While looking over a gaming board for people looking to meet up to play their favorite RPG’s, I came across some acronyms that I did not recognize. LFG & LFP.

They did not receive a lot of attention on the page, but I had noticed them popping up here and there in forums and on site pages. So much so that it began to eat at me as to what they meant. Off to Wikipedia I went. Sure enough, the definitions for the two were found.

Both were defined as being in the context of MMORPG gaming.

LFG – Looking For Group

LFP – Looking For Party

 

Fine. Now I knew the [literal] meaning, but I was curious if these were obscure acronyms that were only being used by a small number of sites or gamers. So, of to Bing I went. I didn’t really find an answer because what I did find was so compelling that I stopped looking.

http://www.lfgcomic.com/page/1

I’ve never been much of a comic book person. I’ve read a few in my youth, but never really stuck with them for long. I have been caught up in the buzz around web comics a few times over the years, but it never really panned out for me. Luckily, on the site, which I was completely enamored with from a design standpoint, there were some interesting video clips to lure me into the character of Richard. Once intrigued, I had no choice but to start reading from the beginning and was curious how far I would get before things would begin to wane.

I am happy to report that the subject matter never did fail to keep me engaged and the jokes, which were many, kept things from being too serious throughout. I love it.

I’ve completed all of the current pages (363 at the moment) and I’m anxiously awaiting the next update.

Give it a try!

 

Got an email from Paizo today telling me about a great sale going on now at their store.

Seems they purchased some items from a retailer in Michigan who specialized in odd lots of older and unique items. These are items that you might not see on the shelves of most stores any more.

Luckily for me, as I am making up for time away from the RPG world, I can now get my hands on some older system reference books at a great price. If I act quickly!

I think some of the d20 books would make an awesome addition to the current Pathfinder material I am working with and since [most of] it’s OGL it’s ripe for conversion as well. Either way it’s a wealth of data at a bargain price.

Check it out for yourself: http://paizo.com/store/sale/goodToBeKingSale

Here is the blog version of the email I received, which is an interesting bit in itself: It's Good to Be King!

Enjoy!

As I mentioned before, the Free RPG Day is just around the corner (June 19th). I just discovered this new Pathfinder module from Paizo that they will be initially distributing exclusively at the event locations.

Module details:

• Name: Master of the Fallen Fortress
• Type: Dungeon
• Character level: 1st
• Rule set: Pathfinder RPG/ 3.5 Compatible
• Campaign setting: Pathfinder Chronicles

Print editions will be available at retail participants on the day of the event. Paizo will also be making the PDF version available for free on it’s web site on the 19th.

The module will be available for purchase beginning on the 21st, but why wait, get out to your nearest participating retailer on the 19th and enjoy some games and free stuff!

Paizo’s site states: Due to the special nature of this product, it is NOT part of the Pathfinder Modules Subscription.

I was reading this post over at RPGBlog II and thought it sounded like a good idea.

I don’t enough about the rules of any given RPG system to be too much of a stickler for them, but I can’t see too much trouble with introducing this as a house rule. I can only imagine the players spending precious moments during each round contemplating if the time is right for the ‘monster roll’. Heck, if I were leading the game I’d probably be spending way too much time wondering when they were going to use it as well.

I’ll have to pick up one of these and incorporate it into the mix.

>

In my last post I lamented about missing several gaming conventions. I was prepared to add this one as well, but upon further review it appears I was mistaken and I still have time to make plans to attend. Luckily I made that previous post, which prompted me to go look at the events again for links and other items, otherwise I may never have given it another look until it really was gone.

Origins is a pretty old event and is put on my the Gaming Manufactures group GAMA.

This one is held in Columbus, OH, so it is definitely within my driving distance.

It appears there is going to be a large number of Pathfinder games being played! I’ll be looking forward to seeing how the interaction goes in those games.

Additionally, the shear amount of games being played will allow for some peeks into systems I might not otherwise spend time investigating. If I get a sense that a particular system is being exceptionally rewarding for the participants I’ll need to look into it so I can make notes to investigate it further at a later time.

Fees for attending are really low ($5 per day for non-players, $10 for a family). Game entry fees range from $4-$6-$8 per game with some games awarding prizes.

Good news, and for me it’s two-fold, Free RPG Day 2010 is going to be held on Saturday June 19th.

Why two-fold? Well, having rekindled my interest in [table-top, RPG] gaming recently, I soon realized that I did so right smack dab in the middle of the gaming expo season. I kept finding out about each expo I would be interested in usually about the time they opened the doors and started the events. Usually far away from me.

