Sunday, May 30, 2010

A Rusty Battle Axe Catch-Up Post


Hey, boys and girls.

First of all, thanks to Tim for allowing me to post occasionally on his blog. If he is the host, I must be the parasite. Maybe I’ll change my blog handle to The Rusty Tapeworm.


Secondly, I apologize for my rather abrupt departure from the blogosphere. Yes, I had some concerns about blogging and the public nature of my job, but ultimately the decision to stop blogging came down to time and priorities. Both of my parents have had serious health issues this year and I had some health things, too. On the plus side, I made a decision at the beginning of the year to whip my butt (and the rest of me) into shape and I am well on my way to being healthy, fit, and at my playing weight. However, the better shape I get into, the more time it takes to move to the next level. That, along with some new music endeavors and playing RPGs twice a week most weeks has pretty much consumed my waking hours (and some of the sleeping ones as well). Hence, my decision to cut out the blogging.

I thought about leaving up my old blog without updates, but I had unwisely posted too much related to my identity and my job and so eliminating the actually blog was tied to work concerns. Thanks to the dark magic of the Internet, my posts are out there in the ether forever, but at least the actual blog is gone and it makes it tougher for people to randomly stumble across information.

As Tim has graciously offered Gothridge Manor as a place to post my occasional mindless drivel, I’ll be posting here occasionally.


What I Am Thinking About (RPGs)

Tim, Dwayne and Rob have dropped a few hints that I may up next as GM after we are done with our current adventuring in Rob’s Majestic Wilderlands. I was hoping that Tim would be up next and we’d be doing Hackmaster (4th edition, I think). However, if I am GM and we stick with the general fantasy RPG, I had the following thoughts (and here I am looking for feedback, resources, etc):
  1. Continue with our S&W theme and create a campaign that combines fantasy, the Medieval Central Asia (i.e. the Mongols), and some sort of post-apocalyptic thing.
  2. Continue with our S&W theme and pick up one of S&W campaign settings on LuLu. I see that there is a growing list. Anybody familiar with any of them? Read any reviews?
  3. Same as #1, using Castles & Crusades as the base system (well, my highly house-ruled version of C&C). The plus side is that I already have a lot of the work done. The downside is less sharing of stuff via a blog, PDFs or LuLu if I use C&C.
  4. The same as #1 (or #3) using Byzantium as my base motif.
  5. Some sort of Underdark that would be connected to the Majestic Wilderlands.
The advantage of all of these, except for #2, is that I don’t have to buy anything. With #2, I’d have the relatively small expense of picking up a campaign book, but that expense could grow, as some of the settings already have supplements. I'd have to do some research and work on the other ideas, but I have a lot of background materials in my library already.

Any thoughts about these options? I'm especially curious to hear from Tim, Rob and Dwayne.

It's good to be back. Thanks, Tim!

5 comments:

  1. Good to here from you again, Rusty! As for settings, here's a few ideas:

    I was reading Fight On! #2 last night. It features James Maliszewski's article "The Outdoor Map," which provides a nice little sandbox setting. It's based on his Dwimmermount campaign, though I'm not sure how closely. Robert Conley did the map for it. Between the article and stuff from his blog, it would provide a nice basis for a campaign. There's always Blair's Planet Algol blog, if you want something really far out! :) I was also thinking, that there's more than enough Conan & REH stuff online, to pull together the resources for a Hyborian Age setting. If that last idea grabs ya, shoot me an email and I'll turn you on to some useful links!

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  2. Nice to see you back, wherever u post.

    Savage Swords of Athanor might fit what you want... it's for S&W, so you may need to convert it a bit.

    As I just had a HUGE tin cup of black berry vodka and coke i'll pass on any review, except to say its a damn interesting setting ;)

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  3. Great to have you back Rusty and there is always a room for you at the Manor.

    As for campaign ideas I say go with what excites you now. I just make characters and run with it. Just as long as I am able to continue to make a complete goofball of myself I will be happy.

    Welcome back Ken!

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  4. Welcome back!

    :D

    They all sound like great plans. I'm itching to get some more gaming in this summer, and am anxiously awaiting my second SW:WB to arrive.

    An underdark campaign sounds like a lot of fun!

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  5. @ Rusty: Sorry you felt you needed to remove your blog entirely. I sure did enjoy the haiku.

    Good luck in your endeavors...fitness, health, and music are all excellent ways to spend your time.
    : )

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