Well still no adventure. Which means it won't be out by the end of the month for which I feel really bad, but it will be out tommorrow, and that's all we'll say about that. I'm still on something of a GenCon high. There have been a lot of threads over on the ENWorld boards that I've been following and posting on. As a result I've pretty much decided to go to GenCon SoCal though not as an exhibitor. In any event I'm not really fit company for anyone right now so I'm going to cut it off here.
Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
Well, I'm still working on the next adventure. I got most of it done before GenCon, but it's a long adventure with a lot of monsters, so we'll see what happens. Also, I'm still trying to recover from GenCon. I probably spent too much time on yesterday's GenCon report, but I felt guilty about all the VFB entries I had missed. Also, there's the massive pile of work I have at my real job. But enough excuses: I should get back to "wiring" the adventure, but before I do that I'm committed to two more paragraphs of chunky VFB goodness.
As I may have mentioned, I really like the Midnight setting, so much so (and I may have also mentioned this) that it's inspired me to try and run a campaign. I had a long running 3E campaign, which I started within a week of the GenCon where Third Edition was released and ran for about a year and a half. It was just starting to get good when I realized that I was way too busy trying to launch DireKobold to continue running it. At first it was something of a relief, but that only lasted for at most a couple of months and since then I've really missed running a campaign (though I still play in one).
From a certain perspective, I think that as an editor for an adventure magazine it's very important to keep my edge and run a campaign of my own. Of course, I think that more important to being an editor/publisher of an adventure magazine than running your own campaign is getting adventures in a timely manner and that's why I should end here.
Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
First, I guess based on the comments some people actually liked my Tour commentary so I guess a brief wrap up is in order. Lance won by 61 seconds (the peleton split on the final stage causing him to lose another 15 seconds). Ullrich crashed in the final time trial and ended up loosing 11 seconds to Armstrong though he still came in fourth on the stage. As a result of finishing second in the time trial (ahead of Armstrong and Ullrich, but behind David Millar) and a solo stage win earlier in the week, Tyler Hamilton managed to finish fourth. Hopefully that was long enough to appease those who care, but short enough to not drive away those who don't. Now, on with the GenCon report.
Tuesday, July 22nd
After staying up for 32 hours getting Wil's latest adventure out, putting together a voucher system, and packing I arrived at the airport in a fog of exhaustion. Fortunately, I actually managed to sleep a fair amount on the leg to Chicago (though I was not nearly so good at it as the guy in the seat next to me). Which meant that I was actually bearable company when my two assistants and I stopped to eat at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant. (Capsule review: not bad for either taste or price, but not spectacular either). The layover was hideously long and the chairs far too uncomfortable to even think of sleeping in, but I did manage to pass the time by reading the Midnight Setting Book, which I highly recommend.
As I recall, we arrived in Indianapolis sometime after ten, but since we were staying near the airport it didn't take long to get to our room (actually I guess it was technically a suite). SkeletonKey Ed, one of my faithful cartographers was arriving Tuesday night as well and didn't have a place to stay until Wednesday night, so I let him crash with us. It ended up with my friend Glenn on the floor, while Ed took the hide-a-bed. As anyone can tell you, I treat my freelancers very well. I was already asleep when Ed arrived, but I woke up long enough to stagger over and say "hi."
Wednesday, July 23rd
Obviously, given the sleep deprivation of Monday/Tuesday, we slept in today. We did manage to make it to the convention hall by around 11:00. When we got there we discovered that by a fortuitous accident we had ended up with a 10X20 booth instead of a 10x10. It took us awhile to confirm that it was okay for us to use the entire space, and we had to get an extra piece of carpet, but it was certainly one of those times when for a brief moment fortune smiles on you, before it goes back to kicking you in the nuts. With the extra room we had a really great set-up. I had hoped to get set-up fairly quickly and then go home and take an afternoon nap, but it took long enough to get the booth figured out that I didn't get the chance.
In addition to meeting Ed Bourelle (who is very cool, and having displayed before, immensely helpful) I got to met Doug and Hal from Mystic Eye Games while I was setting up. Both of them are insanely cool. I also picked up the Bluffside Bundles for the contest I had running. I've e-mailed the two people who won and once they've responded I'll announce who it was. In any case, after going to dinner at Champions (the second time that day) we headed up into Ed's room to play a little Midnight adventure that Wil had put together. My friend Glenn tagged along and we were also joined by a couple of guys from Bastion (Steve Creech and a guy whose name I forget).
