Thinking Outloud: Another Mulling Over of 2014 Goals

As the title says, I've been doing a little more thinking about what I want to do, goal-wise, in the upcoming year. Honestly, when I think about it, perhaps what I really mean is, as of today, here's what I want to do by this time next  year. "2014" may, in fact, be a red herring.

I decided to break down my gaming into three periods/genres that I want to actively pursue in the next year: WWII, Great Northern War, and Fantasy (which I've stretched to include VSF/Imaginations). None of this requires additional purchases, save starting the FoW Polish Late War Tank Division.

Great Northern War: 

• Finish 20 - 36 more Swedish infantry
• Finish 12 - -18 cavalry each
• Finish 2 -4 guns  + crew each, 
• Finish 1-4 officers each
• Play

These numbers will allow me to play, in a much stylized and small fashion (the lower numbers represent the bare minimum I think I would be OK with), Table Top Teasers/Scenarios for Wargames, etc. instead of being in a holding pattern. Then as I finish more figures the nature of the games can change accordingly.

Fantasy: This is all over the place as it covers solo and social gaming, RPGs and miniature wargames.

• Ever Expanding Dungeon, at least 12x
• Ruins of the Under City - at least try it out 1x.
• How to Host a Dungeon - try it out at least 1x.
• Paint up remaining figures of goblins and kobolds, 9 more each, to try Song of Blades and Heroes
• Run a Sisters of the Sword - Japantasy for home group with Yamato M20
• Run 4 sessions of Labyrinth Lord at DragonCon 
• Run an open table campaign with LL 1x per month at FLGS for meetup group
• Release issues 2 and 3 of zine
• Reread and run a TMNT game - solo or social - by 12.31.13
• Paint Malifaux factions
• Helvetica campaign - finish setup (the thieves took my laptop and much of my background info is now lost) and play a game turn at least once per month

Now that I see it all bullet-ed out, I'm disturbed by the length of that list! Some editing may be necessary.

WWII:

• Pacific 1/72
• Assemble and paint USMC tanks
• Paint USMC infantry to fill out specialist troops (M1917A, mortar, grenade launcher, BAR, etc). 
• Play through some Britton Publishers scenarios for the PTO.
• Finish remaining palm trees, make craters, hills, etc.
• European Theater 1/32
• Trees, hills, buildings, etc. 
• Play.
• Eastern Front 1/32 
• Finish painting Airfix Soviets and Germans, including tanks. 
• Play Skirmish Campaigns, Red Guards at Kursk modified for my collection and table. 
• Build Eastern front farm houses (3-5) for villages. Trees as above.
• European Theater 15mm 
• Finish US Airborne, 
• Assemble/paint tanks. 
• Learn FoW rules. 
• Paint Germans.

The yellow highlights above represent items that are questionable and are dependent on other factors.

New Construction

Although I should be working on getting The Purple Worm Graveyard notes together for Saturday, instead I've been working on this project that began on a whim two weeks ago or so:

Here it is with the roof, primed with gesso:

Not quite done yet - here's s a far as I got today - the building is ready to be painted, but the roof needs the tiles drawn in yet. I really do need to get my stuff together for Saturday's D&D session, so it will stay in this state awhile longer.

That lower window looks a little more Mondrian than I'd like.

Inspiration at the Museum

On our Thanksgiving holiday trip, we took Young Lord , Shadowmoss to see the Duke Energy Holiday Trains display at Union Terminal in Cincinnati, OH.

Union Terminal is a beautiful art deco building which still functions as a train station but also houses several museums.

I found quite a bit of interest inside, but two displays gave me some ideas for wargaming:

The above are trees and hills. I have no doubt that they appeal to almost no one as much as they appeal to me. The step hill is no different than millions of other step hills, but those trees!

How can I resist lumpy blobs of carved wood more toy-like, and durable, than my own craft foam trees?  Not being much of a wood worker doesn't look like a barrier to creating them either.

What follows are two buildings that I really liked - they are basically the same, Power Station's #436 and #435.

Again, I love the toy look. These buildings, or something like them since these models go for $250-$300 on ebay, would work great on my table with 1/32 figures. 

