-- Missoula, Montana --

We're on our way home from the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument.   (The battlefield was epic...an emotional journey for me.)

We spent two nights in Billings, Montana.  On our second night, we managed to find two places that actually sell games.

The first was a store called Fun Trades that deals in all things gamers might like, including used video games, movies, guitars, RPG items and collectible card games.

When we found the Fun Trades store in Billings, the place was jammed with an after hours crowd of card gamers.  (If we had not seem them playing we still would have recognized them because they certainly smelled like card gamers.)  Although there was not a lot of RPG stuff there, the store was cool enough.

We also visited a place called Hastings, which is what Barnes and Noble would be if they also sold used music, movies, games and books.  I picked up a couple of nice D20 items there.  Hastings bills themselves as an "entertainment" store.  They have so many different things I guess they really are the kings of entertainment in a town like Billings.

On Wednesday, we jouneyed back to Missoula, five hours and 330+ miles away.  We got there in time to spend the afternoon at the Western Montana State Fair...which is about the size of our county fair in Washington.

After the fair, we found the Missoula branch of Fun Trades (which had no RPG stuff at all). But...

The Fun Trades store manager referred us to a place called Muse Comics and  Games.  Muse had comics, miniatures, rpg stuff, CCG's and tables to seat about 30 gamers.  I have been impressed by the small town game stores because they seem much more geared toward serving the local gaming scene and less about how cool they think they are.  We found miniatures battles and card games underway at most of the locations we found...on weekday afternoons and evenings.  I didn't end up buying anything at Muse, but my daughter bought two manga books.

There was also a branch of Hastings in Missoula.  They had quite a few RPG items on their shelves, including used items with big discounts.  The Missoula Hastings had a ton of Pathfinder items...all at new prices.  My wife and daughter snagged manga books for 99 cents each.

One theme I have seen in Montana is the prevalence of Pathfinder books and modules.  The stores all have them.  My son asked why Pathfinder seems to be taking over from Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition.  I explained how WOTC screwed up and alienated their core audience.  It was very educational.

Nine hours to home on Friday.  We gain an hour as we drive west, so the trip will officially take only eight hours.  Montana is incredibly scenic.  Also, the state patrol does not seem to be concerned about enforcing the speeding laws.  The official speed limit is 75 mph and the actual speed limit appears to be "as fast as you can go."  I passed a state patrol van this afternoon...drove right on past him at 80 mph.  Winding through Montana's mountain roads, sometimes I went well below the posted speed limits out of sheer terror.  (Try driving Grand Prix racing in an SUV!)

On the down side, 90% of the traffic cones made in China seem to be in use in Montana.  There are tens and hundreds of miles of mountain highway under construction this summer.

Maybe I can stop in Spokane on the way home....?

The e-petition is good news. This is a new process the Govt. rolled out to pander the public and now we get to see if it works or if it's just fluffy propaganda.

Kingofpain89 wrote:
I've never been to a Barnes & Noble that didnt sell music, movies, and games.  

I've spent countless hours in Hastings stores over the years.  They started out as a single small store in Amarillo, TX and that is where I bought the bulk of my D&D books growing up.  All those 10th Anniversary packs I remember buying and breaking apart.  

King, you missed the word "used" in his quote.  

Kingofpain89 wrote: Didnt know that Hastings sold anything used.

That's the Hastings Music I remember with stores in Houston & Austin: a slick chain of mall-type stores. Could these have been two different businesses, both named "Hastings"?

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/soci ... 108124191/

sauromatian wrote:Also in the news: "British Leader Seeks Public Housing Evictions for Rioters and Their Families.. But several Conservative-led local councils, in London, Nottingham and Salford, an outlying district of Manchester, have already said that they would start eviction proceedings against tenants convicted of rioting. And one, in Wandsworth, said it had started the process of evicting a woman whose teenage son was convicted in the rioting."

 
Power to the people!  There have to be consequences or it will happen again and again.

mbassoc2003 wrote:This is farsical, because the families will just go to the council and be rehoused and begin legal action at the taxpayer's expense under human rights legislation.

Ship them to Detroit.

http://detroiturbex.com/content/neighbo ... index.html

They can live there rent free, tax free, etc.  All they have to do is survive.

mbassoc2003 wrote:I see on TV that some US cities are having similar problems with gangs rioting and mugging people.

Muggings are a way of life in parts of some larger cities in the U.S.  Gang members and homeless people are the main causes.  But its pretty easy to stay away from them and the parts of the city they prey on.  As for full scale rioting just for the hell of it, I dont see any news links to any recent rioting.  Protests and gatherings sure.  But the only recent riot was last year.

http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/ ... ice-forces

Drunken college students fighting with police.  The only things that were set on fire were the traditional bonfire and a dumpster.  No looting occurred and no one was killed.  Pretty tame for a riot.

sauromatian wrote:

True, the classic riot has been on the decline in the US for the last 40 years. I think a lot of it has to do with space - although Los Angeles produced a few spectacular ones, most occur where crowds of pedestrians can gather. To really Americanize the riot, we'd have to motorize it. Imagine thousands of cars pouring across a city like the way a crowd of people would, surging from the motorways to crash outwards in every direction, producing mass pile-ups everywhere.

The LA riots (1992?) were the last of the big ones.  Even then, the riots only went on four days, and were confined to one section of downtown. Inside the area, shopowners (mostly Asian and Korean) defended their property with guns, so the rioting was limited to drive by shootings, smash and grab, burnings, and beatings.  Of the 53 people who died. about half were rioters or engaged in criminal acts (shot by police or storeowners). Even that was pretty tame compared to some in the 60's or 70s and earlier.

Mike B.