Not Gaming Today

It always seems like I think and write more about gaming when I am actually gaming less. I guess that makes sense, if I were actually gaming I’d have less time to think about gaming in general. Today I was supposed to GM the new Mophidius Star Trek RPG, but both my wife Mona and my daughter Ember are sick. This should have been the “good” week for Mona, the last weekend before more chemo, we even had an “extra” weekend here because of Thanksgiving delaying a treatment for her. Until her treatments are done it’s looking like we are going to be two weeks off, one week on for gaming, with a pretty good chance of losing the third week too.

Star Trek came as a bit of a surprise this week anyway, we were scheduled to start a new Savage Worlds Fantasy campaign set in my own Garnia setting, but they released the playtest into the wild and they would appreciate getting the results back within a few weeks. It’s not a long adventure, and it seems like it hits all the right rules to test, and teach, the game. In that respect it brings to mind the adventure in the Legend of the Five Rings RPG first edition book.

Working on a new campaign is always handy to distract me from my wife’s illness, so I welcome it. Writing up stuff for Garnia for Savage Worlds is a little weird for me, I easily fall into my AD&D mode there, which makes me want to check out OSR related blogs and such, then lose myself for a while reading about things like the implied setting of OD&D, or Vancian magic, or a myriad of other details about TSR era D&D, especially the early, Gygax era.

I engaged more than usual with the D&D groups on Facebook this week, which made me realize that I have DMed way more than I have played over the years. Made me think about whether Holmes Basic should be counted as OD&D or part of the later Basic line, or should each iteration of Basic D&D be considered it’s own thing? I only recall having two characters of my own for Holmes, an elf I named Elrond- I was a big fan of the Hobbit at the time, and working my way through Lord of the Rings, and a Halfling named Garn- who my campaign world would be named after. Both of those characters were played in my friend Chris’s campaign, which eventually collapsed because of his killer DM/Monty Haul tendencies. Elrond died on his first adventure, killed by a Vampire he encountered on the second level of the dungeon. Garn became a god, after his first successful adventure.

I can only think of four 1^st edition AD&D characters I played over the years. Mandark, a Human Fighter that I played in my friend Tim’s campaign from the time I was in 5^th or 6^th grade until he went in the army when I was a junior in high school. He made 8^th level in those years of heavy play. Second, concurrently, was Lodor, and Elf Fighter/Magic-User that I played in non-Tim run campaigns (except for once, and I’m still bitter about that), he maxxed his levels out, 5^th/8^th I think. The third guy, whose name I don’t remember, I think it was something like “Fredigar”, lost his right hand after his first adventure and I retired him. Lastly, there was another Fighter, named Brennos, who I played in the 2^nd edition era in a campaign run by my buddy Steve, who was the OG of old school. Brennos made it to 6^th level, then got killed at the end of the last session we played by a critical hit from a goblin’s arrow, when he was at full HP. Still a little bitter about that too, but that campaign my well have been the most sand-box, old school game I ever played in.

2^nd edition AD&D had me DMing less often, adult responsibilities and all, but I played in a pretty long-lasting (for the grown-up world anyway) game where I had two different characters, an Elf Magic-User (generalist, no kit) named Celenor, who made it to 6^th level before a Drow’s sleep dart killed him with a crit, while at full HP- seeing a pattern here, still bitter about it too; and a Human Fighter whose name I forget. He was a swashbuckler, I made him so he wouldn’t compete with the Dwarf Fighter

Changed my Blog Title Back

Returned to Ramblings as it were.

Other stuff-

I have written my own more S&W version of Star Trek, it's not polished and ready for public consumption, but it's more or less playable and I hope to test it soon.

Created a mission based Vietnam War RPG D&D hack. This is another one that needs polishing, but it is playable (provided I am at the table to explain the bits I haven't written yet).

Tossed out both my OA D&D hack and my B/X WW II projects, and started over with some of the design principles I came up with for both 'Nam and Star Trek. Got a complete outline and extensive notes for my OA D&D hack (tentatively titled "Samurai!") and planned a supplement ("Ninja!").  I even figured out what I am doing for art for "Samurai!".

Created a new campaign world for OD&D/S&W Whitebox, as it turns out the implied setting of OD&D is different than it is for AD&D. Both have an implied post-apocalyptic setting, but OD&D is a lot more free and easy with sci-fi elements than AD&D. I actually ran a game in my new campaign setting earlier this month and, while it's reception was mixed, it went OK. I was a little disappointed that the party wasn't terribly interested in the travel brochures from the 4th Reich, and that they decided to kill their tour guide in Helltown, but I have some easy fixes planned for this coming Saturday.

Oh, and I created a new game system entirely, I call it "Simple d20 Mechanics for RPGs or Miniature Battles, including rules for Magic". This one is being looked over by my buddy Darryl in case it needs some rules clarifications or whatnot, he became a professional editor after he and I worked on Paul Elliot's 43 AD. I hope to release it soon as a free download from our newly created collaboration "Great Khan Games" once it's ready I'll provide the RPGNow link.

I have a couple of more ideas in the "brainstorm" phase of development too.

Of course, the trade off here is that I haven't written any of my promised reviews, despite the fact that I acquired even more stuff to review. I recently bought several new OSR products on Lulu, first up will be Full Metal Platemail, but I have been writing more than I've been reading for the last few weeks.

Also- is anyone interested in writing some extensive random tables that are reminiscent of the AD&D OA ancestry tables? I am apparently bad at that and it's costing me a lot of time. Just a thought.

I know this'll come as a shock...

...especially to everyone that knows me, but I took a "Which Star Trek character are you?" quiz, and this is the result-


Your results:
You are Worf

Worf 80% Spock 60% Uhura 60% Mr. Sulu 60% Jean-Luc Picard 60% Chekov 55% James T. Kirk (Captain) 45% Will Riker 45% Geordi LaForge 40% Mr. Scott 30% Beverly Crusher 30% Deanna Troi 30% Data 29% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 25% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 0%

You are trained in the art of combat and are usually intimidating.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Quiz

I am slowly getting back into the swing of things here. I am mostly playing catch up, reading blogs I haven't read for the last couple of weeks and I did try out a new RPG last weekend, it was pretty good. There's still time for anyone to enter the One Page Dungeon Contest, and I have plenty of magnets left.

