D&D40 Bloghop: Day 4

Day 4: First dragon you slew (or some other powerful monster)

I will be honest with you. I can't remember the first dragon I killed.
I am pretty sure it was a blue one, but outside of that I can't recall.

Now I do remember what was one of the most powerful monsters I killed.

It was Jr. High and I was in a game with my friend Jon Cook, from posting #1.
His older sister was running us through a dungeon crawl one summer night and I remember we ran into a Lich.  
This was big deal because I had been mostly playing this odd collection of AD&D and D&D (B/X) and had not run into a Lich yet.  Plus Mary was your typical Chaotic Evil DM. So this Lich kept jumping in and out of the Ethereal plane and she ruled I couldn't turn it since it wasn't on my sheet.

We, that is Johan and Sneaker the thief, managed to kill it with best weapon we had.  We burned down the building it was in.

Still love throwing Liches at players.  It brings out the CE DM in me as well.

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 3

Day 3: First dungeon you explored as a PC or ran as a DM.

Another one I have to really think about.
I think it is very likely that first dungeon I ever went through was a home brew on.  I remember a lot graph paper maps back in those days.

But I do know that the first dungeon I ever took anyone through was a home made one.  I remember writing parts of it in class at school and then adding to it later in the summer sitting on my front porch.  Yes I am sure I was drink a class of sweet tea.  Summer time in Southern Illinois.

I am pretty sure I have no idea where that adventure is.  I have some maps from around that time still, but not that one.

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 2

Day 2:  First person YOU introduced you to D&D. Which edition? Their first character?

This one is easy.  The first person I introduced was my younger brother Brian.
The edition most certainly was Moldvay Basic / Cook/Marsh Expert.

I am nearly certain that his first character was an Elf. He liked the idea of the character doing magic and being able to fight at the same time.

When I was in Jr. High and High School most everyone that was going to ever play already did.
But since then I have introduced dozens more.  Most notably my own kids.

Text Versions of Questions:

The D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge Day 1: First person who introduced you to D&D? Which edition? Your first Character? Day 2: First person YOU introduced to D&D? Which edition? THEIR first character? Day 3: First dungeon you explored as a PC or ran as a DM. Day 4: First dragon you slew (or some other powerful monster). Day 5: First character to go from 1st level to 20th level (or highest possible level in a given edition). Day 6: First character death. How did you handle it? Day 7: First D&D Product you ever bought. Do you still have it? Day 8: First set of polyhedral dice you owned. Do you still use them? Day 9: First campaign setting (homebrew or published) you played in. Day 10: First gaming magazine you ever bought (Dragon, Dungeon, White Dwarf, etc.). Day 11: First splatbook you begged your DM to approve. Day 12: First store where you bought your gaming supplies. Does it still exist? Day 13: First miniature(s) you used for D&D. Day 14: Did you meet your significant other while playing D&D? Does he or she still play? (Or just post a randomly generated monster in protest of Valentine's Day). Day 15: What was the first edition you didn't enjoy. Why? Day 16: Do you remember your first edition war? Did you win? ;) Day 17: First time you heard D&D was somehow "evil." Day 18: First gaming convention you ever attended. Day 19: First gamer who just annoyed the hell out of you. Day 20: First non-D&D RPG you played. Day 21: First time you sold some of your D&D books--for whatever reason. Day 22: First D&D-based novel you ever read (Dragonlance Trilogy, Realms novels, etc.) Day 23: First song that comes to mind that you associate with D&D. Why? Day 24: First movie that comes to mind that you associate with D&D. Why? Day 25: Longest running campaign/gaming group you've been in. Day 26: Do you still game with the people who introduced you to the hobby? Day 27: If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything different when you first started gaming? Day 28: What is the single most important lesson you've learned from playing Dungeons & Dragons? Feburary 2014, d20darkages.blogspot.com

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 1

Here we are with the D&D 40 Anniversary Bloghop.  Been looking forward to this.  So without further ado!

Day 1:  First person who introduced you to D&D. Which edition? First character?

