Catalyst Castle

I just got some new Star Wars Miniatures the other day. Wizards of the Coast just released a new set for the game called The Clone Wars. The set includes 40 new miniatures of characters from the time period of the clone wars, including new-comer Ahsoka Tano!

WotC is reducing the size of SWM sets from 60 figures to 40 figures, and this was the first set to use the new format. It certainly made collecting all of the new figures a lot easier and a little less expensive. Having less figures in a set also means that they could spend more time and budget on the sculpt and paint job for each of the figures, so the overall quality of the figures has improved somewhat.

I haven't been able to play with any of the new pieces yet, but looking over their statistics I know that a few of them will be new favorites. Captain Rex has some crazy abilities that allow him to move and shoot 4 times in the same turn, which is incredibly good. The Star Corps Trooper is a new clone trooper variant that isn't incredibly powerful, but he has a neat combination of abilities that would make him fun to play with. It's the type of piece that, if played smart, could be very effective.

The starter box for this set also included 2 new play maps that are both very attractive looking and present interesting tactical challenges.

This is a post to consider my activities over the past month, and identify trends in how I spend my time. My idea was to do this after 4 weeks, but I accidentally let a 5th week slip by.

Here are the top 10 activities I spent the most time on in the last 5 weeks:

1. Sleeping
2. Work
3. Theocratic Activities
4. Reading
5. Movies/Shows
6. RPG Preparation
7. Housework
8. Card/Board Games
9. RPG Play
10. Blog/Wiki

A few observations about those:

I'd like it if I could have RPG Prep time no greater than RPG play time. Doing so requires that I get more efficient and more disciplined about how I prep, and not over-prep. I have a feeling that I'll never get this where I want to though because, honestly, I like fiddling with RPG systems, building character stats, and detailing story ideas.

I was surprised how much time I spent on housework, because it never feels like I spend that much time on it. I guess that's good though. I suppose that it's spread out enough that I don't really feel like it imposes on my life.

It's a shame that writing doesn't even appear in my top 10 activities, because I enjoy it so much. Actually it's been hard to write with family visiting, because more activity in the house makes it harder to concentrate on writing. Not that I'm in a hurry to get rid of them, but hopefully my writing will increase when my family has finished their visit.


Now, the whole purpose of logging my time was so that I could see how I was using it and make adjustments where necessary. So here is a summary of some of the adjustments I've made over the last 5 weeks. The first week my theocratic activities only tied for 3rd place with reading. This past week they were firmly in 3rd place, with reading in 4th. My time spent reading has varied from one week to another, but overall it hasn't decreased much. So, I've actually been able to increase my theocratic activities. Work has been picking up, so I'm spending more time on that than I was 5 weeks ago, and my housekeeping has increased slightly. Other than that, not much has changed, at least not drastically.


So, what now? Over the next few weeks I'd like to continue raising my theocratic activities by maintaining and increasing my spiritual routine, especially in the areas of personal study and field service. Thanks reading my weekly time logs. I encourage everyone to try keeping a similar log. You'll be amazed how it can effect your productivity.

This post is coming a little late because I've been busy. Here's my report for last week. It wasn't as great as the previous week, but it was OK.

The biggest disappointment was that I didn't get out in service at all. Also, I missed 1 day of personal study. My theocratic activities still held third place amongst all of my activities though, right after sleeping and work. Reading was a pretty close fourth, and movies/shows and housework tied for fifth.

While I did miss service last week, I guess I can still be happy that, overall, I didn't let my spiritual activities drop below third place. That means I spent more time on personal study and meeting preparation to make up for it. I'm not entirely sure why I missed service both Thursday and Saturday, but I suppose a big factor might be my sleeping schedule. Sleep has been a bit erratic for me lately.

My brother Brian and his wife Cherie finished their visit last week, however, and my brother David will be leaving tomorrow. While I enjoy their company, I know that their presence disrupted my schedule somewhat. Hopefully things will begin to stabilize more soon.

