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Neito posted:I was actually just reading the super-sexy AD&D reprint edition, which semi-seriously suggests killing non-DM players who read or mention having read something in the DMG.
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# ? Jul 20, 2012 23:45 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 17:40 |
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ForteMaster posted:On another topic, is anyone here familiar with Dark Dungeons and its variants? It's my Basic-loving buddy's favorite retroclone, although I know he's partial to ACKS. It certainly seems to have a lot of neat qualities to it, though I'm not sure if those qualities are unique to DD or are just Basic-based in general. (I also haven't read the Darker and Darkest versions.) Come to think of it, Rules Cyclopedia/Dark Dungeons is the only one-book D&D I can think of - the other editions are usually spread over three books. This may or may not be significant.
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# ? Jul 20, 2012 23:56 |
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I'm looking for more mechanical aspects of hex crawls. Is there a certain number of thing to add per hex? What does a starting hex map look like? Is everything already placed on a hex whether the players know it's there or not? Is there a limit to the stuff per hex and are some hexes left just barren?
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# ? Jul 21, 2012 23:11 |
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Fenarisk posted:I'm looking for more mechanical aspects of hex crawls. Hex-based campaign design. More hex-based campaign design. And the best mapping tool.
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# ? Jul 22, 2012 02:45 |
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Not a retro-clone of D&D/AD&D, but definitely in the same spirit, Dungeon Crawl Classics has been a source of fun lately.quote:If you are familiar with the d20 system (3.0 and 3.5):
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# ? Jul 22, 2012 06:06 |
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I had been thinking about skills in D&D lately, and more specifically how much I hate the 3.5 and 4e skill systems and thinking that NWP were one of the things 2nd got right. I remembered 1st Ed and Secondary skills. For those not in the know, they were basically broad almost PDQ Quality like things your guy could do. If you had FISHERMAN and you needed to do something a fisherman could do then you could just sail a boat or fish or do whatever a Fisherman could do. I think they are my favorite to date since they acknowledge the game isn't really about being a blacksmith or a shitfarmer or whatever but at the same time give you the idea that maybe there is stuff outside class your dude could do.
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# ? Jul 24, 2012 17:20 |
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bishun posted:Not a retro-clone of D&D/AD&D, but definitely in the same spirit, Dungeon Crawl Classics has been a source of fun lately. If you are familiar with any other D&D alike
Red_Mage fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Jul 24, 2012 |
# ? Jul 24, 2012 19:23 |
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How are their modules, especially for first ed? I have the books, and I want to run more than just "Random Dungeon" and "Tomb of Horrors" with it.
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# ? Jul 24, 2012 19:46 |
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AD&D secondary skills would be better if there wasn't a 1 in 6 chance of rolling No Skill of Measurable Worth. Some dudes can't even be actual poo poo-farmers I guess.
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# ? Jul 24, 2012 19:49 |
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whydirt posted:AD&D secondary skills would be better if there wasn't a 1 in 6 chance of rolling No Skill of Measurable Worth. Some dudes can't even be actual poo poo-farmers I guess. Well they became murderhobos for a REASON. We always just picked one.
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# ? Jul 24, 2012 19:51 |
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I recently picked up a bunch of AD&D 1e books for really cheap at a flea sale (Monster Manual I & II, Player's Handbook, Unearthed Arcana and Deities and Demigods all for ten bucks, then I ordered an extra PH and DMG). Finding them was what I needed to rekindle my (and coincedentally my friends') love of D&D, and we've decided to run a campaign. I've always been the group DM, and I've DM'd several campaigns of 3/3.5 that were months long, a few games of 4th and a few one-offs in other systems, but I've never DM'd a game of 1e or 2e. I really don't want to ask at rpg.net; so are there any considerations or common house rules I should be maybe looking into as a newcomer to AD&D? So far I've only houseruled that there aren't any gender restrictions to strength. I've also considered just following Race restrictions to class, but not Race class level restrictions, but I'm unsure how that balances. That and the initiative system seems a little crazy so I might just have both sides roll a d20 or something. Any other advice would be completely awesome.