I should mention that I really like Midnight, so much so that I think I may have to try and find the time to DM again. Though it will probably be a Play by Post campaign. I'm hoping that will be easier to squeeze in.
Thursday, July 24th
The first actual day of the con was kind of slow. I think other sites will probably have a better description of the horror that was the registration line, but suffice it to say, a lot of people were standing in line rather than in the exhibit hall. Right off the bat I talked to James Wyatt and Skip Williams. I think this is one of the things I like most about gaming. It's a really small community and everyone is, almost without exception, friendly to a fault. Both James and Skip really dug the concept and the system. I chatted both of them up about writing some adventures for me, so we'll have to see what happens but they seem receptive.
In general, Thursday was pretty slow, and the most common thing we heard was that people were still scouting the exhibit hall to get a feel for what they might want to buy. Despite this, the reaction was universally positive. Everyone thought that DireKobold was the coolest thing since sliced bread. That night was the legendary "Against the Giants" game. This year it was G2. Unfortunately, the pressures of being an exhibitor were weighing heavily on me (okay, I was still pretty tired) so I only stayed until about 10:30. I left right as Leopold used a monster he had cribbed from the DireKobold adventure Atonement, which by all accounts was the highlight of the evening.
Friday, July 25th
Friday morning, a guy by the name of Mark came straight to our booth as soon as the convention hall opened, and wanted to buy an annual subscription. I guess the night before he had signed up for an event, the DM hadn't shown up. He happened to have an internet connection so he counted the heads at the table, asked everyone what level they wanted to play, plugged in the number and spit out an adventure. What a story.
Friday was pretty busy, and is probably where the days start to blur. I think that it was on this day that Dave Noonan (see my July 12th blog entry) stopped by. He had been referred by James Wyatt. He loved the idea and the system. Obviously, one of the coolest things about all of the DireKobold stuff is getting some recognition from someone like Dave Noonan whom I have admired for many, many years.
Friday night I played El Grande and then went to the Ennies. I was very happy to see Midnight win the best campaign setting. For myself, I would have killed to win an Ennie, but some companies seemed to have only a single representative, who by his own admission had not had much to do with any of the awards. In any case the ENWorld gathering was after that. I talked to Maldur (who was singularly unimpressed with my Dutch), Teflon Billy, Monte Cook, Eric Noah and a whole bunch of other people.
Saturday, July 26th
Saturday was slower than I expected; perhaps I was tired of hearing myself say, "Please! Please! Subscribe to DireKobold! Otherwise my children will starve! My wife will leave me and other D20 publishers will laugh at me." Donavon-D Charlemagne (yes that is his actual name) or "Negative Zero" as he's know on the boards, had finally hit his stride and was doing pretty good. Despite the fact that it was a little bit slower on Friday it was becoming apparent that quite a few people were coming to the booth because they'd heard from other people about the system and how cool it was.
Saturday night was another meal at Champions, where I got the chance to discuss religion, politics, children, and the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World with Wil and Bree. We then went to this huge arcade which had the very latest games in addition to a virtual roller-coaster. Then we played a little Carcassone: Hunters and Gatherers (we had played a little bit earlier, but had to end the game with the ShadowRun people kicked us out of the room). In general, the evening games really helped keep me sane. They also meant that I never quite caught up on my sleep.
Sunday, July 27th
Sunday was a great day. We sold memberships like crazy. I talked to Greg Benage of FFG, an insanely cool guy. We discussed some possible collaboration which I won't say anything more about, since it's still very ephemeral. I also talked to Erik Mona the editor of Dungeon. As mortal enemies, we first engaged in an epic battle that raged the length of the exhibit hall. When we finally realized that I couldn't compete with his color printing and he couldn't compete with my dynamic scaling we declared a truce, much to the relief of the other exhibitors. We had a very cool talk about stuff. I talked to probably a half a dozen other D20 publishers. I managed to get all my gifts, and to top the day off, Cthulhu Bob, the owner of the local FLGS stopped by and capped the day off.
