Other Vampires

I have been talking about vampires all the month of April, but I was not alone.
Here are some other posts dealing with the creatures of the night.

The OSR Library
D6 Horror: 1970's Marvel Comics Monster Hunters
http://theosrlibrary.blogspot.com/2015/04/d6-horror-1970s-marvel-comics-monster.html

D6 Horror: 1970's Marvel Comics Monsters
http://theosrlibrary.blogspot.com/2015/04/d6-horror-1970s-marvel-comics-monsters.html

Cross Planes
Dhampir Heritages: Dhampir Race for D&D 5th Edition
http://crossplanes.blogspot.com/2015/04/dhampir-heritages-dhampir-race-for-d.html

J.H. Moncrrieff Tales of Terror and Suspense
Q is for Quiang Shi
http://www.jhmoncrieff.com/q-is-for-quiang-shi/

Daily DCU
Vampire Batman
http://dailydcu.com/post/117135345530/francavillarts-vampire-batman-justice-league

A Life Full of Adventure
V is for Vampire
http://alifefullofadventure.blogspot.com/2015/04/v-is-for-vampire.html

Mind Rambling
Vampires
https://geeklife101.wordpress.com/2015/04/25/vampires/

The Madlab Post
Viktor the Vampire: What Bill Nighy said about Filming Underworld
http://www.madlabpost.com/blog/2015/4/27/viktor-the-vampire-what-bill-nighy-said-about-filming-underw.html

Mina Burrows
A-Z: U is for The Union Jack & V is for Varney the Vampire
http://minaburrows.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-z-u-is-for-union-jack-v-is-for-varney.html

On The Edge of Enlightenment
L is for Lilith
https://novasaber.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/l-is-for-lilith/

Talking to Myself
Month of Blogging Challenge: V is for Vampire Tarot
http://xanthalanari.livejournal.com/227236.html

LDB Taylor
Feeling Sad About Vampires
http://www.neebeep.com/2015/04/feeling-sad-about-vampires-atozchallenge-writing-life.html

Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge: April Reviews The Mist-Torn Witches

Here are the reviews for April for the Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge.

This month I only got a couple of books in.  Been very busy with work and the A to Z Bloghop.  But I got two quality books!

The Mist-Torn Witches Series by Barb Hendee
I took on the first two book of Barb Hendee's Mist-Torn Witches. I had heard a lot of good about this series and the author so they had been on my TBR pile forever.  I am glad I finally grabbed them and got into them.

The books deal with sisters Céline and Amelie Fawe.  Céline can see visions of the future and is a knowledgeable apothecary.   Amelie is the younger sister and sees images of the past and is just as hand with a sword or dagger.

The Mist-Torn Witches (Book 1)

We are introduced to the Fawe sisters in their small home and shop.  They have been orphaned but have been making well on their own.  Tragedy strikes and sends them on the run.  At the same time their emerging powers places them in deeper harm.  They now are working for a prince that they don't know if they can trust and his lieutenant at arms (who has a shady past) to solve a supernatural murder.
I will admit this book grabbed me from the very, very start. I immediately liked Céline but Amelie might end up becoming my favorite before too long.  There is some world building in this, but only enough to keep the plot moving.  The characters are instantly compelling and Hendee gives you plenty of reasons to like them.  The sisters are just coming into their powers, but even so there is an investigation here. Strip away the magic and the fantasy elements you have a compelling murder mystery here. I would LOVE to say I figured it out early, but I didn't.  Oh the clues were there, but the mystery is very well crafted and you, like our main characters, will just have to figure it out as you go.
I also liked that while the girls are powerful, they can make mistakes and they have very human failings.  There is a hint of romance here, but no awkward hook ups and no bending the rules of logic to get characters together.  I will not spoil the end but if this were a movie it would pass both Bechdel test AND the Mako Mori test.
This is a great start to a series.
I am reviewing both the Kindle ebook and the Audible audio-book.
Witch Count: 2 (maybe 4)

Witches in Red (Book 2)

