Operations Update

August was not a good month for me. My wife and I have been looking for new jobs which can be time consuming. I am also writing a novel and let me say, I picked a heck of a time to be writing anything.

What amuses me more is that most of my regular war-gaming blogs ground to a halt to. Quite a few stopped and those that kept going were limping. Maybe it was a cursed month for all of us.

I will resume operations this week because at this point I need something really fun to do and space piracy hits that itch. I have another adventure idea to playtest and maybe I will squeeze in a normal patrol mission just for kicks.

Originally I thought I would be playing some New Hope 5150 by this point but that has not happened. I also planned to do some painting but writing can be its own beast. 2014 is turning out to be a year about time management.

Released From Medbay!

My wife is cleared to return to work on Monday! Her broken leg has healed, she’s endured surgery, a cast and 4 months of physical therapy! She can walk now with a cane like a bad-ass mastermind!

Best of all, I get my gaming area back! Woot!

Current plans are to play the next campaign mission in my Captain Grognard campaign next week and do an AAR the week after.

Next week though, I get back into the fiction fluff side of things with blog posts. 3 months ago I rolled up a new Class 4 Pirate Ship to join the fleet but never got around to describing them. I really should have thought about that more.

I want to thank everyone for sticking with the blog and I can promise new adventures soon.

Update From Sick Bay

My wife's leg and ankle are healing nicely.  She now has 6 pins and 2 metal plates which I think makes her bionic. Heck, it makes her more of a pirate than I am now.

Her leg is still in a cast which means she can't put any weight on it. She has been stuck at home and I take care and assist her all day. It puts a real crimp in any sort of tabletop gaming.

I am still working on making random adventures for Star Navy. I broke out my old Realms of Chaos books for adventure ideas because in my flawed memory, I thought there was a random adventure generator that had hundreds of adventures. The reality is that the book had closer to 50 and most of them were variations of Guy A has sworn to kill his arch-enemy/rival/total stranger who just happens to be Guy B. It wasn't the wellspring of adventures that I remembered it being.

The tricky thing about making adventures for Star Navy is the ability of non-merchant ships to break away from combat on their turn. I am assuming this means they are going to warp speed or hyperspace as it prevents their enemies from following them. This instant escape hatch eliminates a lot of scenarios where the player would be required to shoot their way out of a trap or through a blockade. I am debating changing the rules for breaking off but I am still undecided. I often take the attitude that game designers make their decisions for a reason and I am loathe to tamper with that.

Report From Sick Bay

Two weeks ago my wife fell on some stairs and broke her leg. It was one of those freak accidents that has amazed medical professionals. She had surgery last week and is now couch bound with a cast.

Let me tell you, it is hard to be a space pirate when taking care of your spouse. The table I normally play on has been re-purposed to hold everything from her laptop to her many painkillers.  I am taking care of her 24/7 and that doesn't leave much time for merchant raiding. That doesn't even take into account the time and energy spent worrying about her and there has been a lot to worry about.

During this forced pirate vacation, I'll be working out scenarios for pirate missions. Heck, by the time I have time to play again, I should have enough missions for an actual random table to roll on.

Thank you for your patience.