Big Happy Family

Many of you bloggers out there are not only aware of the new craze, but most likely a member! For those not involved though I would like to announce that I am now a proud member of the RPG Bloggers Network. Essentially, the network is a one-stop-shop for everything and anything you might need in terms of RPG blogs. It's got over a dozen sites who's bloggers have become members, including Phil or "Chatty DM" from Musings of a Chatty DM who has been a great friend and mentor to me so far in my expedition to the blogosphere.

As a quick and very exciting side note, in his upcoming vacation, I will be doing a guest post over at Chatty DM's site. Since I'm itching to tell someone about what I'll be writing for it, I'll give you - my readers - a little sneak peek!

When you get right down to it, probably the most overused cliche in Dungeons and Dragons is the tavern. Most Dungeon Masters avoid it like the plague, and players simply check out in terms of attention. However, I love taverns - I always have - and I think that they can be so much more then a quest-related rumormill via the cloaked gentleman in the corner.

My post over at Chatty's blog will concern the finer points of tavern brawls, a few unique drinking games, and a half a dozen or so other interesting ways to spice up your tavern visits. The big thing I wanted to do was to write up a quick reference sheet for bar fights, including the types of improvised weapons people might use, along with damage tables.

My plan initially was to work with 3.5 D&D, but since that's no longer the rage it would seem, maybe I should start reading through that 4e manual that I've been avoiding like the plague.

Mmm... plague.

Anyhoo, back to this whole blogging thing. This will be my seventh post, and so far so good. Thanks to some kind links from Chatty DM, I've had more viewers then I was initially expecting, and now with the formation of the RPG Bloggers network, it would seem that I'm hopping on the RPG bandwagon at just the right time.

The best thing of all is the welcome I've received! Chatty DM of course has welcomed me, but some other great bloggers as well. So far, I've gotten kind welcoming comments as well from Geek's Dream Girl, Sektor, and Suudo. And of course Dave from over at Critical Hits welcomed me to the RPG Bloggers Network, through which I hope to meet many more Bloggers. So, thank you all for making me feel right at home in the blogosphere.

As a final quick note on family, sometimes the best families are the horribly dysfunctional ones. A girl from my gaming group at school named Shanika (Deanda the Druid if you've been reading my Runelord Recaps) is a skilled artist and did a party photo last semester. Our whole group loves it, though it is sadly missing Kraca the dwarf - the party's newest addition - since he joined halfway through the semester. Anyways, I thought I would give you all a little glance into what the characters look like because nothing brings "family" together better then slaying dragons and stealing silverware (yes, Blain the rogue actually stole silverware).



From left to right: Kikii, Deanda, Blain, Nakor, Jaime and Slavla.

Nothing quite as dysfunctional as an adventuring party I suppose. Of course, thankfully those are the stories that get left out of the great bardic retellings.