One of the biggest problems that I've encountered with playing Dungeons and Dragons as an adult is scheduling.  Especially when including more than one household, trying to find time to get together is quite a challenge.  Some of my ongoing adventures meet only a couple of times a year (usually during summer break) with gaps between sessions of several months (sometimes nine).  This makes keeping track of what the party has done and plans on doing a bit difficult.

When Google Docs became available, one of my friends created a shared spreadsheet where he could input the experience points and treasure that we earned.  Since it was a spreadsheet, he also made it so it calculated an even share for each character.  He later added in a place for notes on the adventure and even a tab for players to put down something about their character's description.

These "adventure journals" have been a tremendous help as we have gamed through the years.  Recently, we have even used them to share maps, images, notes, etc. rather than have the DM provide copies to everyone.  While it still means passing around computers (or tablets) to those who don't have one, it also makes it so players can access the images from home if they want to give them a closer look.

I have a shared the adventure journal that I created based on my friend's original design.  While I have included a link here, I have also put one on the Home-brewed Rules page of this website.  I hope you find it helpful.

I tend to be a minimalist when I write (and when I DM).  I tend to touch on the actions that are occurring in the story without giving the embellishments that often give a story (or an adventure) its flavor.  In some ways, it's an intentional decision.  I often find myself skimming over detail sections and paragraphs while reading, and I want my own writing to give a more focused experience while allowing the reader to fill in the blanks.

Unfortunately, my lack of details is often due to laziness.  I have the picture of my story (or adventure) in my head, but I don't want to take the time to put it all down on paper.  The problem is that if I don't write it down, at least as a note to myself, I often forget those details myself, and thus I don't get to share the richness of the world that I have created.

This has become much more apparent to me this summer both in my reading/writing and in my playing/DMing.  I have noticed the lack of detail in my own endeavors by comparing it to the richness in other people's.  I have also noticed other people's reactions to the detail--when does it seem like too much? when are they getting "swept away" into the world? etc.  

As such, I have tried to place more detail into what I am creating, but much of it has been ringing false.  It feels contrived or forced.  I can't tell if its because of how I am expressing the details, or if it's just my natural reaction to trying to do more work (which is to avoid it).

The key is hitting the right notes: the perfect images, sounds, smells, and impressions that a scene can hold.  Right now, I feel like I'm blindly hitting notes in the hope that something beautiful comes from the attempt.  I suppose, like most things, it's a matter of practice and experience.

I have had a much busier summer than I had expected.  We recently passed the half-way point of my break, and I can't help but think of all the things that I haven't managed to accomplish.  This seems like a good place to take stock of what I've done and not done as I only have a little over a month before my life goes at break-neck speed again.

I finished (although I haven't polished) the Rosary section on this website.  Considering that I had been planning on doing this for a number of years now, I'm really glad that I got it up and running.

We cleaned out the garage from the garage sale and can now park our cars in it again.  Honestly, it had been long enough that I had trouble parking in the garage again.

I've been writing in this blog nearly every day.  Only on days like yesterday, where we end up busy until later than I expect, have I had to postpone writing the blog.  Still, I've managed to have a blog for every day since I've started.

I fixed and updated the character spreadsheets that I use for D&D (both 3.5 and my home-brewed 3.6), and made them available on Google Docs.

I've been playing tennis at least twice a week with my father.

I even fixed the slide and swing set at my parents' house, as well as set up the beginnings of a play area on the willow tree in their back yard.

And I've seen a lot more of my friends this summer than I have for the last several years.  While the lack of down-time is frustrating my wife a bit, I've been having a blast.

That said, there's still a lot on my list: repair the drain field (in progress), get a cover picture for Dragon Hunter and get the book e-published, write a new story (Vali's Tale), take a load or two to the dump and metal recycler, clean up the basement, go on a trip (currently planned), get Pool of Radiance stuff on this web site, finish converting DQ7 into a D&D adventure, and other things that aren't coming to mind.  I am avoiding working on school stuff even if the dreams have already started.  There will be time enough for that later.

At least I've been getting some stuff done.  This has already been a more productive summer than most of my previous one.  Still, I have some catching up to do.

In many ways, creating an adventure (or even adapting one that someone else created) shares traits with writing and teaching.  One has to consider the overall narrative, the personalities of the characters involved, the various play-styles, as well as the rules which you plan to use and those you plan to leave alone.

In this case, I have been trying to convert a video game (Dragon Quest VII) into a 3.6 D&D adventure.  I love the concepts behind the game: discovery, time-travel, mysteries, class-building, and of course good vs. evil.  There are some elements that I don't care for: some fetch questing and some just bizarre story and gameplay ideas that I have needed to change or remove entirely.  On the whole, however, the game has been running fine.

