The Dump Stat

It's been a while

2011-10-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

Well... i know it has been a long time since I've posted up here. My life has been a bit hard on me lately, so dealing with real life problems is sucking up all of my time. I have a lot of reviews yet to get out, but until things in my life settle down, that will have to wait. But, the Dump Stat isn't dead... it's just sleeping. Stay tuned. I'll be back.

Power to the Power Gamers! - Lair Assault Begins Soon!!

2011-08-21T23:22:00.000-07:00

LAIR ASSAULT IS FINALLY HERE!!!... then again, I'm not, so what am I so excited about?? :P No, but really, I guess I belong to that hated group of gamers who really enjoy power gaming and optimization. I think a lot of us math nerds get our kicks through stuff like this. The strategies and tactics of power gaming can be so much fun, are you in? Today, August 22nd, Wizards released a bit

Some Changes Coming...

2011-08-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

Up until now, I have had a very odd way of writing reviews (I guess). I have tried doing a spotlight format where I highlight some of the interesting areas of an RPG book as I read through it, essentially going through my read of the book with the people who read the blog. I have kind of started to dislike this style and will be moving away from it. In light of that information, my current

Spotlight - Enemies of the Empire for L5R 4th Edition

2011-08-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yay! I'm finally kicking off another one of my product spotlights!! I have so many of these to get through it isn't even funny. I will be trying to get through two more of these very quickly here, then I will be getting into my giant review season of all the Cubicle 7 books I have. But right now, I am very happy to announce that I will be starting my review of Enemies of the Empire for Legends

RPG Blogger Carnival - Animals in RPG's: Does your pet need a new crib?

2011-08-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

First we had Zombie Resistant houses; what's next? Well, considering that this month's Carnival is themed around Animals in RPG's, and yesterday I posted about my Hybrid Animal races, I thought I'd keep this month's theme up with a post about your pet's humble (or not) abodes. Through twitter, I caught wind of this awesome Japanese cat house. Literally, this place is all designed to be as

RPG Blogger Carnival - Animals in RPG's: Beastfolk Races

2011-08-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

This month, the RPG Blogger Carnival is being hosted by Tower of the Archmage. What an interesting topic we have this month! Animals in RPG's is something that is actually remarkably interesting and nuanced as a topic for an RPG Carnival; it's suprising how little the topic actually gets brought up round the RPG Blogosphere. Glad they decided to give it some thought. I'm not sure I have tons

Using Google+ Circles for Play by Post Style Game

2011-08-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

There have been a lot of people talking about using Google+ functions as a means to run a roleplaying game. Up until now, the most popular method, that I have heard of, has to be using the hangout ability to run a video-chat style game. This kind of works like running Skype video chat, but with Google+. I haven't had a chance to use the hangout ability of Google+ yet, but I hope to try it out

Amethyst Evolution - Out Now! PDF on RPGNow in Radiohead Fashion!!

2011-07-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

How did I miss this?! Well, real life sometimes gets in the way of the hobby and the blog. But, now that I have caught it, it needs to be said here. Amethyst Evolution, the second book in the Amethyst universe, has now come out!! You may have caught a little bit of my preview article for Amethyst Evolution a little bit ago. You will recall I was really, really excited to see that there were

What's Coming Down the Road

2011-07-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a busy couple of months and I am officially derailed from my goals for posting this year. I hoped to be able to dedicate more time to the blog, but it just hasn't been working out as I had planned. Family life and work have gotten in the way, but that is all changing soon!! YAY!! I am currently on my summer vacation, which means that I have to come to work, EVERY. SINGLE.

Knights of Badassdom Trailer

2011-07-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

Considering that this month, the RPG Blog Carnival is regarding the topic of Badass RPG's, I thought I should throw this trailer up on the site. Yes. This is going to be very, very Badass.

Review of "Crime Pays: A Godfather's Grimoire" Up at SGW

2011-07-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

I finally bring my spotlight on Crime Pays: A Godfather's Grimoire to a close. My review is now up on Stargazer's World. I hope that you all check it out.

RPG Blogger Carnival - Bad Ass Gaming - The Most Badass Kickstarter Ever!

2011-07-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

You all know how much a fan I am of the RPG Blogger Carnival! Right?! Well, this month, the Carnival is being hosted by none other than Nevermet Press!! How cool is that? I had kind of liked there original idea for the carnival this month - technology at the gaming table - but the new topic is just as... well, BADASS!! So, I guess the big question to you is... What the hell actually is

XDMC 29 - Design a Haunt!

