2014: My Year in Gaming

As 2014 draws to a close I like to reflect on my gaming for the year.  I am an avid collector and will buy game products like a hoarder stockpiling newspapers.  It is important to review the enjoyment of my game collection so that I can make sure that I am enjoying the gaming hobby rather than having the gaming hobby enjoy me.  Here are some highlights, thoughts, and rants for 2014.

Biggest Accomplishment

I signed up for a Play 5 RPGs You Have Never Played Before challenge over on rpggeek.com (I'm listed at item #38).  I completed the challenge with eight new games under my belt.  I love trying out new rpg systems, and playing eight new games was a great way to expand my gaming view.  Three of those new games were played with my daughter, which in turn led to our first family rpg sessions.  My wife has said that she doesn't like rpgs but she bit the bullet for some sessions of The Warriors Adventure Game and Call of Catthulhu.  This challenge was awesome for exposing me to new systems as well as bringing family role playing into the house.

Best New Game I Played

Call of Catthulhu, paws down, is my choice for the best new rpg that I played this year.  I backed this project on Kickstarter and have been amply rewarded.  The game is about cats who fight against supernatural forces of evil.  The mechanics are simple and the theme is perfect for my daughter.  She loved this game so much I had to buy her her own copy.  My goal is to have an in depth review up on the site soon.

Most Anticipated Overdue Kickstarter That I Have Not Yet Received

The Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls game is still not in print.  I love T&T for its ease of play and zany nature.  The book is 2 years behind schedule, but the creators have been releasing regular updates and I have pdfs of the beta rules.  When this book arrives in my mail I will do a dance that will put leprechauns to shame.

Those are some thoughts on the year as 2014 ends.  I still need to play the FATE system, I am reading the entire Eclipse Phase rulebook, and I continue to collect more games that I should.  Next post, looking towards the gaming future in 2015!

Last Day for Kevin Crawford's Silent Legions on Kickstarter!

Kevin Crawford, designer of games such as Stars Without Number and Scarlet Heroes has a new Kickstarter finishing up today.  Before you roll your eyes at the mention of Kickstarter, know that I have backed two of Kevin's products and both of those books are sitting on my bookshelf.  Kevin is a master at completing Kickstarters.  If you back his game you receive the beta copy of the PDF immediately.

Make your own mythos!

The game is called Silent Legions and it is an old-school D&D take on Lovecraftian horror.  Mr. Crawford designed the game for sandbox style play, and the jewel of the book is the chapters on mythos creation.  The PDF is worth it for the rules on generating your own elder gods and cosmic horrors for any campaign.  I've read through the rules and I am currently starting a play-by-forum game.  The rules are heavily influenced by original edition D&D with a skills system added to it.  The adventure creation system is perfect for GMs who need to create campaigns quickly.

If you are a fan of horror and old-school rules check it out.

Silent Legions

RPG Watch - First Contact: X-Corps

I love science fiction and one of my favorite sub-genres is alien invasion stories.  My interest was piqued when I noticed First Contact: X-Corps, a new role playing game based on an alien invasion of Earth over on rpggeek.com.  The game has been released in a Spanish and French edition. A free quickstart of the game has been made available in English.

I would love to play in a game like this!

The game is based on the Open D6 system.  This is the set of rules that West End Games used for their Star Wars games.  The system only uses six sided dice, the proletariat of the dice community.  Some aspects of the system seem fairly simple; role a number of dice, add them up, and compare them to a difficulty number.  Some other aspects seem a little more complex, such as the countdown initiative system with interrupted actions.  

The quickstart rules give you two modes of play.  You can be normal people surviving as aliens land, or you can be part of the special ops teams trained to fight the invaders.  I like that the character sheets have a section labelled “psychology”, which tells you how your character thinks about things.  I was puzzled as to why the paramedic did not have the medicine skill, though.

The artwork is cool and full color.  This quickstart is the perfect appetizer.  It gives you enough to whet your appetite and makes you want more.  I will be watching for this game in the near future,  

Check out the quickstart here.

James Raggi has new books for sale!

I am a bibliophile to the point of having a fetish for books.  I'm the kind of book collector who winces when someone bends the spine of one of my precious tomes.  I will mull over details such as paper thickness and binding quality when I am deciding to purchase a book.  

When it comes to rpg products, James Raggi's Lamentations of the Flame Princess products are the most unique and beautifully produced books I have seen.  His vision of a fantasy role playing game is like Kafka taking acid while listening to Slayer.  Lamentation of the Flame Princess (or LotFP) adventures are paradigm breaking affairs that breath new life into the hobby while simultaneously scaring the crap out of it.