Some New Stuff

I still haven't had a chance to start 43 AD, because my wife is still sick, but I got this gaming stuff in the mail recently-

I was actually thinking of Mona when I bid on this Dragon Army Expansion, because that's the clan she got when she took the Clan test on the AEG website. The test appears to be gone now, but it's been an amusing point of contention between us because her Clan and mine, the Lion, were at war in the online L5R RPG I was playing on Facebook - Emerald Empire - until Facebook shut down all the games that didn't meet certain criteria. Her clan actually burned my clan's stronghold to the ground with magical fire. Anyway, this and the next one were both still in the shrink wrap, sweet deal.

I always figured that as a Mongol enthusiast I'd end up being a Unicorn Clan player in L5R,  since they are the most Mongol like. They even have a Khan, but apparently they don't match my personality. Still, with this set I can make four different clan armies to field once they get painted up.

I don't think I have anything else from the Last Unicorn Games Star Trek game system, but I figured since it was going cheap and I was getting the two boxes of Clan War miniatures (probably, you never know when you might get sniped), I'd save on shipping anyway; so I gave it a shot. I thought it would be more of a "Rogues Gallery" for this system, but it's actually a detailed system for playing non-Star Fleet characters. It's got some stuff I can use in it and I got it cheap.

I had a busy day today...

...But mostly it was spent working on my other blog and trying to decide what stuff to auction off on EBay. Check out my "20 Questions about the Mistlands" post on my other blog (button to the right) and let me know what you think of this unique area of my campaign world. I also had a Doctors appointment, and was prescribed a medication that my insurance company refuses to pay for, which is becoming all too common lately. I went back to my doctors office and got samples the drug company rep left them.

I also, of course got a bunch of stuff in the mail from EBay, almost all Star Fleet Battles universe stuff-

The non-SFB universe stuff is a copy of Heritage Models "Star Trek - Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier". I knew they must have made all those miniatures for a reason, it's copyright 1978 though. The other two books are "Starfleet Academy Training Command- Line Officer Requirements" Volume 2 and Supplement. Pity Volume 1 didn't make it into the set. They are copyrighted to 1987 D. Schmidt, and there is an ad in the middle of the supplement to order more Star Trek and other sci-fi stuff from "New Eye Studio", lots of blueprints for ships, and some more Starfleet guides, a catalog for their Battlestar Galactica, Space:1999, Star Wars and Dr. Who stuff.

Of the SFB universe stuff I got a few doubles in there, but one of them was the Prime Directive rulebook, and if we ever play an extra will be handy. One was Carrier War for F&E, but this one is still in the shrink wrap, so I think I'll be able to resell it pretty easy. The last was a Captain's Log, that should resell easy enough too.

Dawn Patrol and Old School Battlestar Galactica

But first, this picture I randomly ran across on another blog of some Scythians, among the oldest school Steppe Warriors out there; so it's a shout out to my old Guildies from AOL's version of Neverwinter Nights and Yurt dwelling folk everywhere.

Next, I ran across these pics on another blog.

Now I am not generally a huge fan of Sci-Fi cross-overs, but seeing the Cylon on the Enterprise bridge was pretty cool. The second one just reminded me of how I didn't get my Gold Cylon when I sent away for it. Which reminded me of how I was similarly screwed out of this-

What is it with me NOT getting Battlestar Galactica stuff when I was a kid? Was it Karma because I was the only kid I knew that got the Colonial Viper for Christmas that year? Everyone else got stuck with the lame almost viper toys, or, if they were lucky like two of my friends, got the Cylon Raider.

What were they thinking there? Kids will love having a ship never seen on the show? A Viper-esque thing on wheels will be great! Don't toy company execs actually ever have kids look at their proposed toys? Because the Viper and the Raider were the only ones they produced that were necessary. A shuttle might have been nice, or anything in the action figure scale. Action figures with detail and articulation at least as nice as Kenner's Star Wars figures would have made it a competitive line too, as it was I got all of mine as gifts; despite being a HUGE BSG fan (at 9 years old I was apparently their demographic), I knew their action figures were crap. Oddly enough, I have the Muffitt figure sitting on my desk- top shelf, center, under the light, on top of my Cesare Borgia tobacco tin full of old coins, behind a bunch of old school D&D miniatures, mostly Heritage and Ral Partha, some Grenadier or others.

Now I guess that it is apropos to this discussion, in a roundabout way, of BSG that my new copy of Dawn Patrol came in the mail today. Here are the pictures:

It is pretty nearly complete, I didn't count the counters, but the rest of the contents are there except for two maneuver cards used for tailing/being tailed. There are three complete sets of maneuver cards and one set missing two. My wife Mona actually volunteered to make some more sets using her skills with art and graphics programs and I can then print them out onto heavy paper and she'll cut the new decks out. There was also this odd box of counters that doesn't actually go to Dawn Patrol. I've been a Wargamer for three decades and I don't recognize these guys, anyone know what game they're from?

My wife took this picture with our digital camera, because I am impaired at photography, so I thank her for that

Anyway, over the years I have built and rebuilt BSG RPGs, and never got anyone to play with me, even my buddies like Lance who LOVES the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica. How Dawn Patrol fits in to all of this is that in a couple of incarnations of my BSG RPG, I pretty much used Dawn Patrol as a chassis for the fighter combat. Obviously, it needs some modification to make it a space fighter combat game, but, in theory, it works all right. I say in theory, because I never playtested it against anyone but myself. I don't exactly know when I started "designing" games, it seems like I must have been in high school, but that seems kind of late for a BSG project. Probably earlier, I was always stuck chasing the Questing Beast that is the perfect RPG as Big Darryl's Squire, so modifying rules was in my gaming blood from the time I was in junior high I guess.

I don't know how many iterations my BSG RPG went through. I do know that every time some hot new game system came along down the pike I had to see what it had that I could use, modify or be inspired by. I rewrote the WEG D6 Star Wars game into a BSG RPG, that was dead simple, all you really have to do is remove the Jedi and change some terminology. I had an entire GURPS version once, and I didn't even own any GURPS books at the time. Having access to your friends and mentors gaming libraries is a good thing. I am pretty sure I quit trying to put together an original series BSG RPG sometime in the mid 1990s; I am going to guess that I figured if it hadn't happened by then, it just wasn't going to happen. I know I quit before the D20 craze, otherwise I'd probably have driven myself nuts trying to make it happen again and have everyone in my D&D group be all lukewarm on the idea.

