This isn't much of a Five Point Friday, at least with respect to gaming.
A lot has happened this week. I started a new job on Monday. The massive increase in activity has kicked my ass. My blood sugar readings are all over the place but trending positively. Despite the exhaustion, I feel great.
I guess I'll start point one. I love John and Hannah's Red Dice Diaries. I've been plowing through them at half speed. For every episode I listen to, they upload 2. I loved the episode about stat'ing up NPC and Old Books.
Point 2. I wish to revisit my DriveThruRPG offering, Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners. I want to add a few more professions, sample character sheets with drawings of the character, a couple of charts for random NPC encounters. One of the things I would like to do is create a map for location in my campaigns, The High Booth. It's a church/temple/bar where extraordinary things happen and a great place to meet NPCs. Obviously, readers would be welcome to adapt or replace it with their own meeting place for NPCs. This addition would go hand in hand with charts of who one might meet in a similar establishment.
Point 3. I'd like to read for an hour or so each night. I did pick up a copy of three Thieves' World books a few weeks ago and it has sat untouched. That bothers me. Good books are there to be enjoyed. As I get my feet under me at work, I probably get the time.
Point 4. The house is coming along nicely. This weekend, I need to pick up a pool table, drawer pulls, and handles.
We are waiting on countertops and such. As you can see, the dog is a little nervous visiting "home", the place that burned. As we all are. Anyway, we had a great day when the appliances were delivered.
Point 5. I picked up a nice little OSR machine, a Lenovo 10e. It's what I am using for this post. On the 10-inch screen, gamebooks look nice. One thing I cannot do is manipulate images in blog posts as touching the image scrolls the screen. I'm working on some workarounds for this and I have a few ideas.
The image to the left is from DriveThruRPG's app and even old titles look amazing. I'm not sure if I can read them without glasses, but I can't read much without glasses anyway.
This little device is amazing and I hope to do a review on it soon.
Since I have been alternating between dropping hints of reviews and flat out telling you what I'll be reviewing, let me share this image:
In the last two weeks, I have made quite a few updates. Three reviews for Iron Buffalo Gaming and Coffee, and one for the 2005 Serenity RPG.
For my next three/four reviews, I will be going down a fantasy run. I finally obtained a copy of Sanctuary from the 1980s. This book is a collection of three different books of short stories which take place in the Thieves' World setting. This book is very different from the 2003 novel of the same name. This will be three different reviews of each book, Thieves' World, Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn, and Shadows of Sanctuary.
This series of books was created by Robert Lynn Asprin as a shared universe. The authors of the stories used the same city as the settling and created their characters to exist there. It was a simple and ingenious idea that has been used for many other books.
There has been another change behind the scenes. I have lost my Amazon Affiliate Ads. The reason for this is rather simple as much as it is baffling. The Affiliate system is not meant to be a personal or friends and family discount. By using social media, including responding to comments on the blog itself, Amazon has taken the point of view that those interactions make us friends and family or perhaps business associates.
Ok, sure. I'll accept that. So the Amazon Ads are no more.
As a replacement, you will see different ads for groups like Abe Books and DriveThruRPG. Since I am not doing webstats anymore, it won't be obvious what that means. Actually, it means very little. I receive the lion's share of income from DriveThruRPG. By a factor of 10 over Amazon. I don't know why this ever came to be as Amazon is such a big company. I guess the answer is this blog is 90% about games and 10% of all things that come from Amazon.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention two other things readers should be aware of. The privacy policy has been updated noting that Amazon ads are in the past tense. I feel that I should be offering links to Amazon's privacy for a while. I will be revisiting that policy in the future.
The second item comes about from my sharing of my collection of Bandai Star Wars models. This collection of 1:144 scale models used to retail for about $9.99. At the end of 2021, the sets became unavailable and the prices in the secondary market, such as Amazon skyrocketed.
I have recently spotted these sets back at physical retailers with a more modest price bump of $2.00, or $11.99. The main physical retailer for these sets in my area is Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby frequently has sales at 40% off, which makes them the cheapest source for these sets.
If you are looking for these sets online, both HobbyLobby.com and The Big Bad Toy Store. I haven't really noticed these models elsewhere, but if you know another source let me know in the comments.