My biggest problem is that video games can force their players into situations that role-players would avoid or would resent having forced upon them.  Usually, I have several contingencies for the possibilities that I can envision, but sometimes players are just stubborn (or get a perverse pleasure about messing with the DM).  The key (and I sometimes forget this) is to remember that the point of the game is to have fun, not to get over-burdened with rules and plot-lines.

Due to a change in circumstances in the last game in this campaign, I have had to rework the situations that my players are going to have to face.  Currently, their abilities have been robbed from them, but their equipment remains (I wasn't sure if they were going to play in a way that let them keep their equipment or not).  Thus, the situations can't be quite as dangerous as their character levels would usually suggest, but they can't be so weak that the players don't get a sense of accomplishment from their adventure.  It's a difficult balance to maintain, especially in a game where the luck of the die can change everything.

My lessons and writings often don't go as planned either.  Usually, I can predict how my students or my stories are going to react to certain conditions, but that is not always the case.  Still, I think that most things work out well in the end.

I'm trying something new with the game that I'm running today (Savage Tides campaign).  In an effort to make the game a little more immersive and less about stats and math, I am going to keep track of the characters' current hit point levels.  At the beginning of the game, I'm going to collect the following information: hit points, armor class (regular, touch, and flatfooted), spot, listen, and search checks (I'm really tempted to go the Pathfinder route and combine these into one "perception" skill).   

When in combat, rather than telling the players that their characters took X amount of damage, I will communicate the severity and placement of the hit (e.g. "The goblin's blade slashes your arm; the cut is deep, but not life-threatening").  As 3.6 uses "bloodied" status (at half hit points, characters take a -2 penalty to everything), I will let them know when their wounds have brought them to that state and, if necessary, when they have been rendered unconscious.

I will also roll for perception skills rather than tell the players to "roll a spot check," watch them roll low, and then say "nevermind."  This is especially helpful when characters are searching for traps or treasure.  So often they see the low roll and decide to try again, even though their characters should be convinced that there is nothing there.

We will see how it goes.

I was recently invited to join a small game with a couple of my good friends as well as a couple with whom I am not as well acquainted.  Of course, I jumped at the chance to play.  Generally, I end up DMing more games than I end up playing, so I am always eager to get to create and play a character.  Since this is a recent character, I thought I'd share a bit about how I go about creating a character.

A lot of this character was predetermined in regards to class and back-story.  The group needed a healer.  Since we are playing by 3.6 rules [my home-brew rules for D&D 3.5], all we really need is a character with access to the 0-level cure minor wounds spell (3.6 allows for an infinite number of 0-level spells to be cast each day).  Still, knowing we were going to play an updated version of the Dymrak Dread, I felt we should have a character who was able to turn undead, so I chose to play a cleric (that, and the DM had been planning on running an NPC cleric had I decided not to join).

I rolled up a character using a very player-friendly method:  Roll 4d6 and pick the best three, reroll any ones, and roll seven stats and pick the best six.  Even so, my character ended up with lower total stats than most of the other party members.  I placed the highest rolls in wisdom and charisma (I like playing high charisma characters), my mid rolls in strength and intelligence (I love skills, even if I largely only use spot and search), the next lowest in constitution, and the dump stat in dexterity (I was guaranteed that he could have full plate mail which makes dexterity not count for as much). 

I apologize if I bored anyone with the mechanics, but they are necessary for me to think about as I'm designing the character.  They give me an idea of how strong, wise, good-looking, etc. that he is.  It's at this point that the fun begins for me.

One of the first things that I determine is what sort of accent I want to use.  Now, I'm terrible with accents, but they usually help with building my character.  I also like using accents when I game so it's clear to everyone whether my character said something or if I, as a player, was just making a comment.  I knew that my character was from the fantasy country of Karmeikos, which has a Slavic-esque feel, so I chose a light Russian accent (my heavy Russian accent is reserved for orcs and innkeepers).

With all of this in mind, including some notes from the DM, I decided to build my character's personality as a charming (which I haven't pulled off that well), chivalrous character similar to the ex-Russian spy in the movie RED.  He appreciates good food, good wine, good music, and women (not necessarily just good ones).  He is loyal to his friends and the wrath of god (in this case Mithras) on his enemies.

Even though we started playing, I still haven't fully fleshed out poor Dimitri.  Due to the other characters, I decided to make him a bit more of a tank, which meant giving him the war and sun domains.  He is the wall of steel that keeps evil away from the innocent (or at least his other party members).  I am a little concerned that I'm going to end up playing him as the standard "good guy" cleric, so I'm working on building a couple of faults into him as well.  I just need to be careful that the faults don't become the character.

Much like New Year's Resolutions, my plans for my summer breaks are usually ambitious and often fall apart after the first few days.  Still, rather than start with a sense of defeat on the onset, I have decided to set a schedule for myself this summer so that I can get stuff done.  Specifically, I am going to work this summer to get myself recognized, at least in small circles, as an author.

