Nine Powers Nine PowersNine Powers is my own role-playing game. It has its own section in my website.
Nine Powers is kid-friendly with a setting that inspires fun adventures. Its intuitive rules include simple yet tactical skill contests (social ecounters follow the same rules as combat), spellcasting by stacking blocks to create effects, economic rules that fairly allow pricing any magic item imaginable, and dozens of flavorfully distinct monsters.
With a homebrew setting I played Rosie.
My most recent characters were Stinky and Dhrun.
I used to play the Pathfinder role-playing game quite a bit, and enjoyed in its participating in its forums. My most memorable character was an illusionist named Shayne Anigon in a play-by-post campaign.
I have also played Quarrels, a giant rat who rode a dinosaur, and a Juju Oracle for whom I made a nice zombie template. I briefly played Rill the loveable Grippli Sacred Huntsmaster along with my son's character, Rarr the Catfolk Sea Reaver Barbarian.
Because some important Pathfinder rules are confusing I wrote and explanation of teamwork feats and pets, and analyzed of the rules about lighting, Stealth, and the Hide in Plain Sight ability.
Pathfinder also has some "weak spots" that I filled with house rules. I used my knowledge of jiu-jitsu to create alternate wrestling rules. I interpolated additional poison rules. Because much of the old-school fun of RPGs is resource allocation, I created blessing cards as one method of making a climactic Pathfinder combat more exciting. Finally, I created a way to move beyond character clases whose foundation is changing class abilities into feats and then giving characters two feats per level.
Pathfinder once play-tested an Occult Adventures book. At the time it did little to add a truly occult mood to adventures, so I have invented paranormal house rules to fill that gap.
In my mind this computer game is a role-playing game. My list of tips and tricks is here.
I have invented lots of board games. Here are some of the best ones.
I am not very good at the ancient game Go, but I enjoy it immensely. Here is my collection of internet links related to the game.
Arkham Horror Card GameHere are my decks for this wonderful card game.
I know many fun math games. Most weeks I volunteer at my son's elementary school to share these games with all three first grade classrooms.
Recess on a rainy day is more fun with my movement games.
I have also compiled a list of tag variants.
For fun moving and mixing at a classroom Halloween costume party I made a costume feature treasure hunt game.
When in the car, or stuck in a line, my kids enjoy quizzing each other with these practice pages. Much more fun than flash cards!
The arithmetic practice pages have a "trick" that always feels rewarding to find. There are two levels: beginning addition and subtraction and a version that also has some multiplication and division.
The reading and spelling practice page makes a fun car game. One kid hold my phone, picks a word from the page, and reads it to his sibling. If the sibling spells it, huzzah and repeat! If the sibling cannot, then the sibling gets the phone and the first kid has to try to spell it—easier because the word was just in view to be memorized.
I have written house rules for Mansions of Madness that allow all players to play an Investigator, taking turns with the role of Keeper.
I have written house rules for Sherwood Showdown.
Here is how I learned to play Dominoes, as well as how I make the game's traditional trash talking kid-friendly.
I want to raise my two boys to be worthy and healthy men. This has prompted me to study social dynamics, exercise, and other components of masculinity appropriate for today's society.
My largest project was writing a social dynamics handbook.
I have also written an introduction to muscle awareness, strength training, and stretching entitled meet your muscles.
I used to do concealed carry, and wrote some thoughts about handguns.
I have also blogged about body language.
How do I know which stocks or ETFs to buy? You can read my strategy for investment picking.
Once I know which stock or ETF to buy, how do I know when to buy it? You can read my strategy for investment timing.
For most of my family's savings we use dividend investing.
I manage my IRA with a certain style of sector investing.
A slightly advanced topics is using options instead of limit orders to buy and sell stock.
Finally, I describe the charities my family supports. Donating to charity is an important part of money management.
From 2005 to 2015 I blogged. It helped me process my own thoughts, and keep in touch with family. But now I have other ways to do both.
My family drives from Oregon to San Diego at least annually. So I have researched the best way to use Costco gas stations along I-5 to save us time, money, and hassle.
