My geek passion of choice is RPG’s. Most folks have heard of Dungeons and Dragons but many of them haven’t played it or similar games. Since this week is Speak Out with Your Geek Out, I figured I’d offer some advice for those who just might be curious.
If you’re just a bit curious and want to learn a little more before investing some time and money. Well, there’s plenty of blogs like mine to check out. You can head on over to RPG Bloggers or the RPG Blog Alliance and see a steady stream of posts from around the world and all the various opinions and passions of gamers. If you want to spend a little more time on line you can check out I Hit With My Axe on The Escapist (Warning there’s a little bad language). This was spawned from Zak S’s blog Playing D&D with Porn Stars (It’s not what you think.) If you want a more humorous look at the world of gamers, check out Dead Gentlemen’s Gamers and Gamers: Dorkness Rising or on Youtube. There’s a bunch of in jokes but well worth it.
If you want to head out into the real world, hunt down your friendly local gaming store (or as we say FLGS) chances are they will will host D&D Encounters or some form of organized play. I’m sure that they wouldn’t mind the occasional spectator or they just might drag you in any way.
Now let’s say you want to go ahead and try RPG’s either on your own with a close group of friends or through organized play at your FLGS. The one thing you will need that you probably don’t have around the house is dice. Yes, we use some crazy dice. You can pick them at hobby, game and comic stores or through many Internet retailers (like Amazon). That’s one thing about gamers, we will accumulate huge piles of dice. An optional but highly recommended thing gaming accessory are miniatures. Traditionally, they were metal and you had to paint them your self but now there are variety of sources for pre-painted plastic miniatures.
If you really want to be bold here’s a list of various products and games that I would recommend for beginners. D&D Starter Set: Everything you need to start playing the latest edition of D&D. Includes very basic rules. Paizo’s Pathfinder Beginner Box: Another set that has everything you need to start playing. The Pathfinder RPG is based on the 3.5 version of the Dungeons and Dragons rules. Dungeons & Dragons: Essentials: The cleaned up and stream lined version of the rules for the latest version of D&D. Savage Worlds: This is just one of my favorite games. Generic RPG rules for any setting. Fairly simple and easy to learn Castles & Crusades: A simplified version of the Dungeons and Dragons rules combining some of the philosophy of the original game and the modern versions.
Free Games (Yes, there are some free games out there) Dungeonslayers: A simple but wonderful game for fantasy adventures. Mircolite 20: This boils down the rules to bare bones but still worth a look.
Assorted Gamer Bling & Accessories. Miniature Market: I’ve bought a variety of miniatures from these folks and you can see a variety a great gaming accessories. Dragon Chow Dice Bags: Gamers love their dice and have all sorts of superstitions surrounding them. The number fashion accessory for gamers is their dice bag. And yes I own one. Litko Aerosystems: For those who really want to get into gaming. Various useful tokens and the like.
And don’t forget to check out local consignment stores, used books stores, discount stores and garage sales. You just might surprise at what you could find and use with a little imagination.
There it is your how to start your path down to the dungeon. Now kill a dragon and take his stuff.
This week is Speak Out with Your Geek Out and I’m devoting the entire week here at the Geek Life Project to speaking geek. So where’s the best place start? How about a little introduction?
I’ve been a geek as long as I can remember. As a young lad, I cut my geek baby teeth on the Masters of SciFi, you know Asimov, Heinlein and the rest. But I’d have to say my first reading love was the pulps. No, I’m not that old but there are plenty of reprints, Doc Savage, The Shadow, Justice Inc, The Spider. ERB and the John Carter Series. On TV I enjoyed Star Trek, UFO, Space 1999, the original Battlestar Galactica, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and my first exposure to Doctor Who. And then Star Wars was released. I remember that day. Standing in line for a movie that I had never seen. Remember, these were the days before the Internet. There was no Youtube. No social media. Just commercials on the good old TV (no cable channels either). But something drew me to the movie just like so many others. And I loved it. (Han shot first folks. We all know it.)
