[From the Mailbag] It's All Tim's Fault, Honey!

A couple weeks ago, Tim over at Gothridge Manor decided to show off his loot from the Troll & Toad Clearance Sale. At the time, it caused great consternation in some corners of the OSR as others dropped by Troll & Toad and promptly dropped their paycheck(s) on clearance items. At the time, I resisted the urge.

Then I gave in.

I dropped more than I expected, because every new web page that I flipped over had something else that I "needed." Plus, I argued with myself, I really need to get the order to a point where the exorbitant shipping is justified. So let me share my loot with you...with the understanding that it's all Tim's fault.

First of all, they had a few Babylon 5 titles to go along with the new Ruleset I picked up over the holidays from Paizo. They had a copy of the ship plans for the G'Quan, a Narn heavy cruiser. This should dovetail nicely with the Earth Force Hyperion plans that came in from Paizo. Plus, I just really love the Narn and am excited to crack this open and see what the ship actually looks like.

The next item they had was a 1st-level adventure: The Cold Equations. The players have to flee a dying passenger liner a day or so out from the station; it looks like it involves the Psi-Corps and corporate intrigue. In looking at it now, it may not be compatible with the ruleset I have. I'll have to really sit down and figure out if that's true. The problem is that there were (apparently) several different versions of the Babylon 5 system published.

The third one evoked a few bad words when I pulled it out of the box and saw the Traveller brand sprayed across the front of the book. I definitely know that this one isn't compatible. This one is a "start up" adventure in which the players are thrust into the middle of an inter-Drazi conflict (hence the title: "The Trouble with Drazi"). At least this may give me some ideas and inspiration for the system I do have. I will hold out that hope, at least.

The final Babylon 5 title is a sourcebook covering the Zocalo, the merchant/shopping area on the station. After being burned with "The Trouble with Drazi," I need to sit down with this one and review compatibility. It's an interesting little read, though, including some species-specific weapons, things to buy, connections to make, and so forth.

Now, Tim could try and argue that the Babylon 5 titles are not his fault because I was already on the hunt for those game materials. These next few are certainly his fault, because he brought them to my attention. Because of that, and because I'm weak-willed, I lay these directly at his feet. Well, figuratively. After all, he already has copies and they may get ruined with all the snow and water on the ground.

The first one is a monster manual from Expeditious Retreat Press entitled "Monster Geographica: Underground." I also wanted the other one Tim grabbed up that dealt with marsh and swamp monsters, but I guess I pondered my purchases for too long and it was sold out. Like Tim, I love me some monster manuals: you can never have too many.

Next up is a level 4-7 adventure from Fast Forward Entertainment entitled, "Temple of the Troll God." The adventure promises full-color maps and an introductory portion of the adventure online; unfortunately, the website no longer exists. I'll have to do some checking around to see if these bonus materials exist anywhere else.

Another title from Fast Forward, this one by none other than James Ward himself. "Slave Pits of the Goblin King" also boasts free maps and bonus adventure stuff online. Maybe this material will be easier to track down if I can track down contact info for James Ward. We'll have to see; it may not be worth the effort.

The final Fast Forward title, also by James Ward, is "Demonic Lairs"--a collection of homes of ten powerful demons and devils. I had to grab this one because, hey, LAIRS.

Troll & Toad was getting rid of a bunch of their magazines as well. They had a good stack of Dragon magazines, and quite a few earlier issues. Since I have the digital versions up through Issue #250 on my Dragon CDs, my collection starts with #251. I subscribed starting with #279 through the death of the print run. Somewhere, however, I've developed holes in my collection. Fortunately, they had one that I was missing: #278. This one I know was borrowed by a guy in my group that wanted to start his own group with a couple of the guys from the group and their wives. The campaign lasted exactly one session and I've never seen the magazine again. Needless to say I was happy to see this one for sale, especially on clearance.

And the final "book" purchase for this order was the one issue of Autoduel they had. I've never owned a copy of Autoduel before; I've never even held it in my hands. I may be addicted now; I may just need to try and track down all of the issues (even though my brain tells me it would be pricey). Just flipping through it brought back fond memories of playing Car Wars. That still remains one of my fondest set of gaming memories, Car Wars.

Then there were the dice. Yes, Tim's fault again. He alerted me to the fact that they were selling off dice on clearance as well. The first set I grabbed up were a set of Crystal Caste Ancient Red. (I love the little spring-loaded latched boxes, although the latch never seems to be very secure.

Like Tim, I like me some odd and unusual dice. (Note: the Lego minifig is there for scale. These are some odd size dice!) Two of them are Chinese character dice: one shows numbers 7-12 to go with the 1-6 d6 I already own and one shows the characters for the words for each number 1-10. Also shown is a d10 showing geometric shapes; I thought this would be perfect for random dungeon design. Simply roll the die to get the shape of the next room, hallway, or structure.

