White Dwarf Wednesday #32

White Dwarf #32 is without a doubt the most important issue of White Dwarf since Issue 1.  Why?  Because with #32 in August 1982 White Dwarf goes monthly.  Ian Livingstone praises the move, rightfully so, in the Editorial.  Our cover, before we forget, is a great bit that reminds me of the movie/magazine Heavy Metal.  This will not be the last time that will happen.

Stephen Bland is up first with the Rings of Power from Lord of the Rings. In addition to the rings we get stats for the winged beasts and the Nazgul.  I don't ever recall seeing this one before.  Oddly enough I never used LotR in my D&D games.  Outside of having a halfling thief named Bilbo once, but everyone is allowed to have a character named after a LotR character at least once.

Now this next article I do remember.  Marcus Rowland discusses Slower than Light ships.  One is a ram-scoop that looks just like a ship out of Carl Sagan's book Cosmos.  I had recently read the book and found this rather neat.

Paul Vernon takes us back to the town in The Town Planner, Part II: Designing Cities and Towns.  Again this is another "clip and save" article and one you could still use today.

Ken St. Andre is also back with more T&T goodness with some tips on designing your own T&T world including how to adapt T&T to fit your playstyle.  Again, this one has utility beyond the game and time.  T&T was always much more of a tool-kit game than D&D was and has remained so. There is something rustic about picking up the rules today, more so than any OSR project, and reading an article like this.

There is another reason why Issue #32 will be remembered as Watershed.  This is the issue that reviewed Call of Cthulhu in Open Box.  The game has not changed much in the last 20 years and reading this article is like reading a blog post review.  Ian Bailey gives it 9/10 and I wonder why it didn't get a 10/10.  There are very few perfect games, but I think this is one of them. But as they say, the hits keep on coming.  We also get a review of another classic, Bushido. Mike Polling gives this game a justified 10/10 calling it "maybe the best game I have ever seen."  This game came out just on the cusp of the huge fascination the 80s had with all things Japanese.   It was also for that reason I unfortunately avoided it then.  What did I know, I was 13.
We also get another spot on review of the Mattel Electronic Dungeons & Dragons.  Jamie Thompson gives it a generous 4/10.

Up next is Phil Masters and The Chaos From Mount Dorren a mini adventure for AD&D. At three pages it looks like a lot of fun.  What a great time to be getting back into AD&D!

Starbase has more Traveller fun in the form of Strikers, civilian vehicles.  So yes. Space cars.  But it is fun.

Letters is next and readers go back and forth on whether or not microcomputer articles should stay out of White Dwarf.

RuneRites for RuneQuest is next. Jim Sizer gives us the Cyclops.  We also get Griselda's stats from WD 29 and 30. I do recall seeing these.

Fiend Factory gives "Small Things" as the theme this month.  We get the Greater Raven, the reptilian Nightlings, the really odd Qothe, the Wyrmlet, which is a living coin, and the Mara.  None of them jump out at me, but that is fine.

Now this one I do remember, Treasure Chest has "Drug Use in D&D".  This is certainly something that could be updated for Pathfinder or your Old-School game of choice.

We end with 12 pages of ads and classifieds.

Again, a good issue content wise, but a great one if you consider what this means in the longer run of White Dwarf.

Free the Necromancer!

Er, rather, the Necromancers are Free.

Two free sources of Necromancer fun for you and your games.

First up a free class for Labyrinth Lord AE,
http://the-city-of-iron.blogspot.com/2011/08/necromancer-new-class-for-labyrinth.html

And an old book on Project Guttenberg, Lives of the Necromancers by William Godwin.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7082

Enjoy!

Art of "The Witch"

The Witch is done editing and now layout and art.

I have a bunch of art I have been buying over the last couple of years for this. So now comes the process of picking out images.

I have a few I really love and have meaning to me.
Note: All the art I am posting today belongs to me.  The artist holds the copyrights (it is still theirs) but I own the publication rights.  So these are not considered OPEN under the OGL or Fair Use.

Here are two that were done for me by my brother Daniel.   A Druther and a Halfling Witch.

Plus a magical Distaff,

These are from a former student of mine, Aitor Gonzalez. Two witches.

I am using some old Public Domain witch art to give is a period feel and some art from Larry Elmore.  

I make no apologies for that, I have always wanted to have a witch book out with Elmore art in it. 

There is a different set that will appear in Eldritch Witchery.

So looking forward to getting this out to you all!

Genre Favorites Blogfest

Alex J. Cavanaugh's The Genre Blogfest.

In this blogfest I need to talk about my favorite Genre of Movie, Book and Music.  Plus my guilty pleasure.

So here we go!

Movies
My favorite is still Horror.  I love all that scary stuff. I do enjoy other movies, but horror is my go to.

Music
I would have to say Classic metal or even classic rock.  I still love to listen to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Dio.  My wife accuses me of living in the past, I prefer to think of it that my tastes are so refined that I know exactly what I want.

Books
Again, gotta say horror, but I enjoy the Modern Supernatural genre as well.  The ones where it's all teh same creatures as horror, but living in the world of today.  Things like The Dresden Files.  I do still enjoy fantasy.

Guilty Pleasure
This is a hard one.  I have so many!! Well, so many that others might call guilty, I don't feel any guilt in these.
But to narrow it down to one...well that can only be my love for really, really bad movies.  I am not talking your average B or C movie, I am talking about Z grade, unfit for human consumption.  Things they might have considered doing on MST3k, but were to bad.

What do you enjoy?
Read what others have posted too: http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/2012/08/bourne-legacy-review-ninja-news-tv.html


See what everyone else is doing!

Guest Post over at Blogging A to Z

I have a guest post up over at Blogging A to Z today.
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

I talk about my past participation and my new Monstrous Monday blogfest.
So far turn out has been great!

What is going on at White Dwarf?

If you come here for my White Dwarf Wednesdays you know I am a big fan of early (pre #100) of White Dwarf.

While I was not a fan of WD after it became devoted only Warhammer I didn't fault it because that was the trend for magazines at the time.

I might be stuck still in the 80s but White Dwarf did move on, in fact there was a recent posting about how we are going to be getting a new and improved WD magazine, http://lasgunpacker.blogspot.com/2012/09/white-dwarf-relaunch.html

But it also looks like Games Workshop is having troubles with some of the older issues.  Namely being able to prove what they may or may not own.

