1-Up Dice Sets by Infinite Black

I got into D&D at an early age, which naturally lead me to explore other RPGs over the years. Anyone that's ever participated in tabletop role playing will tell you there's one thing you absolutely need: your own set of dice. Sure, there's books upon books for every game but you can always borrow those from a friend, but dice...dice are sacred to some and aren't to be shared.

 

I can't tell you the last time I picked up a die to make a saving throw or an attack roll so a new set of dice is something not even on my radar but when I saw this Kickstarter awhile back I had to get in on it. Not only did it combine RPGs and video games but the packaging really grabbed me.

As you can see, I liked the sets so much, I got two! It was just too hard to pick only one. And I got a few bonus items: silver and gold d20s and a special d2 coin.

Let's dig into the sets!

 

Dark Dungeons (2014)

 Regular visitors know I usually wait until the end of the month to give a recap on what shows/movies I've watched. But after seeing this, I felt it needed its very own post.

When JR Ralls (writer) won $1000 in the lottery, he decided to do something special with it. That thing was to adapt the Chick tract of the same name into live action. The Kickstarter got him enough attention that Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, known for their comedic films about RPGs, jumped on board.

If you're not familiar with Chick tracts, they're preachy, illustrated religious pamphlets. You can read the original Dark Dungeons one right here. Somehow I wasn't aware of this despite it having a cult status in the RPG community for how ridiculous it is. As someone that got into D&D around the age of 13, I can assure you there is nothing nefarious going on at the gaming table...at least not in the games I played (cue mysterious music).

 

They managed to produce something that's true to the source material but also comes across as a satire because of how over the top the original is. Going into the movie, I had only known it was adapting a Chick tract and while I had no trouble believing someone suffering from Satanic Panic would see this as a warning, it became apparent that they were poking me in the ribs as if to say "Can you believe this?"

If you don't at least have a toe in the RPG community, you probably won't get as much enjoyment out of it as someone that knows the difference between a d10 and a d100.You can watch the entire 40 minute short on YouTube.

Roll for intiative!

Lincoln Middle School D&D Club Newsletters (2009)

This week in random fun things I found out on the internet: The Newsletter of the Lincoln Middle School D&D Club.

If you recall my somewhat recent post about my history with D&D (if not, you can read it here), I got my first books when I was in middle school. Unlike the kids at Lincoln Middle, I didn't have a club to play with so until I got to high school, it was just me and these arcane rulebooks making up characters, studying the spell section like it was an actual spellbook, and using random tables to have solo dungeon crawls.

 

 

It looks like the club is mostly playing "original" Basic D&D, the same system I cut my teeth on way back when! The first newsletter does say they play other games and mentions Labyrinth Lord by name. LL is what they call a retro-clone or OSR (Old School Revival). There's quite a few systems out there now that emulate the OG D&D rules with some minor tweaks. While I pretty much understood the rules back then, if I were introducing middle schoolers to role-playing, I'd probably start with something a little less rules intensive.

 

I found these newsletters particularly interesting because they're a snapshot in time and, at the same time, timeless. If not for the dates listed on them, they could almost be from any time after 2007 when Labyrinth Lord was published. It seems like they're intended for GameMasters and players alike but there's also stuff in there that seems to be exclusively for GM eyes only. This also makes me curious about who ran the games. Were they teachers, students, a mix of the two?

 

Indiana Jones Role Playing Games

In 1984, TSR acquired the license to produce a role playing game based on Indiana Jones. Seems like it would be a sure fire thing, right? In the mid-80s Satanic Panic was in full swing and you couldn't mention RPGs without people immediately going back to D&D. I don't have any supporting evidence that this was responsible in any way for the poor sales but it probably didn't help.

Like all of TSR's RPGs of the day, they released everything you needed to start playing in a boxed set. It included: the rules, dice, world map, a Referee screen, fold-up paper miniature figures, and character sheets for the heroes. A set of metal miniatures was also released for the game.

The rule book has a short adventure to introduce you to the game mechanics as you read each chapter. It was called the Ikons of Ikammanen and the story was actually taken from the first issue of Marvel's The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones from 1983 (more about those in coming weeks!). One of the Adventure Packs, The Fourth Nail, was also based on a couple comic issues.

Dungeons & Dragons Minatures

 At one point in my teens I started experimenting with painting miniatures. Technically, I don't think any of these are specifically D&D branded figures but I think it makes for a clearer post title then "Little Meal Fantasy Figures." I got my feet a little wet at an even earlier age by messing around with some of the figures from my Dragonriders of the Styx Tower of Night playset.

For the most part, the games I played in were "theater of the mind" and we rarely used maps and minis. If a map was needed, it was usually a quick sketch of the area to give the players a better idea of how things were laid out.

