Yesterday, I had the idea of using LEGO components for doing miniatures. It handled a lot of the things I was looking for, including the ability to have relatively easy map creation, let me create the maps according to my imagination, and to not require tons of hours or, more importantly, tons of space for a one-shot item.

Before I left for the day, I decided to do something scary, I did a google search for "steampunk lego". Let's say... I really liked the results and they lodged themselves into my brain in about 10 seconds:

• Steampunk Mecha
• Steampunk TIE-fighter and X-wing

Well, that pretty much set my mood for what can and can't be done with LEGO. It also made me really want to know if I could play a proper game with it now. So, on the way home, I stopped by Walmart, moaned at their lack of LEGO, and then over to Target which had a nice selection. A bunch of money later, I hurried to my temporary home to sit on the bed and play with new toys, imagining what I could do with them.

You know what? They would work perfectly for a good HERO game or even Exalted. I think they'll be perfect, but its also pretty obvious that I need to collect a lot more sets and raw components to really make some reasonable sets for adventures. Well, I'm willing to try.

There were two results that came out of this shopping trip. The first is that I really want to run a steampunk RPG game now. Something with lovely adventure crawls, temples that go boom, and otherwise start to develop my world via adventuring which is one of my favorite things to do.

The other is that Welf, from Flight of the Scions, is going to change drastically. Working out the ideas, I think it would work better of he (um, maybe) actually doesn't have any powers, but really build up on the mechanical things I already hinted at and basically give him the ability to gadget in a hurry. As I was driving, I realized I had set the foundation for that already, I just didn't take advantage of it. So, once again, the ending of the book entirely changed.

On the way into work today, I considered the idea of changing his gender to a female. Kind of confusing the mental processes where this came from, but then my mind happily went down all the possible paths of the story and I think I like it better. In this case, it changes this book and the next three. And in a good way, I think. More importantly, I think I like the story even better now.