Not only are his products innovative, they are also physically gorgeous.  The artwork is horrid and hypnotic.  The paper and covers are assembled with true spirit, producing a gestalt of a book that makes the hands that hold it tremble.  When I lift my copy of the core rules the gravitas of the product radiates through me.

Mr. Raggi has just printed some new books and I suggest that you go buy some.  My suggestions:

A Red and Pleasant Land - This is some weird Alice in Wonderland campaign by Zak Smith.  The artwork alone looks great.  I would be buying this myself if not for a recent personal income crisis.  Please make James sell out of these so I don't have to suffer anymore.

No Salvation for Witches - This book has some crazy witch goodness inside of it.  I have seen the pdf and the artwork is awesome.  Looking at it will give you the urge to go to confession.

There are plenty of other awesome books for sale.  Please order the books; LotFP products are well made and you get the pdf with it.  Plus it is always cool to receive packages from Finland.

LotFP webstore

Operation Paperclip: Campaign Inspiration from History

Operation Paperclip: Campaign Inspiration from History

After WWII, the allies had to deal with the defeated nation of Germany and the rise of Soviet power.  US and British leaders saw the next big conflict as being fought with the USSR using weapons of mass destruction.  Germany had many programs that researched lucrative war technology.  Rockets, biological weapons, and chemical agents were being researched by the Nazi regime.  Much of this research was done using slave labor and often tested on unwilling test subjects.  At the end of the war the allies needed to do something with these scientists.

Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America by Annie Jacobsen describes how the US military sought, hired, and flew over hundreds of Nazi scientists.  The driving force of this program was that these men would help the US win the Cold War, and it was better for us to employ these men and exploit their secrets than to let the Soviets have them.  The men who built V-2 rockets and chemical weapons for Hitler, often using concentration camp victims for labor and as test subjects, ended up working for the US military.  This book is a detailed account of a morally dubious Cold War program.  I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in Cold War history.

I have been interested in Operation Paperclip ever since I first learned about it and after reading more about it, I had some inspiration for some rpg campaigns.  Operation Paperclip could be moved to another time and place.  What if the player-characters were in a position where they were ordered to located and extract a scientist, especially one who was not a good person.  Maybe the scientist is responsible for the death of someone close to a player-character.  Here are some ideas for building a campaign around the idea of Operation Paperclip.

Star Wars - The rebellion is over.  However, what ever happened to all the scientists who designed the weapons on the Death Star?  It would be better for those scientists to be in the rebels hands rather than working for Admiral Thrawn.  The player-characters need to track them down and bring them into the new government.

D&D/Fantasy - All those magic items in your world were made by somebody.  The player-characters need to track down the wizard who made all of those necrotic +5 swords of death and bring him back to the kingdom.  Once they find the wizard, can they truly trust him or her?

Cyberpunk - In the aftermath of a megacorp war, a subsidiary company is liquidated.  A programmer who created black ice for the company has gone missing.  The player-characters have to track him down and bring him to their boss, or eliminate the programmer if they refuse.

These are just a few ideas.  These campaigns could be investigative, pulp action, high espionage, or all of the above.  Hopefully I will run one of these campaigns soon.  If not, feel free to use these ideas for inspiration.

Warriors Adventure Game

Like most gaming parents I have introduced my child to role playing games.  I have always modified the rules and play style for my child’s age. Most of our adventures are more cooperative storytelling than traditional GM and player.  I started with Tunnels and Trolls and then moved to Pathfinder with the Ponyfinder sourcebook.  I decided to ask my daughter what type of game she would like to play.  My original thought was to use the FUDGE rules to build a system around whatever genre or characters she told me that she wanted to play.  She informed me that if she could play any game, it would be one where she could be a wild cat that went on adventures.  I replied, “I have seen a game where you can do that.”

That game is the Warriors Adventure Game.  The Warriors Adventure Game is based on the Warriors YA book series by Erin Hunter.  In the Warriors books clans of wild cats run around and have adventures.  I have never read one of the books but I was familiar with the game, which I found while browsing a listing of free rpgs.  

The Warriors Adventure Game is a diceless system that is available as a free pdf from the Warriors website.  The rules were also published in the back of The Warriors Guide.  The system is simple.  Your cat has three abilities scores; strength, intelligence, and spirit.  Your cat also has skills with each skill being associated with an ability.  For example the bite skill is associated with strength.  Cats also have knacks, which are special things they can do that are similar to feats from D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder.

