REBUILDING MY STOCKPILES OF DRAGON: THE BARBARIAN AND THE CAVALIER

over the past few years, with the help of my youngest daughter I have been rebuilding my stockpile of original Dragon Magazines. I purchased two original editions for myself for Christmas this year (man the paper was thick back then), including #72. I plan to pass them on to my grandchildren, especially my grandsons.

Anyway #72 (I had it as a kid) included excellent articles on the Ancient Real World Barbarians and how to adapt them for your game, and on the Cavalier character class.

Back then Dragon magazines leaned heavily towards historical research and both articles were joys to re-read. Also even a kid I adored the Cavalier Class but by re-reading the original I also noticed that the best form of Cavalier was really the Cavalier-Paladin, the best of both sub-classes, minus the magic.

I did have a Cavalier character I played briefly as a young guy (as well as a couple of really good Cavalier NPCs and an Anti-Paladin/Assassin/Blackguard  NPC I played as DM) but now regret I never played a Cavalier-Paladin for myself.

In any case I thought some of you might enjoy this trip down memory lane as well, and yes, the early Dragon magazine did have some fantastic sub-classes and NPC classes, many by Gary Gygax himself.

MUCH OF WHAT IS PRODUCED

by independent content creators on youtube and elsewhere on the internet is far (or infinitely) better than any of the stuff produced by the “professional industries and studios.” Just saying…

PSEUDO-HISTORICITY

what I like most about this “Shorty” is its pseudo-historicity…

ROGUE ONE TOO

STC – FAIREST OF THEM ALL

 

http://www.startrekcontinues.com

ENIGMA – DESIGN OF THINGS TO COME

Enigma: A Steampunk-Themed Cafe Filled with Kinetic Sculptures Opens in Romania by Christopher Jobson on October 20, 2015

Welp, now we’ve seen everything. Just last week, a new cafe opened in Romania called Enigma that claims to be “the world’s first kinetic steampunk bar.” We have no way to verify if that’s true, but it certainly looks impressive from these photos, if you’re into that sort of thing. A slightly terrifying humanoid robot with a plasma lamp cranium bicycles by the door, and a variety of kinetic artworks churn and rotate on both the ceiling and walls. Watch the video to take a peek inside, and if you’re in town you can visit Enigma Cafe at Enigma at Iuliu Maniu, Nr 12, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Photos by Zoly Zelenyak from The 6th-Sense Interiors. (via Steampunk Tendencies)

THE WIZARD

YEAH THAT BUGS ME TOO…

CAFE TIME

SUPERGIRL – ALL-THING

I think my wife and daughters will like this. I’m not sure I won’t.

 

HARD EARTH – DESIGN OF THINGS TO COME

This week, for the Design of Things to Come we go back to the old ways.

My old man was a tool and die maker. So I was around metalworking and metalworkers most of my youth. Both at his shop and at home. I also met more than one blacksmith.

I’m going to watch this entire with no little fascination.

Thanks to Jake Powning Swords. Who also does superb and beautiful work.

 

BATTLEFRONT

Very, very nice.

THE MEDIEVAL FORGE

Discoveries, Donations and Digs: Medieval News Roundup

A couple dozen items to share with you as we get caught up with the medieval news from the last few weeks…

Finally, we wanted to show you this beautiful video of a 16th century Irish castle…

GOT D&D?

Game of Thrones with dice – Dungeons and Dragons fantasy role-playing game gets new life

 

You’ll have to go to the original post to see the accompanying video, but it is interesting to see how the Australian media views Dungeons and Dragons in relation to works of fantasy, like Game of Thrones. Weird, but interesting.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Broadcast: 19/01/2015

Reporter: Alison Caldwell

Dungeons and Dragons was the world’s most-popular fantasy role-playing game in the 1980s but hits like Game of Thrones have seen it experiencing a revival with a younger generation, and a warning this report contains strong language.

Transcript

LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: In this internet and technology-obsessed age, it’s amazing what simpler pastimes survive.

Dungeons and Dragons, the fantasy role-playing game, was huge in the 1980’s and required little more than a pen and paper, a dice and a bit of imagination.

Now it’s undergoing something of a revival, as Alison Caldwell reports.

ALISON CALDWELL, REPORTER: In living rooms around Australia, a game of strategy and boundless imagination is keeping it’s fans up late into the night.

