I was just off on a business trip to wonderful Fayetteville North Carolina, home of the 82nd Airborne and the US Army Special Operations command. During my eight years in the Air Force (working with the Army) I got to work with essentially all types of Army units....as long as they didn't jump out of aircraft (fixed or rotary wing). Because of that I never had a reason, or even opportunity, to visit Ft Bragg.
My current job brings me here a couple times a year and I look forward to it for several personal and professional reasons.
A big plus on the personal side is that Fayetteville is
also the home of Hobbit Hobbies, an odd game store that I just
have to visit when I'm in town. Well, have to visit and pick up something. My general rule is if I step into a game store I would count as a
Favorite
Local
Game
Store (FLGS), I'm going to buy some stuff. Hobbit Hobbies is a relatively small store and fully half of that is models. The other half is spread out across wargaming, CCGs, minis, RPGs, model supplies, and even some comics and books. This place is packed floor-to-ceiling with stuff and I have totally lucked out on some awesome finds in the past.
...in the past. This time I didn't score anything huge, a couple minis and a Kaplow d30.
Now I love Hobbit Hobbies, but I think they sold me a bum die. I don't think I can return it, not that I would anyway, but...well.....totally my own damned fault. I should have insisted on the store removing the price sticker they put on it and giving her a few test rolls. My first three rolls were 1, 2, 1....and it took a good dozen rolls to get above a 15.
Totally a bum die and I'm trying to figure out what to do about it. Since I'm already a bit of a dice snob, which I haven't been shy about in the past, one might wonder why I even bothered getting this new d30. I already have enough dice, including d30's, and I even bought a bunch of dice that my buddies at Monday Knight Adventures had made.
Technically I do not need any more d30's but it's a d30! Can I really have enough? Truth be told I got distracted by a pretty yellow & black d30 because my main d30 is a really old (like early 80's Gamescience old) and this bum die called out to me, and I thought maybe....maybe I could (now I'm almost embarrassed to type this)...replace my cherished d30 for these business road trips.
After my last trip my little Pelican 1020 Micro Case I use for a dice carrier went missing. I assumed I had left it in my hotel room in Ft Hood, or in my room up in Dallas, when I took a side trip in the middle of the business trip. I was a little distraught at the idea of my main game dice going missing. One set of my Gamescience dice were a birthday gift from Barbara Blackburn (of KenzerCo fame) and I cherish them as much as the last two Gamescience d30's that Lou Zocchi had.
One of the Live Dungeons they have at the big cons tried to buy out all of Lou's remaining d30's, and he (Lou) thought he had done so when I showed up right after to get my hands on some. We chatted a bit and later during the convention when he was packing up he found two loose d30's in the bottom of one of his boxes. One was definitely old as he hadn't made that style in decades. Cool thing, for me, was that he actually tracked me down to give me the dice. So these dice are extra special to me....
...oh and I found the lost dice eventually. Evidently I had a whole tote of stuff I had bought while on that trip (a couple of visits to Ikea will do that) that I conveniently set aside and promptly forgot about. Of course this means I don't need this d30 and while it's a bum die, I'm not sure if I should try to jump through some hoops to cleanse and re-balance this die. It's a thing I've done and it worked then....but for one die, maybe better to just find this one a new home and let it be someone else's problem (assuming it is).
