Mysteries of Montreal

 RPG a Day 2024, day 31: Game or Gamer you miss . Yay, I made it to the end! Go me. Last time I completed one of these was back in 2017. Reading back, I see I had the same plan then as now. Write a bunch of posts at the start of the month when momentum and time were high, then schedule posts to arrive on time. I see that back them was also a NecronomiCon year.  So we're ending on a high note...? ...oh, no, that's a bit of a downer. Game or gamer I miss?  Well, there are a few ways I could go with this. I miss not having all my 1e L5R books, and I have no idea where they ended up. Nah, too material. I miss all the people I gamed with in Edinburgh at GEAS. I am in contact with many through social media, either through the dying facebook, or the various discords we share membership of. So there. That's a bunch of gamers that were part of my life for a good 5-6 year period that I no longer game with in any fashion. Know that you are missed.

 RPG a Day 2024, day 30: Person you'd like to game with. I've been incredibly fortunate in my gaming career to have gamed with a lot of good people (you know who you are). I've even had a chance, mostly through Necronomicon, to play with some gaming luminaries, at least in the Call of Cthulhu world (including Mike Mason, Scott Dorward, Keeper Chad, Lynne Hardy, Oscar Rios, and many others). One of my bucket list people to game with was John Wick, of Legend of the 5 Rings fame. I say was, as earlier this year, I played in his Shadow Throne game. This was really great. My favourite clan in my favourite game run by a writer and GM I have long respected. I learned a lot. Unfortunately, for reasons, I could only play in 3 sessions, but I had a blast. I may go into this more in another post. Stay tuned, and comment if you want more info. So, who does this leave? I think I'd like to get to the table with Kenneth Hite, or even Robin Laws. That would be a real coup.

 RPG a Day 2024, day 29: Awesome App ? My first thought is that I don't know of any apps that I use. Then I thought some more, and yeah there are a couple. There's the character generator app for the new version of Mothership, Mothership Companion (I have not yet tried it), there's the dice app for Genesys that I have used (as I am not buying those dice. Our GM had to buy 3 sets for the game to work). Then I got to thinking, what apps do I actually use in gaming, and the answer was obvious. Discord . I use discord as an app and in my browser all the time, and the app on my phone for online gaming.  Discord was a lifesaver when the pandemic rolled around, and Roll20 had a very poor voice/video interface. Discord has become a place of community/communities online where previous platforms have lost usability. Discord is an awesome app.

I did go to this years NecronomiCon with an increased budget from years passed (I had had 5 years to save after all). I planned to make the most of getting stuff, and being able to drive back across the border and not have to pay the exorbitant shipping prices that prices many of these products out for me. When you pay as much or more for shipping as you do for the book in the first place, well, you just don't. With that in mind, I may have gone a spend crazy. Just a little. I regret nothing that I bought, and a couple of things that I didn't. Gaming Stuff The first stop was a trip to the Chaosium stand, where I picked up the brand new, and not yet publicly available Gaslight Investigator's Guide. This is a beautiful hardback book, as are all of the main Chaosium books. I will say no more on it, as once I cam hoe, it went away as a birthday gift. Next stop was the other Call of Cthulhu Licensees stall, where books were being sold by Stygian Fox, Golden Goblin Press, Bayt Al...

 RPG a Day 2024, day 28: Great gamer gadget ? Gadgets for gaming? To me, the best gadget is one that will improve the experience at the table. I did think about answering dice, but they are more inherent to the experience than the word gadget suggests. A well built random table. Random tables are hard to get right, but a good one is a source of inspiration (either random or chosen) for many a session. These are simple tools that can really add to the experience both sides of the screen.

The convention is not only about games and panels, it is about so much more. Indeed any visitor to the con can only see a fraction of what is available. What else did I do? Well, here's a selection. Ars Necronomica I actually stumbled into the Ars Necronomica event by accident. I had indeed planned to look it out, as my previous visit had left me rather impressed. As it was, this year it was not in the same place, but in a vacant storefront in the same arcade as the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences bookstore . The arcade itself was sadly much less populated than on previous visits, with most storefronts lying empty, so I guess it was an easy space for them to have access to. I was less than impressed with the space, and indeed with the number of works on show. While the website linked above admits the scope of the show to be 'curtailed' from previous years, it was still rather disappointing, and I was in and out in about 10 minutes. I think I was more impressed with the art ...

 RPG a Day 2024, day 27: Marvelous Minature I rarely if ever use minis when I'm role-playing. Never have. We didn't get into the habit of it back in the days of black-and white, and we rarely play(ed) games where miniatures helped with combat. I do like tactical combat of the kind that miniatures go well with, but it's a separate hobby for me, minis-gaming anf RPGs are two great tastes that I don't mix. Indeed, I have a separate blog, just for minis. Lead and Paint . I started it before this one, but it has lain dormant recently, as has my mini-painting.  Minis I like, that I have painted? Well, the gang I painted for Frostgrave is up there, and includes some cools minis from various companies (including an Olaf that I commissioned from Antoine )