First of all, this is the final week of school.  Due to snow days, we have school through this Thursday.  I also have my last Baker class tomorrow and the Baker graduation to attend on Friday.  Still, I decided to put my summer plans in motion immediately.  During the summer, I get together at least once, if not twice, a week with my brother-in-law and his sons.  That starts this Friday with the beginning of a new Dungeons and Dragons campaign that I am going to DM with him, my eldest son, and at least one other friend.  I managed to get my hands on the Savage Tides campaign from (the now defunct) Dungeon Magazine.  This will be my Friday ritual through the summer.  Saturday we are meeting other friends and Sunday is a family day due to Father's Day.

Second, I already signed up for a rather interesting three day conference next week on viewing continuity and change in World History by examining several major world cities and how they developed over time.  I'm pretty excited about the conference even if it takes a chunk out of the first week of my break.  This leaves Monday open.  Assuming other plans aren't made for me, I want to spend Monday setting up my space.  For the most part everything is ready, but I want to download some pictures I took a few years ago, make some scans, and get things prepared for a couple of items that I am adding to this website.

After that week, I want to prepare a more regular schedule.  On weekdays when I am not meeting someone or have other plans, I want to start each morning by being dressed and in my writing space by 8 am (unless I start the day playing tennis with my father, in which case I want to be in my space by 10 am).  My plan is to put in at least four hours of constructive work each day.  The following activities count as constructive: finishing the two projects that I want to add to this website that I have put off for the past couple of years (one for religion, one for D&D), working on formatting Dragon Hunter into an eBook (Does anyone know of a good graphic designer who is willing to make my cover; I have something specific in mind and would pay?), build my author presence online (creating a specific Facebook page, perhaps a Twitter account, perhaps tying this blog to a more commonly used blogger site), e-publishing some of my work, or just writing.

The rest of the day is mine unless I want to continue being productive.  However, no more watching TV during lunch (especially on tennis days when I would need to get back to work).  My summer video games are going to be the three Mass Effects that I recently acquired.  At some point in the day, weather permitting, I would like to either "play" basketball, walk around the neighborhood, play some sort of outdoor game, or mow the lawn [see earlier post].  At some point in the evening, even though I have discovered it's not the best time for me to write, I will post in this blog.

Fridays have been spoken for.  Saturdays are to relax, be with friends and family, etc.  Sundays are for church, family, and relaxation.  

... And that's my plan.  I know; I know: "The best laid plans of mice and men ..."  Still, I want to be an author and I know I can be a good one.  I have to lay down a foundation to do this.  I'm not getting younger (I've checked), so I need to start now.

Two weeks of vacation around Christmas and New Year's Day (and my birthday) make up one of my favorite perks about my job.  These breaks usually don't see me getting much done as far as work or home-improvement are concerned, but I usually get the chance to recharge my mental and spiritual batteries.  As this break is coming to a close, I wanted to share some of the highlights:

1. I didn't put out my back.  Last year, I ended vacation with the most excruciating pain that I have ever experienced.  And while the snowpocalypse might still hit tonight or tomorrow, I have thus far avoided a similar experience.  This, by itself, makes this year's break a hundred times better than last year's.

2. Time with friends and family.  While a GNOME (Guy's Night Of Monster Evisceration) didn't occur, and I haven't seen some of the people whom I love this break, I had tremendously enjoyable times with people I did get to spend time with.  Every family and friend get-together this break was better than I thought they would be (even when I had high hopes to begin with).

3. Dungeons and Dragons became enjoyable again.  Since mid-summer, my enthusiasm for role-playing has been waning.  It was starting to feel like too much of a bother with not enough pay-off.  All it took was one great session with wonderful people to restore my love of this type of game/get-together.

4. The Last of Us - I can only play this game at night due to its horrifying, brutal, and profane content, but this game has one of the best stories that I have experienced this year.  I don't know why I like the post-apocalyptic genre so much, but this game has presented the most realistic (for a vombocalypse story) and still mildly uplifting view that I have yet seen (I refuse to watch The Road).  The gameplay is good.  Still, my favorite parts of the game are when the characters aren't in combat, but are simply exploring the desolation of their world and getting to know and understand each other a little better.  

5. New Year's Day mass - Due to a time mix-up, my mother and I attended the mass on New Year's Day at Queen's rather than St. Mary's.  Between the readings and the guest preacher's sermon, I left this particular mass inspired to a degree that I hadn't anticipated.  I truly wish that more people could experience the grace and contentment that this mass filled into my soul.

6. I turned 40.  The Pirates of the Caribbean marathon went better than I expected (that second movie is just crap), but I was most surprised about how at peace I've felt with reaching this new marker in my life.  Turning 30 made me feel the weight of all that I hadn't accomplished; turning 40 made me appreciate more all that I have.

There are certainly more elements that have combined to make this a favorite winter vacation.  That the snowpocalypse might extend it is a nice bonus.