The Not-At-GenCon Presentation Of The Dice

Last year, in Blogland people who weren't at the con posted pictures of their dice.  I'm not at the con this year either, so here's most* of the current collection:

I've added quite a few in the past twelve months, mostly due to picking up some bulk tubs from educational suppliers.


*Not Pictured: Ten black d10s with red numbering and a bag's worth of Adventure! d10s that I found after I took the photo and my Crystal Caste jade d10s, which seem to have gone missing.  Bother.

Even My Wife Said "Oooh, Pretty!"

I bought the AD&D reprints.  Yes, I still own my originals, though apart from the DMG, I didn't actually own the earlier printings.  My buddies and I were highly communal when it came to gaming books, and we'd often photocopy the sections of the books we needed, or even hand-copy passages.  As a result, I only owned a 1st printing DMG in high school, and then shortly afterwards, I discovered RuneQuest/BRP and didn't play a lick of D&D for another four or five years.  I finally purchased a full set of the books (the ones with the Easley covers) around xmas 1985, with my holiday bonus from work (I worked at a book store, so we got our bonus in the form of gift certificates.  Between them and my employee discount, I think I picked up one of every hardback they'd published up to that point.)

I'm very easy on books, so my AD&D hardbacks are still in excellent shape.  So, I really didn't need these.  But they're pretty (on the outside anyway; the insides are the same as ever, though printed on slick paper, which just feels weird), and I'm entirely supportive of efforts to memorialize the Big G. in the form of statuary, so I succumbed.

When I was checking out, the guy at the shop mentioned they were selling like hotcakes.  I made a joke about nostalgia being a powerful motivator, and he said that a number of folks he'd spoken to were buying them because they want to play 1e.  Looking at them, I kind of want to as well.

A Bucket of D6 & a Boot to the Head

Last night, I played Champions for the first time in three or four years.  Actually, in terms of playing and not GMing, it's probably the first time since 2007 or so (whenever Steve Long was a guest at Owlcon, and that was a one-shot).  It's definitely the first time I've played 6th edition.

I played the Black Dragon, a martial artist who is neither Asian, nor Black, but still seems to fit the exploitation hero role in the eyes of the rest of the team.  Which explains why he met up with the rest of the team at "Dim Sum & Den Some," a Chinese/Soul Food restaurant run by the ever bodacious Miss Honey Pai.  By that point, I decided to just roll with it.

Anyway, I rolled tons of dice, and kicked butt with Kung Fu and generally grooved on the slightly different vibe I found at the table.  There was more in-character bits of roleplaying than we usually get out of the Tuesday games.  Maybe it's the genre, or maybe it's just that the Hero System is a little more conducive to playing a character instead of an archetype.  I don't know, but I enjoyed the heck out of it.