20 September 2007

Like Working At a LAN Party

Since the Orange Box went on pre-order, just about everyone at work with a mouse and an itchy trigger finger has downloaded the Team Fortress 2 beta. These people spend their lunches in a blissful haze of bullets, fire, and pained screaming, punctuated by maniacal laughter as the smackdowns are handed out like door prizes at a dog fight.

I have not yet succumbed to the siren call of the virtual warfare that surrounds me. It's not that I fear what might happen to my co-workers when I finally pwn them all; it's that I'm suffering from a certain degree of culture shock. I'm surrounded by geeks, day in and day out. It's like being at a convention, only there aren't any booth babes, and the bodily hygiene of the attendees is somewhat above par.

I'm interested to see how long it takes for the novelty of TF2 to wear off.

In gaming news, the second session of Mythic D&D went off without a hitch. They managed to slog their way through the tomb they'd taken shelter in, and now they head off to bigger and better things. More on that later.

I'm tired. I miss my son (he's in California ATM). I have work to do, but I'm obviously not doing it right now.

07 September 2007

Mythic D&D Afterthought

I can hear you wondering aloud, "What happened at the first Mythic D&D game?"

To begin with, five PCs were introduced to one another, and thrown together by a remarkably unlikely circumstance. Well, at least they didn't meet in a tavern!

Overall, the initial session was a success. Without a rogue, they ended up using a combination of acid and a fallen tree to break open some locked doors; otherwise, it would have been an evening of infinite tedium. They got to kill some stuff, too, and the half-orc barbarian triggered a trap which ended up being ineffectual, anyway.

Since then, it seems that two more players have signed on, one of them professing an interest in being a rogue. This makes two rogues in the group, but as the other was absent from the last session (and will likely be absent from the next two), it just goes to show: you can never have too many rogues.

As with the game I ran at my last workplace (which was, admittedly, a wretched hive of non-gamers), this one will employ only published (or pre-written) scenarios, suitably modified by myself to make them more interesting. I'm not normally a lazy DM, but running such adventures is advantageous due to the lack of time I have outside of work to hammer away at the campaign. Plus, it requires that I carry a smaller pile of books to the game.

So that's that. More musings later. For now, work beckons.