My first SciFi convention was the very first Eletracon in Kearney Nebraska. Shortly before that I was introduced to a friend of the older brother of one of my friends. He had this little white box. It was this game called Dungeons and Dragons. I was hooked on RPG’s from that moment on.
And then came the computers. I messed around with BASIC on TRS-80′s, Apple II’s and Vic-20′s. And like any good geek of that era I wrote a little D&D character generator. That’s what we did back then.
Through the years I never “out grew” my geeky fascination and I never will. I’ll be in an old folks home somewhere complaining about the 25th Doctor isn’t like the previous ones or talking about another comic book universe reboot.
That’s me and that’s where I’ve been.
What better way to bring a month to a close and blaze into a new month than with a music video. And why not be it one with pretty much universal geeky appeal. So here it is The Dork Anthem. Enjoy!
And that’s a good thing. I saw this little post over at CNN and it got me thinking. Yeah, I’ve never been to a Comic-Con but I’ve been to plenty of other conventions. Really, Hollywood needs to step back and think. But I doubt that will happen.
Maybe it’s just the kind of guy I am but I like things cozy and informal. You know laid back. Not a media and marketing frenzy mainly fueled by folks who probably don’t give a damn. I mean it’s great that geekdom is getting more “mainstream”. I love it. I can fly by geek flag proudly. And of of the teasers are really neat. But really these are the same people who will announce a movie based on a novel or comic book and we just shake our heads and the first thought we have is “I hope they don’t fuck it up.” And may I also remind you that they’re the same folks lobbying for wonderful things as Protect IP Act and other such gems. (But that’s a whole other rant.)
As geeks, we know what we like. We will flock to it and spend and inordinate amount of money pursuing our passions. In a lot of ways, Hollywood is like that obnoxious roommate who drinks all your beer, eats all your pizza then throws up on the couch and blames you for it. Fans are what made so many franchises what they are today. If you give us good stuff then we will go crazy for it. If you give us shit then we’ll call you on it.
And yes this post has been a little more political than usual.
I’ve been messing around and brainstorming on doing an Old School style game for a while and every once in a while I just sit back and relax and let my brain juices ferment and hope an extra bit of inspiration hits me up side the head.
So there I was sitting in the Geek Cave and re-watching a bunch of episodes of “I Hit With My Axe” and my non-geek girl friend walks in, “What are doing?”
“Just watching some vids on line.” And I explain about Zak’s blog, D&D with Pron Stars and I Hit It With My Axe.
She shakes her head, “So let me get this straight. You’re watching porn stars on the Internet but all they’re doing is playing Dungeons and Dragons?”
“Uh, yeah.”
“God, you are such a fucking geek.”
First, a big congrats to Mike of at Wrath of Zombie for two years of blogging goodness. Blogging is a lot of fun.
But anyway, let’s talk about blog networks for just a bit. I belong to two (See those little logo’s over there), RPG Bloggers and the RPG Blog Alliance. I was a member of the RPG Media Network but like most folks I just kind of let fall by the wayside. I’m really grateful for these networks. Not just for the extra traffic and actually having people read the insanity that I post but also for the neat folks that I’ve met over the years and the really nifty blogs that I’ve discovered and so here we go my big shout outs. Wrath of Zombie: Yeah dude. You two mentions in this post don’t let it go to your head. ;) Stuffer Shack: To Tourq and crew good job. I can always find a little bit of inspiration there. The Crazy GM: Yeah, it’s another Mike. I don’t want it is with you guys named Mike. BTW, check out his adventure for Kiss of the Frog God for Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Under Gopher Central: One of my new favorite RPG podcasts. And special thanks to 8one6 for answering my silly questions about podcasting via twitter and to WDR, just for being WDR.
And finally a special shout out to Dyson Logos and a Character for Every Game whose last post inspired me to write this.
Thanks guys! Keep posting and keep those dice a rolling! And thanks to the blog networks without which I probably wouldn’t have stumbled across your blogs.
Welcome to the blog. I'm a life long gamer, geek and nerd. Here's the place I rant about all things geek or at least geek to me. So take the time peruse, comment or whatever.
If you're in the mood for a little OSR Stuff visit my other blog. And warning, it's still under construction.
Commenting Now