ACen 2012 Adverts

Seeing as I have gone through another yet ACen, I have once again collected a lot of adverts/business cards/etc. which have been handed to me or I collected from the ground. Mostly the latter. Because I loathe money going to waste, I’m doing my part to share good things with the world. And this time I’ve taken the task of alphabetizing everything out instead of writing them out as I pull them. Mistake? And I will make sure I don’t do duplicates from last year’s haul as well. Yes, these are all brand new. Egads.

• 8th Day Anime – A team of artists that do graphic novels, fan art, original art, commissions and a whole lot of other things artists do to make themselves sane and yet still pay the rent. I is jealous of anyone capable of this feat.
• ActionBooth – A photo booth that sets up at events to shoot people in action poses. Cosplayers loved them this year, and were posing themselves silly.
• Adam Anthony Aguas – A tattoo artist who paints as well. One of his paintings was up for bidding on the convention floor, and what was serious business on my mind, I must tell you.
• Alexander Lome – deviantART page of the artist, though the card made sure to share his eBay yet marked out his phone number with a real marker (which failed, by the way).

Talking D&D: Acceptance

Let us begin with the Rod of Wonder. I first came across this bizarre magic item in my first campaign in the first few levels of play. It was given to us as a gift by the Demigod Zagyg, a new entry into the pantheon of the DM’s world. My guess he was added in via the untimely demise Gary Gygax the week before, or it could have just been a total coincidence. Back to the story, the Rod of Wonder seemed impressive at first because Zagyg showed you could duplicate the effect of a Lightning Bolt, and the Rod could be used over and over again without weakening its magic.

However, the Lightning Bolt only happens 10% of the time, while the other 90% of the time it creates completely random results. You see, the Rod of Wonder is an item based around dice rolling. Activate the Rod, roll percentile dice, and see what happens. Sure you could strike somebody with that Lightning Bolt or maybe even a Fireball, but you also run the risk of Enlarging the target, grow grass around them or even turn yourself to stone. Not only that, the effect you get could be entirely different than what you seek, and you may unintentionally hinder and/or harm your allies in the process.

Talking D&D: Railroading

One of the greatest things I’ve come to enjoy about Dungeons & Dragons is the otherwise completely open world of exploring it has to offer. Not only that, you’re completely free to do as you will (within the confines of your PC that is), acting out and expressing yourself in the world as you come to learn and grow with it. Granted, this isn’t the only way if can be played, because it’s a completely customizable game capable of almost anything. And I would be a fool to say just D&D, because this is the attraction I have with tabletop gaming in general. The cooperative storytelling between the players and the DM/GM is what keeps me coming back.

During my time with gaming, however, I’ve discovered a curse word that leaves a bitter taste in my mouth: Railroading. In gaming terms, this is when the DM expects you to follow a certain path of actions in order to progress the game. Your input and creativity are ignored, and you will be stopped on every turn when you try to go your own path. This is downright ugly, and every DM should be warned to keep from playing a game like that, because your players will more than likely never let you DM again. A little extreme, I know, but it’s big deal when you tell a player they can’t break down a non-magical wooden locked door if they don’t have the key. I mean, really?

Talking D&D: Geas/Quest

Getting someone to do something you want can be hard in D&D. You could use violence, but that might actually get you a useless corpse should the recipient be resistant. Oh! I know! Let’s use magic to force them to do what we want! And not just Dominate Person or the more powerful Dominate Monster, which could fail via Will Save, but the Quest spell (Geas if you’re a bookworm wimpy Wizard vs. the Cleric name for it). So not only is the bastard free to act as he will, he’ll die if he doesn’t submit. Ha ha ha ha ha!!!

*ahem* Geas/Quest is a powerful 6th Level spell for Bards, Clerics, Sorcerers and Wizards. After 10 minutes of casting, any creature no matter the HD will have to complete a magical instruction…no save. This is a permanent curse, and will not disappear until the magic is sated, no matter how long it takes. The creature can resist this compulsion, but doing so will slowly kill them until they renew their efforts towards the Geas/Quest. You could try and remove it, but you need a more powerful caster than the one who placed it on you, and if it’s the big bad of the campaign, it’s a guarantee you’ll never find a better caster.