D&D 40th Anniversary (Blog Hop Challenge) -- The first edition of D&D I didn't enjoy

Life in the post grid world ... 

The first edition of D&D I did not like was 3.0.  Previous to that, like most people I had only played a few versions of the game. I had pretty much only played either basic or 2nd edition D&D (a very brief run of 1st ed. but so brief it really doesn't count).  So why no love for post 3.0 era D&D?  For me it is the bane of RPGs the GRID!!  I dispise the grid.  I hate how it slows the game down, forces very terrible min-maxing into every players head.  In my experience I feel that the grid means story inevitably is sacrificed. So a strong opinion there and I am well aware it is just that an "opinion" and I have had many discussions with people who love the grid and feel it has enhanced their games, etc.   Even on blaming 3.0 for the grid is sort of wrong as the grid sort of stems from many things, the advanced combat rules in 2nd edition arguably had a grid. Many DMs out there had used a grid back in the earlier days.  Using graphing paper to draw maps in a way was a "grid", etc. etc.

In my view though when the official rules went full grid the game jumped the shark.  Again depending on perspective for better or worse the grid undeniably completely changed how D&D worked.  Some people loved it, I did not.   For me I do not like an RPG to center on miniatures.  Which is sort of odd giving my love of miniature gaming.  I like RPGs to center on what players are doing, on their characters feelings, motivations and fears.  I find that when minis hit the table, the game turns into a tactical board game and most of the immersion goes out the window.  Can things be fun still, hell yes, and for some people all the things they actually like about RPGs is enhanced by minis.  To each their own I say and if people like grid based D&D more power to them.  There is room for all persuasions and perversions in my view.  

My own trek with grid based D&D though, did not really hit very heavily with 3.0. I played one quick, four or five session game of it and was sort of meh about it and went back to a 2nd ed campaign.  A few years later I played in a short 3.5 game and again was meh about it.  I then played in a few hilarious Hackmaster games that lasted the better part of a year.  Then RPGs took a turn into OSR land for me with Tunnels and Trolls, and then I sort of just hit a period where we played everything but D&D for years.

4e was the first grid based version of D&D that I really got into.  I gave it a two year run as a player (I never DM'd that version of the game).  I gave it a full on college try and it was actually fun for a few months of that time.  The rest of the time it just never felt like D&D for me.  It was something else.  We never seemed to get as much done in the games, we argued more, there was far more "meta" talk and sideline non-game BSing, etc.  I never seemed to care about my characters as much and neither did the other players (totally subjective statement I concede).   But really what killed 4e, was WoTC of course.  They botched the support of the game so badly with the introduction of "essentials" that our group just folded up shop on 4e all together and went to Pathfinder for about a year.  After that I've just totally abandoned any grid based version of RPGs.  I refuse to play in any grid game again as a DM ... UNLESS ... I could do it with pre-gen characters and run the game like Descent and just do fun one shot dungeon crawls or something.  I think the grid would be great for that but in my humble opinion it is not as good at doing D&D as non-mini based versions were/are.  

Otherwise my forevermore preference with D&D is to stick with something clean, simple and classic feeling.  At present I'm very much enjoying Dungeon World for that.  But I could happily do other OSR style games.  Who knows though I have learned that in gaming nothing is forever and preferences of one's game group are fickle.  The winds of change constantly are blowing ...

D&D Anniversary blog hop challenge!

So I will give it a try for post 14.

I really have no story regarding my significant other and D&D.  My wife is a wonderful lady.  But she is essentially an anti-gamer.  She indulges me with my gaming, allowing me to take the time I want to for it, allowing me to often spend far too much on it, etc. etc.

But she has never really had even the most passing of interests in any gaming other than an occasional board game.  I tried early in our relationship to get her into video games, or RPGs and even once into mini games.  But she never had any desire to get into any of it.  She did play World of Warcraft with me for awhile ... (yes I played ... ashamed to admit it but I did ... and far far too much) so there was that.

Anyway here is my bestiary concept, actually used in my Dungeon World Game --

The Corpse Altar --

Corpse Altar	Solitary, Huge, Magical, Organized, Construct, Terrifying, Amorphous
The scrape of 1000 claws (2d6+5 damage)/damage of appropriately raised creature(s)	50+ HP	1 armor
Reach, Ignores Armor, Near, Far
Special Qualities: Unholy transformation, we are legion, the call of the grave, construct of the darkest arts, A corpse altar can be grotesquely beautiful or unimaginably horrible. It just depends on the nature of its creator. That said they are all completely malevolent and single minded in their desire to gorge on the living.

