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Tonight after Library Night, we went and got ice cream at Bristol Farms & Read an RPG Book in Public.

Here is Jack enjoying his ice cream hipster style.






Cody made strange reading noises while reading -- 'reppad rebbad reppabbad'





Kate took pictures of me & encouraged me to act confused



Angry



Happy



And perplexed



after we came home, the kids were crazy and would not go to bed, we studied Volcanos with Kate, had Bey Blade battles with Cody, and listened to some hipster comp of music from the land of coffee--overall a good night.

This Sunday, while Lisa & Kate were in San Diego for the 4th Grade Mission report, DM Chase came over and taught us to play Pathfinder.

We started the day with a drive to Barnes & Noble to pick up the Core Rule Book.

Then back home for Character Creation and Pizza.



DM Chase had an old 3.5 conversion module to run us through to get us used to the system--he had worked with DM Scott to set up some back ground to get us into the Skull & Shackles adventure path. I am new to Pathfinder and all of this Adventure Path, but any game that involved dice, dragons, and Pirates is my kind of game.

Jack and I are actually very fired up for this--we went to the Library and got a bunch of Pirate books. I am listening to Smithsonian Pirate Song albums--the whole shebang, we are all in.




Cody joined us for a while--he was playing Hobit the Halfling rogue.



Dylan from the Awesome Crew came by--he was playing a bow ranger named Purtsa the Elf.

Jack is playing a Dwarf--the tough boarding party kind of dwarf. Any Pathfinder experts with min/max tips we could really use some help with this Character--we want like a charging brawler that is hard to hit. We have a tin can that gets beaten by a skeleton dog!

Also, Jake from next door stopped by and we quickly created a Cleric for him--Pathfinder healing harkens back to the pre-4E days in which healing was VERY important--and we had none! Late guy gets to be the healer, right?



I am playing a gnome bard that is still unamed. Character concept is also still evolving--I am thinking that he is a kind of weather obsessed more fae then steampunk gnome, but I keep falling back into this kind of Shme archetype that I am really not interested in. We shall see how he develops--I have chosen Accordian for my instrument, but that interfers with combat--but I just cannot pass up the chance for Weird Al jokes.


Need some new dice for this.



The table provided a ton of space.



This is how all roles should be made.



Chase used Dungeon Tiles that came with the module & were perfect.


Jack build Cody a knight.



And Cody had a very fin time--look at that focus on a four year old!



I think that only Chase got a crit!

Another fantastic Bake night at Vandale's Garage.

We are still playing 4E Eberron--the party is trapped a mile beneath Stormreach in Pillar's Crossing--a Giant ritual playground full of Duerger, Snivneblin, & Ogre Magi. It really is quite a mess--we are currently trying to free Gnomes from Dwarf enslavement--the dwarves are planning to use a Time Dragon to rise from the depths and take over Eberron--or something.

We have lost Ryan for a while & Weston has a job doing QA for a Game Company--so we are down to Brett [Vassa], Eric [Griff], Andrew [Bemin], & Cameron [Fiddenmar]--my shardmind avenger Akuba died and was replaced this session with Bukaku the shardmind psion.

DM James had the sniffles but was mostly ready to play



Here is Eric in Action



Cameron was fired up and ready to go



Andrew, as always, was ready to roll








In any event, there were lots of snacks











Brett got some new dice--since we are now level 17 we will need them



DM James brought a new dice bag--unfortunately, he only brought d6's so he still had to borrow dice...



he bought the bag at a Wiccan Store from this women, evidently



DM James started the adventure off with some roll play getting us prepared to storm the Duergar stronghold



Our plan, as always, lacked any tactical strategy at all--up the pipes! again....



A plan that Cameron was responsible for & Eric loved



Most of this session was combat--my new PC was freed at the end from a time dragon siphon or something--but mostly a big three hour fight

A rather slow week at Dice House this week--Chase, Scott, and Tyler were all out. Brian had had a bad day at work & Thomas is distracted by his new laptop--add that Jack's pacifist healer refuses to help in combat & we have the makings of every DM's Dream...THE TPK!

We started the night at Chipotle, but the there were no tables & it was kind of cold outside so we ate at Pickup Stix--which was great because it was 25 cent won ton night. Before that, however, we had to convince Jack to go because he had a book report due that he had not finished. He had to write on Hachet--which Brian loved & I had not read. It was that kind of night...





Kevin, who is playing this awesome Halfling Chaos Sorcerer was in a very fine mood & ready to play.



Jack is also loving his character, but the night was not going his way...




I had not done much prep for this week--I had selected some mini's...




and I am still looking for some new dice for this season...




and I have a couple of handouts--I need to come up with more ideas for ways to get the players involved...



The adventure involved a brief walk around Hommel Lane & then heading out to the Moat House for some combat with Bandits...but first they encountered a Large Frog....



Which Brian's Revenant Deva Black Gaurd charged to start combat....



and then battled for 5 rounds...




While the rest of the party charged the Moat House--into an archery line that destroyed them...



I likely should have toned things back--I was fudging rolls in the party's favor most of the night...








But I was also rolling very very well--with three crit's on the night!















After D&D Brian showed us his PVC Bow




Which was amazing.



And then we drove home



Another fun night of D&D Encounters...

