Michael Gonzalez's page

Xabulba wrote:

Christopher Dudley wrote:

flash_cxxi wrote:

The Doctor firing a gun... what is the world coming to!

In the BBC 8th Doctor books, the Doctor fires a gun at a human in Revolution Man. Yeah, I didn't like it then, either.

At least he didn't shoot it at a person, and for a person who hates guns he's a damm good shot.

Since I'm thinking about it, the 5th Doctor fired a flintlock pistol at a locked door in The Visitation.

The 5th Doctor was up aiming a gun in Earthshock when the Cybermen were overrunning the bridge of the freighter before Adric dies. Didn't actually fire it as the crew sealed the bridge in time. But he was desperate enough to grab and aim.

Naw, how about Taskmaster...(photographic reflexes and all) training a load of goons for Justin Hammer, then he has to "handle things himself"

Saw it last night on a regular screen. My mistake. I should have paid full price to see it at the IMAX in 3D at Navy Pier (in Chicago)!

...Does anybody out there have any real evidence that the d20 license has actually been terminated?

I do not have a direct statement from WotC, but indirect evidence that people are taking actual action thinking this is the case. Another site, DriveThruRPG has posted a in their e-newsletter, that Alternate Realities publications will be turning off their PDFs on the September 7 and is offering discounts on most of their products until then. Mongoose on their website has also been talking about taking down their Babylon 5 d20 PDFs as well.

Hi. I had a question about Paizo's Dragon and Dungeon PDF's (and perhaps other companies PDF's in general). Is there something in the new GSL, or under current agreement with WotC which will prevent sales of your magazines PDF's in the future? I ask because it seems that some companies have pulled the D20 PDF's off the market. And of course now that I am unemployed, I have to prioritize my shopping if they are going away. Can someone from Paizo have an answer? Thanks.

Fringeworthy and FTL:2448 always caught my eye. Skill based, Level Based ala d20 back in the early 1980's. Fringeworthy also has Stargates similar to those from the TV show. Thanks Mr. Tucholka! You can still get his gems here.

and it because always gives me giggles Synnibar or
"How to make a roleplaying game that just makes you laugh when you try to make sense of it"

You can still buy it from here! I dare you to!

On the other hand I have also have HOL from Black Dog and I think it is a serviceable RPG system.

Ringworld is very cool as well.

Jerry Doyle (prevously of Babylon 5 fame) radio talk show.

It seems that SmiteWorks, which makes the Fantasy Grounds virtual gaming desktop product has issued issued a Cease and Desist letter to WotC due to similarities between their existing product and WotC's DDI.

The letter is found here.

Screenshots of claim is found here.

Any speculations by the more legal eagle types?

Thank you Gary for serving as an inspiration to my imagination. I hope that I may do as well for others as your works have done for me over the decades. Thank you.

Y'know, model railroading is still out there and still has its devotees.

When I was a kid, gaming was an even more obscure and nerds-only activity than it is now.

These days, model railroading is considerably more obscure than roleplaying games. But somehow, model railroading still has print magazines.

-The Gneech

Obscurity depends on where you live. My father built and owned a "hobby store" back in the '70s which fully a third was devoted to railroading. it was doing well 'till he died. Store is gone now because his partner made bad choices afterwards, not due to lack of sales. Currently, there are more railroading stores in strip malls or within hobby stores. There are not nearly as many FLGS as "hobby stores". All the FLGS I know have CCGs and such as a section. Why? Because it sells.

Good point, DD. It reminds me of how obsolete my West End Star Wars books are at this point.

If you are a ravenous fan of Star Wars, the first D20 edition of WotC Star Wars had conversions from West End's D6 system in the appendix.

Or...In my case

Traveller for Hero System is now out on PDF. Darn, I had just converted to GURPS 4th edition. And then Mongoose is coming out with a Starship Troopers for Traveller next year. I just bought Monte Cook's d20 World of Darkness. Sure its for New WoD but...
Time for me to convert my Original World of Darkness (my over 200+ supplements) over to the dark, er, d20 side. Bwahahahahaha!

Do they all become another race all of sudden?

I'd like to change race, but I am stuck being a human.

You meant in a D&D game, right?

Jared Wasserman 35 wrote:

All kidding aside, they did announce that they will be providing support for old settings at the rate of one a year.

It's better than nothing!

Yeah, but they won´t be done with it before 5e comes out.