This book takes place soon after the events in book 1.  Céline and Amelie are settling into their new lives when they are summoned to the castle by their Prince.  A series of murders has been going on at his father's silver mine. Murders committed by men that become giant wolf-like beasts.
This is another supernatural-based murder mystery, but in addition to learning the who we need to learn the how.  In this book in particular we see Hendee's deft skill and weaving a mystery plot, but also doing so with wry sense of humor.  While this could have ended up as a fairly unimaginative pastiche of werewolf lore and "Little Red Riding Hood", it didn't.  Not so much that it didn't do it is how well it didn't do it.  Again we see some great character development here. Unlike the last book where the sisters were in survival mode, here they have a feeling of belonging that makes them want to help the Prince. It is a maturity.  We learn more about the Prince's Lieutenant, Jaromir and he turns out to be just as interesting as I hoped.
As before the girls use their extraordinary sight to find the who is behind the killing, but that only gets them so far. Detective work and intelligence has to get them to their goal.
There is more world building here as well. We learn more about the world-travelling Móndyalítko, the gypsy-like "children of the world" and Céline and Amelie's bloodline.
I am reviewing both the Kindle ebook and the Audible audio-book.
Witch Count: 4

I should point out that Book 3 Witches With The Enemy will be out next week.  Preorder if you can because this is a fun series.

Hopefully I will have a review of Book 3 up next month.

Books read: 10
Current Level: Maiden: Read 6 – 10 Witchy Books

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day: Multiclassing

I am participating in Gamers & Grognards Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day.

For this Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day I want to put out something I have been playing around with.

For the record I am using the Swords & Wizardry Complete Rulebook from Frog God Games.

Swords & Wizardry Multiclassing

I LOVE the old school games. B/X, AD&D, BECMI, and the clones.  But the one thing I always felt 3.x Edition did better than any other edition, past or future, was multiclassing.  The rules were easy, you could multiclass into a lot of great combinations to get that character concept you really wanted.
With many of the OSR games (original and clone) the multiclassing rules were less than optimal in my mind.

So I wanted to bring 3e style multiclassing to the clone world. The biggest issue with doing this though is 3e made the classed more alike in terms of advancement.  Now people will complain that this attempt at game balance "ruined" the class's uniqueness. I say rubbish.  So the classes are bit more balanced than before, that's not a bug, it's a feature.  I was looking over SW and I realized I could do what I wanted easily.

Swords & Wizardry classes are largely like 3e ones now.  The unified Save and Ascending AC make saves and to hits much easier to deal with.  I just need to see if something like this is feasible.

So I dumped it all into Google Sheets. Which I am sharing below.



The tabs are where I worked out median XP vaules, base to hit and base saving throws.
The final analysis is on tab SW Level Advancement.

So like 3e, this has all the classes  use the same level advancement table.  Base Saving Throw is based on Character Level (not Class Level).  Classes then add what ever bonuses they need.
Now if you are adding things up in your head you can see a problem right now.  Take a level of Ranger and improve your total saves.  I thought about that.  My solution is not elegant, but it works.  I will get to that in a moment.

So how does it all work?  Simple you take a class just like you do in SW when you get enough XP to level up you can keep going in that class and get the advantages listed for that class you you can take another class.  Your hit points are determined by your Class Levels.  Saves are based on Character Levels.

So if you are a Fighter 3/Magic-User 2 you have at least 16,000xp, your Base Save is 11.
Your hit points are 3d8 + 2d4 + Constitution Modifier x 5 (class level).
With these rules this character can still use a sword and cast spells.  He can't wear armor since that is a restriction of the Magic-user class.

There are a couple of logical next steps here.

First this opens up a wide variety of choices for demi-human characters.  Keep level caps if you like, but I think there are not enough game-design reasons to do this.  If you want to "balance" things out give humans +1 on any two ability scores of their choice and +1 on saves.  Call it Human Resilience.

The other logical leap is this would allow Prestige Classes in SW.

Prestige Classes in Swords & Wizardry

Here is an example of the Loremaster.

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/prestigeClasses/loremaster.htm

Requirements
To qualify to become a loremaster, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Skills
Knowledge (any two) 10 ranks in each.

Feats
Any three metamagic or item creation feats, plus Skill Focus (Knowledge [any individual Knowledge skill]).

Spells
Able to cast seven different divination spells, one of which must be 3rd level or higher.

These would have to change to something more fitting to S&W.

