[From the Mailbag] Son of The Manor! A Review!

One day after the postal worker brought me the twin happiness of Barrowmaze and the d30 DM Companion, I returned home to find that our personal postal worker (or would that be "mail distribution facilitator"?) had left another present for me.

Yup. I had an envelope with the scary moth. Inside was the lovely mug of Hugo staring up at me. The envelope had a laugh-inducing personal message from the Author himself, Tim Shorts. Unfortunately, my laughter meant explaining the message to my wife.

You see...I like 'zines. I'm sure this comes as a surprise to my long-time readers. Yeah. Really. I like 'em. I get excited about a good product too. So when the two sources of excitement combine in one? Well, loss of reason isn't out of the question. I was so eager for The Manor #2, I went and purchased my copy mere minutes after the PayPal button went live over on GM Games. Within minutes I had a confirmation e-mail from Tim thanking me for my purchase, but advising me (what I had apparently forgotten) that I had purchased a subscription when I bought issue #1.

Yep. That's what I did. And I told Tim that he was free to not let me live it down. And now my wife won't let me live it down either. At any rate, it was a nice personal touch that I certainly wouldn't have gotten from someone like Wizards of the Boast. (Full disclosure: To be honest, I HAVE actually received something similar from Paizo's customer service on one occasion, but I digress.)

So, what did I get for my $3.50? 24 pages of gaming goodness. First, The Manor #2 has a nice, striking yellow (is that Canary?) cover. It looks great on the shelf next to the red cover of Issue #1.

The title page has a few humorous touches--a great disclaimer, for one, that my attorney-side appreciated. These are the kind of things that I love about 'zines. The personal touches, the inside jokes, the foibles.

The introduction contains, in part, a nice piece of software pimpery. I actually wanted to go out and buy a copy of Office Publisher myself, even though I hate Office products. Then a nice personal note from Tim about the contents and the history of Issue #2.

Now for the meat: 14 pages devoted to [u]Hugo's Healing Potions Shop[/u]. Honestly, I feel like it should be "Shoppe".... But Hugo's feels real. We have mechanic generic bios of Hugo and his staff. We have a nice map with a detailed key. Tim also gives us a random customer table for the Shop as well as adventure hooks. Great fluff that really makes the place come alive. I particularly love the little touches Tim adds to his descriptions; they add atmosphere and realism. I mean, "During business hours, the door is held open by a rock." I love it. I have a player that WOULD ask how the door is being held open, and would probably take the rock and use it for nefarious ends.

The next 8 pages are devoted to Smugglers Inn and the surrounding environs. Jason Sholtis contributes to the cause with a table of "things you might find under the cot at Smugglers Inn." Great stuff.

The inside back cover gives us a rampaging orc (pig-faced, of course) and a Poetry Slam by the Rusty Battle Axe. Any poem that can work in 'cockroaches' and 'destruction' pretty much gives the poet my nod for Poet Laureate.

More than anything else, I think I may like and appreciate about Tim's work is that it is SO mechanic- or game-generic. One could easily use the Potion Shop and the Smuggler's Inn in a Labyrinth Lord, DCC, Pathfinder, 4th Edition game, not to mention
Call of Cthulhu, d20 Modern, or whatever your flavor-of-the-month may be.

Finally, the back cover. Here we have something that, to me, epitomizes so much of what I have found in the RPG blogosphere. Tim has included an advertisement for The Horrendous Heap of Sixteen Cities by Dylan Hartwell over at Digital Orc. The advertisement was, according to Dylan, completely unsolicited and unexpected. Maybe because it's so rare in my professional life, but I really enjoy the comraderie and brotherhood that RPG gamers share in the online world. I've been touched in the past month by some outreach from some fellow bloggers and gamers; that's a topic for another, well-overdue post. Suffice it to say, it's a nice refreshing change from real life for me, to know that there are good, honest, and caring people that just want us all to get along, have fun, and promote a good, fun hobby. It makes it even better to see these same people band together and try to help the fellow gamers in real life situations, concerns, hiccups, tragedies, etc.

So...back to the Manor #2. If you couldn't already tell, I would recommend it to anyone who games. Period. Anyone can use this material; if you can't, you're really not trying. Excellent work, Tim.

Wait...I take it back. There IS a major problem with The Manor #2. I just discovered it. It's nearly insurmountable.

The problem is this: now I have to WAIT impatiently for The Manor #3. This makes me... unhappy.

[From the Mailbag] Oh Frabjous Day!

Callooh! Callay!

When I came galumphing into the office today, I had to chortle with joy because of what awaited me.

Sitting on my desk were two brown cardboard mailers. Inside I found these:


RPGNow came through with my print copy of Barrowmaze and Lulu came through with my print copy of the d30 DM Companion.

A mailbag full of Gaming Goodness and inspiration. I can't wait to get home and break these open. I have reading material for the evening. Hopefully I can get to running Barrowmaze soon so I can get a review posted up.

Admit it.... After just a bit of uffish thought...you're just a little jealous, aren't you?

Magic Missiles at the Stronghold

I hope you all had a happy, safe, and relaxing 4th of July -- both to my American readers and international readers. (As the question goes: "Do they have the Fourth of July in England?")