In the coming weeks I need to refocus on service and personal study in order to keep up my spiritual routine.

Here are a few more words of wisdom I wanted to share. This time they are taken from the Lord of the Rings novels by J. R. R. Tolkien.

"'I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo.
'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'"

-The Fellowship of the Ring

I really like this thought. No one, if given the choice, would choose to face the kinds of problems and challenges that we deal with on a daily basis. Oftentimes, we can do little to control the circumstances we live in or to prevent bad things from happening to us or around us. What we can control, however, is how we react to them. A man's (or woman's) character can often be judged by how they react to adversity.

"Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the very wise cannot see all ends."

-Gandalf, The Fellowship of the Ring

The above is good council not to judge others to harshly. We cannot see every aspect of any situation, and many people get judged wrongly by short-sighted people. I wouldn't want to be guilty of committing such an injustice. Actually, that's something I have trouble with. Sometimes I can be quick to judge, or see things in stark black and white when I could be more understanding.

Please share your thoughts on the quotes above. Are their any book or movie lines that mean a lot to you?

Gareth and I missed playing "Times Forgotten" campaign of the Mutants and Masterminds RPG last week, but we finally played out Issue #3 this morning. Issue #3 will be called "Battle in the Web of Darkness" because that's pretty much what it was about. It was a fairly short game, and it basically involved just a single fight scene.


In the last issue, Claas and Lynn were exploring the dungeons underneath Kingstown's massive cathedral. Issue #2 ended with them opening a door into a darker section of the dungeons where the ceilings, walls, and floor were covered in giant black spider webs. As Issue #3 begins, Claas and Lynn delve further into the darkness. Eventually they reach a place where the corridor splits. To the left, they hear the sounds of someone crying out. To the right, they hear the sounds of heavy machinery operating some ways away.

Claas and Lynn choose to go left, looking for Lynn's brother Larry. After traveling down another corridor, they arrive at a large open chamber. Pillars support a high ceiling. Across from the entrance they came in through there is another passageway, and there is a tunnel leading upwards through the ceiling. The chamber is covered in the same dark webs as the corridors, and littered with various medieval torture devices. On the far side of the room they spot Larry. His arms and legs are chained and he's held in a large water tank, with only his head above the water. The water boils around him as he tries in vain to use his powers, and he calls out for help.

Lynn immediately rushes to her brother's aid, but Claas takes a more careful approach, hiding behind a pillar and examining the chamber more carefully. He spots a shadowy figure descending through the tunnel in the ceiling, creeping along the dark spider webs. Claas grabs a couple of torches of the walls and uses his time-slowing run to move along the edges of the chamber, setting fire to the webs on the walls as he goes. Battle quickly ensues, as the shadowy figure on the ceiling moves towards Lynn and Larry, and three hounds come charging out of the other entrance to attack the intruders.

The shadowy figure can soon be identified as a man in black robes, bearing the same symbol that has been seen all over the cathedral, and also appears as the pendant on the necklace Claas wears. From his perch on the ceiling, this mysterious villain begins spraying black webbing at Lynn and Larry, threatening to entangle them. As Lynn struggles against the webbing to release her brother from the water tank, the man drops from the ceiling to inflict a venomous bite on her.

Meanwhile, the hounds chase Claas around the chamber until he comes to Lynn and Larry's aid. Lynn manages to drain the water from the tank Larry is in, allowing him to use his fiery powers. He begins hurling balls of fire at the hounds and their master, and engulfs his body in flames, frightening one of the hounds away. While Claas battles with the spidery villain, his fist begins to crackle with blue energy again. A final blow knocks the man prone, rendering him unconscious and dying with blue energy crackling across his chest where he received the hit.

Claas says that he believes there is more going on in this cathedral than is obvious, and wants to investigate things further, but Lynn and Larry just want to return to their own time. They begin to retreat towards the entrance. To be continued...


