Henson Company, and is in the same vein as Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal. You can see the latest trailer here, and learn a bit more about the movie at the official Mirrormask website. I bought the Illustrated Script Book a couple of weeks ago, and I am really looking forward to this film. The story is fantastic, and the visuals are exactly the kind of unique vision you would expect from the mind of Dave McKean. September is going to be a busy movie month for me... both Serenity and Mirrormask. With all the other films I'm looking forward to this summer... my entertainment budget is going to be a bit strained. |
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