The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge rolls on . . .
Day 14: Did you meet your significant other while playing D&D? Does he or she still play?
Well, sort of. It wasn't D&D - it was a watered-down version with no DM that you could play in chat rooms on AOL. But it was definitely roll-play - electronic room dice and everything. :)
And no, she doesn't play anything these days.
- Ark
Friday, February 14, 2014
Thursday, February 13, 2014
By Mattel
The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge rolls on . . .
Day 13: First miniature(s) you used for D&D.
Actuall, the first miniatures I used for D&D were the minis that came with the Mattel Electronics Dungeons & Dragons Computer Labyrinth Game. That is sort of cheating - but then again, it's sort of awesome too. :)
On the art front, I got in a big batch of Japanese art supplies - blue lead, pens, etc - and this is the result of me dorking around with them for three minutes. Wheeeeeee!
- Ark
Day 13: First miniature(s) you used for D&D.
Actuall, the first miniatures I used for D&D were the minis that came with the Mattel Electronics Dungeons & Dragons Computer Labyrinth Game. That is sort of cheating - but then again, it's sort of awesome too. :)
On the art front, I got in a big batch of Japanese art supplies - blue lead, pens, etc - and this is the result of me dorking around with them for three minutes. Wheeeeeee!
- Ark
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Gemini @ Saturn
The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge rolls on . .
Day 12: First store where you bought your gaming supplies. Does it still exist?
I found my first fix of D&D at a Waldenbooks in a mall in Clear Lake, Texas. There was this spinny rack thing with all sorts of books and modules. I remember it well, and made many, many trips back.
But no, I don't think Waldenbooks exist anymore.
As an aside - at the time, I lived in an apartment behind Mission Control - you know 'Houston, we have a problem.' Yeah, that place - at the corner of Saturn Lane and Gemini Street. Some guys from NASA come to our school when Voyager 1 was at Saturn and showed us raw video of the pictures beaming back. Then, some NASA scientists organized a summer school class to teach us programming. In 1981. I wrote a character generator - of course. :)
- Ark
Day 12: First store where you bought your gaming supplies. Does it still exist?
I found my first fix of D&D at a Waldenbooks in a mall in Clear Lake, Texas. There was this spinny rack thing with all sorts of books and modules. I remember it well, and made many, many trips back.
But no, I don't think Waldenbooks exist anymore.
As an aside - at the time, I lived in an apartment behind Mission Control - you know 'Houston, we have a problem.' Yeah, that place - at the corner of Saturn Lane and Gemini Street. Some guys from NASA come to our school when Voyager 1 was at Saturn and showed us raw video of the pictures beaming back. Then, some NASA scientists organized a summer school class to teach us programming. In 1981. I wrote a character generator - of course. :)
- Ark
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Revenge of the Dead Simple Lock & Trap Mini-game
About a billion years ago, the OSR Blogosphere was chewing over a method to make dealing with locks and traps more interesting for thieves in D&D. Taking all of the good ideas, I taped together a method that my son liked - the Dead Simple Lock & Trap Mini-game.
Well, I just got a message from one André LCRJ out of Brazil . . .
Hi, I’m a little late but I only discovered your site now, and I have to say that your idea is fantastic. In fact, I liked it so much that I made a BURP deck for me, in Portuguese (It is a FORS deck actually). But since you were so kind as to share your game I might as well do the same, and I made a deck in english too. The distribution is the same of a standard deck of cards: Four suites from 1 to 10 plus 3 face cards for each suite (Lock, Hourglass & Key). The size of the cards fit a standard card shield. I added a little extra too: At the bottom of each card there’s a “Magic 8-Ball” like sentence, that a DM can use to solve some problem that he might have in the game session. Hope you enjoy.
The deck is HERE.
Cheers,
André
So thanks, André for the awesome card deck. Now I need to get it printed out all fancy-like.
- Ark
Well, I just got a message from one André LCRJ out of Brazil . . .Hi, I’m a little late but I only discovered your site now, and I have to say that your idea is fantastic. In fact, I liked it so much that I made a BURP deck for me, in Portuguese (It is a FORS deck actually). But since you were so kind as to share your game I might as well do the same, and I made a deck in english too. The distribution is the same of a standard deck of cards: Four suites from 1 to 10 plus 3 face cards for each suite (Lock, Hourglass & Key). The size of the cards fit a standard card shield. I added a little extra too: At the bottom of each card there’s a “Magic 8-Ball” like sentence, that a DM can use to solve some problem that he might have in the game session. Hope you enjoy.
