Grab Bag

Name Recognition


I experienced a bit of a weird moment the other day at work. Now, I've experience more than my fair share of weird moments in life, but this wasn't like falling through the cello cabinet and ending up with a tuba on top of me or waking up naked under an afghan in the middle of a group of middle aged and elderly ladies kind of weird. This was an entirely new kind of weird, the weird of being recognized, at least by name, by someone who you've never met.

It happened like this:

I was at work and a customer came in and I began to ring up his order. He noticed that I was wearing a derby shirt, and asked me what team I was wearing. I proudly proclaimed that it was for the Chippewa Valley Roller Girls, and that I announced for them.

"Oh, cool," he said. "What's your derby name?"

"Mat Black."

"Hey, cool. I've heard you game at Pegasus Games in Madison."

I was a little taken aback. But yeah, I told him, when I get the chance. Sadly, I've only really had the chance to actually game there once.

So, as the day went on, it just kept seeming stranger and stranger. Here was this guy, who was, admittedly, a pretty cool guy whose wife is or was a MRD bench coach, but who had heard where I've gamed. Like I said, a totally new kind of weird.

Mutants & Mayhem


I got to run session two of our Gamma World game this weekend. I'm pretty stoked, but pretty nervous as well. I haven't had a home campaign that's made it past two sessions in well over 5 years. So I'm understandably nervous that session three might never roll around.

This time around, we used my house rules, and I think it was a pretty good success. Even with my mechanics, not everyone had the same Alpha Mutation that they started with.

Gobi, Steam Bolt, and Jerry from Texaport (played by Manda from Mandariffic) were joined by a couple of new mutants - Jellie von Faustus, a Gelatinous Demon played by Naomi (from Mind Stain) and Rut Roach, a Cockroach Pyrokinetic played by her fiancee Dustin.

The newly-bolstered group headed back to the badder steading and found that the outside security had been beefed up. It was pretty short work, and then the group prepared for the huge bat-winged lion with laser beam eyes that they knew waited inside. With some recon work from Jellie, and a hypno-ray that Jerry had scavenged, the group made pretty short work of the encounter, ultimately suggesting to the yexil that it fly away and be happy in the wilderness.

They then descended the stairs where they found a couple of badders waiting in ambush. Beyond the landing at the bottom of the stairs, they discovered a large machine humming away, a cage full of mindless humans, and more badders (these had flails). They managed to make short work of the machine that seemed to be draining them of energy and feeding it back to the badders, who, without their healing, didn't last very long.

And that was where we left it. When we next pick up, the group needs to decide what to do with the humans, and if they want to delve into the system of tunnels leading from the machine room.

Pathfinder Society


It's been a long time since I've gotten to play in any Organized Play campaigns. The last time was when I went to an LFR game at Pegasus (see how I tied that together?). While LFR is fun, it mostly serves to make me nostalgic for the days of the Living Greyhawk campaign. That, in turn, makes me nostalgic for the experience of being an even organizer.

It might seem crazy to think fondly back on the hours of labor and headaches that getting gamers to act in an organized fashion can bring, but nonetheless, I do miss it. So, with the Pathfinder Society program entering its fourth year with new leadership, a new storyline, and lots of new possibilities, I'm getting ready to jump back in. Some time in the next month, I will be hosting the first public Pathfinder Society even here in Janesville (at least to my knowledge). I'm sure it won't have a massive turn-out, but that's okay. I've been there before. I'll post more about it as more details are finalized.