Geography - Bauxite is from Memphis

In some ways, what knowledge I have of the world, map-wise, has been more shaped by gaming than by school education. My world view is heavily based on Risk. My knowledge of Europe is based on the Diplomacy map. What I know of the States is based on Empire Builder with the exception of the small part that we drove through to get to GenCon.

RPGs

Of the RPGs that I picked up, I have played less than half of them (so far!) I mostly looked at the modules as $8 novels. Nowadays that seems close to a normal price for a book but back then they were priced at about $2-$3 for a paperback novel.

D&D lead the way to the other TSR games – Top Secret, Gamma World (multiple versions), Boothill, Gangbusters, Marvel SuperHeroes, Dawn Patrol, Star Frontiers, Adventures of Indiana Jones, and Top Secret SI – plus all of their respective modules.
Those games led to Bushido, Villains & Vigilantes, Twilight 2000, Flashing Blades, Star Ace, Star Wars (West End), Chill (both versions), Valley of the Pharaohs, Crimefighters, James Bond 007, Vikings & Valkyrs and Bunnies & Burrows – plus most of their respective modules.
I have also picked up Big Eyes, Small Mouth; Autoduel; Fighting Fantasy; Pokemon Jr Adventure Game; Theatrix; World of Indiana Jones; and TWERPS but these were mostly just to pad out my list.

I have run D&D, V&V, MSH, and Adventures of Indiana Jones.
I have played several D & D solo modules but I don’t recall any actual games as a PC.
I have played Vikings & Valkyrs, The Palladium Role-Playing Game, James Bond 007, Paranoia, Toon, Chill, Star Wars, Top Secret, Star Wars, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Call of Cthulhu, and even a game or two of AD&D. Most of these were events at conventions. At one point, I even created an over-system that would allow characters to be transferred from system to system as well as a campaign story for the changes. I’ll try to dig out and post the blurb for – The Gates of Kessler.

Don’t think that I remembered all those games by memory alone. The following site was an invaluable help:
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/encyclopedia/index.html

more D & D memories

In 2000, D & D 3rd edition caused a huge uproar with the move to D20 and open source. The last big change to AD&D was when the second edition came out in 1989. We were at Gencon that year when they announced it. The big change on my side was that they had dropped the ‘Advanced’ from their name.

My 3rd edition had come out 17 years earlier.

Going in to senior high in 1983, I picked up the new D&D (3rd edition) boxed set. Over the years they churned out another Expert set, as well as a Companion, Masters, and finally Immortals. This one started with a walkthrough adventure in its own Players Handbook to start off new players. My copy is now pretty beat up from loaning it out to prospective players. While we did play a few one-offs, I don't believe that we ever did get a campaign going.

D & D memories

I had seen the little white boxes at the Ye Olde Hobby Shoppe in the Garden City mall for quite some time. I picked them up from time to time but never did buy a set. I didn’t get the original blue Basic rules in 1977 (I do have it now – but bought it much, much later), and saw the hardcover Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks but again passed them over – mostly due to price.

I’m trying to work out the timeline in my head. I thought I had gotten the 2nd edition Basic set while in elementary but, based on publishing date, I must have been in the back half of grade 7, in the beginning of grade 8, or the summer in between. My memory gets mushy about dates sometimes.

I used to mail away for a lot of things. I still love getting stuff in the mail. I remember that I knew my postal code by grade 2 from all the offers I had mailed away. I recall getting the Yaquinto Attack of the Mutants minigame based on the ad in the comic books. I don’t recall if this was before or after the first D&D ads appeared.
http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4265
Based on the ads, I convinced my folks to let me buy the red Basic Dungeons & Dragons boxed set at Eatons in 1981. I got the blue Expert set later when it came out. Both had the plastic dice and the all important crayon for filling in the numbers. I still have these dice and can pick them out of my assorted dice I’ve acquired from various sets over the years.

I recall reading the rules and module and we played with Trevor and his brothers. This was how I met Jeremy – he came with an ‘existing’ character (that he and Trevor had created) to take on my crazy dungeon I had designed. His character, Yremej, had been outfitted with all the cool magic items they could find – basically making him a PC version of Thor. (This is why we no longer allow characters from other campaigns.)

maps

I love maps. I always have. Part of what got me hooked on gaming as a youth was the maps from RPG modules (D&D, Top Secret, Boot Hill, and Gangbusters). D&D even gave you charts of symbols to use in making your own maps. This later helped build my interest in architecture in high school.

Even today, some of my favorite games are those that have interesting maps – like Heroclix and Horrorclix and I still like drawing floorplans of my house. Especially when planning possible upgrades or even working out furniture layouts.

Next week, I'll post up my reminisces of RPGs. I was going to do it soon anyways, but with all the D & D in the air it just helped move it forward.

Daylight Savings Time

This is often attributed to Benjamin Franklin due to his 1784 satirical essay to the French “An Economical Project” about getting up earlier than noon and wasting all the prenoon hours of light. In truth, or at least according to wiki, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time, it is really the fault of William Willett who came up with the idea in 1905 and put forth as a proposal in 1907. William was one of those early rising people and thought people were squandering the early light. It was adopted by Germany in WWI and most of Europe soon followed suit. Thus we have “spring forward and fall back” burned into our brains and have had to suffer through this.

Lately, they have taken to starting it earlier and ending it later. They used to claim that it would save energy and in the pre-electric time this might have been true but current studies of the effect have shown no appreciable energy savings. This change has also been repeatedly shown to cause problems for many people for several weeks as they readjust their circadian rhythms to the new schedule twice a year.

As nice as the idea seems, having the sun set after 10pm during the summer makes it a lot harder to get to sleep when it’s still bright out – not to mention trying to put kids down. Plus, for the one drive-in that we still have, it would be better for business if they could start their movies before 11pm.

Once again I say that we should follow the forethought show by our neighbors to the west and abolish Daylight Savings Time. Instead, we have followed lockstep with our neighbors to the south as they not only maintain it, but have now extended it.

Let those keeners who want to take advantage of longer daylight hours get themselves up earlier in the morning instead of trying to push their beliefs on the rest of us.

SMILES - FREE

In case you haven’t noticed yet, Shamrock Shakes are back at McDonalds for a limited time. They’ve been there since February 26. I picked up one on the way home yesterday to have with supper - and to share with the family too, of course.
If you’ve been missing the touch of the Irish on your tastebuds, be sure to head on down and pick up one before they disappear. After they go, you can still make one at home using this recipe:
http://davidkwd.blogspot.com/2007/05/shamrock-shakes.html

Interesting note, according to their website, McDonalds doesn’t list any milk or ice cream directly in their shakes. They do list glucose syrup, water, and potassium sorbate though.
http://www.mcdonalds.ca/pdfs/IngredientFactsEN.pdf