Compendium Sale

For a limited time only, we're having a special on Behind the Spells: Compendium over at RPGNow. If you still haven't picked up this 5-star product, you can now get it for 50% off until May 19 by clicking here!

D&D: The Next Generation

A few months ago, I received a startling call from my sister. Turns out, her oldest son Aiden (who will be 9 in Oct.) ran across a reference to Dungeons & Dragons and became interested in reading about it. I pondered briefly how best to indoctrinate my nephew into the roleplaying fold. Should Aiden be thrust into the rules-heavy editions of today? Or should he be weaned in the same manner I was? One look at the above picture tells you which way I went.

I was fortunate enough to locate a complete and intact Basic Rules red box from www.hitpointe.com for, what I considered to be, a fair price. There's so much D&D history that I want Aiden to be exposed to if he decides to pursue this course. The older editions like the basic one featured here may be a bit clunky rules-wise but one cannot deny the air of freedom it gives. It was written at a time in which roleplaying itself was just finding its place in the world and the promise of a golden future of gaming was at hand. I think one can say the same about a 9-year-old's life too.

As it was with my own formative years, I can only hope that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship between a boy and his imagination.

New Review

In case you're not peeking in at the Tricky Owlbear blog too much, I'll mention here that there's a new review for Behind the Monsters: Gargoyle. Check it out!

Paying for Convenience

Well, my trip did not yield any Star Wars d6 goodies but I did make two off the cuff purchases: the Dragon Age box set from Green Ronin and Goodman's (system generic) Random Esoteric Creature Generator. The former I picked up because a nice, new, easy system sounded like a nice change of pace from the rules-bloated days of 3.x/Pathfinder (and, yes, they're bloated, don't let anyone tell you differently).

The latter I picked up because...well, because it was a convenient resource to have. It has tons of tables to roll randomly on to whip up different monster concepts/features/abilities/yada yada. Could I not have come up with this book on my own? Sure, anyone could have. But to have it right there already fleshed out is just something that appealed to me. I paid for convenience and I think that's what typifies rpg purchasing for us busy 30-somethings.

d6 Anyone?

When visiting one of my quaint "local" game stores (local meaning Palmyra, PA) the other week, I picked up one of the old d6 Star Wars adventure compilation books. I have nothing but good memories of both the d6 system and gaming in the Star Wars universe (mostly thanks to our stellar GM, Ryan!) and miss it a great deal. I'm heading to another game store today (Showcase Comics at the Granite Run mall) in the hopes of tracking down some other d6 SW books sitting forgotten on a dusty shelf. There's nothing like finding an old friend that just needs a little polish to make him useful again. Heather allowed me to borrow her collection of books but I'll need my own when I start GMing it again anyway (and shopping is, of course, half the fun!). Wish me luck on the hunt!