The 12 Days of Gamer Christmas - Day Two

Gamers can be tough to shop for. I hope you will find at least one useful gift idea for the gamer in your life in this series of posts. Merry Chistmas!

Day Two - Gaming Mats

Many RPGs use miniatures for tactical situations and combats.A vinyl gaming mat is always a useful tool for a GM to thrown down and sketch out an encounter on. Chessex makes some of the best in my opinion. Most are double-sided with squares on one side and hexes on the other. They also come in a variety of sizes. Don't forget to throw in some overhead projector pens to use for drawing on the mat. Do NOT use dry erase markers or anything else.

The 12 Days of Gamer Christmas - Day One

Gamers can be hard to shop for. Over the next 12 days I will try to make gift suggestions that will hopefully please even the pickiest gamer on your list. Merry Christmas!

Day One - Dice

It goes without saying that almost ANY gamer can use dice. You can't go wrong by choosing a set from one of the original and best dice manufacturers - Gamescience. I am particularly fond of their 'gem' dice sets, but they have a fine selection of opaque and specialty dice as well. You can purchase them from your Friendly Local Game Store or online from Gamestation.net.

If you need more proof that Gamescience dice are the way to go, check out THIS link for a YouTube video of Colonel Lou Zocchi himself extolling their virtues.

Looks Like I Bought A Book With Stolen Art

I don't know for sure yet, but according to THIS thread on RPG.net, it looks like the PDF of the unofficial 6th Edition Tunnels and Trolls rulebook that I purchased from DriveThruRPG used a piece of art without the authorization of the artist.

Not only that, it looks like James Shipman and Outlaw Press have done this multiple times with other products. If this is true, this sucks and I am sorry that I supported them with my purchase. Uggh...

UPDATE: It looks like the offending books (including the one that I purchased) have been removed. I will take that as validation of the accusations...

Tunnels & Trolls 6th Edition

5th Edition Tunnels & Trolls is one of my guilty gaming pleasures. Even with all of its warts, the game still brings a smile to my face. Years ago, I undertook the task of 'fixing' some of the things that I didn't like about the game, including multiplying attributes for non-humans, using strength to power spells, etc. but I never finished.

Now I have stumbled across an unofficial Tunnels & Trolls 6th Edition of the game on Lulu that looks like it has done the work for me. Is anyone familiar with it? I want to know more before I burn $16.00...

New Castles & Crusades Books on DrivethruRPG

The latest printings of the Castles & Crusades Player's Handbook* and Monsters & Treasure* are now up on DriveThruRPG*. The editing, art and layout has come a long way IMHO since the first printings. I picked up both books in dead tree form at Gen Con this year and I am very pleased with them. You could run a very satisfying campaign with these books and nothing else (although getting the Castle Keeper's Guide eventually sure would be nice!).

I really think C&C has almost the perfect amount of rules detail for me. Not too light and not too heavy. If you are looking for a new-school fantasy RPG with lots of old-school flavor, I can't think of a better choice.

*Full Disclosure: These links include my Affiliate ID. I don't want anyone to think that I am trying to be sneaky!

Knockspell #3 Hits the Virtual Stands

Just picked up the PDF of Knockspell #3 from Black Blade Publishing. The content is pretty nifty for fans of the old-school stuff like me. Tim Kask has another cranky editorial. There is an OSRIC/1E treatment of the anti-paladin (Dragon #39 was the second issue I ever bought!). And there is lots more, including two adventures for Swords & Wizardry.

My complaints are minor. The BBP web store is pretty unintuitive. Some of the bookmarks in the PDF do not work. And the PDF itself seems to display kind of 'funky'* in my version of Adobe Reader.

*This is sort of hard to explain. The reader seems to show one complete page and then the margin of the next page. Even if I resize and/or zoom out or in, the effect doesn't go away.

Horror at Dagger Rock

Paizo Publishing has posted a FREE module entitled Horror at Dagger Rock and, while it is designed for the Pathfinder RPG, it is dripping with lots of old-school style. I have only had a chance to have a cursory look at it but it seems to have a lot to offer; a fully populated village, rumors, various random encounters and a fairly extensive dungeon.

Ever since I read early modules like N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God and T1: Village of Hommlet, I have been of the opinion that the 'village and nearby dungeon' make for an excellent way to start a fantasy campaign. Download it and have a look.