Obscure 80s Swords & Sorcery Movie Trailers

Not all S&S actually, there's also a nice post-apocalyptic trailer featuring Patrick Swayze thrown in there (thanks Big Buck!)...

WARNING: One or more of these trailers may have boobs in them! If you are outraged by boob imagery please surf yourself to the next website. Thank you, friends.

Greg Benedicto is Back: GORGONMILK!

Glad news, friends! Greg Benedicto, the past proprietor of the esteemed and extinct Eiglophian Press and Quantique web logs, is back!

Please now train your attention on GORGONMILK!

Understanding Crappy Dice Apologists

Pry these sparkle dice from my hands at your own peril, villain!

Let's say your elf was stabbing a mean little orc and you had to roll d6 for damage. I hand you a d7 with two "1"s on it (i.e. 1,1,2,3,4,5,6). Would you be cool with that?

Apparently a lot of roleplayers would be totally cool with this.

Indeed, this is the magnitude of inaccuracy in cheap d6s, according to this 2006 study based on 144,000 dice rolls using replicates of dice from different manufacturers. Both Chessex and Games Workshop dice showed this level of inaccuracy - actually a bit worse than this, on average.

Trivial? Insignificant? Meaningless given the small number of rolls in a session? Ummm. Not really...

The study I cite has been discussed endlessly in the various gaming forums over the last several years, yet most roleplayers still don't seem to care in the least that their dice might be way way off. I find the psychology here to be very interesting and quite different from the other gaming subcultures I've crossed paths with.

I spent some years playing Magic: The Gathering and, later, strategy boardgames. In Magic I could not conceive of any player ever being okay with slipping a fifth replicate of a card into a deck (you're only allowed four). In boardgaming, likewise I could scarcely imagine a player showing up to a game of Settlers of Catan or Stone Age with their own funky dice for their own personal use. This would immediately create suspicion amongst the other players, whether it was at a tournament or a dining room table. So why is this okay in roleplaying games?

It's fascinating to read the viewpoints of the dice inaccuracy apologists who responded to my previous post, or this spin-off discussion at RPGSite. A lot of people are quite open about how they are more concerned about the color of their dice - the way they sparkle in the fluorescent basement light or the way they glisten when coated in Cheeto grease - than how they function. One player used the RPGSite thread as a chance to show off a picture of the heavily worn early-80s TSR dice he stills plays with. Obviously these dice have significant nostalgic value to this person, which I can totally understand. I don't think this person would ever argue that his dice roll accurately, however.

Ultimately it turns out that many roleplayers value aesthetics over function when it comes to dice. Dice are symbols, "potent totems of gamer culture" as S. John Ross puts it, that players use to communicate aspects of their identities. The person with the dirty old Dragon Dice is old school... the person with the sparkle dice is a fancy-pants... the person with the 100 cheapies is well-prepared... the person with the sack of 23 weird dice is superstitious. And so on.

Upon reflection, I actually think this is kind of cool and is part of what makes the RPG world such a fun and interesting place. I love gaming with oddball eccentrics, including people that speak in funny voices and wear felt elf hats. Of course a lot of these kinds of folks are going to have complex emotional relationships with their dice. You know what? It's fine with me... For the record, I have never discussed dice accuracy at a game session, much less asked somebody not to use their personal dice. I welcome players to bring and use their special juju dice - this is a charming and idiosyncratic roleplaying tradition that I do not wish to change. I value the cultural weirdness of dice traditions more than I am concerned about a given players' roll outcome accuracy.

On the other hand, I can think of no reasonable excuse for why a DM should not make an effort to use accurate dice. I am of the traditional view that a DM should strive to be an impartial referee, and this would include allowing players to expect fair dice rolls. I would be interested in hearing a rational argument for why a DM shouldn't invest $5-10 in a set of good dice.

