Okay. I'm a Fanboy

I keep reminding myself that I'm a seventy year old man who has accomplished a lot over the years, but still I get excited when I meet someone famous and important. Recently I "talked" to Steve Jackson on the TFT Discord server. I was excited.

Anyhow I was really excited this morning when I got an alert in my mailbox that he had written to me. As you can see he was replying to something I had said 3 hours earlier. Cool!

Have fun... learning

This has nothing to do with RPGs directly, but it is a fabulous quote by a brilliant man. Learning is something we do (or should do) every day of our lives. I was a teacher for 27 years. I hated teaching to "the tests". I wanted my students to learn to think independently, challenge conceptions, and draw conclusions based on facts. All good teachers have that goal.

Huxton Lady - 40-foot Cog

In Hexagram #1 David Pulver writes an excellent article about Ships and Boats in TFT. In the article he gives us the stats for a variety of craft from canoes to 120' carracks to sail on the rivers, lakes and seas of Cidri. Besides the stats he includes rules information on sailing speeds, rivers and currents, rocks, reefs, and shoals, storms, poor crews, and rates for cargo and passengers.

Recently I dug up my notes from 35 years ago. I had designed a ship for my campaign (that never was). She was the Huxton Lady, a 40-foot sloop and now I am amazed how closely it came to fitting the specifications of Pulver's 40-foot cog, a single-rigged, square sailed, round bottom merchantman popular in the Medieval period.

My ship was the same length and sloop rigged with a crew of 4 and a capacity of 20 tons, whereas the 40-foot cog has a minimum crew of 5 and capacity of 25 tons. As far as size in concerned in the number of 4 foot hexes used. Both ships are the same with 10 x 3 hexes!

Here is my original plans that were drawn long ago using hex paper and pen, along side new plans I drew on the computer.

FRP Bumper Sticker of the Month

I was driving home the other day and got behind a car with one of those "I heart my (pet) bumper stickers. It got me thinking. Hmm...

The Meemba Dilemma

Here is an encounter for your party between dungeons when you are in town resting and re-equipping.

One, or more, of your party is walking down the street when he/she sees a gang of young bullies beating another small figure. You step in and break up the fight and discover that the small figure is a prootwaddle. His name is Odig and he is very grateful.

“Thank ye, thank ye. They try to keel Odig. What can Odig do to repay you?” His face screws up in hard concentration. “I knows! Meemba. I gives you Meemba.”

“What is Meemba?” you ask.

“Meemba is good. Very sweet. You like Meemba” Odig expounds, grinning broadly.

Before you can ask another question or turn down the offer he turns and runs off, shouting that he will give you Meemba. You go on with your business and later share the incident with the rest of the party over drinks at the tavern.

The next morning your party wakes up to find a very small figure in your room.

“Hello”, she says with an innocent smile. “I’m Meemba. My da gives me to you.”

Your challenge is to get rid of Meemba some way. (Have you ever seen the cartoon “The Cat Came Back”?) or return this tiny waif to her father. The prootwaddle family were transients in town and are now nowhere to be found.

I forgot to mention that the inspiration for this encounter came from a license plate on another car I saw on the road the other day. It was a vanity plate with the letters M-E-E-M-B-A.

This Week In Technology

Yep. You read that correctly. This post has nothing to do with fantasy roleplaying.

First - last Wednesday my grandson had my phone. He will listen to music and watch videos on a device and then drop it when the battery dies and go searching for another. Even with 2 iPhones and 2 iPads in the house, it's hard to keep one fully charged for his use. Anyhow on Wednesday he sucked the battery life from my phone and dropped it somewhere before grabbing my wife's iPad. Where was/is the phone? Good question. We've been searching for almost a week.

Second - I mentioned in February that I had spilled coffee on my computer (Coffee And Keyboards). I have been using a cheap keyboard and mouse to use my laptop ever since... until Sunday night. I sat down to the computer that evening and she was unconscious. I immediately began CPR (Computer Panic Repair) and opened the case, tried disconnecting the battery and rebooting. I had watched the technician do this to reboot her at the store two months ago.

