Sometime in the past decade – probably about seven or eight years ago – WOTC decided to bring out miniature versions of various AD&D and D&D books. I picked up the three core books for AD&D 1st Edition. I kept them in my desk in grad school, apparently hoping for the spontaneous lunch session game… Continue reading Three *really* little books
Something of an unintended vacation took place over the past month. Between end-of-semester grading and then going to WisCon, I found myself for little time for the Old School Movement. It didn’t help matters that my weekly game on Monday afternoons had to shut down due to schedule changes for my players. But it’s June,… Continue reading I’m Back
“Hate” might be too strong a word here, but I have a difficult time seeing the appeal of gaming in someone’s – anyone’s – home. Before everybody goes bonkers over this, lemme explain. In an earlier post, I reminisced about different gaming clubs of my youth. One important fact about all of them was that… Continue reading I hate gaming at home
It’s a safe assumption that most gamers have heard of Wil Wheaton – you know, Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation? And you might have heard that he’s been running a D&D game, yes? In the crush of end-of-semester grading, combined with the passing of Dave Arneson, I managed to miss this (see… Continue reading Missing Out – Grr!
When I was much younger (like in my teens), I was an avid wargamer and role-player. One of the things that made this much easier for me was the existence of three different gaming clubs: the Conflict Simulation Association (CSA), the Fantasy Role-Playing Game Association (FRPGA – pronounced “ferp-gah”), and the 6th Precinct Wargaming Club.… Continue reading Gaming Clubs
Having just gotten back from Dave Arneson’s visitation and funeral, I hope you will forgive me if my mind wanders just a little. It was a decent funeral, and I was glad for having Michael and Jean Mornard there, as well as connecting with all sorts of old friends and making a few new ones.… Continue reading Remembering dead PCs
Castleby David Macaulay is supposedly for kids – but pretty much every gamer of any age I have ever known has a copy on their shelves. It’s a grand book full of marvelous illustrations, and what it does best is explain how and why castles were built the way they were. From the perspective of… Continue reading Castle by David Macaulay
I’m currently in Madison, Wisconsin for the weekend, and am getting ready to go to Minneapolis-St. Paul for Dave Arneson’s memorial on Monday. It’s pretty obvious to me now that Dave’s passing had a much bigger effect on me than I was initially willing to admit. That having been said, there have been a few… Continue reading Beginnings and Endings
There’s a side of world-building that comes up whenever you have clerics – so what sorts of holidays does their religion actually have? If you go about it fairly blithely, you end up with something that looks like a mix between the medieval Catholic list of Saints’ days and the solstice/equinox set-up from modern paganism.… Continue reading Easter, Ostara, and Holidays
I was asked on another forum to provide some thoughts about Dave Arneson and his participation in Prof. M.A.R. Barker’s world of Tekumel. I’ve decided to share those here, as well: Dave played irregularly with the Thursday Night Group, sometimes for a longer stretch when he lived in the Twin Cities, then for the occasional… Continue reading Dave Arneson and Tekumel
