Category Archives: RPGs

RPGs

Hero Forge Update 2

January 19, 2015 admin 2 Comments

I got my Hero Forge backer’s mini on Saturday, that I ordered in December, and wrote about in my Hero Forge Update.

It was well packed and arrived undamaged.

It looks like it has dust on it, but that is an illusion of the texture.

Now I need to get the supplies needed to paint this and my original miniatures from back in the day. Since I am running out of month to finish two RPG related tasks, that will have to wait. No promises on the when, but I will post pictures when I get them done. I will show progress, etc. I will take better quality pictures and dig out my homemade light box when I start the painting process.

Now for pictures of the unpacking. Can you tell it was raining? Actually, this was before the rain and the warm weather melted the snow and ice on my roof and it dripped down on my front steps where the mail carrier left it.

It was wrapped in large bubble, bubble wrap with a layer of the same type of bubble wrap to ensure that it did not bounce around in the box.

CAM00467 — Shows better on a darker background

RPGs

Next Generation

January 18, 2015 admin Leave a comment

My youngest asked me to teach him how to run a game of AD&D. He lives out of state with his mother, so this isn’t too easy.

Step one I completed today at one of my FLGS, Fanfare, or on Facebook. I was looking for a Player’s Handbook to have extras at the table when I run Village of Hommlet at Marmalade Dog, Feb 6, 7, 8, as part of the OSR track. They had a Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual 2, so I picked them up as well. I was pleased to see that Fanfare has a Marmalade Dog poster, and the poster indicates there is an OSR track. Cool!

They also had the Greyhawk Adventures that straddles the 1e and 2e rules, so I picked it up. Since Hommlet is set in Greyhawk, I figured clerics will use Greyhawk dieties. I have stats on them somewhere on a PDF, I think, but this will make it simple to get any information I need at the table. The main thing is the names of the dieties and anything specific about them for flavor. I doubt a low level adventure will see any D.I.

I then emailed my FLGS on the ether, New Era Enterprises at neweraenterprises at rocketmail.com, AKA Roy Snyder, who helped get the OSR track at Marmalade Dog, to track down a Monster Manual.

I’ll use the Player’s Handbook at the con, but when he comes out with his mother and grandmother to meet his niece, I’ll give him his manuals, PHB, DMG, MM & MM2, and some dice and graph paper. He just turned 18, wow, time flies. He wants to get together and play when he is here, but I don’t think there will be time to squeeze that in, but I hope I’m wrong about that and we can play.

My first grandchild was born two days after my youngest turned 18. He was hoping that he would be an uncle on his birthday.

She is gorgeous! It will be a while before she is ready to roll up a character and play with grandpa. I am sure that we will be playing make believe of one sort or another before she’s ready for even a kid’s version of an RPG. It will be a while yet until she’s even at the peek a boo stage.

Life is good!

RPGs, Writing

Again Alliterative Acronyms

January 12, 2015 admin Leave a comment

Adventurous Adventurers Adventuring

Belated Blathering Blogger

Caverns of Cavernous Creepy Canyons

Devious Devils Defenestrate

Eerie Echoes Enervate

Fiery Fiends Flatulate

Grumpy Giants Girate

Hairy Hermits Harass Haughty Heroes

Island of Irate Isolated Islanders

Here’s one I found mixed in my DM notes ( I don’t have any notes indicating if there was supposed to be more.):

Livid lizards licking livers

While wild wombats wobble

And arthritic antelope anticipate.

RPGs

99 Followers on Google+

January 11, 2015 admin Leave a comment

Follow Me And Die! just had its 99th follower today.

I wonder who will be 100?

How many more followers can possibly want to follow this blog?

Be one of the few who follow, since all of us eventually die. 😉

Several of them are non-RPG related. Some I have blocked for obvious spammers, those that appear to be harmless, I let stand.

It is cool to think that I have had this blog since 2009, but only really got serious about regular posting in February of 2014.

I look forward to any followers of my blog and the interchange of ideas and stories about RPGs for many years to come.

D&D had its 40th anniversary last year, and this March will be my 37th year since I first started with the Holmes Blue Book.

LOL,I just had the image of that song we all used to sing to the annoyance of our parents and teachers.

I couldn’t resist, nor did I try very hard.

99 Followers up on the wall, knock one down and watch him fall, 98 Followers up on the wall.

RPGs

Order for OSRIC Books

January 10, 2015 admin 1 Comment

I am running the AD&D module, Village of Hommlet at Marmalade Dog 20 the first weekend in February, as part of the OSR Track.

