Slowdown...

Okay... today was a slowdown day. We had an event scheduled that barely went off, but it did. It was low key and mellow, and that was good because I am still recovering from the last couple of nights.

On the agenda tonight? Laundry and hanging out with the daughter-person. Beyond that... not much.

I've got some game thoughts to think about and a couple of e-mails to be sent, but none of my gaming stuff is concrete enough to type out.

Sigh... I hate how my brain works sometimes...

Back at you later...

-- GopherDave

Tired, Busy, and Giddy...

I'm rather late blogging to due to the 3-hour nap that passed for sleep last night and the release of the new Magic: the Gathering set today. I've been active and busy all day.

Went and watched the Avengers last night. In a nutshell, if you like superheroes and superhero movies, then go see this movie... NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went in with some high expectations due to how much fun the Captain America movie was, and the Avengers absolutely *SHATTERED* those expectations. It's *VERY* good. The new Batman flick is due in mid- to late-June, and I would not be surprised if the Avengers was still in theaters kicking the backside of all comers when Pointy-Ears shows his head. Do not get me wrong... I *LOVE* the Christopher Nolan Batman movies, but for sheer fun, they pale next to Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye.

I'll stop now. I'm rambling because I am tired, so I shall alleviate the fatigue issue...

-- GopherDave

A Host Of Angels...

This particular combination gets the Loquacious stamp of approval...

I arrived at the store this morning to find all of today's shipments waiting for me at the neighboring business. Inside all of these boxes, outside of a few other games, was the initial wave of product for the next Magic: the Gathering set that releases tomorrow. With 62 boxes of booster packs, 20 Intro Decks, and 48 Fat Packs having to be moved from one store to another, I have made one definitive conclusion...

Angels are FREAKING heavy!!!

That being said, tomorrow looks to be a good day... =)

Today... Today we have a Pathfinder one-shot being run and some Malifaux pewter being pushed around. Afterward, we have the Avengers!!!

GOPHERS ASSEMBLE!!!

Unexpected...

Last night's DC Adventures game went in a manner that was unpredictable in many ways. First. Marathon devised a plan (a good plan, mind you) that the group not only accepted, but followed. Second, up until a third party jumped into the mix, said plan actually worked. To be honest, the third party jumping into the mix didn't really affect how or what the plan actually accomplished. The third party was to make clean-up easier.

It is while clean up is being made easier that things got a little out of hand for Marathon. It seems that his marriage to Mongal, which he really wanted to make work for his own reasons, was one of heir-producing convenience. On top of that, he's still married, and while he can see other people, Mongal pretty much warned him that spawning any more heirs would bring down her wrath. Yeah, I see bizarre marriage counseling in Marathon's future.

In the end, the group dealt with...

...L.E.G.I.O.N....
....forward observers for the Green Lantern Corp...
...several members of the Sinestro/Mongul Corps...
...WarWorld...
and each other.

To be honest, it was a fantastically fun, but odd-as-hell session. Kudos to KnightErrantJR for it, and the game in general. I'm truly enjoying it... =)

-- GopherDave

Getting Back To It All...

Okay... I think my general mood is starting to hit the upswing once again. Just in time to play my favorite cynical, recently married, telekinetic, Marathon... Never mind the hideous costume in the picture. Yes, his main colors are red and yellow, but they are put together better than that... =P

Beyond that, the weekend went well... I came in yesterday to do orders, and then left. It was very relaxing and I needed it more than I realized. Also finished the first employee evaluations we've ever done for the store. I was reminded how much I hate doing those... I may never do them again...

Also some things changing on the gaming front, but things are still in flux, so...

-- GopherDave

Survived...

Apologies for being incommunicado for the last few days, but we have had a BUSY weekend at the Gopher.

This past Saturday was when we held MtG: Avacyn Restored Pre-Release events at the store. We held three sealed-deck tourneys, with 38, 36, and 38 people respectively. We had a blast, with a lot of great times generated by all the wonderful people that showed up and participated. Along with myself, Loquacious, Skribl, and HiSign held the store down and kept things together and the events flowing. As an added bonus, we had students from the local community college's Massage Therapy program come out with a couple of massage chairs and help keep participants and players relaxed during the whole deal.

Today was mostly a day of recovery, and it was slow at the store for the bulk of the time we were open. That was a nice change of pace after Saturday. The weekend hasn't been all Magic: the Gathering, though. Through a deal with a couple of friends, I managed to pick up a couple more books that used to have in my collection that I missed a lot. One is commonly considered a cool item, and the other will make you go "WTF, mate?!?"...

The first... a copy of Steve Jackson Games In Nomine core rulebook... I never played the game personally, but I read through the book numerous times the first time I owned it, and it was one of the many games that got started thinking about RPGs in a more "rules-lite" direction. Shame that it needed to be errated all to bejeebus to make it work even close to smoothly. Nice to have a copy again, though.

The second book? White Wolf's Street Fighter RPG. Say what you will, but the whole set-up for the game triggered my "over-the-top" button enough that I ran a short-lived campaign of the game, and had fun doing so. As a bonus, it had the only combat system among the Storyteller games that worked worth a damn for the time it was out. I had mentally laid out a plan on how to graft tricks from Vampire and Werewolf onto whole the skeletal framework of the SF combat process, and on "paper", it was going to work beautifully. Honestly, I wish I had done so and submitted it... It couldn't have worked any worse than what the Wolfies were publishing for combat rules at the time, but that's just my opinion. YMMV...

Anyway, off to do real work...

-- GopherDave