Miniatures Monday

Lurking in dank corners of the earth, green slime has been the bane of many an adventurer.

Set the Wayback Machine for 1984

A while back, in my travels through the internet I came across two games that whisked me back to what was, for me, the heart of the golden age of computer gaming, 1984. The first is the Adventure Creation Kit, which is a free version of the old Electronic Arts Adventure Construction Set, which was to toolkit for crafting computer RPGs in the vein of Wizard's Crown and Ultima III. I have very fond memories of spending hours playing around with this in high school. My friends and I always hoped to use it to create adventures to share amongst ourselves. Sadly, that never panned out, but this might just offer a second chance. The Adventure Creation Kit is available for both Windows and Mac OSX. Additionally, a version is provided that is suitable for use under DOSBox for those of us who are Linux users.

The second game is Oolite, a clone of the old space trading game Elite. It's probably not the most apt description, but I think of Elite as sort of Star Raiders on steroids. Now Elite wasn't a game that I had ever played back in the day, but a friend of mine who grew up in the U.K. has regaled me with tales of the hours that he spent playing this on his Spectrum Plus. Oolite is available for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux.

Oh, and both of these games are free as in beer.

Quick Links:
Oolite
Adventure Creation Kit

Miniatures Monday

So last week while I was in Vegas, there was a glitch of some sort with my post scheduling, so this week there Will be two!
Here we see two valiant knights, exploring the unplumbed depths of the ear in search of riches.
The topmost miniature is a 1999 Reaper Miniatures casting, but the one on the bottom is a special treat. It is a 1981 lead casting from a company known as Wizards and Lizards. I distinctly remember picking this miniature up in the early 1980s at the hobby shop on the lower level of Century III mall. This was the same shop run by the crabby dudes who once told my friends and I that we were, "cluttering up the store." Never mind that there were only four of u,s and no one else was in the store. Hard to believe that they went out of business isn't it?

Survivor: RPG Island

The other night I was perusing my collection of RPGs, and while not as extensive as many that I have seen, my collection has two closets and several additional shelves dedicated to it. Every few months I lovingly rearrange the books, moving those that I find the most interesting to me at the time to "The Shelf of Prominence", where they are made easily accessible. Sadly the collection has become unwieldy. This is not to say that I have any plans to reduce the size of my collection. Far from it. It just got me to thinking about which of those games are the most important to me. If I could only keep one RPG, which one would it be? Well, that was just a ridiculous question as I could never possibly settle on just one. But what about three to five? That would seem like a more reasonable number. Reasonable, but by no means simple.

Slot 1: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: (1st Edition) plus the Holmes and Moldvay Basic D&D sets. Yes, this is cheating, since it's technically 2 or 3 games, but these are such an integral part of my childhood that I can't let them go. Besides, it's my list and my rules. ;-)

Slot 2: Savage Worlds. This was a tough fight with the Hero System. I need a generic system and while I love Hero (at least up to 5th edition), I'm old and don't have as much time as I used to, so Savage Worlds wins here.

Slot 3: Labyrinth Lord. Yes, it's just a retro clone of Moldvay & Cook's Basic and Expert D&D, but I still like it. The artwork is cool and players can buy a copy without going to ebay. For a quick, fun dungeon crawl with easily replaceable characters, this is my game.

Slot 4: The Dying Earth Roleplaying Game. This is the weird one of the bunch. I'm quite fond of Jack Vance's Dying Earth stories and Pelegrane Press did a wonderful job capturing the feel of that bizarre and doomed world. It's a shame that it's out of print, but they are in negotiations to reacquire it. The Scaum Valley Gazerteer remains one of my favorite RPG reads of all time. Definitely not a game for those who love combat. In fact, the game tells you that if you find yourself in combat, something has gone very wrong. Deadly, ;-)

Slot 5: Dungeons and Dragons (4th Edition) Hey, it's grown on me.

Slot 6: Justice Inc. Whoops! I did 6. :-)

Slot 7: Tunnels & Trolls. I've always loved this game, but rarely been able to find players who were into it enough to play it with me. Take That You Fiend!

