Backing up a bit, on Saturday, 28 April 2007, Janice and I took a United Air Lines flight from Boston's Logan Airport south to Dulles Airport, where we rented a car. We stayed at a Courtyard by Marriott hotel near my brother's place in Springfield, Virginia.

After four months, I finally met my newest niece, Lili, as well as Peter, his wife Kelly, and their older daughter Ava. The children were adorable as always, even if they took a little time to warm up to us relative strangers. In the process of running errands, we managed to grab lunch at Qdoba, one of our favorite burrito chains.

Janice and I walked from Peter's to chez Rothandler, where we met Steve M.R. & Aleece Z.R. and their toddler Connor R., plus Corbin A.Y. & Andria K.Y. Unfortunately, because it was a brief visit on relatively short notice, we were unable to get together with other friends. We had a pleasant dinner at Olympians, a Greek/Italian restaurant in Alexandria, Virginia. Peter, Corbin, and Steve's households were all in the process of looking for homes with more space, probably in the outer suburbs.

Corbin pointed out that there was a game shop in the same shopping strip, so we made a detour to check it out. We were pleasantly surprised: Eagle & Empire Game & Hobby Shop (www.eagleandempire.com) had some role-playing games, comic books, and models, and seemed family-friendly to boot! Later that night, Peter and I rewatched seminal fantasy films "Conan: the Barbarian" and "Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring."

On Sunday, my parents and Kelly's mother Maureen joined us for a cookout at Peter & Kelly's to celebrate Ava's second birthday. We returned to New England on that Monday. The past weeks have continued to be busy with work, various games, and trying to keep up with genre television and comic books. More about those will have to wait for now, however…

As you can probably tell from my infrequent posts, I've been busy during the past few weeks. I'm going to jump around a bit in time for the next few updates, so please bear with me.

After visiting my family and a few friends in Virginia during the weekend of 28 to 30 April 2007, I had two compressed workweeks. The first, from 1 to 3 May 2007, was because of my travel and CW's 40th anniversary celebration in downtown Boston on Friday, May 4.

The photo above shows my boss Michele L.D'F., myself, and new co-worker Ken G. at lunch in the State Room, which had a spectacular view of Boston Harbor and Logan Airport. Pat McG., our company's founder and a billionaire philanthropist, regaled us with tales of the early days of journalism about the computer industry.

After several weeks of damp, cool weather, we welcomed the arrival of clear weather. My short weekend consisted of lunch at Janice's and my favorite Chinese buffet and picking up my subscription at New England Comics in Norwood, Massachusetts.

As I've noted previously, Ken G. organized a group screening of "Spider-Man 3" on Sunday, May 6, at the IMAX theater near our office. From there, we carpooled to CW's annual editorial offsite retreat at the Warren Center in Ashland, Mass. The accommodations and grounds were pleasant, and although the copy desk had to overcome the disruption to our schedule, I felt our meetings were worthwhile. Of course, no meeting is complete without plentiful food!

We even bonded with the design and online groups over s'mores and a campfire! It was also good to spend time with former boss Jamie E. (I watched an episode of "Heroes" with him and Johanna A.), try playing with the Nintendo Wii that Ken had brought, and chat with fellow comic book fan Brian F., as well as with Mark H., Frank H., Angela G., and Eric L., who all proved to be knowledgeable about science fiction.

I returned from the offsite on Tuesday, May 8, but I canceled that week's games because of the truncated deadlines at work. Thus, the next regular Tuesday night D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: the Broken Chains" Arabian fantasy campaign resumes tonight. I expect to continue the adventures of Dexter V.H./"Faelonia" and Byron V.O./"Ibrahim" tomorrow (Wednesday, May 16), and I rejoined the "City of Heroes" supergroup on Sunday, May 13, Mother's Day.

The other reason I postponed the various games was that Australian programmer Mark A.S., an alumnus of the Boston-area groups, was in town for a biotech conference. Mark, his wife Ann, and their children John and Brianna now live in New Zealand but might return to the U.S. We went to the "Fuji" Japanese steakhouse with Thomas K.Y. on Wednesday, May 9, and to reliable Italian chain restaurant "Bertucci's" the following night. Unfortunately, I missed the visit of former co-worker Jacqui M.D.B. and her husband Denis B., who now live in Des Moines, Iowa.

In addition, college chums Dexter and Stuart C.G. now hope to come up from New York during the second week of June — between a visit by my in-laws and my own family's gathering in Manhattan! It seems like juggling time will continue to be a challenge as summer approaches. Next time: Virginia visit, genre television, and gamer cohorts…

Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin died this week. I remember him facing down tanks in Moscow during an attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev. The two men, different in temperament, helped dismantle the Soviet Union and end the Cold War.