Hobby Lobby, when running a sale seems to have the best prices, even if you order online and pay to ship. However, The Big Bad Toy Store has a special web feature that is kind of special. You can select items and place them in "My Pile of Loot" to be shipped at a future date. I find this is handy when ordering items on preorder, alongside products that are currently available. This option saves on shipping.
I am also starting a new job tomorrow. I suspect that I will be quiet for a while, until I get my feet back under me.
Welcome to this week's Five Point Friday. I haven't been keeping up because so many things are happening around here. Today marks 50 days until we go home. In just 2 weeks, we got new floors, windows, kitchen cabinets and a lot of other stuff.
50 days is going to go fast. My main issue is all of the changes at home. I might have to skip restoring my basement office. That's ok.
My daughter has plans for a rabbit hutch and a reading area. My wife wants the PS4 down there, too. My son Paul's room will be down there.
In the kitchen area, we have a nice table picked out which will be great for homework and blogging. Additionally, we'll have a nice passthrough area between the kitchen and dining room with room to write and draw. We already have the stools picked out.
For point one, on the gaming side, I jumped into the Old School Essentials Kickstarter. It seems very popular. At the moment, with 14 days to go, they crossed the $650,000 range. They are deep into the stretch goals but shy of the $800,000 point to do physical dice. They are projecting that the Kickstarter won't make it to that.
Ah, well. Can't have everything. But by sharing their campaign, maybe we can have everything. :)
Just what I need, more dice.
For point 2, I stopped off at Iron Buffalo Gaming for a book and some excellent coffee. I really enjoy this place and they have a great thing going there.
I spoke with the owner and listened as he did an interview with a local news crew. I haven't seen him on the news, I suspect I missed it.
But anyway, I did manage to snap a picture or two of their D&D e5 setup.
I want my shelves to look like this. We'll see.
Point 3 is I discovered that Hulu has the Firefly TV show. For some reason the film, Serenity is elsewhere in the streaming universe. Over the next couple of weeks, I plan on watching an episode per evening.
Four. More sci-fi.
I picked up the Serenity RPG from 2005. It looks impressive, I've been reading through it and building characters to work out the rules. I really enjoy reliving Firefly.
My last point is on ads, media, and swag.
I lost my Amazon ads a week or so ago. I'm not sure why. Anyway, that is why you won't see ads for them here anymore. I am still heavily into the Amazon ecosphere, so don't think that just because I don't run their ads that they have bad products.
As a replacement, I have been including Abe Book ads with each book review. Additionally, I have some swag links available. Over on Redbubble, you can grab some great coffee mugs created by me. I am trialing putting ordering information in posts, but I'm not sure that is the way to go. I need to figure out how to present them nicely on the blog.
Another simplification is I have eliminated my Facebook and Twitter share campaign. Redbubble is kind of pressuring me into using Instagram, but I don't use it much. The data doesn't support using Facebook, so flipping to a new platform seems... well... bad. Facebook was good for a while, but it wasn't giving me the returns I was expecting. What I found was, 38% of my readers are coming directly to the blog either by typing the name or using a bookmark. Also, only 4% of my readers came from Facebook and that number is falling.
But... Wow! 38%. That is awesome. If I knew how to get that higher, I'd do it in a heartbeat. But 38% is amazing name recognition for a website with a wacky name.
I am looking at all of my social media accounts and trying to decide what else can go. No matter what, I plan on keeping my MeWe and Dice.Camp accounts running.
I made a lucky find today at the house. A dozen or so metal Micro Machine Star Wars Figures. I found them in a box in the attic, which probably should have burned to ash but didn't thanks to the asbestos popcorn ceiling we had.
You can see these are from a few different sets. I have a couple from Hoth, including Luke and Han. There is also a single regular Stormtrooper, Vader, and Boba Fett.
There were two figures I didn't recognize in the same box: plastic Gamorrean guards.
eBay sparked a memory. These are from the 1983 Parker Brother's game, Battle at Sarlacc's Pit. I recall having this one but I have no idea where the rest of the game went. I did not die in the fire, I had lost it long ago.
Anyway, things are moving along at the house. We have windows, a toilet and kitchen cupboards. It's all looking up.
If you look over to the right, you'll see the countdown is on. We are set to return home by mid-April. 54 days. That means a lot of things.
