Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Someone recommended last year's Robin Hood BBC TV series. This sounds kind of neat. Think about it: No Kevin Costner and no fake British accents.
And for those who want to go blind, there's the crock pot still. I knew those pots were good for something.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
My next RPG campaign is set, and we should be getting started in the next couple of weeks. It took quite a few emails to narrow it down, but eventually we chose a Star Wars campaign that would take place two years after Return of the Jedi.
The gist of the campaign is now that the New Republic has been formed and started to build itself up as a stable government, the leaders has given Luke Skywalker the assets and resources he needs to re-open the long-abandoned Jedi Temple on Coruscant and re-form the Jedi Order.
The players will take on the roles of Skywalker's first new pupils. I imagine the first session being mostly about Skywalker recruiting the characters and the first introduction to the New Jedi Order, but then we should move quickly through the first in-game year of play. By the time we get through a handful of sessions, the characters should have a few Force powers at their disposable, upping the power level of play. After all, what fun is it to be Jedi when the most powerful thing you can do is throw a pebble with your mind?
We're ditching all of the Expanded Universe crap. That's probably obvious, though. In the EU, the Jedi Order was re-formed on Yavin IV, not on Coruscant. I'm assuming everything in the movies happened the way the events were portrayed, but everything else is up for debate. I'll likely steal a few things from the EU. I especially like some of the ideas put forth in the Star Wars: Legacy comic book that Dark Horse has been publishing the last few months. Some kind of build-up of Dark Jedi would be a fun overall campaign arc.
The gist of the campaign is now that the New Republic has been formed and started to build itself up as a stable government, the leaders has given Luke Skywalker the assets and resources he needs to re-open the long-abandoned Jedi Temple on Coruscant and re-form the Jedi Order.
The players will take on the roles of Skywalker's first new pupils. I imagine the first session being mostly about Skywalker recruiting the characters and the first introduction to the New Jedi Order, but then we should move quickly through the first in-game year of play. By the time we get through a handful of sessions, the characters should have a few Force powers at their disposable, upping the power level of play. After all, what fun is it to be Jedi when the most powerful thing you can do is throw a pebble with your mind?
We're ditching all of the Expanded Universe crap. That's probably obvious, though. In the EU, the Jedi Order was re-formed on Yavin IV, not on Coruscant. I'm assuming everything in the movies happened the way the events were portrayed, but everything else is up for debate. I'll likely steal a few things from the EU. I especially like some of the ideas put forth in the Star Wars: Legacy comic book that Dark Horse has been publishing the last few months. Some kind of build-up of Dark Jedi would be a fun overall campaign arc.
Friday, January 26, 2007
I'll let the Marshmallow Blaster speak for itself. Too cool.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Here's why I love RPG.net: I hear about cool RPGs that I've never heard of before, such as The Collectors: The Burning House. And it's only $4.50. Damn tempting.
The Hearts & Souls campaign I was planning has been cancelled, so I've been trying to come up with other ideas of RPGs to run. I really do want to get a game of something going, but it's a matter of what. There are several games on the table right now, including Star Wars (the WEG version, not d20), Conspiracy X (which I'd love to run), Serenity (also could be fun), Chivalry & Sorcery (who knows?), In Nomine, Cyberpunk 2020 (probably not going to happen), Shadowrun (if Amazon ever ships the book to me) and Over The Edge (which I'm psyched about).
I pulled OTE off the shelf last night and started reading through it. I can see why it's considered one of the grandfathers of the indie RPG movement. The mechanics are fairly simple, and chargen is open-ended and very customizable. It's also a really neat setting, but it's definitely not for the combat monkeys.
I think I'd really, really, really enjoy running OTE.
I pulled OTE off the shelf last night and started reading through it. I can see why it's considered one of the grandfathers of the indie RPG movement. The mechanics are fairly simple, and chargen is open-ended and very customizable. It's also a really neat setting, but it's definitely not for the combat monkeys.
I think I'd really, really, really enjoy running OTE.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
After playing in my second Shadowrun 4E session on Sunday, I've started getting the hankering for some high-tech low-life gameplay. I'm tempted to bust out Cyberpunk 2020.
Friday, January 19, 2007
I'm trying something a bit different with blogging. Although it will probably make a lot of people cringe at the very thought, I've launched another blog, one with a very specific focus -- wine. If you don't care about wine, don't bother clicking the link. If you're interested in my uneducated take on wine, then feel free to visit. I'm mostly doing it for myself, although I do appreciate any feedback or suggestions of good wines.
The Markham Gaming Expo seems to be a con with all kinds of gaming -- video games, CCGs, board games, etc. And the price is just right. Tempting.
David Suzuki will soon be starting a national tour, and it looks like he'll be in the Pickering area on February 9th. The location hasn't been announced yet, but unfortunately it looks like it's going to be a morning event.
Last night, I attended what was basically an introduction to wine seminar at the Ajax Public Library's Main Branch. What I didn't know going in was that the seminar was being run by one of my old high school history teachers. (For those reading this who went to Dunbarton or Pine Ridge, do you remember Jeff McIlveen?)
The talk he gave was a good primer for people just starting out on their wine education. While much of what he said was covered in Wine For Dummies, a book I read last year, it was a good refresher, and Jeff actually cleared up several things that I was still confused about after finishing the Dummies book. For instance, I finally have a better handle on VQA and tannens. The Dummies books left me somewhat bewildered in those areas.