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# ? Jul 30, 2012 18:11 |
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Max HP at first level, that's a popular one for all editions. Keep the race/class restrictions, and don't worry too much about demihuman max levels. Elves can't be raised, remember! As for initiative, any homemade kludge will be better than what's in the book. And there's Philotomy's Simple Initiative Rules, which were originally meant for OD&D but which works really well with AD&D too. (IMO that is true for most of the stuff on his site) What you really need to houserule is how to generate stats. In AD&D you need at least a 15 to get a bonus in a given stat - and Gary himself recommends that characters have at least two such stats. There's a shitload of crappy dice-rolling schemes in the book, but I'd recommend using the ol' three best out of four d6, and some DM finagling to get a reasonable character. A modified method IV, if you will. Or give your players an array to spread around. That would work fine too. As long as you don't get into Unearthed Arcana chargen you'll be fine. I'd also recommend you some of Kellri's references for running the actual game, although they're more useful in a sandbox context. If you're gonna blaze through the classic modules you won't need them.
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# ? Jul 30, 2012 18:53 |
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Awesome thanks I'll check everything else (and holy crap that initiative system makes so much more sense). For char gen, I think I'm gonna use my old method (when not using point buy) of: 8 sets of 4d6, drop the lowest d6 and the two lowest sets, any roll of one is an automatic reroll. If the stats really sucked I just bumped em by one or two here or there. It generally turns out okay, with most everyone getting at least one 18.
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# ? Jul 30, 2012 19:06 |
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Hellequin posted:I recently picked up a bunch of AD&D 1e books for really cheap at a flea sale (Monster Manual I & II, Player's Handbook, Unearthed Arcana and Deities and Demigods all for ten bucks, then I ordered an extra PH and DMG). Finding them was what I needed to rekindle my (and coincedentally my friends') love of D&D, and we've decided to run a campaign. I would ignore weapon speed factors, spell components (except when they are very rare/expensive or when the spells have a material component at all and the caster is missing his or her gear), weapon vs. armor type, psionics, and initiative (that linked one is great, watch out for spells that should take more than one round to cast; I don't remember whether they exist officially, but if they do, those are "balanced" for that). I am a fan of what the new Gamma World did: 18 in one stat and 16 in another, roll 3d6 for the rest. Allow them to distribute them after they're rolled.
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# ? Jul 30, 2012 19:09 |
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I have been running Basic/BECMI D&D for our group, they are diggin on it. House rules below: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ypi1m7Q4HjN8UCEuaGNqX6-pp36I9JgOYs7AprCqYoE/edit
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# ? Jul 30, 2012 19:23 |
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Hellequin posted:I've always been the group DM, and I've DM'd several campaigns of 3/3.5 that were months long, a few games of 4th and a few one-offs in other systems, but I've never DM'd a game of 1e or 2e. I really don't want to ask at rpg.net; so are there any considerations or common house rules I should be maybe looking into as a newcomer to AD&D? My (B/X) group uses Special Powers to individualize our characters a bit and it works really well.
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# ? Jul 30, 2012 19:32 |
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Would it be possible to easily just use the 3/3.5/4 Initiative? I know most monsters don't have listed DEX scores, but you could just make a chart that gives a bonus based on the hit dice the monster hits as.
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# ? Jul 30, 2012 20:02 |
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Can't see why not. You may want to reroll initiative every round instead of letting it ride, though. It could get rough on spellcasters.
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# ? Jul 30, 2012 20:05 |
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VacuumJockey posted:Can't see why not. You may want to reroll initiative every round instead of letting it ride, though. It could get rough on spellcasters. Alternately, have the whole party roll initiative as in later D&Ds, but let them choose who acts on which initiative count each round.
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# ? Jul 30, 2012 20:07 |
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Thanks everyone for the quick and informative replies, I really appreciate it. We will be sandboxing it, and I've already got a campaign idea going and the world map all drawn up. Everyone rolled up their characters the other day (one person even managed to roll a 18/00 for their fighter). I'll let you all know how the first session goes.
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# ? Aug 1, 2012 14:52 |
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Hellequin posted:Everyone rolled up their characters the other day (one person even managed to roll a 18/00 for their fighter).
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# ? Aug 1, 2012 15:03 |
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Finally, some attention to non-3e/4e! Labyrinth Lord is probably the purest D&D that ever D&D'd, so it's a good game for that. It's quirky, has odd art, and emulates a cleaned-up Basic. If someone ever complains that my own games aren't "real D&D," I might switch over to Labyrinth Lord. Dungeon Crawl Classics seems like the New Thing and it does look pretty crazy in a good way. It would be difficult to run a long, serious game with it but it looks perfect for the short gonzo sessions that most nerds are familiar with. The thing preventing me from getting it is that I don't know how much it differs from the playtest version, which had some things in it that bothered me.