Due to the time of year, everyone here is hauling ass. Nate and Cat have the school play the first week of March. Weddings are in full swing, so they are doing double duty with practice and work at the banquet hall. My older son is off with the Air Force Reserves, in and out of the house as duty dictates. My wife and I are starting new jobs.
Things are getting real.
The biggest change is that we won't have time to game much at all. Rather than go on hiatus, I will still have time to do some reviews. I also want to show off some cool stuff I have received from people who reached out after the fire. I should have time to post every week or two.
Before I check out for a bit, I wanted to show off something I put together today. I love the game Star Smuggler, a solo game created in the 80s. It's like Traveller Super Lite. You can download and print it from Dwarfstar Games.
One thing that always bothered me about the set is that the tiles used for the planets forced the player to invert one tile or another to create the necessary planets. Last night, I decided to correct that by flipping every tile with Gimp. This afternoon, I printed them out and pasted them on cardboard.
It took forever. You see, the problem was each tile has text and numbers which are backward if you merely flip them. I went in flipped the words the right way around.
It wasn't until I had the whole set printed and mounted on cardboard that I realized the high production value of the artwork included with this game. Everything lines up correctly.
When you look at two A tiles side by side, the available paths line up because they are mirrored. And the continents look like a Rorschach test. But that is not how they are supposed to be used.
You're supposed to match up left and right tiles according to the rules. For example, the Planet Regari uses tiles K and J while Palatek uses A and C.
Not only do those match, every tile matches. That's brilliant! Tom Maxwell, who did the art for the tiles was a genius. I love it.
Given that I won't have much time on my hands in the next 50+ days, my gameplay will be limited to solo games like this one. Physical tiles make it so much easier.
Thank you, everyone, for everything. I will be around but probably not as much as I'd like.
I can't believe how long this journey has been. We have a completion date of mid-March to early April. We finally have enough of a house that I can start thinking about returning home. I took a panoramic photo in the middle of what will be our living room.
Welcome to 2022! The year of Time Runner and Soylent Green.
As promised, I will continue to do science fiction and fantasy book reviews. Last year I was heavy on the sci-fi so this year I hope to swing the other direction into fantasy.
It's January 2nd and I have already burned most of a $75.00 B&N gift card and a good chunk of another gift card. And read a book, Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds. I have a couple of other books lined up for review this year, classics like Fritz Leiber's Swords Against Deviltry and a newer title, After Dark by Michael and Shell DiBaggio. I also have Aurora Rising, Permafrost, The Winds of Gath for my Traveller friends and Sanctuary for you murderous thieves lurking out there.
Lastly, I have picked up about 7 game titles from Noble Knights and DriveThruRPG to round everything out.
I hope you stay tuned this year. Join me on a year of epic reading.
Ever have one of those players that creates a character that just doesn't make sense? You know the kind. The person who shows up with a Chaotic Good Assassin.
Actually, this story is not about me. Well, sort of.
I did create a Chaotic Good Assassin as a part of a party tasked with killing off the evil overlord of the land. I can't remember the lord's name but let's call him Lord Farquaad.
Now for the setup. I was late for the session that night and missed the bit about killing the lord "someday". Since I was late, the DM handed me a set of pre-generated stats. I was only allowed to shift scores around or swap points for prime requisites so I didn't have the stats to be anything interesting.
The DM looked mulled over my sheet while describing the villain and prompted me to fill out a character description. You know, the boring eye color, hair color, skin color, etc. Since he just described the lord, I simply wrote down what DM said. Since I just pulled a fast one with the alignment, I didn't wait to draw attention to myself by flat out stating that my assassin character looked just like his quarry, Lord Farquaad.
Right off the bat, I had a humorous way of wrecking this campaign and went for it. My character infiltrated the castle and promptly failed to kill the lord. The only person to see my assassin was Lord Farquaad and the would-be assassin managed to escape by a dangerous and inexplicably lucky leap into the moat.
Rather than getting upset by my shenanigans, the DM ran with it. Since Lord Farquaad was hunting just one obvious assassin, it gave the party all kinds of opportunities to bushwhack him. Ultimately, the lord survived all of these attacks and went on a crazy, bloodthirsty hunt for the party. He used my foolishness to really make this lord despicable.
