Death and Rebirth, the cycle of the Phoenix

Hey again, I am here, and I haven't died and been reborn. I am just referencing the lack of survivable RPGs locally. I have kinda called it quits with the one DnD group that I was a part of, the DM completely sucked and I had better things to do with one of my two evenings off a week. The WarHammer RPG has also been officially pronounced dead, we haven't played in like 2 1/2 months due to incrongruous schedules and various priority complications with the Vanguard. The original L5R RPG has not finished the campaign it left off 8 months ago, and the second one never got off the ground at all. Mine is still chugging along though, got a new player to replace the one that moved away. This one has actually played a number of Final Fantasy games, the older ones in fact, yay!

One of my other players has nearly finished his own RPG, it looks to be very interesting to say the least. It's not based on anything that you know of, completely original, even the mechanics are original. I love the style, it seems to be kinda a midieval version of Star Wars's Empire crossed with the Roman Empire, but without the jedi knights or an organized rebellion. Basically the entire world has been dominated by humans, who appeared and did this after the firstborn races defied god and "fell". The bits of rebellion are basically disgruntled elves that have hurt feelings. It will be very interesting to see how he tells it, conflict of some sort is usually the driving factor for most RPG stories, but there is not much conflict to be had, even within the empire, interesting indeed.

And finally Aaron is starting up another L5R RPG, this time it will be on Wednesday nights to avoid conflicts with Vanguard attendance. I am going to be playing my aged lecherous monk of Osano-Wo character I made for the second game that never took off. The group is supposed to be all ronin, and my monk fits in with that, I think it will be a very harrowing experience for him. I was reading in the GMs guide to Rokugan, and ronin have it very hard, sometimes they are even considered lower than eta. I think I might have to take a diplomatic role in the party in order to keep them alive.

I'm also trying to develop a card game in my spare-spare time. Think a combination of Pokemon, Star Trek, and Full Metal Alchemist. Of course it is based on Final Fantasy, # VII actually.
-Goal: like Star Trek, gain 100 points by finishing quests.
-Costing: like FMA, the leader of the party determines what is playable on a given turn.
-Quests: instead of dilemmas like Star Trek your 3 person adventure party will face monsters based on the pokemon template. Once all monsters are defeated active characters use printed "skills" to overcome the Quest and gain the points.
-Decks: two decks, one playing deck 40-50 cards, one monster deck 30 cards exactly.
I based it on FF7 cause it has been the most popular game of the series by far and it has a huge supporting cast: Turks, Avalanche, Shinra, Sephiroth, and the Heros, all with given leaders and various skill sets. Later expansions could focus more on other games in the series, especially FF6 and FF4. I think if I was getting paid to do it I could make one kick awesome game! Please don't steal this idea and make money off of it!

That has been my gaming life so far, real life has been harder/more boring. I am being trained as a back-up reciever at work, and I don't get too much time to gain experience. I had 2 2 hour training sessions before I was sent in alone. The one good thing is that I am getting more hours, so far, doesn't look like it will continue past the training though. I might have to apply at the HoJ anyway. It's all dependant on the hours they give me at my current job.