Eleven Again and Blowin' Up Stuff

 I got a wild hair last night.... But I'm getting ahead of myself....

We've been doing a lot of day-trip stuff this year, add we really can't afford an extended vacation. We just got back from a two-day trip to Dinosaur National Monument, which was an annual trip when I was a kid. Faced with some hours in the hotel, I got thinking about what to do instead of TV.

When I was 11, my buddy and I pooled  our money and bought some Car Wars stuff. He bought the books, I bought some maps and counters. I photocopied the book. When we went on vacations, I'd usually spend downtime in the hotel designing cats and running scenarios by myself.

I still have all my maps and counters. The photocopies are long gone. My buddy's books? Burned up in a fire.

This weekend, memories ensued. I picked up a dozen Hot Wheels with the idea of fiddling something together with the  PDFrules I have on my laptop.

That didn't happen.

But my wife and I decided to try a "gamecation" late this year. We have some timeshare access...in a place with terrible TV reception, no phones, no distractions...other than what we take there ourselves. So we're taking games.

Scrabble. Boggle. Sojourner Tales. D&D. May even try some X-Wing Miniatures. A couple others.

So, the wild hair. Tonight I grabbed my wife and headed 45 minutes south to a FLGS in a city down south from here. I knew they had a copy, at least they had one back in February. (Of course I'm this obsessive to remember that.) Sure enough, they had a copy.

Car Wars Classic.

And I bought it. Opened it up as soon as I got home. And I was transported back thirty-some-odd years. I was like a little kid, looking at the counters, the blank vehicle sheets. I started giggling at some point, reading the rules. Yeah, they're not elegant, they're complex, and they're not QUITE the rules u remember...but, yeah.

I think my giggling scared my wife a little.

I know what else we're going to play on our our gamecation. And once my kids know the ropes, I know where I can download a turning key for Hot Wheels.

And my youngest son is nearly the age I was when I first played....My kids are gonna blow stuff up. And I'm going to get to do it with them.

  Warm up the side-mounted flamethrowers and the front-mounted linked twin Vulcans. We're goin' auto-duelin'.

[From the Mailbag] Mixed Bag of Goodies

An odd day today, deep in the throes of some manner of food allergy--dinner last night got contaminated somehow.... All day today the symptoms have been getting worse; currently I’m feeling like a bad case of the flu. Body aches, dizziness, nausea...then add in the bloating, excessive gas, and “bodily excretions” and I’m down for the count.

Fortunately, we were able to have some family fun today before the symptoms really set their claws into my midsection. My oldest two kids have been at a Youth Conference since Wednesday--a spiritual retreat for the youth of my church, in which all the youth of a certain region gather together for inspiration and spiritual education & growth. Did it myself as a teenager without complaint. This one was held at a two-year junior college 110 miles south of our home; for a variety of reasons, we decided to circumvent the norm (the church youth leaders usually convey them home) by driving down early in the morning with my youngest two in tow, pick up the eldest two, and do some “daycation” day trip stuff. Whenever we head that far south, we usually take the interstate, but when we head home, we tend to take the old state highway back up. This takes you through some quaint little towns and farm communities and is a restful, scenic trip.

This time around, we stopped at a town’s “Art and History Museum”--mostly because the wife’s ancestors helped found the town and I wanted her to have the chance to see some pictures or artifacts from her family and show them to the kids. Sure enough, her ancestors’ names were on a plinth right outside the converted mansion, and then in several of the rooms and nooks were artifacts and pictures of her relations, including a steamer trunk, baby clothes, and musical instruments of her relations that came across the plains with the early Mormon immigrants. Got some great pictures for the family album and the kids had fun.

(Incidentally, I loved the layout of this house and quickly sketched out some ideas to use in a future map. Inspiration is everywhere!)