After doing some research, I found they are O scale, which, thanks to this scale and gauge page, I learned corresponds to 1/48 scale. Which got me thinking about commercially available O scale or 1/48 buildings. However, the difference in size for figures is 2.25 vs 1.5 inches. So, the doors and windows might be more under-scale than I'd like. 


Unfortunately, I can't find any pics showing 1/32 figures with 1/48 or O-scale buildings!

Scratch building from foam core is probably far cheaper and a good bit more fun, and I can make the doors and windows to taste. Still, if anyone could point me to such a picture, it'd be appreciated.

The research I did, combined with the train displays also reaffirmed that the toy look is really what I'm after on my table in the larger scale for WWII.

Recent Deals Scored

It feels a little strange to follow a post of things lost with a post of things acquired, but such is life.

One of the things the burglars got their hands on was my grab-bag box from Goodman Games.

As it turned out, I was rather lucky on two counts: first, they had no interest in the contents and just left them on the ground on the side of our house, second, it did not rain at all between the incident and the time we found them.

In addition to what's pictured below, I got one of the t-shirts and I've already worn it (hence, no picture. It's in the hamper.)

Items on the left I'm definitely keeping. Items on the right, i may or may not sell/trade.

The Manor #5 arrived while we were gone, but the thieves didn't touch the mailbox at least!

I also took advantage of a couple of Black Friday sales and ordered the following for well less than retail value (although none of it has shipped yet to my knowledge, pictures to follow):

• Duel of the Giants: Eastern Front  $8.50 [the game itself doesn't sound all that great, it's the pieces that i want]
• Malifaux - Arcanists: Arsenal Box $4.00
• Malifaux - Neverborn: Arsenal Box $4.00
• Marvel HeroClix Iron Man 3 Marquee Figure $1.00
• Bundle of Trouble vol 02 $6.00 (print)
• Tales from the Vault 1  $4.50 (print)
• KoDT 150 $4.50 (print)
• Bundle of Trouble vol 01 $6.00 (print)

The Ever Expanding Dungeon: Session 25A - "78 Days Later"

As we approach the one year anniversary of my solo Labyrinth Lord campaign, I wanted to set up the next delve. Here is what happened to our party, after their most recent adventure:

With Dleggit’s and Waldu’s death, Sister Linkat suffered a crisis of confidence, not for fear of dying, but for fear that perhaps she was chasing the wrong goal. During the days, she tended to her flock’s needs, and spent nights in near constant meditation and prayer to the Hedonistic Lumberjack inquiring for some kind of sign. 

Her dedication to her deity was not unnoticed and the HL sent her two messages - one was simply the appearance of the phrase “Exposing of the Dead” in her mind’s eye, the other came via the Bishop of the Temple of the Hedonistic Lumberjack in the City of Leafcutter,  in the form of one stubborn, short, big-boned acolyte named Sylana.

Sylana arrived with a note from the Bishop explaining her transfer to assist Sister Linkat in her mission. When asked what mission that was exactly, Sylana repliled “I don’t know about you, but I want to crush the abominable undead that are an affront to our god!”

It was settled, then.

Sister Linkat would journey into the Ever Expanding Dungeon until every last bit of unholy evil was cleansed from it. She would fight for the village’s safety and tend to their spiritual needs, but she would from this day forward, become a rabid hunter and destroyer of all those creatures that stole back life in a form twisted by evil by means of a dark and sinister source.

She would, she pledged, find and destroy that very source itself or die trying.

Manchiver, who had set himself up in competition with the local scribe to earn some money, poured over his magical texts much of the time, while he waited word of Linkat’s decision. He had also taken, at her insistence, a position at the shrine, writing prayer sheets for the villagers to hang in their homes. 

The sheets were not magical, although Sister Linkat did bless the paper and ink with holy water; they were simply reminders to the villagers of the glory of the Hedonistic Lumberjack. In exchange, she was able to provide him a small stipend from the offerings made by the faithful.

As her final act before turning her attention to her quest, Sister Linkat cast Speak with Animals, and offered their loyal mule a lifetime free of labor, free of dangerous entities in dark dungeons, and instead, days spent above ground in good care. The mule, saddened by the loss of Waldu, of Perceval and Dleggit, not to mention so many others, accepted the offer, with the note that if his assistance were ever needed, that she could call upon him for aid.

