Sunday, April 12, 2020

A Belated Happy Birthday!



On April 10th, 2020 Cross Planes turned eight and its been quite a ride. As usual, I'm running behind because here in Kentucky, we have a Social Distancing order, which means Comic Book World can do curbside pick-up and mail-order. At the beginning of this, my wife pointed out that now would be a good time to install the new Point of Sale system we've been looking at and upgrade our website and webstore. My response was, "Are you kidding me? Where are we going to find the time to do...oh, yeah, good idea." 

When it is done it should be excellent but these kinds of roll-outs take time especially when the developer is in New Zealand which is a day ahead of us and 2pm here is 7am there and we are switching from a glorious complete Mac environment to a Windows 10 machines.

Because of those projects I'm behind on this post and the A to Z Challenge.

Eight years. I didn't have any clue I'd still be doing these posts (though at a much slower pace) in 2020. Oh, by the way, Fuck 2020.

A lot has happened in those eight years. I've had a daughter, buried my Dad, moved my Mom in with us. Found three really great RPG groups, had a nervous breakdown, homeschooled our Son through high school and into being an Engineering undergrad (my wife should get most of that credit), published some vanity projects, and gotten older but hopefully a bit wiser.

I have no idea what 2028 will hold...I mean, Krakatoa erupted two days ago...Fuck 2020 (its only May)! But I hope we are all here to do this again.

I don't know if I'll finish the A to Z Challenge this year. I used to love it, but that was a younger more naive version of me and I'm just not feeling it. But back in 2012, it was just what I needed to start this thing moving.

Since we are under Social Distancing my 2d20 Playtest game wrapped and that group is now playing a sequel to the Vampire: Masquerade 5th Edition game online (though I haven't made the first two sessions). 

Our Friday DM wasn't sure about using Roll20 so I started a 10th level D&D 5th Edition game and we just wrapped up our third session. It's going pretty well and last session tentacles from a rift "surrounded by chaotic energy" abducted Istus, the Greyhawk Goddes of Fate, whom the players had Called before closing. Its a long story. I'll get to it soon, I promise. I will say that the campaign is based on a Savage World Campaign I've wanted to run for nearly two decades.

Meanwhile, I've reconnected with some old friends, Mikey, Mark, Jackie, and Jayson (and I might even get my wife to play) and we are playing a D&D 5E game that started at 1st level and we have our second session this Monday. The first session was great as the players chose diplomacy over fighting in every encounter. I'll get to sharing that eventually, as well.

I've learned quite a bit about Roll20 and like it, but one of my players is trying to get me to give Fantasy Grounds a spin. If you've played on both or prefer one over the other please leave a comment as I'd love to hear from you.

I'm going to take a moment to toot my own horn. As of today, Cross Planes has over 1.7 million views! I never, in my wildest dreams, thought I'd reach that milestone. So thank you, all of you, for putting up with me and checking in on me.

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