Diary of a Failed Game Designer

"Phase Ball as told by by Sid Hoofnaggler, former Phase ball conference commissioner:  First ye need to know yer field. It's grass, usually  low cut and tightly gown, so the ball can move about.  Tis called the field, or the  sand box, depending on how rural you are. Some dwarves play on  gravel or stone, but  they are as a rule, crazy.  To start each team takes a ball and  bowls it from the bonus ring. Whichever team bowls closest, starts with the ball. Players can run whit the  ball. but they can also get tackled. when a player with the ball is brought down play stops, all players stand where they are. A tackled player may pass the ball but only to a player behind the  bonus ring and the ball my not cross the restricted zone. In effect once a tackled player stands up he may  only throw the ball behind or to his left or right, not forward. If the tackled player can not pass the  ball he must had it over to his tackler who may them pass it to any team mate. Play resumes when t

This may be a series about  books that I have found off label RPG uses for over the  years. Or it may be the only time I bring it up ... Time will tell. Enter the Toolbox: I may have mentioned this before.. I hope I did .. Eventually players get to such a level that they want stuff. Stuff for the keep, stuff for the temple, stuff for the waggons. "Those retainers need a place to live" and so on. At the time I had a hard time pricing things. If a player said "I want a great big desk for my wizard's study," I had  no idea what to charge them. Worse yet I had a hard time pricing things relative to each other.. What was the price difference between a plain set of woodworking tools and an expensive one? Then one day while perusing the bargain table at Barnes and Noble (I used to indulge my fetish for  referance books far more often than I do now,) I found this: http://www.amazon.com/1897-Sears-Roebuck-Co-Catalogue/dp/1602390630 It's as it says on the tin a reprin