For myself, it was fairly relaxing. A little sleep-in followed by hours of American Revolution documentary-goodness on the Military Channel. The gaming material for the new campaign was right at-hand for the commercial breaks.

That was followed by a picnic in the backyard with the family. Homemade Onion/horseradish burgers; Jell-o, corn on the cob, etc. Fantastic food; the wife is a stellar cook, so the burgers were amazing and the corn on the cob tasted like candy. Truly the sweetest corn I've had in ages.

Then, once we were stuffed with food, the kids demanded that I try and run away from dangerous pyrotechnical objects. Well, semi-dangerous. We couldn't afford much more than the budget pack from the local supermarket. But we can always count on our neighbors for assistance. They pull out the big guns every year; this year they said they spent over $200, just in the past week alone. So the kids were still entertained; the younger ones don't mind the little fountains we purchased and the older kids (and mom and dad) were entertained with the neighbors' fireworks. Here's a sampling of the night...once the neighbors brought out the mortar shells.

All in all, a relaxing change of pace. Good times and good food with the family; what more can you ask? And honestly, with entertainment like this, why fight the crowds, parking, heat, etc. just to see "professional" fireworks?

Other than not having another day feel like Monday in the same week, of course. Sigh. The crazies are out on the telephone in full force today.

But I have a new campaign starting up, so that kinda balances things out. More on the new campaign soon.

Thinking of Dad

This month marks the first anniversary of my dad's passing. It's been a long year, full of pain and grief, but the time has flown by it seems.

James over at Dreams of Mythic Fanatay just lost his father. His post and this post by Tim over at Gothridge Manor got me thinking a bit more about my dad, especially his influence on my entertainment and gaming life. Dad passed just before Father's Day last year and it's taken me a few days to be able to write a companion post to my friends' posts.

My dad didn't approve of my RPG-ing. But he loved games. He and I had epic one-on-one Trivial Pursuit battles. He taught me how to play solitaire, hearts, and cribbage long before Windows decided to teach me. I think the last game I played with my father was one called "Exasperation"--a homemade version of "Aggravation" that my brother made in Shop class in the 1970s.

He never begrudged me a bit of graph paper, however. He was an engineer by trade and got the stuff free. He even brought home a huge desk-blotter pad of graph paper once, just to watch me fill it up with mazes and corridors. Dad didn't realize it, but he fed my dungeoneering hunger by taking us on yearly trips to Lehman Caves. I'd return home and sketch winding caverns and make ham-fisted attempts at drawing rock formations.

Then my parents fell prey to the "demon-worship, mind-control, it's-all-evil" Pulling propaganda of the mid-80s. Gaming stopped completely for over a decade under my parents' concerned and watchful eyes.

He was more tolerant of my gaming in later years. Once I was married, I suppose he had resigned himself to the fact that I was going to play whether they approved or not. He would sit, watching bemused as I painted miniatures in the corner of our time-share in the mountains, or as I idly sketched maps while watching videos or sports with him. I DID keep a secret from him; I cannot imagine what he would have thought, said, or done if he'd learned I had introduced his grandchildren to the hobby. His resigned ambivalence would never have extended that far.

All the game-playing with him petered out over the last year or so of his life. We just couldn't get him interested in playing--except for the aforementioned game of Aggravation. He played with me and two of my kids who took great delight in sending Grand's marbles back to home base.

Like with James, my father was also my main introduction to media, although with slightly different tastes. I can only presume my dad and James' dad did not share the same generation. My dad taught me to enjoy opera and the Tijuana Brass. Yeah, kinda square I know, but still.... He also introduced me to Robert Heinlein, Louis L'Amour, Wilber Smith, Michael Crichton, David Morrell. and ERB's Tarzan books. He was a voracious reader and instilled that in me.

He loved movies and introduced me to John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Lee Marvin, and Charles Bronson. While he could never understand my fascination with Fantasy, he loved Sci-fi. He and I would sneak away from my mother to watch any Sci-fi we could find...except for Star Wars. I think that got too close to fantasy for his liking.

Dad was a pilot as well as a Sci-fi fan. Together we watched the live television coverage of the first launch of the shuttle Columbia. I thrilled for him when he was able to be present at a live launch himself; he brought back fantastic photos and descriptions of the noise, colors, sights. He worked for years in the aerospace industry and shared with me (what he could) tidbits of what he was working on, as well as pictures and sketches of engines, rockets, etc.

I miss my dad greatly.... But I'm also immensely grateful for the things he shared with me, for the inspirations and fascinations he instilled in me. And for the excellent example of fatherhood that he was to me. There's a lot he did that I didn't realize or appreciate at the time...and I appreciate more and more as time passes.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day (one day late) to all my friends and readers out there. Hopefully your day was filled with dice, "lead-free white metal" figurines, and plenty of character sheet goodness.

I know mine was.

My family took me to see a double feature of Men in Black 3 and The Avengers at the local drive-in. Great, fun flicks. MIB 3 makes a nice closing bookend for the series, if they so wish, and definitely redeems the series from MIB 2. The Avengers? There were several moments where I was giggling like a little boy. Loved it. LOVED it.

