Updates and something to read.

Been away from my blog for a bit,  with a bunch of the posts I had on auto-post.

First thanks for the replies on the A to Z post yesterday.
I enjoyed posting these.  It was a challenge to come up with some of the letters, but most were fairly easy and worked into my regular posting habits to be honest.

I have some reviews coming up, some thoughts I have on the Cleric class and some more ideas.

I also want to take this time to point out something my friend Jason Vey is doing over at his Blog, the Wasted Lands.  He going over the 1st Ed AD&D rules in detail, starting with the DMG.  If you want some insight to what many consider the greatest RPG ever, then please read go over to his blog, http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/ and have a look and post.

Here are the first 6 parts.
Part 1, http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/04/advanced-dungeons-dragons-first-edition.html
Part 2, http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/04/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part.html
Part 3, http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/04/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-first.html
Part 4, http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/04/reading-advanced-dungeond-dragons-part.html
Part 5, http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/04/reading-advanced-dungeond-dragons-part_29.html
Part 6, http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2011/05/reading-advanced-dungeons-dragons-part.html

I had wanted to do something similar, where I read all the DMGs over the last few years.  But I want to see what Jason does first.  His point of view is a bit different than my own; he is very much into the history of the game and comes from a very pro-Gygax point of view (not that I don't).  I think he has a good insight to the game and his posts are interesting to read.

So have a look while you are waiting for me to post something of substance.

Question for the Regular Readers

So.

Did you like the A to Z blogging Challenge?
Why did you like it/not like it?

If you were avoiding it, then why?

Thanks!

Gen Con Registration is live

And has been for a about 100 minutes now.

I was here, of course and still did not get into three of the games I really wanted.
My Gen Con tradition is to play Victoriana, but that game was sold out, and I tried to get into the Dresden Files game, but they were all booked too.

I did not see anything that looked "OSR Sponsored"  (whatever that means) so if you are running an old-school game then let everyone know.

Here are my games, they are selling pretty fast.

RPG1120388 Obsession (Revised) Thu @ 7:00 PM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Grand Central Blrm D :: 8 Cost: $4

RPG1120389 Dinosauria! Fri @ 1:00 PM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Grand Central Blrm D :: 6 Cost: $4

RPG1120390 Dinosauria! Fri @ 7:00 PM 4 hrs
Location: Crowne Plaza :: Grand Central Blrm C :: 3 Cost: $4

Dinosauria! is completely new with new characters designed to get people up and going fast.  The 1:00 pm will be "kid friendly" and the 7:00pm one will be more older kids and adults.

Obsession is revised version of the adventure I ran last year.  If you played last year then this one is not very different except for some details and the starting of the adventure.

Hope to see you all there!!

A to Z. I did it.

I survived the A to Z challenge.
It took a bit and maybe I'll do a more indepth retrospective later.  Today's Z post was the one that made want to do this.  When I saw Z landed on Saturday, the day I do my Zatannurday posts then I figured what the hell.

Y was the hardest one.  I also almost didn't make my self-imposed deadline of 8:00am for this post.

Thank' to all the new visitors and followers.  I hope I give you plenty of reasons to keep coming back.

And I got another award in the process.

See all the winners at http://elizabethmueller.blogspot.com/2011/04/z-is-for.html

Zatannurday: Z is for Zatanna and Zullo

I have recently been turned on to Chrissie Zullo thanks to the wonderful "DC Women Kicking Ass" site.

I also posted her versions of Wonder Woman and Red Sonja too.

So a quick trip over to her Deviant Art page, and I find these fantastic Zatanna pieces.

There is an anime quality to this one I really like.  I wonder what she is thinking of.  Given how young she looks and that the hat looks too big on her, most likely she is thinking about her dad.

And this one is cute and sexy at the same time without needing to resort to cheesecake to do it.

And some more.

Y is for YAFGC

YAFGC or "Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic" is a webcomic by Rich Morris and can be found here, http://yafgc.net/

I "found" YAFGC one night and spent the next few hours reading all the comics to get caught up.  I think I was done at something like 4:00 in the morning.  I was dragging hard that day, but very amused.

YAFGC, true to it's name, is a Fantasy Gamer comic and there are tons of gamer related jokes in the almost 1800 pages of the comic.  Too many to even recount honestly.  Each page is rough, but it is also daily comic, and a free one at that.  The stories are pretty clever, starting with a group of monsters (goblins, orcs, a crazy lich, drow and a beholder named Bob) and their extended family of friends, enemies and what ever Cap'n Fang is supposed to be to them.

It is gamer humor, but there are also pop cultural refs (but not too many to make it look dated in a s couple years) and a positive message about friends and family and the people you love.  Speaking of love, it you find inter-species love to be a bit squicky, then avoid this comic.  If you find the occasional same-sex relationship bothers you, then you might want to find other fare.  If you like good humor and occasionally poking a bit of fun at some of the tropes we use in a fantasy game, then this is a great place to be.

Favorite characters are Gren, the little goblin girl from the first strip. Arachne, the drow who has little patience for anyone and Cap'n Fang ("My sandbox is crunchy!").  But there are a lot of great characters too and a lot of different story arcs since 2006, many based on Rich's own 2nd Ed AD&D games.

Rich does a great job with this and I have not even talked about his other comics including on going Doctor Who ones!

So if you have a couple hours to kill and need a brain-break, then stop by, and read it.

Fortune favors the bold

A while back I mentioned that I had gotten paid to write a some D&D material for WotC, well that article is now up.  http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/drdd/20110427#viewSingle116268921

In it I talk about how my boys and I used the new D&D Fortune Cards while playing Moldvay/Cook D&D (Basic and Expert).
Also posted are other uses for Fortune Cards by other bloggers, all of which are pretty cool.

Have a look at their pages as well and see what they are saying.

http://www.sarahdarkmagic.com/

http://greywulf.net/

http://critical-hits.com/2011/04/27/i-am-fortunes-fool/