Off-topic: Happy things

[sgtrock]

After 4 years, my dry spell* is over! Our group pretty much died out in '08** and tonight, I just got an invite to a new group. Zanosuke (formerly Snake-Eyes) the Rogue/Fighter, worshiper of a goddess that requires him to do one stupid thing per 48 hour time period to receive her blessing***, shall adventure again! I hope this is gonna be as good as I suspect...

*D&D playing. What were you thinking, you pervs? o.O
** Since half of the group deployed overseas...
*** He's male, so this isn't hard to meet, y'know? XD

Ahh, I miss D&D. I haven't played since...2003. More recently I did play a few Deadlands campaigns with friends, though!

Wow. I'm gonna date myself again. I haven't played D&D for 15? 20? years. I played AD&D for the first time when I was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, just about a month or so after its initial release in 1978. This was back when TSR was still located up in Lake Geneva, WI, about an hour away from GLNTC. I still have very fond memories of the little cartoons in the margins of the Player's Handbook.

I have no idea what happened to my manuals. Too many years and too many moves ago. I think I still have some character sheets around here somewhere for a 12th level Paladin and an 8th level half-elven Ranger, though.

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

After 4 years, my dry spell* is over! Our group pretty much died out in '08** and tonight, I just got an invite to a new group. Zanosuke (formerly Snake-Eyes) the Rogue/Fighter, worshiper of a goddess that requires him to do one stupid thing per 48 hour time period to receive her blessing***, shall adventure again! I hope this is gonna be as good as I suspect...

*D&D playing. What were you thinking, you pervs? o.O
** Since half of the group deployed overseas...
*** He's male, so this isn't hard to meet, y'know? XD

Ahh, I miss D&D. I haven't played since...2003. More recently I did play a few Deadlands campaigns with friends, though!

Wow. I'm gonna date myself again. I haven't played D&D for 15? 20? years. I played AD&D for the first time when I was stationed at Great Lakes Naval Training Center, just about a month or so after its initial release in 1978. This was back when TSR was still located up in Lake Geneva, WI, about an hour away from GLNTC. I still have very fond memories of the little cartoons in the margins of the Player's Handbook.

I have no idea what happened to my manuals. Too many years and too many moves ago. I think I still have some character sheets around here somewhere for a 12th level Paladin and an 8th level half-elven Ranger, though.

Sadly, D&D, Ebberon, Champions, BESM (Big Eyes, Small Mouth - basically "Anime! - the Roleplaying game". it's the system we used Friday, actually), and a couple of home-brews are about all I've had the chance to play around in. And this despite owning the second edition sourcebook for Mage: The Ascension, too. Oh, and the one for Record of Lodoss War (used up most of a print cartridge on that manual), but I tend to discount the time a friend and I tried to co-GM a game of that. It uses the Fuzion system... >.<

[Valerie]

So, there's a certain bank with which I have a checking account. We'll call it Mace, since I hate it so much.
There's another bank I use for a savings account. Its name will be ED.

ED is an online bank, so I needed Mace for depositing my paychecks and other brick-and-mortar things. Using Mace is frustrating, because I'm required to have $1,500 in my account to avoid the monthly fee. I used to have a savings account with Mace, but I closed it when I kept getting $12 fines for moving money from savings to checking. My own money to my own account at the same bank.

Anyway! I went to Mace the other day because I needed a counter check. In the past, I have gone in, been handed a check, walked out, no problem. When I went this time, he asked for my debit card and ID, which I gave to him (I assumed he just needed to make sure I was a customer at that bank or something),and then he told me it would be $2 for a check.

AHAHAHAHAHA no.

This was the last nail in the coffin for old Mace. I decided to find a new bank.

Then, last night, I learned that ED has an iPhone app that allows you to deposit checks. MEANING I can skip right over this brick-and-mortar nonsense. MEANING Mace can go fuck itself. <3

TL;DR: My bank sucks, and my other bank doesn't suck, and now I can get rid of the sucky one.

Hints for the nicknames: What rhymes with "mace" and is a bank name? What are some other English suffixes aside from "ED?"

[Freemage]

My happy thing: I've got a flimsy excuse to post this list of "played and/or game-mastered":

Blue-box D&D
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (later referred to as "1st Ed")
2nd Edition D&D
Paranoia
Villains & Vigilantes
TORG
Marvel Super Heroes RPG (both editions)
The entire Old World of Darkness line, including the Year of the Lotus spin-offs (except Wraith--Wraith was the greatest game no one ever played )
NWoD Werewolf: the Forsaken
Gamma World (multiple editions)
D&D 3.0/3.5
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
GURPS
Star Frontiers
D20 Modern
DC Superheroes (original only)
Feng Shui
Savage Worlds (Setting Books: Rippers, Fifty Fathoms, Sundered Skies)
Witch Hunter: The Invisible World
Legends of Arcanis
Ghostbusters
Shadowrun (1st-3rd; 4th should happen soon)
Kult, almost

There's probably at least a few missed one-shots, and doesn't include games purchased, but never played (amongst the latter would be Toon, much of the rest of the NWoD line, Wraith , and Tales of the Floating Vagabond).