Requirements
To qualify to become a loremaster, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.

Character Level: 6th
Intelligence Score of 16 or higher.
Wisdom Score of 14 or higher.
The ability to cast five different divination spells, one of which must be 3rd level or higher.

Loremaster
Level	Attack	Special	Spells
1	+0	Secret	Add additional level of previous spellcasting class
2	+0	Lore	Add additional level of previous spellcasting class
3	+1	Secret	Add additional level of previous spellcasting class
4	+1	Bonus Language	Add additional level of previous spellcasting class
5	+2	Secret	Add additional level of previous spellcasting class
6	+2	Greater Lore	Add additional level of previous spellcasting class
7	+3	Secret	Add additional level of previous spellcasting class
8	+3	Bonus Language	Add additional level of previous spellcasting class
9	+4	Secret	Add additional level of previous spellcasting class
10	+5	True Lore	Add additional level of previous spellcasting class

Saving throws are based on Character Level, not Class Level.
Level is obvious.  Attack just adds to the attacks as the base class (like Cleric or Magic-User).  Spells are also obvious, keep advancing in spells as you normally would.

The Special will need some work.

From the SRD:
Class Features
All of the following are Class Features of the loremaster prestige class.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency
Loremasters gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor.

Spells per Day/Spells Known
When a new loremaster level is gained, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class she belonged to before she added the prestige class. She does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that she adds the level of loremaster to the level of some other spellcasting class the character has, then determines spells per day, spells known, and caster level accordingly.

Secret
At 1st level and every two levels higher than 1st (3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th), the loremaster chooses one secret from the table below. Her loremaster level plus Intelligence modifier determines the secrets from which she can choose. She can’t choose the same secret twice.

Loremaster Secrets
Level +Int Modifier Secret Effect
1 Instant mastery 4 ranks of a skill in which the character has no ranks
2 Secret health +3 hit points
3 Secrets of inner strength +2 bonus on Will saves
4 The lore of true stamina +2 bonus on Fortitude saves
5 Secret knowledge of avoidance +2 bonus on Reflex saves
6 Weapon trick +1 bonus on attack rolls
7 Dodge trick +1 dodge bonus to AC
8 Applicable knowledge Any one feat
9 Newfound arcana 1 bonus 1st-level spell
10 More newfound arcana 1 bonus 2nd-level spell

Lore
At 2nd level, a loremaster gains the ability to know legends or information regarding various topics, just as a bard can with bardic knowledge. The loremaster adds her level and her Intelligence modifier to the lore check, which functions otherwise exactly like a bardic knowledge check.

Bonus Languages
A loremaster can choose any new language at 4th and 8th level.

Greater Lore (Ex)
At 6th level, a loremaster gains the ability to understand magic items, as with the identify spell.

True Lore (Ex)
At 10th level, once per day a loremaster can use her knowledge to gain the effect of a legend lore spell or an analyze dweomer spell.

So items in red need to be redone.  In order:
+4 to any check involving Intelligence on a previously unknown topic.
+2 on Saving throws vs. Mind control, ESP and Charm.
+2 on Saving throws vs. Petrify or Polymorph
+2 on Saving throws vs. moving out of the way.
Applicable Knowledge = Something like Secondary Skills.

Each prestige class would require some tweaking.  But at least now there is a place for them in S&W.

Earlier I mentioned the Ranger and Paladin are a bit too much (despite the fact that the median XP per level is the same as the Paladins).  My solution is make them Prestige Classes.

You would have to be a fighter first before moving into the vocation of Paladin or Ranger.  There is some precedent for this in Rules Cyclopedia and even Unearthed Aracana.

It would take some cleaning up, but I think this is a solid system.  It would still have the same feel as S&W while giving you the flexibility of 3e.

What do you all think?

Witchy Read A-Thon

New month. New books to read.

This month I am going to take part in the Witchy Read A-Thon hosted by The Domestic Witch.

http://thedomesticwitchblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-witchy-read-thon-info-and-sign-up.html

I know I have the next Harry Potter book on tap, but this is also a way for me to get at some of my "To Be Read" pile that is stacking up on my tablet.

Updates throughout the week!

