#RPGaDAY Day 11, Weirdest RPG owned

#RPGaDAY Day 11, Weirdest RPG owned

Define "Weird".

If by weird landscape, or play or just obscure then I would have to say Sky Realms of Jorune.

But if by weird as in "what the hell were they on?" then that has to go to Alma Mater.

Written and illustrated by Erol Otus this game has gone into RPG infamy.  So yeah I had to pick up a copy.

The premise is simple, it is a high school role-playing game for people still in high school.  But any relationship it has with reality ends there.
It is sub-par even by the standards of the 80s. The system is clunky and combat takes a long time.

If you love Erol Otus' art then there is something to love here.  The game itself is like someone took the Ramones Rock & Roll High School and mixed it with The Warriors movie and every other violent high school stereotype from before the Great John Hughes High School revival.

#RPGaDAY Day 10, Favourite tie-in Novel / Game Fiction

#RPGaDAY Day 10, Favourite tie-in Novel / Game Fiction

Well...I don't really read a lot of the tie in fiction.  I read the Dragonlance books when they came out. I read the Gord the Rogue books too.

But I guess I read the Ravenloft books more than anything.  Yeah I read all of them.
It is interesting to note that some of the authors of those books would later go on to do bigger and better things.
Christie Golden, Elaine Bergstrom, Laurell K. Hamilton, Tanya Huff, P. N. Elrod, Gene DeWeese, and James Lowder just to name a few.

It's funny but I swear I catch some "Ravenloft-ism" in the Anita Blake books (Laurell K. Hamilton) and in a few of the short stories of P.N. Elrod.

These books were sometimes the only gaming interaction I got it while I was in grad school and had almost no time to play.

Not much about any of them stick out all these year later.  I did rather enjoy "I, Strahd", "Tapestry of Dark Souls" and "Death of a Darklord".
The Azalin ones were cool for the Greyhawk ties but I felt the Lord Soth ones were weak.  No fault I think of the author, but trying to cram Soth into Ravenloft was a haphazard idea.

#RPGaDAY Day 9, Favourite Die / Dice Set

#RPGaDAY Day 9, Favourite Die / Dice Set

I don't really have one.  I am not a dice-fetishist.

Typically when I buy a new game I buy a set of dice that goes with that game.

I have a set of black dice for Ravenloft, some sets for versions of D&D, a green celtic set for Castles & Crusades. Some semi-clear ones for Ghosts of Albion, a clock faced d12 I use in place of of 2d6 for Doctor Who.

I am rather proud that I have held on to my original dice from my Moldvay Basic set and the chits from my Holmes Basic.

My Unisystem Dice bag

#RPGaDAY Day 8, Favourite character

#RPGaDAY Day 8, Favourite character 

I have a number of favorite characters but currently it is my iconic witch Larina that occupies my time.

Larina by Jabob Blackmon

Larina Witch by Rick Hershey

Larina was my first witch character ever.  I have played her in every version of D&D I have ever played. Often times I start her over at level 1 and play her through various versions of the witch rules.  She is my "playtest" character in many cases.  I keep her stats the same and see how she plays through the different rules.  As I played her I would write notes on her sheets and ideas I had.  Spells that worked well were noted and spells that didn't work so well were also detailed. 

I am not exactly sure where the name came from to be honest.  I have her very first sheet where she was a dual classed Wizard/Witch in AD&D 1.  Her background was she started out as a Wizard and wasn't very good at it because her "natural" magic was witchcraft.  I used the Dragon #114 version of the witch then, but had supplemented more and more of my own house rules.   On the back of her sheet I scribbled the following:  "Larina Nix was only six when she heard the Call of the Goddess".  The idea was she was witch from the start.

Since I have been playing in the same game world for ever each version of the rules represents another generation.  So Larina in 2nd Ed used my Netbook of Witches and Warlocks book and was the alternate version of the 1st ed Larina who got stuck Ravenloft.  I got very, very loose with the rules and had multi-class as one of my witches and as one of the Witches from the Complete Wizards Handbook.  She was quite powerful.

Right now Larina is a major NPC in my kids D&D 3.x game.  She is a 20th level Witch / 1st level cleric / 2nd level Witch Priestess.  Yeah, we are into the Epic levels now.  She is the reincarnation of the 1st ed Larina who was killed by a vampire.

Currently I have no plans (yet) to move her to D&D5.  Though I do have Pathfinder, C&C, Basic and D&D4 versions of her.

Midnight Release and Tacos

It's midnight where I am and my FLGS, Games Plus, has the 5th Edition Player's Handbook out now.

We grabbed our copies and a copy of the Dragon Queen adventure too.  Yeah it is basically the same thing we are doing in 3e.  Maybe I'll back convert it or use it for ideas.

We celebrated the new release with tacos for Taco Bell.  Hey. Not much else is open that late in the suburbs on a Thurday night.

In any case, 5e looks good.  Now I need to get to bed. I still have work to do tomorrow today.

#RPGaDAY Day 7, Most “intellectual” RPG owned

#RPGaDAY Day 7, Most “intellectual” RPG owned

Not sure what this actually means.

The one that makes me think the most is Mage: The Ascension and Mage The Sorcerers crusade.
It is a great game to think about what our perceptions of reality and morality actually mean.
I guess a lot of the World of Darkness games though are like that.  Vampire makes you think about what it takes to make you a monster.  Are you going to drink that blood and take a life or are you going to hold onto your humanity a little bit longer.

Gen Con Food Trucks

When I was last at Gen Con in 2012 the new thing was all of the food trucks.  Well they expanded last year and now there is even more.

Dorkland! has a great list of all the trucks, where they are going to be and their websites.
http://dorkland.blogspot.com/2014/08/things-to-do-at-gen-con-food-truck-rally.html

Check it out.