A blessed 2012 Samhain to you!

 

I hope all my fellow gamers out there in bloggerland have a great one, especially those hit by that bitch Sandy. May you all find a way to celebrate in some way.

 

NOTE: If anyone out there has found all of the RPGNow freebies this year, please share the secret of their locations, if you would be so kind!

Dispatch from Disaster Area New Jersey

Hey all. I'm checking in from Southern New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, and I have to say that my family and I are pretty fortunate. We never lost power, saw no flooding. We did, however, have a dead tree in our backyard topple onto and crush a part of our fence:

 

I woke up this morning to the sound of a chain saw...a chain saw that was very close to my house. My neighbor was already cutting limbs off of this thing. And of course, here's what I had to say to the hurricane:

 

 

However, we made out a lot better than many other folks across the state. Our thoughts and prayers are with those who lost much, much more than us. When I see images like the following, I can't believe what I'm seeing:

 

 

That image, of what amounts to the entire track system of a roller coaster swept out into the ocean, is just a small tasted of the devastation that was inflicted upon the coast of my state. This puts my little tree problem into much-needed perspective. Again, my family and I are very fortunate, and we feel great sadness for those who are much less fortunate.

 

To all my fellow gamers in New Jersey and surrounding states, I hope you are safe and sound. 

TBBYANR: Dicechucker

Tim over at The Other Side posted recently about "The Best Blog You Are Not Reading" (TBBYANR), which is apparently a series of posts that he has featured on his blog. He likes to profile blogs with 40 or less readers to give them some "air time" and get the word out about them.

 

Tim has asked that others take up the cause, so I'm doing my part to help!

 

So, I would like to tell you about DICECHUCKER! This blog is authored by Joel Rojas, and he seems to be a fine fellow! While just a few posts into his OSR blogging career, he's diving right into the subject matter. How, you ask? Well, he decided to run the good old S1: Tomb of Horrors! That's the spirit!

So, I recommend that you do like I do, and keep a keen eye on what unfolds at Dicechucker!

Michael Curtis coming to my neck of the proverbial woods...

That's right, folks! Michael Curtis, of Stonehell Dungeon and Dungeon Alphabet fame, is coming to the awesome All Things Fun! store on Sunday, November 4th! Go here (Michael's blog) and here (the All Things Fun! event page) for more details.

I have to say I'm really excited for a number of reasons. Of course I'm probably preaching to the choir here, and I'm sure you know who he is already. But anyway, Michael is a prominent figure in the old-school gaming scene because of the body of work he's produced. It looks like he'll be running a game session to take players through one of his latest creations, the DCC RPG module "Emirikol Was Framed!"

I can't wait to meet one of the people behind the old-school movement, and maybe have time to chat about the OSR, his upcoming projects, etc. And I also cannot wait to finally play DCC RPG! You know what this means?! I GET TO USE THOSE FUNKY ZOCCHI DICE I BOUGHT! Nice!

This should really be a fun time. Ok, I'll stop with the gushing now. If you can make it, I would love to meet anyone who's been reading my blog. Thanks to the incredible proprietors of All Things Fun!, Ed and Dina Evans, for setting up this event! It should be a great time! I'm planning on taking some photos and blogging about the event afterwards.

On the Near Horizon: Barebones Fantasy RPG and Heroes & Other Worlds

Anyone heard about this yet? Yep, another game system coming down the pike to join the ever-swelling ranks of RPGs from which to choose. At least there wasn't a friggin' Kickstarter for the thing, thank the gods.

I'm definitely more interested in getting a look at Barebones Fantasy RPG than I am with Delving Deeper. Ho hum, Delving Deeper is even closer to OD&D rules than Swords & Wizardry. Oh boy!

Oh, and have you heard of Heroes & Other Worlds RPG? If not, check that out as well. Should be interesting, too. Again, no friggin' Kickstarter, can I get an amen to that?

So What's With the Basic D&D Classes?

OK, I've found some time to blog today, the eve of my birthday! Seems appropriate that I should have this little bit of luxury today, eh? Anyway, some thoughts occurred to me last night and I wanted to put this out there for the gaming blogosphere think tank, to get some comments back (I hope). I'm looking for people more steeped in D&D's creation lore than I am.

So, it seems the common wisdom regarding the Classic/Basic D&D classes is that there was no attempt to give them balance. Is this something that was confirmed by Gygax/Arneson? This whole thing seems counter-intuitive to me. It appears that, when looking at the classes, a party should really have a mix of classes, including the demi-humans. I mean, sure, you have the human classes that all serve distinct purposes. But I have to think that the demi-humans were in there for a reason other than to give people more fantasical character choices.

The inclusion of demi-humans, to me, takes away from the argument that Gygax wanted a human-centric game. I'm not as familiar with all the ins-and-outs of the demi-human classes, but I think they generally have better saves (especially the halfling), right? And the elves are the ur-version of the fighter-magic user combination in the D&D system, correct? Sort of the first occurance of dual-classing in the game, right? And sure there's the ability to see in the dark, being better at finding hidden doors, etc.

I guess what I'm saying is that I think the game's creators wanted players to see ALL the Basic classes as viable options, and therefore all the classes can play integral roles in a party. Some blog posts I've read over the last couple of years seem to poo-poo the demi-human classes as being bastardized versions of the human classes (with the exception of the cleric, which doesn't have a demi-human counterpart) that were shoehorned in so that the game would have more "fantasy" to it. I find it hard to believe that Gygax/Arneson would put the demi-human options into the game if they weren't intended to be of equal value during play. I think seeing the non-human classes as being second fiddle to the human classes is wrong-headed.

Now, I could be totally wrong. Maybe there's a Gygax interview out there where he explicitly states that the demi-humans were sort of bolted onto the game at first (in OD&D/the LBBs?) and then became solidified as the system was edited/revised.

So, there's my bit of rambling for the day. Sometimes I shock myself with how little I know about D&D lore. Any insight is appreciated. If there's a good blog post that someone's already written about this, please let me know. Don't want you all to have to reinvent the wheel to answer my questions.

Blogus Interruptus

I'm beat, folks. The orcs have stormed the walls. As depicted above, the giant got a good shot on me with the old club. The giant's name? Life. T'is the season for me to get outflanked by, well, everything. It always seems to happen around my birthday (coming up this weekend). I've got a lot of iron in the old forge fire these days, and I've finally reached the breaking point. The anvil has cracked, and I'm searching for a new one. Until I find a new one, things will have to be sacrificed. The first victim, unfortunately, is the blog.

I will post when I can, folks. I can promise no more. I hope you'll stick around. Once the current assault on my free time abates and the smoke clears, I am planning on returning to a more regular posting schedule. I know there's a couple of trolls currently wandering the gaming blogosphere who are giving people grief for not posting as much as they used to. They can piss off. Real life trumps all, if you're a sane adult.

I have to prioritize even more these days. Since I started this blog, I've promised myself that actual gaming would always trump blogging about gaming. With my limited time getting even more, er, limited, I'm transferring all remaining time to the table-top. My prayer is that things won't get even more limited, and therefore cause me to suspend even my gaming activities.

I give you my promise that the blogging fire is still strong, but time is not a luxury right now. So, I'll be focusing on rolling the sacred polyhedrals. Again, if time permits, I'll be posting here and there for the rest of the year. Once things alleviate, I'll pick up the pace. In the meantime, I hope you'll stick around for what is sure to come.

Until then, happy gaming!