Blogger's New Adult Policy, Part 2

I was looking up some stuff for our Castles & Crusades game today and I discovered this:

An update on Blogger porn content policy

In a nutshell Google/Blogger is going back to the policy it had all this time.

So we can all go back to worrying about what color that damn dress is.

I've Been Blitzed!

So yesterday I was on the receiving end of one of DL Hammons' Blog Blitzes!

I ended up with about 80 people coming by to read my blog and leave a message.  Hopefully some will choose to stay. I know I have blitzed others in the past and found something new to read.

I do want to thank everyone that came by. My goal is to revisit each blog over the next week or so.

Blogger's New Adult Policy

Google is sending out emails to some bloggers on the Blogger platform about their new Adult policy that becomes effective in one month.

https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/6170671?p=policy_update&rd=1

Basically if you have an "adult" blog you were emailed and have 30 days to remove said content (though they are  vague on what that content is) or have your blog turn to "Private".

This basically means if people are not invited to read your blog they can't see it.

I am not sure what this means for the majority of the bloggers here.
Will my blog get tagged because of Eldritch Witchery later on?  No idea. Likely not.

Though I suppose this is a good time to start thinking of what your blogger exit plan is. I am sure it will not be around forever.

You can find copy of the print here: http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2013/12/lilith-can-be-yours.html

The A to Z Blogging Challenge Theme Reveal

I am participating in this year A to Z Blogging challenge again.

While the challenge for me is not to post every day, I already do that, but to post with the proper subject letter AND to stick to my theme.

The theme reveal this year will be on March 23.   Come back and see what I choose...although I have not been very secretive about it.

You can see what others are doing as well. If you are interested in doing the challenge (and I would suggest you try it at least once) and thinking of a theme the head on over to the sign up list.
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2015/02/the-great-and-powerful-to-z-theme.html

Even if you don't sign up for the Theme Reveal, you can see what others are doing in time to sign up for the A to Z yourself.

Monster Guides over at The Power Score

The Power Score, a great blog that could use some more attention has been doing some great D&D monster guides.

In these Sean has been taking various monsters and looking at their growth and changes across as many editions of D&D he can as well as supplementary products.

So far he has covered:

• Pit Fiends
• Tiamat
• the Succubus
• the Githyanki

Plenty of art and comparisons between the editions.
The thing I like is he treating the editions as evolving understanding of the monsters.

So pop over and check these out. A leave a comment or two. That's the neighborly thing to do really.

Happy Anniversary Hero Press!

Today Tim Knight is celebrating 8 years of blogging with Hero Press!
http://heropresstwo.blogspot.com/2015/01/eight-years-of-heropress.html

A very worthy achievement.
You can see his first post here and it gives you no indication of how useful or how vital Hero Press has become.

For me Hero Press is usually where I hear about all things comic, movie, sci-fi television or gaming first.  All with a style and a quality that I think only Tim can bring to it.

Let's all be honest here, blogging is as much about personality as it is about content.  Sometime those personalities can be so grating that it drowns out the content.  This is not so with Tim Knight.
I always feel like the implied welcome is "come on in, have a pint, hey did I happen to tell you about this thing that has me really excited right now?..."
No one has ever said a bad thing about Tim Knight or Hero Press ever.
Yeah I know I was just railing against personality cults last night.  But it doesn't count if the person is a genuine nice guy.

So please join me in celebrating Tim's great accomplishment. Stop by Hero Press now and give Tim your congratulations.  

I want to hear more about the Acrobatic Flea and Barney the Bunny and how your kids are doing. Keep telling us more about the new TV shows you are getting before we do and visa versa.

You have kept us entertained and informed for 8 years.  Here is 8 more!

I Want My Own Cult

Seriously.  Where do I sign up for that?

I spent part of my day arguing with a group of people (non gamers) about something and despite overwhelming, demonstrable evidence to the contrary of their opinion I and my small band of like minded rationalists were overwhelmed by their cult like mentality.

I could not even get to click on one link to Snopes that destroyed their entire argument.

I left that after my wife told me to stop poking the zoo animals with pointy sticks.  I came back to it just an hour ago to find the situation far worse.  I did the only sensible thing. I gave up.

Come back here to the safe haven of RPGs only to see more Cult of Personality type behavior and the inexplicable fawning over people vs. ideas.

