#RPGADAY2020 7. Couple

Day 7, Couple. 

Well, it's my wife's birthday, so I gonna go with that. 

She prefers games with solid rules, like Risk or Monopoly and with the option to flip a table. So, yeah, Risk or Monopoly. She doesn't like D&D or anything else with fluid rules. But she does love whimsy.

A few years back I forgot to order her a birthday cake. As I went out the door to get her a cake (really, any cake) she said, "I can't wait to see what you had them put on it." 

"Oh, sh---." I found a cake, but there was nothing on it. It was the plainest, white colored cake a cake could be. My kids insisted that we decorate it and shouted out all of these insane ideas that couldn't be done in a day, let along 15 minutes before a party.

I told them, "I got this." The clerk looked at me like I was insane. I asked if she could draw a line, starting and ending two black circles, the size of dimes. The clerk shrugged and drew what I asked for. She had no idea what it meant. 

The kids cheered. The clerk was startled. They told her it was the best cake, ever. She muttered, "Okay?" 

When my wife opened it, she shrieked, "BAYMAX CAKE!" right along with the kids. 

She loves structure, I love chaos. We're a good couple. 

#RPGADAY2020 6. Forest

#Forest

That is a big word, for six tiny letter. When I think of a forest, I think of my children who grew up in and around forests. Spring, summer, winter fall, we're always in the forest. 


Magical. 

Wild. 

Dangerous. 

Protective.

Harsh.

Safe. 

Winters so still and so cold that your own body heat hovers like a cloak as diamond dust floats in the air. 

A forest at night, that holds back the worst of the storm.

As winter recedes, spring reveals secret trails.

Primeval places where children roam free.

And find cool waters in summer.

Which breaks to autumn where the blaze of leaves matches the sun. 

Episode 004 - Change, Kobolds, and Mrs. Todd

Welcome Back! Episode 4 has dropped. 

In this episode I talk about RPGADAY, change, kobolds and Mrs. Todd. The scripts are gone, as is the music. I hope these changes create a better listener experience. 

While I have done away with Mr. Kevin MacLeod's music, I hope you take a moment to go check out his music at incompetech.com. In addition to his music, he also has a graph paper creator which could be beneficial to any type of game. He has all kinds of good stuff over there and I hope you make use of his tools and download some of his music. 

This episode touches on history, both Roman history, my personal history and gaming history. 

Now, on to the show. 

The Tek - July 2020

My stats for DriveThruRPG were fine.

July 2020 Downloads via DriveThruRPG:

AD&D Character Sheet For Use with Unearthed Arcana - 3

Compass Rose Inn Minisetting - 3

Kobold Folly Minisetting - 2
Swashbucklers Character Class - 1
The Hex Pack - 5

Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 6

I just realized reports run in alphabetical order, so I reorder my list. I also looked at all time downloads, which include free and paid downloads. Those are some really nice numbers, it's been 23 months since Zero to Hero was released.

All time Downloads via DriveThruRPG:

AD&D Character Sheet For Use with Unearthed Arcana - 110

Compass Rose Inn Minisetting - 150

Kobold Folly Minisetting - 139
Swashbucklers Character Class - 100
The Hex Pack - 118

Zero to Hero: Uncommon Commoners - 273

I would like to do an update for Zero to Hero and Kobold's Folly. I would like to add maps and encounter tables to Zero and a treaties on Kobolds for the Folly. I'd like to do two new sets, one will be a Roman theme set of Domuses (houses) battle mats and the other will be a Hill fort map. These items will include a D&D specific booklet plus a rule set agnostic booklet. Maybe, 25 pages each.  

Well, webstats were disappointing. I didn't post much and it shows. 

Google Analytics Pageviews - 601

Google Analytics Sessions - 484

Pageviews per Session - 1.24

I don't feel to bad, as I already have 340+ page views for the first 5 days of August 2020. I should be back to normal soon. I'm also posting daily again, so that will give me a noticeable kick. 

I did do a major update on my page. I'll be tweaking things all month long. Sorry for the mess. 

I just want to remind everyone, if you have a product, a website or a podcast, let me know in the comments below. I'd be happy to add them to my site. 

#RPGADAY2020 5. Tribute

#Tribute(s)

I have some wonderful artwork from a well known artist in the field.  These creations are pyromancy. The brown areas are created with a torch and the colored areas appear to be watercolors. They are as cool as they are fascinating.

Each was done by the amazing Deven Rue. You can also find her on Facebook in addition to the aforementioned website. She's known for spectacular maps, but I can say I loved her teapots and slippers first. 

As you can see, I added an "s" to "tribute". I have a few more. Next up are the author-artist duo, Michael DiBaggio and Shell "Presto" DiBaggio, the creators of the Ascension Epoch series. I reviewed one of their books a few months ago, here. Shell Presto DiBaggio also has a Youtube channel for her artwork. I love watching these videos. 

Ok, so what is the tribute in these two? Well, believe it or not, I wrote a little OSR book called Zero to Hero which contains 50+ descriptions of medieval professions as character types. After I started following the DiBaggio's on MeWe, it sparked a memory. Historically, scribes fell into two categories, an illuminator and an author. And very often, they were husband and wife teams. It's nice to see traditions don't fade. So I added both types of professionals to my book after following them. 

Zero to Hero: Uncommon Heroes Zero to Hero

My third tribute comes from the Introduction of that same book:

"And my parents, who instilled a love in gaming in me from a very young age." Thank you Mom and Dad! They are also a wife and husband authoring team. My mom is a publisher and my dad is an author. 

These five people aren't the only that could have the label "tribute", but if I kept going, I'd be here all night. Five people for prompt number 5. Seems right. 

Be sure to check all of these great creators out. 

#RPGADAY2020 4. Vision

#Vision

The first thing that popped into my head was The Vision from the MCU. He is a wonderful warning for DMs of all stripes. Far too power and woven in the fabric of the problem but not the world, he is difficult character to handle. 

There is a going to come a point where your players make their characters something other than what you foresaw. There is the temptation to knock them down a notch, so they conform to your vision of what you planned. 

Don't. 

Not only for all of the reasons presented to the MCU version of Vision, but because what happens at your table is not just the DM's vision, but the player's as well. Your stories are the plan, the vision you have but your players have so much more in mind. They have a vision, too. 

Edit - HA! Crossplanes.com had nearly the same idea. Even better, he has a character sheet for The Vision.