A post over at Pork's Expanse explains it better: http://theporkster.blogspot.com/2012/09/what-gw-owns.html
As does Russ Nicholson himself, http://russnicholson.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-horror-of-it-all.html.

I really enjoyed Russ' art in WD's golden age, and I hope he can get this all sorted out.  


This and the latest Kickstarter-based-project drama though shows me one thing:
I don't have a clue about what drama is going in the various gaming blogs.  

Well, unless I start it of course.   I don't think I am being particular obtuse and I do read all the same things everyone else is (I assume).   I mean I am not reading message boards hardly anymore (ha! see what I did there) and my Google+ participation is not as high as it could be.
I'll see some good posts and think to myself, "that is a good post, but what the hell are you talking about?"

Maybe it is the nature of blogs.  We sometimes feel that everyone is reading the exact same things we are because they are reading at least some of the same things we are.

Random thoughts on a Sunday.

Zatannurday: DC Adventures

I really enjoy the DC Adventures RPG from Green Ronin.

It is not the best Supers RPG I have ever played, but it is certainly right up there.  It is quite a bit of fun and based on the same rules as Mutants & Masterminds. (For the record, I think I enjoy Mutants & Masterminds 2n

Not a lot of material has come out for it yet as compared to the old DC Heroes or even the various Marvel Games.  But that is ok with me.  I enjoy the DC Universe so much more.

So far we have three main products:

DC ADVENTURES Hero's Handbook
The main core rules book.

DC ADVENTURES Heroes & Villains, Vol. 1 and
DC ADVENTURES Heroes & Villains, Vol. 2
Details of all the heroes and villains (or at least the major ones).

Of course all the new M&M 3rd edition materials can work with this.  In particular I found these very useful to help flesh out her world:
Mutants & Masterminds Power Profile #12: Magic Powers
Mutants & Masterminds Power Profile #13: Illusion Powers

And of course my favorite villain, Dracula.

Zatanna is featured in both the Hero's Handbook and Heroes & Villains Vol. 2.

Honestly, I love these books, even if I don't get much of a chance to play.  They remind me of the old Marvel Phile in Dragon mag and the Who's Who in The DC Universe.

I love how it describes her other costume more "traditional" than the tux and fishnets.

Reading this I had forgotten about "Bewitched".  After reading the Books of Magic, I don't think she really "hangs out" there, but is at least known.  Bewitched would be a great location in any game. Putting it in San Fran in my games would ad least gather the attention of the Charmed Ones, but in a DC/M&M game leaving  it at 666 Haight St. Though that is a real address. It would have to be like 12 Grimmauld Place in the Harry Potter books.  Magical types can see it, but the mundanes can't.

Just wish I had more time to game!

Something Wicked...

Eldritch Witchery is now down with finals edits and sent back to the publisher.

The Witch needs one last look and then finish up layout.

Things are shaping up for a very good time here at the Other Side.

You might notice a new poll in my blog sidebar.

The Witch is done, but I would love to cut down the page size a bit.   So, I am thinking of taking out the monsters.  You can still get the monsters in EW and some will be posted here.  Ultimately it depends on the layout, but I wanted to hear what you all think.

So vote and let your voice be heard.

Have a great weekend everyone.

I am not afraid to admit this,

But I am in constant awe over the level and depths of research J. K. Rowling did for the Harry Potter series.

Just even the care and attention that went into the names of, well, everyone.

Doing some research on some other topics and it keeps coming back to something I read in Harry Potter.  That then leads me somewhere else.

I think what I need to do know is re-read all the books and I will also admit that I am looking forward to her new book, The Casual Vacancy.  It sounds, as my friend Andrew puts it, Fab".  It sounds like a good British black comedy.

I also think it is a crime there is no official Harry Potter RPG.

Review: Rogue Mage (2012)

What if someone held an apocalypse and nobody came?

That is an over-simplification, but it is the jist of what I get from reading a little bit of the Rogue Mage series by Faith Hunter. Now I need to be upfront here about a few things.

1. I have never read the Rogue Mage books, but they are something I have been aware of and I have been meaning to check out.
2. I know Christina Stiles and have worked with her (somewhat) in the past.

That out of the way, lets look at this game.

Rogue Mage is a new RPG from Christina Stiles and Faith Hunter, published by Misfit Studios.
It is a modern supernatural game, so I am already inclined to like it, but also inclined to be critical of it.  I will work to balance this for this review.

The game is a d20 based one, but not 100% d20.  There is a list of changes for those of us that pick up a d20 game and try to go as we always have.  So no attacks of opportunity, no hp, no classes, no levels and so on.  Mostly this resembles Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Ed quite a bit.  The damage tracker is similar, but  simpler. There is a Toughness save (like M&M) and Combat is a skill (like other games). So mechanics wise this is really an elegant system, but it doesn't add a lot of new material.
So like M&M all you need is a d20 to play.
Also this is the Player's book only.  The Game Master's Guide will be out later.

Chapter 1 covers the basic rules of the game.  I thought this was a touch odd, since we have not rolled up any characters yet, but I think the reasoning is that the rules are so simple that leading off with them allows you to read them once and then easily refer back to them as needed.

Chapter 2 covers the setting.  You don't need have read the Faith Hunter books to use this game, something I think is very important.  The books look good and I am looking forward to reading them, but I have this book now.  Briefly the world changed with the return of the Seraphs on June 12, 2011. Day before my birthday. The war that follows engulfs the world and leaves it in shambles; in fact it is known as the Last War. The present day is 2117 (or 105 PA, post ap).  Given Rush is in concert as of this writing 2112 would have been cooler for me, but hey.   Immediately I am drawn to the parallels between this game and Eden's Armageddon. Except in Armageddon the war is still going on and it's 2018 (that seemed SO far away back when I was playtesting the game). The world though in Rogue Mage is more messed up with the new Ice Age and all the plagues.   Tech is all over the place with advanced technology in the regions away from the ice to steam powered retro-tech.

Chapter 3 is Character Creation. There are abilities and skills familiar to most d20 games.  Characters though have points in which to buy these similar to many other non-d20 systems and M&M. In addition there are Talents, Drawbacks and Magic.  First up are the character races; neomage, third-generation kylen, human, seraph-touched, rogue daywalker, and second unforeseen (mule). These are detailed in the book and fit into the cosmology of the game.  Races can be bought with character points, or in the case of humans, character points are awarded back to you. Attributes and skills are bought with points.  Talents can either be normal, special or supernatural and have varying point costs. Drawbacks give you back points. There are also Luck points (think Hero or Drama points) and a virtue/taint tracker which is a new twist.
There is a character creation walk-through and many sample characters.

Chapter 4 deals with abilities; Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom and so on and saves.
Chapter 5 deals with skills. The list is a familiar one for anyone that has played a d20 game in the last 12 years.  Of note though, Combat is a skill now.  I rather like that to be honest.  A trainable skill instead of a built in aptitude.

Chapter 6 covers Talents.  Think of these as something similar to Feats or Qualities, or most like the Powers in True 20.  Many of these are Feats from the SRD, but that is fine because they still work here.  As you can imagine there are a lot of them here, a little more than 30 pages worth.  Then we also get the Drawbacks.  These are like negative feats.  They take something from you, but you get Character Points in return. We get 10 pages of those.

ASIDE: While this game diverts a bit from the d20 mainstream, there is enough here that is the same to make you wonder if your other d20 resources might work with it.  For that answer I would have to say I see no reason why not.  Sure you are deviating from the source material more, but mechanically speaking, unless it relates to levels, classes or HP I can't see why it wouldn't work.

Chapter 7 is Magic. There is a lot here, not just in terms of rules for magic, but the spells themselves. Over 46 pages.  Again some spells from other games could be converted and used here.  One would need to figure out the point cost for casting them.  I wonder if the spells from the d20 Call of Cthulhu would be compatible?  Or even BESM d20 Advanced Magic.  If so, then this game would open up a wealth of playing options.

Chapter 8 details Virtue, Money and Luck.  Virtue and Taint stand in for the basic alignment system, but this also has more in-game effects.  Virtuous characters are more resilient to some magics for example.
Wealth is a score, rather than a track-able resource like gold pieces.  And Luck Points, like I mentioned are like Hero or Drama points.

Chapter 9 discusses Secondary Characters, aka NPCS.
Chapter 10 has equipment. It is an interesting mix of future and past tech and high tech and magic.

Chapter 11 details combat.  Combat normally gets it's own chapter, but I would have figured it a little closer to skills.  No matter, it is here and it tells you what you need to know. Of importance here is the damage track and conditions rules.  Remember, there are no HP here, so this is how you know if you are good or about to die.  This combat makes this game a bit more deadly than your typical d20 game.

We end with some fiction from Faith Hunter (each chapter had some too) and an Index.

The layout is clean and easy to read.  The art is really good as well and really captures the feel of the game well I think.  It is all black and white so it won't kill your printer.

There is a lot I really like about this game.  First it has so much potential with things I am already doing.  Secondly the fact that is also seems to fit in mechanically with a bunch of books I already have is also great.

I think I would have loved to have seen this as a Unisystem game.  But I know there are a lot of reasons why that could not have been done.  Plus the rules from Mutants & Masterminds, as I have done in the past, can be tweaked to give you a Unisystem like experience.  To be 100% honest if there is anyone out there that could be trusted to do that it is Christina Stiles and Misfit Studios.

Something though is keeping me from absolutely loving this game though.  I think it is because I have not read the books it is based on yet.  I also think there is not enough information here on how to run a game.  That is not a big deal for me really, I have 100s of books that tell me that. I don't know how to run one in this universe.
But these are not the shortcomings of this book; only my understanding of the world of this book.
I do hope the Game Master's Guide comes with a sample adventure.

Here is what I do know.  Misfit Studios has done a a great job in the past with Unisystem products and Mutants & Masterminds ones.   This rule set seems to be a perfect middle ground for them and I hope that we get to see it for more games.

White Dwarf Wednesday #31

White Dwarf #31 covers months June and July of 1982.  Speaking of covers check out this great looking city. Good choice for the city article in a couple of pages.

The editorial is kicked off by Ian Livingstone celebrating the 5th birthday of White Dwarf.  The first 10 readers that send in a completed feedback form will get a White Dwarf t-shirt!  Also we are again promised a monthly White Dwarf.  Let's wait and see when that happens.

Paul Vernon is back and this time he is building towns for D&D.  The Town Planner starts it's run this issue with Part 1: Designing and Running Villages.  Again, a great, timeless/editionless article.  In fact there in nothing here that could not be used with any FRPG.

In an another return Ken St. Andre is back with a mini Tunnels & Trolls solitaire adventure.  How mini?  Well the first page of the The Mad Dwarf is taken up by an image of said dwarf.  The adventure itself runs along the bottom two inches of the magazine for the next 7 pages and then another 6 pages after a bit.  So a little more than two pages really. It is done like this due to the "programmed" nature of the solitaire adventure (ie if you do X go to A, if you do Y go to B).

Some new Traveller material in the form of Prior Service from John Conquest. An aside, I never quite understood why any sword type is considered to be basic training in some of the Traveller military.  We always played it off as the same reasons Marines get a sabre with their dress uniform.  Oddly enough the Marines in Traveller don't get a sword, but the Navy gets Cutlass-1.

Open Box has some cool SciFi entries this month.  Task Force Games brings us Federation Space, the Federation controlled area of Starfleet Battles.  John Lambshed gives it a 8/10 and says it is a must buy for Starfleet Battles fans.   FASA releases four Traveller books this time, Ordeal by Eshaar, Action Aboard, Uragyad'n of the Seven Pillars and The Legend of the Sky Raiders. They are generally well liked, but have their issues.  Bob McWilliams gives them 6, 5, 8, and 8/10 for novices and 7, 6, 8, and 9/10 for experts.
Thieves get some love in two books by Gamelords, Thieves Guild (I-IV) and The Free City of Haven.  Lewis Pulsipher generally likes them and gives them 9, 7, 7, 8 and 9/10 respectively.

Letters focuses mostly on questions from/about the DMG.

Lewis Pulsipher is back with another article that made that big packet of articles I was reading about this time.  Arms at the Ready takes all the weapons tables in AD&D and shuffles them up.  Now you can look at a weapon and then see how the attacks are by character class and level.  This might not seem to be such a big deal today, but back in the AD&D days various weapons had different attacks versus different ACs.  For example there might be no change at all to AC 5 but AC 4 had a +1 to hit.  Of course this is because it was called "Armor Class" and not "Defense Score", AC 4 was a different type of armor than AC 5.  A point Lewis makes in the article.