2011-07-11T19:33:00.000-07:00

It's that time again for the next Expert Dungeon Master's Competition! This time around we have #29 EXPERT DUNGEON MASTER COMPETITION #29 - DESIGN A HAUNT Taken from the Competition Page: The topic for this competition is Haunt. Fear and terror are staples of the fantasy genre, but it is not easy to create a locale that can terrify the larger-than-life heroes your players control. Creating

Dungeons & Anime - AMV

2011-07-07T19:29:00.000-07:00

Found this the other day when I was checking out some of the Anime Music Videos (AMV's) that came out of Anime Expo 2011. I thought it was pretty funny. Most people know the song, by Stephen Lynch, but the composition of that song with all these anime clips is pretty humorous. Not surprised that it didn't win the comedy category of the competition, but it still rocks.

Find out your Dungeons and Dragons stats.. or.. How many push-ups can you do??

2011-06-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

I saw a post over on Grognardling the other day about turning yourself into a D&D character. Thomas, left this link in one of the comments. I thought it was a kick and posted my results to twitter, but thought I might as well bring it up here on the blog as well. Apparently my stats are: Strength: 9 Dexterity: 15 Constitution: 7 Intelligence: 13 Wisdom: 10 Charisma: 16 Based on those stats,

This Just In... From GenCon 2011 - Crowd Funding

2011-06-23T22:06:00.000-07:00

I had meant to post about this sooner, but I just haven't had much time for blogging lately. One of my very good internet pals, Daniel M. Perez, is going to be one of the two co-hosts for this year's 2011 This Just In... From GenCon. Living in Japan, I kind of have to live vicariously though other people when it comes to Cons, especially GenCon. They are getting very close to their goal, but

Spotlight - Crime Pays - The Gritty Details

2011-06-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

Last time, in my previous post in this product spotlight, I basically gave an overview of the book, but now I am going to get a bit more into the gritty details of Crime Pays. The Yakuza gang war which has been driving me bloody crazy recently has apparently died down enough that they have moved away from the direct area around my apartment and are no longer keeping me up at night with their

Spotlight - Crime Pays Overview

2011-06-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

I find it very odd that I was extremely late in writing this spotlight, but the timing turned out to be quite perfect. Apparently starting last week, a full fledged gang war broke out in my prefecture in Japan. This particular gang war involves several extremely powerful Yakuza groups; one family, attempted to break off from the most powerful Yakuza in Japan, but that certainly wasn’t going to

Space Cowboy

2011-06-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

My Smuggler/Gunslinger character concept for a Star Wars D6 pbp. Pretty happy with the look of it. Take the cowboy concept and put it to space.

RPG Blogger Carnival - Wrapping it all up!

2011-06-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well, it's come a bit late, but I do declare the May 2011 RPG Blogger Carnival as closed! It has been a pretty good one, I was satisfied with the turnout of posts. I have certainly seen months with considerably more, but given the fact that I was not really able to do as much as I wanted for the month, I am really happy with all the contributions. So, let's talk about those contributions.

A Giant Fire Breathing Robot Approaches!

2011-06-09T19:57:00.000-07:00

Don't you dare close your eyes! The Giant Fire Breathing Robots are invading!! If you're not familiar with them, Giant Fire Breathing Robot is both a web site and a podcast which covers all manner of nerdy, cool stuff. You can find their podcast on iTunes or off of their website. I have been a pretty big fan of the podcast for a long time, at least the last 9 months or so I'd say (I think I

Spotlight - Crime Pays: A Godfather's Grimoire by Goodman Games

2011-06-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

I have been having a pretty hard and busy month(s) so my blogging has come to a very hard stall. But, in an attempt to get it back up and running again smoothly, and in a timely fashion, I am now kicking off my spotlight on Crime Pays: A Godfather's Grimoire by Goodman Games. The folks at Goodman Games were nice enough to send me over a review copy of the book quite a while ago, around the

Why Mix RPG Genres?

2011-05-31T19:15:00.000-07:00

This month’s theme for the RPG Blogger Carnival is Mixing Genres. This month’s carnival is being hosted by… oh wait… I’m hosting the Carnival this month… damn. I really should have gotten these posts done earlier. This month has been a bit rough for me, but I’m going to plug ahead and try to get at least a few of my thoughts on this subject out there. One of the first things that I ask myself

Need inspiration for your Zombie Proof Compound???

2011-05-30T17:50:00.000-07:00

Found a link to this in a forum that I happen to troll and I thought it was worth pointing out. Considering how many survival horror games there are out there, and the popularity of Zombie filled Fantasy RPG plots, these pics might come in handy for some inspiration. This, is the first Zombie Proof House. The place has a bloody indoor pool and a drawbridge. The only thing that I see

Join the (RPGB)Alliance Today - Help fight the Empire!

2011-05-27T10:50:00.000-07:00

If you've been living under a rock, or have been away on vacation, you might not have heard about the RPG Bloggers Alliance. Founded by some of the guys behind The RPG Circus Podcast, with the help of THE Stargazer himself, the RPGBA aims to be a new community for us all to call our home. The site features the aggregated feed for all the members on the network (something you got with the RPGBN)

XDMC 28 - Muster a Constabulary

2011-05-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

Do you know what a constabulary is?? If you do, you're going to like this month's Expert Dungeon Master Competition hosted over on the Wizards of the Coast forums. This month's topic is: MUSTER A CONSTABULARY! Here's the starter post that kicks off the competition this month. The topic for this competition is Constabulary. Player characters often work outside the law, but are also generally

RPG Blogger Carnival - Time is running out for mixing genres!