So while I am watching these two "cults" fight each other over who thought up what ever idea first I have decided I want my own cult.

It really shouldn't take much. I'll post like I always do. You just agree with what I say!  You don't even have to read what I posted!  I get a sense of self-worth, you get that nice warm feeling of belonging to something larger than yourself.   Best part is when I eventually do something really stupid you have deep conversations with people on what it was I was really saying or not.  And when I totally go off the deep end you can have a moment of clarity and talk about how you knew all along I was full of shit!

So how about it? Join my Cult of Personality. No weird initiations. No fees.  But if I get enough people then maybe we can have a secret handshake. Or a secret milkshake. Whatever.

Updated Witch Links

I spent some time over my Christmas vacation to update my witch links page.
I have expanded it to include message boards as well as blogs.

These are only links, you will have to go to the blog in question to read the article.

Have something you think needs linked here?  Shoot me an email or post below.

First Blog Challenge of the Year - Witches & Witchcraft Reading Challenge

I read a lot of books all year round.  I have them on my phone, on my tablet, I listen to them in my car. I have even been known to pick up an honest to goodness dead-tree paperback or hardcover.

So a reading challenge is right up my alley really.  What makes it even better is this challenge is made up of "Witch" books.

http://melissaseclecticbookshelf.com/2015-witches-witchcraft-reading-challenge-sign-up-post/

It should be fun. And as always as a "value add" for my own readers I will translate what I can into game terms.

So. Time to start gathering up some books!

Edited to add:
Here is my first book for the Challenge!
http://www.amazon.com/Witches-Echo-Park-Amber-Benson-ebook/dp/B00ISEOLZU/

Plans for 2015

So what are your gaming plans for 2015?

Personally I want to get more gaming in with my 5e group.  We have been having a great time and it has been a blast.

Get my Kickstarter projects done before +Erik Tenkar features me on his blog!

Maybe get some other smaller things out too.  I have a Healer class for the OSR that I have kicked around and used for a number of years.

I have some ideas for some AD&D 1st ed / OSRIC / LL AEC material.  But my current joy is 5e, so who knows really.  I do know that there is still demand for old-school material.

For my blogging I want to wrap up the last couple of issues of Owl & Weasel.
Not sure if I want to pick up another magazine to go through or not.  I have all these copies of Imagine and a few others.  I have some Challenge mags, not a full set, all issues of Pegasus (I think).  But not sure if there is any demand really.  I enjoy them. There is a lot I get out of them.

Right now I don't have any other special features in the planning stages.

I would like to give a shout out to some more new blogs for "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading".  Have someone you want me to cover?  Send the link here.

I am going to cut WAY back on the Kickstarters.  Both supporting and posting about them.  I have been burned a lot recently with things I have backed.

More reviews of course. More goings on in my own games.  More blatant self-promotion.


Let's bring on 2015!

Zatannurday: The Cave of Cool Collection

No one quite loves his supergirls as much as my friend Cal over at Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool.

So I figured on this cold day I would send him some visitors (that would be you) to admire his collection of pics.

http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2014/11/z-is-for-zatanna.html
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2014/10/saturdays-with-supergirls-zatanna.html
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2014/09/zatanna-1964-by-ruiz-burgos.html
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2014/07/clearing-out-zatanna-file-too.html
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2013/09/sundays-with-supergirl-zatanna.html
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2011/10/i-do-loves-me-some-zatanna.html
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2010/06/pin-up-art.html
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2010/05/dan-brereton-zatanna.html
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2010/05/magic-girl.html
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/2013/11/zantana-cosplay-by-krystle-starr.html

I am sure there are more, but Cal posts many times a day, so it is easy to miss something in his nearly 28,000 posts.  For the record that is over 10x the output of this humble blogger.

Zee outside of the Cave of Cool.  Location only know to select heroes.

He has a fantastic collection of action figures too. If you are a collector then they are worth a look.
http://calvinscanadiancaveofcool.blogspot.com/search?q=toybox

So pop on by, say hi. Leave a comment or two on his posts.  Cal's a good guy.

