What I'm doing for my summer vacation

Lately I haven't been posting because I have been steadily working on projects and playing a lot.

My bi-weekly LL game is moving along nicely. I set up the characters in the Keep on the Borderlands and populated the wilderness around the keep with the standard encounters from that module, the dungeons of Quasqueton, and a couple of other adventures and scenarios from some old Dungeon magazines. All of this is setup for a mix of several classic modules and a bit of homemade stuff coming down the line. So far the characters have killed some bandits, subdued the hermit after killing his mountain lion, explored a bit of Quasqueton, explored and cleared a pair of towers with an interdimensional gate connecting them, destroyed some undead in a ruin on the other side of the portal, and lost a party member to an incorporeal undead in the same ruin. We've played five or six sessions, and they have yet to get anywhere near the Caves of Chaos. They have three meatshields that travel with them, and only one of them has a habit of running away. They've uncovered a few hints of things that are happening in the area, including some organized bandit activity and hints of the cult of Iuz. They have caroused and careened their way through quite a bit, in between the typical stalling, chatting, doodling on maps, and table-talk that go along with a game. The thief is second level. Everyone else is flirting with leveling, and we all seem to be having a good time with it.

I keep hoping to be able to post more info from the game, but the players are taking their time exploring the area, moving in different directions, and generally refusing to focus on any particular thread. I haven't been overly giving, preferring to let them have their way and go where they want. I'll probably drop some more hints of things over the next few sessions, but I like letting them determine what is going to happen. I already know what the main antagonists are going to do if the PCs don't interfere, so I just run with that and let them know what's happening. If they jump on some of the tracks toward the various adventures I have placed, cool. If not, that's good too. Either way, I am having fun imagining what the NPCs in the world are doing and reacting to whatever the PCs do.

I have also been working on a few editing and proofreading projects. I'm putting the finishing touches on the AEC reference sheets. I have a few more tables to dress up and then I just have to polish the OGL page and it will be finished. I'm working on copy editing one fairly lengthy manuscript and proofreading another for other people. Once I get more done on them, I'll be plugging them a bit more. I'm also working on finishing the layout for the game that my friend Jack sent me so I can release that here. Expect a few of these to get polished in the next week or so.

Around the house it's spring cleaning time, and that means I am trying to get rid of more stuff. A few years ago I got heavily into the voluntary simplicity idea, and I have been slowly purging unnecessary things since. Gamers tend to be packrats, and I was definitely one of the worst. I had a tendency to collect a lot more things that I could ever play, resulting in an entire large room full of gaming stuff that just sat on shelves. Now I am finally getting to the bottom of the unused games pile. That means I am finally going through my miniatures and getting rid of everything I don't use and don't have a real desire to paint. That means all of my Warhammer and 40K stuff is going. I'll try to post here when I put things on ebay, but keep an eye on my seller page if you're interested. At the moment, I have some Flames of War books and minis there.

Aside from my LL game, most of my gaming attention has been going to miniatures, specifically Warmaster Ancients, some 10mm WW1, a couple of WW1 aerial games, and some WW2 hex-and-counter games. Hopefully clearing out the old stuff will make more time and energy for some of this new stuff. I haven't posted anything about the minis stuff here, but let me know if you'd like to see some of it. If so, I'll start taking some pics so you can see what I'm doing.

Finally, if you made it this far, congratulations and thanks! I am coming up on a blog anniversary at the beginning of June. In the meantime, I am also creeping toward both 200 posts and 100 followers. I have won quite a few contests from other bloggers, so it's time to give it back. At the moment, I am thinking of doing a contest for each of the three - 100 followers, 200 posts, and 2 years blogging. If you have some suggestions of the kinds of prizes you'd like to see, let me know. Otherwise, keep an eye on the blog. Details to follow, as they say.