Free to a Good Ho-ho-home: Vance, Dunsany Books

I need to thin out my paperbax stax a bit. I'm emulating Scott Driver here by trying to increase coolness in the world by giving out cool books to cool people. I have a big old stack of books to get rid of, including some Epic Illustrated and Heavy Metal magazines. I will be giving stuff away in small batches over time. Here's the first batch! Ho ho ho!

I will send any of these books to you free via U.S. Media Mail. Here are the rules:

1. The first person to leave a comment claiming a book gets it.
2. I will only ship to U.S. addresses (due to postage fees).
3. On your honor you do not already own the book and you are seriously interested in reading it.
4. One book per person per giveaway.
5. You must email me your delivery address (via my blogger profile) the same day you claim the book, or else the next person in line gets it.

Today's offerings:

 Jack Vance - To Live Forever

Jack Vance - Galactic Effectuator

Jack Vance - Emphyrio

Lord Dunsay - The King of Elfland's Daughter

Captain Beefheart Died Today

Bye Captain...

 

Damn this is hitting me pretty hard. I was obsessed with Captain Beefheart when I was a teenager. I even used to have his old big green easy chair in my bedroom. He lived near my house when I was growing up and I hung out with some of his acid damaged buddies in the diners and trailer parks of Lancaster, California. I don't know how many hundreds of times I've listened to Trout Mask Replica.

Forbidding Players From Using Crappy Chessex Dice?

It seems like 99% of roleplayers use the round-edged dice produced by the major dice manufacturers. These dice have rounded edges because they are dipped in paint and then tumbled. This wears the surface off of the dipped dice, smoothing the edges and leaving paint only in the numbers. Tumbling does not wear the surface of the dice evenly, however; it results in the dice taking on an irregular egg-shape. These egg-shaped dice produce a non-random distribution of roll outcomes. Gamblers call these "cheater dice". Most gamers call these "Chessex" or "Games Workshop" dice. I have one Chessex d20 that is so bad that it looks like an egg-shaped marble.

Is it fair to ask players not to use their crappy Chessex dice? I mean, if they feel that one of their dipped-n-tumbled dice is "lucky", it probably DOES have biased outcomes. Isn't this cheating?

I always bring a pile of precision-edged GameScience and casino dice to the games I run. I hand out sets to all the players. Yet some players - especially gamers at conventions - insist on using their own dice. The only other gamers I've seen using precision dice are the hardcore old school roleplayers. Why is this? It seems like if someone is obsessive enough to learn how to play a game with 576 pages of rules, they might spend a few minutes thinking about how their dice function.

This is kind of an academic question, of course. I would never kick off a session asking someone to tuck away their favorite "lucky" dice. This decreases joy. I guess I am just ranting here because I am surprised by how many people who fancy themselves as serious gamers use shit-ball dice. I am even more surprised that most game shops don't carry, or even know about, precision polyhedrals.

The thing I am most surprised by, though, is that every second of my life has lead up to this moment where I actually sat down and wrote a nerd-rage blog post about rounded vs. sharp edged 20-sided dice. Sigh...

Rant over. Thanks for stopping by!

NOTE: I wrote this post assuming it was made clear to everyone years ago that Chessex and GW dice are extremely inaccurate. Some of the comments suggest that many people still think the inaccuracies of these dice are insignificant. I direct you to this 2006 experimental study from an engineering class at ASU on Chessex and GW d6s. On average they are over 12% off.

Hottest Blog List: LOTFP and HILL CANTONS Rule!

Here's a list of 235 old school roleplaying-related blogs ranked by the number of followers they gained between 1 November and 16 December. I am ranking blogs using this system - as opposed to raw follower number - in order to determine which blogs are "hottest" without being biased by how long a blog has been around. My main motivation for making this list is to highlight the blogs that are currently attracting the most reader attention irregardless of the blogs' age.

My usual blogometric caveats apply: (1) This list only has blogger.com blogs because follower numbers are not publicly available for WordPress blogs. (2) Yes, I know some blogs are missing. If your blog is on my big blog list as of today, it will be in the next ranking. If your blog is not on my list and you want to be included, please send me the link.

