Gamer Grrls

I don’t really consider myself a Trekkie, but I think I’ve watched every single episode of every Star Trek series out there growing up due to my mother being an under cover Trekkie.  Star Trek: The Next Generation wasn’t any exception.  I grew up watching Captain Jean-Luc Picard, William Riker, Bev Crusher, Data, Worf, Geordi, and the guy I had a crush on…Wesley Crusher go where no man has ever gone before.

After The Next Generation was canceled, I didn’t think much of the actor behind Wesley Crusher until I saw Wil Wheaton play Fawkes in Felicia Day’s internet series The Guild.  And of course then I saw him play himself on the Big Bang Theory.  After that I found out that he’s a gamer, just like me, and I’ve become a fan.  This is one guy who I could invite to my gaming table and I think we’d have a blast.

Ok, enough fawning.  I came across this tidbit of Wil Wheaton talking about leaving Star Trek: The Next Generation when he turned 18.  Grab your tissue because it’s a hear twister!

I can’t really say that I’m a Facebook Gamer.  I played Restaurant City for about a year before I lost interest and I dabbled in Hotel City.  But I never got sucked into Farmville like a lot of people I know.  However, today while looking through my news items (on Facebook no less), I came across a friend who linked to an article called ‘Police Give Take on Facebook Pot Farm Game.’

In this article, Sheffield Police Chief Greg Ray was quoted saying that the game disguises and glamorizes the drug.  Um, ok…

But in the last part of the article, Chief Ray says “I don’t think it teaches you how to be a pot farmer or a pot grower, no more than a dungeons and dragons game would teach you how to be a dragon slayer.”

Personally, I don’t really think that PotFarm glamorizes the drug anymore than Dungeons and Dragons turns the average house wife into a chain bikini, sword wielding, magic performing psychopath.  I myself play all sorts of games Mr. Ray might think glamorizes murder, back stabbing friends, guns, and even drugs (Your Friend the Computer wants you to just be happy after all…).  Vampire the Masquerade, Hunter the Reckoning, Paranoia, Necessary Evil are just a few systems and settings that I can name off the top of my head that doesn’t exactly set the best example in the world since I can be a card carrying, duel chainsaw wielding psycho path if I really want to be! Doomsday Barbie from a Necessary Evil campaign comes to mind.

Really, I think people just need to stop making mountains out of molehills when it comes to games.  If parents actually parent and the US would fucking grow up when it comes to soft drugs, I wouldn’t even have to be writing this blog post.  Now would I?

If you’re reading this blog, the chances that this new song that our favorite geeks from The Guild has just released will speak to your heart.  It’s about all the ‘Cool Kids’ in high school (or even middle school) who picked on those of us who rather be sitting around the table playing Advanced Dungeons and Dragons rather than nailing the latest conquest at the jock’s weekend keger.

So, without further ado, here is I’m the One That’s Cool being sung by Felicia Day and The Guild.

There’s nothing that makes me happier than when a band streams their show live from a concert location that I can’t be at! Diary of Dreams streamed live from the Silver Church Club in Bucharest the other night and because it was DoD, that made me even a happier lil Gamer Girl!

I’ve got to say, in the beginning the stream was pure crap.  That was a shame because the opening song was The Wedding, which is always awesome live.  Not sure what the second song was since the stream buffered for about 3 minutes.  I came back in time for Mien Eid.  Later on, the stream settled down (at least for me) and I saw Adrian sing King of Nowhere, Reign of Chaos, Undivided, False Affection False Creation, Amok, Echo in Me, Butterfly Dance, The Curse, and finished off with She and Her Darkness.

There was some equipment malfunctions too.

In the end though, it was nice being able to watch the concert live and I’m sure my other half was probably yelling at me to stop singing since he was watching TV and I had my headphones in.

Wow.  February has been particularly busy for me.  So busy that I haven’t had time to make one post on GamerGrrls myself! Phewww! I bet you are just dying to know what I’ve been up to.

Lets see.  Gym.  Lots and lots of gym and jogging.  2011 was dedicated to giving myself an overhaul and I’ve dedicated 2012 to lifting weights.  Why? Because I can and someone made the off hand comment to me that girls can’t lift heavy weights because we’ll puff up like the Incredible Hulk.  Um, excuse me?! Unless a girl is a freak of nature and has more testosterone or is taking stuff she shouldn’t, there’s no way to ‘Hulk’ up.  So lifting it is! My goal is to be able to bench 100kg, mostly to just say I can.  So far my squats suck, my deadlifts are at about 88lbs, and my bench press is about 88lbs as well.  I can swing a 24kg kettlebell and do all sorts of other nifty things that I couldn’t do in January 2011.  However, this is a time sink.  Worth it, but it costs loads of time.

