Oh Yeah, So...

Remember how I disappeared off the blogs for a couple weeks? I'm going to be (probably) vanishing again for a few days due to stuff happening around the home front.

Which is just as well, really, since I've had excruciating shooting pains in my upper back and right arm lately, making it difficult to sleep at night, let alone write or compose coherent thoughts for a blog (I am seeing someone about it tomorrow, hopeful that she can "fix me up").

While I could try to type up my thoughts on the whole "alternative combat thang" it's going to have to wait, I'm afraid...there's a lot I want to say on the subject, including addressing certain issues folks brought up in the comments before. I've got some (I think) cool ideas, but unfortunately, they're not things that model well with ALL role-playing games...and if adapted for D&D (where they would work, I believe) the game would cease looking much like D&D, seeing as how they drop the use of the D20 from combat.

[well, I never said I was trying to come up with a new version of the D20 system, right?]

In other news, I picked up a couple new RPGs this week including Ellis: Kingdom in Turmoil and StarSiege: Event Horizon. StarSiege is Troll Lord Games' generic SciFi "tool kit" using the same system as Castles & Crusades. There are a lot of good things to say about StarSiege, mainly with regard to it publication style...but in the end it simply reminded me that there's still room in the market for my space opera game, and that I should get that knocked out now that I my other products are in their final stages.

Ellis, on the other hand, is a pretty different animal...and I mean, different from your average RPG. It requires its own separate blog post...once I've had a chance to read a bit more of its 600 pages. This is easily the largest RPG I've added to my shelf (Champions doesn't count as being "on the shelf" as I only use it for a doorstop...even so, I think Ellis beats it in page count)...though bigger has never necessarily meant better.

Anyway, more on ALL that stuff later...and by later, I mean(probably) in a week or so.