Corps altars can take on the form of an orgy of beautiful dead maidens. They can be a macabre collection of cavalry officers arrayed in battle formation. They might be a mountain of dead, with heads, hands, arms, legs and intestines bound up into a bloated stinking mass the size of a small city. They might be anything that the vile mind who created them chose to construct. Corpse altars might be obvious or deceptively concealed. They might inhabit the upper portion of a crypt or the lower portions. They might really be anywhere. Generally though they do need some source of moisture to keep their corpses hydrated. A corpse altar in the desert is a rare thing indeed. Instinct: The corpse altar always hungers

• The alter pulses with dark energy
• Corpse altars are the work of powerful necromancers. They often serve as guardians of places of power (or phylacteries). Thus they are often imbued with the power to raise their dead and/or any creatures who die in the vicinity should the need arise.
• The corpse altar can form its copious mountains of flesh into whatever it needs to slay the intruders (and/or add to its stores of flesh).

Lizardman project ... the pile grows!

Well the pile o' stuff has grown a little bit.  Here are two pictures, sort of poor quality but you can see mostly what I have there.  This is in addition to the stuff I posted about a week or so ago.  I have probably too many saurus and skink models now, but that is ok.  I have another 50 coming along with Lord Croak some chameleon skinks, some temple guard, more skinks with blow guns.

I just really need to get the substitute models for the newer big models. I don't dislike the new GW models but they are just too expensive for me to justify given that I'm not going to ever play this army in a tourney or anything.

Brother Vinni Minis having a Valentines Day Sale!

20% off on all the female figures in their range!

Perhaps that is a little more risque than everything in their range, they do have some cool minis though.  Really cool fantasy and sci-fi stuff.

\
I've been meaning to pick this one up forever!

D&D nostalgia .. continued

It was 1985.  I was but a wee lad.  I had utterly succumbed to the obsession of TSR's wondrous pen and paper masterpiece ... Red Box D&D.

The first store I purchased products to further my addiction was from a book store actually.  Called Waldenbooks.  Sadly the entire chain went out of business in 2011 I believe (I think Borders bought them out some years prior to that ... I don't recall for sure though).  Anyway my purchases were limited more by the stores supply than my bankroll.  At the time I was an independently wealthy paper route tycoon.  I had two seperate paper routs, a lucrative lawn mowing busiess AND I helped my neighbors "buck" bails of hay (i.e., toss hay bails up on trailers and then stack them in the barn).  So for a 10 year old kid I was loaded.  Money to burn and an addiction to feed!  

I wasn't the GM though so my needs weren't very great honestly.  I mostly bought the classic brown "complete" series books. I bought issues of Dragon and dice when they were available.  Never really got to buy minis as the store never carried them .. sadly. 

D&D Anniversary nostalgic blog hop challenge!

HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT SPLAT!! 

The first splatbook that I begged my DM to let me use ... hmmm ... hmmm

I believe I did ask the DM if I could use the complete book of dwarves.  I forget why to be honest.  Of course it had the cool kits and some special dwarven proficiencies I liked.  Also it just had cool stuff like gully dwarves!

Dungeons and Dragons 40th Anniversary -- Walk down nostalgia lane continues

So the first gaming magazine of any kind I can remember purchasing is an issue of Dragon Magazine.  Specifically the march 1986 issue ... I think.  I"m not sure honestly.  All those memories are blended together.  I recall looking at my Dad's HO train magazines, looking at Dragon and I might have even somehow ended up with a copy of White Dwarf.  The selection at Walden Books was really limited and when it came to gaming stuff, it seemed completely random and it was just very sporadic.  One month they'd get in a copy of something and then the next month they wouldn't (what it was I'm sure is they were quickly snatched up as they'd only order a single copy probably).  

Anyway the more memorable purchase for me came not in early childhood but in my mid-20s.  I was in graduate school.  I'd abandoned booze and sports, I'd been married in August of 1998.  This "settling down" drew me back to the idea of a gaming as a hobby.

This issue,  along with my purchase of some randome 2nd edition D&D stuff that I snagged at the Hobbytown USA store on West Sahara in Las Vegas in late May or June of 1999 started me down the path towards gaming in actuality.  But it was really probably the Warhammer Fantasy Battles 6th edition boxed set about a year later that pulled me back in entirely.  Though I'd never actually use those minis for anything.  I put them together and painted most of them up.  Didn't really find a good group to play with until about six months later and then I realized all those folks were doing 40k.  So I went out and got into that and the next six years of my gaming life were utter bliss.  We had a wonderful club of working professional late 28s to early 50s age folks, everyone painting their armies, showing up to club meetings and club events, etc. It was my true golden age of gaming.  I've been chasing it ever since I lost it.  Today with everyone head-jacked into their Iphone and wasting time on the internet (I know funny coincidence I'm typing that on my blog ... lol).  I think that much of the disposable time we had in the late 90s early 2000s is now lost, mostly wasted.  So fewer and fewer people have the willpower to paint minis, etc.

I don't think gaming is dead, by no means.  I just think it has to evolve.  Gaming has to take less time than it once did.  The luxury of all day gaming on Saturday and Sunday afternoons is forever gone for most people. At least where I'm at in the world.  Anyway the trip down memory lane inevitably leads to melancholy right? Only ten posts about D&D and I'm already there?  LOL.  Where will I be by the twentieth post!!

