Have Some More Chop Suey

   The Era: Hitman v1.1 Kickstarter has concluded. The books arrived a few days ago. The Cthulhu Wars Kickstarters are progressing towards completion. I've traded in my Samsung Galaxy S8 and upgraded to a Galaxy S22+ (256 Gb). Like most flagship smartphones, the S22+ doesn't have a headphone jack or SD card slot. It also has a different charging setup. The charging cable has USB C connectors at both ends and I had to purchase the plugin block separately. The cable, plugin block and SD card for the S8 is now being used with the Galaxy Tab A7 SM-T307U (32 Gb) I purchased from a seller on eBay. The tablet was used and came with nothing else.

  I also purchased a screen and camera lenses protector for the S22+ and a tablet cover for the Tab A7. The Tab A6 SM-T280 (8 Gb) has become my RPG rulebook tablet. All the RPG documents I've acquired are stored on the 200 Gb SD card occupying the memory card slot along with my music files. The Tab A7 SM-T307U (32 Gb) tablet will have my GoDice app and other RPG apps loaded upon it. It will serve as my RPG gaming tablet. This will cut down on the amount of gear I take with me when I go gaming. 

Early Calculating Devices

   I'm an admitted geek. I love sci-fi, fantasy, comic books, horror and roleplaying games. One of my more dweebish pursuits has been early calculating devices. These include the abacus, the slide rule and the addiator. These devices predate the modern electronic calculator and, for the most part, are little used today. Some countries, like Japan, still make extensive use of their version of the abacus, the soroban. 

  In this pic, you can see my 23 column soroban, an Arithma addiator, an Exactus pre-decimal English currency addiator and a Pickett N600-ES six inch slide rule. I've playlisted several YouTube videos demonstrating how to use these devices. Here are some videos.

  Despite their age, these devices still have their uses. I can use the Arithma to help keep track of my hit points in roleplaying games. The Exactus can keep track of money in Cthulhu by Gaslight and The One Ring games since both use a monetary system based on pre-decimal English currency. The Exactus separates currency into pounds (libra), shillings (solidus), pence (denarius) and farthings. 4 farthings equal a penny. 12 pennies (or pence) equals 1 shilling and 20 shillings equal 1 pound sterling. That was the English monetary system until Feb. 15th, 1971-Decimal Day. 

  Most of these devices were relatively easy and cheap to acquire. The Exactus was much more expensive. I got it from an Australian eBay seller. It came with a case and complete instructions. I've made it a point to preserve the instruction booklet and put it away in order to keep it intact.

  While I known how to use these devices to some degree, I've by no means mastered them. The Arithma and Exactus are easy to use. I can use the slide rule to a decent degree but I haven't used some of the more complicated scales. I can add and subtract on the soroban, but I haven't mastered multiplication, division, square or cube roots yet.

Trump's Idiotic Reign has Ended and Other Things

   At 11:00am CST, Dipshit Donnie's term as President came to an ignominious end with the swearing in of Joe Biden as President. Finally, after 4 long, painful years, sanity has returned to the White House. The Great Orange Asshole didn't attend the Inauguration which was a definite plus. Former VP Pence was in attendance. Thankfully, no violence occurred despite there being rumblings of protests being held at all the state capitols by the MAGA maggots.

  Trump's second impeachment trial should be gearing up soon. While I REALLY want him to be convicted, that outcome seems unlikely. I don't think enough Republicans will vote to convict him. Most are too spineless and corrupt to do what's necessary. On a more optimistic note, now that Trump no longer has Presidential immunities, a legal shit storm is heading his way. The southern district of New York, among others, is pursuing legal action against Trump over various state and federal crimes. Other members of the Trumps clan, like Ivanka and Jared Kushner, are also involved in these allegations.

  Turning to the personal side of things, time is slowly creeping towards my hip replacement surgery. I ran into a bit of a problem when the doctor's office called and informed me that my health insurance terminated on Dec. 31st. I called Anthem and found out that my Member ID and Group number for my insurance had changed on Jan 1st. but my new insurance card hadn't been mailed yet. Until the new card arrives in the mail, Anthem securely emailed me a card to print out with the new information on it.