KIEM-AI NGUYEN, D&D GAMER: I’m not really sure what’s cool and what’s not. I don’t really keep in touch with pop culture, but I’d say it’s pretty cool.

ALISON CALDWELL: Long before Game of Thrones, Dungeons and Dragons lured players with the promise of legend and great adventure.

29-year-old Kiem-Ai Nguyen is one of a legion of new fans of the role-playing game.

KIEM-AI NGUYEN: I was always like, “Ugh, nerds! Ew! Sounds terrible! But a couple of years ago my partner roped me into it. He was like, “Oh, come on, Kiem, you’d love it. It’s a lot of fun. You talk s**t and roll a dice.”

ALISON CALDWELL: Tonight, Kiem’s party of adventurers is embarking on a whole new campaign. The last one played out for over a year.

KIEM-AI NGUYEN: I’m playing an elvin rogue. So, being a rogue, she’s really good with, like, bows and short swords. I just really love the conversation part, the actual role-playing.

ALISON CALDWELL: Michael is the dungeon master in Kiem’s game, the main storyteller and referee.

MICHAEL BARDSLEY, DUNGEON MASTER: In the course of a game, I’m doing things like controlling the non-player characters, controlling the monsters, making decisions about how things happen.

BEN MCKENZIE, GAME DESIGNER: Dungeons and Dragons is the earliest role-playing game. It’s been around since I think 1974. And a role-playing game is a game where you sit around and essentially tell a story together by playing the parts of characters and going through an adventure which is arbitrated by rules which adds an element of risk and danger that you might fail.

ALISON CALDWELL: Ben McKenzie is a game designer and a veteran D&D player.

BEN MCKENZIE: It comes out of the same sort of origins of geek culture as the very early video games. You know, guys in college who felt disenfranchised by the sort of traditional idea of masculinity making an alternate way for them to do these things that they wanted to do.

ALISON CALDWELL: Dungeon master Andy Hazel’ s group has been playing together for seven years.

ANDY HAZEL, DUNGEON MASTER: I didn’t really have a TV when I was younger so there was a lot more imagination and books going on. So, when a neighbour showed me this, I took to it straight away and then quickly converted a whole bunch of my friends at school and started writing adventures for them.

ALISON CALDWELL: Invented in the US in 1974, the board game’s appeal waned in the late ’80s with the advent of video games. Facing oblivion in the late-’90s, a new owner revamped the game, releasing new editions and a mind-boggling 20-sided dice.

ANDY HAZEL: So this is all from 1978 and it was all made by the original guy, Gary Gygax, who – he kind of – he wrote all these books and came up with them. He’s like God to many people.

ALISON CALDWELL: Andy and his group are purists. They prefer an earlier vintage.

ANDY HAZEL: I can often write huge adventures and people will just, like, turn the other direction and walk into the hills and I’ll have to improvise stuff. So, this is still much more about human contact and meeting up and having brown fizzy drinks and pizza and that sort of stuff.

ALISON CALDWELL: Fairfax columnist Clem Bastow has embraced Dungeons & Dragons.

CLEM BASTOW, D&D GAMER: My character today is called Zalga and he’s a half-ork magic user from the realm of Pomage. And he’s six foot five and he’s about 37. And I think his theme song would probably be Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again. He’s kind of just been wandering around and somehow ended up in this cabin with all these people.

ALISON CALDWELL: One reason for the revival in interest in D&D was the late-’90s cult teen drama series Freaks and Geeks. Incorporated into its final episode, Freak Daniel, played by James Franco, is ordered to hang out with geeks and play D&D as punishment. To his surprise, Daniel enjoys it.

That’s how Clem Bastow came to Dungeons & Dragons.

CLEM BASTOW: D&D in Freaks and Geeks is such a big part of those narratives. So when I found these books at the op’ shop, I just put the word out to people I thought might be interested and it turned out everybody in the email chain was interested.

ALISON CALDWELL: Once the domain of men only, today, around 10 per cent of D&D players are women.

CLEM BASTOW: Sometimes women just assume there’s not something there for them. But, I mean, we usually have a fairly even gender split. And what’s really interesting too is, you know, people don’t always play their own gender. So, right now we’ve got one woman in the campaign, but three women at the table.

