Favorite Die/Dice

My favorite dice are the ones I currently use. I can't say they have been particularly lucky of late (especially my wizard's sad streak of seven consecutive 1s on hit point rolls between 2nd to 7th level), but hey, that's dice for ya!

Papa needs a new pair of Elven Boots!

And then there's some of my oldest dice, long since retired. Worn and faded d20s, and of course the always fun but hard to read crystal jobs. Plenty of memorable crits and fumbles in those, for sure.

 Oldies but goodies.

My rarest die has to be a large green marbled d6 I picked up during my stint at WoTC. It seems to be a GenCon giveaway from the 90s, so it sits on my shelf, looking good but not being used.

Shown with a standard d6 for scale reference.

And lastly is my set of 36 small d6s, still waiting to be employed in a WH40K game. They have been patiently waiting for over a decade, so what's another couple of years?

We serve Lion El'Jonson!

Favorite Game World

My selection is Faerun. As both a player and sometimes DM, I love the richness and depth of the Forgotten Realms. Nothing against Greyhawk, as it is always fun to see the famous names and locations when poring over the maps. And Rich Baker's Birthright campaign is cool in a quirky sort of way, although I mainly used it without delving into the whole Domain and Regency aspects.

If I can generate a campaign from scratch before I die, that would be awesome. The follow-through is the stumbling block for me, but stranger things have happened.

I would be terribly remiss if I did not mention Beloterra, my favorite homebrew world created by Ned, our longtime DM. The hand-drawn maps are wonderful, and it's fun just to break them out and look them over once in a blue moon. And when you consider it was populated by AD&D modules, Judges Guild adventures, some Harn, and of course Ned's own creations, it was a world never short on things to do.

Favorite Playable Class

Oh crap, how am I supposed to pick just one??? Looking back over the past 35 years, it's pretty safe to say that I seem to gravitate towards fighters. The brave, stalwart warrior wading into combat, sword flashing, bellowing battle-cries and all that heroic stuff. Hoo-ah!

One of my most memorable hackers was my first Cavalier. It was thanks to his many "look-at-me-I-can-still-function-at-negative-hit-point-levels" escapades that prompted our DM to make one of his more noteworthy nerfs in our gaming history. Still, it saved our bacon on more than one occasion. And he entered a jousting tournament one time, and made it to the final battle for all the marbles, where I promptly rolled back-to-back crits on the trusty d20 and won the day. Good times.

After a couple of years in our 3.5 FR campaign, I need to say this about the non-fighters in our party:

Rogue - the rogue is a freaking DPS machine in combat (assuming he can get into sneak attack position on a consistent basis), as well as the usual trap-finding sneaky-sneak kind of fellow rogues are supposed to be.

Cleric - I love our crusty little dwarf cleric! He is tough (AC and HPs right up there with fighters), his shield other spell is money, and he can dish out the pain, mostly via spell. Oh, and there's that healing business too. Medic!

Wizard - Garrity (my wizard) is the first wizard I have advanced into double-digit levels. I must say, I am totally digging it! Although the fighter in me is not happy with how soft and squishy the wizard can be. Just sayin'...

UPDATE: I had to dig through my archives, but it was worth it! Here's some additional character selection data, along with how the tournament mentioned above really went down:

(roughly sorted in chronological order, newest to oldest)
Wizard 13th (my active character)
Wizard/Fighter 8th/1st
Paladin 9th
Cleric 9th
Cleric 9th
Fighter/Illusionist 8th/9th
Cleric 9th
Cavalier 11th
Ranger 5th
MU/Assassin 4th/5th
Cleric/Fighter 5th/5th
Fighter 4th
Paladin 5th
Elementalist 7th (homebrew class Ned and I worked up)
Fighter/Elementalist 6th/7th
Cavalier 5th
Cavalier/Paladin 6th
Ranger 15th
Fighter 8th
Cleric 9th
Fighter 13th
Fighter 19th

And going way, WAY back, a pair of my oldest characters:

Fighter 30th
Thief 25th

I might have to start a column where I go back and showcase my old dead/missing/retired characters. But I'll need to get a scanner first so you can actually see my old sheets.

3/26 (year unknown, sometime in the late 80s or thereabouts)
"Lehrin (my cavalier) enters Jousting Tournament - and on not one, not two, but THREE consecutive crits, he defeats his first three opponents. The fourth & final is vanquished in two passes, and the Arch-Duke of Lankhmar presents him with the Tournament Trophy."

Also noted on the same day is the unfortunate passing of our party's housekeeper at the hands of one of our antagonists:

"Jimmy the Houseboy slain by the nefarious Drow Assassin Ny'Oreen Eragdazz."

D&D 30 Day Challenge

I have been terrible about my blogging this year. Plenty of good intentions, but very little follow-through. So today I stopped by Swords & Dorkery and saw the D&D 30 Day Challenge and decided it is just what I needed to light a fire under my ass. Today's post is a combo - Day 1 and Day 2, and then hopefully I will keep pace with the challenge the rest of the month.