Unfortunately, like many larger-than-life politicians, Yeltsin's flaws mirrored the problems of his homeland, such as alcoholism and persistent authoritarianism. Like industrialist George Soros, I feel that the U.S. and the other Western nations missed an opportunity after the fall of the Berlin Wall to help rebuild Eastern Europe as a prosperous, democratic region.

Instead, ethnic and religious strife in the Balkans and Chechnya, inequality and crime, and overly centralized control continue to threaten capitalism and liberty in Russia and elsewhere. Tensions over the Middle East, insecure stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, a U.S. return to promises of an antimissile shield over part of Europe, and unease over migration have harmed relations between our two great nations. I hope that the best legacies of Yeltsin and other visionaries inspire the next generation to do better than we have.

Speaking of international affairs, this past Sunday was Earth Day. Steve M.R., Jim J.D'B., and I have debated the urgency of environmental protection measures on Steve's blog (http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-zA8iOK8iaalgc0hpoQY-?cq=1), so I won't repeat that discussion here. However, I do feel that the largest consumers of natural resources (the U.S., China, Europe, and Japan) should do more to conserve, renew, and recycle. Stagnant automotive efficiency standards, suburban sprawl, and wasteful manufacturing/packaging are only part of the problem.

Even if some naysayers still deny that climate change is a serious threat, the rapid rise of autism and asthma among U.S. children and the extinction of numerous species (small ones such as honeybees or fish deserve at least as much attention as cute bears or owls) demand our attention. I hope that my fellow voters and consumers will make ecologically wise policies a higher priority soon.

On a lighter note, Janice and I will be very busy in the coming month or so! This coming weekend, we'll be flying down to Virginia to visit my family and finally see our newest niece Lili in person. After that, I have a compressed workweek because of CW's 40th anniversary celebration, followed by a Friday night screening of "Spider-Man 3" organized by co-worker Ken G. (http://www.showbits.net/), our annual editorial offsite retreat, and visits by former gamer Mark A.S. and former co-worker Jacqui M.D.! (They now live in New Zealand and Iowa, respectively.)

Plus, I have my next dental follow-up appointment, and a few weeks after that, Janice's middle sister Shelly hopes to visit Boston with her family. Janice and I have made reservations to celebrate my parents' 40th wedding anniversary in Manhattan in mid-June, and CW's trim size will be moving from tabloid to magazine, requiring a redesign of the print edition even as the online edition is thriving.

Last night's D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands: the Broken Chains" Arabian fantasy session went well, with the gamers finding their characters in the oasis of Galko. The latest party was attacked by assassins, but rather than run or fight blindly, we role-played their investigation and discovery of intrigue in the city. As always, more information can be found at the Yahoo/eGroups Web club: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/DnD3VanishedLands/

I'll continue fighting sleep deprivation for the Wednesday night D&D3.5 teleconferencing sessions with Dexter V.H./"Faelonia" and Byron V.O./"Ibrahim," as well as for the Thursday and Sunday "City of Heroes" online game as "Scarlet Saber 2" with David I.S./"Mega Therion," Kim A.G./"Dr. Debt Reduction," Steve M.R./"Spectacular Torch," Thomas K.Y./"SubtleFist," and Shari S./"Ashri" (among others; see http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/dimensionalcorpsonline/).

However, I expect my participation to slip because of the aforementioned travel and visitors. It would also be nice to have time to occasionally go for a walk or mow my lawn between work and nightfall, now that the weather has belatedly improved.

On television, I've enjoyed the latest episodes of military space opera "Stargate SG1" and superhuman drama "Heroes" for their appealing ensemble casts, cliffhanging plot developments, and strong late-season writing. I'm probably also biased in favor of the New York and global settings. Even though "SG1" is declining in the ratings for its final episodes after a 10-year run, I found lots of good character moments. Alas, "Stargate: Atlantis" and the new "Painkiller Jane" haven't held my attention, falling short in script quality.

I've also wondered if "Heroes" can sustain the suspense and continue intertwining the fates of its expanding cast into next season. Although more uneven in tone, the similarly themed superhumans on "Smallville" remain interesting, and I hope that Clark Kent will step up to his destiny as Superman by the show's end.

This week also brought the good news that the SciFi Channel will broadcast Series 3 of the BBC's revived "Doctor Who" in the U.S. starting this summer. My TARDIS USB hub is humming along, and I recently picked up "The Ultimate Highlander: the Series," which supposedly has the best 15 episodes of the swashbuckling fantasy.