2008: Forgotten Realms
2009: Eberron
2010: Dragonlance (think of the animated movie - merchandising)
2011: Greyhawk (ok, wishful thinking - FOUR YEARS into the future..)
2012: 5 ed

That leaves Oriental Adventures, Spelljammer, Al Qadim, Birthright, Ravenloft, Mystara, Dark Sun, Maztica in stasis.

Just speculating, of course.

Stefan

Dont panic. Oriental Adventures(Kara Tur), Spelljammer(Realmspace), Al Qadim, Ravenloft(some of it), and Maztica are covered. After all they only backdrop to the FORGOTTEN REALM$$$$ cash Moo!

For my part, if they did an update of Chainmail, I would like them to reconcile the placement the factions with the Greyhawk Map from Dragon Annual #1 (where in the west did it take place?). Though that world map was from 1e/2e days, the same map was pretty much used in LGG, except without the places named.

Hi. This is one is for "Uncle".

WOTC published stats in Epic Level Handbook for for some famous "Greyhawk" characters, namely Cat-Lord, Eclavdra, Mordenkainen, Rary, and of course Lord Robilar. How much, if any, of their backstory came from the original campaign? For example, did Robilar have the "Sword of Black Ice" back then or was that a rewrite/add-in to jazz up the Robilar to "Epic" status for the book?

For the record, for those who are interested in the truth about Living Greyhawk:

1. Every Living Greyhawk region maintains a website. (Although some have been unvailable because of real world issues related to them being maintained at the expense of the volunteers.) At these websites, you can find, freely available to the greater public, significant amounts of gazzetteer information on the specific region. And I mean "significant" to the point of being 50,000 word tomes on a single, specific region. Multiply that by 29 regions, all for free (well, except for the time it takes to open a window from the RPGA home page and then read all those pages, I'm sure many will complain about that), and compare it to the support other settings have received from WotC.

This is not necessarily true of all sites. I became an RPGA member thru the WOTC heraldry test online, but descriptive materials are denied in my region's (Verbobonc) website. From what I understand, unless I actually go to a con and register a character I am not allowed in. I cannot make the time commitment to go to a con because of real life and children too young to game (I have HeroQuest ready for him when he turns 6!). Nonetheless, I still lurk the net for goodies. I have checked from time to time to see if this changes...

See Erik 'hawk.
'Hawk Erik 'hawk!

actually, i think Donald sutherland would be a total hoot as Fizban, now that you bring him up

I have never seen/heard Donald Sutherland in his roles as beeing a "good" guy except as Hawkeye decades ago. His voice would be good. Could work...

Staple, but...

Is it a bad thing if I have been using the same bag since 1980? It doesn't smell or anything.

Hi. I received a newsletter from a PDF publishing site today indicating that WOTC will be releasing many of their D&D products in PDF format for them manage downloads. Will Paizo be selling these anytime soon? I may buy them from you guys as Paizo makes it easier to access our resources. If the price is the same, to be honest I would rather give Paizo my money as long as you are still publishing stuff with Greyhawk and the other "classic settings" in it. Hope to hear from you.

Thanks.

P.S. GO ERIK! GO!

I have too many to count. I stopped counting after 4000 items in printed material. I have 10 of those 5 shelf sheet metal shelving units full of RPG material. This does not count novels and such just gaming books and supplements.

I have been gaming/collecting since 1977, when I was 12 and have rarely gotten rid of anything. But I will try to list by line

A sample of what I own:
A.Most every Traveller/MegaTraveller/TNE/T4/Gurps Traveller/T20 Traveller book ever made from GDW, FASA, DGP, Gamelords, etc. Plus every JTAS and Challenge magazine since issue 4. I am missing about 9 items still. (Anyone have High Passage #1 for sale? Please...)
B.The entire Avalon Hill Runequest line.
C.The entire WOTC Star Wars RPG Line
D.The entire Deadlands RPG line (not HOE and Lost Colony)
E.Every issue of Dragon since 42
F.Every Robotech RPG book.
G.Every Mage the Ascension book
H.143 other original World of Darkness books.
J.Every SpaceMaster book made from all three versions.
K.14 Talislanta Books
L.World of Synnibar and expansion.
M.One shelf just for Shadowrun. I am only missing the old Aztlan supplement (Yes, I even have the DMZ game and still have the gold Doc Wagon credit card that FASA gave out for trying it out).
N.Fringeworthy (Stargate 10 years before Stargate came out! Hah!).
O.Every Buck Rogers book TSR put out(yes even the 2 War Against the Han ones)
P.Every Babylon 5 RPG book (The old pre d20 one, the last one and the new OGL version.)
Q.White Dwarf Magazines 19-94 (I gave up after that when the rpg stuff went away
S.Every TSR Gamma World book and box set (yes even Gammarauders, what was I thinking) except the original Metamorphosis Alpha.
T.Two shelves full of Hero system stuff.
U.Two shelving units just for the d20 D&D stuff. Gotta start a new one soon..
W.All the TSR Marvel Superheroes stuff (Box sets, Marvel Handbooks and modules) and all the Mayfair DC Heroes line.
X.All Amazing Engine books
Y.Every Alternity book
Z.Every LUG STar Trek RPG book

And yes sad but true I even World Wide Adventures and Witchunt RPGs (look it up)

The problem is that my collection is distributed between my home, my parents home, and storage.

