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Happy Tax Day, US Citizens

Fortunately you have until tomorrow to get your taxes posted, I think. Anyway.

But on the good news tip, Mrs. TheDungeonDelver is expecting again - I know, I know, hold your applause. I'm registered at Reaper Miniatures, DwarvenForge.com and Noble Knight Games. What? I can't register too? Dang. Okay, the baby is registered there, happy?

Convention season is coming up and I'm looking forward to half of it. Firstly the local con, RECON, sponsored by HMGS-South happens in a month. I'm running S1 in a big Dwarven Forge setup. That's going to be more of a hassle than it's worth, I fear. But I'll do it just the same. Still, it's weird that I picked that particular module to run as there is very little of it that it combat oriented. But for a classic that can get done in an eight hour (well, two four-hour) sessions, I think it was my best choice. Some folks can get through G1 STEADING OF THE HILL GIANT CHIEF in that long; I can't.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, looking forward to things or not as the case may be. I don't think I've done a very good job At All coordinating any kind of game masters for this coming con. My usual gang of independant folks (guys not affiliated with HMGS or with the Lakeland Role Playing Group) is, uh, a total of about four people and two of them are out this time 'round. So counting me? Three GMs.

May be time to have a come-to-Jesus with the powers that be at HMGS-South.

To be brutally honest though, I've had a lot, I mean a LOT on my mind in preparation for this. Firstly, my dad's health has been up and down over the last six months and that's put me less in the mood to worry about running a convention than you might imagine. Secondly, I've been working my butt off writing for Gary Gygax's Trigee Enterprises (the organ responsible for the forthcoming Greyhawk nee Yggsburgh books from Troll Lord Games. Thirdly, the prospect of coming attractions has put me in a "take care of things 'round the house" mode more than a "beat the drum for more GMs" mode.

So we shall see. Yes.

The Wisconsin trip, however. Ah, Wisconsin. What's that you say? "Yes, but I got the shit kicked out of me in Wisconsin?" Too bad for you, Egon! Wisconsin and its lake of Geneva calls out to my geeky sensibilities and asks me to come and spend a while. Recent boons and advantages and windfalls have lead Team Silvey to the inescapable embrace of that azure water by the verdant green fields of southern Cheeseheadland again.

The initial plan was to rent a vehicle and drive up. Then we came to our senses and decided no, that was ... what's the word I'm looking for...insane? Yes, insane. So we'll be flying up to Milwaukee, driving out to Lake Geneva and spending a few days gaming and relaxing. Then back to sunny FL and the downhill run to baby #2! Woo!

I've been putting in a lot of time in my weekly and bi-weekly AD&D games. I'm enjoying the hell out of them. The bi-weekly has veered towards the inevitable showdown with Nosnra and company in G1 (eventually), while the folks in the weekly game draw closer to Markessa and her nefarious schemes in A2. While neither party will ever know of it I'm running the games in the same "World of Greyhawk" timeline; things that go on in one campaign may have repercussions in another. I've always wanted to do that, so here's my chance!

Miniatures-wise, I sadly have had little time to devote to honing my skills. The last time I gave it a go I found out that non-metallic metals SUCK. Or at least I suck at trying to make them. Besides, I've got some lovely metallics I need to use; who needs that stuff? no thanks, I'll take the real deal.

As always I have about fifty cannonballs' worth of lead unpainted; maybe someday I'll actually have a complete set of painted miniatures.

Speaking of painted minis though, two things merit mentioning. Firstly there's a guy who posts over at Dragonsfoot as "Otherworld" who has some absolutely positively AMAZING giant sculpts - these things are the living, breathing giants from the MONSTER MANUAL, folks. The real deal. The scale is right and the sculpts are near perfect. I can't wait to order a few! He's in the UK but his shipping rates seem fair. I'm told someone is reviewing them for wargames@nordalia, so keep an eye on that august site for that review.

As I may have mentioned before, Reaper is planning on releasing pre-painted plastic minis. I'm holding my opinion until I can hold the minis; in a wait-and-see mode. Frankly I want METAL. METAL METAL METAL. I was ready to get my internet infuriated geek on about the prepaints but some introspection and words provided by the folks at Reaper talked me off of the belltower and got the rifle out of my hand (so to speak).

Well, it's about 3:00 AM here so I'm going to put this 'blog away for now...more tomorrow. Err...later today.

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Noonish on Sunday, rain and sunshine alternating. Welcome to Florida!


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Wow that was a much longer pause than I had intended. Let me cut to the chase here: if you're not up on it, please go to gamegrene dot com, well, hell go here: http://www.gamegrene.com/node/790

See that? Look, I don't care about your opinion of the war in Iraq, whether you think it's the best thing we've ever done or the worst; I'm not in to political 'blogs. Reality being what it is, it'd be a great show of support if y'all would consider donating to the cause.

Phew!