Ok. Let's start thing off complicated!  No one person introduced me. In fact it seemed to be a conspiracy to get me to play.  I remember borrowing Asa Herald's AD&D Monster Manual to read during silent reading in grade school.  I remember Darin Buhlig and I trying to figure out Holmes basic on a field trip bus ride to St. Louis.  But I have to give credit to Jon Cook for being my first DM. We played the hell out of some D&D then.  He had the AD&D books and I had the Basic/Expert books. We ran with it.

My first character was Johan Werper, human lawful cleric. He worshiped an unnamed sun god.  At this point in my life I had become fairly committed to my own atheism but I still found religion interesting.  I guess to be a religious human was as alien to me as an elf or dwarf.  But I also thought the turning undead thing was really cool.   I was very, very much into vampires and horror and I *got* that the Cleric was supposed to be Van Helsing, so that is how I played him.

Johan became something of my "ego" character.  With my assassin Nigel as my "id" and my grizzled old wizard Phygora as my "superego" they made up the trinity of characters I played most often in Jr. High and High School.  Larina my witch was an "anima" character. Cause eventually all psychologists leave Freud in favor of Jung.

He also became one of my first "generational" characters.  Anytime a new version of D&D came out I would make a new Johan who is the son of the previous one.   Johan I was a cleric under Basic, Johan II was a Lawful Good Paladin for AD&D, Johan III was a Cavalier for Unearthed Arcana.  Celene was Johan II's daughter and she was a Healer in 2nd ed.  I kept this up even until recently with Johan V for D&D 4.  I fully expect that Johan VI will be for Next.  All Lawful good clerics or paladins, or something similar.

I still have all the sheets.

Sign up below! Join the fun!

Bloghops

February brings us the D&D 40th Anniversary Bloghop challenge from d20 Dark Ages.
If you have a D&D-related blog I would like to see you sign up. I think it will be very interesting to see everyone's stories.

You have plenty of time to sign up.

Also coming up is the big April A to Z bloghop.  I have participated in this every year now for a while. Sometimes while doing my Atheism blog and the Red Sonja blog I participate in.

I will be honest.  The April A to Z has gotten huge. Maybe way too big. Plus I am not sure my enthusiasm is there for it this year.  I do have things I can post.  That is not the issue. The issue is one of time really.  I have a lot of projects I am working on now for myself and other publishers, so I think I might not do it this year.  Or least not do it to the level I had been.

Wait and see I guess. If I get a lot done the next couple of months I might change my mind.

Happy Birthday D&D!

Today is the official unofficial birthday of D&D. At least according to Jon Peterson.
That's good enough for me really.

Might get to play some D&D today, depending how the weather cooperates with me.

I am thinking AD&D with Keep on the Borderlands might be the way to go.

d20 Dark Ages: D&D Blog Challenge

Stelios V. Perdios  over at d20 Dark Ages is going to be hosting a D&D themed blog challenge for February.

It is worth checking out.
http://d20darkages.blogspot.com/2014/01/d-40th-anniversary-blogging-challenge.html

Tentative list

I am going to be on board of course.  I love things like this.  I am also looking forward to seeing what everyone else does as well.

We get some grief in the old OSR for being nostalgia soaked.  Some of that grief is actually warranted. But this is a big anniversary moment in the age of this hobby of ours and a little self reflection is fun and appropriate.

Now if I can only remember everything I did!

The Odyssey

No. Not Homer's epic exactly.  Well. there is an epic here. But let me get to that.

This Odyssey is an epic through the generations of video gaming consoles.
You can read more about over the Trollish Delver blog (also home of Trollish Delver Games).

In Odyssey you travel through the history of the gaming consoles, so each level is the next generation. The graphics get better and better and more difficult.

I played it a bit this morning instead of getting my Pathfinder post ready. It is fun and addictive.
But what I really liked was it's sense of history.  Like old RPGs I also like old technology.  One of my side projects is to get this older computer I am calling Son of Frankencomputer up an running and putting on a bunch of old computer and console emulators.