By this time, the symptoms were grabbing hold and we still had another 60-odd miles to travel. Much to my delight when we arrived home, Fed Ex had delivered some books I’ve been anxiously awaiting. There’s nothing better than learning back-ordered books have finally come into stock and been shipped out. I hate my money hanging out there doing someone else some good while I wait and wait without product.

The only mitigating factor to my happiness (besides my physical ailments) was the state of the package. Noble Knight Games has always served me well in the past, without serious complaint. Even when I had an OOP miniature arrive broken, they rectified the situation immediately. But this was ridiculous.

Rather than using a small box, or even a padded envelope, to protect my shipment, they essentially “flat-packed” the books within a collapsed shipping box. The ends were taped with packing tape (except for slits on the side, which would allow dirt, etc., into the package).

Inside, they were wrapped in layers of butcher paper for padding. Not bubble wrap, or even packing peanuts (like if they were in a normally assembled box) I'm not exactly sure what the "cushion rating" is of butcher paper wrapped around objects, but apparently that's what my order rated.Now, when I got them out, they WERE held in one large plastic zipper-close-type bag. This would have mollified my concerns re: damage, except that the main bag WAS NOT SEALED (See below). This, boys and girls, in case you were not aware, drastically reduces the protective power of a plastic zipper-close-type bag. Sigh.

 But here’s what I received, with a squeal or two of delight from me.

First off, two titles from Expeditious Retreat Press--Monster Geographica: Marsh & Aquatic and Monster Geographica: Forest. These will fit well with the Monster Geographica: Underground volume that I already have in the collection. While I don’t really like the layout of these books (they’re arranged alphabetically under respective CR rather than like traditional monster manuals AND they don’t use the easier-to-read “one page, one monster” format) and they don’t have any artwork, they’re still (a) bestiaries and (b) full of fun, different, and mean critters. Plus, hey, MONSTERS, am I right?

Next was a volume for which I’ve searched for the past year: the Encyclopedia of Villains from Fast Forward Entertainment. Now, I’ve seen/heard lots of complaints about FFE, and some of that is justified and has kept me from picking up some various titles in the past. This one, however, comes recommended by +Tim Shorts  and with good reason. I think Tim likes NPCs about as much as I do...which is a lot. But, for all my devotion to 3.x, I will admit that statblocks and rolling up NPCs is far from my favorite gaming activity. I’ll jump at any chance I get to grab hold of some pre-gen NPCs; add in the fact that it’s an entire book of NPCs and that there’s a wide range of CRs: added bonus. Then add in backstory, associations, maps, etc.? WINNING PRODUCT RIGHT HERE.

I grabbed a copy of Arcana Unearthed because I like Monte Cook’s work, I like the Book Of Experimental Might, and it has some intriguing options/alternative rules. Plus, it was less than $5 and in great shape, so that certainly didn’t hurt.

Finally, the piece de resistance: Armory’s 30-Sided Dice Gaming Tables. I’ve always wanted a copy, but never found one in good shape at the right time. This time I lucked out. I love tables, especially d30 tables, and these are all useful, both at the table and for world-building. The contents take me back to a more innocent time of gaming and of life. The tables are printed around random black and white line images of lead miniatures from various distributors. The back cover is an advertisement for Armory’s 30-sided dice and “dice inking pens.” The text itself is typed out in classic dot-matrix Courier font; I’d use it in my own Stronghold ‘Zine for nostalgia if I didn’t hate the look of Courier so much. But the quaintness and nostalgia was definitely palpable, and the typos (“I do not have to many” jumped right off the page at me) added to the feeling that this really was printed in someone’s basement (or after hours on the shared work printer and then copied under some sucker’s customer code) and took me back decades. Even though this one came bagged and boarded for protection and storage, I think it’s going to see some use.

So, the day balances out. I have some reading material for when I curl up in the fetal position from the physical effects of my allergies. That’s always a good thing. At least I’m done with Issue #2 of the Stronghold ‘Zine until it comes back from my proof readers. Plus, tomorrow is Free RPG Day, one of my most favorite days of the year (although from the website it appears that several companies will be sending out the same re-tread free items from last year (and the year before, etc.)).

