I'm currently listening to the new Xenogears album from OCRemix: Humans + Gears. 33 tracks, half acoustic, half techno, 110% awesome. I won't be able to listen to the entire thing tonight, but this is some good stuff. Brings back relatively distant memories of the first game I approached philosophically and academically (which proved to be the most rewarding, and has since proved to be a rewarding approach to some other games). A lot of things happened in my life in the 4 months it took me to finish it (total game time: exactly 3 days). I realize now that a lot of the themes actually inspired the themes in my D&D campaign. Not entirely of course, seeing as I have to cater to the system (but if all the heroes were martial or even primal, it would actually be incredibly easy to change the setting to my liking...instead we have no primal heroes and we have 2 arcane, 2 divine, and 2 martial). The most obvious of course is my choice to name the world Ethos.
Speaking of the campaign, I think I may have slipped a bit last week. I felt like I wasn't doing as well...I over-prepared and thought it was risky to improvise any more vital information. But I think everyone still had fun. This is also the first session I've ever been a part of that didn't have a single combat encounter. There was some challenging terrain and projectile rubble, and a stealthy maneuver, but no actual combat. I think some of the players like it that way, but I also felt as if the session overall wasn't as enjoyable as the last. Then again our group hasn't been perfectly attendant since the first session. And that really has to change. ~Staibdude of course, has been to every session so far. And so has our host, and our materials supplier. Which is good.
There is one new character confirmed for the party, which will take the place of a player after he moves away. Sir Jack Falstaff, the Gnome Bard (Virtue of Cunning). There's also someone else who at some point expressed brief interest in playing as an Artificer and then dismissed the idea altogether.
Looking forward to this week's session (if it happens, that is). It'll be a HORROR-THEMED ADVENTURE. *dramatic chord*