In Which The Warlock Makes His Christmas List Early...

One of the nicest things about Origins is the fact that it's almost like Christmas comes twice a year for this geek. Yeah, there are no presents, but there's geekdom! And that's just as good.

To be perfectly honest, it's really difficult not to spend a whole pile of money at Origins. When you're in that dealer room, and there are something close to 200 different vendors and game publishers selling their wares...it's incredibly tempting to just grab a shopping cart from the closest Wal-Mart and just say: "I'll take one of these, and two of these, and four packs of dice, and a new dice-bag, and a mint-in-box Ravenloft boxed set..."

...and, at that point, this Warlock would be poor. Completely poor. Totally and absolutely destitute.

So, last year, I set a spending limit: $100. No more, no less. Now, naturally, this amount didn't count the food we got while there--that's an entirely different matter!--but it kept me from breaking the bank. And boy, it would be easy to. No doubts about that one...

So, with that in mind, I decided to set up my own little Wish List. Without further ado...here we go:

Wargaming Backpack

My backpack, which has seen me through the final days of high school, through four years at Wittenberg and another year at Earlham, has finally bit the dust. It's full of holes, the leather is wearing through, and the straps are worn so pitifully that I can barely carry it any longer.
As such...this will fit the bill. When one of your selling points is your ability to fit a footlong hoagie in one of the "side compartments", you've sold me.
With luck, the PlatinumChick will be nice enough to get this one for me before Origins, so I can use it there...(subtle hint, right?)

Inquisitor's Handbook

With our Dark Heresy game in full swing, I'm eager to see what the first real supplement in this stand-alone game is like. I've heard good reviews of it over on rpg.net, but I have yet to really see any of the content. From what I understand, it includes alternate choices for each of the career paths, as well as equipment and (boy, I'm sure hoping for...) vehicle rules. I was debating picking up the adventure compilation Purge the Unclean as well, but I've never been a big fan of pre-packaged adventures. While the temptation for new storylines would be good, I'm not sure how much milage I'd actually get out of these.

Kingsport Horror

We Witt-Weggers have been fans of Arkham Horror for a while, but I've been torn about which of the expansions to pick up. Curse of the Dark Pharaoh was fairly unimpressive, so I can write that one off just about immediately. We've gotten more milage out of Dunwich Horror, but we've pretty much played that one out. I was personally intregued by the King in Yellow expansion, but that's mainly because I'm a sucker for Has...yeah, and you really thought I was going to say it. :D
However, Kingsport Horror seems to have what I'm looking for--new locations to visit, some new rules to try out, and an effect to balance with Arkham's gates--the vortices. I'll be intregued to see how it all pans out in play.

Koplow Dice Trays

One of the problems with our current gaming space is, quite literally the lack of space. In our living room/dining room, I typically sit on our futon, whether I'm GMing or playing, which doesn't give me a lot of room to roll dice on.
As such, I picked up a Dice Boot. That was a mistake.
The Dice Boot was fairly fragile, made up of clear plastic pieces which did not snap together correctly and would fall apart at the slightest breeze. Further, the lip on the front side--where the dice would fall to--was not large enough. So, frequently, my dice would end up on the floor or under the futon: exactly the reason I had purchased the Dice Boot in the first place!
So, I figured...let's go simple. Elegant, felt-lined, and self-contained, a small dice-tray should fit the bill.

Those are the big expenditures so far, but I'm sure there'll be more...I'm eager to see what HellRails, a new game I've signed up for, is like, so that may be on a purchase list. Not to mention if I find any old 2e Planescape or Ravenloft source material. And that's to say nothing of the $10 SJ Games booth, complete with cheap minis and the Exact Change Dance! And if there's a good Cthulhu t-shirt...or Cthulhu swag in general...or some old Heroes Unlimited game material...

Sigh. So why did I have this $100 limit again? Oh, yes...to keep from going broke!