2011-05-25T23:35:00.000-07:00

Well, there is not much left of the month of May, so I want to make sure that people who are interested in writing about mixing Genres for the Carnival this month get there stuff posted. I have been working on a few posts myself, which will probably come out right at the end of the month; it's been a pretty busy month for me, so not much posting has been happening. I'll probably do the wrap-up

Caladon Falls - Fundraising Project!

2011-05-25T22:03:00.000-07:00

I was alerted earlier today about this little fundraising project on twitter and I thought I would do what I could to help out. Savage Mojo is trying to get their setting book, for the Savage World's RPG printed and ready for Gen Con 2011! They need your help and have set up a fundraising project to try and meet some of the financial needs. I should make it pretty clear, I have never actually

The New Dump Stat Logo's... They'll do for now...

2011-05-24T00:00:00.000-07:00

Now that the RPGBA has come along, I think it's finally time I give myself a logo. This is really just a place holder until I can get something better together, but I like the concept at least. Not bad right? What do you think???

Amethyst Evolutions - My first look at something awesome

2011-05-17T23:47:00.000-07:00

Chris Dias, of Dias Ex Machina, was nice enough to send me an advanced copy of one of the chapters from the upcoming Amethyst Evolutions. I can't exactly show off the chapter itself, but he did give me permission to talk about it. I have not yet had time enough to print the chapter out, lay on the floor, and then play in all the pages, but that is pretty much the extent of how amazing the

One Page Dungeon Contest 2011 Ends. Winners Announced!

2011-05-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

As much as I would have liked to be among the chosen few, considering it was my first attempt, I didn't really think it would happen. This is my way of leading into the fact that the 2011 One Page Dungeon Contest Results Have been posted. I was unfortunately not chosen to be among the top few. However, among the winners, Dyson Logos (a friend of the blog) picked up the Best Old-School Dungeon

L5R Art Contest - Week 4

2011-05-14T22:18:00.000-07:00

This last piece of the contest is probably my favorite one and among my favorite piece overall actually. Once again back stories could be many, so how about a Ronin assassin on on the look out for is quarry? He lost his Katana at the same time as his honor and family, and has now become a expert at the short sword technique, relying on his Wakisahi for his kills.

MAY RPG BLOGGER CARNIVAL KICK OFF! - Crossing Genres

2011-05-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I've been out sick pretty badly for the last few weeks, so it has put me out of blogging condition and away from the keyboard, but now that I'm gradually on the bend, I thought I would take the time to at least start off the May RPG Blogger Carnival which this month is being hosted by none other than yours truly here at The Dump Stat! The topic for this month's carnival is

Blogging from A to Z: O is for Opulence

2011-04-19T22:59:00.000-07:00

Every player wants the best for his character. They might not come right out and say it, but in their heads, they are thinking it. Everybody wants to be rich, but we're not all that lucky. So, maybe the closest thing we get to true wealth comes through our RPG characters. Opulence comes when you get to that point of wealth where you can pretty much just stop asking how much things cost.

Blogging from A to Z: N is for "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die"

2011-04-17T05:01:00.000-07:00

got sicker all of a sudden, going back to the hospital in the morning to get checked out. Here are some funny pics of one of my favorite catch phrases : "No Mr. Bond, I expect you to die."

Blogging from A to Z: M is for Motivation

2011-04-16T01:51:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, I went over goals, and how you need to manage and keep track of player goals in order to make sure that they are getting what they want out of the game. I also went over how goals and motivation were two very different things. Motivation is the reason why you are moving toward a goal. Motivation is what keeps you moving forward. Keeping track of your players motivation

L5R Art Contest - Week 3

2011-04-16T01:40:00.000-07:00

Week three of the the L5R theme should touch the heard of our friend Shinobicow as from what I read his preference goes to the Crane Clan. So here is a Kakita Bushi Duelist. She getting known as a very skilled Iajitsu practitioner and a fantastic sword woman. Look close enough and you'll get a sneak peek at week 4 art. Enjoy.

