Yes, 1000!
And so, with this message, I cross the line of 1000 posts and join the ranks of the immortals. I am the 11th member to cross this line. (One, who started after me, is now far ahead of me. Another has even started over and is likely to soon catch me again.) Funny, like Erekose, I don't really feel much different in my new immortal form.
I wanted to take this opportunity to ruminate a bit on my experiences over the past year of membership in the Acaeum.
I hope the readers will indulge me.
In January of 2005 I was transfered from my long-term sub job at Bremerton High School and sent to Naval Avenue Elementary School to work with one (1) very needy student. It was actually a mark of trust from the district heirarchy, but at the time it felt like I was being sent into exile. My new academic kingdom was a 10' x 10' cubicle out in a portable building.
I don't know if I was feeling sorry for myself or what, but I began to think back on the old days of gaming and wonder what was going on. I had seen some glimmers over the recent years, including a trip to GenCon 2001 as an agent of the ill-fated company, Elemental Designer Games. There, I met Gary Gygax and asked for his autograph like a giggling, 14-year old girl. He signed my convention badge.
(While I was at GenCon, I chanced upon a booth selling Judges Guild stuff, including reprints. Alas, I had only (literally) $50 in my bank account back in Washington at the time...so I looted every free offering and brochure at the convention.)
I also had a fair collection of old
Dragon magazines and other gaming materials. Over the years, my friends had left their materials with me for safe keeping as they went off to college and had no time for gaming. I had kept these items, in various states of repair, sort of as a shrine of our ancient deeds...and out of a vague sense that they might one day prove valuable. (Certainly, I knew that
Wierd Tales is now valueable...why not game books...some day?)
In 1984 or so I bought
All The Worlds Monsters I and III in a used bookstore in Seattle's University District. To my chagrin, I had discovered that the one monster I absolutely had to have...the Doomguard...was in volume II! I despaired of ever completing the collection.
Anyway, one night in the spring of 2005 I decided, on a whim, to do a GOOGLE search for "Doomguard." I hit upon a site for the World of Khass and the current publishers of the Hargrave Arduin matierals. When I eagerly corresponded with them, they told me, to my shock, that not only was David Hargrave dead, but that he had been dead for something like 14 years!
It was time, like Elric, to go sailing in search of the past.
Back in high school, the really cool modules (aside from the incomparable giant massacre adventures) were published by Judges Guild. I remembered that the really hip and with-it gamer kids from the University of Portland ("The Orcish Revolutionary Society"...they had a desk in the student union building) always used cool modules like
The Maltese Clue or
Verbosh. I also heard frequent rumor of an adventure
Beneath the Storm Giant's Castle.
But there was one adventure that I had heard much about...but never seen. Back in 2001, the people in the Judges Guild reprint booth told me that they were temporarily out of stock...but a copy could be had in a day or so at the (then) astounding price of $21. I thanked them and left.
Now, I determined that I would seek out this legeneary lost masterpiece. Like Childe Roland, I had set out on a quest to seek the
Dark Tower.
I thought it would be easy. I was wrong. A search at Bookfinder.com revealed one copy for sale...at $35...with the cover torn off the booklet. Yikes! Little did I know how jaded my collecting tastes would become! Even a correspondence with Paul Jaquays turned up no leads.
A .pdf copy of
Dark Tower, from DriveThruRPG, temporarily sated my passion, but I quickly found that this file, and the other Judges Guild files there for cheap, did not really satisfy. I resorted to....Ebay.
Fencert was my early Ebay fixer. A fine guy who always takes the high road.
Of course, my internet searches kept hitting upon a website called Acaeum.com. Since I am not a big blogger or grognard, I was only mildly irritated by the discovery. Soon, however, the dragon lust for
RPG treasure drew me....here.
It is all well and good to be the last knight on a forgotten quest. The problem is who do you
talk to about it? I understand exactly how Robert E. Howard must have felt among the townsfolk of Cross Plains, Texas.
I hit upon the Acaeum Judges Guild forums and discovered there the names of many of the sellers I was familiar with on Ebay. Without so much as a hello I descended like a vampire upon a recent purchaser of a number of Judges Guild products...Killjoy...also known to mortals and desert runners as Allan Silcock. He was kind enough to endure my bleating and help me along with my collection with a (then) huge purchase of Judges Guild items. I thought I would be finished....hah!
(I later asked Plaag to delete some of my early Judges Guild forum posts because they were so grasping and greedy...sort of an
RPG bloodlust.)
I did eventually score two copies of
Dark Tower. One was on Amazon for $9.95 and the other was on Ebay for $5.00...and I was the only bidder. Go figure.
I have kept up posting on the Acaeum because I recognize a group of kindred spirits. Although the Acaeum is frequently mentioned on Ebay, we really are a very select group of individuals, considering that we are a band of brothers and sisters drawn from
the entire world.
My collecting tastes have broadened, including revenge upon
Thieves Guild, Mayfair and most recently the
Stormbringer RPG line.
I have met some pretty top quality people here, and I have been treated with courtesy and generosity. (And I shall nay forget those acts of generosity...thank you again.) I have also discovered how interconnected the game collecting world is...including the solving of a couple of internet mysteries...one involving an off-hand Post-It note that echoed around the world.
Along the way, a number of the old gaming legends have risen from the dust of the wastelands to greet and guide me.
And, for anyone who is still reading, a final note: This week I won and paid for a copy of
All The Worlds' Monsters II from gaming legend Greg Stafford. When it arrives, I will, at last, have the original stats for...the Doomguard. The circle is complete.
Like young Conan, sitting on the steps of empty Mount Doom, I must now spend at least one full minute of screen time contemplating my future destiny.
1000 posts! WOOT!
Mark
