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 Cycle of Violence Continues

Dimitrios Pagourtzis: 10 dead, 13 wounded.

Another mass shooting and like normal, the NRA, GOP and the right wing media will try to brush it under the rug. There'll be the usual empty thoughts and prayers along with other platitudes. Here's a list of the typical statements you'll hear and their translations.

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.

The Cult of the Gun

  The leadership of the NRA is little more than a gun worshipping cult that regards everyone as blood sacrifices on their altar. They, and their alt-right media fascist propaganda monkeys, have resorted to mocking David Hogg and the other Parkland survivors instead of objectively reporting the news or engaging in reasoned debate. Fox News' simpleminded bigot, Laura Ingraham, enjoyed a much needed bitch slap as her show has lost advertisers because of her unwarranted attacks on David Hogg. Even her pathetic excuse of an apology hasn't stopped advertisers from leaving.
  Then there's alt-right conspiracy nut job Josh Bernstein who put forth the theory that David Hogg was "affiliated in some way with Nikolas Cruz" because he did real time interviews with his fellow students during the shooting. Of course, he provided no evidence beyond his gut feelings to support his asinine claim. Sadly this idiot, like Fox News, has a following of brain dead gullible morons that buy into their smear campaigns.
  Because of the Dickey Amendment, the CDC doesn't do any research on gun violence. And even though the Omnibus Budget recently signed into law by Trump grants the CDC the right to research gun violence, researchers doubt anything meaningful will become of it because they're afraid they'll lose funding if they pursue hot button questions about guns and gun violence. The Tiahrt Amendment also precludes gun trace data from being used in academic research of gun use in crime. The government has made gun records nigh impossible to trace by hobbling the ATF with an antiquated data system that's not searchable. And who can we thank for fucking us over like this? The gun worshipping cultists heading the NRA that's who.

Myriad Bits of News

  I purchased the latest edition of the Paranoia roleplaying game recently along with the More [Redacted] Societies and Mutant Explosion decks, interactive GM screen and a set of four Computer dice. Having read the Players' and GM's books, this edition is quite a bit different from other editions of Paranoia I have. I want to try to get into some Paranoia sessions at Gen Con so I can get a feel for how this edition plays.

  Events go online May 6th at 11:00 am CST. I'd like to get into some Firefly and Paranoia events but that could prove difficult. Those events fill up fast. Even if I create my wish list ahead of time and submit it as soon as possible, I could still end up way back in line. I've shunted more money into my Simple and Serve accounts giving me a grand total of $1,649.00 for the convention. I'm going to continue to add money to these accounts between now and August. I'm still making sizable payments on my credit card while adding as little as possible to it. Barring any unforeseen financial problems, I should be sitting pretty by the time Gen Con rolls around.

  I've been filling out my power of attorney documents. I've given it to my Mom, niece and her husband. I still have to complete the document and sign it in the presence of two witnesses who must also sign the document. They can't be related to me by blood, marriage or adoption. I'll try and get two members of my gaming group to act as witnesses.
  On the Trump front, our Dipshit in Chief has proven to be as spineless as the rest of the GOP when it comes to the NRA. After claiming that his fellow Republicans were afraid of the NRA, Trump backed down on his call for raising the age limit to buy assault rifles to 21 and having more extensive background checks on gun purchases. It seems the only things this motherfucking prick stands firm on is lining his own pockets, giving more money to the rich and aggrandizing himself at every possible moment. 

  

Yet Another Mass Shooting

Nikolas Cruz, 17 dead.
  Once again, more lives have been lost to gun violence and once again, the NRA blames everything and everyone except guns and themselves. The leadership of the NRA has been taken over by lunatic fringe of gun zealots. These motherfuckers regard guns as sacred relics and victims of  gun violence are little more than blood sacrifices on their Second Amendment altar. NRA shill Dana Loesch lied on live TV by claiming that the NRA supports background checks. The funny thing is, there was a time when the NRA supported gun control.
  But things are changing. The once, seemingly unassailable NRA is facing a backlash against its policies. But that hasn't stopped the right wing conspiracy nuts and media outlets from lying about the shootings. They claim that 'crisis actors' are being used by the liberals to push their anti-gun agenda. They've also stated that some of the mass shootings were false flag attacks orchestrated by the 'Deep State'. This goes to show how truly stupid and gullible some of these right wing assholes truly are. Sadly these dumb fucks have been given a platform from which to spew their delusional by social media outlets and the idiots at Fox News, Breitbart and InfoWars. More false flag related articles can be found here.
  The NRA is simply part of a human centipede like creature. At the head end, we have the gun manufacturers. Attached to their asshole is the mouth of the leadership of the NRA. Sucking their shit is the GOP followed by the right wing media outlets and finally ending with the poor, dumb, gullible right wing conspiracy mental cases.
  Despite the efforts of the public at large to get meaningful gun control legislation passed, I don't see this happening. The Florida House rejected a gun bill but went on to declare pornography a health risk. Some Republicans are using the Parkland shooting to violate the Establishment Clause by trying to pass laws that will allow Ten Commandments statues to be displayed on public land. What a waste of fucking time.

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.