TF Smith
@tfsmith1091.bsky.social
Dog father. Former midwesterner. Avid and enthusiastic reader and writer; occasional and reluctant arithmeticker.
And #11 (The Rise of Skywalker) so terrible that you refuse to acknowledge its existence? 😆
November 24, 2025 at 11:49 PM
And #11 (The Rise of Skywalker) so terrible that you refuse to acknowledge its existence? 😆
I’ve still got my low-fi ziploc copy from the 90s (and cherish my memory of playing in a demo session of it with Greg at GenCon). This looks like a very welcome upgrade!
November 24, 2025 at 5:30 PM
I’ve still got my low-fi ziploc copy from the 90s (and cherish my memory of playing in a demo session of it with Greg at GenCon). This looks like a very welcome upgrade!
I bought a stand-alone Holmes Basic rulebook new at a Toys R Us store in 1986 or 87. It must have been gathering dust in a warehouse for years - no idea why it wasn’t returned to TSR or pulped but I was thrilled to find it. I’d never even seen that version before (I started with the 1983 Basic set)
November 21, 2025 at 8:23 PM
I bought a stand-alone Holmes Basic rulebook new at a Toys R Us store in 1986 or 87. It must have been gathering dust in a warehouse for years - no idea why it wasn’t returned to TSR or pulped but I was thrilled to find it. I’d never even seen that version before (I started with the 1983 Basic set)
There are a few levels In Tonisborg & Blackmoor with so many angled halls & rooms that if you just tilt the page 45 degrees it becomes mostly cardinal direction lines. I wonder if any players ever did that while mapping & if so if Greg or Dave thought it was a clever hack or got annoyed
November 20, 2025 at 6:51 PM
There are a few levels In Tonisborg & Blackmoor with so many angled halls & rooms that if you just tilt the page 45 degrees it becomes mostly cardinal direction lines. I wonder if any players ever did that while mapping & if so if Greg or Dave thought it was a clever hack or got annoyed
I don’t have either box but I have the rulebook from both. For the 1st the book was sold separately & I bought it that way. The 2nd book wasn’t sold separately so I’m not sure how I ended up with it. Probably a friend left it at my house one day after school & forgot about it?
November 13, 2025 at 4:27 PM
I don’t have either box but I have the rulebook from both. For the 1st the book was sold separately & I bought it that way. The 2nd book wasn’t sold separately so I’m not sure how I ended up with it. Probably a friend left it at my house one day after school & forgot about it?
Chainmail (man-to-man) also used a 2d6 system where bonuses to hit (for being a Veteran, making a flank attack, using a magic sword, etc) pretty quickly push rolls into the “almost never miss” range (chance of 6+ on 2d6 is 72%, 5+ is 83%, 4+ is 92%); D&D’s flat d20 makes bonuses count for a lot less
October 13, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Chainmail (man-to-man) also used a 2d6 system where bonuses to hit (for being a Veteran, making a flank attack, using a magic sword, etc) pretty quickly push rolls into the “almost never miss” range (chance of 6+ on 2d6 is 72%, 5+ is 83%, 4+ is 92%); D&D’s flat d20 makes bonuses count for a lot less
Of course part of that is players’ desire to keep gaining levels. I’m actually happy to stop advancing & stay permanently at about level
10 (“name” level in old D&D) but so many players want to keep going to get to level 20+ & “win” even though doing so doesn’t really get you that much in the game
10 (“name” level in old D&D) but so many players want to keep going to get to level 20+ & “win” even though doing so doesn’t really get you that much in the game
September 5, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Of course part of that is players’ desire to keep gaining levels. I’m actually happy to stop advancing & stay permanently at about level
10 (“name” level in old D&D) but so many players want to keep going to get to level 20+ & “win” even though doing so doesn’t really get you that much in the game
10 (“name” level in old D&D) but so many players want to keep going to get to level 20+ & “win” even though doing so doesn’t really get you that much in the game
I’m reminded of the award structure Marc Miller cited for Traveller - 1st you want money/stuff, then when you have that you want power & influence, then when you have that you want knowledge (to understand the great mysteries & secrets). XP for treasure in D&D only satisfies #1
September 5, 2025 at 6:43 PM
I’m reminded of the award structure Marc Miller cited for Traveller - 1st you want money/stuff, then when you have that you want power & influence, then when you have that you want knowledge (to understand the great mysteries & secrets). XP for treasure in D&D only satisfies #1
I agree with this. Treasure-gathering is a great motivation & self-reinforcing gameplay loop for low-level (broke & desperate) PCs but once they’ve succeeded & become rich it falls apart (especially as the amounts of treasure needed to advance keep increasing - 1M+ GP for a name-level party)
September 5, 2025 at 6:39 PM
I agree with this. Treasure-gathering is a great motivation & self-reinforcing gameplay loop for low-level (broke & desperate) PCs but once they’ve succeeded & become rich it falls apart (especially as the amounts of treasure needed to advance keep increasing - 1M+ GP for a name-level party)
I like how you stuck with the “detect meal” typo for the magic sword - “there’s a breakfast beyond this door!” 😆
August 27, 2025 at 4:16 PM
I like how you stuck with the “detect meal” typo for the magic sword - “there’s a breakfast beyond this door!” 😆
I remember when I was in high school & realized, after having watched the movie dozens of times as a kid, that it was the story of Hamlet with Bob & Doug as Rosencrantz & Guildenstern. Which made it even funnier.