OK, I haven't blogged in a few days

First my dad was in the hospital for the last day of the April A-Z challenge, which I guess means I won't be getting a spiffy award for completion this year; then I got sick with the same bug that's hit the rest of my family, I swear children are plague-bearers, this never happened to me before I had kids. After that I guess it's just the laziness about blogging that sets in when you skip a few days, it just gets harder and harder to get back in the saddle; you keep finding excuses. I didn't even have good ones, like "There's a bunch of work to be done outside!", because the weather has been so rainy here.

I actually figured when I got back to blogging it'd be either about my Mongol fixation or about my Oriental Adventures project, still working. I actually tried to entice my D&D group to get back to OA to playtest some of my new stuff, and I have been reading a lot of eastern philosophy, Asian RPG and Miniature game rules sets and novels set in Feudal Japan during my recovery from illness. Actually, the Mongol and feudal Japanese and eastern philosophy all kind of go together for the same project anyway.

On to gaming, we decided, since Lance's work schedule has made his attendance spotty, and since Audra is a new gamer and his girlfriend, so she really only comes to the games he does, and Lee Ann was in San Francisco for some reason; we'd give Star Wars a shot since it was a Star Wars holiday weekend (May the Fourth be with you, Revenge of the Fifth), although our game was technically on the sixth, so I guess you could extend that out to "Revenge of the Sixth"? Too much? Anyway, I decided to GM, despite my desperate desire to actually PLAY in a Star Wars game*. Like many decisions I've made in my life I put off choosing which system to use until the absolute last possible second, the moments leading up to character creation.

WEG D6 system lost out to WotC's D20 system for the sole reason that everyone in the group already knows how to play D&D, and has at least a little bit of experience with 3rd edition D&D. I also have more copies of the rulebooks to pass around for character creation. I went with the D20 revised edition, because I had more stuff for it, and I figured that it probably corrected some issues with the original core rules. My later research on the web seems to indicate that I was right, but that edition would have been a better choice still, but I don't have a lot of Saga edition books and they are stupid expensive on both Amazon and Ebay.

Anyway, I am still going to convert a bunch of my stuff from the D6 system to the D20 system, and a lot of the old WEG stuff is ind of rules-lite anyway. I am setting the campaign during the Rebellion, shortly after the destruction of Alderaan, in fact all of the current PCs are Alderaanians that just happened to be off world when the Death Star destroyed their home world. Now, we know that Alderaan was a peaceful planet with no weapons, yet it was still a hotbed of rebel activity. My take on this is that the average Alderaanian is taught to be like Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jr., it's all about non-violent resistance, right? I figure that this diverse group of survivors, many of whom may have had pro-rebellion sympathies before their home world was destroyed by the Empire, decided to be a little less like Dr. King and a little more like Malcolm X. Passive resistance was no longer an option, it was time for a more active role in their resistance to the Empire.

All of the current PCs are Human, one is a Noble, one is a Soldier (just completed Imperial Flight School!), one is a Force Adept, I assume from some sect of non-Jedi sometimes Force-Sensitive religious cult on Alderaan, and the last is a Scout who had the wanderlust.

Next I got some stuff in the mail-

The Manor was a great little zine and I thoroughly enjoyed every page of it, which is something I can't say about any professionally produced magazine I have bought in a long time. I bought it the day it became available, and I have had it for a few days now, but didn't really get a chance to sit down and read it cover to cover until today. Well worth the money.

Secrets of the Scorpion. I know I swore off buying Legend of the Five Rings stuff as a New Years resolution, but it was such a bargain and I still hold out hope that I may eventually play that game. Plus I fell off the Ebay wagon pretty hard this month, indulging in all of my hobby whims pretty indiscriminately; perhaps not the best idea since my wife's birthday is Friday, followed by Mother's Day on Sunday.

Fortunes and Winds. Another Legends of the Five Rings Score, I don't even know what this book is about, except that I can ALMOST convince myself that it will be useful for my OA project because it is one of the Dual-Statted L5R 2nd edition RPG/3e D&D OA books.

Plus I have probably been thinking about Rokugan lately because my Lion clan just lost a major battle to the Dragon clan in the Emerald Empire game I play on Facebook.

*or a Star Trek game, or a D&D game, I am not picky.

Not for nothing...

...But when I showed this picture to my youngest daughter Ember, we both agreed that it kind of reminded us of her. It looks like her a bit and has her attitude. Lamentations of the Flame Princess has certainly been an interesting look at old school gaming, and it's had a pretty good effect on my blog, I get a lot of hits from Finland. But I think it's starting to seep into my daughter's brains, or maybe it's just that Raggi and I are a little too alike and they'd be what his daughters would be like?

Next Question- If you had to pick an old school Star Trek game to play, would you go with FASA's Star Trek RPG and it's associated Starship Tactical Combat Simulator or Task Force Games/Amarillo Design Bureau's Federation & Empire/Star Fleet Battles/Prime Directive? I know that Prime Directive made it on to the scene a little late, but I also know that the Tactical Combat Simulator was a later add-on. Both games suffer from having to make up a lot of new Star Trek material and extrapolate from what they had available at the time, SFB/PD is still in print, although PD has undergone numerous rules changes from d20 to GURPS to the upcoming Traveler,they are still restricted by their license to ONLY use elements of Star Trek from the original series, the animated series and what they snuck in from some of the original series cast movies; everything elsethey were forced to make up as they went along. FASA did the same thing, only with a better, but more restrictive license until they got smacked down for assuming that Star Trek: The Next Generation was covered by the same license. So which old school Star Trek game do you prefer and why?

I only ask because I already had this.

But this came in the mail today.

And so did this.

All of these miniatures came today too, a good many Celts, always good for my Garnia campaign; and some Norse and Normans, which should be handy in most other cases, as well as in Garnia.

April 14th M Day

I don't have a lot of time to write today either, I played a Dawn Patrol game today and got home kind of late, then spent a little time with my family before I sat down to write, so this list is a bit short too.

M is for Mjöðr , or Mead, a wine made of honey and water and yeast. I can attest that it is very good, and the Norsemen loved it too.

M is for Miðgarð, "Middle Earth", the land of men.

M is for Mímir, a God of the Aesir, who was traded as a hostage to the Vanir after their war. The Vanir killed him and sent his head back to Odin. Odin preserved it and kept it alive, because he was so wise, he learned from it many things. Mímir also had a well that imparted great knowledge, it was there that Odin sacrificed his eye, perhaps so he could continue seeing through the well of knowledge?

