Friday, October 9, 2009

Last Night I Dreamed of Kuo-Toa...


No seriously, I did! Though my dream did not involve being chased by monstrous Deep Ones or anything (point o fact: I very rarely if ever dream of anything "fantastic"...well, once I DID dream I was being menaced by a giant purple behir that was simultaneously the musician Prince; for some reason I was Han Solo in that dream and I did defeat the lightning-breathing many-legged wyrm...um, but that's kind of unusual).

No what I actually dreamed was that I was holding/reading an adventure module that had a very cool picture of a Kuo-Toa (or a couple of 'em) on the cover. And not the greenish, bulbous illustrations of yesteryear, but something more akin to the cool KT artwork of the 3rd edition.

What this means is anyone's guess but if I HAD to make a judgement call on interpreting it, I'd say it's a signal from the divine powers that it's time I got down to serious brass tacks when it comes to working on my writing stuff (my undersea adventure module is begging to be filled-in!).

Fact o the matter is I've been slacking...I've been spending way too much time PLAYING games and not enough time to writing (I believe I've mentioned before my deep need to "give something back"). Well, what can I say. The economy is tight, which means I've been spending more of my work time working and less time writing my non-paying side projects. *sigh*

I never would have made it as a starving artist...too lazy...

Plus, I've been ref'ing other types o games for the nephews. Yes, we did have a chance to play some B/X D&D last week, specifically Blizzard Pass (with all new characters), but the D&D time was only a fraction of the total "game time" which also included Dark Tower, Apples to Apples, Magic Cards, Blood Bowl, and of course WH40K. Oh...and REAL football, too (watching on TV, at the stadium, and...for the younger kid...playing on the field). Asked what his favorite games of the week were, S. listed (in order):

#1 Warhammer 40,000
#2 Dungeons & Dragons (and Labyrinth Lord by association)
#3 Blood Bowl (when playing his brother as an opponent)
#4 Dark Tower
#5 Magic Cards
#6 Blood Bowl (with me as an opponent)

[I really should introduce these kids to Mordheim one of these days, which I've always felt is really the closest thing to a D&D/wargame hybrid...it's a damn site better than WotC's Chainmail anyway]

I should note that I ended up occupying the referee spot more often than not in many of these games...guess I've just had too many years of being a "Dungeon Master." It was funny how many house rules got instituted to temper the bickering that might otherwise go on between the young players. Ahhh...direct competition. S. really was NOT interested in playing against me in any of these games as he doesn't like to lose and I tend to win handily when I play. Z. likes to play against me, but prefers to gang up with his brother as he tends to lose terribly otherwise (I can't remember exactly how many 20-0 games of Magic we played but it was at least five).

Even today, both S. and Z. came by to play Warhammer (they had the day off school and a couple hours to kill). I ref'd for S. and Z. but the game got cut short when S. had to go to a doctor's appointment. We then re-started with me using S.'s space marine army (which Z. had just played) against a fairly cheesy Eldar force that Z. created special. By the end of the second turn, I'd wiped out half his army and he'd conceded, having failed to remove a single mini from the field. And I don't even particularly LIKE space marines...

Anyhoo, the point is I've been playing (or watching or adjudicating) far too many games and have neglected my writing of the same. I think THAT is what my dream was trying to tell me (most of my dreams that I remember are of the worry/anxiety type so that's not surprising this one is tinged by those feelings o "guilt"). Perhaps tomorrow I'll actually get some stuff down on paper/laptop as there are currently no distractions planned (the kids are back with their parents, my wife has a baby shower to go to, and I refuse to watch college football). Hopefully I can turn out a productive Saturday.

Later, gators!

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