Sometimes a post just writes itself. THIS is one of those times :)
I received an email from a listener/viewer of the Talking Crit Cast (VidCast / PodCast). Actually, Glen and I did a follow up last night on Dungeons, Dragons & Discourse (VidCast / Podcast) After listening to either Bad Mike and I or Glen and I broach the topic of "gamer funk", he sent me the following pics of, as he put it:
"something I picked up at GenCon 2001. They had lots of these laying around in common areas. It’s obvious that the gamer hygiene issue is not small is someone felt the need to make these."
If any others happen to have an original copy of the above, I'm sure Bad Mike would love the donation for the NTRPG Con Midnight Auction.
A HUGE tip of the hat to Taverner JW for the above. You made my weekend as only a Taverner can ;)
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar
Through my early 30s, I was an avid comic book collector. When I stopped collecting (nearly 20 years ago), I stopped cold turkey. Now, I'm quite happy to buy comic book bundles to read on my iPad, as it no longer requires poly bagging and storage issues. It is simply so much easier. :)
The Humble Comics Bundle: New and Classic D&D by IDW Publishinghas a large selection of D&D comic book titles. Most tempting for me personally are the Dragonlance titles. I don't think I have the patience to reread the original novels, but in comic book form on my table, I'm good to go. You can grab a bundle for as little as a buck.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar
I've always enjoyed the fiction set in the Warhammer and Warhammer 40k settings. The stories are generally suitably dark and quirky and scratch that itch for me that more general sci-fi can't.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar
Today's Deal of the Day is Pyramid of the Lost King for Swords & Wizardry. I've owned this is PDF since it released and I am dying to run it, as it is as much setting as it is an adventure. There is a lot of meat on this bone, and it's in my wheelhouse, as it's geared to levels 1 to 5.
Millions of year ago the lands of Usarm were devastated by a great Cataclysm in the final days of the war between the Gods of Usa’arm and the demonish threat of the N’zi. In the wake of a final assault by the Usa’arm the very fabric of reality was torn asunder flooding the world with arcane energies and rips that sundered other worlds and realities … and in the process sank Usarm into the dark depths of ruin.
Now, Usarm is home to races and monsters dragged through those rips; refugees who now call a world ravaged by magic home. Wars between some races is common, and a dark threat rises in the North and another in the far south. A south that until now was left unexplored by the peoples of Usarm.
Intrigued by the prospect of riches the Merchants Guilds of Newrk stretch their arms and money into the great southern desert of the Saragubi hoping to find new peoples and new cultures to trade with and to grow more wealthy by.
Pyramid of the Lost King is designed for play with Frog God Games Swords & Wizardry and can be enjoyed by characters of the first to five level and is as much a campaign as it is an adventure. Within this book lay the trade city of Basq, the Rift Bridge, the Saragubi Desert, and hours of adventure for all who are foolhardy enough to venture into the Desert.
edit: I was reminded there was a guest review for this from back in 2018:
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar
Sometimes you simply have to wonder. Maybe even scratch your head. Everyone and their mother want to have THAT Kickstarter. The one that makes them a household name in the gaming industry and means they will never have to be a cog in someone else's business model ever again. Another rich and famous game creator. Sadly, the reality is that Kickstarters that hit those life-changing amounts of pledge dollars are somewhere on par with the odds of hitting it big with Lotto. It can be done, but it needs more than luck, hard work, and name recognition. It often needs something resembling the planets coming into alignment.
Now, do 13 10 (as three were canceled) successful prior Kickstarter projects mean you can hit a $100k payday with your latest?
Hmmm- The most backers Daniel had before his current project was 124. The most monies raised on a successful project by Daniel was $2,179. That's okay though because his eyes are big and are focused on the prize:
Now, over two weeks into the funding period of the Apocalypse 5E RPG Kickstarter, he has 72 backers and just shy of $3,700 in funds raised. With two weeks left to fund.
Simply put, this will not fund. Not now at $100k. Not if rebooted at $10k. Certainly not to raise 1 million. Dare I say it, but this is delusional. The leap it takes to go from where he is to where he wants to be is nowhere in the realm of reality, but I've seen this many a time. From names well known and not so well known.
The question to ask is "who will be to blame" for the project's failure to fund? Certainly not the creator. It never is.
Strangely enough, even the name of this project isn't accurate, as Apocalypse 5E RPG isn't a stand-alone RPG as the title would imply, but as the Kickstarter page itself says, it's a "post-apocalypse RPG setting handbook that allows you to use 5E rules and combine fantasy and sci-fi themes."
Or is it?
I'm sure this would have done well on the DM's Guild, though not in the amount that the author would have hoped for.
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar
Sure, their attempts to appease the loud voices that don't actually play their games often fall flat, both with fans and those with the loud voices. This time, it's the less loud, but consistent voices that got heard, and I tip my hat to WotC for doing right by the fans of Mystara, also known as The Known World.
On Saturday, April 10th, over on the Piazza, it was announced that Jeff Grubb's lost manuscript of the Mystara Setting for AD&D 2e was going to be released to fans for free later this year at The Vaults of Pandius
Indeed, the cat is out of the bag now - I had been intending to make the announcement on the release of the unpublished AD&D Mystara worldbook. I had been in contact with Wizards of the Coast from whom I received consent to release it. Since then I've been working on editing the document to tidy it up, and to learn some graphic design to put the product into a more polished output. Given that the 25th anniversary of the Vaults was coming up I thought that that would be an appropriate date to work towards its release.
The Mystara Sourcebook was commissioned by TSR in 1990s and was to be part of the companies relaunch of the Classic D&D setting under the AD&D 2nd Edition rules. Mystara first appeared in published form in 1980 with the release of the adventure X1 Isle of Dread and was from that point on the default setting of the B/X and BECMI D&D line which also incorporated Blackmoor.
Sadly, the nearly completed book that Jeff Grubb had written was never published as curious reversals of decisions within TSR's management and sales department at the time suddenly decided that instead of a book presenting all of Mystara to AD&D 2nd Ed fans, they instead wanted a product focusing only on the Grand Duchy of Karameikos.
Jeff Grubb describes some of the contents of "the lost manuscript" on his blog, Grubb Street.
Lastly, there were suggestions of publishing this anyway. The document itself was in first draft state and then abandoned before it was completed, is awash in typos, sarcastic comments, and unfinished sections. It is unplaytested, unreviewed, unrevised, and untouched by human hands. Even with permission, it would need a lot of work. So I have doubts about its usefulness, other than as a historic artifact. But I am posting here a summary of what survived in the files I had printed out at the time. I'll point out that most of them are just gatherings of previous information scattered about the various Gazetteers, updated and brought into 2nd edition. Here's how it all broke down: (you'll need to go to the source to see the breakdown).
If you'd prefer a video recap, you can find it here:
The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube, or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar
Although I've been a big volunteer for a game company squaring-away the "big" convention tournaments, I've only attended GenCon two or three times. I've always been much more a Origins fan.....far more "bang for my buck" and GenCon is just too much, well for me......"too much".
Regardless, I have attended a few times and most importantly for the purposes of today's post, I attended in 2008. I managed to be able to stay after the con closed and helped KenzerCo tear down their booth, something I was able to do quite a few times at Origins. The lead-in pic is from the Steve Jackson Games guys letting me try on the Munchkin head.....despite several extremely poignant warnings and attempts to dissuade me from doing so. It was as hot, sweaty, and post-con nasty as you'd expect a big mascot head to be.....but also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me.
That wasn't the only once-in-a-lifetime opportunity during that convention.
Now I'm not sure how many Tavern patrons are aware, but last week (April 7th) was the anniversary of the passing of Dave Arneson. We all seem to remember Gary Gygax's passing, but we have his children running a memorial game convention every year that helps all of us remember.....
Anyway, GenCon 2008 was Dave Arneson's last GenCon with us and I briefly got to meet him at the KenzerCo booth. He was being pushed around in a wheelchair and it just seemed he knew it was his last big con. That seems sad, it did in the moment, but at the same time I have to give the man credit 'cause he was (literally) rolling with it. He was going around giving other game designers/artists these little baggies with d20's and a note in them. I was gifted one of these and they were two Gamescience d20's and the note was on a Westin Hotel sticky notepad:
"Rubbed in the hair of a live game designer
-Dave Arneson"
I've never rolled the dice and being a KoDT/HackMaster fan, the whole "fame rub" on a game designer (there is a long story arc about this in the comic) makes this a special memento in a couple of ways.
Now while I have seen The Secrets of Blackmoor, but I personally don't think I quite "get" Arneson's full contribution to this hobby we all share. I know there are some books I probably should pick up someday that might help, but I already have a few "history" books on the early days of this hobby I haven't gotten around to reading yet as it is.
OSR: Industrial Wizard Towers
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Towers are currently seen as archaic in Endon. A wizard's lair is a
well-appointed office decorated with rich mahogany, velvet, and oil
paintings of dyspep...
Weird Blogger Warning!
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Blogger gave me this message:
"This post was put behind a warning for readers because it contains
sensitive content as outlined in Bloggers"
But no idea...
Afrika Korps Kubelwagen (15mm)
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I have not got around to doing much about Axis infantry for the desert war.
I've done a few (very few) Italians, but no Afrika Korps at all until now.
...
Game pre-summary
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We finished up a delve today in DF Felltower. I'd expected it to be a short
fight followed by adventuring, but the fight went badly for both sides for
a wh...