M is for Madjus, this is an Arabic word used to describe the Norsemen, it means roughly "Heathen Wizards", which I guess says something about the way the Arabs saw the Vikings.

M is for Magic, there are three main forms of Norse magic Seið (magic through trance, contact with spirits), Galðr (magic through words, written, spoken or chanted/sung) and Hamr (magic through shape changing or sending forth the spirit).

M is for Maðr, which is just the Norse word for man, but since I gave the Norse word for woman, I figured I'd do the same here. It is also used in compound words a lot, so a Wizard (Vitki) might be a Galðramaðr.

M is for Mikligarð, the "Great City", Constantinople. Many Norsemen traveled there to serve in the Byzantine Emperor's Varangian Guard, which was essentially a latter day Praetorian guard made up primarily of Norsemen; after 1066 many Saxons fleeing the Norman yoke in England joined it's ranks.

M is for Mjölnir, the hammer of Thor. Made by Dwarves, it has a handle too short to make it useful as a a melee weapon because Loki, in the form of a fly, bit the Dwarf working the bellows, which is why it is used by Thor as a throwing hammer. Sometime after the introduction of Christianity to the Norse world the Mjölnir became a symbol of their Heathen faith, just as the Cross is worn by Christians.

M is for Muninn, one of Odin's Ravens, "Memory".

M is for Múspellheim, the "Land of Fire", a type of Giants live there, Fire Giants in English, thier leader is Surt, and he'll burn the nine worlds at Ragnarök.

I also got this cool Star Trek stuff in the mail today from EBay, the pictures are, of course, from the auction.

Since this is hard to read- it's the Star Trek III Struggle for the Throne Klingon game from FASA, I'd never heard of it before, it's complete though, but the box is kind of beat up.

This bunch of stuff is FASA trek's Star Trek The Next Generation First Year Sourcebook, AKA the book that killed FASA Trek, the adventure module "Where Has All The Glory Gone?", The Star Trek RPG Adventure book, the adventure module "An Imbalance of Power" (which I already had), the supplement "The Federation" and, oddly enough, the LUG, GM's screen, which is pretty much useless to me. I got all of this for $4.99+ shipping though, so I don't really mind.

Sunday D&D Game

Sadly cancelled. Lee's daughter's birthday party and Lance's daughter being sick made us down three players, so we just played some Star Trek CCG and hung out instead.

Getting Back on the Horse

Getting back to blogging is harder than you'd think. I have been feeling better enough now for a couple of days at least to do this and just keep finding excuses to not do it. There are always more blogs to be read, I spent half the day yesterday arguing with political conservatives on the internet and getting really worked up over it; just for the record, it's an exercise in futility- you can not win, their minds are made up before the argument starts and no matter how many well reasoned arguments you make they will come back either with statements of "Nuh-uh", or pick a single sentence out of the many paragraphs you have written to take out of context offense to, and then attempt to refute that, usually while drawing in whatever other conservative issues they are passionate about to the argument. I am saddened by the fact that the average American has no ability to argue a point and is so close-minded that they are completely unable to even consider that the other side of the political spectrum might have something to offer.

While I was sick I did watch a lot of movies and TV series I have been meaning to get around to for a while, so I guess it wasn't a complete waste of time. I watched 16 Sharpe's movies, now I feel like I should probably read the books. I watched 10 Star Trek movies, all of the original series cast and Next Generation cast ones, my kids had never seen any of them, except one of them had seen The Wrath of Khan. I also got through half of season six and all of season seven of Deep Space 9 with my kids and all of the first season of Voyager and about half of the second. I am finding that I don't hate Voyager, which is strange for me since I hated it so much when it originally aired.

While I was sick I didn't get a whole lot of reading done though, so my awaited examination of the Cook Expert book is going to have to wait a little longer until I actually get myself disciplined enough to read through it again and take the necessary notes. I also haven't gotten very far into The Anarchy of Stephen and Matilda, which isn't exactly the book I thought it was when I pre-ordered it from Amazon. I thought it would be a history of the period, instead it's a historical novel, that's OK I guess, but I was searching history books on Amazon when I found it so I was a little surprised when I finally picked it up and started reading it.

On the gaming side of things, having completed the slightly altered Castle Caldwell, which I renamed Bodmin Moor Manor, I have made the momentous decision to send the party next to module B2- The Keep on the Borderlands. I am planning on starting a second B/X group with Darryl, and hopefully Chris and Lili, and whoever else we can scrounge together for a group in Liverpool. The second group I plan to start with "Knowledge Illuminates", technically not for B/X, but any OSR module is pretty compatible with any version of pre-3e D&D. My version of 1139 Cornwall is starting to gain a life of it's own. I like that the players are unfamiliar with the history of the period too, it makes things exciting for me, I can choose to let history run it's course or alter it as I see fit. I also have a Dawn Patrol game scheduled for tomorrow, so I'll let you all know how that goes.

Now, I'll weigh in on the great controversy of the week- Save or Die Poison- I am completely in favor of it. I don't think the players need to be mollycoddled with any nonsense about having their hit points be so low before the save or die mechanic kicks in or anything else. I honestly don't even get where this is coming from, I know the save or die went away in 3e, but poison was still possibly lethal and had negative effects. Ordinarily I would go out and get my 3e book and do a statistical analysis of how poison worked between all the editions I have available to me, I don't feel like searching through 3e for rules I don't really use or care about. Older editions of D&D that use the save or die mechanic have different rules for how poisons work, but they also have spells that are specifically targeted towards poison, and magic items too. From what I am seeing they want to make save or die only kick in if you are already significantly weakened, near death. Now, Saving Throws are not impossible to make, and if you are worried that Olaf the mighty, your 10th level Fighter might die because a Giant Spider got a lucky shot in, well, ordinary humans die from poison all the time, Olaf knew when he became an adventurer that the odds were against him and he'd probably end up in an unmarked grave or unceremoniously dumped in a ditch somewhere; but Olaf, being 10th level, has better odds on his side to make that save versus poison than an ordinary man, hell, he had better odds at 1st level. Assuming Olaf is an AD&D Fighter with no items that give him any bonuses to his saving throws, he needs an 8 is all to make that save. The odds are he'll make it, an ordinary 0-level man would've needed a 16. Making him only have to roll that saving throw when the chips are down and he's already near death is adding insult to injury and making poison not all that deadly to deal with otherwise. We're talking poison here.

