“Ennie” Blog Awards, Assorted campaign prep, Fantasy grounds

I’ve been challenged to throw my hat into the ring for the Ennies. Much like +Peter V. Dell’Orto I don’t expect to win, much less make a strong showing. But you never know, and the more exposure the better.

I figure I’ll link up one or two of the interviews, a S&W or Pathfinder post, and a GURPS post – maybe Technical Natasha.

But I’m open to suggestions. What posts will make the entry the most compelling?

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In other news, my family spent a fun night last Thursday night in the ER as my daughter came down with croup, and the usual palliatives weren’t effective. She responded well to the nebulized epinephrine and oral steroid, so she’s been much better. But my wife and I are wiped out. She’s very, very pregnant and I had been up late and up early for the last week, for both work and fun. Short version: took Friday off due to necessity, took care of Short Stack, but am still wiped out.

What that meant, though, was campaign prep. Thanks to some truly epic assistance from +Eric hil, I now know exactly how to get characters, NPCs and otherwise, into FG2. Along with fog of war, importing maps, some nifty waypoint stuff for movement, and a bunch of tokens.

I’m not ready yet, but I will be. He also introduced me to making “modules” in FG, so you can just preload and go from map to map to map, like a pre-prepared adventure.

Also doing a lot with the players. +Peter V. Dell’Orto will be playing a heavy weapons guy (and likely team lead). +Christopher R. Rice is the combat medic with a penchant for two-weapon hand-to-hand fighting. +Nathan Joy is going to be a scout/sniper with an XM500 as his “Muton go away” switch. +Tim Shorts has yet to report for duty, but I also have two 225-point NPCs ready to go for fire support, and can create more (the PCs are 275 points).

Standard gear will be a modified XM8 rifle setup. But chambered in a more impressive cartridge, and I’ve chosen the 6.8×43 SPC, largely because it does exactly 6d from a 16″ carbine, and can credibly be shortened to 12-13″ while losing only 1 point.

The game’s set two decades in the future, so I can more or less do what I want/need for equipment. Chose the XM8 largely for looks, I’ll admit, but I like the overall feel, and it’s something different.

I’ve got the team kitted out in high-quality body armor, but still TL8 stuff. Improvements in gear are part of the genre.

In addition to being a FG guru, Eric is also an artist, He took my basic cavern map that I’d done, and turned it into something special. Heh.

I’m not ready yet . . . but I’m getting closer.

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Lastly, this campaign has caused me to jot down a few other ideas for articles. And of course Peter and I have agreed to collaborate and contribute something to an issue of the Manor, which will be my first foray into publishing something D&D-esque.