KIEM-AI NGUYEN: I’m a feminist so I’m all about embracing, you know, everything. It’s becoming a fairly new thing for women to get involved in D&D. … I think we’re all so caught up in the internet world. In the end you try and look for something a little bit different, something creative. It’s kind of like a massive choose-your-own- adventure story, but there is no end to the story and that’s really cool.

LEIGH SALES: You would be surprised how many Dungeons & Dragons fans in the 7.30 office have outed themselves since we commissioned that story – or perhaps not!

BOND DOES SPECTRE

Superb! This looks as if it might be as good as SkyFall.

CAP DOES ULBOT

Actually, I did wanna see that. That was immensely entertaining.

More of that kinda thing please…

 

Captain America Drop Kicks An Ultron Bot In Avengers 2 International Clip

By Gregory Wakeman 2 hours ago 5 Comments

Fancy seeing Captain America drop kick and decapitate an Ultron bot? Of course you do. So I’m not going to waste your time with any preamble, just watch the Australian television spot for Avengers: Age Of Ultron and immediately start to salivate.

Sensational. Despite being just 15 seconds long, this brief look at Joss Whedon’s hugely anticipated sequel rams home the two main aspects of Avengers: Age Of Ultron. Firstly, that the world is in utter chaos because of Ultron’s decision to wreak havoc across the globe. And secondly, that the Avengers themselves are going through their own issues. That’s why Iron Man has created a Hulk-buster suit that he uses to drag the big, green monster through a skyscraper.

The fact that both Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Captain America (Chris Evans) are easily able to destroy the Ultron bots with an almighty swing of their hammer and shield, respectively, suggests that we’re going to get action scenes reminiscent of Age Of Ultron’s predecessor (2012’s The Avengers) and The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King. In these films, each of our heroes took down the repeated sway of enemy soldiers with no difficulty, and the directors of these films made sure to keep audiences entertained by injecting humor and making the characters work as a tag-team to defeat them. Thor’s thwack of Cap’s shield with his hammer suggests Age Of Ultron’s battle scenes will be broken down in this manner, too.

Meanwhile, one of the most prominent aspects of Avengers: Age Of Ultron’s promotional campaign has been the tease of Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) and The Hulk’s (Mark Ruffalo) tussle. Because of The Hulk’s height, weight, anger and gamma-ray advantage over his metallic pal, Tony Stark has created a Hulkbuster suit to tackle Bruce Banner’s less-than-friendly alter-ego. Many rumors have started to circulate about the reasons for their tussle. Some have suggested that Iron Man resorts to tackling The Hulk because he has lost control and is wreaking havoc in a heavily populated area, while it’s also been teased that they go toe-to-toe just to see who is tougher. Scarlet Witch might also factor in to the fray, from what we have heard. Either way, the tease of their tussle has done a great job of amping up anticipation ahead of Age Of Ultron’s release, so much so that Avengers 2’s box office predictions are insanely high.

And now that we know that Captain America: Civil War will revolve around an almighty quarrel between Iron Man and Captain America, it basically proves that Age Of Ultron will help to sow these seeds ahead of Steve Rogers’ third solo adventure in 2016. But before that though, Avengers: Age Of Ultron will hit cinemas on May 1st. And it promises to be a pretty big deal.

A VISION OF THE VISION

It was the Vision after all…

THE COLLEGES TO COME?

Following up on the LARPful post. This could be an excellent stimulus for the imagination. Especially for writers. artists, actors, and perhaps even scientists who wanted a free-flowing environment to conduct chemical and physical experiments and make observations in a fun environment.

I can also see this being transformed easily into a Vadding Experience (the exploration of both modern and older ruins), that is LARPing could be used an an environment to train Vadders.

And finally this could also be easily used as a platform to develop ARGs (Alternate Reality Games and LARPs) and could even be used to train participants in Real World Skills (TSS: Transferable Skill Simulations) and in subjects such as ancient technologies and history.

So this could also easily become a GPAD, a Game of Personal Advancement and Development.

Anyway as far as the current Crowdfunding Project goes Claus, Good Luck and Godspeed. To you, your partners, and participants.

 

College of Wizardry: As Real As Wizard School Gets

Lesna, Poland Gaming

Claus Raasted

Project Coordinator

Campaign Team

Do you want to experience four days as a witch or wizard in a fairytale castle? Here’s your chance!