Please go HERE to find direct links to all of these blogs, as well as the fine WordPress blogs I sadly could not include here.

Congratulations to James Edward Raggi IV (LotFP), ckutalik (Hill Cantons), and James M. (GROGNARDIA) for gold, silver, and bronze medal blog hotnessss...!

Rank	Blog Name	1-Nov	16-Dec	Change
1	LotFP: RPG	274	320	46
2	Hill Cantons	50	94	44
3	GROGNARDIA	685	726	41
4	Gothridge Manor	96	133	37
5	Swords Against the Outer Dark	142	172	30
6	Risus Monkey	75	103	28
7	Cyclopeatron	151	177	26
7	In Places Deep	51	77	26
8	HUGE RUINED PILE	111	136	25
9	Playing D&D With Porn Stars	538	561	23
9	World of Wonder	52	75	23
10	Aeons & Augauries	68	90	22
10	Destination Unknown	114	136	22
11	Lord of the Green Dragons	223	244	21
12	Errant	17	37	20
12	Tenkar's Tavern	63	83	20
12	What a horrible night to have a curse...	65	85	20
13	A Paladin In Citadel	198	217	19
14	Axe & Hammer	77	95	18
14	B/X BLACKRAZOR	190	208	18
14	THE LAND OF NOD	87	105	18
14	The Tao of D&D	134	152	18
15	Green Skeleton Gaming Guild	86	103	17
15	The Book of Worlds	28	45	17
15	The Lands of Ara	37	54	17
16	From the Sorcerer's Skull	96	112	16
16	HeroPress	125	141	16
16	The Other Side blog	92	108	16
16	The Underdark Gazette	165	181	16
17	Fabled Lands	54	69	15
17	Gaming All Over The Place	14	29	15
17	In a Dark Cell	7	22	15
18	Beyond the Black Gate	247	261	14
18	The Grumpy Old Troll	27	41	14
19	Dungeons and Digressions	178	191	13
19	Have dice, will travel…	29	42	13
19	The Blog That Time Forgot	66	79	13
19	The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms	66	79	13
20	aldeboran	58	70	12
20	Carto Cacography	38	50	12
20	Forgotten Runes	31	43	12
20	Havards Blackmoor Blog	86	98	12
20	SWORD & SHIELD	32	44	12
20	The Weirdlands of Xhuul	25	37	12
21	Countdown to Game Time	14	25	11
21	Jeffs Gameblog	385	396	11
21	MORE & BIGGER LOOT	9	20	11
21	The Warlock's Home Brew	91	102	11
21	Trollish Delver	22	33	11
22	Age of Ravens	31	41	10
22	Crawdads and Dragons	29	39	10
22	FightingFantasist	48	58	10
22	Jasoomian Dreams	35	45	10
22	OEF	112	122	10
22	Old School Psionics	0	10	10
22	The Lair of the Evil DM	139	149	10
22	Trollsmyth	161	171	10
23	"It's okay; Gary sent us."	89	98	9
23	Bugbears for Breakfast	12	21	9
23	ENCOUNTER	20	29	9
23	EXONAUTS!	52	61	9
23	Hack & Slash	9	18	9
23	I SEE LEAD PEOPLE	168	177	9
23	Warning - Mutagenic Substance	61	70	9
24	A Wizard in a bottle	25	33	8
24	Appendix N	29	37	8
24	Carjacked Seraphim	64	72	8
24	chirine's workbench	34	42	8
24	For A Fistful Of Coppers	28	36	8
24	How to Start a Revolution in 21 Days or Less	120	128	8
24	Teleleli	9	17	8
24	The 25 Mile Hex	15	23	8
24	The Hopeless Gamer	175	183	8
