Ok, for real this time...

When I started this thing back in January, I had every intention of working on the things I said I was working on and posting here regularly.  Turns out, I failed at that.  Not due to lack of interest but simply a lack of time.  Well, I've cleared some things off of my plate and now it's time to get back to this.  I just returned from my first GenCon and it was amazing.  I got to spend some quality time with my son and play some great games.  During my time there I was lucky enough to play in a AtomicRobo game with Morgan Ellis and spend some quality time with some Fate luminaries and Evil Hatters (Leonard Balsera, Sean Nittner, Clark Valentine, Mike Olson, and Ryan Macklin to name a few).

I live in Austin, Texas (...yay...) and in January we're scheduled to have a new con on the scene, ChupacabraCon (the Kickstarter is active for a few more days and could use some love).  I have to say that I am really looking forward to having a convention focused on gaming just a short drive from my house.  One of the guests is Leonard Balsera so I’d like to do my part to make sure that Fate (Core and Accelerated) is well represented.

As a result I’m trying to decide what I’d like to run.  At a minimum I’d to run four slots; two Core and two FAE.  That said Atomic Robo should be out by then so that will likely cause me to add more slots or sub in a Robo game for a Core game…or both Core games.

For FAE I am thinking of running a GI Joe game and an A-Team game.  I think both fit the style of FAE very well and are fairly recognizable properties.  For Core I am undecided.  I will certainly run a Robo game based in Texas, possibly dealing with Chupacabras.  For the other, maybe just a generic fantasy game or something post-apocalyptic.  There's also a good chance I might continue work on my Grimm hack from previous posts.  I want the games to be accessible to as many people as possible and show of how awesome Fate really is.  Regardless of what I do, I will post it here for comments, suggestions, and critiques.  I'd like to get a couple of these done in time to run them at MonkeyCon the online convention in October.

I'll be back soon with more.  

A new year, a new blog...

So, blogging is a new thing for me.  It's something I've toyed with before but never actually done.  I know I have things to say, but I can never seem to find what it is I want to talk about.  I've entertained the idea of blogs on cooking, comics, gaming, general nerdiness, and a few other ideas but nothing has ever gotten off of the ground.

I am a big fan of gaming.  Gaming of all types, really, but my favorite genre is roleplaying games.  I like to create worlds and characters, tell stories with them, and occasionally put pencil to paper (or stylus to Cintiq) and create images that go along with them.  My favorite roleplaying system, without a doubt, is Fate by the amazing folks over at Evil Hat.

My love affair began in 2007.  Soon after my family’s moved to Texas I walked into the local gaming store (friendly and/or professional were suspect in this case) looking for something new to read.  Browsing the gaming shelves I found a 6x9 tome with yellow letters along the spine very much in the style of the Raiders of the Lost Ark font that read, Spirit of the Century.  Pulp heroes in an extremely narrative, very collaborative, RPG?  I was in from the word go.  I picked up the book that day and read it cover to cover and was immediately hooked. 

Since that faithful day I have purchased and read every iteration of the Fate rules that I could get my hands on.   From Strands to Kerberos Club and Dresden to Diaspora, I have read (I think) them all.  In fact, whenever I pick up another RPG or start the process for planning a new campaign, I almost always start thinking about how I can do it with FATE and I almost always come up with something.  

In August 2012 Mike Olsen from the AMAZING Spirit of the [Blank] blog and contributor to many an fantastic Fate titles announced he would be publicly playtesting the Atomic Robo Role Playing Game (AARPG).  I signed up immediately and was able to get in on round two, which was really exciting.  One of my favorite comics (seriously, check it out if you haven’t) mixed with my favorite RPG (going through a revision), written by my Fate hero…I simply couldn’t pass it up.  I don’t get a lot of gaming time in, but I was lucky to run a few sessions and it was great.  The players had fun, I had fun, I couldn’t wait for more…and I didn’t have to wait long. 

In November 2012 Fred Hicks announced the impending Kickstarter for the newest version of the rules, Fate Core.  The Kickstarter launched on December 3^rd and I achieved minimum funding it was seemed like 45 minutes.  The Yahoo! group went super nova and Google+ got a community dedicated to the game. 

So, I decided to start a Fate blog.  Yeah, I know, it’s not the first but there’s always room for one more.  I have a few plans for this thing.  I am going to use it as a place to discuss my plans for a couple of campaigns I want to run, I want to do setting and character conversions, I plan on doing reviews of products (past and present), and work on converting older Fate stuff into Core.  The plan is weekly posts, but I’d like to do more and dedicate specific days to specific topics.  If there’s something you’d like to see, let me know. 

So, please bear with me as I get this thing up and running.  I am working on a format and some graphics for the page and updates will come soon. 

Talk to you all soon.