Runners up:

Hero System (5th Edition)
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying (2nd Edition)
RuneQuest II (Mongoose Edition)


Dishonorable Mention:

Powers & Perils What was up with this game? Seriously.

I should really just have made this a top 10.

Inspirational Imagery

Ever since I was a child, this has been one of my favorite D&D images. Now, everyone who has ever been anywhere near a D&D book KNOWS what's inside the devil's mouth, but something about this picture really strikes a chord with me. It just oozes mystery. The leering bas-relief of the daemon with its gaping maw and the mist filled archway really puts my old-school dungeon senses on high alert. I know the death that awaits, but that still doesn't allay my curiosity. Like the mage in the picture, I still want to look...

Miniatures Monday

Terror from beyond the grave!

An Improbable Revelation

For the past three weeks I have been playing in the Wednesday night D&D Encounters game at my local gaming store. I'm not sure why I even decided to play. Quite possibly it was just that I needed my fantasy with swords fix as most of my recent gaming has been fantasy with guns. Now, I had no small amount of reservation about playing in a random pickup group. My fourth edition experience up to this point had been limited to a one-shot when 4e was released and a couple of WOTC Game Days. The one-shot was fun and I didn't hate the system, but the Game Day games were iffy at best. At Games Days, I've had a tendency tend to wind up at tables with people who know the rules far better than me and are more interested in optimizing their play rather than just having fun. Now anyone who knows me knows that I'm not much of a rules guy. I like to know enough about the rules to get by, but I'm far and a way more interested in playing and having fun and having people tell me that I'm playing my character wrong doesn't do much for my enjoyment level. In any case I decided to try it, and I'm certainly glad that I did. I sat down at a table with a GM four other players that I'd never met and had an absolute blast. I knew early on that it was going to be a good games when one of the players, who just might be nearly half my age said that we wanted to go any buy some equipment. And what did he want to buy? A ten foot pole! Yes, a ten foot pole. Now, I can't remember the last time that I saw someone buy one of those, but it just may have been in the 1980s. In any case, that little event made me think, "This is going to be good."

So we were off and running. Our group, known unofficially as the Band of the Naked Minotaur set forth in search of fame and glory. These guys knew the rules, but everyone was there to have fun, and the more I have been playing, the more that the 4e rules have come to grow on me. No, this isn't MY D&D. My D&D will always be rooted in randomly rolled stats, save or die poison and rust monsters that eat your normal armor with no saving throw, But that doesn't mean that I can't enjoy 4e as well. A lot of people have complained that 4e is more about roll-playing than role-playing and that the game has borrowed too much from MMOs. To the first point, almost any game can be a role-playing game. I've played games of Nuclear War where people played roles. If people want to role-play, they will, if they don't, they won't regardless of the rules. As for borrowing from MMOs, sure, there are plenty of things in 4e that remind me of World of Warcraft, but it's still a tabletop game and we're all still sitting around telling stupid jokes and rolling dice rather than sitting hunkered down in front of our PCs all alone.
As with all of my posts, there is no grand and powerful point here. I'm not trying to sell anyone on anything. I ramble on about whatever strikes my fancy. I've found that I can enjoy 4e, and in the end having fun is what games are all about for me.

Addendum: I've actually been reading the 4e rules. Yes, Virginia, I've been reading a rulebook, and I may just have to give 4e a try form the GM side of the table one of these days.

Miniatures Monday

From the dark heart of the Stygian desert comes the sinister Serpent Sorcerer!

Miniatures Monday

From dark catacombs, far beneath the earth, comes the dreaded wraith. Spooky...No seriously. Spoooooky!

Miniatures Monday

Quake in fear at the Moleman Champion! He'll dig up your yard....with a sword!

Miniatures Monday

Behold Ssrog, lord of the lizard men!

Miniatures Monday

Krotåge the Northman, bringer of death!

Miniatures Monday

A valiant knight seeks danger and riches in the underworld.

Inspriational Imagery

This is so awesome it hurts! Is it a trap, or just an interesting doorway? A gateway to another dimension, or the maw of a gigantic demon? Who can say?
Check out more of his art here.

Miniatures Monday

Deep beneath the earth, the Crimson Sorcerer searches for arcane treasures!