D&D's 40th Anniversary ... the walk down nostalgia lane continues!

The first actual game I played was a home brew game.  I talked about that a big a few posts ago.  To summarize it was something conjured up from the minds of 10 to 14 year old adolescents.  Replete with hilariously improbable combos, zany ecology, laughably politics, etc.  in short it was splendid fun! We played for about ten months I think in our home brew world.  Then a few PCs died, and we had some transition in the group.  We were kids, totally different kind of game when your a group of 10-14 year old kids vs. adults.  

Anyway the first published campaign setting I played in was actually the Mystara stuff.   I fondly recall a generic start

I believe we did some of the Karameikos stuff, we went to Glantri, did more home brew stuff in Mystara and I think our DM used some other modules too and subtly disguised them.  He never really told us when he was running a module or not.  I was ten and eleven years old and didn't really pay much attention to that sort of thing.  I was more concerned about what my character was going to do next and whatnot.  Its honestly been years and years since I even thought about this stuff ... lol.  Those were the days though, the golden age of RPG adventure for me anyway.  

So the first dice I ever purchased.  I believe it was way, way, way back in 1985 at the Walden Books in tiny Hermiston, Oregon.  I don't recall the price, but I want to say they were around $5.00 which would be like a $15-20 pricetag on dice now.

All that remains of that set is .... 

No recollection of what brand they were, the packaging, or anything.  They've been in the chest o' dice ever since I was a kid.  Though their number has dwindled to this ...

Dungeons and Dragons 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge! First D&D Product I ever purchased ...

The first product I ever purchased ... 

Red Box D&D and rather than plundering it from online, I actually took a picture of my copy.  It is missing everything except the players handbook and the DM guide.  The dice are lost to the sands of time, the little pencil, etc. etc. 

Our DM had his own copy, but having another set of dice and an extra players handbook was a must.  So being an independently wealthy fellow in those days (ahh the days of living with mom and dad and having a paper route!) I sprung for one and then we had a set of dice for the players and a set for the DM.  I was honestly a little stingy with my PHB, but the other one only had to be shared between four players instead of five.  

1st Player Death in an RPG

First character death ... 

I have to admit that I have had very few character deaths, and never died in an actual D&D game.  The times we've had a party wipe I was playing a rogue who manged to cut and run.   Even in 4e where that isn't really always possible (thanks to the damn grid) I managed to escape via some GM adjudication.   I've been close of course a hundred times.  I am not a professional D&D player, nor am I a super genius who always outsmarts the DM.  I do usually take a leadership role if I'm playing OR I tend to be the a stealthy scout type character.  One would think I would therefor have had more player deaths, but I guess I just play conservative.  I try to plan ahead and talk things out with the party, etc. and make good choices.  So maybe that yields less player death.  I really enjoy more realistic, immersive  RPGing where the game is approached that way.  Instead of kicking doors in and behaving gung-ho crazy all the time, methodical calculated moves.  That is what I like to think it is.  But maybe I've just had wamby-pamby DMs ... I don't know.  Actually I think I've generally been lucky with the DMs I've had for the most part (of course I've had a few that were not very skilled, as most of us have). 

I do know that when I'm running games, I tend to have some player deaths.  I'm not a killer DM who squishes PCs for fun constantly.  But when a party does something that is going to put them in a deadly spot, I feel it is incumbent upon me to deliver.  That makes the game more enjoyable for us all in the long run.  I feel it is my job to populate the world, make it live and breath and to make the game feel exciting and real danger is a big part of that.  Fudging for the party to live all the time, no matter what, makes the game boring really quickly ... at least in my experience and opinion. 

The only fantasy game I've had a PC death in was in a Hackmaster game.  I was actually playing a 2 player game.  The DM was running an interesting game, with two evil PCs.  We were really just doing a kick the tires kind of test run on the system before we launched into a full game with a five party group.  We had three months to finish our campaign.  I was playing a grel (Dark Elf) assassin and the other person was playing a dwarf thief.  We both had a few solo adventures to bring us to the point where our characters met. I was playing a cold calculated character, trying to be sort of serious (yes in a Hackmaster game that is pretty funny isn't it ... lol) and he was just playing a chaotic insane character.  Well long story short.  Towards the end of the campaign we were in a town, completing an assassination job.  We just finished offing the deputy mayor (and his poor guards, and probably half of his family ... we were instructed not to be quiet about it and make it look like orcs did it) and had collected our payment.  We ended up down the coast in another larger town with money to burn and no direct business at hand.  So the other player in the game decided to break into a large estate ... because ... why?!? (satisfactory answer never produced, silly me for not riding off into the sunset at that point eh?).

