Preordered the DnD Starter Box -Wizards need my money- It can't hurt too much surely? I don't have to buy the rulebooks as well?

Very quick post (from an iPad which seems allergic to Blogger). The collector and gamer in me has given into the hype and pre-ordered a copy of the new D&D starter box. I'm pretending to myself that I won't buy the rulebooks either.

http://bit.ly/DnDstarterbox

Description, citations and confused thoughts on the new releases from Wizards' in this Tumblr post here.

Photos of MM Traveller RPG

My print copy of Marc Miller’s Traveller has arrived. :)
Reprint of the 1995 text print-on-demand soft-back from DriveThruRPG. http://bit.ly/T4MMTraveller
Haven’t read much yet - just skimming and loving the visuals.
I didn’t expect the interior Chris Foss illustrations to be in colour - which is a real bonus. There’s quite a few black and white pieces by D&D artist Elmore as well. This all seems just slightly closer to The Traveller RPG -Starter Set- I had back in the early 80s (basically a reformat of three -five?- original rule books by GDW), closer than the Mongoose edition, for example. The system of task resolution and combat still looks sublime in it’s simplicity. I’m fascinated by the human-Imperium centric Traveller canon -perhaps influenced by Asimov Foundation et al sci-fi, but it still seems so different from much of the sci-fi that I’ve read in books or seen in the cinema (I must add that I’m very under-read when it comes to classic sci-fi). And yet, varying “tech levels” on planets and interstellar trade makes me think of modern TV series like Firefly and Farscape, not to mention the Iain M Banks books with Culture operatives doing to exact opposite of the Prime Directive by manipulating politics and influencing battles on low tech worlds. Modern students of the genre will also appreciate that vast “sandbox” campaigns can be run using a subsector map and a handful of random tables.

May contain ninjas...

Tonight’s reading is Mad Monks of Kwantoom by Kabuki Kaiser. I’m very intrigued by the idea of a solo play campaign. Styled to work with Labyrinth Lord, KK is encourages the reader-player to use whatever old-school system they see fit. This will make a cool accompaniment to my eclectic collection of oriental rules: Ruins & Ronin (S&W whitebox), OA (AD&D 1e), OA (3e) and Bushido. 

http://bit.ly/kwantoom 
DTRPG PDF (228pages) $9.99USD / £5.83GBP

Marc Miller's Traveller RPG

I’m a big fan of GDW Traveller - although for a long time I only owned the Starter Set - realizing later that part of the pleasure of Traveller is reading as many supplements as possible in order to get a sense of vast Imperium, it’s history and neighboring races.
So I’m very excited to say I’ve just ordered the print copy of Marc Miller’s Traveller -including the PDF which will just have to do until it arrives!  I promise to post pics. :)

http://bit.ly/T4MMTraveller (affiliate link to DriveThruRPG)


It’s made all the more fabulous by having a Chris Foss illustration on the cover! :)

See you in J-Space!