Characters have three colors of chips which correspond to each of their abilities.  If a cat has three strength, two intelligence, and two spirit then they begin the game with three strength chips, two intelligence chips, and two spirit chips.  When a character takes an action, they make a check based on an ability or skill+ability.  They can use chips from their abilities to increase their check.  For example, my cat might be sneaking up on a bird.  He has +1 in the sneak skill, and sneak is related to spirit.  My cat has a spirit of 2, so 2+1 would give him a 3.  I could spend some spirit chips, with each chip spent increasing the check by 1.

Combat is done through a series of checks, and damage is afflicted by losing chips.  A players chips refresh at certain points, except for chips lost from combat damage which need to be healed.  There is a choose your own adventure style module in the back of the rules to walk players through how the game works.  The system works and an experienced game master can use it well, but I think the system is a little too sophisticated for its target audience.  I could be wrong as my daughter loves the game and begs me to play it.  She even loves just hunting with her cat and figuring out how many chips she will need to spend to catch a rabbit vs. to catch a sparrow.  I even came home the other day to find her GMing for my wife.

If you know any fans of the Warriors series this would be a good game to try out with them.  I would make sure that the GM is experienced with role-playing.  The rules are fairly short and well-done.  Check it out at:

Warriors Adventure Game

Mechanoids Invasion Trilogy!

Palladium Books just released a reprint of their first rpg, Mechanoids.  They put a pdf up for sale a few years ago, but recently Kevin Siembieda announced that they were going to do a limited print run of the book due to popular demand.  I received my copy in the mail today.

This book collects three games/supplements and puts them together in one book.  One of the coolest features is that in the beginning there is a short history of Palladium books.  Another cool feature is that the rules for Mechanoid have not been changed.  There are some conversion notes if you are interested in using it with newer Palladium games, but otherwise the rules are as they were written over 30 years ago.

This is neat in that it is a historical document of gaming.  These are bare bones rules that are only a few degrees removed from the original edition of D&D.  I would not call them smooth or complete.  The chance of hitting a normally clothed person in combat is 95%.  Kudos to Seimbieda for admitting that he mentioned alignment but did not print the actual alignment rules until the third supplement.  These will take some house ruling to run well.

The setting of the game involves humans fighting against a superior alien force.  Think of Falling Skies, new Battlestar Galactica, or The Terminator.  In fact, the humans are so desperate to escape that in the second book they invade the Mechanoids main ship and survive on it as stowaways.  The mood of the game is one of desperation and survival.

I would run this game tomorrow if I found a willing group.  The rules may be dated but they are also short.  My style is to have minimal rules which I can add to and modify.  The genre of the game is unique and one which I have always enjoyed in science fiction.  I would recommend this book to Palladium fans, rpg historians, and sci-fi nuts who haven't found a good alien invasion game yet.

Mechanoid Trilogy pdf on rpgnow

Mechanoid Invasion Trilogy print copy

Trepanning in OSR Games

Trepanning is the process of cutting a hole into the skull.  In ancient times this was done to let foul material flow out of the skull.  This surgery has been done throughout history, often to relieve pressure and treat various mental illnesses.  The X-files episode Orison featured a character who was trepanned and gained special powers.

So why use trepanning in your game?  Perhaps a player character has developed a mental illness or psychosis and this is the recommended treatment for his/her society.  Perhaps trepanning is a rite of passage for a group of clerics or shamans, and the trepanning bestows special powers.  Perhaps it is done against their will.  I am sure that clever GMs will find a way to work this into any campaign.

Trepanning Random Effect Table

Roll a d12.  (optional) +1 if the trepanning is done by someone with training.

1 - Oops!  Character dies

2 - Ouch!  Lose 1d4 HP

3 - Ugh! Lose 1d4 Wisdom

4 - Whoops!  Lose 1d4 Intelligence

5 - Uh Oh!  Loss 1d4 Charisma

6 - Oh Man!  Loss 1d4 Constitution

7 - Eh.  No effect

8 - Not bad!  Gain 1d4 Intelligence

9 - Good job!  Gain 1d4 Wisdom

10 - Release the spirits!  Gain one psionic power

11 - The Gods talk to me!  Gain two psionic powers

12 - I can see the universe!  Gain the ability to cast 1d4+1 cleric spells at will.  Pick spells at random.

13 - I am Lord Azrael!  Character becomes possessed by demon or celestial being.  Grant powers and weaknesses from Manual of Monsters.

