Saturday, May 31, 2008

two unrelated items

I pretty only read the Paizo e-newsletter when the subject line catches my eye. The most recent edition mentioned Gygax in the title. I'm not in a big hurry to read Gygax's fiction, but in the body of the email I found out that Reaper has rolled out some sweet new prepainted plastic. I'm not really into figures right now, except for paper stuff like Sparks, but I like what Reaper is doing.

I'm not a strict medievalist, but I do like some knights in my D&D.

Aw, yeah! Nothing says 'D&D' quite like a titanic lavender earthworm swallowing PCs whole.


The green dress on this Mind Flayer, er, "Bathalian" looks uninteresting, but I'm thinking most of the mind flayers in the D&D lines are rather pricey in comparison to this fellow. And dig that collar!

Recently I've purchased copies of Monsters! Monsters! (which I've wanted ever since buying the excellent Judges Guild module Rat on a Stick so many years ago) and the Tunnels & Trolls anniversary edition. Doctor Rotwang! put me over the top on buying the latter and he did not steer me wrong. I owned an earlier editions in the late eighties but it just didn't take back then. Sometimes it takes me a long time to 'get' a game.

Anyway, in the intro to this incarnation of T&T author Ken St. Andre notes that he runs a fansite for the game called Trollhalla. Since I spend something like 99% of my internet time goofing around on RPG sites, I decided to check the place out. I was astonished to find that it was a pay site. Certainly Mr. St. Andre can run his affairs as it pleases him, but this just strikes me as dumb.

There are plenty of ways you make some money off of the fans. Put ads on the site with Google or any of the other ad vendors. Sell T-shirts and crap with Cafe Press. Put out old or new material via PDF with YourGamesNow or in print with Lulu. Those ideas are all off the top of my head, there have got to be others. Instead, St. Andre is basically saying to newly minted enthusiasts like me "Hey, kid, glad you T&T. Now give me twenty more bucks for the privilege of being my fan."

Still, the games themselves are golden. I might blog about them more. Because I can't shut up about games I like. Which you probably already know.

4 comments:

  1. I really dig that worm. And everything else you mention in this post, for that matter (and don't overlook that old 'puter game they tossed in with the T&T anniversary edition ... Liz Danforth handled the writing chores on that one, and the writing really makes it shine above the clunky old interface).

    And yeah, I don't quite grok Trollhalla, either. To each his own, I guess :/

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  2. Anonymous8:39 AM

    There's a free Tunnels & Trolls forum (Trollbridge), at http://trollbridge.proboards44.com, as well as a mailing list at groups.yahoo.com/group/radiofreetrollworld

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  3. Anonymous12:10 PM

    Yes hooray for more T&T content..

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  4. Anonymous12:21 AM

    Jeff,

    I'm fairly certain that the $20 joining fee is long gone, although I could be wrong. (If I'm correct, then the front page really needs an update, since it seems to be discouraging people...)

    There's another Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bluefrogtavern , which has higher traffic than RadioFreeTrollworld.

    The Trollbridge is a bit quiet right now, although there are some excellent articles and ideas in the threads there.

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