In addition, the accompanying image is the beautiful homemade card I received from one of my daughters yesterday. (And what thief wouldn't be proud to nab an emerald THAT size, eh? Definitely worth risking the dragon's wrath....)

I think I've done well as a father, that my kids love dragons nearly as much as I do. (I have other signs of my paternal success as well, of course.)

Let me know what loot y'all scored from your wives and kids yesterday.... I'd love to know.

Professional Cryptozoology

Image property of Para Abnormal

This morning I'm seriously considering a career change from the practice of law to Professional Cryptozoolozy.

No, seriously.

Part of that decision comes from the fact that I am spending the day at the back of a conference room learning about "The World of Depositions." You see, attorneys are required to participate in a set number of hours of "Continuing Legal Education" or "CLE" in order to renew and maintain their license.

I have a double-digit amount of hours left to take prior to June 30, 2012. I'm in a little bit of trouble and as a result, I'm taking a lot of hours that have nothing to do with my actual area of practice. For example, depositions...it's been twelve years and two months since I took or attended my last deposition. So obviously today's presentation is quite useful and relevant.

But I digress.

Today's CLE is only one reason for my desire to change careers.

The other was the episode of Grimm I watched last night. I've developed a real taste for Grimm. I wrote about it here at the start of the season.

I'm going to assume here that most of my readers know the premise behind Grimm. If you don't, hit IMDB or Wiki. Better yet, go here.

I badly wanted to like Once Upon A Time as well, but as that show quickly de-evolved into a soap opera, I stopped watching after the third episode (or so). Grimm on the other hand has not only maintained the quirkiness and intrigue throughout the season, most of the characters have grown, the story line developed, and even the mysteries and twists have been developed and followed without becoming contrived (see: Lost). While some may be irritated with its "monster-a-week" premise, I believe that we'll see that change once we, as viewers, have an idea of the breadth of the Wesen universe; i.e., as Nick learns, we learn along with him.

It's not exactly young-child-friendly, so our DVR saw great use this season. The wife and I have been squeezing in a couple episodes every couple nights the past week in an effort to get caught up with the story. Suffice it to say, I think most of the fears I had after the pilot have been addressed and countered.

My wife and I have also become addicted to Finding Bigfoot on Animal Planet (check your local listings). It's kind of a guilty pleasure. It's where we go to slum, intellectually, when our brains are worn out. In case you don't know, the premise here is that a group of "researchers"--three true believers and one skeptic--go from state to state following leads and rumors of Bigfoot sightings. Much of the program is devoted to a "town hall meeting" where they call witnesses together and invite them to share their stories. Then, having documented the stories, they take the two or three most reputable (or promising) witnesses out in the field to the loci of their sighting(s). Then they spend the night running through the forest with night-vision goggles, cameras, and directional microphones while making various grunts and screeches.

Needless to say every episode ends with the true believers being sure that the state in question has a Sasquatch population, the skeptic still not convinced, and not a blessed piece of evidence or camera footage.

One of the true believers--a man that goes by the nickname of Bobo--may be their best evidence of the existence of Sasquatch. This guy literally looks like a freshly-shaven Bigfoot. Slack-jawed and shaggy-haired, somewhere around 7' tall, Bobo believes every twig-crack and animal-howl is "without a doubt" a "Squatch." In fact, this quickly becomes his catch-phrase: "It's a Squatch!" Of course, the veiwer is (hopefully) saying to him- or herself: Ummm... it sounded like a twig snapping or it sounded just like a coyote.

Yeah, I know, real brain-twisting, hard-hitting, overly-intellectual television fare. It's made me want to play in a good, d20 Modern paranormal game. Heck, a paranormal game of any ilk, actually, if I can find a good one.

So, back to Grimm. The episode we watched last night was entitled, "Big Feet." In the opening teaser/set-up sequence, we see a group of Bigfoot researchers doing guess what? They're out in the woods at night, with cameras and miscellaneous gear, making grunts and howls. Then they come face to face (off-camera) with some crazed being that tears through the researchers like they were paper. On camera we see a hint of the carnage: one researcher thrown at an enormous tree with bone-shattering force. We see the aftermath after the first commercial: one researcher lying on the ground with his torso torn open. Another researcher is transfixed on a five-foot-long, two-inch-diameter branch on a fallen log.

And that's when I turned to my wife and said, "This is what Finding Bigfoot is missing; I want to see Bobo thrown through the air. THAT'S when I will believe it's a Squatch."

But it made me think again: these guys with the BFRO ("Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization"). I want that gig. I want to be paid like that. (Yeah, before you say it, this is their hobby, their side-job. I understand that.) C'mon, who out there will throw me a wad of cash to go camping and looking for mythical creatures?

Call me. I'm your guy.

Ray Bradbury, RIP (1920 — 2012)

Just got word that we lost another giant to time yesterday. Ray Bradbury has entered the Great Hall of Fame in the sky.

Bradbury was a great, a master of the art. Fantasy, Sci-fi, Horror: he did it all, and did it all well.

