Friday Hodgepodge

Four Things

1. Whether you might want to indulge in nostalgia or save time as the family dungeon master, I have good news for you. The entirety of Dungeon Magazine is now available online at the Internet Archive:

Image by Mateus Campos Felipe, via Unsplash, license.

Each issue featured a variety of self-contained, pre-scripted, play-tested game scenarios, often called "modules", "adventures" or "scenarios". Dungeon Masters (DMs) could either enact these adventures with their respective player groups as written or adapt them to their own campaign settings. Dungeon aimed to save DMs time and effort in preparing game sessions for their players by providing a full complement of ideas, hooks, plots, adversaries, creatures, illustrations, maps, hand-outs, and character dialogue. It was a resource containing several modules per issue, significantly cheaper than standard-format modules.

I might fall into both categories I mentioned earlier: I remember the early issues from when I was a kid and played, and I am considering introducing the game to my son and daughter.

2. An Aston Villa fan muses about the possibility of a triumph despite the pandemic wreaking havoc with an upcoming match: "[This may] end as one of those stories we tell our grandchildren about. We just won't begin by saying, 'I was there when.'"

His team is having a good year so far, but most games in England have been played behind closed doors, with only very small numbers of spectators allowed in for the rest.

File in the very thin pandemic humor that I actually like folder.

3. Did you know that astronauts returning to Earth sometimes forget about gravity at first? Hilarity often ensues, as it did when Jack Lousma returned after two months aboard Skylab:

Lousma also broke a bottle of aftershave when he tried to gently pass it from one hand to the other and it fell in the sink.

The full story describes and links to other, similar accidents.

4. The next time you feel frustrated with technology and yearn for a simpler time, let me recommend a visit to OverType.

Don't forget to bring an actual keyboard.

The web site describes itself as "The Over-The-Top Typewriter Simulator." On arrival, you will have a blank page of virtual paper and an instrument that -- while ... adequate ... for journaling about your frustration -- may be better suited for very quickly putting things into perspective!

-- CAV