#RPGaDAY2024 Game or gamer you miss

 This one is very easy, and hard. In fact I am sitting here drinking a Mt. Dew (though now a Zero sugar one) in his honor.

My friend and old DM Michael Grenda, died last year. It was a rather sudden and unexpected death. We had not talked in years (jobs, marriages, kids), but we had met up about this time last year, and we fell right into old patterns. 

I was very happy that his life had turned out happy. Maybe not exactly like we used to talk about in High School, but really who can say that.  I still feel sorrow for his wife and daughter.

I have been working on an adventure that I want to get out dedicated to him and based on his version of the "Mad Archmage" archetype. No, it's not a mega-dungeon, but it's certainly closer to a funhouse dungeon.  He, his wife, and his daughter all used to work at this haunted house, one of the largest in the state of Illinois. I was comforted in seeing that there were so many of these "Boo Crew" folks at his funeral. It seems right that the adventure should be a large haunted house-like deal.

Me and Grenda at Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket on Rt. 66 in July 2023

Yeah. I wore that Radio Shack shirt on purpose. We bonded over our love of the TRS-80 Color Computer.  I still have his old computer.

It was his birthday a couple of days ago. To be perfectly honest I am still coming to terms with the fact that he is gone. Weird. 

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And that is all for Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August, 2024!

#RPGaDAY2024 Person You'd Like to Game With

 Hmm. That is an interesting one. I am not entirely sure, to be honest.

I do think playing a game where Matt Mercer DMing would be fun. I would also would love to sit in on a session with Todd Stashwick or Deborah Ann Woll because they just always look like they are having an absolute blast when they play.

But in truth I'd rather just play a game with some of the guys I used to game with. More on that one tomorrow.

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 Awesome app

 Ok, this one is a bit of a cheat, but I enjoy the Google dice roller app.

I can be anywhere and have access to all sorts of dice. It is not as nice as real dice and really only pseudorandom, but it works in a pinch.

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 Great Gamer Gadget

 I think following up on yesterday's post I have to go with HeroForge as a Great Gamer Gadget. 

Even if you never get a mini from them (and you should get at least one, they are great) their mini designer is one of the better Character design tools out there.

Come to think of it. I don't have a mini of Omar yet!

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 Marvelous Miniature

 This one is rather easy. I am completely in love with the miniatures from HeroForge.

These all sit on my desk.

I was an early backer, and backed it again for their color print process. Since then I hove picked up quite a few. What can I say, I love them.

Here is my "mini-me" and my alter ego Johan.

I have a few Larinas. A printed one and few I did on our home printer.

Some to commemorate my best Baldur's Gate 3 run, Sinéad, Karlach and Shadowheart.

The mini standees of Duchess & Candella. I wanted to try it out.

And Willow & Tara. Because of course I did.

Not to mention all the screen shots I have used over the years.

Likely not long before I get an itch and want to make another one.

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 Superb Screen

 GM's Screens are tools and I usually don't think about them much.  But there is one that stands out. The AD&D Dungeon Master's Screen.

There are couple of good reasons for this.

First the screen was on very heavy cardstock so it was durable and stood well on it's onw. There were some very, very flimsy ones that came out in the 90s and even into the 2000s that really were not very good.

The second was it collected a lot of must have information in one place. AD&D 1st Edition is notoriously bad for how it organizes information. You can see this if you step away from the game for any length of time, but come on, we knew it back then too.  The DM's Screen puts most of the most needed information in one place.

There are also a lot of nostalgia reasons too.

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDay2024 Desirable Dice

 I have eBay alerts out for various dice sets, but mostly I am looking for original Dragon Dice. You know, like the kind that use to cost about $4 or so at Waldenbooks?

Here is mine, kept in the package. 

The markup on them now is about x100 what they were in the 1980s.

Thankfully I also found some new ones from Threshold Diceworks. They are new, resin cast dice, but they look very much like the old ones for a fraction of the markup.

These retro dice were made by Threshold Diceworks. Which you can find on Facebook and their Etsy store. He was taking pre-orders a while back and mine finally came in yesterday and I am very pleased with them!