Growing up, I must admit, he was not a terrific influence to me. Don't get me wrong, he was still an influence. But I was raised with a father who--while he read voraciously--refused to read fantasy or horror. He just couldn't comprehend the attraction people might find in those genres. He loved science fiction and had a full shelf of Robert Heinlein in his study. Heinlein, therefore, was a much bigger part of my young life. Secretly, though, I always harbored a little favoritism for Bradbury outside of my father's sphere of influence. We nearly shared a birthday, after all. That's a "bonding point" to a young child, after all. Plus, one of my favorite literary quotations came from Bradbury:
"You must write every single day of your life... You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads... may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world."
I had this quotation prominently displayed in my daily planner and carried it where I could see it nearly every day...at least until my planner disappeared a few months ago. I must confess that this is exactly how I feel about libraries, old bookstores, and books in general. That was another bonding point for me.

Three of his works stand out as influences in my life. Of course, they're probably also the three for which he is best known, but there you have it.

Martian Chronicles, I believe, may have been the first Bradbury book I ever read. I vaguely remember being confused beyond belief by the story the first time I read it. I didn't fully understand it, but I liked it...if I had known the word back then I suppose I might have said it was "quirky." I also remember being excited by the news that it was made into a mini-series (Yes, I'm that old) and then being "somewhat" let down by the actual television production. I believe that may also have been my first exposure to the idea that the book is always better than the movie.

Something Wicked came to me in Junior High. Sci-fi wasn't popular at my school, and horror even less so. A sci-fi author writing a horror story? Unthinkable. I can still remember the grief I took for being seen with this book in my hands. I also remember it being knocked out of my hands more than once by someone thinking they were being funny. "Hey, lookit what I did to four-eyes' stupid baby book!"

Wow. Where did THAT come from?

Anyway, I clearly remember the news that this book was being made into a movie. I was excited, but tried to remain cautious. I was still too close to The Martian Chronicles incident to be overly optimistic about the movie's chances. To this day, I remember having SEEN Something Wicked but I cannot tell you anything about it. And that should speak volumes.

In thinking back, I think I may have read Fahrenheit 451 before Junior High and thus before Something Wicked, but I know I didn't understand it. I read it again in Junior High and appreciated it more. Then it fell off my radar until my college years. When I read it again, it came alive for me. The images, the characters, the ideas? Exploded into life for me. I now own several copies, including an absolutely beautiful copy of the 50th Anniversary edition. It is one of my all-time favorite works.

Needless to say I have never seen the movie version. In fact, IMDB suggests there's more than one movie version; I didn't even know that. Neither do I care at this point. Why try for a third strike?

I'm not sure that Bradbury was ever a great household name. He certainly wasn't in my home. I have always felt that--as far as Science Fiction went--he worked in Heinlein's shadow, that Heinlein had the action and the flamboyant characters while Bradbury had the art and the darker edge. That was my perception, at least, colored as it was by my childhood and by those around me. How he was actually perceived? I suppose I will never know the truth; those in the hobby and the fans of the genre will praise him to the roof. I feel a bit ashamed; I should know him better than I do, both as an English major and as a fan of the genres for which he was best known. But I find as I type this morning that I really don't know him as well as I should, or as well as I thought I did when I started this piece. I must change that.

He certainly had some mainstream following; he had a range similar to Asimov, spanning multiple genres (although likely not as broad or as prolific as Asimov was in this way). My guess is that most out there in the world will know the name but know very little about him. Will he have a spot on the evening news tonight? National programs, probably. Not my local station. And that says a lot about our modern culture. He ain't Lindsay Lohan, after all.

Which is a good thing.

He was -- IS -- a master. Godspeed, Mr. Bradbury.

The 'Zine That Ate The Stronghold!

Y'all know that I like 'zines. We won't belabor that point. But now I've come to a place where I need some help and advice from you 'zine lovers (and 'zine publishers) out there.

They're taking over The Stronghold.

I need storage suggestions. The full-size 8.5" x 11" 'zines are fairly easily managed. Dungeon Crawl and Wizards Mutants Laser Pistols both went into sheet protectors into their own binders. Encounter (when it was still being published, at least) went straight into a plain three-ring binder and Lapsis Calumni, for now, remains digitally-available on my laptop, simply because I haven't decided the best course of action, printing-wise.

But what to do with digest-sized Loviatar and The Manor? I really don't want to hole-punch these, after all, to put in a "short" three-ring binder. I have debated using regular magazine storage solutions, but the digest-sized 'zines will be dwarfed by the size difference. I've thought about Ikea storage boxes and Rubbermaid/Tupperware solutions, but they don't seem overly shelf-friendly. What I'd dearly love is a binder that uses vertical elastic straps rather than rings to hold the 'zines inside. Something that you'd imagine seeing in an old library. I would imagine such a creature would be expensive and not really as good of a solution as one would imagine (the elastic bands could not be tight enough to hold the 'zines tightly enough, for example). Try as I might, I cannot find such a beastie anyway.

I don't want my 'zines to get lost, spindled, folded, or mutilated. But the solution has to be reasonably-priced, shelf-friendly, and protective. So far, such a solution evades me.

So I throw the question out to you, my friends. Any suggestions? What do y'all use for your 'zines?

Level Advancement and the Brain Ghoul (new monster)

O.K. I just can't seem to get the hang of this level advancement thing. A little over a month ago I missed the Blogger Level Advancement number by five.

