Clean Up Time - Family time

I'm cleaning and sorting today. Here are some of my favorite pictures I rescued from various devices and platforms.

Due to the cleaning on my plate, I might be offline for a few days.

Epcot Family Picture on New Year's Eve 2019.
My phone glitched and my family had stepped away in the excitement.
Cool picture though. 

Leo the cat, as photographed by my daughter.
I use this for a "Personal Space" lesson at school. 

Benny's first Christmas

Our first Family Disney Trip, celebrating Catherine's final surgery. 

Cat as Fiona and Nate as Finn.

Tori mugging for Tim Bits.

A picture at Wegmans.

Tori's first Christmas

Me, many, many years ago.

My favorite picture at Disney.

Benny is chill.

I'm not sure what is happening here. Nate and Benny are playing something. 

Nathan, Paul and Catherine going to Home Coming.
This was the first and only year they will all be in high school together.

Kitty and I at Darien Lake. 

Kitty and I.

Catherine and I draw together. 

Paul's first day of work at summer camp, 2019.

The Mac Is Not A Xerox Machine...

Back in June 2019, I released a scan of a Character Sheet I created back in the 80's.

I thought it was the best sheet I'd ever made or used. Still pretty true. You can pick up this one for yourself on DriveThruRPG. This file is pay what you want and it is strongly suggest that you use it before putting any cash down. If you like it come back and drop some change in the tip jar.

Tonight I was looking at it and wished that I still had the disc it came from so that I could have the deep black lines the originals had. Well, I don't have that no matter how much wish I did.

But I still have a Mac.

It turns out that either I have gotten much better at Mac Draw or the processing power of G4 is so much better than a 512K or Claris software has improved before its demise, that I can recreate this document. I started working on it tonight, I hope to have a new version done by Monday. Ah, Veteran's Day.

The new versions will be tacked on the old version of the file on DriveThruRPG, as a thank you to all the people who downloaded it. Many of you paid for it, and I really, really appreciate the support.

What you can expect is a faithful rendition of the old version, a new version with the classic 6 instead of 7 and a few bells and whistles add on, such as Acrobat Abilities added to the thieves table, a better encumbrance chart, AC chart, a space for mounts and pets, and a few other things.

Obviously, this will be more than one file. I might even make a faded version to match my scan of the original.

9% of a plan

I have this idea for a project. Its part of an idea. Like 9% of an idea for a project.

Anyway, this is the first 1%. I have been working on a map of a Roman city for my campaign.

The light gray streets outline an insula. By definition, there are 64 of these areas in the city. My idea is to make 64 maps, one per page. On the left hand pages, there will be a mini-map of the insula with a large diagram highlighting one structure from the insula.

So, that is like 4.5% of my idea. That would look something like this:

The right hand pages would be character studies for some of the more interesting people that live in that structure. There might me more than one character study. There would be a picture of said character(s). That is the other 4.5% of my idea of this project. Perhaps it would be ruleset agnostic or specific to AD&D or D&D.

Not sure.

Like I said, it's like 9% of a plan.

I still haven't decided if this is a book or a patreon thing or something else. Let me know what you think.

Old School Mass Combat? Fantasy Hack

How I loved this game. Fantasy Hack is an old school mass combat game which fits right in with D&D, Lewis and/or Tolkien settings. If you are into OSR, this could be your go to mass combat set.

The rules are totally retro feeling because they are printed in one color, black, on yellow paper. Published in 1993, they'll send you back a couple of decades.

While not perfect for every setting, the set manages to handle most fantasy settings. Give it a try.

A Fascinating Idea - Elthos

I've been looking at ElthosRPG. I can't say I understand it at the moment, but it looks awesome. Elthos has two titles at DriveThruRPG, Elthos RPG Core Essentials Rules Book and Elthos RPG Core Rules Book. The Essentials is a slimdown, speedy set while the Core Rules are the full Monty of Elthos.

What is even better is the Mythos Machine. VB Wyrde has written a whole website to allow users to tag up the Elthos ruleset against a crazy detailed world and character builder. Oh, that is so wrong. It does so much more. I just signed up for the Beta myself and can't wait to start digging. The depth is incredible. It is like nothing I have ever seen.

I am a 100%, A#1 D&D type guy, but these alternate rulesets really call to me. There is this interplay of what D&D does and the core concepts which could be reinterpreted. Elthos and Mythos Machine do both amazingly well.

I talk about the wonderful world created by Simutronics in their Gemstone IV game. This is basically a reskinned and heavily customized version of RoleMaster. It is beautiful, but not D&D. However, like Elthos and Mythos Machine, it totally captures that sense of wonder I had when picking up that original Basic and Expert set. I wish I was older so I could say I started with something more "original", but the beauty of role playing games is that your first is your best.

Elthos gives you a chance to capture that "first set" feeling. It is unlike anything I have have ever seen, but still hearkens back to other games so I feel that sense of connection. I can't wait to dig in.

The feeling is invigorating and I have had it twice this year. Go back and check out my only 5 Gold Star review of the first product that gave me that feeling this year. I feel pretty strongly about those classic D&D games and modules, but I can only offer my thanks to the OSR community for making new products that bring back that magical feeling I had in my youth.

When I get around to reviewing Elthos and Mythos Machine, I think I will have a trifecta of 5 gold star reviews this year.

I wish I could toot my own horn like this, but the OSR community is working overtime and I'm going to have to kick it up 11 notches to be in the same league as some of the more "basic" producers.

RPG Podcasts

Alright, I turned on the radio and heard Christmas music the day after Halloween. I love Christmas music... at Christmastime. This is why I listen to podcasts when I drive.

Let me give you my short rundown of Favorite RPG Podcasts*. The link is for the associated blog and the naked link is the feed location.

Thought Eater Podcast by Jeremy “frothsof” Smith. This is an Anchor podcast covering all things blogs on Wednesdays and a five minute Friday show, which is often off the cuff and right from brain to 'cast. He has 130 shows in the can, so you have a lot of replay-ability. Love it.

Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/thought-eater/id1448611668?uo=4

The Red Dice Diaries by John Alan Large. Like Jeremy, John has 102 episodes available, so the back catalog is huge. Again, I love this show. John runs the gambit of gaming, so this the depth is great. He sometimes takes time out to cover methodology, so you might hear about things like journaling, preparation and from special guests. In addition to special guests, John throws the topics over to Hannah for treatment. It's like 2 or 3 podcasts in one. A wonderful find.

Link: https://anchor.fm/s/55de8b4/podcast/rss

A relative new comer is the Super Adventure Friends Co. Podcast by Robert Loftin and friends. They have only 7 episodes, so if you want to jump in from the start on an excellent Traveller/Science Fiction pod cast, here you go. This is the first ensemble pod cast I encountered, with five high school friends chatting about great stuff. (Red Dice Diaries also gets this vibe when John hosts his friends.)

Link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/super-adventure-friends-co-podcast/id1465659876?uo=4

The last podcast I signed up for is vb Wyrde's Sunday Night Live From ElthosRPG. ElthosRPG is it's own thing and vb is ALL ABOUT METHODOLOGY. Mechanics, ideas, fitting it all together, from a non-D&D point of view. Great, eye-opening stuff.

Link: https://anchor.fm/s/ed1f0d4/podcast/rss

*The little star beside Favorites is there because I reserve the right to add more favorites. They Might Be Gazebos was previously mentioned and has it's own post. I've left off Patreon information in this post, that will be revisited later.