The Secret War Between Glasses And Cups

…civil wars are the worst

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The Doclopedia #1,672

Random Character Creation (Horror): What Do You Do?

1: I’m a truck driver

2: I’m a geologist

3: I’m a department store clerk

4: I’m a soldier

5: I’m a college student

6: I’m an accountant

7: I’m a farmer

8: I’m a pilot

9: I’m a auto mechanic

10: I’m a theoretical physicist

11: I’m a police officer

12: I’m an actor

13: I’m a doctor

14: I’m an antique dealer

15: I’m a sailor

16: I’m a housewife

17: I’m a biologist

18: I’m a nun

19: I’m a welder

20: I’m a jewel thief

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The Doclopedia #1,673

Random Character Creation (Horror): Who Do you Know?

1: Senator Radley

2: Professor Karloff

3: Agent Gold

4: Ram Singh

5: Donna Sanderson

6: “Icepick Nick” Falloni

7: Captain Eastwood

8: Mrs. Perkins

9: Professor Lorre

10: Helena Ospensky

11: Luke Taylor

12: Sir Gerard Kingsley

13: Danny the Duke

14: Misty Carlyle

15: Yen Sing

16: Inspector Menard

17: Tammy Lomax

18: Goodman Okula

19: The Queen

20: Max Lebowski

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The Doclopedia #1,671

Random Character Creation (Horror): What Do You Have On You?

1: pocket knife, keys, letter from Professor Holman, my lucky dime

2: hip flask of rum, $200.00, really old ring, handkerchief, pistol

3: hunting knife, picture of something strange, candy bar, camera

4: car keys, Dr. Parks hat, magnifying glass, whistle, dog treats

5: holy relic, shotgun, bubble gum, make up case, ham sandwich

6: hammer, pliers, book of poetry, a black diamond, $5.00 in change

7: Ancient scroll, vial of liquid, letter from Desmond, box of donuts

8: extra pair of shoes, dagger, bag of potatoes, $18.35, airship ticket

9: 100′ of manila rope, very strange figurine, pocket knife, cheese

10: .38 pistol, brass knuckles, Book of the Awakened, cigar, lighter

11: mummified hand, bottle of strange liquid, pair of socks, gloves

12: thieves tools, $73.00, Egyptian amulet, wool hat, bag of candy

13: small box of soil, 3 apples, bottle of beer, green bandana, gum

14: gold coin, katana, pine cone, picture of a strange cat, small sack

15: bottle of wine, old book written in Persian, candle, hacksaw

16: Book of the Vampire, silver hammer, fox fur, small cheese pizza

17: tommy gun, head in a jar, eyeglasses, vial of mercury, large sack

18: Jar of honey, 6 pearls, shark’s teeth, top hat, .44 automatic

19: stink bomb, Eye of Horus, roast beef on rye, live snake, 2 rocks

20: expensive perfume, Book of the Strange, crayons, brick, roses

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Gooby, The Musk Ox Who Thought She Was A Dog, Goes To The Fair

…where she ate 17 different deep fried foods

My Gaming Life Is Shifting Into A Higher Gear

So far this year, my gaming life, both boardgames and RPGs, has looked like this…

Run a D&D 5E game, play in a D&D 5E game, run a game or two at cons, run & play in games about once a month at Your Turn! events.

A nice, steady situation where I played something once or twice a week. Now let’s look at what lies ahead starting in September.

Every other Saturday: I run D&D 5E
Every other Sunday: I play D&D5E
Every other Monday: I run boardgames at Game Kastle
Every other Tuesday: I run RPGs that are NOT D&D 5E at Game Kastle
Once a month: Games at a Your Turn! event.

So, gaming twice, maybe three times, a week, every week. Still not up to the amount of gaming I did in the 80’s, but close.

Now, this holds true until late November, when I can add in running a couple of games at the local fall game con. December will no doubt see a few games less due to the holidays.

Then we get to January. Now, the D&D games and the Game Kastle games will stay the same, but at Your Turn!, we’d like to ramp up to at least two events a month. On top of that, I plan on hitting up as many as 5 NorCal/Nevada gaming cons in 2020, which would be a new record for me.

