#RPGaDAY -- Catch Up (Days 10-13)

Wow.  Near the end of the month and my attempts to catch up have failed thus far.  I need to step it up a notch.  ;)

10. Favorite tie-in novel / Game Fiction
11. Weirdest RPG owned
12. Old RPG you still play / read
13. Most memorable character death

You know... the first RPG tie-ins I read were the Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends trilogies.  I devoured those books and I read them as I got started in the hobby.  They were a lot of fun and, like many other Dragonlance fans, I retain a soft spot for them.  That said, Dragonlance was not a setting that I ever spent a lot of time gaming in.

As for the weirdest RPG owned -- that's a tough one.  In many ways, most RPGs are at least a little weird.  If I had to choose one, I think it would be the TMNT RPG by Palladium.  The concept is a bit off the wall albeit fun.

Old RPG that I still play and read ... various classic iterations of D&D though mostly the B/X (Moldvay) era D&D.

Most memorable character death... while I didn't spend a lot of time gaming in the Dragonlance setting, the few times I did (and one campaign in particular) stands out for more.  I had an elven thief who developed a nemesis-type relationship with a particular villain.  It came down to a showdown where I decided to sacrifice my character in order to END the life of the villain.  The DM's look on his face was priceless -- he just couldn't believe that I would be willing to kill off a character I really enjoyed and adored in order to finish off the villain.  But it was done, and that particular story arc came to an abrupt halt by dying a heroic death.

M

#RPGaDAY -- Catch Up (Days 7-9)

Well, Gen Con was a blast and the weeks and days leading up to it were very busy for me.  The days immediately following it were also busy and I was mostly out of sorts due to all the traveling done and general sleep deprivation.  But I'm back and it's time to get back to the business of blogging, writing, and finally publishing a few things before the year is over.

In the meantime, let's see if we can get this #RPGaDAY thing wrapped up by the end of the month and, as always, I'm playing catch up here:

7. Most 'intellectual' RPG owned.
8. Favourite character.
9. Favorite Die / Dice Set.

I find an intellectual game to be an interesting concept.  Most RPGs have the capacity to be intellectual by virtue of imagination.  It doesn't have to be something that's complicated but I suppose the devil is in the details.  Looking and thinking back what I own or have owned, I guess I would have to go with something like Palladium Fantasy.  Not because it is overly intellectual but because it had me thinking about game design more than once when I compared it to Dungeons & Dragons.  That said, most will fine that character generation in games from Palladium are long and needlessly complicated.  ;)

My favorite character is a toss up between two actually.  One was my first character of course, a Fighter that grew to prominence in the campaigns I played.  The other was a Halfling Thief that was in the middle of a pivotal and campaign altering war which he helped bring about.  Fun times!

As to my favorite Die or Dice Set -- I don't really have one.  For a few people, I've seen them select their very first dice set and I really suppose that's as good as an answer as any.  I don't have my original dice set anymore.  However they were special to me for a couple of reasons.  The first is because they were given to me.  When I became involved in the game (AD&D), I was living on a Canadian military base in Germany.  Dice were EXTREMELY hard to come by.  You couldn't just go to a local game store to pick them up.  The place we got our books from (a small bookstore on the base) did not stock dice.  So, when I started, a friend who had a couple of sets of dice he was regularly using gave me some old dice that was included in the Basic D&D set (BECMI series).  Those were my dice.  Within a couple of years with traveling and such, it was a big deal to find a game store in a foreign city and country and, sure enough, when the opportunity arose -- we bought dice.  I had acquired a couple of other sets and, when I introduced another new player to D&D, I gave him the dice that were given to me.  When I think back to that set, part of me hopes that they continue to exchange hands as necessary.  I have my second set of dice still -- they are a multicolor set of solid dice which I have retired in their own tiny pouch amongst the hundreds of dice I have since acquired.

M

#RPGaDAY -- Catch Up (Days 4-6)

Continuing the trend of playing catch up...

