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Dungeons & Dragons, Final Fantasy Themed Campaign

Finally, after a couple of years of getting Dungeons and Dragons, we finally got to play the game. I would be the Dungeon Master, because well, I wanted to. One of my daughters had been wanting to play the game for quite some time. And last Saturday we did.

I have been working on the story all week. Well not really, but it was brewing in my head. I knew that I wanted to include Final Fantasy lore into it. So I changed the classes into Fighter, Monk, Thief, Black Mage, White Mage and Red Mage. Sound Familiar? I was going to change the races, but decided against it. Changing Elves into Elezen seemed good, but changing Dwarves to Lalafel was a little too much.

We started our Journey in Cornelia. Yes, I would base my Campaign around Final Fantasy I. But I would make some changes. There are no Warriors of Light. Not yet, anyway. Our Adventurers were all at the local tavern. It was a busy place so they all ended up sitting together at the bar. Unbeknown (is that how you spell it?) to them that they would begin their journey. The bartender eyed them, and said “You look like you can handle yourselves.” and chuckled. Then he told them about the mercenary company “Rent-A-Savior”, and that they were hiring, if they needed to make some coin.

The Adventurers, agreed that they should at least go check it out. So off they went to Rent-A-Savior. Their they were welcomed in. And Miss Olga would be with them shortly. Here they started creating their characters. We started off with a Meat Shield … I mean Fighter, Astra Atlantos ANCB, the thief, Trippie Pink, Akrasia the Wandering Black Mage, and Mr. Tinkles our White Mage from Snowlap.

When they finished filling out their applications, they were directed to Miss Olga’s office. It was a makeshift office. One table and a bunch of fold-able chairs. Miss Olga was a brute, she was yelling at our adventurers and judging them from the get go. After she was done interviewing them, she had decided that they were not fit for her company. But, there was a knock at the door and she had been told that the King’s Guard was there to see her.

Our Adventurers were left alone. They were ready to escape, but there was no way out for them.

When Miss Olga had returned she informed them that due to unforeseen circumstances that she was forced to hire them. Just because all her “Saviors” were out far far away, and the King’s daughter, Princess Sarah had been kidnapped , by (you guessed it) the rogue knight Garland. So, she hired them on the spot and gave them their “Rent-A-Savior” badges.
She told them that as soon as they leave Cornelia, they should head North East, as Garland had taken shelter in the Temple of Fiends. She also gave them some gold to equip themselves with weapons and armor before they go.

The Adventurers, now called Saviors, headed to the weapon shop and bought themselves some weapons. They then headed to the Item shop, where they were shocked to find that a single Phoenix own cost 500 gold. As they exited the shop, Astra Atlantos, and Trippie Pink, thought they needed to have the Phoenix Down because of how expensive it was. So, they devised a plan to get it at whatever cost. Astra would try and get the Item Keeps attention while Pink would steal the item.
It didn’t go as planned as the Item Keep, caught them stealing and called for the guards. But, Astra and Pink charmed their way out of it. They were escorted out by the guards for their own safety and told them they should stay away from the Item Keep, because he was just a creepy old man.

Our Saviors headed out of the city and made their way towards the Temple of Fiends. On the way they found a chocobo being attacked by 4 goblins. It was a gruesome battle. Mostly, because we didn’t know what we were doing. And two of our Saviors got into it with each other and stormed off. In the end Akrasia and Mr. Tinkles had defeated the goblins and befriended the chocobo, which they named “Chocobo”. So, in the end they lost 2 allies, but gained another.

The Saviors reached the Temple of Fiends, and that is where our Campaign stopped for the evening.

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One in Every Pack

After the flea market trip, I stumbled upon the Final Fantasy TCG on accident. I had heard about it, but that was years before it released. And, that was a Japan Exclusive. Little did I know that years later it would be released world wide. It was a little after Opus VI released that I saw it at the Gamer’s World at the mall. We had just randomly walked in, and I noticed the booster boxes behind the shelf. Squall, Cloud and Firion were just staring at me.

I just did what any grown man would have done. I bought a whole bunch of Packs and couldn’t wait to get back home to examine all these wonderful packs that I had just gotten. I felt like a kid again. Only this time it wasn’t baseball cards. I don’t even know why I was collecting baseball cards as a kid. I never watched the game, and still to this day I can’t sit and watch a full game. Maybe a couple of innings, if it’s on tv. Or, the 9th inning if its a close game.

