Conclusions of Variety A Personal Blog on my happenings and thoughts

Gen Con 06Posted by cczernia on November 21st, 2006

Last weekend was Gencon Socal, the gaming convention in Anaheim. The rpg-sandiego.org (online forums dedicated to rpgs in San Diego) community and I had a lot of plans for this one.

I left Thursday morning only to get stuck in heavy traffic for an extra hour. I arrived at the Marriot next to the Convention Center (across the street from Disneyland) around 1:30. My friend Andy was running late and I waited to make sure he got to the game he was running just in case I had to let his players know he was going to be late.

After that I attended a World of Darkness storyteller panel (2pm – 4pm) by Will Will Hindmarch (Vampire the Requiem developer)but had to duck out early to play in my first game: “Iron Kingdoms, The Five Fingers.” (4pm – 8pm) The game was set in a steampunk dark fantasy world and was a lot of fun. Players where cool and the GM did a good job except he read the dialogue straight from the module.

After the game I grabbed something to eat and a group of us went to watch “The Gamers 2″ which was delightful and even better then the first one.

Friday morning we grabbed some breakfast at Cocos (American diner) and I then went to run my game “Blue Rose, Love of the Land.” (10am – 2pm) I actually had two players for the game (unlike last year when I had none) and we had a good time.

After the game I finally got to go down to the dealers hall. I bought some dice for my D&D library kids and demoed some game. Wizards of the Coast (creators of D&D, Magic tG, D&D and Star Wars Miniatures) has the ultimate strategy for demoing games. Basically for each game you demo you they sign part of a card. For each signature you get to add +1 bonus to a d20 (die with 20 sides) and the higher you roll the better prize you got. I demoed 4 games and got a 23 so I got some miniature for my D&D library game.

After hanging out in the dealer room for awhile I met up with my group to play True Dungeon (6:15pm-7:40pm). This is my fourth year and I was just going to have a link to a past blog entry describing True Dungeon and realized I never described in these pages so it is described in the next blog post.

A new member to True Dungeon was a girl who I gamed with named Liz who was amazing at the game. She was the thief (see TD description) and was able to solve the thief puzzles with no problem. As a matter of fact she was able to solve them while talking and solving room puzzles (the egg problem).

After TD we grabbed something to eat at the fancy steak house in the hotel and then hung out in the bar for awhile.

Saturday morning was a quick breakfast and then I went to my game: Mage the Awakening (10am – 2pm) which was run by the same group who ran the Werewolf game I played in two years ago. This was the worst game of the weekend as it was slow and the players were a little wierd. However, I got to learn the game better and will probably use it in the future.

I then hung out in the dealers hall until 4pm and met with Jonathan to see the publish your game panel(4pm – 5:30pm). Things got a little wonky. The big plan was for Saturday night when my friends Andy and True Dungeon Liz rented a large suite. There plan was that we get the rooms right next to the suite. Marriote did not originally put us next to the suite so on Saturday we had to change rooms. Andy and Liz had no problems changing over but my roommate (also named Andy) and I did. I asked three times throughout the day if our room was ready and they didn’t say it was until 6pm when we changed rooms.

After arriving in our room a bunch of us met in the suite. We decided to head out for dinner and ended up walking quite a ways only to end up at Cocos when everything else was booked for 45min. After dinner we headed back and the party started. There was plenty of booze and craziness which includes two guys passing out and the arrival of the guy who did Dungeon Majesty, a program about gaming with hot girls (who were also there).

At around 2 in the morning one of my friends, Albert, appears with a short girl and says there is a problem. My roommate Andy and I check it out and apparently they had double booked us in her room. Andy and I went down to the clerk and fixed things up.

Sunday morning Andy and I headed down to Cocos and got something to eat and then hung out in the dealers room talking with Jared Sorenson and John Wick (two independant game developers). I then headed to a Shadowrun game (12-3:30pm) which was probably my favorite game of the weekend. At 3:30 I headed out only to discover I had a cold.

So far, best con yet. Can’t wait until next year which will be in LA and probably have more video games due to E3 being canceled.

True DungeonPosted by cczernia on November 20th, 2006

True Dungeon is sort of like those haunted houses they do during halloween only it is done up like D&D dungeons. A group of around 6-8 players each picks a class consisting of the normal D&D classes (rogue, fighter, cleric, wizard, ranger ex) which allows you to where a laminated sheet on your chest. The sheet carries stats like hitpoints (life) and special abilities. Each class can also do something special. Most can fight but the thief can open special locks by moving a metal pick along a small crevice. If the thief reaches the end without touching the sides the lock open. The bard can memorize symbols that have meaning in the dungeon. The cleric and wizard can each memorize symbols to cast spells.