I wish it had been made optionally available on a DVD-ROM at the time so you wouldn't have to play the CD swap game. The index to search the entire archive is available on every disk but if you click on one of your search hits and it's on one of the other discs then you are forced to swap disks. Sadly, I don't believe there is a full install option either to load all 5 (?) CDs to the hard drive. I can't recall at the moment if it lets you copy text from the articles and paste them into other applications like Word, Notepad, etc.

L

There were instructions I think in the readme where you manually copy the pdf files into a specific directory and then be able to just run off the hard drive. It takes about 2 Gig of space which is not as big a deal now as pre 2K.

I grew up with this stuff and have most of it, so in order of usefulness for and education.

Tied for 1st are all the base books sets
WOG Campaign Boxed Set - the year is CY576, you have encounter tables a plenty and the maps (1st ed rules)
From the Ashes CY 585 - ditto (2nd ed rules)
The Adventure Begins CY591 - no encounter tables (2nd ed rules)

Slavers! (591)
Scarlet Brotherhood (591)
The Marklands Furyondy and all that (CY585)
Iuz the Evil(CY585)

For campaigns
Queen of Spiders
Against the Slavelords (aka Slavers! I)

Since you are trying to save money, dig up the unpublished Great Kingdom supplement in free downloads at WOTC. Those archives are still available, you just have to search the site to get to the right page

I have tried Battlestar Galactica. I don't have cable so I bought the Season I set. I saw the miniseries and the first episode so far. So far it is pretty good for the emotional impact.

Hi. Age 40. Have played for 25 years. I am looking for a group to DM or play with. I live in Orland Hills area and am willing to get out to Westmont area as it is not too far off of RTE 83. Please contact me if you are interested

For recent history get either of the Box sets available for download. For the most part they are character stat light and can be converted without too much problem.

D&D 1E -
World of Greyhawk Campaigns Setting is set in 576 CY. There is is an older folio format product and the newer box set. Get the newer one.

D&D 2E -
From the Ashes which is set in 585 CY

You should also pick up Greyhawk Adventures: The Adventure Begins is set in 591 also, but concentrates on the City of Greyhawk itself.

For the Paizo staff:

I previously purchased some PDF from rpgnow. Are your products likely from the same scans as theirs were? Since you have mentioned potentially updating or correcting some of them (they likely won't or can't), I'd rather buy yours, with the chance of correction. Some of theirs did not appear as clean scans (some images were different sizes) and Scarlet Brotherhood is outright missing the map.

An updated Jester...My mother told me a day like this would come. *sniff* I just never thought I would see the day. *sniff* *sniff* WAAAHHH....
I'm so happy. I can bring my old Court Serious one out of retirement.

40 been playing since 1978 (27 years) with B1 and G1. I guess I should get out more... Oh, yeah, grooming my son to get into D&D. He is only 4, but he likes the pictures in Dungeon. Didn't like the 'worms' having teeth on the one cover, though. I have Fantasy Forest, MB Heroquest and the old Dungeon game waiting for him...

Age 40, Male, Mexican American Programmer Analyst in South Chicago Suburbs. D&D was not my first RPG, but it has always been my favorite. Dad owned a hobby store and for years after he died his partner used to just give me stuff, plastic models, trains,wargames and such. Once, he gave me a game called Traveller in 1977. Showed it to some friends, who said "Yeah well, we got this game called Dungeons and Dragons. Wanna try it?" The animated Hobbit special had just been on so I wanted to be Bard the Archer. Total geek and proud ever since...

Have played lots of cool games (Traveller, Runequest, Cthulhu, 1st ed Gamma World, V:TM, Hero System, Rolemaster), and lots of bad ones (TSR Marvel Superheroes, Mechwarrior, Tales of the Floating Vagabond, Powers and Perils, Lords of Creation) but I always come back for D&D

This will probably not happen. The magazine claim has been 100% Dungeons and Dragon content, does not say anything about 100% D20 content, or 100% OGL content. Introducing new elements like that is a dilution of mission statement. On the otherhand, I have yet to see Kingdoms of Kalamar, or Warcraft/World of Warcraft material, and they bought the right to use the Dungeons and Dragons logo.