We managed to get out in a fairly expeditious fashion after the hall closed (mostly by following Ed Bourelle's injunction to avoid the loading dock at all costs). Though the UPS store was bottle-necked with a broken scale and then just as we cleared that hurdle, the heavens opened and the rains came down like the last days of Noah. I almost figured that I would have to sacrifice one of the laptops and float down the gutters to get to the car. Fortunately, we managed to make it with only three gallons of water in each sandal. We ate at a quaint Irish Pub that night which was really, really excellent. I'm going to have to come back every year. The rest of the trip was fairly relaxing as I tried to make the most of the limited time I had before I was sent back to the salt mines.
I realize this has been long. I hope it hasn't be too insipid. I would like to thank everyone who came to the booth and checked out the product. It really was a great con, and I'll see everyone next year.
Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
Well I had hoped to post from GenCon, but as it turns out, the extent of my internet connection was a dial-up at the hotel, which might have worked if I spent any time at the hotel, but mostly I only returned to get my six hours of sleep before heading back into the fray that was GenCon. I'm hoping to post a complete report tommorrow, but for now I just want to let everyone know I'm still alive before I go to bed.
As usual, my kids got sick while I was gone. I think it might be psychosomatic. I am the best dad ever so it's completely understandable that my kids would be so distraught at my departure that they would fall ill. They perked right up tonight when I brought them their gifts. One of the things I never get a chance to do anymore is play board games, so it was very enjoyable to get the chance to play a couple at the con. The first game I played was El Grande where my good buddy Wil Upchurch kicked my butt.
The next night we played Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers where Wil once again kicked my butt, but not quite as badly this time. Along with getting humiliated by Wil, I got the chance to meet his girlfriend Bree, who was quite delightful, and I can only assume took pity on me by allowing me to come in second when we played Carcassonne. In any case, like I said, with any luck I'll have a complete report with some picture posted tommorrow.
Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
Wil's new adventure will be up before I go to bed. When I'm going to get to go to bed is an open question. Perhaps a metaphor would help illuminate this situation. My wife has given birth to four children. All of them were completely natural -- she did not receive anesthetics of any kind. The largest of our four children weighed 10 lbs 14 ounces when he was born. After trying to wire Wil's next adventure (to be released sometime in the wee hours) and the adventure after that (so that it can be released before the end of the month thus fulfilling my obligation of three adventures a month) and putting everything together to have a wicked GenCon booth I now no longer feel that my wife has the monopoly on pain.
I guess since I have no idea what kind of time (or internet access) is going to be available tommorrow to do a View from the Bushes, I'd better pimp the adventure now. First off, it's once again set in Bluffside, so that's very cool. A disorganized army of demons and devils are invading, also hellishly (pun intended) cool. To top it all off, the party has to take on a group of evil adventurers who have taken over an Illusionists guild. If there has been an adventure more tightly packed with chunky goodness then this one I challange you to point it out. (Remember it weighs in at less that 15,000 words).
It's called "A Rain for All Tommorrows," and as I said it's by Wil Upchurch. It's the fifth installment in his adventure path series, and just when you think it can't get any better...it does. Just like the Tour de France (notice how I slipped that in there). In any event check back tommorrow for the adventure, you won't regret it, and as I mentioned before if at possible I will do the GenCon edition of View from the Bushes. It should be possible: it's just a matter of the quality of the internet connection at the hotel.
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Ross
Today was not a great day. Not only did I have a headache the entire day, but then I had to go to my wife's ten year reunion and watch a 45 minute video of goofy high school kids I didn't know. Okay the reunion wasn't that bad, my wife actually has some friends from high school who i quite like. But paying $45/head for a meal from Chuck-a-Rama (maybe slightly better, but it definitely wasn't as good as Sizzler) with a vaguely painful, poorly edited video thrown in at the end, was a too much.
In any case as you can see Wil's new adventure isn't available yet. Part of the reason is the aforementioned headache, and reunion. Another part is the 3.5 stuff (and the conflicting emotions of joy and pain I'm experiencing as I look through the books). Finally this years Tour de France has just been too darn exciting. Today Ullrich finished ahead of Armstrong by 7" which along with the 12" time bonus he got for finishing second left Armstrong in yellow but only just barely. Ullrich is a mere 15 seconds back and even though Armstrong finished ahead of Vinokourov, it was only ten seconds so he's still just a minute back.