4. Most recent RPG purchased
5. Most Old School RPG owned
6. Favorite RPG Never Get to Play


Hmm... number 4 is a bit of an odd one since I already owned the PDF and various game books that basically that predate it.  But in that case, it would be 'Mini Six'.  While I have played and ran different games and systems, one of my favorites was the good old d6 system developed by West End Games.  Their biggest contribution was arguably the Star Wars RPG before the license went to someone else.  The game runs fast and loose and great for a 'cinematic feel'.  It's a dice pool system and is skill based as opposed to archetype and level based.  It easy and fun and you can pretty much run anything with the system.  While West End Games developed other properties, towards the end, the went with 'generic' d6 genre books...  Notably 'Adventure', 'Fantasy', and 'Space'.  There were more but in some ways, between these and a new Space Opera type game called 'Septimus', West End Games never enjoyed the type of success it had back when they were putting out tons of material for the d6 Star Wars RPG.  While West End Games had a turbulent time of things near the end (including change of ownership), one of the last great things they did was create 'Open d6' to keep the system alive and allow anyone to freely develop for it.  Mini Six was one of the best results of this and while I had some of the d6 Star Wars book as well as a generic d6 System book, I only finally got a print copy (from Lulu and sold pretty much at cost).  The PDF of it is free and available HERE.

Most Old School RPG owned?  Well that's a good question.  I figure that most people would answer something like OD&D or an early D&D variation.  If I went that route, I'd probably would say something like the older B/X sets.  However, in many ways my 5th Edition 'Deluxe Black Box' of Tunnels & Trolls.  I actually talk about it a bit HERE.

Finally, my favorite RPG that I never get to play.  Hand down, it's got to be Call of Cthulhu.  I was introduced to the game when their fifth edition was released and was fortunate enough to play some of the Horror on the Orient Express campaign.  That was over 20 years ago now and I haven't been able to play since.  My lack of playing didn't stop me from holding on to my near mint, 20 year old copy.  Nor did it prevent me from picking a couple other Chaosium titles over the years or backing both the new CoC 7th Edition *and* their new Horror on the Orient Express Kickstarters.  Since I can never play, I guess I'm going to have to just run it instead.  But it's just not the same.  ;)

M

#RPGaDAY -- Catch Up (Days 1-3)

GenCon is fast approaching and I have been a bit neglectful of the Under Siege blog for a few weeks now.  I've been busy cleaning up, sorting through, and in many cases, reducing the gaming collection.  I noticed this whole '#RPGaDAY' series of tweets and blog posts and I thought it would be a GREAT time to jump in and run my attention back to my blog.  I will do the entire month but I expect it will come in spurts.  ;)

1. First RPG Played
2. First RPG Gamemastered
3. First RPG Purchased

All three come down to the same thing: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons

My first experience with AD&D came with my introduction to the game with a couple of new friends inviting me to play.  Circumstances of my introduction were probably a horrible way to introduce someone new to the game... they have me a high level pre-gen and we embarked in, H2: The Mines of Bloodstone.

For those of you unacquainted with the adventure, the odds stacked against the characters are insane and after a series of challenges, one of which involved a Tarrasque, you possibly end up in a show down against Orcus, Demon Prince of the Undead.  At best, you just fight a ridiculous encounter with undead forces and some high level cultists.

However, going through the adventure was a blast and within the start of the adventure, I was hooked.  I was hooked to the point that a couple of hours into our second session, the person running the game (it really looked like he was narrating more than anything else) started having problems with his voice.  Eager to continue, I volunteered to step in and read for him.  In some ways it presented an interesting way to learn the game.  Every so often I would stop, and ask what a particular thing meant as I was trying to decipher my first stat blocks.  After getting a taste of 'running a game', borrowing some books to get a better grasp of some of the rules, I bought my first gaming book.