So, as you can see, the game basically consisted of one big boss battle. I was pleased that, in spite of this, Gareth said he still didn't get bored. I always worry that combat might become drawn out, but Gareth made things interesting by finding creative things for his character to do in combat. The only thing that disappointed me a little, was that I gave Gareth an opportunity to discover another one of Claas' powers, but he let the opportunity slip by. Oh well, all of his powers will come out eventually, it's just a matter of time.

I have to say that I'm a bit frustrated with how some of the characters' powers work in Mutants and Masterminds. Some of them just seem needlessly complicated. One power, for example, requires that the person using it roll to see if they aimed properly, then the target character must roll to see if they can minimize they effects of the power, and then the target character rolls again to see how much damage they take. It's hard to remember all of that. I practically need a flowchart just to make sense of it, and it seems like it ought to be able to be reduced to just a single die roll. Probably between now and the next time we play, I'll try to see if I can rework some of the powers so that they're more streamlined in how they function.

It started out very innocently. I've been reading the rulebook for an RPG called Primetime Adventures. It is a game where a group of friends get together and roleplay the events of a make-believe television show. It looks like a fun game, and I'd love to play it some time.

However, reading the book also got me thinking about ideas for a television show, and also got me thinking about what makes entertaining television. Meanwhile, my day job doesn't require a whole lot of thought process to carry out, so I found myself thinking about ideas for shows while I worked. A few days ago, I hit on an idea that instantly caused an imaginative explosion inside my head. The more I think on the idea, the more possibilities for entertaining stories pop into my head. I believe I've hit on an idea that has huge potential. It makes me want to quit my day job so I can write this series. I doubt that will ever happen, but I'd still like to write some of the stories this idea brings to mind in my spare time.

I don't want to say too much about my idea yet, as I'm still working out the details. For now I'll just say this: It's a character-driven drama disguised as a sci-fi action series. It involves aliens, superheroes, and an apocalypse - combining those elements in a way that I think will be unique and compelling, while not treading too closely to already existing shows like Heroes or Smallville.

I'll post more about this idea as I continue to develop it.

I'm starting a new regular column in my blog called "Words to Live By". The purpose of this column is to share words of wisdom from various sources that have significant meaning to me. Sometimes it will be serious, and sometimes humorous. For this first edition of the column, I wanted to share some thoughts from my recent Bible reading.

"That YOU should put away the old personality which conforms to YOUR former course of conduct and which is being corrupted according to his deceptive desires; but that YOU should be made new in the force actuating YOUR mind, and should put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty."

-Ephesians 4:22-24

Here the apostle Paul was talking about being made into a new person who would be pleasing to God. It's easy to get bogged down in negativity, thinking that you could never please God. This scripture makes me realize that we can change our personality to eliminate flaws and undesirable traits, even to the point of changing how we think. Furthermore, God is the one who creates our new personality. This tells me that He wants to help us make those changes. Also, God creates this new personality, tailor made for each one of us. Putting on the new personality does not mean that we lose our individuality, it just means that we become a better version of ourselves.

"So keep strict watch that how YOU walk is not as unwise but as wise [persons], buying out the opportune time for yourselves, because the days are wicked."

-Ephesians 5:15, 16

Yeah, this one's been on my mind quite a bit lately. Knowing that we are living in the last days of this system of things, it's important that we pay attention to how we use our time. I've been doing this through my weekly time logs. I strongly recommend to anyone that they try logging how they spend their time for a few weeks. It really makes you aware of your strengths and weaknesses in time management, and empowers you to make improvements.


What about you? Please share your thoughts on the quotes above, or share some of your own favorite words to live by.

This post is coming a little late, but I just haven't had a chance to do any blogging lately, mostly due to visiting family.

Last week was GREAT. Once again, I managed to put my theocratic activities firmly in third place (after sleeping and work), and I met a couple of other goals which included getting out in field service twice and doing some personal study each day.

