HYPERBOREA / Operation Players Handbook: Your Help Needed

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/11/2016 6:11 pm

I posted this on the GaryCon forum, but if there are any Hyperboreans who won't be at the Con but maybe want to help, get in touch with me. We can make it happen.

So, my friend Em, @Brooklynbookworm on the GaryCon forum, is an amazing teacher (and D&D player). She works with "emotionally and behaviorally disturbed" kids in the NYC school system. And she gets fantastic things done. She has started a gaming club, and that has really done for these kids the things that we (gamers) always say gaming does: it has opened them to their own agency, to their own ability to solve problems and interact with the world and each other.

And she's playing 1st ed. AD&D! Because she's awesome!

So, see this link. It's for a Donors Choose campaign she had to get dice, a battle mat, and other supplies for the group. And it's completely funded! But it tells the story of what she's doing.

http://www.donorschoose.org/project/gaming-club-teaches-cooperation-and-soci/1847600/?rf=page-siteshare-2016-02-proposal-teacher_146480

What Donors Choose can't do is get her 1e AD&D Players Handbooks. The organization doesn't support used networks like eBay. So then we thought, how can we crowdsource a bunch of PHBs if the system that enables the crowdsourcing won't allow their donation.

Then I thought, hey, we just happen to be going somewhere where a lot of truly excellent, giving people *who believe in the power of gaming* are all going to be gaming. And probably 6-10 of them have spare PHBs they might want to donate to a cause as excellent as this.

So there's the pitch, GaryConers: Do you have an extra 1e AD&D PHB that you can bring to GaryCon and donate to Em's program so that her kids can all use on of their own?

This is worth a lot of XP, guys. Also, beers. We will buy you beers. But, seriously a lot of XP.

Thanks! See you in three weeks!

Last edited by Handy Haversack (2/12/2016 8:48 am)

**Posted by Chainsaw** 2/11/2016 9:24 pm

Great cause, man. I will bring a couple to Gary Con for her. See you soon!

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/12/2016 12:14 am

Kickass, Chainsaw! Thanks, man.

**Posted by Ghul** 2/12/2016 6:15 am

Would you believe I only have one -- the same one I've been using since 1981! Maybe there will be one on site that I could buy and hand over.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/12/2016 8:24 am

Ghul wrote:
Would you believe I only have one -- the same one I've been using since 1981! Maybe there will be one on site that I could buy and hand over.

You're such an ascetic!

**Posted by Blackadder23** 2/12/2016 12:00 pm

PM me your address and I'll mail you my spare copy. I support any effort to get modern kids to play real D&D.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/12/2016 12:25 pm

Sent! Thanks!

**Posted by rhialto** 2/13/2016 6:59 am

What an awesome story Handy...I'm pondering how to help, as I have only one copy of the PHB (the special reprint by WoTC, my original copy long since departed to Valhalla), and am unable to make it to GaryCon (next year...). I'll PM you some ideas.

And I want to call out the kid quoted at the link who wanted to name their dice: it doesn't get much geekier than that...

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/13/2016 9:29 am

rhialto wrote:
What an awesome story Handy...I'm pondering how to help, as I have only one copy of the PHB (the special reprint by WoTC, my original copy long since departed to Valhalla), and am unable to make it to GaryCon (next year...). I'll PM you some ideas.

And I want to call out the kid quoted at the link who wanted to name their dice: it doesn't get much geekier than that...

I know!

**Posted by DMPrata** 2/13/2016 4:19 pm

Let Em know I'll have a PHB for her in exchange for that Long Walk Home ticket she's giving me. I hope she'll have room in her luggage to bring home all these books.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/13/2016 5:17 pm

DMPrata wrote:
Let Em know I'll have a PHB for her in exchange for that Long Walk Home ticket she's giving me. I hope she'll have room in her luggage to bring home all these books.

Thanks, Dave!

**Posted by mabon5127** 2/13/2016 8:20 pm

I'll see what I have.

**Posted by Ghul** 2/14/2016 10:04 am

DMPrata wrote:
Let Em know I'll have a PHB for her in exchange for that Long Walk Home ticket she's giving me. I hope she'll have room in her luggage to bring home all these books.

I bet she's not the first girl to give you a Long Walk Home ticket.

Zing!

**Posted by DMPrata** 2/14/2016 10:28 am

Ghul wrote:
I bet she's not the first girl to give you a Long Walk Home ticket.

Zing!

:sigh:

...and won't be the last, I'm sure. Maybe I'll have better luck with The Sea-Wolf's Daughter.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/14/2016 11:01 am

Ghul wrote:
DMPrata wrote:
Let Em know I'll have a PHB for her in exchange for that Long Walk Home ticket she's giving me. I hope she'll have room in her luggage to bring home all these books.
I bet she's not the first girl to give you a Long Walk Home ticket.

Zing!

Don Rickles zinged you, Marge.

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/29/2016 10:55 am

Hey, all,

Just wanted to say thanks! We have already received 3 PHBs in the mail. Hopefully you've gotten thank-you notes from the kids by now. For those of you who said you could supply at GaryCon, thanks! We will leave room in our bags for the books. Make sure to stick your address in the book somewhere so the kids can write you a letter!

HH

**Posted by rhialto** 2/29/2016 11:53 am

Handy Haversack wrote:
Hey, all,

Just wanted to say thanks! We have already received 3 PHBs in the mail. Hopefully you've gotten thank-you notes from the kids by now. For those of you who said you could supply at GaryCon, thanks! We will leave room in our bags for the books. Make sure to stick your address in the book somewhere so the kids can write you a letter!

HH

Happy to help such a worthy cause... Since I employed a sandestin in my delivery I don't expect a direct thanks. Cheers!

**Posted by Handy Haversack** 2/29/2016 12:36 pm

Marvellous!

**Posted by Brooklyn.Bookworm** 3/08/2016 6:55 am

I want to give a heaping mountain of thanks for everyone who supported my students by either bringing 1e PHB to Garycon or mailed them to Handy...I was as overwhelmed with your generosity as my luggage was with books...but after some creative packing, I'll be able to get a book into every adventurer's hands with a few spares to keep around the classroom.

Thank you so much guys, for seeing the value in getting kids into gaming. I'm very proud to continue a table-top legacy in a world of electronic gaming. Some of you already have thank you notes on the way...But Morgan, Dave, Eli, Chainsaw and folks who gave the PHB to Handy to pass along to me...if you PM me your address, I'd love to send you thank you notes from the kids you helped.

**Posted by Chainsaw** 3/08/2016 7:55 am

Awesome meeting you, Emily - you bring some much needed class to Handy's crew! Haha! Hope you stick around here and continue to post.

Also, I'm mailing you some books later this week, but I'll let you know when exactly once I get back in town (am in Boston now).