I'm currently keeping an eye out for opportunities to play Mouse Guard, Little Fears, Dread, Dresden Files, Dr. Who, Serenity, Unknown Armies, Mutants and Masterminds, and Panty Explosion Perfect (don't judge).

[sgtrock]

My happy thing: I've got a flimsy excuse to post this list of "played and/or game-mastered":

Blue-box D&D
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (later referred to as "1st Ed")
2nd Edition D&D
D&D 3.0/3.5

I only played AD&D and a very little 2nd Edition. I've always wanted to get the opinion of someone with more experience with a broader range of games. What's your take on all the rules rage that you see all over the Web after every release? While I think that, from my limited playing of 2nd Edition, a few glaring problems got fixed, I thought that the system was drifting away from the fairly simple, open ended vision that Gygax had. Was I reading too much into what I saw?

[Artemisia]

I haven't played AD&D or D&D since 6th grade. That would be about a quarter century ago.

[Otaking]

So, there's a certain bank with which I have a checking account. We'll call it Mace, since I hate it so much.
There's another bank I use for a savings account. Its name will be ED.

If I had a sheet I could print up of pitfalls for younger people to avoid and hand to them as they are starting out, banks like Bank of America & Western Unions would be near the top of that sheet. I had the same problems with my first bank.

Credit unions are a million times better. I belong to two, since my main bank is out of state, and have about 25 dollars in the non-primary bank just so I can cash local checks written to me on it and they've never hassled me. They're set up differently and are not constantly screwing you over with fees for cheap money grabs. The one I use mainly has a full set of modern online features. My checking account automatically overdrafts into savings so disorganized me will receive 20 overdraft notifications a month, but it doesn't matter at all since there are no penalties or credit dings from it.

The single drawback would be getting fees from the ATMs of other banks but who uses cash anymore anyway? I only have the occasional need in a strip club and then I'd just wire transfer and go in prepared anyway instead of using some shady ATM.

I just uncovered my box full of 3.5 D&D & several other RPGs while cleaning out the shed, including Axis & Allies. I'm not sure what to do with them...a lot of stuff got tossed already like a nice manga collection since that shed is open to too much wildlife out here...only some boxes survived...I should learn to eBay but...dealing with people...blehhh. I hate that I'm throwing away thousands of dollars worth of junk though...so wasteful.

[Otaking]

I only played AD&D and a very little 2nd Edition. I've always wanted to get the opinion of someone with more experience with a broader range of games. What's your take on all the rules rage that you see all over the Web after every release? While I think that, from my limited playing of 2nd Edition, a few glaring problems got fixed, I thought that the system was drifting away from the fairly simple, open ended vision that Gygax had. Was I reading too much into what I saw?

I played a bunch since 2nd myself. 2nd was not very modular and if you didn't know where all the tables were it was hard to handle things out of the norm. 3.5 got into modularization of the rules. I won't deny that the modularization was needed as even in 2nd I played GURPS rules and just used D&D settings since I hated the locked down classes and narrow rule scope. GURPS had better rules but D&D had all the writers and artists in their payroll before M:TG sucked them all away.

A lot of people get used to one system and then they try to improve it and people see it as a money grab by Wizards or Hasbro or whoever the hell owns it now...which well you have to pay for something to do something so it's partially true.

Gygax himself released a more modular system back in the day that didn't do well due to legal troubles but it was awesome I still want a copy of this system and would play it today. Gygax had what the rule crunchers at Wizards of the Coast that have aped him since lacked...an imagination. When you pick up one of these books and see the spell descriptions your jaw will drop...even now after 40 years of RPGs, MMOs and everything in between.

http://www.waynesbooks.com/MythusDangerousJourneys.html

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

D&D had all the writers and artists in their payroll before M:TG sucked them all away.

I find this statement hilariously ironic since Wizards has owned TSR for several years now.

[NobodySpecial]

I remember having my hands on a copy of Chainmail and playing D&D when the three rulebooks came in the little white box. A nice lady nicknamed Mad Ruthie was my GM. I would love to play D&D again, but luck is against me - I even signed up for a 4.0 adventure at last year's RockCon and the GM never showed (I think he was sick.)

My Freemage style list looks like this:

D&D/AD&D/2.0
Call of Cthulhu (original edition)
Gamma World (first edition)
Melee/Wizard/TFT (God, I wish I still had THOSE. The forerunner of GURPS)
Villains and Vigilantes (I'm a playtester of one of the new books!)
Marvel Super Heroes (Original ed)
Traveller

I do miss gaming.

[sgtrock]

I remember having my hands on a copy of Chainmail and playing D&D when the three rulebooks came in the little white box. A nice lady nicknamed Mad Ruthie was my GM. I would love to play D&D again, but luck is against me - I even signed up for a 4.0 adventure at last year's RockCon and the GM never showed (I think he was sick.)