RuneRites is back again for Runquest.  This time Geoff Winn has Crime and Punishment on the mind.  This really is a good companion piece to the city rules above.  Sure is for Runequest, but it is also generic enough to work with any game, with some tweaks.    The great thing about the early days of gaming was how free everything was.  I remember using the RuneQuest demon rules from WD a lot with D&D.  This article would work even better.

Starbase has your Traveller needs covered. That is if your need is Additional Deflector Systems.  If it is then Antony Cornell and Martin Barrett have you covered.  I can easily see this converted over to Star Frontiers, in fact that is what I was starting to do around this time (though SF does not grace the pages of WD till later on).

Treasure Chest has more Amulets & Talismans, this time sent in by readers.  Some interesting items too.

Fiend Factory is still doing themes.  This time it is a theme+adventure.  In Search of A Fool is described as a "D&D" mini adventure. The stats are D&D and not really AD&D, though odd bits of AD&D are mixed in. The monsters this time are all faerie creatures like the Daonie Sidhe (fae), the Leanan-Sidhe (vampire, and different than my own), Lorelei Willow (plant, sounds like something I'd come up with) and the Dendridi (a type of gnome).  The adventure is very brief, but great for a side trek.  Honestly I read it and it sounds like something I could drop into a 4e game in the Feywild with no modifications.

News, classifieds and ads follow.

All in all this issue felt more "80s" than previous issues.  Great content that worked well together.

Tell Me About Your SciFi games!

My friend Greg is having fun with Traveller and Star Frontiers and I am jealous.
I have been reading White Dwarf now for a while and all I can remember is how much I had with Traveller.

So I have been itching to find a good SciFi game.

This is the part where you tell me how great your game is...

So please tell me.  I want to know.  Plus I am not sure what all the SciFi games out there are.
I know all about Starships & Spacemen and I am looking forward to the newest edition.

Tiamat/Takhis research

Anyone have anything on Tiamat or Takhisis for D&D?

I need to go beyond the normal web-crawl/wikipedial-trawl and get some deep, hard research.

Something beyond this post I made in the summer.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/06/tiamat-on-my-mind.html

Thanks all!

It was on this day...

12 years ago that I stayed home from work so I could be at my FLGS to buy a copy of the new D&D 3rd Edition Player's Handbook.

Sorry if I choose to be selective on how I remember this day.

In truth 9/11/2001 was also a watershed date for me personally.  I had just gotten laid off from my "Dream job" in the Dot Com world (they had laid off 65% of their workforce that day).  So I was home with a new baby when all the events went down.

I then spent the next few months (before I swallowed my pride and went back to teaching) working on various RPG products.  One, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG, lead to many, many other projects that eventually landed me Ghosts of Albion.

Since 9/11/2001 was 11 years ago, it was also a Tuesday when it happened (perpetual calendars are 11 years long), so to me the "big anniversary" of something is not 10 years, but 11.  Weird I know.  But that is why it is on my mind more today than say this time last year.

Genre Blogfest

I enjoy these blogfests.  Mostly for the community building and to see what other people have to say.  But I also enjoy them because they help me get out of the posting rut.

Alex J. Cavanaugh, who has run so many blogfests, presents another.
The Genre Blogfest.

I will be participating in this one, it looks fun!

Kickstart your week!

Another Kickstarter that I thought looked cool.

Invasion of the Saucer People - Card Game
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lestersmith/invasion-of-the-saucer-people-card-game

A cool looking card game from Popcorn Press, the same folks that are bringing us Cthulhu Haiku next month.  Check them out and see what they have!

Zatanna: !nmad .?ydaeR.

Err. I am not quite ready really.

Normally I like to work on these ahead of time.  But my week was busy at work and my Saturday is already lost.

Ok. I will be ready next time.

More Monster Images

Since I want to make this more inclusive here are some more image fro you to use to link back.

There's a Monster in my Blog!

I have had a couple of questions about the MONSTROUS MONDAY Blogfest.

Again, here are the rules.

1. Sign up below
2. Grab a button and link back to my site
3. Post your Monster on Monday October 29th 2012!

That's it!

What can you post?
Lots of things.
- Monster stats for your game.
- a description or story of the monster from your new book
- the monster you love/hate the most

I am even considering some other ideas.  But the key here is it has to be a monster.

So lets see them!

3.5 Reprints

The 3.5 reprints are hitting the shelves soon.

They look nice, very evocative of both the 3.0 and 3.5 covers. Though they lack the "old tome" feel the originals went for, and were often imitated during the entire d20 boom.

I am not sure I will get them though.

I have my 3/3.5 books.  I even have the leather bound deluxe 3.5 books. And Pathfinder.

How about you all?

MONSTROUS MONDAY!

This year I wanted to do something extra for Halloween (which in my mind is the entire month of October).  So I am going to be hosting the MONSTROUS MONDAY Blogfest!

The rules are really simple.

1. Sign up below
2. Grab a button and link back to my site
3. Post your Monster on Monday October 29th 2012!

That's it!

What kind of Monster?  Well that is up to you really.  I am going to be posting Monster stats.  You can do that, or post a monster you like/love/hate, or tell us about the monster in your new book coming out.  Anything would be great really.

I will be posting some more soon.

Here are some banners for your use with some code to link back here.

Code:

<a href="http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/"><img alt="MONSTROUS MONDAY!" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAY1PhNSBQ3RI5jgrciNyNqoS7fLZay3QLI5C73SjQpRXu4VybZTk9ftDUATfsZHyfYI7IP1LC0QcEbNDZrT2OhkEUxjPmuWC7R5O4Zfk9M0CICN5g7_ImhltCmcLVwPbRWExrfS290Es/s1600/MONSTROUS_MONDAY1.png" /></a>

Code:

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Blogfest/Bloghop anyone?

So I was looking at my calendar last night and I noticed that October has 5 Mondays and 5 Wednesdays this year.  Yeah it has 5 Tuesdays too.

I was thinking that it might be cool to post a new monster here every Monday in October.  Then I thought, why should I have all this fun by myself?

So here is an idea and I'd like to see who would all like to join in. On the Monday before Halloween (10/29) everyone post a new Monster.  It doesn't have to be horror related and it can be in any system.  I then thought I could expand it to let anyone post something about any sort of monster.

I would do this as a Blogfest, like the A to Z challenge, and everyone could see what everyone else has done.

Any takers?  This would be a great way to spread the word about gaming into areas beyond our "Blog borders" and it could give you all sorts of ideas.

