Kingbeast's Lair

Summary

In Ryan “F-ing” Macklin’s blog he posted an article on “convention kits”. That got me thinking about the gear that I use for gaming and why I have selected it. This is the first of three article that I will use to discuss the gaming gear that I currently use and why it works for me. The first article details my gaming bag (i.e. “The Guts”). My netbook and the critical components of it will be covered in article 2. The final article will be on my game room setup.

Whenever possible I will put links to where this gear can be purchased online.

The Guts

• Jansport Laptop Backpack – I use a laptop backpack as my main carrying device. It has a large main pouch with a padded area for my netbook and two nice sized outer pouches for carrying dice bags, writing tools, and other miscellaneous gear. I also have a custom messenger bag but I prefer the Jansport Laptop Backpack because of it’s comfort when carrying lots of heavy gear. (Note that I could not find the model number that I have as I removed the tag.) I have heard other gamers recommending the Gator Carry On Bag from a company called Red Oxx. Right now I will stick with my Jansport backpack but this bag does look promising.



• Savage Worlds Customizable GM Screen – The sturdy Savage Worlds Customizable GM Screen has a landscape layout with inserts for all 6 sides. I really love the fact that I can just replace the inserts with new sheets when I change campaigns. In fact I have several inserts available for download from my site in the Campaigns And Adventures section. The landscape layout is also great as I can still see the players clearly and do not feel fenced off. You can get a copy from Amazon at this URL for $29.99.
• Standard Wooden Clipboard With A TOPS Engineering Computation Pad – I use a standard wooden clipboard and a pad of engineering paper. Engineering paper has graph paper on the reverse side and is 3 holed punch. You can get TOPS Engineering Computation Pads on Amazon for $19 at this URL.
• Pentel GraphGear 1000 Mechanical Pencil And Tombow MONO Plastic Eraser – This Pentel is a solid feeling .9mm mechanical pencil that collapses with a click. I like the .9mm lead size as it gives a dark clean line. You can get the pencil on Amzaon for $33.10 at this URL. I know…it is expensive. The MONO eraser from Tombow is from Japan but they can be purchased at most good stationary stores or online from the manufacturer. It erases very well with no damage to the paper.
• Battlegraph Dry Erase Boards from Longtooth Studios With Crayola White Board Crayons – Battlegraph Boards are interconnecting gaming squares that are finished like a white board with etched squares. After playing with them now for several months they have really grown on me. I like the fact that 4 of them disconnect and easily fit in my backpack. I also like the way the entire assembled board can be rotated with chits still in place. Boards with squares or hexes are now sold individually for $7 from Longtooth. The Battlegraph Boards really shine with Crayola White Board Crayons. The Crayons don’t rub off as easy as white board pens and don’t smear when touched by a loose finger. I use these suckers for several things during a session…keep reading! 🙂 You can get the Crayola White Board Crayons from Amazon at this URL for a paltry $4.83.
• Hand Made Chits – Instead of using figures I use cardboard chits roughly 0.75″ square that I cover with Scotch tape. I like using chits because they are easy to cart around, can be flipped, stacked, or placed on top of dice, and they can be colored and numbered for easy reference. I color code and number my chits sequentially so that no two chits have the same number. For example, chits 1-10 are red, chits 11-20 are blue, chits 21-30 are green, etc. This way when I am tracking bad guy stats I just put “13”, “21”, etc on my notes. The colors allow me to differentiate the different types of bad guys (i.e. “the red chits are the PC, the orc are green, and the ogres are blue”).
• Laminated Speed Chart And Big Foam D12 – I run a lot of the Hero System so keeping track of phases and making it public is important. I use a laminated speed chart that Tim Connolly devised. Here is a link to the file on my site. This works great with my Crayola White Board Crayons. The roughly 3″ foam D12 is used to visibly track the phases. Unfortunately I do not have information on who manufactured the foam D12 that I using.
• Plastic Sheets Protectors For Monsters – I bring copies of monsters that will be in the session and several empty plastic sheet protectors. When combat starts I arrange the bad guys in Dexterity order then put them into a sheet protector. During the session I can use my handy dandy Crayola White Board Crayons to record damage and status information.



• Koplow 16mm D6 Dice With Pips And Square Corners – I really have come to appreciate dice that are clear, can be quickly read, and fall fast. I really like the blocks from Koplow as the fit all of these requirements and look darn nice too. 🙂 Here is a link to a set of 12 at FRP Game for $4. I have blue, green, and purple sets right now.
• Larger Clear Dice – I have dice that are a bit larger (0.75″) and clear that I use to delineate characters that are flying or invisible. These really work great for flying character as you can set the top dice face to the height of the character. The slightly larger size makes them a good fit for chits.
• Additional Con Gear – For conventions I like to load my ditty bag with some not so obvious supplies. Some things I like to bring include cough drops, hand sanitizer, multivitamins, and ear plugs. All have an obvious purpose that most convention attendees will understand. 😉

That wraps up my basic gaming kit. What are some items in your standard gaming kit that you think really rock!?! 😀

-== What is it? ==-

Points Of Light is a system free setting book that includes four fantasy realms that can be used in a campaign. It was written by Robert Conley and Dwayne Gillingham. The publisher is Goodman Games. Points Of Light was released in September 2008.

