Save Vs Storm

This is the end.

2011-06-11T06:40:00.000-07:00

OK time for a deep breath.

There are times when you are faced with the result of your actions falling short of your intentions.

The days when you try and feel that you fail have a weight that is heavier than optimism and hope.

With this blog I started with both hope and good intentions but neither of those things can persevere against difficult circumstance.

Sometimes you win, other times real life gets in your way. In the time since i started this blog I have lost my job twice and have started a third job. Headed toward the final stages of my wedding in October and am now moving house months before I planned.

I have been blessed with Living in Interesting times.

So I am faced with the difficult and upsetting prospect of finishing this blog and project.

What has frustrated me more than anything else is I had managed to get a commitment to provide games to gamers. Mathew from Mongoose was quick to pledge support and deserves full credit for his generosity and commitment to members of his community a world away also Valerie from White Wolf who has been a wonderful cheerleader for this cause.

Valarie also sent me a consent email that deserves full respect and style points.

I would like to take a moment to thank both of them for their time and kindness.

However I have had no funds raised and unfortunately except for Heckdude (if you send me a message Heckdude I will get the codes provided to me so you can get some free games.) I have had no other people to provide games to.

So with this added to the fact that for the last few posts I have had zero comments I am declaring this project finished. To all those affected I do wish you well and wish that I had been able to assist you better.

I am going to roll this up but can be contact via my blogger profile.

So for now in this venue I wish you all well

Where the Hell have you been?

2011-05-01T22:53:00.000-07:00

So after the last 2 plus months I am back on the blog.

The silance was the result of some really sucky real world issues and being overwhelmed with the severity of the situation in New Zealand and most recently Japan.

This is me appologising for going quiet and the delays that it has caused.

I will be updating later in the week but just wanted to say Im sorry

Unleashing the Power

2011-02-24T06:12:00.000-08:00

Firstly let me say that my thoughts and prayers go out to each and every gamer in New Zealand.

It has been a tough time all round it seems. Mother nature is really kicking our ass right now.

So aside from comments it has been over a week since my last post and I am feeling bad about that. I put this together to help people and if I dont update regularly then what good am I doing those in need.

I have been feeling challenged by the enormity of what I am trying to accomplish and that can be hard to take.

But I think I just had a great idea and I am feeling things fall into place.

It is time for the next part of the project to take form.

It is time to raise some funds. I have to continue to build awareness, but I also need to raise funds. So this is what I propose.

Once I have the paypal account activated you have 2 options to contribute. One is simple the other is fun.

Simple option donate what you can and I will use the funds to buy books to add to the donations.

Fun option:

We all have those character concepts that our players have or we have that are stupidly powerful and broketastic. Well this is my idea. Grab your friends and run a seriously cool one off.

Because queensland had days without power, it is time for

POWER GAMER WEEKEND.

It is time to unleash the Cheese. It is time to break those games and do it for a good cause. Grab your DM or if you are a DM grab your players and dedicate a day to playing that Whisper Gnome rogue with a cloak of invisibility and shadow magic. Or the druid that can turn into a Djinn granting infinite wishes. A Gengral ex SAS soldier with expert training in all forms of combat and a mastery in dominate. A hotshot pilot who has a fusion bomb teleporter linked to his console

Here is the fund raising idea. Each player brings there most powerful broketastic character to the game and pays $10 for the privilidge.

Then as a DM put a bounty on crits and rerolls. Have a player who consistantly rolls a 1 (Hi Chris) then he can by a crit for a $1.

This is more fun the higher the crazy. So as a DM let them show up Elminster. Become Galactic Overlords. Win 2 billion credits. Make the game as crazy and memorable as you can.

Pull out your favorite NPCs. You can run Mary Sue characters but the players get to demand you pay $10 a character for each of them.

Finally I want a report. I want to hear the stories of the game and if possible a copy of your character sheet.

See not only did gamers loose books but source material so what we are going to do is as well as providing books and materials we are going to provide characters and adventure ideas for them to move forward with.

This is a fun way to raise some cash for a good cause.

I want to get the games to gamers by May at the latest so any time in the next three to four weeks grab your group and POWERGAME.