They compare very favorably to the sets I had with my Expert set, the Dragon Dice polyhedrals, and the sets that came with the Mentzer Basic boxes.

Yes. Those are my Mentzer dice still in a bag and unopened and unmarked.

Now I just need to score an Orange d8.

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDay2024 Acclaimed Advice

 Acclaimed Advice. I have had so much over the years it's hard to remember what was advice and what was things I learned on my own.

But I do know one that is pretty recent. Characters should not be perfect from Ginny Di.

She wasn't the first to say it. Not by a long shot. Nor was what she was saying particularly original (which was also her point), but it is solid advice all the same. 

Her advice in a nutshell? Build the character to be fun. For you that might mean optimal builds, or min-maxing. For me it cool magic and a bunch of other things.

Regardless of hearing it in 2024, 2014 or 1984 the advice is still good. 

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 Peerless Player / Amazing Anecdote

There are so many choices again here as well. Hard to narrow it down really.

So I am going to with "Amazing Anecdote" instead.

A couple years back we were all at Gen Con waiting to get into the Dealer room. I had been commenting to my wife and kids that the crowd seemed younger, and far more diverse than in previous years. We also noted more families.

As we were walking by two young women, likely in their late teens or early twenties, were going the other direction. One was telling the other, "I love it here, this is one of the few places I can really feel like I am being myself."

I can completely relate!

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 Notable Non-player Character

 I have a lot of characters. Often times, the difference between a PC and an NPC is only "Am I running this game."

One of my favorite NPCs is my unquestionably evil necromancer / warlock Magnus. 

I have had this guy for a few decades now really. He began as a Death Master from Dragon Magazine #76, expanded on him a bit more when Quagmire came out, and he got a big boost in college when he became my big bad for my "Atlantean" campaign. 

I created my Death Pact Warlock to make sure I could use him in my Basic-era games, too. 

One thing I've never done is play Magnus as a PC. However, I'm now experimenting by using the Dread Lord mod for Warlocks in Baldur's Gate 3. He's currently a 2nd level warlock, but I plan to give him some levels in Wizard (Necromancer). I'm playing him as a 'Dark Urge', which is a change from my usual preference for good characters fighting evil. 

Maybe I'll even hire some NPCs and mod them to be Runu and Urnu. I have a witch mod (naturally) for BG3, so that actually might be fun. I'll have to see if I can manage that.

I'll have to keep you all posted. 

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 Classic Campaign

 For today I have to talk about my Order of the Platinum Dragon campaign of my massive Come Endless Darkness romp through all the Classic D&D adventures. 

Since D&D 5 came out I have been running my family through the "Gygaxian Classics." while we technically started with B1 In Search of the Unknown with AD&D 1st ed, we quickly moved to D&D 5.  From here we did B2 Keep on the Borderlands and moved through the Great Greyhawk Campaign.

Our order of games has been:

• T1 Village of Hommlet (forgotten by the characters, played as a flashback after I6)
• B1 In Search of the Unknown (Gen Con Game)
• B2 Keep on the Borderlands
• L1 The Secret of Bone Hill  (Gen Con Game)
• X2 Castle Amber
• I6 Ravenloft (Gen Con Game)
• C2 Ghost Tower of Inverness
• A1-5 Slave Lords
• C1 The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
• G123, G4 Against the Giants  (Gen Con Game)
• D12, 3 Descent into the Depths of the Earth, Vault of the Drow
• Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits (Gen Con Game)

I wanted my family to have the "Classic D&D Experience) with this.  Communities are often defined by the stories they share. These are the stories we all share.  How did you defeat Strahd? Did you shout 'Bree Yark'? What did you do in the Hill Giant's dining room?   Did you survive the Demonweb?

For various reasons we have not finished the last part of the Demonweb. Maybe we will one day.  I would like to hope so.

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 Amazing Adventure

 Again, I seem to cheat on these more often than not. I know what this one is supposed to be about, but I am still going to do this. Today I want to feature Amazing Adventures!

Amazing Adventures is overtly a pulp-style modern game from Jason Vey (long time writing partner) and Troll Lords Games using the same SIEGE game engine that powers Castles & Crusades.