With that bit of business resolved, she rounded up Manchiver and Sylana to put the word out that they were in need of companions on a grand adventure back into the mouth of the dungeon. Unfortunately, the Hedonistic Lumberjack appeared to be busy with other things, and no one heeded their call.

Indeed, although the legend of the party’s exploits against the wizard, White Eyes,had made it as far south as Leafcutter, to the Duke’s own council, no reward was forthcoming, either in gold or soldiers.

Anxious to fulfill the role she had been chosen for, Sister Linkat rallied her team early one morning, and set out for the Ever Expanding Dungeon.

All of the above was generated using Mythic, as suggested in Mythic Variations for 'tween stories.

And the Holiday Takes a Downturn

In the car, on our way home from Northern Kentucky, while I was running The Purple Worm Graveyard, the phone rang. Our roommate had arrived home before us and was calling to tell us that our house had been burglarized.

The thieves got quite a bit of stuff, although I was fortunate that not much of it was mine.

As you can probably imagine, unless the thieves happen to collect RPGs, that boxed Tunnels & Trolls 5.5, Holmes box, or the Harn box weren't going to attract their attention. Never mind a pile of unpainted miniatures.

Still, they got my Linux netbook, an external HD and my acoustic guitar - a guitar that was built in the 70s for my dad by a luthier at the Martin Guitar Company. It was the first guitar I ever played and set me on the path to being a musician, to playing in bands and meeting people who would become lifelong friends.

I'm angry most of all that they left the case behind. If you're going to steal my guitar, at least have the decency to treat it right and not wreck it by leaving it exposed to the elements.

Still, these are all just things - although there is definitely a pervasive feeling of being violated, and only the Young Lord Shadowmoss, who has no idea what happened (and was lucky in that thieves touched none of his stuff) will sleep easy tonight, no one was hurt (and that includes the Princess Pumpkin who I found hiding in a closet).

Sisters of the Sword: Game Potential

Recently, I read the YA novel Sisters of the Sword by Maya Snow, as part of my ever continuing research on feudal Japan, Japanese folklore, and feudal Japanese themed stories.

The plot, to my mind, has excellent potential for an RPG campaign starter:

Two sisters, daughters of nobility, secretly witness the murder of their father and brothers and the slaughter of the servants. Vengeance is sworn but the sisters know they are not able to extract it because they do not yet have the training or discipline. When they run to find their mother and infant brother, they are nowhere to be found, but a message found later gives them hope.

That's all you need to know to get started I think.

• As in many good samurai stories, vengeance is prime motivator for the overall story.
• From a game point of view, their lack of ability as low level characters combined with this motivation, provides an in-game purpose to gain levels/ability/skills.
• The PCs have learned a variety of combat skills outside what might be usual for their age, from their brothers and father (in-game justification of starting skills)
• The characters can choose how they want to approach their revenge: whether to expose the murderer by gathering evidence or to strike them down in combat (or whatever other way they can imagine)
• Finding their mother and infant brother (rightful heir to their murdered father's position), if they choose to do so, becomes a sub or parallel plot. 
• Finding their mother and infant brother provides an easy way to motivate characters to travel or to take up side-quests  ("A mysterious letter arrives, you recognize the handwriting as your mother's own") 
• The villain knows the daughters, mother and infant son are not dead and has sent his samurai to find them - life on the run becomes a major catalyst for in-game events.
• There are four ready-made encounter-areas, that the PCs know of, to take from the book:

1. the family home
2. the family shrine hidden deep in the forest
3. the nearby village
4. a dojo of a great master who trained their father, the villain, their brothers and the villain's son (in the book, they stumble on this, but it's certainly possible they know of its location. Also since the characters are girls, they have to disguise themselves as boys to get into the school. If the PCs are girls, then protecting their secret and life at the dojo can become adventures in themselves)

• The master (if they meet him) is a potentially useful NPC, well fleshed out in the book, as are several other students (one of which the author seems to hint is of a ninja clan by birth).

