Blast from the Past: Board games of my youth, from Monopoly to JAWS
For some while I’ve been kicking around the idea of writing a Nerdarchy series about games and toys from my childhood and early teens years, which were the 1970s and early ’80s. Board games, action figures, early role playing games, and other of my youthful pastimes would be the subject matter, hopefully raising some nostalgia for older readers and maybe a few chuckles from younger ones who get to see our old-fashioned playthings.
This is the first of the series, which will be fore-titled “Blast from the Past.” Not every Nerdarchy article I write will be part of this series, but enough will that it makes some sense to note the difference. Also, these “Blast from the Past” articles might delve into different subjects, possibly movies and other nerdy things from my younger days, but the focus will be upon games and toys.
This week I take a look at the board games I played the most. I hope you enjoy.
Guinness Game of World Records
Dating Sites for Nerds: Because We’re Lookin’ for Love, Too
Romeo and Juliet, painting by Frank Dicksee
Card games, tabletop games, role playing games, they’re all group activities. Even video games often nowadays are played with others, either online or on the couch. Still, for some, gaming of all sorts can be a lonely business if they don’t have that special someone to share it with.
You hear about those online dating sites, but they don’t seem right for you. You check them out and they’re full of beautiful people. Or creeps. And everyone seems to enjoy the same things. Walking on the beach. Walking in the park. Walking the dog. There’s usually lots of walking. And then there are the people who have their who life planned out, or the people who have a laundry list a mile long of all the things their prospective significant other absolutely must have.
Exploring genres beyond fantasy can make you a better Dungeon Master
Being a Dungeon Master or Game Master is more than just rolling dice.
You’re the Dungeon Master, or Game Master. You’ve spent hours planning out an adventure for your players. You wrote down all the stats for potential opponents. You painted the minis. You hand sculpted the walls and bric-a-brac that make up the dungeon layout you present before your players. Maybe you even made some phone calls or sent out online messages to make sure everyone is going to make the game.
It can be a lot of work.
And then within the first minute of play one of the players pipes up and says something like, “Oh, yeah. I remember this. The same thing happened in the last Forgotten Realms novel I read.”
It doesn’t matter that you, the Dungeon Master, has not read that novel. Or seen the movie. Or played the game. Or experienced whatever piece of media that was brought up. You’re likely to feel a little let down. You might even feel as if you’ve ruined the night for your players by giving them something familiar. Heck, your players might even grumble a little.
And all that hard work feels like a waste.
Now you can learn German longsword through online classes
[caption id="attachment_9726" align="alignright" width="533"] Aaron and Josh of Sword Carolina show a strike to students.[/caption] If one travels in Nerd circles, it is nearly impossible not to notice the growing interest in Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) and similar organizations, especially concerning the longsword. YouTube is...
A Guide to the fantasy writings of Ty Johnston
As someone who writes fantasy fiction for a living, one of the questions I most often get asked is, “Where should I start reading your stuff?” In other words, which book should they read first?
This is not such an easy question to answer. It doesn’t help that all my fantasy novels and stories take place within the same world, Ursia, though often in different time periods, sometimes decades or even thousands of years apart.
The Kobalos Trilogy
Generally I suggest readers start with my novel, City of Rogues. It is not only the first book of this trilogy, but it is the first book featuring my Kron Darkbow character. Kron and his time period are sort of the center of my Ursian Chronicles, the books and stories that take place in my fantasy world, and to some extent all my other fantasy writings are related to Kron’s adventures.
Think you might be interested in City of Rogues? Here is the description for the novel:
“Kron Darkbow seeks vengeance, and he plans to have it no matter the costs. Returning to the city of his birth after 15 years, he hunts down the wizard responsible for the deaths of those he loved only to find out another was responsible for the murders. That other is Belgad the Liar, a former barbarian chieftain who is now boss of the city’s underworld.
Following his path for blood, Kron comes across the magical healer, Randall Tendbones, and accidentally reveals Randall’s darkest secret to the world. It’s a secret about the past, a
Brrp!: Getting your beer on with tabletop RPGs
Dwarfs are always chugging away at a pint of sturdy stout. Halflings and half-orcs aren’t far behind. Even elves have been known to sip a light ale from time to time. Then there are the adventuring parties, the ones who always seem to gather at … you guessed it … the tavern.
Beer seems to flow in tabletop role playing games. From skill checks involving brewing to rules pertaining to how alcohol affects characters’ abilities, it seems some kind of alcoholic drink, quite often a form of beer, is just under the surface, around the corner, or stuffed inside a backpack.
Stairway to Heaven: Fantasy, D&D and rock music
In 1994 the (then) new rock band Weezer released its first album with the eighth track title being a little song called “In the Garage.” The very first line of the song mentions the Dungeon Master’s Guide. The second line brings up a 12-sided die.
That same year a silly movie called “Airheads” hit the theaters. It’s about three stoner rockers who take over a radio station in an attempt to have their song make the airwaves. Towards the end of the movie, Dungeons & Dragons is mentioned.
Nerds throughout the world applauded.
Okay, yeah, such a little thing as bringing up D&D in a pop/rock song or movie might seem hardly worthy of note today, but you’ve got to remember that nerd and geek culture were far less accessible back in the day, and until then about the only time Hollywood had admitted D&D existed was during a scene in Spielberg’s E.T. Comic books, role playing games, even fantasy and science fiction literature, had not become accepted so much by the larger, overall culture, and often seemed shunted off to dark, little stores surrounding college campuses. Fantasy and the other speculative genres were often considered the stuff of children, worthy only of Saturday morning cartoons.
Dungeon Crate brings RPG loot to your front door every month
There seems to be a subscription box service for just about everything nowadays, from crafts to wines to all kinds of foods and more. There are even a number of different subscription boxes for the nerd or geek in all of us. But what about tabletop role playing gamers?
Before January 18, the pickings seemed pretty slim, but that was the launch date for Dungeon Crate, a monthly subscription box service with a focus on role players and the games we love.
What are subscription boxes?
My little secret: I skip D&D editions
Cover of Player’s Handbook, AD&D or D&D 1e, via Amazon
Role playing games, specifically D&D, came into my life in about 1980. I say “about” because I can’t remember the exact date, though I know it wasn’t later and seems unlikely it would have been earlier. It all began when my junior high school started a Dungeons & Dragons club, and being a fan of fantasy literature, I made sure to attend the first meeting where character sheets were handed out. At the time I had not been aware of the game, but I figured the terms “Dungeons” and “Dragons” meant it would be of interest to me. Unfortunately that club didn’t last long because of some bad press the game received, but it was too late for me. I was hooked.
Mowing yards for money back then, I saved up enough to start collecting all the core books as well as many modules and the occasional supplemental rules book. First edition was king then, and the game had the word “Advanced” in its title. I remember I payed $15 for my first Dungeon Master’s Guide and $12 each for the Player’s Handbook and the Monster Manual; I’m not sure, but I believe the adventure modules were between $7 and $10, and that includes a lot of modules produced by companies other than TSR, the publishers of D&D back then.
English not your first language? Use that for RPG fun
Monsters of Faerun, Japanese language edition, D&D 3.5, 2004
One of the great experiences of taking part in tabletop role playing games online is that you get to interact with people from different cultures, often who do not have English as their first language. The roots of tabletop RPGs are mainly in countries which have English as a common tongue, and no few of us gamers were brought up on English and are mostly familiar gaming with others who speak English, so it can be interesting and sometimes a challenge to game with those who come from a different background.
That being said, there are plenty of online games taking place in non-English languages despite many rules sets having not been officially translated, including the most recent edition of Dungeons & Dragons. A quick look around various sites which are home to online RPGs can lead one to campaigns in Spanish, German, and any number of other languages. Still, it seems games in English are quite common, perhaps the most common.
Even the English language has its variations
Ty’s Gaming Resolutions for the 2016 New Year
In a matter of days it’s going to be a new year, and like the beginning of every new year, many of us make resolutions. Some of us will try to lose weight or quit smoking. Others will try to be nicer to people or maybe promise to put money into savings. Me? This year I’m going to try to be a better tabletop role-player. How do I hope to accomplish this? By following my resolutions below.
Expanding my horizons in the new year, Part I
Are you going to watch the ball drop to kick in the new year?
I have a tendency to find a role-playing game I like, then stick with it and nothing else for months, even years. Right now I’m enjoying Fifth Edition D&D, so I’ve been playing lots of it. See, I’ve been gaming for 35 years, off and on, and I’ve played all kinds of systems, some good, some bad, and I guess now in my forties I’ve grown a bit … maybe “lazy” would be the right word, though I prefer “skeptical.” I’m usually not interested in learning yet another system, especially if it’s one which I know I won’t be playing more than maybe once or twice. I need to break this habit. There are lots of great games out there which I’ve yet to experience, and a few which I’ve only experienced once or twice. So, one of my gaming resolutions is to play more games that are new to me, to enjoy the experience of different game systems. I’m especially interested in trying out some zombie survival games.
Expanding my horizons, Part II
A Visit from St. Cuthbert (aka ’Twas the Night Before Gaming)
St. Cuthbert of Greyhawk
’Twas the night before gaming,
and all through the castle
not a beastie was stirring,
nor nary a vassal.
All the spadroons
lay stacked by the lair,
in hopes that St. Cuthbert
soon would be there;
The goblins lay drunk
atop of their beds,
While visions of raiding
stole through their heads;
Mama sheathed her blades
in scabbards with a slap,
While I tugged down on
my helm’s arming cap.
While out in the bailey
there arose such a clatter,
I sprang up with my sword
to spy what had been shattered.
Away to a turret
I darted in a flash,
then charged to the gatehouse
when I heard another clash.
2015 gamer gift suggestions for the holidays
By the time you read this, Hanukkah will have passed, but Christmas and Kwanzaa and other holidays are still more than a week away, which means there is still time to purchase presents for your favorite tabletop role players and other gamers. But what to get your friends? Rulebooks and dice are the easy answer, but likely your pals will already have those. If you want to get them a different type of present, check out some possibilities below.
Something chocolate this way rolls
Gamescience providing precision dice for more than 40 years
Louis Zocchi at GenCon 2014. / Photo courtesy of Gamescience
For those old enough to remember the earliest days of Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop role playing games, the dice available often were of lackluster quality. Sometimes soft but brittle around the edges, the dice had a tendency to flake or dent easily, not only making them appear less than appealing, but also damaging their statistical usefulness. Even today there are players who are interested not only in the attractiveness of the dice they purchase, but the accuracy of those dice.
Liven up your role playing games with music soundtracks
Players and game masters alike often look for ways to spice up their role playing games, to perhaps add a little atmosphere. Music can be essential to such a quest, providing background sound to keep play on an even keel or highlighting adventurous moments with a boost of adrenaline.
Longtime gamers likely will have their favorite tunes, but those new to the hobby might be wondering what music goes best with a session of Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Shadowrun, Traveler, or any number of tabletop RPGs. Also, with the holidays upon us, you might be looking for some gift ideas for your favorite gamer.
I have found that soundtracks often provide excitement and variety to gaming sessions. Obviously music is a subjective matter, much like deciding upon a favorite role playing game, but over the years here are a few soundtracks that have proved quite successful at my gaming tables:
