If you enjoy this post, please retweet it (Twitter/X), boost it (Mastodon), repost it (MeWe), or repost it (BlueSky). My thoughts on Gary Con will be brief. I doubt I’ll return. This isn’t a criticism of the con anymore than a non-football fan not liking a football game is a criticism of how good of a job the NFL is doing. It’s simply something that doesn’t appeal to me. I know a few industry insiders — two were my roommates — which means I’m within a degree of separation of almost all of the legacy ones. For me, the highlight of the trip was talking about the past, present, and future of the ..read more

If you enjoy this post, please retweet it (Twitter/X), boost it (Mastodon), repost it (MeWe), or repost it (BlueSky). When I started running 1st Edition D&D again two years ago (first time in 40 years), I gathered and took an inventory of my 1st Edition material, and then went on a spending spree. Then I went on another. About a year ago, I somehow made a purchase that blew my mind. It’s a mint condition (you read that right) Wilderness Survival Guide by Kim Mohan but signed by James Ward. It was such an unbelievable haul that I had to contact James, before I even received it, to make sur ..read more

If you enjoy this post, please retweet it or boost it. My return to 1st Edition AD&D (“1e“) is now two years strong, and now I’ve added a 4th Edition D&D (“4e“) game to my schedule. So, it was a nice surprise for my friend, Mike, to let me know that he was offloading his old school D&D material. Before you get too excited, he’s giving these materials only to people he knows well because we’re getting them on the honor system. The only cost is to make a (tax deductible) donation to a cat or dog charity that represents the approximate cost to buy them in the store or on eBay. Conside ..read more

If you enjoy this post, please retweet it and/or boost it. My buddy, Vic, and I are getting ready to share dungeon master responsibilities on a new 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons (“4e”) campaign set in a game world of our own creation. The subject of my Dungeon Crawl System (“DCS”) came up, and it had me thinking about a change I should have made to it back when people were playing 4e en masse. For context, the DCS is a method of 4e encounter design that speeds up 4e’s notoriously slow combats and eliminates the need for the so-called “15-minute adventuring day.” The PDF can be found here ..read more

If you enjoy this post, please boost it via Bluesky, Mastodon, or Twitter. Timing is apparently not my strong suit. A few days ago, someone mentioned how much they loved the graveyard scene in the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Watch the scene here before it disappears. I wasn’t as big a fan of the scene. Sure, it was funny, but it exemplifies the difference between legacy and modern gamers. Okay, I mean old people and young people. Whatever. As D&D players, we all want this movie to emulate the game, so our different approaches to the game affect our reactions to the movie ..read more

If you enjoy this post, please retweet it or boost it. A while back, I told you I was preparing for a return to 1st Edition AD&D, and to do so, I had to update my stash of 1st Edition Dungeons & Dragons (“1e“) materials. Fast forward a couple of years. I’ve been running a 1e game for the first time in 40 years, and the only addition I had to make to my stash was the Egg of the Phoenix. Now, I’m less than 24 hours away from hosting a 4th Edition (“4e“) game (alternating DM duties with Luddite Vic), finally finishing my unfinished business, but I already have all the 4e stuff I could eve ..read more

If you enjoy this post, please retweet it or boost it. I posted this goofy meme across social media this past week. I received a not-so-goofy response. Long story short, Zephyr the Dream Dragon on Mastodon responded that he’d never want to use wand-wielding conductors as models because he’s worried he’d get sued by J.K. Rowling. Now, I think Zephyr gets it. I think Zephyr realizes that any such lawsuit would be frivolous. But not everyone does, and that’s a huge problem. It also pisses me off. I’ve had too many conversations with too many people that think the WotC’s open gaming license (“OG ..read more

I retweeted something funny on Saturday. Jeebus, that's brilliant. But only because it's just a game.#RPG #TTRPG https://t.co/zttRuiYFaq — Rob Bodine, also gsllc@chirp.enworld.org (@GSLLC) July 15, 2023 Screenshot below in case either tweet is ever deleted. I shared a screenshot of Jason’s tweet to other social media, including Facebook, and most who responded agreed that it was funny, sometimes rolling with the joke and adding more. Sure enough, I found the one rotten apple in the bunch. It went on further, but why burden you with that? I guess “girls” need to avoid this guy, because he j ..read more

If you enjoy this post, please retweet it and/or boost it. My buddy, Vic, and I are starting a new 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons (“4e”) campaign for which we’ll be alternating as dungeon masters. The campaign will be set in a game world of our own creation called Baledaar (BA-leh-dar). I spent all weekend entering the cosmology into Masterplan. Doing so required that I fill in some (not all) of the gaps in our, well, master plan for the campaign setting. I’m really happy about where were taking this. We created several Twitter/X handles for many of the deities and locations of the campaig ..read more

If you enjoy this post, please retweet it and/or boost it. I’m back from my second-ever Origins trip, the last being 2009. I took today (Monday) off because I knew I’d need to decompress, so I’m taking this time to record two videos. The first is below. The second will go up tomorrow. Here’s a good thing I forgot to mention in the video. For logistical reasons, my diet went to hell on this trip, and I hit the gym only once in three days, but because of all the running around and carrying of heavy objects, I returned home at the same weight at which I left. References in the video: Supplementi ..read more