So I'm not nearly as depressed today. Eating a meal, playing with my daughter, and getting a good night's sleep put me back on an even keel.

I've put the scanner to work today. I've got a couple of new pages in the works for the Erol Otus Shrine, as well as some prelim stuff for improvements to the front page (which desparately needs an upgrade) and the DDG section.

I'm also hoping to get a new BattleTech page up soon. Speaking of BattleTech and scanners, I finally scanned some examples of the old BattleTech logo font. I'm still not sure whether I should produce the font myself (which would mean it would be crude and possibly a .fon file) or have my friend Pat help me (he has a professional font program of some sort) or just pay S. John Ross to do it right.

I've gotten some more nice comments on my BattleTech scenario over at BattleTech.com.

Godammit, but this situation with Goph and Dave is depressing me. These are not just two old gaming buddies, they're like my two oldest and bestest friends. We go back to grade school, we were in each other's weddings. I just wanted to get try to arrange to get together and game, but Dave is objecting to all my ideas while presenting none of his own and Goph seems to be blowing us both off. And I feel like a twice-damned fool for trying again after the last attempt to get together totally fell apart. If these were just two game goobers I've played with I would have gave up on this whole thing a long time ago. I don't know whether to get mad or cry or go home and drink some liquor and try to sleep it off.

So Pen & Paper updated last week and added the Lords of Creation info I submitted, though the pic seems to be absent. Ah, it was a losey pic anyhow. Now that I know I didn't screw up the submissions process, maybe I'll do some more stuff.

I like teeny little volunteer opportunities like adding to the Pen & Paper database. It's a niece peicemeal way to help support the larger gaming community. Doing these little projects also helps me get jazzed for tackling a lrger effort, such as another submission for this nifty site.

The ominous sound I hear in my head is a window of opportunity slowly closing. This weekend is the last one/only one in March that Dave has open to get together to game. Goph has yet to get back with us about his availability. Meanwhile my folks want to come see their granddaughter and I'm leaving other gaming possibilities (my HU campaign, BattleTech with the nephews) dangling. In their emails Goph and Dave keep saying they want to get together and game, yet they keep erecting obstacles to that happening. Are they humouring me to avoid having to tell me outright that they don't want to get together?

Behold... Rondoo part 2

So, if I'm gonna be playing in a regular Savage Worlds campaign (and it sure looks like I am), then I guess I should probably pick up a copy of the rules. I'm thinking I'll buy a copy from the RPG.net store. I have yet to use them and part of each sale is donated to keep RPG.net up and running. Besides, they have the old fashioned d20's that I could use for Star Fleet Battle Manual.

I'm continuing to read the Starmada Compendium. Good stuff. Very few rules have been altered (notably banked weapons have been simplified) from the version 5.41 rules I had been using. There's lots of neat new stuff though. I thought a change had been made to the fighter rules when I read that only lasers may attack fighters. I went back and checked and sure enough that had been in the earlier rules. I don't think I've actually used any fighters yet, so this revelation doesn't affect previous games.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the employ cards in gaming situations. Maybe seeing Dave Hoover's official Savage Worlds card deck tripped this circuit for me again. I've long thought that D&D could be spiced up with a deck of combat maneuver cards. The Dork20 deck apparently gets this done for the d20 crowd, and I may have to get a copy. Mayfair put out a less humorous and more complicate product for AD&D called Blood & Steel. Frankly, the cards look to darn complicated to me. The fellow who makes the miniatures rules called Piquet has some interesting things to say about card usage in his theory of Piquet page. The old toy-based Warhammery game BattleMasters got good mileage out of an initiative deck. In addition to spicing up D&D basic/expert combats, I think cards could be used to great effect in BattleTech games where you want to capture the rickety-old-mech-held-together-by-chickenwire feel of the older versions of the game.

I think I will have to get a couple of Glotz decks at some point.

Behold... Rondoo!
Here's my first Savage Worlds character, for Dave's campaign:

Rondoo the Learner
itinerant scholar-monk, hedge wizard, devotee of the god of knowledge

Agility d6
Smarts d8
Spirit d8
Strength d4
Vigor d4

Guts d4 Healing d6
Intimidation d4 Investigation d6
Knowledge (history) d8 Knowledge (the gods) d8
Notice d4 Repair d4
Stealth d4

Hindrances: Clueless, Loyal

Edges: Arcane Background, Scholar

Other BattleTech stuff I've been thinking about
I have in mind a couple of no-Mech scenarios. First off would be a scenario set against the Capellan-Supremacy War, a conflict in BattleTech "pre-history" (before the invention of the battlemech). The second one would be a battle based upon the old TSR minigame Revolt on Antares. The troop types in Revolt (laser tank, hover craft, jump troops, power armor) match up wll with BattleTech coneventional forces. To do that one I'd need a more recent rulset, since my BattleTech Manual does not contain any power armor rules.

In my Starmada posts I already mentioned my Aeromada project, converting the original Aerotech over to Starmada rules to do some dogfighting.

As with most every other BT fan out there, I want to webpublish some mech designs. Unlike most BT fans, all my designs are meant to be historical derivatives of existing mechs. For example, I want to stat out the prototype Blackjack that moved 5/8/0 and had flamers instead of ACs.

A grab-bag of BattleTech scenario ideas
Reservoir Raid pt 2: Winners from scenario 1 relieve the rest of their company. This could be a tricky one to balance.

Star League Cache: A CityTech fight over control of a recently discovered Star league era site.

The Last Resistance: General Kerensky's command lance puts down the last Amaris mechs between him and the Usurper.

Fall of Redjak: This one would be 2 lances on 2 lances. A hypothetical Steiner/Kurita punitive expedition to Butte Hold. Includes at least one or two vehicles on the Redjak Ryan side.

Triple Whammy: A three-way skirmish (see the TRO 3025 entry for the BattleMaster for a historical backdrop)

End of an Era: Documenting the destruction of the last of the old Exterminators.

Against the Wolf: Basically an excuse for one side to use mechs exclusive to Wolf's Dragoons.

The Recon Hustle: Two half-lances of recon mechs meet in a forest clearing. Using special simultaneous move rules.

Well, after all the fuss, only a couple of people are commenting on my BattleTech scenario. I find it interesting that more people got into it over at RPG.net. Maybe RPG.net has a lot more users.