Now Armstrong's claim is that he got so dehydrated on yesterday's TT that he lost 6 kilos. That's 13 lbs folks...that's not dehydration that's near death. Something like you don't recover from in 24 hours so he didn't expect to have a good day. If basically true, one can only imagine what he could do if he were firing on all cylinders. On the other hand it could still be something chronic about his condition and if it is the Ullrich would win, and I for one would be happy to see him win. His story of redeption has nothing on Lance's recovery from cancer, but it's still nice enough that I wouldn't begrudge him second (and I think Armstrong would still get second which isn't bad).
Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
Well I ran out during lunch today and picked up the three 3.5 books from my Friendly Local Gaming Store. I really wanted to get them earlier but I was torn by the desire to support the aforementioned FLGS. In any case this is what I was waiting for to put Wil's next adventure up, so hopefully that will go up tonight, though there's a bug making the rounds in my family and I think it may be my turn, but in any event it will definitely be up by Monday. I think I'll wait until I'm sure when it actually goes up before I shamelessly market it, but let's just say if you've ever wanted to wreak some major havoc in the city of Bluffside (or any city for that matter) this is the adventure for you.
If I haven't mentioned it already we'll be in booth #1441 at GenCon so make sure to stop on by. Anyone who mentions View from the Bushes will get to see me faint in amazement hit my head on one of the laptops and be wheeled out in a gurney. That's the kind of entertainment that you can't put a price on. Also the "Bluffside Bundle" contest we had going on is set to end before GenCon so I'll probably choose the winners on Wednesday (so if you wanted to get in you still have a couple of days). Of course this brings up the question of whether VFB will continue while I'm at GenCon. The answer is that it should. I would like to do a daily report, but depending on the reliablity of the hotels wireless internet and the schedule, who knows what might happen.
Obviously I can't go without mentioning todays stage in the Tour. It was a time trial. Often called "The Race of Truth" because there's no drafting, you can't hide, it's just you against the clock. In all the TdF's Lance Armstrong has won he's only lost one time trial and that was by ten seconds. Today he once again came in second but this time it was 1'35" to Jan Ullrich, who's not someone you ever want to give 1'35" to. Lance said that it was insanely hot (it was) and that he got behind on his hydration certainly the photo (third down on the left) of his salt caked lips indicates that might have been a problem. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that today and Alpe d'Huez are anomalies a couple of bad days. That he's going to ride away from everyone at least once in the Pyrenees and win the second time trial.
Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
One of my hobbies are urban legends and for my money the very best site for
that sort of thing is Snopes.com. Today, that repository of all (or
much) that is true revealed that the Metallica story I posted yesterday
was a hoax. Some of you may not even know what I'm talking
about since the link was somewhat obscure and, I will admit, thrown in at
the last minute so that I would have some kind of link in the blog. It
was precisely that haste (and the fact that Snopes didn't post the
debunking until today) which lead me to make that mistake.
I considered pretending that I knew it was a joke, but that would
be a lie, and after telling 665 lies in View from the Bushes, telling one
more made me strangely nervous. Did I mention that I'm going to have to
miss GenCon because I have to be in DC to receive my Congressional Medal
of Honor? Oops there I go; that's going to count against me at some
point. Today, I had to ship some stuff for GenCon. Let's just say it
wasn't a fun experience. One of the guys who was going to help out called
to say that his back was spasming. "No big deal," I thought, "I'll just run
out to his house over lunch." Yeah right...
First there was the accident that had traffic backed up for a mile. Just
as I passed the spot of the accident, the policeman moved the cones to open
the freeway back up. I think that means that I spent the maximum time
stuck in traffic. Then I while still fuming from the traffic jam, I missed
the split to get on the other freeway, and so instead of cutting through
the city I ended up basically going around it. Then there was the problem
of finding a box for the long, wide, very flat booth graphics. Then when
I decided to have the guy at the UPS store do it, his estimate of 15
minutes to do the packaging turned into 45 minutes. And then there was
the money... *shudder* I think it's still too soon to talk about that
part.
Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
At some point in every addict's life, you think about being a dealer rather than a user. I mean it has to be more lucrative, less destructive and in general more enjoyable. But when you're an addict, all you have to worry about is your next fix. Is it going to be the Midnight setting from FFG, the 3.5 books, or maybe I'll pick up all the ENnie winners. Sure, there are some choices involved but if you're willing to support an expensive enough habit, then you can have all of the fixes. As a dealer there's so much more, it's not as enjoyable as you might think.
First off, you've got to worry about getting more users. Then there's the problem of maintaining product quality -- someone takes a bad trip with one of your adventures and he'll swear it off forever. In addition to the quality, there's the addictiveness. This is especially difficult as a PDF publisher. As a print publisher you can make your products out of tobacco leaves (in theory at least, I don't know of anyone that's actually done it). Then there's supply and turf battles, not to mention law enforcement. Okay D20 publishing isn't illegal, but there's still copyright issues to worry about.
If you haven't guessed, I'm talking about GenCon. In years past, I've wandered the exhibit hall blissfully unencumbered by the need to sell some product to put food in the mouths of my starving children (remember this fact when you stop by my booth). I've scheduled games from early in the morning till late at night. I've spent hours agonizing over which dice I should buy as my set for the next year. I've participated in demos and sat in on seminars, but this year I won't be able to do any of that. I'm a dealer, not a user, all I can say is that it's a good thing that DireKobold is the equivalent of crack cocaine.
Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
I imagine that by this point that anyone who doesn't like the Tour de France has stopped reading my blog, or at best has decided to come back and check on it in August. If you're still reading but have no interest in the Tour, you nevertheless owe it to yourself to check out this Clip of yesterday's crash and the amazing maneuver by Lance Armstrong to avoid crashing himself. But since today was a pretty slow stage and tomorrow is a rest day, we'll be taking a break to talk about... what does DireKobold do again? Ohh...yeah...gaming.
Today we're supposed to be publishing another adventure. But as I explained earlier, I'm waiting for the release of the 3.5 SRD on the 18th, though I've heard rumors that the books are already out, so I may run down to my FLGS and pick them up, in any case it will definitely be up by the weekend. It sort of just hit me that a week from now I'll be flying high above the country on my way to Gencon (that or making my stopover in Newark; bargain travel is Hell). There are easily 20-30 major items I have to do before I can leave and that doesn't count publishing the latest adventure. Okay, if you'll excuse me I think I need to breathe into a paper bag for awhile...
Okay, I'm back. I do have some exciting news for GenCon: A guy I met last yeah by the name of Don (also know as "Negative Zero" on the ENWorld Forums) has a spiffy little project he calls "Improved Initiative" which he is going to be selling in a little corner of our booth. So there's one more reason to stop by. Overall I've got to say I'm pretty stoked about GenCon. I'm looking forward to walking up to someone like Monte Cook and saying "I'm the guy that started DireKobold." And have them say, "Never heard of it." And then I can say, "Okay, never mind then, I'll just walk away slowly and look at my shoes." It's going to be great!
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Ross
Okay, it's time to return to "View from the Bushes" Tour de France coverage. (As if anyone in America is talking about anything else after yesterday and today's exciting stages). Yesterday, of course, the race finished at the top of the legendary Alpe d'Huez. Everyone expected Armstrong to make an attack that would put a couple of minutes into all of his rivals. As it turns out, it was the other way around. Rather than Lance attacking everyone else, everyone else attacked Lance. Even Tyler Hamilton who is riding with a broken collarbone was attacking on the slopes of the final climb.
Nevertheless, Lance did take the yellow jersey and had enough strength to take third place for an 8 second time bonus, but it was a lot different stage then most people expected. It's going to be a very interesting tour. I'm with most people in thinking that Lance is still going to win, but I think it's going to be a lot tougher than previous years. Of course, now that Lance has shown that he's mortal, there's blood in the water, which was evidenced by today's stage. There were so many attacks that the peleton was stretched all over creation, and once again, Vinokourov got away and he's now only about 20 seconds behind Armstrong.
