A trip to the game store

I took a little side trip to the Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS) when running errands during lunch today. Once upon a time, trips to game stores would cheer me up and leave me feeling excited and energetic (or something like that). Now it seems the trip tends to depress me more than cheer me up. There are several reasons for this. This particular store carries TONS of stuff, a lot of which is older gaming material. While I enjoy browsing through all this, seeing some of the older stuff that i used to play reminds me of games once played, and seeing various miniature and board games (some that I already have, some that I've been interested in) reminds me that I don't really have anyone to play them with. But this time, I ran across a few things I'd been thinking about getting! While none of them are particularly hard to get, they're not something I'd been inclined to order online yet. The first (and largest) is the hardback FUDGE 10th anniversary edition. While I already have FUDGE, this tome contains about a dozen extra sections covering a variety of genres and implemenations. Another interesting book is Sorcerer and Sword, even though I don't own Sorcerer (but am somewhat familiar with due to online readings and the free "apprentice version"). I was quite interested in this book since there's alot of theory in it and a discussion about classic Sword and Sorcery (Heroic Fantasy) literature and the "betrayal" of the genre in the 70s and beyond. There's a funny story about this next book, Cute & Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters. It's a Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM, anime roleplaying) book, and I like the system and enjoyed most of their books despite never actually playing it. Obviously, it's about the whole pet monster / pokemon / monster rancher, but takes a satirical look at it. Now, if you're familiar with the genre (and who hasn't at least heard of it these days), you know the basics: two people each own monsters, and pit them against each other for fun/profit/status/whatever. The closest real world comparison is cockfighting, when you get right down to it. Many stores and distributors refused to order or carry the book because of the word "cock" in it's title, or because of the negative connotations of cockfighting... So the "cockfighting" was removed from the interior text and two versions of the COVER were made. There's a note on the back of the book that shows the "safe" Cute & Fuzzy Seizure Monsters" cover stating that this is the exact same product with a different cover and title. Fast forward to me picking up the book and buying it. When this particular item is rung up, I get asked for my birthdate. ... Yup. I suspect if I looked really young, I'd have been asked for ID. All because of a word on the COVER. Which, of course, anyone could already see. If you bought the version without that word, you're fine. The contents are all the same (although i should mention that you can't easily see those contents at this FLGS, as they shrinkwrap everything, so if the questionable content were inside they'd be fine.) Really, that was what inspired this whole long-winded write up. There are a decent amount of mature-themed ("adult") RPG products out there, but this was NOT one of them. I could go on about those in control of America being uptight, hot coffee, etc, but anyone who reads this already knows that.

Anyways, I've been carded buying an RPG book. At least they didn't wrap it in brown paper.