Exhausted

People, I am exhausted. I was on my feet for 8 hours today and will be there again on Friday! This means that this weekend will be full of absolutely NOTHING! No gaming for me...

Gone for a long time

Yes, its been a while. We now have a new president-elect, Barack Obama (Neutral Good, I guess), the old President is in serious lame duck status yet still wreaking havoc (damned if he's not Chaotic Neutral surrounded by Lawful Evil), and I have been gaming sporadically for the last few months. Its not that I don't like the people - they are all funny as hell and pretty dang smart. I'm just not good at this. I forget my dice, forget my character binder, run late, and have to fight the urge to talk through the whole game. Plus our group is not the most decisive bunch. I think several of us are really only there for the social aspect - and who wouldn't be? Come on, Doug might hurt his knee and be high on pain killers again, and no one wants to miss that!

I will probably play like once a month and spur on the action, but then again, I may show up more often. It depents on how I feel. I've also got a lot of business stuff to do. I have a website to finish that I have really put off, new trips to price, and the need to seriously hustle in some new customers. We are also approaching the looming December 5 deadline for engagement, so gaming may go away completely - we'll see soon...

Overthinking or Underthinking

I have come to realize that I over think decisions in this game when they should be simple and I under think things that require just a bit more thought. I am so busy trying to figure out the freakin' mechanics, I miss great opportunities. I am hoping that as I learn the game more, the mechanics will get easier for me. Until then, I think I'll just drink a martini.

Races and Classes

Its time to tell you about Races and Classes. Creating a character is almost baffling if you're new because there were so many choices for races, sub-races, and classes. Its not like just choosing between being Black, Latino, Asian, or White. These are physically different races so its like choosing among Humans, Vulcans, Klingons, Wookies, Menbari, and Centari. Within each race, there are sub-races. For example, you'll generally know elves from the LOTR trilogy and other fantasy books, movies, or games. But did you know there are Wood Elves, Sea Elves, Dark Elves, Shadow Elves, High Elves, Winged Elves, Star Elves, Sun Elves, and more??? Neither did I until I sat down to make a character. They all have different abilities and limitations according to their sub-race. The base D&D races are Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings, Half Elves, Half Dragons, Warforges, Half Vampires, and Half Orcs. There are tons more races you can play, all with specific details and head-spinning racial abilities. Needless to say, I turned to the GM for help. I'm glad the GM loves me...

There are also four different base classes, most of which are self explanatory. Warriors, Mages, Thieves, and Priests. The classes break down into sub-classes as follows

• Warriors - Barbarians, Fighters, Rangers, Monks, Samurai, Hexblades, and Paladins
• Mages - Wizards, Sorcerors, Beguilers, War Mages, Duskblades, and Warlocks
• Thieves - Rogues, Bard, Scouts, Mariners, Ninjas (DAMN THEM!!!!) and Spell Thieves
• Priests - Clerics, Druids, Dragon Shamans, Favored Souls, and Mystics

Is your head spinning? Mine was too when I sat down to develop a character. Needless to say I am not explaining all these in detail and just thinking about trying to do that makes me want a drink. Is that wrong at 11:00 AM? Moving on... Despite the fact that this is all complex gamers love their races and classes. They will discuss the pros and cons ad nauseum. A new gamer will inevitably miss the nuances of race and class in character development and then will inevitably have a tough time when adding alignments on top of all this. Its enough to drive me Winehouse or Spears or even Dickinson. While I'm moving toward batty, gamers are developing stronger characters, with specific development goals do achieve specific attack abilities. There are several discussion boards dedicated to achieving unbelievable characters with sensational attacks. I can't and I won't. There are some things I have to let go and let goddess...

The GM is setting us up

On Sunday, we had a nice, calm day. Our characters all helped deliver some freight to a city north along the river. Nothing major happened and we had the opportunity to leave our boat to learn about the little city. I followed and NPC named Anna and learned about these black obelisks which are situated throughout the valley. It turns out they are all magical and help control the weather. (These things would be crazy valuable in Texas since if you don't like the weather here, you just wait 5 minutes and you'll get the exact opposite. Except in summer, when you boil in humidity and fry in the sun at the same time. Back to the story...) Nothing special happened and no one even approached us - even though there are gangs in the city and everyone knows we aren't 'from around here'.

Now as anyone knows, there is always calm before the storm and the GM will always lull you into complacency before laying the smack down. Next week, will have our asses handed to us - properly, likely on a silver platter! Check back and see how this plays out. We may all be rolling new characters...

