10/06/04:

Dungeons & Toilets!

On Tuesday we caught up with the Iron Talons and had lunch at a Chinatown restaurant called the Post-Mao House. They cleared up a few issues for us, specifically the Mystery of the Australian Toilet. All the toilets that we encountered looked like this:

Both of the buttons on that yin-yang on the top appeared to flush the toilet. So what did it mean? Was one hot and one cold? Were men supposed to press one button, women another? If the Buddha shits in Melbourne, is the Pope Catholic? For those of you who haven’t already guessed, it’s a half-flush and full flush; while the water level ends up the same, less water is used in the half-flush, helping to conserve water. So in Australia, the motto is: “If it’s brown, flush it down; if it’s yellow, flush it down as well, but only use half the water in the process.”

The Iron Talons had found a game store – “Mind Games” – a few blocks away, and after lunch we went to check it out. The initial response was a little disappointing; Andrew introduced me as the guy who wrote Eberron, and the clerk said “What’s Eberron?” But when we actually went into the roleplaying games section, the clerk – Nick – knew who I was and was excited to see me. Mind Games had one of the best RPG selections I’ve seen, squeezing a tremendous range and variety into a very small corner of the store. They had almost everything I’ve ever worked on, including the Dungeon and Dragon magazine articles; the only D20 product I couldn’t find was the Complete Guide to Wererats. They carried Feng Shui, but not Over the Edge. If you’re looking for RPGs in Melbourne, check it out!

While there, we noticed a sign that said that the store ran RPGs every Friday night. So, we decided that I’d run a session Friday night. Seeing as how my computer crashed, this meant that I spent a few hours writing up characters for the game – but I’m here because of Eberron, and I want to help spread it around!  I’ve decided to run a modified version of the Forgotten Forge using 2^nd-level PCs… tune in to a future instalment to see how it goes!

While shopping, Ellen found a smaller shop called Dungeon of Magic; as it turned out, the owner had just finished reading Eberron, so Ellen gave me a call. Dungeon of Magic is literally that – a dark, underground store focusing on Magic: the Gathering and miniatures, with a small selection of D&D books. The owner Adam was quite nice, and we chatted for a time about the Valenar and other aspects of Eberron.

Later we stopped back at Mind Games to meet Matt, one of the other gamers on staff who was interested in Eberron. In a bizarre highlight for us, as we were talking to Matt the phone rang. He picks it up and says “Well, he’s going to run something Friday evening… he’s here right now, but he’s just stopping for a visit.” While this may have been the only call they received about the Eberron game, being on the scene when it came in certainly made us feel appreciated!  

We had dinner with the Iron Talons, and I briefly tried to run Shadows of the Last War for them, but I was still tired from the con and due to the computer crash I had no materials at all to work with. Ultimately we ended up just sitting around and talking about their home game and gamewriting in general. If they’re reading this, thanks to Andrew, Adam, and Marty for their hospitality!

Later in the week, I ran The Forgotten Forge at Mind Games.  Here's our group, along with chief Mind Games RPG guy Matt.

            Next: Sightseeing!

Back   Next

Australia Log Main Page