DriveThruRPG.com is doing a clever charity drive for Doctors Without Borders and Haiti — give a $20 donation, and they will give a coupon for $1481.31 worth of digitally downloaded RPGs and materials. You can also give $5 or $10, and they will match the donation

Donate $20 and get a coupon for over a thousand dollars in RPG titles. After you make the donation, you will receive the coupon code in your email. It will also be available in your order history.

via Gamers Helping Haiti $20 Donation with Coupon – OneBookShelf, Inc. | DriveThruRPG.com.

They are apparently already overwhelmed with the response, so are asking people to wait a few days to grab their downloads.

The National Palace

It seems that every few years there is a major earthquake somewhere I have lived. Now it is a major one near Port-au-Prince in Haiti.

I hear the hotel where I lived for two years partly fell down. The hospital where one of my brothers was born has collapsed. Schools have crumbled, and even the Palace. I hesitate to think what the slums look like now, given that they were mostly cardboard and aluminum and rotting wood to start with.

Haiti is not a country that can afford a disaster like this. Its infrastructure is almost non-existent. People literally use sewage as drinking water for lack of anything else, and vast areas of the country are hugely deforested. A common part of the diet is “cakes” made of clay and water.

This page has info on where to donate and how to help: Impact Your World – Special Reports from CNN.com.

Update: photos can be found here. And apparently, the UN headquarters (Hotel Christopher) collapsed as well. It’s not clear how damaged Hotel Montana is.

How to donate:  per the White House, text “HAITI” to “90999″ to donate $10 to the Red Cross, charged to your cell phone bill.