N-G Update
Rolling characters - In D&D, your character has six main ability base stats, which control all other abilities. These are:

1. constitution (Con) - how healthy and tough you are. A sick person has a low Con is low and a healthier person's Con is higher.
   
2. intelligence(Int) - basically your IQ and reasoning ability. Dumb criminals have low Int. Ghandi had a high Int.
   
3. dexterity(Dex) - your agility/balance/hand-eye coordination and overall nimbleness. Elephants have low Dex. Monkeys have high Dex.
   
4. wisdom(Wis) - intuitiveness, judgement and will power. Children have low Wis. Most adults have higher Wis, but then there's Justin...
   
5. strength(Str) - physical strength including endurance and stamina. Boxers have high Str. A pregnant would generally have low Str.
   
6. charisma(Cha) - your physical attractiveness and persuasiveness, basically your personal magnetism. Brad Pitt, Halle Berry, and Boris Kodjoe all have crazy high Cha. Flavor Flav has the lowest Cha possible.
   

Traditionally you rolled 3d6 to determine your stats. Now there are also point-buy systems in which you have a total number of points to allocate among your stats however you choose. There are also tons of feats and abilities such as disguise, use rope, swim, etc which have +/- modifiers but we'll get to those later. Some GMS make you roll, some prefer point-buy, but its all called rolling a new character. Its not difficult to do, but if your character dies and no one can resurrect you, you have to roll a new character. That disrupts game play so its a pain either way.

Alignments

In the D&D world, there is a concept called character alignment. This basically defines how the character should behave and should guide the character's actions. Here are descriptions of each alignment with a familiar character to help you understand the differences:

1. Lawful good - This type of character follows the letter and spirit of the law. They don't lie, cheat, steal, or leave an injured person behind AND they will make personal sacrifice to help others. Jack (on Lost) and David Boreanaz as ANGEL are Lawful Good.
   
2. Neutral good - These characters will generally do good actions regardless of the law. If the law is oppressive, break it as long as you are doing good work. Ghandi was Neutral Good
   
3. Chaotic Good - He can be a rebel and does the right thing to make social change, no matter what the lay of the land is. Robin Hood is Chaotic Good
   
4. Lawful Neutral - Jack Bauer and Lost's Sayid are soldiers who follow all orders. Good and evil are not their worries, rather, they are bound by honor and order. For this reason, they are Lawful Neutral.
   
5. Neutral - Han Solo is Neutral. Not good or evil. Not Lawful or unlawful. Just neutral on all fronts. He became more lawful good after that whole freezing incident, but who wouldn't?
   
6. Chaotic Neutral - On Lost, Hurley is Chaotic Neutral and so is Cap'n Jack Sparrow. They don't want to cause harm to others nor do they really care about the law. They are free spirits and act out of self-interest.
   
7. Lawful Evil - Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men is chillingly lawful evil. He has his own code based on when or when not to kill. Other people live or die by it, but he keeps his word and kills when his code tells him to kill.
   
8. Neutral Evil - Lost's Sawyer is this alignment. They will only do harmful acts when it benefits them but won't be bothered if they don't. They form temporary alliances and likely to sit out major fights or battles if they have nothing to gain. Keep them at arm's length and know that they will turn on you once they have what they need.
   
9. Chaotic Evil - These crazy bastards will chop your head off just for the hell of it. Only fear keeps them in line and they're too crazy to fear much. Keep one eye on them and move quick if you see them headed toward you. Lex Luthor and David Boreanaz as ANGELOUS are Chaotic Evil.
   

This is why I'm a noob...

Alright, when we last left off in the adventure, my group of 4 was trying to get an unconscious spy back to our ship without drawing attention...

WHAT WE DID
We disguise the person, two of us disguise ourselves, and the we duck in and out of alleys, down streets, and around buildings, etc to try to get her back for interrogation. After all that, we had to get by a guarded tower up to our ship. Well, eventually - after a bunch of really odd behavior which would call attention to ANYONE, we got back to the ship, but lost the unconcious spy...

WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE DONE
Two of us can cast invisibility spells. We should have made the entire party invisible and walked back undetected with no problem. DUH!!!! This occurs to me only AFTER getting back to the ship and lamenting all the errors in our general strategy.

We spent like 2 hours trying to get back to that damn ship and bring the spy with us. We could have walked right in undetected and it would have taken 1/5 of the time if we were invisible. GOOD GRIEF!!!!

I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell. I will use my invisible spell.

We'll do better next time.