I want a new drug

So we've recorded our first podcast. In fact, Ed is sitting right behind me as I type slaving away so that we don't sound like a bunch of hushed lunatics talking about nerdy things. With any luck he'll succeed. If he doesn't, well, I've comes to terms with my lunacy.

What has been a bit rougher is coming to terms with the way my voice sounds. We stayed out rather late the night before we recorded our podcast and I'd been telling myself that my voice only sounded that way because I destroyed it. That is not the case, it always sounds like that. I don't know what to think. I never ever hear a recorded version of myself and it's made me a little self conscious. Also, I apologize for the sniffling and coughing you might hear, that's me.

I have also been working on an idea I've had to reorganize the way I keep my information for my games. I have a tendency to ad-lib when I shouldn't, it's a curse and a gift. I think I'm very good at it, years ago I would run games in D&D 3.5 where the only prep I would do is three quick lines of plot on a scrap of paper and some vague encounter ideas in my head, it was grand. The problem is that I now want a more coherent plot, something with purpose and direction. So I need to limit the ad-libbing I do to the places I know I can get away with it. My plan has worked out well so far, when the players talk to an NPC I have a name and place for I have a list of the things he KNOWS instead of the way I was doing it before, listing the things he doesn't know. If I get off track I can think of my list and bam, it's fixed. However I decided to go back and change all my old notes to this system, in addition to a lot of organizational fixes and such, it's an extremely time consuming process.

What this means is that now that I'm done (or nearly done) I can ease up on the hiatus I've taken from GMing and maybe enact a few of my crazier plans. It'll be nice to get back in the saddle. Next time I'll share some of my musings on character death and how our group has been a bunch of wussies about it. It might be time to put the fear back into fighting.

-Lee