Day 9 (On Day 14): Favorite PC I would like to play

Hmmmm. I'm not really sure that I have a PC that I would like to play. I guess, if I did have one, it would have to be Tanis Half-Elven. He is my favorite character in any of the D&D books. But, I don't think it is as much fun to relive stories I have read as it is to write new ones.

Day 8: A bit late, but a favorite PC of my own

So, I have been a little off track. I'm hoping to catch up in a flurry of blogs. So here is day 8. A favorite PC of my very own.

I have a couple of great characters right now. But, the one I am going to write about today is Thomas "Rock Solid" Trampier. AKA Thrust. He's my X-Crawl character. When I was at GaryCon this year, I had Terry Pavlet draw him for me (the image is at the bottom of the page).

X-Crawl starts characters at 3rd level, so Thrust already had a bit of history. He's 23 and a zookeeper by day, and an X-Crawler at night. He and his sister, Lilith (AKA Lust) were on teams in both high school and college (Division V and Division IV respectively).

Thrust hails from Seattle, Oregon, as does the majority of his current team. They have competed in a few Crawls (live pay-per-view death sport in a world with technology from the 80's coupled with magic), notably: Memphis Crawl (where he lost his left eye), the Celebrity Invitational (where his ear was grazed by a goblin shooting a gun at him) and currently 3 Rivers Crawl.

Thrust was once a gung-ho, ready to take on the world man. Losing his eye to an orc barbarian (and a woman at that! The shame!), and almost having his head blown off by a .357 have curbed that enthusiasm.

Now-a-days, Thrust is a bit more pragmatic. Until the rage fills him. When his sister is threatened or when a teammate is seriously injured, he loses it. (He's a 1st level Barbarian and 4th level Brawler.)

He is a lot of fun to play. There are a lot of tactical options, and he is a blast to RP too.

Day 7: Favorite Edition

Favorite Edition is a tough one. I currently play Pathfinder. But, my favorite edition is 1st.

5th edition I have not played enough of yet. I do like Advantage/Disadvantage enough that I put it into my PF games now.
4th edition I did not play at all.
Pathfinder is what I currently play, like I said. But I hate the super-heroness of it. I hate that there are too many rules and characters types. At least they fixed the power issues of 3.X
3.X this was the best system that dungeons and dragons had. Then they ruined it with 100s of books.
2nd edition may have actually been better than 1st, with the add of skills. But I can't get over Gary's game being stolen from him.
1st edition is the game for me. I love the simplicity of it. "Here's what I want to do." No feats. No skill checks. Just some dice, paper, and imagination to fuel adventures.
0D&D I own all the books, but refuse to use them in a game.

Day 6: Favorite Diety

I'm a couple of days late on day 6. Told you it was going to happen.

Anyway, this is kind of an odd question, compared to the others so far on the list. Everything else so far has either been personal (how started, favorite dice) or universal (Race, Class, Game World). Deities in RPGs don't apply to everyone. Not playing a cleric or paladin? Who actually chooses a deity then?

My favorite RPG deity is St Cuthbert. My most recent religious character, a half-orc paladin followed him. He was around for most of my early RP days.
And he doesn't live in the Realms.

Day 5: Favorite die or dice

This is going to be short:

My favorite die is a 6 sided alien die I won from a buddy, Eric. We have a tradition of making bets. We bet dice. I won that one in a game of Magic.

My favorite dice are d10s. Simple math is good.

Day 4: Favorite Game World

Finally, something interesting to talk about! Obviously my favorite game world is Mord Mar. I've really enjoyed building it so far. It hasn't been without its challenges though. Most are chronicled here. Instead of rehashing those, here are some of my favorite things that I am working on now.

1. The Demons. All of them. Belle is my favorite (a CG Succubus that works for Var Nae easing people into the next life.)

2. The expansiveness of the setting. For a finite system (a megadungeon), there are any number of places that can and should be fleshed out. The group is currently going through a noble's manor.

3.Bear Jarl. The golden dragon is awesome. And fun to RP.


My favorite published setting?
Greyhawk.

It started it all. It has the original megadungeon. It is also 'dead.' It didn't bloat into 3 quadrillion books. Each DM had the ability to make part of the world his own.

Day 3: Favorite Class

My favorite PC Class . . .

I play mostly Pathfinder these days, so here's my top 5:

5: Ranger- My True Dungeon class.
4: Paladin- Probably the overall most powerful class in 3.x systems.
3: Brawler- Shoutout to X-Crawl, yo!
2. Rogue- The versatility of this class is unmatched (well, except for the way OP Factotum). Use Magic Device is the best skill ever. Backstab allows the Rogue to be a front line fighter.
1. Wizard- Spells. Fireball, Lightning Bolt, Disintegrate, and Read Magic.

Day 2: My Favorite PC Race

I've been thinking about this all day. What is my favorite PC race, and why?

It really depends, is the only answer I came up with. Here's the rundown:

Pathfinder/D&D 3.X:Humans. The +2 to a stat and +1 Skill point per level make them the most versatile in my opinion.

AD&D 2nd: Half-Elves. I'm pretty sure this was a lingering fascination with Tanis Half-Elven.

Basic/AD&D: Elves. We never used level limits, so Elves had a distinct advantage.

Vampire: Gangrel. I just always loved the loner archtype.

Overall, I gravitate toward whatever is most powerful in a game. 

How I fared for Gen Con

That's my finalized list. All of those are bought and purchased. Here's a readable list:

WEDNESDAY
True Dungeon Golden Ticket 5:00-8:30 pm
St Elmo's Director Room Dinner 9:00 pm

THURSDAY
Dealer Hall Early Access 9:00 am
True Dungeon Sable Gauntlet (combat) 4:00-6:00 pm
True Dungeon Chase into the Underdark (combat) 7:15-9:15 pm

FRIDAY
Magic: The Gathering Chaos Draft 3:00-7:00 pm
Escape the Room: Supervillain Hideout 10:00-11:00 pm

SATURDAY
X-Crawl Tournament 9:00 am-1:00 pm

30 day challenge: Day 1

So, I ran across this today, and since it is June 1, it seemed a good idea to try. I may not succeed with real life (you know, 3 little boys, 2 dogs, a cat, a wife, 2 jobs), but I intend to try.

How did I get started with RPGs?

It is really a mystery lost in the sands of time. It was around 1984, and Marvel Super Heroes and D&D Basic were floating around in Michigan. I lived in Florida. I came to visit my family, and was introduced by my cousins.

Flash forward to being home from vacation. My parents would have none of it though. Moonies owned D&D and I was not allowed to play. So, I would head to the local library, and digest every piece of information I could.The 2 books I remember were Oriental Adventures and Fiend Folio. They made almost no sense to me. No PHB or DMG for reference.

I fought with my parents for 5 years about it. I wrote a paper for school about it. I finally got the okay to play, and haven't looked back.