Perhaps they could do a status overview article. Like do a paragraph or three on each with the following:

Who owns the license now or what WOTC did with it and what they have to say. Does not have to be mean if disappointing, just matter of fact.
"Official" D20 website info if any
Comments from a line developer of the past, or present with plans for future.

Like for Lankhmar, you could say White Wolf has it with no D20 vision, but there is a cool website, and past TSR Lankmahr developer has this to say.

Or
Swords & Sorcery is doing Ravenloft and Masque of the Red Death, the website is this, and guy in charge has new stuff to say.

Something like that

Hi. Last gaming group folded after 3 years. I am looking for a new group to DM or play in. I am flexible except I won't DM the Forgotten Realms as there is too much of it, and I could not do it justice. Drop a line here. Thanks all.

Valley Elves were detailed in Living Greyhawk Journal #2.

"As tall as most humans, they are thin with sharp and pointed features. Their hair is pale yellow in the summer, darkening to a rich gold in the winter months. The prefer loose and flowing garments and favor blues and greens." There is also a drawing of one in the issue.

Other stats indicated were:
Elven Traits (Ex): Valley elves have the same elven traits as high elves.
+4 racial bonus to Disguise checks when disguised as humans
-2 penalty to Diplomacy, Gather Information, and Intimidate checks involving elves of the other subraces
Favored Class: Wizard
Cannot be clerics of the Seldarine, but may may choose any other deity. (Article does not state what they did to cause that annoyance).

The stats were designed back in 3.0 days. In addition, some of the stats look garbled because it lists the example character as being a Rgr1/Wiz1, yet it looks like it is only a 1st level character.

Anyone know if there are any old Greyhawk books that say anything about the area of Cauldron?

You can try The Scarlet Brotherhood, That actually deals with things further south in the Amedio Jungle amongst other things

That's right! Monster Mark was the grading system of how tough a monster was. Thanks!

Does Anyone info on White Dwarf stuff? I maybe about 20 pre-Warhammer issues, but I do not have easy access to them.

What is the background of Kyuss, or where can it be found?

All I know is that he was a necromancer with a cult following, and that he created worm filled undead that could spawn other undead.

I'd like to know more. Was there a DRAGON article on him at one time?

Other than the worms in his undead, I don't really see how he fits into the Wind Duke Vs Chaos plot so far in the AoW campaign, although I guess his worms feature in episode 3.

ASEO out

The Sons of Kyuss appeared in Fiend Folio for 1E. That is early 1980's. The artwork for ther entry was British in origin. Well, it looks like the White Dwarf Magazine art from their Monster Mark or some such articles at the time. Not sure, but IIRC (please correct me if not true) weren't some of the FF entries Brit in origin? Were Sons of Kyuss?

Very tasty, er..pleasant! I like images I can hold up to my group and say "This is what is happening to your characters".

Class Acts has got to go. The articles are simply not long enough to explore an idea to any meaningful degree. The best ones just get going and have to end. The worst never get started at all and just blather. Most fall unsatisfyingly somewhere in between - the wrong side of average.

I do not feel I would be qualified to judge too many articles themselves as I am not the creative type, but yes, Class acts are the biggest waste of 11 pages in every issue.

I can however analyze at some things from a practical point of view. There is the practical matter of sheer page count. Pre-Paizo page counts were higher and now they are pared back with less pages at higher prices. I expect prices to always go up, but I would think that inflation inflation increased price would keep page count the same. Then, what is going on in advertising? A few of the issues were did not have the big advertising/classified section except for Paizo offerings pages. Then I have to go thru 8+ pages of what Paizo has to offer. Outside advertising keeps costs down. Paying to advertise your own wares does not increase revenue on the magazine, though you might get intagible benefit of having people go to the website.
But right there that is about 20 pages that could be reformatted.

I have been playing D&D for several years, and my children are learning the rules now (and dragging my wife into the mess too). I want to know what other longtime gamers think of 3.5 edition, and if a revision was really needed.

Been playing since 1978. Like it more than I dislike.

Does anyone have a "official" answer as to why WOTC has not done more specific support? Since 3.0 came out the only Greyhawk specific products WOTC has come out with have been the D&D Gazeteer, LGG, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and a few novels. Is there some business (legal/royalty/popularity) issue involved?