The biggest thing to happen in today's stage, however, was Beloki crashed and abandoned. This upsets me for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is that I had picked him as my podium bet and he was looking really good. I think at this point we've got a pretty good sense of the climbers; all that remains is to see where people's time trialing is at and for that we have to wait until Friday. Ullrich is a monster in the time trial and Armstrong has only ever lost once in the long time trial and that was to Botero, and trust me, I don't think Botero is really up to par this year. He and Gilberto Simoni, two big favorites going into the tour, have lost so much time that I think both must seriously be considering faking an illness and abandoning.
Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
Before I continue my story I should mention that our publishing schedule this month will be slightly delayed. Wil Upchurch's next adventure is completely 3.5 compatible, but since he's a big shot freelancer and I'm a lowly PDF publisher I'm not going to have access to 3.5 until Friday so I'm going to wait until then to publish it to make sure I have everything right. Also the adventure after that "She Loves Me Not" by Luke Johnson won't be released until after I get back from GenCon most likely the 29th, but we'll still get our three adventures a month out, never fear. Now on with the story.
With none of my spells having any effect I cast around to see if had any equipment that might be more efficacious. That's when my eye fell upon a Staff of Power... Dave Noonan, one of my favorite guys over at WoTC, was running the combat, so I ask him if SR applies vs. a retributive strike. He gives me this weird look, but gives me the answer I was hoping for, "No...". The plan began to form, but I still had one problem how do I blow up Orcus without blowing up the rest of the party.
There was actually a perfect spot to break the staff, the back of the alcove Orcus was standing in front of. Unfortunately moving past Orcus was not an option, one AoO and I was a goner. Glancing through my remaining spells I searched in vain for a dimension door, but I did have a teleport. I used it to go 30 feet as I recall, what had to be the shortest teleport in history, and then I broke my fully charged Staff of Power. The only thing I absolutely sure of was that I was dead. Luckily 20+ rounds of combat had taken their toll and the 200 points of damage from the retributive strike were enough to finish him off. As a reward I got one of Monte Cook's famous "Orc and Pie" T-shirts (it turns out the final encounter had been Orcus and pi.) So as you can see I wasn't lying. Last year I won the Dungeon Delve. True story.
Carpe Deim Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
I thought I'd take a break from the tour and talk about GenCon. (I can already here the one new reader I picked up in the last couple of weeks saying, you mean this isn't a cycling blog?) One of the biggest regrets I have about being an exhibitor rather than attendee is that I won't be able to participate in the Dungeon Delve. But that's okay last year I beat it. Now I hear many of you out there saying that D&D is not a game you can beat, or win. Allow me to explain...
The link above gives a pretty good description of the dungeon delve, but basically it's an hour of pure combat against overwhelming odds. Where the best outcome is making it on the roll of the honored dead 30 seconds before the hour ends. Last year I made a point of signing up every day (I had to knock over an old lady with a walker in the mad dash as the exhibit hall opened but that's another story). I signed up for the very last group to go through hoping that I would get a chance to fight the final monster, which was rumored to be especially scary this year.
Sure enough we unleashed Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead, my 7th level sorcerer didn't stand a chance. It was then that we found out that our sacrifice had allowed some epic level characters to come in and do battle. A line formed to take the players place as their characters fell. I immediately got into line, but it was a long wait, epic level characters are tough to kill. Finally it was my chance I took the wizard. Round after round my turn would come up and roll after roll not a single one of my spells could penetrate his spell resistance.
(To be continued...)
Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
Today was a pretty good day over here at DireKobold. We had a record number of new subscribers today, and although we'd just released a new adventure it wasn't from a "name" author and I though I thought it could be partially responsible for the surge I figured there had to be something else going on as well. As it turns out there were a couple of threads (this one and this one) which had been started on ENWorld, and perhaps that was why.
But even this seems inadequate to completely explain it, so if somebody out there has come across a contest where someone posing as me is offering a new car to anyone who signs up let me know. Speaking of messageboards on a couple of occasions people have asked me why I don't have messageboards. That is part of the eventual plan, but right now there are so many online communities competing for attention that it's tough to carve out a new one. For now the best place to discuss DireKobold and the adventures is either in the blog comments or on ENWorld. In fact if you wanted to pop over to the two threads I mentioned above you'd be more then welcome.
