#RPGaDAY - Day 9: Favourite Die

As I initially thought, getting a post out every day for #RPGaDAY has proven challenging. Also, some of these questions are so very similar to a D&D blog hop from earlier this year. So from now on, to keep this interesting, I'm going to roll a die and answer the corresponding question.

Given that I bought my first D30 in March, I'll be using it to generate the numbers. Consider it my new favourite die, which neatly handles question number 9! What's so ubercool about this D30? Well, it's purple and allows me to use this D&D house rule:

The Big Purple D30 Rule
Once per session each player may opt to roll the big purple d30 in lieu of whatever die or dice the situation normally calls for. The choice to roll the big purple D30 must be made before any roll. The D30 cannot be roll for generating character statistics or hit points.

We Fear No Die!

Today's lucky numbers are 8, 29 and 25.*

8th - Favourite character

29th - Most memorable encounter

25th - Favourite RPG no one else wants to play

*Yes, these were rolled in this order. The 8 was an example of the butterfly effect.

Favourite Character

My favourite character would most likely be a half-orc Wizard named Vok Wightkicker. At 2nd level he kicked a wight, in the heat of combat, more out of desperation than anything else. Of course Vok didn't know it was a wight and suffered the loss of a level for his efforts. However, he did enough damage with that kick to kill it, thus earning the title 'Wightkicker'. The DM was surprised to say the least. The character ended up being published in a Swords & Sorcery (Necromancer Games) module, as a proprietor of a Magic Shop, which is kinda cool.

Most Memorable Encounter

I did mention this encounter somewhere online already but hey, here it is again... It was an enormous dungeon, underneath castle ruins, dominated by a family of red dragons. The party opened a door and walked into a classroom where the characters were compelled to sit at a desk and solve the arithmetic equations that the cane-wielding professors (in academic cap and gown), wrote upon the blackboard. Completely incongruous to the dungeon we had explored thus far, suffice to say we were stunned. This was pre-Harry Potter (mid-80's) and none of us expected it. Eventually, to everyone's relief, Steve's character asked about Pi, giving us an opportunity to escape as the professors huddled around the blackboard in debate. 

Favourite RPG No One Else Wants To Play

First thoughts? My favourite RPG is D&D. However, I don't usually have any trouble finding players. So that leaves me with a RPG that the players don't like... I will ask around.

D&D 4th Edition.

Because of my reluctance to buy it and/or believe it was an improvement on 3rd Edition. That doesn't mean it's a bad game. It's just not D&D the way I want to play it.

Painting Table Saturday 40 + Cohen + Theophilus

Wow! Well done Sofie! Painting Table Saturday is has turned 40! This week I completed a couple more miniatures, making the pile of unpainted lead slightly less daunting.

Theophilus has been on the painting bench for a while... with a 4th of July inspired paint job. He's a classic 1980's Citadel Lord of Battle and given his name, I also added a cross to his shoulder plate.

Ghenghiz Cohen the Barbarian will be no stranger to fans of Terry Pratchett. This sculpt (HFH032) is by Kev White from the most excellent HassleFree. They call him Conran the Octogenarian (but still a 'lean mean fighting machine') and both are obvious echoes of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian.

Volk, Conran and a Frazetta inspired Norseman.

Conran gets his axe.

Basing Kalyna from Hasslefree.

Sudden change of plan.

ROCK added for more EPIC look.

Dejah Thoris and John Carter for upcoming action on Mars.

Conran (aka Cohen) and Theophilus.

Close up. Check out the belt buckle!

Tight hamstrings.

Without flash to show off back muscles.

To my fellow painters, enjoy your weekend and God bless you!

#RPGaDAY - Day 7: Most Intellectual RPG

The curious beast that is #RPGaDAY continues...

DragonQuest TSR edition.

6th - Favourite RPG Never get to play?

Never is a strong word, considering anything is fair game on Monday nights. I've played all manner of RPGs, beginning in the 1980s. Back then it would probably be quicker to name the popular RPGs I didn't play. Fast forward a few decades and I'm still checking out games I've never played before. If something about a game really rocks my socks off, I add it to the house rules.