I GOT A PULSE! Wait, no, lost it. CLEAR! Try again, and again. I thought I had brought her back. She booted up completely and I logged in. But no. She died again in less than a minute. I tried a couple of more times, but finally I had to pronounce the time of death at 10:59 PM. In lieu of flowers send me money. All denominations are welcome.

So there I was getting up early (for retired me) at 8 AM on Monday morning for a doctor's appointment at the sleep clinic. Without my phone or computer, I had missed the reminder email about their change of address. When I got there I find myself standing at the door of some women clinic. I could not call the sleep doctor without my phone, so I went home and searched the den again. Still no phone!

Luckily for me my wife is the smart person in the family. She has insurance on the phones and I got online with an iPad and filed the claim that we had delayed doing. The new phone should arrive sometime today. Then I took my computer to the shop and they confirmed that she was now a brick of aluminum with a 13 inch screen. My next stop was the Apple Store where I walked in and pointed specifically to this little beauty, whose keys my fingers are lightly dancing over at this moment.

Salesperson: Ah yes. You know we've just upgraded that model with a backlit Retina display...
Me: For the same price?
Salesperson: Er, no.
Me: Like I said, I want that one.

I came home with "that one" and kept a promise to my wife to spend less than $1000. Since yesterday I've been updating software, loading files from backup and at this moment UPS has dropped the new phone on our doorstep so I'll get busy setting it up. Oh, the joys of technology.

And now a little update: Tuesday afternoon our cable modem decided to quit functioning. How am I writing this? Luckily I got my new phone setup before that happened and I have been using it as a wifi hotspot today. The cable guy is coming tomorrow morning. This week in technology is not over yet.

The Boar's Tusk Inn

Thirty-five years ago I was just playing The Fantasy Trip solo. I was either in a Death Test dungeon or on a quest for the Holy Grail. But I was also was letting my imagination run wild creating a couple of different fantasy worlds to campaign in if I ever was to GM a game. I was digging through my hand-written notes today and decided to post a little about one of my favorite NPCs.

Boar’s Tusk Inn

Harlan Finstok Carook, proprietor

The Boar’s Tusk Inn is in the town of Bridgeton which is located along a major trade route where it crosses the river. The Inn itself is a rambling affair of buildings added to over time. The main building includes a tavern with large main hall, private sitting room for valued guests, kitchen and cook’s quarters. Upstairs are Harlan’s family quarters and two fine quest rooms accessed by a separate set of stairs. The attached addition contains more rooms ranging from moderate to very economical lodging. There is a stable for animals, store house, smoke house, and the home of the bartender and his family. 

The town of Bridgeton offers many services to the travelers along the road. There are a number of merchants who can help prepare a party to travel by the river or the caravan road that leads northward into the mountains.

Harlan fancies himself an adventurer, but one look at him says different. He is a portly, 250 pounds, with graying temples. He wears trousers, linen shirt, leather vest, and apron around his waist. He speaks, reads, and writes the common (human) tongue, speaks common elvish, and knows a few phrases of orc, dwarfish, and high elf.

He makes a trip down river once a year to the city to purchase wines and spices for the kitchen. He has an agent there who buys for him.

It’s been a busy night at the Boar’s Tusk Inn. Two large groups of travelers had arrived before dark and both groups demanded the best of the house. Also it had been market day and there were more than the usual crowd of locals dining and drinking. Just a few minutes ago two men got into an argument over a game of dice. Harlan Finstok Carook lumbers back behind the bar and grabs a towel and proceeds to wipe a spill.

“Salesmen!” he shouts in an exasperated voice at no one in particular. “The gods protect me from salesmen.” He pours himself a glass of his favorite brandy. “Do you know I had one of those traveling parasites in here yesterday. He… he wanted me to buy his wares and give them away! By Ygir’s frozen beard can you believe that? Give it away! Where’s the profit in that?”

Before you can get a word in to ask a question he goes on. “They didn’t impress me at all. A sort of bread stick, thin and way too salty. Put them in bowls on the bar he says, let the customers eat all they want he says. He must have taken me for a fool. I threw the lout out of here, I did.”

“Pretzels, he called them. Bah!”