Here are a few more observations:

Sleep was very irregular last week. I still got a little more than 50 hours of sleep through out the week, but it was like, 6 hours two days in a row, and then 10 hours, and then 5 and a half, etc. I'm not sure what that means, it's just an observation.

Reading was a big activity last week with 13 hours devoted to it. That's quite a bit of time, but since my theocratic activities went so well I'm not too worried about it. I'm finding that a big part of balancing my schedule is just making sure I get spiritual activities done instead of putting them off while I waste time, rather than cutting back on anything in particular.

One sad note about last week is that I got no role playing in all week. Oh well. I still had a lot of fun doing stuff with my family.

I haven't posted in a while, but I decided to make some comments on this television season so far.

Heroes is definitely going strong. The last episode was another good entry in the series. Arthur Petrelli is shaping up to be a fine villain, and I can't wait to see how this story continues to progress.

The Big Bang Theory continues to amuse. It seems like they've been focusing on Sheldon quite a bit lately. He's my favorite character on the show, so that's a win for me.

I haven't watched The Office in about 3 weeks now, and I don't think I'll bother to. Unfortunately, that show seems to have lost most of its humor now, and the little story-arcs with some of the characters are no longer interesting enough to keep me involved.

Recently I've gotten little bits of the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars cartoon. You can find brief video summaries of all of the episodes so far, and a couple of complete episodes, on Cartoon Network's website. It seems like a really engaging show, and a worthy follow-up to the animated movie. I hope I get a chance to see more full episodes of this series. I think it's a fresh take on Star Wars that really breaths some new life into the franchise.

After watching Heroes last night I feel that once again Peter and Sylar are the stars of the show. Making them brothers introduces an interesting dynamic to their rivalry. Now that Peter has acquired Sylar's power he is also manifesting "the hunger" that Sylar exhibits. While this makes for an interesting development, I'm actually far more interested in where Sylar might be headed. I love the irony in his character right now. Is he really trying to turn over a new leaf, or is he just putting on a good show? His actions would seem to indicate that he's really trying to impove, but then he turns around and does/says something that makes you wonder.

Speaking of the Petrellis, I wonder if Nathan's discovery of his powers being synthetic will cause him to become distanced from Peter. Of course, I'm assuming that Peter and Sylar came by their powers naturally. Maybe we'll learn otherwise later.

I liked what I've seen of Arthur Petrelli so far. The way they're portraying him reminds me of a true villian mastermind. He seems so vulnerable confined to a bed, and yet someone as powerful as Maury Parkman acts as his toady to carry out his plans. I suspect that he'll soon be healed, probably by Adam's blood, so that he can be up and moving around. It was said in the first season that Arthur commited suicide, but that obviously isn't true. I wonder what the story behind that is.

Overall, I liked last night's episode pretty well. Other than a small slip by the writers, forgetting that Sylar has super-hearing, it was a pretty well writen story. I'm looking forward to next week.

Another week is gone, and I've logged my hours once more. Here's my top 5 time spenders:

1. Sleeping
2. Work
3. All Theocratic Activities Combined
   
4. Reading
5. RPG Prep

Work moved back up to second place. My work should continue to increase over the next couple of months and then suddenly drop after the first of the year. That's when I'll be looking for a new job. My theocratic activities moved up to third place, which is right where I want them. Though I would still like to increase my time spent on service and personal study. Reading moved back up into the top five, while RPG Prep slipped from second place to fifth.

Those are the highlights. I had 42.5 hours unaccounted for last week, which is 1 less than the week before. Maybe I'll be able to continue whittling that time down, and thus become more productive.

Overall, I'm not too disappointed with my activities this past week, though I am planning on making a few adjustments to my schedule in order to increase my theocratic activities even more.

