Tuesday, January 25, 2011
I Finally Found the Link
I guess I should have known. Oh wait - I did.
Reading . . . reading . . . reading . . .
- Ark
Monday, January 24, 2011
Even This Guy Wears a Belt
With much joy, I found Labyrinth Lord sitting in my mailbox today. I had expected it Saturday, but then I always forget that mail speeds seem to slow dramatically in January, as compared to December. I suppose it's when all of the post office's seasonal employees are laid off.
Sitting here holding the book, I find that I am happier with it than most of my RPG purchases over the last few years. So often I'm flipping through a new book and thinking "Dear God what the hell did I just buy, and why the hell did I buy this?" This one is still bringing a smile to my face.
It's much nicer than I thought. I've never bought anything through Lulu, and am surprised. I swear, the binding even looks like it will not splinter into a thousand pieces if I open the book up wide. The art is cooler than I thought it would be, and it is so much damn easier that reading the pdf. And what I have read seems to be clearing up misconceptions and confusions that I've had with D&D for 30 years now. I think I have a winner here.
The boy is tucked in his bed reading a tattered copy of The Hobbit. I think I shall grab some ice cream and apple cobbler, retreat into my bedroom, and devour Labyrinth Lord. Oh, and maybe the cobbler and ice cream too.
- Ark
Sitting here holding the book, I find that I am happier with it than most of my RPG purchases over the last few years. So often I'm flipping through a new book and thinking "Dear God what the hell did I just buy, and why the hell did I buy this?" This one is still bringing a smile to my face.
It's much nicer than I thought. I've never bought anything through Lulu, and am surprised. I swear, the binding even looks like it will not splinter into a thousand pieces if I open the book up wide. The art is cooler than I thought it would be, and it is so much damn easier that reading the pdf. And what I have read seems to be clearing up misconceptions and confusions that I've had with D&D for 30 years now. I think I have a winner here.
The boy is tucked in his bed reading a tattered copy of The Hobbit. I think I shall grab some ice cream and apple cobbler, retreat into my bedroom, and devour Labyrinth Lord. Oh, and maybe the cobbler and ice cream too.
- Ark
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Classic Roleplaying in the DFW Area?
So far, the people that I know have just given me blank stares when I bring up the idea of starting an AD&D-type campaign. Many aren't even sure what it is and have little interest, but some who do just give me look of pity, like I was some sort of simpleton. I figure that if I'm going do some Classic Roleplaying in the next year, I had better start beating the bushes now.
I have heard that there will be a "old-school" D&D Con in my neck of the woods in June (NTRPGCON,) so there must be interest. I'm going to start digging through my usual sources (Pen and Paper Games and . . . um, okay, not sources - source,) but I figured that I might as well ask here as well.
So does anyone in the DFW area play Classic D&D, OSR, or one of the clones, etc, etc? Or if you don't, are you interested? Or know of anyone else who does or have links or resources? Anything? Bueller? Bueller?
Oh, and if you don't know what DFW means, then, well, yeah. Hmm. Dallas-Ft. Worth. Yeah. You probably live too far away. :)
Thanks kindly for any help!
- Ark
I have heard that there will be a "old-school" D&D Con in my neck of the woods in June (NTRPGCON,) so there must be interest. I'm going to start digging through my usual sources (Pen and Paper Games and . . . um, okay, not sources - source,) but I figured that I might as well ask here as well.
So does anyone in the DFW area play Classic D&D, OSR, or one of the clones, etc, etc? Or if you don't, are you interested? Or know of anyone else who does or have links or resources? Anything? Bueller? Bueller?
Oh, and if you don't know what DFW means, then, well, yeah. Hmm. Dallas-Ft. Worth. Yeah. You probably live too far away. :)
Thanks kindly for any help!