These are by no means high art and were done by a total novice decades before you could go online and find a tutorial for everything under the sun. The paint is old and wearing off in places. Partially because I had no clue about sealing them once done and them all being kept in a long, thin jewelry box like you'd use to keep a watch or bracelet. I should probably give them a better home.

With these being generic figures, it's up to you to decide how to paint them. Since it was so long ago, I can't say what I might have been thinking except black and red look really cool together. I can definitely see this dude cracking some monster skulls.

D&D & Me

Welcome to Dungeons & Dragons month!

 

With the release of the new movie (it's fun!) and having a few figures I wanted to post about, I figured why not post about D&D the whole month? To kick it off, I'll be sharing my memories (what's left of them) on getting into the whole D&D thing.

My intro to D&D goes all the way back to the 80s when you'd rarely hear it mentioned without some kind of reference to the devil, black magic, and/or animal sacrifices. The infamous Satanic Panic of the 80s that hit everything from D&D to comic books to metal/rock music. Ah, the good ol days.

This is what got me into the game, the boxed Basic Set, complete with a set of dice and a crayon that you used to color in the numbers. Before I go any further, I have to give a shout out to Erol Otus who did this cover and lots of other art for D&D. I absolutely love his style! Look him up, you won't be disappointed.

Awfully Cheerful Engine! (ACE!) Role Playing Game

Back in June, the Kickstarter for the Awfully Cheerful Engine! (or ACE!) Role Playing Game was funded. Usually, I'm an all digital guy when it comes to books but for some reason I splurged for the physical books on this one. What drew me to the Kickstarter was the promise of multiple settings and a fast, easy system.

It's also sort of comic book-y. The game books are around 30 pages and comic sized. Each one is an "issue" in the series. Before I dive into the books, I want to get my major gripe with them out of the way.

While they're comic sized, they have a bound spine instead of being stapled. What this means with a thin 30-page book is that you can't lay it flat open and keep it in minty condition. In addition to collecting things, I like to keep any of my books in the best possible shape. Lucky for me, the "all-in" pledge level includes PDFs of all the books too. If I'd kicked in another $40 I could have gone with the deluxe hardcover edition but I really like the comic size format.

Labrytinth - The Adventure Game

Have you ever wanted to grab a few friends and test yourself against the Goblin King and his Labyrinth? Now you can thanks to River Horse Games!

Let's start by looking at the book. Much like the Labyrinth itself, things are not what they seem at first glance here.

They made an interesting choice by cutting a small area out of the pages so that the custom dice can be stored in the book. It's a neat idea but I can easily see it leading to tearing a page if your finger gets hooked in there. Also, the owl in the bottom corner is on every page and you can flip the pages to make his wings flap.

Removing the dust jacket finds a replica of Sarah's book! For me, this alone is worth the price of admission. I'd be happy just to have this on display. But, there is adventure within!

Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture - Fantasy

As promised in the horror post, here's more of Seattle's Pop Culture Museum!I know I teased sci-fi would be coming up, and it is, just not this go round.

When you think of Fantasy, the first thing that pops into your head may be Harry Potter or mighty warriors fighting dragons. There's some of that on display but we're starting with a different kind of Wizard.

Fighting Fantasy Hits the Big 3-0

If you're a nerdy kid of the '80s/'90s you were probably introduced to the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books. I know I couldn't get enough of them when I discovered them in the local library. That's what we did back in them pre-internet days, we rode our bikes to go to a big building with lots of books that you could borrow.

In 1982, the Fighting Fantasy series of  solo RPG books made their debut and I was hooked. It added a simple dice-based combat system to give the story more of an interactive gaming feel. I dont' recall exactly, but I suspect these books were the bridge that got me to check out D&D while still in middle school.

Over the years, some of the books have been turned into computer and board games. In 2002 and again in 2009, Wizard Books began republishing the original books alongside new stories to keep the line going. To keep up with those mythical Joneses, some of the books have been turned into apps for your mobile device as well.

The entire series has fantastic covers like this in the US

August 27th marks the 30th Anniversary of the release of the first book, Warlock of Firetop Mountain. As part of the celebration, original series co-creator/author Ian Livingstone has just released his latest entry in several years: Blood of the Zombies. It will also be e-released on August 27th as an app for iOS and Android. Unfortunately for us Yanks, Blood of the Zombies is only currently available through Amazon UK.

While it looks different, it does resemble the original series covers that were published in the UK

I'm very happy to see something I greatly enjoyed in my childhood is still going strong. In a time when kids are more likely to pick up a control pad to get immeresed in a story, it's nice to see the series make the jump into the 21st century in e-format.

The site MCVUK has a great  interview with Ian Livingstone.
I also highly recommend the You Chose Wrong Tumblr.
May Your Stamina Never Fail is doing series book reviews.

Visit the Official Fighting Fantasy site and follow them on Twitter and Facebook for updates.