Let me know what you think.  I am still going to post a new monster every Monday in October and mine will be horror themed.

Review: Mazes & Perils (2012)

EDITED TO ADD: There is a new version out, but I have not had a chance to read it yet.  I will get to it, sometime in the future.

My first experience with D&D was the Eric Holmes version of D&D Basic.  While I soon moved on to Moldvay and to AD&D 1st Ed, the Holmes edition holds a warm and fuzzy place in my gaming recollections. I know I am not the only one that feels this way. So anything that is done as an homage to Holmes I pay attention too.

So I was thrilled when I heard there was a "new" retro-clone that was an homage to the Holmes version of D&D.  That thrill quickly turned sour when a.) I couldn't get it any more and b.) I heard the author was the same one as the OSRIC fiasco about a year ago.  You can read the drama here as a retrospective:
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/09/osric-players-guide-retraction.html
http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2011/10/fool-me-once-shame-on-you-fool-me-twice.html
http://swordsandwizardry.blogspot.com/2011/10/copyright-and-osr-part-1.html

Fast forward to this year and there is a new Mazes & Perils out.  I was curious and more than a little skeptical about the game.  I want to give the game and the author, Vincent Florio, a fair shake. The OSRIC book was a copy paste job with some art that he didn't own and the first M&P was copy and pasted from Holmes.  But again, I never saw that first M&P and can only go on what I read.  So, I want to judge this new M&P on it's own merits.

First things first, obviously the name of the game is a nod to John Eric Holmes' book "The Maze of Peril" and I can respect that. If you are going to do a Holmes' homage or pastiche then that is a perfect name really.
Secondly, some others have complained about the art.  I rather like it to be honest.  The cover is very cool and the interior is no worse than what you would have seen in Holmes.
While this is an homage to Holmes I am not sure what I have here.

Taken as a retro-clone by itself it is not much different than Labyrinth Lord or Basic Fantasy RPG, except it is now quite as good as either of those.  M&P stops progression at level 9.  Which I kind of get, but there is not enough here to support an end-game style D&D, say the way Adventurer Conqueror King System does.
The rules are simple, as befits the times it is emulating.  There is some missing information in some areas (or not easy to find, which is just as bad really).  There are tables for STR, INT, CON and DEX but not for WIS or CHA. This is an artifact of Holmes, but M&P expands STR into the AD&D1 numbers, but still does not include these other tables.Some other oddities are the XP levels for Cleric and Magic User.  Some of the monster text is awkward to read.  There are various grammar errors that even I noticed, and I am terrible at that.

Taken as a "Holmes clone" it certainly does that, even to the point that they are little too similar in some respects.  There are some spots of the text that are nearly identical, including some text that is more similar to Holmes than OGC text that is essentially the same in LL and BFRPG.    Other differences from the source material has Elves, Dwarves and Halflings as races and not race/classes like Gygax/Holmes/Moldvay/Mentzer.   This puts it closer to BFRPG.

This is certainly a labor of love on the part of the author.  And as a Holmes fan myself I can respect that.
But I am left feeling that this is too close to the source material.  It even shares some of the shortcomings of the Holmes book.  I understand the desire, but to mimic the style, even to the point where some sections are not very clear, is not a good idea.  This is one of the reasons the Moldvay book was made, Holmes was a transitional project.  There are lot of places in Holmes that say "these are give in ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS".  M&P does not have that advantage.

In the end this still comes off as a collection of house rules added to Holmes and not really a "Holmes clone" or even a "Holmes what-if".   Plus I have the suspicion in the back of my mind that this is merely an edit of a Holmes cut-and-paste job.  I am sorry, but it's true.  If this had been the first effort of this author then I would give him the benefit of the doubt, but that went out with the second copy-pasta.  If you read LL or BFRPG you can see where their text came from; the SRD.  This text does not.

Mazes & Perils is a free product.  It has that going for it. It is also released under the OGL and has it's own compatibility license.  If you can't get a copy of Holmes on your own then this will give you an idea of what it is like, but it's not as good.

In the end it has too many flaws, both in terms of execution and design, for me to really get behind it.

So behind on reviews

I am woefully behind on my reviews.

I am going to try to get some up here soon, but this is a rather busy time of year for me.  Hope to have something up later.

White Dwarf Wednesday #30

White Dwarf #30 covers the months of April and May 1982.

Cool cover art this issue with some weird bat-like creature.

This issues' Ian Livingstone editorial talks about the new Dungeons & Dragons electronic labyrinth game from Mattel and the Intellivison video game.  I had the post of the dragon from the electronic board game (till my ass college roommate ripped it up) but I never owned the game itself till a few years back.

Roger E. Moore gives us another of what I consider the "Classic" Traveller articles for me.  That is, this one of the ones that we had access too as a big xeroxed packet.  Androids in Traveller tells us all about artifical humans, replicants and your plastic pal that's fun to be with.

Designing a Quasi-Medieval Society for D&D is back.  Paul Vernon presents Part 2: The Economy Mercenaries and Resource Owners.  Again, this is quite in-depth (for a gaming magazine) and has a lot of useful information.  What is most useful though were the presented incomes of NPCs.  In our age and in 1982 I think it was hard for everyone just to understand how little people lived on. A group of adventures coming in to town after slaying a dragon is likely to throw the local economy totally out of whack.

E. Varley writes about Unarmed Combat in RuneQuest.

Open Box has some items that gamers today still love.  First up is Thieve World from Chaosium.  It gets a 10/10 for very good reason.  I was a huge TW fan back then and I still have my copy of this.  Champions from Hero games makes it first appearance here along with a scenario/adventure The Island of Doctor Destroyer.  Dave Morris likes the game, but doubts anyone will run a Champions campaign.  He gives it 7/10 and 8/10 for game and adventure.  Adventurer from Yaquinto Publications gets a solid 8/10.  Anf finally another Traveller board game that convinced me I'll never understand Traveller, Invasion: Earth gets 8/10 from Andy Slack.

"Griselda Gets Her Men" is the sequel to Lucky Eddi from last issue.  I have been told they are worth the. Maybe I'll give them a try.  After all it is only a page long.

Letters follow next.

Phil Masters presents The Curse of the Wildland, a cool looking adventure for 4-7 characters of 1-2 level in AD&D.   A couple of pages long and featuring a new monster, the Hsiao.