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# ? Aug 1, 2012 15:50 |
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homullus posted:. . . with a witness? The chance of 18/00 is really, really, really low. Yeah with me and one other player standing right there watching.
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# ? Aug 1, 2012 18:57 |
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Hey I actually need this thread's help. Being as it is of dubious legality to provide straight AD&D stats for monsters, if I were converting an adventure, what retroclone would probably provide the most universal base so lots of retroclone players could use it. I am leaning toward S&W, but if anyone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it.
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# ? Aug 1, 2012 19:00 |
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Red_Mage posted:Hey I actually need this thread's help. Being as it is of dubious legality to provide straight AD&D stats for monsters, if I were converting an adventure, what retroclone would probably provide the most universal base so lots of retroclone players could use it. I am leaning toward S&W, but if anyone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it. Is this something you're publishing/selling, and if so in what context? From most of the retroclone-style modules I've seen they generally at most provide a tiny 1/2 line statblock that lists the creature's Hit Dice, Armor Class, any attacks they can do, Morale, and maybe like movement speed and a class level it saves like and reminders of special abilities and stuff. If you just went with something along the lines of "6 Goblins (HD:1-1,AC:6,1 Club(1d6),M:7,Playing Dice)" you'd be pretty universally usable. If this is something you're going to be selling for profit you might want to look at some other published modules out there and see how they handled it, but just that level of detail should keep you from emulating any one specific product (be in D&D or a retroclone or whatever).
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# ? Aug 1, 2012 20:29 |
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OtspIII posted:Is this something you're publishing/selling, and if so in what context? From most of the retroclone-style modules I've seen they generally at most provide a tiny 1/2 line statblock that lists the creature's Hit Dice, Armor Class, any attacks they can do, Morale, and maybe like movement speed and a class level it saves like and reminders of special abilities and stuff. If you just went with something along the lines of "6 Goblins (HD:1-1,AC:6,1 Club(1d6),M:7,Playing Dice)" you'd be pretty universally usable. If this is something you're going to be selling for profit you might want to look at some other published modules out there and see how they handled it, but just that level of detail should keep you from emulating any one specific product (be in D&D or a retroclone or whatever). I really just need to provide a statline for monsters as it is a thing I will be publishing. Any suggestions for a universal module with some monster variety?
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# ? Aug 1, 2012 21:05 |
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Red_Mage posted:I really just need to provide a statline for monsters as it is a thing I will be publishing. Any suggestions for a universal module with some monster variety? I'm actually not sure, then. I know that the One Page Dungeon Contest just asks people not to give any stats at all, which isn't as cruel for a module to do with a retroclone as it normally would be since you really just need to hold 3 numbers in your head (hit dice, armor class, attack damage) per monster type (of which there's usually only one) plus any special abilities, which tend to be straightforward. If you don't want to do that I'd say your best bet would be to just get in contact with the publisher of the retroclone you want to work with, since presumably you're going to have to do that anyway, and see if they have any standard formatting they use. Hell, even if you just want to publish 'generic' you should probably talk to a publisher just for general advice--they're all very much in the 'we just want to get cool stuff out there' mindset, so I'm sure they'd be helpful even if you're not going to publish for their system. For module examples I guess I'd just check out the free/cheaper samples out there for Swords and Wizardry, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Laybrinth Lord. If you see two people using the same notation it's probably generic enough you can use it, and it should give you some idea of the info that people expect to have instant access to.
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# ? Aug 1, 2012 21:47 |
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Red_Mage posted:Hey I actually need this thread's help. Being as it is of dubious legality to provide straight AD&D stats for monsters, if I were converting an adventure, what retroclone would probably provide the most universal base so lots of retroclone players could use it. I am leaning toward S&W, but if anyone has a better idea, I'd love to hear it.
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# ? Aug 1, 2012 22:14 |
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Hellequin posted:Thanks everyone for the quick and informative replies, I really appreciate it. We will be sandboxing it, and I've already got a campaign idea going and the world map all drawn up. Everyone rolled up their characters the other day (one person even managed to roll a 18/00 for their fighter). I'll let you all know how the first session goes.
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# ? Aug 1, 2012 22:15 |
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Soggy Cereal posted:Dungeon Crawl Classics seems like the New Thing and it does look pretty crazy in a good way. It would be difficult to run a long, serious game with it but it looks perfect for the short gonzo sessions that most nerds are familiar with. The thing preventing me from getting it is that I don't know how much it differs from the playtest version, which had some things in it that bothered me. I'm currently running a DCCRPG campaign, and yeah, it's not easy to run a fully fledged campaign. The big problem is that DCCRPG characters are, on a whole, glass cannons; easily able to give a pounding to any monsters they're facing, but just as easily able to go down in one or two blows. On average, even with me pulling my punches a bit, my group's was losing a character per session up until recently (though that's mostly due to two of them being new to RPG's in general, and getting split up in combat.)