IMPORTANT NOTICE: If we do not manage to reach our goal of $175,000, which enables us to do all three November events, and we need to cancel an event, you will of course get a full refund if the event you’ve signed up for (with a $374, $375 or 376$ reward). We’re quite confident we’ll do all three events, though. 😉

College of Wizardry is a four-day Wizard School larp event, where you can act out your dreams of being a student witch or wizard at a beautiful fairytale castle in Poland. Surrounded by around 130 like-minded people, at College of Wizardry you will:

• Attend classes as a witch or wizard and learn the magical arts
• Be selected to represent one of the five ancient Houses of Czocha Castle
• Explore the castle and meet the magical creatures that roam the grounds
• Make new friends and form long lasting bonds with like-minded people
• Get into discussions, stir up shenanigans, and play games
• Perhaps even a little (in-character) romance?
• Spend 3 nights at a castle in Poland and have a once-in-a-lifetime adventure

If you’re not familiar with it already, the term “larp” is a shortened form of Live Action Role Play. In a larp, the participants dress up in costume and pretend to be their characters. A larp can last for hours or for days, and can have from a couple of players to many thousands. Some larps are about elves and orcs in the forest, while others are about advertising agencies, prisons or … magical universities!

If you want to know more about larp, you can check out this short documentary, that Discovery Channel/TLC did in 2013.  It does a good job at explaining Nordic style larp, but it’s about a rather more harsh experience, so don’t get scared away!  😉

In November 2014, a team of volunteers from the non-profit organisations Liveform (Poland) and Rollespilsfabrikken (Denmark) created the larp event College of Wizardry at the fariytale Czocha Castle in Poland. It was such a success that two more larps were planned for April 2015. Both sold out in record time.

So today, we bring you this campaign, because we want to do more than just two CoW larps in 2015. And for that, we need your help. But first something important.

Warner Bros. kindly allowed us to continue with our unauthorised Harry Potter larp event, on a one-off, non-commercial basis, to avoid disappointing the fans who had booked and paid for their places.

We want to make clear that we have agreed with Warner Bros. that our future larps will not include or be connected in any way with any part of the Harry Potter world.

So please note that this larp is NOT based on nor will it involve the use of any Harry Potter stories, characters, names or elements.  It is not a Harry Potter fan event, but is for those larp participants who wish to play in a generic wizard college setting.  College of  Wizardry larps will NOT take place in the Harry Potter universe, but in a universe of our own making. There will be no mention of Muggles, no Quidditch and no Hogwarts in our fiction. The whole idea behind this Indiegogo campaign is to make College of Wizardry stand on its own legs. 😉

We hope you’ll help that happen.

Our crowdfunding campaign has been receiving a bit of media attention. Below are some of the places where it’s been featured. If you’re interested in doing a story about College of Wizardry, you’re more than welcome to write us at claus.raasted@gmail.com. Here are links to a few of the articles.

The Verge, The Telegraph, Larping.org, Daily Mirror

College of Wizardry is a four-day larp event, that starts Thursday afternoon and ends Sunday morning. We hope to hold three sessions this November, Nov 12-15, Nov 19-22, and Nov 26-29. If we fail to raise enough funds for all three events, we’ll of course give full refunds to those who’ve supported in vain.
We’re not really worried about that, though. 😉

But what actually happens during one of these events?

There’s more than just students at school

At CoW, participants play everything from students and teachers to ghosts and visiting reporters. After signup has closed, all players get to tell us what their preferences are, and we try to cast them as best we can.

It’s ok if you’ve never larped before

You don’t need to have any larp experience to play CoW, as long as you’re willing to give it your best shot. It’s a participatory experience, so you’ll be both actor and audience at the same time. And don’t worry. It’s not that scary.

You’ll eat, sleep, and live at the Castle

Some people ask us about lodgings and nearby hotels. Czocha Castle IS a hotel, and as a participant, you’ll be staying there for the duration of the larp. You’ll be staying in 2-4 person rooms along with other participants – and if you go with a friend or three, we’ll of course give you a room together. When the game starts, it doesn’t end until it’s over, and even eating breakfast and enjoying a glass of port wine happens in character.

Much more than just classes

Though there are classes from 9.00 – 16.00, not all day is spent in the classroom. First of all, there are meals, but also Czocha College is home to a string of societies (some secret, some well-known) and there are things going on at all times. There is a castle to explore, a forest to visit and there nearby tavern to grab a beer at. Oh, and then there’s initiation of Juniors, House rituals and more. In short, there’s plenty of stuff going on at the castle at all hours.

