Calm Before the Storm

I'm sorry again that I haven't been posting much. It's been so quiet. I haven't seen anyone in a mask, much less the faceless wonder, in weeks. It's just been... peaceful. I dunno, maybe after Morningstar's maze there's nothing left for me to lose and I'm not fun enough prey for him to go after me?
I got lazy. Stopped running. Settled into this crappy apartment, kept taking classes. Learning to fight. Fooled myself into thinking I was safe.
I hadn't seen Him in a long time. Since... not long after... Well, you know.
I don't know why he hasn't come back, but I want to make the most of the time until he does.
This should be interesting, anyway. Can't help the feeling that something terrible's about to happen.

Sorry...

I didn't mean to vanish, really. I kind of forgot this was here?
I've been trying to not think about it. About  the part of my life on the blog.
It's not that I'm not still Stalked, that I'm not still running. Because I am.

But. I have to keep moving forward, keep living, and I don't know how to do that if I let myself think about it. Because nights like tonight? When I do? It just... it just kills me.

I'm. I'd like to think I'm so much stronger now. I'm learning how to fight, and apparently I have a knack for it. I constantly have a collection of bruises from sparring, but I take down my opponent as often as they take me down these days.

I'd probably learn faster if I didnt' have to keep moving, but I don't feel comfortable staying in one town for more than a couple weeks. So I keep going, floating from town to town, finding places with community centers or YMCA's that offer free classes in defense.

I'll try to post more often, I don't want to worry anyone.

Pondering My Next Move

I've been here at Miss' house for almost a week. She's been amazing. It's been really hard, she's helped me so much.
I'll admit that the first couple days I didn't really do much but cry and sleep. And then she mentioned wanting cookies. Just idly. And somehow next thing I knew I was baking cookies in her kitchen and she was looking at me with these bright starry eyes and I felt actually happy for the first time since... well. You know.
No matter how much it feels like your heart will break at each new tragedy, life moves on. The little things still happen to make you smile or laugh or cry, and eventually even the most bitter and desperate person starts to notice the happy moments again.
I'm not over it. I may never be over it. I loved them, and they died for me, and I'm not sure I even want to be over it or over them. But I'm recovering. I feel alive again, and I need to get moving.

I left Miss' house this morning. It's strange and sad and terrifying to be alone again but the three of them left me enough money to get by for a while until I figure out my next move.

Things Change

Camp this weekend was dire. With Kaylee gone, my entire cabin was in a bad mood. Getting them to smile and laugh was quite a trick, one that I only partially achieved, because I was just as down as they were every time I looked at her empty bunk.

But we managed, and there's only one week left before the camp stops for the summer. It's... Normally I'm really sad when we end for the season, I fall in love with my kids and I hate to see them go, but after what happened last week I'm all nervous around the trees-and we have a lot of them. I hate that whatever happened has corrupted my haven like this. Hopefully by the winter I'll be able to enjoy it again.

In happier news, my game is tomorrow. It's looking like we're going to have a good turn-out, so that'll be fantastic. Damon and Penny and I are getting together this afternoon to do the last minute stuff we need to get done for tomorrow. Any of you reading this that are planning to show, you're in for something amazing.

I'll see you then!

Going As Planned

Planning and prop making is going well, if perhaps a bit more expensively than I would have liked.  It's a good thing I've been working at the camp all summer, otherwise this would completely destroy my budget. It's worth it, though, to know that I've really gone full out for this. I'm really excited and I know my players are going to have a blast.

And yes, I actually have players for certain! The emails are coming in now, so far I have four. Two veterans, two newbies, but it's a new system so everyone starts on even footing. There's still plenty of time before game so I'm hoping I'll have at least double that.

Anyway, lots to do getting ready to leave town in a few weeks and also go work the camp this weekend.

Work, work, work

Been hard at work making props and plans and such for the Slenderverse LARP, which is why I haven't been around much. Damon and I have never hosted an event like this, and while we have the experience to make it amazing, we're still both nervous and determined to make it especially good, to prove ourselves.

Any of you silent readers who follow me while waiting for the game, know that we've got some amazing things planned for all of you.

And Damon, I know you're reading this. Stop being a lurker bastard. Comments would be appreciated.

Okay, So, I've Been Busy...

Sorry about last week. Things have been going a little nuts here. Getting ready to move back to school in a month, and as always, I forget how much there is to be done.

I'm thinking I'm going to leave the reviews as they stand. Maybe at some point I'll come back to it, but for now I'm just going to work on my newest project. One last hurrah before the  summer ends and I go back to finish my degree.

My new project is working on combining all of my recent interests. I've been working on making a Slenderverse LARP/tabletop system. Last week I spent largely pouring through the Call of Cthulhu larp system and Mind's Eye Theater (which is the World of Darkness larp variant) for ideas. As of now, I have a rough ruleset in mind for the LARP, at least. I'm having a hard time picturing this as a sit down game for now, it seems like something that should involve running about and investigating and getting chased through the woods or something.

To that end, with a tentative rulebook settled I'm working on putting together a basic plot. I'm hoping to get a group together to playtest it, see what needs changing. I don't really know a lot of LARPers, so I may have to open it to the public and take potluck. We'll see.

I'm an Idiot

Sorry to scare any of you watching this. Last week was a little test. I wanted to see if I could pull off writing a slenderblog. The answer is no, I'm thinking, so I'm going to go back to my normal reviews. Starting Wednesday.

Sorry for the insanity. I didn't mean to scare anyone.



Maybe if I tell them it's a lie I'll start to believe it.

DnD week!: ADnD/2.0

Think back to the old cliches of unwashed teenaged boys playing DnD in their basement with vague costumes. This was back in the days where DnD was still complicated and confusing enough to feel like an exclusive club.
Back when THACO was the order of the day and you couldn't play monsters.

This, ladies and gents, is exactly what they would have been playing. ADnD has survived to this day as a game people play, despite three editions afterward-an honor which First ed and third ed never achieved. It's got a different feel to it,

Custom Systems

Today I'm going to talk to you about something a little bit special. No specific system is being reviewed today. Instead, we're going to deal with some of the high and low points of designing your own. It's a hobby of mine, and as it's currently what I'm completely preoccupied with, instead of missing a post I thought I'd share some thoughts.

People are generally kind of scared of making new systems-it seems like there's so much a system requires, making rules and figuring out if and what kinds of classes and skills and everything you're going to use. It gets complicated fast.

But it doesn't have to.

Figure out what the system needs. Figure out what you want it to do and move from there-you're not selling books you don't NEED several hundred pages of stuff. One of the best homebrew systems I've ever had the good fortune of seeing is Risus, which has a book that's less than fifty pages and that's ALL you'll EVER need to run the game(Though to make a profit and do a couple cool side things there is an extra book you can buy).

Don't get fancy unless your game needs it. Your players will thank you

Slender Man

So I missed doing yesterday's review. I got a little distracted. I confess. Instead of spending my afternoon writing up a proper review of Mutants and Masterminds, I spent it reading. I was doing some research for that Scion game that I'm currently running, looking for interesting monsters to throw at my party, when I found something fascinating.

Slenderman.

Some of you theoretical readers might already know about him. He's apparently something of an internet phenomenon, ever since Something Awful came up with him a couple years back. Tall, faceless, wears a suit, he's a simple, primal image that is all too easy to start seeing in the shadows at night. So of course I decided I wanted to make a Slendy arc for my players. Pants shittingly terrifying is totally fair game for a SRS BZNS Scion game where they're in the process of changing all the rules and challenging divinity itself, right?

It is now. But I wanted to do my research first. So I started reading. Seeking Truth, Dreams in Darkness, A Really Bad Joke, Records of an Impossibility... You should see my favorites folder for this stuff-it's HUGE. Apparently they've made this an ARG? I'm amazed at how much work these guys put into this stuff, it's incredible. Maybe once I've run out of systems to review I'll look at starting a blog of my own. 

For now, I apologize for the delay, I'll try to get back to my normal routine tomorrow. Not sure what I'm reviewing yet, but I'll tear myself away from the blogs long enough to do it