Who Are Your Mercenary Companies?: Taking 10 looks at incorporating mercenary companies into your role-playing game as a way of building depth and background for both the world and your player characters. The View-Master Slides of Our Youth Were Beautiful Works of Art: As a child of the 1980s, I have conflicted feelings about the old View-master … Read more
Easton, Pa. is a town of tradition, perhaps no more so than around Thanksgiving. On Turkey Day, Easton plays Phillipsburg, NJ. in one of the country’s longest running football games. It takes place at Lafayette College’s Fisher Field, which is a few blocks from my house in Easton’s College Hill district. The game started in 1905 … Read more
High school football is a big deal in Pennsylvania. Thanksgiving Day football is an even bigger deal in Easton, Pa. The annual Easton vs. Phillipsburg, NJ game is the oldest interstate matchup in the nation; the first such game was held in 1906 and it’s been going strong ever since.
Shortly after graduating from college, I tried starting a gaming club in the Lehigh Valley, Pa. I was fresh off having helped create the Role-Playing Underground when I was a student at Lock Haven University, and I was desperate to get a new campaign up and running.
It failed. We had a few meetings, and I was able to find enough people to get my own campaign off the ground, but in the end I didn’t understand the fundamental difference between a college game club, and a real-world one. In college, the club was about recruiting people for your game. In the real-world, it was about playing games
Quick note: for those who might have been drawn to this post by the casino going up Bethlehem, Pa., I’m talking about role-playing, card, board and war games, not gambling.
Ultimately, I was able to patch together enough players from the club and some local cons. Once I had a group of my own, the need for the club faded. So did the club.
The Elucidator is a quarterly print magazine published in Easton, Pa. It’s the sort of thing that people outside of the town might never expect to be here: a magazine reviewing local culture, life, and arts. It’s “Chew” and “Imbibe” columns check out the Lehigh Valley’s bars and restaurants, while “Listen” reviews a variety of music, and regular photo essays explore life in and around Easton.
Like I said, it’s nothing you’d expect to find here. Unless, of course, you actually lived here.
Easton’s changed a lot over the years, in some ways for the bad (gangs) and many ways for the good (the arts). There’s an established arts community, multiple art galleries, some cool downtown events — including beer, garlic and shad (yes, shad) festivals.
A powerful thunderstorm hit Easton Pa. on Tuesday night, knocking out power to my house and to the college where I work. It made for a long Tuesday night/Wednesday morning as we sweltered in a house with out fans, but thankfully things cooled down when power came back up Wednesday morning and the air started … Read more
