What Gaming Stuff Did You Get for Christmas?

This time of year I'm usually excited to get back to work/school so I can do a little gaming "show & tell" with my fellow nerds. Since I'm 51 and the only gamer in my family, the only "nerds" I know are of the sports type I work with. They don't know what a d20 is to save their life, but can tell you who was the coach for any given professional football team in 2005.

As an allegedly grown-ass man I don't get to give my family lists of the shit I want so I generally get money if I get any gifts at all. That isn't an *actual* complaint, mind you....I'm more than fine with not getting gifts at all and money is nothing to sneeze ever since I learned that people will exchange money for stuff I want!

Last year I gave my gaming group some Lulu-printed game books that cover much of our weekly game, albeit with a custom cover I tweaked from the Rick & Morty D&D comics. There were...issues with everyone getting the books and I think it was June or July before everyone got their stuff. This year I didn't do anything....yet. If it's going to be June before people get things then I might as well make it Christmas at NTRPG when I see almost everyone....at least that's the plan.

EDIT: I just found out now (1930 on January 1st, 2023) that two of the players got their 2021 gifts last weekend!

I do have something for one buddy, but since I haven't mailed it off yet, I'm not going to mention it here lest I spoil the surprise. I could wait until June for that one too, but I won't.

Now, that's kind of a lot on what didn't happen this Christmas season, so I'll try to focus on the one dumb thing I did actually do, well kind of two things I did, but one is just random that happened while out and about in December.

Now I've managed to go to NTRPG for the last five years (not quite, but close enough for this blog) and during the year I try to support the con where I can, predominately by hunting for booze to be featured at a future Whiskey Tasting (it's becoming a thing), but also by bidding in the various Facebook auctions the con has (North Texas RPG Con Auctions). I've probably paid too much for a few items, but it helps the cons and usually it's something I really want anyway, so availability is worth the premium. I will also admit that I'll bid on stuff if it hasn't gotten much action and I don't really figure out what items are allegedly worth to begin with......

I also, evidently, do not always remember what I bid on or purchase. This last summer (?) I won a bid of an item and when it arrived I just set the package aside and promptly forgot about it. I'm not even sure how many months passed by before I realized that this was now a mystery package. When I was wrapping up my Christmas gifts, I just threw it in the stack and gave it to myself to unwrap at the family Christmas. I thought it was funny, but my family thought it was a little weird.....but let's be honest, because I game they already think that.

What did I buy, forget, and then gift myself?

Just a cover artist signed copy of Dragon Magazine #206. I have have a cover artist signed #200 already (got it signed in person at an event), and I'm rather pleased with myself. I still do not remember buying this...at all, so it was really a surprise.

The other thing was something I discovered at Half-Price Books in early December. These days it isn't easy to find gaming materials at this chain since "everybody" knows about the place, but occasionally a surprise can be found. I've been looking for some rather obscure reference materials for a family member (so not gaming related) and if I have time I'll stop in to look at the "old" book section as that's where it'd be. I had time to kill before a flight and stopped in this one HPB that has never had much for me, but it was on my way to the airport. I was surprised to find a boxed copy of the FASA Star Trek RPG from 1982. It was marked as "missing pieces" and not that expensive.....BUT it also had a sticker on it indicating that the rulebook had been signed by James "Scotty" Doohan. From what I gather the signature alone goes for 4x what the asking price for the boxed set was!

I was allowed to open it up and while I didn't do a complete inventory, the cards were unpunched and it looked like only one d20 was missing! It appears that whoever got this set only used it for the dice, which is funny to me because I remember, around that time, buying multiple sets of Basic D&D at Waldenbooks on clearance because it was cheaper and easier to get the set for the dice than it was to acquire rpg dice on their own.

So I think I had a decent RPR haul this Christmas......how did you fare?