Tagline: The best character sheets done for any game, ever. Period.

WHAT IS THIS?

This is a review of three associated products for Guardians of Order’s Sailor Moon Role-Playing Game (which I’ve reviewed elsewhere): The Knight Character Diary, the Dark Warrior Character Diary, and Sailor Scout Character Diary.

Essentially these are character sheets from a company that dreams really big (each 56 page pamphlet is for use with a single character). Each diary contains a 14-page character sheet, forty diary pages, a title page which you can personalize, and a dozen or so pictures (appropriate for each type of character) which you can use for your character portrait.

HOW GOOD IS IT?

Very, very good – surprisingly enough.

Personally, I don’t buy character sheets. The last time I bought a packet of character sheets was back in 6th grade, when I was an avid AD&D player and those of us in the group who could afford to splurge on store-bought character sheets (instead of writing it out on notebook paper) became possessed of a certain prestige.

In point of fact, I didn’t buy these – they came in the form of reviewer comp copies from GoO. But if I was playing in a Sailor Moon campaign I’d be sorely tempted to break my habit now that I’ve seen these.

For starters, the 14-page character sheet is absolutely wonderful. Often when you see extended character sheets like this all that’s really contained on them are lots of lines which are supposedly dedicated to “character history”. There are certain elements of that here (a page dedicated to it, but laid out rather nicely in segmented portions of your history – “Silver Millenium” and “Earth Childhood” in the Sailor Scout diary, for example), but by-and-large the extended sheet consists largely of closely targeted questions meant not only to spur your creativity, but also to facilitate ease of reference.

What this reminds me most of is another memory from my avid AD&D days (it’s nostalgia time). Back then I participated heavily on the FidoNet AD&D echo (like a Usenet newsgroup, but propagated at a much slower speed between individual BBS message boards). While there I happened to pick up something called the “Personal Code”, which was designed by a wonderful young woman named Alesia Chamness. It was a replacement for AD&D’s alignment system which encouraged the individual player to develop his character through a series of targeted questions. It was useful for defining your character in writing, for spurring creativity, and for developing your existing ideas. Really great stuff, and highly reminiscent of what you’re getting in this diaries.

The diary itself is done really nicely. The left-hand pages are plain white with a border which is evocative of the character type in question (a rose is in each corner of the border in the Knight Character Diary, for example). The facing pages, on the right side, takes advantage of the rich wealth of artwork which is available to GoO for this game line (in the form of animation stills) – the entire page is taken up by a grey-muted image (again, appropriate to the character type). Because they’re muted images you can easily write over these, and they end up providing a fantastic feel to the entire product. You’re not just buying a book of blank pages, you’re buying something that really ends up enhancing the recording of your character’s life and exploits.

Finally, the stock pictures at the end (which are designed to be xeroxed, cut out, colored, and pasted onto the title page which leads the book) are useful for the artistically-disinclined.

WHAT WOULD I CHANGE?

Not much. I’d probably drop the price down to $4.95, rather than $5.95. Crossing the $5 barrier to $6 makes these books seem just a little too pricey to me. On the other hand, I’m sure that GoO has priced these where they have because that’s where they can make a profit.

As for the actual content of the pieces, the only I’d change – or rather, expand – are the stock photos. I feel rather limited by the fact that the only picture they have are of the characters from the animated series itself. It’s really bad in the Knight Character Diary, because all you’re basically getting are a variety of pictures of Tuxedo Mask. Again, though, I don’t see any way for GoO to have done anything differently – they’re constrained by the artwork which is available to them.

IS IT WORTH IT?

If you’re the type who buys character sheets as a matter of course, then I would say definitely yes. The price may seem a little steep at first – but, trust me, you’re getting your money’s worth.

If you don’t typically buy character sheets, then there’s a goodly chance you aren’t going to break the habit with these. On the other hand, I’d suggest taking a peek at them next time you’re in the store. They just might surprise you.

Style: 5
Substance: 4

Author: Karen McLarney
Company/Publisher: Guardians of Order
Cost: $5.95
Page Count: 56
ISBN: n/a

Originally Posted: 2000/03/12

What I said about not buying character sheets was nothing but truth: When I first started roleplaying, I photocopied the sample sheet off the back of the BECMI basic manual (which produced the double-sided 8.5 x 11 character sheet 2-up on a single sheet) and got so used to using it that when I bought a pack of the official sheets they seemed weird to me. I don’t think I’ve ever actually paid for an official character sheet ever again.