As for the book, to my dismay, this is the first book in a series, which I am now going to have to finish reading because I really want to know how it all turns out!

Recent Arrivals

A few weeks ago, Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo posted on the T & T Kickstarter mailing list that he had found some shrink wrapped boxed T & T 5.5 and a copy of 7.5.

I have T & T 5 and really wanted 5.5, which includes some setting bits, so it was a no brainer (besides, it comes with Buffalo Castle):

When I finally open it, some collector somewhere will let out a sad cry, I'm sure.

On Saturday, I took a drive out to Titan Comics in Smyrna, to check out the table space available for playing RPGs, and while I was there I picked up a couple of comics:

 These are from the Lulu 40% off sale:

I haven't started Whitehack, but I have broken into Non-Player Characters. So far, I'm loving the approach to handling social encounters.

Finally, after using a Kroger Raisin Bran box to make my screen for the Dungeon of Akban session, I decided I needed something a little more robust for my GM screen. Plus, I wanted one that could be used for multiple systems - changing out whatever was needed.

I found a video online that shows how to make a GM screen from 3-ring binders clipped together. And it looked to me like it would fitthe bill perfectly.

A box of four white 3-ring binders is available for $5.99 with free delivery w/Amazon Prime. A few days later and voila! (and I still have 2 binders to use for whatever)

2014 Musings and Thoughts on the End of 2013

Still riding the high from Saturday's game, I'm throwing myself into the process of finding the next one shot to run for the session I'm hosting in December

And as I'm doing it, my thoughts are turning to hobby goals for 2014.

My goals have traditionally been solo oriented, since that's my preferred mode of play, although I did include one social game goal this year, to run an RPG session for the local meetup group (done and done!).

For 2014, I already know I want to run something monthly for the meetup. Candidates include:

• An "open table" fantasy RPG sandbox campaign  (maybe b/x, maybe LL + AEC, or maybe Basic Fantasy RPG).
• A sandbox Japantasy campaign, or perhaps a multi-session mini-campaign centered around a single goal. This is basically what I'm working on for my home group, and this way I could get double duty out of the prep.
• Running series of only loosely connected one shots with rules light systems like Searchers of the Unknown, one of the many M20 fantasy variants or one of the Dungeon Squad editions. Character generation takes a few minutes tops in these games.(an episodic campaign essentially)

Perhaps the biggest thing I am considering for 2014, is running up to 4 sessions at next year's DragonCon for Labyrinth Lord / AEC (I'm thinking LL rather than B/X, because I want to see if I can get some Goblinoid Games stuff to give away). Biggest in that I'd be exposed to potentially 30+ different players in a few days, running 16 hours of gaming.

Planning 2014 also has me considering the remainder of 2013.

Looking over my 2013 goals, of the actual goals portion (as opposed to projects which I only wanted to make some progress on), I have not done terribly but with 45ish days to go, I'm not likely to make any major in-roads either, not with NaNoWriMo and the holidays.

Although I'm nowhere near completing the Save a Dead Tree project, I have made my way through a good chunk of material. That said, I have also acquired more stuff so it's probably a wash in that respect. Still, I ought to be able to knock out a book or module or something before the year ends.

In fact, The Purple Worm Graveyard fits this description and will also work as a one-shot module for December. Problem solved!

Gridding the MDF and building some scenery and terrain should take precedence over painting minis, but we'll see. I'm 1/2 way through my US Airborne starter force for FoW Open Fire! and just picked up some Cygnar Blue basecoat for my GNW Swedes, so painting is calling me. 

Mostly, i really just want to get some minis on the table and play - since, you know, that's a big part of why I play tabletop wargames and not video games.

Social Game for Strangers

Saturday, I ran The Dungeon of Akban, from the Swords & Wizardry quickstart, for a group of players at the not-really-local-to-me game shop. For rules, I went with my favorite, Moldvay Basic D&D - converting the dungeon was straightforward.

I had a great time but I was surprised at how draining it was. By the end of our four-hour session, I was running on fumes. None of my home sessions have gone longer than 2 hours. This is something to keep in mind if I go through with my plan to run 4 games at DragonCon next year.

