Not Dead Yet...

Okay...

I went into the convention suffering from lack of sleep and some ConCrud/Head Cold variant. Came out of the convention with a lack of sleep and a ConCrud/Head Cold variant, but I had run four successful events over the weekend.

Like I feared, the system (DICEBAG) made some folks go into vapor-lock looking at the character sheet initially. There's a LOT going on in terms of information on the sheet, and it just sort of front-loads the confusion for new players. However, once we got started, and people got what I was aiming for with the system, they picked up things fairly quickly.

Once things were finished, I had received a fair number of compliments about how things flowed and the mechanics worked. That is encouraging. If, by next year, I can get the first draft of a complete core bore written, there are a number of people I'd like to pass it onto to do some more testing.

As for the after-Con, I took Monday off due to illness. I was back at the store today, though, and in uniform. No pictures as I had a family emergency pull me away from the store a bit early, but after around two months of very hit-and-miss compliance, I should be ramping up back to full necktie-wearing uniform standards fairly soon...

-- GopherDave

SRSLY..?

Just knocked out rules for Poisons, Automatic Weapons, and multiple attacks in the same round for DICEBAG (all things I had bonked on for roughly five years). It's late, and I have a doctor's visit in just under seven hours, but I am amped that progress is being made and I'm not quite ready to go to sleep

Why does my brain do this to me?

-- GopherDave

Not Actually Striving For Radio Silence...

Hey...

Just an update... made a mental breakthrough and progress is being made on the convention games. Psionics are up and running, and Weapons are being statted out as needed. I need to make a "print-out" run and get started with characters.

Things will be done...

-- GopherDave

Progress...

You know that caption a couple of days ago about ties I had never worn that were lost in a bag for two years? Yep. This is another one of those...

Okay, I'm not entirely certain if the Vitamin D infusion is working. I have only taken dose thus far (it was a *HUGE* dose, though), but things seems to be, for lack of a better phrase, looking up. It is just over two weeks until the convention and I am MEGA-behind on work, but progress has been made.

Last night, I reskinned mechanics for a very setting-dependant magic system into a less setting-dependant psionics system. I still need to do power listings, but the frame work is there, and I only need a few abilities to cover the scenarios I'm doing for the convention. Once I get a handle on those, I'm going to sit down and sketch out some weapons and armor specifications that include things *NOT* found in a run-of-the-mill fantasy game. Copies of Boot Hill, Top Secret, and Star Frontiers just fell into my lap. Combine that with fact I already own SpaceMaster, Shadowrun, and Deadlands, and I have enough reference material to knock what I need out of the park in short order.

Then I will make player characters, NPCs, monsters, and maps. The maps will take the longest time, but I have a couple of ideas on how to shorten that...

It all seems downhill from here... =)

-- GopherDave

*BONK*

Blogger was going bonk early Friday morning and would not let me upload pictures. Turns out it was an issue with Internet Explorer. One quick switch to Google Chrome for a few moments, and the problem was worked around, but not with enough time to actually post something before my day started...

...Then the day hit...

Friday was one of those days where if I could mentally have it back, I would do so in a heartbeat. It was one thing after another, beginning with a can of root beer and gravity conspiring to attack Skribl, to shipments that were supposed to be here yesterday and shipments that were not due for another couple of days all hitting at once, to some customers who were less than decisive on what they wanted (I was patient, but it was wearing thin quickly), and a couple of other shenanigans, it made for a mentally taxing day.

It is 3AM Saturday as I write this. I have to be back at the store in eight hours. There is still a metric crap-tonne of work waiting for me when I get there. I also am looking at my schedule and wondering when I am going to have a chance to work on game stuff like I need to.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely *LOVE* what I do for a living and am fully aware that in the grand scheme of careers, mine does not suck. I just hate it when I encounter a day that feels like it was a metaphorical Mack truck in disguise...

-- GopherDave

Lack of Sleep, But Knowing Why It's Kiciking My Backside...

Today is this necktie's maiden voyage. It's not exactly new. Loquacious bought it for me as a gift some time ago. It sat unworn for a bit as I was waiting for the right time to break it out. Well, when we moved two+ years ago, it (along with a couple of other ties) got stuffed into a bag to facilitate transport. Loquacious found it yesterday. So I'm wearing it today. Nyah...

Running on a lack of sleep, but I did manage to get some work done on one of the four events. Outside of that, it's been quiet.

Also got called back from the doctor on my blood work today. My testosterone is fine... My thyroid is fine... and my Vitamin D level is rated at a 9... Now, apparently 9 is not a good number for a Vitamin D rating. From what I'm told, most doctors like it when their patient's Vitamin D level is at 30 or above. One of the symptoms of a Vitamin D deficiency is... ...wait for it...

Fatigue.

So, beginning Friday, I get to start an intense Vitamin D infusion. The regimen will take roughly three months to complete, and then we'll see where it goes from there...

-- GopherDave

Not Much To Say...

It's a new year, and I am hip deep in end-of-year business. On top of the stuff I've given myself, I have seriously thought about dropping the blog and just trying to power through things. I even wore the uniform a couple of times last week, but provided no pictures or blog entries to commemorate it. Too busy and too tired.

However, I find that I am missing the updates, semi-regular though they may be.

A year ago, I found myself questioning whether I was going to continue the blog and the uniform. I mostly kept up with both. I didn't match the near-perfect record of last year. I didn't even come close. That's okay, though. I've mostly settled into a new groove. A groove that lets me be me...

...And that's all I can ask...

-- GopherDave