Of course, the Your Turn! ramp up totally depends upon getting more dedicated volunteers to show up, which is a big problem, but we hope to lure in a few at various events. And as always, my exact con attendance depends upon money being available and our dear old car not dying.

So it looks like I’ll be doing a bunch of gaming in the next year. I’m not complaining, but damn, I’m going to really have to stay on my toes to keep up.

NOTE: Should any of you reading this think you might like to join us at Your Turn! Community Game Events, just pop on over to: yourturnevents.org and fill out the Volunteer form.

The Girl With Green Nipples Spends A Week In The Woods

…naked, for the most part

Doc Update

As I have mentioned a time or two before, I’m on the board of directors of Your Turn! Community Game Events. We are a non-profit dedicated to hosting free inclusive and fun events where people of all ages can learn and play board, card, dice and roleplaying games.

So far in 2019, we have hosted several game days at local Sacramento area libraries and a few events at festivals and the like. The word is slowly getting out about us, which is good, because as you’ll see below, we are ramping up to do a lot more in 2020.

For starters, as of September 2nd, which is Labor Day, we will be doing Board Game Night every other Monday at the Game Kastle here in Sacramento. We will have a couple of dozen games with us and and will be ready to teach and play any of them. It will run from 6 pm until 9 pm and, as always, will be free of charge.

On the alternate weeks, on Tuesdays, we’ll be running RPG Night. This will be the same hours, but there will only be 1 or 2 games set up and they’ll be different each week. Also, we will not be running D&D 5th Edition or Pathfinder. There are many places to learn and play those games, so we will be focusing on older or less well known games. Some of the games we have planned are Toon, Mutants & Masterminds, Over The Edge, Call of Cthulhu, Dungeon Fantasy, Dread, Paranoia, Heroquest and Hillfolk.

In 2020, we plan on putting in appearances at some of the Northern California game conventions and possibly RageCon in Reno. So far, we know that we will be at DunDraCon in February.

We are also looking to increase our library game days as well as having a presence at some of the local festivals. Dates and places to be announced.

So, as you can see, the gaming scene in Sacramento is about to get a shot in the arm. We are looking forward to getting out there, meeting new people and teaching them some games.

The Very Late, But Still Damned Scrappy, Story Of Mostly Purple Patty And The Seven Dancing Ferrets

…co-starring her pet duck, Randolph

 

 

The Gaming Is Afoot!

 

The past few months have seen me hit something of an all high mark in my gaming life. Not since the mid 1980s have I been doing so much roleplaying and boardgaming on a weekly basis.

Now, to be sure, I am still a long way from the 14-16 hours a week I did back then. Those were the days when my four players and I would do a 4 hour session on Wednesday nights and a 10-12 hour session all day on Saturdays. We were all around 27 years old and it was hella fun, but now, at 65, I am pretty sure that exact situation would kill me :)

Now, I play in a D&D group twice a month, 4 hours per session, usually on Sunday evenings. We just celebrated our 4^th year together.

On alternate weeks, I run a D&D game for 5 players on Saturday afternoons, again, for 4 hours per session. We have been getting together for just shy of 2 years.

And then, adding to the gaming goodness, is the fact that I run both RPGs and boardgames at various events for the non-profit Your Turn Community Game Events. I am also a board member.

Your Turn was thought up by one of my Saturday players, Cathy Ford, who does the Our Turn! Gaming For Everyone podcast over at https://ourturnpodcast.com/.

The actual genesis of Your Turn is not something I’m going to get into now, but suffice to say it was put into action by Cathy and a bunch of gaming geeks, Your Humble Narrator included. We run games at libraries and community events. So far, we have had a lot of success and are getting invited to more events all the time. We may be hooking up with a local game store to run games on a weekly basis soon.

Part of that weekly scenario may have myself and other RPG GMs running games on alternate weeks or something. Details are still hazy.

And, on top of all of the above, I’m 13 days out from going to GenCon, which I have not attended since 2007. I am awash on gaming goodness.