I ordered the A5 Layflat spiral bound complete rules, and the hardcover OSRIC Player’s Guide. In addition to use at the table, I want to present that new players can get the basics they need to run AD&D without tracking down manuals, and without paying anything, if they just want the PDFs. I just ordered them today, so at the latest they should be here the week before I need them. I also want more manuals in case I happen to attract players to get my campaign going again. My son and his girlfriend have not been able to play since the summer.

I do have three copies of the Player’s Handbook, plus I have a tablet with the PDF I purchased before WotC yanked all their PDFs. This should allow most players and myself to have a copy should they need it at the table.

I do have another copy of the original Player’s Handbook, that I snagged on eBay, but it is in near pristine condition. I also have one of the reprints, along with the Monster Manual and Dungeon Master’s Guide, but they are still in the shrink wrap. I get overprotective of my stuff, so the copies I have in play, I don’t mind letting others use, I just don’t want any stains or writing on them, or the covers to be gouged by players using them as writing tables.

My original Player’s Handbook, that I got for Christmas the year it was released, is well stained from many fingers turning the pages. There are small tears and nicks on the edges of some pages, and the cover is somehow wrinkled, like it needs to be ironed, and faded.

I also purchased a PDF copy of the Village of Hommlet, so I can print it up and write on it, and cut out pictures to show the players, without having to write on my copy.

I need to finish reviewing and making notes and create some pre-generated characters. (Does anyone have pre-generated characters that would work well, or have worked well with this module?)

Once I get all that accomplished, I will try to find some others online so I can do a play test, since I have never played this module. It will be for six players. I also need to practice running a game that does not include my children, since they and I can communicate on a different level than someone I have never met or played with.

RPGs

Hero Forge Update

January 5, 2015 admin 1 Comment

Hero Forge is one of the Kickstarters that I backed. they are a victim of their own success and are backed up due to the volume of orders placed in the last few weeks, and rather than a planned two – four weeks until shipping, it is delayed to be four weeks. I received a generic email a couple of days ago, and today I received a personalized email about my specific order.

Here is the informational email I received.

Thank you for shopping with Hero Forge, the internet’s new home for customized, 3D printed tabletop miniatures!
In a response to requests for status updates, we are reaching out to users whose orders have finished processing and have been sent to our manufacturer to be forged. We wanted to let you know that your order 107996 has finished processing and has been sent to our manufacturer to be forged.

While it normally takes up to 4 weeks for your miniature(s) to arrive, we have experienced very heavy order volume during our launch and encountered some delays. This has resulted in some orders taking longer to be fulfilled and may extend delivery times by a up to a matter of weeks. We are working to address these setbacks in order to return to the 2-4 week fulfillment speed that we would normally provide.

*Your Character(s):*

Character: Griswald — Material:ultra_detail_28mm

Note that we have been implementing several updates and tweaks to our models and poses to improve the quality of our 3D printed miniatures. We have included high resolution renders of your figure(s) below which include any updates. We invite you to review and verify they are as expected, though no reply is necessary unless you have any questions, concerns, or comments.
If you have any questions about your order please contact our customer service team support@heroforge.com with your order number, account e-mail address, and the contents of your order confirmation e-mail.
We hope to see you again soon!
HeroForge.com

I’m in no hurry, I had beta access for nearly two months and due to my schedule, I did not order until December. Having regular updates to let me know that things are progressing is great, at least I know where things stand, and maybe by the time of MarmaladeDog, I will have a sample to show….

RPGs

2014/2015

December 31, 2014 admin Leave a comment

I write this at just under an hour until midnight in the Eastern time zone, here in Southwest Michigan.

2014 was a great year for RPGs and me.

I went to my first Con in thirty years or so at Marmalade Dog in Kalamazoo, and I did nearly daily posting and many days multiple posting for over half the year. There was a great start to blogging with the D&D 40th anniversary in January, and the April A t0 Z challenge.

I got involved in a weekly online AD&D game every Wednesday in March and it is still going, only the DM and three players with two characters are left from the initial group, we have added replacement players and look to add a couple more when we resume play after a two week break for Christmas and New Year’s. I have only missed a couple hours of one session and family interruptions for a few others.