Note:  If psionic powers do not exist in the game world, then grant the ability to cast a cleric spell at will.

Last Days for the River of Heaven rpg Kickstarter!

The Kickstarter for the sci-fi game River of Heaven is in its final hours.  The text of the game is written; I’ve seen the first draft and it is fully playable and fleshed out.  See my previous entry where I give a mini review of it.  It is based off of Openquest and looks easy, ready to customize, and fun.

The game is done,  The kickstarter is for art.  They have met their first two goals.  They still need funds to make to art full color.  Color art is awesome and really ups to quality on any book.  If you like d100 based games, sci-fi, or all of the above please check it out and support it!  

River of Heaven

D&D Blog Hop Day 28!

What is the single most important lesson that you learned from playing D&D?

People want to have fun.  When players are messing up your plot, killing important NPCs, and burning down villages, it is because they want to have a good time.  Roll with it and have fun.  I believe that the same philosophy goes for the rest of life.  When everyone at the table is laughing, you are doing it right.

D&D Blog Hop Day 27!

If you had to do it all over again, would you do anything different when you first started gaming?

When I was young I actually did not game that much.  I felt that I had to have a complete mastery of the rules before I started playing.  This was especially tricky when I started to buy GURPS books.  I didn't realize that most people did not know every rule of D&D, and that half of the fun was making stuff up on the fly to cover crazy situations that the players and DM came up with.  

If I could do it over again I would spend less time trying to memorize rules, because I think that it is impossible to remember all of the rules for D&D.  I would play more, and make up house rules as I go.  This is my philosophy now when it comes to gaming.  Play first, rules second.

D&D Blog Hop Day 26!

Do you still game with the group that introduced you to the hobby?

No.  My brother was my introduction to the hobby.  It was his Monster Manual and Players Handbook that I used to look through while making up stories in my head.  It was his stack of modules that I used to leaf through, enjoying the maps, traps, and new monsters.  It was my brother’s minis that I used to fight imaginary battles with.

My brother has not played in many years.  He doesn't have an interest in D&D anymore.  I will always be grateful for his influence, as he introduced me to a hobby that allows me to use my intelligence and imagination to have fun with my friends.

D&D Blog Hop Day 25!

Longest Running Campaign that I’ve Been In

The longest running campaign that I’ve been a part of is the current campaign that I am running.  We started out playing Hackmaster Basic (which is a ruleset once removed from D&D) and then we changed it over to Pathfinder later on.  The campaign officially started on May 29, 2011 and has been running to the present day.  We have taken a few breaks, we have lost some people, and we have gained some new ones but it has been one coherent campaign since the beginning.

https://quest-for-honor.obsidianportal.com/

D&D Blog Hop Day 24!

First movie that comes to your mind that you associate with D&D

Ralph Bashki’s Hobbit is the movie that I associate with D&D the most.  I thought that the Hobbit and D&D took place in the same universe as a kid.  I was bothered that D&D spellcasting didn't work like Gandalf’s magic.  Gandalf didn't have to memorize spells every day.  This film was D&D in my mind; they fought goblins, there was magic, they fought a dragon, there were dark caverns to explore, there were riddles, etc.  This was a quest undertaken by a bunch of bumbling adventurers.  If you have never seen it, check it out.  I think that Bashki did a much better job of capturing the spirit of the Hobbit that Peter Jackson is doing.

D&D Blog Hop Day 23! Music!

First song that comes to mind that you associate with D&D

“Dungeon Hustle” by Mississippi Bones is the song that I associate with D&D the most.  It has a crunchy metal tune with lyrics about kicking monster’s asses.  When I hear this song I want to pick up a longsword and start swinging.  It reminds me of the fighter I have in my campaign, he is not happy unless he is adding +20 to his to-hit rolls and chopping up enemies into mulch.

D&D Blog Hop Day 22!

First D&D Novel that You Read 

The first time that I read D&D fiction was when I picked up a copy of the Dragonlance Saga graphic novel from Waldenbooks.  I was book #1 and it had an awesome cover on the front showing the characters camping, and it had another awesome picture on the back of three of the characters facing off against a dragon that has Raistlin trapped under its claw.  I read that book over and over.  I loved the scene where Raistlin reads a scroll and the letters vanish off of the parchment.  I remember thinking, "So that is how that works."  I also liked that fact that Raislin was sick, I had never seen a main character with such a physical fault before.  I read the novel Dragons of Autumn Twilight years later, and I realized that the graphic novel adapted the first half of the book.

D&D Blog Hop Day 21!

