d30 Quest

Some people really don't like the "funky" (I can't stand that word) dice included as part of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG rules. I'm not one of them. I like dice, especially RPG dice, a lot. When I first noticed the GameScience "Zochi" dice I was interested right away but didn't move toward a purchase mostly because of a single die in my collection - the d30.

My d30 purchased c. 1986 at Hans Christian Toys at the local mall.

At the time I thought this was the coolest thing ever, even though I'd never read any rules that used the thing, and I had assumed that said rules would be forthcoming (why else make the thing - right?). That didn't really happen, at least not for me. My friend Chris, whom I ran most of my dungeons for, also bought one. We never used it for anything other than rolling to hit or for damage (and not under any house rule either - just when we thought it would be crazy). The only hint I ever received that this chunk of plastic had any use in an RPG was when I discovered that The Armory published a book of tables for use with it. I can't remember when I first discovered this product and I can't remember if I saw an advertisement for it or saw it at a game store. I've never had one in my hands but you can look at one online here.

It's a crime that this wasn't included with every d30.

So DCCRPG comes along and I'm super excited about this. I want to see how the new dice work in the game and I have a reason to get new dice (I lie to myself that this is even a requirement to get more dice). Best of all my d30 is actually good for something.

I ordered a 12-piece Gamescience set on eBay and it was great except that it doesn't come with the d7 or d30 so I have to get those extra at my FLGS. I see what they have at the store and the d30 is huge (I already thought the d30 I had was massive) and has nothing even close to a hard edge on it. I'm not a big fan of "polished" dice and this one is by far the worst. So what do I do next? I find another set of dice I can use for DCC with mostly different shapes and go and buy those too even though they are mismatched sizes and the d30 is exactly like the one I bought at my FLGS. I'm still glad I bought them, however.

Nice useless pips under the 16, 19, 26 and 29 Brainiac.

So what I decided I really want is to be able to find a d30 like the one I originally had. It's pretty beat up so I'd like to have a new one or one like new even though it still rolls better than the two newest ones I've acquired. Then I get word from my friend Jim that there is a d30 like the one I want in with a bag of other used dice for three dollars. I'm still not sure what kind of dice some of those are, but the d30 is exactly like my old d30 except for the colour and much better condition. What great luck.

What a treasure!

I don't know if these are GameScience or Armory, but they don't wear as well as any other GameScience dice I own so I'm going to assume they are Armory. The bigger ones I am led to believe are Koplow. Besides those three, I can't find any other companies or styles of d30, but I'll keep looking.

My two styles compared to a GameScience d20

Game Play Update

As has been obvious to anyone dropping by here I haven't been very active lately. That's the bad news. The good news is that it's been a busy time for gaming since JimCon in November.

Around the new year, I was invited to join a group for a game held every two weeks. The home it is hosted in has a dedicated game room which is very nice and the hosts are active gamers (thanks Greg and Sara). Our first meet-up was to decide what kind of experience we wanted to build here. We came to a decision that we would start with Basic D&D to create a campaign. I offered to DM (the players are Greg aka Radek, Sara aka Emmie, Jim aka Greybeard, Tyler aka Philippe and Paul aka Rogan). It was discussed that perhaps we could play a variety of game systems but most of the players wanted an ongoing campaign so they could develop their characters. I suggested that we could possibly have a campaign where the characters are transported to different worlds that would support a unique genre and allow the use of a new game with characters being converted to the new system. We've been going through the "Haunted Keep" and that's been very fun and of course it supports basic. I'll be switching us over to Castles & Crusades soon as it will be easier to convert the majority of the materials I have in mind for the near future. Once we move to C&C I'm not sure that moving away from that system will be necessary. Horror and Pulp adventures are being considered and I may just run something with the Lejendary Adventure rules. Only time will tell.

Also in the new year, I was invited (through JimCon acquaintances) to come out for a monthly game day being put on by people interested in miniatures gaming. I've been playing Battletech with Nathan.  My game is starting to see some improvement. I'm actually using some tactics. I missed this last month but am looking forward to using my new miniatures a few weeks from now.

I've also been playing in some Pathfinder Society games. I GMed Night March of Kalkamedes at the spring Game Knight Game Day and have been playing a few selected scenarios here and there. 

My Alchemist Gravidad died. I'm also finding the d20 Fantasy rules that Pathfinder uses to be somewhat unsatisfying, especially compared with Tom Moldvay's Basic D&D rulebook. I'm not the first person to say this, nor is this the first time I've mentioned it, but Moldvay's presentation of the D&D rules may be the single best version ever made and are especially the most elegant.