  My test results have indicated that my creatinine level has gone up past 2. This isn't good. My nephrologist says that this might be the result of an enlarged prostate preventing my bladder from fully draining. I'm going to have an ultrasound done to see if that's the case. He also said that I should try to stay hydrated, cut down on my caffeine intake and temporarily stop taking my lisinopril/HCTZ tablets. I can't let my creatinine level get too high or they'll cancel my surgery. I'm going to be heading over to the Aurora clinic later today for some lab tests.

  I used the second stimulus check money to catch up on some bills. My paychecks lately have been bigger. I splurged recently and bought some supplements for the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD RPG. The first two, Strontium Dog and Rogue Trooper arrived Tuesday. The last one, The Day the Law Died, won't be coming for a while due to pandemic restrictions. I'm contemplating getting a copy of Cyberpunk Red.

  The Hexacube Kickstarter is showing progress. The new company hired to make the dice has produced some samples that look like they'll be up to standards. The seller has to receive said samples for testing. I've backed an unusual roleplaying game, Dungeon Bitches. This Kickstarter was funded fairly quickly so the game's going to get published. Four of the stretch goals have been funded. As of this writing, there are still 24 days left for the other 3 stretch goals to get funded. This game is a little outside my comfort zone. Being a heterosexual male, I don't know what it's like to live as a lesbian. You see, unlike Macho Women with Guns, Dungeon Bitches isn't geared towards humor. The rules make it clear that the PCs are living in a world that doesn't understand them and actively hates them in many instances. This games hits on subject matter that some might find disturbing in a manner similar to White Wolf's Charnel Houses of Europe: The Shoah supplement for Wraith: The Oblivion or Clockworks roleplaying game, Asylum. That being said, I want to add this game to my collection. 

Healthcare Update & Other News

  My 2020 application for health care has been completed and I'm going to have health and dental coverage starting in January. I had to call the ACA information number in order to complete the application. It turns out that I made several mistakes on it which led to me ending up with really high monthly premiums. When everything was corrected, I ended up with a hefty tax credit to help pay the premiums. It was also recommended that I go with a silver policy for maximum benefit. The policy isn't perfect. While all my doctors are covered under the policy, my Lantus pens aren't. When I'm able to sign up for insurance through work next November, I have to contact the government so they can cancel the ACA policies.
  My eDice unit has arrived. I charged it up and tested it out. It works fine. The tracking numbers for the Randice expansion set are available. I have to contact them and get my number. I'm backing two more Kickstarters, the Better Backstories deck and GoDice. The Better Backstories deck aids DMs and players in creating backstories for characters. Other functions are being added to the deck as various stretch goals get reached. The GoDice are a set of six d6 that have sensors in them. Included with the GoDice is an IOS or Android app. This app allows the GoDice to connect with your phone or tablet via Bluetooth and play games. At the tier I pledged, I also get an RPG app and six shells that convert the GoDice into RPG gaming dice. Three of the shells have 24 sides and convert the GoDice into a d4, d8 and d12. Three 20 sided shells convert GoDice into a d10, d% and d20.

The Mundanity Continues

  The polar vortex that plagued the area from Tuesday through Thursday has finally passed. The temperature has gone from -50 degrees to a much more tolerable 45 degrees. Let's hope that the super cold weather is done for the rest of the season.

  The Towers of Holding are being manufactured and the books, GM screens and plug and play tokens for the Judge Dredd RPG have been printed. Hopefully I'll be getting those soon. I've contributed to a Dice Coins Kickstarter in order to get a 10 coin set. Here's a YouTube video showing couple of d20 dice coins someone else ordered.

