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Post by Zenopus on Mar 17, 2024 13:15:59 GMT -6
Update: Per Allan ( grodog ), the Black Blade booth in the vendor hall will have the Adventurer's Map in stock, as well as other Paul Stormberg ( stormberg ) published products; see www.tlbgames.com/ Will have to check if there are vendors open on Wednesday. Unfortunately I don't think the vendors are open until Thursday; the schedule is here: tabletop.events/conventions/gary-con-xvi/exhibitors/move-in-outBut perhaps you could contact grodog (Allan Grohe on FB) directly about getting one on Wed. He's already there for F&L.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 17, 2024 10:54:14 GMT -6
-330 Center Street: Gary's house when working on D&D draft. This year I'm signed up for one the tours here on Saturday. Maybe I'll see you there. I have eight hours of gaming planned that day. Castle Greyhawk upstairs followed by some Chainmail on the basement sand table. Wow, that sounds awesome. I'm sure we will pass through while you are gaming. I just checked and I am in the 2:30 group.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 17, 2024 10:51:16 GMT -6
Update: Per Allan ( grodog), the Black Blade booth in the vendor hall will have the Adventurer's Map in stock, as well as other Paul Stormberg ( stormberg) published products; see www.tlbgames.com/
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 17, 2024 10:04:51 GMT -6
Perfect, thanks for the run down. Was the memorial map a PDF delivery or shipped? I assume Paul will have someone selling them there, though was hoping to do all my site seeing the day before. You're welcome. It's a physical product. Unlaminated paper map, 4.25 x 10 inches when folded up. Hand-drawn map of the town by Paul Stormberg with 42 sites. All text in Futura! I will check with Allan Grohe to see if he will have it in stock at the Black Blade booth.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 17, 2024 9:59:31 GMT -6
I've also read there's a new exhibit at the Geneva Lake Musem called The Wizard of Lake Geneva. www.gygaxmemorialfund.org/twolg-initiativeFrom their FB page: Kind of limited hours to get there while at the Con though. If they were open later on Wed it would be more feasible.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 17, 2024 9:45:02 GMT -6
On my first trip in 2017, when I pulled my rental car into town, I parked to get my bearings and looked up and there was 330 Center Street across the street. I then drove around town to a few locations using Steven Sullivan's blue map on the end papers in Michael Witwer's Empire of Imagination Book. Along those lines, Paul Stormberg now has a neat walking tour map available: www.gygaxmemorialfund.org/amolg-initiativeI got one a few months ago and plan to bring it. It's very detailed. Last year, with two friends in tow, I revisited a few of the town sites plus the Gygax Memorial tile by the water. See here: zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2023/04/gary-con-2023-day-0.htmlMy top must-see picks would be: -330 Center Street: Gary's house when working on D&D draft. This year I'm signed up for one the tours here on Saturday. -330 Broad Street: Horticultural Hall, site of first Gen Cons. Beautiful leafy building. I went to a Gary Con event here in 2017. -722 W. Main Street: the former Hotel Clair, where the TSR offices were in the early 80s, with the Dungeon Hobby Shop in the basement. -Gygax Memorial Tile at waterfront. Roll your d20 on it for luck (or unluck). -Lake Geneva Library, which now has a new Appendix N reading nook. I stopped outside here in 2017; beautiful location on the lake. Also, get some cheese curds and/or fancy cheese at the Piggly Wiggly or a small shop for the full Wisconsin experience. I've heard the Cheese Box recommended, but haven't had time to go.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 17, 2024 8:35:53 GMT -6
Last night while half-asleep I imagined using all d4s to generate scores.
5d4 would be fun, with an average of 12.5, but you'd have to figure out what to do with 19 and 20 (treat as 18? ignore and re-roll? re-roll with a bonus or minimum?)
4d4+2 would give a range of 6-18 and an average of 12 ((2.5*4)+2)
How about class hit-die based primes?