Blogging from A to Z: L is for Leveling Up

2011-04-16T01:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm still sick, but i'm actually walking around again now. Being bitten alive by killer Mosquitos then practically getting quarantined at the hospital for an hour or so has a very adverse affect on my will and ability to do much of anything but stay in bed and swat away the bugs. But, now that I'm half alive again, thought I should probably get some of these "Blogging from A to Z" back

Blogging from A to Z: K is for Kill and Loot

2011-04-13T05:52:00.000-07:00

I remain ill and unable to really put my heart into this anymore. Being laid up sucks. Today, I simply ask you this. Kill and Loot, the primary methodology that you get out of most D&D, does it get old to you? I'm not sure, but I think I'm looking for something more lately. Maybe reading through the Leverage RPG, or hearing stories about some dude who maxed out his level on World of

Blogging from A to Z: J is for Japan

2011-04-12T06:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I'd take one out of my 26 posts this month to just write a bit about Japan. Hell, it does start with the letter J after all. Things here are incredibly crazy still. Some reports are saying that casualties from the quake have caused the deaths of over 15,000 people and an estimated 28,000 may have died in the Tsunami. I believe the last I heard, several hundred thousand of

L5R Art Contest - Week 2

2011-04-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

Week 2 of the challenge. An Imperial Samurai at his retreat... How about for this one, you guys create the back story?

Blogging from A to Z: I is for Ingenuity

2011-04-11T03:31:00.000-07:00

Every good adventure needs some good ingenuity on the side of the adventure builder. Make sure to encourage ingenuity in your players so that they can find creative solutions to perhaps mundane problems. Ingenuity is also pretty much the key you need to homebrew and house rule stuff on the spot. Find your ingenious side and nurture it :) Again, sorry for the weaksauce post. Still pretty

Blogging from A to Z: H is for Hope

2011-04-09T04:02:00.000-07:00

Every player and every DM needs hope. Hope is essential for both character and NPC's alike. Do you have hope? Without hope, you're pretty much doomed in the RPG world. NPC's who are hopeless will turn to extreme measures in order to get hope back. Try to take advantage of that as a plot device in your adventures in order to turn good NPC's temporarily evil, and thus give your players that

Blogging from A to Z: G is for Gallons of Goals

2011-04-07T22:45:00.000-07:00

Today, we're going to talk about the multi-faceted, and supremely important letter "G" (it's the most important letter of the alphabet... not because my name is Greg...). G is for goals, and goals are arguably one of the most important things you need to take into consideration whenever you're playing an RPG. That statement applies just as much in the game, and in character, as to out of the

Spotlight - Leverage RPG - Setting(s)

2011-04-06T21:55:00.000-07:00

We're back today with more on our continuing Leverage RPG spotlight. Today's topic is going to be about the setting that is used in the Leverage RPG and related topics. If you watch the show, or have seen the game, you probably understand that the Leverage RPG is set in our world, in present day. It is a game which focuses on the evil corporations that cause harm to innocent civilians. It is

Blogging from A to Z: F is for Freedom

2011-04-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

I think that one of the most important things to making your adventure really, really fun and successful is by giving the players freedom. I of course do not mean true freedom, but a sense of freedom at least. No player likes to be railroaded. This is true. Unless you go into a game with everybody on exactly the same page about the game that they are going to play, you're not going to have

E is for Epic... Epic Fail!!!

2011-04-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

Today, for the Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge, I am here to talk about Epic, brought to you by the letter "E". In RPG terms, especially D&D, Epic is used to denote the highest levels of a campaign, or adventure. If you have played Epic D&D, especially in 3rd and 4th Edition, you know that this type of roleplaying puts your characters into such crazy high levels of power that they are

Spotlight - Leverage RPG - What is Leverage?

2011-04-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

OK, let's define Leverage shall we. Leverage S: (n) leverage, purchase (the mechanical advantage gained by being in a position to use a lever) S: (n) leverage (strategic advantage; power to act effectively) "relatively small groups can sometimes exert immense political leverage" S: (n) leverage, leveraging (investing with borrowed money as a way to amplify potential gains (at the risk of

D is for Delightfully Dark and Dreary Dungeons of Doom... and Dragons

2011-04-04T09:00:00.001-07:00

(whew alliteration is rough) Well, D is a pretty important letter in this world of ours. Hell, the entire RPG world was built on two very important D's: Dungeons and Dragons. Sorry, couldn't help but dedicate this day of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge to these two important aspects in roleplaying. But, I'm not going to go on about history (mainly because I'm an uneducated swine who has

Spotlight - Leverage RPG - Kickoff

2011-04-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

It has been a really long time coming, but I am finally going to kick off of my Leverage RPG Review this week. Earlier this year, Margaret Weis Productions, was nice enough to send me a review copy of the Leverage RPG when I had showed interest in reviewing their Smallville RPG. I was quite intimidated at first. At the time I received the copy of the book, the only thing about Leverage that I

Warhammer 40,000 Retrospective - How my Hobby Died, and was Reborn

2011-04-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

At some point, I think in my senior year of High School, the one person who I played the most 40K against, lost interest in the game. He moved onto other stuff, mostly World of Warcraft and other video games. He was playing a lot more competitive CCG's and having more fun with the big payouts he was getting with those. I wans't as competitive as he was, but as his interest teetered off, so did

C is for Choices, too many of them...