I urged him not to, I threatened him to no avail, even offered a bribe, but he was insistent so in the end I begrudgingly followed and agreed to at most play lookout.  Well he badly botched the "burglary" which turned into a full on robbery (including offing the residents of the home, but not before one of them made it to the street and alerted the town guard).  I was in a nearby tree playing lookout, but of course my companion allowed the one survivor to escape out of the front of the home.  He wasn't supposed to attack anyone, let alone murder them all!

So I cut and ran at that point, but it was too late. The alarm was sounded and I was on a more dangerous street before I knew it and quickly surrounded by amazingly competent, mixed-unit town guards.  One of the guards made me out as a bandit and I was caught.  The other PC was killed outright as he fled.  I tried to talk my way out of it.  I was nearly successful as I had a compelling line.  But the GM gave me minuses due to my carrying a substantial amount of wealth.  My dice abandoned me and I was sent to the block the next morning.  Something of an ignoble end ... but ... the campaign itself was fun.  We never played evil for one thing, so it was novel in that regard.  Also a two player game was strange too.  We got so much done usually.  My fellow player, Jason, was not used to playing an evil character (neither was I honestly) so he just played like a mad man.  It was funny at first, but as the game went on it became annoying honestly.  So when the game was over, I was a little relieved.  But it was the one black mark on my record, and with a character I liked no less! But as they say ... crime doesn't pay ... so there you have it.  My one and only fantasy PC death to date.

I've had a score of non-fantasy PC deaths though.  Many characters downed in Rifts, Shadowrun, Apocalypse World, Gamma World, Deadlands, D20 Modern, hell I even had a PC die in a Dogs in the Vineyard game once.  

First character to reach high level -- D&D 40th anniversary blog post-a-thon

The first character I ever leveled from low level to high level ... 2nd ed. D&D in 2000-02.  Yes we were sort of behind the times, clinging to 2nd ed. right as 3rd was coming out.  No one knew what OSR was back then, but we were practicing our own brand. 

Barak the dwarven cleric was the characters name, a follower of Moradin and a paragon of wisdom and virtue (well at least in the beginning).  It was actually during the second time around with D&D for me.  To explain what that means,  I left D&D in middle school and didn't really come back to it until my mid 20s. My first experience with D&D as an adult was a second edition game.  I had been wargaming with a club in Las Vegas (the Las Vegas Gamers Club, LVGC) for a few years when one day a friend struck up conversation about D&D.  Well several of us were there and before we knew it we were talking about forming up a game.  He offered to run the game for us and next thing we knew ... every Saturday from noon to about 2 AM at my place was devoted to D&D.

My wife frequently worked on the weekends, we had no kids yet and loads of disposable income.  So we were leasing this gorgeous 4,000 square foot house.  I had a titanic game room.  The DM just opened it up to anyone who wanted to play.  So we had and your going to gasp here ... TWELVE ... players for a time and rarely below eight players.  I can tell you as someone who has DM'd games, played in probably something like 50 games now run by dozens of DMs (many at conventions admittedly but still) that I would never play in nor run a game at over six players and six is pushing it.  So how the hell that twelve player game worked I don't know.

The only thing I can say is it was a group of people who felt so nostalgic about the game.  We were all caught up in that so much I think it just was one of those once in a blue moon kind of things.  The rule was no table-talk/meta talk and absolutely no sideline BSing.  We were supposed to keep things in character whenever possible.  We had a 30 minute period for housekeeping stuff with the DM at the beginning of the game and that was it.   The sessions did go long, but for such a big party we seemed to get a lot done.   We faithfully played every week for the better part of two years and I legitimately leveled from one to fourteen with little to no DM fudging on exp, etc.  Our exp was chopped up pretty heavily due to the large party size, yet our large party allowed us to take on some pretty powerful encounters that would have been beyond our level otherwise.  One other player hit 14 but everyone else in the group lost at least one character along the way.

The game itself was fun, a home brew, nothing amazing other than it marked my return along with many others at the table to RPGs so it was very memorable.  The campaign involved us chasing this vile lich and his band of horrors and dark servants.  In the end a terrible spell mishap sent Barak into the deep ether and the DM gave me a choice (via a side bar in another room) ... Barak would die, unless he made a pact with an evil deity Abbathor. 

So over several weeks Barak began to behave strangely.  He had a new amulet (disguised his true alignment) with a strange symbol on it.  I didn't play that up but it was sort of a case of hiding in plain sight.  The party went on for a few months and slowly I was weaving a plan of vile deceit with the DM nudging me along.  I felt bad, but it was hilarious fun as well.  Anyway long story short I staged a coup d'etat in my home hold, seized control from my elder brother had him and my entire family imprisoned as well as the party.  They were all so betrayed and actually angry.  It was a moment of triumph and tragedy.  The campaign went on for a few more weeks after that, they escaped, raised an army and met my forces (who fought along side the lich) and the forces of good barely prevailed.