While it wasn't flawless, I got some positive feedback from a few players - and most everyone seemed to be having at least some level of fun taking a nostalgic trip with B/X. The players themselves were great and I think credit for the fun goes to them more than anything I did.

The intrepid adventurers at Giga-Bites Cafe, Saturday afternoon.

My confidence definitely improved as a result of the experience. I'm more certain I can run for groups of strangers at DragonCon and I know that the next public game I run will be that much better, as I apply the lessons learned this time to future games.

What lessons?

• I lost track of initiative more than once - as in, whether or not the NPCs had acted. If anything, it was to the players advantage, still, it seemed unprofessional to me.
• One trap that I really didn't like and had thought about removing, I didn't and in fact, I should have. I didn't have it pat, and frankly it was one of my weakest moments; I felt like things were getting away from me. Next time, I go with my gut.
• They will explore a lot less than I think - this was a fairly small dungeon and in 3.5 hours of actual exploration (the first 30 was chargen) I think they explored about 25% of it. This doesn't mean I'll prepare less, it just means I can consider some one-page dungeons I wanted to run, but decided against due to their small size.
• Drink water. Have at least 2 on hand, full, at the start.
• Let the players roll all of their actions, even those that traditionally would be behind the DM screen - detect traps, pick locks, etc. Why? One player did it accidentally and i decided to go with it for them, and then when another did it, I thought, "You know, we're here for fun, What does it matter if they know if they were successful? If they fail, there will still be consequences." Plus, it's something else for the players to do. Any opportunity to roll dice is a chance for some tension.
• Actually, the more I think about it, the more out in the open the dice are, the more the players can see that I'm not fudging anything. I'll probably do all of my die rolls out in the open as well from now on, including wandering monster checks.
• Make the font bigger on the chart for Monsters to hit. Ditto for the PC chart on the DM screen. I could never quite see it - I was standing up a lot, and at the angle worked against me.

I'm running another one-shot dungeon crawl in early December, which I'm now even more excited about, and then I'm 90% positive I want to run a monthly open table dungeon crawl campaign for the meetup group in 2014 - perhaps something in a mega-dungeon or at least a mini-mega.

Gavel Nazing

I had planned a post for last night, but then Real Life ^(tm) got in the way and I had all of an hour for NaNoWriMo, packing my lunch, showering, some personal correspondence, reading and some prep for the old school session I'm running Saturday. Needless to say, the post fell by the wayside.

And that's kind of the point of what I was going to write.

Behold, the Gazing Navel!

On the train ride home last night, I listed all of the tabletop gaming projects I have going on - including the zine and this blog. There are sixteen. Sixteen. 

I readily admit I have gamer ADD, but I didn't realize it was quite that bad. 

Now you may have more or you may have less, but it's not the number that matters - what matters is, are you giving all of them the time you want to? Any of them? What's that expression? Jack of all trades, master of none?

Not that you have to be a master of anything hobby related - if you have to do it, it probably isn't a hobby  -but wouldn't I make more progress if I focused on one project at time (or say, 4 or 6)? No wonder it takes forever to get an army on the table or another trip back into the dungeon!

We only live once and we can't do it all. How, then, to spend the time we reserve for hobbies in general and gaming in particular? Assuming that hobbies are somehow essential  (from my perspective they seem to be, but it really depends on your culture, socioeconomic status, etc.) Is this too introspective? It feels like I'm asking "How can we live a good life?" (we all know what is best in life*)

Here they are - this includes campaigns, playing, painting minis, reading, writing, researching etc. - in no particular order:

1. Six Iron Spikes & a Small Hammer
2. this blog
3. Assembling solo rpg tips/systems into one document
4. The Ever Expanding Dungeon
5. Solo-RPG outside of TEED.
6. Samurai social game
7. Heroclix
8. The Wastelands: USR social game
9. Dungeon crawl social one-shots (b/x. one Saturday, one in December, hopefully to be replaced by a campaign in 2014)
10. Great Northern War
11. 28mm Fantasy
12. WWII 1/32 (Europe, Eastern Front)
13. WWII 1/72 (Pacific)
14. Flames of War: Open Fire! (Europe)
15. Helvetica Campagin (VSF/Imaginations)
16. Save a Dead Tree

I wasn't sure about including some things, like my Sci Fi games. These are sporadic at best. But there are no minis to paint, no rules to study and no ongoing campaign; just set up and play. So I left it off the list.