2011-04-03T21:44:00.000-07:00

Today, I had a hard time thinning things down to one topic. There were simply too many choices for a blog entry that started with the letter "C", so I wanted to actually talk about 3! WOW!! So, here we go. Cartography I would be amiss to forget the fact that this month, Dyson Logos, of A Character for Every Game, is hosting the RPG Blog Carnival. This month's topic is, as you guest it, about

According to the Old School RPG Blogger Advancement Table....

2011-04-03T09:05:00.000-07:00

I saw over at Hero Press that they recently made it to the status of Pundit. Congrats! The Dump Stat hasn't been covering OSR stuff for very long, but we're loving it now. I examined the table he mentioned and it would seem that we are... If you got that, we could probably be friends. Not sure if I can make a good pro-wrestling joke for Pundit, but when I get there, I'll do my best ;) Also

Warhammer 40,000 Retrospective - Expanding to other Armies

2011-04-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

After getting my feet wet with one army, it came to the time where I was ready to expand. There are lots of people that never end up building up another army and instead just focus solely on a single army for the entire life of their 40K career. I'd imagine though that folks like that are pretty rare. For people that really, really get into 40K hardcore, you can't help but want to try out all

B is for BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy)

2011-04-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

Continuing our Blogging from A to Z challenge. Today, is day 2, which means that brings us to the letter B. I can't think of anything more important to an adventure, or a character's story, than the BBEG. The Big Bad Evil Guy is pretty much the reason that the adventure exists (unless your characters are just plodding around some open world and not really fighting anybody... who wants to play

My own L5R art contest - Week 1

2011-04-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

So after reading about Shinobicow's review of the new edition of the Legend of the 5 Rings RPG (L5R), and having had a brush of interaction with this game many years ago, I got a new found interest for this fantastic setting. Aside from the fact it would be quite interesting to participate in a PbP campaign (hint, hint, to whoever would like to GM one :)) I decided to challenge myself and over

Blogging from A to Z: A is for Adventure Awaits

2011-03-31T20:18:00.000-07:00

Well, it might not be April where you live, but here in Japan, I am right now dead smack in the middle of April 1st. It's April Fool Day here, though nobody knows what the hell that is. In Japan April 1st is actually the first day of the Economic Year. It is the day of the year that all new Jobs begin - today, all the new teachers joined my school and we are gradually finding out who will be

XDMC 26: Racial Feature - Entry In! - Bionic Man!!

2011-03-31T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yay! I made it on time. My Entry, the 6,000,000 GP Man is up on the Wizards Forums for XDMC 26. It took a while to get the Paragon Path finished, but a lot of the other stuff is really just things that I wanted to see in my current game world. It kind of steals the thunder from one of the other Paragon Paths out there, but I never really liked that one (mainly because its use was so severely

Gearing up for A to Z in April the madness begins on Friday

2011-03-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well, the Title for this Post pretty much says it all. April 1st is quickly approaching and that means that the A to Z in April Blogging Challenge will be starting soon. It's not too late to sign up if you're interested in challenging yourself to this task. I recommend it. I think it is going to be a hoot. Apparently there are over 700 people signed up for the challenge now and it's looking

Warhammer 40,000 Retrospective - Developing through Tournament Play

2011-03-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

40K was a lot of fun starting out, but it quickly got pretty tired. Playing a game like 40K requires that you really have a good group of people to consistently play it with, or else, you're likely to get burned out pretty fast. I happened to start the game playing with only one other person - we were never really able to turn any of our other friends to the hobby, which meant that we were

The Art of RPG

2011-03-29T09:00:00.001-07:00

Here is my long due first blog post, and I though I should give a little introduction about myself and my relationship with RPGs. I am a french Ballroom Dance Teacher living and working in the fantastic city of New York, USA. I grew up a big fan of the Star Wars universe and when I was introduced to the Star Wars RPG in 1992 I discovered the joy of being part of that beloved universe. I also was

Warhammer 40,000 Retrospective - Birth of an Addiction

2011-03-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Ah, the memories. Today, I continue my 40K Retrospective and move on to actually getting into how I got into the game and where I started in the hobby. I got into the game during 3rd Edition (think that 6th edition should be coming down the pipeline soon now). After playing Mage Knights for a while, Warhammer 40K was a big step up, and it was going to take some serious cash to get involved

One Page Dungeon Contest - My Attempt: Abandoned Prison for the Mystically Insane

2011-03-29T03:04:00.000-07:00

Yay! I finally finished my entry for the 2011 One Page Dungeon Contest! Download my One Page Dungeon Contest Entry Here! Click!! This was my first attempt at doing something like this. You can see the map over there to the right. I tried to make it pretty big, but ended up shrinking the size down to fit the smallish one page format. The idea for the dungeon was a seemingly normal set of

XDMC 25: Create a Mount - Kaboomer Dragon

2011-03-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

I forget to post this up here, but for the sake of completion, and having all of my XDMC entries up on the blog, I wanted to make sure that this goes up at some point. My XDMC 25 Entry - The Kaboomer Dragon, didn't go over so well with the judges, but I had a lot of fun with it and it is going to go great in my steampunkish 4e Setting. So, here you go... ***** The Kaboomer Dragon

Warhammer 40,000 Retrospective - Mage Knights... huh?