The set I want will consist of the following dice coins; d3 Cerberus, d4 Wizard, d5 Castle, d6 Cleric, d8 Ranger, d10 Skeleton Dragon, Percentile Phoenix, d12 Barbarian, d20 Lich and a Weather vane coin. As the video shows, each coin has a bump on the bottom that allows you to spin it like a top. You then stop the coin spinning by placing your finger on the edge. The first fully visible number to the left of your finger is the result. The Weather vane coin has words on it describing different weather conditions.
  I filed my taxes yesterday. I'll be getting back about $883.00 which will be split into my Simple and Serve accounts for Gen Con. Speaking of Gen Con, my hotel reservation has been made. I lucked out this year in that my hotel is only two blocks from the convention center. It's funny, the years when I made it a point to have the hotel reservation day off, I'd get a time when I could log into the housing portal that was 5 to 7 hours after reservations went live. This year I didn't request the day off and my log in time was 12:27 pm. It should be noted that the housing portal goes live at 11:00 am CST. I set up my hotel reservation while I was on lunch at work.
  I've been trying to lower my a1c but I'm not sure I'm making any headway. I have a fasting blood draw coming up on Thursday. I'm not sure if my a1c is one of the things they'll be determining at that time. I've got to stop the late night eating. It's not helping matters.

End of Summer Musings

  Gen Con 2018 is now a pleasant memory. I enjoyed some great roleplaying sessions and made a TARDIS dice tower and Dalek canvas bag. I would have posted some pics of Gen Con here for you to view but my new Galaxy s8 went schizo two days after I got home. Prior to Gen Con, the keyboard on the phone had kind of a dead zone in its center. Certain letters, like, the t, would be very unresponsive. It would take multiple attempts to get it to respond. I thought it had something to do with the screen protector I had installed. It was an inconvenience, but I could work around it. On Tuesday, things got much worse. I tried to open my Nagbot diabetes app other apps would open. Suddenly, my phones dialing numbers on my contacts list, trying to play music and opening YouTube. When I tried to enter text on the keyboard, 5 keys other than the one I pressed, would activate. It was a mess.

  Several things combined to cause the loss of my pics. First, I couldn't get my phone connected to the hotel's wifi. Second, the Flickr app on my phone wasn't set up to upload my pics automatically. Third, I didn't back up my phone to the computer using Smart Switch. And fourth, I failed to decrypt my SD card before letting the rep at AT&T do a factory reset on it. I thought that since the SD card was still in the device that encrypted it, things would be fine. Turns out I was wrong about that. A memory card expert at Samsung informed me that when the phone was reset, the passcode that could decrypt my SD card was erased and there was no way to retrieve it. Since my phone was still under warranty, they sent me a new phone. I had to mail the defective phone back to them within 10 days in order to avoid being charged for it. The box my new phone came in could also be used to return my old phone post paid which made returning it convenient. They sent word that the phone has been received.

  I'm still waiting for my mahogany Hex Chest and aged mithril dice set to arrive. I haven't received any emails from Elderwood Academy updating the status of my order. The only other order I'm waiting for are the two minis I ordered from Minuteman Miniatures. They make miniatures that have your face by scanning your head to create a 3D computer image. This image can then be attached to a body of your choice and the whole thing is then created using a 3D printer. I ordered a wizard and Dark Ages Viking version of myself. If they add more body types, like Victorian Age or Doctor Who, to their roster, I might order more minis from them. Their website states that they keep the scans so I can order new minis if I want.

My Gaming Future

  I've been playing roleplaying games for over 38 years now and I'll keep gaming as long as I'm able. Arrangements for this year's Gen Con are going smoother than planned. I have slightly over $2,000 set aside and my badge, hotel and event tickets have been purchased. As usual, despite creating my event wish list early and submitting it as soon as event registration went live, I couldn't get into any Paranoia or Firefly events.

  How many more Gen Cons I'll be attending is unknown. My legs aren't what they used to be and the avascular necrosis in my right hip still needs to be addressed. I've decided to no longer purchase any new editions of D&D. I only have the 4th and 5th edition core books. I'm not buying anything else for these editions. Gaming isn't a cheap hobby. New editions, especially ones that radically change the game, require purchasing new core rules and supplements. Converting older edition characters to the new rules can be quite difficult to nigh impossible. I'm not always willing to upgrade.

  I have a lot of time and money invested in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd  and 3.5 editions of D&D. I'll continue to buy supplements for these editions to add to my collection. The same holds true for my World of Darkness collection. When White Wolf ended their original WoD setting, I didn't move to the new setting. I might buy the 7th edition of Call of Cthulhu. I found a conversion document on Scribd that will allow me to upgrade 5th and 6th edition characters and monsters.