Now it appears I've missed it by ten. I'm not sure what sense level advancement at 20 followers and 40 followers makes; 25 and 50 make a lot more sense, at least to me. But then, it's not my table either.

By any count, I've now made it to the illustrious level of "Thinker" so I'll take what I can get, right?

Most of these last twenty-plus followers were thanks to the A to Z April Challenge. It's not the only reason to participate in the Challenge each year, but it sure doesn't hurt.

So, a heartfelt "THANK YOU" to all my current followers, and an invitiation to any lurkers out there to follow as well. Without you, this blog is nothing more than a little ego-stroke. It's nice to know think believe that my thoughts have an effect out there in the gaming world, if even for a bit of amusement.


Now for my Joesky tax: The Brain Ghoul.

===============================================
Brain Ghoul

Tiny Undead (medium parent creature)
Hit Dice: 2d12 (13 hp)
Initiative: +6
Speed: fly 40 ft. (perfect)
Armor Class: 14 (+2 Dex, +2 size), touch 12, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: +2/-11 (+5 when attached)
Attack: Sting +4 melee (1d6) (attach)
Full Attack: Sting +4 melee (1d6) (attach)
Space/Reach: 5ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Acid, Constrict 1d3+4, Improved Grab
Special Qualities: Blindsense, Undead traits
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +6, Will +1
Abilities: Str 14, Dex 14, Con 8, Int 8, Wis 8, Chr 2
Skills: Escape Artist 10; Intimidate 5; Move Silently 15
Feats: Improved Initiative
Environment: Any temperate
Organization: Solitary
Advancement: 3-4 HD (Small (Large parent)); 6-9 HD (Medium (Huge parent))

CR 2

The brain ghoul is nothing more than a floating brain with an attached three-foot-long spinal column. The base of the spinal column has been transformed, however, into a wicked spike, with which the brain ghoul makes its initial attack. Acid drips from the brain itself.

Combat
A brain ghoul’s initial attack is made by landing on a victim and plunging its spike into the flesh. It will then wrap the spinal column around the victim’s neck and body to constrict and suffocate the creature while also attempting to pin its arms to its sides. The brain portion then settles upon the victim’s head, relying on its acid attack to eat through the skull of the victim and absorb the victim’s cranial fluids. Any creature killed by a brain ghoul’s acid attack will have its own brain become a brain ghoul within 1d4 hours after death.

A brain ghoul will target all creatures up to one size category larger than its parent creature.

Attach (Ex)
If a brain ghoul’s spike attack is successful, it uses the remainder of the spinal column to wrap around the victim’s neck and body. An attached brain ghoul is effectively grappling its prey and can then begin to constrict. A brain ghoul has a +12 racial bonus on grapple checks (already calculated into the Base Attack / Grapple entry above). An attached brain ghoul can be struck with a weapon or grappled itself. To remove an attached brain ghoul through grappling, the opponent must achieve a pin against the brain ghoul.

Acid (Ex)
A brain ghoul secretes an acid that dissolves organic material and metal quickly, but does not affect stone. Any constrict attack automatically deals 1d6 acid damage, and the opponent’s armor and clothing dissolve and become useless immediately unless they succeed on a DC 13 Reflex save. A metal or wooden weapon that strikes a brain ghoul also dissolves immediately unless it succeeds on a DC 13 reflex save. The save DCs are Constitution-based.

The brain ghoul’s acidic touch deals 12 points of damage per round to wooden or metal objects, but the brain ghoul must remain in contact with the object for 1 full round to deal this damage.

Improved Grab (Ex)
To use this ability, a brain ghoul must hit with its spike attack. It can then begin its grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. Once the grapple has been established it can begin to constrict.

New 'Zine on the Horizon!

Hot on the heels of receiving Loviatar #10 in the mail, I've run across a new 'zine! How on earth did I miss this one, you ask?

I have no idea....

But apparently I did. Anyhow, let's send out a grand welcome to Alexey over at Wizards Mutants Laser Pistols. According to the website, the first print run of Issue #1 is almost sold out. I've jumped in line and ordered myself a copy and I'll be sure and throw out a review once I get it in the mail.

But I wanted you to all have the heads up. Jump on over and check it out for yourselves.

And don't say I didn't warn you the 'zines were coming!

[review] Loviatar #10

I've raved before about the high quality of the 'zine, Loviatar. With the first nine issues of Loviatar, Christian Walker has, among other things, nearly single-handedly spawned a resurgence of the 'zine as a means of dispersing quality home-brew RPG materials.

Just take a look around the OSR blogosphere if you don't believe me. Or down on the right side of my blog. There are several other 'zines being published with several more promised.

Last night when I got home from the office, I was pleased to find Issue #10 of Loviatar waiting for me. I've missed reviewing several issues because, as I may have mentioned, my wife tends to hold these things hostage until I get some of my "Honey Do" list checked off. Because the last few months have not been friendly to the "Honey Do" list, she hasn't been too friendly with the "sharing of Loviatar." Fortunately I grabbed Issue #10 before she could hide it away.*

I was more than pleased to see what was inside.