We've also been watching "Animal Precinct" and "RSPCA" on Animal Planet, and when we're around on Saturday mornings, music videos on VH1 and "The Phantom Gourmet." The latter is arguably the best local show on the air, reviewing numerous restaurants and giving me a new appreciation for New England cuisine.

Next time: gamer cohorts, Virginia visit, and more!

Friends, I hope you’ve had a good week. To continue the topic I've been posting about, I like role-playing games because they provide a forum for socializing, encourage creativity, and allow for an escape from mundane concerns. Back in college, Prof. Libby Tucker's excellent "Folklore and Fantasy" class covered the reasons that genre entertainment remains popular.

For most of the past 25 years, I've served as Game Master for numerous games, many of which were set in my own fictional universe. However, as adult responsibilities of work, relationships and family, and time management increased, many of my circle of acquaintances burned out or drifted away from role-playing. Even I have stopped running for a year or two at a time, but I've always come back to the hobby.

"Dungeons & Dragons," now in Edition 3.5 by Wizards of the Coast Inc. (WotC, the successor to TSR), is the baseline because of its wide availability. Most of the gamers I've met in New York, Virginia, and Massachusetts are at least somewhat familiar with the fantasy rules, which grew out of tabletop wargaming about 30 years ago. While not everyone likes the race/class/level system, I've always been able to find players who know it without too much difficulty.

My D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands" heroic fantasy campaign setting takes place about 3,000 years ago on a subcontinent somewhere near what's now Central Asia on an alternate Earth. A million square miles have been mapped, more than 350 Player Characters have explored them, and years of history have been created in the process!

My second-favorite rules have been the Generic Universal Role-Playing System (GURPS), now in its Fourth Edition, by Steve Jackson Games Inc. During graduate school, I considered the multigenre alternatives to "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" 2nd Ed. (the edition of that time). GURPS 3e had well-researched historical and subgenre sourcebooks, as well as an elegant 3d6/point-based system derived from Hero System/Champions and different from the complexities of RoleMaster and AD&D2.

Sure, I played "Storyteller" in the 1990s, like many other people, but Steve M.R., Tim M.B., Jim J.D'B., and I used GURPS for successful superhero, steampunk, space opera, and time/dimension travel campaigns. Since then, we've experimented with "rules-lite" games such as Risus, FUDGE, and True 20 — a streamlined derivative of D20, which is based on the D&D3.5 Open Game License.

Support for GURPS 4e has been relatively weak, and my fellow gamers in Boston generally prefer D&D3.5 and D20 "Mutants & Masterminds" 2nd Ed. scenarios (the latter is related to True 20, since both are published by Green Ronin). Of course, we share some interests in other genre media, such as comic books/graphic novels, movie and television serials, and anime.

As mentioned before, all of my campaigns have been connected, from the fantasy D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands" to the steampunk alternate history of GURPS "Gaslight Grimoire" to the present-day GURPS "Supers/Powers: the S.J.I." and D20"M&M"2e: "Drake's Port" superheroes. The D20 OGL led to a boom in gaming not seen since the early 1980s or early 1990s, when I tried both D.C. and Marvel Superheroes games.

Even my "Top Secret: S.I."/GURPS "Espionage"/D20 "Spycraft" 2nd Ed. and cyberpunk/fantasy "Shadowrun" missions are connected, and my GURPS "Vortex" space opera — one of the first settings I created, based on short stories written with Carlo R. and David I.S. — is tied into the multiverse-spanning GURPS "Voyagers II" collaboration! For science fiction, the venerable "Star Frontiers" is a favorite, and GURPS/D20 versions (some fan-written and unofficial) exist of "Star Trek/Prime Directive," "Traveller," and "Star Wars."

Every Tuesday night, about six to eight of us have been meeting in my basement to continue the "1,001 Arabian Nights"-style of "the Broken Chains," the latest party in my D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands" campaign. For the past seven years, the Boston-area groups have mostly played D&D3.5.

Alas, not all is well in the secondary worlds of role-playing. Competition from computer games, rising publishing costs, and changing tastes have taken their toll on our hobby, which counts a few million practitioners in the U.S. As I've noted on various message boards, I still prefer the socializing of face-to-face, pen-and-paper, "pizza-and-dice" role-playing to the "hack-and-slash roll-playing" of multiplayer online games.

On the other hand, as I've found with "City of Heroes," the ability to play real-time tactics with friends in other cities is certainly appealing, and I hope that the virtual tabletop technology that I'm now troubleshooting with Dexter V.H. and Byron V.O. will eventually improve and converge. Finding time for good in-person, nonlinear, collaborative storytelling and worldbuilding is still my preference, and my challenge.

