I’m out of town on another work-related trip, so not much gaming of any variety is going on. However, I made sure to pack a few RPGs, “just in case.” Just in case of what, I’m really not sure; but here’s what I packed:

Shadowrun, 4th edition and Ex Machina: a few years ago I thought that cyberpunk in gaming was officially dead. No sooner did I make that pronouncement than the market was hit by a slew of new cyberpunk games: a new Shadowrun, the gorgeous Ex Machina, and a new edition of Cyberpunk. Reports of cyberpunk’s death have been greatly exaggerated by me, it seems.

Hunter: the Reckoning: this game never seemed to get much love from the general gaming public, but I still flip lovingly through its pages from time to time. Hunter captured a lot of Call of Cthulhu-esque themes–“average Joe faces unknowable horrors, goes insane, and dies”–while giving them a nice modern twist.

Shadows over Baker Street: OK, this one’s not a game book; it’s a collection of stories about what would happen if Sherlock Holmes went up against the mind-shattering horrors of the Cthulhu mythos. Lots of fun, and if I can’t find some game-able ideas in there, I don’t deserve my Gamemaster badge.

So rest assured, while I’m not talking about games too much here at the moment, I am in fact continuing to read them incessantly. And I just learned that the coworker traveling with me on this particular work-related trip is an off-and-on D&D player. Perhaps my neurotic habit of bringing game books everywhere I go will finally pay off. If only I hadn’t left my dice at home….

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