Oh yea, and I’m jogging too.  Up to 8k.  I’m planning on entering the Dam tot Dam Loop that’s held in Amsterdam each fall!

Then there’s work.  It’s contest time again and I get this responsibility 100% this year.  Of course I can’t simply organize a contest worth $30,000 in prize money itself.  Nooo..I get to organize a party in Miami too! South Beach no less! The cool thing about this is I’ll get to see a guildy from my old Everquest guild AND a good friend I larped with.  See, there’s some gaming related stuff here.

I stopped playing my Saturday vampire game simply because I’m booked until after May.  I’m a busy, busy girl.  However, I am DMing my bi-weekly Vampire Darkages game.  They’re getting ready to march on Carthage.  I have many evil, evil things planned.  Oh, and I have created a sub-domain to write about their adventures.  As soon as I get it up to snuff I’ll link it so you can follow it too!

Starting May 13th I’m going to be running a Savaged Paranoia game for the country’s Meetup Group.  I’m curious to see how Savage World will do for a seriousish Paranoia game.  Plus, this is going to be a setting for an eventual con game.  More about that later.

There weren’t any concerts this month, however, there’s a bit of a concert marathon coming up.  My dear and loving other half made a dream come true and got me tickets to see Loreena McKennit in Dusseldorf! I’ve been following her since the very early 90s and never got to see her live since tickets are usually both spendy and scarce.  So I can’t even go on about how excited I am!

March 16th is the album release party for Epica’s newest album.  That’ll be held at the 013 in Tilburg…and I get to take my video camera.

In April Delain (a dutch metal band) is playing at the p60.  I’m probably going to go to that one since I haven’t seen them since their first album was released.  My parents are also visiting the entire month of April and we’ll be headed to Germany for a week.  That ought to be fun and provide lots of ideas and fodder for games.  Especially since Cindarella’s castle in Austria is on the will see even if it’s the last thing I do list.

May 19th I’ll be in Miami then probably head over to WA State to visit my family.

June is Children of Bodem at the Melkweg in Amsterdam.

July is the Cruxshadows (YAY!!!!!!!) in Bochum.  I’m also seriously, seriously considering the Amphi Festival in Germany this year because the line up for Sunday is KILLER.  Cruxshadows, Blutengel, Project Pitchfork, CombiChrist, Lord of the Lost and The Other are all playing.  That’s pretty much my entire iPod playlist right there.

Either August or September is Lord of the Lost in I think Bochum or Essen Germany.  I can’t remember which.  August also may be Diary of Dreams if day tickets for the Summer Darkness festival are a decent price.

September is also Gamescom in Koln I believe.  I plan on hitting that up as well.

And maybe, just maybe somewhere in that mix my awesome other half will be able to talk a co-worker of his into letting us come over to either his Monaco or Barcelona flat for the F1 Grand Prix (yea, so I like Formula 1.  I’m a chick of many talents and interests!).

Well crap, that’s most of my year already planned! And that’s not even counting loads of Descent mini painting, con game writing, hanging with friends and eating kangaroo and drinking loads of cidar, etc.  What about video game playing? The latest movie? Or new book releases? LOL

So yea, that’s a bit of what’s coming up and I promise to make more of an effort to update GamerGrrls!

i had NO idea that when i posted my last post about gaming alone that it was officially my 1 year anniversary as a D&D gamer! and.. its gets spooky.  check this out:   here is a picture of my very first game on 1/29/11 and heres my last game early this morning i was playing on 1/29/12: it was the same EXACT set up.  and totally unintentional.  and exactly 1 year apart.     talk about crazy!  what are the chances, especially when i had no idea until i looked at the created date on that first picture?!

here’s to another year of D&D fun … and many more after that!  keep on gaming, my friends!

i dont know about you guys and girls but 9.5 times out of 10, i’m jonesing for a game of D&D.

the problem is, i’ve been sick for the past 5 days with pneumonia and now my girl is getting sick too which means she wont be writing me any quick adventures to get me to shut up.

what’s a gamer to do? well, you can sit on your butt all day ‘trolling the WotC forums which was a first for me until the other day, you can watch movies based on rpgs like Midnight Chronicles (not very good at all, by the way), read your gaming books, draw dungeons, or play by yourself.