That's where my rouse kicked into high gear. The party fled to the silver mines. We infiltrated the lord's own most secure outpost posing as guards. At this point, my character's secondary gambit was discovered by the DM. A Magic-User was detecting alignments on new guards and the DM was non-plussed to discover my assassin wasn't evil.
Where it became laughable was when my character got his hands on some forged paperwork that said his name imperfectly matched Lord Farquaad's. His cover story was his mother had a tryst with Lord Farquaad and she had high hopes for becoming the legitimate Lady of the Kingdom, to the point of naming her son "Lord Farquaad". His first name was actually "Lord". This got snickers all the way around the table.
Suddenly, the whole theme of the game shifted to a ridiculous, fantasy version of the film, "Catch Me If You Can".
Now here is the really funny part. I didn't come up with this on my own.
There was a family friend that had a name that matched a landed person in England from the 1700s. In the early 80's, the UK did something that I can only equate with an "estate last call". They wanted people to claim abandoned estates so that they could get back to collecting taxes or clearing their records for sale or perseveration as needed.
This family friend was big into genealogy and laid a claim to an estate back in England. It was kind of a big deal. He managed to provide all of the documents necessary to back up his claim as his family had the same name and this particular Englishmen did visit Western New York.
It turns out that this landed gentry from England came to New York in search of a criminal. The criminal escaped all attempts at capture by taking the name of the Lord pursuing him. Annoyed, Lord went back to his estate empty-handed.
Here is where the story goes south and where the U. S. Government got involved. It turns out that this family friend was not related to the Lord, but the criminal quarry. Which he was fully aware of, it's is kind of illegal in rather surprising ways when you seem to have documentation that says one thing, but the reality is another. Forgery isn't always required to produce "correct" documentation, sometimes hiding contradicting documentation is better than an outright fictional document.
I'm not sure where the B.S. starts and ends with this story as this story is about the 1700s criminal leading to a land claim in England in the early 80s. I would have been about 8-11 years old myself. While I was aware of what was happening, I didn't really understand. While it's funny enough for people to retell, it's the sort of story that gets changed with every telling.
I have no idea why it took me so long to get to this shop. Gather & Game is a real gamers' shop. I took my son, Nathan, and my daughter, Catherine. Nathan was more impressed with the shop than Catherine. She had been playing guitar while my wife was at an online class, which is less than optimal.
Gather & Game is located on Grant Street, a historic neighborhood with charm. Many of the shops have been there for decades and the game shop is no exception. The storefront is painted in vivid hues of purple and pink. From the outside, you'd have no idea that they crammed that much product into such a tiny space and left room for tables and gaming.
There is no missing this place from the street, even when surrounded by equally colorful shops.
Inside is cramped but comfortable. Shelves, displace cases, and gaming tables occupy most of the space. If you want to stroll along, you'll need to walk down Grant Street, which is always an adventure.
I had to contain myself walking through the shelves. They have so many games. Everything from board games to Traveller5. I also had to remind myself that I had a budget to stick to, otherwise, I would have walked out with an armload of Warhammer, Battletech, and e5 products plus half a dozen board games that caught my eye. They had a few featured products but the shelves are crammed with perhaps 100 different types of games.
They have something for everyone.
Even better, the staff and owners are so knowledgeable about the wide array of products they have on hand. And it's not that salesman sort of knowledge, it's that warm and friendly passion about play and enjoyment that shines through. Even my heavy metal daughter smiled a bit when talking about products.
They are already back to hosting game nights and I can't wait to go back. If you get a chance to visit Buffalo, make time to stop at our local shops for your gaming fix.
I don't like to do computer reviews on TheseOldGames.com as I already have a website for computers, software, and hardware called unpwnd.com just for that purpose. However, since this is a website for Old Games, sometimes a post about computers comes naturally.
