Blue Flame/Black Teeny Tiny Dice Bag from Dragon Chow

Like many gamers I have far more dice than I probably need, most of which currently reside in a large beer stein (no beer, just dice).  Over the years I’ve owned a number of dice bags, but for some reason I no longer have any of them.  Through Twitter I’d been following a number of people who spoke highly of bags made by @geekylyndsay, so I decided to buy a bag from her site:  www.dragonchow.com.

The website offers dice bags in a variety of  fabrics including things like Batman logos, colorful flames, pebbles, aliens, and more, or you can get a custom dice bag.  Lindsay contructs each bag from two different fabrics in such a way that the bags are reversible.   The square bottom design allows them to stand on the table, even when empty. While most of her bags sit on a 4″ x 4″ base,  the day I went shopping for a bag she had a 1.5″ x 1.5″ based Teeny Tiny Dice Bag available in a blue flame/black fabric combination.  Because I do most of my gaming at home I decided to go with the Teeny Tiny Dice bag which sounded like it was perfectly sized for a single set of dice, plus a couple extra d20′s for those occasions when I travel to the game store for a game (always need to have an extra d20 or 2 in case one starts to misbehave). 

The dice bag arrived swiftly, in almost exactly 1 week and I was quite impressed.  The dice bag looked, and performed exactly as advertised.  My wife does some quilting, and other sewing projects around the house, so I checked out the stitching and it looked clean and tight.  In addition my order came with a hand written thank you note.  While in the scheme of things, almost every company in the gaming world is a small business, the quality of the work and the personal touches really impressed me.  

If you’re in the market for a dice bag, I definitely recommend taking a look at Dragon Chow’s products.   

To view more pictures of my Dragon Chow dice bag click here.

Waiting to Attack by Daniel M. Perez. Click on image to visit his blog.

I missed another Gen Con, but I kept my ears and eyes on Indianapolis thanks to the Internet.  Based on that news, here are the top things I wish I’d seen at Gen Con 2010. 

Ravenloft Board Game:  Budget is tight, and I’ll probably hold out for the fantasy themed Wrath of Ashardalon, but I wish I’d been able to see a demo of this game.  The board game sounds like an extreme rules light take on the Dungeons and Dragons rules, so my kids and I will probably enjoy it.  

Wil Wheaton: Geek royalty traveled to Gen Con, and I was not there to experience it.  On occasion, I’ve dropped Wil a note about something in gaming or geek culture that I thought he might find interesting and  he’s usually taken the time to drop a note in response.  I would have loved the opportunity to thank him for his contributions to the community, and to contribute at least 1 die to his ‘You can never have too many dice’ experiment. 

Fiasco: Because my actual gaming time is limited these days, I focus on Dungeons and Dragons.  That said, it would have been fun to get in on a session of Fiasco and try it out.  In fact, getting to try out and play new games, or just games you haven’t played much before, is probably the best thing about going to Gen Con or any gaming convention. 

Fantasy Flight Games:  Perhaps due to price, I’ve never looked closely at their board game, but looking at the photos coming back from Gen Con makes me realize I really should be paying closer attention to their releases, and find a place for at least one of their beautiful games on my shelves. 

Neoncon: Perhaps if I’d been at Gen Con this wouldn’t have been as important to me, but having watched much of Gen Con through the eyes of Jules (@d10again) and Doug (@NeonCon), I really wish I’d had the chance to meet them.  With luck, maybe someday I’ll get to see them at their own convention in Vegas.   

Games and People: I could name names and name games of people I would have loved to have met and gamed with at Gen Con, but I’d surely forget someone.  Based on my past experiences at Gen Con, even more important than product news and purchases is the chance to hang out and play games with a variety of people, both friends and strangers.

Blogs

Here I’m mentioning some specific posts I’ve read and enjoyed, but these sites may make additional posts before the weekend is over. 

Geek’s Dream Girl :  She and some other bloggers got to play the upcoming Castle Ravenloft board game on Wednesday before Gen Con and she’s already posted a review.  

Blog of Holding : Posted some highlights from the WOTC Design and Development Panel which was held on Thursday.

