Grimoire Games & Amazon

Finished up a complete draft of my rpg history article on Grimoire Games (and on Dave Hargrave and early RP gaming in the SF Bay Area). It's one that I'm very pleased with, because I think it does a really nice job of shedding a light on what the early RPG hobby looked like, at least on this coast. As I wrote in my intro to the history, it's the first one that I really wished had gone in the book.

This one was slightly exhausting to write because the written record of the company was so scant. I only managed to turn up three Dave Hargrave "interviews"; fortunately two of them were extensive bios in Different Worlds. The third was part of a semi-hit-piece in New West magazine which Greg S. was kind enough to put me onto. I'm aware of one more notable article by Hargrave, in super small-press Abyss #17, from Ragnarok Press. I'd still like to somehow get a copy of that article, but for now I'm content.

Despite the scant primary sources from Hargrave, I was able to get some pretty extensive help from Marc S. (on Arduin and the second edition) and Donald R. (on the early bay area gaming culture), so that was part of what made the article come out pretty good. Greg S., Steve P., and others helped too.! But it was still a lot more work than just reading a pile of interviews and design notes.

The article will show up in two parts in my Designers & Dragons column on 6/4 and 7/9. If you subscribe to the RSS, you should see new articles as they appear.

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Amazon is the other company on my mind this evening, for they sadly disappointed me. We'd ordered The Amazing Race Season 4 from them, as they've started pressing on-demand DVDs, and we're happy to finally get to see the old seasons of a reality show we like.

Unfortunately, when we sat down to watch this newest DVD this evening, as a start-of-the-holiday-weekend treat (and also a treat for Kimberly who is sick), we discovered that our 3-DVD set had shipped in a 1-DVD box (indeed, with 1 DVD!). Kimberly called up Amazon and after talking to a somewhat clueless but very helpful service rep, got them to send us a new (hopefully complete) set of the DVD which is supposed to arrive on Tuesday. I have to give that credit as very good customer support.

Well, we can at least watch this first DVD, we decided. So we turned it on ... and found the DVD almost unwatchable, getting all pixelated and skipping several seconds at a time ... constantly. 

So that's strike two for Amazon's DVD on Demands program. Mind you, we've got the two previous seasons by this method without problem (though the DVDs occasionally got a little pixelated, showing off perhaps a not-quite-ready-for-prime-time setup). But, if this was my first experience, it would probably be my last as well.

Bike Adventure!

Went out for lunch today, as I often do when I'm free on Saturday. It was so nice out (surprisingly so, given predictions of cool and wind) that afterward I decided to keep on biking. Fortunately, I keep sunscreen in my backpack for such emergencies.

I headed straight north, up the Ohlone Greenway. I now know the best way to get around the construction in Albany. Sadly, I discovered that the trail in El Cerrito is under heavy construction too. And, it's not as easy to go around that. I ended up on either on busy streets or hilly streets, which was no good.

When I reached Richmond, I turned west onto the Richmond Greenway, and took that to its end. There's still a discontinuity in downtown Richmond, but I did see a map today that marked that area as "incomplete". So, hopefully, some day ...

At the end of the Richmond Greenway there's this intersection that always feel full of possibilities. To the east you have the Richmond Greenway. To the north you have continuous bike path up through the Wildcat Canyon intersection and beyond that to the landfill. To the west you have Point Richmond and Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline. To the south you have Richmond Inner Harbor.

It was another spur of the moment decision to head out to Point Richmond. I explored the (teeny) town for a bit and even found the Masquers Theatre that Chris & Marie have taken us to a couple of times. I also saw the recently reopened Richmond Plunge, a gigantic indoor pool (though sadly only the outside & the entrance). Then I biked through the tunnel to the Miller-Knox Regional Shoreline, which was my goal.

I love the Shoreline. It reminds me of Ed Levine park, near Milpitas, where I spent many summer days when I was young. There's lake and grass and brownish hills rising all around. But, bonus, unlike Ed Levine you have the Bay to the other side. I read out there for a while (Locke & Key, Volume 2) and biked around the Park. As in Point Richmond proper, I explored a couple of places I hadn't before. First, I went out to the old Ferry Launch, which is mainly falling down pier & railroad track, but still a neat view into the past. Then, past the yacht club, I biked out on a spit that cuts further into the Bay. It's got lots of fancy houses on stilts out over the Bay to either side. Very pretty.

Nice views of San Francisco all around, and a pretty unique view of just one tower of the Golden Gate, peaking out past Angel Island.

I'm pretty sure there's new Bay Trail just beyond the spit, but if so I didn't spot it. I was getting pretty tired, so I wasn't much for exploring any more by that point, in any case. So I biked back up over the hill that protects the area, then took surface roads to Richmond Harbor and from there through the salt marshes, past Point Isabel, and up more of the Bay Trail before cutting inland near Target and rejoining the Greenway past Gilman. It was a pretty standard ride home from there.

Total time out was about 3 and a half hours. Total mileage was 26. I was quite tuckered out from around the salt marshes, so it was a long ride for me.