Odyssey is really a bit like a retro-clone.  It emulates earlier modes of play, it just does it one step better than the OSR crowd by progressively getting better/more detailed.  Though one could argue that while computer and console software has demonstrably gotten better over the years, RPGs maybe not as much.  D&D Next for example might become the biggest "retro-clone" on the market.

In any case Odyssey captures the same spirit of the Old-School movement and for me that is enough.
It also happens to be fun. Which is important to me at least.  It is epic in the sense that you have to pass through all the levels of video game generations to get to your goal.

Terrible time though for me to find a new video game. I need to be ready for Spring term by the end of this week!

Cancer Fundraiser for RetroRoleplaying

I have long been of the frame of mind that gamers, in general, are some of best people when it comes to helping others.  Is it because our hobby is one of pure social interaction? Is it because we learn the value of helping each other out in the game very early one?  Not sure why, I can only say I have seen it work.

One only needs to look no further than the fundraisers at DriveThruRPG for various disasters or even the Bad Myrmidon fundraiser.  I have raised a little money myself for various charities.

So I wanted to let you know about another one that I think is worthy and not really getting the attention it deserves.

Randall over at RetroRoleplaying is raising some money to help treat his wife's cancer.
He is asking for donations, but he is giving away an absolute trove of treasures from the early days of gaming.  It's insane the stuff he is parting with, but I would do the exact same thing.

So please. Go to his site. Donate what you can. It's Christmas after all.
How about this.  Instead of that large coffee you get before work today or while doing your last minute Christmas shopping, you donate $5 to Randall's wife.  Make her life a little better, and hopefully a little longer. Not trying to sound overly maudlin here, but this community has given so much for lesser reasons (myself included and especially) that maybe this also something we should do.

If everyone that reads this blog here, via Facebook or even Twitter gave something, well that would be great.

Start here:
http://blog.retroroleplaying.com/2013/11/holiday-2013-cancer-fund-drive-with.html
http://www.retroroleplaying.com/content/retroroleplaying-cancer-fund-special-downloads
http://blog.retroroleplaying.com/2013/12/holiday-cancer-fund-drive-17-away-from.html

I can't promote this one enough.

The 12 Days of OSR-Xmas

Tenkar over at his Eponymous Tavern will begin his "Twelve Days of OSR Christmas" where he will be giving away a TON of great OSR products.  Included in the mix are a copy of the Witch and Eldritch Witchery.
That tomorrow is also Friday the 13th makes it doubly fun for me.

So please make sure you stop by and give it a look.  Hopefully you will win something cool.

Dyvers: Best Reads

This has been making it's rounds and I even posted a little about it on Friday.

Charles Akins has posted, and updated, his massive list of all the "OSR" blogs.
http://dyverscampaign.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-great-blog-roll-call.html

Here is what he had to say about your truly:

An OSR blog that's biggest cause is the Witch class in Dungeons and Dragons style role-playing games. The author is quite persuasive and will make you jump on his bandwagon if you give him half a chance. Updates: An average of 45 times per month. Wow! An amazing amount of out put!

I wholeheartedly concur!

While some may claim that the blogging community is loosing steam, I prefer to think of it as gaining focus.  Instead of 25 posts a day on roughly the same thing we now get 10 posts a variety of topics.  It also shows that there is more going on than I even knew.

So stop by, read his massive list and stick around to read the rest of his blog.  It's some good stuff.

Elf Lair Games on Google+

Just a quick note today before gaming.

Elf Lair Games has a new Community on G+.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/117818905017605352455

Come by to discuss Spellcraft & Swordplay, The Witch or Eldritch Witchery.  Or hear about new products they are working on.

It should be fun and they would love to hear from you.

Post 2000!

Welcome to the 2000th post at The Other Side!

I wanted to take a little time here for some brief introspection.  I started this blog back in 2007 with no idea what I wanted to do with it. I based the name and style on my older website, also called The Other Side, and this was supposed to be integrated into that.  Well I never rebuilt the old website and instead parsed out material I had written for that here.

