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Same. Digital is ok for finding old, obscure, out of print RPG materials, but for anything I'm working on, nothing beats paper! And paper rpg books are so much better for my way of organization. I used to play with a group however and the DM was beyond excellent using digital media for in person games. Even being former IT I don't think I could ever replicate his skill with digital assets. We each have our ways I guess.
2024-09-05 00:25 from TheInnkeeper
Subject: Re: My Fountain Pen ..
Sadly, this is true. I mostly keep journal entries and notes and
RPG stuff. I prefer pen and paper. For me it has that exact
People my generation is very lazy and carres all their RPG info in a tablet, laptop or smartphone. I am old school and I keep all the character sheets and notes in a binder. When I DM, campaign material goes into the binder too.
It is much easier to hunt for specific pieces of information when you have a binder instead of a electronic device. Also, so many RPG manuals are in PDF format... hard to use those with a tablet. I tend o have an original manual at home for preparing the games and then I print copies for the game table.
2024-09-09 22:25 from TheInnkeeper
Subject: Re: My Fountain Pen ..
Same. Digital is ok for finding old, obscure, out of print RPG
materials, but for anything I'm working on, nothing beats paper!
And paper rpg books are so much better for my way of
organization. I used to play with a group however and the DM was
beyond excellent using digital media for in person games. Even
being former IT I don't think I could ever replicate his skill
with digital assets. We each have our ways I guess.
Which games did that DM use to run? Anything DnD post 4e sounds a bit too cumbersome to run on digital only. That is the reason why the DnD people is so interested in selling you Dungeons And Dragons as a service. Call me crazy, but I think they are bloating the system so they can sell you the associated organizative tools as a subscription.
Isn't that the way of the world these days for everything?
"The first one is always free".... or "you can get into the garden for free, come visit us" then *smack* a subscription or 'cost of exit' hits you in the face.
I think they are bloating the system so they can sell you the associated organizative tools as a subscription.
2024-09-11 07:20 from Nurb432
Subject: Re: My Fountain Pen ..
Isn't that the way of the world these days for everything?
"The first one is always free".... or "you can get into the
garden for free, come visit us" then *smack* a
subscription or 'cost of exit' hits you in the face.
Thing is RPG used to be pretty safe from that crap. In the good old days, the upfront cost of getting into RPGs paid for everything. Think of it: a Game Master needed a Dungeon Master Manual, a Player Manual and a Monster Manual at the bare minimum. Then, around half the users had a Player Manual themselves or had bootleg copies or notes.
Publishers started grabbing more cash with other techniques, such as selling game settings (ie. you also purchased a Forgotten Realms Master Manual, and a FR Player Manual, and its monster manual) and general supplements (adventure modules, equipment supplements). The good part is all that stuff was a one time purchase. When the system gor upgraded you had to rebuy everything but you most likely didn't anyway.
What I mean is it was never free with the popular games trying this crap today. Modern games that are free are typically hippie free or freemium.
5e. Can't remember the module/campaign, but it was an island with dinos. The only paper item he used really was the large map the island and I think that might have been something he had done custom.
Which games did that DM use to run? Anything DnD post 4e sounds a bit too cumbersome to run on digital only. That is the reason why the DnD people is so interested in selling you Dungeons And Dragons as a service. Call me crazy, but I think they are bloating the system so they can sell you the associated organizative tools as a subscription.
I had the original D&D book ( at least im pretty sure it was the first ). And the green dice. Several soft bound books in a box, and a hardbound book that went with it ( been a while.. might be wrong on the hardback, might have been separate )
I think we played a couple of times, got bored with it. Either way it was not much. It may have been 'the thing' back then, but wasn't for us. Then it sat in in a box for some 40 years. Ran across it a couple of years ago when i was purging stuff and gave it to someone at work who does that sort of thing ( takes V time to go to the convention every year.. gencon? or is it comicon? I donno its the same thing to me ). He about freaked out, like i was giving him gold bars or something..
2024-09-11 14:21 from TheInnkeeper
Subject: Re: My Fountain Pen ..
5e. Can't remember the module/campaign, but it was an island
with dinos. The only paper item he used really was the large map
the island and I think that might have been something he had
done custom.
Well, that is quite a feat. Hats off. 5E is not too heavy, but with so many feat, spells and power references I can't picture myself running it on digital only.
I think we played a couple of times, got bored with it. Either
way it was not much. It may have been 'the thing' back then, but
wasn't for us. Then it sat in in a box for some 40 years. Ran
across it a couple of years ago when i was purging stuff and
gave it to someone at work who does that sort of thing ( takes V
time to go to the convention every year.. gencon? or is it
comicon? I donno its the same thing to me ). He about
freaked out, like i was giving him gold bars or something..
If it was the original brown box and it was in good condition, that stuff sells for more than 300 bucks, I think.
I have some books that were cheap when they came out and now sell for 300 bucks each. Some of them are part of complete game lines. I shudder when I think of how much some collections would cost if I sold the line whole now.
I thought about selling some of my things like that as i know they are worth 'something', but its just a hassle. So most gets gifted or donated.
For the short time i "roomed" with a couple of other guys we had a chess player.
Self absorbed im better than you type, constantly puffing his chest. Finally i got tired of it and challenged him to play, made him look like a child. He never spoke to me again, or claim he was 'a chess master'. When i moved out a month or 2 later i hid one of the pieces of his 'most cherished set' he would never shut up about. Put it with some of his ther things, would take him forever to find it. But i did so if he left before he found it, it would go with him. It may have been payback, and make him think he lost it and waste time looking, but wasn't to actually cause damage. Id not go that far
Funny story around it too, it was 'school arranged apartments' They gave me map of JUST the streets to take, no context at all. On the way, road was closed due to flooding, but due to what i was driving, 'screw it i dont know my way around these parts, and i wont get wet from a few inches of water' ( 2 cars were in ditches facing nose down. must have been a hell of a storm ). But finally got there. "ok im here" apartment manager "um, err, seems we have you placed with 3 girls" "ok, cool, where is my key" "Um, no we cant.. you will have to back to the school and get another room " Girl walks in " i have lost my keys again" ( it was one of the now-canceled roommates, we became friends later. On way back, cops were blocking traffic at the flooded road... doh. Got back to school, eventually. "ok, lets try again" and they send me in the exact opposite direction of the first. spent all day driving around, blew off first day of class/orientation.
And the trip to the area fun.. road closed major wreck.. ended up by accident driving around the south side of Chicago trying to get back on 294.. was not fun, got a lot of stares from residents "what you doing around here, you Hoosier hick" im sure they were thinking. . And the last time i ever left the house to a place i didn't know without a FULL map of everywhere i was to go, or pass along the way.
Actually lots of stories about that time of my life.. lots of fun looking back, not so much at the time..... sooooo long ago. ( mid 80s )
Sat Sep 21 2024 21:13:07 EDT from IGnatius T FoobarBack in college we played
You guys played ADhD?
No, we played Dungeons and Dragons.
There is no such thing as ADHD. That was made up by the Big Pharma drug cartel and incompetent parents and teachers.