Nostalgia - Tullio's World

Playing D&D in southwest Michigan in the late 80's was tough if you didn't have a car to get to the game.  By my high school years, the "newness" of D&D had worn off, and I can't think of another regular player in my school. 

But when I turned 16 and got my driver's license, I had the power to go and find games.  The local hobby store had postings, and I got a number and gave it a call.  The guy I met was one of the two DMs of his group, and for whatever reason after one game that group broke up.  But three of us looked for another table to play at. 

Tim, Hassan, and I found that table at Tullio's place, the electrical genius behind Isher Artifacts.  I showed up to the character creation session a bit late, and was "stuck" playing a wizard.  I played that character for over five years.

I played with that group, weekly or biweekly, through high school and college.  Tullio's world was a mystery.  Technology masqueraded as magic, hidden by illusion.  There were distinct science fiction elements (like space travel), steampunk-esque elements (Tullio was a Nikola Tesla fan), and fantasy (there was a Keep on the Borderlands).  The "good" kingdom wasn't so much good as Lawful ("Your papers, please.") while we never made it up to explore the Dark Kingdoms, but I suspect they were a lot like Libertarian Realms gone wild.  There was magic (signified by Red Gems^TM) and antimagic (Green Gems^TM).  Bringing those two together made a big boom.

I still remember that first night, walking into his house in the not-so-great part of Kalamazoo, being greeted at the door by his wife, and sitting down at this creaky wooden dinner table.  Off to my left was a library of science fiction and board games.  I stared at my new copy of the 2nd Edition Player's Handbook and thought "Crap, I've got to play a wizard."  Funnest character I ever had.

The Annual Tax Post, 2014 edition.

The weather has finally warmed up, and it's time to think about all those wonderful spring activities, like getting the lawn mower ready, cleaning gutters, cleaning up winter deadfall, and spreading compost on the garden.

Speaking of compost . . . .

The leeches demand their annual tribute.  Following in last year's footsteps, I've calculated my total federal tax bill, including social insecurity and medifraud withtholdings.  $33,000 was forcibly taken from my family.

Of course, I could have used this money to pay for my sons' college.  Or socked extra away so that when Mrs. Workshop and I retire, I won't need to beg at the government's teat for my social insecurity check to be mailed.

Normally I attempt to paint a positive picture of where my money goes.  But this year, it's become painfully obvious that the money went to crony capitalists who were rewarded by the Big O for their campaign contributions.  Similarly, since 2/3 of income taxes are just transfer payments to the class of people who can't seem to hold down a productive job but keep spitting out kids, the money I worked for is helping them maintain their two-television with cable and an ipad lifestyle.



Dear IRS, President Obama, Dingy Harry, SanFran Nan, Lois "not political per-se" Lerner, and Attorney General Eric "don't go there" Holder,

I sincerely hope the anal reaming you gave the productive citizens of this country is returned to you in kind.

Sincerely,

Workshop.

A Question for "Equal Pay" Advocates:

If it is true that women get paid 77% of what men earn (as the White House posits) . . .




Why do men get hired?

St Beatus of Lungern

I'll preface this by saying Wikipedia is just about the worst source of factual information, but for creating a bit of cool stuff in my OSR campaign world, I like it.

St. Beatus

Here are images of the caves and monestary.

So here's a priest who fought a dragon, then took up residence in the dragon's caves.  Yeah, that sounds Old School to me. 

Old School - Swords and Wizardry

I added a link to Frog God Games over on the right column, because they've become the major supplier of my latest campaign world additions. 

Plus, Swords and Wizardry is freaking awesome.  Old school, none of this "balance encounters" crap.  S&W puts the power back behind the GM screen, and is vying with Castles & Crusades as my favorite game publisher.

I'm really looking forward to their Lost Lands campaign book Kickstarter, but it won't be for a while yet.  For the moment I have to make due with Rappan Athuk, the Razor Coast, and my copies of Necromancer Games' classics. 

Alex and Austin, you guys don't know what you're in for!

Paper Miniatures On The Cheap

Dryw the Harper's page

I've used these figures for a while, and with all the new Paizo people stopping by, it' be nice to get this guy a little more exposure.

Go.  Download.  Print.  Play.

Way faster than trying to paint an entire village of commoners.

An Open Invitation

Dear Leftist Pazioians,

I'm going to leave this post here for a bit so, if you feel so inclined, you may make comments, posts, etc. so that I might see them.  

If you really want to have a conversation, I humbly invite you to let me know.

Heck, with the the help of this post I might actually remember to look at comments once in a while.

Sincerely,

Workshop.