The book has a color cover and an entirely black and white interior. Points Of Light is 8.5? x 11? and is 48 pages in length. There is not a table of contents but there is a 2 page index. There is also a 1 page ad at the end of Points Of Light. I am reviewing a print copy that I purchased. I have not utilized the material in my campaign at this point (i.e. I have only read the book).

-== What I Like ==-

My favorite aspect of Points Of Light was the flavor of the four settings. The settings include:

• Wildland – A setting with barbarian tribes.
• Southlands – A wilderness frontier.
• Borderland – A realm where two factions fight.
• Swamps of Acheron – A romp to to an outer plane.

This setting book is really suited for newbies or experienced GM who are looking for additional material for their games. I liked the level of detail in Point Of Light. The detail is intentionally left a bit sparse so the GM can fill in with their own material.

My favorite of the four setting in Points Of Light is the Swamps Of Acheron. Without giving away too much the pillars seems like they would be ripe for adventure.

The cover art by Craig Maher is vibrant and eye catching. The interior work on Points Of Light by Britt Martin is also evocative. The shading of the interior illustrations give the book a rich feel that I enjoyed. The layout is not too dark and is not distracting.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

Probably my biggest complaint with Points Of Light is that there is really nothing new or “cool” in the provided settings. In my opinion it provided a lot more of the same stuff that you find in other fantasy setting products.

I found the maps in Points Of Light to be fair at best. They are very simplistic but surprisingly hard to read. Inset maps that are occasionally provided are teeny tiny. The author, Robert Conley, did the maps but maybe he should have had someone else do them. I was also surprised to find no player maps in the product. While researching Points Of Light online I found out that you can download player maps from Goodman Games. 😉

The lack of a table of contents is a slight drawback. To make matters worse the index has repeats and has all of the settings combined in one list. Thus if you want to find something in a particular setting you have to go through a list of entries from all settings. A better approach might have been to have each section have their own smaller index. To put it simply the index in Points Of Light feels like a rushed afterthought.

-== Summary ==-

Points Of Light might be valuable if you are a newer GM looking for inspiration or if you are looking for an area to drop directly into an existing campaign. Frankly I do not see a lot of value in this product. The cover price is great at a low $12.99.

You can get a copy of Points Of Light at Amazon for $12.99 at this URL. Noble Knights has copies for $10 at this URL. You can get the PDF at this DriveThruRPG URL for a paltry $5.99.

I give it 4 out of 10 paws.

Summary

Doesn’t everyone love reading about product awards!?! Well at least I do. Thus I decided it was time to start my own yearly awards event. For lack of a better name I will call it the Lair Awards. (If anyone can come up with a better name that would be great…and no…”The Beasties” is out. 😉 )

Here is how the Lair Awards will work. There will be three categories: Best Anime, Best Read, and Best RPG. To be eligible for an award the product must have been reviewed in the last calendar year by me on the blog. There were a TON of great products released last year but if I did not review them they don’t count. Also note that I often review products that are quite old. A product is eligible for an award if I reviewed it in 2010…period…it does not matter when the product was actually released. 😉

NOW…on to the 2010 Lair Awards! 😀

Best Anime – Batman: Gotham Knight

The anime award came down to a two product race between two 10 out of 10 releases with colons in their names…namely Batman: Gotham Knight and Highlander: The Search For Vengeance. Batman: Gotham Knight took the edge with its powerful images, masterful storytelling, and varied art styles. The image of Batman holding a pile of guns staring up out of the sewers from the 5th story, Working Through Pain, is iconic. That single shot will stick with me for quite some time.

Best Read – Pluto

The award for Best Read was the easiest to select. I read and reviewed the fantastic manga called Pluto by Osamu Tezuka and Naoki Urasawa. The storytelling is visionary and the character artwork is detailed, fluid, and real. The robot police office Gesicht is deep and rich. This is one hell of a manga series.

Best RPG – The Esoterror Factbook

This award was by far the hardest to select. Four products tied this year with 9 out of 10 reviews. I gave 9 out of 10 reviews to Savage Worlds: Explorer’s Edition, The Ghostbusters RPG, Busytown: Eye Found It!, and the The Esoterror Factbook. I went back and reread the reviews, thought about the products, then decided that the The Esoterror Factbook supplement was slightly ahead of the rest. That’s right…a supplement is taking the award. I think reason this product gets the nod is due to the fact that it does what every game supplement tries to do…it tries to make the product it is supporting better. The Esoterror Factbook does that in so many ways. As I mentioned in the Summary at the end of the review, “If you are going to buy The Esoterrorists save your money until you can both the main rulebook AND this one.”

That wraps up the 2010 Lair Awards! See ya next year! 😀