Lost and confused...

I opened my blog to a foggy haze this morning. I...I don't know what to write about. For 30 days I have had a focus. And I stuck to it. But, now...what?

Ok, this is not really that bad of a thing. I just like being dramatic. but, the fact is, I don't really have a whole lot to say. And that's distressing to realize.

Well, the new trailer for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hit today. And I must say, I about squeed out loud. I've been a fan of The Hobbit since I was about 7 or 8 years old. I used to catch the Rankin-Bass animated movie on TV whenever it was on. Remember those days? Some of you might. When there were only three major networks, and a handful of local channels. And once a year one of the networks would show classic movies for the family, and it would be an event that dinner was planned around. Ok, it was usually The Wizard of Oz, and Miracle on 34th Street. But still, in my house, it was The Hobbit (for a few years anyways).

Out of all of Tolkien's books, The Hobbit is my favorite. I love Tolkien's storytelling, and Frodo's epic quest forms the blueprint for every aspiring DM. But The Hobbit holds a certain amount of child-like charm. Which makes sense, as it was originally released as a children's book. Wow, imagine that. What do we have today? Captain Underpants? Sheesh. Today, The Hobbit might have found life as a Young Adult novel, but with some heavy editing.

Either way, I've read it a couple of times, and seen the animated film a couple of dozen times. The music alone gets me all misty-eyed for days of yore when I first learned to play D&D. It was my introduction to fantasy, and for years, that film was my only link to the genre (I actually didn't become an avid reader until my mid-teens). And when I started in D&D, Bard the Guardsman was my only real model for the fighter. but that was fine, because Bard is badass (no one else took down Smaug). And now he's in the second PJ film.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to this. And I really want to play some old-school D&D. Not necessarily the rules (though I would love that), but the style of game. The epic quest, the clash of steel, the monsters, the whole "band of brothers" mentality. Some of that is hard to reach with the newer editions. It's still there. But people tend to get distracted by all of the shiny parts, and forget that, at its core, it's all still just D&D.

And, in case you have been under a rock this morning...