I finally made it to GenCon for the first time, something I had wanted to do since the 1980’s when it was still in Lake Geneva. GenCon is too big and requires much more planning. In November, I participated in UCon and had a great time. UCon is much smaller, but has enough for everyone. I would like to do GenCon again, but don’t know if it will be in 2015. I will be at UCon and plan to stay in the hotel so I don’t have to chance driving on ice and snow for a couple hours or more to get there and back. There was AetherCon and another online Con the same weekend as UCon. If AetherCon is not the same weekend as UCon, I may participate in 2015.

A personal milestone, I finally re-built my original collection of AD&D manuals when the same day I ordered a Dieties & Demigods from Wayne’s Books, my son presented me the same volume as a belated birthday present. I also had several weeks in a row where I DM’d for my oldest son and his girlfriend and built up my long designed and little played campaign world.

I also participated in several Kickstarters. So far, I am not disappointed in the ones that funded, other than the D&D movie on hold due to litigation. Follow ups are planned for the ones yet to deliver in 2015.

I also jumped in to take part in the Tenkar’s Landing OSR design project, for which I need to wrap up my hex. I had planned to have my part done before today, but life happens. Thankfully, the milestone was moved to the end of January.

The triumph of over 60,000 words towards the first draft of the novel for which I had the idea back in college in 1984 or 1985 was sweet. I finally got my winner’s shirt this past week. I still have the last few chapters to do. Since Thanksgiving, things have been hectic at home and work. A complete first draft was my goal by now, so one more thing I didn’t think would bet delayed.

Last week, I volunteered to run one slot each day at the 2015 Marmalade Dog in Kalamazoo with The Village of Hommlet. Hommlet is one of the two modules I own, however, I have never ran it. I bought it for an example of a low level started adventure. I bought the PDF from DriveThruRPG so I can read it on my tablet on lunch breaks at work. I think I will have to recruit some people for a play test.

I support payroll and accounting software, so December and January are my busiest time of year at work. Every client calls at least once trying to either do the year end procedures or process their W-2s. It leaves me little time to sneak a moment to think about something else while at the office.

January also sees my youngest son, who lives out of state with his mother, turn 18; and my oldest son and his girlfriend expect a baby any day, making me a grandfather.

I turned 50 at the end of September, wow, where did the time go!

I did make it to Las Vegas in December, for the first time. I had a lot of people incredulous at the idea of me never going there before. I don’t know why that is so hard to believe, most of the world has never been there. I did try my luck with the one-armed bandit and roulette, and lost, but only the amount I set aside, so that I could say I did it. I bought two dice that say, “Fabulous Las Vegas.” After I got home, I realized I should have bought more, as you need at least three to roll up a character. the shop in the hotel where I bought them sold them for a pair for something like $1.99, so I should have bought another pair. Oh well, something for my list if I am every back in Vegas.

2014 was a good year over all and a great one for me in the realm of RPGs. I look forward to reading the musings of others, more playing, more DMing, and building more friendships with fellow gamers both online and in person.

The only way 2014 would have been better would be to have a woman in my life, but I want it to be the right woman, so maybe I’ll find her in 2015.

Happy New Year and Game On!

RPGs

Dungeonmorph Dice Initial Shipment

December 23, 2014 admin 2 Comments

I backed the Inkwell Ideas DungeonMorphs 2: Cities & Villages: Map Generator Dice/Cards and just got my initial shipment. I backed at the $40 level which gets two sets of dice, so I took one set from the original dungeon morphs dice and 3×3 dice tray, which is what arrived today, with a pack of cards and two bonus dice. The base set of five dice come in a cloth drawstring dice bag. The two extra dice are dungeon morphs on 5 sides and a village on one side.

I joined this Kickstarter after my October post on my backed Kickstarters.

The dice are easily an inch on a side and appear to be very sturdy with a slight “edge” to the ink. The images on the dice are cut into each face and filled with color. If the color were to fade or flake, one can easily re-ink it themselves. The dice curve in slightly on each face. I don’t think it will affect their rolls. If you don’t like a roll, you can always change it to your liking. It’s not like they are milled to Las Vegas casino standards. These are substantial and would make a lot of noise on certain surfaces. Some finished surfaces could potentially be scratched, chipped, or dinged. So the same caveat for rolling any dice on nice furniture applies. 😉

The dice tray has a high enough “wall” around each square to hold them in position while you move it out of the way or for temporary storage. The tray is sturdy and does have some give in it it one uses force. The only way it would break is if it got caught in something very sturdy and a strong force was applied, like between a door and the doorpost.

The shipment with the new dice is planned for I think May, 2015. I was not finding the planned shipping date when reviewing the Kickstarter. I will post another update when those ship.