Once you are all caught up with your abilities the party is allowed into the dungeon. The dungeon is split up into 8 sections. In each section there is a challenge that you have to beat; usually a puzzle or monster. You have 12 minutes to complete the challenge. If you succeed you get to go to the next room. If you fail each player takes damage and is then allowed to go to the next room. If you die you loose and have to leave the dungeon. If you complete each room you get a pin that says you beat True Dungeon.

Puzzles can be fairly elaborite and difficulty varies. An example of one from this year consisted of 24 eggs in a circle. There is a old scale in the middle. A voice coming from a statue tells there is one egg you must find and throw into the fire (special effect on the door out) and it weighs a little more then every other egg. We have three tries with the scale to figure out which egg is the correct one.

Here is what we did.

1.You take 8 eggs and put it in each scale. If one side dips you know that that side has the heavy egg. If they are equal the egg is in the pile you haven’t used.

2. You then take those 8 eggs and divide them again in fours grabbing the heavy set.

3. Take 4 eggs and divide them into two taking the heavy set. This left us with two eggs and we guessed which one was correct. We ended up taking two points of damage for guessing the wrong egg.

Here what you are suppose to do:

1. The same as above.

2. Instead of dividing 8 eggs in half you take and put 3 eggs in each and take the heavier half. If they are equal you have two eggs left.

3. Weather you have a set with two eggs or three you take one egg and put it on each scale. If one end is heavier you know you have your egg. If you had three eggs and they are equal it is the egg not on the scale.

Combat is much more straight forward. Basically you have a smooth table that is about 8ft long and 3ft wide. One one side is an outline of a monster that is divided in 20 segments. On the other is a series of pucks with the name of each class on it and a series of numbers on the edge.

During your turn you take a puck with your class on it and fling it across the table and try to get it to land on a high number. The higher the number the more likely you are to hit. There is also a dot on the table and which ever number on your puck is pointing to the dot is the amount of damage you do.

During the monsters turn the DM (there is one in each room) declares who the monster is attacking and rolls a large d20. He then assigns damage and writes in on your character sheet around your neck. If you reduce the monsters hit points to 0 you kill it.

That pretty much sums up True Dungeon. I like it a lot and go every year. For more information you can visit True Dungeon’s web page.

Serious Relationship StuffPosted by cczernia on October 11th, 2006

Every now and then I ask Stephanie “So, how are you feeling about things in our relationship?” This usually spawns a conversation about relationship stuff and how things are going. I asked this question about a week ago. Initially, everything seemed good and then Stephanie said something was on her mind and that she was interested in progressing the relationship forward… toward marriage even.

However, she said she wasn’t ready for this stuff because there were important issues we had to discuss like: money, housing, ex ex. She had a book called “The Hard Questions” that contained 100 questions relating to relationships and if a couple is compatible. It covered nine items including: Home, Money, Work, Sex, Health & Food, Family, Children, Community & Friends, and Spirituality.

Some sample questions look like:

What does our home look, physically? Outside? Inside? Any particular style? (modern, traditional, etc.)

What are our categories of expense (rent, clothing, insurance, travel)? How much do we spend monthly, annually, in each category? How much do we want to be able to spend? Now? In one year? Five years? Ten years?

I decided that I would type the questions and email them to Stephanie. We would then have a week to answer that category and we would then discuss our answers.

Last night we did Home and we seemed compatible and determined that we both don’t want a yard but would like an extra bedroom. We both prefer a townhouse and like to live in urban places. It was a positive experience over all and I’m glad we are doing this.

Next is money which is a big one.

Magic MountainPosted by cczernia on September 18th, 2006

On Saturday I went to Magic Mountain with Stephanie and a group of friends. My past with amusement parks have been off and on. When I was a kid there was an amusement park called “Western Playland” in El Paso. It wasn’t very big but had all the basic rides plus a medium rollercoaster. I hated the rollercoaster and didn’t go on it until my third time there when I got pressured by my Webelos (mini-boyscouts) group. I ended up liking it and from the point enjoyed medium rollercoasters.

However, I would not go on extreme rollercoasters. When I was 15 I was with a girlfriend and her sister at Kings Dominion in Virginia. I went on a few rollercoasters but could not bring myself to go on the one where you stood up.

Fast forward to the last few years and I have been going to amusement parks a lot. Disneyland twice, California Adventure, Knott’s Berry Farm, and now Magic Mountain. At Knott’s there was at least one rollercoaster I wouldn’t go on. At Magic Mountain there were about 10 I wouldn’t go on.