  I'm going to get new material for Luchador, Doctor Who and The One Ring. What else I decide to buy is unknown. I'm going to check out the various dice sellers and see if anything catches my eye. A gamer can never have too many dice. Miniatures are another possibility. I could use some standard D&D minis. Most of the ones I have are limited edition. I just bought the gargantuan Orcus mini on eBay. Here's a pic of what the mini will look like.

The Latest News of My World

  I contributed $50.00 to a Kickstarter project put together by Elderwood Academy for Hex Chest mini dice boxes. For my contribution, I'll be receiving a mahogany mini Hex Chest with a beehive interior, Elvish engraving on the lid, a loop attachment and a set of zinc alloy gaming dice with an aged mithril finish. I chose these particular options in order to give the mini Hex Chest a Middle Earth feel to it. The mini Hex Chest has the appearance of something carved by the elves of the Woodland Realm from trees found in Mirkwood while the dice were crafted by dwarves from mithril mined from the depths of Moria before Durin's Bane was unleashed upon it. According to the pledge site, the Hex Chests should start shipping some time in August.
  I also ordered a Spellbook gamer's box from Elderwood Academy. I got a 1.25 in. deep Spellbook with red Dragonskin for the cover, mahogany wood with maple trim, a gold foil spell circle design on the cover with Brother's Book on the spine, an aluminum reflecting pool, blue felt rolling tray interior and dice foam insert. It was ordered May 19th and will take about 8 weeks to arrive because each Spellbook is custom made to order.
  A while back I purchased the limited edition Rock Iconz King Diamond statue from Knucklebonz. Only 1,777 of these have been made and some of them were signed by King Diamond himself and include a certificate of authenticity to prove it. Sadly, I didn't get one of the signed ones. Here's a pic of the statue and the base so you see what number statue it is.

On a more personal note...

  I've added a bunch of weird dice to my collection. I have dice from one sided Moebius dice to twenty sided dice and everything in between. Add to that some d22s, d24s, d26s, d28s, a d30, d34, d48, d50, d60, d100 and the colossal d120 to round out the set. I also have a set of specially marked ten sided dice that can be used as percentile, a d1,000, a d10,000, a d100,000 and a d1,000,000. Another set of ten sided dice generates numbers from .000 to .999. Most of these dice came from The Dice Shop. The Moebius dice are found at Awesome Dice.
  Plans for this year's Gen Con are underway. The four day badge has been purchased and the hotel room reserved. This year, I had to wait 9 hours and 4 minutes before I could reserve my room so once again I'm out in the boondocks. I've been paying down my credit card and shifting money to my Simple and Serve accounts. Next month is a five check month so I'll be able to shift more money into them. My state and federal tax refunds are also going towards Gen Con.

Latest Health News & Other Items

  I saw an opthamologist a short while back. My prescription has changed slightly since my eye exam about a year ago. I don't need to upgrade my glasses just yet but I might upgrade my prescription sunglasses prior to Gen Con. Both eyes are exhibiting the early stages of cataract development. This could mean cataract surgery in about 10 to 15 years. The opthamologist also noticed that I had a weirdly twisted artery near the optic nerve of my left eye and recommended that I see a retinologist. After dilating my eyes and taking some scans and pictures, the retinologist said that it was a vascular loop and, other than looking weird, was nothing to worry about.
  My tumor markers came back negative for the third time in a row. The CT scan of my pelvic and abdominal regions showed that my organs are functioning properly. Things are looking bright on the health front.
  Plans for this year's Gen Con are proceeding better than expected. I've been making large payments on my credit card while putting as little as possible on it. I have more than enough room on it to cover my hotel bill and gas. Between my Simple and Serve accounts, I have a little over $1,000.00 put aside to buy stuff at the convention and eat. I'm going to try to add another $200.00 to the total before August. I want to get some of the Doctor books Cubicle 7 is publishing for the Doctor Who RPG plus get a copy of the revised The One Ring rule book and Bree supplement. I'm also going to see if anyone is selling the gargantuan Orcus miniature my friend TJ told me about. It will go nicely with my gargantuan blue and black dragon, colossal red dragon, balrog and Great Cthulhu miniatures.
  I've recently purchased a lifetime VPN (virtual private network) subscription from VPN Unlimited. I found out from the iDrop newsletter that they were offering these subscriptions for a limited time at 92% below the normal price. The offer was too good to pass up. PC Magazine gave VPN Unlimited 4.5 out of 5 stars. I'm including some VPN related YouTube videos to provide you with further information.