Let's add NaNoWriMo which isn't necessarily related to gaming, but in my case it is, in  part. So that makes 17 things, but at least NaNoWriMo is over by the end of the month (at least officially).



*To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

It Was a Good Run

I was notified last week that my job was changing and that I would be moving into a role that no only did IT like things, but actually worked in the IT department. It's a subtle but important change as it puts me around people doing IT daily, rather than people working with our members daily (I work for a non-profit).

Unfortunately, as with every omelet, you have to break a few eggs, and the egg in this case is my ability to work from home. I found out today that going forward, I need to be in the office.

For whatever reason, IT is expected to always be in the office - never mind that at least half of our staff works remotely or that my job has nothing to do with hardware maintenance which can only be done onsite. Frankly, I think it's political and a power issue - the last place I worked, where I did tech support, was like that too.

In any case, that means I now have a daily commute again, which is not entirely bad. I'll have ample time for reading on the train portion of the trip. But, I miss out on getting to see my son whenever I want to during the day. Plenty of people never get that experience, so I'm thankful for for having had it, and hope to find my way back to it sooner rather than later.

It also means I'll be going in much earlier, so that I can be home before the little man has to have his bath. Which, consequently, means going to bed earlier (currently I go to bed after midnight most nights). The unavoidable conclusion is that there will be less time for gaming activities on weeknights. So I'll be making sure I make good use of the time I do have but I may need to reevaluate the myriad of projects I've come up with.

I don't expect my blogging to change much -  I have to write or I'll explode - but with NaNoWriMo this month, I do expect playing games and painting to take a backseat.

First World Problems: Deciding Which One Shot to Run

In addition to this nanowrimo nonsense I'm doing,  I have my first session running a game for more or less strangers coming up on Saturday.

I'll be running B/X and plan to do a traditional dungeon crawl using one of the many available one page dungeons.

Of the ones I've tested, many have a significant number of empty rooms.

While I like empty rooms, my playtesters expressed that they  wanted more to do - at the same time, they aren't familiar with the old school paradigm. And, the reality is I have 4 hours to run the thing to conclusion. There's no going back next session (although i hope to find enough interest that people want to do a B/X campaign of some sort).

I could just throw in more encounters I suppose, if I find interest waning  or time is available - certainly adding wandering monsters to the playtest helped in that respect.

I'm not really worried about running the game itself, or improvising or anything like that, so much as having an adventure the players will enjoy.

Welcome, Holmes!

My first exposure to D&D was the Moldvay Basic & Expert books. But there was a mention in the Expert edition about "if your copy of the D&D Basic rules has a blue cover with a picture of a dragon on it, then this section is for you" (X4). I never had any idea what that meant.

Until recently.

And for some time now, I've wanted to get a copy of the Holmes book to see first hand what all the fuss is about. 

That day was today. For just $19.99 + shipping I got the boxed set. What is most incredible is the condition - the rule book and module look like they've never been touched. No creases, no pencil marks, nothing. It's like the owner never carried their rule book back and forth to school every day for a year.

I'm still not sure why I was the only bidder, but who cares?

The unboxing:

A little warping, corner damage and a few spots on the bottom box.

Chits

Unfortunately, this was the best picture I could get of the rule book glare-wise. I'm almost hesitant to break it in by reading it

The module is in amazing shape. Puts the copy i bought previously to shame.

A Decision Finally Made: NaNoWriMo Rebel It is!

I know you were sitting on the edge of your seat to learn my final decision.

Sometime around 9:00 PM on October 31, 2013, I decided I'd go for NaNoWriMo as a NaNoRebel. A "rebel" is someone who doesn't follow the letter of the law regarding the contest rules - someone who, for example, writes short stories, poetry, non-fiction, edits an existing novel, etc.

My project? I'll let you know when it's done. 