Magic-users use 4d4+2 for Int (6-18, average 12) Clerics use 2d6+6 for Wis (8-18, average 13) Fighter use 2d8+2 for Strength (4-18, average 11)
Kind of pointless but interesting thought experiment
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 15, 2024 13:03:19 GMT -6
*gulp*
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 11, 2024 11:01:50 GMT -6
FWIW, on Twitter last fall, increment said it would be a "pretty pervasive update" & he planned to do a preview closer to the publication date.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 11, 2024 7:07:38 GMT -6
The book has a cover. By Erol Otus! Ooh, that is fantastic, perhaps my favorite Otus of the modern era. I've missed his black and white line work. Thanks for keeping us updated on this captainjapan
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 8, 2024 21:50:10 GMT -6
Nice!
In case any one missed it, the Dragon, Blue Wizard and Green Knight are from the cover of Holmes Basic, the Paladin and Fiend are from the Paladin in Hell illustration in the AD&D PHB, each by Dave Sutherland.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 8, 2024 12:04:03 GMT -6
Welcome, Johnny. We have met in person at Gary Con - I played in your session of the Legends tournament last year. I started playing with my best friend in jr. high. We would alternate being each other's DM each weekend. ALL weekend. We each ran our own party of adventurers. That is exactly how I played the majority of the time in middle school. My best friend would only be in our neighborhood every other weekend (divorced parents), and we didn't know any other local kids who played, so we each made our own party and took turns DMing. It's an underrated mode of playing. He actually still runs games for one of his kids that way.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 8, 2024 11:55:00 GMT -6
Anyone in "prep panic?" I would say anyone ELSE, but in one way I know I'm already ready, just obsessed about thinking throught it over and over and over lol. I'm not quite panicking (yet), but my Balrog scenario that I mentioned above is still sketchy in some parts. I like to have everything detailed before I run a game, so it's leaving me unsettled as I try to find time to work on it.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 7, 2024 18:38:59 GMT -6
*bump*
Two weeks until Gary Con!
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 7, 2024 18:37:07 GMT -6
Approved! I messaged him on X to make sure it was actually him.
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Post by Zenopus on Feb 28, 2024 17:19:38 GMT -6
Chapters 2-4 of the first edition of PatW are:
2: Setting - The Medieval Fantasy Genre 3: System - The Rules of the Game 4: Character - Roles and Immersion
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Post by Zenopus on Feb 24, 2024 15:10:19 GMT -6
Silver registration went well for me - got all of the games I wanted - and my games are both full now. Among other games, I'm signed up for TSR's Knights of Camelot (on a giant board), the Siege of Bodenburg, the AD&D Friday night tournament ("Nexus of Elder Evil" this year), and a tour of the Gygax house where D&D was written (330 Center Street) by our own stormberg...!
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Post by Zenopus on Feb 23, 2024 10:34:13 GMT -6
*bump* Just under a month until Gary Con 2024! Gold badge game registration was last week, and Silver registration is tomorrow. I'll be there, and as planned am running two games, my previously run Forgotten Smugglers' Cave, and a brand new one for the 50th anniversary: Party of Balrogs, a LBB game where the PCs are all Balrogs (!).
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Post by Zenopus on Feb 17, 2024 11:15:24 GMT -6
The 1973 D&D Draft (aka "Guidon D&D") specifically states this rule on page 15:
(The numbers were lower at this point: MU 200,000; F 150,000; Cleric 50,000)
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Post by Zenopus on Feb 15, 2024 12:03:29 GMT -6
IIRC, "Castle Ruins" was an early title for what became the "Upper Works".
From their site:
I assume that the "The Dungeons" portion will include the material from the Upper Works, but it sounds like it may be a hardcover book now?
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Post by Zenopus on Feb 12, 2024 23:32:05 GMT -6
Dungeoneer's Survival Guide aka DSG
The description of the Underdark setting was the best part of it! There was sort of a stealth Underdark source book spread between the Monster Manual II (monsters), Unearthed Arcana (PC races) and campaign setting (DSG).