In 2008 I decided that this would become a design blog where I would talk about the projects I was working on.  The first of those two projects died on the vine as the case with a lot of freelance work.  While that is too bad, I have been allowed to reuse some of the work in my own projects.
The second project quickly morphed.  I had started Eldritch Witchery back then for the Spellcraft & Swordplay game. In the process on working on that I also came up with the idea of doing The Witch.
They were the reasons I kept this blog going in those early days.
Soon I discovered more blogs and the rest, well here are now. Sadly many of the blogs I started with are not around, but the ones are happen to be quite good. So I feel I am still in very company.

It took me over three years to get to 1000 posts, and then just under two years to get to the next 1000.

With Eldritch Witchery and The Witch now complete the original emphasis for this blog is now gone.  But despite my early thoughts of "not having enough to say" I find that I often can't keep quiet!
So I am expecting to have another 2000 posts. It might take me longer since I am not sure what future blogs have to be honest.  Don't expect video blogs from though, just not my thing really.  But I have more projects on the way. More characters to stat up and more games to talk about.

Of course none this is possible without you, the reader and commenter.
To show my appreciations, I am running another contest.

You can win a copy of Eldritch Witchery or The Witch?  Simple, follow the rules below and in the comments section please post who your favorite witch (or wizard) is.

Grand Prize gets a copy of BOTH books.
First Place Prize gets a copy of Eldritch Witchery
Second Place Prize gets a copy of The Witch.

You can enter every day for more chances.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!!

The Other Side, the First 2000 Posts!

How is everyone tonight?

Me? I Am gearing up to give away a few copies of Eldritch Witchery and The Witch to my readers here!
Yup that time again.  But this time it is going to coincide with some other big milestones.

This is my 1,999th post here at the Other Side.
The next post is post #2000.

I have also set up a Facebook page for this blog.
https://www.facebook.com/OtherSideblog

So how can you win a copy of Eldritch Witchery or The Witch?  Simple, follow the rules below and in the comments section please post who your favorite witch (or wizard) is


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck!!

And Now for Something Completely Different...

My friends Jody and Beth left a life in the suburbs to pursue a dream of running a sustainable farm.  They are doing that now but they are also up for grant from Chase to make their farm better.

I want everyone who reads this to vote.  Here is why:
- Every likes to complain when the big banks screw up.  Well the biggest one, J. P. Morgan-Chase is giving away money.  Vote to say you approve of them doing good.
- Jody was a 9-5 career guy, Beth a special ed teacher, they got off the yuppie-in-training lifestyle to pursue a dream.  Vote if you support people following their dreams to do what the love.
- Vote if you hate yuppie scum and want to support their escape from the soul sucking that is the suburbs.
- They are running a small sustainable farm. Vote if you support people trying to make a difference, even if (or especially if!) it is only local.
- They are not Monsanto. Plenty of my online friends should vote just because of that!

So please. Click. It takes no time really, but could mean a world of difference.

https://www.missionmainstreetgrants.com/business/detail/110698

Thanks!

Lazy Sunday

This is really more of Twitter post than a real blog posting.

Checking out blog posts from around the gaming blogs.

So much cool stuff going on!  Just great fun stuff.

More thoughts later, making more more coffee and reading more.

My RPG Person Profile

This was cooked up by +Zak Smith over at his blog Playing D&D With Porn Stars.
It's a pretty cool idea really. I have seen a few others (linked below) so I figure I throw in my 2cents.

I'm currently running (at home):  D&D 3.5 Epic level game and AD&D 1st Ed start up

Tabletop RPGs I'm currently playing (at home) include: See above.

I'm currently running (online): nothing

Tabletop RPGs I'm currently playing (online) include: Pathfinder

I would especially like to play/run: Basic D&D, WitchCraft, Mutants & Masterminds, Monster Hearts, Vampire the Masquerade, any version of Mage, Call of Cthulhu (any ed), Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space.

...but would also try: Feng Shui, Victoria, Victoriana 3rd Ed.