That means that you could take Olaf and drop him naked with a dagger into a pit of Cobras (Snake Poisonous MM II page 111, assume they are the deadly 20 on the d20 roll -3 to saving throw, failure means death), they have 2+1 HD, so an average of 9 HP, Olaf is a 10th level AD&D Fighter, so he has 9d10(+Con bonus, if any, but probable, so let's call it +1)+3, average the 9d10 rolls to 45, add 9 for his Con bonus, that's 54, plus 3 for 57 Hit Points, and to be charitable to the Cobras we won't give him a Dexterity bonus to AC. The way I read this, they want to base the amount of Hit Points you have to be reduced to to be vulnerable to the poison to a function of the Hit Dice of the Attacking creature, these Cobras have 2+1 HD, so let's assume you become vulnerable to their poison when you reach fewer then the maximum Hit Points that 2+1 Hit Dice can give you, or 17 Hit Points. That means that the Cobras have to do 40 points of damage to Olaf before he has to start making Saving Throws. We'll also assume Olaf is proficient with but not specialized with the dagger and it's an ordinary dagger. How many Cobras will it take statistically to kill Olaf? Olaf gets 3/2 attacks per round, and probably has a Strength bonus, he is an AD&D Fighter after all, so his highest ability score roll probably got put there, and it was probably an 18, which is bad news for the Cobras since he then gets percentiles Strength too, I'll call it 51%, which makes him +2 to hit and +3 to damage.

Now, the Cobras are AC6 and Olaf is AC10, but Olaf is 10th level and has a Strength bonus, so he only needs a 4 to hit them, meaning he hits 80% of the time and does 4-7 points of damage an average of 5, he is probably doing 10 points of damage in the rounds he gets 2 attacks, which probably kills one Cobra. The other round he injures one to about half it's Hit Points probably. The Cobras are pretty lucky too, they only need a 6 to hit him, so they hit 70% of the time, but sadly they only do 1 point of damage per hit. I really don't know how to calculate how many Cobras are in the pit, they are only supposed to appear in groups of 1-6, but I have to assume these ones were captured and deliberately placed as a form of entertainment/execution, but they picked the wrong guy when they picked Olaf, because unless they are getting an unrealistically huge number of attacks per round or the pit is literally swarming with Cobras, I don't think they stand the chance of getting him down to the 17 HP threshold where he has to start making his Saving Throw, which would be an 11 for a 10th level Fighter against their deadly venom. I don't see the problem.

Look at it this way, at first level, Olaf almost certainly dies here in this Cobra execution pit, even if there are only the maximum of six of them, one would more than likely do the job, it's tougher than he is and it's poisonous. Olaf at 5th level is still scared, even of just a one, this is a deadly scenario. Olaf at 10th level shouldn't shake this off either, when you get dropped naked into a pit with Cobras and a Dagger, you aren't expected to win. 10th level Olaf has a shot, if there are few enough Cobras and his luck holds; he hits more often and saves easier.

Save or die is one of the few mechanics in the game that levels the playing field a little bit for everyone, not only is it an injection of realism into the game, but it keeps people from becoming complacent and assuming that they are larger than anything else in the campaign world, that they are superheroes or demigods walking around among the mere mortal NPCs. Save or die is the RPG that takes out the PC tank every now and again, it doesn't always do it, but the presence of it reminds them that they are mortal and there are things out there to fear, even small things sometimes. Large Spiders are classed as "Common" monsters in AD&D, they have a Save or Die poison, it's "relatively weak" so you save at +2, but they appear in numbers from 2-20, they are a 1+1 HD monster, so you find them pretty early in your adventuring career too.

I once killed half of a 1st level party in an encounter with two giant centipedes because the party was unlucky, they couldn't hit and they couldn't make their saving throws. They weren't super happy about the experience at the time, but they all still remember it to this day, and they all came out in favor of Save or Die poison staying exactly as it is.

GM Questionnaire

So, I decided to fill out Zak's Questionnaire, here are my answers.

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

I am apparently a one trick pony, I can come up with good campaign settings. I can fill them with interesting NPCs and get some action started via plot hooks, after that it's all on the players. I don't really invent stuff like tricks, traps, spells or monsters.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

December 18, 2011, but that session and the one before it weren't all that great.

3. When was the last time you played?

Sometime in 2009? Right after Hackmaster Basic came out, my Daughter Ashli decided to debut as a gamemaster using that system, it went well for the first couple of sessions while she had pre-prepared material to work with, but once she had to start working with her own material and we started to do things that weren't covered in the book, things started to go bad; it ended shortly after that while we waited for the release of Frandor's Keep. I bought that for her when it came out, but we never went back to Hackmaster Basic, I think that the ultra-busyness of her senior year of high school and the bad memory of how it had ended before turned her off to the system. No, I forgot, it was last Spring when Lee's 1/2 Orc died, she DMed my campaign for a few sessions while I recharged my DM mojo.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

B/X Pendragon, more of a campaign really though.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

Eat, drink, chat with the other players; eventually roll a random encounter.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

Usually Beef Summer Sausage, a variety of Cheeses, Ritz Crackers and Ranch Dressing or A couple of Different Types of Mustard make the standard "During the Game" snack tray, also Coffee (always), Hot Tea (Black, Green, or some types of Herbal- upon request), Hot Cocoa (upon request), usually some type of soda, always with a couple of diet options for soda. Sometimes the snack tray will include vegetables or other cold meats, this week's game will have Smoked Herring, for example. Since my game is every other week, I have the opportunity to stock up on snack foods when I find them on sale for a good price, so various Potato Chips and flavors of Doritos make their way here pretty frequently too. Since we always break for dinner, we almost always have some kind of food that is either easy and quick to make, or that we can throw in the oven or on the stove and not have to watch too closely, at recent game sessions we have had Beef Stew and Chili Con Carne; or alternately we order Pizza & Wings or Subs. Players are free to bring whatever other snacks they want to as well, as long as they bring enough to share, so this usually adds some Chips, Cookies and Soda to the mix too.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

No, but I'm not 16 anymore either. I can't play D&D for 16 hours straight and then take a 5 hour nap before another 16 hour session.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

Planning a tactical assault on a well guarded and somewhat fortified urban mansion with a party of low level PCs? I played a 1st level Magic- User. Seriously, I don't get to play much.