We all had a blast and vowed to play again, but somehow we never did re-form that group.  We splintered off into other groups over the years and honestly I've lost contact with them all.  I live in a different state, etc.

I'll always remember the game though.  I don't think it was even in my own top ten in terms of quality, but the level of fun and excitement each week makes it as memorable as they come for me anyway. 

D&D 40th Anniversary post-a-thon

What was the first vanquished dragon in a D&D game I was playing in ... 

An adult red dragon.  In the air no less.

We being the foolhardy party we were, were all in flight via various inept means.  To be honest I have no idea why we were even in flight.  This was a 2nd edition D&D game so of course the thing had amazing speed and maneuverability.  For all intents and purposes, it was an F-16, vs. people with large weather balloons on their backs.  Well not literally balloons but we were flying via lower level means, potions, wands and basically just levitating up about a mile or so away from the mountain out in mid air (why we opted to do this I can't recall).  Why were we doing this at all?  In an attempt to gain entrance to a neigh on inaccessible cave, that was supposed to contain ... red dragon eggs.  Hmmmm.  Yes in retrospect probably not the best of pursuits. 

We managed to pull out a victory, only after a party members plummeted to their death, one was crunched in the jaws of the beast and another almost died.  How did we win?  Well some lose DM adjudication of how potions of speed would work on an elf ranger, giving him outrageous numbers of attacks. That and a few well timed spells by the wizard.

That was the first time I ever encountered a dragon.  Memorable, and deadly.  I actually survived the fall thanks to a well timed feather fall spell (from a wand no less) ... a spell that was in my opinion one of the ultimate get out of jail free spells. Back in the day it saved my bacon more than once ...

The first D&D dungeon I ever encountered ...

I do not think this was a very remarkable experience for me, I do not remember it much.  I think it was all very exciting of course and that is what is memorable.

As I've discussed in the previous two posts, the first D&D game I played in was in 1985.  The first dungeon in that game, I have mostly forgotten.  I recall my silly escapade with cooking and consuming troll meat.  Yes there must have been a troll then ... right.  Well I do recall goblins.  A gelatinous cube.  A mimic.  Seeing a pattern here?

Yes it was zany ... Gygax-esq ... nonsensical dungeon ecology 101.

But it was fun.  It was entertaining.  It was exactly what one would expect from a game being run by a 6th grader for a bunch of 4th graders.  Right out of an episode of Adventure Time ....

Ahhh those were the days ... we didn't care if things were silly, campy, zany.  We just were in it for pure unadulterated fun.  Why can't everything be that simple anymore?

40th anniversary of D&D Blog Hop Challenge .. Post 2

The first person I introduced to D&D was actually a friend to the first D&D campaign I'd ever participated in.  His name was Matt and I asked our DM if he could participate after one of the older kids dropped out due to being gone all summer.  It isn't a terribly interesting story about Matt really.  I believe he rolled up a human fighter, and I can't recall his name.  We weren't very inspired with that sort of thing then so probably something similar to my character's name of "Bill" (yes named after the pony from the Lord of the Rings if you must know). 

It was the "sandlot" era of my life.  We were just a group of kids, idling away lazy summer days and evenings with endless games of D&D.  It was 1985, we had no cable TV where I lived (rural eastern Oregon) we had no internet, hell none of us even really had very good access to video games.

So we played outside all day and when we felt like it we piled into Jeff's rec-room and had epic good times.  We had sessions that lasted for days.  We'd all stay over at Jeff's, his mom would make us pancakes and we'd subsist on PBJ the rest of the time.  Until someone's parents would feel guilty that their child had been over there for 3 days straight and they'd break the game up.  We were persistent though, we'd be back at it a few days later.  

Matt managed to hang in there all summer and saved the party more than once.  But once school started up in the fall he had to drop out and our game was a four person game until Xmas break.  

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge

D&D 40th Anniversary Blog Hop Challenge --

Day 1 --

The year was 1985 --  Back to the Future, The Goonies, The Breakfast Club, Commando, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, European Vacation, Brazil, Rambo II, Rocky VI.  Average cost of a gallon of gas was $1.09, postage stamps were 22 cents, the average movie theater ticket price was $2.75.  Ronald Reagan, the great "communicator" was President of the United States and Mikhail Gorbachev replaced Konstantin Chernenko as Soviet leader. GI Joe and Transformers were still in their first run, my little sister was annoying me with my little pony, cabbage patch kids and carebears.  In short it was full on 1980s ... Duran Duran, Dire Straights, Madonna, Phil Collins ... my birthday was on a Monday that year :(

1985 was a damn good year though all in all and one of the main reasons that was ... I was introduced to D&D for the first time.  The Frank Mentzer iconic "Red Box" in all its Elmore-ic glory pulled me in.  How could I resist that single set of old school color the numbers in dice that we all had to share.  The set was such an object of mystery and wonder.

