Katalyst, I made reservations in January or February and You would have been welcome to join me. However, at present I don't have any means of communicating with You unless You initiate contact first. Have You gotten a new cell-phone?

Failing that, Skype.com only charges a few bucks a month for phone service over the Internet and there's always Facebook too...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmNlY_jwCsg&feature=related

check out Prince Laithoron in the Parade, beginning around 2 minutes and 34 seconds on the video

You know, the people at DragonCon first asked him to be in the parade with them, at a dance/costume contest down there....he didn't insinuate himself into the position, they met him and saw his outfit, weaponry, attitude, the works, and they asked him to be in the parade with them.

Anyways, wish I could have been there this year. 

For those of You who were left wanting by 4th Edition, this week at GenCon, Paizo (former publishers of Dragon and Dungeon magazines), released the public beta of their OGL-based Pathfinder Role Playing Game!

PfRPG is based on D&D 3.5 but aims to address some of 3.5's quirks while maintaining legacy compatibility with the vast library of OGL & 3.5 resources already in publication. The beta is a free download and has already gone thru 3 public alphas earlier this year. Playtesting has already commenced with the final handbook due in August of 2009.

I've decided to use PfRPG for my own upcoming campaign. For playtesting purposes we will be using point-buy for ability scores and static HP gains to cut down on the number of variables that need to be considered. Since optimizing even an Epic Fantasy point-buy is tricky, I created an MS Excel spreadsheet to help players figure out their ability scores. The spreadsheet is preset to 25 points, but this can be changed by unhiding the xPointBuy sheet and editing the number of points available.

And as the tears did well,
The DM spoke the words
And the players answered
The response of...

The Role-Player's Prayer^*

Gods of role, I call to You,
My dice are by my side,
I seek a grand adventure,
Free from railroad's ties.

I will roll the twenty,
With a hope for critcals,
Let my corpse be raised,
If saves should ever fail.

Ernest!
Gary!
Gygax!

Hail!
Hail!
.
.
.
HAIL!

* Inspired by Manowar: "Glory Majesty Unity"