Tim Morgan (Page 12)

Today’s excitement:
D&D Encounters: Scourge of the Sword Coast at 6:00pm
Netrunner LCG League (runs all day, but the core time is 7:00-10:00pm)

Tim says:  In honor of D&D Encounters tonight and roleplaying week in general here’s a little bit about myself:

I discovered Dungeons & Dragons in the summer of 1981, when I was 11.  The Holmes boxed set had been given to me by my Grandmother in Chicago and I was instantly hooked.  I wanted more.  I _needed_ more.

But in the tiny little town I lived, there was no place to get more.  But it was summer, and we had vacations planned.  So I begged and cajoled my parents to find a store that had D& D books.  I don’t remember that store, but I remember what I bought — Module A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity and a set of tan colored dice. I still have that module and one or two of that dice set, now battered and worn and unusable.

I read that module cover to cover more times than I can count.  I DMed that adventure on the long drive home for my long-suffering parents.  I needed the rest of the series.

I don’t remember now how I got the others, but I can remember stories about buying other D & D adventures.  I recall running through the streets to get a copy of D3 and racing back, nearly missing the train I needed to catch. I remember seeing a copy of CM1: Test of the Warlords at a little mini-convention and trying to barter away my dice to make up for the dollar or two short I was to get it.

So I’ve always loved those old books.  I’ve collected them, read them, devoured them, bought them, sold them and hoarded them my whole adult life. And so I’m really pleased to be able to have them for sale at Round the Table.

We’ve got a huge collection of 1st and 2nd edition modules and books, as well as nearly every 3.5 hardback book that WotC put out.  There are some pretty rare and awesome titles in there, like WGA4 Vecna Lives! or WG6 Isle of the Ape by Gary Gygax.  Also, we just got in the special edition, leather-bound and silver-gilt 3.5 core books: Player’s Handbook, DM’s Guide and Monster Manual.

So come on by and take a look at our selection.  I’m pretty certain it’s the largest collection of out-of-print D&D books for sale in the State!

We’re going to do Mammoth Monday in just a bit, but first, a little announcement: We’ve had a lot of people request a later start time for our evening events, so we’re going to move all of our 6:30pm start times, up to 7:00pm

Also tonight, for EuroGame Night at 7:00, we’ll be playing Tzolk’in, the Mayan Calendar Game. Everyone is welcome, we’ll teach!

And now, back to your regularly scheduled program …

Welcome back to Mammoth Monday, where we look at the golden oldies for the gaming world. This week, we’re going to look at some of the excellent examples of Role Playing Games that are out there.

We’ll start with D&D Module G1: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. Written by Gary Gygax, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, in 1978 it was one of the D&D adventures to be published. It also started an epic campaign, that would take characters on a quest against three different types of giants, then to the tunnels of the Drow, before confronting the Demon Queen of Spiders on her own plane of existence.

Tegel Manor is one of the first “generic” supplements to come out. Billed as being for any game, they were written for D&D, with D&D stats, but with enough of the serial numbers filed off to keep it legal (most of the time). Mayfair Games’ RoleAids, and ICE’s Law series (until it evolved into Rolemaster) would do this too. Tegel Manor features a large poster map and a mysterious manor-fortress.

Bushido and Harn both came a few years later, and showcase the growth of the early roleplaying scene. They have full-color covers better printing and are aimed at smaller sections of the gaming community. Harn is a “realistic” fantasy setting, with beautiful maps and illustrations, but with a focus on politics, travel and cultures, rather than just dungeon delving. Bushido took gamers to Feudal Japan and tried to immerse them in that time and place.

What we have here are not just examples of great, old-school writing and production, but they’re prime exemplars of the companies that produced them. Tegel Manor was by the Judges Guild Game Company, which was well-known for their limited color printing and the horrible quality paper (newspaper, essentially) that they used. Fantasy Games Unlimited, made a large number of terribly edited wargames and RPGs, that nonetheless had great production values, and filled neglected niches in the themes and settings of the gaming industry with games like Bushido, Aftermath!, Psi World, Daredevils and Chivalry & Sorcery. Columbia Games is still around, best known for their block wargames, but still publishes Harn and Harn supplements.