At 12:01 AM November, 1, 2013 I started typing and did so for about 30 minutes. I've squeezed in some additional time already and I'm about half way to my personal 5000 word goal for today.

It is more than a bit of a hodgepodge at the moment and will probably remain so. The goal is to get the ideas down, not perfect any of them. As a nod to NaGaDeMon, I am going to try to work in a solitaire adventure for b/x compatible games.

I also did a bunch of writing for the zine yesterday, and I'm around 1/2 way in terms of written content. My plan is for 24 pages this issue, with artwork by friends who do art. 

Feudal Japanese Fantasy RPG Resources Available

I've pretty much announced this everywhere except here, so I apologize if you've seen this already.

I've started a list of free / under $1.00 materials for an RPG set in a feudal Japanese setting. If you're viewing this in a reader, you probably don't see the link on the left hand side of the screen, so here it is for all to see:

Feudal Japanese Fantasy RPG Resources

The emphasis is on gaming materials, although I did include some free background material.

Obviously, a trip to the public library could greatly expand what you can get for free.

I may expand the list to include all of the RPG resources I've acquired regardless of price, as none of them, on their own, is particularly expensive.

In the meantime, because I built the list after the fact, I'm sure I've missed some things that I downloaded. If you see anything I missed in the Free or $1.00 or less range, please let me know.

My RPG Person Profile

Jumping on the bandwagon, mostly because I've enjoyed reading a bunch of these the past day or so.

I'm currently running (at home): Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying post-apocalyptic science fantasy. A solo Labyrinth Lord dungeon campaign. Some D&D b/x one shots.

I'm currently running (on line): nothing

I am currently playing (at home): A solo Labyrinth Lord dungeon campaign.

I am currently playing (on line): nothing

I would especially like to play or run: I'm prepping for a game set in feudal Japan with a fair dose of magic and strange creatures, with Yamato M20. Some days I think of running it with LL AEC + Oriental Adventures 1st ed. Either way it's at the top of my "to run" list.  I'd also love to run an extended D&D b/x sandbox campaign. I'd really like to play Space: 1889.

...but I would also try: Mostly anything if someone else is running it.

I live in: GA

2 or 3 well-known RPG products other people made that I like: Dungeon Crawl Classics, Tunnels & Trolls, AD&D Dungeon Master's Design Kit.

2 or 3 novels I like: King Solomon's Mines, The Lost World, The Beautiful and Damned

2 or 3 movies I like: Hari-Kari: Death of a Samurai, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Despicable Me

Best place to find me online: my blog, Twitter, or G+

I will read almost anything on tabletop RPGs if it's: not racist, sexist or homophobic.

I really do not want to hear about: why you think dungeon crawls suck.

I think dead orc babies are (circle one: funny / problematic / ....well, ok, it's complicated because....):  Problematic and as such, they don't exist in my games.

Games I'm in are like (link to something): No matter what atmosphere they start out with, they eventually end up like this: 

Free RPG Content I made for __USR_____ is available here: http://tabletopdiversions.blogspot.com/p/downloads.html

Free RPG Content I made for __any RPG that has dungeons_____ is available here: http://tabletopdiversions.blogspot.com/p/downloads.html (early versions of my dungeon generator)

Free RPG Content I made for __solo RPGing_____ is available here: http://tabletopdiversions.blogspot.com (look for "solo rpg" posts)

You can buy RPG stuff I made about _any old-school compatible system___ here: http://tabletopdiversions.blogspot.com/p/6-iron-spikes-small-hammer.html

If you know anything about ____illustration_________ it’d help me with a project I’m currently working on: Issue 2 of Six Iron Spikes & a Small Hammer will have a decidedly different look to it than issue 1. I think. Maybe.

I talk about about RPGs everywhere I go online and off. 

Happy Belated Blogoversary to Me (more self-indulgent than usual, is it not?)

Tabletop Diversion's 2nd anniversary came and went and I totally didn't realize it until today.

This isn't surprising really, as I forget most birthdays too.

It's been a fun ride so far - I've "met" lot's of great people through blogging, enjoyed interesting discussions in the comments and refined many of my ideas based on those discussions. 