Witch Crafting ... Celebrating Halloween AND Christmas. RPG Care Packages

I am participating in Magaly Guerrero’s Pagan Culture Crafting Blooming Howls today and the challenge is to come up with something witch fiction related that you have been meaning to finish.

Really, I didn't just want to upload yet another witch character stat block (though I am sure I still will later today).  I wanted to do something special and something different.

Well this year I am finally completing something I have wanted to do for a while.
I am putting together care packages of OSR and Witch fun for our troops serving overseas.

A bit back I posted my thoughts here: http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2014/10/christmas-really-brannan.html
I have tried to do this in past and didn't get my act together in time so I just sent money to my local VFW and American Legions.

Here is what I have so far:

Copies of Basic Fantasy as the core rules.  I think it one of the better interpretations of the OSR rules and a nice sweet spot between Basic and Advanced D&D.  Plus it is also the one that is most compatible with my own Witch book.   I know there are a lot of great rule sets; OSRIC, S&W, LL...but enough people have also asked to participate or do something similar I figured those rules would be represented.

I am also including copies of The Witch by yours truly.  This is a Witches in Fiction crafting blog challenge so this is what makes it "Witch".

At the moment I still need to get some bags to put both books in and get some dice.  I want to include some character sheets, a pre-gen witch character (because I can). I will include a letter thanking them for their service and some links to my blog and some others, likely +Erik Tenkar's since that is a good place to start anyway.

I would also like to include an adventure and maybe a dice bag.  Make it a complete package.

If this goes well I might do a couple of sets of Spellcraft & Swordplay plus Eldritch Witchery.  The nice thing with this is the dice sets will be cheaper and the bags can be smaller.

I am also open to more ideas.

The Blooming Sponsors

- Alchemy & Ashes
- Diandra Linnemann
- Eliora
- Gothic Miniatures
- Judy's Photos
- Rue and Hyssop
- Sarah H. Original Art & Gifts
- Touch of the Goddess
- Ye Olde Crones Gazette
- and Magaly Guerrero’s Pagan Culture

Advice for the Lapsed Gamer

+Erik Tenkar  over at his eponymous Tavern is starting a series on "OSR for the Lapsed Gamer" which is basically advice for people that have left the game and are now coming back.

http://www.tenkarstavern.com/search/label/osr%20for%20the%20lapsed%20gamer

This is a great thing.  I was just helping out someone this past weekend that wasn't really lapsed, but had no idea what to do with the OSR.

Looking forward to seeing what all he does with this.

Tools of the Trade

None gaming post today.  I have been clearing out a bunch of old computers and software to either get rid of or sell on eBay.

Often times when we write about writing in general and blogging in particular we talk a lot about where ideas come from, how to get more readers or even how much writing everyday is important.  This is all true, and important, but that is not the type of tools I mean today.

Hardware

Look down.  There. See it, it's your keyboard.  What is your relationship with your keyboard?

I blog every day.  I write in addition to that and there is that day job too.  I spend a lot of time with my fingers on my keyboard.  My favorite keyboard is the one I have at home, the Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000. It is the silver one and long, long out of stock.  I wrote Ghosts of Albion on it and it is by far the most comfortable keyboard I have ever used.  I never expected to find a replacement for my old beatup Gateway 2000 124 key programmable keyboard, but this one is fantastic.

Here is my main computer, Frankencomputer (I built it from spare parts).  It's not much more than a web-machine and word processor which is what I want when I am writing.  It run Ubuntu Linux and I use Google Drive for all my work. The keyboard is actually worth more to me than the rest of the computer.  If I am going to sit and pound away on a keyboard then it needs to be comfortable to me.

This is my second 6000 keyboard in truth.  I bought this one off of eBay for an ungodly price and still consider it money well spent.  It has the right curve for my hands and can elevate to the right height so I don't get fatigue while typing. Plus it is the same keyboard Weird Al has in his song "White & Nerdy".  A song that is not about me at all. Really. Honest.

Software

I was reading the other week that George R. R. Martin, when he is not plotting to kill every character you love, sits in front of his old DOS machine and types his books into WordStar 4.0.  Piers Anthony once mentioned that back in the day he paid a programmer to reverse engineer his favorite word processor from CP/M to MS-DOS. Laurel K. Hamilton did her first writing on a manual typewriter and still thinks of things in terms of page counts and not word counts.  I am sure there are many more examples, but the point is clear. We get used to something for our writing and we like to stick with it.   Myself, I am an Microsoft Word fan.  I have been using it for years, since version 1.1 and Office 4.3.  I have gotten very comfortable with it and have lost count of the number of hours I have spent in it.