In any case as usual I've waited to late in the day to put this out. So I'm tired and as my family will tell you, cranky, so I'd better go to bed. If I haven't mentioned this already we'll be at GenCon (booth 1441) so if you happen to be there swing on by and say "Hi!" it would be great to meet people in person and get a chance to chat.
Carpe Diem, Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
Today I thought I would take a break from my fascination with that obscure race in France and focus on something more important like examining the thousand year old roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict with particular emphasis on the somewhat neglected role of the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Or I would if knew anything about the fall of Constantinople (other than it is said to roughly mark the end of the Dark Ages, but everybody knows that.) Since I don't, it's back to talking about the Tour.
Today was of course the Team Time Trial (TTT). What a lot of people don't understand about the tour is that there are only a handful of stages where the main contenders (like Lance) can pull ahead of their competition. All but one of those stages depend primarily (but not exclusively) on just the strength of the main contender. There is one stage however where it's all up to the team and the TTT is that stage.
Fortunately US Postal pulled it off and won the stage for the first time. Allowing Lance to pull ahead of all of his major rivals (but not ahead of one of his team mates, but that's another story). The next opportunity for Lance to put time into his rivals will be Friday at the earliest but probably Saturday, so if you're thinking of watching to find out what the heck I'm talking about. Saturday is the day. Oh yeah...and I'm still running...a...d20 website...and releasing...adventures... and one of these days I'll talk about that.
Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
Well after a couple of days of delay our latest adventure, "Atonement" is out. This adventure concerns the secret fall and possible redemption of a once great paladin. In addition to quite a bit of role-playing there's a really spiffy evil temple (actually I think evil clerics prefer it if you call their dark strongholds "super-duper"). As usual Clayton Bunce's cartography is stunning and John O'Connor's art is wickedly cool. Oh and I guess I should mention the author, what was his name again?
Oh yeah, Joshua Brown. Actually Josh is one of my oldest friends. In the beginning I figured that I can always cover the mechanics of an adventure, but what I can't always do is come up with a great story, so my idea was to recruit great short story writers. In the past Josh has won quite a few awards for his short stories and he wasn't completely lost on the mechanics side either, so he was one of the first people I approached. Months and months later here it is.
In any event it's a great adventure, check it out. I don't quite have the demo snippet ready, but that should be up tommorrow sometime. For those of you out there who only read my blog for my comprehensive cycling coverage. Tommorrow is the team time trial, certainly one of the most important stages of the race. More than anything else I'm curious how CSC and Tyler Hamilton will do. So far he's finished with the bunch every day which is fairly impressive, perhaps even more impressive, he's still ahead of Armstrong.
Carpe Diem, Quam Minimum Credula Postero,
Ross
Well the bad news is that the next adventure still isn't ready. I hate to give excuses, though that doesn't mean that I won't. I find that whining can sometimes take the edge of and be humorous to boot. Basically my back has been giving me a lot of grief, I've been sitting in front of a computer way too much. Okay that's not really all that funny. The idea that my massive head may be causing my neck and back problems is at least vaguely funny.
In any case another distraction is of course the Tour de France. If you're curious Velonews.com has some great coverage. In paticular they have a rider diary being done by Tyler Hamilton. Tyler crashed in stage one, and I can only imagine (assuming that he still posts to the diary) what kind of perspective we'll get of trying to compete in the tour with a broken clavical. I could spend the next few pages talking about the tour, but I'm guessing that is not why people read View from the Bushes.
I realized a while ago that since switching over to the new software I hadn't been including my traditional sign off phrase. "Carpe Diem, Quam Minimum Credula Postero." Lots of people have asked me what that means. First off it's a quote from Horace. Everyone knows what Carpe Diem means, but the entire phrase can be translated as, "Sieze the present day, trusting the morrow as little as possible." I use that because it's one of those things that I'm really bad at.
Carpe Diem, Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross
Hopefully sometime before I go to bed tonight we'll have another adventure for you. Although the 4th was busier than I thought so it may not make an appearance until Monday. You can never tell with these fly-by-night PDF publishers we're always pushing things back as much as 48 hours, not like video game publishers. Which leads me to make a prediction, Blizzard's "World of Warcraft"? Not until spring of 2005. You heard it hear first.