First time you sold some of your D&D books.

I have never sold a D&D book.  In fact, I have probably bought some of yours.  I did give my friend a copy of my 4th edition Beginners Box.  She had given me some board games from her collection and had expresses some interest in trying out D&D.  I had no plans for playing 4th ed so I sent it to her.  I considered it an act of proselytizing.

D&D Blog Hop Day 20! Make Mine Marvel!

First non-D&D rpg you played

The first non-D&D rpg that I played was the old Marvel game that TSR published.  I bought a copy of it at a Kay Bee toy store.  I made my parents play it with me.  I gmed and I ran them through the first part of the Day of the Octopus adventure that came with the basic set.  I don’t think that they got the concept, but they got kudos for trying.  

If you are interesting in that system, there is a free retro clone of it called the Four Color System.  Also, the files for the old Marvel game can be found around the internet as abandonware.

D&D Blog Hop Day 19! That Guy That Stole My Game!

First Gamer that Just Annoyed the Hell Out of You

The dude who stole my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rpg in high school was pretty annoying.  I don't even think that he was a real gamer.  He asked to borrow it and then then just told me that he wasn't going to give it back.  That was a total dick move.

D&D Blog Hop Day 18! Game Conventions

First gaming convention you went to

I’ve never been to a big gaming convention, but I did go to a comic book convention in Texarkana a couple of years ago where I sat in on a game of the old TSR Marvel rpg.  The two characters that I could pick from were Black Cat and the Punisher, and people were giving me crap for choosing Black Cat.  The highlight of the game was when the GM asked my friend who was playing Daredevil if he wanted to pull his punches.  I screamed out, “You’re Frank Miller’s Daredevil, you don’t pull your punches!”

D&D Blog Hop Day 17! D&D is Evil

First time you heard the D&D was evil

I remember when I was six or seven my Mom called my brother and I into the TV room.  She told us that there was going to be a story on the news about D&D.  She thought that we would want to watch it because she knew my brother played it.  We gazed at the screen in anticipation.  Suddenly the newscaster was talking about Satanism and suicide.  My brother and I were let down, but our parents never gave us a hard time about D&D during the media witch hunt. That was the first time that I heard about D&D being evil.

D&D Blog Hop Day 16! Edition Wars

Do you remember your first edition war?  Did you win?

Edition wars are for neckbeards.  If you like a game, then play it!  I have played many rpgs, and even the ones that I didn’t like still had something in it that I thought was clever, neat, or valuable.  Also, it is okay to offer criticisms, especially in the spirit of wanting improvement.  But darn it, everyone is entitled to enjoy the game they want!*

*Except for FATAL, that game is whack.

D&D Blog Hop 15! I Love All Editions!

First Edition of D&D that You Didn't Enjoy

I like them all.  Seriously.  I don’t have too much experience with 2nd, and I think that 3.5/Pathfinder has way too many rules, but they are all cool.

I love the aesthetic and weirdness of 1st edition.

I love the simplicity of Basic.

I loved that 2nd edition had Spelljammer.

I love that 3rd edition gave way to the OGL and gives players cool options.

I love that when I played 4th edition I got to be a first level mage that kicked ass.

I really was enticed by the D&D Next playtest and how streamlined things were.  I am looking forward to the next edition.

D&D Blog Hop Day 14!

Random Monster for Valentine's Day

Death Rose

The Death Rose looks like a normal rose bush, but the flowers are translucent silver.  Anyone who touches a Death Rose bush or handles a Death Rose flower must make a save vs. poison.  Anyone who fails the save loses 1 hp every hour as they agonize over lost loves and regrets as to what could have been.  A remove curse will cure the player.

D&D Blog Hop Day 13! Minis

First miniatures you used for D&D

I used my brother’s stuff when I started out, so I used his Grenadier miniatures.  He had the boxed set of Explorers, Monsters, and Dwarves.  He never painted them.  I didn't know minis could be painted until much later.

Here is a great website on the old Grenadier line.

D&D Blog Hop Day 12!

First place you bought your gaming supplies.  Is it still around?

The one place that I used to buy most of my gaming products was Waldenbooks.  I was even a member of their Otherworlds club.  They closed up years ago.  Some of the games and books that I bought at a Waldenbooks include:

Oriental Adventures

World of Greyhawk boxed set

Shadowrun 1st edition

GURPS Prisoner

All of the Fighting Fantasy books

Plus a bunch of sci-fi books, comics, and magazines!