Of course, in the digital era that doesn’t mean as much as it used to: Although I don’t buy them, I have used a variety of official sheets over the years. And a really great character sheet — like the Sailor Moon Character Diaries — really can transform a game. Most recently, the character sheets for Numenera and The Strange are like that: The former through sheer beauty and utility; the latter through the excessively clever method it uses for handling characters shifting between alternate realities.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Go to Part 1

Having not actually run a true urbancrawl for any length of time, I’m not really in a position to delve into truly advanced uses of the technique. But I do want to float out a few random thoughts I’ve had. This is stuff that I think will prove to be fertile soil for exploring in the future. (And if you have a chance to play around with these ideas in your own campaign, I’d love to hear your feedback on how it went in actual play.)

THE DIMENSIONS OF THE URBANCRAWL

First, I want to be very specific about what I think makes this model of the urbancrawl work by expanding on the metaphor of “dimension” in your urbancrawl that I’ve touched on before:

0^th Dimension: This is the gazetteer. Recognizing that the gazetteer is a separate entity allows us to focus on the ‘crawl itself. You don’t have to explore the gazetteer; its contents provide context and backdrop and common goals for targeted movement.

1^st Dimension: This is the basic “investigation” action. You could key an entire city with content and just allow basic investigation and it would work, but it would also be very bland.

2^nd Dimension: By creating different urbancrawl layers, you allow the players to contextualize their investigations. This makes the city “come alive” for the players and rapidly creates a sense of the bustling metropolis; of a place where there’s always something happening just out of sight. (I suspect this will become even more true as the city grows during play and the various layers begin interacting with each other.)

3^rd Dimension: Finally, adding depth to each urbancrawl layer and allowing PC activity to expose the hidden layers rewards player exploration. It can also be used to escalate the stakes and to increase the PCs’ investment in the setting. (In many ways it parallels the function that deeper levels of the megadungeon serve.)

URBANCRAWLS IN YOUR HEXCRAWL

The more time I spend playing around with this urbancrawl structure, the more excited I get about its potential. For example, you can use first dimensional urbancrawls to cleanly integrate villages, towns, and the like into your hexcrawls.

For most of these settlements, you can probably treat the whole town as a single district: When the PCs encounter a small village or town in the hexcrawl, the expected interaction is to look around and figure out what useful information it’s supposed to give you (i.e., rumors about potential adventures to be found in the wilderness). Alternatively, maybe investigating the village will end up triggering a local adventure (i.e., the whole town has been replaced by dopplegangers). In either case, the urbancrawl investigation action provides a default method for interacting with settlements of all sizes, even if it’s only when the really big, important cities range into view – Greyhawk, City-State of the Invincible Overlord, Minas Tirith – that exploring the city neighborhood-by-neighborhood and street-by-street becomes an interesting adventure in its own right.

To use a potentially ill-conceived dungeon metaphor: Most towns are like caves; they’ve got just one or two key entries. The big cities are full-scale labyrinths and can be chewed on for months or years.

MIXING URBANCRAWL SCALES

Most of the time you’ll probably want all of your urbancrawl layers keyed to the same map. But if the PCs become interested in the Dockside gangs, maybe you break up the Docks into specific sub-districts.

Similarly, maybe the vampires are only active in Oldtown. Or maybe there’s a gang war in the Guildsman District that you want to track street-by-street as territory gets swapped back and forth.

CROSSOVER NODES

Another assumption is that each node will only belong to a single urbancrawl layer, but it would actually be quite trivial to key the same node to multiple layers. These nodes would make the city feel more interconnected, but more importantly they would also serve as a mechanism by which the investigation of one layer can crossover into another.

For example, maybe the PCs have been rigorously pursuing the Halfling Mafia. If they end up raiding the blood laundering service the mafia runs for Count Ormu, however, that will tip them off about the local blood dens and possibly get them investigating the vampires, too.

URBANCRAWL TRANSMISSIONS

Technoir transmissions, as previously discussed, combine random content generators (for connections, events, factions, locations, objects, and threats) with explicit mechanics that generate a conspiracy as a direct result of the PCs hitting up their contacts in an effort to unravel the mystery.

It’s incredibly clever and extremely effective. And for dedicated groups, I think you can use the transmission system to add a fourth dimension to your urbancrawls: Tie the random content generators to your urbancrawl layers, seed the city with contacts for the PCs, and then let the system generate plot maps that bring the city to dramatic life.