Again, there's my Lego Centurion (non-Battlestar Galactica Ancient Rome version) for scale. These dice are "rock, paper, scissor" dice. I bought two so that it would keep both parties in a "rock, paper, scissor" contest on an even keel and remove any possibility (OK, most possibilities) of cheating from the game. Yeah, I know you could just play "rock, paper, scissors" but LOOK DICE!

Finally, my King Emeralds. These things are massive for regular polyhedrals. I have some d30s and a couple d20s that are this size already. When I saw that it was a complete 7-die polyhedral set, I just had to jump on them. Especially for $3.13. You read that right. I don't know that I've ever purchased a set of 7 dice for that price (other than the Ancient Red shown above that were $2.36).

As far as prices on the other stuff above, all of the books were priced at 49¢, except for the "Demonic Lairs" title which was $1.99. The magazines were 99¢ and 86¢ respectively.

There was a pile of plastic miniature goodness in the box as well. In an effort (too late) of keeping this post picture-light, I won't post individual pictures of the minis. Maybe I'll keep that for another post later in the week/month.

[From the Mailbag] Gifts from the Golem

Back in November, I received a couple of promotional e-mails from Paizo. They were gearing up for what they called "the Great Golem Sale." (Hint: their logo, if you didn't know, is a golem. See?)

This sale was a chance, so they said, to make room in their warehouse by discounting their backstock: magazine back issues, board games, maps, books, accessories, even miniatures and plush figures. The sale was to run throughout November and would feature "over 900 gaming products...at up to a 90% discount!" The catch was that these items could not be combined with pre-orders, back orders, or subscription shipments if you wanted the discount.

So, I looked and looked. Nothing really grabbed my eye. Plus, with Christmas coming up, it was hard to devote much money in a month with no Paizo subscriptions to fund; all that discretionary money was going to go to Christmas.

Noble ideals, right?

Fast forward to November 30. One final look at the Sale List. Then I saw it. The Babylon 5 RPG Second Edition Handbook. Marked down from $49.95 to $3.00. $3.00! Being such a huge B-5 fan, and having already started to collect some Sci-Fi RPGs, I thought this was a perfect conjunction of planets. I confess, I picked up two copies: a reading copy, and another copy for...well, honestly, I'm hoping to run into a convention someday where the remaining cast members are present and I could get some signatures.

Whether you want to say that find primed the pump or that it burst the dam...either way, IT WAS ON.

I swept through Paizo's library of B-5 materials, adding them to my cart. Then I started on Pathfinder maps and found a couple that I really wanted. I moved from the maps, to the Pathfinder Chronicles and Modules. Somehow I'd missed all this stuff the first time I'd gone through the lists of merchandise. What the heck, I'll pull out my list of missing/loaned-and-never-returned Dragon Magazines; Lo! and Behold! They had a couple on my list. And then I found a miniature that I'd been watching for several years. Now it was on sale. Once the dust cleared and the ORDER button pressed, I was a bit embarrassed with myself. Although, I would have been much more embarrassed to have paid full price. I mean, really.

The wait began.

I waited. And waited. And waited. Finally I had to call Paizo and ask about my order; I was told that they were filling orders as fast as they could. I received an e-mail telling me that one of the maps was out of stock. And I waited. And waited. Another call, another promise that they were filling the orders as fast as they could, that the response was much greater than they'd anticipated. Oh, and "by the way" my order was being held up because they were waiting to receive the miniature from the manufacturer. So I told them to cancel the mini from my order. And I waited. I finally contacted the head of Customer Service through the Paizo website; it was the weekend before Christmas and they were still filling pre-Thanksgiving Great Golem Sale orders.

Then on the 23rd, I received an e-mail telling me that my order had shipped. It's a good thing that nothing I ordered was a Christmas gift. Why? Because I received the order a week later, on the 30th. Still, even with all the hassle and waiting, it was still worth it. This was the haul I received for just over $50.00. (Shipping, of course, hit me in the shorts, but that's always the way, isn't it?) That's a mighty stack, ain't it? I really should have put a ruler up to the side of that stack for reference.

What's even more impressive is the sight you see when you spread it all out. My kids walked in while I was taking the picture; they hadn't seen the order out of the box yet. They all stopped and stared and then cheered.

I've got great kids. It made me grin. And feel a little proud. Like I'd done my job as a role-playing father.

And you remember the Inn I mentioned in the New Year's post? The map that inspired me, and that I used for the Inn, is here at the upper right-hand corner of the stack. It turns out that it's a page-size pull-out from a Dragon Magazine (apparently, although I don't remember seeing it in MY collection) and folds out. to be 17" x 22".

All in all, I'd say it turned out well. Even though the shipping process made me gripe, I'm going to chalk it up to a larger-than-expected sale and give them the benefit of the doubt. And hope it doesn't happen again. I'm certainly going to keep my eyes open for a re-run of the Great Golem Sale this year. And maybe plan on ordering just a bit earlier than the 30th.