Category Archives: Personal

RPG Book Binding For Fun and No Profit Whatsoever

  By Doug | May 8, 2012 - 8:46 pm | Books, Creations, Role Playing Games
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I love games. All of them. I like computer games, board games and pen and paper role playing games. I love reading. I love reading on electronic devices, especially ones with e-ink screens, like my ageing prs 505.

What I do not like doing is reading heavily formatted books, like RPG rulebooks, on a computer screen. Even with the best hyperlinks and formatting I think some things are better read on paper. I did have a few problems though.

  1. PDFs are generally a lot cheaper. Though sometimes not much, here I glance in the direction of Mongoose publishing.
  2. I had the PDF of ACKS for under a tenner.
  3. I really wanted the hardback book but it cost a lot and I could not find a supplier in the UK.
  4. A friendly and cheap print on demand service was not being offered.

What to do I thought, what would Mr Maker do? He would make his own!

My first attempt in progress.

Do It Yourself Book Binding

I have been thinking about doing this off and on for months now.

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The Great Moon Hoax

  By Doug | February 4, 2012 - 11:24 am | Books, Creations, eBooks, Public Domain
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My latest treasure dug up from the public domain using a combination of the Museum of Hoaxes, the Internet Archive and Smithsonian images. Everything apart from my introduction and my appendix at the end is in the public domain.

If you like you can download for free from Scribd. Or if you really like the idea and want to reward me for my time you can purchase it in kindle format from:

Amazon UK: The Great Moon Hoax

Amazon US: The Great Moon Hoax

If you find any errors or problems please leave a comment.

 

McDougall’s Good Stories for Children: Dinosaur

  By Doug | August 11, 2011 - 10:41 pm | Books, Creations
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Public domain story from a an old paper. Please see links at the end. Slightly better formatted more errorful version can be found at my Scribd page.
Dinosaur Story

Dinosaur Story

HARRY RAMSDELL sat on the steps reading, and his little brother Gardiner sat beside him watching the antics of seven small puppies that, rolling over their mother, gnawing her stumpy tail and otherwise disturbing her rest, seemed to be having the time of their lives. After i space, Gardiner spoke:
“Ain’t they funny said he. “Say, Harry, do all little animals have fun like that?”
“Most of them,” replied Harry, looking very wise, as he always did when his small brother asked questions, for Harry was twelve and very learned, indeed.
“Do turtles?” asked Gardiner. “I’d like to see a litter of turtles cutting up.”
“Aw, turtles come from eggs,” said his brother, scornfully. “They don’t have any fun. The mother turtle just leaves the eggs in the sand and they hatch out: that’s all. Sun does it, I guess.”
“That’s funny.” cried Gardiner. “I’d like to see them in the turtle’s nest.”
“Oh, golly,” cried Harry. “They don’t make any nest, I tell you just dig a hole in the sand; that’s all.”
“I thought only birds laid eggs,” added the little fellow.
“All reptiles – turtles, snakes, frogs, lizards – as well as insects, lay eggs,” said the wise brother. “Some of them make a sort of nest, that is. the insects do, but not the lizards and things. I guess they are hatched out by the sun’s heat. I’ve seen an ant’s nest. It’s fine.”
“I wonder,” mused Gardiner, “if you found some turtle’s eggs somewhere and brought ‘em home would they hatch out by the stove?”
“Why, I suppose so, but I guess it would be pretty hard to find ‘em,” replied Harry, and then he sat thinking instead of reading, for the question had aroused interest in such a search. He decided to make an effort to find some turtle’s eggs and try the experiment for himself before the summer came.

Return to RPGs IV: My Love For Sheena Easton’s Tail.

  By Doug | August 9, 2011 - 7:48 pm | Gaming, Personal
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Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Well not really. What do we know about Sheena? Wikipediarrrr!

Sheena Easton (born Sheena Shirley Orr; 27 April 1959) is a Scottish recording artist. Easton became famous for being the focus of an episode in the British television programme The Big Time, which recorded her attempts to gain a record contract and her eventual signing with EMI Records. Easton rose to fame in the early 1980s with the pop hits “9 to 5″ — known as “Morning Train” in the United States — and “For Your Eyes Only”, “Strut”, “Sugar Walls”, “U Got the Look” with Prince, and “The Lover in Me”. She went on to become successful in the United States and Japan, working with prominent vocalists and producers, such as Prince, Christopher Neil, Kenny Rogers, Luis Miguel, L.A. Reid and Babyface, and Nile Rodgers.

No. That is not what she is famous for.

This is what she is famous for;

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Return to RPGs II: Idiocy and Fat Club

  By Doug | August 4, 2011 - 10:40 pm | Gaming, Personal
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Big Red Box Of Social Exile

So there I was with a big red box of RPG fun. I had no idea what to do with it and the solo adventure they had included looked fairly slim.

The books said that there were two kinds of people involved in a game of Dungeons and Dragons. The players who undertook exciting adventures and the dungeon master who set the scene and did everything else. I didn’t know any dungeon masters to let me become a player.

For that matter I didn’t know any players. D&D did not look like it would be much fun as a solitary activity.

Back then geeks, not that we were called that, tended to clump together at my school.

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Return To RPGs I: Back To Mystara

  By Doug | August 1, 2011 - 10:52 pm | Gaming, Personal
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Currently I am hurtling toward 40 years old with all the grace of an enraged warthog. Time for a mid-life crisis I thought, get a fancy red car and a younger wife. The problem being I am unable to drive, due to not knowing how,  and already have a younger wife.

Then I realised I was already having my crisis and it started over a year ago. I was returning to my youth by rediscovering the joy of roleplaying games. Something I had been thinking about for years.  I thought back to my first RPG and came up with this:

D&D Basic Set (Source The Acaeum http://www.acaeum.com/)

D&D Basic Set (Source The Acaeum http://www.acaeum.com/)

Then I thought. No. That’s not right it goes back further. Join me if you like. Or not.

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