I don’t have space here to fully explore this idea right now, but here’s a few preliminary thoughts:

• Connections, locations, events, and threats all probably double as items keyed to the urbancrawl layers.
• Many or all of the factions probably have their own layer on the urbancrawl.
• Objects are the one thing you’d have to create explicitly for the transmission dimension. (Fortunately, they’re also the easiest thing to create.)

For more complexity (or for groups who are new to the big city), add a mechanic that allows them to explore the city in order to make contacts. (Creating a dedicated contact layer in your urbancrawl or incorporating them into other layers seems like an easy solution.)

Finally, I’d be interested in adding mechanics to the transmission system so that performing generic or specific investigation actions would have effects on the plot map in the same way that hitting up contacts do.

SECONDARY INVESTIGATION ACTION

Another trick that Hite incorporates into Night’s Black Agents is adversary mapping: As characters explore the Conspyramid, they can map the relationships of the nodes on the pyramid. They can also use the Human Terrain and Traffic Analysis skills to peek at the generic structure of the map around the nodes they’ve discovered. (For example, “Someone has to be running the money to these guys.”) Additional investigation can then nail these structures down. Night’s Black Agents rewards the players for identifying sections of the adversary map by rewarding a dedicated pool of points for actions targeting that section.

In terms of our urbancrawl structure, we can imagine a secondary investigation action that the PCs can take to follow-up on the leads they gain from identifying, exploiting, exposing, or eradicating a node on an urbancrawl layer. For example, if they take out a blood den in Oldtown they could follow up with a secondary investigation action that might tell them where they can pursue their investigation:

– Asking around about the blood den you just rooted out, you hear that a lot of people wearing the livery of House Ormu were seen coming and going at odd hours of the night from that warehouse.
– Somebody must have been supplying those shivvel dealers with their product. And somebody must have been paying off the local cops not to look too close.

Basically, the idea here is that, when they perform the secondary investigation action, you would look at other keyed content on that urbancrawl layer and point them towards it. (Structurally you’re saying, “You should go perform an investigation action in district X.” But you’re contextualizing that into the game world.) Just like Hite, you could also incentivize this action by offering rewards for following up on leads. (A +2 circumstance bonus, for example, would work in D&D.) And I suspect that there may be richer ways of building on these secondary investigation actions.

RESTOCKING THE URBANCRAWL

When you clear out a dungeoncrawl, the dungeon is empty. You clear out a city and… what does that mean?

To a large extent, the layered approach to stocking your urbancrawl solves this problem. If the PCs wipe out Count Ormu’s vampires and clear that entire layer, there are still other layers of the city to explore. (And, of course, you can always add new layers to the city over time.)

One thing I am interested in is what actually restocking a layer (or a city) will look like in a campaign over time. For dungeons, this is a process I talk about in (Re)-Running the Megadungeon: “You keep the dungeon alive by using wandering monster encounters to simulate the activity of the complex. You partially repopulate the dungeon between sessions to keep it fresh. The result is that you can take 10 encounter areas, a couple of tables, and get dozens of hours of play out of it.”

I expect that a lot of those skills and techniques will transfer from the dungeon to the city. But I also anticipate that urbancrawls are going to evolve in their own unique and fascinating ways.

So that’s the next step of this journey: To bring the first urbancrawls to the table. To let them begin to grow and live. To unleash the unbridled creativity of the gaming table upon them.

I’m excited.

Tomorrow I’ll be wrapping up my series on Thinking About Urbancrawls, so it feels appropriate to be thinking about other resources for city creation. I recommend checking out Michael Curtis’ Alphabet of the City’s Shadows. It’s an incredibly rich treatment of thematic elements that can be found in the best fantasy megalopolises. For example:

A is for Alleyways

Like the strands of a spider’s web, the alleyways of the city radiate out from the urban heart to ensnare the unwary. Stinking, trash-strewn, and labyrinthine, alleyways serve as the highways for the denizens of the city’s shadows and the homes for the truly downtrodden and lost. It is within these narrow channels that thieves, whores, madmen, and the wretched reside, far away from the opulent chambers and homes of the rich and powerful.