The deck is HERE.
Cheers,
André
So thanks, André for the awesome card deck. Now I need to get it printed out all fancy-like.
- Ark
Splat?
The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge rolls on . . .
Day 11: First splatbook you begged your DM to approve.
Um . . . I don't understand the question. I don't think I've ever done that . . . beg . . . that word - no - or splat.
:)
- Ark
Day 11: First splatbook you begged your DM to approve.
Um . . . I don't understand the question. I don't think I've ever done that . . . beg . . . that word - no - or splat.
:)
- Ark
Monday, February 10, 2014
First Magazine
On with the Anniversary Blog Hop . . .
Day 10: First gaming magazine you ever bought (Dragon, Dungeon, White Dwarf, etc.)
That would be Dragon #45. As soon as I found out there was such a thing as a gaming magazine - I was hooked.
Now this dragon over on the left . . . well . . . he needs some work. Been experimenting with markers. Apparently I need a heck of a lot more experimentation. :)
- Ark
Day 10: First gaming magazine you ever bought (Dragon, Dungeon, White Dwarf, etc.)
That would be Dragon #45. As soon as I found out there was such a thing as a gaming magazine - I was hooked.
Now this dragon over on the left . . . well . . . he needs some work. Been experimenting with markers. Apparently I need a heck of a lot more experimentation. :)
- Ark
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Hardcore Wax Play
Welcome to the D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge!
Day 8: First set of polyhedral dice you owned. Do you still use them?
They were in my box, of course. With a crayon! We were hardcore back then - rubbing our little no-brand crayons against polyhedral shapes until we got blisters. I've got some of those dice still - but no, they are too chewed up to use.
- Ark
Day 8: First set of polyhedral dice you owned. Do you still use them?
They were in my box, of course. With a crayon! We were hardcore back then - rubbing our little no-brand crayons against polyhedral shapes until we got blisters. I've got some of those dice still - but no, they are too chewed up to use.
- Ark
Friday, February 7, 2014
The Box
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| Maybe Some Things Shouldn't Be Drawn |
Day 7: First D&D product you ever bought. Do you still have it?
It was the nifty Holmesian box with rulebook, dice, and, the B2 module. I chucked the box pretty soon after buying it. It was just in the way and the sides had split with me carrying it around everywhere. I still have some of the dice, but as for the rest of the contents - well - they are lost to time.
- Ark
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Death Cubed
Welcome to the D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge!
Day 6: First character death. How did you handle it?
I just rolled up another one. Dime a dozen and all that.
:)
- Ark
Day 6: First character death. How did you handle it?
I just rolled up another one. Dime a dozen and all that.
:)
- Ark
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Urlik Banork
Welcome to the D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge!
Day 5: First character to go from 1st level to the highest level possible in a given edition. (Or, what's the highest level character you've ever ran?)
My first character of note, after a slew of hopeless cannon fodder, was a wizard named Urlik Banork. He was modeled after Gandalf - and I started him as a gray-bearded old man, not some young punk whippersnapper.
He got amazingly high in levels - not from my skill, or even luck, mind you. Urlik was in multiple campaigns, had multiple DMs, was a Mary Sue NPC sometimes, and sometimes us kids would just narrate adventures with no DM and assign our favorite characters levels on a whim. Not that, in the early days, we really understood - or cared to understand - all that AD&D had to offer. We were playing for fun, and all of our characters ended up being '50th level' - whatever that meant.
Urlik was adamant about being Lawful Good and really hated Orcs - so much so that he got his buddies together, raised and army, and wiped the Bone March clean of evil. At that point, we were only playing with those characters as narration, but still, it was fun to redraw the maps of Greyhawk.
As far as an actual character I leveled up to the tippy-top of the level limit? Um - never, I'd guess. At least not the honest way. :) I was too busy DMing.
- Ark
Day 5: First character to go from 1st level to the highest level possible in a given edition. (Or, what's the highest level character you've ever ran?)
My first character of note, after a slew of hopeless cannon fodder, was a wizard named Urlik Banork. He was modeled after Gandalf - and I started him as a gray-bearded old man, not some young punk whippersnapper.
He got amazingly high in levels - not from my skill, or even luck, mind you. Urlik was in multiple campaigns, had multiple DMs, was a Mary Sue NPC sometimes, and sometimes us kids would just narrate adventures with no DM and assign our favorite characters levels on a whim. Not that, in the early days, we really understood - or cared to understand - all that AD&D had to offer. We were playing for fun, and all of our characters ended up being '50th level' - whatever that meant.
