help me spend $25

[capmarvel]

Won a $25 Amazon gift card...and am stumped what to spend it on. And I want to spend it on myself this time (not the wife and kids).

So...if you had an extra $25 to spend, what gaming book or item would you get? What item is out there that you've wanted but you've been waiting for some extra $$$ in order to get it?


PS - if you're stumped like me on gaming stuff, I'll take any other suggestions ...thanks!

[Treebore]

Do you like to buy OSR stuff? If so look up the Basic Fantasy RPG stuff being sold on Amazon. I think you can get almost all of it with $25. I almost went with its system over C&C, and the adventures are just as compatible with C&C as any other edition of D&D.

[Treebore]

This one in particular is my favorite of the bunch:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/148254 ... UTF8&psc=1

[capmarvel]

Thanks for the tips!

Keep 'em coming!


Note I was just looking at random stuff and found the collected works of the old Bloom County newspaper strip...I had forgotten about it completely. This was one of our favorites back in college. I thought of getting the book, but also wonder how some of that stuff holds up. Maybe the memory of it is better than the reality of it. In any case, really looking to get something new and not just relive the past.

[BoomerET]

If you were a Bloom County fan, then you must have enjoyed Calvin & Hobbes.


BoomerET

[Sir Ironside]

I love the two comic strips above, but in my case it is Gary Larson's "Far Side" comic for sure.

The gorgeous hardback bound edition is still on my Santa list.

[capmarvel]

Those 3 are my all time favorites - Far Side, Calvin/Hobbes, and Bloom County.

Problem is I have most of the Far Side and Calvin stuff already.

What is interesting is that all 3 ran about 10 years each, and all the creators "retired" voluntarily.


My brother suggested more of the Dresden File books (I just finished book #1 the other day).

[Sir Ironside]

What is interesting is that all 3 ran about 10 years each, and all the creators "retired" voluntarily.

For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston ran for 30 years and she voluntarily retired. What made her comic so unique was the characters aged, in real time. So the kids are children at the beginning, but by the end of the run they are all grown up.

It is easily one of the most entertaining comic strips out there.

My brother suggested more of the Dresden File books (I just finished book #1 the other day).

Books are very subjective. I know there has been a large fan base for Dresden, but for me it was a middle of the road series with an interesting concept but some of the books were just horrible. To be fair there were some that were very good but in my opinion the last 2 or 3 books have been below par and I've dropped the series.

So that is unpopular thought number one.

Here is unpopular thought number two.

I don't think you have to reach very far to get an opinion about Simon R. Green being a hack. I'll even readily admit it. I've tried to pick up books of his and give it a fair read only to shortly thereafter put it out of its misery.

Then he releases the; Nightside, series of books.

Now to be clear Green's writing doesn't miraculously become Steinbeck, but what does happen is an improvement, in style that seems to really mesh well with the world. He is still guilty of some of his "writing" tricks but they are far less noticeable and the count is much lower.

I've tried some of his previous books and some of his later books and I just can't get into them. For me, there was just something special about the Nightside. I love the series so much that if I had time I wouldn't mind making the series into an rpg.

All that aside Green created a world that pushed all the right buttons where I could insert the series of books into a "Lite reading" category.

I'm not going to give a full synopsis I'll just give you a link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightside_(book_series)

If you are not aware, in the gaming community there were those that made it their hobby to hate on anything Simon R. Green in a mostly puzzling aggressive way. I once had the audacity to say I enjoyed The Nightside series much more than Dresden. Well by some of the following posts it sounded more like I was a baby eater.

Thankfully I'm not much of a follower or bend to peer pressure and like to discover things, that interest me, on my own.

I'd also be remises in mentioning one of my all time favourite anthology book series.

George R.R. Martin writes/edits a series of books that take place in the Wild Cards universe. This is a shared world were a number of authors write stories about super hero's. A few interesting things about the book. The inspiration to creating the series stemmed from George R.R. Martin running the GURPS Superworld rpg, back in the 1980's, for his fellow writer friends. (What I wouldn't have given to sit in with that group.) The shared universe carries a law that time passes, people get old and there are a lot more moral grey area's than you would find in a comic book. The series is very adult orientated as there are many real world issues involved. A lot of the characters were actual characters from their game. All the books are really one big story. So what happened in the previous books still matter and are referred to in later books and can influence the current story.

What Martin asked himself when this idea was being bantered around, "What if people with super powers suddenly appeared, in the real world."

The series is still going strong but IMO the first run was the strongest. Don't get me wrong, wave 2 and the current wave 3 are also excellent but you'll be doing yourself a disfavour if you don't start from the beginning.

