Gary’s Games and Hobbies

By on December 14, 2011 in Excursions, Role-Playing

I stopped by Gary’s Games and Hobbies last Sunday in the ongoing quest to experience the local geek hubs, hives and dives of Seattle.

In this case, a picture speaks a thousand words – Gary’s fits the bill. The interior is split into two sections; the main shop is one, with a couple of gaming tables available in an area otherwise packed with overflowing bookshelves containing a veritable cornucopia of RPG sourcebooks, board games, and miniatures. The second is an annex that opens into a section with model plane supplies and a larger gaming-ready space.

The atmosphere inside is jovial and very lived-in, in a way that tells you “this is home – pick up and browse!”. The merchandise is in good condition and some of it is vintage, including “used” section (as a side note, I had no idea Tunnels and Trolls was still in print). The building itself isn’t in perfect shape, but for anyone familiar with hobby dives (like The Source in the Minneapolis area or Kin-Kon-Kan in Isesaki, Japan) it’s an atmosphere that will immediately feel familiar. The staff were pleasant, informed, and obviously passionate about what they were selling.

I picked up the Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide and Bestiary, a Chessex battle mat and an oversized 20-sided die. I’m sure I’ll be back to Gary’s Games and Hobbies in the future – the ambiance and selection of product is spot on for what I enjoy in a game store.

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Birch Boys

By on December 9, 2011 in Role-Playing

A post on /r/rpg was discussing various alternatives to using expensive and time-consuming painted miniatures to represent characters in a tabletop RPG play space, and among the great ideas in the thread was using Birch Boys to represent both players and enemy units.

Birch Boys make for a cheap, customizable RPG unit display option.

They’re cheap, stylized enough to represent just about any humanoid while not being completely abstract (like using dice to represent units), and can be widely customized. At the price on Hobby Lobby I couldn’t resist picking up a few packs to help visually conceptualize combat as development on Tyth goes forward (and for other potential upcoming GMing needs).

Simply being able to write “Orc Grunt” or “Skeleton Archer Captain” on their heads in sharpie would be really useful for keeping track of units in the thick of combat, and giving the players ‘minis’ to decorate themselves could provide a bit more fun personal identification with their characters’ physical representations.

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The Ancient Sitar

By on November 21, 2011 in Role-Playing

Inspired by this post, I’m currently designing an instrument for the tiefling bard I’m running in a 4th Edition D&D campaign at work. The idea is that it’s a cross between a lute and a harpsichord, which lends it the proper classification of a new form of instrument:

The Ancient Sitar, otherwise known as the Harpsitar.

Design of this magnificent instrument is ongoing.

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