The Week in Swag

Twas truly a fine week for free shit here at the House of Z. I mean, it's never a bad week for free shit, but this particular week saw a remarkably fine crop of freebies make their way to my doorstep.

My first care package came compliments of my pal Josh from the Brilliant Gameologists. He'd recently been expounding upon the glories of the Burning Wheel RPG system, and offered to send me some books to get me up to speed for a play-by-post game he's DMing at the BG forums. Included in my starter set was both the core rules book and the Character Burner, and, while I'm only a few dozen pages into the former, I can totally see where he's coming from with regard to his relentless praise of the game. Whereas more traditional titles like D&D encourage players to develop unique quirks and personalities for their characters, Burning Wheel relies upon this as a genuine play mechanic. The way you play your character is influenced as much by his back story, beliefs, and predilections as it is his core stats.

This second of this week's pleasant surprises came from The Scurvy Crew's Captain Dan, who not only sent me a copy of the band's new release From the Seas to the Streets, but also copies of their two preceding albums and the rest of the current Nonexistent Recordings catalog. While you're probably familiar with the piratical rhymes of the Crew, the other two acts presented are equally as engaging but with totally different styles from the work of the Captain. Echo Slightly boasts a smooth electronic feel that's both instantly appealing and summarily relaxing, and Stabilizer is truly eclectic rock at its finest.

With all that said, I reckon the purpose of this post is two-fold. First, it's to publicly thank Josh and Dan for their generosity – Thanks, guys! – and second, it's to point out that if you make friends with these cats they will very likely send you presents.

I'm just sayin'.