Oddly enough, I received shipping notices for this package and a package from another company on the same day; this one from Wisconsin and the other from Missouri. Both sent Fed Ex. Both sent using the same shipping option. Both hit the local distribution hub on the same day. The Missouri package says that the scheduled delivery on the other package is Wednesday, the 24th.  Hmm. Either some higher power doesn’t want me to explode from over-happiness today, or there’s something about Wednesday that requires some “Found Stuff” happiness. I’m not sure which option is more frightening.

[The Stronghold 'Zine] The Contractions Have Started!

I'm going to catch grief for that title, I just know it.

But the fact remains, birthing pains are increasing, and delivery is imminent on Issue #2 of The Stronghold 'Zine!

Formatting has been finished, copy has been sent to my proofreaders and the cover is being finalized. We're finally fully dilated and ...

O.K., I just can't keep the metaphor going. I'm getting into "sleeping on the couch" territory.

So...what to expect from this issue? Well, honestly, this one is more of a theme issue than #1. A common theme runs through most of the articles, binding them together, but by no means so tightly that it requires using them all together. I've already given a sneak preview of what's in store, but for those who missed the previous post, here's what #2 looks like:

Stats for three new critters; one of these is friendly, one can be friendly, and one is...erm...not so much. While these are 3.x stat blocks, I think they're fairly easily converted to any retro-clone rule set.

There's a new locale described, with an accompanying new map. Two of the above-mentioned critters are directly associated with the locale, as is the new NPC statted up (3.x) and illustrated by the great +Jim Magnusson. I've also included names and descriptions for nearly a dozen-and-a-half new and system neutral critters. There's another installment of system-neutral random treasure tables included; these can be used with the locale as well as in your own setting of choice.

I've also drawn up a series of new wondrous magic items; I tried to make them fairly system-neutral or as easily imported as possible.NOTE:  these are NOT associated with the locale and the "theme" of the rest of the issue.

The cover art was donated by a young lady of my acquaintance who is working on her artistic talent and, I think, amazing potential. I'm proud to have been given what she terms "my best one yet" for the cover of Issue #2.

Finally, even though the random nose-picking article was not a big hit with some readers last issue, my philosophy is that every game needs a little bit of humor. Accordingly, and due to the joint fault of +Tim Shorts and +Jason Zavoda, there's another useful (I think) set of random tables to add a little bit of humor and ...erm... flavor to your game. No, really...I think thre's some great role-playing potential with this article. I guess we can discuss and debate once the issue is released into the world.

So...prepare yourselves. Spread the word. Issue #2 is coming. A birth announcement and purchase links will be forthcoming...SOON.

Reliving the Old School Ways

This post has taken me ten days to put down on paper. Loads of personal stuff going on, all of which are sapping my creativity, energy, joy, happiness, drive, etc. Anyhow, that's a soapbox for a different day. Bear with me while I ramble through these thoughts, would you?

The one real bright spot in the last...oh...let's count it in months, shall we? The one bright spot was our game night last month. Why a bright spot? For that, we need to jump in the way-back machine.

First, some background information: I've had some great DMs over the years. I've had a couple bad ones; I've had a great one that went bad suddenly, violently, and all over the place. The last several years our group has cycled back and forth between two guys. They're both terrific at their craft. But both got a bit burned out a couple months ago and I didn't have the mental processes available to take over the screen...so another one of the guys jumped in and volunteered. The first couple sessions went great.

Now a confession.... I've told the guys this, so it's not really a surprise. My personal issues have taken some of the fun out of playing the past year or so. Don't get me wrong; I've had fun, but just not as much as I've had in the past. It's more of a "going through the motions" for me on game night.