About the only thing I’m not doing, gamingwise, is writing for publication. Now, I do write gaming useful stuff, but not for any company. I do it for my wonderful Patrons over on Patreon. So far, there are several items up for Patrons only, and I will have more coming soon.

Note: A more crass individual than I might suggest you go over to https://www.patreon.com/DocCross and sign up for as little as $1.00 a month. Fortunately, I am not given to such acts.

I am going to try to remember to do some regular gaming posts here on the blog, in addition to the other regular stuff.

And speaking of that regular stuff, here’s a bit of what to expect in the next few weeks.

GenCon reporting will start on the 30^th of this month when I fly to Kansas to join my friend, Peter Hildreth, for the trip to the con. I may do these reports on video, if I can get video to work on here.

The annual Trip To CritterCon, everyone’s favorite fictional convention, will start Friday after I return from GenCon and will cover about 12 days.

After a 4 month absence, the Doclopedia will be back starting September 1st. I am not sure, but I may do another “500 Entries In 365 Days” bit of madness. Stay tuned.

I am also entertaining the idea of doing interviews with gaming folks. Not sure yet.

Well there you have it, a gamealicious post about my gaming situation. I hope you liked it.

See you next time.

 

The Wildly Comedic, Yet Somewhat Restrained, Story Of Mostly Purple Patty And Auntie Rosie’s Birthday

…featuring Auntie Rosie, of course!

Some Thoughts On Favorite Roleplaying Genres

So I was recently thinking about the fact that I am both playing in and GMing D&D 5E fantasy games. I’m enjoying them both immensely, but I did realize that, outside of the odd game at conventions, I have not GMed anything but fantasy for several years.

This can, of course, be explained by the fact that D&D style fantasy games are by far the most popular and common types of rpgs out there. If you don’t believe me, check out the D&D Adventurers League or the Pathfinder Society.

Anyway, I was thinking about the genres of games that I have run since becoming a GM about just about 40 years ago. They cover a whole lot of ground and many rules systems, so I thought I’d do up a list. My memory not being what it used to be, I’m sure I left a couple out, but here are the ones I remember, along with the rules systems I used.

Fantasy

Around 500 individual sessions spread out among 7-8 lengthy campaigns and many short ones & one shots, mostly using D&D/AD&D, but with sidetrips into Tunnels & Trolls, Runequest, GURPS Fantasy, Talislanta, and a few homebrew systems.

Science Fiction, mostly Space Opera

Around 50 sessions, mostly in 3 campaigns. Traveller, GURPS Space and a modification of D&D (for a short Star Trek campaign) were the systems of choice.

Horror

Around 60 sessions, pretty much evenly split between Ravenloft for AD&D and straight up Call of Cthulhu.

Hero/Weird Menace Pulp

Around 150 sessions, including 4 campaigns. I used the Justice Inc. rules for Hero System at first, but then moved to Chaosiums Basic Roleplaying, GURPS Cliffhangers, D&D, Fudge and Over The Edge.

Modern Strangeness

At least 60 sessions, almost all using Over The Edge, but a few using Fudge.

 

Old West

Only about 10 sessions, with 6 of those using Boot Hill and the remainder using Basic Roleplaying.

Comedy

200 sessions, mostly using Toon, but with a good bit of Paranoia and a couple of others I can’t recall.

 

Time Travel/Dimension Hopping

About 10 sessions, all using Fudge

 

Historical

Only 2 sessions, since I am nobody’s historian. Used Call of Cthulhu rules.

Modern Espionage

About 5 sessions, using the James Bond rules.

Science Fiction, Post Apocalypse

Around a dozen sessions, mostly using GURPS mixed with Car Wars, but a few using Over The Edge.

Science Fiction, Other

Around 8 sessions. Includes everything from a robot uprising to 1950’s giant bugs. Call of Cthulhu rules and Over The Edge.

 

Steampunk

2 sessions, using Basic Roleplaying.

Assorted Other Genres

10 sessions. Everything from Bunnies & Burrows to Planet of the Apes, using a bunch of systems.

