Let there be songs to fill the air.

• Discovered this morning that my computer's speakers were dying faster than I am. Lots of really bad drop outs when I adjusted the volume, and just poor quality across the board. I'm not surprised, since the stuff was close to a decade old and had been in almost daily use. But considering how important music and watching TV & movies on the computer has been to my sanity, a solution was needed, ASAP.


• kshandra needed to go out and run a few errands anyway, and agreed to stop at Staples to look at speakers. We ended up with the Logitech Z313. Even got 'em on sale.


• Kirsten has gone for a bit of a nap, so I can't really test them yet. That's coming Monday. I have some good music to see just how good these really are. But right now, the sound quality is sharp.


• In other news I've been off oxygen all day with no perceptible drop in my blood oxygen. Still worried that this is an artifact of the Prednisone. We'll see. But it is nice not to have two bit of medical plastic up my nose.


• The really good news is my last two Coumadin levels were where the clinic wants them to be. I get a whole week between blood draws!


• Giants won. We're looking really good for the opener except for one thing.


• Our closer, Brian Wilson, has strained his oblique. Or his beard, the Tweet wasn't clear.


• Anyway, he's questionable for the opener. Boo.


• Nice thing about a papsan? If you decide that a nap is a good idea, you don't need to go anywhere.


• zzzzzz.....

Go East, Young Man! (Offer open to elves, dwarfs, and half-orcs)

I think I've found the "push" for the Pathfinder game. Every campaign should have a "pull" and a "push." The pull is the carrot. The thing the adventurers want. Treasure, power, revenge.. I've covered motivations before. The push is the stick, the thing that keeps them out there and moving on. A vengeful enemy in pursuit, a legal or moral obligation to complete a quest, a set schedule by which things have to happen to succeed. Combining these two drives can help define a campaign and know what your push and pull are for both the party and each character make adventure design that much simpler.

The history of the middle ages that I'm reading right now has a fun chapter on warfare that ended with an overview of the Crusades, these being the defining wars of the period. What struck me was just how disorganized so many of the marches to the Holy Land. We think of Crusaders and the image is long columns of spear-carrying footmen led by the knights and nobles snaking their way across Europe into Asia Minor. That did happen, but there were an equal number of smaller groups, a knight and a handful of retainers, say, who would just set off in hopes of catching up to someone's army. Even between the formal crusades there were always "gentlemen of fortune" who would set off to Jerusalem because of the promise of easy loot.

This has giving me the push for my campaign.

In my setting, there are extensive ruins of a defunct dwarf empire in the Urals. That empire was what held the various human and goblinoid tribes east of the mountains at bay. Now they are coming west in ever greater numbers. The Urals crawl with orcs who have infested the dwarf ruins. The brutal Magyar, a coalition of human and hobgoblin tribes, raid deep into civilized lands. Rumors of an even greater threat moving west abound. In the face of this dire threat to civilization, the Grand Patriarch of Rome has declared a crusade against the foul creatures of the Dark One. All who can be spared to fight are called to arms!

This could allow for the campaign to grow over time. As the characters advance in levels and (more importantly) gain the Leadership feat, the focus could shift from the traditional Places of Mystery kill & loot game to a larger game of intrigue, battle, and really epic quests. The characters would become familiar with kings and chieftains, and might hold the key to the survival of Europe itself!

As always, let me know what y'all think.

Writer's Block: A super debate

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Green Lantern. Nearly unlimited possibilities based solely on my will and imagination vs. sticking to walls and being really strong and agile. Duh.

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight
Let those who worship evil's might,
Beware my power... Green Lantern's light!