However, one of my favourite campaigns was one using DragonQuest (SPI). I should say 'is' not 'was'... as the GM takes long breaks between games, sometimes lasting years. The game system itself had it's kinks but don't they all? On an online forum I found a post about what one of the guys who designed Dragon Quest said about the game. Apparently he described it as, "Our cheap knockoff of AD&D that nobody bought, even though it was much better."*

Even if it's not an accurate quote, it sums up my feelings about RPGs in general. It had similarities to Chivalry and Sorcery and The Fantasy Trip (ancestor of GURPS), in the same way you find echoes of eloquent rules in all role playing games. I have a DragonQuest (3rd edition, though we mainly used 2nd edition) rulebook on my shelf but I doubt I'd run it as written. Some of the ideas are worth borrowing. Anyway, it's the people you play the game with that really matter. So, I wait for another opportunity to play Dragon Quest.

*Ironically perhaps, it was bought by TSR.

Art by William O'Conner

7th - Most “intellectual” RPG owned?

Considering I don't own every RPG I've ever played, this actually becomes an easier question to answer. Although the rules themselves are not overly complex, Ars Magica is certainly aimed at the more intellectual gamer - every player has a mage character of some sort! Well, they actually play a collection of characters, with the magus taking the central role. You want comprehensive rules for magic? This RPG has them in spades. 15 Arts: 5 Techniques and 10 Forms named with Latin verbs and nouns respectively, for both formulaic and spontaneous spell casting. Ars Magica is so much more than it's elegant magic system and a few elements of this RPG have made their way into D&D 5e. I own Ars Magica 3rd edition (published by White Wolf and later purchased briefly by Wizards of the Coast) but you can download the 5th edition (Atlas Games). It's well worth checking it out if you never have.

Thanks to writing this post I now realise the stunning artwork of William O'Conner. I love his illustrations in Ars Magica and have only now recognised he's the guy that has created the dragons (and more besides) all over D&D's latest editions. He's certainly had a great career!

#RPGaDAY - Day 5: Most Old School RPG owned

D&D 5 Starter Sets.

On the #RPGaDAY list of questions, the following are next:

4th - Most recent RPG purchase
5th - Most Old School RPG owned

I'm going to start with number 5. It's a purchase made a few years ago thanks to ebay and owes much to my recent interest in the early editions of the game I love. To get more old school than the Holmes edition? Well, I do have pdfs of the little brown books found in The White Box. Holmes is better in my opinion. Moldvay, Basic and Expert are also on my shelf and are my most used books nowadays. I also own the first edition AD&D books. They are also superb. They are all part of the journey.

Which brings us to my most recent purchase... the latest D&D Starter Set... as yet unwrapped. Almost $40 to buy here in New Zealand. With our current strong New Zealand dollar, that's about twice what you'd pay in the USA. Is it worth it?

I will know when I open it. Who am I kidding? It's worth it for the box alone.

#RPGaDAY - Day 3: First RPG Purchased

The Redbox Dungeon.

#RPGaDAY - Day 3: First RPG Purchased

I covered this yesterday... however, it looks like a few of these questions could be lumped in one post (in no particular order). So maybe I'll just post something interesting each day, instead of answering the questions? 

One of the curious things about Dungeons and Dragons is how it actually took a while before a coherent set of rules came out. A set that didn't require other books or knowledge of other games before beginning play. Part of this could be explained by the rush to get the original game published before other competitors brought out something similar. However, there seems to be a hangover from those first little brown booklets (1974) that took a while to shake. The Holmes edition (1977) did a lot to cure this hangover. This Dungeons & Dragons 'Basic Set' rulebook was edited by J. Eric Holmes, based upon the original work of Gary and Dave.

Deja Vu?

Of course by 1977, quite a few other 'role-playing' games were on the market. D&D was first RPG out of the gate but the other horses were certainly not far behind. In retrospect, the games that resembled D&D, or were 'improved versions' (D&D with better combat rules, D&D without elves, D&D in space, etc.), didn't really seem to be all that different than the official game. In fact, because the original D&D rules stated you should make things up yourself, 'house rules' were abundant and more important than anything written in the poorly indexed official D&D cannon.

