I don’t have a cohesive theme for this post; it’s mostly just random news that I felt like sharing.

First off, you can now find me on 4EBlogs.com. Hopefully that means that this humble blog will reach a somewhat larger audience. We’ll see, I guess.

Second, I just got done recording an episode of The Tome Show with Jeff Greiner. Jeff was an awesome host, and it was a truly surreal experience to have the guy that I listen to in my car talking back at me when I say things, responding to what I say. At any rate, we talked about campaign building, specifically starting a new campaign. I don’t want to steal the show’s thunder, so I’ll likely revisit this topic after the show has aired and people have had a chance to listen to it. I’ll let you know when it’s up.

Third, some of you may know (but most of you don’t) that I’m going to New Zealand on October 19th. I’ll be there for roughly two weeks, taking in the sights and visiting various Jacksonian locations. I’m very excited, and I expect to come back charged with some imagery-inspired ideas. I will likely blog my travels again, like I did when I visited New Orleans and the South.

Finally, I have fully digested the wonder that is Mouse Guard, though I have yet to play it. I expect to talk about it a bit at some point.

That is all.

Apologies for the dry spell. I’ve got a D&D game upcoming, and I feel that I always blog less coming up on a D&D game because my energies are focused on it. Speaking of which, I also realize that it’s been a while since I’ve posted a session report; this is because it’s been a while since we’ve gotten to play the campaign. Real life has interfered with the (clearly more important) gaming lives of a couple of my players, and I don’t like playing the campaign with two or more players absent. When the campaign resumes, I’ll continue posting session reports.

That actually brings me to another bit of news. I mentioned that I’m prepping for a D&D game this weekend; you may have surmised that this is not a game in the normal campaign. You would be correct. See, there will only be three players present (one of them Skyping in from California), rather than the customary five, so I’m not going to run the normal campaign. Instead, I’m going to start up an “off game” for situations just like this one, where we want to play D&D but don’t have enough of the regulars to do so. I’ve been fashioning up some pregens (though I’ll allow my players to make their own characters, should they choose), and I plan on running the Tomb of Horrors as my off game. There will likely only be three players on any given session of this, so it’ll likely be a bit on the difficult side. PC mortality may be high. For this reason, I’m actually going to start the PCs at level 11 instead of level 10 (where the adventure would normally start); I think that, given the difficulty of the adventure and the small group of PCs, it’ll still be difficult and deadly enough to live up to its name. I will post a session report on the wiki, probably in a separate section specifically for the off game.

Finally, I’m hoping to get my copy of the Red Box tomorrow. I’ll likely run the adventure within it at some point. I’d like to try it out solo, and I may run it for a group, as well. I’ll probably use the off game sessions for that. Again, expect a report of some type.

Plants vs. Zombies just updated to the Game of the Year edition on Steam, and one of the features it adds is the ability to make a Zombitar. Here’s mine.

Hello, all. Just wanted to drop a line and let everyone know that I am, in fact, still alive. Also, I’d like to let you know what to expect in terms of near-future posts. In no particular order:

• A session report. Last Sunday was game day, and it was a good one. I’ll be posting a session report soon.
• My thoughts on Monster Manual 3, which I just got.
• Post mortems on how things like my Grit and Last-Ditch Effort rules worked, as well as some other things I tried out.
• Other stuff, quite possibly.

That’s all for now, folks. More to come.

Okay, where did I leave off? I believe I covered New Orleans, yes? We left New Orleans by car, the plan being that we’ll road-trip back home in order to see some of the South on the way. The driving has been pretty boring for the most part, although some of the early driving on the first day was nice. We took a scenic route along the coast, which allowed us to see some nice beaches and water, and some beach-town scenery.

Our first stop was Montgomery, Alabama. We got there too late to tour the inside of any of the buildings that we checked out, unfortunately. We saw the state capitol, the Baptist church where Dr. Martin Luther King was minister for a few years, the civil rights memorial, and the first White House of the Confederacy. Aside from that, there really wasn’t much to see in Montgomery, and there were even fewer places to eat. We wound up eating at a seafood place across the street from the hotel; it was effectively an Applebee’s or TGI Friday’s, but for seafood.