In fact the fourth was so busy that I completely forgot about doing a "View from the Bushes", but I figure that most of the rest of the country took the day off so that's as good of an excuse as any. In fact I'll probably take Thanksgiving and Christmas off as well, so right there you can see what kind of a huge slacker I am. The big reason for my dereliction was that my brother and wife talked me into going to see X-Men 2, which I hadn't seen yet if you can believe it.
The only place still showing it was an older multiplex that's probably going to be out of business by this time next year. When we arrived the theater seemed totally abandoned. After walking around for awhile we managed to find a single employee, a young girl who looked happy to see another living person, though to be fair there was one other person in the theater, though it's possible that the employee was glad we had shown up because she didn't want to be alone with this guy. If you know what I mean.
On Saturday the Tour de France kicks off with a prologue that begins at the base of the Eiffel Tower. Perhaps more importantly We'll be releasing another adventure. I'll probably talk more about it later, but the title is "Atonement". It concerns a paladin's fall from grace and his attempt to return into the good graces of his god. I think you'll like it, I don't know if I've seen anything quite like it, at least not recently.
In any case that's still a couple of days away, and even though no one else seems to have any interest for the subject I'm going to continue talking about the Tour. As you may or may not know this is the hundredth anniversary of the Tour (though only the 90th time, since it was not held during the world wars). As such it's going through the six cities that the Tour stopped in in 1903. Back then stages were much longer and the cyclist would ride through the night.
Due to quite a bit of hubris on my part I was forced to choose who I thought would end up on the podium this year. My picks were Armstrong, Beloki and Hamilton. Armstrong was an easy pick and based on some betting sites I checked out Beloki seemed to be universally acknowledged as the second favorite. After that it got muddled and picking Hamilton was tough. There are a lot of great cyclists out there, and the other podium spot may go to some complete unknown, that's sort of what Rumsas was, though it looks like he may have had some pharmaceutical help.
As anyone who knows me can attest to, my tastes are very refined. Sophisticated, urbane, cosmopolitan, intellectual and labyrinthine are the adjectives most often used to describe me. So when it comes to sports only one has the sophistication, the elegance and the beauty to match my exacting aesthetics, cycling. On Saturday the most popular yearly sporting event will begin anew, the Tour De France!!
Okay the above was mostly crap. I like cycling because it's one of the few sports that a 5'7" skinny guy has an outside chance of being any good at. This is a peculiar fascination of mine certainly there are people who share my enthusiasm but as a percentage of the U.S. population we rank somewhere below cricket enthusiast and just above curling enthusiasts, however as I mentioned above the Tour ranks only behind the Olympics and the World Cup in terms of popularity and those two are only held every four years, so while I may be in the minority here I'm sure that there are plenty of elderly Frenchman who share my passion.
Shortly after I enabled comments I picked up a heckler who seemed to delight in making disparging comments on a daily basis. You might have noticed that yesterday there was still the usual one comment, but it was from someone with nice things to say. Who would have thunk it! And there was no sign of the heckler. Perhaps he grew tired of picking on such an easy target. Or perhaps it was his day off. We'll just have to see what happens today. In any event watch the Tour!
All of my co-workers are deep into the new game, Star Wars Galaxies. The most recent in a long line of Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games or MMORPGs for short. I think you pronounce it by starting with an "M" sound and then you pretend to vomit.
The problem with these games is that since you have to pay a monthly fee to play the game companies want to make sure that the game never ends and the only way to do that is to reward hours played rather than any cleverness on the part of the player. I'm ashamed to admit this, but I basically stole that argument from the Night Call column on GoneGold.com That is not to say that I didn't already know that MMORPGs are just busy work, I'm just to lazy to do my own composition.
I mentioned that I might talk about the Ennies today, and I suppose I should. None of my stuff was nominated, which is disappointing, because I really have worked my ass off, but all of the stuff that was nominated is pretty good. One of the problems is that my website as a whole doesn't neatly fit into any of the catagories which I think definitely hurt me. Okay now I'm just whining, so I'll cut it off here.