Since I've been experiencing feelings of withdrawal because of a serious lack of gaming, I was delighted when the GM who had contacted me last month set another date for a first gaming session (the last one, to which I couldn't go because of my cold, ended up being canceled).

( We got along well, but the gaming session was like watching an accident in slow motion. )

Once again, our latest round of gaming in the Conan universe was hilarious.

( I. Hate. Those. Damned. Rats! )

My gaming group decided to begin a new campaign under another game-master who also suggested a different system. So we left behind D&D 3^rd Edition (that I've finally become accustomed to) and will start anew with "Conan the RPG". Argh.

I have a copy of the main rulebook, and let me tell you, it's confusing as hell.

Since I decided to stick to my decision to try any and all archetypes (from Ranger/Scout to Priest to... well, either Mage/Wizard or Warrior), I felt obliged to make my new character a soldier. "Conan" is a system in which magic users are kind of predisposed for becoming evil, and don't seem to be a) very common, or b) very powerful. No resurrection or healing spells, alas! That's going to hurt.

Anyway, I spent the better part of Sunday (and yesterday evening) trying to create a character, and part of that (the less impossible part, admittedly) was choosing a name for my soldier.

Said soldier is a pike-and-shield fighting Gunderman, and apparently Gundermen bear Roman names.

According to Wikipedia and other sources online, Roman names had three parts (the "tria nomina"), consisting of

• a praenomen ("given name"),
• a nomen ("gens or clan name"), and
• a cognomen ("family name within a gens").

More details can be found following these links:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Römische_Namen
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_römischer_Familien
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_römischer_Cognomina
http://www.novaroma.org/wiki/Choosing_a_Roman_name
http://www.novaroma.org/nr/Cognomen

Anyway, I chose to name my Gunderman soldier "Marcus Cilnius Licinius", and his (late) wife (background! I hate coming up with background histories!) "Tita Curtia Cinna" "Terentia Flavilla" (edited due to temve's superior knowledge of Latin).

Oof. Now if dear Marcus only was more intelligent, he could learn a certain fighting style that would make him more effective.

My attribute rolls were rather good, but damn it, a "13" instead of a "12" would have been perfect. Drat.

What is dear Marcus to do once an enemy passes the range of his pike and tries to involve him in close combat? Drop his pike and run screaming? Play dead? I hate long melee weapons, especially when they're heavy enough to require two hands.

You'd better not die today, soldier.

By the way, I detest Hyboria and Aquilonia, and Conan's stupid Cimmeria, too. I'm bad at geography, and fictional geography is even worse. Gunderland isn't even named on the map, and I. Hate. Guessing!

edit (several hours later): Well, dear Marcus is still alive, but he's broke and unarmed, got trampled by a wild pig and is still laughing his ass off over his companions being pelted with fecal matter after they tried hunting down monkeys who, not very impressed with being shot at with stones from my companions' slingshots, decided to throw missiles back at their assailants. From giant rain-forest trees. Oh, did I forget to mention that we're marooned on a Caribbean island (or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof)? Eine Seefahrt, die ist lustig, eine Seefahrt, die ist schön...

Meaning, I heard from the gaming group again that I'd last met with in March. I still have one of the game master's compendiums plus a manual from one of the gamers, and had resigned myself to letting the whole thing slide into oblivion.

They were the group I found most promising and kept hoping most I could stay with, and then suddenly the calls, SMS and e-mails stopped, I had no luck reaching them directly and had to resort to leaving messages... and that was that. I thought it had turned into another one of those "Don't call us, we'll call you. Not." things and resolved to not get mad about it.

Until my cell rang today. Evidently, they have all been swamped with RL issues (new job, stay abroad etc.) and have now decided to start a new campaign with our old characters.

This Saturday. I kid you not.

Thank God I haven't deleted their phone numbers from my cell's directory so far, and the character sheet should also be around here still.

I want detailed excuses/explanations on Saturday. And a brush-up on who our characters actually are again, and what our goals are. Which system is it again, and how did our characters meet? Not getting mad evidently involved a whole lot of selective forgetting. Brain cells, meet eraser. Whoops.

I really liked the past weekend. Eotara, Broggan and I didn't get a whole lot of gaming in, but somehow we didn't feel the need to cram as much Vampire into the two days as we would have been able to. Instead, we relaxed, talked a lot, watched "Sin City" and "The Gamers" together, and on Saturday evening, went to a Gothic bar with tasty cocktails and a fitting atmosphere after relying on the contents of Eo and Patti's closet to clothe us all into as much black as available. Even the trains to and from Berlin were on time for a change.

The next time, we'll meet a my place. I'm already looking forward to it.

If I hadn't been hit by the migraine from hell^tm today, I would have been able to bask in the afterglow for a whole lot longer. Duh.