Awoke just before a 5.6 quake centered about 125 miles to the south of us:  M5.6  - 14km NW of Pawnee, Oklahoma

Fraking, gotta love it  

I'm well-familiar with the New Madrid fault (if I was to go back to school, it would be to study earthquakes and volcanoes).  Not happy about 2 natural disasters being common in our area now, though (tornadoes were bad enough...).

My loving wife took my Dad's army cap from the 1950s and turned it into a dice bag for my birthday... what a wonderful gift!

~throwi

Thanks to the burntwire brothers for another wonderful transaction!  

Scalydemon wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:On a more cheerful but related note my 3 year old daughter is very into 'Legends of Oz' lately where Dorothy gets sucked up in a giant rainbow from Kansas. My daughter now wants to visit China and Kansas most.

Scott, there's an Oz musuem in Wamego, between Topeka and Manhattan, KS:  http://ozmuseum.com/ =)

red_bus wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:

muaddib5 wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Thanks to the burntwire brothers for another wonderful transaction!  :)

Was it yourself who won their goldenrod greyhawk reference sheets ?  8O

No, I didn't get that one.

Well, I got to play the new edition of D&D at the local con this weekend.  We played a four hour game slot, so it's not like I got a in-depth look, but I liked it, from what I could see of it.  

The thing that struck me the most was how simplified it seemed to be.  We leveled up in mid session, and it took us only a few moments.  Just a few notes on the character sheet, and done.  I kept thinking I was missing something, but the DM was like "Nope, that's it."

Another feature (which is also used in Pathfinder BTW) is that spellcasters had certain spells (cantrips) they could cast at will on an unlimited basis.  They're not powerful but not useless either.  So, say for example you're a wizard.  You still have your spell slots and spells per day that you can cast.  You forget those and have to re-memorize them as usual.  But even after your spell slots are gone, you still have a cantrip or two you can keep casting, you're not useless after your slots are gone.  This is actually a nice feature, especially at low level as we were.  I like this because the  spellcasters didn't have to stand there with their hands in their pockets after their one or two spells were used.

Another thing that struck me is that we were fairly powerful at 1st level, compared to other editions I've played.  I played a fighter with a great-axe, and I got a +5 bonus to hit right off the bat.  My wife played a wizard and she was also powerful compared to say, a 1st level Pathfinder or 3.5 wizard.  She had two spell slots but, as mentioned above, even when they were gone she still had a fairly effective fire cantrip she could use at will to fight with.

Lastly, even though I felt pretty capable for a 1st level newb, the monsters were still not pushovers.  The fights were still pretty challenging.   If the characters got a boost in 5th edition, the monsters must have gotten one as well.  We didn't lose anybody, and won all of our battles but the goblins and orcs we fought were keeping up with us pretty well.   They were casting spells and dealing damage just about as well as we were.  I was very near death twice and so were two other players.  The combats did not feel like a cakewalk in any sense.

All in all, from that short session, I give D&D 5th edition two out of two thumbs up.   

Came across this rumor in an old A&E from 1987, TSR bought Forgotten Realms for $5000 outright, no royalties.  "Ed's excuse is that he needed the money and it was an easy route to fame (ala Dave Arneson)"

Never heard that before.  Seems like a heck of a deal for TSR and it sure made a name for Mr Greenwood.

Thunderdave wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Came across this rumor in an old A&E from 1987, TSR bought Forgotten Realms for $5000 outright, no royalties.  "Ed's excuse is that he needed the money and it was an easy route to fame (ala Dave Arneson)"

Never heard that before.  Seems like a heck of a deal for TSR and it sure made a name for Mr Greenwood.

Before that, outside of TSR, was Greenwood ever published?