One of the podcasts that has vaulted into a top position on my listening rotation is The Lair of Secrets. Sure their episodes are posting many months after recording, but it's been a good mixture of personal discussion, gaming ideas, and a healthy dose of geek cred.
Recently, episode #13 brought up a fun topic: Items that were in the hosts' DriveThruRPG libraries, but they have never downloaded. It's a good topic, so I logged onto DriveThru and figured out the seven "best" items that have been sitting my account's library... and whether they have a chance of ever leaving. This took a bit to accomplish, because I have 23 pages of files, and down to 9 pages of non-downloaded stuff to peruse.. Sure, you might say, that's small pickings, but since I purchase files sporadically and downloaded mostly free stuff, I was not surprised by the eclectic collection of pdfs waiting for me.
The first thing I noticed was that I most certainly have downloaded some of these items years ago. I have hardcopies printed off of some of these pdfs, which I definitely got through the website, but it could have been prior to the great DriveThru/RPGNow merger and the data didn't translate.
The second thing is the vast amount of random Fantasy RPG crap I've picked up for free or pay-as-you-want. Without a way to organize them, it's just an info dump that I don't have the time or patience to go through, especially with the treasure trove of all the old printed bound matter I have on shelves and drawers in the office.
GASLIGHT Quick Start Rules by Buck Surdu Productions - GASLIGHT is a fan-favorite of the Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers (H.A.W.K.S.) which in turn is a fan-favorite club of HMGS cons like Historicon. It certainly makes sense, as these rules were written by H.A.W.K.S member Buck Surdu. As it fits the one-size-fits all mentality of Victorian Sci-Fi games that I enjoy, I'm surprised I never opened these up, but I'm also still shocked that I don't one any printing of the ruleset.
Fistful of Lead: The Great Beer Riot of 1888 by Wiley Games - This was a random free scenario for a system I don't own, but it's screaming Gnome Wars for me even now. Given my recent Thirty Beers War scenario, this own deserves a download just to keep the dust off of the gnomes.
Root: TTRPG Quickstart Rules by Magpie Games - I have a decent collection of various anthropomorphic animal RPGs, and I'm surprised this one never got reviewed. Based off of a boardgame, this seems a bit simpler in approach than other games, thus easier to introduce to my target audience.
100 Roaring Twenties Bystanders 3 by Fishwife Games I know for certain that I didn't spend the current $1 price tag for a single page of 20's character with name, sex, occupation, but I would get much more out of this for a Cthulhu game than some sourcebooks.
Gamma Zine #1 (and #2) by ThrowiGames I've purchased/Kickstarted/downloaded a bunch of ThrowiGames products, particularly issues #3 and #4 of Gamma Zine, the Post-Apocalyptic setting 'zine, but I've never gotten around to reading #1 and #2. The idea of a Gamma World game with the kids after this Fall's chaos is still a possibility, and if it happens, I need to trawl through these before purchasing/downloading other material.
Amazing Tales One-Sheet Adventures - I sorta missed the boat on using Amazing Tales with the kids, as they were content with more complicated systems earlier than I expected. But they have a huge collection of one-page adventures in tons of genres. I've downloaded a bunch, but there's still a half-dozen more that I've never read. The format screams AAU tournament car rides, especially the long stretches on the turnpike.
(Adventures) The Cooperative Dungeon Collection (01-04) by Creative Mountain Games - After ranting about the glut of FRPG product in my library that I've never read, I mention this collection of 3.5 D&D books because, according to my account information, it's the second order I ever placed (6-10-2004) and even as of this post getting published on my blog, I still haven't downloaded it. It looks like everything that was great with the OSR, but also everything that was bad with it.
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