Category: Dungeons and Dragons

Day 22 of the #RPGaDAY2023 Challenge has us talking about our Best Secondhand RPG purchase. While I have purchased a few used books from different sources, the ones that I love the best come from thrift stores. The prices are LOW and I feel like I’ve won a treasure hunt when I stumble across them. Here is a photo of just a few of the thrift store finds that I have uncovered.

Most of these are various flavors of Dungeons and Dragons. I wasn’t really expecting the Everquest RPG when I stumbled across it. I never really played the MMORPG, but I did use it in the first year of the Character Creation Challenge. However the best purchase is the 1979 third-edition blue covered Dungeons and Dragons book edited by Eric Holmes.

This was the rulebook that was released even before everyone could get the common set of role-playing dice. So the book had to come with a set of cardboard chits that you would place into a cup and randomly draw. The chits were still attached to this book.

When I had found the book in the thrift store, I had no cash on me. But I did have my debit card. Not wanting to run the card for the low price they wanted for the book, I poured all over the thrift store just to find something else. When I couldn’t find anything else to buy, I prayed that the store would let me run the debit for just this one item. Luckily, they did and this is how much I paid.

Yea, I found the receipt still with the book when I pulled it out years later. So this was the best second hand purchase that I’ve made.

Do you have a favorite second hand purchase of an RPG product? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

The #RPGaDay2023 Day 13 topic is “Most memorable character demise.” I can see this being a good topic because many RPG war stories probably cover this. While I’m certain that I’ve had a lot of characters die, most of them probably fell into the category of me proclaiming “oh smeg!”

For the Day 8 entry of “Favorite Character“, I introduced you to my Sun Elf, Tovark. I can say that he died at least once, but it was on purpose. The party that Tovark was a member of had been contracted by a god called The Great Oak (hey, he was a nature god) to rescue his chief druid from the clutches of a demon lord named Ballhonith. He was using the druid as a conduit to send his power and attacks against other demons in their various unholy wars. There was a series of dangerous settings that I’ll talk about in my Day 28 entry of the RPGaDAY challenge. But to assist with this, the Great Oak had granted us the power to return to life once (not only back to full health, but back to full power as well).

I figured that when we had our final confrontation against the demon lord, I would need to be back at full strength with all spells and abilities. I tried to finagle it so that my character wouldn’t get killed (and have to re-use my regeneration) before the final boss battle.

I succeeded. Not only did I get a few good spells off before I died, I was able to take out a bunch of the demon’s spell casting lieutenants before I went down. As mystic powers re-charged me back to life (ILM spent a lot of money on the special effects to film it), Ballhonith was shocked to see me get back up and start magically wailing on him with UNLIMITED POWER!!! OK, all of the power for a 14th level wizard, which is still a lot. We were able to hold off the demon lord long enough for the other members of the party to free the druid and get the hell out of Dodge.

While the Great Oak rewarded us greatly. I’m pretty certain that some where, out there, Ballhonith is plotting revenge against Tovark and his companions. It’s probably a good thing he took a very good reward from the Great Oak that could protect him. Or would it?

Do you recall a death scene of one of your RPG characters? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

Alright we’ve made it to Day 8 of the #RPGaDAY2023 challenge and the topic is “Favorite Character”. I was thinking of selecting one of the past Character Sheets that I had posted on this blog. But then I realized that my most favorite character isn’t on a physical character sheet.

My friend Jeff Sullivan had run a Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 edition campaign for his friends from 2013 to 2019. I played a Sun Elf Wizard named Tovark that I had advanced from 1st level to 14th before the campaign had ended. Tovark had graduated from the very prestigious school run by Elminster (he even had student loans that he had to pay off). There was even a series of rolls that I had to provide during character creation that Jeff had used to come back with some background information (Are parents still alive? Any siblings? Career prior to becoming an adventurer? etc.) Plus the world that had been created was one that operated with lots of magic affecting people’s lives.

Jeff had created an Excel character sheet that had different tabs for stats, gear, spells, etc. They were all connected together so that if you raised an ability score, it automatically updated your skill stats as well. I took that character sheet and added hyperlinks to the online spell descriptions so that if I needed to look something up, I just clicked on the link.

I’ve actually thought up scenarios where the players would have to find Tovark in order to gain his assistance with a quest. Tovark, like most wizards, highly valued his privacy. He didn’t just have a tower in some land, nope, you would have to find the god that owed him a favor to find out where he went.

What was a favorite character from a role playing game that you enjoyed? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.

I have to think about this question for Day 5 of the #RPGaDAY2023 challenge. Oldest game you’ve played. I know it’s one of the early flavors of Dungeons and Dragons, but which one? When I was playing with my buddies in junior high, one friend had the blue cover Dungeons and Dragons book written by Eric Holmes (but I don’t recall if we actually played it or just referenced the book), another had the Basic/Expert Dungeons and Dragons book and another had Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (back before it was called 1st edition) and my first official purchase was the Basic Dungeons and Dragons book that was the start of the BECMI line. The version we played depended upon who was the Dungeon Master.

So my answer is, one of these three versions of Dungeons and Dragons. We didn’t limit ourselves. I preferred B/X (later BECMI) but played any of them.

Do you recall what was the oldest roleplaying game that you have played? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.