The first thing that caught my eye was a reminder that my subscription was up with this issue. Sure, it is a little thing, but a touch of personal service that sets forth Christian's quality control and attention to detail. I've known others that would have just counted on me to remember that my subscription was up, or who couldn't be bothered to add the reminder slip. But not Christian. Even though we had discussed this a month or so ago, he still thought highly enough of his customer base that a reminder slip was included.

The Introduction comes first: by the time I hit the end of the Introduction, I knew Christian had another winning issue. I have to sell my wife out--I'll avoid the spoilers here--I read the Introduction aloud to her and she laughed throughout the "vetting session" but when we got to Christian's bathroom, she lost it. I have to admit I was laughing hard enough I had to stop and catch a breath. All we can both say is: "I hope he SCRUBBED that bathroom down. Several times."**

I turned next to the continuation of his hex crawl. This one has the same quality content and features as the previous ones I've read. Christian has a talent for NPCs--I stand in awe of his ability to make these characters come alive. Harrowminder the Treant from this issue, I believe, may be one of my favorites.

Then I jumped back to read through his Vampire: The Requiem material. BE AWARE: THIS CONTAINS SOME GROWN-UP MATERIAL. If you cringe when you see the letters S--E--X in close succession, or you have a problem with close-up pictures of pierced navels, you may want to have someone edit this article for you. If, however, you are an adult, I think you'll be able to find something useful here. I say this as one who does not play Vampire and doesn't spend a lot of gaming time in the modern era. D&D has vampires too, and a quick change from Santa Fina to a nameless hamlet, a dive bar to a seedy tavern, and a quiet bookstore to a scroll-seller's or tome-seller's store, and voila! Quick and usable NPCs, villains, and/or memorable characters.

Look: you all know, if you've read my blog for any significant length of time, I prefer my D&D to have a bit of 3.5 flavor. But I have some Old School tendencies and consider myself to be an OSR fanatic and gamer. I just happen to not have any other OSR-lovers around me. But while Loviatar first caught my attention for some Pathfinder/3.X content at first, the OSR and other game content is good enough to be easily transferable to 3.5...and good enough for me to WANT to transfer it to 3.5.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 battleaxes.
(Note: The only reason I don't give it 5 battleaxes is that, although I can't believe he could get better, I wouldn't put it past him. I've got to give him a little room.)

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*Disclaimer: For the sake of absolute honesty and continued marital bliss, I include this: I have obviously taken some literary license with sharing my family life here. My dear wife doesn't withhold these things from me too long. I actually have several issues tucked away to enjoy in one sitting when I have a free afternoon, preferably with a cold lemon-based beverage and a cool mountain breeze. It just happens that I was extra excited to see Issue #10 and I tore into the envelope before I could stop myself. Now I can go back and enjoy the others at my leisure.
End disclaimer.

**Disclaimer #2: There's no literary license here. My wife really did laugh hard. So did I. And so will you, I think.
End Disclaimer.

[found items] New Old Lead

On Wednesday night last, I ventured into my FLGS to salve my plastic miniature cravings. One of the managers of the FLGS is a long-time friend (notice I didn't say "old" friend...I started counting how many years I'd known her and her husband and it was a bit depressing).

A few weeks before, we had spent some time talking about our fathers; both of us lost our dad's this past year. From our discussion, she knew I'd been having a rough time, both because of my dad and because of some other reasons/factors in my life. She also knew that I was facing a daunting miniature-painting project and was doubting myself.

When I saw her on Wednesday, she said she had something for me and took me back to the FLGS office. She said she'd been cleaning out some stuff and wanted me to have something. She handed me the following:


Yep. These are the real thing. They date back to the 1980s. Real old. Real lead.

The body of the Imperial Dragon has been assembled and pinned; the whole thing has been primed, and the underbody has a coat of yellow on it. Other than that, they're just like the day they were made. My friend tells me that she got started and then just put them away. She was going to try and sell them, but thought that she'd rather them go to a home where they'd be truly appreciated.

And I truly do appreciate them. These were made at a time where I could not only not afford them, but my parents also disapproved of the game, so there was no asking them to buy dragons for me. I was speechless when she handed them over...and I still am, to some extent. The gift really moved me. How great it is to have good friends who can stand by you and pick you up when you're down. There's no way I can repay her for this gift, as their worth goes way beyond money.



The Dragons of the Emerald Idol (Grenadier's Fantasy Lords #6001) not only comes with the dragon on the front of the box, but it also comes with two other figures. It comes with a baby dragon, captured running mid-stride (complete with cloud of dust rising from its feet) and the Emerald Idol itself (although it looks strangely more like a tiki idol than emerald. I suppose if I painted it green...).

I don't know what I did to deserve this gift or such great friends. I know however, that this has lifted my spirits a bit and I can hardly wait until I get a chance to break out the brushes and pots to slap some paint on these wee beasties.

[A to Z April] Reflections

I'm pretty sure that somewhere I mentioned how crazy my April was going to be. Well it was. Oh yeah, it was last week. Let me give you a brief recap, since I'm reflecting on the month of April anyway.

• I had a heap of religious commitments come up throughout the month as I am a member of the lay clergy in charge of my congregation. To make matters worse, another member of the lay clergy has become quite ill, laying a heavier-than-usual load on my plate.
  
