Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/02/02/best-mechanical-pencil-for-dra.html
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I would also suggest the Pentel Orenz for protection against breakages. The metal tip/sleeve that you would normally want the lead to go past is free sliding and since it rides across the page, it takes the brunt of the force that normally the tip of the lead to would take. Hard to explain (check it below), but it works and it’s smooth. Since it resists breakages so well, they even do a 0.2mm one. Pretty amazing.
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What a weird way to hawk office supplies.
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s/net Hack -/Dungeon Crawl: /
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I’ve been playing with the idea of doing a computer game for fun. I’ve been considering a very detailed, simulationist Roguelike (but not like Dwarf Fortress simulationism, it’d still be a dungeon crawl). However, one thing I realized that what I liked about the old games like Wizardry and the old Gold Box SSI AD&D games like Pool of Radiance or Champions of Krynn was that you had to map, just like in tabletop.
Modern games tend to map for the user and have it on a pulldown or on screen somewhere. While it’s convenient I really feel like you lose something. Of course, I suspect if it’s not there you lose at least an order of magnitude of players.
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I always liked the description of the TILTOWAIT spell:
The effect of this spell is somewhat like the detonation of a small tactical nuclear weapon.
Wizardry’s overall gameplay was directly inspired by Avatar, an ahead-of-its-time multi-user dungeon game that ran on the PLATO system. Access to it was restricted to late-night hours, and it was easy to get sucked into an all-nighter playing it.
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Ah, Wizardry. Great game, though, of course, pretty damn hard. Not as hard as Wizardry IV which, frankly, baffles the mind or Wizardry II which makes you beat Wizardry I again if you beat it, of course.
Dark Souls? Hah.
If you and your sprog enjoy ancient RPGs you may get a kick out of the CRPG Addict, not to mention a few ideas for future games. He’s the chap who’s decided to play every RPG ever released.
In order.
His articles on the original Plato 1970s RPGs are a must-read. Here’s one on the first RPG that can be found. The first made, it transpires, was deleted by a sysadmin as a waste of machine resources.
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I wore out the enter key on my Amiga 500 playing number 6 in the Wizardry series.
FTFY 
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Thanks, I’m going to check this out!
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Glad to help. 
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I obsessively mapped an NES rpg back in the day. It was very open-map above-world with scattered dungeons. It was so brutally difficult, as you could extremely easily wander into territories with beasties way above your weight class, then get completely turned around fleeing from them, or lose your way dashing back to town after aborting a dungeon crawl due to lack of potions. It was also a wire-frame-dungeon style design, where you move one square at a time, but monster could be on any side biting and clawing. I ended up with about 6 sheets of graph paper taped together, all colered in with colored pencils and labelled. I never did beat the game, or find the edges (and now can’t remember the name…)
I agree there’s really something to the amount of imagination and energy you had to contribute to make games feel worth it. You really had to meet them halfway. It also felt lile a real accomplishment, having something concrete in your hands at the end of hours of fleeting activity.
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Thanks for the tip (pun intended). I just ordered a 0.3mm one in yellow!
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played this in junior high on IIe. the principal would let a group of us stay after school (without supervision) and on weekends we went to one kid’s house to play cuz they were rich and had one at the house.
I think it was Wizardy 2 where we had an accident and the drive with the boot disc caught on fire. we managed to get the disc out but from that moment on whenever our characters stayed overnight in the inn they gained a level. One time we just took them from disc to disc and leveled up some 10 times. Everything started running from us so we only did the mass leveling the one time.
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Squee! Not only do I remember playing this game, I even still have my original 5.25 in. disk. (Alas, the box and manual are long gone, although my wife had the ultimate collection, and still had the manual for that set.) Loved it.
I think I even still have the maps I made for it somewhere. I just used a regular pencil, though when I’m designing maps for D&D ('80s Basic, because I’m too cheap/poor to afford current ed. books). These days I just use a 0.8, 0.5, or 0.3 mm Pentel, same ones I use for just drawing.
Yeah, I never did finish. I think my attention drifted away from video games somewhat at that age in general, though. Tabletop always seemed more engaging to me.
Heard a bit about this, but I’ve never played.
I think you are right. I’m likely in the minority of enjoying drawing maps. It slows gameplay a lot.
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lead-holders, clutch pencils ftw.
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I’m a fan of the Staedtler lead holder, myself. And a nice soft rhomboid eraser.
I wear out anything else too fast, especially erasers.
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