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

Sometimes they do, sometimes I do. It's a game. Sure I may get a little ticked off when one of the players decides to not take the game as deadly serious as I am, at the moment, but aren't we all doing this to have fun and blow off a little of our real life stress and hang out with our friends, and, in my case, my family too? Sometimes this game just takes a turn for the absurd, and there is nothing you can do to turn it around. When it's one player, it CAN get contagious, when it's the DM it WILL get contagious. The less said about the gay Orc discotheque, the better or the naked no-thumbed Orcs. Why do these things keep happening to Orcs?

10. What do you do with goblins?

After what happened to the Orcs, do you really want to know? Seriously, they're mostly evil cannon fodder.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

The floor plan of a Korean bath house.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

Funny things happen all the time at my game. We have a pretty fun loving group of players, but nothing springs to mind specifically.

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

Moldvay Basic Book, reading it cover to cover for a blog post.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

Tough choice here, but I am going to go with Dave Trampier.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

I would have to say no. Occasionally a little creeped out, but really scared, no; again, it's just a game.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

Tough to say, I almost always heavily rewrite adventure modules anyway, because if I don't I am afraid I'll forget something important because I didn't write it, and the potential problem of players having read the adventure before hand. The only adventure I can run with a minimum of preparation AND be sure I am not forgetting anything is B2.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

That would depend on the game now wouldn't it? An ideal set up for a WW II board game is going to be different than the ideal set up for a Star Trek RPG, but for the sake of argument I'll assume you meant ideal for D&D. Ideal for D&D would need to have some medieval ambiance in the room, a table large enough to seat 9 people at least, with room for books, snacks, an optional battle mat and minis. Good lighting. Access to a nearby rest room and kitchen facility, should probably be the DM's residence. Side table for the DM. Bookshelves are a plus, so reference books are in the same room. A good sound system would be nice too. Since we're going for ideal, I'd have a computer at the DM station too. The DM's chair would be more like a throne, so he sat higher up and in a nicer chair, projecting his more powerful status to the players. Actually with some redecoration, my old DM Marty's dining room where we used to play in his 2nd edition campaign comes pretty close, the only issues are that I am the usual DM now, his reference books were in an upstairs library room and it was a little on the small side.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

Star Fleet Battles and Munchkin, they have got to be sitting at opposite ends of the spectrum.

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

Higher education, my 1st edition AD&D DMG, Conan the Barbarian, King Arthur.

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

People who follow the Wheaton Rule. Other than that be clean, no stereotypical gamers here; be on time and attentive to the game, it's respectful to the rest of the gamers here. It helps if we're already friends and would hang out with each other even if there wasn't a D&D game going on, because sometimes shit happens and we don't get to play D&D when we're supposed to and that can get awkward when there is a stranger that I only really know from D&D in my house.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

Armored Combat with Sword & Shield (and other weapons) both in singles tournaments and in mêlée.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

AD&D 2nd edition Oriental Adventures. I think it would have cleaned up a lot of the problems of the 1st edition version and probably would not have abandoned the Kara-Tur setting like 3e did.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

I have in the past talked with people about RPGs that didn't play, but not with any regularity. Usually they either decide to give RPGs a shot themselves or we don't really talk about them after a while.

Back to Business

So, now that the shot heard round the OSR is being widely discussed and explosions of nerd rage and/or expressions of hope are being broadcast across the internet, I thought I'd get back to my business instead of speculating about Hasbro/WotC's.

First, you all may have noticed a dearth of Oriental Adventures play reports. This was due to the holidays. We were supposed to play on Sunday, but my mother-in-law called on Saturday night and announced that she would be coming up for a visit with her sister; my wife's only, but would have been favorite anyway, aunt. So I had to call off the game at the last minute and reschedule it for the next weekend. As it turns out, they had car trouble on the way here and were forced to turn back and are going to try to make it next Sunday instead, so I am re-rescheduling the game, but at least it puts us back on our regular weekend, although it's been a long stretch between games now and that always worries me.

Second, I am still working on the reboot of my Garnia campaign world. I have a second blog devoted to it, and there is likely to continue to be some crossover to this blog from time to time; like the other day when I thought everyone here might be interested in reading about my somewhat abortive Roman campaigns from the 1990s. I am actually going to put up a poll here that just ended there because I can get a bigger sample here than there to see what people think is interesting. So if you could, keeping in mind that there are already Celts and Saxons there for sure, pick the Human civilizations that you all think are the most interesting to have brought over to my campaign world.

Third, keeping with my resolutions as best as I have been able*, I finished reading "Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War" this morning. I found it to be a decent collection of stories, although I was somewhat disappointed that Keith R. A. DeCandido didn't write the Klingon story about Klag, Klag has kind of become his character through the IKS Gorkon series and later novels.

*My daughter Ashli was in the hospital for 4 days this week, so I didn't get time to paint miniatures.

Resolutions II: Oh Yeah, Those Too-

Image by Balsavor.deviantart.com used without permission.


KAG- I am a Quadrant Commander in the Klingon Assault Group. I really need to make an effort to get much more active again. I have kind of let things slide since Klingon and Star Trek fandom took a hit when the last series went off the air. I haven't suited up in full make-up and head-piece in years now, and it's time to spruce up my uniform to a more professional quality and look the part, then get out there and recruit. The next Star Trek movie is rumored to have a big Klingon presence, so we KAG Klingons need to be ready to capitalize on the imminent popularity of our favorite sci-fi species once again.

Read all the stuff I bought over the course of the last year. This is like one of those quests that I had to read everything I was supposed to read in college and didn't have time for, but at least all this is stuff I am interested in; I just bought so much I fell way behind. Most of the RPG books I have flipped though, but I have about twenty novels and probably ten history books to read in addition to 199 unique game books and supplements I just counted, and 7 board or card games that I have not played since buying, without leaving my computer desk, that I bought last year; some of which I did read, or had already read; but most of which remain merely skimmed through, and that doesn't count pdfs or stuff I put in other rooms of my house. Seriously, I need to read more stuff. Currently, it seems I mostly use it as research material for my blog, or my OA game, or my wife's possible Star Wars game.