And this is one of those rare computer-themed posts. To support These Old Games, I maintain a Blueberry Mac iBook released back on July 21st, 1999. This thing is 22 years old and still ticking despite some serious carnage done to it. Here are the specs as they stand today:
Processor: 1, 300 MHz PowerPC 750 (G3) FPU: Integrated Bus Speed: 66 MHz RAM Type: PC66 SDRAM, 144-pin PC66 SO-DIMM memory modules. RAM Installed: 64 MB onboard plus one 512 MB module for a total of 576 MB. RAM Slots: 1 Video Card: ATI Rage Mobility (2X AGP) with 4 MB of SDRAM. Built-in Display: 12.1" TFT Resolution: 800x600 Storage: 10 GB internal, 32 GB external plus a secondary 128 GB external drive Optical:24X CD-ROM Modem:56k v.90Standard Ethernet:10/100Base-T AirPort:802.11b USB Ports: 1 (1.1) Battery Type:45 W h LiIon Battery Life:6 Hours (more with a RAM disc, like 24 hrs+) OSes Installed: 9.2.2 and 10.04 Kodiak. Dimensions: 1.8 x 13.5 x 11.6 Weight:6.7 lbs (3.04 kg)
I suppose the first question I should answer is, what is the boot time on 20+-year-old computer? About 2 minutes with all of the control panels and extensions turned on. See for yourself by watching the video below.
With everything turned off, it boots much faster but I virtually never do that.
So, what do I use this thing for? Gaming, writing, drawing, and CAD. A lot of what you see here and on my other websites is written on this machine. I also listen to music, podcasts, and audiobooks.
By way of example, I wrote all of my Traveller posts using this computer, which included some wireframe designs. My first ideations for the Devil Fish freighter started on the Mac and were transferred to another, more modern machine for improvements. All of the writing was done in Word and the basic outline for the ship was done in RayDream Designer 3.
Long before I used this machine for my websites, I was using a machine very much like it to create whole books. My father's games, like Knight Hack were written on a 512K Mac and then converted several times until they reached their modern form.
The interesting thing is, when combined with a Linux computer and some PDF software, I can bring my whole DriveThruRPG library with me on the Mac. Yes, that's right. Your modern works can be opened (usually) on a 22-year-old computer. Sometimes it balks, but most of the time it just works.
Surprisingly, I often don't need to tweak anything in the PDFs for Adobe 3, 4 or 5. I am running a lot of older Adobe software, so if I do encounter a glitch I can usually tweak it via the Mac itself. There are some rare cases where nothing can be done to "fix" or "convert" a file to something the Mac can read. I just deal with it.
I will grant you that images are not so smooth on the iBook due to the 800x600 display. They look like they're printed on canvas. Nothing can be done to fix it, but usually, it isn't a problem worth mentioning.
So, what can't I do with this 22-year-old machine? I can't print. Using the internet is problematic. There is software that will get me on the web, but it doesn't handle .CSS well. Believe it or not, this machine shows up as a Nokia cellphone in Google Analytics due to the handling of the emulation of the browser.
This particular iBook has an Airport card. Theoretically, I could connect wirelessly to the internet but I would have to use an old router. As in a router old enough to have security issues, so I don't do it. Part of the process of using this machine is it forces me to create backups. While I am not an insane security nut, I do love my backups. These occur naturally by moving files to my 32 GB USB drive or the 128 GB external drive.
Ironically, I had been creating DVD backups as a part of this process but they did not survive the house fire which did not consume my Mac, the USB drive, or the external drive despite being dowsed with fire, water, and presumably a massive power surge as the fuse box and wiring burst into flames and failed. The DVDs incinerated, right next to the hardware that didn't. How does that happen?
To be honest, using the internet on this machine is a poor experience so I try to avoid it. I do have a local copy of Wikipedia on the 128 GB hard drive. I can access it with Netscape Navigator which is totally crazy to see in 2021. My copy of Wikipedia is wildly out of date as it hasn't been updated in years, but it works well enough for basic research. I sometimes connect for games, which seems to be less problematic as they are old enough to not break.
In my next post for unpwnd.com, which will be written on this Mac, is about loading Linux via Crouton to a Chromebook.
The great thing about writing on this machine is the intimacy. I don't have updates running, firewalls popping, no Facebook or Mewe starving for my attention. It's just me and the words, not the world. It's really nice to "unplug" without actually unplugging. My first cause for getting into computing decades ago was for problem-solving, speed, and automation. The superiority of a computer over a word processor or typewriter is amazing. The ability to make digital art is complementary to physical production and allows for techniques and ideas that can't be done on paper alone. Add in that an electronic product can be created for sharing or printing is really great.
To me, this production is what computing is all about and this iBook still produces.