D&D Blog Hop Day 11! Splatbooks (or lack thereof)

First “Splatbook” you begged you DM to approve

I didn't play 2nd edition, so I missed all of those splatbooks.  I didn't play 3rd edition either.  I am running a Pathfinder game right now, and I am allowing anything from Paizo’s SRD.  This led to a Tengu Archaeologist joining the party.  That’s cool with me, because I like gonzo fantasy campaigns.

D&D Blog Hop Day 10!

Day 10:  First Gaming Magazine You Bought

I didn't really know that Dragon existed when I was growing up.  The first gaming magazines that I saw were issues of Paper Mayhem, which was a play-by-mail zine that was published in the town we were living in at the time.  The first gaming magazine that I bought was an issue of Autoduel Quarterly, the magazine that was dedicated to Steve Jackson’s Car Wars game.  My brother introduced me to Car Wars, and I had almost every Car Wars product that was released up to Boat Wars.  Appropriately enough the first issue that I bought had rules for adding magic to your Car Wars game.

D&D Blog Hop day 9! First Campaign Setting You Played In

First Published Campaign Setting You Played In

My friend ran me through a solo adventure in Ravenloft.  I played about 4 characters, and they were all made from Oriental Adventures.  That’s right, I had a samurai, a ninja, a wu-jen, and a shukenja taking on vampires in Ravenloft.  Ah, youth.

Yeah, it was kinda like that...

D&D Blog Hop Day 8! Dice!

First set of polyhedral dice that you owned.

I co-opted my brother’s dice when I was young.  They are blue with uninked numbers.  I still have them, but the d10s are missing. They don't get much use today, they are mostly around for nostalgia.

My brother's dice.

Things I am Excited to See in the River of Heaven RPG

I just received a copy of the draft rules for River of Heaven, the new d100 rpg based on Openquest.  I got my copy because I’m a kickstarter backer.  We are not allowed to distribute the document, but we are allowed to talk about what we see.  I glance through the document and was impressed as to how complete the game is now.  There are also many additions that excited me.

Point based and random character creation

It is cool to have options for both.

Replicants

Not by that name, but there are rules for bio-created humans.

Humans modified by space

This game has transhuman elements, but not to the gonzo extant of Eclipse Phase.  There are rules for humans who grow up in microgravity environments.

Post-humanity

Characters can modify themselves in the transhuman sense, but if they do it too much they are post human and become unplayable.

Robots

Stats for robots in the book, yeah!

Tons of setting material

I had the assumption that this game would be like Mongoose’s Traveller book; big on rules, brief on setting, with supplements to flesh things out later.  There is a ton of backstory, information on planets, stars, etc. included in the book. I would say that it takes up the majority of the space.

Recommended reading

I always like it when an rpg has an “Appendix N”; a place where you can find works of fiction and nonfiction that can give you inspiration for your game.  This project seems to have two big inspirations, Alastair Reynolds and Frank Herbert.  I hope to see some more recommended reading added to the final edition.

Playable in different eras
I can see using these rules to play many different types of space games, such as a game set in the universe of  Leviathan Wakes, Dune, Stargate, Bladerunner, or an awesome homebrew.

This project is still on Kickstarter.  They have meet their goal and first stretch goal.  There will be tons of art.  The next stretch goal is for color art.  I hope it reaches this, because color art is pretty!  Check it out if you haven’t.

River of Heaven rpg on Kickstarter

D&D Blog Hop Day 7! First D&D Product I Ever Bought

First D&D Product that I Bought

This is a tough one.  It was either the World of Greyhawk boxed set or Oriental Adventures for 1st ed. AD&D.  I remember buying the Greyhawk set because I was curious as to what was inside it.  I thought it might be a boardgame/rpg hybrid.  I thought that the maps were way cool but was also disappointed that there were no dungeon modules inside.

I think that I am going to say Oriental Adventures was the first product that I bought.  I always borrowed my brother’s rulebooks and he had a ton of modules so I never really felt the need to buy my own stuff.  However when I saw that there were rules for ninja, I grabbed that sucker right off the shelf. I don't have the Greyhawk box anymore but I do still have my copy of Oriental Adventures.

My book!

D&D Blog Hop Day 6! Dragons (or not)

First dragon your character slew.

Haven’t done this one yet.  For a game with dragons in the title, I have seen few dragons in actual play.  Defeating a dragon is on my roleplaying bucket list.  I did fight a naga in a Pathfinder game.  I was playing a barbarian and the foul creature hit me with a lighting bolt.  I decided to rage and hack it to bits.  

Gaming resolution, more dragons!!!!