I have 67 unique Legend of the Five Rings books (counting Clan War books and novels), 10 GURPS books, 13 D20 Star Wars books (for all 3 d20 versions) 11 D6 Star Wars books and 4 modules (mostly 1st edition), 10 Star Fleet Battles (and 3 Prime Directive) books, and those are just the things that I bought more than ten books for in the last year. So, I guess I am actually going to have to take at least one day per week off from reading blogs and blogging and just read the stuff I already have. Maybe I'll review it.

2012: The Resolutions-

This is going to be short and to the point because my day didn't quite go as planned and I am running short of time to get a blog post up for January 1st.

Assuming the world doesn't end on December 21st this year because of those pesky Mayans* ran out of space on their stone I made some resolutions.

Since this is primarily an OSR gaming blog, I'll start with my gaming resolutions.

I am going to stop buying stuff on EBay that I am probably never going to play. That means 2011 was the year of my L5R collection, my Star Wars and Star Trek RPG collections and pretty much all of the rest of my non-D&D related gaming stuff. Except for Star Fleet Battles Commander's edition volume 2 boxed set, if I find that at a reasonable price and it's complete, I am going to take it just so I have them all, and I will play them; I just haven't yet.

I am going to paint miniatures one day per week. I have a ton of lead here that needs painting and I've just been putting it off because I decided I wasn't as good at it as my wife was. She isn't doing it though, and my closet is full of miniatures now, so I want to paint them. Sure I am way out of practice and I was never much better than OK at it to start with, but that's not the point now is it?

Mostly I am going to game more, with more actual people, not just with my computer like I did for years. I guess that means I'll be seeing more of Lance and Darryl and meeting some new people too, but it will be nice to expand my social circle some.

Next goals, less gaming related.

I will blog more regularly. I am going to try and post something worthwhile on one of my blogs everyday; it may not be long, but I am trying to force myself to write more.

Eat less, but more healthy. I am a pretty big guy but getting way too fat has become a problem for me. I have always tended towards being heavy, when I was a kid the other kids called me the fat kid. I know that's bull shit now, because I've seen the pictures of when I was young and, while I was a pretty big, solid kid, I wasn't really fat; for a while in my mid-teens I was downright lanky. Being bigger and having poorly fitting clothes didn't help I guess, and my parents couldn't afford better because my dad got hurt at work when I was nine and has been on disability ever since**. Anyway, I am starting to have some issues with my health as a result of being too fat now, so it's got to go. Now, I know it's hard to eat healthy in America without a lot of money, but I am working on building up my self sufficiency with regard to food production too, so it's on the list.

Exercise more. This kind of goes with the above, but I am in pretty bad shape now; again mostly because I have gotten too fat, but also because I live a pretty sedentary life. I have gotten into the habit of letting the younger and less achy members of my family do a lot of the manual labor here while I direct and supervise, that's got to stop. I also need to start doing some indoor exercises for the winter months are upon us. I tried some push ups and I can't do one standard push up anymore. I can do them at an incline though, so that's something. Sit ups are pretty much out, partly because I am too fat and partly because I am too weak. I am not sure how to fix that. I gave up walking when I hurt my knee, multiple times, over the last year, I need to get back in that habit too.

Clear the rest of the south side of my property, clear the small hill on the north side. Weather permitting, get a decent sized garden in this year and build a chicken coop. This at least will be aided by all the building experience we picked up from working on my father's enormous garage. With enough chickens we will reach self sufficiency in eggs and lower our need for outside sources of meat. Other farmers in the area, and my brother in New Hampshire, have given me a lot of advice on raising chickens and other fowl, plus I have read a lot on the subject; so, while this will be my first solo attempt at raising livestock, I think I am prepared.


SCA Fighting. I talk about this every year. I do a little bit every year. I am a warranted Marshal and a an authorized Heavy Weapons Fighter in the Kingdom of Aethelmearc. Once I was a pretty serious force to be reckoned with on the field, I am only 42 years old, I think I can do it again; I just need to commit to the same kind of rigorous training (and diet) that I did when I was in my 30s. This kind of falls in line with the eating healthy and exercising more, only with a focus. The downside of this is that I really can't afford to drive all over central NY state for the training like I used to be able to, I don't have a nearby fighting buddy to split the gas costs with anymore either. I'd also like this to be the year I take up fencing, despite it meaning that I need an entirely new and different kit.

Make some armor. I am not a handy guy, but I have enjoyed the minor armoring projects that I have done. They have consisted entirely of modifications to existing armor or repairing existing armor up until now, and fabricating a few shields. I think I'd like to tackle a real project this year.

Build a yurt. This has been on my to do list for a while. I helped work on a friend's yurt once, for one day, I don't think he ever finished it. I would live in one if my wife would make the move, but I am content to just have one for camping events, so a small yurt would be fine by me. I have detailed instructions on how to do it, and it is relatively inexpensive; although not as cheap as buying a cheap tent to camp in.


*Or, we get the start of the Shadowrun world, that's what I'm hoping for apocalypse-wise.


**In case anyone was wondering it wasn't one of those BS disability claims, he was a Longshoreman and got hurt unloading a ship. A line snapped on some cargo being lifted by a crane and he was knocked into the hold from the deck, he suffered various injuries, but the crippling one was three crushed disks in his lower back. He didn't walk for a year. That was November of 1978 he was working a holiday making double time and half because my parents had just built their house and we'd moved in in 1976 so my dad was trying to pay the mortgage ahead and get money for Christmas. My brother was born the following January.

Christmas Eve & Glad Yule

First off, I'd like to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a Glad Yule.

I celebrate Christmas here more out of a sense of cultural imperative than any religious meaning, I am not a Christian, nor are my wife and kids. Honestly most of the people I know are not, unless they are at least as old as my parents, which is why the religious right getting involved in and powerful within politics always scares the hell out of me. Most of the people I know that are roughly my own age are, at best, nominally Christian if they profess that religion at all. A good number of my peers are Atheists or Pagans of one stripe or another, but we all pretty much celebrate Christmas anyway, although some of us call it Yule and point out that the Christians took most of their holiday traditions from either the Germanic Yule or the Roman Saturnalia, both of which occurred at roughly the same time of year and had more fun traditions than praying in church all day, like gift giving and parties, but I digress; this isn't really a post about the Christian take over of Yule.

My family always had a tradition of giving us kids one gift on Christmas Eve, I modified it slightly today and gave my kids the "family" gift of a new X-Box Kinect and set it up and transferred over the X-Box live accounts and all that, the kids have had fun with it and so have I; between waving your hand at it and using voice commands it's like a cross between being a Jedi and having a Star Trek voice activated computer. The coolest thing about this was that Fed-Ex delivered it today, Amazon said it wasn't supposed to be here until after Christmas, they upgraded the shipping on it free of charge and of their own volition.