Our second stop was a lot more interesting: Savannah, Georgia. Savannah is a fairly large town, with lots to see and do, but it retains a lot of its small town charm. Things seem to move a bit slower there (though that might have been because we were on vacation). There are parks everywhere, lots of very beautiful churches, great architecture, and plenty of great restaurants. We saw the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, the market square, Forsythe Park, and “The Book”, a souvenir store dedicated to Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the novel that popularized Savannah. On the last day we stopped by Bonaventure Cemetery, which was pretty breathtaking.

We’re now in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is basically just a stop-over; there’s nothing specific that we came here to see. Our next stop will be in Williamsburg, Virginia (where I used to live), where we plan on seeing all the cool Colonial Williamsburg stuff. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll have time to do Busch Gardens.

At any rate, if you’d like some pictures to go with these words (one being worth one thousand, and all), go check out my wife’s Flickr album dedicated to our road trip.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that there are lots of great places to eat (and drink) in New Orleans. I’d like to take this time to talk about some of the places we ate while here.

Palace Cafe
This was our first exposure to New Orleans cuisine. We went there for lunch, a time that was (unexpectedly, they say) very busy. We had to wait about fifteen minutes to be seated (and someone who came in after us got seated before us, which was a little irksome), but the food was well worth the wait. I had a very fancy version of pork and beans: pork tenderloin with a sort of sweet and spicy bean and slaw mix that was fantastic and both rich and light at the same time. The food was a little bit pricey, but very good.

Bourbon House
Situated right on Bourbon Street, right across from dive bars and sex shops, Bourbon House is an upscale restaurant with excellent food at reasonable prices. We followed a seafood motif, getting a dozen raw oysters (extremely fresh, and very good), a tuna sampler (the blackened tuna was the least impressive, though it was still good, while the tuna carpaccio was my favorite), and a couple of bowls of very good seafood gumbo. Bourbon House also, perhaps unsurprisingly, has a rather large selection of bourbons. I tried one (though I can’t remember the name), and have decided that I like bourbon quite a bit.

PJ’s Coffee
PJ’s was voted the best coffee in New Orleans, though I can’t for the life of me understand why. I ordered iced coffee–just simple iced coffee, no sweaters or flavors requested–and got hazelnut iced coffee. As someone who does not, as a rule, like flavored coffee, this was pretty disappointing. Not only that, but the coffee was extremely sour; I have a feeling that, even had the coffee not been flavored, it would not have been that good. PJ’s, to me, came off as a poor imitation of Starbucks.

Grand Isle
We went here for lunch on Saturday because it was very close to the hotel. It was also, luckily, very good. I got a crawfish etoufee that was fantastic. The service was also good, and our waitress was extremely friendly and helpful.

Crazy Lobster
This was our dinner spot after a long day of walking. I had jambalaya, and was impressed by it. The service was a little slow, and my wife was not that happy with her shrimp creole (I had it for lunch the next day, and enjoyed it).

River’s Edge
Right on Decatur Street in the French Quarter, River’s Edge is a bit of a dive whose main advantage is the fact that it’s right across the street from Cafe du Monde. I got blackened Cajun ribs which, while they tasted pretty good, were about as far from tender as ribs can get. The fries were interesting, but tasted a little like they might have been cooked in oil that should have been thrown out a few hours ago. My wife, however, said that the seafood gumbo she got there was the best gumbo she had during our trip here (she still thinks so).

Cafe du Monde
Great coffee (much better than PJ’s), and beignets. What can I say about beignets? The closest analog we have up north is funnel cake, and there are some similarities; they are both effectively deep-fried dough with powdered sugar on top. If you come to New Orleans, you really need to end at least one day with a plate of beignets and a cafe au lait (both specialties of Cafe du Monde).

The World Famous Gumbo Pot
We both had gumbo here (surprise, surprise). My wife had seafood gumbo, while I had duck and andouille gumbo. Quick service, good gumbo, good prices. Not exceptional, but good.

