D&D40 Bloghop: Day 12

Day 12: First store where you bought your gaming supplies. Does it still exist?

I actually devoted an entire post or two a while back to this.

http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/09/reflecting-on-d-sometimes-you-cant-go.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/04/o-is-for-otherworlds-club.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/07/alas-borders.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2011/12/in-praise-of-your-flgs.html

My first game store was Waldenbooks in the Mall over in Springfield. Later Belobrajdic's Book Store closer to home also carried D&D books.

All these places have closed.

When I was in college I was privileged to be around when Castle Perilous first opened their doors.  Bought most of my Ravenloft stuff there.   Now I spend most of my time at Games Plus.

A to Z Blogging Guest Post

I have a guest post up over at the Blogging from A to Z site today.
http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2014/02/how-to-use-atozchallenge-to-help-your.html

I am going to participate again this year. Like last year I am doing "posting with a purpose" and will be doing the A to Z of vampires.

It should be fun!

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 11

Day 11: First splatbook you begged your DM to approve.

Hmm.  Not so sure.  There were not a lot of splats available then.

I think the first one had to be the Book of Marvelous Magic for D&D.

There were a lot of really cool magic items and I wanted my assassin (AD&D) to get some of them.

We used a few, but never all. It was one of the books I lost when all my AD&D hardcovers went missing in the early 90s.  Since then I was able to get a hold of another copy.  It is still a fun little book.

As seen on TV!

Hey everyone I have a question.

What do you perceive the value of a "celebrity" write a forward of an RPG book? This would not be an RPG person, but someone in a similar fandom. For example a comic author/artist or an actor for a supers game.

So as an off the wall example. Getting Robert Downy Jr. to talk about how playing a super hero is fun or Vin Diesel talking about his D&D character?

Mind you the cost with the book is no different, just something extra for the book.

Thoughts?

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 10

Day 10: First gaming magazine you ever bought (Dragon, Dungeon, White Dwarf, etc.).

The first ever Dragon magazine I ever bought was Dragon #85.

I had been hanging out in Belobrajdic's Bookstore in my home town and I looked at the Dragons every month.  But this one grabbed my attention for some reason.

Back in those days we milked every magazine for what it was worth.  It wasn't like now where the amount to fill a magazine is posted every day for free. Then the new material was few and far between.

My first issue of White Dwarf came later. The local bookstores didn't carry it so I had to order it.  Not knowing what to get, only that it looked really cool, I grabbed issue #44.

Very fond memories of reading both of these over the years.

D&D40 Bloghop: Day 9

Day 9: First campaign setting (homebrew or published) you played in.

The Known World for the Cook/Marsh Expert Set was my first world.
Later I would end up playing a lot in the World of Greyhawk a lot as well.

Around 1986 or so my then DM and I had this idea to merge our worlds into one.  So one half was Oerth and the other half was Mystara.

The map we came up with was no where near as good as this one, but the idea was the same.





I have detailed all of this on my Mystoerth page.

Zatannurday: Serinda Swan

It dawned on me this week that I have never posted anything about Serinda Swan here.
Afterall she has the honor of playing the only live action version of Zatanna on TV in Smallville.   She was just recently spotted on the CW's updated Tomorrow People.  I have a feeling we will be seeing more of her.

In the meantime here she is as Zatanna from Smallville.