To step into the alleys is to leave the brightly lit world of the honest man behind, even if you can still glimpse those clean, bright streets at the alley’s filthy mouth. The world of the alleyways have rules of their own and those who do not take the effort to learn the rules of that world soon find themselves devoured by it. The alleys are gateways into places never seen by the honest and righteous, who shun such places with good reason. Adventurers, however, often must tread these paths as part of their sojourns into the city. The cramped shops and hovels off of the alleyways are the domiciles and places of business for Hedge Wizards, sages, the Thieves Guild, and other quasi-legal operations. Many alleyways contain the rusted, offal-choked grates that lead into the city’s Sewers, making them the only place to enter that subterranean world unobserved. The alleyways are also the last resort for desperate men when the Watch is hard upon their heels and they need a place to vanish from the law.

 ALPHABET OF THE CITY’S SHADOWS

Go to Part 1

This writing sample covers the first part of Chapter One. It was written when I was 16 years old.

CHAPTER ONE

Kalen watched the secondary monitors of his Red Wolf ‘mech, more interested in the tactical information related there than in the dense undergrowth being crushed around him as he moved quickly through the forest.

“Robert, how’s your little Adder holding up?” The Adder-class ‘mech was one of the smallest, and they had lost precious moments earlier when it had become ensnarled in a patch of thorny vines.

“Pretty good, Kale. I’m keeping behind you, using the trail you’re beating down. Anything I’ve got trouble with, Steve helps me out with.”

Steven was off to Kalen’s right, moving along as quickly as possible in his humanoid-Hellbringer. He raised the ‘mech’s hand in a wave of acknowledgment.

Kalen smiled. “All right, we’re going to start bearing northwest now. Keep com silence until my strike order. No need to give away our presence with a stray signal burst.”

“Roger,” the voices of his two lieutenants overlapped on the frequency.

Ten minutes earlier a distress signal had reached Diamond Outpost where Kalen had been scheduled to serve garrison on the weekly rotation cycle. Kalen may have been the Helix Hero of the House of Alcrom, but it didn’t excuse him, or the Guard company he led, from the routine duties of being mechwarriors.

On the north road between the Kolan Heights and Poytr Point an Alcrom weapons convoy had been waylaid by the forces of House Ethaois. Even now, looking above the trees which brushed around his ‘Mech, Kalen could see the ineffective laser blasts of the convoy as it raced along the road away from its pursuers. If he and his Guard didn’t get there soon the convoy would be probably be lost within a matter of minutes.

A harsh tone sounded from his monitors and he twisted his head away from the cockpit’s visual display and back to the secondary screens. A tight line of bright dots had appeared, roving eastward. The convoy!

Simultaneously five more dots — the Ethaois ‘mechs — blinked onto the screen as well. A Sharpshooter and a Wasp were positioned on either side of the road, straddling the convoy. A speedy Hummingbird lagged behind them on the far side of the road from Kalen’s position. Directly behind the convoy, obviously cutting off any form of retreat, was a large Crusader. Further back there was a Quasar, apparently climbing a nearby hill.

Kalen toggled his com unit back on, “Okay guys, looks like we’re not slackers after all. Let’s nab the three closest first. Robert — see if you can keep that Quasar busy; Steve, nail the Wasp. I’ve got the Sharpshooter. We jump in three…two…one…”

At virtually the same moment the three pilots hit their ‘mech’s jump jets and sailed clear of the forest, reaching the apex of their jumps metres above the treetops.

Their actions were not a moment too soon. As the Quasar topped the hill it was climbing, it released a quick volley of LRMs — blasting the road ahead of the convoy into impassable rubble and sending the lead convoy vehicles caroming into the strip of cleared land on either side of the forest way.

Kalen brought his ‘mech down smoothly in the middle of the road. Twisting the torso of his Red Wolf around, he quickly peppered the Sharpshooter with his PPC before the Ethaoin pilot had a chance to react. He quickly checked on his two friends, noting with satisfaction that Steven had already engaged the Wasp and Robert was making his way up the hill towards the Quasar, before turning his attention back to his own opponent.

The Red Wolf‘s PPC hadn’t done more than superficial damage to the Sharpshooter, who was now returning fire — peppering Kalen with a series of short blasts from his shoulder-mounted lasers. In response, Kalen stepped his ‘mech out of the laser blasts for a moment and released a volley of SRMs at his opponent. As he had expected, the Sharpshooter’s pilot activated his anti-missile systems and reduced his barrage to shrapnel, but at least the laser was abated for a moment. Kalen toggled his autocannon and watched with satisfaction as it tore away the armor of the opposing ‘mech.