What a great Tabletop Day! It ended up being our best day over, so thank you to everyone who came out and made it such a huge success! We had a great time talking to and meeting everyone that came out.

Now that our celebration of boardgames is over, we thought we would shift the spotlight on to Role-Playing Games for a week.

RPGs are some of our favorite games; games that made us want to open a shop like this. One of us, Tim, has been roleplaying since 1980, having started with the classic Dungeons & Dragons Blue Book.

All of our posts this week are going to have something to say about RPGs, and today we want to mention what we’re doing for the roleplaying community.

We host a couple of RPG groups that are open to accepting new players. On Sunday nights at 7pm, Chris is going to start running an Iron Kingdoms RPG campaign that is open to new players. Iron Kingdoms is a fantasy-steampunk setting made by the local guys over at Privateer Press, set in their Warmachine world. And on Wednesday night at 6pm, Patrick runs Dungeons & Dragons Encounters for us, using the forthcoming D&D Next system. That game is starting to get a little big, so if there’s anyone out there who would like to DM a second table, please let us know. We also have Pathfinder, a D&D-like fantasy game, running on Staturdays at 6pm.

We also have table space available for you to come in and play your game, and our private Game Room can be reserved for larger groups. We’d love to host your game, especially if you’re looking for new players.

Our collection of for sale games covers the most popular games (Pathfinder, FATE, Shadowrun) to the lesser-known and hard-to-find (Fate of the Norns, Nights Black Agents, Kobolds Ate My Baby). We have new games as well as vintage RPGs, with some games and supplements going back as early as 1978. We have a huge collection of 1st Edition D&D, as well as nearly every 3.5 edition hardback. We also have a good selection of Story Games, but we’ll cover those in a future post.

We’re still building up our inventory, but we’ve got a lot to offer and the expertise to find you anything we don’t have. So come on by for roleplaying!

Who wants to help out the Lynnwood Food Bank and at the same time try out some great local beers?

Or would you rather play some quick, fun, easy-to-learn games with us and your family?

Why choose between them? You can do both tonight at Round the Table, starting at 6:00pm!

The Beer Tasting is tonight from 6:00 to 8:00pm. Nick will be sampling out Silver City Brewery & Taproom‘s Panther Lake Porter, Whoop Pass IIPA and Fat Woody Oaked Scotch Ale. Check them out at http://silvercitybrewery.com .

And starting at 7:00, Tim will get some games going for everyone. We’ll try Zombie Dice, Tsuro, Trouble, Jenga or anything else in our game library. It’ll be great fun!

We’ve got a lot planned here at Round the Table, and we just wanted to share some of it with you:

Tonight, we’ve got casual Magic with the Lynnwood Magic Meetup group at 6:00pm, and EuroGames at 6:30. This week, we’ll ll be teaching and playing Seasons and Galaxy Trucker. Come on in and give both of these great games a try!

Tomorrow we’ve got Beer Tasting from 6:00 to 8:00pm. Nick will be sampling out Silver City Brewery & Taproom‘s Panther Lake Porter, Whoop Pass IIPA and Fat Woody Oaked Scotch Ale. And starting at 7:00, Tim will be leading a Family Game Night. What’s that? Bring in the whole family to the Beer Tasting, and while Mom and Dad take a few nips, we’ll get the kids started playingZombie Dice, Tsuro, Trouble or Jenga and then the folks can join in when they’re done. It’ll be great fun!

Wednesday is both D&D night and the start of our 6-week longAndroid: Netrunner The Card Game League. Thursday starts off an Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game League (rules for both of those will be handed out at the event and on our website). Friday night we’ll be hosting another Theros/Born of the Gods Draft event with 2 bonus foil cards for every participant!