There’s even a school ball at the end of the game

A magical college wouldn’t be complete without a magical ball to end the event. Here, the Czocha Polka will be danced, the legendary DJ’s “The Wicked Witches of West Berlin” will play and there’ll be speeches and entertainment. After that the game will end and there’ll be an afterparty of epic proportions!

We create our own magic

Obviously, none of us know real magic, but we have a pretty good system for how we pretend. It was invented by the Polish organization Liveform for College of Wizardry, and makes magic work in intuitive and fun ways.

February 2015: The campaign launches.

March/April 2015: Work on the new story world takes place.
May 2015: Signup for the larp opens for non-backers 
June 2015: The new story world is publicly launched.
July 2015: Participants receive their characters.
August 2015: Dialogue with character coaches.
September 2015: Relation-building in online forums.
October 2015: Final preparations for the larp(s).
November 2015: The larp(s) take(s) place.

Our ambitions are modest, but are dreams are big. We may be volunteers doing this project through our two non-profit organizations, but we’re volunteers who dare to dream big.

$50,000 — If we manage to raise the funds, we’ll do a CoW larp in November 2015.

$60,000 –If we raise the extra 10k, we’ll do a physical teaching book for the larp and make it available online as a free web-based PDF. Think 200+ pages of magical teaching!

$75,000 — If we reach this level of funding, we’ll fly in a documentary team, and make a 20-minute documentary of the new CoW experience for youtube.

$120,000 — We’ll not only do the book and the documentary, but also do two CoW larps back-to-back that more people can attend if the first sells out.

$175,000 — If we get enough money to run three events, we will! It’s going to be a ton of work, but it’ll be worth it!

$1,000,000 — If we reach a million dollars, not only are we doing three events in November, and all the other things, but we’re also buying a castle in Poland, so that we can do future events at our OWN freakin’ castle.

If we manage to raise more than $175,000 we’ll start adding stretch goals. But the ultimate stretch goal – the fever fantasy – is that we raise a million dollars. This will permit us to buy and refurbish a honest-to-Merlin castle in Poland. And if THAT happens, you can be sure that we’ll be doing more awesome events in the future. Put simply, if we reach a million dollars, we’re going to buy a castle and throw the craziest opening party ever.

Here’s one of those we have our sights on…

Imagine our world, just as it is today. Except that magic is real. The world of magic exists in the shadows of our own mundane world – undiscovered by billions, but known to the initiated. It’s a world of tradition and old bloodlines, of secrets and mysteries. It is a world of wise sorcerers, powerful witches, and dark-hearted conjurers.

Most of all, it is a world that is slowly changing. From the open practice of magic in ancient times to the secret rituals held in dark forests in medieval times to the completely underground magical world of today, the witching world is a parallel society that is under assault from modern culture.

Here, long-flowing robes and dragontooth wands meet jeans and leather jackets. Magical theory is taught in old castles to students at home on iPhones, and while some wizarding families proudly trace their lineage back to famous magicians such as Morgana le Fey or the Oracles of Delphi, there are powerful sorcerers popping up in suburban Chicago and downtown Shanghai.

The world of magic has its own politics, myths and rules, and is every bit as varied and diverse as the Mundane world. But there are three simple rules that are followed by all, whether noble master of charms or dark-hearted necromancer, known as The Traditions.

The Tradition of Word: You do not speak of magic to Mundanes.

The Tradition of Action: You do not practice magic around Mundanes.

The Tradition of Fear: Break these rules and you shall be cast out.

This is the world of magic. Welcome, magicians.

Making something like this happen requires much more than money. If you want to help us, we’d be very grateful if you’d mention our campaign on social media, write about us on your blog or use the hashtag #cowlarp. If nothing else, send a kind thought our way or give a high-five when you meet one of us. It all helps.

Thank you!

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Team

• 
  Claus Raasted

  Project Coordinator
• 
  Charles Bo Nielsen

  Creative Coordinator

  Verified 746 friends

THE WORM OUROBOROS

I have been re-reading the Worm Ouroboros by ER Eddison lately and have found it to be immensely entertaining, stimulating to my imagination, and very useful for my own writings.

DAREDEVIL

Now this is the way you do the Man Without Fear…