Oh, and this came in the mail today too-

Not as complete as I'd hoped when I was bidding, but OK for the price.

Thinking about Thieves

So I got to thinking about Thieves and how they weren't in OD&D originally. I chatted with my buddy Darryl about it and I talked a little bit with my wife Mona and I got to thinking that the introduction of the Thief class, in whatever supplement it was, started the slippery slope of Skills and Non-Weapon Proficiencies that later proliferated through AD&D in both editions and has made 3rd and, from what I hear, 4th edition a skill based math nightmare that you practically need a computer to assist creation of characters and run combats, it also took the roleplaying and player skill aspect out of the game when people just started rolling search checks to search rooms or bluff checks to BS the guards, but that's another post waiting to happen someday.

The real and biggest problem with the introduction of the Thief class was that as soon as it came along and codified "Thief Skills", suddenly everyone felt like they couldn't do any of those things themselves anymore. So, for however many years before whatever supplement introduced the Thief came out, Fighting Men, Clerics and Magic-Users, Hobbits, Elves and Dwarves all were finding traps and presumably opening locks and climbing walls and hiding in shadows and moving silently when necessary and now, all of a sudden, they lost that ability because it wasn't coded onto their character sheet? It used to be the DM's call, he'd take the situational modifiers into account and make a judgment, now all that changed with the introduction of a new specialist class.

AD&D made the problem worse, first with Weapon Proficiencies; because now everyone had just a couple of weapons they really knew how to use, instead of the broad (or tight) range they used to; then with the mid- 1st edition AD&D introduction of Non-Weapon Proficiencies it got even worse, the Thief skill problem was magnified by orders of magnitude. Sure, I loved the idea when they were introduced in the Oriental Adventures book, and every group I know played with them all through the 2nd edition AD&D era, despite the fact that they were an optional rule. We loved the rules crunchiness of them all. By the end of the 2nd edition era I had adapted the NWP system to my Garnia campaign and had set up NWP packages based on your race and socio-economic background; I like randomness in character generation; by the time of the 3e era I had ported that system over to the newer Skill system too. Sadly, most of those documents are lost, but since I have grown to despise the system anyway I guess it's for the best, but it may have been nice just for the historical value.

Anyway, I kind of meandered away from the point I was making there, so I'll get back to it, as soon as the NWPs (or Skills) were codified into rules and onto character sheets, suddenly no one could do any of those things anymore. Maybe none of the players in your campaign had ever thought to have their Druid or Ranger or just their what ever class character with a woodsy background ever try to find a healing herb in the forest before, but now they never would without herbalism. Try hunting without the Hunting NWP? Preposterous! Fishing without the Fishing NWP? Not going to happen. Suddenly all of these characters that should have been easily able to survive in the woods are going to starve to death if they picked the wrong NWPs when they made their characters, all because the players think they can't do it now because it doesn't say they can on their character sheet, and it all started with the Thief.

Those were just the examples I came up with off the top of my head relating to wilderness adventuring, there are probably thousands of other examples you could come up with based on the NWP/Skill proliferation in AD&D and later D&D systems. But what it all boils down to I guess for me is this- Why can't a Fighter climb a wall? Or a Magic-User pick a lock? Or a Cleric hide in shadows until the Orcs pass? The Fighter might have to lighten his load a bit, drop his shield, maybe even take off his armor, depending on what it is and how hard the climb is, but why can't he do it? The Magic-User is a pretty smart guy, he should be able to figure out how locks work, if he has any reasonably decent Dexterity, say 9+, he ought to have a shot at it with the right materials, like, say, a set of lock picks. Hiding in Shadows is even easier, just get into the dark, try and get low or behind something and don't move or make noise. OK, that may be cheating a bit, because usually when a Thief does it they are trying to maneuver through the darkness to their advantage, but a Cleric should have a chance at that too, but he doesn't for the same reason the Magic-User and the Fighter don't, because the Thief explicitly does.

What's worse is that the Thief is the most contentious player character class, like they were deliberately designed to screw over the rest of the party. There is a certain type of player out there that thrives on playing Thief characters just because he enjoys ruining the fun for the other players and any sense of cooperation between the party members. The skills on his character sheet and the name of his class pretty much tell you that you should play a Thief this way. That's pretty much the way every Thief was played back when I was a teenager and even when I was in my twenties I saw a lot of my peers playing Thieves that way. The attitude didn't change much when the name changed to Rogue either. I don't have much of a problem with intra-party conflict just because one player was a stupid, fun-killing-for-his-own-amusement, chaos monkey these days; but then I observe a pretty strict no gaming with jerks rule nowadays.

Between these issues, and the issue of Ability Score inflation, with the much greater importance of higher ability scores in AD&D than in any version of D&D from OD&D through Cyclopedia, I am giving serious thought to starting my next game as either B/X (LL) or OD&D (S&W White Box). B/X still has the Thief, and both of them have race as class, which I am not sold on, raised as I was on AD&D, but I can always house rule that stuff or check out Labyrinth Lord's AEC.

I also started a second blog. It's a blog specifically dedicated to the development of my Garnia campaign world and currently has two contributors, myself and my longtime Garnia co-developer and friend Darryl. Right now the entire thing is just a long conversation between the two of us asking questions and answering back and forth, but if anyone is really interested in the creative process there, you are seeing something like 75% of all the new stuff right there, the rest has been usually over the phone or via email. Older stuff can be gleaned from blog posts here tagged "Garnia" or from the Obsidian Portal site, or you can just ask me questions if you are curious. Actually comments and questions might be helpful to spur the development process, and if anyone is really interested I am not averse to adding more team members.

Here's what I got in the mail today.




I got them both for a pretty sweet bargain, so it doesn't even really bother me that it doesn't look like Mona will actually be running a Star Wars game for us, and these books are in seriously pristine condition, like they were never even opened and read before.

I also stopped at a Salvation Army Thrift Store and found a pristine copy of "Star Trek - Tales of the Dominion War", which is an anthology edited by Keith R.A. DeCandido, who is probably my favorite Star Trek author; this book is out of print and has been on my Amazon wish list for a while, so finding it there and for the super discount price was awesome, plus it's nice that it helps people out too.