2011-03-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

OK, so you might be a bit confused by the title of this post, but it'll all make sense once you read over this post. After the Pokemon phase faded away, back in elementary school, I got started in miniatures gaming with Mage Knights. I was about 10 or 11 at the time, and being the trend setter in my little group of friends, I managed to convince my best bud (Exist, who we are still waiting on

XDMC 26: Create a Racial Feature

2011-03-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

I have been a little slow in putting this up, since there has been so much going on here in Japan, but XDMC 26 is now well under way. It ends this Friday, April 1st, so if you're thinking about putting an entry together for this round of the competition, you best get on that!! This month's competition is - Create a Racial Feature!! The topic for this competition is Racial Features. Sometimes

Warhammer 40,000 Retrospective - 40K Radio Review

2011-03-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

I've been very much a fan of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe since I was in Middle School. My experience with miniatures gaming predates my RPG experience by several years, but I haven't played much since High School. However, recently, I've been listening to the 40K Radio Podcast and my 40 K memories have come flooding back yet again. 40K Radio is a pretty good podcast in my podcast listening

OO! I'm on a Podcast !! - Gamer Traveler Podcast

2011-03-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

A while back, Daniel Perez ( @Highmoon ), got in touch with me on Twitter. He's a friend of a friend of mine from Stargazer's World and let me know that his significant other was doing her best at learning Japanese and he was interested in getting some tips from someone living in Japan and who had already studied the language (though I am pretty much the last person who should be giving lessons)

Nevermet's Call for Submission - Stories in the Ether

2011-03-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

If you hadn't heard, Nevermet Press is now accepting submissions for their fantasy anthology which will showcase Short and Flash Fiction: This new anthology will represent a compelling collection of short stories and flash fiction that were first published online in the fantasy, science fiction, and steampunk genres. Stories In The Ether will be published individually through Nevermet Press as a

OSR - A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming

2011-03-22T20:49:00.001-07:00

I have started to delve pretty deeply into Old School Gaming over the last few months, partly in response to the January RPG Blog Carnival, but party just out of my desire to better understand where our wonderful hobby came from. I tend to get this way about a lot of things; I consider myself as somewhat of a Renaissance Nerd, so not knowing why we are the way we are is a Philosophical Questions

Casting for Akira Leads to White Washing... and Old Washing...

2011-03-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

I've been a big fan of the Akira anime since I was a kid. It was one of the first anime I ever watched and It has been a film that I have constantly revisited over the last decade. I own some of the 6 Volume Manga for which the series was based (in Japanese) and I have been looking forward to Warner Brothers and their film adaptation of the anime for quite a while now. But, where are they

Update - The Situation in Japan

2011-03-21T19:38:00.000-07:00

So, as I think a lot of you know from some earlier posts of mine last week, and from following me on Twitter, I live in Japan, and as I know you all are aware, Japan has been recently devastated by a massive 9.0 Earthquake and accompanying tsunamis. I wanted to take some time right now to talk about the situation in Japan and the latest updates on our situation. Just so you have a little bit of

Japan Relief Event, March 17th, Meltdown Comics

2011-03-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

Please see the flyer below and check out WE <3 Japan -

2 Year Anniversary... Completely Missed It!

2011-03-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

WoW with all that is going on here in Japan right now and at work I totally forgot the fact that the Dump Stat has officially turned 2 years old. My first post on this blog was on March 6th of 2009. Have definitely come a long way since then. Thanks everyone for reading and commenting. Going to keep making this site better in the years ahead. Lots of Love everyone!

Guest Post about The RPG Blogger Community @ Tossing it Out

2011-03-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

I was recently contacted by Arlee, the writer of the Blog Tossing It Out, the host for the A to Z Blogging Challenge. He let me know that there were a lot of folks from the RPG Blogger Community which have been showing up for the challenge this year, I being among them. He let me know that there was a spot open on his blog and was wondering if I would put together a little blog post about my

Ronin -Japan Relief Edition from Highmoon Games at RPG Now

2011-03-11T19:38:00.000-08:00

Most of you should know now had bad thing are here in Japan. We got hit by a massive earthquake, tsunami, and are still in a state of chaos around the country. I happen to be in one of the safest areas in Japan and have not been directly impacted by the Earthquake for the most part. I'm fine and my family is fine, but a lot of people here are suffering. I know that this comes right on the

L5R Spotlight - Full Review @ Stargazer's World

2011-03-11T18:25:00.000-08:00

The timing of this post is pretty ridiculous, considering that Japan is pertty much falling apart around me, but time to continue my review of L5R. I'm not sure if I'm done with my L5R spotlight because I have a lot that I still want to talk about regarding the system, the setting, and the 4th Edition Core book in general, but I am at the point where I have put out my Full Review of the Game.

