Well, setting things up for the game session this Saturday. I should sit down and read everything, but it always takes time. :) I put too many details into my game and get lost in information overload. Interestingly, the same thing happens with my novels. Imagine that.

Well, I read the Port Calin stuff, which is where the party is now, and I don't think I could integrate it into what I've already set up. Having to conform a world to someone else's history is rather difficult for me. I mean, I'd rather be able to set up the world, draw the maps (which I never get done in time), and basically say "this is it!" but then the players have to suffer with me coming up with stuff. So, we work with a canon world and I get frustrated when I can't really make it "mine" without violating the published material.

That leads into an interesting problem of "my world" verses a published world. It kind of applies to rules too. I've always viewed game systems as guidelines but not hard and fast rules. Every gamer has a different style and the game should be changed to fit it, but when you have rules, it seems to encourage certain styles of gamers to look at the rules and find the points where it breaks, or they get the largest advantage. It isn't the fault of any player, and I feel most do it, but more of the view of using a system for any length of time. Lately, I've felt it kind of distracts from the feel of the game. A good example is the so-called Glorious Solar Saber rate problem. The weapon lets you use it unlimited times, so you can have -10,000 dice per hit, but then you buy one autosuccess and you hit. And that's what the rules say. But, as a storyteller, I'd just say "no" and leave it at that. Rules verses styles.

In other news, I submitted The New Girl to Steam Punk Magazine and finished Shining Force Exa at 43 hours ($1.37/hour entertainment, including tax). There is a single bonus dungeon left and I never got the two extra characters before I finished, but it's done. I found one of the bonus characters (the dragon) while wandering around the world after I finished it. Haven't even found the ghost character (I think). Overall, I enjoyed it greatly. And I want to write a computer game again.