Oriental Adventures

Yesterday we gathered to continue our OA campaign. We are five guys, four are married and three got small children. We get together maybe 3 or 4 times in the year, if we're lucky. It's more like a social reunion in which we hang out, catch up and roll some dices. As we waited for everyone to come, one of the guys commented about playing with his 8 years old son, so I mentioned some blogs he could check out and read about other dads' experience.

Later while having some pizzas, one of the guys made us notice that we begun this campaign back in May of 1994! That's 16 years ago! Since all of our characters are level 6, our party must have the worst campaigning time-level achieved ratio ever. It's not that we care about it, but we laughed heartily at the thought and I took mental note to comment it here.

Don't let the trolls win

It's sad to see two very interesting RPG-related blogs to go down in a few days. I'm talking about Michael "Chgowiz" Shorten's "Old Guy RPG" blog and Christopher Brackett's "A Rust Monster Ate My Sword" blog. The former has been taken is off-line by its owner and the latter won't be seeing any update for the time being.

I specially didn't referred to those blogs as "OSR-related" because they covered many other, equally interesting, topics. I very much respect the reasons that each one had to made their decisions. Maybe I don't agree but I respect them and hope to see both online soon. And if not, others will come forward and pick their flags to carry on.

Gary Con II

I've just realized that tomorrow Friday starts Gary Con II (March 19 - 21) and it made me get green with envy for all of you attending. No seriously, I wish everyone there good gaming and hope to read many cool stories in the blogs I follow. I hope some day to attend and share a game with some of the people I know from here, the Google Wave game, Canonfire! or the Greychat. Happy Gary Con! I'm still green... Bleh...

What to put in a portable hole?

Last session, one of my players (Fede V.) decided that Falquian, his figher/mage-slayer, while in the city, will stock the portable hole he had gained the previous session. But he didn't tell me and we didn't do all the roleplay of the "shopping & buying"; he just made the list and anounced he was done. The dialogue was something like:

Player: "That's it, all we need is in the portable hole."

DM: "W-what? All right, read me the list."

Player: (reads the list aloud)

(everyone laughs)

DM: "You mail me that list, I'm gonna put it in the blog!"

And so here it is:

a freestanding bookshelf (already there)
a worktable (already there)
a comfortable cot (already there)
3 barrels of dried food (already there)
4 barrels of fresh water (3 were already there)
1 barrel of oil
5 bedrolls
5 winter blankets
5 cold weather outfits
500 ft. of hempen rope
10 lbs. of soap
a shovel
a miner's pick
a crowbar
100 trail rations
5 sacks (empty)
2 iron pots
flint & steel
2 tents
firewood (for some days)
a small steel mirror
3 manacles
50 iron spikes
10 wooden stakes
10 everburning torches
a grappling hook
a 10 ft. wooden ladder
a portable ram
a sledge
20 flasks of holy water

I don't know if all that fits in a portable hole and didn't do the math, but since I liked it so much I allowed it. As I recently read here, saying yes is more fun.

Finnaly!

Last friday when I got home there was a note from the postman that they had a package for me at the post office. Since they don't work on weekends, and I couldn't go on their office hours, today my wife went to get it. So, I came from work and there it was on my desk, a perfectlly bound cardboard box from Lulu and a post-it from her that today dinner was on me. I finally have in my hands the Labyrinth Lord's Advanced Edition Companion from Goblinoid Games! The binding and printing of the book are of great quality. The artwork is so old-school, I love it. Enough, I'm off to read it and plan my next capaign. Uh-oh, wait, I have to make dinner. :-)