Frogmen and Wrasslin'

I haven’t really posted this week because I started my job Monday. I think I’m going to like it. In other awesomeness, I’ve also found a place to move into next month. That should mean regular gaming will occur. This past weekend I attended the fifth annual Loveland Frogman Festival and GCW Presents “So Alive." I had a fantastic time at both. I spent most of my Frogman time hanging out with Eric and Josh from Bloat Games. They are the best and it's always a wonderful time when I get to see them. My friend Holly of Holly Who Art was also there (and a sponsor). I also got to see my friends Creep It Real. Check out their Frogman songs.

I probably spent too much, but I snagged some cool stuff. Y'all know I love public domain supers and I finally had a chance to grab a physical copy of one. I've not done Dracula stats, but now I have too. I also grabbed another Savage Dragon issue I didn't have. While it took me a a second to understand how to read them, I also grabbed some really cool oversized cryptid d6's from P House Games.

I also picked up some cool cryptid figures from Archie McPhee. They are perfect for D&D and other tabletop games. Here they are with a few D&D minis and some Archie McPhee glowing zombies I picked up a few months ago.

After visiting Loveland (near Cincy) I headed home and then made my way to Columbus to watch a Game Changer Wrestling show. I won't go too much into it, but I will say I had an amazing time! In addition to badass wrestling there were wrestling zombies and circus clowns. Oh and an entire ballroom full of people singing Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus.

So yeah, I had an awesome weekend. It was a great way to end my birthday week.

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 25

 "Desirable dice"

I prefer the Dark Maiden and do not consider myself a spider kisser, but this drow themed set is my absolute favorite. They were a part of of an older Advent-ure Calendar from Black Oak Workshop. I love the spider symbol mixed with the color scheme (which is also used in the Swirl Dragon Dreadwyrm set). These sets are pretty come by and I've seen them go for high prices on ebay. 

#RPGaDAY2024 - Day 8

 "An accessory you appreciate."

 

Though we'd chatted online before, I officially met Justin from Severed Books at Origins 2022. I loved the stuff he was releasing and he seemed really nice online. I'm happy to say he was just as cool, IRL. We talked for a while and I bought a few things. When I came back to his both later I noticed a really cool Warduke skull dice bag. I asked how much and he told me it was the last one and I could have it. He didn't need to do that, but he did and I really appreciate it. It made my day. That's why my Warduke skull dicebag is an accessory I appreciate.

If you've never checked out Severed Books, you should. Follow them on Facebook and pick something up from their Etsy shop.

THE TRUTH ABOUT DICE!

 This animated short is ridiculous and as a dice lover, I find it fantastic!

Dice Slam

Y'all know I love wrestling and D&D and I'm a librarian. For this reason, this much from AEW Dark back in October was my jam. The Librarian, Peter Avalon, tagged with D&D and cosplayer, Brandon Cutler, were tag partners for a while, but they had a falling out. This is a no disqualification match. I understand that if wrestling isn't your thing, this is probably boring. Still I recommend watching Cutler's entrance towards the beginning of the match. Then skip to about skip to about 9:30 to see the Silmirillion used as a weapon, followed by the most devastating wrestling slam ever...

Batman Dice Set

There is sadly a lack of superhero themed dice. This is kind of surprising, given the number of supers rpgs on the market. I messaged Black Oak Workshop and they said they've had several requests and will produce some (hopefully) in the near future. Until this you can add Usopoly's Batman Dice. Yeah, they are just d6's, but it's better than nothing right. My only critique is that I think Batman should be 5 and the Bat Signal 6.

Gelatinous Cube D6

 Recently my gelatinous cube d6 from Severed Books arrived. It is awesome. Check it out.

You can pre-order your own here.

Dragon Polyhedral Dice Kickstarter

My favorite dice company, Black Oak Workshop, has a Kickstarter going on right now for some righteous looking dragon themed dice with their Dragon Polyhedral Dice project.  The project also gives you the opportunity to get an exclusive dice box and dice tower.

The project has been funded and several stretch goals (including other dice designs) have been unlocked. Personally I'm going to go for the Epic Sea Dragon pledge. This will net me a set of Sea Dragon Maelstrom dice, the Epic Sea Dragon die, a Sea Dragon pin, and all unlocked hoard stretch goals. I'm really excited about the epic die. BOW's dice are already larger than normal dice. The pic below shows the epic die, next to their already over-sized d20.