Unexpectedly the Sharpshooter’s jump jets flared to life, lifting it off the ground and away from Kalen’s fire. Having failed to anticipate his opponent’s action, Kalen pushed hard against his ‘mech’s foot pedals, urging the huge machine into a run, only to feel the ‘mech jerk away from his control as an explosion shook the cockpit.

As the Red Wolf twisted hard, spinning the Sharpshooter off the primary screen, Kalen quickly realized what had happened. The Sharpshooter’s pilot had used his ‘mech’s jump to effectively conceal the launch of a single missile towards Kalen; and Kalen, in his rush to pursue his opponent had ignored the warning signals on his secondary monitors.

Angry with himself for his carelessness, Kalen quickly jabbed at his controls, bringing his ‘mech back under control and swinging his bullet-like torso around to face the position where the Sharpshooter had last been in time to see a wave of LRMs heading towards him.

Instantly his autocannon roared to life, picking the helpless missiles out the air, as he launched his own missiles, but these swept under the Sharpshooter, which had already initiated a second jump to close the distance between them again.

But this time Kalen wasn’t going to give his opponent a chance to conceive a second offensive, instead he raised his ‘mech’s left arm and began firing the laser there. Simultaneously his PPC began to pulse and the missiles held in pods all around the main body of his BattleMech streamed off on chemical propellants.

The Sharpshooter pilot, despite his momentary surprise at the ferocity of Kalen’s assault, managed to emerge relatively unscathed. He managed to destroy the majority of the Red Wolf‘’s missiles before they could strike, and his adept maneuvering lessened the damage which might have been wrought by the PPC. However, the cumulative effect of the attack gained its intended goal – several missiles struck one of his leg joints, and the laser fire found weak spots along the attachment point of his left arm, dropping it – and the anti-missile system it contained – useless to his side.

In Kalen’s cockpit the temperature was soaring and the sweat dripped from his brow, but it barely caught his attention as he launched another volley of missiles against the Sharpshooter.

Without the defenses in its arm the Sharpshooter was helpless against the Red Wolf’s final attack, and Kalen watched as the enemy ‘mech was reduced to a ball of flame. Its destruction gave him a chance to bring his ‘mech to a halt while he took assessment of the battlefield, allowing his heat sinks to laboriously remove the heat build-up he had accumulated so quickly.

To his left Robert had been intercepted by the humanoid Crusader before reaching the Quasar, which still stood passively atop the hill. Robert’s adept handling of the tiny Adder seemed to be keeping the conflict roughly even, but off to Kalen’s right Steven was faring worse. The Hummingbird had moved up in support of the Wasp and their dual assault was seriously wearing down the Hellbringer’s defenses, pushing him farther back into the forest.

Kalen quickly checked his heat levels and, noting that they were back within acceptable levels, started his ‘mech towards Steven’s position. Together the two of them should be able to eliminate the smaller ‘mechs and then join Robert against the Quasar and Crusader.

But before he had even begun to cross the distance, he saw Steven swing his Hellbringer’s torso towards the enemy Wasp and release successive waves of missile at the smaller ‘mech – overpowering it’s weakened autocannon and punching several successful hits through, forcing the pilot to eject before his destabilized fusion plant blew. Even Kalen was able to see the tactical impracticality of the maneuver, however. In focusing his attention on the Wasp Steven had left his ‘Mech’s back open to an undefended assault by the Hummingbird, which now took the advantage and pulverized the Hellbringer unmercifully.

With a final few steps Kalen pulled his Red Wolf within range. Quickly he fired a handful of LRMs at the Ethaoin Hummingbird, hoping to distract the ‘mech from its helpless victim. Even as the missiles began their deadly flight, however, Kalen knew they came too late to save the Hellbringer – already Steven’s ejection seat carried him in a graceful arc away from the exploding remains of his treasured ‘mech.

But even in death the Hellbringer cursed its killer, holding the attention of the Hummingbird’s pilot for a moment too long. Kalen’s first attack struck uncontested even as a second was being launched. The now heavily damaged ‘Mech slowly turned to face his new opponent, slicing Kalen’s second salvo into useless fratricide.

Kalen smiled as he engaged his jump jets, cutting the distance of the fight to within meters as he toggled his LRM system off-line and synched his short-range weapons into the primary controls. The rage of battle now pulsed through his blood, guiding the lethal paces through which he put his ‘Mech.

The Hummingbird fired his own missiles as the Red Wolf descended, but Kalen’s autcannon swatted them almost contemptuously out of the sky before turning its attention to the missile racks below the Hummingbird’s cockpit. As Kalen’s PPC joined in the barrage, the Hummingbird’s pilot seemed to realize what lay in store and ejected mere moments before the missiles exploded in their pods, blasting the ‘mech into a smoldering mass of blackened metal.