Gen Con & Other News

  I got into most of the Gen Con events I had on my wish list. I was 2,900th in line and only the Firefly and Paranoia events filled up before I could check out. On a related note, I finally got a copy of Narcissist: Crash Free v0.7. This game was to be a companion game to Aetherco's time travel RPG Continuum. I came across Continuum back when Gen Con was still in Milwaukee. I was slated to play a Changeling event that particular Gen Con. All the players showed up but the Storyteller didn't. A staff member said we should wait a half hour. If the Storyteller still hadn't arrived, we could get a refund on our ticket. A table near where we were sitting was about to run a Continuum game and we were invited to join them. Since I had nothing else planned, I gave the game a try.
  That day I bought the Continuum main rule book, the Further Information supplement and the span book software program. Continuum's not a bad RPG but it is one of the more complicated ones to play. As noted above, Narcissist was to be a companion game told from the point of view of the crashers. However, for reasons unknown to me, Aetherco stopped production of any new Continuum supplements and Narcissist never became a full fledged RPG. Trying to find the printed pre releases of the v0.5 or v0.7 editions of Narcissist Aetherco put together is nigh impossible and could easily cost you quite a bit of money. The Continuum main book and Further Information are regarded as rarities. I'm not sure how rare the span book program is. I tried for quite a while to get my hands on a copy of Narcissist. There was a PDF version on Scribd for a period of time but it was gone by the time I tried to get it. Other searches proved fruitless. Finally, I found a torrent that contained not only a copy of Narcissist v0.7 but it also had PDF copies the other two books and some supplemental material. If you want a copy of Narcissist: Crash Free v0.7, leave a comment down below with your email address and I'll send you a copy. I can also email you PDF copies of the other two books, supplemental materials and span book software (with registration key).
 

Gen Con Update

  The plans for Gen Con 2017 are proceeding along nicely. My 4 day badge has been ordered. The hotel reservation has been made. I had to wait 7 hours and 5 minutes before I could reserve my room and thus ended up about 10.5 miles outside of downtown Indianapolis. Since I don't feel like driving into downtown Indianapolis everyday and paying for parking, I'm going to see what mass transit options exist and use those. I've set up a wish list of 8 events that I will submit when event registration goes live this Sunday at 11:00 am CST. Hopefully I won't end up way back in line like last year. I had to watch as most of the events I wanted filled up and I had to wait until I got to the head of the line before I could secure what events were still available. Then I had to pick other events to replace the ones I didn't get into and get in line again. I asked for this Sunday off so I could log in early and submit my wish list.

New Year's update

  The cancer marker tests came back negative. This is good news. At the moment I'm cancer free. I'll be retested in March. Hopefully that test will come back negative as well. My blood glucose levels have been much better lately. I don't how this happened but I'm not going to knock my good fortune. Because my blood glucose levels have been much closer to normal, Dr. Boerger wants me to stop taking the pioglitazone. If this keeps up, I might not have to take the glyburide either.
  My Gen Con 2017 badge has been ordered. Hopefully this year I won't have to wait over 3 hours for a hotel room. I also hope to get into some Paranoia, One Ring and Firefly events this year. Last year, despite having a bunch of events picked out ahead of time and submitting them promptly at the 11:00am start time, I was still way back in line and most of the events filled before I got to the front of the line. I'm going to move my state and federal tax refunds over to my Amex Serve and Simple accounts to serve as spending money at Gen Con.

