Sniff Sniff...Smells Like Dice. A Whole Lotta Dice

So, this arrived today:

After my initial test of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, I decided it wouldn't hurt to have a lot more dice.  But dice are kind of pricey, at least if you go through normal gamer channels.  But, as it turns out, there is an alternative source for dice in bulk.

Teachers' Suppliers.

Turns out, polyhedral dice are still marketed as educational tools.  And, as long as you don't care about aesthetics, you can get a bag of sixty (60) dice for under twenty five bucks with shipping.  That's ten complete sets.  Here's how they looked when I aired them out.

Anyway, if you need a bunch of dice, either for your game system of choice for loaner sets or whatever, this seems like an excellent inexpensive option.  Here's a link to the set on the vendor's, EAI Education, webpage.

Pretty Snazzy

So, one of those games I've always regretted not really grokking is Exalted.  On the surface, it's got a lot of things I should totally get into: crazy martial arts, over the top heroes, ancient vistas, mythic resonance.  But the rules have always gotten in the way of my good time.

As it turns out, what I think I really needed was a good tutorial.  Someone who knew how to play the game to show me what to do.  And, lo and behold, that someone has arrived.  Behold: Exalted: Becoming - A Tutorial, an absolutely fantastic web-based solo adventure that takes you through every par of the game.  You can even save it and return later.  So far, my character has investigated a ruined temple, sparred with her Sifu, and killed some soldiers who were busting up her ex-wife's tavern.  Also, she just Exalted, so shit's about to get really, real.

Anyway, this is a fantastic resource, and a lot of fun to play.  All the dice rolls are generated by the page, but shown so you can see what's going on.

In short, it's great, and I think I'm actually beginning to understand how the game's supposed to be played.

Currently Playing

Time for a sporadic update from the wilderness, if only to discuss what I'm actually doing, gaming-wise.

Our Tuesday group has had some schedule disruptions lately, but we're still plugging away on the Pathfinder "Dawn of the Temple of Elemental Evil" campaign.  At present, we're clearing out a nasty undead infestation in Ostwerk.  To be honest, I've kind of lost the plot a bit in this game.  I never really meshed with my second character, Sir Bors, after Einar died.  A few sessions back, I realized I was spending most of the game surfing the net on my laptop, which housed Bors' character data (via HeroLab).  To try to counter this, I moved all of the info over to a hand-written character sheet.  It seems to have helped a bit.

Our Sunday group is on a brief hiatus from 4e.  A few weeks ago, we completed the Heroic Tier in grand fashion and are preparing for new quests in a completely different part of the world.  I've decided to retire my bard, Pseudolus, in favor of Rashid, "The Laughing Blade," an El-Adrin Swordmage (El-Adrin, of course, are Eladrin, but with an Arabian Knights vibe).  But that's a few sessions off still. 

In the meantime, we're playing Spirit of the Century, under the GMing auspices of Jess, who has a sourcebook for the game coming out at some point in the not-too-distant future.  His book is on international pulps and "non-standard," (read: not white and male) pulp heroes from the period.  For this game, he put together a bunch of actual examples of "non-standard" pulp characters for us to choose from, ranging from Rin-Tin-Tin to Myrna Loy (Yes, the actress.  Turns out there was a series of mystery pulps that featured her as a character) to Ragaboush (an Algerian con artist).  I'm playing "The White Rose," meek and mild Chinese schoolgirl by day, asskicking Wuxia by night.  Other members of the group include the aforementioned Rin-Tin-Tin, Chick Carter (the son of Nick Carter), The Laughing Monk, and Anton Weird - Diviner of Destinies.  Last night was the first session (and the first time most of the group had played FATE) and it came off pretty well, if only to see Rin-Tin-Tin heroically piloting a zeppelin to safety.

Next up for the Tuesday game is Champions.  I'll be reviving Lodestone, an old character of mine I actually stuck in "Sins of the Past."  He's a two-fisted archaeologist who wields a mystical rod capped with the Shining Trapezohedron.  It should be fun.

On the GMing front, I'm still fairly stymied.  Between my own schedule, the schedules of likely players, and my scattershot interests, I really haven't figured out what or when I'm going to run another game.  I'm keen on doing something Urban Fantasy or Horror, but settling on a system, a setting, and everything else remains elusive at this point.  Maybe things will settle down a bit in May.