If you decide on giving Wild Cards a go, just one suggestion. I personally loved the first book, but others found it slow. In a way I guess I can kind of see it (Though there is plenty of action.) because the first book doesn't really highlight any of the super beings, it is really the "origin" story that sets off the series. Book 2 takes off like a bottle rocket and hardly slows down after that.

I can't say enough about this series. If you like superhero stories but want a more "real world" view on what it'd be like you really cannot go wrong with Wild Cards.

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/book-cate ... wild-cards

P.S.: They are just starting to reprint the original series, again, alongside the new books. I'm pretty sure you'd be able to find the books on the used book market for the first series and buy the current story arch.

FYI: SJGames made a Wild Cards supplement for his GURPS system way back in the early 1990's(?) maybe earlier. Recently Green Ronin made a Wild Card rpg as a supplement for their Mutant's and Mastermind's rpg. (At least I think it is hooked to that wagon.)

[capmarvel]

Thanks for the suggestions - I had never heard of Nightside - I'll check it out.

I'm also looking at various comic book art books, etc, etc. Thought this would be easier....

Currently leaning towards "Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes". Can't believe how good this guys art is.

[TheMetal1]

+1 on Bloom County. It might be pretty cool to get those books I checked out the Berkeley Breathed Site to see what the background on it was: http://www.berkeleybreathed.com/pages/0 ... ibrary.asp

The cool thing is they add some historical context and background to the political and world situation along with backgrounds on various historical figures from the time. But understand not wanting to revisit the past. Still worth checking out some of his newer stuff, children's books, but same awesome art and fun stories.

Of course there is always: Castles & Crusades Players Handbook, 5th Printing or Munchkin by Steve Jackson Games

[capmarvel]

Well - I went with the Adam Hughes "Cover Run" book. I wanted something "for me" that I would normally be too cheap to buy. And, with the gift card and some rewards points it ended up being "free". A lot of the comic strip stuff can be found online but I felt the art book should be seen "in person."

Thanks to all for your suggestions - I'll put them on my wish list for the coming year.


PS- if anyone has more suggestions, I'll still take them - can never have too many ideas to buy more stuff.

[Relaxo]

Grab the explorers edition of Savage Worlds. It's only 10 bucks. and Amazon carries zocchi dice too.

[capmarvel]

I already have Savage Worlds (latest version) - it's in my pile of RPG's I'll read but never play (which is most RPG's unfortunately).

I admire what the game tries to do but get hung up on the fact that a human can be in the same strength class (d12) as a Dragon (though the Dragon has +5 or whatever as a modifier). It bugged me that they didn't use d14, d16, d18, d20 (or whatever) to scale up beyond human abilities.

[Relaxo]

Buy five copies of Yarr, then.

[Hal G]

My book: http://www.amazon.com/Awakened-Darrin-D ... 1385841800

[capmarvel]

Well, due to UPS shipping delays, Amazon is giving me a $20 gift card on a book that cost $26 - and I'll probably get the book tomorrow (just a little late). I'm usually not this "lucky" ...perhaps I should start playing the lottery?

In any case, I get to start again looking for stuff to buy...

[Relaxo]

There's a Yarr Referee screen too.

Actually, I my wife got me "Of Dice and Men" and I'm loving it so far.

[Sir Ironside]

Buy five copies of Yarr, then.

There's a Yarr Referee screen too.

If you like retro rpg products that favours comparably to; Delving Deeper, only with Pirates (Magic included. Though if you took a couple of character classes away you could run a straight-up Pirate game.) this is a good choice.

Slick clean, easy to understand that has sensible ship to ship combat. Probably the easiest character sheets, to fill out. With a prepared GM you could be literally playing within minutes, with a new group. (You pretty much pick a name and shade in a few bullet points.)

The expanded rules, do just that.... expand the scope with minimal complexity. It plays equally well with or without the expanded rules. If you choose not to use the expanded rules you don't get the sense that the rules are incomplete.

Plays equally well as a pick-up game or for a more ongoing adventure style game. (These two choices will determine, for me, if I will use the expanded rules. Longer campaign style games deserve the expanded rules where as the pick-up game really doesn't need the expanded rules.)

Plus you'd be helping out a fellow Crusader.

[Relaxo]

Thanks for the kind words, Sir.

Great character sheets indeed!

[capmarvel]

Remember this is an Amazon gift card, not a DrivethruRPG gift card.

But, I will look at Yarr, etc.

[Relaxo]

I know. I'm just being a shameless douche.

[capmarvel]

At least you're our shameless douche!