Random Bits

  After spending about $1,200.00 on medical bills, I decided to indulge myself a little. First up, on 4/15/16, I placed an order with The Cabil for the latest editions of Hol and Buttery Wholesomeness. I'm still waiting for them to arrive and my email inquiries regarding the status of my order have gone unanswered. If something doesn't happen soon, I'm going to inform PayPal about this order and see if they can get a response. Second up, I've ordered a ballhood on eBay. Since it's a custom order, it will take a while to get here but it will be worth the wait. Now I realize that this wasn't the smartest move. Why order something like this when I have no sex life? It seems pointless and wasteful. Still I want to see what it's like to wear one and I had some extra money.

  A second CT scan has revealed that the lymph node has gotten bigger. This is both good and bad news. It's bad because it means whatever caused it to enlarge is still present. It's good because the doctor feels that they can retry the ultrasound technique that failed last time they tried to biopsy it. I'll be undergoing said procedure on 5/31/16. My biggest fear is that the biopsy will reveal that I have another form of cancer and I'll have to undergo more chemotherapy.
  Plans for this year's GenCon are progressing. The hotel room has been reserved and event tickets purchased. Despite my planning, things didn't work out as I'd hoped they would. I had to wait almost 4 hours before I could make my hotel reservation. As a result, I'm several miles outside the convention area and I'll have to drive to it everyday and pay for parking. It's either that or find a bus or shuttle service to and from the area. When it came time to register for events, I logged onto my account before registration went live, picked 7 events that I wanted to play and put them on my wish list. The second registration went live, I submitted my wish list for processing. The problem was I ended up 5,744th in line for processing. 5 of the 7 events filled up before my list was processed. I couldn't add any replacement events until my list was processed and then I had to get back in line. When all was said and done, I ended up with 4 events, Wraith, Doctor Who, The One Ring and Luchador. I've been paying on my credit card bill and I want to eventually shift some money to my Serve and Simple card accounts so I'll have some spending money for the convention.

It's better to have loved and lost...

...than never to have loved at all. Whoever thought of this is a fucking idiot. A person who has never loved at all has no real idea what they're missing. It's the classic "ignorance is bliss" scenario. On the other hand, when you've loved and lost, you have to deal with that loss the rest of your life. I've only had one serious relationship in my life. Angela and I met online some years back due to a personal ad I placed. She was sweet and cute. She enjoyed role playing games and bondage. We communicated online for a while. I drove to Columbus, Indiana to bring her to Gen Con since it was still in Milwaukee at that time. Long story short, I loved her. Still do. But, for reasons I'm still unclear about, the relationship ended shortly after Gen Con. I have the distinctly unpleasant feeling something I did brought it to said end. There's been no one since her. Having had a taste of what it's like to love someone, I now realize what I'm missing. I can't go back to my blissfully ignorant state. I'm always going to know what it was like to be in love. I also know that I'm unlikely to ever return to that state again.

Some Updates

  At 4:42pm on Nov. 8th, I officially turned 54 years old. It's was also day one of my week long vacation. I have no major plans. My parents and I went out to eat at Dynasty. I plan on seeing Spectre sometime this week. I'm going to get the One Ring rpg book, The Darkening of Mirkwood, I need in order to have everything currently available for the game. I also want to eat at Red Lobster sometime this week.
  My smartphone downloaded and installed a patch that corrected the Stagefright bug on the morning of Nov. 6th. I'm very happy that my phone is now patched. I try to keep my smartphones, tablets and computers as updated as possible when it comes to security. That means firewalls, antivirus software and Android, iOS and Windows patches and security updates. I've installed a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection on my smartphone, tablet and computer as well in order to provide protection when connecting to public Wifi networks. Given the computer viruses, trojans, malware etc. that's running around, you can't be too careful. Credit and debit cards are being switched over to smart card technology in order to lower the incidence of hackers stealing the information on the card and creating fake ones. What I don't understand is why the U.S. took so long to implement this technology. Other countries have been using this technology for some time now.

Gen Con: Days 3 and 4

  Gen Con Saturday only had one event. It was a D&D session played out on an electronic table with a touch screen map layed out on it. The DM's laptop was linked to the table and he used a computer program to manipulate the map. I played a bard that was recruited along with the other player characters to compete in a tournament some wizard was running. We did quite well. The rest of the day spent taking pictures of people in costumes. Those pictures can be found on my Google+ page along with photos from last year's Bristol Renaissance faire and the Mayhem Festival featuring King Diamond and Slayer.

