Month: March 2024

Gary Con 2024 Post-Mortem #TTRPG #RPG #DnD #ADnD #GaryCon #StarTrek #DelveRPG @GaryCon @DelveRPG

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My thoughts on Gary Con will be brief. I doubt I’ll return. This isn’t a criticism of the con anymore than a non-football fan not liking a football game is a criticism of how good of a job the NFL is doing. It’s simply something that doesn’t appeal to me. I know a few industry insiders — two were my roommates — which means I’m within a degree of separation of almost all of the legacy ones. For me, the highlight of the trip was talking about the past, present, and future of the industry with Stephen Radney-MacFarland, James Lowder, and Dave Christ. The direct topic is interesting to me, but even more, this conversation inevitability leads to a back-and-forth on intellectual property law (usually copyrights). So, yeah; I’m in for that. Other highlights are conversations with Stephen and Jason Dandy (a non-industry friend) and with Jason and his friend, Mark, on sociopolitical issues. These guys think very differently than I do on most issues, but we engage in a form of constructive dialogue that’s very rare today. I even discussed abortion and Citizen’s United with no fear of generating anger from any of them.

But I can do all of that over Zoom. I don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on airfare, lodging, a convention badge, and grossly overpriced convention food to have these conversations. One could say the same thing about Winter Fantasy, but that’s a different animal. Just eyeballing it, I’d say I know about 50% of the people that attend, and when I’m not hanging out with them, I’m relaxing. It’s a genuinely relaxing vacation. The food is good, and the whole trip is just an awesome ritual. While Gary Con could become the same thing for me, I don’t need two of them. Winter Fantasy is enough.

YMMV

I hope it’s clear that I’m not saying I didn’t have a good time, and it’s certainly not to say that you wouldn’t. It’s a small-ish con, which is what I like about Winter Fantasy. I went with a mission to get to play (as opposed to DM) 1st Edition AD&D, and I played in three such games. I actually got to play the Dragon #56 bard in two of them. How many people can say they’ve done that? I got to play Stephen’s Delve game that uses a few mechanics that Vic and I added to our 4th Edition D&D game (e.g., “gang-up”), so I liked that. I got to finally make use of my Star Trek Adventures purchase by playing that game (granted, mere months before it’s rendered somewhat obsolete by its second edition). The only objective criticism I have is that there were too many tables in the rooms, which made it very difficult to hear your own DM/GM/judge, and I’m not alone in expressing that concern.

I saw only one celebrity (Pat Kilbane formerly of MadTV, with whom I spoke briefly), but I wasn’t looking for them. If that’s your thing, you may run into them for a selfie. The con was fairly easy to navigate, and I had no administrative difficulties at all.

All of this was good, but now that I’ve been there and done that, there’s no need to go back. I’m quite happy to have left Saturday so that I have all day Sunday to recover, and I return with added appreciation for both Winter Fantasy and my home gaming group. I don’t need this to be a regular thing, or even a sporadic thing, but if you’re a gamer, especially with an appreciation for its history, this is as good a con as any to attend.

Just expect to be inundated with some silliness. Every attendee got one of these.

I don’t think Luke knows what “personal” means.

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Just Another Voice in the Choir: RIP James Ward #RPG #TTRPG #DnD #ADnD #gaming #RIP #JamesWard

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When I started running 1st Edition D&D again two years ago (first time in 40 years), I gathered and took an inventory of my 1st Edition material, and then went on a spending spree. Then I went on another. About a year ago, I somehow made a purchase that blew my mind. It’s a mint condition (you read that right) Wilderness Survival Guide by Kim Mohan but signed by James Ward. It was such an unbelievable haul that I had to contact James, before I even received it, to make sure the signature was legit. James verified his signature for me. (I’m sure many of you have even better stories of James, but that’s mine.)

Shortly thereafter, Kim died. Yesterday, the community lost James. I didn’t know James, but he shaped my childhood. Of note, I didn’t study mythology because I played 1st Edition; I played 1st Edition because I was already a mythology buff, and that drew me to the game. You can imagine how much I loved Deities & Demigods when I was a kid. When I returned to D&D after 23 years away, it was for the tail end of 3.5 Edition, and despite that edition’s Deities & Demigods being even less useful than the original, it was still my favorite book. He also wrote the “zeroth” edition D&D sourcebook Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (which I never used), and the TTRPG Metamorphosis Alpha (which I played once). That’s just to name a couple.

James is just the latest entry in a long list of TTRPG gaming legends we’ve lost, but as I didn’t know any of them personally, everything they’ve ever meant to me will exist for me as long as I do. No one can take that from me. But last month, I lost yet another family member in a long list of ones that meant a lot to me, so I get that I’m not the one grieving today. There’s a piece missing from each of their family members and friends, and I get the impression James had many. It’s hard to find a picture of the guy by himself. He seems always to be hanging out with someone, shaking hands, etc.

My condolences to all who’ve lost something so significant yesterday.

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Operation: Cat Aquisition #cat #pet #Caturday #PetSmart @PetSmart

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Yes, this is a day late for Caturday. Sue me.

I received my $7,320 tax refund that resulted from my Tesla purchase, and while I’m going to roll most of it back into the car, I had two recreational purchases I knew I was going to be making with those funds. The first was a treadmill, which wound up costing me only $5. The other is a kitten (or maybe two), which I can’t get until early April because of an upcoming vacation this week. While I’m eager to get the cat(s), I want my house cat-proof (to the extent that’s possible) and cat-friendly before then, so I can wait.

Phase 1

Simple enough, right? Well, it’s got a stupid story associated with it. I went into my local PetSmart in South Riding, VA. I need help figuring out what I need. As Carl Sagan would say, I’m facing the unknown unknowns, i.e., I don’t necessarily know what I should ask for. No one was available to help me, and no one seemed to care, so I just bought something that I knew I needed and left. But hey, it was a Sunday. That wouldn’t happen on a weekday, would it? So I went in on a Wednesday.

Crickets.

So, while I’m in the PetSmart, I’m surfing Amazon for information and better pricing, and guess what? I found an automated litter box on Amazon that uses ordinary litter for about 54% the cost of the equivalent model at PetSmart. So, . . .

Phase 2

I bought this via Amazon, and walked out of PetSmart without buying anything. Bad for business, eh? Anyway, the idea is to buy two litter boxes, one for upstairs and the other for downstairs. I’ll need to buy a manual one if my kitten(s) is(are) as young as I want, but that allows me to test this guy to see if it’s any good. If it is, I’ll buy a second one when the cat(s) get(s) older. Otherwise, this will be the secondary one, and I’ll spend the extra 46% for the PetSmart one. But maybe not buy it from PetSmart. They’re very unhelpful.

Phase 3

While I was surfing for automated litter boxes, I also found this.

I define this as a five-level cat tree. By that definition, PetSmart had only two- or three-level cat trees, none of which had scratching posts. Nevertheless, PetSmart‘s trees cost as much as this one did. Granted, you take your chances not being able to verify the integrity of the structure, but this paid off. The “carpeting” is really soft, and the scratching posts seem durable. Moreover, I wouldn’t quite call this “dark grey,” and that works. It’s almost the same color as my carpet, which is a greyish blue, and not particularly dark.

So, I need letter, cat food, and another litter box. I also need to get things off of shelves that are easily knocked over. What am I forgetting?

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Happy March 10 #Nintendo #Mario

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Happy March 10, everyone. Mine won’t be so happy. I have a memorial service today starting as this post is published.

Life, laughs, and fun must always go on.

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