Downtown

So, I probably failed to mention that I will be working out of my downtown office for the next four weeks...which means readjusting to my prior posting life (which I seem to recall was fairly nice, given that I could use local free wireless service for my own laptop, rather than relying on the weirdness and availability of the local library).

On the other hand, the reason I'm down here at all is to help out our office, which means I've got a bit higher workload (and thus less-than-normal "free" time) than normal.

Just letting folks know.

Oh, yeah...and I'm starting to coalesce my own version of Dungeons & Dragons (if coalesce is the right word...um, well...). Something I'm having a bit of a tough time with is the whole idea of "theme;" by which I mean, it's hard not to make "one's own version" of D&D "themed to taste" (as in giving it a hard-and-fast concept as opposed to making it generic).

I'm not sure if that's a bad thing...I mean, I LIKE the theme I'm using (no it is not Viking at all, or even Old English/Celtic), but part of why I'm using it is that's about the only way I can include the tropes of D&D (specifically the eclectic monster/treasure lists) along with the classes and house rules I want. And seeing as how the concept is based on "real world history" to a certain degree, how does the whole elf/dwarf/halfling thing fit?

I suppose it doesn't and I suppose that doesn't matter...Alexis's 15th century Europe and Raggi's Weird New World have no problems shoe-horning the "standard" D&D species into a historic setting. But the farther one gets away from Europe, the less European folklore seems to fit. How would YOU put dwarves into the ancient Incan empire? Or aboriginal Australia? Not that I'm doing either of these things, I'm just saying...

Just in case anyone's wondering, I'm starting with OD&D as a base (using some of the "Moldvay-cleaned-up" rule interpretations) and including some of the stuff found in the supplements. I honestly haven't decided if I want to use demihumans at all, and whether or not I want to keep "race as class" or do "race AND class." I shall be stealing from a variety of sources for various things I like, but magic will still be Vancian and I doubt I'll be using condensed levels.

Okay...more on all that later. Gotta' get back to work!