My Freemage style list looks like this:

D&D/AD&D/2.0
Call of Cthulhu (original edition)
Gamma World (first edition)
Melee/Wizard/TFT (God, I wish I still had THOSE. The forerunner of GURPS)
Villains and Vigilantes (I'm a playtester of one of the new books!)
Marvel Super Heroes (Original ed)
Traveller

I do miss gaming.

Oooh, Traveller! That's the only other system besides AD&D I ever played. Unfortunately, our group broke up before we really got started so I never got a chance to really learn it.

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

I remember having my hands on a copy of Chainmail and playing D&D when the three rulebooks came in the little white box. A nice lady nicknamed Mad Ruthie was my GM. I would love to play D&D again, but luck is against me - I even signed up for a 4.0 adventure at last year's RockCon and the GM never showed (I think he was sick.)

My Freemage style list looks like this:

D&D/AD&D/2.0
Call of Cthulhu (original edition)
Gamma World (first edition)
Melee/Wizard/TFT (God, I wish I still had THOSE. The forerunner of GURPS)
Villains and Vigilantes (I'm a playtester of one of the new books!)
Marvel Super Heroes (Original ed)
Traveller

I do miss gaming.

Oooh, Traveller! That's the only other system besides AD&D I ever played. Unfortunately, our group broke up before we really got started so I never got a chance to really learn it.

Y'know, I'd suggest we start a group here on the board, using one of the Java-chat channels, but I'm not sure we'd all manage to have our schedules intersect enough for it. And of course, then there's the issues of set-up (took 3 hours before we got that BESM game going, and that was with only about 3-4 of the 9 of us needing to make characters...) and agreeing on the system.

[Otaking]

Y'know, I'd suggest we start a group here on the board, using one of the Java-chat channels, but I'm not sure we'd all manage to have our schedules intersect enough for it. And of course, then there's the issues of set-up (took 3 hours before we got that BESM game going, and that was with only about 3-4 of the 9 of us needing to make characters...) and agreeing on the system.

T..there's a java chat on these boards?

I'd..tentatively...try it. I'd suggest that it's play-by-post instead of java chat though due to the schedules...maybe save java for those special encounters: penultimate villain battles,roll for pregnancy, large, chaotic & epic fights, and epic haggling over 150' of braided silk climbing rope and three weeks of rations, (deluxe).

As for the system I'm trygamesual so IDC. I'm sure the ladies are tired of us nerding up their thread here.

[Zanosuke Kurosaki]

>.> I'm just going to leave this here for the MLP:FiM folks (who've probably already seen it, but on the off-chance...)

Anyway! Otaking, we do have a chat that people from this board use, it's just not officially (as far as I know) part of the board, if the distinction makes sense. The thread with the location is right over here, but of course we'd need a different channel than the ones mentioned, because really, I'm sure the regulars don't want us to ultra-nerd it up too horribly. XD

[Lia S]

Today was Queen's Day, which among other things means people sitting on blankets on the streets selling things, mostly junk like toys that kids don't want anymore, and anything that is found in an attic.

Under a stack of dirty old keyboards that I'm sure nobody would buy I noticed a corner of what looked like an IBM model M. I pressed a key... *CLICK* - yup, definitely a model M. The couple selling it hadn't noticed me, each of them was chatting with a neighbour. Time to put on my best pokerface!

Me to woman: "Excuse me, how much do you want for a keyboard?" (Hey, she might just say "50 cents" but I couldn't offer that. Also, notice I said *a* keyboard.)
Her: "Name your price."
Me: "Um."
Her: "5 Euros" (The rest of them didn't even cost 5 Euros to produce...)
Me: *looks at stack of keyboards like, well, like one looks at a stack of worthless dirty old keyboards*
Her: "2.50?"
Me: "2 Euros."
Her: "Okay."
I pull the model M from the bottom of the stack and put it in my bag, the man finally notices something is being sold but didn't see what.
Him to woman, joking: "You're not selling things for a too low price, are you?"
Him to me: "What did you buy?"
I show him the keyboard in my bag.
Him: "Good choice, those are indestructible and the best keyboards ever made." (Then why are you selling it in a stack of e-trash? )
Me: "I know. And they won't give you carpal tunnel."
She talks about posture, he tries to sell me a very fancy power strip from the 80s or early 90s, but I have no use for it. I thank them and leave.

I spent most of the rest of the day testing, taking apart and cleaning the keyboard. The numpad 0 didn't work very well but I expect it will be fine now it's clean - but I don't use that key anyway. There also was some very light coffee damage (no serious rust), but apart from that it was surprisingly clean on the inside (I have some experience cleaning these things).

A few bits have to dry completely tonight before I finish putting it back together, but assuming it will work perfectly again, guess the value of a clean IBM model M built in 1988?

60 Euros. Minimum.

If I hadn't assumed I was buying spare parts, that would make me a terrible person .