new Rondoo advancement plan
XP purchase
5 Edge: Healer
10 +5 Power Points
15 Spirit to d10

20 Smarts to d10
25 Healing, Faith skills to d10
30 Edge: Power Surge
35 New Power: Dispel

40 New Power: Greater Healing
45 +5 Power Points
50 Edge: Common Bond
55 Spirit to d12

The Common Bond edge could be moved to just about anywhere on the chart, since Rondoo qualifies for it right now. The Dispel power could be bumped to as early as the 20xp line, if it turns out we are facing a lot of magical foes.

Turns out that the folks at dragonsfoot.org are into Savage Worlds and have a bunch of useful stuff on their site, including D&D/d20 to Savage Worlds conversion info.

I'm already getting my butt kicked over at ItsYourTurn.com. No big surprise there, I guess.

Speaking of Chinese chess...
I started playing a game of Xiangqi on ItsYourTurn, a great free gamesite. Its been months, maybe years, since I played a game over at ItsYourTurn. I've stayed away a bit because last time I let the games take over my life. I was playing maybe 20 or 30 fast-moving games at any given time. This time I'm planning on sticking to a handful of slow chess games.

(It sure looks like I got the chess variants bug again, don't it?)

I spent a little time this morning snooping out online used game sellers. One company I found also sells some new stuff. In their boardgame/wargame department I found a publisher offering "Oriental" chess sets. Oriental? WtF? Is that supposed to be Chinese chess (Xiangqi) or Japanes chess (Shogi) or Korean chess or what? Last time I checked it was considered impolite to lump together the vast array of cultures and peoples living on the Asian landmass. And it is just plain stupid to use the term Oriental when you need to be more specific. I could use a Shogi set, but not from these guys.

Okay, this is f'ing creepy...
That eva person who bid on all those copies of Dawn Patrol just outbid me on a first edition Boot Hill. I'm just gonna chalk it up as a coincidence, but it still sent a chill down my spine to see that same name.

I finally set-up a working copy of draft 3 for my chess variant Spacewarp44. I've even played 12 turns of a solitaire game. It's a lot to handle, getting used to the Berolina pawns, Popes, and Crooks while at the same time dealing with the warpsquares. I made at least 3 dumb mistakes already in the game. No actual illegal plays, but stupid, stupid moves.

Later in the afternoon my good buddy Pat, John Pedigo, my brother-in-law Jim, and his son Alex came over to game. Alex's brother Ian had a handbell rehearsal followed by baseball practice, so he could not attend. Mr. Pedigo was running a bit later than the rest. The rest of us elected to start up a game of Carcassonne without him, hoping that we might get through it before he showed up. No such luck. We got a good start on an interesting game, but only about a third of the way through the tileset.

Jim had brought over his copy of El Grande, a great German game. It's significantly more complex than Carcassonne, but not quite as complex as a fully-expanded Settlers of Catan game. I really like El Grande. Unfortunately, Jim and Alex had to leave earlier than usual so we only got through 6 out of 9 turns. I was in the lead for a change, so of course we had to end early.

Afterwards John, Pat, and I sat around a chitchatted about games. It was nice to get a bit of an opportunity to catch up with John. Among other things, he was able to confirm some of my thoughts regarding Savage Worlds. I also think Pat and I managed to convince John to try Starmada in the foreseeable future, and maybe Star Fleet Battle Manual.

The mint-in-shrink Dawn Patrol copy I had bid at $20.50 (max $25) is now bid up to 26 bucks. I still don't understand what's going on with the strange bidding on these copies. If the earlier, non-mint copy went for $62.50, why is this one only at $26?

More Dawn Patrol Weirdness


These Dawn Patrol auctions on the eBay are freaking me out. This eva chick bid on every stinkin' copy, right? She was outbid on the copy I bid on when somebody else went up to $51. That means she bid 50 bucks on the copy I wanted for ten. So I figured she must've bid fifty on all of them. There was nothing special about that particular copy. So I do some net research to try to find someone else who has a copy. I find a dealer who has two copies. The lame copy is for sale at $15 and the better one at $25. Both are playable copies but not pristine. So I figure I could bid up to $25 on one of the two other copies remaining. Though I don't think it will work. After all, the nonremarkable copy I wanted eva was willing to bid fifty bucks on. She must've bid 50 on all of them. Right? Wrong. The best set being offered for sale, a mint-in-shrink copy, I currently have the high bid for at $20.50. What is wrong with this chick?

That copy of Dawn Patrol sold for $62.50. I'm going to continue to follow the other Dawn Patrol copies up for sale, to see how much they go for.

So it turns out that both the battles of Mulhausen and Sambre are fought on map D (blank map). The set-up sheet I downloaded has an error in it, according to the Ancients scenario book.

The Dawn Patrol situation on eBay is getting even stranger. The copy that I had the high bid on for several days at $9.99 is now up to fifty-one bucks! Is this thing a collector's item and I don't know it?

Got an email back from Thom Hendricks thanking me for the invite to Sunday's game, but declining the offer due to prior gaming committments. Apparently Egyptian Campaign, the annual con in Carbondale, IL, is this weekend and he has CIRCA/RPGA duties.

Still slowly reading through my copy of Savage Worlds. I'm now in the GM section, which includes lots of useful advice. Its short on good theoretical understanding of rpgs, but long on good practical advice. (Like, if the players are fighting worry about your friends first and the stupid game second.)

Well, Kathleen can't make it but seemed open to the idea of coming over some time. (This was the first time I had invited her and Dave over.) Still no word from Thom or Paul. I need to give Pat a ring since he never, ever checks his email.

Printed off set-up sheets for some Ancients battles. It looks like I was wrong about the battle of Sambre being terrain-less. Muhlhausen, the preceding Caesar scenario, is the one played on a blank map.

I was the winning bidder on eBay for a copy of Dawn Patrol up until a little bit ago, until someone came along and bid on every single copy for sale. They also used buy it now to win one of them immediately. Very strange. I know that there's an active Dawn Patrol community at www.dawnpatrol.org, but who needs 5 copies?

So I cast my net wide in a couple of emails, trying to get some people together for a game this weekend. Looks like John Pedigo, my brother-in-law Jim, and his boys Ian and Alex will be showing up. Dave Hoover can't make it. Haven't heard back yet from Paul, Kathleen or Thom.

Read some more of my Savage Worlds rulebook over lunch. In less than a dozen pages they cover useable rules for vehiclular combats on the table top, an abstract chase, a mini's skirmish system (fully compatible with the main RPG rules), and an abstract system for large battles. The two abstract systems are particularly well done. The battle system looks like an improved version of the Pendragon system, with good room for figuring PCs into the battle.