• Work was intense, as the boss is worried about advertising; therefore I received a new assignment from him to sit in on all the advertising meetings as a witness to the various agreements and negotiations. Training had to continue on a new member of the staff, so answers to basic legal questions had to be dredged up out of my head on a more-often-than-usual basis.
  
• Family got crazy with some extended family nuttiness (we'll just leave that one alone).
  
• Then we had my questionable judgment to agree to participate not only in the A-to-Z Challenge, but also the One Page Dungeon contest.
  
• I had a commitment to the gaming group for at least one six-hour session.
  
• In addition, I had committed to paint one of the other guys' character's miniature for him.
  
• On top of that, the DM gave me the assignment to paint something enormous for him. No, really...the thing is gigantic. Easily the largest miniature I've ever had to paint. Right now I'm sworn to secrecy; hopefully I'll be able to fill you in on this project later.
  
• As for projects, my friend Dylan Hartwell asked for my proofreader's eye on his latest offering, the Horrendous Heap of Sixteen Cities! This project was truly the least onerous of anything else I had committed to do in the month of April, largely because of my sick, sick love for all things proofreading. I plan on offering a more detailed review of this product soon, but suffice it to say: BUY IT. It's a great setting, and I'm not just saying that because I helped to edit it. It's a unique setting and some amazing ideas that can be ported into a campaign. (Note: I have received and will receive NO monetary remuneration for my referrals, review, or any sales of the product. I just edited it. And enjoyed it.)

And most of all of this chaos fell into place AFTER I'd made a personal committment to participate in the A-to-Z Challenge.

Enough time has now passed from the Challenge, I think, to reflect on it in an objective matter. At least relatively objective. So....

• How did your journey through the alphabet go? Did you meet new bloggers with similar interests? Are there any you would like to feature and share with others?
  There was enough indication in mid-March that April might be a little hairy (I had NO idea) so I sat down this year with a calendar and first set out each "letter day." I then spent an hour or so with some different online random word- and name generators. I used those as creative sparks for NPC names, spell names, item names, and place names. Each one was assigned to a letter of the alphabet. In this way I was able to fill up about 20 letters pre-April and begin the idea machine percolating. I was even able to get about a week ahead before April began--a buffer that quickly evaporated.
  
  As far as other bloggers, there were several of my fellow RPG-bloggers that I had known previously who participated. Several more came out of the woodwork. Unfortunately, in part because of my busy schedule, I did not get a chance to visit as many other bloggers' sites as I would have wished. Certainly not as many as the Challenge is designed to send me to read. I was, however, able to find several new sites to follow.
  
  Confession time: my biggest reason for failing to visit a lot of other sites was a concern over plagiarism. I found out last year (and on one occasion this year) that after I visited a site and liked the idea(s) presented there, some idea, nugget, or heck--the entire subject--seemed to creep into my creative pool and demand attention. While that may be expected or anticipated, I don't like to see it happen to my work. I understand that it happens, and it IS supposed to be the sincerest form of flattery. But for the A-to-Z Challenge, I prefer to try and keep my posts based on my own ideas. (I should note: I'm not calling anyone out here. I appreciate that it happens and happens often, particularly among gamers, as ideas spread and build upon each other. I'm simply criticizing my OWN tendency to want to steal ideas during the month of April instead of relying on (what I believe to be) my own ideas.
  
  
• What were the highlights for you? (lowlights too...we want to hear it all)
  I enjoyed seeing my numbers go up on the first week of the Challenge. It was great to be able to expose people who were not familiar to RPGs (or those who hadn't gamed in a while) to the hobby. It was also great to see these aforementioned non-gamers appreciate the creativity and/or the ideas involved in my posts.
  
  
• Did you enjoy posting daily? What was your biggest hurdle? What was your easiest task?
  Frankly, it was difficult for me to post daily. My preparation in having a title or idea for my posts in advance made it a little easier. Some changed as the month went on because I found something more interesting to do with a letter. It was nice trying to keep a buffer, even though it didn't always work. I found that if I jotted something down, whether a thought, statistic, or even an entire post, in my spare time (sitting at court waiting for my cases to be called, sitting in traffic, sitting in front of the television) that I was able to keep at least a day ahead. It wasn't until the last five or so days that I was writing on the day OF the post. My biggest hurdle was probably finding something for some of the "stranger" letters such as 'X' and 'Y'. Oddly it was also difficult weeding out some of the ideas I had for letters such as 'M' and 'S'.
  
  
• Was time management an issue?
  Like I said above, time management was not an issue to begin with, having prepared many of the titles and ideas in advance. This allowed me to schedule a post the day before the letter was due. Time became an issue the final seven days or so when I hit a rough patch made up of 'no time' and 'letters for which I could develop few or no ideas' (such as the aforementioned 'X' and 'Y'). There were a couple of days--especially the final weekend--when I was posting late in the day ON the day in question rather than a day ahead.
  
  
• And what about your content - did you have a theme or did you wing it? Was it easy to come up with ideas for each letter, or were some harder?
  Wow. Another question I've already answered.... It seems I'm anticipating some of these. As I said, I didn't have a "theme" so much, unless you count RPG Gaming Material as a "theme." Because it's the theme of the blog, I'm not sure it qualifies. My pre-month prep allowed me to have a pretty good variation between spells, items, and NPCs. Some of the lesser-used letters were difficult. 'X' has given me trouble both years. So has 'Y' and, oddly, 'U' has well.
  
