It’s not that I have stopped playing, or running, D&D. I have not. But I had a job for a while that basically sucked up every waking hour of my life (or felt like it).
But, in that time, I have managed to keep running my Saturday night session. And in addition to that, I have picked up and played two other games.
Castle Ravenloft and Mouse Guard.
The rear bumper on my 2000 Volkswagen Beetle finally met its match. After having two collisions that left other cars torn up with nothing more than a scuff mark to show for it, someone finally ran into the back of my car at thirty miles per hour. All five stars of safety rating exploded out the fender and onto the road.
For those that want the specifics, I was just stopped in the right hand lane behind a line of cars waiting for the light to turn. I looked up just in time to see a blue mini-van coming up on my six, FAST. I held fast on the brake and hoped I wouldn’t get sandwiched. Glad that I didn’t get pushed into anyone else. Just a little stiffness to show for it the evening after and no serious pains or problems. Shew.
Today the other guys insurance claimed the liability and I picked up a rental care and got my car towed. The long wait for my car to, hopefully, be fixed and not totaled begins.
While no one died, this fight gave the party the most draining fight yet. After a full rest, they used almost every daily power they had. A great battle that actually threatened a loss.
A couple of shots from last nights combat in the Chamber of Eyes. The players had been blowing through the standard encounters, so we discussed some solutions and ended up just tweaking all the enemies levels by two. The enemies are now harder to hit, hit harder, and there’s some real peril. Seems to also suit the Thunderspire’s generous loot tables.
To the left here is where the players ran into a few duergar guards. They were tough as it was, but the fighting lured a hobgolbin warcaster and chief to the fight. Some quick thinking on the part of the warlock and they divided the enemies with a magical shroud of darkness.
Below, the larger battle in the main chamber. The warcaster retreated to this room and made a stand with the archers and wolf. 
Due to scheduling conflicts, sickness, and travel, I have not been playing much. And none of those reasons were my reasons. I don’t have a reason to not play.
In the stead of weekly RPG sessions, be they Fallout or D&D4e, I have been playing DDO. And I can say that the game is quite fun. I’ll put it this way: If you enjoy shadow puppetry, you don’t care what makes the shadows. You also don’t care if a different set of puppets tells a different shadow story. DDO is just another type of shadow puppetry with different props and stories. You get to dodge traps, level up, and (most importantly) kill things and take their stuff. D&D is simple enough of a setting for this to “just work”.
If only there was a turn based 4e version of it.
My friend Tim recently went to PAX. And he was nice enough to bring back a very nice gift. A Freezepop shirt signed by the band. This will probably be the first t-shirt I get framed. I just couldn’t bear to wear this out and have it hanging in tatters in my closet.
