TenKeep

Jack London’s story “All Gold Canyon” is bedrock for some wonderful themes in old school DnD – character, law and chaos, and gold. The main character’s Bill, a gold prospector digging for Mr. Pocket , a huge nugget of gold. Just hearing Bill talk, you know him. “‘My…but I’ve got an appetite. I could eat iron-filings an’ horseshoe nails an’ thank you kindly, ma’am, for a second helpin’.” “Ah, ha! Mr Pocket! I’m a-comin’, an’ I’m shorely gwine to get yer...I’m gwine to get yer as shore as punkins ain’t cauliflowers!” He’s high in constitution. He walks away from being shot in the back. His Dex is good. London compares him to a mountain goat! Of his eyes, London said, “They were laughing and merry…and yet…contained much of calm self-reliance and strength. *** Lawful and bright as Bill is, that stranger, revolver in hand, has an “aura of things hostile.” That stranger is Chaos: …a feeling as when a cloud passes over the sun…something dark and smothering and menacing; a gloom ...

My friend Tom and I've been playin' Nate Hayden's "Rocky Mountain Man," a folio game where it's 1825 and we're trappers movin' West toward the Great Salt Lake. You can see our counters on the hex map, where we headed North just east of the Arkansas River. Tom's playing a 'business man' and I'm a soldier - Sniper Coltier. We found beavers small and large and a mountain river - named it the "Coltier River." I can't tell you what a great game it is and how far out it is, hearing to Daniel Thompson's soundtrack from the movie " Grizzly Man ," and exploring the open frontier. *** I did some research on mountain men in DnD but didn't find much, so there's a good idea to think about! Volume One of " Gary's Appendix, A Thoughtful Zine for OSE " has a feature on bears, though, and the entry for "grizzly bear" says, "Aggressive, 9' tall," AC 6; HD 5; ATT 2 x claw (1d4), 1 x...