Fun with word verification

Happy Holidays - Compendium 2011

Happy Holidays everyone!

Be sure to grab your free copy of Beyond the Black Gate Compendium 2011.

This year's compendium features new magic items, monsters, abilities, class, adventure locales, random charts, and an all-new, never-before-seen adventure set in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy.

Be sure to print it "booklet" style for maximum old-school effect.

Hope you all are having a great holiday season - see you in 2012!

~Al

Help!

I need music!

To listen to while making the traditional Christmas Lasagna.

Please post your 10-song Dream Playlist in the comments and hook me up.

Thanks!

The Hobbit Trailer is out

Enjoy

Email hacked!

My apologies if anyone received some weird email from me yesterday, my account was apparently hacked. The problem should be fixed now.

The bad emails probably say "no subject" in the header; just delete without reading if your spam catcher didn't dispose of them already.

Its amazing the lengths some folks will go to for an extra buck or two...

Old School Power

It was interesting to note over on EnWorld today that their number one most read "list" article was the one featuring retroclones. Check it out here.

I'll leave it to you folks in the comments sections to ponder what that says about our little niche of the gaming webiverse.

Great winter morning reading

Yes, the snow is falling briskly outside right now. Later I have to venture out into it for a Christmas Party at the Casino and it will be cigars and chips and 7&7's but right now its coffee and Wilderlands.

It's criminal this boxed set is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive to obtain. Had I been psychic, I would have bought five of these back when they first came out (and done much better at past Casino Christmas Parties, just saying).

I'm sure there are licensing (and printing cost) issues, but wouldn't it be nice to see this re-released for S&W / OSRIC?

I think so.

The Secret of Kells

Available on Netflix, I watched this with the juniors this weekend and was very pleased with it. The animation is amazing, and the story magical. Its a bit dark in places, but those parts are more than balanced by whimsy and scenes of the magical elder forests. It handles both Pagan and Christian mythologies with reverence, which is nice as I more often see one favored and the other vilified.

Best of all, no dick or fart jokes, guest rappers, contemporary references, or celebrity voice-over shenanigans, all of which seem to infest so many kids' films these days. The best kids films (imo, at least) are the ones that are timeless, and this one definitely fits that bill.

OSRIC Insanity

I'm still enjoying reading through the massive OSRIC tome. After 30 years or so, I think I'm so familiar with the original 1E DMG, that I tend to gloss over large portions of the original work without really paying attention to it. So what tends to happen is I read something in the OSRIC book, say to myself "is that how it worked in the DMG?" and go grab that book to look up what ever irritating little thread of a rule or concept I've gotten snagged up on.

Coming across Insanity (OSRIC p126) was one of those instances. Some little differences come up. OSRIC has 16 forms of insanity detailed, whereas the 1E DMG has 20. Among the missing are Dipsomania (a favorite of mine, where a character, once a week or so, is compelled to drink until they pass out), Melancholy (an Elric and Conan prerequisite, leading them to brood in the shadows at the back of the tavern despite the comely wench seated upon their knee), and Sado Masochism (a guaranteed way to make every hp of damage rolled at your table an interesting experience).

Actually "missing" is not a fair term, as OSRIC and 1E both have their own separate insanities listed.

Frustratingly, what both tomes lack is a system for duration, treatment, cure, and degeneration for these diseases. So this is now something I must create and post on the blog here someday :)

To be honest, I don't remember encountering a whole lot of Insanities back in the days, really it only seemed to come about as a result of psionic attacks, as far as I can recall. Though I do remember Multiple Personality coming up on (ahem) multiple occasions, mostly, I fear, as a rule-bending way of getting an additional suite of class abilities for "free".

Friday Frazetta

Quit monkeying around, you big ape.

Awesome New Star Wars Trailer (never before seen footage)

I still just don't care much for cgi. Maybe it will look better on the big screen.