Kickstarters I am following

I recently found Kickstarter and I have pledged to a few projects.  Two I am currently following:

The Mobile Tabletop RPG by HazzaH - They are working on creating a free app that allows people to use their phones to control a digital map of the fight.  I think this is a great step towards where my group would like to be.

Bones by Reaper - Cheap quality miniatures.  Who would have imagined??  The $100 pledge level gets you an amazing package.  Also, as they keep hitting their stretch goals, the package keeps growing.  Check them out!

DnD Next Playtesting

I am enjoying play testing the DnD Next material.  The characters are pregen-ed at this point and we are running through a great dungeon, The Caves of Chaos.

Pluses:

• The fighting has been slimmed down and does not take very long.  This could be due to the the low level characters or the mechanics.  In 4e, we could have fights that lasted forever so this is a plus in our group.
• The other mechanic we really, really like is Advantage and Disadvantage.  If I have an advantage in a round of combat, instead of getting +2 to whatever I roll, I get to roll 2d20 and keep the better roll.  For a disadvantage, I roll 2d20 and take the lower.  This is fantastic and really helps the characters not "waste a turn" on one bad roll.
• All of the participants really like the idea of Background and Theme to personalize their character.  You don't have another fighter.  Instead, you have a vengeful former soldier fighter who adds game mechanics based on those ideas.
• We have several players in our group who have never played anything except 4e.  They liked the pregenerated characters they could pick up and figure out without having to read a whole book.

Minuses:

• Some people missed the complexity of the 4e system (not even knowing the heights of complexity in 3.5).  I am fairly sure this can be added in with the modular idea, or even as the characters attain higher levels.
• Some missed minor actions, though as the DM I do not.  I never realized how much time was going into all those minor/marking/oh wait I forgot to add this damage 2 rounds ago.
• I think everyone misses action pts, though the advantage/disadvantage system is easier for me as the DM
• A HUGE gripe from the healer is that she has to give up her turn to heal someone.  She still wants to be in the fight and heal on the side.  Currently, that is not happening.

We played 4 weeks and then shifted over to Pathfinder.  We will probably playtest some more when more material comes out.

New Watch for my Birthday

With part of my birthday money from last week, I decided to buy a new watch.  I really like the large leather cuff style bands and I came across an online company, Nemesis, that makes watches with interchangeable bands.  They are really nice quality and I ordered this watch and an additional band.  They arrived 5 days later and I love them.  They have both men's and women's watches at very reasonable prices.  Check'em out!

Fire Breathing Ninjas!

 I registered for my first 5k obstacle course!  It also happens to be my first 5k.  The Austin 5k Foam Fest is this October and I will be running.  I am also cajoling several of my friends into running with me as a team.  I came up with the best name ever: Fire-Breathing Ninjas!  I tried google searching the name to find some good pics to go with the info and, would you believe, there are very few fire-breathing ninjas out there??  So I found a website that gave instructions on how to draw them with Adobe Illustrator.  Using the instructions I found on Blog Spoon Graphics, a free trial version of Adobe Illustrator, and ZERO experience with any of the above, I came up with this:

Dang it!  He looks great on a white background.  On the black, not so good.

I am pretty proud of the little guy!  Behold the Fire-Breathing Ninja of Doom!  Now, I just have to get him on a T-shirt for the race... oh, and keep training.  I am down 32 lbs. and I am able to jog 2 miles in 25 minutes.  I can get there by October...