Video

YouTube : There are already some videos from this year’s Gen Con showing up on YouTube.  The link should show up with the most recent uploads first. 

NeonCon : I’m mentioning them again here because their live stream has been a blast so far.  Here’s a link to their YouTube as well, because I believe they intend on posting their videos there, though probably not until after the convention.

Beasts of War: Is posting some great looks at products on the Gen Con Dealer hall. 

Podcasts

The Tome Show : Has the WOTC Design and Development seminar released as a 2 part podcast (only first part up as I write this, but keep your eyes open for Pt. 2).

Photos

Flickr : How did I forget that one?  Lots of users posting Gen Con pics.  Link takes you to the Gen Con search, sorted to show most recent first.

Twitter

Probably the best way to keep up with GenCon over Twitter is to search for the #GenCon tag.  I expect I’ll keep a tab open in my browser for this almost constantly.  In addition to brief updates from the convention, there will probably be tons of links to online coverage as it appears.  You can also try the unhashed version for those who forget to tag their tweets.

In addition, here are a couple of folks I’ll be following who plan on Tweeting from Gen Con. 

WilW : Wil Wheaton…um…don’t think I need to explain who Wil is though perhaps a mention of Star Trek: The Next Generation, or w00tstock will refresh a few memories.

ChattyDM : blogger for Critical Hits.

excitesme : Mike Bohlmann of byswarm.com

KoboldQuarterly : Wolfgang Baur, aka monkeyking of Kobold Quarterly and Open Design. 

PurplePawn : Game news sight PurplePawn.

SagesofRPG : Gaming group from Portsmouth, NH 

Podcasts

This Just in From Gencon will be offering podcasts from Gen Con again this year, and have already posted a pre-GenCon podcast. 

Pixels and Grids did a couple podcasts and had some posts from Indianapolis last year and it looks like they’ll be there again this year.

Wandering Geek Podcast plans on posting daily episodes of Gen Con RAW in their podcast feed. 

GameSalute.com will be running a number of panels and posting some of these and possibly some interviews, and will be recording ‘shoutouts’ from Gen Con attendees at their booth.

Blogs

Sages of RPG: a new blog dedicated to promoting face to face gaming. 

Critical Hits: ChattyDM above says he’ll be blogging, and several other writers for the site will be there also, so hopefully we’ll get some additional posters as well. 

KoboldQuarterly: Expect to see a couple posts here over the weekend, and take a few minutes to read all the great ‘My First Gen Con’ articles posted there over the past few weeks.   

Livestream

NeonCon is providing a live stream from the floor at Gen Con!  Announcement here.  View the stream here, here, here, or here.  Coverage starts 10 AM on Thursday August 5th (date changed due to error in original announcement).  I’m very excited about this, and hope it works well so we’ll see similar coverage in the future.  I wish I could watch every moment, but I do have a job and a family, so I’ll be watching as much as I can.

More…

Yes, there’s bound to be more, and that means there will probably be a part 2, so keep an eye on my Twitter feed to find out when I get it posted.   And if you’ve got a site you’d like included in part 2, take a moment to leave a comment!

Completed spider miniature.

I’m planning a game session for my kids where I want to have a lot of ants, spiders, and other creepy crawly creatures for them to fight.  While I own a lot of Dungeons and Dragons miniatures, I don’t have enough figures of these types, and so I’ve been keeping my eye out for a cheap way to populate the dungeon tiles a bit more. 

On a recent vacation I stumbled upon a bag labeled Party Favors containing a dozen plastic spiders for 99 cents, and I knew they’d be perfect for my gaming needs.  In fact, I like them so much that as I write this, I’m wishing I’d bought more than 1 bag, especially since there were actually 4 slightly different varieties of spider in a single bag.  The variations are minor, but easy enough to see on the table so I could create a different stat card for each type of spider to add a little variety to the combat. 