Saturday is the exciting day of the week though, because it’s International TableTop Day, a worldwide event celebrating board games and fun! We’ll be hosting events all day, playing the games featured on the YouTube show, playing them on the big screen and having a great time. We’ll have Pathfinder demos running from 12-6, as well as adventures in the Dragon Age RPG. Other games will include Elder Sign (Card Game), The Settlers of Catan,Forbidden Island and Ticket to Ride. We”ll see you there!

Join us today for ‘Learn to Play’ Sunday! We’ll be demoing out the all-ages WWII war game Memoir ’44 in the afternoon, followed by a demo of the Mage Knight: Board Game in the evening and Ascension Day.

Memoir ’44 was nominated for a host of awards when it burst onto the scene in 2004, with its simple rules, strategic card-play, and plastic pieces more reminiscent of a child’s toy box than a war game.

Mage Knight is a game of fantasy adventure so big it’ll make your make your head spin. It’s got combat with orcs, conquest on a modular map, deck-building, missions that can be either cooperative or competitive, and solitaire play for those that can’t whip up 2 or 3 friends!

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer took the deck-building mechanics of Dominion and flipped them on their head to create a fun, easy-to-learn fantasy game with a ton of theme. We’re doing monthly Ascension Days, where people can meetup to play and win special promotional cards.

Just as a reminder, we’ll be doing a free Silver City Brewing beer tasting this Tuesday starting at 6pm, and raising donations for the Lynnwood Foodbank. Ever tried an oak-barrel aged beer before? Here’s your chance.

Game of Thrones Store Championship at 1pm! Entry Fee is $7.50 and includes a non-alcoholic beverage. Players are required to bring a tournament legal deck, and prizes will be awarded to the top 4 participants, with promo cards for everyone!

Casual Magic is also on for this afternoon after 2pm, culminating in a Pauper tournament at 6pm. The tournament is free to enter and prizes include two boosters and some promo cards, but you must bring your own tournament legal deck consisting of only Commons. Rules, like the seven banned cards, can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/resources.aspx?x=magic%2Frules%2Fpauper

We also got a few new items in like the long awaited Netrunner datapack ‘Double Time’, the new Pathfinder adventure path “Mummy’s Mask: The Half Dead City”, and the hulking Battletech Introductory Box that comes with 24 miniatures ready to go.

Woah! What’s that blue stuff in the sky? And it’s so bright! What’s going on, Seattle?

If you’re like us and want to get away from this heavenly glow, join us for a fun-filled day of games.

Android: Infiltration, a game set in the dystopian future of Android, is a tense card game of futuristic larceny in which two to six players take the roles of thieves, competing to steal valuable secrets from a highly secured corporate facility. As part of Learn-to-Play Day, we’re teaching people to play from 1:00pm to 6:00pm.

A 6:00pm, come on in for our Casual Game night, where we play quick, fun games with a friendly group of game enthusiasts. In the past, we’ve played Flash Point, The Resistance and Bohnanza. What will we play tonight? Join us and find out.

Congratulations to everyone who helped assemble the pair of cat puzzles! They were completed yesterday after much struggle. We’re putting out a new one today, so if you want the easy job of working on the border, now’s the time!

SATURDAY! NEW PATHFINDER STEAMPUNK CAMPAIGN SETTING!

That’s right! We just got a heap of something we had kickstarted a long time ago, the “Pure Steam Campaign Setting” for thePathfinder Roleplaying Game. Blast through the Age of Steam with new classes, monsters, and more! Everything you need to change up your routine Pathfinder game is included. We’re committed to supporting these types of indie kickstarts and keep innovative games coming your way! We hope you enjoy.

More importantly though, we’re holding our Android: NetrunnerStore Championship today at 1pm, with an entry fee of $7.50 that includes a drink. Everyone gets a promo card, and there are a variety of prizes for participants in the top four!

And casual Magic: The Gathering is also on for today at 2pm as usual, and we’ll be holding a free Pauper Tournament at 6pm with a prize for the winner. You can find the short list of rules for it below.

http://www.wizards.com/magic/tcg/resources.aspx?x=magic%2Frules%2Fpauper