The following is from Dragon Magazine #97 May 1985





//begin
Arcana update: Looking good

You’re going to like  Unearthed Arcana.

How can I be so sure? Gosh, I hoped you’d ask, because that gives me something to fill this month’s column with.

You’re going to like it because, finally, all of the official new material for the AD&D® game will be between one pair of covers. You won’t have to subject your old issues of DRAGON® Magazine to any more wear and tear every time you want to roll up a barbarian or a cavalier or have your character use a new weapon or cast a new spell.

You’re going to like it because even if you have all the old issues of the magazine and even if you enjoy searching through them, you’ll find a lot of stuff in  Unearthed Arcana that has never been published before. And everything that has already appeared in print is being reworked and revised; none of the “reprints” are identical to how they appeared as articles, and some of them have been added to and altered extensively. (At last, we’re going to be able to show everyone the difference between "official" and "final".)

The book will be the same size and length as the Players Handbook  128 pages. If all goes well, it’ll be released in June. The text is being put together by four people, at least three of whom know their stuff pretty well. (If you can’t figure out who the fourth one is, then you haven’t read the first section of this month’s letters column yet.) Gary Gygax and his right-hand man, Frank Mentzer, are looking over every sentence of the new rules to be sure they’re as comprehensive and complete as we can make them. Design consultant Jeff Grubb has worn out several fine-toothed combs grooming the text, adding a line here and a few paragraphs there. The final editing is being done by this Gentle Grammarian, who will take personal responsibility for any undotted i’s or uncrossed t’s.

So what’s in it? Well, here’s a brief rundown of some of the subjects the new rules will cover. Among the new or greatly changed sections are: another method of character genera- tion; cleric spells; more miscellaneous magic items; more magic armor and weapons; the barbarian character class (wait ‘til you see him now); and an expansion of the rules for weapon specialization.

In addition to that, you’ll get all the other game-related material that has been published in this magazine under Gary Gygax’s name for the last three years or so  the cavalier and thief-acrobat character classes; cantrips; new spells for magic-users, druids, and illusionists; revised rules for rangers, druids, and demi-humans; comeliness, a new character ability; and lots of new weapon types, providing monster-smashers with more different ways to do what they do best.

All of this, and more, will be protected from the elements by a cover that would be suitable for framing if it wasn’t already serving a good purpose. Jeff Easley, whose work adorns the newest editions of the other AD&D game rule books, really outdid himself this time. I’m proud to play a part in the project. I think all of us on this end are going to be pleased with the result and, casting modesty aside for just one more moment, I think . . . You’re going to like  Unearthed Arcana
//end 

 

This Saturday Jack & I went to ORCCON.

We ran out of gas on the way up & stopped at a fantastic station that had this very weird coconut juice with floating chunks.



We did not buy that--we did get skittles, honey & Mustard pretzels, chipotle & Cheddar snacks, and soda.

After registering we headed to the dealer room for a tube of dice. 



We had to move quickly through the board game area to meet our friends who were playing Microsism in the Bar Area.



We headed to this Con with nothing--no character sheets, no dice, Jack did not even have a pencil. A new approach for us to see if we could still have fun. This meant we could not play any LFR 4E which we have been really enjoying--we had not signed up for any games, so after getting dice we headed to the RPG sign in sheets to find Sock Puppet D&D. 

There was no Sock Puppet D&D this year, but we did find a fun looking AD&D 2nd Edition campaign.

We had 30 minutes to kill so we headed to the mini painting area.



Jack & I did a great job this year I though--and I was able to use my Thor mini as my dwarf fighter in the AD&D game.





You can also see my Tube of Dice at the table--Jack & I also have a tradition of buying these luck stones from the Hotel Gift Shop--this year I got a silver rock with Imagine on it--Jack got a Silver Key that said Power, I think.



DM Brett Miller plays old school D&D in a world that he has been building since the dawn of time--several of his players were at the table which made it fun.



Getting disintigrated during round one did not make it fun--I spent most of the game snacking and wishing the other players would free me!



The old school drawings and maps were very fun.



And the final combat was very fun--half the players had left after being disintigrated, Jack had his character flee the tower fairly early--but the battle was good for 30 minutes.



After AD&D we headed to Nerd Trivia which was a blast--lots of fun with categories like Nick Cage Movies, stuff on D&D cartoons, etc. 

I ran into Ryan who I had not seen in a while and he was signed up for a game of GURPS at 8, so Jack and I signed up for that.



The Gurps game turned out to be an historically accurate modern adventure that was a total blast. One of the best games Jack and I have played together.



This was a fun CON for me--I spent more time playing older game systems and stuff I never play--I hung out with friends more since I did not feel as tied to tables as I have historically. And, most imporantly, I made some new friends. 
 

Kate & I sat down to paint some Mini's this presidents day.



We are getting a lot better at setting up our paint stations--we actually have two rules so far:

1. Remember the Rules
2. Sit on Wood

The second rule came up because Kate spilled blue paint on the chair's upholstry.



Our paint collection continues to grow--we still need some basic stuff--like flesh and more gold, silver, armor colors.



We could also use some more brushes.



I am really disliking the paint I have on my mini thus far--I may scrub it completely and start over.



I want him to look much more like: