JP on Gaming: May 2019

Wednesday, May 29, 2019

[WTF Gaming Moment] Balance Sucks

For the first installment of this series, I must return to either 1986 or 87. It was a time when I got to play D&D only during that precious lunch hour, when monsters were slain by a cadre of 8 to 9 guys all wanting to roll damage on things, and our hormones made us what to "get it on" with whatever female NPC we encountered. We were all between twelve and thirteen years old...

We were playing the hallowed - or is it unhallowed? - I6 Ravenloft adventure. It was a time before Ravenloft was a setting. A time before Strahd had a full series of novels.

It was the year when Strahd was that vampire dude you came in and kicked his rear end.

One of our player, JM-S played a druid. During the final confrontation with the Big Man, he suddenly decides to turn on us and join Strahd because the "Balance" was affected. So he needed to side with evil, join Strahd and fight us.

With Strahd cornered in the Grand Stairwell of Castle Ravenloft, he ran up the stairs and had the following exchange while we were at the bottom, flabbergasted and unable to understand.

- Hey Strahd, I want to join you. - What? Why? - These guys have been turning things to good too much. I must keep the Balance. - Well... go and kill them. - Okay

What followed was a big fight. First as we took on our druid friend, and we wasted a number of our spells and abilities making him go splat! All the while, Strahd at the top of the stairs, smirking down at us, waiting to take on the winner...

JM-S never played with us again, as he raged that we destroyed his

From that day forth, I have never been a fan of "Balance" as an active force in the universe.

Monday, May 20, 2019

Gencon almost sold out

A quick post to let everyone know that Gencon tickets are finally available. For another year, our tickets have sold really well. After just over twenty four hours, we have seven sold out tables already! There are currently 7 tickets left.

As there is always a little a bit of movement in the tickets as people change, so you may luck out. But do not wait, get your tickets now!

For your convenience, here is a link to FOE Events at Gencon

As usual, I am touched and very appreciative of people interest in FOE products and events.

Saturday, May 18, 2019

Battle of Farelis: Origins and Gencon

Last week I posted how I really advanced my work on the Gencon special by talking with my GMing team. Well, not only have I been able to make a lot of good work on that adventure, but by advancing the final part, the first part - which will premiere at Origins. Has also cleared up from my writer's block.

All because the second part took shape!

Now Part 1 of the Battle of Farelis is an adventure with a lot of story. There is much plot to be extirpated from it. Many significant NPCs with goals...

As this is the first of the Saggakar Year Four adventure, I had to advance the story from last year's. With all my work on Akhamet and Rhym, I barely did any work on Saggakar in a year! It really was like reuniting with the old gang as the story and the plot I have been working towards for the first three years are now ready to come to fruition and the situation ready to explode!

I am really pumped with this as I have been blasting encounters after encounters with like a million mini encounters in-between. This means I will have to cut and maybe push that into its own adventure... Still this one is really action-packed with main characters coming in and featuring the return of a fan-favorite...

Now what is the link between Origins and Gencon, both of which have the same adventure... well not quite anymore... Origins will have the "Part 1" and Gencon will have the one-shot multi-table event "Part 2". With the way Saggakar is built, it can easily support that. I can't wait to see what the PCs will decide to do and how this will affect Saggakar, and the rest of the FOEniverse...

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Turning off the lights

Today marks another big day in my life. After eighteen months working for the LKQ Corporation as a Senior Web Developer, I reached the end of this line. Two weeks ago, I turned in my notice.

Looking back, it was a time where I learned a lot of new things, new technologies, and participated in the design and creation of many pieces of software.

I am particularly proud about the work my team and I did with the re-creation of the quoting engine. Moving it from an older technology into modern C#, complete with a suite of tests that ensures the validity and accuracy of the result. This is a design that grew out of a desire to do one thing: fix a problem and not the rest of the universe.

This is a bittersweet because I worked closely with a lot of great people from my team and others. I keep a very positive view of the place and its people. I was able to join the A-Team, being the Mad Murdock - the crazy coder - of the bunch.

I leave behind a great group of guys who I am sure will take the code I worked on in new and exciting directions. These guys are gonna rock this, no worries.

So where am I going? I will be joining the CBS Corporation as a co-worker to Doctor Phil and Jim Nantz!

Really!

Okay, I may not be working *WITH* them. I will be working for a division called 24/7 Sports to support their published content and message boards. I am pretty excited about this new position and my new team.

FOE events at Gencon

All of the FOE events have been approved by Gencon this year! I am super excited to announce an absolutely fantastic group of GMs who agreed to work with me this year.