The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge
Day 26: Do you still game with the group that introduced you to the hobby?
No.
But here is a picture I drew to distract you. Okay, not really - just still practicing with those new markers.
- Ark
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
A Tale of Fire and Ice and Grass and Wood
The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge
Day 25: Longest running campaign/gaming group you've been in.
That's kind of like two questions in one. Gaming groups are kind of hard to nail down for me - they grow and change over time. So it's hard to say where one group ended and another began. Campaigns can be that way too if you stick with a setting and always play in it, no matter who is around.
So, let's limit this to a campaing with a specific group. Okay - that's easier for me. :)
It would be the Sea of Tears campaign - lasting from the summer of 2008 to the summer of 2010. It was (gasp) a 4e game in a world that had been flooded so that only the tops of mountains stuck out of the sea. I had just returned from a lake vacation - thus the aquatic feel.The campaign focused on a save the world plot, and after two years, the party did indeed save the world - twice.
It was a fun campaign and I met some great people. Sadly, we lost a player at the end due to cancer. Give the blog a search for Sea of Tears if you are interested in more about it.
- Ark
Day 25: Longest running campaign/gaming group you've been in.
That's kind of like two questions in one. Gaming groups are kind of hard to nail down for me - they grow and change over time. So it's hard to say where one group ended and another began. Campaigns can be that way too if you stick with a setting and always play in it, no matter who is around.
So, let's limit this to a campaing with a specific group. Okay - that's easier for me. :)
It would be the Sea of Tears campaign - lasting from the summer of 2008 to the summer of 2010. It was (gasp) a 4e game in a world that had been flooded so that only the tops of mountains stuck out of the sea. I had just returned from a lake vacation - thus the aquatic feel.The campaign focused on a save the world plot, and after two years, the party did indeed save the world - twice.
It was a fun campaign and I met some great people. Sadly, we lost a player at the end due to cancer. Give the blog a search for Sea of Tears if you are interested in more about it.
- Ark
Monday, February 24, 2014
What is Best in Life?
Sunday, February 23, 2014
Black Blade
The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge
Day 23: First song that comes to mind that you associate with D&D. Why?
"Black Blade" by Blue Öyster Cult.
Why? Why? Because it was written by fucking Elric of Melniboné, that's why.
Oh, and we whee listening to A LOT of Blue Öyster Cult at the time. :)
- Ark
Day 23: First song that comes to mind that you associate with D&D. Why?
"Black Blade" by Blue Öyster Cult.
Why? Why? Because it was written by fucking Elric of Melniboné, that's why.
Oh, and we whee listening to A LOT of Blue Öyster Cult at the time. :)
- Ark
Saturday, February 22, 2014
D&D Books
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| Coffee shop patron in a small Texas town. |
Day 22: First D&D-based novel you ever read.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight was the first D&D novel I read. My mother had read Quag Keep years before, but her description of it never interested me enough to pick that one up. I immediately fell in love with the world of Dragonlance. Fizban was awesome, and even the Kender couldn't sway my interest.
I even remember fretting all summer long (1985) over the sickeningly sappy love triangle, waiting eagerly for Dragons of Spring Dawning to come out.
Then there was the series that went back in time - which was kind of interesting. But all the stuff that was printed after that - meh.
A year or two ago I went back and read Dragons of Autumn Twilight again. Nostalgic, yes, but it definitely fits into that whole YA thing, and doesn't really lift it's chin above that pigeon-hole.
The Boy loved the series - that's all that matters. :)
- Ark
Friday, February 21, 2014
Sad Books
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| A chat at the coffee shop. |
Day 21: First time you sold some of your D&D books - for whatever reason.
A couple of months ago - actually.
I've lost A LOT of gaming books and modules and paraphernalia over the years. Moving once or twice a year, not being able to pay the storage bill and having the items auction off, just being stupid - yeah - those all took a huge toll on my collection. But selling D&D stuff? No - Never - I Never, Ever, Ever would do that . . .
Oh, wait. Just before we moved back in December I looked over everything that I was going to have to move and decided that my huge collection of books had to get whittled down. It was actually easier than I thought - and a trip to Half-Price Books later and all of my 4e stuff was gone. Weeeeelll - I kept the stuff from the Essentials line. And the Dungeon Tiles. And the Minis.
Oh, I did keep the Hammerfast. The module - um, I mean "Roleplaying Game Supplement," is a neat little dwarven town full of adventures. It is so unlike any other 4e adventures, it makes you do a double-take. There is a description of the town, places in the town, people in the town, and possible adventures. And some maps. And LINE DRAWINGS. But no pre-programmed overly scripted combat scenario monstrosities that plague every other facet of 4e. It really feels like an original D&D product - just scrape out some stat blocks and insert your favorite rule-set. I'd recommend it.
But the 14 metric tons of rules, adventures, and splat books all went splat. I still see them sitting on the shelves at the Half-Price Book store three months later - along with everyone else's copies of 4e books. It seems rather sad.
- Ark
Thursday, February 20, 2014
It's a Secret
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| He really wasn't this sad. The sketch just turned out that way. |
Day 20: First non-D&D RPG you played.
While I am pretty sure I bought Gamma World before Top Secret, we actually got in a Top Secret game before the mutant-fest began.
As a kid, I really enjoyed James Bond movies, history, weaponry, geography, politics, and foreign languages and cultures - so Top Secret was perfect. I loved the name of the first module - Sprechenhaltestelle and enjoyed the name of the game author so much that Merle M. Rasmussen became the name of the agent's handler at the bureau. Oh - and the percentile dice. I loved them. The system - to me at least - made so much more sense than the whole polyhedral thing going on with Dungeons and Dragons.
Interestingly, I never got the Top Secret Companion with its rule changes. Even when I purchased Top Secret/SI - I just didn't like the rules revamp. I liked the original rules written for the original boxed set. As far as I was concerned, they were perfect for the types of games I was running - and I ran Top Secret Games from 1981 till 1987.
Gamma World, on the other hand, didn't make sense to me at all. Hated it. It was just completely crazy and non-sequitur. Of course, it was that way by design - and if I had met Jim Ward back then, it would have clicked. :)
- Ark
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