Quite off-topic, but people over here are a bit sad about this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/28/worl ... arket.html

When the market closes, the all-night trading, the 24 hr cafes and late/early bars will go too and it will end up another bland homogenised shopping venue. Hold on to your quirky places people, before the big chains get us all.

"Elon Musk owning D&D" was absolutely not on my 2024 bingo card....

D&D General - Elon Musk Wants To Know 'How Much Is Hasbro?' | EN World D&D & Tabletop RPG News & Reviews

Hasbro price shares have just skyrocketed in response...if you had a few shares before this happened, congrats!

I don't think he is really interested, but just to have him publicly comment on it and have people freaking out about it is hilarious.

Mike B

Sir Kill Alot wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Its pretty funny how posters are saying he can't afford it...   The ebbs and flows of his daily net worth alone could practically purchase Hasbro.  Today his net worth increased 2.14% or 6.9B and currently stands at 310B.  That is crazy.  After reading more posts, I've come to realize that thread is filled with nothing but petulant children.  Is that the state of En-World?

-SKA

Yep. That's En-World. Safe spaces, rattle throwing, and all that fun stuff the snowflakes like to do.

killjoy32 wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Guys..please help if you can.

Trying to get hold of badmike urgently. If anyone can call him..tell him Al has left him a msg on discord and need a reply super urgent like.

Or...if anyone has his address, please PM me as i am going to bid on something and have it sent to him, but need to confirm addy before i use it (or what i have written it wrong)

Hope someone can assist :-)

Best, Al

I happened to see this comment shortly after it was written and texted Mike.  Mike saw my text a little while later and took care of business. All's well that ends well.  :)

Interesting article about the origins of the brown box cover graphic.

Retro reprint of first edition DnD used new art to avoid legal snafu with Marvel

-SKA

FoulFoot wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:I didn't know we've folded!

Foul

Heh.  :-)  

The article is poorly worded there.  I believe the writer means to say that the link to the actual original image is dead, not the Acaeum.

I've seen that image around the internet before and read the same claims that a lot of the early art was closely copied or outright plagiarized.

The link on Grognardia was just to an old URL (theacaeum.com) and lazy journalism made them say the Acaeum had folded. It would have taken 20 seconds to find it had moved. I used to think journalists checked the facts before printing...

I saw two of the saddest things I’ve seen in a while today.
The first was this….

Image posted by UnstableGen

The second was single Apple wireless earbud in a urinal in KFC. How defeated must that guy feel?

Sigh...  A couple of months ago I decided it was finally time to prune my collection.  It's turning into a herculean task, partly because most of it is still packed from when I moved a few years ago and party because I keep getting distracted researching each item I uncover.   I never planned to start collecting, I merely wanted to obtain a few items I had craved as a child (Fiend Folio and the Sutherland DMG and Monster Manual) but couldn't afford.  Winning the Ebay auctions for those items gave me a dangerous high and I pursued other items I remembered wanting from my childhood.  That pursuit led me here and opened my eyes to far more D&D products than I had known about.  

My first exposure to D&D was around 1982 when I was 7.  My father was a college physics professor and one night some of his collogues came over.  Generally when this happened I would do my own thing while they talked about adult stuff like physics or college students.  This time was different!  I clearly remember being in the living room playing with my Civil War army figures, when I noticed the adults were doing some sort of choose your own adventure.  I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books, so I started playing attention to what they were doing.  I noticed them rolling weird colorful dice and either being happy or dismayed.  I noticed the books (Fiend Folio and the Sutherland MM and DMG) they kept referring to looked a lot like comic books.  I realized they were playing a game of some sort so I asked if I could play too.  I was told math was a big part of the game and that I wouldn't be able to handle it.  Being the son of a physics professor I had seen lots of complex math equations I had no chance of understanding on the chalkboards at his work, so I just accepted it required more than 3rd grade math.  Even though I couldn't play, I still watched and listened.  Unfortunately I was far more interested in game than my parents were and they never hosted another D&D session.  I have forgotten most of what happened that night, but a few images were seared permanently into my memory: encountering talking goldfish in a pool in a dungeon that seemingly knew nothing helpful, the colorful covers of the books they used, and the "weird" dice they used.  

A few years I started buying my own D&D books.  Being a child with very limited income I had to be very careful what I bought but I managed to acquire the Mentzer BECMI sets as well as a few AD&D books.  Sometime in the early 90s I stopped buy new D&D material because the seemingly constant stream of new books overwhelmed me and I had enough to play with my friends.  I played a few times in college but mostly transitioned to Star Wars by WEG and World of Darkness by White Wolf.  After college I gave up roleplaying games completely until the early 2000s when I discovered two of my coworkers also enjoyed D&D.  One of them was a talented DM and we started playing weekly sessions, which we still do to this day. Playing again reminded me how much I had loved D&D and finally having disposable income I decided to fulfill some of my childhood "deprivations".

As I described above I obtained the books I remembered from my parents D&D session.  The endorphin rush I got from fulfilling that quest set me down the dangerous path of collecting and trying to become "complete."  I no longer just wanted D&D material, I started wanting everything TSR or anything related to early roleplaying games.  Each item I won was an endorphin rush, compelling me to look for my next "hit".  Eventually my D&D collection became nearly complete (I doubt I will ever own Up the Garden Path) so my collecting addiction largely burned out.

Going though boxes to prune my collection has rekindled my interest in collecting.  This time it's less about obtaining new stuff and more about researching and studying what I have.  Despite pruning my collection for over a month and found dozens of items I can part with, I've only actually sold 6 items because I feel compelled to know everything I can about each item before I pass it on.  If I keep moving at this pace it will take years to get through my collection.  As much as it pains me, I realize I need to stop studying everything; ripping the bandage off will hurt less in the long run.

With that in mind, later today I will be posting several items in the Classified section as a silent auction.   I'm doing this for two reasons: I would rather these items go to established members of the collecting community and would rather not give Ebay 13.5% of the sale price.   Is this a reasonable idea, or should I stick with Ebay?