RetroRoleplaying: The Blog

Here's a status update on our current "Sponsor Microlite81 (and Lords & Wizards) with a RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund Donation Mini-Drive." We currently have $155 in donations. Our goal is $500. The goal of these drives has been to help pay off my wife's oral cancer bills, but as of this week they have an additional goal -- to help pay off the medical bills my wife is about to accumulate to repair spine/disc damaged caused by falls -- falls caused by bad balance caused by inner ear problems which is most likely caused by radiation damage from her oral cancer treatments. We have no idea what the final cost will be but the MRI to see the problem was $3200.

Each $10 donated during a drive will give you one chance to win one of the items (or sets of items) in the giveaway. A drive will end on the Saturday after the goal is reached (but each drive will last at least a week), with the drawing at my Sunday game the next day. Items will be mailed at no cost to the winner within the US. Foreign winners will generally need to pay postage, unfortunately -- with the low goal for each mini-drive I can't cover foreign postage and have any money to pay off cancer bills on any but the lightest items.

If you donate at least $25, you will be listed as a "Copper" Sponsor in the all currently planned Microlite81 and Lords & Wizards PDFs. If you donate at least $51, you will be listed as a "Silver" Lin the all currently planned Microlite81 and Lords & Wizards PDFs. If you donate $101 or more, you will be listed as a Gold Sponsor. Silver and higher level sponsors come with special benes. All Sponsors will also have access to a special donor area on our forum where they can have input into the design process. Note that once you become a Silver sponsor with a donation of at least $25, all future donations during this series of mini-drives will be cumulative for determining your "sponsor level." Anyone donating at least $101 will receive one free chance at giveaway items in future Sponsor Microlite81/Lords & Wizards minidrives, even if you make no donations to that particular mini-drive.

All donors receive the usual array of free Retro-Roleplaying Cancer Fund donor downloads which includes work-in-progress copies of projects (like Microlite81) I'm working on.

The third "Sponsor Microlite81 and Lords & Wizards with a RetroRoleplaying Cancer Fund Donation" mini-drive has a $500 (after PayPal fees) goal and the following items will be given away in the drawing (as described above):

* Booty and the Beasts from Fantasy Art Enterprises (published 1979). Designed by Erol Otus, Paul Reiche III, and Mathias Genser. Art by Erol Otus. It's in excellent condition.

* First Fantasy Campaign (1st Edition, I think) -- It's in very good condition and includes two campaign maps the can attach to the Judges Guild Wilderlands. Dave Arneson provides a boatload of information on his Blackmoor campaign. It's not very well-organized, but there is a great detail of raw information both about Blackmoor and Dave's version of D&D.

* Judges Guild Character Chronicle Cards, Second printing, 1977. All cards appear to be present. The cards are in excellent condition. The title card is yellow.

* Two "adventures" from Wilmark Dynasty: These two items claim to be adventures ran at conventions, but they strike me as parodies of convention competition adventures. Since my first post on this mini-drive, I've been informed that these adventures were ran at conventions on the East Coast and that Wilmark dynasty adventures were very popular at those conventions. I stand corrected, these two weren't parodies. Journey to the Center of the Circle by Micaela Corradin is an adventure for characters with handicaps (peg legs, deaf, one-handed, etc.). It's 12 pages of rare weirdness (possibly offensive to people with disabilities), published in 1981. The second Wilmark Dynasty adventure we are giving away in this drive is The Vampyre's Mirror by Lee McCormick. It's also 12 pages and it has to a parody, it really does. (Wilmark Dynasty also published the Melanda: Land of Mystery RPG in 1981.

* D&D Basic Boxed Set -- the 8th printing which is the first printing of the Tom Moldvay. It's complete with the rule book, a copy of B2 and bag of those awful TSR dice). It's in Excellent condition.

* D&D Expert Boxed Set -- the 1st printing of the Expert Set with the Expert rules by David Cook. It's complete with the rule book, a copy of X1 and another bag of those "wonderful" TSR dice). It's in Excellent condition.

Special High Donor Giveaway: the top three donors in this mini-drive will have a separate drawing for a set of the original G-series TSR modules (G1, G2, and G3 as separate modules). These are rare in this "three separate modules" form and are in excellent condition.

Special Bonus: As previously announced, once $1000 total in donations is reached from these mini-drives, we will be giving away of the one extremely rare TSR D&D items: R2 - Investigation of Hydel. We will hit $1000 at the end of this mini-drive. If you have donate to this third mini-drive or either of first two mini-drives, you will be in the drawing for this very rare item. It is autographed by Frank Mentzer and James Ward. Mentzer wrote it, I have no idea why Ward signed it. Ward's signature is on the last page, however, so it may simply have been the only thing handy for Ward to sign?

To get help us pay our cancer treatment related bills (and to get access to some special downloads and possibly the above mentioned items), send a donation in any amount -- small or large -- to me via Paypal. My apologies for having to ask for donations and my heartfelt thanks to everyone who donates. If you cannot donate but wish to help, please spread the word about my request and offer. Thanks in advance for any and all help.