And now for an actual update... (Long Post)

Things have been chaotic lately, Marc, a good buddy has left the group thinking from what I can tell he thinks I hate him. We can get more into that later. Its Easter vacation for me (finally) so now I will have time to post some stuff on the blog.

Campaign Setting, during my campaign I have been using a generic setting. FOr the better or worst I have decided to use an actual campaign world. I looked through forgotten realms and it was... meh. Alright, but I have played through forgotten realms before. Its alright, but nothing extraordinary, I liked some of the ideas butcome to think of it most games already run Forgotten Realms for RPGA. I searched the net for the world and then I discovered Eberron. Now Eberron caught my intrest due to some intresting ideas. I can give up a link that gives you a good feel and history of Eberron overall, althrough it is rather breif. This motivational poster does give a good summary of all possiblities with Eberron. Ok maybe not so much, but I like a lot of the ideas.









Next order of bussiness, devoloping characters. All characters have motives and reason why they are doing what they are doing. The follwing is taken by a good post by Oakspar77777:
characters or often refered to as being drawn from the "concept up" or "story up". Concept would be "I want to be an archer type character" or "I want to be a mage focues on electricity spells". The mechanics are worked out, and a backstory is created to flesh out WHY the character wants to be that. Story would start with the character's story and lets the mechanics be dictated by that story. This usually results in weaker, less synergistic characters. Some would say that this is an extension of power gaming or roll vs role playing, but I would disagree. The real key is having a full developed character, since even the most story based of characters are usually created with some background decisions already made, such as martial, aux, divine, or arcane based character.

That said, a fully developed character should have all of the following before the campaign begins:

Gender - Duh
Race - Duh again
Class - Tripel duh
Appearance - Elf female is not an appearance. A green eyed elven female with shiney brown hair and a stout build for her race, wearing a deep purple hooded cloak and the brown leather work outfits common to most northern villages IS an appearance.
Origin - Your character needs to come from somewhere (or have a distinct reason for why he does not know where he came from).
Background - Where you came from is not everything about you. Why are you still not there? What are your relation to that area? What, if any, adventuring caree have you already had? Where are your parants and family? Do you have any friends?
Insertion - Each character MUST have a reason for being where they are in the campaign world. This is much harder with a larger group or even a small group with major regional or ethnic difference (ie, a Halfling from the Southling Swamp, a Human Monk from the far north land of Ishgar, an elf from Syvanistad in the east, and a northland half-orc barbarian originate thousands of miles from each other).
Motivations - Why is your character adventuring?
Goals - What does your character want to acomplish? (these last two are super important for DMs to know. If you want your character to be a Paladin out doing good while seeking to avenge the death of his father at the hands of the Blackguard(Evil Paladin) who murdered him, you have a motivation that will help the DM build story and adventures. If you let your DM know that you hope for your character to slowly grow more obsesced with revenge, rather that vengence, you DM can plan for your eventual goal of becomeing a Blackguard yourself and timing it with the eventual slaying of your father's murderer.
Personality - How will your character relate with other characters? Chiper? Gloomy? Moody? Morose? Happy? Energetic? Lethargic? etc

-end of quote-

I think this gives a good idea what should be done with a character. A character should'nt just be a bunch of numbers and powers on a sheet.

Next thing: Recently Marc, seems to have left his group. One day he wrote me asking me if I kicked him off the blog, the following part aka subscribing. Now me not really messing around with that kind of stuff (Hell I don't even know thats pssibele). So I simply replyed "No." He then asked for an explanation, then sent this email before I had a chance to respond, I quote:
"Paul,

1. no gas money after i offered to take a pal home, way outta the way
2. asked to mooch my paid subscription
3. booted me from your blog

did i do something? i know i continually encouraged you, backed your efforts as gm, brought & kept guys at your table, and made characters on my own time for you. i thought i'd make some friends and enjoy some gaming at game theory.

thinking you, Paul, have really ruined my experience there."

I then responded with this email:
"I didn't do anything I swear. Honestly. I didn't kick you from my blog, hell I really haven't done anything Honest swear-to-god. One day, not sure when, it no longer showed your name, I thought you just canceled your subscription/following. Did a message appear telling you I kicked you or something? Because I have sorta of forgotten about the blog. I am grateful for all the things you have done for both me and our group. My only guess, is Google's servers glitched out. Your an awesome player, all the favors you have provided for me, Would I repay you by simply booting you? I would of never done that; That would be both cruel and cold hearted. When I asked what you what I owned you simply said a Reese's cup, I thought that was a bit too cheap but I agreed. The subsciption, I just figured it was worth a try, my persitence, I can say I was tired of staring at all the shiney untouchable dragon articles. Tell me how much really money I owe you for gas, I can pay you next week. I am just as suprised as you are, with this whole blog thing. You may not believe me, but honestly I did nothing with this whole incident. It probaly would of been avoided if I asked you a week or so why you stop following my blog, but I assume you checked. "Weird shit happens" is the only justification I can make. I appologize for this incident, and I hope I didnt ruin you experience, and our friendship. I wrote this email close to midnight so excuss my lack of grammar and spelling.

-Paul"

Of course, he doesnt respond after this, which makes me rather both sad and frustrated. I have lost a friend over a stupid siatution. I guess its my fault and I do appologize. Marc if you are reading this, I hope you forgive me and find a better gaming group, good luck and I hope you find a better one in comparasion to some 15 year old's game. However if you want to comeback you are more then welcome to, the decesion is yours. I honestly didn't cancel you from following. The others I guess were my fault. All this has made me feel like I am banging my head against the wall in frustration.