Art as Gaming Muse (Part 1)

Back in yonder day, the artwork I found in all those many paper artifacts of old school D&D yumminess meant a good deal more to me than just aesthetic filler.

Sure the printed words would hold a heavy spell, but it was those little line drawing and full cover art pieces that could just blast off little neurons at a mere glance. I often would immediately pull up a piece of graph or notebook paper and just start riffing.

Poring over back issues of Dragon magazine the other day old forgotten memories of campaigns, dungeons, and the like came crashing back. Crazily it was often the small things that would start off things.

Indeed one wee ad for an obscure little town setting, Jonril: Gateway to the Shrunken Lands, tucked away in one corner of a page (that the adult part of me now knows to be the pet campaign of the relatively well-known, if somewhat yawn-producing fantasy novelist Raymond Feist) launched my own first attempt at a homebrew campaign. The sight of those exotic, stylized-looking adventurers watching a caravan cross a narrow little wooden bridge into an inviting town clicked something off in my brain.

Although as a kid I never once laid eyes on this product, my own Jonril quickly took on a life of its own as my first real attempt to do something other than a dungeon. My Jonril became this mysterious, seedy city of merchants, necromancers, and thieves covering a small island in a volcanic lake cauldron. Literally years of adventuring went by without the PCs ever even leaving the confines of the city. Crazy elaborate heists and countless expeditions to the layers and layers of undercity beneath the streets were the order of the day. Good times.

So friends, I'm sure I'm not the only one that had these little golden moments of inspirations. Love to hear your own stories of what piece cranked it up to 11 for you.

And in honor of that kind of riffing I am going to be doing a series of posts on the images that launched a thousand ships for me. Next up is the moody, stylized art from the Rahman's brothers brilliant TSR boardgame Divine Right and corresponding series of Dragon supplementary stories, Minarian Legends.

We're On...Texas Old School D&D Mixer July 11

Looks like we've hit a pretty good critical mass of interest for our old school mixer idea. So with no further ado, I'd like to formally throw down a "save the date" for folks interested.

The mixer itself is set July 11, 6pm-9pm at Scholz's Garten, a famous watering (and eating) hole for politicos, newshounds, students, and other motley Austin elements. Look for us at a big table in the middle room.

We're also organizing some one-shot or drop in games early that afternoon at Dragon's Lair, so you can actually get some gaming in if you come out.

If you want to come please email me at kutalik at gmail dot com and I will send you the formal invitation and other details.

Mixing Up the Old School in the Lone Star State

I've been cursing the Deadline Gods as of late. These dark minions have thwarted not only a number of posts here on the HC, but, more tragically, my attendance at that marvelous confluence of old school forces that mustered recently at the North Texas RPG. The former will be fixed shortly as I finish up all the neglected half-written posts saved behind the curtain here. The latter...well...that's got me thinking about an idea.

The journalism world is lousy with social mixers. Seems like one can't go two weeks before another invitation to live up to the liver-destroying stereotype of boozy, hard-bitten newshounds pops up in your inbox.

In a second, yet related thought, I've been pleasantly surprised by the sheer number of people I've found online running, playing, writing, and/or pontificating around old school RPGs in the region. Even better, I have been greatly relieved to find that many of them are actually people I quite like.

Punchline: why don't we organize some low-key social soirees for old schoolers around here?

Here's the meat of my modest proposal:
1. We start by meeting one pleasant evening in my hometown in Austin and pick a nice, convivial spot downtown (preferably one with margaritas, mexican martinis, fajitas and other wonders of this fair city).

2. Like a good proper sandbox campaign, we'll have a casual "who ever shows up" kinda attitude to the whole affair. I'll make use of the plethora of social-networking thinga-mijiggys out there to get the word out (Meetup.com, forum posts, blogs announcements yadda yadda), but not sweat outreach overly much.

3. People will be encouraged to bring whatever campaigns, dungeons, house rules, half-crazed ideas they are working on for some good old "show and tell" (minus the frowning old witch of an elementary school teacher hanging over your shoulder). If more gaming comes out of this, more power to us, but we'll start with the casual and social.

If the idea catches on perhaps we can organize another one down in San Antonio (where we have a second HC now going) and further on down the road if others are interested.

So what do y'all think?