ahem…i said BY yourself.

anyway, the Red Box Starter set for 4e came with a link to a solo game PDF download called The Ghost Tower of the Witchlight Fens.   you can find it around with a good old bing search.  the The Ghost Tower of the Witchlight Fens was actually a really fun adventure that i played all by my lonesome and was my very first D&D game EVER when i played it last year when i got my Red Box.

out of desperation i said, hey i’m gonna dust that baby off and play it.  this time i used the minis i got with my Dungeons of Dread Starter set for my character and the NPC (i wont spoil the surprise!).  and since i had all the stuff you needed that came in the Red Box like the adventure itself, the mat, dice, and tokens you see in the pic below, i was set and it didnt cost me a dime!

by the way, The Ghost Tower of the Witchlight Fens is really really fun.  its written quite well and involves everything an adventure should be.  there’s traps, logic, good encounters, major decisions, time management, a decent challenge, a good story, all that good stuff.

playing it again was so fun now that im experienced and i even had a different outcome this go around.  the adventure is done in a “Choose Your Own Adventure” type style where your decisions lead you to flip to a certain page to get the results and you go from there.

i got so inspired playing it again.  i had all sorts of fun rolling dice and reading by myself.  i had my own adrenaline going even!  my girl walked in on my rolling  my d20 with my mat all out exclaiming “YES!” on a good roll.

she laughed at me.

most likely, a ton of you have already seen this but, its my duty, as a D&D gamer, to share the love to those who have not.

a lot of gamers agree, this is how it is at a real life gaming session.

how about at your table?

i do admire the use of the original final fantasy 1 characters. a great game. i still own that baby on nes.

i finally understand what you 3.5 fans are feeling.  and it sucks.

i started playing D&D about a year ago.  my very first experience was with 4th edition of which, i still play and as frequently as i can.  i love 4e, i really do.

now, before you start telling me how much 4e sucks, keep in mind that i have nothing to compare it to.  its the only D&D system i know.   in fact, im very much still learning it and i finally just finished reading the 4e Dungeon Master’s Guide last night.  i’m just happy i’m finally playing D&D.

my group consists of myself, my girl, and my sister.  another sister is still learning and hasn’t become an official member yet.  i also did get my parents to play recently since i got them each an official WotC mini for Christmas but thats another story.  i’ve gamed with a meetup group once and that was amazing once i got over my stage fright.

so here i am, learning the game, i just purchased a couple of real minis the other day, i’m busy converting Ravenloft into 4e and scouting another member for my group when i hear about…. 5th edition.

the news was released earlier this month through The New York Times.  Click here for the article.   And here is the actual news from WotC.

honestly, im not happy.  for a year, i was playing the newest thing and i’ve no where near mastered this system.  heck, i still cant level up properly without help from my character builder program but i’m getting there.  i’m building new characters, learning all the lingo, and now, i found out that i’m going to be obsolete.  just like 3.5 and all the earlier editions of D&D.

im not ready to be obsolete.  im just not.

so what are my options?  well, i can sulk over it like i have been doing and am really good at.  i think i’m a level 5 sulker by now, or i can get my ass on the WotC site and sign up for that playtest i’ve been hearing about.  and as i’m typing this, i did it.

i’m not sure what happens next.  they said that i “have successfully signed up to receive notification from Wizards at a later date about the D&D playtest starting date and further instructions on how you can participate in playtesting.”

now that i did that, i do feel.. a little better.

i think what we fear is change.  the mystery of what will happen to the system we learned, loved, and studied.  not to mention all them money we spent on all the books and accessories.  are we ever ready for our favourite system to change?  i know i’m not.  i don’t like change.  i’m one of those “no news is good news” kind of people.

but i cant stop the game from evolving.  maybe it wont be as different as i’m thinking.  maybe 4e will just be improved without confusing the living hell out of me.  i really REALLY don’t want to be confused.  i don’t want to have to relearn a whole entire new system.

but, i guess, at least i can participate in the building process and see it before it gets released.

gamers, i think the best thing for us to do is to do this playtest and that way we can at least put in our feedback.  after all, no one will hear our voices if we do not speak.

this is our game, after all.

This popped up on my Facebook tonight.  Yup, this is Sh*t Dungeons and Dragon players say.  And Vampire the Masquerade, and Cthulhu, and Gurps….yup, you get the point.  Watch it, laugh, and give them a thumbs up because admit it, you at least smiled.