Starbase looks far a field for more ideas for Traveller Referees.

In what was/is one of the more interesting articles from the time we had "The Apocrypha According to St. Andre" by Ken St. Andre himself.  He explains a bit about himself and his game Tunnels & Trolls.  A very interesting read about one of the early pioneers of the gaming world.

Fiend Factor is back again.  This issue's theme are creatures that are often found with other creatures.   The Stirge Demon, found with Stirges has no treause but his Stirge Summoning necklace.   There is also the Weresnake.  The Muryans are giant ants that walk around on their hind legs.   The next page the monsters improve significantly.  The Sprite Knight is a larger sprite that protects other sprites.  The Vampire Wolf (or Coacula) is an undead wolf that serves a vampire.  Other wolves are mentioned, but not detailed.  Finally the Minidrag is a minature dragon like creature.

Treasure Chest has a collection of spells.

We come next to 10 pages of ads and the back cover.
Again, not a stand out issue, but certainly a fun one.  The Ken St. Andre article is a great highlight and the AD&D adventure is a good one too.

Pathfinder Witch

Witch by cromaticresponses

It looks like I am *finally* getting a chance to play Pathfinder style witch in a game.

I don't have many details yet, except I am excited about the prospect since I haven't got a chance to play one yet.  My son wants to run a game sometime with "Alternate-reality" versions of the Dragonslayers.  All the same classes and everything, just in a Pathfinder world.

I also quite pleased to see there is so much good stuff online for this witch, in addition to all the products I keep buying, but hardly ever use.

It will be interesting to see how she differs from the Liber Mysterium witch I have been playing all these years.
Hexes seem a little like my Occult Powers, save that the PF witch gets 11 of them vs the 3 (or 4 if you count the talisman feat) occult powers.  But the LM witch gets more spells; usually an additional 2 per level.  So it feels roughly similar.

But reading over all the Pathfinder material yesterday and today reinforced the idea I had a while back. There are not enough witch-like Prestige classes out there.
I am going to have to come up with some more I think.

Links
Local
Prestige Class: Queen of Witches
Prestige Class: Witch Priestess
Witch Books, Part 3. Pathfinder

Pathfinder SRD
Witch
Witch Spell list

So Long City of Heroes

It has been announced that City of Heroes, the Supers MMORPG is closing up shop.

http://na.cityofheroes.com/en/news/news_archive/thank_you.php

I never played CoH, but I did playtest the RPG version that Eden was working on back in the day.
Of course I stated up some characters.

What can I say? This was at the height of my involvement with The Dragon and the Phoenix.
I have to admit I liked how these turned out.

Zatannurday: Hero Clix!

I really enjoy my minis for Fantasy RPGs.

I also enjoy them for Supers games, I just don't have as many.
I do have some HeroClix.  Ok, I have (or rather had) 2.

I stopped by my favorite local game store and saw they had some new ones, so I bought one.
Guess what I got?

A Justice League Dark Zatanna!  I was hoping for this but really did not expect it.

She looks cool next to my classic Zatanna.

And Raven. That is all three of the HeroClix I own.  I just need the other Zatanna one.

They look pretty cool next to my Little Witches and Lego Witch.

D&D Zombies vs. The Walking/Running Dead

"Zombies are the new Vampires" - True Blood

Zombies are a great threat for lower level characters in any version of D&D.  They can be deadly in groups, but are slow.  They are affected by all the same magics other undead are, so Clerical turning or Radiant Powers really get to ..er...shine.

The trouble is that D&D-style zombies are stuck in in a old modality of just being undead shamblers. Think Shaggy from Scooby-Doo only more dead.

Zombies in the game All Flesh Must Be Eaten by Eden Studios are much more deadly and their bite is lethal, just not right away.  Plus there are all sorts of Zombies in AFMBE including what we now call "quick"  or ""fast" zombies.

Of course the question has been and will be asked again, "why not just use Ghouls?".  Well simply put Ghouls are eaters of the dead.  If thought about I'd add subtle demonic influences to them as well to reflect the Ghoul/Ghul  relationship.

Improved Zombies
Let's take a page from modern interpretations via AFMBE and define a few new zombies.  Instead of full blown stat blocks, I'll just talk about how to make changes to your current game's Zombie.  Let's assume a couple of basics.  First, Zombies have no intelligence, they are slow, attack last in any round and had HD roughly equal to twice a normal human (so 2 HD in older games). XP awarded for these needs to recalulated up.

The Hungry Dead
This zombies appear to be most like Ghouls.  Their stats are the same as a regular zombie but once they kill a victim they begin to eat it.  They turn as if they were one slot higher ("Ghoul" for older games).

Plague Zombies
These might be the scariest of all. They do not appear to be any different than a regular Zombie until they bite a victim.  Then the differences are more apparent.  They look and act like The Hungry Dead, but their bite spreads the zombie infection. Anyone that is bitten (a roll of a Natural 20) becomes infected and will become a mindless zombie in 1d6 rounds.  They can be healed by a cure disease, but once dead they are dead forever. These zombies typically have twice the HD as their counterparts.

The Fast Dead
These zombies also appear as normal, until the move.  These are no shamblers, these zombies know the value of running.  They have an effective Dexterity of 16 and can attack normally (not last).

Alchemical Zombie
Stats-wise this is the same as any other zombie. The difference lie in how the zombie was made.  The alchemical zombie comes for a vat of foul smelling liquids produced by an alchemist and not a necromancer.  These zombies can not be turned.

These types can also be combined, so a Fast Plauge Zombie or a Hungry Alchemical zombie is possible.

I Hate Myself for Loving You

Interesting article up on the whole Graz'zt/Iggwilv love affair.

http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/dra/201208history#82019

Rule specific material is minor and can be adapted to any version of the game.  I am going to use this with my 1st ed game in fact.

As can be expected I like Iggwilv.  To my knowledge no one has ever penned her "biography" in full, but it would make for a good read I think.  Raised by Baba Yaga, infiltrating the Circle of Eight, her years with Graz'zt as master, lover, prisoner and bitter rival.  The authoring of the Demonomicon.  The Rise and Fall of the Witch Queen.

Iggwilv is a great villain not because she is evil (though she is that) it is because she lack any moral compass whatsoever.  If she needs a tome of magic and entire village stands between her then she had no issues burning it down to the ground.  It isn't because she doesn't care, it because she has no concept that anyone other than herself matters.