Poetic Dungeon and Hex Keying
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For a long time now I've wanted to write up a pseudo-Japanese dungeon or
hexmap (maybe in a setting like this one) in which each entry in the key
consist...
A Grave Future
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The Fall that brought about the end of humanity was generations ago. Who
knows how long? Most were lost in the balls of nuclear fire that blossomed
aroun...
Warsmith's Words: Raptors and Warp Talons
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Welcome back to the Vault! Life has been very full on recently, but I've
found some time to write a blog post. My hobby time still continues to be
very ...
Search your feelings, you know it to be true
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I think I finally have to accept that any campaign setting I make will
eventually turn into a Frazetta painting. Barbarians riding on dinosaurs
fighting ma...
Mythic Races (2001)
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From the back cover:
*Mythic Races* is the essential *d20 System* resource for new character
races and prestige classes. This beautifully illustrated sou...
Through the Foglands
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By David Maynard Self Published 5e Level 3 The ambitious King of Octavia
has promised a title and a portion of profits to any prospector who can
find the s...
Class x skill - some quick thoughts
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It is a discussion almost as old as RPGs: is it better to have distinct
classes (fighter, mage, thief, etc.) or different skills (combat, magic,
stealth, n...
The Space Goopies
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Had a weird but almost coherent sci-fi dream last night. Here are some
ideas that might be worth stealing for someone.
A long distance space war starts ...
No Dice for You! (And a Question About Mechanics)
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What are you general thoughts about rules that don't have the GM rolling
any dice. For instance, if a monster attacks a PC, instead of the GM
rolling on b...
The Return of Advanced Adventures!
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After a 3.5 year hiatus, I'm returning to the Advanced Adventures line.
Yesterday I picked up where I've left off on The Heart of the Titan
(Advanced Adv...
ONLY Roll Initiative
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What if initiative was the only roll in a combat system?
Less a question of "can I murder this horrible horse?" and more "can I
murder it before it murder...
Megadungeons: Unique Rooms and Encounters
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Before beginning, I must state that all artwork used in today's blog is
owned by the publishers. I do not claim ownership of any of the art within.
I hav...
Players Guide to Greyhawk 576
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Apologies for there not being a post last week, but hopefully today’s post
will make up for it. Today I present the companion book to my DM’s Guide to
Grey...
Imagining Roteopia
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As a consequence of reading 'Cats Paws' and Catapults' I became mildly
obsessed with the idea of rotational limbs in living things. WHY can't we
have Segwa...
An Era of Standard RPG Terminology
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Now that the core of Dungeons & Dragons has been effectively open sourced,
a lot of retro-clone designers are breathing a sigh of relief. You can't
copyr...
OGL Rollercoaster – End of the Ride?
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The end of 2022 was full of rumbles about the OGL, but WOTC said it would
be OK. January, 2023 soon revealed WOTC’s (Wizards of the Coast) claims
that al...
Dragons
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Although their abilities defy classification, their forms do not.
*Dragons of the Upper Air*
Of unknown provenance, perhaps even more powerful than the ...
Completed my collection
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Even though I said I wouldn't play 5e I did. I've enjoyed dming it, I've
enjoyed playing basic characters. I'm currently running a game and
plotting a...
[BLOG] CAR GIFT CONTRACT (draft version)
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*We have very good news!* You have just won a *CAR!!!**The CAR* will be
made available to you completely FREE of charge for the next two weeks,
after whi...
WotC: In the Name of the Game...
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There's been a lot of talk about WotC and the OGL. I won't go into that
since it's being debated by enough already. But what does stand out to
Robyn and ...
The Blade Itself
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I just finished listening to the audiobook of The Blade Itself, volume one
in Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law trilogy. This was my first exposure to
his wo...
5e Session V: Into the Wild
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*Aurora Boree Alice *- Human Cleric
*Chuck Norris *- Elf Ranger
*Purina* - Half-elf Druid
*Your Majesty* - Human Wizard
Leaving the Stone Hill Inn before ...
D&D Christmas Carols: Hark! I Am a Hireling
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I found these old cards at a thrift store a few years back, and sent out
the very last of them this year. Inside it says “I hope yule log on for the
holida...
The Arnesonian Sandbox and The First Hexcrawl
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When I looked previously at the Lake Gloomy material (HERE) from early
summer 1972, I focused on organizing the material in a user friendly
manner. The...
Seven Sins of RPG Writing
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The Seven Deadly Sins of RPG Writing
All these sins are relative. For example, you might find a system is your
jam that I found unusable due to complexit...
On "The Dungeon As A Mythic Underworld"
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[This was originally posted as a comment on a Reddit post but, knowing that
will disappear down the memory within a few hours, figured it was worth
prese...
Genteel Magistrate at FenCon XVIII
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Victorious author Mike Stewart will be a guest at FenCon XVIII this weekend
at the Sheraton DFW Airport hotel, 4440 W. John Carpenter Freeway, Irving,
TX, ...