The first person to introduce me to D&D was my friend Jeff (a friend and classmates older brother).  I was just one of his little brothers friends, until one weekend I was spending the night over at their house and somehow in conversation I mentioned I liked the hobbit and I had read the Lord of the Rings.  Bear in mind I was 10 years old (I really had fully read both of those works, I can't say I fully understood them, but every page I had conquered!) so he was sort of shocked, and he being the worldly 13 years old ... well ... it was pretty awesome to have something in common.

That prompted him to invite me to play in his weekly D&D game.  Which paved the way for his younger brothers Brian and Nolan to also get a seat.  He'd be running a game for one or two of his friends and he wanted to expand the game and the party.

It was to date probably the most fun I've ever had with D&D.  It was a mind altering experience.  I'm sure if I could step back in time I'd laugh at the terrible tropes and execution of the game.  But it was my first experience with D&D and therefore in my mind it can never be surpassed.  We had nearly two years of glorious adventures.

My character "Bill the dwarf" started out rather dim and dull, one of my first games involved me asking the question "so I can do anything I want right? Like anything?"  ... DM Reply "Yes, but you have to ask first and then I'll make you roll for it"  Me ... "Ok.  Umm that troll we just killed.  I want to see what it tastes like.  Can I build a fire and cook some up?"  DM ... "Uhhh ... you realize your in a dungeon right?  You also realize that it is a filthy troll, not generally known for good eating!"  I proceeded with my foolhardy test of "you can do anything" and Bill became rather ill.  He managed to survive and the party fought off the wandering band of goblins who were attracted to the smell of burning troll flesh (pretty desperate even for goblins I have to say in retrospect).  The campaign rolled on from there into far more interesting and fun places.

The large piece of paper Jeff used to sketch out our world map after each major section of the adventure allowed us to see the places where we'd been during our game.  He hung it on his wall and it sort of marked out our achievements.  Oh what I wouldn't give for that map now, a truly priceless piece of treasure that would be ... 

The Lizardmen project continues ...

So I have received more stuff from eBay for the Lizardmen project.  I have a few more lots with offers/bids on them right now so we'll see. 

 

What is in the picture there is 32 skink archers (the older models, which I happen to really like) along with  50 of the newer style saurus models (with shields and hand weapons) as well as a older style pewter stegadon and a pewter carnosaur. 

 

My hope is I can use some of the old saurus models mixed in with the new ones.  I really do like the new models though, they are pretty nice.  Again I have no real plan for color scheme, etc. just yet.  I'm sort of hoping to acquire more of the army still and then sort of see what I have to go with.

 

Given that this army might well see multiple versions of the rules.  Certainly we are going to be doing some 6th ed. games, but also who knows how 9th will turn out.  If all the rumors are true and they take the game back to a lower model count style, quicker playing game then it might draw me in.

 

So I'd like to end up with at least 2-3 units of saurus with hand weapons, then 2-3 with spears (so I could optionally run one big unit of either or both).  I haven't even looked into what the skink can take, nor have I started really working much on the rares and specials or characters.  I do have an old style slann mage priest still coming in the mail from the UK, which I am probably going to look into magnetizing so he can be mounted on an old stegadon or on a platform on his own within a unit, or even maybe on one of the newer stegadons, etc.

 

So I am in the very early stages of the project still.  I am poking around on the internet still for terrain ideas, etc.   

Are lead minis dangerous for children and is it ok to tell a parent how they should view/treat lead minis in their home?

As a mini gamer often the lead vs. non-lead debate makes me feel like a vegan at a cattle ranchers convention.  It is easy to offend some gamers by just mentioning "lead free."  On more than one occasion just asking if something has lead in it has gotten me dirty looks, and or embroiled nasty flame-rants, etc.

So in response to a discussion about this I've had in the past and recently online.  I thought I'd just make a blog post about it and sort of once and for all, just for my own catharsis, just talk about it a little bit.

First my take on lead is as follows.  Can you be an over protective parent and just get carried away with sanitizing your home and going nuts about stuff?  Of course.  I believe there is a balance.  The flip side to that is that I also believe it is a slippery slope to start saying that "well there is dangerous stuff all around us we just have to deal with it."  To me I end up asking, so the point is "best to ignore it all"? 

The answer to the question of whether or not one should have lead minis in their home is 100% an independent call.  It really all just depends on where and how they are stored and whether or not they have kids.  If one does not have kids, it is really a non-issue.  Far more dangerous things in the world to worry about.  Even if one has kids, I do agree that there are likely more dangerous things in the cleaning cabinet than lead minis. 

Ultimately I think this is always going to be a choice of the individual and I think that should be what the community viewpoint is.  I don't think people on either side should criticize.  Yet I see a lot of smugness out there.  I have seen endless comments dismissing the danger of lead as trivial.  I rarely see people bashing leadheads for owning their lead minis though, not saying it doesn't happen, but I think it is far less frequent than teasing about "don't eat the lead mini and you'll be ok" sorts of dismissive comments many wargamers make on the issue.

