On Reading Blogs & More...

As I was writing my post yesterday, I got off topic. I wanted to write about how certain television shows influence or inspire your gaming, but I got so wrapped up discussing Supernatural I forgot all about that topic, and... well, hopefully it wasn't too boring. I would have kept the hammer...

Porky mentioned in a comment on a previous post about some sort of online gaming in Kinship. Until I get better bandwidth, I can't do anything on Google+.  A PbP game on a blog might work, but last time I put forth the idea, no one really seemed interested, which is okay. It didn't bother me at all. I'm still thinking about this, and need to work on the idea some more. So stay tuned...

I continue discussing Rolemaster Unified on the ICE Forums. At times this has become frustrating, but hopefully something good will come of it. I like the rules, which aren't perfect, but most rule sets aren't, otherwise people wouldn't write their own house rules.

I've really enjoyed getting back to reading all the gaming blogs. To save time, I've become a bit more selective in my reading, but I try to skim almost all of the ones I follow, and a few I don't follow.

Usually, I like to have some kind of graphic element to my blog posts, but I can't seem to upload anything.  I'm not sure what's changed, but even if it took a while, I could still get things uploaded.  Not anymore...

Finally, I leave you with another magic item...

[ Magic Item ] A Delightful Mug

This clay mug appears ordinary, and somewhat used. At first glance, if this mug is found in a dungeon it might be overlooked, but if some sort of detect magic spell is used on it, it's magical nature is revealed.

When a liquid is put in the mug, it is changed into the user's favorite beverage. This beverage will be the best the user has ever tasted! Unfortunately, if the liquid is poured out, and not consumed, then it reverts to the original liquid.

However, the mug is cursed. Whenever a drink is taken, the character must make a saving throw versus magic, or fall victim to the curse. If they fail the saving throw they will become enamored of the mug, and will take it with them everywhere. The character will think that the mug is the best thing ever, and when not doing anything else, will hold the mug, caressing it, and talk to it, as they drink from it. They will display it proudly in their home, and show it off to people. Eventually, it's all the character can think about, and they will even stop eating, and only drink from the mug.

If one person is cursed by the mug, and another person drinks from the mug, and is cursed as well, then they will fight over the ownership of the mug. The fight will continue until the mug is destroyed, the curse removed from one of the characters, or one of the characters is dead.

Only some sort of dispel magic or remove curse spell will get rid of the curse. If the mug is smashed the character will become depressed for 1d10 days, and not want to do anything. They will try to repair the mug, but after the period of depression they will forget about the mug.

An unknown number of these delightful mugs were produced, and it's unknown exactly why they were produced.

The Death of a Collection

I've been busy browsing eBay and amazon.com checking prices on stuff I want to replace.  Mainly 1st Edition AD&D, Rolemaster, Gamma World, GURPS... well it's quite a list.  My original collection consisted of things like the original boxed set of D&D and Gamma World that I bought back in oh... 1976, and a lot of gaming stuff that I bought over the years. Now, I didn't lose it all at once.  It was a war of attrition.  Some of it was lost when a closet in my first apartment flooded, and soaked everything on the floor.  This included some almost impossible to replace comic book collectibles, including some limited edition prints.  Some of my stuff just "dissappeared", borrowed items that were never returned, and well... you get the idea.  I replaced some things, but a few year later, after I was married, I had much of what was left of my collection in a storage unit.  Bad idea.  The ceiling leaked when it rained.  So when I discovered this, I realized I was paying 30 bucks a month to have my stuff destroyed, so I ended up selling most of what was left to a used book store.  I should have taken my time, but my wife had just left me, and I wasn't in the mood to deal with it. 

So fast forward to NOW.  After a very long break from all things geeky, I want to get back into gaming and collecting, and in a big way.  I plan on starting with the core titles, and go on from there.  I guess it was more of a gaming library than a collection, but I want it back.  All of it, and MORE!  All I have right now is a hardback Champions Rulebook my brother no longer wanted, the original Gamma World fold out map, and some ancient hex paper.  My battlemats may be somewhere?  Who knows...  Oh, and a Crown Royal bag o' dice.  Where is that thing?

gaming miscellania

There's a great thread in The Workshop forum on the dragonsfoot website that's about The Herculoids .  People are taking the characters and creating stats and descriptions for them.  One person is also making some very nice PDFs of the characters, and it looks like a whole Herculoidian Campaign World may result from this.  It's all very fun to read, and brings back memories of those early Saturday morning cartoons!

"Somewhere out in space live The Herculoids...Zok the laser-ray dragon! Igoo the giant rock ape! Tundro the tremendous! Gloop and Gleep, the formless fearless wonders! With Zandor their leader, and his wife, Tarra, and son, Dorno, they team up to protect their planet from sinister invaders! All-strong! All-brave! All-heroes!! They are The Herculoids!!!"  from The Herculoids Wikipedia article.

Check it out!  It really is loads of fun!

blog stuff

I actually thought of a few more blog names, but I'm starting to like Have Dice, Will Travel...

Some of the names I thought up were:  The Dice Academy, DiceWorld,  RPG Academy, and last but not least, The Insane Ramblings of a Delusional Insomniac.  Anyway, I like the current title, and eventually will have a HDWT embroidered dice bag.  Somehow, that just sounds cool...

What's in store for next time? I have NO IDEA!  Perhaps I'll do the write up of an item that I thought of today, sort of an artifact.  Tymer's Terrible Trunk, the worst piece of luggage an adventurer could possibly find.

Until next time, keep your gaming books safe, and your dice bag close by!

Blog Stuff

So far I'm happy with what I have done with "Have dice, will travel...".  I wanted to keep it simple for now, easy to read and look at, but not too plain. I think I've accomplished that.  I wasn't really happy with the name I came up with at first, but it's growing on me.  My first choice was, "Roll the Dice!", but it had already been used by someone else.  So thinking quickly, I came up with HDWT.  I like it, it's kind of generic, but I didn't want to call this blog, "Frank's Dungeon" or anything like that because I wanted to cover quite a few different areas of the "gaming hobby".  If I do come up with a better name I will change it.  I'm not opposed to change, as long as it's good!

I've already added a few links, but most of these can be found on other gaming blogs, and websites; so nothing new or exciting.  Just some of the blogs and websites I like.  I'll try to keep them current, and get rid of dead links ( I really hate dead links... ), or blogs that haven't been updated in a while.

Later today or tomorrow, I hope to have some really good content posted.  I'm ready to get rolling!