Gareth and I played our "Times Forgotten" campaign again today. I'm calling issue #2 "Inquisition". We picked up exactly where issue #1 ended; with Gareth's character Claas waking up in a medieval-looking room 1000 years in the past. As a reminder, this game isn't taking place in our world. It's an earth-like universe with its own history, though the progression of civilization in this world more-or-less resembles our own. Issue #2 seemed a little bit slower than #1, but I still had fun.


Claas woke up in a medieval-looking room 1000 years in the past. He's laying in a bed with a blanket thrown over him. No one else is there. Claas gets out of bed and opens a door that leads to another room. As soon as he does, his vision warps and he sees a medieval/renaissance-looking kitchen. The young woman and man that fought in the college gym are sitting at the table eating soup. A moment later, his vision returns to normal and the two people disappear, replaced by the same kitchen and an older man with long grey hair and old-timey spectacles.

The older man introduces himself as Prof. Christopher Parkas, and explains that he is the headmaster of the Great University here in Kingstown. He informs Claas that Claas and the other two appeared nearby an hour ago. He brought them back to his house on the campus of the university. The other two had woken up earlier, and after he fed them, they got into an argument and left. Claas says that he's going to go after them, but Prof. Parkas warns him to be careful. Knights of the Church are prowling the streets as agents of an inquisition against people who are "gifted". Parkas explains that the church feels that super-powers come from one of two sources. Those who serve the Church receive their gifts from god, but anyone else is guilty of practicing black magic. Claas asks Parkas where he thinks such gifts come from. Parkas is a renaissance man and says he believes there must be some scientific explanation for such powers.

Claas tells Parkas he'll be careful, and then leaves his house to pursue the other two. As he leaves the small building, his vision warps again, and he witnesses the young man and woman arguing in the street. The young red-headed man throws fire at the woman, before going his way. Then, Claas' vision returns to normal and he finds that the street is empty of people. It's the middle of the night, and everyone is shut in. Claas wanders off, looking for the other two people who traveled here from the present. The town is built entirely in an old renaissance era style, with coble-stone streets and oil lamps burning at roadside. In the distance, Claas spots a massive cathedral looming over the cityscape. Claas leaves the university campus and seeks out anyone who might be able to help him. Eventually he spots a beggar man and asks him about the presence of "gifted" people. The beggar informs him that those gifted by god serve at the cathedral, but he seems superstitiously reluctant to talk about those gifted by the devil.

As Claas continues to wander, he discovers a large iron building under guard. What looks like train rails can be seen passing through the building. When he asks the guards about it, one of them informs him that this is the Royal Steam Coach Station. The guard then asks Claas what he is doing out past curfew, and suggests that he go home. Claas continues to wander until he arrives at the cathedral. The massive building is under heavy guard. Emblazoned on the guards’ armor, and featured prominently on the building, is a symbol that closely resembles the one on Claas's pendant. Claas inquires about the building, but the guards tell him to come back during the day when the church is open to the public.

Claas decides that he will return to Prof. Parkas's home, but as he leaves the cathedral grounds, he notices that a couple of guards begin to follow him at a distance. As he heads towards the university, he sees two more knights on the road ahead of him. As he approaches, the two knights ahead of him draw their weapons and charge him. Claas slips into a side alley to escape, but discovers two more knights blocking that route. Class begins to climb up the side of a building to escape, as the knights draw bows and begin to bombard him with arrows. After a hard struggle, Claas reaches the roof of the building. As soon as he stands on the roof looking out over the city, his vision warps a third time. This time he sees an explosion erupt some ways away, and then as time seems to fly by in fast-forward, a fire sweeps across the city. After a moment, his vision returns to normal again. Meanwhile, the knights search for a way to get up to the roof, but Claas evades them by leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Eventually he shakes off their pursuit, and after resting for a bit, returns to Prof. Parkas.