Gaming with Chopsticks #2 - Why I'll Never Tire of Sequels

2011-03-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

My latest article in my "Gaming with Chopsticks" series has been published over at Eye of the Vortex. This time I talk about the overwhelming quantity of video game sequels that are filling our game store shelves, but at the same time, I try to find the golden lining. Read: Gaming with Chopsticks - Why I'll Never Tire of Sequels at Eye of the Vortex.

Where the Hell Are We? - Fallout 3, One Page Dungeons, Sandbox World Design

2011-03-11T11:00:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, in my post regarding the One Page Dungeon Contest 2011, I mentioned the fact that to me, One Page Dungeons can be used for a very important purpose – filling a sandbox world. Now, I guess I should probably elaborate a little bit regarding my thinking on that. I should preface all of this by saying that recently I have been playing a LOT of Fallout 3. I never played Fallout 1 or 2

One Step Closer to Understanding Old School Gaming - Thank You Underdark Gazette

2011-03-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

What you may not have realized is that all this Hot Elf Chick stuff happening on the RPGBN has actually helped and "welcomed" me into old school gaming quite a bit. James over at the Underdark Gazette, sparked the whole Hot Elf Chick craze with his post here, but in that post, he actually provided some great links to some cool stuff, which I am going to repost here as well (I would imagine that

One Page Dungeon Contest 2011 Begins, Ends April 1st

2011-03-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

Well, If you weren't aware, the One Page Dungeon Contest 2011 has begun. The Contest starts now and will go until April 1st. If you haven't seen any of the entries for the last couple of years, you're missing out. I almost tried to put together one for the contest in 2009, but getting married kind of rained on my One Page Dungeon parade. Then, in 2010, having my son squashed any chance of

Hot Zombie Chicks welcome you to the OSNSR (NSFW?? kinda...)

2011-03-10T16:49:00.000-08:00

So... Elf Chicks are cool too, but since I did that post on Zombies this week, guess I have a little bit of a one-track mind. So, hot Zombie Chicks welcome you to the RPG Bloggers Network - It's remarkable to me how fast this trend kicked in and what an impact it has had on google image search. Type in Hot Elf Chicks now and you get the pictures of some of the bloggers posting pics of

A New Author Approaches - Obidancer Joins the Dump Stat

2011-03-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know that we have a new author here on The Dump Stat. Obidancer, a player in my current Shadowrun Play by Post game, has graciously accepted an invitation I sent him to join the site as an author and artist. We can all expect some interesting stuff coming from him in the future. If you hadn't noticed, I have been posting his artwork up here on the blog

More Shadowrun Campaign Art by Obidancer Pt.2

2011-03-09T17:54:00.000-08:00

So, more campaign art up today. Pretty cool images this time around. This round is all contacts and such, so very cool. You can check out all of his other artwork at his home page! Obidancer.com

Fightfest: Supernatural Zombies vs. Biological Zombies

2011-03-08T18:45:00.000-08:00

Recently, I have been on a very Zombie minded train of thought. I’m not exactly sure what brought this all on, but the combination of listening to lots of old episodes of The Drunk Tank (the podcast by the Rooster Teeth guys) where the subject of Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising come up repeatedly, and me watching the anime High School of the Dead, has got to have something to do with it. So, my

L5R Spotlight - System

2011-03-08T17:43:00.000-08:00

L5R uses a very simple system for most situation in the game. The Roll and Keep system, as used in L5R, requires the player to roll a number of ten sided die, and keep a certain number of those die rolls; the total of all of the “kept” dice is added together and then compared to a Target Number (TN). If the total of all the kept ice meets or beats the TN, then the roll succeeds. This system is

OSR - "Old School Rules" - Does that mean New School Sucks?

2011-03-05T09:00:00.000-08:00

If anything, I am a very easy-going and it is very hard for me to pick a side. I don't really get into fights (unless my wife is starting them :P ) and I don't really dig on confrontation, even on the internet. I have opinions, but when they come to stuff that is fun, I don't really consider anything to be particularly bad. If I have fun doing something, its fun. Everyone is open to their own

All Wrapped Up @ Stargazer's World

2011-03-04T16:23:00.000-08:00

Today, my wrap-up post for my series on World Building hit the internet over at Stargazer's World. This series has taken over 10 weeks to come out in full and I had a good time writing it and analyzing my world building processes. I hope some people got something out of it. Now, you can find all the articles in one place. Go give that post a read to find some links to stuff on the web that I