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 28, 2024 12:33:55 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Dec 8, 2023 22:10:25 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Nov 11, 2023 12:16:17 GMT -6
The "something very similar" would have to omit the distinction between surprised and completely surprised, and would have to use a six-sided die While I have no idea whether Gary used something from the Dracolisk chart in the 1970s, the concept of "surprise" (roll of 1 for surprise) versus "complete surprise" (roll of 2 for surprise) does show up in Eldritch Wizardry in April 1976. The term "complete surprise" is also mentioned in the entry for the catoblepas in the Strategic Review #7 in the same month, and then is repeated in the Monster Manual entry in 1977 but with an explanation ("2 on a 6-sided die"). "Complete surprise" barely appears in AD&D (in the Phantasmal Killer spell in the PHB, and in the Crossbow of Speed in the DMG) and isn't explained there, so it is interesting it appears in the MMII, and could conceivably be a holdover from the OD&D era. In addition to the Dracolisk, the term also appears in the MMII in the entry for the Boalisk ("Complete surprise (1-2 on 1d6) indicates someone has met the gaze and gets no saving throw").
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 29, 2023 18:03:35 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 29, 2023 12:15:29 GMT -6
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 28, 2023 10:18:49 GMT -6
Another possibility for the answerer is Arneson, who was at TSR until November 1976, per Game Wizards. Any thoughts increment or stormberg?
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 28, 2023 7:01:17 GMT -6
Wow! Thanks for sharing. There have been many reports that TSR/Gygax was inundated with requests for rules clarifications in the early years, so it's amazing to see an actual example of one! A few notes: ---The letter writer is named Wayne Patton. There is an author of the same name in Judges Guild Journal #3 (Installment N), Aug/Sep 77, who contributes a single new monster: Gremlins. Notably, the OD&D set up for auction also includes some Judges Guild tables. The author's hometown, Iowa City, is about 3 hours driving southwest of Lake Geneva, and 4 hours northwest of Decatur, IL, where JG was located, so they were part of the mid-west gaming milieu. ---The letter is dated 9/9/1976. This is after all of the supplements for D&D were released, with the last two (GD&H and S&S) having been released in July, per the Acaeum. The writer mentions thieves & gelatinous cubes, which both appeared in the Greyhawk supplement. ---I wonder if we could figure out who answered the letter based on the handwriting? The mix of upper and lower case does remind me of some of Gygax's writing that I've seen. ---As to the clarifications themselves, they are a mixed bag, but interesting. Question 1: The writer seems to be asking about the ability of characters to read & write, but the answerer seemingly misunderstands and just replies with a reference to the rules for thieves being able to read languages & magic at certain levels. Question 2: The writer is asking for alternate rules for damage by fire, including for susceptible creatures (referencing mummies and gelatinous cubes). The answerer focuses only the susceptible creatures, providing a system for those to take extra damage (+1 per die; sort of the opposite effect of Resist Fire). Question 3: This is a good example of a DM back-in-the-day wondering about the oft-questioned armor/weapon restrictions in Men & Magic. The answerer gives a quick and emphatic clarification that the restrictions for magic armor/weapons are intended to apply to the normal versions as well. Question 4: The answerer provides a useful clarification that a dwarf can detect traps while walking along, as long as they are not otherwise engaged.
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Post by Zenopus on Sept 15, 2023 5:10:27 GMT -6
Holmes also doesn't say that damage equals current HP. The example it gives is that a dragon with 20 HP does 20 points of breath weapon damage, or 10 if the save is made. There's nothing saying to reduce this if the dragon is wounded.
I think this idea was introduced in B/X Basic.
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Post by Zenopus on Aug 29, 2023 6:57:35 GMT -6
The Yggsburgh PDF is now up for sale by itself on the Troll Lord Games page, for $24.95: Yggsburgh PDF at TLG(Remember if you buy the hardcopy, it comes with the PDF as well) It's supposed to be up on DrivethruRPG soon as well, but I don't see it there yet.
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