When he arrives at Prof. Parkas's place, he finds that the young woman is there nursing some minor burns she has received. Claas officially meets her for the first time. Her name is Lynn Deyu, and she reveals that the young man she's been fighting is her younger brother, Larry. Agitated by being suddenly transported to another time, Larry took off to try to find a way back to the present. When Lynn tried to prevent him from doing anything reckless they fought again, and she lost track of him. Claas decides that it's too late to do anything else and Prof. Parkas offers him a bed for the night.

When Claas wakes up the next morning, Lynn and the Professor are already up. Claas leaves the house again and visits the university library. The library is a large, four story building, which occupies a quarter of a block. When Claas enters the building, he senses a large, but faint, "presence" like the one he felt in the college gym in the present. The "presence" seems as though it lies underneath the solid stone floor of the library. Claas finds a stairwell, and climbs up to roof of the building to survey the surroundings. From there he can see the cathedral and the steam coach station. He also notices a castle on the North end of the city. After this, Claas returns to Prof. Parkas's place and tells Lynn he's going to look for her brother, and a way for them to get back to the present. Lynn says she'll come along, because she doesn't think Claas could handle Larry if he decided to put up a fight.

The first place that Claas and Lynn visit is the Royal Steam Coach Station. Having come during the day this time, they find that it is bustling with activity. Inside there are four sets of train tracks. Two of them head south to other cities beyond Kingstown. One of the others goes north, straight to the cathedral, and the fourth one goes north to Ralaskas Castle. Tickets are being sold to ride the first two lines, but not the latter two. Claas and Lynn decided that Larry probably wouldn't have left by train, so they leave the station and head north on foot. They visit the castle briefly but find no leads.

The next obvious place to look is at the cathedral. When they visit during the day they find people going in and out freely. Inside the main hall of the cathedral, people sit in pews praying, while a priest goes through a series of rituals in front of the alter. The symbol from Claas pendant is featured prominently inside the church, and Claas asks Lynn if she knows anything about it. Lynn says that she’s seen it on a few old churches in the present, and that she knows it to be a common "holy symbol", but she doesn't know it's exact meaning or significance. Inside the cathedral, Claas senses many different "presences", but none of them seem to be emanating from anyone he can see.

Sneaking past knights of the Church, Claas and Lynn leave the main hall of the cathedral and begin to explore a network of rooms and hallways not open to the public. Eventually they find a stairwell, and climbing down a level, find themselves in an extensive dungeon where prisoners of the Church are held. Using Lynn's sonic blast power, they distract some guards and delve even deeper into the dungeon. Finally they reach a large set of double doors. Beyond these lies an even longer network of tunnels where the walls, ceilings and floors are covered in giant black spider webs. Echoing through the dark halls come the screams of those suffering at the hands of the inquisition. To be continued...


That was our second game. Overall, it was a pretty good session, though looking back I think it could have gone better if I had done a little more planning. I'm looking forward to playing again next week.

New episodes of the Big Bang Theory and Heroes were on last night.

In the Big Bang Theory, Penny gets hooked on a massively multi-player online roleplaying game called Age of Conan. The show poked some fun at people who experience such an addiction. Overall the episode was pretty funny.

In Heroes, a good portion of the show focused on Peter traveling to a possible future where characters' allegiances have shifted. The big surprise was that Sylar was a good guy living a normal suburban life with a young son.

We got a glimpse of Mohinder's fate due to his experiment with giving himself powers. I thought his "mutant" appearance was kind of cheesily done. Mostly they just covered him up and kept him in the shadows. The plot with mohinder made it seem like they were developing him as a Beast or Nightcrawler type mutant - someone who wears their powers out in the open for everyone to see, whether he likes it or not.

Hiro and Ando's antics were a nice comical diversion, including when they went to get the "key" at the end. I'm not sure where they're going with Matt's sudden new abilities, but it might be interresting. I thought it was odd that Molly looks exactly the same four years in the future. I would think a kid her age would have changed quite a bit in four years, but I guess they couldn't really help it unless they got a different actress.