Stanley
Caddy-corner to the cathedral, Stanley was a fantastic find. They mostly have breakfasts and sandwiches, and the menu is concise, but what they do they do very, very well. I had a giant burger topped with bacon, mustard, and Stanley’s special sauce, and it was, perhaps, the best burger I’ve ever had. My wife had an omelet sandwich, and it was also fantastic. We topped it off with two scoops of mango sorbet (made on-site), which was, predictably, fantastic. If you come to New Orleans, eat here. You owe it to yourself.

Something that happens in New Orleans that you may not expect: daily thunderstorms. At least, that’s what happens in the summer. It’s advisable to carry an umbrella if you’re going to be out for any length of time in the afternoon, but luckily these storms tend to the short side, and can often just be waited out.

Currently, we’re on our way to the French Quarter, umbrella in tow, to find some dinner and shopping. I’ll let you know how it goes.

We arrived in New Orleans late last night (or really, early this morning I guess) and immediately crashed at the hotel. During the day today we did a little bit of exploration of the area around us, ranging as far as Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, but not exploring any particular place that thoroughly. In no particular order, here are some impressions thus far.

New Orleans is hot
I’ve felt hot before, but somehow the heat in New Orleans seems more so. Florida is further south, and is likely hotter, but New Orleans has a saturating humidity that makes it feel more so. I’m not used to walking three city blocks and being drenched in sweat afterward, but it happens here, a lot. The sun, too, can beat down on you, and you’d be advised to wear sunscreen if you’re going to be outside for any length of time.

People here are (so far) really friendly
My first impression of the people here was with the hotel staff at the Hampton Inn, so it might be a little skewed. They were extremely friendly and helpful, though, and they’ve helped us figure out some of the things we plan (and don’t plan) to do while we’re here. Unlike other cities that I’ve been in, I haven’t noticed an overabundance of aggressive drivers. Drivers frequently yield to pedestrians, and I don’t think I’ve heard a single horn since arriving here.

New Orleans is flamboyant
There are a lot of tacky tourist shops on Canal Street (many of them also liquor stores), and these tourist shops sell wares that I wouldn’t expect to see in a tourist shop. Aprons with bare mock-breasts, hot sauce advertising itself as “The Hottest Fucking Hot Sauce”, and a wide variety of other provocative items line the store shelves. Whilst walking down the street, you might see something like this in the middle of the sidewalk.

Bourbon Street, too, is an exercise in contrasts, as upscale restaurants are situated across from dive bars and sex shops. It takes some getting used to.

The food is fantastic
I ate at Bourbon House on Bourbon Street tonight. We had gumbo, tuna, and oysters, and they were all excellent. I also had my first bourbon there, and was quite pleased with it. We ate lunch at another restaurant, the Palace Cafe, and my upscale version of pork and beans was fantastic.

I do feel that I need to mention the iced coffee that I got after dinner, at PJ’s Coffee. In fairness, the board at the counter did say that there were three types of iced coffee available, all of them flavored; I thought that those were in addition to just plain old iced coffee, though. Surely they wouldn’t neglect the standard fare, right? However, when I ordered iced coffee, I got hazelnut (for those who don’t know, my preferred type of coffee is unsweetened, unflavored, and black, as strong as possible). That much I can forgive; I was warned, after all. Even if it had been a non-flavored variety, though, the coffee was just not particularly good. This is a problem that I run into whenever I go to a local coffee shop. I want to support local businesses, but I find over and over that, if I want a good cup of coffee, I’m going to have to either make it myself or go to Starbucks. Luckily, you can’t throw a rock in New Orleans without hitting a Starbucks.

New Orleans remembers its history
From the historic ghost tours to the tours of plantation houses in the area, it’s clear that New Orleans is aware of its history and wants to capitalize on it. They are also aware of more recent history in a similar way; there are tours that allow you to see the devastation wrought by Katrina in 2005. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this last tour; on the one hand, raising awareness is a good idea. On the other hand, I’m not sure I like the idea of making money off of something so recently horrifying. It’s possible, I suppose, that some of that money goes toward helping victims of Katrina and rebuilding those same devastated areas. I hope so, at least.

