Greetings From Louisville Comic Con!

KG and KJ and Matt and Matt

Happy New Year!

Here's hoping you have a wonderful new year without any alien invasions or other apocalypses.

More Dice

A while back I posted pictures of my dice.  My collection has grown a little since then, so I thought I'd post a few more pix.  You know me, any excuse to take pictures. 

First up we have "Festive Dice" by Chessex: 

Festive Dice

Basically I got them because I like tie-dye.  They're currently my favorite set of dice I own.  I come from a family of artists, which probably influenced my love of bright colors and other visual stimuli.  This set of dice has a vibrant mix of colors that really calls to me.  In fact, I hear them speaking right now...  what's that, little dice?  Kill them all?  Okay...   Just kidding, moving on...

Deadlands Dice

These are Deadlands dice. I got them for playing Savage Worlds.  It includes an extra d6 of a different style, since Savage Worlds uses a distinctive "Wild Die" with every roll.

This set's design is more for Western settings than anything I've played, but they're still pretty neat.  It actually makes me wish I liked westerns more, so I'd have an excuse to use them.  But it's just never been a genre that interests me.  Westerns are just too "testosterony" for my tastes, I suppose.

"Zocchi" Dice

I got these odd-shaped dice (sometimes called "Zocchi" dice) for Dungeon Crawl Classics. DCC uses a lot of strange, harder-to-find dice.  Here we see a d3, d5, d7, d14, d16, d24, and d30. I really like most of them, except for the d7.  The d5 and the d7 have the problem of not being perfectly identical on all sides.  Both dice have two sides that are larger than the rest.  I don't mind it on the d5, because the two largest sides are the 1 and the 5.  So even if there's a greater chance of it landing on the larger sides, I still have just as much chance of getting the maximum as the minimum.

But on the d7, the two large sides are the 6 and the 7.  To me, that's just weird. However, these are made by GameScience, a company that's known for making "perfect" dice, so I have to believe they know what they're doing.  If they say there's an equal chance of it landing on any of the seven sides, I want to believe them.  But even if they're right, I still would have felt better if they'd made the d7's largest sides the max and min.  Also, I don't really like the style of the d7.  It makes me think of casinos more than fantasy gaming.

Sci-Fi Dice

I got these for our short-lived Traveller campaign. The black ones are official Traveller dice, from back when the game was more popular.  The sunburst design with the digital numbers looks cheesy now, but I suppose it looked more futuristic back when it was designed.

The others are from Q-Workshop, and I got them for specific skill rolls.  The circuit ones (Chip and Cyber) are for Computer rolls, and the gears (Mechanical) are for Engineering.

It's unfortunate that our Traveller campaign didn't last longer, but I don't regret buying the dice.  I really like the designs, and I'm sure I'll play other sci-fi games in the future.  I could probably use the mechanical ones right now for my Savage Worlds character (she's a mechanic), but her repair rolls use a d10.  I guess I could use one as her wild die when she makes a mechanical roll, but then I don't get to use my Deadlands wild die.  I know, "first world problems".

(Completely unrelated mini-rant:  One good thing about the Traveller campaign being over, is that I'm sick of the computer's spell-check yelling at me over the British spelling of Traveller.)

Elvish Dice and Forest Dice

I got these when playing a Dryad in our Unlikely Heroes campaign.  The top ones are transparent Elvish Dice from Q-Workshop.  They're very pretty, but hard to read.  Towards the end of the campaign I bought some Forest Dice (lower pic), which are even prettier and even harder to read.  Really, Q-Workshop is legendary for making Awesome but Impractical dice.

Unfortunately the dice arrived right after our final session, so I never got to use them.  But there's always the possibility we'll pick that campaign back up again.  In any event, I like playing tree-hugging characters, so I'm sure they'll get used eventually.

Probability Die

And last but not least, I picked this one up on a whim. "Probability Die" from Koplow Games.  The sides are:  Certain, Likely, Equally Likely, Unlikely, Highly Unlikely, and Impossible.  Really just about sums up all RPG rolls, doesn't it?  You could probably run an entire game using just this die.

Greetings from St. Louis!

Miniatures: Maynard the Minotaur

This Minotaur figurine, courtesy of StufferShack, has become something of a mascot of mine.  I call him Maynard, and I take him with me whenever I go anywhere interesting.  Here's some pics:

Maynard at the Parthenon

Downtown Nashville

Downtown Nashville

Downtown Nashville

Downtown Nashville

Downtown Nashville

Downtown Nashville

Grand Old Opry

Opry Mills Mall

Opryland Hotel

Centennial Park

Nashville City Cemetery

Rock City

Rock City

Rock City

Lunch at Rock City

Crossing State Lines

Dinosaur World

Dinosaur World

Dinosaur World

Dino Trek at Nashville Zoo

Dino Trek at Louisville Zoo

Dino Trek at Louisville Zoo

A Park in Hendersonville

A Park in Hermitage

A Park in Hermitage

Nashville Zoo (Not A Real Gator)

Nashville Zoo

Nashville Zoo

Nashville Zoo

Juro Stables

Maynard's Family Reunion

Miniatures: Undead In Their Natural Habitat

So my significant other and I visited the historic Nashville City Cemetery, because that's the kind of place that draws people like us when we're in the mood for history.  Being the reverent, respectful person that I am, naturally my first thought was "D&D mini photo op!"  This is the result:

(Please note:  I did not place them on any actual gravestones, or on anything that wasn't meant to be touched.  As tempting as it might have been, I didn't disturb anything fragile or violate any of the cemetery's rules.)