When Nathan asked Linderman if he was appearing to him through telepathy, Linderman responded that it wasn't anything so obvious. It makes me wonder what the real explaination will be.

Yesterday I ran a new RPG campaign with Gareth using the Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition RPG. The campaign is called "Times Forgotten", and it is about an amnesiac man with super powers who travels through time in order to uncover his past and save the future. I've never kept a game log before, so I'm going to try to do it now. Let me know if this is interresting or not.

In the style of superhero comics, M&M refers to each game session as an "issue", so I'll discribe our first issue called "Awakening".


The game opened with Gareth's character waking up in an alley at exactly 5:37pm. He didn't know anything about himself or where he was, except that he remembered his name was Claas. Claas searched his pockets and even looked for tags or initials on his clothing, but found nothing. His clothes were custom. Nothing in his pockets but... well... lent. The only thing outstanding was a necklace with an odd metal pendant. It was Gareth's idea to play an amnesiac hero, so he had me actually create the character for him. He selected a few of the character's basic stats, but I designed his background and super powers, so Gareth actually knows nothing more than Claas does. After Claas was finished going through his clothing I informed him that it was exactly 5:40pm. Claas doesn't have a watch, but I continually informed Gareth of the exact time throughout the game. One of Claas' powers is a "time sense".

Claas quickly discovered another super-sense. He detected an odd "presence" emmenating from an apartment building across the street. As soon as he had crossed the street to investigate, an explosion on the top floor rocked the building. After a moment's hesitation, Claas rushed in to help save the occupants. After carrying two children out of the burning building, Claas ran back in to help more. Climbing an empty elevator shaft to bypass the burning stairs, Claas arived on the sixth floor where the explosion had occured. Claas could still sense an odd "presence" here on the top floor, but it was weaker than before. Diving into the raging inferno, he followed the beacon to an apartment where he found a young woman lying unconcious on the floor. Scooping her up in his arms, Claas ran for the stairwell. As he ran down the stairs, time seemed to slow around him. He dodged under burning rafters that fell unnaturally slow. When he stopped outside time returned to normal. Paramedics rushed the woman to the hospital with other burn victims, while someone treated Claas for smoke-enhalation and minor burns on the spot.

Claas slipped away from the crowd and took an hour to rest from his ordeal before seeking out the hospital. There he could sense the strange "presence" that seemed to be linked to the woman he rescued. Following a hunch, he followed discreetely as nurses finally brought her from the burn unit to a regular hospital room where she could recover from moderate injuries. Claas decided to wait around for the nurses to clear out before he would approached the woman, looking for answers. Before he could approach her, however, she appeared at the door to her hospital room. Glancing around to make sure she wasn't seen by the nurses or doctors, the young woman with emerald eyes and glasses snuck out of the hospital. Claas followed her outside and saw her get into a taxi. Not knowing how to follow her, he left off pursuing her and decided to wander around the city hoping that something might jog his memory. About this time Gareth began asking questions that led him to the knowledge that he was in a place called Central City, but Claas had no idea whether he was from here or not.

It grew late as Claas wandered around the city. Nothing he saw brought back any memories, but eventually he encountered two guys mugging a third man in an alley, and he sensed the "presence" he had felt before somewhere nearby. Deciding that he'd rather pursue this "presence" than help the hapless man in the ally, Claas went on his way. However, as he moved away from the alley the his sense of the "presense" grew weaker, so he decided to return to the alley. As he approached, he saw the victim fleeing out of the alley, and he saw a flickering light coming from between the buildings. Coming up to the alley he found the man's two attackers lying scorched on the ground, and he saw a figure walking away near the other end of the alley. Running to catch the departing figure, Claas found that time slowed again, allowing him to catch up to the person.

