How I learned to stop worrying...

and like the Realms.
(I don't quite love them yet)

I have always been a Greyhawk fan. Some of my very first games were looking for ancient Suel mysteries or exploring the dirty streets of the Free City of Greyhawk.   While I ran my adventures in the Known World of Mystara, I played in Oerth and Greyhawk.

For years I even combined the two into one world, and that worked out pretty well.

I remember reading about the Realms in Dragon Mag and I was never impressed.  The increased fetishization of the Drow and Drizzt worship turned me off as well. I can't tell you how much I despised "Lloth", it's LOLTH goddamn it. Any way. I saw the Realms as an upstart to Greyhawk and not even a good one to be honest.   This oddly enough was right around the same time I played my first game of OD&D set in Greyhawk.  To me Realms fans were snotty little kids with delusions of adequacy.

My opinions have softened since then.

This weekend before last I was at the Games Plus game auction.  I was able to pick up the Forgotten Realms books for 1st and 2nd Ed. AD&D.  I picked up the 3rd ed stuff a while back and had the 4e stuff from Half-Price books.  All in all I was able to get all these books for under 50 bucks total.

The 1st Ed box is in fantatsic shape, minus some shelf wear.  The 3 and 4e books are in mint condition.

I have been using the Realms for the 4e game I am running and I have been enjoying it.
Sure, I am still using elements from the Points of Light campaign that 4e is built around, but all of it is in the new version of the Realms.  There are lot of things that came together nicely for this for me really.  In the 4e game I am running the kids are going to go after Orcus.  Much the same way as the old H1-4 Bloodstone series a while back.  That was set in the Realms, so it is kind of fitting really. Plus it would help me flesh out some of the 4e Orcus arc (HPE series).  Not sure how I'll fit Hell into it all, but I might not have to worry about it.

I love the gonzo feeling of two worlds mystically crashing into each other.  I like that the place has some history to it.  Plus I really liked the 3e Realms book. This might irritate some long time Realms fans, but I think the Realms fits better with 3e and 4e.  Greyhawk is better for 1st ed and the like.  At least in my mind.

So maybe it's my age or something, but I feel I can finally sit back and appreciate what the Realms really are and not what I think or thought they were.  I have the main books/sets (for the most part) for all four editions of the game.  Honestly I think that is enough. People have done far more with less.

Here are my other thoughts in my introduction and use of the Realms.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/12/could-my-answer-be-in-realms.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/03/drow-should-be-lawful-evil-among-other.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/06/new-game-new-world.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/07/gods-of-new-game.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2010/01/church-of-lolth-ascendant.html
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/07/nothing-like-sun.html

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EN World Game Day

Please don't forget that if you are in the Chicago area come by and play Ghosts of Albion with the author (that would be me)!

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/325572-chicago-gameday-32-july-14th-sign-up-play.html

Saturday July 14, 2012.

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Supporting the OSR (Sell me your game!!)

This link is making the rounds of Facebook right now, it is a good read and I am sure we have all been in the author's or the father's place before.
http://in-the-cities.com/2012/05/30/the-old-school-revolution-one-step-at-a-time/

Which go me thinking...

I like supporting the OSR.  Sure, I have bought the "same rules" dozen of times over now which would be under other circumstances insane.

Anyway not trying to ramble here (oops, failed that one so far) but I guess here is where I am at.

I plan on showing my support of the OSR at Gen Con again this year in the best way I know how.
With money.

The second way I know how is talking about it here.

So...If you are selling anything for the OSR or related products (like say dice bags with the OSR logo) at Gen Con then tell me here!  Go ahead and post something below.

IF you are not selling something at Gen Con, that's cool, post here too.  Let me know about your Kickstarter too.

I am not promising I will buy your product, I am promising though I will buy something posted here.
I'd like to buy it at Gen Con direct from you if I can.  Failing that I'll buy it from my FLGS.

Help me help you.

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In praise of your FLGS

I was talking with a friend yesterday on how we have both used Amazon to buy a bunch of gifts in past years Christmas.  I sat down to do it again last night and felt a twinge of guilt.   I had been talking to one of the guys at my local game store and he was mentioning how they are not moving as much product as in the past  (of a certain game) but he sees lots of people in the game area of the store playing the game.  Seems that many are getting their books from Amazon.

I see the allure, hell I have been the band leader in the past of the allure parade. Amazon is fast, easy and cheap. I can avoid paying the insane Illinois + Cook county sales taxes (which are some of the highest in the country). And going out to the Mall???  There are at least 100 good reasons to stick with Amazon.

Except I am loyal to my Favorite Local Game Store (FLGS).

You hear people of a certain age wax on about their favorite local comic store.  How it was a place of wonder to their young eyes and how it later it even became a place of amusement to older eyes (if Our Valued Customers is any indication).  Game Stores don't get quite the same press.

Well today I want to honor the Favorite Local Game Store and remind you all that to keep these places alive we need to purchase our products there.

My first local game stores were book stores, Waldenbooks, B. Daltons, and Belobrajdic's Bookstore. I detailed my experiences at those stores here and here.  They are all long gone now.
I am happy to say that my old home town now has a real, honest to goodness game store, "Off/On the Square" in Jacksonville, IL.  I picked up Pathfinder Ultimate Magic there recently to support the local biz.  Plus it isn't too far from where Belobrajdic's used to stand, so it was nice to be buying a "D&D" book in my old hometown again.

While in college I had the chance to be there the first years that Castle Perilous had opened in Carbondale, IL.  Great store and I purchased the vast majority of my 2nd Ed collection there.  It was great. I am glad to see they have grown over the years and are still serving Southern Illinois.  One day I'll need to go back.

But my first true game store and the one I returned to after college was Games Plus in Mount Prospect, IL.
When I lived downstate I used to mail order items from Games Plus I could not get locally; like the entirely-too-risque-for-central-Illinois Eldritch Wizardry or individual lead minis (back when they were lead).

When I moved to the Chicago land area after grad school, they became a place I could go too anytime I got out to the burbs.  When I moved to Mount Prospect, they moved to their current location.

To me Games Plus is the model of the perfect game store.  Huge inventory of thousands of games, books, minis and more dice than anyone will ever need.  Knowledgeable and friendly staff that can answer questions   and really enjoy the hobby; both as a past time and serious business.  It also has one of the best in-store gaming areas I have ever seen.  There is a certain feel of camaraderie and even brotherhood going into a room where eight groups of guys and gals across all social strata are here for the same reasons.  I play-tested Buffy and Ghosts of Albion there.  I run into ChicagoWiz there every so often.  It really is like Mecca for gamers; or at least the closest one to me.  Honestly there is not a single book I have wanted that they could not get for me.  They are better and cheaper than eBay.

The really nice feature of Games Plus is their Game Auctions, held twice a year.  It is a great way to get something rare and old for your collection, or unload something you don't want anymore.  You have read about my successes at the auctions in the past ([1], [2], [3]), so I am rather fond of going.

So if you are in need of a new game or gaming book, please visit your local game store.  These places are the starting place for so many in this hobby and they are a dying breed I fear.  Plus helping out the local business is helping out the community and keeping your neighbors employed.

To my readers: What is YOUR favorite game store?  Where are they, why do you like to go?  Post their url or FB page and share the love.  Don't have one?  Maybe you can find a new one here!

Links
Games Plus on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/GamesPlus
Castle Perilous Games & Books on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Castle-Perilous-Games-Books/142184075822321
Off/On the Square on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/pages/OffOn-The-Square/329762308228

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