Virtual Cons, FoundryVTT, and 5e – Week in Review 04/17/2021

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Welcome to The Alfred Effect Week in Review for the week ending April 17, 2021.

Blog News

  • It’s been a crazy 6 months or so since I was last posting regularly. The world has been going through plenty of ups and downs both personally and generally. It has all been a bit overwhelming and I largely stepped back from online activities last fall to focus on priorities. While things are still a bit bumpy, it is at least trending upward and I’m ready to start easing back into things with this site.
  • All has not been doom and gloom. I made the decision to go back to school this past January to work on a Bachelor’s degree as part of an effort to continue growing in my career. It took some time to get into a rhythm, but so far things are going well and this first semester is almost over. One thing I did not anticipate was just how many hours it would consume. 🙁
  • My hope is to start carving out a little bit of time each week to focus on the site and to continue following through with several projects I have lined up including…

Double Tome Studios

  • We are back to work pulling together new content including new entries for the Items of Adventure series and other projects.
  • Project ideas either in the works our being evaluated:
    • Finish the announced adventure, Embers in the Forest.
    • Compile multiple entries for the Items of Adventure series into a single volume, possibly with rulesets.
    • Researching FoundryVTT modules for our releases.
    • An old-school print zine.

Gaming

  • I have been very fortunate to participate in a few virtual cons lately including Spawn of Cyclops Con, WonderCon, GaryCon XIII, and Frog God Game Days.
  • This has been a great experience to be able to dig in and play Dungeon Crawl Classics and 5th edition D&D, both of which have been on my to-do list for some time.
  • An even bigger bonus has been that the Elder Minion has joined me for most of these sessions. The Elder Minion absolutely blew me away with the skill and roleplaying brought to the table and we have had an absolute blast. First convention experience for the Elder Minion and it was a total success. Super proud dad.
  • Over the past few months I have also taken a dive back into gamemastering with a bi-weekly Call of Cthulhu campaign. I’ve also kicked off a two-player D&D 5e campaign including the Elder Minion and one of my CoC players. Have a blast with both of them and getting more experience with FoundryVTT at the same time.

Painting

  • This is one where I haven’t had a chance to make any forward progress in months.
  • I was able to successfully begin assembling some Persian and Greek troops for Hail Caesar, but that has stalled for the moment. I do hope to get those wrapped up so that the Elder Minion and I can play some more historical wargaming.

Content Spotlight

  • I’m making an effort to expand my horizons a bit each week and discover other gaming blogs or great sources of content. To that end, I will be featuring one or more different sites each week for you to check out and add to your own list of content to follow.
  • I’ve spent a lot of time recently reading through the amazing “Adventures in Fiction” series on the Goodman Games blog.
  • These weekly articles feature a wealth of content highlighting the works of many of the authors from the famous Appendix N list including Leigh Brackett, Robert E Howard, Andre Norton, Fritz Lieber, and many more.
  • If you are already a fan of one or more of these authors, there is a good chance that you will discover other authors to follow as well. I highly recommend digging through the archives and following the Goodman Games blog for new entries.

Currently Reading

  • I am a huge history buff and have always been drawn to the history of Rome and the Near East.
  • One of the personal projects I dedicated myself to was to follow through on digging in and reading more classical texts. I was introduced to the Loeb Classical Library texts years ago and I knew that those were the copies I would want to get.
  • I really enjoy the Loeb tomes for several reasons:
    • The books themselves are compact and high quality meaning that they are comfortable to hold and look great lined up on your shelf.
    • The books contain both the Latin/Greek on the left page and the English translation on the right. This is perfect as I am in the beginning stages of learning Latin so having the Latin text readily available is very handy.
    • The selection of titles is extensive and continues to grow. Older translations are regularly reviewed and updated as needed, particularly when there have been new contributions to the scholarly works.
  • My focus for now is on the histories composed by Roman and Greek authors.
  • I began with Tacitus, reading Agricola and Germania during January.
  • Since February I have been reading Livy which will probably take me through the rest of the year at least. I’ve completed Volume 1 (Books 1-2) and I am currently in Volume 2 wrapping up book 3.

Upcoming Week

  • Would love to wrap Strike Force: Shantipole to bring the Star Wars RPG mini-campaign to a wrap, though that may be delayed a little as I start prepping for finals at school.
  • The Elder Minion and I will be participating in at least one adventure during REAVER CON I next weekend. Excited to play a 0-level funnel and begin a DCC Legacy character.

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