Nothing like a little D&D to make recuperating from an illness go faster.

Hi all,

I've been pretty sick lately and have been doing a lot of resting. While I've been resting, I've been playing through some of my old video games. My set up at the house makes it so I can lay on the bed and play my Xbox 360, Wii and NES. One of the games I've been revisiting is Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance 2 for Xbox. The Xbox 360 is backwards compatible with it too. It's a rather tough game, but a lot of fun. I like playing as the dwarf since my video game RPG style lends itself well to such a tough character. It reminds me a bit of playing DDM only you are alone (at first) with only your hero character against increasingly difficult enemies. The focus on combat and the maps remind me of DDM though.

I've also been reading a bit. I just finished "The Rage" by Richard Lee Beyers. A great story full of graphicly described combat, fierce dragons and interesting characters. It's a book I highly recommend reading. While I was reading it, I couldn't help thinking how a "dragon rage" mechanic might work in a DDM game. Some kind of variant in which your dragons could fly into uncontrollable rages and attack everyone around them, even allies at different moments. I'm thinking how we could incorporate that into a DDM game somehow. I'm also interested in the idea of having a spellcaster who can morph between dragon form and humanoid form in a DDM game. The player would switch between the dragon and humanoid mini with certain conditions and limitations associated with making the change. Also, as in the book, damage taken by the creature in one form would carry over to the other form after transformation. A couple of characters in "The Rage" use that morphing ability and the book mentions that many dragons can do it. Then there is also the idea of the dracoliches or dragon zombies in the book that is intriguing too.

Now, I'm starting on the "Dark Elf Trilogy" by R.A. Salvatore. Somehow, I've never managed to read on of his books even though I've heard of him for years. I figured this would make as good of an intro to his work as any. Plus, the Heroes of Underdark theme of the Heroscape D&D Master Set, the Drow minis in my DDM collection and my Fane of Lloth maps have me intrigued and wanting to learn more about this setting. Who knows, maybe we'll even run a three encounter scenario themed around Drizzt and his world of the Underdark some day.

What are you guys up to when you aren't at events playing games?