I started playing in the 1980s. The list of RPGs published in this decade is huge! When I bought the Redbox, the Mentzer edition of D&D, the game had already undergone many 'changes' (or 'skins'),  'Advanced' Dungeons & Dragons being one of them. The differences between these two versions was barely noted by the gamers I played with. We used what we wanted from either of the two, including the plethora of RPG source books and magazine articles. We also borrowed from other RPGs, or played those games in a similar way to D&D. We played a lot of them. They all had something new to offer: Inspiration for the next game night (or afternoon).

Next... my recent RPG purchase.

#RPGaDAY - Day 1: First RPG Played

Autocratik (David F. Chapman - writer, game designer, editor and publisher) has started one of those blog-post-a-day things, #RPGaDAY, that help share the love of gaming. I'm on board and you're welcome to join. Come one, come all, as they say. Now I have done one of these before, celebrating the 40th birthday of Dungeons and Dragons: D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge + Day 2

#RPGaDAY - Day 1: First RPG Played

My first encounter with a Role-Playing Game (before playing the iconic D&D) was the Fighting Fantasy book series, beginning with the classic The Warlock of Firetop Mountain (back in 1982!), a single-player adventure gamebook written by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, illustrated by Russ Nicholson.

#RPGaDAY - Day 2: First RPG Gamemastered

A few years later I purchased the legendary Redbox (D&D Mentzer edition) and my group of school friends were always keen for a game. Those years of playing Fighting Fantasy gamebooks would prove invaluable!

1st - First RPG Played
2nd - First RPG Gamemastered
3rd - First RPG Purchased
4th - Most recent RPG purchase
5th - Most Old School RPG owned
6th - Favourite RPG Never get to play
7th - Most “intellectual” RPG owned
8th - Favourite character
9th - Favourite Die / Dice Set
10th - Favourite tie-in Novel / Game Fiction
11th - Weirdest RPG owned
12th - Old RPG you still play / read
13th - Most Memorable Character Death

14th - Best Convention Purchase
15th - Favourite Convention Game
16th - Game you wish you owned
17th - Funniest Game you’ve played

18th - Favourite Game System
19th - Favourite Published Adventure
20th - Will still play in 20 years time…
21st - Favourite Licensed RPG
22nd - Best Secondhand RPG Purchase
23rd - Coolest looking RPG product / book
24th - Most Complicated RPG Owned
25th - Favourite RPG no one else wants to play
26th - Coolest character sheet
27th - Game You’d like to see a new / improved edition of…
28th - Scariest Game you’ve played
29th - Most memorable encounter
30th - Rarest RPG Owned
31st - Favourite RPG of all time

Painting Table Saturday 39 + FotM Painting Challenge 2014

Another... Painting Table Saturday and I've entered a competition:

Our first and Annual Painting Challenge. We call on everyone to get involved. It does not matter how long you've been working on the hobby. Besides it's fun to join and you can learn a lot from it. And of course we do it for the honour ;-) 

Finally on November 27, 2014 your model must be submitted (post the images here). In December 2014 is the voting. Everyone gives points to the miniatures except his own miniature. Details concerning the points will follow.

'The Fellowship of the Miniatures' Painting Challenge 2014 data: 

November 27, 2014 - Submission model 

December 2014 - Voting (and maybe Awards) 2014 

Category: Lord of the Rings Single Hero Model (no monsters or monstrous mounts).

My entry will be Boromir, High Warden of the White Tower. Of Boromir's 110 day journey through  the wilderness and long forgotten roads to attend the Council of Elrond in Rivendell, Tolkien wrote that "the courage and hardihood required is not fully recognized in the narrative".

Quick black spray undercoat. Not my usual approach.

Already deviating from the Peter Jackson movie colour scheme.

Plenty of detail in this fine Perry sculpt.

A great warrior and Captain-General of Gondor, Boromir's heroic death fighting hundreds of orcs was the stuff legends are made of. As Aragorn said, "few have gained such a victory".

Thanks and blessings. Enjoy your weekend!