Monte Cook discusses how the d20 industry has responded to D&D 3.5 in his latest Line of Sight column. i haven't been keeping up with the gaming biz lately, so it was nice to stumble over this sort of "state of the union" column from a leading game designer.

one point that really resonates with me is that there continues to be only a small niche market for adventures. this has always frustrated me - how many gamers can there be who have the ongoing free time needed to sustain an entire campaign on homebrew adventures? my guess is that most people are satisfied with working from chicken scratch maps, outlines and rough notes, whereas i prefer publication quality maps, descriptions, art, and adventure design. i certainly don't have the necessary creative or artistic talent to create professional adventures, let alone the time, so i'm happy to pay publishers. it appears that i am part of a small minority that is not growing over time, tho, so i guess i will forever have to settle for campaigns designed around a mish-mash of Necromancer Games mods, Dungeon Magazine adventures, and converted Greyhawk classics - or else learn to love my own rushed, inferior work, and hope it satisfies my players too.

should resorting to my own work be an unfortunate necessity, one thing that might help improve the quality is Dundjinni, a new map creation and adventure authoring tool from Fluid Entertainment. one of the nicest features is "stat packs", which presumably automates the tedious process of creating stat blocks for monsters and NPCs. the shipping product will include stat packs for the SRD and a few third party products (including Malhavoc's stuff). i hope that the tool will be sophisticated enough to apply templates and advancements and that Fluid will establish relationships with Wizards of the Coast and other leading publishers to provide stat packs for their settings and accessories. if so, or even if they simply provide a facility for importing custom stat packs, i will definitely give the tool a shot.

Elly dug up this horrendous photo of, what was it, the last night of Olivia's visit to SF in 2000? possibly one of the ugliest pictures ever taken, for all involved. and yet i'm quite fond of it.

dreamed about going back to school last night. one memorable moment involved humping Frances McDormand, a chemistry teacher. waking up, it was all so simple - the club thing happened so that i'd have time to go back and finish school. duh! so now i'm digging through course catalogs and fields of study at various East Bay community colleges. who knows. a few calculus refreshers, some basic comp sci, and maybe i can beg Berkeley to let me in.

i know i was in a rage before, but today things seem to be looking up. we're making good progress on the Massive project at work. i've finally started doing some concrete planning for the move; looks like i'll stick around in Brooklyn for most of June, then drive to Columbus for Origins, and finally fly out to Oakland, arriving the day before the club opens. i'm very much looking forward to a sunny SF summer and hope to spend as much of it as possible hiking in Marin - and maybe even finally learning how to ride a bike.

anybody want to share a house with me in Oakland or Berkeley? i'm a great roommate, very organized and clean. references will be provided on request.

went to the Roseland to see Lacuna Coil open for POD. the web site said they'd be playing third, just before the headliner. got there at 9pm. some Christian metal band was playing. tho they were surprisingly good, they were not Lacuna Coil. weak.

by the time that band had left the stage, i figured out that i had shit the bed by having dinner before going to the show. but i had spent $25, so i figured i'd wait the half hour until POD came on, just to see what they were like. as expected, they were absolutely awful. dissing a band for looking like frat boys and rapping their metal is not particularly imaginative, but then, neither is that band. you know, if you're not gonna sing your lyrics, maybe listen to some Rollins Band and take lessons in how to correctly not sing.

so, i missed this amazing band which was apparently relegated to the 8pm slot (which must be humiliating after having just toured by yourself for months and months) and wasted hours of my life on public transport, only to be subjected to too-loud poop metal. in a rage, i went home and spent piles of money at Aquarius. here's what i got:

DER BLUTHARSCH Time Is Thee Enemy!
BOTHER, THE The Night Bleeds Gold
CROSS, DAVID It's Not Funny
MAGNETIC FIELDS i
BETA BAND Heroes To Zeroes
FINNTROLL Nattfodd
MARK, CAROLYN The Pros And Cons Of Collaboration
MIRAH C'mon Miracle
RAUHOUSE, JON Steel Guitar Rodeo
WOLF Evil Star
YOUNG & SEXY Life Through One Speaker
SLOAN Action Pact
FANCEY (TODD) s/t
KHOLD Morke Gravers Kammer
LOS NATAS Toba-Trance II
MEADS OF ASPHODEL Exhuming The Grave Of Yeshua
MIRAH WITH THE BLACK CAT ORCHESTRA To All We Stretch The Open Arm
OBSESSED, THE Incarnate
YOUNG & SEXY Stand Up For Your Mother

the list is heavy with 1) indie pop/rock and 2) pseudo-metal. some good scary serial killer d&d music in there. i'm dirt poor but hey, i worked 9 hrs today, i deserve a reward.

well, barring any unforeseen circumstances, i'll be heading to oakland the second weekend of june to start at the club. quite sad to be leaving my new york posse, but looking forward to breaking out of the last year's holding pattern. i have let a lot of opportunities slip by over the years, and it's high time to get excited about something.

highlights of my brooklyn experience:

* sharing a gorgeous house with my best pal and a big fat cute furry shedding everywhere fat cat

* closing out the great lakes with pete, night after night - cheers to meg, julie, kit, kevin, liz, ray, and all the rest

* nick's birthday party at siberia with the viking horned helmet

* tamara and oliver's birthday party with the naked people art installation

* hearing sepultura for the first time via concert dvd on easter night with simon, linnea, shelly, peter, and many others

* weekly d&d sessions with creighton, rebbie, pinky, and dammit

thanks y'all for a super winter and spring. i will save seats at the mile high and at zeitgeist for each and every one. y'all will be following me back soon enough, i guarantee- i've tried to leave twice now!

i have the opportunity to move back to the bay area and work for my friend lisa who's opening a club in oakland. i've been excited about her project ever since i first heard about it months ago and offered back then to come back and contribute in exactly this way. i feel a rush as if i'd chugged two liters of jolt in one gulp.

it's not an easy decision to make. i'd planned to stay in new york until the autumn at least and have committed to a couple of freelance software projects here; taking this opportunity in oakland would mean not following through on those commitments. plus, having not worked for the last couple months, my cash reserves are very low. i'm not sure how i would afford moving and getting a new place. and then i'd have to sublet my current place - dunno how my roommate would feel about that.

i'm leaning towards accepting the challenge. i've pissed and moaned for years about wanting to become involved in music, film, comics or some other creative area that will have me jumping out of bed in the morning ready to have fun and make something happen. more than that even, i'd like nothing better than to help a friend be successful and support the community. doing my bit so y'all can have fun and blow off steam from your soul sucking day jobs.

what do y'all think? is tuggy jonez gonna have to choke a bitch?

ps: i have turned comments back on. i don't care that the comment pages don't look like the rest of the pages. i can't be fucked to edit the templates. deal.

pps: after running across this girl steph's blog via allison's blog, i want to hear scarlet begonias. what the fuck happened to all those dead cds i had in college? i guess i threw them out with my tevas.

ppps: i saw metric at irving plaza last night with oliver and elly. woah! #1 hot shit band of the year!

[12:10] <bcm> i hereby vow not to have another drink until 8/1/04
[12:10] <bcm> so let it be written so let it be done

this Salon article discusses a disturbing recent trend towards equating anti-Israel feeling with anti-Semitism. yikes. one of the sources quoted draws a distinction between "political outrage" and "bigotry", which seems self-evident and unarguable. and yet, as the article points out, for some (many?), to be Jewish is to support the Israeli regime's policies. i'm southern redneck trash, and there's nothing in my upbringing which helps me identify with that idea. maybe my Jewish friends can help me understand?