New banner

Thought I needed a little change here.
Course I am only about 9 months late on getting a John William Waterhouse Magic Circle themed one up.
But I figure it is still less self-indulgent than my last one.

Gen Con Blues

I had mentioned earlier in the year that we (my family and I) were not going to go to Gen Con this year.
Partly due to expense, partly due to this being the busiest time of year for me at work (getting ready for Fall term to start).

Now I am thinking that was a bad decision.
My kids love to go and frankly so do I.  Not that there is anything special we were looking forward too this year.  Just the normally hanging out with gamers, playing some games, hitting the food trucks, seeing all the costumes and spending way too much money.

We are already set on going next year. In fact we might even go a day early to hit the zoo or the museum.
Can't wait for it!  But until then I will have to settle for hearing all about the fun you all have.

I Like you, but not Like like you.

Adding some new Facebook code.
Click "Like" if you are on that Facebook thing.

Zatannurday: SDCC Part 3, Valerie Perez Edition

Valerie Perez is a top tier cosplayer.  Not only does she rock the outfits you can also tell she is having a great time.  I have seen pictures of her with little kids where you know that little kid is thinking "I just met Zatanna!" or "I just met Wonder Woman!"

Also check out the Amazon Princess blog today for some of her great Wonder Woman cosplay too!

Valerie Perez and Vegas PowerGirl

Tomb of Horrors

I am gearing up for the Tomb of Horrors.
I finally got a copy of Return to the The Tomb of Horrors for 2nd ed, so now I have a copy for every editions of D&D including 3rd and 4th.

I am hopping to take my kids through the same week everyone else is at Gen Con. They are somewhat higher level than the module recommends, but I don't think that will be an issue since there are not a lot of monsters in this anyway, but a lot of traps.  I will be running this under D&D 3.x.

Sure. It's not the "Classic" version, but that is fine for me really.  Plus I can't help but want to add some monsters from the 3.x/Pathfinder Tome of Horrors too.

I picked up this printout of the maps for minis, so running it unnder 3.x would be nice.

Past conversations on this:

• Tomb of Horrors for 4e. Is it REALLY that offensive?
• Itching for the Tomb of Horrors
• Return to the Tomb! Part 2
• Winners, Losers and the Tomb
• Running the Classics

Plus these goodies on the internet
WotC's 3rd Edition conversion
WotC's humorous walkthrough map

So how about you? Have any stories about the infamous Tomb?

What I Am Reading: Creativity Recharge

I have been working on some pretty big projects recently. I got two of them done and took a break from a third to do a couple of smaller ones and I am finding my creativity is running a bit dry.  So I am hitting some books to help recharge.  Here is what is on reading list right now.

Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0226203921
http://wednesdaymourning.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=239
I have this belief that the 70s Occult revival was very much part of the zeitgeist of a bunch of other things going on in the 70s.  This also lead, I believe, to the 80s Satanic Panic.  That is the alchemy that produced my best gaming memories and something I would love to recapture in my Old School books like The Witch and the game I'll never write but really want too, Star Child.
Since I am not writing a dissertation I can make insane leaps in logic if I like. So I am reading this.  I also have a Chill game I am trying to run set in 1976.  The first adventure is called "Bell Bottom Blues" but it is not written yet.  This book will provide me some imagination fuel for Chill, my next Old-school book and maybe Star Child.
I picked up my copy at Orphic Vellum Books with a signed book-plate from Wednesday Mourning (who was not even alive yet in 1976).

Victorian Academy of Magick 

http://www.lulu.com/shop/paul-voodini/victorian-academy-of-magick-paperback/paperback/product-21144159.html
https://www.facebook.com/VictorianAcademyMagick
I love Victorian era games. This book was written by Paul Voodini and I participated in the Kickstarter for it. Lots of great ideas here for Ghosts of Albion, Gaslight, Victoriana or any other Victorian game where magic is real.  It's a fun book really. Sort of an alt history of London before magic disappeared from the world.
What really gives this book an edge is all the photographs and the research that Voodini has done.  Not to mention the dry wit.


Not everything I read is about magic and game related though.

Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens
http://www.amazon.com/Arguably-Essays-Christopher-Hitchens/dp/1455502782
Most people either love or hate Hitch. I find him vastly entertaining even when (sometimes especially) I don't agree with him.   One thing though that can't be denied is that Hitch loved the printed word and this book shows that.  Even when he is trashing a well known author or book, or praising a little known one his love for books, and to a degree authors, is obvious.  Hitchens makes me want to read better books.


What are you all reading?

White Dwarf Wednesday #75

White Dwarf #75 takes us back to March 1986 with new(ish) Editor-in-chief Ian Livingstone.
The cover is a very Call of Cthulhuesque one with Buckaroo Banzai and Elvira battling a creature on a chees board floor.  Just out of curiosity I wonder if One Night in Bangkok had be released in the UK at this point? (yes...almost a year before.)
Ian Livingstone gets right in and talks about the changes that have been happening and more are on the way.  But we knew that really.  The changes we are seeing here are not really abrupt; they have been happening for a while now, but they do become apparent in later issues.

Open box is getting into a wider variety of games, but a lot of them seem to come from Games Workshop:  There is the Supervisor's Kit for Golden Heroes (8/10), Terror of the Lichemaster for Warhammer (9/10), Judgement Day for Judge Dredd (9/10) and Cosmic Encounter Boardgame (8/10).  The only non-GW game this issue is Fragments of Fear by Chaosium for Call of Cthulhu (7/10).  Detecting a trend here.

Critical Mass is back.  I only want to touch on a couple of things here.  Dave Langford talks about how long C. J. Cherryh's Forty Thousand in Gehenna is.  I agree. But that didn't stop me from using it and going back to it time and time again for ideas for my AD&D games (despite it being Scifi).  There is also a title I have never seen before, "Sex Secrets of Ancient Atlantis".  Looks fun.

2020 covers some mid 80s horror  movies. The Return of the Living Dead and Fright Night are featured.  I enjoyed the heck out of Fright Night despite (or because of) the gruesomeness that reviewer Colin Greenland seems to disdain.  Word of advice, if you don't like gore, don't review horror movies.  He also mentions Teen Wolf which is horror only in the way that connecting puberty to lycanthropy in the hands of Micheal J. Fox can be.  Which is to say, not at all.  Granted it isn't a horror movie.  To see a much better take on this idea see Ginger Snaps.

Oliver Dickinson has some thoughts on the upcoming RuneQuest 3.
Pete Tamlyn has ideas on Superhero games. There are ideas here to make Superhero games, and by proxy comics, more adult oriented (not themed) and they are not bad.  This article though fails today because it was too close, but on the other side, of the great breakout of the Graphic Novel.  Yes, the Dark Knight Returns was just out and Watchmen was on the way, it was still just a little too late (or early depending on your view) for the masses.

Gamemanship covers some idea on how to put the mystery back into AD&D.  Some of the ideas would later see similar treatments in AD&D titles like Ravenloft and eventually story-based gaming.  Most of it is still good advice today.

Mass Media by Andrew Swift covers how the news is delivered in various Tech Levels in Traveller.  My personal favorite is his predictions of the smart phone-like device in which to read the news on (TL 10) AND Google Glass (TL 11).  I mock Traveller often, and really unfairly so, for it's ideas on computers.  But this one was really fun to read.  There are ideas for characters too.  I now have a desire to play or run a bunch of intrepid reporters and muckrakers for the Galactic News Service.

Graeme Davis gives us "Nightmare in Green" an AD&D adventure for 4-8 4th-6th level characters.   There is the adventure and a few new monsters which is nice.  I like adventures that introduce a new, maybe one-off monster. Also it helps make up for the loss of Fiend Factory.

The Heart of the Dark is a Call of Cthulhu scenario.  It deals with a murder and you know it only gets worse from there.  I have always liked WD Call of Cthulhu adventures.  Actually most of their adventures for any game are rather good.

Treasure Chest has something really nice, a system for Character Backgrounds for AD&D.  Today we add a +2 to some skill that you had before you took up the adventuring life, but since AD&D is not like that this works out rather nice.

Tabletop Heroes covers oil painting.

Not a bad start to the stewardship of Ian Livingstone.  The articles and adventures are good.  Open Box seems a bit doggy to me, even given the gushing reviews gamers typically give their favorite games.