 

Have kids been harmed?

While as many as 20 million birds and animals die each year from lead exposure and the World Health Organization "estimated 143,000 deaths per year result from lead poisoning, with lead paint is a major contributor. Exposure contributes to 600,000 new cases of children with intellectual disabilities every year and 99 percent of children affected by high exposure to lead live in low- and middle-income countries." From LINK

Though to answer the question directly, how many kids in say the US, Canada and the UK die each year from eating minis.  Probably zero, maybe one every several years, those are just guesses as I couldn't find any info on that.  Given the somewhat high standards, lots of consumer protections and industries that don't want to get hit with class action suits I would think we in the post industrial world have it far better than our third world neighbors.  From what I have read I believe the vast majority of the lead poisoning deaths that occur are in the third world, central Africa, and in nations where there are little to no environmental, health, workplace safety and consumer protection regulation.  All that said it only takes trace amounts of lead in a small child's system to do irreparable, potentially very serious damage that will have a life long negative impact.

 

So there are not thousands of poor little kids eating classic 80s lead minis and dying every year.  I haven't heard anyone out there really making that claim though.

 

Anyway to get back to the discussion at hand.  Ok what is the deal with lead? Is it really dangerous to kids?  The quick and factually undeniable answer is YES.

You can go and do the research if you'd like on why lead is deemed toxic to children.  Here is a basic fact sheet on it LINK

Here is a National Safety Council piece on lead safety LINK

Here is a Centers for Disease Control info page on lead safety LINK

Here is a decent article from the Huffington Post on the topic (yes I know the Huff post is a left lefty publication, but I believe the article is soundly written without bias in terms of their stats, etc.).  LINK

There are many better sources out there and one can spend days and days reading up on it.  In general there is zero debate though that lead is extremely dangerous and harmful to children under the age of 12 for sure and most sources say that children as old as 18 (as long as they are still developing mentally and physically) can be adversely impacted. 

So are there any cases of harm befalling children from lead, I feel compelled to provide at least one.  But again that was not the nature of this post, I did not for the record seek to make any sort of negative statement on lead minis, etc. etc.

The question about whether or not children have been negatively impacted by lead minis is a complex one.  First you do not die from lead exposure, in order to cause death exposure has to be extreme.  There have been children who have died from lead poisoning though for sure. 

Here is at least a confirmed caste of a child dying from swallowing a "lead charm" which hmm ... what is a small lead mini after all.  Bear in mind that it looks like that charm had a high lead content like above 90% which for minis is somewhat rare.  I think most lead minis even back in the day were a mix and it seems like 60-70% lead I've heard was/is the norm for "lead" minis.

It is from the Minnesota department of Health, again a reputable site, LINK

Oddly enough that incident involved a heart shaped charm that had something to do with Reebok shoes and there was a multimillion dollar lawsuit a few years after the child's death over it. 

There have been many reported instances of adverse exposures and whatnot and stats on the overall lead exposure rates and the effect can be found readily. 

But finding cases of child lead poisoning from minis, I'd be surprised if one found any.  While I do not think you will find CNN or the local newspaper taking up stories about kids eating miniatures, I am certain that children have had harmful lead exposure from lead miniatures.  It is just a law of large numbers thing.  The reality too with lead is that again, people do not often die from it, adults get lead poisoning and then get treatment.  Kids if they don't get outright lead poisoning then they just get ADDHD, they have a lower IQ and a host of other permanent health issues.  So how and when is that going to be detected?  Who is going to be able to prove that 20 years ago that old grenadier mini the kid ate gave them a learning disability?  Again though one can have lead exposure as a kid and continue to live and probably 99.9999999999999999999% do without much detection or change.  If you have ADDHD as a kid, you can survive and even thrive, but your life is going to be more challenging.  If you take a 10 point hit to your IQ, same thing.

So the majority of issues from lead exposure are probably not even detected.  So who is to say how much of a problem it is or is not.  Clearly manufacturers that sell minis to children have either stopped producing with lead or labeled their products to warn parents not to let children (usually the label says "under 14") play with them.

Also I want to say again that I do not judge other parents who feel they can safely have lead minis in their home with kids around, I am quite positive that it can easily, safely can be done.  I happen to have FIVE children who are all under the age of nine and who are particularly adept at getting into pretty much everything.  There have been instances where my older children have gotten into something in a matter of just a few minutes and had the younger child end up with whatever it was they were into.

For me as a parent if there is a miniscule chance of any of that sort of negative thing happening to my kids I take notice.  At the end of the day the lead issue boils down to me having specific miniatures.  I will opt not to have those minis and just use other minis instead.  For me it is a no-brainer.  For others who feel they can safely secure things, etc. and keep them away from the kids, it also might be a no-brainer in the other direction.  I would not presume to judge them and I would  hope they would not judge me.   

