The Want List Part 1: D&D 4E

My birthday is coming up and I’m going to use this blog as a way to give my friends and family a way of knowing what game related items they could possibly, maybe, perhaps acquire for me. To my friends and family: I’m doing this because I know it can be hard to keep track of my game purchasing habits. By all means, feel free to stray into other areas. There are a lot of things I would love to get that don’t involve dice or an analog stick. Also, the order in which I write these doesn’t necessarily indicate a preference.

I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of running D&D. And to be perfectly honest, I currently possess all the books I, quote/unquote, need for my monthly game store game I play in. However, I love the look and feel of the books and, as a result, would like to continue my collection.

That said, there are a few books I could possibly make use of, as a player, in the near future:

• Dragon Magazine Annual 2009, because I play a Shadar-kai, and while this is all content from the online magazine, it’d be nice to have a print version to thumb through.
• Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, I have the players guide but, being a complete D&D newbie, it’d be nice to learn a little more about the Forgotten Realms world.
• Divine Power, because eventually I’d like to start a new character. And it might be a divine one.
• Adventurer’s Vault 2, because bad-ass tattoos and nifty treasure.

Now for the I’m-a-nerd-and-actually-enjoy-collecting-and-reading-this-shit-for-fun category:

• The Plane Above: Secrets of the Astral Sea, space pirates!
• Hammerfast, ghost dwarves!
  
• Underdark, dungeons!
• Eberron Campaign Guide, magic robots!
• Monster Manual 2, emo frog people!
• Manual of the Planes, spaceships!
• Draconomicon (Chromatic and Metallic), dragons!

I’ve also been eying the various Dungeon Tiles sets. These make good gifts (not just for me, but for anyone who plays D&D) because a) they’re cheap (sort of) and b) having duplicate sets are actually kind of useful. I could also see these being used for my pulp/Indiana Jones game I’m planning on running using Savage Worlds, as well. But I also see myself sitting at my table with a cup of coffee and just playing, making various maps for fun. Yes, I’m turning 12, if you were wondering.

Mario: Prince of the Mushroom Kingdom

The Mario games are kind of an awesome source of inspiration for RPGs. Mostly because the games are so iconic and yet resist any attempts to place them in a particular genre. But at the same time, it’s really easy to bend the key elements to fit any of them. Above is a doodle I did of a Koopa Troopa re-conceptualized as space marine in a gritty(ish) Warhammer 40K-like universe. There’s a lot of “Mario: Reinvented” art out there that I hope to share down the line.

For now, here’s a Savage Worlds supplement written by Theron Seckington: The Savage Mushroom Kingdom. From the author:

We all know Mario. Whether we played the original 8-bit NES ourselves or watched older brothers hog all the play time (even though Mom and Dad said “Share!”) we are all familiar with the efforts of the heroic plumber. This is a setting devoted to all those times we yanked the game pack out of the machine to blow on it, all the times the Hammer Brothers knocked us off in World 3, and every time you leaned to the right in your chair in the hopes
that Mario might just jump a little further if you helped.

The Savage Mushroom Kingdom setting is either a somewhat gritty fantasy game or else a very lighthearted wartime game. It has a heavy emphasis on the little guy while heroes like Mario get all the credit.

Another great thing about Mario is that the games have some extremely loyal fans. In fact, I’d say that the Super Mario Wiki is probably the most insane wiki I’ve seen. Well, after Wookiepedia.

And tell me you didn’t think “Goomba” the first time you saw a Myconid in the Monster Manual.

Image Sources: Above – Me, Below – Wizards of the Coast