I live in: The NW Burbs of Chicago

2 or 3 well-known RPG products other people made that I like:  AD&D 1st Ed, WitchCraft, Chill

2 or 3 novels I like: Dracula, Lord of the Rings, most horror

2 or 3 movies I like:  Too many to name.  Most all horror, especially horror from the 70s.

Best place to find me on-line: Everywhere. Facebook, email, my blog Google+

I will read almost anything on tabletop RPGs if it's: Horror or Victorian

I really do not want to hear about: Nothing. I am pretty much open to everything.

I think dead orc babies are ( circle one: funny / problematic / ....well, ok, it's complicated because....): Depends on the game. In D&D they are usually collateral damage, in ShadowRun they are a plot point, in Orkworld they are a campaign about taking their souls back to wherever John Wick thinks Ork souls come from.

Game I'm in are like (link to something): Little guy or Anti-hero taking back the world from the grips of evil.  Plenty of monsters and over the top action, metal music and roots deep in the 80s  Or Trippy weird, gothy magical stuff or Sword & Sorcery with a bit of tongue in cheek humor, also with roots deep in the 80s.

Free RPG Content I made for OSR and Unisystem are available here on my Downloads page.
Also the Ghosts of Albion Quick Start Rules.

You can buy RPG stuff I made at DriveThruRPG, Amazon or at your FLGS

• Liber Bestarius (d20)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG (Cinematic Unisystem)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Slayer's Hanbook (Cinematic Unisystem)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Magic Box (Cinematic Unisystem)
• Ghosts of Albion (Cinematic Unisystem)
• The Witch (Basic Era OSR)
• Eldritch Witchery (Spellcraft & Swordplay) 
• Dr. Challenger's Guide (Gaslight RPG) Coming Soon
• Darwin's Guide to Creatures (Gaslight RPG) Coming Soon

If you know anything about Dragons it'd help me with a project I'm working on

I talk about RPGs on mostly my blog and Facebook under the name Timothy S. Brannan or Tim Brannan. You  can find me on some forums (RPG.net) and going back to the Usenet under the name Web Warlock.

• My Blog
• Facebook
• Google+
• Twitter
• DeviantArt
• My reviews at DriveThruRPG
• My reviews at RPG.Net
• My RPG Bio at LeGrog (in French)

I've Been Blitzed!

My recent post on the release of Eldritch Witchery is getting Blized by the Blog Blitz Team!

I have participated in all the Blog Blitzes before and it has been a great way to visit new blogs that I might not otherwise know about.  Many thanks to DL Hammons for setting this up.

I plan to visit everyone's blog that leaves a post, so please also leave a link back to your own blogs.

This is Getting Stupid

The Deletionists at Wikipedia are going through and deleting all the RPG articles again.  There is a crew of them and they are pushing some sort of agenda, but there are not enough people to source the articles to save them.

So I am again asking for help.  I need third party sources. Tons of them.
Magazine reviews, newspapers, nothing is too small.

Here are the articles in danger:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Buffalo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Loomis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Soth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vecna

Give me hand with these please!

30 Day D&D Challenge, Day 30: Best DM You've Had

Day 30: Best DM You've Had

Here we are at the end.
What an interesting little trip this was. I enjoyed reading everyone's postings all week and congrats if you made it to the end.

Best DM.  Wow. I have had a lot of great ones over the years.  Restricting this just to D&D though makes it easier.

I have had a lot, but I have to give the nod to my hometown DMs for 1st Ed.
Jon Cook was my first DM and his style was what we might call Gonzo these days. Everything, all over the place and all at once. Just crazy ass shit all the time.  If we didn't know a rule we just kept going. Jon just had solid love of the game and that what made his games fun.

My next DM was Bob Grenda. He was in High School with me and that man created worlds on worlds.  His campaign was so layered and detailed that every game was epic.  I have been begging him for years to clean up his "Mad Wizard Killian" series of adventures (Killian's Tower, Killian's Castle, Killian's Maze...) to publish for OSRIC.  It's not just my memories, those adventures rocked and I will take the Pepsi challenge on them verses the best of the old school any day of the week.
Until then the loss is ours.

I hope you all enjoyed this little ride!