He was a young man, about 18, with red hair and green eyes, and he was giving off a detectable "presence" much like the young woman had. He greeted Claas gruffly, asking him what he wanted. Claas asked him why he saved that man, as the younger man walked towards his car parked in an adjacent ally. The young man asked why he wanted to know, and if he was a reporter. Claas replied that he wasn't a reporter, but that he was looking for answers. The young man said he didn't know anything, and told Claas to shove-off as he got into his car and began to drive away. Claas used his time-slowing run to catch up to the car as it stopped at the end of the alleyway. The young man saw him in his rearview mirror. Putting down his window so he could lean out a little bit, he told Claas again to shove-off, and then raised his hand and shot a ball of fire at him before pulling away. Not dettered, Claas tried to follow the red-headed man for several blocks, but eventually lost him near the vecinity of the city college.

Claas decided to explore the college. Although it was late now, the college was still open for night classes. As he wandered around, Claas became aware of two "presences" nearby, and also a third "presence" much like the others, but larger. As he explored, he found himself drawing nearer and nearer to the center of the much larger "presence", and also to the two smaller "presences". He finally arrived at the gym, which seemed to be the center of the larger "presence". As he peeked in through an open door, he found the gym empty except for the young woman he had rescued, and the young man he had met in the ally. They were ingaged in a heated argument and seemed ready to fight. The woman accused the man of killing people and putting other lives at risk. She told him that he needed to learn to contain his abilities. The young man acted like he didn't want to hear it. Before long, violence errupted with the young man hurling fire at the woman. Claas used his time-slowing run to rush in between them, trying to interrupt their battle and prevent them from fighting. The woman hit both Claas and the other man with a sonic blast. Claas discovered another of his powers when he went to shove the young man. His forearm crackled with blue energy, and he hit the man with tremendous force. Blows were exchanged by all three combatants, with Claas getting bombarded by both sides. Eventually, at the height of the battle, with the gym ingulfed in flames, Claas saw everything go white and then he blacked out.

When Claas came-to again, he was alone in a medieval-looking house. I informed Gareth that Claas was aware that it was exactly 9:15pm... 1000 years ago. To be continued...


So, that's how the game session went. Just to clarify a little further, this game isn't taking place in our world. It's an earth-like universe with its own history, though the progression of civilization in this world more-or-less resembles our own.

This is the first time I've played a game with the Mutants & Masterminds system. It's based on the d20 system used in D&D, Star Wars RPG, True20, and a few other games, but it has some of its own quirks. I like how many options you have for designing super powers. I'm not sure I like how some attacks work, however, and I'm a little iffy about the damage system. We'll see how it goes though.

A week ago I posted about a project I am undertaking to log how I spend my hours throughout the week and make adjustments to be sure I'm leading a balanced life. The project continues. This past week I logged my time again, and here are some of the highlights of my results.

Here are the rankings for top activities:

1. Sleeping
2. RPG Preparation
3. Work
4. Movies/Shows
5. All Theocratic Activities Combined

Sleeping was still my biggest activity. No surprise there. I didn't work as much last week as the week before, so work slipped down to third place. What's most appalling is that my theocratic activities combined slipped down to fifth place, which is unacceptable.

Time spent on RPG prep shot up from 6 hours to 14 hours. A big reason for this is that I started a new RPG campaign with Gareth. Preparing for a new campaign always takes extra time. In future, however, I would like to spend no more time preparing for RPGs than I do playing them. We'll see how that goes.

Time spent on Movies/Shows rose from 8 hours to 12. I don't see that it's getting out of hand yet, but I do need to keep an eye on it, especially since it beat out theocratic activities.

Reading, on the other hand, dropped from 12 hours to 3. I didn't intentionally cut back on reading, I just fell behind.

Those, of course, are just highlight. I also spent quite a few hours on miscellaneous stuff. I still had 43.5 hours unaccounted for, which is only slightly less than last week. That tells me I could still manage my time better to be more productive.

I think my final observations for last weeks log are these: I need to increase my theocratic activities by spending more time on personal study, field service, and meeting preparation. I also need to be more efficient in my RPG prep, so that I spend less time preparing for games.