Well, as I've mentioned before, our group plays Old School-style, with a home-brewed 3.x rule set. I will freely confess that--as much as I love the rule set--it can sometimes require some serious note-taking and attention-paying to track all the modifiers in play at any one time.

[Aside: Before anyone jumps in and points fingers with an "A HA!" moment to say, "See?!? 3.x is just TOO complex/rule-heavy/ponderous" or somesuch, take a look back at one of my previous posts wherein I shared the two-page THAC0 tracking sheet that was common in our 2E days. End aside.]

So, it can be complicated, right? So we surround the table with laptops with our character-tracking software of choice running. A few years back, we helped one of our buddies build a dedicated game room in his garage. For a while we gamed with a digital projector mounted on the ceiling projecting our maps onto an old dining room table.

Then we took the next step: the owner of the table called in some favors and, voila, we soon had a flatscreen television mounted inside the table, covered with plexiglass, and a removable cover to protect the television. A server was added and the DM suddenly had a digital tabletop map. This is how we've played for, oh, a year or more. It's a really sweet setup.

Now, we fast-forward to the present. One of our players broke his leg, requiring surgery, which would keep him from our monthly game. None of us wanted that, so we decided to take the game on the road and play at his house. When we all arrived, we found that the DM had forgotten the battlemap, one of our other players had no laptop, so he was going pencil-and-paper. A couple of us hit the road to a local game store to grab a battlemap while the others called in the Chinese food order for dinner. Yeah, we still sat around--most of us--with laptops. But it was around a gridded battlemap, the color of parchment. Wet-erase markers were the tool of the night, scribbling out rooms and hallways in the forgotten desert temple.

IT WAS THE MOST FUN I'VE HAD IN A LONG TIME. I don't know if it was the new setting, the use of the battlemap, or what it was. But it was fun. It. Was. Fun. I think the other guys all agree--we were riffing, and role-playing, like we haven't done in a while. I haven't talked to the guys about this, though, and I'm not sure what this means for the future. I don't think it means we'll be abandoning the game room, the digital table, or anything else. But it certainly raises the question for what happens next time I sit behind the screen. Do all the players need laptops? Could the DM track all the modifiers and crunch all the numbers instead? Could a battlemap and wet-erase markers, along with pencil-and-paper character tracking, be in our future? I dunno. But it certainly is food for thought.

And it certainly felt good. Really good. Really Old School.

"Fun" vs. "Balance"

As I was thinking back upon last weekend's 3.x session, and reliving the sheer hopelessness of the situation with my (all-too tolerant) wife, one of my kids said, "Dad, that just doesn't seem fair that Uncle L would throw that at you." It was then that I realized--truly realized--for the first time that there was a generation gap in the definition of "fun."

Don't get me wrong: several of our former players ditched the group and dumped 3.x play in favor of 4E because, and I quote, "Third edition is broken; there's just no balance to some things." BALANCE became a four-letter word to our gaming group. Seriously, everything needed balance for these players. Challenge ratings had to beclosely monitored and followed TO THE LETTER. Everyone needed to receive a powerful magical item if one character received one. We were (nearly) always assured of a victory, knowing that the villain/foe would be BALANCED. After ten years of gaming together, the one time we didn't actually see "balance" was when the DM at the time decided to throw everything he had at us as a "I'm leaving and want to show you how broken 3.x is!" effort.

The fact is, it probably would have been fun if we hadn't been on the DM's personal railroad.

You see, to me (and to most of my group) fun does not necessarily equate to victory. Certainly not "certain victory." We've long accepted the fact that everything in the world doesn't scale with our character level. We're going to be handed tasks and missions that are WAY out of our league. "Running away" is as much of a part of role play as "kicking butt and taking names." You learn from each.

Picture from Exfanding Your Horizons
by Flashman85

Let me explain simply: Just because the DM puts a dragon in front of your characters, doesn't mean he's going to let you win. Period.