Anyways, back on track. Where was I? Ah, yes. I tried getting the family to hurry up on our shopping trip, but to no avail. We had to get the kids clothes, and stuff. Winter coats and the like. I was about to start pounding my feet as we walked from store to store, but I am an adult. Carrying a baby in my arms. It would have been a sight to see if I had started doing that.

But, after what felt like 4 years, 8 months, 13 days, 6 hours, 27 minutes and 14 seconds, it was time to leave. We had finished shopping and were on our way home. Luckily we live 5 minutes from the mall, and got home fast. But, that didn’t mean that we were done. We had to get the kids fed, bathed and put to sleep.

And then, it was finally time to inspect these cards. I grabbed all the packs I had gotten and sat on the couch, nope not on the couch, on the floor. Right in front of the coffee table. I placed all the packs in order, and began to crack these booster packs.

I was excited, after all these years of collecting baseball cards, and then basketball cards, I had finally found trading cards that I would love to collect. Thoughts raced through my head. How many cards are there? 6 Opuses. Is that the plural? Where can I find the rest of all these cards? They had Singles in the display cases. How much are the good cards going for?

Cracking the first pack, it’s all a haze right now, but I know I was hooked. Looking at each card. One by one. I didn’t know about the rarities. I read each card, looked at the picture, and went to the next card. And then I reached the foil card. I thought I got lucky. A rare foil card in my very first pack. And, Then another in the next pack. I must be really lucky! And another ONE!!!!

Then I realized, there’s one in every pack.

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Site Update 001

Well, as you can see the shop is now functional. I’m slowly adding cards. Opus XII is done minus the Legacy Full Arts. They will be added soon. Opus XI is getting added as we speak. For the most part. All the Fire cards have been added. Tomorrow we start with Ice.

I decided to work backwards. The recent sets will be added first till we get to Opus I. After that I’ll also be adding Opus I Wave 1, and finally the promos, and the cards that are exclusive to the Starter Decks. Not much of a variation in those cards. The only difference is how the category looks. You probably noticed after Opus IV how the category changed. A minor difference, but if you want a full complete set of all the cards, well, you’ll need to get those as well.

And as always I’ll always be trying to get every single card that has ever been printed. Even that elusive A-002. Well the first one I get my hands on is mine.

If anyone has any ideas, or something you would like to see, just shoot me a comment on this post. Or an email. Or just hit the Contact button up on the menu.

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And, I thought I was done

And here I thought, that building the website would be easy. Well it was. Thanks to all the different plugins available and free themes and what not. It was fairly simple to get this website to where it is now. Not that were anywhere near finished, but we are on our way.

Trying to set up the storefront for the website took longer than I thought it would. Just because of all the cards I had to post to the website. And that’s one thing were still not done with. I sorted through all the cards, from the boxes that I opened and now it’s time to count.

Inventory.

128 different cards. 128 foils, and 21 Full Arts. All need to be added to each page, along with figuring out the price.

That doesn’t even make sense. I’ll just take a nap for now.

But, Nope.

Did not work out the way I planned it would. As soon as I went to post this post. Or, should i say article? I noticed that WordPress did not want to co-operate. Instead of a nap, I got to figure out what was wrong with the site. I was getting a blank screen whenever I tried to post something, or edit an existing page or post. Off to the help center I went. And for a couple of days, I was trouble shooting and trying to figure out what was wrong.

Changing themes, deactivating plugins, clearing cache and cookies.  All to no avail.

And, finally, I read somewhere that I should just install the Classic Editor. And that was all it took.

Now, it’s time for my nap.

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Niko’s Soap Box

Welcome to Niko’s Soap Box.

What is this, you ask? Well I don’t know yet. Probably just a place to post my thoughts and talk about cards. Tell you about the journey I’m taking on the way to opening up my card shop.

Slowly building our online presence. You can find Kardboard Korner on Instagram, and YouTube. Soon we’ll be adding our Facebook page, maybe even a Twitter. The YouTube channel is mostly unboxings of Booster Boxes. There’s our Bucks or Skunks daily video, where we open a pack a day.

The Instagram page is mostly showing what I picked up. As I’m still a collector. It’s always nice finding a deal, on the internet, Ebay, or at a random garage sale.

Well, I hope you’ll stick around, cause we’re on a journey.

Will you join us?