Beastfolk - Tora (Tiger-folk) Statblock and Fluff

2011-03-04T15:49:00.000-08:00

Easily enraged, The Tiger-folk represent a serious threat on the battlefield. They're GREAT!... in combat. Tora (Tiger-folk) Average Height: 5’’10”-6’6” Average Weight: 200 – 250 lbs Ability Scores: +2 Strength and +2 Dexterity or Wisdom Size: Medium Speed: 6 Vision: Low-light Languages: Common, Tora Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics, +2 Perception Versatile Weapon Masters: Whenever a Tora takes

L5R Character - Shunya Doji - Crane Clan Courtier

2011-03-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

Among the clans in L5R 4th Edition, the Crane Clan has got to be one of my favorites. I really dig on their entire clan history and I really like the position that they operate in society. So, naturally, I really wanted to roll up a Crane Clan character when I got my hands on the new L5R 4th Edition Core book. The Crane Clan is known for being incredibly powerful at court. They have some of

More Shadowrun Campaign Art by Obidancer

2011-03-03T18:19:00.000-08:00

Well, I couldn't resist. I had to post some of the other awesome character artwork that our guy Obidancer has done for our ongoing Play-by-Post Shadowrun campaign. They just keep getting better and better. Very cool stuff. I feel like I'm practically doing an ad campaign for Obidancer at this point, but I'm not getting paid anything. I'm just becoming a big fan. I believe that he does

Eye of the Vortex - My new column! Gaming with Chopsticks

2011-03-03T18:06:00.000-08:00

Recently, I joined up with Eye of the Vortex as a regular writer. I will be writing a weekly column called Gaming with Chopsticks. If you aren't familiar with the website, Eye of the Vortex focuses on all things nerdy. They have some great writers who cover topics ranging from RPG's, Video Games, CCG's, Boards Games, and pretty much everything else nerdy under the sun. I highly recommend you

World Building Part 10 - The End of the World as We Know It?

2011-03-03T18:00:00.000-08:00

My 10th and final world building post in my world building series over at Stargazer's World has been published and is now available. I urge you to go over there and check it out. Provide comments. You know the drill. Please read: World Building Part 10 - The End of the World as We Know It?

My Nav Bars are finally Working Properly!

2011-03-02T22:30:00.000-08:00

This is how I feel right now... thank you trial and error methods of coding. So, I decided today that without any help, I was going to figure out why in the world my blog's nav bars were displaying just fine in Internet Explorer (random older Japanese version) but not in the new IE or in Firefox. I cracked down on my blogger template code and tried to figure out exactly what it is I did

RPG Blog Carnival March Part 1 - Life and Death in RPG @ Campaign Mastery

2011-03-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Well, if you hadn't heard yet, the RPG Blog Carnival for March 2011 has been kicked off by Campaign Mastery. The topic for this month is Life and Death in RPG. I find that to be a very interesting topic right now. Don't you? Why, might you ask, do I think that? Well, I think that a lot of people are currently forecasting the DEATH of 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons, followed quickly by a

SModcast Report - Crimson Mystical Mages 2 coming in April

2011-03-02T05:01:00.000-08:00

As everyone knows, I'm a huge fan of SModcast, and all the other podcasts on the SModcast Podcast Network. Well, I was a bit behind on listening to this weeks episode of SModcast because I was too busy listening to some other ones, including Giant Fire Breathing Robot, The Tome Show, and some of the other SModcast network stuff (finall all caught up after being a year behind the times...).

L5R - Intro to Rokugan

2011-03-01T09:00:00.000-08:00

L5R is a game played in the setting of Rokugan. This fictional, fantasy world, is a combination of numerous elements from Asian Culture. If you didn't know that already, you've got some catching up to do. I setting is obviously most influenced by Japanese culture. The characters that you play as are highly influenced by classic roles in Japanese society - Samurai, Ninja, Monks, and Courtiers.

Rating Player Skill in RPG's... How?

2011-02-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

Given Bulletsorm's recent release and the awesome Demo that I played over the weakend, followed up by my post of the trailer this weekend, I thought I should bring up an interesting topic that happened to randomly pop into my head yesterday. How does one exactly measure the "skill" of a RPG player? I am in some ways at a loss for exactly how to do this... A lot of RPG's have a huge luck factor

Do the Nav Bars Display for you?

2011-02-27T18:29:00.000-08:00

This is question going out to all my readers. I am having some problems with the navigation bars on my website. Do they display properly for you? If they are displaying correctly, under Roleplaying, there should be a drop down menu which shows all of the different RPG's which I talk about on my site. There should also be another drop down menu for CCGs, Miniatures Games, Video Games, and

We need an RPG like this....

2011-02-27T16:10:00.000-08:00

WARNING!! NSFW WARNING!! I don't usually post stuff that isn't clean on my site, but this weekend, after hearing all the related news to the Video Game Bulletstorm I decided that I was going to have to have a go at the demo. I picked it up off of PSN and, well, it was amazing. The demo was really, really fun and I can only imagine that the full version of the game will be as well. I can't