The time that is given

  Earlier this week I found out that I lost a friend of mine that I went to high school with, a wonderful guy named Dave Mohn. I can’t tell you how much this affected me. Maybe it was that I was under water at work, so busy that I could barely breathe. Maybe it was just a weird time in my life and I was open to such a blow.

But most certainly it was because Dave was a wonderful guy and he and I shared time during some of my most formative years.

I had just dropped out of the Coast Guard Academy (Long story short: It didn’t agree with me.) and had also flunked out of school at Colorado State University. My parents had just gone through a divorce. My grandparents had just passed away and I was like a ship without a rudder. I couldn’t find my bearings and was kind of coming loose at the seams. It was my mother who suggested that I take some time off and collect my thoughts on how I wanted to proceed with my life.

It seemed to me that doing something that I knew I loved was a good way to get my head on straight. So, I somehow contacted Dave Mohn and Brad Reeves and all three of us went up to Keystone and applied as lift operators.  I don’t remember exactly how we three decided that we’d do this thing together. I do however know that Dave and I were really into break dancing at the time and were hanging out a bit just goofing around with that. Maybe that’s how we got the idea of doing it together. I just don’t remember.

What I do remember though is that we had a LOT of fun. Brad and I were team captains of the two newest lifts on the mountain, Teller and Ruby(?). Dave was what we called a floater. He gave people breaks and got to ski a LOT. But that winter was one of the best of my life. We all skied as much as we could want. We had our room and board paid for (the last season that Keystone would ever do that btw.), made decent money, and had as much fun as three guys possibly could. It helped unwind me in ways that nothing else ever could. It allowed me to focus on “me”, rather than on what others imagined me to be.

Dave was a huge part of that. He was a fantastic bump skier and was probably the one who helped spark that in me. Later on this was one of the main reasons that my wife Juli and I got together…bump skiing. His sense of adventure, sense of humor and just pure kindness was always so refreshing. He and Brad also got me on a snowboard long before they were popular. That was an adventure in and of itself, needless to say they waited for me for a long time.

Unfortunately I hadn’t spoken with Dave in ages,  but I had looked him up on facebook and it appeared that he was leading a tremendously fun life out in Seattle. He was still active in surfing, skiing and skateboarding and people were just naturally drawn to his congenial nature. I now wish I had somehow contacted him and let him know what a big part of my life he had unwittingly played.

You’re a good man Dave. I’ll miss you. RIP my friend. (Feb. 3 2010)

After re-reading my previous post, I had another one of those mini-epiphanies: Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons can never play like older editions of Dungeons and Dragons because they’ve added a layer of rules in order to give players options during certain situations.

Let me explain, older games, and I’m talking second edition and older (I wouldn’t include the Player’s Options books near the end of 2e btw.), had only a few things listed in the rules that a PC could do in any given situation. And the further you go back in the rules, the fewer things you’re going to find. Now, I’m a UX designer by trade (User Experience) and I’m a HUGE fan of simple. If you can hit the mark with a simple solution without adding extra layers of complexity then you’ve done your job. Continue Reading »

We had another Tuesday night fourth edition session last night with the “regular” group and I came to a conclusion: I’m not a huge fan of the way Wes runs his game. Now… This isn’t to say that I’m not enjoying myself or that Wes isn’t necessarily a good DM, rather it’s that I find that I have a few stylistic differences with the guy.

Instead of writing a long diatribe about the game in general, I think I’d like to list those things that I think Wes does well and those things that I think I would do differently. Continue Reading »

This is an obviously delayed post, late is more like it, but nonetheless, I thought I’d say something about the new year and what it means to me.

Well, to begin, I am not one of those people who believe in making new year’s resolutions. It’s just not something that works for me. I find that most of my life-events happen right around the fall. I don’t necessarily know why, they just do. And when they happen, THAT’S when I like to make my “resolutions”. If you could ask anyone who knows me they would tell you that I am NOT a planner. Unfortunate or not, I react to stimuli, and am constantly readjusting in order to make things work a little more smoothly. Continue Reading »

This is an old post that somehow just didn’t make it to the board…

Just returned from a vacation in Germany over the girl’s fall break. We were gone for 9 days, October 17 through the 26th, and let me tell you, what a blast. But I deviate, this isn’t really about the trip, although I’m sure that I’ll write a few memories down as I make my clumsy way through this posting. Continue Reading »

OK, for those of you who have played a role playing game where there’s an incremental or numerical value representing intelligence you’ll follow this short discourse quite easily. For those who haven’t, well go out and pick up a game of Dungeons and Dragons.

How many times have you ever come up with this great idea or retort or question and then paused as you glanced at your character sheet…”Oh whoa…my intelligence score is pretty damned low. I wouldn’t think of that.” and begrudgingly dropped the idea?  I certainly know that I have. Which brings into question the idea of a numerical score for intelligence. Continue Reading »

I had an interesting thought this morning while I was reading a blog from a fellow grognard… What if you absolutely knew what happened after death? I mean not “believed” you knew… but actually knew. How would you live your life? Would you do things differently? Why?

I suppose I ask because death has been a frequent visitor lately. My father’s not doing well and I’m not sure that he’s long for this mortal coil. It makes you stop and think, and take stock of things.

Is death like stepping through a door? I’m not sure that’s a good analogy but if you think about it, it’s pretty apropos.  You know where you “are” right before you step through that door. You “think” you’re pretty sure where you’re going to be after you step through the door, but you’re not certain. Does it matter though? You’re going to step through that door and whatever happens, happens. Should “knowing” change how you’re living today? Do we ever really know what’s going to happen? No. It’s the human condition. We can NOT see into the future.

So I guess that the old addage, live for today, holds some water.

In my last post I spoke a bit about the structure of a game that I would like to run. For simplicity’s sake I’m going to call this Dungeons and Dragons, but it’s quite likely that I’m going to be using the Castles and Crusades rule set from Troll Lord Games. (Link) Why? Well, in a nutshell, it’s a set of rules that encompasses a lot of things that I like about “new school” (additive AC for instance) with the open ended feeling of the old school genre. Continue Reading »

Now, how to begin this…how to start? Hmmm. How about with something current; My gaming group and 4th Edition.

A little history, if you’ll allow me, might help to illuminate the motivation behind the post. Simply put, I’ve been playing RPGs (Role Playing Games) since the late 1970’s. Dungeons and Dragons is my game of choice, and that’s a long long time to spend with a hobby. Long enough to become pretty well acquainted. I get the game. I mean, I “get it”. Or at least, I thought I did. Continue Reading »

I bet you’re asking yourself, “Hey wait, isn’t that supposed to be Batman and Robin?”

Yeah, I suppose it is but that’s boring. Everyone’s heard of Batman and Robin. This post isn’t actually ABOUT Batman and Robin though. It’s about The Dark Knight.

Continue Reading »