- Ark
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Today I Tried to Kill Zeb Cook's Nephew with a Pack of Wild Dogs
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| I'm in ur liteboks steelin ur lite |
Despite the belts, I saw a pair of fleshy cheeks and a crack at a table. This was from a guy I know graduated high school in the 1990s. We can't go around blaming the teenagers this time. It was a man unknowingly showing off his man ass. It was cold this morning. Did he not notice the breeze? Hmm.
I DMed an LFR mod where there are mysterious sicknesses plaguing a floating school. The PCs are hired to take on the role of substitute teachers and track down the hidden menace. There were lots of opportunities for role play, and the group that I was with took full advantage of them and we had a great time. For the first time in quite a while, We had more ROLE that ROLL.
One of the guys there who I've been playing with for some time turns out to be David "Zeb" Cook's nephew. He mentioned it after the game when I steered the conversation to AD&D. I had no idea they were related. Zeb Cook worked many of the awesome games and mods I played in the 80s. He also was the lead designer on the reason I fled D&D and didn't return for 20 years - the 2nd edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons.
Zeb's nephew is one of those people who is very inventive with his characters. They all some some bizarre neurosis or characteristic. There was the guy who would attack any statue he saw. (Pretty good survival tactic in D&D, actually.) There was the Warforged that thought he was a gnoll. And then there is the current character, a shaman that . . . well . . . it gets complicated. The shaman's spirit companion is actually the one in charge. The mortal husk of a shaman is more of a host for the spirit. Needless to say, my son loves his wacky antics.
So, today I tried to kill Zeb Cook's nephew with a pack of wild dogs. I failed, but I did put some severe pain on him. Take that, Second Edition AD&D! Booyah!
- Ark
Friday, January 21, 2011
Sherman and Mr. Peabody
After I chipped my way through the ice into the car this morning, my son and I began the short trek to school.
"So you want to play a game tonight? We could play Trouble or Sliders." When the boy asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told him 'boardgames you'd like to play with me.' Ties suck. He got me (R2-D2 is in) Trouble and Sliders. Much better than ties. Oh, that is Sorry Sliders, not the TV show with Jerry O'Connell and John Rhys-Davies - though the first two seasons of that would have been cool too.
"Um . . ." he started off with the tone in his voice he gets when he thinks I'm not going to like his answer. "Maybe we could play Castle Ravenloft or Small World." The two were games I had put on my Amazon wishlist for Christmas and actually received. He had been on a Trouble and Sliders kick and the change piqued my interest - but the punch in the arm from the slug bug sighting interrupted my train of thought.
"Ow! You got me!"
Then I smiled back at him. "How about Castle Ravenloft - since I finished reading the rules on that one and haven't started on Small World yet." I still had twenty pages to read of a Living Forgotten Realms mod I was running on Saturday morning and didn't want to learn an entirely new game all at the same time. My brain is old and floppy and can't keep up like it used to.
"Great!" he smiled.
"So two different types of D&D in two days. Wow." I pulled into the dropoff lane. "That reminds me. My copy of Labrynth Lord should be arriving in the mail this weekend. We can take Denis the fighter out for a spin soon."
"I shoulda named him Regdar." he sighed.
"Well, lets keep him as Denis for our Basic type D&D test game. You'll need to roll up a new guy for the the AD&D type campaign. Why don't you call that one Regdar?" The possibility of the first Basic D&D character he creates to die a miserable death is high, so I really didn't want to kill a Regdar on my son's first outing.
"Okay," he said without a fight. "I'll keep Denis, and the new guy for AD&D will be Regdar the First."
A look of confusion spread over my face as he got out of the car.
"My original Regdar was the one we played in the Sea of Tears game. He's Regdar the Second. Regdar the Third is the Regdar in Living Forgotten Realms. So the AD&D Regdar will be Regdar the First."
"Huh?" I asked, knowing that the parents behind me were getting angry, but having a burning desire to know what the hell my son was talking about.
"It' OLD Dungeons and Dragons dad. OD&D. OLD. We are going back in time, right? So this will be Regdar the First. Duh."
It took me a while for my brain to parse that. "Oh."