Look at the difference in size. Dragons are majestic. Unless you have a group of characters that are equally majestic (and not just egotistical) then "running away" should be considered a viable option. You can always regroup and come back later.

I'm not alone in this. Consider this quote from the author of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen (5E), Steve Winter:

A mistake (from my perspective) that many people seem to be making is assuming that every situation in D&D should be "fun." If my ambition is to have nonstop "fun," I'd be better off playing Lego Star Wars or Whack-a-Mole. D&D can also be thrilling, frightening, inspiring, maddening, depressing, frustrating, immensely gratifying -- name a reaction on the human emotional scale and there's probably a place for it in D&D. The match against Cyanwrath was never meant to be "fun." It was meant to trigger an emotional response -- anger, even hate, and a desire for revenge against the Cult of the Dragon. I haven't seen much to indicate that it isn't doing that.

Amen. Even "frustrating" D&D can be fun, if only in retrospect. Frightening or depressing? Yep, but they're still moments to reminisce about later.

And before I get called a hypocrite for saying these experiences can be edifying in nearly the same breath that I said the railroad campaign was not, let me point out a key difference: our responses, reactions, etc., were all scripted for us. We had no chance given to us to run away. (We even tried to, individually, commit character suicide at one point. It wasn't allowed because it wasn't in the script.)

Of course, thus is only my 2¢ worth. I realize there are as many ways of having fun as there are players. I'm not saying that this is BADFUN or WRONGPLAY...just that, I suppose, that younger players may have different expectations than an old Grognard. When you have some of each of those parties entering the same game, you mp (as DM) need to be aware, and should set forth your expectations regarding "balance" and "fairness" at your table.

[Found Item Friday] El Diablo Cometh!

I dropped by my FLGS this morning, thinking as I got out of my car that I should leave my wallet under the seat. After all, I really couldn't afford much of anything. I mean, NOTHING at all.

I should have listened to my doubts.

Well, maybe; maybe not. I went in looking for a copy of the 2nd Edition AD&D title, The Complete Book of Dwarves. I was going through my shelves earlier this week and realized that my copy was missing. At least, I'm fairly sure I had a copy. The FLGS usually has an eclectic mix of out-of-print titles from earlier editions. They didn't have that title (although they did have The Complete Book of Psionics (which I'm not interested in) and The Complete Book of Fighters (which I already have)) but they did have a couple titles that piqued my interest. Titles that I got for around 60% of cover price (even the marked-down price was discounted for me).

First up was the Diablo II: Diablerie. One shelf down was the Diablo II: To Hell and Back. Both are 3.x supplements released by WotC, meant to build off of the popularity of the Diablo II video game. The first, the Diablerie is more of a brief "setting" book. Within its 96 pages you can find character classes for Diablo-specific classes, such as the Amazon, necromancer, and sorceress. There's some equipment lists and a bestiary. A blank character sheet template in the 3.x style. Even a sample adventure--five pages--that sets out a "How To" for the uninitiated (with differing levels of encounters: Basic Level, Nightmare Level, and Hell Level), explaining how to prepare an encounter for the Diablo-verse. Most of the book is geared this way: playing in the Diablo-verse.

The To Hell and Back volume is a detailed 192-page "module" set in the Diablo-verse. It contains a bigger bestiary, equipment lists, and magic items. I'm not sure that I'd ever use it as a stand-alone adventure path. I'll more likely cut it into pieces and use those pieces as drop-in encounters in our regular adventure. However, I can also imagine sitting the guys down one night and describing how they wake up next to a shimmering portal, a portal which disappears even as they awaken. They find themselves in a small hamlet, one terrorized by demonic creatures that have taken over a nearby church and accompanying catacombs. Heh. Just thinking about it makes it more intriguing.... Hmm....

