Lego Lonely Mountain

Last year Madoc and MacQuaid were 100% Star Wars. This year we are saturated in Lord of the Rings. We read  the Hobbit together and then watched the 1977 Hobbit cartoon. We're currently 50 hours into reading the LOTR trilogy. Once we reach a point in the book where a movie ends, we watch it, and the corresponding part of the LOTR cartoon.  It's entertaining seeing all the differences. For instance we prefer the Arwen rescue from the movie as compared to Legolas in the cartoon, or Glorfindel in the book.  For the most part though we all agree on the supremacy of the original work.

This Christmas (2010) they were fortunate enough to receive a custom Hobbit: There and Back Again Lego set from "Santa". If I had to "guess", I would say this is around 140 Ebay purchases as well as a couple complete Lego castle sets and countless hours.  There's no way anything but a magical being and his trusty elves could have pulled this one off. The set includes most of events in The Hobbit. The troll encounter (depicted here), spiders, goblin town, gollum, The hidden tunnel into Smaug's lair, and of course Smaug's Lair.

Characters included are the thirteen dwarves, and Bilbo (pictured), Gandalf, Bard, Smaug, and the three trolls.

Here's the complete Flickr Photo Set.

P.S. I heard a joke recently ... how is Santa like your boss?  You do all the work and some fat guy in a suit gets all the credit.

Legos and D&D

I grew up with a low level of lead poisoning from both handling miniatures and painting them in confined spaces. By the end of a painting session my snot would be the color of whatever base spray I was using, usually black.  It haf uffected me vari litl. I seem to have gotten through that fine, but with my kids, for miniatures, we're currently using legos. We have literally a ton (literally). We have dwarves, orcs, knights, hobbits, dragons, trolls and countless pieces to build rooms and walls.

It's really quite useful. If we crit-miss and our battle axe goes flying, we pop it out of the figure's hand and place it where it lands. If we need a room with pillars and stairs, we just slap together a quick layout. The lego miniatures, being their favorite toy right now, help keep their attention, they are able to continue playing when we're not playing, and they can change and alter their character's appearance as they wish. Different helmets, armor, weapons, packs ... it's all possible.

Update: Nov 4th, 2012 : They discovered regular miniatures.  I now have no money and am down to my last few brain cells.  Pre-painted plastic though, while not as awesome as painting your own, still cool!

Update: Jan 18th, 2014 :  Two Bones Kickstarter's have happened.  We no have more miniatures than there are people in the world. (image from: forum.rpg.net)

Bad Ass Garden Gnome

Before even explaining skills and proficiencies to Madoc (6 years old) he said that he wanted his garden gnome ... no, of course not the D&D standard gnome, we're talkin' 15 cm of pure bad-ass ... in any case he wanted his garden gnome to learn how to use a rake and shovel as weapons, so he could stand his own in a fight should it come up while gardening ... as it often does. He thinks the rake would be good for scratching someone. I think he's right.

So, what version to play?

When I began playing at 9 years old I started with the original blue basic D&D (pre-famous red box).  My mom picked it up for my brother's birthday along with the Monster Manual. Prior to his birthday I talked my mom into letting me look through them.  Trying to figure it all out, I spent many an hour locked away where my brother couldn't come see it and ruin the surprise

In any case, we played through basic rather quickly, my 14 year old brother Dungeon Mastering for birthday boy (12) and me through many a wacky quest. We quickly moved on to AD&D 1st edition. I never played anything else all through high school at which time I essentially quit playing. That was in 1987.

I became aware of new editions, and that we were in 4th edition, at PAX 2010. So, I thought to myself, "If I'm starting a new campaign with my kids, why not start with 4th edition?" I Google, "Which version of D&D to play"

OMG.

Really guys, it goes on and on. Epic campaign of good versus evil.

Everyone had some horrible complaint about each version. "Whine, whine ... rogues can't use red daggers in 4e ... whine, whine ... magic users are called Wiccans ..." It went on and on. Dudes, it's a game. You can do whatever the heck you want. Nowhere in the game of Risk does it say you can have paratroopers, and nukes (clay mushroom clouds and all), yet every time I play voila, there they are. If I happen into a Risk gaming session that does NOT allow nukes. No nukes, no problem.