The Red Wolf’s barrage snapped off as the Hummingbird exploded, and Kalen swung his ‘Mech around, loping off at a near-run towards the hill where the Quasar still squatted, watching the Adder and Crusader battle in stalemate below it. Like a strutting bird, the Red Wolf mounted the hill and moved quickly to its summit as the Quasar’s pilot turned it to face the newcomer.

A pause came to Kalen’s frenzied action as he crested the hill. He watched as the Quasar he faced turned slowly towards him until the two mighty BattleMechs stood face to face, each in contemplation of the other.

The moment held for too long. Kalen sensed it. It stretched beyond where one pilot or the other should long since have broken it in a fiery hail of death. It was as if a stalemate had settled upon the two. As if some moment where combat could have begun had been passed by, and now both were held in a loop of inaction which might continue forever.

Kalen’s com-unit crackled to life.

“Helix Commander. Halt all offensive action. Withdraw immediately.”

Kalen frowned. The order made no sense. The convoy was not yet secured, and the Helix Guard’s defensive action was proving successful. Why the withdrawal?

“Repeat command.”

“Repeat. This is Diamond Outpost. Halt all offensive operations. Repeat. Halt offensive operations.”

“On who’s authority?” Kalen was grimacing now. This was the work of a bureaucrat who couldn’t stand the loss of the Hellbringer, he was sure of it.

“On the authority of—”

The com-officer’s voice was cut off and Kalen could hear the muted sounds of motion on the other end of the unit before a new voice came onto the channel.

“It’s on my authority, Kalen. Withdraw immediately. I’ll explain everything when you return.”

The voice was soft, mellowed with the wisdom of age, and Kalen knew it well. Lord J’hon. Current ruler of the House of Alcrom. He had long been a friend and mentor to the Helix who now sat in the Red Wolf’s cockpit. Kalen had long trusted his judgment, but he could not accept this.

“Enemy ‘mechs make safe withdrawal is impossible. I—”

Abruptly the jump jets of the Quasar came to life. Kalen cut himself off as his fingers tensed over the controls which would launch his defensive systems, but the Ethaoin ‘mech was receding from him, the jets carrying it down the far side of the hill and away from Kalen.

Simultaneously a second channel came to life on the com-unit.

“Ethaoin Crusader in retreat,” Robert’s voice echoed in Kalen’s cockpit. “Permission to pursue?”

Kalen hesitated for a moment. Then, “Negative. Return to base.”

“What?” Robert’s surprise mirrored his own.

“Return to Diamond Outpost. Kalen out.”

Kalen flicked Robert’s channel off and then spoke again, “Diamond Outpost, I am returning to base.”

He turned his Red Wolf around. He wanted some answers.

FINAL THOUGHTS

My major influence in writing this was Robert Thurston’s Jade Phoenix Trilogy. I was given copies of the trilogy when I visited the Westfield Comics warehouse in the late ’90s and it remains one of my favorite pieces of pulp fiction. (Westfield Comics was the way I used to get my monthly comics as a kid: They’d mail you a catalog. You’d fill out an order form of everything you wanted. And then a big box full of amazing things would arrive on your doorstep. They’re still around and they’re still great people. But I digress.)

My original notes for the novel also include this gem: “It should be a running joke for at least the first few chapters that each chapters starts with ‘WHAT?!’ Kalen asks it in the first chapter, Natasha in the second, and finally Giles in the third.”

(I was apparently also enamored with spelling the word “maneuver” as “manuever”. I’ve corrected it here, but I’m guessing it didn’t exactly endear my pitch to the FASA editor, either.)

Common misconception: It’s not accurate to say “roll the dice” when you’re only rolling a single die. It would also be inappropriate to say that you’re rolling a single dice.

Actually, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, this isn’t true: First, the singular use of “dice” is recognized as correct.

Second, The singular “die” dates to 1393. The singular use of “dice” dates to 1388. So, technically, the singular use of “dice” is actually older than the singular use of “die”.

Furthermore, the plural use of “dice” only dates back to 1330. So, essentially, both “die” and “dice” have been used interchangeably as the singular form of the plural “dice” since Day One.

While I’ve got you thinking about dice, though, you might as well check out the “Dice of Destiny” article I wrote back in 1999.