I got to chat on the phone briefly with my buddy Pat today. It seems he picked up a copy of Jason Blair's new rpg Wyrd is Bond (review, official site) which has stirred up some interest over at RPG.net. Apparently its a game of magic-using hip-hop street gangs. With Aleister Crowley as the leader of one of the gangs. What?

Mr. Blair stirred up some controversy back in '01 with his dark rpg Little Fears (nine separate reviews in the RPG.net review section, Forge review, official website). Little Fears is a horror rpg in which all the PCs are children and the monsters in the closet and under the bed are all too real. Pretty creepy stuff, I've heard.

Holes in the Pen & Paper database
The Pen & Paper database is one of my favorite online resources. However, it is not yet complete and basically relies on fan submissions to expand it. After some quick searches through the database, I discovered the following holes that I should be able to plug:

Boot Hill 2nd edition
Boot Hill referee's screen & mini-module
Gangbusters entire line
Lords of Creation modules
Gamma World 1st edition
Legion of Gold
Dawn Patrol
Dungeoneer magazine
various Judges Guild products
Transdimensional TMNT

Good news! My two submissions to the Star Trek Star Ship Tactical Combat Simulator Millennium Update & Archive were included among the most recent massive update.

EDIT: fixed linky

Over lunch today I drove over the library. They had in The Falklands War 1982 by Duncan Anderson, part of Osprey's "Essential History" line. It a slim volume, covering the war in 92 pages. I wonder if Osprey has a book on the Franco-Prussion War? (EDIT to add: Yes, they do have an "Essential History" of the Franco-Prussian War. I googled up Osprey's website. Man, these guys are cool. They got 3 or 4 other books about the Falklands as well as lots and lots of other stuff.)

I also renewed Martin Gilbert's The First World War. I've only got about a hundred pages left to go and I'm dying to find out which side won. ;)

Speaking of the eBay...
Uncle Ted, one of the regular purveyors of rpg crap on eBay, is doing some grab bag sales. His ten random rpg products for a ten-spot looks like it might be fun. Even with s&h that's still less than 2 bucks a book.

A quick glance at my BattleTech pages shows it to be too damn sparse. I need to write and post a Scenario #2. It's pathetic to have a single scenario and label it #1. I also need to work on my Ostroc variants and maybe stat out the Jester. Also, I think a brief overview of Proton Fire, the vaporware competitor to BattleTech, would be cool.

PayPal is only optional if you're a moron.
I thought I had found a deal to buy a lot of four James Bond 007 rpg books of the eBay. The lot included the core book, the indispensible Q Manual, the For Your Information GMs supplement and an adventure. Certainly a sufficient amount of Bondery to kickstart a campaign. The min bid was $9.99 and the s&h was 8, not a great deal, but still less than 5 bucks a book.

But this dorkus won't accept PayPal. Game over, man. I use alternative payment methods when I really want a rare item bad, but 007 stuff comes up all the frickin' time. No PayPal is a deal breaker. When it comes to online shopping of any kind, I just can't make an impulse purchase without the PayPal. The extra steps involved in getting a money order or calling and giving some schmuck a card number just kills my consumer buzz.

Home sick today, my sinuses are getting the better of me. I'm online long enough to check my eBay auctions and Game Courier games, and to send Don & Sue a note about playing my "Home Team" campaign on Friday night. Since I was already in front of the computer, I also printed out a few Gamma World articles from my Dragon CD-ROM.

Thanks to my Game Courier preset for SpaceWarp44, I am now in the running in the main category for the 44 squares contest. This turn of events pleases me to no end, even if I stand no chance fo winning the contest. I bask in the warmth of the sense of accomplishment I recieve by completing my entry and the preset for it. Go me! There's been talk, just idle chit-chat, that maybe next years contest could be 45 pieces rather than 45 squares, or maybe have two categories in the next contest. Last night on the drive home from my folks house I came up with an idea for a 45 piece game that would combine Hnefatafl with Chaturanga style historical pieces.

My list of WWI subjects to read more about is growing. This time it's the Battle of Jutland. One of Jim Dunnigan's earliest Avalon Hill products was his Jutland game. I've heard it influenced both naval games like Pat's beloved Harpoon and space games like Star Fleet Battles and its children. A copy almost always comes up for sale at the Winter War game auction, and there's usually one available on eBay for about a fiver minimum.

Last night I printed out some Gamma World articles from my Dragon CD-ROM. I've got a couple little articles written for my 1st edition rules, but the real Gamma World gold, from the ARES Section era, is all second edition material. The two editions are probably more compatible than any other 2 editions ('cept maybe GW d20 and Omega World), but still all this material argues for getting the second edition rules. Like the first edition only a screen and a couple modules were published, so I'm not biting off too much.

I got to play Carcassonne and SpaceWarp44 with Jenny today. She whupped me in Carcassonne to the tune of about 50 points. She resigned the first game of SW44 but was eager for a rematch, which we were unable to finish. I recorded our positions so we could resume our game on another day.

On the way home some ideas occurred to me regarding my as-yet unnamed Tamerlane+Gothic+Omega variant:

1) The Prince, the promoted Pawn of King, should move as a King+Knight. The King+Alibaba I had thought of earlier is too close to the Champion's Wazir+Alibaba.

2) In addition to checkmate and Wizard's occupying enemy towers, you can also win by elminating the King's Cabinet: Queen, Minister, Cardinal, and Prince (if in play).