Anyway. Oh yes, I finally put the Newtown ms to bed, now on to the next. Just completed Newtown, now on to Teeth of the Barkash Nour (for those of you reading from the Dungeon Master's Guide, that's "Teeth of the Dalhver Nar"). THAT one is going to be a lot of fun. Working from Gary's original notes, I'll be penning a module covering a quest for the fabled Teeth. Look for it on store shelves! (The book, not the teeth.)

Well I'm going to wrap this one up before I find myself having to stick an inexplicable break in here. So go forth and get thy game on.

Screw you, FrontPage 2000 - I'm adding Journalmajig to your Dictionary.  It's a valid word now, bitch! AHAHAHAHAHA!  What?  What?  Can't I enjoy a triumph over technology?

Anyway, sorry for the dearth of updates over the intervening months.  Delver the Elder (my dad, whom I am not entirely certain would appreciate the nom de jour of "Delver the Elder") was in need of some assistance and things in general have just been up in the air since then. 

I recently grabbed a copy of the Gold Box SSI AD&D games; you know the ones, the ones where you had the horrible code wheel thing to sort out and a password to enter, and so on?  Yes, those.  Anyway, I was giving them a whirl for a bit and man I'd forgotten how true to AD&D the combat system in those games is.  More or less.  Plus all of the little things: custom "painted" (and even sculpted!) miniatures, the animated copies of Trampier's and Sutherland's Monster Manual illos...  What a great bunch of games.

If I had even the most rudimentary programming skills I'd work on modernized versions with better graphics (sorry - I'm not a DOS nostalgia buff at all), sound and the like and give it to the community.  Alas, I have no such abilities.  Moreover we'll never see such a beast at any rate.  WotC has their precious, precious IP to consider and even if someone paid them for the privilege they wouldn't release an AD&D 1st edition computer game.  You see, the 3.5 (ugh, that god damned numerical designation) brand is so strong and it's so much of what people want to play that it can't stand competition from previous versions of the game and -

Wait, no, let me start over.  What they mean is that older versions of D&D are too competitive against the 3.5 brand which is so superior that competition from the older versions would m... 

Hang on.  I'll think about it for a while.  I'm sure I'll get it right sooner or later.  Or WotC will.  Or not.  But leave us let this alone lest this here blog become an editorial.

I finally saw the second D&D movie, Wrath of the Dragon God.  Compared to the stinkburger that is the first D&D movie, it was pleasantly not entirely unwatchable.  I must admit I had to smile at all of the Greyhawk references.  Thank you for not sucking as much as the first film, Wrath!

Speaking of things that suck...it seems that Reaper has decided to release plastic prepainted miniatures. At first I was dead set against the idea, but the good people at Reaper reassure me that as long as it is feasible to continue making metal miniatures those will come first.  My initial distress came from the shifting of focus in terms of man-hours, production time, and most importantly MONEY from the production of metal to plastic.  However, recent increases in efficiency (to the tune of some 200%, I'm told) at Reaper have left them with a cash surplus and rather than vote themselves immediately rich, they're focusing on a very neglected area: prepainted plastic minis that aren't random and don't require screwing with eBay to get.  This has made a lot of folks who prefer prepaints (despite the fact that you can get metal prepaints...but I digress) but hate the roulette wheel they're forced to spin by WotC very happy.

Heck I'll probably wind up buying a pack or two, who am I kidding?  I'm an unabashed whore for Reaper.  I love their stuff.

Speaking of stuff, big tip of the wizard's hat to my buddy Axel from Italy who helped me complete my Silver Anniversary boxed set!  You see, for my newer readers, back about four years ago I bought a copy of the TSR 25th Anniversary Set, a large box containing G1, G2, G3, S2, I6 and B2.  However, someone elected to put G2, G2, G3...etc. in my particular set.  So for years I was the proud owner of an incomplete set.  This is one of those instances where X-Ray Vision would once again have been handy (which just goes to show you how much of a nerd I am that I thought "The ability to see inside a box to determine whether or not it contained the PROPER D&D MODULES" first and not "I'll go hang out at the mall and sweep my gaze back and forth across the changing rooms in Victoria's Secret.")

Anyway, point being, good ol' Axel gave me a MINT condition G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief for the price of shipping him a US-Bidders-Only purchase from eBay (and he was very understanding when I didn't get it out as fast as I should have - thanks Axel!).  So now it's all good again.  Of course I still have my careworn copy handed down to me by Mike Stewart, too, so that's good as well.

Speaking of old stuff, I'm continuing to raid the local used bookstores for 1e items - I can't get enough!  Of course now I have a dozen copies of the Player's Handbook - more than enough to stock a table at a convention with. 

Oh and on the subject of gaming, yes, my campaigns (that's right, campaigns) are going well.  My Sunday group is pressing on to beleaguered Geoff in hopes of ridding them of a problem with Giants, and my Wednesday elite strike team of multi-role half-elves are kicking ass and taking names in the Slave Pits of the Undercity!

Well that's all for now, true believers.  I'll try to update this thing more often - and if you were a fan of the old 'blogs, then yes, I still have them handy and will repost them in a different place when I do the "big update" sometime in the near future.  And if you're not...I'll still do that.