How I Got Started

Hard to pin down exactly what year it was, but I know for sure I was playing in 6th grade, so right around 77 or 78. My brother had taught me chess, Avalon Hill board games, things like that. Then D&D came home one day. I had the Holmes Blue Box, and my brother had the AD&D hardbacks. Mikey taught me how to play, and we had plenty of 1-on-1 sessions with Mikey DMing and me playing.

I played with some elementary school and junior high classmates too, and we had hours of fun playing all sorts of characters through various adventures: White Plume Mountain, Survival of the Fittest, and many others. Sure, at times things took a Monty Haul turn, but we were kids! And then one fateful night I was invited to play with Mikey's friends (we went through a very long and memorable session in Tegel Manor), and I met some guys who I would game with from that day on, right up to present day. We joke about opening the first Old Gamers Home for elderly gamers, complete with large-font rulebooks so we can continue to play well into our golden years.

Since Mikey was very restless, cerebral, and always looking for another challenge, I was fortunate enough to try other systems too - Runequest, Tunnels & Trolls, Top Secret, and possibly one or two others. But D&D has always been and will always be my game of choice.

Favorite Playable Race

I am going to go with humans, although you wouldn't know it from my last couple of choices (current character is a 13th level sun elf wizard, previous character was an 8th or 9th level gnome cleric). I enjoy their all-around versatility and adaptability.

When Men Were Men And Tanks Were Lead

I recently picked up 10 blisters of Heritage Panzertroops, and they arrived in the mail the other day. Have I previously mentioned that I really like these little war machines? They were sitting around in someone's garage, and it shows - most of the cards were beat to hell and back, the blisters in rough shape, and the foam in the blisters had long since petrified and now easily crumbles. Still, the models are in pristine condition and none the worse for wear after 30 years, give or take a few. It is a mixed lot of American, British, and German models and quite armor-heavy (9 of the 10 blisters are AFVs). They are as follows:

 The usual suspects, rounded up for viewing.

American
1x M5A1 Stuart Light Tank (2 models)
2x M3 Grant Medium Tank
1x M47 Patton II Medium Tank

Stuart - small and boxy.

 Grant - 75mm not in place.

 Patton - 90mm goodness.

I'm curious why they included the M47 and other post-WWII tanks in their lineup - most of the vehicles are WWII, but perhaps they thought gamers would want to play Korean War battles with the late-model US and Russian tanks?

British
1x Daimler I Armored Car (2 models)
1x Matilda II Infantry Tank
2x Crusader II Cruiser Tank

 Daimler - not so boxy.

Humber - boxy personified.

Matilda - Queen of the Desert.

 Crusader - Cruiser tank.

German
1x Sd.Kfz. 251 Half-Track
1x Infantry Assaulting

 Sd.Kfz. 251 - MGs included but not yet mounted.

This purchase expands my overall Panzertroops inventory quite a bit. Previously, I only had a Humber II (read about that one here), two M29 Weasels, the Infantry Assault boxed set, and some loose troops on foot. I suppose if I painted up the Stuarts and Grants in British 7th Armoured Division livery, I could have a decent 8th Army force. Hmm, what to do, what to do.

 Patton with ruler.

And I thought they were quite a good deal at just a bit under $4.30 per blister (price + shipping factored in). To compare that to Flames of War models, it looks like those retail for $12.50 each, so even if you can find them on sale for half price, you would still be paying more. Maybe that's apples and oranges, but I'm always looking at the bottom line on my expenditures. Still, it would be nice to compare the two brands side-by-side. But that's going to happen because the last thing I need to do is start collecting FoW!

Hrugnir and Cumulus

Earlier today, an auction ended with a final price of $224.50. Included in the lot were a pair of DragonTooth giants and a much smaller troll or ogre that looks like it could have been from Minot, Minifigs, Essex, or something along those lines.

The DT giants were two that I would consider rare, and they would be Hrugnir and Cumulus The Storm Giant. Cumulus looks like a truly massive hunk of lead, and I'm wondering if his wooden lightning bolt is OEM or did someone else fashion a wooden replacement? I guess I should ask over on the DT Yahoo! group.

The last time I saw a copy of Hrugnir, it was just over a year ago and it sold for $120, so it looks like both of these giants command $100+ when they hit the market. I threw in a last-second bid but it was like trying to attack a polar bear with a pocket knife - futile.

So congrats to the new owner! I hope they have found a place of honor in your collection.

Star Wars, GW-style?

The 30mm Star Wars minis produced by Knight Models are really nice. Really, REALLY nice, in my opinion. I've been keeping an eye out for them, trying to pick them up on the cheap, but that is no easy task. I would one day like to have a complete set, so it looks like I've just given myself another collecting goal.

But what prompted this post was a hypothetical question: If someone produced a line of Star Wars miniatures that were multi-piece models (think 40K Space Marines), would that interest you? Would you buy them? I think it would be cool to assemble a squad of Stormtroopers in various poses with an assortment of weapons. Ooh, and Sandtroopers! How about some nasty Tusken Raiders? You see what I'm getting at here.

I seriously doubt this would ever happen, but a boy can wish. But come on, who wouldn't want to create their own custom Ewok war band?