Photos!

While I know I normally write about gaming, my better half and I have been focusing on our home remodel. Since I often use it as an excuse for not updating, I figured it was time to share a few pics. Our home is located in a wonderful area of South Philadelphia within walking distance of the stadiums. It was built around 1925 - a row home - it was originally intended as affordable housing for dock and factory workers. It isn't a large house, not including the basement it clears just over 1000 square feet. We wanted to modernize the home but retain a lot of the charm and history. I think we've done ok so far.

Some "before" images.

The guts of the kitchen

This small pantry was torn out and the wall was stripped to exposed brick.

Looking into our kitchen from the living room.

Ripping up the floor.

Look at that bandana. That guy has got to be totally awesome.

You can see fire damage from a fire some time in the 80's

Exposing brick. I am standing where the pantry used to be.

Stuff disappearing bit by bit.

Ok this needs a bit of an explanation. At this point we hired contractors to come in and take over. The pile of wood you see there is the original lathe from our ceiling and walls. (While new houses have drywall construction, older houses had plaster walls. Thin strips of lathe were nailed to the studs and plaster was applied on top of them. When the plaster dried, it became hard and paintable.) The lathe was carefully removed and cleaned so we could reuse it on our ceiling.

The joists in the ceiling were left exposed and black paper rolled between to prevent any light from poking through. Then the lathe was cut...

...and placed between the joists. We were originally going to drywall between the joists, but this seemed much cooler.

 The separating wall was torn down revealing our duct-work. Rather than reroute the duct, we decided to build a column/shelving around it.

Alright, I have a bunch more before shots, but they are not nearly as fun as the "afters," so here we go!

new hardwood floor and a vintage vent recovered from a demolished building. It's small, but heavy!

The new view from the living room.

The new guts. The dark wood trim around the shelves is more wood recycled from inside our walls.

A fuzzy picture of the brick wall and lights.

As you can see, there is still a lot to do. Paint, fill holes, finish the trim etc. But We're really happy with what we've done so far. Now we just need to get furniture!

I was going to add some gaming stuff here too, but I've taken up a lot of space as-is!

Until next time, happy gaming!

Am I Dead Yet?

Lack of time, lack of updates! Our kitchen remodel is coming along nicely and will hopefully be (mostly) done by the end of the week. I also have a promising job opportunity so lets hope for the best there too!

Now that the pesky 'real life' stuff is out of the way, lets get on to more important things!

While my internet presence has been lacking, my gaming has been all sorts of productive. We played a very successful game two weekends ago. It was a module that Paizo produced back before Pathfinder - when they were making content for D&D 3.5. We ran GameMastery Module E1: Carnival of Tears. It was great. I had to do some modding to fit in my campaign world and it's pace was a little slow for my group, but overall it was a fun adventure. It was an event-based, time-sensitive game and that's where it bogs down for us. My group plays it fast and loose. Sometimes they rush through things that a built in timeline just won't accommodate, but fast forwarding the in-game time is no big deal so it really isn't much of a complaint.

Don't worry, that cover-guy isn't actually in the game.

The monsters were very memorable however. I was particularly happy when our resident monk was turned to animated ice by a type of fey called a "frosty chiseler." He maintained all of his abilities but took extra bludgeoning damage and would hurt himself if he tried to do more than simply move around. Prior to that he was stricken with a nasty curse that made his head appear to be that off a novelty doll (in this case, a carnival stong-man doll). All in all, his bad luck made for quite a laugh to the rest of the group. We have a 'group 2' game coming up this weekend that takes place in the southern desert kingdoms of our campaign world. If I could find the time I would love to map out the world and get their full tales down on paper if just for the internet to enjoy.

In other 'other' news, I have been working on a new project. While my original project to turn a campaign into a self published series didn't pan out too well (actually, it near-complete, but my attention went elsewhere). I have started, and made serious progress on a new self-publishing attempt. I won't spoil it complete, but maybe the layout will give you a hint. I've got 16 entries ready to go. Art and stats are all that's left!

 Until next time, happy gaming!

Monster Mash: Where to Draw the Line?

I've played RPGs for a long time and as such have seen my fair share of 'monster mashes.' That is to say, taking two creatures and combining them into one. From the early days of the Owlbear to half-elves, half-dragons and 'Squarks,' combining creatures is a staple in the fantasy genre. That's why I was surprised when I found myself frustrated while working on a high power NPC for our current campaign.