One thing I noticed recently that has changed: I started out just trying to share my projects, as a record for myself but also to give back to the community that I had gotten so much from. Now, I find myself thinking about whether or not an idea is blog worthy or not. I need to worry about that less, as I'm not recording things and I'm forgetting about them.

Blogging also deserves the credit for getting me off my butt to finally make a zine - some 17 years after I first read the likes of Dumpster Diver, Dishwasher and R2-D2 was an Indie Rocker and thought "I want to write a zine!"

Speaking of, the 2nd issue is coming along - but as I subscribe to the broader zine community's standard of "it comes out when it comes out", I'm not making any prediction anymore about exactly when it will be ready.

"Soon" sounds like a good guess.

In any case, here's to another year of pushing toy soldiers around the table, rolling funny shaped dice, taking blurry camera phone pictures and posting all of it for the world to see.

The Swedes are Coming!

These took forever, despite the rather simple color scheme. My colors (particularly the shade of yellow) might not match everyone's conception, but I based my paint selection on a number of sources, illustrations and photographs of actual uniforms (which have undoubtedly faded quite a bit over time). 

Most of the regular Swedish infantry regiments wore blue coats with yellow facings by the 1700s. I will probably paint all of mine this way:

One issue I had was the blue coat over the the black base - it was very dark. I painted white over the coat, and then blue, and the result was marginally better. From a time perspective, it adds substantial time per figure and I'm not sure I'm willing to do that. 

The next 6, I'll do without the white and see what the result is with multiple coats of blue.

To Slay the Demon Again?

November is just around the corner, and with it comes National Game Design Month (NaGaDeMon). It's also National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). 

Last year, I participated in NaGaDeMon and designed a game that I never did name officially, the Tenaru Project. It was a good time and I got a very small taste of the game design process from conception through play testing (I won't say finished product because, although playable, it isn't exactly where I want it and I haven't gone back to it). It's basically a tabletop version of Space Invaders, with the invaders being the Japanese and you control a 3-man USMC MG crew. Each turn an event enforces the setting. Or so I claim.

In 2008, I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first, and thus far, only, time. Unlike NaGaDeMon, it seemed a great deal more harried. A game proto-type doesn't have to be very much, but 50,000 words in 30 days, one of those which, for Americans, is a holiday usually involving obscene amounts of food and family, seems like it's going to take some time. In my case, the whole week of Thanksgiving is pretty much a family event and so I had approximately 25 days to reach the goal. In the end, I hit a little over 35,000 words.Still, it was a lot of fun sharing ideas and such with coworkers who were also participating.

Quality, I should stress, is not the goal of NaNoWriMo,  completion is. I lost track of that and started worrying about this and that and how the plot was going and other things that really aren't relevant to the word count. You might question how much of a novel (or even draft of one) the result is, and that's a valid question, but it misses the point: the worth is in the doing and participating, not the end result. The benefit, too, and of relevance to me this year, is the kick in the pants it is for establishing a daily writing habit.

Recently, I went back and read a small part of  my 2008 attempt, and most of what is contained therein is crap, but there are a few spots that I think, with some revision, have potential - possibly for use in gaming related materials even or submissions to zines. I've also gotten a few comments on this blog about my session summaries for The Ever Expanding Dungeon and some other posts that have given me some confidence to attempt a piece of fiction again.

So, part of me thinks, this year I should attempt NaNoWriMo, and  go in with nothing, save a character or two, just to see what happens - the same way I do with my solo RPG sessions (indeed, I might even use Story Cubes, Mythic, et al. to move things along). Hell, it might even be a swords & sorcery adventure tale - who knows?

Some other part of me thinks that I should create some kind of game,and participate in NaGaDeMon again. I can't help think it'd be nice to take some of the lessons from last year and apply them this year.

One obvious solution, is to combine the two in some way: a solo adventure, a setting, a rule book, something. I still have a few days to make some kind of decision.

In the meantime, I'd encourage anyone with an interest in jump starting their writing or who has said something along the lines of "I'll design a game someday" or "I'll write a novel someday" to just do it - sign up, participate in the online discussions (not to the detriment of your goal!), and when November 1 comes, have a lot of fun trying to reach  your goal.