new gadget.

Will be a bit quiet for a while. Just got a new toy.

McDougall's Good Stories for Children: Dinosaur

Public domain story from a an old paper. Please see links at the end. Slightly better formatted more errorful version can be found at my Scribd page.

[caption id="attachment_622" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Dinosaur Story"][/caption]

HARRY RAMSDELL sat on the steps reading, and his little brother Gardiner sat beside him watching the antics of seven small puppies that, rolling over their mother, gnawing her stumpy tail and otherwise disturbing her rest, seemed to be having the time of their lives. After i space, Gardiner spoke:

"Ain't they funny said he. "Say, Harry, do all little animals have fun like that?"

"Most of them," replied Harry, looking very wise, as he always did when his small brother asked questions, for Harry was twelve and very learned, indeed.

"Do turtles?" asked Gardiner. "I'd like to see a litter of turtles cutting up."

"Aw, turtles come from eggs," said his brother, scornfully. "They don't have any fun. The mother turtle just leaves the eggs in the sand and they hatch out: that's all. Sun does it, I guess."

"That's funny." cried Gardiner. "I'd like to see them in the turtle's nest."

"Oh, golly," cried Harry. "They don't make any nest, I tell you just dig a hole in the sand; that's all.”

"I thought only birds laid eggs," added the little fellow.

"All reptiles – turtles, snakes, frogs, lizards – as well as insects, lay eggs," said the wise brother. "Some of them make a sort of nest, that is. the insects do, but not the lizards and things. I guess they are hatched out by the sun's heat. I've seen an ant's nest. It's fine."

"I wonder," mused Gardiner, "if you found some turtle's eggs somewhere and brought 'em home would they hatch out by the stove?”

"Why, I suppose so, but I guess it would be pretty hard to find 'em,” replied Harry, and then he sat thinking instead of reading, for the question had aroused interest in such a search. He decided to make an effort to find some turtle's eggs and try the experiment for himself before the summer came.

Return to RPGs IV: My Love For Sheena Easton's Tail.

Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Well not really. What do we know about Sheena? Wikipediarrrr!

Sheena Easton (born Sheena Shirley Orr; 27 April 1959) is a Scottish recording artist. Easton became famous for being the focus of an episode in the British television programme The Big Time, which recorded her attempts to gain a record contract and her eventual signing with EMI Records. Easton rose to fame in the early 1980s with the pop hits "9 to 5" — known as "Morning Train" in the United States — and "For Your Eyes Only", "Strut", "Sugar Walls", "U Got the Look" with Prince, and "The Lover in Me". She went on to become successful in the United States and Japan, working with prominent vocalists and producers, such as Prince, Christopher Neil, Kenny Rogers, Luis Miguel, L.A. Reid and Babyface, and Nile Rodgers.

No. That is not what she is famous for.

This is what she is famous for;

Thing A Day: Metropolis

Before superman. An old poster for one of the greatest movies of all time.

Return To RPGs III: From Boyz To Older Boyz

A New World

Over the following years until I left High School roleplaying games played a huge part of my life. Being geeky and unsocial I developed a great love of poring over the rule books and trying to work out what would happen if a wizard made a demon divide by zero. On the critical fumble table I made up very bad things happened. Very, very bad things. By this stage we had moved on up the role playing ladder to the giddy heights of the companion and the master set.

[caption id="attachment_545" align="aligncenter" width="439" caption="D&D Companion Set (Source The Acaeum http://www.acaeum.com/)"][/caption]

Thing A Day: Dundee and Dragons

To go with the RPG theme.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Dundee Dragon"][/caption]

http://hortonsfolly.blogspot.com/2007/07/dundee-dragon.html

http://www.dundee.com/dundeeplaces-interest/arts-design.html

Return to RPGs II: Idiocy and Fat Club

Big Red Box Of Social Exile

So there I was with a big red box of RPG fun. I had no idea what to do with it and the solo adventure they had included looked fairly slim.

The books said that there were two kinds of people involved in a game of Dungeons and Dragons. The players who undertook exciting adventures and the dungeon master who set the scene and did everything else. I didn't know any dungeon masters to let me become a player.

For that matter I didn't know any players. D&D did not look like it would be much fun as a solitary activity.

Back then geeks, not that we were called that, tended to clump together at my school.

Things A Day: Old Man vs. Children

Taken from Adventures Into Darkness. Thanks to the great work by the team at the Digital Comic Museum.

 

[ipaper id=56278235]

Thing A Day: Product Plug - Brain In A Mug

I made this :) With the help of the public domain.

Brain In A Mug II by devicesanddesires
Browse other Brain Mugs

Return to RPGs: Appendix 1 - Pathfinder

Odd. I have not finished my series on my return to RPG gaming and here I am writing the appendix already.  In essays I always used to write my conclusion first so I knew what research I wanted to cite :) The reason I am doing a quick appendix is because of this:

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="800" caption="Pathfinder RPG Core, Cover"][/caption]

I have just got this through the post today.

During my return to roleplaying I tried to find out what had happened in the many, many years I was away. I learned that TSR was gone and some card gaming company had eaten it and done something potentially nasty to AD&D. Which initially did not bother me till I realised that AD&D was all that was left.

Return To RPGs I: Back To Mystara

Currently I am hurtling toward 40 years old with all the grace of an enraged warthog. Time for a mid-life crisis I thought, get a fancy red car and a younger wife. The problem being I am unable to drive, due to not knowing how,  and already have a younger wife.

Then I realised I was already having my crisis and it started over a year ago. I was returning to my youth by rediscovering the joy of roleplaying games. Something I had been thinking about for years.  I thought back to my first RPG and came up with this:

[caption id="attachment_544" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="D&D Basic Set (Source The Acaeum http://www.acaeum.com/)"][/caption]

Then I thought. No. That's not right it goes back further. Join me if you like. Or not.