  
• How about commenting - did you stumble upon lots of sites still using word verification? Did this prevent you from leaving a comment? What worked for your blog?
  As I said above, I didn't get a chance to do a lot of visiting. I can only remember maybe two sites that still used word verification and I don't seem to recall having issues with it. I will echo some of my fellow bloggers' complaints: Wordpress was NOT user friendly for either commenting or for following. Certainly not as simple as Blogger.
  
  
• What will you do different next year?
  I will probably start a bit sooner than the end of March to pre-prepare titles and ideas. I will certainly try and resolve some of the other time consuming issues before and after April. I may even try and narrow down an actual theme.
  
  
• What pearls of wisdom do you want to share with the Co-Hosts of this event?
  I'm not sure there is anything TO suggest. It was a good experience for me. I appreciated seeing some of the Co-Hosts visit and comment on my blog. It showed to me that they had great buy-in into their Challenge and that they embraced the spirit of the Challenge that they were trying to impart to the rest of us.

In conclusion, I'd urge anyone who HASN'T tried the A-to-Z April Challenge to try it next year. I know there are a lot of bloggers--especially RPG bloggers--and readers who believe that it is forced, contrived, or simply downright annoying. It can be done in interesting, intruiging, and compelling ways. It can also be done in quite subtle ways; at least one of my acquaintances pulled off an A-to-Z without my realizing it.

Just like any challenge, you get out of it what you put in. You can make your theme(s) and posts as detailed or as cursory as you want. Creativity is the goal (at least for me) and exposure to new ideas a secondary goal. The reduced timeline is, for me, a good driving force for focus and creative stretching, much like NaNoWriMo is in November.

And not only do I have a bunch of new stuff to throw at my players, I also have a dozen more ideas that were named/brainstormed but were passed up as the month went along.

Cue Evil Laughter.

[1PD] -- The Ebony Obelisk of the Snail Demon

After several years of watching helplessly from the sidelines, I decided this year to jump in and participate in the One Page Dungeon (or 1PD) contest.

Not only did I decide to participate, myself and a group of much more creative individuals decided to throw in together and develop a small megadungeon made up of our individual one page dungeons, each one linked somehow to another "level" or one page dungeon. The collective megadungeon is called "The Watery Palace of the Ooze Behemoth" and consists of roughly seven levels.

Of course, life intervened and what with the A to Z April Challenge and a myriad of other personal, professional, religious, and familial commitments, I found myself on the morning of April 30th without a 1PD. So I delved into my archives and pulled out a map from April 2011 called The Temple of Urosh. A few tweaks to the description, a little fleshing out, and the Temple of Urosh became the home of the Ebony Obelisk of the Snail Demon (Urosh being the eponymous Snail Demon) and Level 2 of the Watery Palace of the Ooze Behemoth. My 1PD is presented below.

A great thanks to Jim Pacek over at Carjacked Seraphim for the tremendously brilliant and evil plan to combine a set of 1PDs into one megadungeon. My commitment to participate in the "Watery Palace" project was one of the only things that made me follow through on the 1PD contest this year. I should also thank him for harrowing up my memory this morning by posting that "Other folks also participated, but I don't think they've shared their levels yet! :)" That jogged my memory enough to remind me to post up my 1PD here for your perusal.

I look forward to seeing these seven± levels put together in one place. Check back and I'll share it when I get it. For now, however, enjoy "The Ebony Obelisk of the Snail Demon."

If you get a chance, take a look at Level 5, "The Pearly Spiral of the Endless Hunger" by Dave at Tower of the Archmage.

And of course, Level 7, "The Tesseract Prison of the Putrescent Lord" over at Carjacked Seraphim.

Now for a nap.

Oh, yeah. A PDF of my level is here for download.

D+D=(πR²)∞ or Something Like That

This so TOTALLY describes a player in my group. Maybe every group has one, I don't know. But this is something that he would stay up nights creating.

This is a man who once took an hour of a gaming session calculating falling damage and terminal velocity in 2nd Edition AD&D game terms.

This is a man who worked the numbers and MacGyverred a short-range nuclear missle from a +2 javelin and some miscellaneous alchemical and magical items.

This is a man who.... Well, you get the idea. Like I said, it may be true that every group has one, I consider ours to be the best. He's not only an engineer, he's a chemist, loves geology and fossils, and works for the Government in a forensic role. I'm an English major and an attorney: all that "math stuff" is arcane writing to me. I look up to this guy for what he knows and what he does. What he does in the game? Well, I have to respect that too, even though it causes no end of trouble.

Remember the story from last month about an NPC who had a ranger's wolf scare him? That actually happened over a decade ago. It was our engineer's wolf; this was the ranger who designed the "javelin of destruction."

Suffice it to say: the "crying stableboy who peed himself" is legendary around our table now.

It's become one of our catch-phrases and one of our favorite memories. In fact, NONE of his characters is allowed to speak to children for this very reason.

I don't think I'm going to let him see this picture, though. It may give him ideas.

**h/t to Tom at Yawning Portal for the image.