Who in their right mind thought this was a good idea?  

I don't want to spoil it for my players, but I'll let a tidbit slip. I was working on a vampire. An extraordinarily long lived vampire who -for the most part- isn't that bad of a guy. He rules a small kingdom, treats his subjects well, governs fairly and provides for the poor.

He also happens to drink the blood and kill any criminals who are caught within his territory.

I'll leave the 'nature of evil' topic for another post, but I just wanted to set it straight: No matter how much good he does, no matter how fair and benevolent he is, he is still an undead abomination who maintains his (un)life by feeding on sentient living beings. Because of these actions, he is an evil creature.  But I digress...

 Apparently, Roger Corman did!

While researching vampires I came across this thread on the paizo boards. To sum it up, a PC was interested in playing a dhampir paladin/sorcerer with the sanguine bloodline. For those not in the know, that roughly translates to (deep breath!): A half human / half vampire who fights for the glory of god (and/or cause of good in general) who supplements his holy blessings with the ability to spontaneously cast arcane magical spells. Additionally, through his vampiric bloodline, he would be able to consume the blood of the recently deceased as a means to regain lost hit points.

Woo! that's a lot!

That thread, and the flurry of responses it received got me thinking about how muddled up rules and ideas can become with so much monster mashing. I am fully aware that the dhampir is not unique to RPGs and can be found in everything from old Balkan folklore to modern pop culture. Regular fiction is not the same as a game though, and needs no in-depth explanations. Unfortunately, players often do want explanations which for the most part, I am happy to provide.

Although to be honest, I have no explanation for dhampirs in our game world - because they don't exist. As I graphically explained to a PC today, vampires are not living things and as such, don't have much 'fruit in the loins' and as such, couldn't procreate.

What I'm getting at here is, has the monster mash become too much of a crutch for the game community? Should it be viewed as legitimate content or just filler for books and supplements? I understand that gaming companies are businesses and need to keep pumping out products, but do we really need a Monster Manual XXV? Or would companies be better off expanding on actual content, exploring game theory and when publishing monster books, emphasizing quality over quantity?

I do realize that this is nitpicking on my part, but it is still something that gets my goat. Here's a question for the Game and Dungeon Masters out there: Out of all of your 'monster books' what percentage of monsters have you actually used, and what are your thoughts on monster-monster hybrids?

Until next time, happy gaming!     

Where Does the Time Go?

I swear, it feels like I lay down to bed on Tuesday and wake up on Thursday! Weeks seem to fly by and while I get a good amount done, it never seems like enough.

This past weekend we traveled north about 5 hours to Sinnemahoning, Pennsylvania. My mom has a cabin tucked away in the woods where we spent the weekend 'getting away from it all.' It was a pretty good time. A lot of driving and a lot of good country food!

Bent tree or portal to another dimension? OOOoooOOOhhH.

The highlight of the weekend was our visit to the Austin Dam. Rather than ramble on about our vacation, you can read about it by clicking here. While pictures can give you a good idea of what it looks like, you really need to see it in person to get the whole experience. If you are ever in the area, I suggest you check it out!

 Brutal

 

In other news, my wife and I did a whole mess of painting last week. We plopped ourselves in front of the TV and cranked out almost twenty mini's! Here's a few of them for your viewing pleasure.

 The ill fated wizard my cousin played. I had just painted him and then (of course) he died

.

 A man in stocks with some jerk kids.

A pair of ogres. The bottom one is Part of the Reaper Bones lineup.

My friend Noah actually made this figure!

Nobody here but us evil wizards!

We've got our Group 1 game this weekend and to be honest, I am completely unprepared. After fending off an underground town from demons, the group cleric has decided to temporarily remain behind and help the townsfolk rebuild their homes and their faith. (In reality, Kevin -the cleric- is getting married!) That leaves us with Blanklee, a brutal fighter trying to redeem himself through religion and Gertrude, a wily thief with a knack for trap finding. Ideally I would like to have the town implore them for help. In it's current state the town would be vulnerable to any number of nasties ready to pounce on opportunity. This would give my players something to do and keep them close to their cleric for future adventures. At this point any ideas or suggestions are appreciated. I'm close to pulling the last resort (gasp!) digging out an old Dungeon magazine!

Besides that, I'm pretty booked up for the next few weeks with games and home renovation. I'm looking forward to the games, the renovation on the other hand, is getting expensive...

Until next time, happy gaming!