"Bye Dad!"
Geeeez. The neighborhood parents must hate me by now.
- Ark
"So you want to play a game tonight? We could play Trouble or Sliders." When the boy asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I told him 'boardgames you'd like to play with me.' Ties suck. He got me (R2-D2 is in) Trouble and Sliders. Much better than ties. Oh, that is Sorry Sliders, not the TV show with Jerry O'Connell and John Rhys-Davies - though the first two seasons of that would have been cool too.
"Um . . ." he started off with the tone in his voice he gets when he thinks I'm not going to like his answer. "Maybe we could play Castle Ravenloft or Small World." The two were games I had put on my Amazon wishlist for Christmas and actually received. He had been on a Trouble and Sliders kick and the change piqued my interest - but the punch in the arm from the slug bug sighting interrupted my train of thought.
"Ow! You got me!"
Then I smiled back at him. "How about Castle Ravenloft - since I finished reading the rules on that one and haven't started on Small World yet." I still had twenty pages to read of a Living Forgotten Realms mod I was running on Saturday morning and didn't want to learn an entirely new game all at the same time. My brain is old and floppy and can't keep up like it used to.
"Great!" he smiled.
"So two different types of D&D in two days. Wow." I pulled into the dropoff lane. "That reminds me. My copy of Labrynth Lord should be arriving in the mail this weekend. We can take Denis the fighter out for a spin soon."
"I shoulda named him Regdar." he sighed.
"Well, lets keep him as Denis for our Basic type D&D test game. You'll need to roll up a new guy for the the AD&D type campaign. Why don't you call that one Regdar?" The possibility of the first Basic D&D character he creates to die a miserable death is high, so I really didn't want to kill a Regdar on my son's first outing.
"Okay," he said without a fight. "I'll keep Denis, and the new guy for AD&D will be Regdar the First."
A look of confusion spread over my face as he got out of the car.
"My original Regdar was the one we played in the Sea of Tears game. He's Regdar the Second. Regdar the Third is the Regdar in Living Forgotten Realms. So the AD&D Regdar will be Regdar the First."
"Huh?" I asked, knowing that the parents behind me were getting angry, but having a burning desire to know what the hell my son was talking about.
"It' OLD Dungeons and Dragons dad. OD&D. OLD. We are going back in time, right? So this will be Regdar the First. Duh."
It took me a while for my brain to parse that. "Oh."
"Bye Dad!"
Geeeez. The neighborhood parents must hate me by now.
- Ark
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Maps
Alexis over at the Tao of D&D set up a wiki a while ago called The Same Universe which is "an experiment in virtual world construction." I think it's a cool concept and have offered up some maps, just in case that is the kind of thing he is interested in. I am not 100% sure that it is, but that's what I've got.
Hopefully the image to the right is changing, but not too annoying. It's a part of the world of Bristia. I drew the outlines many years ago with an actual pen and ink. Bristia is a world that has one season every 365 days. The long winters cause the poles to freeze up, forming ice caps which melt during the spring. The coastline is under constant change, which the animated gif hopefully is depicting right now.
This four year long seasonal cycle creates havoc with anyone trying to live a normal life. The winters are extremely dry, turning most of the the inland areas to desert. The summers obliterate any previously existing coastline. Permanent agriculture is impossible. Groups fight for land that they leave one season and want to return to the next. Imagine ancient inland empires needing to reply on magic and careful water management to survive the winters.
Bristia is a place of constant change where thousands of years of failed empires crumble beneath the feet of the inhabitants. Flash foods caused by glacial melting can be as dangerous as the monsters that roam the land. Plants have developed unique strategies of surviving, including burrowing, locomotion, and big sharp pointy teeth.
I'm done with Bristia. It was fun, but I'm on to other things. I've cleaned up the maps of place names and other doodles and will be offering them to whoever wants them. My hope is someone may fiddle with a campaign there, filling in the blank areas with cultures and cities and dungeons galore. If not, that's okay too. But at least they are out there and not molding in my drawer.