August 26, 2025 at 10:46 PM
I remember when I was in high school & realized, after having watched the movie dozens of times as a kid, that it was the story of Hamlet with Bob & Doug as Rosencrantz & Guildenstern. Which made it even funnier.
Yes (but it was a poem, and from the early 90s): en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrippa...
Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
August 22, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Yes (but it was a poem, and from the early 90s): en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agrippa...
Fun seeing “juvenilia” from a pro game designer that feels similar to what I was doing at about the same age a decade later (though in my case more likely to be based on Iron Maiden songs…)
August 18, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Fun seeing “juvenilia” from a pro game designer that feels similar to what I was doing at about the same age a decade later (though in my case more likely to be based on Iron Maiden songs…)
Those mid-80s re-release versions of the AD&D hardbacks have my favorite D&D cover art and logos. As a kid I was jealous of older kids who had the versions with the original cover art but as adult it’s these that I feel the most nostalgic connection to
August 7, 2025 at 12:09 AM
Those mid-80s re-release versions of the AD&D hardbacks have my favorite D&D cover art and logos. As a kid I was jealous of older kids who had the versions with the original cover art but as adult it’s these that I feel the most nostalgic connection to
My high school’s band room had one flugelhorn. It was a rite of passage for everybody in the trumpet line (me included) to check it out and learn to play all the smooth Chuck Mangione hits. R.I.P. Chuck!
July 24, 2025 at 6:10 PM
My high school’s band room had one flugelhorn. It was a rite of passage for everybody in the trumpet line (me included) to check it out and learn to play all the smooth Chuck Mangione hits. R.I.P. Chuck!
The public didn’t even know about the extermination camps until they were liberated at the end of the war & the most infamous concentration camp before & during the war (Dachau) wasn’t an extermination camp. Concentration camps are still bad even if they aren’t extermination camps. Period.
July 5, 2025 at 9:24 PM
The public didn’t even know about the extermination camps until they were liberated at the end of the war & the most infamous concentration camp before & during the war (Dachau) wasn’t an extermination camp. Concentration camps are still bad even if they aren’t extermination camps. Period.
You need to get an education. It absolutely is a concentration camp. The first Nazi concentration camps opened in March 1933. They didn’t start gassing prisoners until December 1941. You don’t have to be literally gassing people for it to be bad to put them in concentration camps.
July 5, 2025 at 9:19 PM
You need to get an education. It absolutely is a concentration camp. The first Nazi concentration camps opened in March 1933. They didn’t start gassing prisoners until December 1941. You don’t have to be literally gassing people for it to be bad to put them in concentration camps.
And yet he went ahead and did it anyway. “Should” or “should not” clearly doesn’t enter the equation anymore and people need to come to grips with that and take it seriously.
June 22, 2025 at 3:42 AM
And yet he went ahead and did it anyway. “Should” or “should not” clearly doesn’t enter the equation anymore and people need to come to grips with that and take it seriously.
Thanks for the shout-out!
June 12, 2025 at 5:06 PM
Thanks for the shout-out!
Yep. When I saw the movie (before I’d read the book) & that thing showed up I was like “OMG, that’s totally the alzabo!”
June 12, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Yep. When I saw the movie (before I’d read the book) & that thing showed up I was like “OMG, that’s totally the alzabo!”