It was one extreme rollercoaster after another and though I was expecting this, I didn’t really comprehend it. The group was all ready to do the most extreme rollercoasters except me. We started on a rollercoaster called “The Viper” which wasn’t as bad as some of the others but still freaked me out having never done a rollercoaster as my first ride.

After the Viper we ended up waiting two hours to get on our next ride due to a ride breaking down. Overall it was an alright time and I had fun on some of the rides but constantly felt like I was dragging everyone down. I kept encouraging everyone to go on the rides and I would go on smaller rides by myself but this didn’t really happen.

I did enjoy a ride called the “Ninja” which was a fun rollercoaster the skimmed along the ground and fly between pillers. It could be the best rollercoaster I had ever been on.

ChicagoPosted by cczernia on August 25th, 2006

Last week Stephanie and I went to Chicago for our vacation. This is partially due to there being a livejournal meetup so we decided to combine this and sight seeing into one event.

We flew out last Wednesday. We were a little nervous because of the security warning and as a result left an extra hour early. There was no need for this so we got an extra hour of sitting around. We arrived in Chicago around 6pm, got our hotel and something to eat.

On Thursday we got up and headed out. We hopped on the “El”, the public transit train in Chicago that is amazingly efficient and got us everywhere we needed to be. We headed to Navy Pier and went on the Architecture Cruise, headed to a bar on top of the Hancock building, saw a street show and then met up with livejournal friends, Paul and Nancy, who took us to a nice Pizza restaurant. We then hung out at their place until 3 in the morning.

On Friday we got up around 10am, hopped back on the El and this time headed to the art museum. It was raining lightly and even though it was raining you wouldn’t get wet. I thought this was very cool. The art was neat and I liked the midevil Christian art where baby Jesus looked like a little man. We then headed to the livejournal party where met up with everyone then watched “40 Year Old Virgin.”

Saturday was livejournal day. We met up with livejournal people at a Mexican restaurant at 11. After lunch we killed time at the mall and then saw “Snakes on a Plane” which is a bad movie but a good experience. After that we headed to livejournal members house for another get together where we watched two horrible movies: “Old School” and “Wedding Crashers.” No one seemed to be enjoying Wedding Crashers so everyone left for karaoke. I had never done karaoke but decided I would and went up to sing “Under the Bridge.” I ended up having a lot of fun and ended up getting very drunk. We got back to the hotel around 2pm.

The next day I was a little shaky. We headed for the Field museum for King Tut and other exhibits. I don’t know what the big deal with King Tut is as it wasn’t any better then the other exhibits we saw on Africa and Evolution (yeah, dinos).

Monday we rented a car and headed out to Madison WI. It wasn’t a bad drive but I wasn’t use to toll roads so they messed me up. We went to meet up with Joe and had a good time getting lunch and drinking beer on campus.

Finally, Tuesday we flew back exhausted and I think it was a great vacation. Now it is time to plan for next year, as I want to go to Europe, probably England and possibly France. I have money saved and made an appointment to get my passport next Wednesday. w00t!

7-5 7-5 SharapovaPosted by cczernia on August 7th, 2006

Yesterday Stephanie, Jonathan, Michelle, and I returned for our second Acura Classic Tennis Final. It was Maria Sharapova (4) vs Kim Clijsters (2). We had a ton of fun and it was a lot better then last year. We left earlier and had lunch at a little French place in Carlsbad and then headed to the tournament where they had a little tennis convention out front. From there we took our seats but were ready with hats, water, and sunscreen.

The tournament itself was a lot better with two top players. In the end of the first set there was an amazing rally that lasted almost a minute. Here is is described from tennis.com

“Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion, and Clijsters played one incredibly long point with Sharapova serving for the first set at 6-5. The point featured a number of outstanding shots and saves on both sides before Sharapova drove a forehand into the net. The crowd erupted into a prolonged standing ovation as both players struggled to catch their breath.“

We stayed for the doubles match which was disappointing. A blow out 6-2 6-2. However, it was made ok but my little snack of beer and ice cream dips. After the match we met up with Erik and Emily and had Thai food.

We are now looking into going to Indian Wells tournament. Apparently the girls want to watch some mens’ tennis, of course, I could watch the girls play all day.

Comic Con & Date NightPosted by cczernia on July 31st, 2006

Last weekend was comic-con. It was a lot of fun. This time I took half days and Thursday and Friday and went with my friend Marc. We started on Wednesday for preview night and walked around the dealers hall. I discovered one of my favorite comic, Red Star, was back in print and Marc was excited to stop by the Privateer Press and Neo-Tokyo booths.

On Thursday we continued our journey in the dealers hall and spend most of our time shopping and got dinner around 5. On Friday we saw Battlestar Galactica panel and I discovered the 50% graphic novel booth.

