A Land of Ice

So, my wife and I have made plans to go see Sherlock Holmes today...the first film we'll have seen in a theater together since before our son was born. We've tried arranging this before during the last two-three months but something always came up...my mom (who will be babysitting) was sick, or Diego was sick, or my wife was sick, or I was sick...or we were in Mexico, or Montana, or the Dominican Republic, or Bellevue for some child's birthday party...whatever. Something.

But today we are going (even though I am still a bit under the weather...a lingering cough and a sprained back). We're dropping off the baby with my Mom in Shoreline (north Seattle) and heading for Mountlake Terrace to the Cinnebar (no relation to the RPG), where you can watch entertaining fare while drinking Guinness and consuming cheesesteak sammies in a plush movie-going experience.

And as I look out my window at the swiftly piling snow on my back deck (about half an inch at the moment) I find myself thinking:

Ah, crap.

'Cause it's a weekend and there are no salt trucks out today and I live in the city limits proper where the snow is always a lot lighter than Shoreline and north King County. And it's a long-established fact that people in Seattle (especially the Californian transplants) canNOT drive in snow, no matter whether they're driving their eco-hating SUVs or their 4-wheel drive Subarus. Yes, they think they can, but they really can't. It's like being in a rally car race with a bunch of drunks out there.

Ugh.

So that's the news on the local "land of ice;" on the fictional LAND OF ICE I have another section of the monsters chapter to post, which should go up this afternoon/evening (probably while watching the Broncos-Pats game). As I write the supplement (which, by the way, I'M enjoying immensely), I've gone even deeper into my deconstruction of D&D.

Specifically I was up till close to 2am last night going over the treasure tables and comparisons between OD&D, AD&D, and B/X. There's a lot of food for thought...or at least interest issues...that get raised when reviewing these, especially interesting (to me) in light of the wholesale changes to how treasure is disbursed in the later 3rd edition. Enough for a whole post of its own.

[that's not meant as a teaser, I'm just stating a fact...there's too many things to break down and analyze there to do it justice in a couple paragraphs]

I no longer own any 2nd edition books, and I don't remember how treasure was handled in that version...probably with tables very similar but slightly changed from AD&D 1e. It's interesting that ALL the treasure tables I looked at featured at least some differences. It is clear (to me) that random treasure placement was, at best, an "inexact science," and one that was constantly being tweaked by the TSR Powers That Be.

For Land of Ice, I will also be "tweaking" the treasure tables...especially consider there's no electrum and platinum coinage in the campaign setting.

Ugh! The snow continues to fall! My wife just came downstairs and announced we will NOT be going to the movies! She said, "I'm not driving in this weather with my son!" I said, hey, I'LL drive! She's not having any of it. Foiled again!

(*sigh*)

At least there's the NFL play-offs to watch.

***EDIT: The snow has melted and isn't supposed to start again till this evening. We are going to the movies...yay!!!***