Here are some reveiws I have done in the past.

• Amazing Adventures (Core Rules)
• Amazing Adventures Companion
• Amazing Adventures Book of Powers

Some characters for this world

• Willow & Tara (Pulp versions)
• Willow & Tara (Modern versions)
• Giovanni "John" Zatara & Zatanna
• Universal Monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon)
• Libby Sawyer
• Rachel Morgan
• The Wayward Sisters
• The Acrobatic Flea
• and of course, my little witch Larina Nichols.

And for free

• The Demon Hunter Class
• 5th Edition Amazing Adventures Preview

I don't play AA as much as I used too, and I never got to play it as much as I wanted. NIGHT SHIFT has taken over that niche for me. 

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 Sensational Session

 Wow. Ok, how do I even choose this one?? I have known so many over the years.

One weekend, almost ten years ago (just about a week or so shy) we lost power for a few days. We decided that since we had no lights to read by, no power or internet, we would play some D&D.

It was fantastic.

I remember the kids wanting us to play by candles everytime after that.  It was so memorable that even today when we loose power (something that seems less frequent now), everyone is like "lets play some D&D!"

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 Memorable Moment of Play

 Memorable Moment of Play? Wow, there are so many.

Teaching my kids to play. Recalling when ever my oldest at a very young age would shout "Double damage!" anytime he rolled a natural 20.

I am a lot grayer but also a LOT thinner now.

There was this time I ran Ghosts of Albion for an ENEorld Games day a few years back that was great.

We all really had a great time, and I loved how well the adventure came together and how much fun everyone seemed to have had. 

I also have some great memories of various Cons I have played at over the years.  The time the guy playing Lord Byron, an Occult Poet in Ghosts of Albion, composed an epic poem on the spot. He really made the adventure come alive for everyone.

Or the time my son's character plunged the Sun Sword into the Forge of Moradin to re-ignite the Sun,  the time I got to play Piper in a Charmed game.  All great moments. 

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 An engaging RPG community

 There are a few I really enjoy.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/OSRRPG/

The OSR RPG group on Facebook is a great group to find OSR players and developers who are not freaked out by what new games are doing. Plus, this is a nice counterpoint to the "all OSR players are sexist/racist Grognards living in the past."

https://www.facebook.com/groups/puertoricoroleplayers/
https://x.com/PuertoRicoRP
https://tinyurl.com/prroleplayer

Puerto Rico Role Players on Facebook has been a great group. All games are discussed and it has given me a chance to practice my Spanish. And they are very forgiving of my "Pre-School" level Spanish grammar.

Others that are also quite good.

I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters for general RPGs, Movies, TV, and other Geek-related topics. 

RPG Blog Hub for everything happening on RPG Blogs.

Love RPGs for RPG-related topics. 

Victorian Gamers Association for all sorts of Victorian-era RPGs.

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 Quick to Learn

 Not sure how Quick to Learn is different from Easiest, but I will pick one I had to teach to others. One of the quickest to learn has to be NIGHT SHIFT. 

Maybe I am biased because I am one of the co-authors, but NIGHT SHIFT's O.G.R.E.S. (the game system) makes it easy to learn.

Combat? Roll a d20, add and subtract the modifiers on your sheets; try to hit a "20."

Skills? Roll a d%.

Unsure? Roll a d6.

That's pretty much it. The rolls fall to the background as we say and you can focus on what you like, playing your character or running the game. That easy.

I got my family up and running in minutes and they loved it. I have people at cons play it going from zero knowledge to full on fans in no time.

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDAY2024 Great Character Gear

 If you are talking Character Gear then there is only one name you need to know and that is Crazy Omar!

Omar's is something of a long standing tradition in my games.  It was something my old High School DM used in his games and he got it from his DM, a cousin that taught him how to play from the LBBs.  So there has been an Omar's in operation since the very first days of the game. 

They are both gone now. So I guess Omar is mine. Hmm. First time I have thought about that.