Urlik was adamant about being Lawful Good and really hated Orcs - so much so that he got his buddies together, raised and army, and wiped the Bone March clean of evil. At that point, we were only playing with those characters as narration, but still, it was fun to redraw the maps of Greyhawk.
As far as an actual character I leveled up to the tippy-top of the level limit? Um - never, I'd guess. At least not the honest way. :) I was too busy DMing.
- Ark
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Here There Be . . .
Welcome to the D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge!
Day 4: First dragon your character slew (or some other powerful monster.)
I DMed through most of my early D&D days, and of those characters I played back then, I don't recall ever slaying a dragon. In fact, the first dragon I slew wasn't until WOTC was bringing out the Essentials line, i.e. D&D 4.5.
The Boy and I were playing pre-gens for some sort of demo WOTC was doing. I remember I played the magic user who had the newly revamped magic missiles that auto-hit. And so, our first level PCs went up against a baby dragon.
Okay, now that I think about it, my pre-gen died in a burst of dragon breath. The whole party did, actually, now that I remember it.
So, um, I never did slay a dragon. Dammit.
- Ark
Day 4: First dragon your character slew (or some other powerful monster.)
I DMed through most of my early D&D days, and of those characters I played back then, I don't recall ever slaying a dragon. In fact, the first dragon I slew wasn't until WOTC was bringing out the Essentials line, i.e. D&D 4.5.
The Boy and I were playing pre-gens for some sort of demo WOTC was doing. I remember I played the magic user who had the newly revamped magic missiles that auto-hit. And so, our first level PCs went up against a baby dragon.
Okay, now that I think about it, my pre-gen died in a burst of dragon breath. The whole party did, actually, now that I remember it.
So, um, I never did slay a dragon. Dammit.
- Ark
Monday, February 3, 2014
The Tower of Zenopus
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| Tower of Zenopus with the Stone Mountain in the background. |
Welcome to the D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge!
Day 3: First dungeon you explored as a player-character or ran as a DM.
The first time I ever player D&D, I DMed - as explained in my previous entry. I just turned to the back of the blue book and began running my friend through the Tower of Zenopus. I don't actually recall reading the adventure beforehand - and for years after, I couldn't figure out why there was a giant skull at the top of the tower, and an ancient domed city down below.
There was a lot of confusion about the rules - but we pushed through. I seem to recall the most horrible monsters were the Green Slime and a randomly rolled Gelatinous Cube. There was a lot of pc death. We didn't realize that the party should contain more than one adventurer. But it was tons of fun.
It's funny how a simple little game could grab my attention and never let go - even after all of these years.
- Ark
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Horror Noir Bayeux Tapestry in the Works
Our gaming group is continuing to play GURPS. The players seem to like it - it's simple enough to not get in the way of a good story, but complicated enough to handle all of the really weird ideas we come up with. Oddly, we are still running with the game that I only set up as an experimental venue - that of Horror Noir.
The characters are agents of the Directorate of Esoteric Affairs, a British agency founded to fight and contain weirdness of all shapes and forms. They've fought zombies in London's Chinatown, undead ghost babies and evil cultists in Scotland, and protected an ancient Egyptian Mummy from a Parisian Gargoyle over the skies of France inside of the Hindenburg.
The party is made up of a tough-as-nails British police investigator, a kung-fu master from China, and a wiley South Afican monster huntress. Also included in the mix as a Brazilian Mati Hari who was turned into a succubus after interrupting a demon summoning spell, a black-and-white horror film starlet who got waay too intimate with an actual, real life vampire on set, and an American gumshoe who tussled with a werewolf a bit too closely one night. So, yeah, half the monster hunters have turned into actual, real life monsters over the years.
This time out, five DEA agents vanished on the way to Transylvania, and our intrepid heroes have been sent to Romania to find out what happened. Below are the visual notes from one of the players. She plays the South African monster huntress, and has done a great job. I am fully expecting a complete Bayeux Tapestry workup of all of their adventures soon. :)
Awesome, eh?
- Ark
The characters are agents of the Directorate of Esoteric Affairs, a British agency founded to fight and contain weirdness of all shapes and forms. They've fought zombies in London's Chinatown, undead ghost babies and evil cultists in Scotland, and protected an ancient Egyptian Mummy from a Parisian Gargoyle over the skies of France inside of the Hindenburg.