I am sure she is going to play some role in my 3.x and 1st ed games.

A Reality Show I can like

This looks so funny.



Love the Hermonie and Lisabeth.

Here is Episode 1.

Not to sound like a broken record...

But there are a couple of Kickstarters worth having another look at.

First is the D&D Documentary
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewpascal/dungeons-and-dragons-a-documentary

18 days to go and still more than 100k to make.
You funding other games, show this one some love too!

Band of Zombies for All Flesh Must Be Eaten has just under 2 hours left.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1801360072/all-flesh-must-be-eaten-rpg-band-of-zombies-source

The stretch goals make this one worth some of your attention.  And money.

White Dwarf Wednesday #29

February/March 1982. England sends over Iron Maiden as Number of the Beast is released in the US and White Dwarf #29 hits the stands.

For this issue's cover we are treated to two dragons fighting.  It's a very nice cover and shows how the production values are going up for WD.

Ian Livingstone gives us a little background on why White Dwarf is called White Dwarf.  Simply because the White Dwarf has special meanings in both SciFi and Fantasy gaming.  A small dense star and a small dense humanoid (I am kidding).  The last issue he asked people to send in their most wanted themes for future role-playing games. It generated an all time low of responses, which he took as maybe people have what they want.  The largest number of requests they did get was Private Eyes.

Paul Vemon is up first with some guidelines with Designing a Quasi-Medieval Society for D&D.  Part 1, the Economy - Workers and Craftsmen.  This was part of the new wave of gamers who wanted to add more realism to their games.  In Dragon we get long articles on the physics of falling damage.  This is at least easier to read (though for the record I loved those physics and falling damage articles).  There is a lot here and all of it can still be used today.

Next up is the start of a series from Oliver Dickinson.  "Lucky Eddi" details the adventures of the titular character in a Runequest universe.  For years I never read the stories (I am not much for reading gaming fiction in WD or Dragon) so I thought Lucky Eddi referred to the woman in the art.  Not so much.

We have reviews from Open Box.  The Fifth Frontier War a game from the Traveller Universe.  It gets an 8/10 but it also got something from me; loss of my joy of Traveller.  Not this game in particular, but all these near-universe games for Traveller.  I felt it was too much and there was no way I was going to collect or learn about all of it.  So I ended up not playing Traveller.  Adding to this is SORAG, a supplement for Traveller.  It gets 9/10 and almost gets a 10/10 but falls down due to what amount to editorial issues.  Barbarian Prince is a new mini-game that gets an 8/10.  Though what get my attention is what got it back then.  There is a game to play Elric in the form of Chasosium's Stormbringer. It only gets a 7/10, but I thought it was much better than that.

Starbase gives us the Mudskipper a multi-terrain vehicle for Traveller.  I often used articles like this for Star Frontiers. I am sure I had this one too.  It looks too familiar.

I have a basic rule in my games.  Unless I am playing Doctor Who, no time travel.  There is no time-hopping magic in D&D in my games and none in my sci-fi ones.   So what do we have here from Marcus Rowland? "This Is, Of Course, Impossible: Time Travel in AD&D".  Shit.
Well the article is long, but good and has some great ideas.  I might not ever allow time travel, but I use alternate time lines and parallel worlds all the time.

Going back to Traveller, we have a scenario for 2-8 players called Weed War.  I looks interesting enough, but I am so far removed from my Traveller days that I have little else I can say about it.

Character Conjuring has Grey and Sylvan elves as character races from Roger E. Morre years before they appear in Unearthed Aracna. Bob Lock also has stats for Brownie characters.

Fiend Folio has some desert monsters this issue including the Giant SAndcrab, Anubi, Kail, Shim-shari and the Argorian Wormkin.  They seem fine and would be a nice change up for a desert based adventure.  Of note we still have Monstermark scores.

Lew Pulsipher is back and as usual his article is something that interests me right away. Amulets & Talismans are discussed including how they are made.  I have gone over similar ground, but I made talismans the weaker of the two.  He has them much stronger.  In any case there is still a lot of good stuff here.

The rest is ads, but there is a cool Judges Guild ad in back.

A solid, but not spectacular issue.  I suppose if you were playing Traveller back then there would have been a lot of gold here.  Stylistically the magazine still looks like it did at the beginning of the 80s.  Though that is all going to change soon enough.

Review: The Secret Fire

The Secret Fire came out to much hoopla and goings on last year.

I have always meant to review it, but never sat down to do it.  Now, depending on my mood I go back and forth between this being a great homage to old-school play and even to Gygax himself to it being a fantasy heart-breaker with delusions of godhood.  It will be interesting to see where I am by the end of this review.

Like I mentioned above The Secret Fire came out to much hoopla last year before Gen Con with this whole campaign blitz on how it was going to change role-playing and how it was going to be the biggest thing since D&D.  I talked a bit about that around Gen Con back when it had changed it's name from Legends &  Labyrinths to The Secret Fire. http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-is-secret-fire.html
Of course give yourself some credit if you get the reference correct.

It didn't quite set the world on fire.  Secret or otherwise.
But I can't blame the author, George R. Strayton (also the screenwriter for the Dragonlance animated movie and some episodes of Xena), for being excited.  I would, and have, done the same.
One thing I am going to give the Secret Fire right now.  It has style.  The art is not fantastic and the formatting is a bit odd, but I enjoy looking at this book.

Forward and Introduction
Ok this part is cool, if maybe a touch corny.  Learning to play D&D on Halloween 1979. Sure that sounds cool and I don't doubt it, but if that were true for me I might not say that because so many wouldn't believe.  But that is not the point here.  I know this, that kid learning to play D&D on Halloween would have loved the hell out of TSF.  Oh.  I gave the game a freebie now I need to take one away. Look I know this game is important to the author but reading THE SECRET FIRE^TM all the time is really annoying.
All that aside, I like this part.  Why? Cause Strayton deep down is a kid that loves to play D&D and this is his 300+ page love letter to it.  I like that he wants you play normal folk that could get killed, I like that he was "stuck with the dwarf" back then.  If this is his mission statement then I am all aboard with it.

PART 1
Quotes from Gary Gygax are good.  Quotes from Gail Gygax advertising your game, not so much.  One more point given, one more taken away.
Part 1 is your typically "what is role-playing chapter but also some descriptions of what makes TSF different.  I am torn on this one.  While I like that this is not the kindergarten discussion on what is role-playing and what do you do, there also seems to be a lot back-patting here.  TSF does this better and TSF does this... great, but tell me that in the game sections.  BUT....I also often lament that we don't see enough of what makes Game X different than Game Y.   If he makes good on these promises then we should be ok.

