Pyat and the Rape of the Robot Santa

We live across from a elementary school yard. Last night, for a couple of hours, three boys were smashing a 5-foot tall animatronic Santa Claus to pieces. They pantsed it, spat on it, threw it from a low roof over and over again, and pretended to rape it. (EDIT: I think I may have used too strong a term - one of them pretended it "hump" it, which is just the sort of nasty thing 11 and 12 year old boys do to gross each other other.)


Then they scattered the broken pieces on the road.

Finally, the broke the springs from the legs and went off down the street, taking swings at each others heads. I took some photos when they were throwing bits of the school roof and in the road. I tend to ignore anything that happens in the school yard that doesn't involve something being set on fire, or someone bleeding.

For a little while I was telling myself that, hey, they were 11 year or 12 years old. They do these sort of things. I used to do that sort of thing, right? Then I reflected that, no, I didn't. Our destructive tendencies were limited to throwing empty bottles at a brick wall if we were sure no one was looking, and we generally felt sheepish about it afterward. Once, my friend Bill and I smashed up a Ouija board we found in a parking lot because it offended our rational sensibilities. And once I set fire to my bedroom carpet while experimenting with a candle and a glass jar.

Mayhem in the name of science is acceptable! Abusing a helpless human figure strikes me as incredibly disquieting on a deep level, and its not something I'd have ever done.

Ah, the happy laughter of innocent children, right?

Pyat is a progressive gamer

In happier news, I'm starting an AD&D game with the players from my Serenity RPG. Mainly because I have a wealth of material for it, and I don't feel like converting to 3.0 or 3.5. I like 3.0 and 3.5 well enough. 4e I've not played. I own the 4e Player's Handbook and find it terribly unengaging, though I am quite willing to play it someday. Just not, you know, today.

Setting will be Greyhawk, and I'm going to start with one of those 2nd edition Fast Play adventures they sold in magazine format in the late 90s.

Pyat and the Time Portal

It occurs to me that I should not have been so pleased and surprised by the reemergence of the old gaming materials at Hamilton Hobby Specialities. You see, Hamilton actually has a dedicated gaming store that always has ancient stuff on display. I've written about it before. J&F Hobbies in the west end is like a dusty photograph of a game store, circa 1992. I went there today and picked up three "Monstrous Compendium" packs for $15. The owner, John, has mint condition 2nd ed corebooks and supplements on the shelves, gathering dust. Lots of dust.


He has a little alley filled with lead minis.


The store has moved into progressively smaller digs three times in the eleven years I've known of its existence. In 1998 he was in a very expansive (and cluttered) storefront, and seemed to be doing a fairly brisk business in Warhammer minis. I don't think that's true anymore, as all the minis seem to be a closed off little aisle and don't seem to move. Still, there has been some improvement. He's sharing the space with a model airplane seller now, and he sold all his stacks of used books to a woman who runs a bookstore, so the place is looking much less shabby and crowded than it did last time I visited.

It occurs to me that J&F Hobbies has everything I need to start an AD&D game in any setting. While I was thinking of using Greyhawk, J&F seems to have the needed books for any of the other AD&D settings, with the exception of Maztica.

So, tell me, Internet, if you were silly enough as to go back and run an AD&D game...

[Poll #1366176]