In other bad news for gamers, Paizo and WotC announced that they will discontinue the influential and widely distributed "Dragon" and "Dungeon" magazines. Many critics have blasted the move on the Internet, but it was likely necessary due to the same financial pressures driving much publishing (and journalism) online and may be signs of major changes at WotC and the industry as a whole.

The ending of WotC's licensing of the D&D "Dragonlance" setting and the upcoming D20 "Star Wars: Saga Edition" RPG may also be harbingers of the much-debated D&D Fourth Edition.

Finally, I'd like to note the passing of TSR game designer Tom Moldvay, who joins artists David Sutherland and Keith Parkinson in my fond memories of early AD&D adventure modules. Next time: on Boris Yeltsin, travelers, and genre television!

I'm still recovering from my latest round of dental work yesterday morning (see my earlier posts for more details). While the appointment was ostensibly to get some molds for new caps on two teeth, it still involved gum cutting, tooth grinding, and drilling.

My next follow-up will be right after CW's annual editorial offsite retreat in two weeks. After the doctors get done with my top teeth, some worn molars on the bottom are next, assuming we can get my insurance to cover it. Sigh — few more months of chewing on one side of my mouth…

Janice and I have also been busy coordinating various guests and travel. As noted previously, we've hosted role-players Byron V.O. and Dexter V.H. this past month, and Dex may be back in the Boston area this coming weekend. We've met capital crew members Ben P.S. and Tim M.B. downtown, and Mark A.S. may fly in from New Zealand right around the time of my offsite meeting!

We'll be seeing my family in Virginia at the end of this month, as well as in New York City in June (finding affordable and well-located hotels another story). One of my sisters in law said she and her family would like to see Boston early next month. I also hope to join Janice at a conference in Seattle this coming autumn, but I'm not sure we'll have enough vacation time or money by then. With the cool and damp late spring that we've been having in the U.S. Northeast, any change in venue or weather would be welcome.

Between the D&D3.5 "Vanished Lands" fantasy sessions on Tuesdays (face-to-face) and Wednesdays (by teleconference, plus some play by e-mail) and the "City of Heroes" online game on Thursday nights and Sunday mornings, I estimate that I've been spending 12 hours per week playing various games. I hope to cut back a bit, mainly to free up time for Janice and other interests. At the same time, much of my socializing has been caught up in the gaming circles, so figuring out what to cut is a challenge.

But how did get into this hobby in the first place? My freshman year of high school, 1982, was a banner year for genre entertainment fans. The fantasy movies "Conan the Barbarian" and "The Dark Crystal," cyberpunk "Tron" and "Blade Runner," space opera "Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan," and SF classic "E.T." and horror remake "The Thing" all came out that year.

Since my father is a medievalist, I already had some exposure to real-world mythology and folklore. My paternal grandfather gave me a paperback edition of "The Lord of the Rings" novels for my birthday. I started playing the boxed sets of "Dungeons & Dragons," which had been around for almost a decade.

Along with friends such as Jon and Bill B., Carlo R., Reinaldo C., and John F., I helped found our Westchester, New York, high school's gaming and computer clubs. Yes, we were geeks or nerds, but we were also part of a creative movement still going strong today. Our shared interests in "Doctor Who" and early D&D (and "Star Wars" and "Star Frontiers") shaped our future tastes and social circles.

In freshman year of college (1986), I got my entire floor in my dorm playing "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons," and soon made many friends watching reruns of original "Star Trek" episodes, playing foosball, and through roommate John Z.G.'s AD&D2 "Gwynedd in Greyhawk" game. We also experimented with other rules systems such as Palladium, Champions/Hero, RoleMaster, and D6, as well as other genres, including westerns, espionage, cyberpunk, and space opera.

Most of my current friends date to that period in Upstate New York, even though many are no longer active role-players. Most of my students at NYPIRG's Queens College-CUNY chapter also played in my D&D "Vanished Lands" heroic fantasy campaign setting, setting a new record for the most people in a successful group.

In graduate school and into the 1990s, the AD&D2 and GURPS (Generic Universal RolePlaying System) parties in Virginia grew amid another burst of creativity and interpersonal conflict. Steve M.R., Erik B.L., and Tim M.B. were among the Game Masters of that period, and we were eventually joined by several college acquaintances for fantasy, cliffhanger/steampunk (GURPS "Arth" and "Gaslight Grimoire"), and time/dimension travel ("Voyagers II") campaigns.

I mostly ran fantasy and the GURPS "Supers: S.J.I." scenarios, and played in Jon W.P., Josh H., and Hans C.H.'s "Vampire: the Masquerade" goth game, using the "Storyteller: World of Darkness" system. In future posts, I'll explain what's good about role-playing, why I like certain games, and how the Boston-area groups got to their current state…