While I could easily just lay these spiders right on the table and not be confused about which squares the figures occupied, I decided I wanted to be a little more official about them and add bases.  I tossed around ideas about what to use for a base.  I didn’t have any plastic bases for miniatures, so I took a little shopping trip and came home with some washers from the hardware aisle at Wal Mart, and some wooden disks from an arts and crafts store.  While either of them would have worked, neither one was quite what i wanted.  As I was thinking about it, I saw my daughter’s box of poker chips.**  While the size of the chips falls in between a medium and large base, it seemed a nice fit, so I grabbed a dozen of the white chips from her box. 

I set up to spray paint the chips black, but my paint was old, so I dug out a bottle of black acrylic craft paint and a foam brush and painted the chips.  While the painting was quick, I let it dry between steps, so it took one evening, and another morning to complete.  Once the paint was dry, I glued the spiders to the black chips with Crazy Glue, and I am now the proud owner of 12 large spiders for a cost of under $3.  Combined with some spiders from the official miniatures releases I should be able to send out enough spiders to give my children a nightmare or two, though I expect my son will be grinning when I set them on the table. 

I’ve put some more photos of the process, and the finished miniatures up on flickr, so click here for some additional pictures.  Now I just need to find a bag of plastic ants to go with them. 

Adventuring party makes it to the spiders' lair.

** No, my daughter doesn’t play poker, she just likes to stack up the different colors.  She does however play a mean game of Dog Eat Hot Dog.

Encounter area created using Harrowing Halls Dungeon Tiles

Some of my favorite Dungeons and Dragons accessories in recent years have been the Dungeon Tile product line.  While I’ve written about free methods of creating your own Dungeon Tiles, I appreciate the quality of those published by Wizards of the Coast.  With their two most recent sets, WOTC have added three-dimensional elements to their tile sets allowing for even more interesting map and room layouts. 

The first set to include 3D elements is DU6 Harrowing Halls

2 of the 6 tile sheets contain 3D elements, the remaining 4 sheets consists of mostly wooden floors and furnished rooms with wooden floors.  The 3D elements can assemble as either stone or wooden construction.  The pieces include platforms: 2 pcs 2″ x 4″ x 1″ high, 1 pc 2″ x 2″ x 2″ high, 1 pc 4″ x 4″ x 2″; a 2″ x 4″ x 2″ high set,of stairs, a 2″ wide doorway, and 3 tables.  Also among the 2D tiles is a 2″ x 8″ tile which includes a wooden bridge to stretch between your choice of platforms. 

The second set with 3D elements is DU7 Desert of Athas.

Again, 2 sheets out of 6 are used for 3D elements, the remaining tiles tend to be desert sands on one side, with water and some greenery elements on the other.  The 3D pieces include: a  4″ x 4″ x 2″ high platform of a more sand colored stone, which can reverse to a small adobe/plaster style house, a 2″ x 4″ x 2″ set of stairs colored to go with the large platform, a 2″ x 8″ x 1/2″ high platform printed up as a dock on one side, with gray stone on the other, a 2″ x 4″ x 1/2″ high platform again decorated in the dock/stone combination, a small market stall, a small wooden cart, and a 1″ x 2″ table that reverses to a stone sarcophagus. 

Overall I really love the sets, they assemble fairly easily, though it might be nice if they added some instructions, especially for some of the more unusual elements like the cart and market stall.  I’ve debated about weather the tabs should be a little longer, but as things assemble now, the tabs are close to flush allowing miniatures to stand flat on the various platforms, so I think they’re probably about the right length.  The inclusion of so many water tiles in a desert theme set might be a bit surprising, but I am glad to have those tiles, and I’m looking forward to using them with my RPGA ship tile. 

While I’ll still make use of my free tiles, I also expect I’ll wind up with 2 copies of each of these sets, and if your budget allows, I definitely recommend you buy  a set of each.

Additional photos on my flickr page.

Dark Trail by Scott Hudson (License info below)

Recently I’ve read a number of books about people hiking the Appalachian Trail. The trail stretches approximately 2178 miles from Georgia to Maine and can take 6 months to complete.  Even with all the modern equipment, and with town stops every few days on the trail, the trip is long and fraught with trouble and danger.