If you want to see more of their awesome dice, check out the pics of their Advent-ure Calendar on Instagram. They are great folks and I highly recommend backing this project.

Con on the Cob 2019 - Part II

You can read my overview of the Con itself here.

I ran five four hour sessions at Con on the Cob. I had a lot of fun and started losing my voice by the last session. Here's a breakdown of the sessions I ran.

Thursday

The Return of Reverend Pancake (Dark Places & Demogorgons)

Source

A group of teens in southern Ohio decide to get revenge on some bullying jocks. Unfortunately one of the jocks accidentally resurrects a puritanical zombie preacher (statted for DCC here). The premise behind this session and the setting were based on my hometown. The highlights of the session were when the nerd built a hard pretzel cannon (because he thought pretzels were the best source of salt) and the karate kid said they needed to get a boombox with Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes to Midnight because undead are weak against "pure metal."

Friday

After School Special (Vigilante City)
For this session I used premade VC characters and the pamphlet adventure Ninja Beat'Em Up!. I had a group of seven vigilantes but they were definitely challenged by the massive number of ninjas (though it probably helped that I was rolling like shit). One thing I noticed while running is that the super-soldier, mutant, and true vigilante seemed to be doing the most in the game (the first two because of their powers and the third because she kept critting). Still everyone had fun. I think if I run it again (and I'd like to), I'll make sure that all characters are non-powered.

Road Crew: The Arwich Grinder (Dungeon Crawl Classics)
A naked large man collapses and dies in an inn in the village of Arwich while grasping the bonnet of a local teen. Brave townsfolk must brave the weather and investigate, owing their lives to the family. This is a Lovecraftian funnel that I've ran before (notes here). However, this time it didn't go as expected at all! While some were injured, no characters died in this funnel. Not only that, but they took all of the cult family members alive to be tried, and killed Junior and the Sending of Sliggeth. It was an amazing session, but no one was ground but the horrific monstrosities. My friend from Columbus, Robert, played in this session too, which made it extra fun.

Saturday

Road Crew: Leopard Women of Venus (Dungeon Crawl Classics)
The Humanoid Coalition recruited grunts from the various human tribes on Venus for an importation mission. The setting is coming to Kickstarter soon and you can read more about it here. I loved it and wanted to show it off. Josh gave me his notes from the after hours GenCon session of Leopard Women of Venus game he ran and I used those and my pre-Kickstarter zine to run the session. Most of the group was made up of the red meat eating, gun-toting, God-loving Otram. The most memorable character was little Billy. He was a displaced human school kid whom the Otram adopted. Billy gained a shotgun during the adventure and used it to take out quite a few foes, before his unfortunate death by animated Martian pudding.

Road Crew: Glow-H-I-O The Museum at the End of Time (Mutant Crawl Classics)
My original plan was to run an original funnel for my new Ohio-based MCC setting. I didn't get it finished though, so I ran The Museum at the End of Time instead. I had another large group (seven players total). We had some experienced MCC and DCC players, a couple that had never played the systems, and one player than had never played a tabletop rpg before. I have to say this was my favorite session of the whole con. Everyone got into character as their primitive tribesman. There were some interesting deaths and and I even had one character who ascended to godhood and became the Star Child.

Swag
I also wanted to show off the non-Cob Crate swag I picked up. I grabbed four of these Grimtooth D6'
s. I love the character, want to use him more, and it also seemed fitting after the recent passing of Rick Loomis. I also grabbed several fan-made Critical Role buttons, because I'm a critter and I liked them. I didn't get all of the characters, but I grabbed my favorites (and a cool Zombae button).

Dicey Stuff

My question today is a simple one. What do you keep your dice in? I've used a few things over the years, Crown Royal bags, a beholder dice bag, and even an old military surplus ammo box. I have to say it may not look as cool as my previous containers, but my dice box is my favorite.

This is a 5 dollar container I bought in the craft section of Walmart (which despite my disgust I still find myself at occasionally). It's really handy and not too big. I keep the dice I use regularly in the top tray and pencils and such in the middle. I use the bottom for all of my other dice and post-its (for note passing), but there's ample space for miniatures if that's more your style.

I'd like to know what you use.