I love one quote I ran across about the edition wars, with regard to all the arguing, "It's funny watching grown men argue about how best to play an elf".  Not a direct quote as I can't find it now, but so true!

Final decision. Stick with 1st edition for now. I have the books. I am familiar with it. But I've read enough to choose some things from all the other editions that I like. To hit tables, nah, use 3.5 (or just convert 1st edition tables to work the same way. 10 plus a first edition AC = a 3.5 AC, then convert the tables to provide level bonuses. It really does make so much more sense than THACO, or the original backaxe method.) Proficiencies and skills utilized from all the versions. And you know, feats are cool, I will throw those in too. I prefer 1st edition Vancian spell casting so I'll go with that.

Really, I'm playing with a 6 and 8 year old. We're having fun. If we want to pick up a helmet and smack a guy in the head, we just do it! Critical misses and hits ... we love em! And I love hearing my 6 year old excitedly exclaim "Critical hit!".

While looking for books on eBay I've found so many cool things,

1. Spelljammer - Flying boats! Kids will love 'em (no hippo's though).
2. The Dragon Magazine Archive - Awesome. I absolutely loved Dragon growing up.
3. Dungeon Magazine - Why didn't I find this one back when I was playing? I'm going to hand some to my 8 year old and keep some for me to run. Voila, some instant material.

There are so many materials out there from so many editions, our resource base for ideas is boundless.

Drums ... drums in the deep.

Madoc creating a Garden Gnome.

Dungeons and Dragons is back in my life.

D&D was a huge part of my life between 3rd grade through high school. My reading, vocabulary, math skills, creativity were all improved while playing a deep and enjoyable game.

My first campaign began when I was eight or nine, playing with my Dad and my brothers.  I named my characters after characters in Watership down.  Blackovar the fighter was killed by the first swing of the first orc in the first room of the first dungeon he ever experienced. Blackovar's son, Campion,  lived on to conquer many an adventure and is now ruling from a floating castle in the sky.

My brothers aged and moved on.  For a couple of years I had no "group" so I pretty much just rolled up characters and read Dragon magazine. If only the internet existed back then as it does now.  Finally, I was able to get my cousins playing and through high school I played with them and some school friends. When I went off to college, partially for reasons of time, partially for reasons of social stigma, and partially because I made a conscious decision to stop "playing" and start trying to really be part of the adventurer (I dive, I'm a fire fighter and EMT) I quit playing. Video games also served to usurp any time I might devote to paper and pencil games.

When did I hear the beat of the drums again? A few weeks ago my oldest child, 7 years old, brought it up. He read about it, social stigma and all, in Diary of a Whimpy Kid.  In the book they refer to a game of "Magic and Monsters".  Greg Hefley, the main character in the book, enjoys the game until his mother starts playing and ruins the game by playing his in game character's mom. I said that that sounded like Dungeons & Dragons and  relayed some of my stories of the game. His favorite was when I was trying to get my younger cousins playing. "You see an orc charging at you.", cousin replies, "I eat it." I had tried to start my cousin's too early. In any case my kids, both of them, 5 and 7 at the time, where intrigued. I dug out musty boxes of AD&D 1st Edition books. What I could not find I ordered from eBay.

We have begun playing. We've had two sit down sessions, as well as many total verbal sessions while driving. The ideas these little guys have are awesome. The older one, MacQuaid, came up with the idea of using dragon scales to make protective shields, the five year old is remembering that they saw rope  in an earlier room, and using that to try to pull NPCs from burning oil or set traps. Mind you that oil is burning because MacQuaid's trap caught both the party and the troll. He reads though the Monster Manuals and Bestiaries incessantly and remembered reading that they were susceptible to flame.

The battles are creative and engaging and their imaginations are awesome. Madoc (The now six year old) chooses to be a Garden Gnome (Ala 15 cm tall Gnomes from the popular "Gnome" book of the 70's ... hey, why not!), and MacQuaid is on an epic quest to destroy the queen Chromatic dragon Tiamat.

How lucky can I be? For the next 10 years I have live in players, and two DM's. Here, I will document some of this experience.

Let the quests begin!