Hikers must be wary of bears, snakes, bugs, and the weather.  They haul an average of 40 – 60 lbs of equipment and food, and that’s with modern clothing rather than the various armors worn by most characters.  They have to be careful of slips and falls on the trail.  And though they’re following a marked and maintained trail, they still have to deal with downed trees and washed out sections of trail on occasion.

These stories started me thinking about the difficulties characters might experience when traveling from place to place. While every trip your PCs take shouldn’t be as difficult, a session of wilderness travel could include some challenging encounters, especially if your world design embraces the points of light idea offering small areas of civilization seperated by wide areas of hostile territory.    

I’m not a huge fan of random encounters, but this is the perfect spot for them, replacing the mundane nuisances of bugs, snakes, and bears with more challenging equivilents.  Stirges replace mosquitos, owlbears replace black bears, deathrattle viper or viper swarms in place of rattlesnakes, giant rats replace the mice trying to steal the party’s food while they sleep.  Instead of finding bits of civilization every few days, characters might come upon villages of hostile humanoids, or a giant’s encampment. 

Then there is the simple act of survival.  While you don’t want to turn the trip into a daily combination of skill checks, the trip can be written up as a skill challenge.  Succeeding on early skill checks leaves you better able to handle the random encounters that come later.  For example failing an Endurance check might shift one of the character’s Encounter Powers into a Daily Power for 1d4 days.  Failing a Dungeoneering check might lead to damaged equipment, leaving a character with a penalty to damage or armor class until the equipment can be repaired. Difficult terrain could lead to a fall, injuring the character and decreasing their speed until they spend a full day resting.

Not every trip should be treated as a wilderness excursion, plenty of trips will be over trade routes or through other more well traveled paths, but sometimes how you get there is half the adventure.

Some of the books I’ve read on this topic:

Walking with Spring by Earl Shaffer
On the Beaten Path by Robert Alden Rubin
There Are Mountains to Climb by Jean Deeds

Photo: Dark Trail by Scott Hudson/NJScott is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence.

A messenger approaches the player characters.  He bears a message asking the characters to meet with a potential employer, and offering them a fairly significant payment just to attend the meeting.  If the characters seem suspicious, offer to allow them to arrange the location of the meeting, with the only specification being that it should be somewhere private.

Everything about this meeting is legitimate, the only potential problem is that those requesting the meeting are kobold chief and 3-5 other members of his tribe.  This tribe acted as servants to an elderly dragon who recently died of old age, and now they need protection from other tribes in the area, and from other outsiders who might show up seeking the dragon’s treasure.

What happens from here depends on your players.  They could simply take their payment for attending the meeting and it would end there.  They could do exactly what the kobold fear and decide to go and try to take the dragon’s hoard for themselves.  Or they could accept the offer and this could be the start of a single adventure, or even a campaign where the player characters act as guardians to this kobold tribe.

Should they decide to try to get the treasure for themselves, be sure it is not an easy task.  If the player characters don’t take the job, it is quite likely the kobolds will find some form of protection for their treasure, whether they hire another group of adventurers, or purchase some sort of guardian creature.

If they take the job, they will be expected to protect the treasure from any number of possible opponents: parties of adventurers, rival kobold tribes, another dragon.  And while the kobolds will be somewhat generous due to their sudden wealth, allowing players unfettered access to the magical items in a dragon’s hoard could swiftly imbalance the game.  Either have the magic items missing, already taken by adventurers who took the most valuable objects, or place some of the magic items in a secret room well hidden by the piles of treasure.

The limits of where this encounter leads is only limited by where the players want to go with it.

1) Crime Pays from Goodman Games.  I love playing city based games, and the underworld is always important element of those sessions or campaigns.  Hoping to see find some good ideas to borrow from this one. 

2) GameMastery Flip-Mat: Prison from Paizo.  Perhaps this fits in with Crime Pays, a good prison break scenario, either with the PCs as prisoners, or breaking someone else out of the prison. 

3) Dragon Age: The RPG.  So much chatter about this game.  I haven’t even played the computer version.  I doubt I’ll pick this up, but I hope to get a chance to take a look at it. 

Anything you would reccomend I get a look at?  Please leave a comment.