Omar (and no one calls him "Crazy" to his face) is the ultimate adventurer shopping center.  Starting characters go to get "Omar's Adventurers' Kit" which includes everything a starting character needs (torches, rope, spikes, backpack...) for 50 GP.   The contents vary from time to time (and depending on what system I am using at the time).  The price is somewhat less than buying the items separate, and the characters and Omar know this.  But Omar feels that the best customers are the ones that keep coming back and the only ones that come back are the well prepared ones.

"Omar" is the name of the Dwarf in charge. My Omar is the third Omar to run the store, and much like the Dread Pirate Roberts one retires and another takes his place. My oldest's Omar is a gnome, breaking with tradition in the best way possible.  If I use my character Johan as my yard stick, there has been an Omar in charge of Crazy Omar's for the better part of 250 years. Leading to the rumor that Omar is immortal. 

He always seen wearing a silk bathrobe, bunny slippers, a fez (either purple or red) and a monocle (of true seeing).  He walks around his shop greeting customers and singing dwarven opera at the top of his lungs. You have not heard true opera until you have heard the Dwarven version of "The Ring of the Nibelung" where Alberich is the hero and sung in the original Dwarven.

Crazy Omar's Adventures' Kit

You visit Omar for his Adventurer's Kit. 50 GP for everything a 1st level character could need or want. 

Item	Cost	Weight
Backpack	2 gp	5 lbs
Bedroll	1 gp	5 lbs
Mess Kit	2 sp	1 lb
Rations (10 days)	5 gp	20 lbs
Waterskin	2 sp	5 lbs (full)
Hempen Rope (50 feet)	1 gp	10 lbs
Tinderbox	5 sp	1 lb
Torches (10)	1 sp	10 lbs
Oil (2 flasks)	2 sp	2 lbs
Iron Spikes (10)	1 gp	5 lbs
Hammer	1 gp	3 lbs
Crowbar	2 gp	5 lbs
Lantern (Hooded)	5 gp	2 lbs
Flask (Empty)	2 cp	1.5 lbs
Chalk (5 pieces)	5 cp	0 lbs
Small Mirror	5 gp	0.5 lb
Pitons (10)	5 gp	5 lbs
Alchemist's Fire (1 flask)	50 gp	1 lb

Total Cost and Weight

• Total Cost: 74 gp 7 sp 7 cp
• Total Weight: 77 lbs (including a full waterskin)
• Priced to Sell: 50 GP!  Omar must be Crazy!

That list has changed over the years in both base price, weight and items. I am not even sure native 5e players use iron spikes anymore. My kids and their groups do because, well, me.

Hey. Maybe with this post Omar, and his namesakes, can live on in your games too. Just don't forget his fez and bunny slippers.

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August. 

#RPGaDay2024 Compelling Characters

What makes for a Compelling character? What makes one for me and say not for you?

I'll talk about an NPC on the 22nd, so today I'll feature PCs.  As it turns out, I also just got some new art for a couple of my PCs Sinéad and Larina from artist Mondhut.

Sinéad Moonshadow

Larina Nix

I should think that these two don't really need introductions at this point. But briefly, Larina is my witch character I stat up in every game I play to see if I can make a witch in that game.  Sinéad is a sorcerer/bard that I am currently using in my exploration of the Forgotten Realms. Sinéad was also the character I used when I did my "perfect" run of Baldur's Gate.

What I had not realized until I started this post is that at no point in my histories of these character have they ever met.

Larina has had dealings with all my major characters over the years, being a near immortal witch will do that. Sinéad has interacted with Taryn, Larina's daughter, quite a bit. In fact when Sinéad was trapped in the Feywild she and Taryn met and decided that they must be sisters (both are half-elves). 

But Sinéad and Larina have never actually met.

They are compelling, to me, because I keep finding ways to use them. I also have my Johan character and he is every bit as compelling, but he is 100% a PC, so a lot of what happens to him (all the Johans) is largely due to the game he is in at the time. Larina and Sinéad bonuce a lot now as PCs, NPCs, and GMPCs. 

Check out Mondhut's Instagram if you can.

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I am participating in Dave Chapman's #RPGaDAY2024 for August.