[From the Mailbag] Pre-School Happiness

Here I thought I'd actually get a summer vacation. Little did I know that my new profession/career choice would take a drastic chunk out of the hoped-for much-needed vacay.

Turns out that 11 out of the past 15 work days? Yeah...spent in faculty- and pre-first-day-of-school meetings. 8 hours per day. Very little time to set up my classroom. (Monday and Tuesday of this week, actually.)

But Friday when I crawled into the house, i found a little something courtesy of the Manor.  +Tim Shorts  pulled off another miracle.  Two amazing micro-adventures and a great NPC. And since we're playing this weekend, I'm gonna throw these at my players. THANKS, TIM!

Now...back to my keyboard.  Had an inspiration for a new caster class... it should be making an appearance in the next Stronghold 'Zine!

[From the Mailbag] Happy Monday Goodies!

I decided today that I need to sweep the leaves accumulated at the door of the Stronghold and clear some dust from my head. It's been a LONG time, relatively.

Changing careers at mid-life is difficult; it's even worse when dealing with depression and some medical issues as well. Walking away from 20 years of legal education/experience and deciding to go back to school and get a teaching certificate has been one of the most difficult decisions of my life.

Let's see: what else to catch up on? The 5E campaign was interesting, to say the least...except it died, badly. A DM trying to run two groups of 5 each. Other than my 35+ years, and the DM's experience (He's 20-something years old), NO ONE had ever played before. It devolved from every day, to every other day, to maybe once a week... Needless to say no one's made a peep since the first of June. So...I'm pretty sure it's dead.

Now to plug some new game stuff:

First of all: a shipment of goodies from the Manor. +Tim Shorts   can always be relied on to make a day better and to produce amazing stuff. Today's envelope of joy is no different.

• The Ghoul Nest: a laminated card with a great side adventure and a unique monster. I think I'll have to drop this into my family game. My kids don't face enough undead in their gaming.
• NPC Card: Blake, a 4th-level mage. A great resource, complete with stats and backstory.
• Death Coins: a Micro-Adventure. Comes complete with a great map, great magic items, and a compelling story. I can't wait to drop this one on my group; it's just enough—at face value—for a good night's worth of adventuring, but could be used as the basis for a much longer adventure or the kick-off for a campaign.

I would highly recommend signing up for Tim's Patreon campaign so that you can get this great stuff for yourselves: www.patreon.com/Gothridge. Go there. Now.

Wait...don't leave yet. Also in the mail was the fulfillment of a Kickstarter that I've greatly anticipated: Planet Mercenary Based on the webcomic "Schlock Mercenary" by Howard Tayler and set in that universe, it came with some great add-ons and looks ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. The ruleset was written by Alan Bahr and Howard Tayler.... I'll be honest...father-type stuff has kept me from cracking it open yet, so I can't give you a review yet. Knowing Alan's gaming cred with +Gallant Knight, and knowing his experience (most recently: "Tiny Frontiers" and "Tiny Frontiers: Mecha and Monsters"), I'm sure it's going to be terrific. It's already gotten some great reviews, including one from Steve Jackson.

And now, it's time for dinner, then settle down in the 100º-plus-temperatures to plan some characters' imminent demise.

[From the Mailbag] Simon Forster Surprise

OK. If you've ever wondered, here's proof. The USPS is either violent, incompetent, or careless.

The postman brought a surprise from +Simon Forster  today, and just look! Dog-eared corners, dang it!

But another gorgeous little locale. I can endure a little damage, I suppose.

If you want to get little tid-bits like this from Simon, make sure to visit his Patreon page!

Mail Call!

Over the weekend, I received a Mail Call extravaganza.

OK, see, that implies that I received a hefty-sized amount of mail. I don't mean to imply that. I just mean that what I got in the mail was terrific.

A week or so ago I finally had enough disposable income to jump on-board a couple of Patreon funding projects. The first one was Tim Shorts' Micro Adventures efforts. Anyone who knows Tim from The Manor 'zine knows that he does good work.

In the mail I received three of these micro adventures--two copies of #3 and one of #5. (As you may know, Tim and I have this running joke about me getting two copies of everything he does.) These babies are fantastic! They're ideal for a little short side adventure; I can even see using these as adventure hooks to something bigger.

The first one he sent was his "The Pig and the Ogre" micro adventure while the second one was entitled "Ghost Ship." For patrons of his efforts, he sends out 4" x 6" copies of these adventures--hand-drawn color map on one side and flavor on the other. The copies are laminated, both to protect them and to enable you to use grease pencil or dry-erase markers to customize them and make notes for your own campaign use. Initial reviews suggest that 30-45 minutes of game play can be culled from these little gems. I'm guessing that a good DM could stretch that as necessary.

I can't wait to take over the DM screen in my group sso that we can incorporate some of these adventures. Meanwhile, I'll just have to content myself with reading them over and over.

If you haven't already, please consider following the above link over to Tim's Patreon page and throw him some monetary love. The quality of the product--both physically and intellectual--is top notch.