It's time to unleash the POWER!!!!

Stars in the Darkness

2011-02-13T04:26:00.000-08:00

The Stars in the Darkness
A quick note. I have been hit with a bout of fatigue this weekend. I am sorry that I have been slow to update. Further updates coming next couple of days

I knew that this wasn't going to be easy. Turning an idea into reality is hard and takes determination. You have to understand that an idea may make all the sense in the world to you, but you need others to believe in your idea and see it for what it is and what it could be.

It has been a busy week of trying to juggle work, planning a wedding, a trip to Tasmania (to celebrate being engaged to my fiancée) and also trying to pull together the funds and support to turn my idea from thought into action.

This first thing to do was to decide what I needed to provide for gamers. What is it that would make the biggest difference, what would I need to get me through? Supplements are nice and all, but if I lost EVERYTHING the thing that I would require more than any other is Core Books; those books that give me the base rules needed to run a game.

Core Books, dice, maps and minis. That is what I would need.

So, with this in mind, I looked up the contact details for every games company I could think of. As of this moment I have called Mongoose Publishing (in the UK); White Wolf (in America, who referred me to their local rep who has been emailing me); Wizards of the Coast (in Australia); Games Workshop (in Australia); Triple Ace Games (Via Email); Monte Cook (via Email) and Pinnacle Entertainment Group (Via Email).

I have also spoken to game stores in Melbourne (where I live); Mind Games in Brisbane and Comics Etc in Brisbane.

I'm glad to say my efforts have met with some truly humbling support. Mongoose Publishing, the first company that I contacted, agreed to jump on board right away with a promise of books.
White Wolf were so excited that they sprang into action but forgot to contact me until after they had sprung into action.

Monte Cook has agreed to pass the word along, but I still have not heard from Queensland gamers. I have responses from publishers who are happy to provide games, but I don't have anyone to provide games to.

Please get the word out.

Leave a comment on the blog to let me know if you, or someone you know, are in need of gaming material after the floods and the cyclone.

I want to again thank Mongoose Publishing and White Wolf for their generous contributions. They truly are Stars in the Darkness.

Mongoose Publishing
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/index.php

White Wolf
http://www.white-wolf.com/

A Call to Arms

2011-02-07T05:17:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Save Vs Storm.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty crappy if you live in Queensland. If you live in the south of the state you got floods and if you live in the north you got a cyclone the size of the northern united states. The severity of this situation cannot be overstated, and the people who live in Queensland have a lot to deal with and have received - and will continue to receive - a large amount of support. However, there was something that I realised.

Even with the financial support that the people of Australia are giving, the rebuilding process will be long and hard. Many people lost their homes and all that they hold dear, and that includes gamers. Gamers have lost the books they loved. The books that we use to create those experiences with friends around the table and bring a little bit of the extraordinary into a week that may not be that great. I have lost count of the hours I have spent laughing and rolling dice with friends. For me, this is one of the best things that I can do.

But now, for many gamers, all those treasured books and dice and minis are gone. Damaged beyond repair or simply washed away. A cyclone doesn't care that you own an original Deities and Demigods with the Cthulhu in it. Or a complete set of Babylon 5, including the Rangers and Crusade sourcebooks.

Things for people in Queensland are going to be grim for the next few months. With tourism and agriculture being such large employers, I'm sure that more than one gamer is currently in the situation of being told that they just don’t have a job any more. And when work is scarce and money is tight every cent must be accounted for. Gaming books can seem like an unjustifiable extravagance.

Mother Nature has chosen to erase all those books. Flood waters destroyed libraries that held gateways to other worlds and times. Winds of 260kmh flattened houses, taking away well loved books or damaging them beyond repair.

So I thought we should do something about it.

We should find a way to get games to gamers who have lived through all this terror and heartbreak.
We should do this because they are part of our community, a community that looks after its own and finds a way to help them share the hobby in the best way we know how.

By getting gaming books to gamers.

That is my goal: to get RPGs to Gamers who have lost everything.

Thus, Save Vs Storm was born.
This blog has been created to chronicle the effort and highlight the people who will help me along the way to get games to gamers.
More information to follow.