Being confident enough to continue and run some games, my first book was the Dungeon Master's Guide.  Alas, 2nd Edition had just come out so it would be years before I got my hands on a 1st Edition copy of the book.  However, I came appreciate the 2nd Edition of the DMG and the PHB which ended up being my second gaming book purchase.  Some people would split 1st edition and 2nd edition into different categories but, truth be told it was all D&D to us ... 1st, 2nd, and even the Mentzer sets were what we rolled with.

Ah... good times.

M

Weekend R&R: Games & Gears Ichiban Studios Pro Line Brushes

A couple months back, I gave a bit of a signal boost the the new Kickstarter by Games & Gears who partnered with Ichiban Studios to create a pro line of red sable brushes.  I backed the project (which was largely funded by the wife as a Birthday gift) and was lucky enough to get an 'Early Bird' spot.  Well, for those Early Birds, they began shipping a couple of weeks ago and, I knew that they had hit Canada last Friday.  I figured I'd have a small package waiting for me and, I was right.

It's a rainy day in Montreal today so I wasn't out BBQing supper.  I fixed up a quick little meal and set myself to examine and test out the brushes.

In short, these are very good brushes albeit, by looking at them, you would think they might take a bit of getting used to in terms of handling the brush while painting.  First off, these are shorter, a bit heavier, and a bit thicker than what I'm accustomed to using.

My usual brushes are a set of three 'Eavy Metal branded brushes from Games Workshop and while some people will cry out in despair and wonder what possessed me to spend overly much on something that was likely overpriced to begin with, I suspect this was one of those things that was less overpriced than the typical product they push on their fanbase.  I use these brushes (sized 'Large', 'Standard', and 'Detail') because they are Kolinsky Sable brushes and there was some discussion a while back that these were likely Windsor and Newton series 7 Kolinsky Sable brushes.  All I can say is that I've been using these brushes for well over a year and they have never let me down.  They're great and having used and gone through other brushes, these still are in decent shape.

Brushes don't last forever, no matter how well you care for them but treat them right, and they'll serve you a long time.  However, this Kickstarter presented an interesting option to get other sable brushes and, with the way you can help protect the tips, it seemed like a good opportunity.

Having tried out all the brushes, I have to say that it was really easy to get comfortable in using the brushes.  Because they are so 'penlike', I found myself holding the brush closer to the tip on the ferrule that I did with the other brushes but this wasn't a problem for me.  Depending on the angle of course, there were times I had to re-adjust my grip in order to get to a tighter spot on the model I was painting on but that's the same for any brush given what you may be trying to paint.

The bristles hold paint really well in part because the body of the bristles are nice and thick compared to what I normally work with.  However, application of the paint was nice and smooth.  Most importantly, they seem to keep a tip when wet and they also have some 'spring' to them.  Both very important things when precision is required when working on some details.

While these brushed will be entering regular use, my 'Eavy Metal brushes have not been replaced.  The smallest of the brushes, the 00 size would be very hard pressed to replace my Detail brush.  Since the bristles are shorter on the 00, and given the 'spring' and the tendency to keep a point, I will have to play around with it a bit more to be sure.  Eyes and facial features on 25 - 30mm is a tricky thing.  Then again, I've had difficulties with the Fine Detail brush as well.  I have heard Games & Gears were working on a pro-line 000 size and, given the quality of these brushes, I'd be happy to pay for one of these.

Games & Games had another KS a while back and there were a lot of quality control issues and the general consensus was that those 'samurai brushes' were pretty sub-par.  On the flip side, the customer service and communication seemed to be good.  This time around, they seem to make damned sure that the QA issues were well in hand for this release and I have no problems recommending these brushes for the model painter.

Unfortunately, these brushes may not be available in retail till early next year.  Games & Gears still has a way to go to fulfill all their backer commitments -- regular backers as well as extras and add-ons all ship in September.  I would suggest keeping an eye on their homepage HERE but it you can't wait and want a brush now *and* you are going to GenCon this year, you can get a limited edition size 0 brush which can be ordered HERE.  To be honest, if it wasn't for the fact that I have two sets of these brushes, I'd be tempted myself.  ;)

£7.5077

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£7.507.50

M