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# ? Aug 3, 2012 19:24 |
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Does anyone have any experience with Swords & Wizardry? They're kickstarting a "new release" and I wonder how it holds up as an OD&D clone.
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# ? Aug 3, 2012 19:27 |
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I'm mostly a BECMI and AD&D man, so I can't really tell you much about what S&W is like in play compared to OD&D. FWIW it's supposed to be 99% restated OD&D with much better organization and layout. In any case, the core rules are available for free so you can always check them out.
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# ? Aug 5, 2012 21:37 |
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Yeah, I went and checked out the free PDF and I wasn't impressed. It's just 1st edition when you get right down to it.
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# ? Aug 8, 2012 15:21 |
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I never had the opportunity to read or play the LBBs myself, so it's nice to know that S&W is the original, more or less. So thank you for that, Evil Mastermind. It's my impression that the new release is really more of a deluxe edition with a leather cover than a "new" D&D. Of course, it's easy to use S&W as a base for one's own D&D variation - example: Crypts & Things, which is essentially Newt Newport's swords-and-sorceryfied, houseruled and annotated S&W.
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# ? Aug 8, 2012 21:22 |
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I've said it elsewhere, but S&W is the LBBs, through a glass darkly.
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# ? Aug 9, 2012 03:06 |
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I have been going through Darker Dungeons, the houseruled version of Dark Dungeons (basically a unified single target number system) and I had a rules question. I'm looking at how weapons offer parrying bonuses to AC, but the way the book describes them isn't all that clear. It sounds like if you're, say, sword and boarding, you only get to parry the higher number between the two sources. Like a sword giving you -2 against 1 from armed and a buckler giving you -1 against 2 from any source, you can get two bonuses a round at most, one of which can be that -2 if the attack is armed. That sound right? It's what they use as the example, but I wanted to make sure I was reading it right. Also, for stuff like multiple attacks, when it says "can hit on a 2+" does that mean "as long as you could hit it, barring auto-misses" or "as long as you would hit if you rolled a 2"? Because those are VERY different and I don't get what's meant.
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# ? Aug 12, 2012 22:08 |
I noticed the link up top to a retroclone of The Fantasy Trip and thought it might be cool to mention one of the non-D&D style games in the thread. For those who don't know about it, this game originally started out as a board game called Melee where the object was to create a warrior with a simple 2 stat spread (STR & DEX) and then have him fight to the death in a hex-grid arena against your friends warrior. Strength was your HP and determined what kind of weapon you used & Dexterity determined your accuracy with weapon attacks. It was a simple little game, and kind of a proto-fighting game in a way, but then the company later released Wizard, which introduced the Intelligence (IQ) stat that determined the level of spell you could learn and how well you cast them. Your spells ran on your Strength/HP instead of any kind of spells-per-day or mana point system, so if you made your wizard too frail he'd cast himself to death trying to kill his opponent. Eventually the game expanded to beyond an arena-combat game with the release of Into the Labyrinth, which introduced skills and adventuring rules. The company that made the game eventually folded, but the games designer Steve Jackson later used a lot of the framework from this game to create GURPS. The rules for Legends of the Ancient World, which is the name of the clone in the OP are incredibly simple and fit on just a few pages and its a pretty good game for introducing friends to rpg's since it doesn't require nearly as much set up or explanation to run as even the most bare bones D&D game.
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# ? Aug 15, 2012 03:57 |
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Yeah, Fantasy Trip was a cool little RPG. It works pretty well with Heroscape too...
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# ? Aug 15, 2012 14:09 |
VacuumJockey posted:Yeah, Fantasy Trip was a cool little RPG. It works pretty well with Heroscape too... Huh, thats actually pretty cool. I'd imagine it would get expensive playing like that though since Heroscape is out of print.
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# ? Aug 15, 2012 20:30 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 17:40 |
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What's the deal with the Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Carcosa guy? I know he gets a lot of bad vibes around the forum, but I can't find out exactly why. I read through crunchy parts of the free edition of LotFP and wasn't blown away, but it didn't seem any better or worse than most of the retroclone stuff out there. Is the fluff really bad or something?
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# ? Aug 15, 2012 20:44 |