They were previously-owned by the same person, as I found scribbled notes on steno-pad paper in several spots in both books. Also slipped inside To Hell and Back is a print-out of the web enhancement "The Secret Cow Level" that anyone familiar with Diablo will recognize. There's also a couple of old PC character sheets: Krump, the human barbarian (played by "Jake") and Isabell, the human Amazon (played by "Sally").

I'd be interested to know if anyone's played around with these books. If you have, drop me a line in the comments. Let me know your experiences, would you?

[Found Item Friday] Pristine PHB!

In my city, we have a used bookstore that has been in operation since 1929. It was housed in a GREAT location in downtown, three floors of new and used books, rare books, odd books. Especially great was the basement--meandering corridors, random rooms filled with ramshackle shelving, everything was just on the edge of controlled chaos. It was always great to go in, if even to browse. (It is said that one of the Magistrate Judges at the nearby Federal Courthouse made a visit there every lunchtime of every weekday of his tenure as judge until his death a few years back. I believe it, based on what I knew of the man.) Recently the third-generation owners made a controversial decision and moved the bookstore from its historic location to a nearby mall location.

My post is not about that bookstore.

Instead, it's about the location. A newer, Johnny-come-lately (relatively) bookstore seized on the opportunity and consolidated their three or four smaller stores and moved into the space. The shelving is all a bit newer and more modern, but their selection is just as eclectic as the "historic" bookstore. I hadn't had a chance to visit since the move; all that changed this morning.

About ten years ago, the original owners added a coffee shop to one side of the store front. I've never frequented the place, mostly because I don't drink coffee, but also because their baked goods were exorbitantly-priced, mediocre-quality items. But I had a meeting yesterday and they wanted to meet there to chat.

This was a mistake.

After the meeting, I wandered the aisles. Call it fate, call it karma...I wandered straight to the "game" section. Most of it was Call of Duty guides (and other various video games). But then...the infamous binding jumped off the shelf at me.

Now, you may ask yourself why I'm so excited by this, even though you should know I'm a big 3.x fan. I'd be a lot happier if it was a 3.5 PHB, but I'm still happy with this. Why?

1. It's in pristine condition.
   
2. It's for the use and education of my kids.
   
3. It's "close enough" to 3.5 or Pathfinder. Especially for my kids.
   
4. Did I mention it was in pristine condition? The binding is still tight and the Character Creator disk in the back? Still sealed in the plastic envelope. The Wizards of the Coast order form is also still folded inside the back cover.
   
5. Oh, and it was only $6.00.
   
6. Yes, I said $6.000
   

Yeah. I'm pretty pleased with myself. They also had a 3.0 DMG in the same condition; sadly, I only had so much cash with me yesterday. I figure the PHB will get more use anyway.

Also grabbed was this little beauty: "In the Belly of the Beast" by Mike Mearls. It was only $1.00 and in very good condition; the pull-out pages of NPCs, etc. was still intact, for example. I grabbed it for that fact alone. It's more of a political intrigue than my normal fare, but it still has some good fodder for combat and adventure too. It's got some good, dangerous NPCs with some good backstory; they'll take a little beefing-up, as the equipment lists are fairly generic. Maybe it'll be good for my players to do a little bit more role-playing; it requires the careful negotiation and manipulation of three rival factions who are all ready to fight. Hmm. I'll just have to find the right place to drop it into a campaign.

Unfortunately, the store is now on my radar. NOT good for my wallet.

[D&D 40th Anniversary Bloghop] Day Seven

Day Seven: First D&D product you ever bought. Do you still have it?

Let's see.... I've talked on several occasions about the first D&D product I ever owned. That would be the 1981 Basic Set, otherwise known as Moldvay D&D. Arguably all my knocking on doors and pimping crappy wrapping paper would constitute "buying" and I do still have this box and most of the contents.

