Star Wars

So I used to play the West End Star Wars game. It was a bit different than normal games of Dungeons and Dragons that I've had (if you could call those normal). Because of the game mechanics, I had bought a plastic case of all small 6-sided red dice - there were probably about 45 dice in all - and we called it the brick. Now, I made a childhood promise to the guy that worked at Gamer's (the game store) about never losing my dice. Maybe it didn't seem very important for anyone else, but this stuck in my memory. Possessions are very dear to me, both in game on character and things I physically own such as the dice. Out of everyone in the group, I was the one who cared the most about these things. I worshipped them secretly. On my desk I would have all my dice lined up in their original plastic cases, in order. You may remember my previous story about how I obtained my first set of sky-blue dice. Hold that as a reference point now for what you are reading.

We never spelled it out, but the rules of our group concerning dice were that whenever dice were left behind, they became the property of the person who lived at that location. I'm not the kind of person who would forget to pack up my dice - I always kept an eye on where mine were on the table - but once in a while I would notice that a few were missing from my set, so I would take a look through my friend's dice pouch (That's right. A pouch. All the dice thrown together in one place without regard to keeping the ones of a set together. Ridiculous.) and find a few that I knew were mine. This was a very difficult decision whether to take them back though. I summoned all my ethical skills that I had as a child and in the end found myself unable to reclaim the dice which were mine, even though I fully believe they were stolen from me.

To get my dice back, I would be going against the rules of our group.

I could not do it. It would have been traumatic for my young mind. Behaving with such disregard for rules and laws out of the game just could not be done because of all the illegal activities going on in the game. As you know, there are only two things in the Star Wars universe: Storm Troopers and Crime Bosses. Nobody wants to actually be a Storm Trooper, only obtain their armor which outclasses bounty hunter blast vests. So the only thing you're going to be doing in Star Wars is working for Crime Bosses to get credits to pay off those absolutely ridiculous black market fees. It was tough, but the only way do go.

I never saw that guy at Gamer's again. It might have been related to me never again entering the store, but I failed to keep my promise. My dice are gone.

Hi, atus!

My energy can be better spent elsewhere right now, so until further notice, my two readers, I will not be updating The Dungeon Blogger's Guide.

People-Food Dynamics

I was going to head over to a friend's for a game of Dungeons and Dragons. It was probably 3rd edition, I don't really remember. I don't think it matters though anyway for this story. Usually during a game, the host has a bunch of snacks ready for us to eat while we play, such as a bag of chips sitting out, or soda in the fridge. Well, I decided that it would be a good idea to bring over a food item this time. Cake is good; everybody likes cake, so that's what I made. I followed some recipe from a cooking book. This isn't about cooking food though, so I'll cut to the end of the story: the cake had a ton of butter in it, and for better or worse, the cake was the highlight of the day.

I don't know if this whole food thing whole food thing is actually a good idea or not. Depending on the type of food, it may serve as a great a distraction from the actual game. Of course, this all depends on how seriously the game you're running is being taken. If it's the type that's laid back, the game is just an excuse for meeting up with friends, it's completely fine since distractions are fairly common, such as conversations leading to tangents that have little to nothing to do with the game. For a serious game that's fun value comes from the mood it creates, a minimally distracting food would probably be best, and as players become engrossed it will become unnecessary.

When the game is being conducted over the internet, the food situation takes a different form. You can enforce a rule that all participants individually must have a specific food item prepared. This will result in a great success for a few reasons: food tastes good for those that have it. the promise of food will help with getting people to sign down to a specific time to play, you don't have to actually have food for other people, and people that are embarrassed that they don't have the food won't admit it; they'll just pretend they're eating food and no one else will have to know about it.

4th Edition: Unit Combat

I've put together what I think is a pretty good looking PDF that uses 4th Edition swarm-monster design for making swarms of humanoids - combat units! It should be similar enough to 4E that it doesn't distract from gameplay or feel like a separate system, but interesting enough to give large-scale conflict an interesting flavor when it comes up. Enjoy!