They are not really pretty or anything, but they are functional for a strange world with a seasonal dysfunction. I'll make them available at a printable dpi level format one way or another, I'm just not sure what form that will take yet.
Oh, and I've been meaning to mention this for a while now. George over at Legends and Labyrinths had been looking for some help with his map. I enjoy projects like that, so I fired up Hexographer, and made him a shiny new one.
If you are interested in having a map Hexographered into something vaguely resembling the old Greyhawk maps, let me know. I don't promise anything - but it's the kind of thing I like to do. For free. Yeah, I'm a sucker for latitude and longitude and compass roses.
- Ark
Hopefully the image to the right is changing, but not too annoying. It's a part of the world of Bristia. I drew the outlines many years ago with an actual pen and ink. Bristia is a world that has one season every 365 days. The long winters cause the poles to freeze up, forming ice caps which melt during the spring. The coastline is under constant change, which the animated gif hopefully is depicting right now.
This four year long seasonal cycle creates havoc with anyone trying to live a normal life. The winters are extremely dry, turning most of the the inland areas to desert. The summers obliterate any previously existing coastline. Permanent agriculture is impossible. Groups fight for land that they leave one season and want to return to the next. Imagine ancient inland empires needing to reply on magic and careful water management to survive the winters.
Bristia is a place of constant change where thousands of years of failed empires crumble beneath the feet of the inhabitants. Flash foods caused by glacial melting can be as dangerous as the monsters that roam the land. Plants have developed unique strategies of surviving, including burrowing, locomotion, and big sharp pointy teeth.
I'm done with Bristia. It was fun, but I'm on to other things. I've cleaned up the maps of place names and other doodles and will be offering them to whoever wants them. My hope is someone may fiddle with a campaign there, filling in the blank areas with cultures and cities and dungeons galore. If not, that's okay too. But at least they are out there and not molding in my drawer.
They are not really pretty or anything, but they are functional for a strange world with a seasonal dysfunction. I'll make them available at a printable dpi level format one way or another, I'm just not sure what form that will take yet.
Oh, and I've been meaning to mention this for a while now. George over at Legends and Labyrinths had been looking for some help with his map. I enjoy projects like that, so I fired up Hexographer, and made him a shiny new one.
If you are interested in having a map Hexographered into something vaguely resembling the old Greyhawk maps, let me know. I don't promise anything - but it's the kind of thing I like to do. For free. Yeah, I'm a sucker for latitude and longitude and compass roses.
- Ark
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Basking in the Glow
I have a horn and I'm going to toot it.
I won an award! The Newbie Blogger Award over at Gothridge Manor, to be precise. Yeah! I'm a newb! Or, as my son would say, I'm a BEAST FAIL NOOB. Um, that is a good thing, right? These kids and their slang.
So thanks for the award Tim. And thanks for the nomination, Mike. And if I know how these things work, thanks Happy Whisk!
I'd like to thank my son for providing content and laughs. Also, a huge bowl of thanks goes out to E. Gary Gygax - because those of use with first names we hate so much that we can only refer to them by one letter have to stick together. Oh, and for writing some stuff.
- Ark
PS Oh yeah, and YOU the reader. Yes, YOU. Reading. Now. YOU. Thanks.
I won an award! The Newbie Blogger Award over at Gothridge Manor, to be precise. Yeah! I'm a newb! Or, as my son would say, I'm a BEAST FAIL NOOB. Um, that is a good thing, right? These kids and their slang.
So thanks for the award Tim. And thanks for the nomination, Mike. And if I know how these things work, thanks Happy Whisk!
I'd like to thank my son for providing content and laughs. Also, a huge bowl of thanks goes out to E. Gary Gygax - because those of use with first names we hate so much that we can only refer to them by one letter have to stick together. Oh, and for writing some stuff.
- Ark
PS Oh yeah, and YOU the reader. Yes, YOU. Reading. Now. YOU. Thanks.
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