Here’s a few examples of ones I’ve missed:

• ReaperCon – Denton, TX – Discovered it a few days before kick-off, not enough time to plan a trip to Texas (for me anyways).
• AnCon – Hudson, OH – This too I discovered only a few days before the event, while a bit closer, the Cleveland area is a go 3 1/2 hours away from me and requires a little planning in advance (again, for me).

Well, I’m may be finally getting ahead of the curve!

 

Free RPG Day 2010 is just around the corner, so head to the site, find a local participating dealer near you and go check out some stuff and get a few freebies to try out while you’re there!

Some additional details can be found here as well.

 

Enjoy!

Green Ronin has announced the release of the Freeport Pathfinder edition which is due out in July.

Freeport is a well defined city environment which is playable in many systems (d20, True20, 3E, 35E, 4E) and can support many types of play, but lends itself well to those looking for a pirate campaign.

 

Here’s a more official description from the Green Ronin product page:

“For a decade now Freeport has stood as one of fantasy gaming's most distinctive cities. Home to pirates, foul cults, terrifying monsters, vicious gangs, crime lords, and corrupt politicians, Freeport is a dynamic setting that offers a unique blend of high adventure and cosmic horror. Now the City of Adventure returns to its roots with the Freeport Companion: Pathfinder RPG Edition, a rules supplement for the Pirate's Guide to Freeport. Its 160 pages are packed with all the support you need to run a Freeport campaign with the Pathfinder RPG. In addition to giving game stats for all the city's major characters, the Freeport Companion provides new core classes like the corsair and monster hunter, new prestige classes like the musketeer and witch hunter, famous magic items, an insanity system, new spells and incantations, and an introductory adventure. Celebrate 10 years of the City of Adventure with the Freeport Companion: Pathfinder RPG Edition!”

Order from Green Ronin:

http://www.greenronin.com/store/product/grr1910.html

or from Paizo (pre-order discount now in effect):

http://paizo.com/store/brand/freeport/v5748btpy8esi&source=search

I have registered a new domain name and set up a new hosting account for www.MidWestMages.com. You can check out the front page, a temporary graphical hack, and the blog by visiting the site.

Why? I see a need for a local game store. What I think of as a game store plus. I’ll explain that in a minute, but here’s some background: I’ve been getting back into gaming (RPG) lately and have gotten really excited about the prospect of playing again. I have been excited to learn about the changes to the game environments and discover new products that have come out over the last 20 or so years since I last played. What has been less than stellar has been realizing that there is not a game shop that is less than an hour and a half from me. The game shops that I have driven that distance to see so far left me feeling like the three hour round trip might not be worth it.

Rather than run right out and lease a store front and buy a bunch of inventory and yell up and down the street “I’m open!”, I thought I’d start with an online venture and see how it goes. Plans for a physical store of some sort are an important part of the ‘plus’ I referred to earlier. What is the plus? To me, it is being more than a store. Today’s stores have a good thing going for them: game playing in the store, almost on a daily basis. What I see that could be even better would be the culmination of a few things; the first being a well organized play schedule, another being character nights where players discuss players of certain types on given nights, and lastly a variety of improvement sessions kind of like group therapy for gamers. I’ll be explaining more of this soon, but suffice to say that I may have attended one too many code camps in my life and that is affecting my gaming thoughts.

If you are excited by this new venture then stayed tuned. If you are feeling a bit ‘meh’ about the whole thing, then wait 15 minutes and I usually have another idea.

-Ron

 

Watch the latest episode:

 

Here’s a handy web site you should add to your favorites.

http://spoon.net/browsers/

I usually use the Browser Sandbox, which lets you run the browser of your choice without a permanent install. This keeps your registry happy and serves you nicely when you want to see how something looks, like your blog, when viewed in another browser. It is also very helpful (understatement) when you need to run a different version of Internet Explorer for some reason, like let's say, for example, your company an implementation of Siebel that does not function properly under anything besides IE6. Saves the day!

“without worrying about wrecking your PC”

There are a number of other apps that have been 'Spooned' on the site that you can experiment with, and that's just it. Using the Spoon method, you can truly experiment with apps without worrying about wrecking your PC. If you find you really like one and decide you will will be using it often then you might decide to go ahead and head over to that apps web site and grab the regular install package, but the Spoon load time is short so you may find that running some apps often from the sandbox is just as good as having them installed. You decide.

 

Are you a D20PFSRD user running IE and some of those Google Sites implementations are getting you down? Just launch the Chrome browser from Spoon and head over to the site and enjoy it without the endless attempts to load some of those pages.

Enjoy!

 

*Spoon image from: http://jamesowers.co.uk/