Starter Set: Dragons of Stormwreck Isle Review
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I thought it odd when I saw big name YouTubers talking about the new
starter set WotC published, but I hadn't heard anything about it. I don't
keep up...
This is an Important Game Mechanic
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*"That's the GM's Regional Map from my AOWG. And it's a damned good
regional map. It's not a good map for a Simple Homebrew Campaign. It does
some s$&...
On Ecology Completed
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So that happened.
Bestial Ecosystems created by Monster Inhabitation is out.
I'm getting better at it. There was something off about the softcovers, so...
Clean Your Room
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Looking back at my little blog here. That last post… wow, I was having fun
playing WOW Classic! That was August of 1999 and I was having a blast… it
was ...
People of the World, Spice up Your Life
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I have seen the *Dune*. It’s good, but, like all “content” now, too long.
The forms of many designs are quite nice (love the costumes of the imperial
de...
My RPG Zine Trilogy is on Kickstarter!
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I can't believe I didn't post about it here!
The Dead are Coming, Screams Amongst the Stars and Running Out of Time are
on *Kickstarter right now!* Thes...
Maximum HP 004, one week to go
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Just one week to go for Maximum HP issue #004, the undead. We are pushing
through stretch goals and wracking up contributions for the best issue yet.
We...
Steve Jackson Interview
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James Maliszewski recently did an interview with Steve Jackson over on his
Grognardia blog. Steve chats about the beginnings of The Fantasy Trip and
upcomi...
Undermountain Map Origins
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As documented on the Ruins of Undermountain sales page, "TSR didn't
actually use Ed Greenwood's original maps," at least not in their entirety.
This post d...
WB:FMAG Total Print Sales
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Hello Folks,
The last time I did a quick sales report was in September 2018.
I pulled reports from Amazon, Lulu and DrivethruRPG from October to current
fo...
The Minotaur for Old-School Essentials
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*Minotaur*
*Requirements:* Minimum STR 9, Minimum CON 9
*Prime Requisite:* STR and CON
*Hit Dice:* 1d10
*Maximum Level:* 8
*Armor:* Leather, including shield...
WIZARDS OF POHJOLA
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Init +0
Melee Atk
• sword or dagger +1 (1d5 or 1d3)
Ranged Atk
• hot iron sparks +3 (1d4+2 to two targets within 20' but not closer than
5')
AC 14
HD 12d...
Dungeons & Dragonmead Fall Schedule
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*As you know, I run public classic Dungeons & Dragons games at **The Loaded
Die**/Metro Detroit Game Night's Board Game Nigh at **Dragonmead**, in
Warren...
D&D Sling Damage vs. Large Targets
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In many early editions of D&D, weapons were assigned two damage values: one
for small/medium targets (i.e. man-sized) and one for large targets (giants
and...
James A. Smith, Jr. Memorial Video
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A beloved father, devoted friend, and D&D Dungeon Master extraordinaire. We
miss you! To view video, click here Memorial Video
Note - The original video...
Let's Talk About Pacing!
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The idea, I think, is that the RPG is ultimately about the long game. Even
rolling back to the early days of Basic & Expert, the goal of the player
was...
Profane and Profound Prep Part 2
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This is part 2 of my work to edit my magic items for a DMsGuild release,
along with adding cursed items along the way. Here is part 1. Bone of a
Saint 8000...
SHORT BREAK.
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I'm going to take a break for a week or so and will start up again in the
New Year. Thanks for reading and we'll start with Level 6 when I get back.
Iain Lovecraft, 3D Sculptor
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Nope, it's got nothing to do with Cthulhu. I just did a video conversation
with Iain Lovecraft, who designs 3D miniatures and terrain. If you're not
doin...
New website!
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Slowly but surely, all the content here will make its way — in updated
form! — to my new website: timbannock.com. For fairly obvious reasons, that
site wil...
Please Update Your Link!
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If you're seeing this, it means your link to the Greyhawk Grognard blog is
out of date.
Please update your link to www.greyhawkgrognard.com (RSS feed is
h...
Mord Mar - Session 6
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We weren't able to play Mord Mar last week, due to a family funeral. This
week we played on Monday for the first time, due to kids returning to
school and ...
A Small, Quiet Plea
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There has been a great deal of discussing political agendas, social
grievances, and personal attacks within the little corner of gaming that is
my hobby....
Don’t Sleep It’s Broken
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Expanding/editing my comments from What Makes Something Broken G+ thread:
“Broken”, for me, is anything that makes normal character choices, tactics,
or ro...
Swords & Wizardry Light-Themed Birthday Party
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Last month, my wife and I helped our oldest to celebrate his birthday in
style. Ever since 2013, we have hosted a themed birthday party for our
now-15-ye...