So then am I switching over to Google Drive?
Well while I still use Word one of the things it promised and never really delivered on was real time collaboration.   With the Google Drive word processor I can work with others and see their edits real time. We can chat and discuss what it is we are doing and why.  Plus I have lost count of the number of docs I have lost carting them from one computer to another, either on floppy disk or flash drive. And then when I manage to get it to another computer (say from work to home) I have to deal with whether or not the computer can read the file format and version control.  The only thing worse than loosing a document is to spend hours adding to a draft that is already 3 revisions old.

So how about you?
What are your writing needs? Special keyboard? Software? Maybe it is your best comfy chair.

Why Should You Vote for the Other Side?

The Other Side is up for an ENnie Award for "Best Blog" this year and I could not be more thrilled.
You can see the list of nominees here: http://www.ennie-awards.com/blog/2014-ennie-awards-nominees/ and can vote here: http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/

As you can see I am in some really great company.  But there are some reasons I think that my blog deserves this award.

- I am going to be at Gen Con this year with my kids.  I like to take my kids to Gen Con. They love it and they have been talking about it for WEEKS now.  What would really be nice is to see their dad win an award for all the hard work he has been doing.

- Where else can you go to get the variety of games I talk about?  D&D, Unisystem, Chill, d20, Old-school, new-school, Call of Cthulhu and many more.

- My week long dips into various games.  I know from my stats that you have enjoyed it when I take a game and cover it all week long, whether it was Adventures Dark & Deep or Super Babes!

- Features. I give you features on either a weekly basis like Zatannurday or White Dwarf Wednesday. Or my semi-regular features Plays Well With Others or The Best Blog You Are Not Reading or Kickstart Your Weekend.  I may not have the most up to date news or know what is going on in every corner of the Internet, but I like to think I am posting things that people want to read.

- Reviews. Along with the features I have posted my reviews of various game products here.  So far I have written 676 reviews.  Not too shabby really.

- Community.  I try to bring other blogs and bloggers into our orbit.  Either they have something really interesting to say or to help expand our hobby.  I believe than in a strong community more ideas will flow and ultimately that will be better for our hobby.  Both for ourselves and people outside of it.  While I am not the one to sit around the camp fire and sing songs about getting along, I am the guy that will say we should chill out and just roll some dice.

- Gnome Stew is a great blog, but while they have a team (nine authors) I am just one guy.  They have 2,000,000 visitors and I have 1,500,000+. They have written 2500+ articles since 2009, while I have written 2300+ since 2009.   Plus they have won every year, so maybe it is time to give someone new a chance!

- I respect the ENnies as a peoples choice award. Does ENWorld have problems? Sure. But the truth is that gamers and fans of games vote for these products and sites.  It is a way of the community saying "yeah Tim, you are OK" and I appreciate that.  So yeah, I would love to have one.

- You know who else likes awards? My Mom!
No seriously, she does. This would make her day.

- The ENnies do open up doors for writers. This would help me out a lot in getting more material written and out to you all.

My fellow nominees all have fine blogs, but I hope you will vote for me and The Other Side.
http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/

TBBYANR: The Power Score

Up next on The Best Blog You Are Not Reading is The Power Score.
http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com/

I discovered the Power Score last week via the RPG Blog Alliance. The site's author, Sean, had posted a bit on the Demonomicon of Iggwilv that got my attention.  I stuck around and read the rest of his blog.

What I liked most was how he moves from the various incarnations of D&D with ease. There is no edition war here, just different ways to play to the same game and all the material is good for any edition.

He goes into some detail in the posts, so they are longer than your average blog post.  But they are worth the read to be honest.

The blog only really got going this year, but has done a pretty good job to be honest.

Go by and check it out.  Worth your time.



HEY: Like his blog?  Go visit and say hi.
Like my blog? Go vote for it at the ENnies award voting for "Best Blog"!  Thanks!
http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/