25	Akratic Wizardry	130	137	7
25	Back in '81	103	110	7
25	BigDungeon	9	16	7
25	Daddy Grognard	116	123	7
25	Discourse and Dragons	66	73	7
25	In Like Flynn	41	48	7
25	Like Being Read To From Dictionaries	41	48	7
25	Old School Heretic	42	49	7
25	Sorcery & Super Science!	41	48	7
25	Telecanter's Receding Rules	105	112	7
25	TEMPLE OF DEMOGORGON	116	123	7
25	The Gallery: Russ Nicholson	141	148	7
25	The Jovial Priest	0	7	7
25	The RPG Corner	122	129	7
25	The Savage AfterWorld	97	104	7
25	Threads of Adventure!	36	43	7
26	Greyhawk Grognard	158	164	6
26	Henchman Abuse	17	23	6
26	I Waste The Buddha With My Crossbow	84	90	6
26	Monsters and Manuals	177	183	6
26	My RPG characters	16	22	6
26	Ode to Black Dougal	126	132	6
26	Over the Misty Mountain	7	13	6
26	Save Vs. Poison	76	82	6
26	Some King's Kent	24	30	6
26	Sword and Board	48	54	6
26	Swords of Abandon	29	35	6
26	Tempora Mutantur	12	18	6
26	The City of Iron	9	15	6
26	The Contemptible Cube of Quazar	35	41	6
26	The Grand Tapestry	124	130	6
26	The Keep on the Gaming Lands	110	116	6
26	The Realm of Zhu	9	15	6
26	The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope	196	202	6
27	Asshat Paladins	38	43	5
27	Bat in the Attic	159	164	5
27	Dungeonmum	86	91	5
27	PLANET ALGOL	95	100	5
27	Roles, Rules, and Rolls	54	59	5
27	SAVE OR DIE!	24	29	5
27	Tales from the Flaming Faggot	44	49	5
27	Tankards & Broadswords	118	123	5
27	The Metal Earth	53	58	5
27	Tombs of Horrors	21	26	5
27	Troll and Flame	71	76	5
27	Unfrozen caveman dice-chucker	16	21	5
28	AD&D Grognard	11	15	4
28	Castle Dragonscar	45	49	4
28	Fame & Fortune	16	20	4
28	Lawful Indifferent	39	43	4
28	Middenmurk	23	27	4
28	Rule of the Dice	53	57	4
28	Shouting Into The Void	35	39	4
28	Swords of Minaria	32	36	4
28	The Omnipotent Eye	47	51	4
28	The Wasted Lands	61	65	4
28	Tower of Zenopus	9	13	4
28	Uhluht'c Awakens	77	81	4
29	Attack Plan R	11	14	3
29	ChicagoWiz's RPG Blog	228	231	3
29	Cthulhu's Library	12	15	3
29	Delta's D&D Hotspot	84	87	3
29	Grevious-Injury	14	17	3
29	Joethelawyer's Wondrous Imaginings	98	101	3
29	Let's Make Believe	17	20	3
29	Musings from Myern	7	10	3
29	Old Guard Gaming Accoutrements	119	122	3
29	Oubliette Magazine	30	33	3
29	Reviews from R'lyeh	43	46	3
29	Rustfoot	38	41	3
29	Sham's Grog 'n Blog	102	105	3
29	Sickly Purple Death Ray	74	77	3
29	Superhero Necromancer	47	50	3
29	The Frothy Friar	47	50	3
29	THE WHEEL OF SAMSARA	42	45	3
29	There's a Bugbear in my Kitchen!	39	42	3
30	5 Stone Games	28	30	2
30	A Hamsterish Hoard of Dungeons and Dragons	74	76	2
30	Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition	33	35	2
30	Archive of the Rotted Moon	30	32	2
30	Beacon	7	9	2
30	Blood of Prokopius	34	36	2