Hardly worth an update, but I found the Mythic Dollar Store Dragon Dice set at my local Dollar Tree. See the image below. (Campaign Wiki Readers, you can move along unless you want to see the picture.)
They are puke brown, but they have clearly labeled d10's for digit and tens place. They have a good bounce and lack any obvious flaws. While not as pretty as most dice, they do have promise.
A little over a week ago, I posted some test images. I hadn't realized they were live on the blog until a friend called me wondering what was up.
A lot and very little was "up". I had pneumonia and a lot of time on my hands. You see, having pneumonia and no fever indicates COVID. That is basically the kill mechanism for COVID. You have an infection that doesn't trigger a defense which leads to pneumonia, then you die. So, aside from getting tested for COVID weekly, I didn't have anything to do except go online.
Coughing until you have a headache isn't conducive for reading or writing so the blog went on the back burner. I did some digital drawings, download a game to review and wanted to share them on one of my favorite websites: the Cosmoquest Forums. It's all about astronomy, but it's been around for 20 years or more and I have quite a few friends there. Right now they have an issue where you can't post images via an upload but you can via load an image via URL. Hence the images uploaded in that test file.
After a while, I started having 3 or 4-hour stints where I felt fine. I began building models and uploading the images to the blog post I didn't realize was live.
Then more bad news followed by some good news. My house... the one that burned... had asbestos in it. Yes, the irony. Now for the good news. Nothing in the garage was burned or contaminated with asbestos so it all needed to be packed up and moved to allow for cleanup of the interior house. Of course, this happened while I was sick so I had to pay someone do it. If you ever have the chance to not clean your garage and have someone else do it, I cannot recommend this enough. :)
Dozens of really cool items were found in the garage. A headset with a microphone, a light ring, a second microphone, some models, dozens of painted... yes PAINTED! figurings, a set of drumsticks, some books, and a few Christmas gifts we had bought for the kids.
Suddenly, I had something to do that didn't require too much energy. Play with toys! But not the ones I bought for the kids. My wife was admendent.
When I started podcasting, I originally envisioned it as a video series, hence the light ring and extra microphone. Unfortunately, my face is not the stuff videos are made of and I stuffed all of it into a box in the garage. But you know what a light ring is great for? Taking pictures of models. And fortunately, all of my Star Wars models survived the fire and found hundreds of painted figures in the garage. So, my next series will be on figurines and models.
I just need to finish this Review Series. My latest review is of a book found in the garage, How to Make War. This is week 43 and I am on review number 44, so I'm a week ahead. And I didn't even count my laptop review as one. I've got to finish this thing.
So back to the models. The right ring is great for taking pictures. I can control so much more with the light ring.
X-Wing
Poe's X-Wing
T.I.E. and T.I.E. Advanced
If I want to show off some of my models and figures, this ring will come in handly. I dropped 9 bucks on it at Mashalls. I just need a good backdrop. I'll probably start with a basic black and a basic white and move on from there.
I can't tell you about the Christmas gifts, I'm not ready to post about the figures and the models yet, so that leaves the microphone, headset, and drumsticks.
A while ago, I abandoned my podcast. Before I got this pneumonia which makes speaking difficult, I decided to rebrand my podcast with the name Friday Night Death Slots. Back in September, I posted a short message on Anchor which included the new theme music for the show. I am not known for my musical abilities, but I do have some tiny interest, which explains the drumsticks, the microphone and headset.
So we have some good stuff happening. This is a test.
If I've said it once, I've said it 100 times. The 1981 Basic Edition of D&D is my edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Before that, I had the 1979 AD&D books which seemed a little opaque to 7 and 8 year old me. But by 9, I could grasp all of the ins and outs of the Moldvay set.
At 49, I set a challenge of reviewing 52 gaming culture significant titles. I've done novels, movies, game modules, supplements but only a handful of rule sets. The reason is pretty clear, how does one review old or new products which emulate old games? Everyone should know everything about them already.
A month or so ago, a reader whom I shall call Blackrazor gave me dozens of books to replace the ones I lost. Additionally, he threw in a bunch of things I have never seen. By way of thanks to my readers, I want to review them.
This loops me back to my original observation that everyone who plays these games should know them. So true.
Back in February of this year, I reviewed The White Box by Atlas Games. This product isn't a game, it's a developer's tool to create games. In that review, I mentioned that the vast majority of essays written for this title explore the pedagogy of games. Pedagogy is the method and practice of teaching.
