2010 World Cup - Third day encounters

From the North African sands came the Algerians with their scimitars ready to fight the Eslovenians, who made their first appearance in the competition as an independent realm. With one of the "Desert Foxes" out, the Balkanic hunting party had no problem to take down the rest.

Later, Ghana's "Black Stars" and Serbia's "White Eagles" measured their strenght. The fight was even until the last rounds when the Serbs lost a man and conceded a free attack that was not missed.

The day ended with the Teutonic juggernaut rolling over the "Socceroos", reducing them to a pulp.

2010 World Cup - Second day encounters

On the first of today's encounters, the South Korean party, making use of their secret and ancient martial arts, landed two critical blows on the Greek phalanx who failed their morale check, dropped their large shields and long spears, and scattered on the battlefield.

Later, the Agentinian adventuring party, sponsored by the mythical hero Maradona, managed to vanquish the Nigerian band. Of the myriad of attacks that the "Albiceleste" threw at the "Eagles", most were dodged, blocked and parried. But one hit the mark and the feeble counter attacks made by the Africans were not enough to turn the tide of the battle.

And in the final encouter the English "Lions" won the initiative and landed a vicious attack on the USA squad. But the english gatekeeper rolled a natural 1 on his save vs. paralyzation and allowed the Americans to even the score. In past times he would have been thrown in the dungeons of the Tower. The rounds passed as both parties hacked at each other, but no attack reached its intended destination.

Can't wait to see tomorrow encounters!

2010 World Cup - First day encounters

Today started the 2010 World Cup for Uruguay with an encounter against France. The melee between the "Charruas" and the "Gauls" was a very dull and boring, with only a few to hit chances for both parties but all misses. One of the Uruguayan party members was sent off by the Japanese Dungeon Master for making a critical fumble. He will miss the next encounter against the "Bafana bafana", the South African party that inflicted 1 hit point of damage to the Mexican party in the opening encounter. But "La Verde" retaliated and also inflicted 1 hit point of damage to the local team. And so it ends the first day of the 2010 World Cup. Stay tuned!

Imagination quotes

Almost a year ago, when I decided to start blogging in a more or less regular way, I changed the look of the blog an added a quote about imagination. On either side of the DM screen, I think imagination is the most important thing in role playing games. Imagination to create adventures, give life to characters and monsters, to picture what is going on when the DM describe a place or the players describe their actions, and so on. At that time I chose a quote by Carl Sagan:

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere."

How many worlds are out there, canon and homebrew, teeming with characters adventuring, monsters to be vanquished, places to be discovered, treasures to be plundered, dungeons to be explored and more? Thousands, perhaps millions and every one of them, wonderful.

I then thought of changing the quote, not because I didn't like it anymore, but to see what has been said about imagination. So I searched the web and came across this quote by Albert Einstein:

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”

Yes, logic will take you from A to B, with only one random encounter in between according to Vaarsuvius, if I may respectfully add. And everywhere are all those worlds we created and those yet to be. Then my search led me to a quote by Pablo Picasso:

"Everything you can imagine is real."

This is so very true in our hobby. Everything that that happens when we gather to play, around the table, by post, by Wave or even Twitter, becomes real to DM and players alike. As a side thought, it would have been great to have a monsters manual illustrated by Picasso, wouldn't it?

Then, why don't make this a regular thing? A weekly post with a quote about imagination, the heart and soul of role playing games. Let's see what I find for next Monday.

My RPG books

After putting in order all my gaming stuff, here's a picture of the gaming shelf. There's more material classified and stored in rigid type folders but it doesn't look as good as this.

From left to right: the World of Greyhawk (1980), the WoG & Glossography (1983), AD&D Dungeon Master Guide (1979), AD&D 2e PHB, DM and Monstrous Manual, AD&D 2e Complete Bard's Handbook, AD&D 2e Celts Campaign Sourcebook, AD&D 2e The Complete Books of Villains, AD&D The Complete Books of Elves, AD&D Against the Giants - The Liberation of Geoff (1999), some Dragon and Dungeon magazines, 3.0e PHB, DM and MM, 3.0e Book of Vile Darkness, 4 boxes of plastic miniatures and 3 boxed sets (The City of Greyhawk, From the Ashes and Planescape Campaign Expansion), AD&D 2e Volo's Guide to the North, AD&D Waterdeep and the North, AD&D 2e Campaign Guide to Myth Drannor, Ars Magica 5e, Labyrinth Lord Advancd Edition Companion and some books of drawing techniques. On top there's a bag from the English Heritage with a poster of Stonehenge waiting to put in a frame.

From that lot are missing the 3.5e books (PHB, DM, MM and the Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk module) and another box of miniatures, that were in the gaming backpack the moment I took the picture, and the Labyrinth Lord Revised Edition that is on its way.