Hmm, that works out to 1,069 gaming sessions. Let’s round it up to 1,700. That comes to a bit over 42 sessions a year over 40 years. Considering that in 1982 and 1983 I ran 2 sessions of AD&D a week for about 48 weeks each year, that takes care of 192. Add in a few one shots and we’ll call that 200. Still comes to an average of 39.4 sessions a year, although several of those years had over 50 sessions a year and some had less than a dozen.

Next time, I might write about genres I’d like to GM more often.

It’s All Fun And Games Until Your Face Gets Stuck That Way

…your mother WARNED you, didn’t she?

 

 

The Doclopedia #1,270

The Alphabet: Q is for…

Quill Beast…, also known as a Spiny Terror. Imagine a 7 foot tall cross between an Ogre and a porcupine and you are not far off as to what a Quill Beast looks like. They are big, dumb, easy to piss off and covered with 6 inch long barbed quills that release an acidic toxin when they sink into flesh. It is said that the pain will make a barbarian berserker fall down screaming and crying.

With their own kind, Quill Beasts are friendly and gentle. They live in small family groups and if they meet another family, they never fight. This does not apply to them meeting and other species larger than a fox.

Quill Beasts are most often found in mixed woodland. They sometimes live in evergreen forest on mountains. They are almost never seen in praries.

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The Doclopedia #1,271

The Alphabet: Q is for…

Queelgah City…is the largest city on the island of Guodra, with a population of 395,015 humans, Kloavians, m’Ret and Tunjunku. Due to frequent releases of poison gas from Mount Remkar, the entire city is under a dome.

Queelgah City was first established by m’Ret merchants and explorers in Month 9 of Galactic Year 78,002. Many other races arrived over the next 4 millenia, with the humans arriving a scant 300 years ago.

Besides the sale of tros, winlaa and skameel, all of which are abundant on Guodra, the city is known for fine dining, excellent museums and the Royal m’Ret Theater.

Chapter 704: In Which Our Hero, Being Without Funds, Cons A Pig Farmer Into Giving Him A Five Pound Note

 

…and a rasher of bacon.

 

DogCon 9

Day Six: In which I  update this report throughout the day, just to be different.

8:00 am: We started our day with a delicious breakfast at Pancakeville. That place never skimps on the portions. I highly recommend the cheesecake pancakes.

9:00 am: While most of our traveling band went off to play various games, Sasha and I did a seminar entitled “Mad Science In Your Game”. It was well attended and the audience had many thoughtful and borderline disturbing questions.

10:15 am: With Sasha off to address meeting of the Central Texas Non-Human Terran Association, I got into a game of Lords of Waterdeep. I am not winning, but it’s fun and it should be done in time for me to meet Grace & The Girls for lunch.

 

12:00 pm: We had lunch at Curry On Eating!, a damn fine new Indian buffet. We were joined by Avis and Ginie. There is some small possibility that we all crossed the line into “Ate Too Much” territory, but damn, fresh warm naan and goat curry!

 

1:00 pm: We met up with the rest of our party and some other folks for a rehearsal of tonight’s Old Time Radio broadcast of “The Adventures of Doc Mystery: The Laughter of Death!”. It will be an hour long and run from 8:00 to 9:00.

2:30 pm: Spike, myself and 4 other gamers over 50 did a panel  called “You Kids Get Outta My Dungeon!”, which for being a bunch of old farts talking about gaming pre-1990, was well attended and full of laughs.

4:00 pm: I ran another Toon game, this time for 24 players, including Grace, Silky, Sadie, Lauren, Mary and Max. It ran for 2 hours and we probably had 50-60 spectators at any one time. I was knackered when it was done.

6:30 pm: We had dinner at Chez Mom’s. I ate a chicken fried steak the size of a large frisbee.

7:45 pm: We are all in the Green Room at station KRTR awaiting the start of our show. More bloggage later before yet another party.

9:15 pm: Radio show finished. Some of us (Grace, Mary, Silky, Lauren, Sadie) went back to the hotel to relax and sleep. The rest of us are heading to the Costume Party, This year the theme is Zombie Robots, costumes will be provided.

 

2:30 am: Tipsy, but not drunk, Sasha and I are back from eating chili after the party. It was another very fun party, considering everybody was made up to look like badly rusted robots. We shall sleep now.