We walked past this pub today while wandering the City of London. It's in a ridiculous building made of candy-coloured blocks but check out the much cooler green-grey marble and black wrought iron one behind.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Tags: architecture, via ljapp
Current Location: London Bridge, London, UK

World of Parsantium: updated map

Tags: maps, new campaign, parsantium

On Christmas Day morning I got an extra surprise present in my inbox - the final 4e version of Halls of the Mountain King.

This massive adventure, designed for characters of levels 8 to 12, was nearly a year in the making - I think the first posts about it went up on the Open Design LJ page on New Year's Day. After I signed up, there was a vote to determine which edition the adventure would support - the vote went in favour of 3.5/OGL but some of the patrons including me offered to help covert the adventure to 4e. At the time, this sounded quite straightforward - I don't think any of us realised that this would involve rewriting many encounters to fit the new rules rather than just providing alternative stats. The finished adventure is excellent with a great story and lots of exciting episodes.

My involvement was pretty small - I wrote up some new 4e monster stat blocks and hazards for Chapters 1, 4 & 5 - but it seems wrong not to run this one for at least one of the two Parsantium campaign groups. What I need to do is find a way of connecting this adventure to the main storyline, the characters or, preferably, both. The Ironcrags are a long way from Parsantium but I'm sure there's a way to make things work... I think the players will really enjoy this one.

Tags: 4e, open design
Current Mood: sleepy

Spike wearing his Christmas hat

Tags: christmas
Current Mood: geeky

A couple of days ago walking down Markhouse Road in Walthamstow, I chanced upon a cortege advancing slowly up the road with a long queue forming behind - slowly, because the funerla party were preceded on foot by a small Sally Ann band playing "The Old Rugged Cross" (I think). No pics, I fear, as I had no camera with me and, well, it would have been a touch disrepectful anyway. As it was, I felt that I should have been wearing a hat just so I could take it off.

Then on Wednesday I had been doing some last minute Xmas shopping in Islington (at, Richard will be glad to know, Waterstones) and was walking up Essex Road to catch a 56. I had to swerve slightly to avoid a van reversing carelessly on to the pavement, and was bumped by a young black man jogging past on the inside. He didn't stop and I was just thinking vaguely that he was a bit of a twat, when he ran out into the road about forty yards further on, kicked out the left side rear light cluster of a black Audi stopped at lights, then jogged off into a nearby alley - though he continued to lurk rather than running away completely. The Audi, despite the driver behind flashing his lights, headed off apparently oblivious. The attacker then headed off down the alley, having seemingly been waiting in case he got the chance of a confrontation.... I think I may have missed the first half of this encounter!

Anyway, happy Xmas and goodwill to all men. Don't kick out any one's lights. And don't as I did yesterday, slice open the end of your left thumb cutting peppers. Ow.

Current Location: St Ives, Cambridgeshire

Last stop on our SW USA trip was Vegas, baby. We'd been there last year but felt we hadn't had long enough to look round, do a bit of gambling and generally experience the madness. This time we had a day and a half so we had time for a lovely dinner at Olives at the Bellagio and to go and see Love, the Beatles-themed Cirque du Soleil show. We also lost $50 on roulette very quickly and immediately decided not to carry on gambling.

These pictures were taken with kb98 's new SLR camera and are some of the first night-time scenes we've been able to take without (too much) blurriness. The last picture is an animated tree from the bonkers conservatory inside the Bellagio.

     
   

Tags: holiday, usa, vegas
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: The Last Shadow Puppets - My Mistakes Were Made for You | Powered by Last.fm

Penultimate post of photos from our Southwest trip From Canyon de Chelly, we headed back into New Mexico to Albuquerque via Zuni and Acoma pueblos. There was nothing to see at Zuni - we went there to shop for Zuni fetish necklaces but these were way out of our price range - but Acoma was amazing. High on a windswept mesa, we went on a fascinating tour of the adobe village with fantastic views of the valley below:

         

photos by kb98 & me

Tags: holiday, new mexico, usa
Current Mood: groggy