  Sunday was a bit of a bust. The d20 Modern event scheduled for early that morning was cancelled. I ended up just grabbing something to eat before heading back home.

Gen Con Day 2

  The second day of Gen Con opened with the Luchador event, Escape from the House of a Thousand Masks. In this game, I played lady Luchador Mother Mercy. I, along with King Phoenix, Red Scorpion, and the three Eviscerators, awoke to find ourselves in some sort of storage room. How we got there was unknown to us. Suddenly, agents of the Umbral Accord, a terrorist organization, appeared and attacked us. As we were fighting them, legendary Luchador the Masked Terror, busted in on the scene. He said that we wouldn't be able to save her and then attacked the group. After a brief battle, the lead Umbral Accord agent, having been pounded upon pretty badly, set off a ninja smoke bomb. When the smoke cleared, our adversaries were gone.

  As we continued our investigation, we discovered that we were in the House of a Thousand Masks, the legendary home of the Masked Terror. We had quite a number of fights as we searched the house. First there was the headless motorcycle rider. I dropped kicked him off of his cycle and the Eviscerators took him out. Then some weird, heavyset serial killer type wielding a sledgehammer showed up. He was a difficult opponent but we won nonetheless. Next came a group of circus performers consisting of an aerialist, strong woman, fire breather, knife thrower and ringmaster.

  To make a long story short, the entire adventure took place inside the mind of Claire Voyant, the Masked Terror's valet and wife. It turned out that her son had become an agent of the Umbral Accord and she went into a coma because she couldn't deal with it. The luchadors' minds were linked to hers in order to bring her out of the coma.

  The last event of the day was the Werewolf scenario. I played a Bone Gnawer named Pepsi. Our pack had to investigate an Indianapolis based pharmaceutical company. It turned out that a hive of Black Spiral Dancers were trying to create some sort of drug there. 

Gen Con Day 1

  After a six year hiatus, I finally made it back to Gen Con. The first day went well. I played in two events, Vampire and D&D 3.5. The Vampire event was fun. I played Anton Wilson, Giovanni private investigator. My companions consisted of a Brujah "elder", a Nosferatu, a homicidal Malkavian, a Gangrel and a Lasombra antitribu. We had to figure out who was killing off the elders in the town of Promontory Bay. It turned out that the culprit was an Assamite antitribu named Domingo Salazar that had become addicted to Kindred vitae. He was part of a Sabbat Black Hand pack that had been trying to figure out why there were so many elders in Promontory Bay. Domingo's killing spree was threatening the operation and his pack was trying to hunt him down. We ended up luring Domingo to the Brujah's haven where we were going to have the Gangrel, in bat form, plant a C4 charge under his car after he'd entered the haven. The rest of us were lying in wait to attack him and beat him into torpor. Unknown to the rest of us, the Brujah had rigged additional charges in his haven. The plan was to kill not only Domingo but the rest of the Black Hand pack as well. The plan was both a success and a failure. While we did destroy Domingo and his pack mates, the large amount of C4 we used coupled with the explosives in Domingo's car, blasted the crap out of a large area killing everyone in our group except the Gangrel and the Brujah. The Gangrel was spared because she was outside far enough away to avoid damage. The Brujah survived largely due to his low generation although he ended up in torpor.

  In the D&D session, I played Uki, a female half orc barbarian. She was part of a party consisting of 3 wizards, two human, one eleven, a paladin and a cleric. We were charged with rooting out a band of thieves that were stealing from travelers along a trade route. We succeeded in taking out the bandits. I got to keep Uki's write up and I'll adding her to my NPC roster.

Journal Times Article

  The Racine Journal Times ran an article asking readers to answer five questions regarding their hobby. I responded to their query and they ran the article on New Year's Day. The photograph below was taken by Scott Anderson, a photographer from the Journal Times of me and my Great Cthulhu Horror Clix miniature.