Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Changing Seasons

The family Blood Bowl season ended over the weekend, with my boy's wood elves triumphing over the ork team (me) 4-3.  He beat me fair and square despite having (in my opinion) a pretty crushing advantage in terms of team. But I had a costly mistake to end the first half, and I got greedy with my fouling (leading to two ejections) leaving me no room for error in the second half. Thus when the double skull roll came up for my star black ork...and the elves were able to take a two TD lead...the game was effectively put away. "Catch up" is just not a game the orks can play, and my third TD was what NFL fans would simply call a "garbage time" score.

On the bright side, that means we'll be getting our dining room table back (finally!), which increases the possibility of OTHER types of gaming.

So, too, does the end of the school soccer season. This coming Saturday will be our final game, and while year round soccer will continue for both my children, my coaching responsibilities will be coming to an end, as will the Tuesday-Thursday practices. The kids are already planning playdates and a Halloween "D&D party" (via zoom) that they expect me to DM.

Should probably prep some sort of adventure for that.

Diego re-started his D&D club at school this week and, surprise-surprise, he has decided to go back to the B/X system, albeit with some modification (specifically: bumping up hit dice to AD&D levels and adding negative HPs to increase player survivability). He is capping his group at six, though he already has kids on a "wait list" to join the game. He is also using my book The Complete B/X Adventurer, which he spent the last couple days reading. "You're a pretty good writer, Pops," he told me. "Reading your book makes me want to play D&D!" That kind of thing is always nice to hear.

Regarding the print copies of the new book: my printer can't do hardcover and couldn't recommend any other local printers. I found a couple via the internet and requested quotes on print costs: no response. It's like people don't want to take my money or something; I really don't get it. Right now, I am strongly considering just doing a Print On Demand thing with DriveThru though I'd prefer not to...it's less money in MY pocket, and I can't exercise any quality control...plus, I get no hard copies on hand to sell to local retailers, etc. On the other hand, it's a lot less hassle to just use their services (assuming I can make the thing work). *sigh* I don't know. At least the PDF has been selling well...gross sales have surpassed my costs, and the thing appears to have driven a resurgence in my other books' sales as well.

SO...gaming stuff. The seasons are changing. We are deep into Autumn. Holidays just around the corner. Conventions are out (for me), but D&D is definitely IN. 

I think I want to talk about campaigns. Let me scribble some notes and I'll come back with a proper post. Dentist appointments today.


7 comments:

  1. A lot of places are dealing with supply shortages and people shortages. Not surprising the printers are ignoring you.

    Glad your son is going with B/X. It's a great way to spread the love especially for young kids.

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    1. Yeah...I'm just griping.

      RE B/X...it's just a much simpler game to introduce, teach, and run for newbies during recess. He still prefers AD&D, and intends to gradually bring his group over.

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  2. He could also do 2d6+6 for ability score rolls.

    Does he use variable weapon damage, or d6 for all weapons? If the latter, he might consider allowing damage rolls for two-handed weapons and crossbows to be 2d6, pick the higher die (and add them together if it is doubles).

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    1. He's doing 4d6, arrange to taste, and variable weapon damage based on B/X charts. We've been doing AD&D for a while now, and his knowledge of B/X isn't good enough to just flip the switches, so he has some accidental carry-overs.

      Not a big deal.

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    2. 4d6 drop the lowest is official, but with 2d6+6 you still get random scores, you can still get 18s, but the lowest score will always be an 8.


      The RC has an interesting method for “creating higher level characters”: roll 5d6 and add 60 to the total, then the players distribute the points among their abilities as they wish.

      Or, roll 3d6 eight times, and pick the best six scores.

      I still like 2d6+6, because you get better scores, along with the lower limit.

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  3. Lulu offers a hard cover option; but it's do it yourself unless you want to pay a lot of money.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks. I know you've recommended them before.

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