Tales of Aeril: The Return

    It is good to be back. I realize the blog has not been updated in some time however there is no time like the present to rectify that. This year in particular has been crazy and everyone is looking for an escape of some sort, if even for a short while. Many of us even while restricted by the constraints of our new covid world yearn to create and provide to our fellows.

    In just the last few months I have started not 1 but 2 games online now both of which are moving along decently, players have came and gone but already new stories are being shared and a lot of laughs and new friendships being born. Currently my Swords & Wizardry players are working their way through B1: in search of the unknown are have found  just about every maze part of the castle but only minor scraps of what has been left behind, and still one of the clerics found a way to kill themselves setting off their own home made fire trap (i have never seen so many bad die rolls in my life) however they were a old school trooper and now the party has a new wizard friend and a paladin(npc) of the same faith looking to retrieve the body they left behind only to find a new mystery of where did the body go? Who took it and why? It has been quite the ride.

    The other group is something I have wanted to run for a long time. As a collector of books, especially game manual, I like to justify all of that shelf space that is filled with dead trees. Having picked up shiny new copies of GURPS 4th edition at least 13 years ago and being able to count on 1 hand how many times I have gotten to use it has been a sore spot with me for quite some time. This has not stopped me from adding to my collection over the years, to the contrary it has only expanded more and more every chance I can afford it. Now has been the time I have taken off the gloves and laid down the challenge. Run a successful GURPS campaign for a few months. We are in week 2 and while it is certainly taking some getting used to, we are currently running a interesting campaign in the far future (year 3097) where in 2097 scientists who were messing around with strange science trying to open the door to another world succeed only for it to bath our world in a strange energy that lead to a great devastation, mutating much of what it touched and bringing with it the blessing/curse of magic. The players are in a future now where things have gone back to a feudal way of life, monsters are everywhere, many robots have become sentient, and the technology of the future past mixes with the arcane might of mages. Fun stuff.

    Back back to the blog, I do plan to get back to writing more content here. The ideas never went away, things have just been a bit hectic. One idea I am very excited to bring every one is a planned weekly column I lovingly call Filing Off The Serials. The concept is taking an idea be it a location, character, mechanic, plot, or story from some other medium like a movie, book, or game and converting it to be usable in just about any ones game. “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” To quote Picasso and he was right, if it is good enough for Hollyweird when then its good enough for you too. I also plan to do a revised and updated version of the coveted d100 charts so stay tuned for that as well.

    Any rate enough for my rambling, I look forward to bringing you all more content and cant wait to hear your comments down below. It is good to be back.