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Hoo boy.

It has been an odd 3(?) months for me.

I'm not going to delve into the boring details (work, personal life, blah) but, suffice it to say, I've been gone from being truly active in the world of D&D for several months now.

I think the real breaking point was when my FLGS, where I began an RPGA "chapter", has stopped offering in-store gaming.  The reasons for this are varied, but mostly revolve around a lack of available space in-store.  

What hurts is that the owner is someone I consider a friend.  He isn't just "the owner" - he's someone who's house I've been to a few times, someone I've debated politics and philosophy with.  He's given my wife and I a baby shower gift, when I've needed extra $$ he's given me a job in the store (admittedly a quid pro quo arrangement, as, come

This weekend saw the third and final Worldwide D&D Game Day for 2009.  This time - the feature was the Dungeon Master's Guide 2.

What was especially interesting was how different WotC made things for this particular game day.  As is only properly befitting for a day celebrating the art of Dungeon Mastering, this particular Game Day wasn't your typical pre-published event set to explore new player mechanics or to show off monsters.

Instead, what WotC put forward this time was a really nice introduction to creating a couple encounters more or less from scratch.

Now, as my previous blog post has probably made clear - despite my years of experience with D&D, and with running a table. . . I'm only a Dumgeon Master (some would say) in a loose sense of the word.  I've never really tried my

I am seriously hurting for a game of late.

Now, I suspect there are those of you who know me wondering what in the world I'm talking about.  I go to GenCon and spend almost all my time in the Sagamore Ballroom helping to man RPGA HQ, similarly at Origins, there I was behind the desk in the room wiht all the RPGA action.

But at neither convention did I have a chance to actually play the game - and even the RPGA group at my FLGS (the group I started which, in turn, got me started with the RPGA about three almost four years ago) has nearly forgotten what I look like.

I've nobody to blame but myself really.  While I do read every bit of D&D book I can get my hands on (I'm still working my way through the Eberron Campaign Guide, there's SO MUCH content in there! and I've a couple other reads

. . . as the title says, this - my 13th!! - GenCon was quite the interesting event.

I spent a good share of time, probably too much of it, actually, in the RPGA's Sagamore Ballroom, on the clock of off of it, volunteering my little heart out.

It was the best of times for the sheer volume of people I got to meet, including (finally!) meeting Keith Baker, hearing Patrick Rothfuss give a reading, spending time with several WotC people (including the likes of Trevor Kidd, Chris Tulach, Mike Donais, Didier Monin, Josh who's last name I've forgotten, and actually QUITE a few more.  Too many to list properly without putting people to sleep, I fear.

Besides WotC people and staff, and old friends from previous conventions, as well as the RPGA "crew" - I also met quite a few of the Twitterati,