PART 2
Character creation. The classes, or callings, are pretty straightforward; cleric, warrior, thief and wizard.  The big four really.  They have some neat features.  Levels only go to 10 and you know what, I kinda like that. The races are also the common four, Dwarf, Elf, Human and Halfling.  I would have liked to see some more, but there are some neat twists to the races.  Tables of what the races do, like Many Dwarfs...(roll a 1d20) and Some Dwarfs... (roll a 1d20), that is kinda cool really. Easily added to any sort of D&D-like game.
Instead of hitpoints we have wound levels, similar to some damage track systems I have seen.  I like how damage effects movement and combat. Again, nothing revolutionary here, but still nice.
There is a random table of personality traits as well.  I am sure would like this, but I prefer to figure out my character's personality in the playing, not the the rolling. 

PART 3
This is the chapter on character Trademarks.   They act like qualities/perks/drawbacks from other games.  Interesting.  Given the amount you can get I would have liked to have seen more, but this is a good list.

PART 4
Your weapons and equipment chapter.

PART 5
Energy Points are discussed here and are used to power "Special Effects".  In a way they work a bit like Drama, Hero or Fate points.  While like like these kinds of mechanics, they are not really "old-school" since they allow the player more control over the dice.  While a plus in some respects I think the old-school purists will dislike it.

PARTS 6 & 7
Details the Elder Gods and prayers respectively.  Prayers are of course the spells that Holy-men can use.

PART 8
Details the spells in the game.  Like the Prayers, there are a lot of unique sounding names for some familiar looking spells.  I like that.  "Read Languages" sounds dull, but "Comprehend Texts (The Great Unknown)" sounds so much more...eldritch.

PART 9
Details the skills characters can have.  The advice listed is that most time the character succeeding or failing should be obvious. This chapter should only aid in the cases where success is uncertain.
Skills are a roll-under mechanic compared to the necessary ability.  The listed skills modify these dice rolls (3d6 to 7d6).

PART 10 
Details adventuring. Not a bad chapter, but mostly narrative.

PART 11
This chapter details Engagements or what if typically called combat.

PART 12
Scenario Design.  Lots of advice and random tables to stock your dungeons.

PART 13
Is monsters.  The stat blocks look pretty familiar and would not be difficult at all to add to any other game.

PART 14
Treasure. What I liked most here was the creating Talismans.  I have done talismans as well and they are a little different here than mine, but still fun.  Like the spells there are a lot of unique items here.  If you need to spice up your magic items, then this is a good place to start.

PART 15
Details the world.  Not a lot of detail mind you, but enough to keep you busy.

PART 16 
Deals with level advancement. How to do it, what to do about it and the like.

PART 17
Is an adventure, the Dungeons of Madness.

There are also a few Appencies, including a combat chart, links to the Gygax Memorial Fund, and a bit on why the game was made AND, interestingly enough, an alternate XP point award table to things the players can do outside of the game.  I have done this with my kids to great effect.

The Appendix D, or suggested reading does come of as a bit pretentious.  But...these are all in fact good books.

Bottom line
Again, this game didn't, and probably won't, set the world on fire. BUT there is a lot of cool things here that can be easily added to a D&D, S&W, ACKS or B/X Companion game.

It is easy to see what the author is trying to do here. I get it. I think the game though comes off a little like D&D + Fate.


I will also add that TSF character sheet is one of the coolest ones I have seen.  It, like the game, as a sense of style I really like.  Another point in favor of this game, the website for the game is full of all sorts of goodies. http://www.secretfiregames.com/

I guess in the end I would give it 4 out of 5 stars and use it as a kick-ass resource. It is a good enough game by itself, but I plan on using it as an add-on.

The OSR is Dead, Long Live the OSR!

Fresh from Gen Con I posted that the OSR is Dead, or rather more to the point I asked if it was and then followed up with a comment that the movement was dead.

Many took umbrage with this.

Here is the deal.

The OSR as a movement has satisfied it's goals.
There is unprecedented access to "old school" and "old school-like" material.  Yes, several thousand copies of Swords & Wizardry are going out, WotC has AD&D out in stores now and D&D5 looks like a streamline, even old-school, version of 3e, these though are only the largest examples of why the "fight" is over.  If the R is Revolution then the revolution is over. If the R is Renascence then we are in a post enlightenment period. What was learned is not lost, but it does change.

The OSR as a community will continue to thrive.
Anecdotally we have had many posts from the the first rush of bloggers (present company included) talk about how hits and views are down.  How posting is down.  We might not ever see the growth we did of 2008-2010 again.  But that doesn't mean there is not a constant flow of ideas, text and things we can all do.

What does this all mean though really?
Will people stop playing Basic Fantasy, S&W or LL?  No.  Those games will rise and fall by desires of their fans and market forces.
Will people stop making material? No way. They didn't stop when 1st Ed replaced OD&D or 2nd ed replaced that and so on.  In fact it is now easier than ever before.

It will be interesting to see what D&D5 does to the OSR community.  Will people jump ship for this new game? Will the backlash against WotC continue?  Will the Pathfinder continue to grow?  2013 will be interesting to say the least, but one thing is sure, don't expect it to be the same as now.

More Wrap-Ups and Plugs

At Gen Con I got to play a FANTASTIC game of Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG that mixed in characters from Buffy, Supernatural and Charmed.  I got to play Piper and was thrilled to death with it.  Reminded me of running "Semi-Charmed Life" so many years ago.   Kudos to the GM and all the players.

A few plugs I'd like to make:

Dungeons & Dragons: A Documentary has a kickstarter.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andrewpascal/dungeons-and-dragons-a-documentary
20 days to go and they still have a bit to raise.  I have heard a lot of good about this film and would love to see it get made.

Band of Zombies is down to it's last 50 hours.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1801360072/all-flesh-must-be-eaten-rpg-band-of-zombies-source
There are some nice stretch goals with this one.

Banners on the Cheap has been flirting with the RPG market.
You can see teh map I had made here: http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-new-map.html
Well now they have a full blown site for maps and battle mats.
http://www.bannersonthecheap.com/rpg-maps-and-banners
The site is super easy to use.

I think that is it for now.