Well, that’s it for now. More coming tomorrow, in all likelihood.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be doing some traveling. I’ll be heading down to New Orleans on Friday, staying there for a few days, and taking a road trip back to the homestead over the course of four days. The wife and I are really looking forward to it, but it does have some implications for this blog.

First, I may not be able to post as much game-related material during the trip. I have a few posts planned, and I will have a laptop (and my Android, from which I’m posting this very article), but I’m going to be doing a lot of sight-seeing.

Which brings me to the second thing. I’d like to blog this trip. Over the next two weeks, you’ll see some posts with the “Travel Log” prefix. If you’re only here for the gaming, feel free to ignore these posts. If you’d like to hear about my trip through the South, though, that’s what these posts will be there for.

Onward to adventure!

I’ve been playing a lot of different games this week, and I’ve got some stuff coming up; I figured I’d give little capsule reviews of what I’ve been doing, and talk a little about some stuff that’s upcoming. In no particular order:

Dead Space: I’m possibly a bit late to the party on this one, but I picked up Dead Space for a really good price around Christmas and just now got around to playing it. I’m not finished with it yet, but I’m eight hours or so into it and I’m really enjoying it. The atmosphere is suitably creepy, and while it doesn’t really create fear (what video game does, really?), it does succeed in creating an awful lot of tension. The fact that the main character, Isaac Clarke, doesn’t speak is a little bit strange considering how much he gets spoken to, especially when you take into account that there’s a character in the game who is supposed to be personally important to Isaac. The game spins a good yarn, though, and the combat is pretty good.

The Humble Indie Bundle: This is a group of indie PC games, for which you can name any price you want, pay it, and get them all. You can choose how much of your money goes toward the developers, and how much goes toward Child’s Play. There are some worthwhile games in the bundle, and while I haven’t liked all of them, I like enough of them that I’m happy I paid for the bundle. Plus, it’s for charity. Go buy it.

Of the games in the bundle, I’ve played World of Goo, which is excellent (I own this on Wii, too). It’s got a great Tim Burton-esque aesthetic, and even has Danny Elfman-esque music, and the puzzling is very, very good. I’ve played about twenty minutes of Aquaria, and I really like what I’ve played. Simple controls but apparently deep gameplay, and the music and art style are fantastic. Gish is sort of a mixed bag; it’s got a really neat premise and some cool mechanics, but the controls are frequently fiddly and annoying, and I feel that the game gets in its own way a lot. Samorost 2 is a Flash-based adventure game that is visually very charming. The problem is that there are a lot of pixel hunts in the game, and some of the puzzles are a little obtuse. Worse, there are puzzles that you can bring almost to completion over the course of a few minutes, screw up one thing (without realizing that you’re doing anything wrong), and have to do the whole thing again, from the beginning. It is very short, though, so you should at least give it a try. The other two, Lugaru and Penumbra: Overture I have yet to spend any real time with.

D&D Encounters: I got to play in Encounters again, and had a blast. I’ve played two different characters so far, both from the Player’s Handbook 3. First I played a human monk, which was very satisfying. I like the monk class quite a lot; very mobile and capable of some pretty spectacular stuff on the battlefield. Flurry of blows is also one of my favorite striker damage-spikes because of its versatility. The second character I played was a longtooth shifter seeker, which was also a lot of fun. I didn’t do a whole lot of damage (I was using a javelin, meaning that all of my attacks dealt 1d6+4 damage, even encounters and dailies), but I really felt like I was effective at controlling the battlefield, and my daily power made a significant difference in how the encounter played out.

My Home Game: My friend Dean isn’t going to be able to DM his mini-campaign for a while, so the campaign I’m DMing is resuming. I’m very excited to get back into the DM’s seat, and I’ve got some stuff planned. I’ll be updating the wiki as we play, as usual, and I’ll probably post some of the more exciting encounters on this blog, for your own use. Game day is the 23rd, which is only a week away!