Conclusion

I game for fun, it is a little hobby.  If there is a one in a million chance something could be permanently harmful to my children I do whatever I can to keep it out of their reach or just look for a safer alternative.  With lead the decision was easy.  It is non-essential to our life, I didn't have very much, I got rid of what I had and just don't bring more into the house.  My choice, not a blanket statement that every other mini gamer should follow my example.  Yet asking if there are lead free options I feel that is A-OK thing to do and I shouldn't have to endlessly justify that request to others.  Again I do not feel that I have the right to go around and ask people if they have kids and then if they say yes tell them they shouldn't have lead around.  I would feel like a jerk and I'd be totally in the wrong.  But I have never done that.  I've never gone somewhere and said "lead is bad and you are a bad person if you have lead minis" or "if you have lead minis as a parent you are a bad parent" ... seriously though I feel as though saying those things would get just the same response I get when I just ask "is there lead in that" or "hey does anyone know of a lead free option for this fig" ... etc.

I have owned lead figures in the past and might again in the future (when my children are much older than ages 3-9).  The reality for me is I do not honestly lament not being a lead collector very much anymore.  There are a few ranges out there with figures I'd like to own for sure that I have avoided but its not a major thing for me.  I did have to get rid of maybe 100 or so not very rare or valuable figures.  The biggest hit was getting rid of a couple of Flames of War armies at fire sale prices, but such is life. 

I am perfectly happy keeping my minis lead free pewter, plastic and resin.  It isn't that big of a deal honestly and I understand many out there dearly love lead minis.  I do too really.  So perhaps we should all just get along.  If I ask for a lead free option, it doesn't mean I'm saying lead is bad.  I just have another preference. 

My only big minis project for 2014!!

I am starting a new Oldhammer-ish army that I hope to get done by the fall of 2014. (I'm thinking for use in 5th and/or 6th edition WHFB games).  I have endless small side projects I'd like to get done but those come and go and some make it and many end up in my garage game stuff attic (only to be wonderfully "re-discovered" years later like that lot in the picture).

For said project, which I am hoping to turn that bit o' stuff up there int a really big very versatile army.  I'd like to use it mainly for 6th edition WHFB but I'm also hoping to have enough flexibility to use it for maybe Kings of War (proxies for another army) and who knows maybe 9th ed. WHFB (if it is good).  leftover from some acquisition off of ebay of a mixed WHFB lot about five or so years back (or more).  There is something like 20 rider-less pterodactyl models, two stegadons without the crew (but the howdah is there and all the other bits) and a couple of temple guard and of course the newer style slaan.

So on that note I am looking for some alternative lizardmen and after combing the internet (its really difficult even with a big brush) I have found not a hell of a lot. Oh yes some individual figs from Reaper, some blood bowl stuff that might be converted, things from companies like Privateer Press and whatnot. Overall though compared to some of the other ranges I am sad that there isn't a bit more out there.

I'm hoping to have this wrapped up by fall of 2014 ... including acquiring, assembling and painting the army AS WELL AS getting a decent amount of jungle and lizardmen terrain done up to go along with it all.

Honestly I've participated with the OSR stuff with RPGs and in my experience sadly elitism in some regard dominates much of that community (at least in places online, and in my experience in many local gaming communities).  Scorched earth version wars have left a bloody, divided landscape when it comes to the lands of D&D.  For years now the Pathfinder loyalists have disparaged the 3.5 only guys who laugh at the 4e fans, and from their craggy towers of old the OSR guys turn their noses up at everyone else.  Lets not even talk about the "indie" RPG fan, who know Vincent Baker personally ... ugh.  Why so much hate?  Its as bad as Apple vs. Android or Star Wars vs. Star Trek.

I guess we just like to point fingers at and feeling superior to "NOT LIKE US!!" Perhaps this is indeed just the human condition, hard wired into our lizard brain somewhere. 

The tragedy in this all though is the bottom line is we do this for fun.  So why don't we gamers rally around the commonality rather than the really insignificant difference?

 

So to turn the conversation to Oldhammer ...

 

Let me ask this; if people want to use current range models blended in with classic lead is that ok?  If a poor fella or a young kid just starting out in mini gaming wanders into the enclosures of Oldhammer ... and they don't have a vast collection of classic lead or the money to acquire it ... shall they be turned away?

The answer to that question, from what I'm seeing is ... NO THEY SHALL NOT!

The Oldhammer community seems very open, friendly and accepting of various versions, preferences, ideas and beliefs.  I see next to no elitism or "this is the BEST" sure people have opinions and preferences but I do not see any lines in the sand being drawn.  I don't see anyone defining Oldhammer as 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle ... ONLY.  I see a lot of flexibility.  I see people using brand new GW stuff, heck I see blogs out there where people are playing 6th ed 40K avidly as well as 6th ed WHFB. 

I really like what I see so far and hope that this is the direction Oldhammer continues to move forever.  It would be a true renaissance for mini gaming if that ends up being the case.