30	Cimmerian Chronicles	16	18	2
30	Digital Orc	5	7	2
30	DUNGEON ADVENTURES	21	23	2
30	El RagnaBlog	25	27	2
30	Embrace the Dungeon!	10	12	2
30	gnotions	18	20	2
30	Iron Rationales	17	19	2
30	Knightvision Games - Two Knights, One Vision	2	4	2
30	of Pedantry	5	7	2
30	RPG Blog II	127	129	2
30	Terminal Space	50	52	2
30	The Library: Retro and Classic Fantasy Games.	42	44	2
30	The Polyhedral Dicebag	23	25	2
30	Tower of the Archmage	53	55	2
30	Unofficial Games	42	44	2
30	Weird Worlds of Geoffrey McKinney	61	63	2
30	Wilderlands of Runequest	18	20	2
31	Coffee swillin' analog gamer	33	34	1
31	Creative Mountain Games	11	12	1
31	Drawings & Dragons	44	45	1
31	DungeonCurmudgeon	1	2	1
31	Dungeonskull Mountain	77	78	1
31	KOK'ed Dice	21	22	1
31	Mike's Amazing RPG Fun Pad	22	23	1
31	O RPG da Vida Real	8	9	1
31	Polar Bear Dreams and Stranger Things	20	21	1
31	Quickly, Quietly, Carefully	9	10	1
31	Rocket-Propelled Game	12	13	1
31	SANDBOX EMPIRE	67	68	1
31	Saturday Night Sandbox	29	30	1
31	Savage Swords of Athanor	65	66	1
31	Semper Initiativus Unum	37	38	1
31	Spell Card!	35	36	1
31	Tales from the Dusty Vault	9	10	1
31	The Delve	43	44	1
31	The Doomed Wastelands	27	28	1
31	The Dragon's Eye	2	3	1
31	The Old Forest	11	12	1
31	The Paradigm Traveler	8	9	1
31	The Vorpal Spork	25	26	1
31	Vaults of Nagoh	65	66	1
31	Visions of Paradise	7	8	1
	Back to the Dungeon!	57	57	0
	Beyond the Wall	24	24	0
	Bloody 20s	17	17	0
	GAME SNOB	9	9	0
	Kingdoms in Trevail	22	22	0
	Lances to Lasers - A gaming blog	8	8	0
	malevolent & benign	37	37	0
	MF WARS	10	10	0
	Notes From Under the Kyak	9	9	0
	No School Like The Old School	12	12	0
	No Signal!	13	13	0
	Penguin Overlord	4	4	0
	Places to Go, People to Be	35	35	0
	Prime Requisite Games™	25	25	0
	Rather Gamey	3	3	0
	Romance Monsoon	11	11	0
	Swashbuckler's Hideout	39	39	0
	The Badger King's Den	16	16	0
	The Blue Gnoll	8	8	0
	The Burning Wastes	6	6	0
	The Dragon's Musing	6	6	0
	The Hydra's Grotto	15	15	0
	The Incredible Fétide Grigou Rôliste Show	7	7	0
	The Moldy Vale	31	31	0
	The Purple Wurm	3	3	0
	The Zonked World of Holmold	1	1	0
	Tremulous Antennae	9	9	0
	Where'd my Vorpal Sword Go?	19	19	0
	Grimmhaus	64	63	-1
	Mandragora: The Mandrake March	46	45	-1
	New Fish In An Old School	16	15	-1
	Ramblings of a Gentleman Gamer	14	13	-1
	Redbeard's Ravings	16	15	-1
	Stocking The Dungeon	19	18	-1
	Valley of Blue Snails	35	34	-1
	Dungeon Mistress	57	55	-2
	Maximum Rock & Role Playing	43	41	-2
	elves ate my homework	49	46	-3
	Lack of data (will be included next time):
	"The Troll Ate My Homework"	NA	47
	Backscreen Pass	NA	44
	Dungeons & Dorks	NA	12
	Warriors of the Red Planet	NA	73
	Apprentice Of Old School	NA	9