On Saturday I went with Erik, Jonathan and Michelle and we arrived around 10am. It was packed around 1pm they weren’t selling anymore tickets. I spent most of my time in panels or watching indy movies. After that I was exhausted and decided to call it a con.

———————-

This Saturday was Stephanie and my second date night. Date Night is a night where one of us takes a turn to be romantic and spoil the other. A few months ago I started it with dinner and dancing which did not go well. Stephanie had ran a hard run and her back hurt.

This time it was her turn and it went a lot better. Stephanie started out with buying me four bags of M&Ms that say “I love Chris.” She then took me to African Singing in the park with wine, cheese and crackers. We had dinner at a great restaurant called “The Linkery” which served gourmet sausage. We finished it off at a fancy dessert place.

Wow, wasn’t even Valentine’s Day. Now it’s my turn and the pressure is on to come up with something as romantic as that evening.

Thurston, Eddie and TabithaPosted by cczernia on July 11th, 2006

Last Friday Stephanie and I headed down to Cox Arena for the Sonic Youth/Pearl Jam concert. We got there about 30min before the concert and I picked up a Sonic Youth t-shirt.

The concert opened with Eddie Vedder coming out with a mandolin and playing a short song and then he announced Sonic Youth who I thought were great, even the noisy parts. Stephanie would not agree as she decided to get up and leave for a bit and pick up a Pearl Jam shirt she thought would look cute on her. SY only did songs from there new album “Rather Ripped.”

Pearl Jam came on soon after. By that time the arena was packed and they rocked the house with tons of songs and two encores. The great thing about the show is that Eddie Vedder use to live in San Diego so he knew a lot about the town and would name off suburbs with ease. He told a story about this teacher he had and how the proceeds from the concert tickets were going to a theater that he was building in his name up in Encinatas.

Later in the weekend I hung out with Tabitha who I hadn’t seen in years. She was a friend in Las Cruces who is a bigger anime dork than me. She came down to San Diego for a convention on how to teach The Constitution. On Sunday we hung out at the beach with a few of her coworkers and then went to the anime store where she bought 19 mangas. We then went to Misuwa which is a Japanese grocery store with a bunch of little Japanese mini-stores inside like a toy store (manga, anime, models), appliance store, book store, kitchen store, and a little restaurant were I got a rice ball and a taiyaki (sweet pastry shaped like a fish).

On Monday a bunch of us headed over to Niban Sushi restaurant that I frequent. I had dinner with my close friends Jonathan and Michelle and Tabitha along with her friends Veronica and Less came along. We even headed over to the gaming store afterwards but less refused to go in because he said it was too geek for him.

Good Weekend and KidsPosted by cczernia on July 7th, 2006

Last weekend was nice and relaxing. I ended up getting all four days off so that was nice. On Saturday I played some tennis and went to see Superman. On Sunday Stephanie and I went to see a play “Fully Commited” which was a one man play and hilarious. On Tuesday we went to our friends and had a barbeque.

I’ve noticed that the one man plays I’ve seen have been real good. I’ve seen three of them and they all have been entertaining but “Fully Committed” had to be the best so far. It is about a phone receptionist who takes reservations for a high class restaurant in New York. Not only does the actor play the receptionist but also everyone he is talking to. So, the actor is basically talking to himself but playing different parts doing so. It took about a minute to get use to it but after that it was a great ride.

My D&D program for kids at the library is going strong. I have gotten a steady group which might change at the beginning of the new semester. Anyway, here is my current group:

Knotts and StuffPosted by cczernia on June 27th, 2006

Not a whole lot going on. Last weekend we went to Knott’s Berry Farm. As a kid I remember seeing commercials for it and I knew I wanted to go. So, 20 years later I decided to satisfy that curiosity and Steph and I headed to Knott’s.

To my surprise I had actually been to the general area because right next door is Medevil Time where they have a show of jousting and knights fighting but we didn’t have time for such distractions, we were on a mission and that mission was Knott’s.

Knott’s, overall, was disappointing especially when compared to Disneyland. Might have been our timing but the waits on average were about 10-15min longer, the people were scarier and there were a lot more kids. Disneyland had the charm of Japanese tourists, Knotts has loud and annoying kids.

We even got the joy of going on a horse carriage ride with the religous right. They only had 6 kids. Needless to say I have no desire to go back even though some of the rides were fun.

In other news last night I took home a George W. Bush standy that came from work. I put George in the doorway and left a not on him and left to go game. It ended up scareing the crap out of Stephanie. So, we had GWB stay the night and of course in the morning was time for photo op.