This nicely brings me around to this little piece of artwork:
The Moldvay version of D&D was meant to teach from the book, as opposed to the methods used in the prior editions. It's a fine distinction, in intent, scope, and for my purposes, a perfect distinction.
OD&D, Holmes, and AD&D e1 are very fine games, but they were not designed and developed as the Moldvay books were which is very evident in terms of play and players. These three sets were designed with the intention that one person would own the books and that one person would teach the rules. Moldvay on the other hand, explains the rules with an almost boardgame approach so that players pick a role and act on it rather than the exploration of roles (and rules) that older editions supposed.
It's the method of teaching that changes between editions. Players were always cautioned against reading the DM's material. But in a generic sense, meaning they shouldn't metagame. Knowing the rules was always encouraged, but defining which rules were in play was the purview of the DM. So, when players hit those OD&D-type games, they often knew how to run a game even when in action as a player character, but they learned directly from the person hosting the game. In B/X the rules themselves teach.
Going forward, I hope to review several B/X sets from the point of view of how the rules convey the pedagogy of the game.
I have 10 more entries for my 2021 review series, if I could make whole rulesets half of those, I think I will have succeeded in this adventure.
I have a lot on my mind and more on my plate. I don't get to post as often as I like, but today I'd like to share a series of pictures. Think of them as writing prompts.
All of my prior goals for 2021 have gone out the window, save one. I have only 14 more reviews to do to complete my goal of 52 reviews a week. What used to be on my goal list was scrapped and replaced with a few more manageable ideas.
In the coming posts, you'll see some reviews, some new thoughts on gaming, and some solo gaming sessions.
Now, let's have those pictures.
What's in the bag?
First up is an item from Dragon Snack Games. Dragon Snack is a local game shop and is my most frequently visited shop. I even did a semi-review of it.
They have easily thousands of gaming titles (my description, not theirs so don't hold them to that). These bright orange sacks are reusable. One of them was given to me by a local gamer, Blackrazor. The second was in the trunk of my car for months. It contained three pristine games which are going to be reviewed soonish.
The kitten is for scale. As near as I can tell, Dragon Snack Games does not give away free kittens. As least, they haven't ever offered me one.
They recently announced a brief closure on Facebook for some updates to the store. I'm so busy, I didn't even have to be upset about the closure, as they reopened before I could complain.
If you're in the Buffalo area, it's a great place to check out.
Dice and Dice and More Dice
One more image which reminds me of Dragon Snack Games. The last time I was in the shop, I found these giant dice with 3 tiny six siders inside.
They are awesome! You can use one giant die for each character stat. I just need 3 more. It's a new quest to stop into Dragon Snack until I find more.
The blue die is for scale. They are giant, but not that "giant".
Dice and Dice and More Good Dice
This set of dice are from a local reader, Blackrazor. He personally took the time to reach out and gift me with more gaming materials than one game has any business having. While a dice review is silly, I will be looking at all of the books he gave me to fuel many of the last 14 reviews this year.
Thank you again, Team 716.
The World in Your Hands:
I found this mini-globe at a great shop called Rustic Buffalo Artisan Market. You can shop online, here.
I don't know anything about it except I like it. Apparently, it was made back in the early 2000s and usually retailed for $100. I paid a tiny fraction of that.
I will definitely do a review of them on the 716exchange.com soon.
Blast Off into Adventure!
This one is an odd one. All throughout 2020 and part of 2021, I was big into retro artwork. I did a series of rockets based on it's a small world at the Magic Kingdom.
The result was rather striking when printed on a journal. The black one has a wrap-around cover with a mirror image of the front cover on the back. The white one is printed only on the front cover. However, the price is like a nuclear air-burst. $21.00 dollars or so before shipping for a single palm-sized journal. I'm going to find a better source for cool items like this.
The Heart
Kingdom Hearts is my children's Basic D&D. They have played this game since the day I discovered it. Somehow, the discs we have survived the fires of hell.
Back in 2018-19, we had the magical experience of getting to play Kingdom Hearts III in Disney Springs. We, of course, pre-ordered it.
We did not spring for the $1000 Keyblade.
These 9 images will spark more than a few upcoming posts. Stay tuned.
