Then there was Omicron

 It is now January of 2022. My family is vaccinated, even the grandchildren thank God. Most of us are boostered as well. We wear our masks when we are in public. Thankfully none of us have caught the virus yet, but some of our friends have and some people we know have died.

Not the best opening paragraph for a gaming blog is it? Our gaming group was put on hold by the pandemic and we waited until everyone was vaccinated for Covid. We finally got together in August and Joe (our host and GM) introduced us to the setting of GAMMA WORLD with a taste of Fortnight mixed in. We used Joe's rules-lite system to play. 

In November we started playing HERO QUEST. I had heard the name before, but knew nothing about the game. It has been fun playing it, especially because Joe owns the game and several expansions. If you don't know HERO QUEST uses special dice for combat. The game had been out of print for years, but I was able to find custom made dice on Esty. This worked out nice.

We didn't play last week because we had some snowfall and the back roads can be tricky to drive at night, but the week before it was just Joe and I. We took two characters each into the dungeon. As we played, we talked about his ideas for our next campaign. Rather than use The Fantasy Trip, or Joe's rules-lite Lord of the Dice rules, he wants to go Old School Revival (OSR) and use the White Box rules based on the original D&D rules of years gone by. 

The White Box in the title refers to the original version of D&D that came in a white box. This version, written by Charles Mason, takes the original rules and simplifies them and organizes them in a small, easy-to-read book. 

Purchase it on Amazon. The price is $4.30 and shipping is free if you have Amazon Prime. Joe lent me a copy to read and I was so impressed that I ordered a copy of me and one for my son.  You can also find a free PDF of the book on DriveThruRPG, as well as a free character sheet and DM Screen.

I've only played D&D once with my son and a couple of his friends. I think it was 5th edition and I didn't like it. My character died in the first 30 minutes. I think I can get into this version, especially when it will be run by an experienced game master.

Hopefully we will get started on the new campaign as soon as everyone is well from coughs and colds, nobody has Covid, and the roads are not treacherous at night.