However, I choose to be pedantic about it. Most of the "product" I purchased in those early years were miniatures; in fact, other than the copy of B-2: Keep on the Borderlands that came with the Moldvay set, I'm not sure I ever purchased another "module" or adventure for D&D until the turn of the century. Other games? Yes. (Star Frontiers and Car Wars products come first to mind.) But seeing as how the miniatures question is set for next week, I'll hold off on those items until then. Besides, one could argue those weren't truly D&D "products" as they were produced by third parties. Same argument about the dice I bought: produced by third parties. (Leave me alone; I sleep just fine at night with my justification as my pillow.)

So we have to fast forward to the turn of the century as I said. There was a slew of purchases that first year as I tried to get up to speed with 2nd Edition AD&D. But the very first item I purchased was a copy of the 2E AD&D Players Handbook. Well, I suppose it's properly the 2nd Edition AD&D Revised Players Handbook. Y'know, the 1995 version of the book, not the 1989 edition. I still have it and it's in great condition, even though it saw a lot of use that first few years. I must confess... I don't think it's been off the shelf more than a handful of times since the group switched over to 3.x Edition. It certainly hasn't been off the shelf in over three years, that's for sure. But I still have a lot of fond memories associated with it. I even have a second copy, one I purchased for my wife when a couple of us guys from the group were trying to get a "spouses" game started. That one's in even better condition than mine; I think it's only been opened three times.

But can anyone tell me what the heck is going on with that barbarian's arm? I mean, really? Did Jeff Easley have a brain cramp when he got to that part of the man's anatomy? Seriously, it's always bugged me. I would have much preferred if they'd used the same illustration from the 1989 version; I've always liked the warrior-on-warhorse Easley illustration instead.

[D&D 40th Anniversary Bloghop] Day Three

Day Three: First dungeon you explored as a player-character or ran as a DM.

I'm going to take advantage of this one and play a two-fer.

Back in the day, I don't know that we ever actually ran a "module" or a dungeon that had a name. Mostly it was creating characters, painting miniatures badly, and staging battles and skirmishes between the miniatures. So, I'm going to fast forward to the re-birth in 2000. The DM put together the group of players, and gave us all detailed (I'm talking REALLY detailed) backstories that tied us all into some part of the adventure, including story hooks and motivations. Then he put together a modified version of TSR's Dragon Mountain, plopped it down in Faerûn where we could find it and where it tied in with our various backstories. Then we were off and running. That campaign ran for...oh, probably three years. For the climax, the DM dug out of storage and assembled the only Red Dragon of Krynn (vinyl) miniature I've ever seen in the flesh.

(BTW, it's real and it's spectacular.) Wizards of the Coast put out a Colossal Red Dragon. They tried to make it spectacular. And yeah, it's cool. I don't like how they squeezed it all onto one square base. It doesn't have the awe-inspiring pose that the vinyl miniature did. And then, I've seen them side-by-side. No comparison. None at all. If I had a choice, the vinyl miniature from "Screamin'" would definitely be my go-to red dragon of choice. Putting that old girl on the table is a real pee-in-your-pants moment for your players. The picture here really doesn't do it justice.

Back to the story.... That was the first real dungeon I'd played as a PC. For the other part of the question, the first dungeon I ran as a DM was a little side adventure I threw together a couple years ago to give the then-DM a chance to rest for a couple of sessions and unwind by playing a PC for a change. I ran out of time and fell back on a little freebie that Wizards of the Coast published, a little thing called "Start at the End." The idea is that you run into the dragon at the very start of the dungeon, and then various other inhabitants as the PCs work their way through the various caverns. Xorn, bodak, and other various nasties lie in wait for the players; I modified it throwing in some small critters and molds of my own as well. Now that I think about it, this was, in fact, the site of the first PC to die at my hands as a DM. The then-DM was playing an elven rogue and was scouting ahead of the rest of the party. He turned a corner, came face to face with a bodak, and promptly failed his saving throw. BAM! Dead elf. I loved every minute of it. Immediately texted my wife the news that I was no longer a "virgin DM." The group still laughs about that moment.

