Sunday, January 5, 2014

Lulu Purchases, Part 2


This is the second of three orders I made from Lulu when they had their 40% offered during the holidays.  I searched for older products I've been meaning to look at.  From left to right, I bought Paul's Dungeon Master Notebook by +Paul Hughes, Tomb of the Iron God by +Matt Finch, The Nameless City by Alphonso Warde and Ruins of the Undercity by Kubuki Kaiser.

When I see a deal like the 40% at Lulu (plus there was free shipping so I needed to take advantage of the opportunity) I browsed entire categories.  Lulu is difficult to find things unless you know what your looking for.  I'll search under one of the game systems, Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lords or OSRIC.  Then scroll through and see what strikes my gaming fancy.

This time I wanted to get 'modules' that have been out for a while.  Ones I've looked at and never bought.  I think I had a copy a Matt's Tomb of the Iron God, but having a hardcopy is always preferred.  My wife my argue since I have outgrown my gaming shelf and I declared that I need an entire room.  Shit for one hand, wishes in the other, let's see which one fills up first.

The one oddball of the group is Paul's Dungeon Master Notebook.  He created the very cool Random Dungeons (which I should have gotten also) and the successful Kickstarter, Random Dungeon Generator as a Dungeon Map, which in turn inspired the web game Dungeon Robber.  Which, by the way, I suck at.  The reason I grabbed the DM Notebook is that I'm interested to read how other play the game.

Ruin of the Undercity, is a DM-Less dungeon generator.  I love the idea, but have no idea how it works.  I need to sit down with this one and dissect it and find all the organs and gooey parts so I can build my own.  I've always wanted to write a Choose Your Own Adventure.  I would read them on the bus to and from school to pass the time.  I'd like to do one for The Manor.

The Nameless City, I bought it because it is a Swords & Wizardry adventure, probably my main system of choice.  I was a little disappointed in the condition it arrived in.  The cover was scuffed and bent.  I sent an email to Lulu about the situation and I'll let you know about their customer service.  This will be the first time I've contacted them about a damaged product.  I am not a pristine keeper of gaming lore, but if I'm buying it new, I'd like the privilege of scuffing and bending my books first.  No idea about this adventure.  +Johnathan Bingham did the art which is a very good thing and it looks like Matt Finch edited it, another good thing.  Now I need to find a few minutes to sit down and read it.  Maybe next weekend.

The remaining Lulu purchase I'm waiting for is +John Stater's Blood & Treasure, The NOD Companion.  I went for the hardcover version.  I'm a huge fan of his Blood & Treasure system, it's the system my group is using on Monday nights to crawl through +Ken H's Monteport mega-dungeon.  My order history says it's still 'fulfilling' my order.


So with Lulu's great discount sale I was able to score a ton of great books.  Including the first order of Fantastic Heroes & Witchery Retro-RPG.  I'm glad I got it when I did.  Dominique Crouzet decided to pull it from Lulu to do more edits.  I really liked what I saw so far and plan to mine it for ideas.

8 comments:

  1. I'm eagerly awaiting the Nod Companion also!

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  2. Damn! The shipment was a little late for Christmas!

    Waiting to hear what you think of it all.

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    1. Ha, not really a Christmas gift. Well maybe, ordered it just before Christmas, it got here fairly quick.

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    2. Tim, what can a I say? This is a FANTASTIC Birthday present.

      Thanks much!

      I will says this, I got 2 codes for #1 and none for #4. Was that the intent?

      Just checking!

      Thanks again, it's AWESOME!

      Woo-hoo!

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    3. Should have gotten one for all of them. Hmm, I'll send them again.

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  3. I am also a fan of Blood & Treasure, have you checked out the individual issues of NOD Magazine? Excellent is not the word. Very inspiring stuff. new monsters, new takes on classes, and a full hex crawl in each issue, I am in the midst of collecting these. I have played Ruins of the Undercity via Google Hangouts, it is a great way to host a pick-up game when there is a last minute game cancellation. If you like Tomb of the Iron God or Matt Finch Adventures in general The Pod Caverns of the Sinister Shroom and Demonspore are two of my favorites.

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    1. I've gotten a few copies, but only in PDF form. I would love to have the entire collection. John does a ton of great stuff.

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    2. My wife gave me a copy of NOD #1 for Christmas (softcover). It is very cool.

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