The party is made up of a tough-as-nails British police investigator, a kung-fu master from China, and a wiley South Afican monster huntress. Also included in the mix as a Brazilian Mati Hari who was turned into a succubus after interrupting a demon summoning spell, a black-and-white horror film starlet who got waay too intimate with an actual, real life vampire on set, and an American gumshoe who tussled with a werewolf a bit too closely one night. So, yeah, half the monster hunters have turned into actual, real life monsters over the years.
This time out, five DEA agents vanished on the way to Transylvania, and our intrepid heroes have been sent to Romania to find out what happened. Below are the visual notes from one of the players. She plays the South African monster huntress, and has done a great job. I am fully expecting a complete Bayeux Tapestry workup of all of their adventures soon. :)
Awesome, eh?
- Ark
Fezzes are Cool
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| Merlin never looked so suave. |
Day 2: First person who you introduced to D&D. Which edition? Their first character?
So from the last post, my introduction to D&D wasn't incredibly informative. But I was in love with the idea of what Dungeons and Dragons might be, so I acquired the Blue Box from the book store in the mall and dove in.
I guess you could more accurately say that Doctor John Eric Holmes introduced me to D&D. It was his words that flowed into my brain, telling me finally, really, exactly what D&D was.
After perusing the blue box rules, I decided the game was definitely something I should be doing. I arranged a sleepover with my friend Chris, determined that we could figure the whole thing out.
Hats. We were sure hats were an important part of the D&D experience. After all - every hero in the blue book was in a hat, right? So he both made wizard hats out of construction paper and tape. You have to have your priorities straight - right? Then we sat on the floor in his room.
Chris rolled up a character, and I began to DM - and play D&D - for the very first time.
Honestly, I have no recollection of what his first character was. There were a lot of them. And a lot of death. Glorious, limb rending, flesh melting death.
Can life be any more enjoyable than that? I think not.
- Ark
Saturday, February 1, 2014
First One's Free
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| Dude Whose Name I Can't Remember |
So here is the first topic:
Day 1 : First person who introduced you to D&D. Which Edition? Your first character?
I don't remember the name of the guy who introduced me to D&D. It was back in 5th grade, and he came into class clutching a freshly minted copy of Deities and Demigods. Yeah, the version with Elric and Fafhrd and the whole gang.
My best friend Chris was in the same class, and we kind of knew the guy, but he was a self-important ass. He was very much the Major Charles Emerson Winchester the Third to our Hawkeye and B.J. Hunnicutt. However, I was absoluelty facinated by the book and convinced him to let me take it home to read.
I had no real idea what D&D was - and the book certainly had no explanation as how to play. But here were gods and goddesses and mythical beasts all transcribed into some sort of classfication system that enabled combat between them. Wow.
That night I sat down and began writing a game around what I thought the book was about. I figured the game was something like chess, and each character had different moves on a chess board and dice were used to determine which piece won a battle. I refer to that game now as 'God Chess.'
Eventually I learned more about D&D, but this was my murky and confused introduction. :)
Oh, my first character? Zeus, of course.
- Ark
Friday, January 31, 2014
Twinkie Doodle
We went to the animal shelter recently and came back with two rescue cats. One stayed still long enough for me to draw her. The Boy named her Twinkie because she is the color of a Twinkie. But she also goes by Twinker Bell, Stinker Belle, and Hey You Damn Cat.
The other cat, Heidi, hides a lot. She was pretty feral when they picked her up and is just now learning to play. String is a big favorite of hers.
So this marks the end of the first month of the A-Doodle-A-Day project. I'm sure that many of you are tired of being spammed by crappy pictures in your blog-rolls. I originally set the goal to post a doodle ever day for a year. It's harder than I had originally thought. A big pain in the ass. And the hand. And exhausting. So, with that in mind, I've decided to . . . oh hell. I'll keep on doing it. I enjoy drawing too much. In fact, I'm going to make it even more difficult for myself.
How? you may ask.
Well, lemme tell you . . .
I recently noticed that d20 Dark Ages is holding the D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge in February. It's one of those write a blog post ever day for a month about something kinda things that I've avoided my entire blogging career. I'm enjoying my own, self-inflicted year-long challenge with the doodles, but I've been worried it's been a bit . . . random . . . in subject matter.
So, in my ultimate wisdom I decided to participate in the Blog Hop, AND to do a doodle along the same subject as that day's particular blog topic.
What could go wrong????
- Ark
;)
Thursday, January 30, 2014
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
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