Unfortunately, it appears that, although WotC still has the base article online about this free adventure, they've actually removed the content (as they have with most of their 3.5 content) from their website, so the link is apparently broken. Fortunately, I think I downloaded the adventure back then and saved it on one of my various drives somewhere. Maybe someday I'll stumble across it and pull it out again.

[D&D 40th Anniversary Bloghop] Day Two

Day Two: First person who you introduced to D&D. Which edition? Their first character?

I've wracked my brain, sure that I had introduced someone to D&D back in my childhood. The only names I can come up with were jocks who would have had no interest in playing or kids like me that already were playing. Same in high school: everyone that I would have introduced were already playing.

Fast forward to the 21st century, when I picked up the dice again. There was a relative newbie in the group. I know he'd played Robotech before, but I cannot remember if this was the first time he'd played (and so would qualify as my first introduced, as I was a part of the group that introduced him).

So, I think I have to count my oldest four children as the first person people I introduced to D&D. As I've written before, I used the D&D 3.5 Beginner's Box to introduce them and used those pre-generated characters as their first characters.

Cast of Characters
Lanin: elf wizard (17-year-old daughter)
Carn: human rogue (15-year-old daughter)
Regdar: human fighter (13-year-old son)
Dothal: dwarven cleric (9-year-old son)

[D&D 40th Anniversary Bloghop] Day One

Day One: First person who introduced you to D&D. Which edition? Your first character?

Technically speaking, it was the good folks at one of those places that use elementary school kids to peddle their wrapping paper to the neighborhood that introduced me to D&D. I truly wish I could remember the name of the outfit; I can see their brochure(s) as if it were yesterday, but it's been 30+ years.

You may remember them too: slick paper, full color, almost epileptic fit-inducing busy-ness on each page. Every inch of every page touting what you could get with 100 points, 500 points, 1,000 points! Oh boy! Oboyoboyoboyoboy there's even trips to exotic places if you sell enough (read: travel to another state and a 2-night stay in a seedy motel) wrapping paper. I remember hitting up everyone in my church's congregation. Neighbors I had never met. Family members, both immediate and extended. Parents, aunts, uncles, friends' parents. All in an effort to get enough points so that I could see for myself what was inside that box.

And all for what I thought was the neatest thing in the catalog that year. It was this cool new game called "Dungeons & Dragons." And just what was that dragon guarding? Yeah, I'd heard about it (vaguely) at school. I'd never played it. This was the image that grabbed me, hooked me, and reeled me in. I still have it. Unfortunately, my first character -- indeed, all of those pre-21st century characters -- are lost to the ages.

Note: early on in my blog, I mentioned that I was introduced to D&D by a friend at school. While this is true, this friend was my first DM and so I'm saving him for that entry in the bloghop. In addition, I may have gotten some of the dates wrong. I remember "pushing the miniatures around" in the late '70s/early '80s, but I didn't even meet this particular friend until 1981, so the "miniature pushing" may have been with a different friend entirely. Also, I'm serious when I say above that "technically" it was the gift wrap people that really introduced me. My parents weren't going to buy this for me on their own; I'm not sure they would have even known where to find a copy if they'd wanted to. Certainly after all the Jack Chick hysteria started, I wasn't going to convince them to use their money to buy it. So, what I said back at the beginnings of the blog and what I say today are both true.

From a particular point of view.

[D&D 40th Anniversary Bloghop] The Plunge is Taken

I may regret this, but I'm gonna jump in on this one. Mostly to throw a little karma into the celebration of D&D's 40th Anniversary. The challenge lasts only through the month of February 2014 and the list of topics is largely your "firsts" in the game/hobby/lifestyle.

Click here to jump aboard or at the bottom of the Linkylist below. Hurry, you only have a few days left to be an "official" participant...if that matters to you.

And here's what the list of daily topics looks like.