Delving the Valley

I am not super original. I am not going to write a great book. I don’t have the best delivery for a joke. But I can tweak, work with and combine the efforts of others.  I find an adventure modules that includes a small regional setting. I like that it’s morally complex and doesn’t use kid gloves while also not being dark and edgy. The Vanilla Adventure is by a local Seattle company (I’m pretty sure?) and presents an environment with complex racial dynamics between humans, dwarves, elves and hobbits. Kipling meets Tolkien!

 My son gathers a group of 5th graders at school and we decide on a weekly game. I want the rules to be easy and accessible for parents to buy for their kids. I already see some “new” 5th edition books showing up. I’ve never read them but I know that’s not what I want.  I am convinced that OD&D is good enough but want a single rule book like BX that each kid can own and read. That’s when I stumble upon Seattle’s own White Box FMAG. At $5.00 a copy I can even buy one for every kid on Amazon. The availability of cheap dice is also amazing. When buying 50 sets at a time, I can give a kid two sets of polyhedrals and ten six sided dice for less than $2.00 each. On my end the internet is almost overwhelming. The availability of adventure modules, new and old, is extraordinary. I decide good enough is good enough and decide tenfootpole.org will be my library.

 I was introduced to Dungeons and Dragons in 5th or 6th grade. The older sister of a classmate was the referee for a game using the BX rules. My first adventure was B4 The Lost City. I was hooked.  Although I bought all the 2nd edition books and pored over them with my brother and a few friends, I never really played. It was too big a game for a 12 year old on a farm I guess? I never stopped liking the idea of D&D though. Fast forward over 30 years and my oldest kid is ten. He has an interest in fantasy books and on a visit to grandma’s we find the BX and 1st Edition rule books. The flame is rekindled. I spend too much time on the internet and learn that there was a 3rd edition, a 5th edition, and an OSR? I also discover OD&D. The internet is amazing, and weird.   I go to a few learn to play group sessions at various bars and am unimpressed. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s not fun and not what I remember. My wife gives me a push. She reserves the library onc...