After the talk was over, I introduced myself as a former student of Jeff's at Pine Ridge (my brain still thinks of him as Mr. McIlveen), and then he, his wife and several others who attended the seminar retired to the Safari in Pickering Village for a wine tasting.
It was a great night, with talk of wine, wineries and teachers from Pine Ridge.
The talk he gave was a good primer for people just starting out on their wine education. While much of what he said was covered in Wine For Dummies, a book I read last year, it was a good refresher, and Jeff actually cleared up several things that I was still confused about after finishing the Dummies book. For instance, I finally have a better handle on VQA and tannens. The Dummies books left me somewhat bewildered in those areas.
After the talk was over, I introduced myself as a former student of Jeff's at Pine Ridge (my brain still thinks of him as Mr. McIlveen), and then he, his wife and several others who attended the seminar retired to the Safari in Pickering Village for a wine tasting.
It was a great night, with talk of wine, wineries and teachers from Pine Ridge.
Monday, January 15, 2007
As I've mentioned before, I watch most of the TV shows I see on DVD, thereby skipping the commercials and allowing me to watch episodes at my own pace (and it's nothing for me to watch an entire season of something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer in a two- or three-day period). Last week, I got tempted by the price tag of the first two seasons of Stargate SG-1, and over the course of the next few days, I watched both seasons in their entirety.
Prior to buying the first two seasons, I was only familiar with the original pilot episode of the series, which I saw a good six or seven years ago. If not for Wal-Mart tempting me, I might have gone for a few more years without seeing any more of SG-1. I'm not sure that necessarily would have been a bad thing, as the first two seasons (I can't speak for the following eight seasons) are littered with as many poor episodes as good ones. The series also suffers from dumbass logic that seems to be crafted for only one reason -- to keep the story moving in the direction the producers want it to go.
Of course, I still enjoyed much of the two seasons, although I'll probably hold off buying any further seasons until I can find them for a good deal.
Prior to buying the first two seasons, I was only familiar with the original pilot episode of the series, which I saw a good six or seven years ago. If not for Wal-Mart tempting me, I might have gone for a few more years without seeing any more of SG-1. I'm not sure that necessarily would have been a bad thing, as the first two seasons (I can't speak for the following eight seasons) are littered with as many poor episodes as good ones. The series also suffers from dumbass logic that seems to be crafted for only one reason -- to keep the story moving in the direction the producers want it to go.
Of course, I still enjoyed much of the two seasons, although I'll probably hold off buying any further seasons until I can find them for a good deal.
If you have no interest in the gaming industry or predictions about the industry, then Ryan Dancey's 2007 predictions for the industry probably won't be of interest. For those more inclined to waste time reading things like this on the Web when you should be working, it's an interesting read.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
I've been neglecting my blog lately. I've been spending much of my time on other sites -- mostly BoardGameGeek.com and TABS, but now also Flixster.
I joined Flixster a little over a week ago and have been rating and reviewing movies just for shits and giggles. I've even dragged a few friends into it to make it more fun and to spark movie conversation. There's little sense in chatting with the majority of the community, as it's mostly illiterate twits who think movies like low-brow comedies deserve the highest ratings (to each his own, of course, but come on!).
So if you're bored, come join Flixster with me and trash some movies.
I joined Flixster a little over a week ago and have been rating and reviewing movies just for shits and giggles. I've even dragged a few friends into it to make it more fun and to spark movie conversation. There's little sense in chatting with the majority of the community, as it's mostly illiterate twits who think movies like low-brow comedies deserve the highest ratings (to each his own, of course, but come on!).
So if you're bored, come join Flixster with me and trash some movies.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
I haven't posted since before Christmas, so here's a quick update...
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were busy, as Jacquie and I ran back and forth between our place, my parents' house and her parents' house. While it's nice to do some visiting, I was quite happy to stay away from people on Boxing Day. The rest of the week was fairly quiet, although we got together with our parents again on the 30th. We rounded out the year with a dinner and gaming night at Dave's place in Pickering on New Year's Eve.
Throughout my week off, we played a lot of games, watched a lot of DVDs and did a bit of reading. I finished reading Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes last night, and I'm reading through the introductory chapters of Samuel B. Griffith's translation of Sun Tzu's The Art of War.
When it comes to Sandman, I have to admit I expected a lot more than a gothy, artsy-fartsy book. The stories were simplistic and lame, and the characters are two-dimensional. The Sandman himself is a tired cliché of goth archetypes. Despite all the love the Sandman series gets, I'm not sure I'll really be able to get into it.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were busy, as Jacquie and I ran back and forth between our place, my parents' house and her parents' house. While it's nice to do some visiting, I was quite happy to stay away from people on Boxing Day. The rest of the week was fairly quiet, although we got together with our parents again on the 30th. We rounded out the year with a dinner and gaming night at Dave's place in Pickering on New Year's Eve.
Throughout my week off, we played a lot of games, watched a lot of DVDs and did a bit of reading. I finished reading Sandman: Preludes & Nocturnes last night, and I'm reading through the introductory chapters of Samuel B. Griffith's translation of Sun Tzu's The Art of War.
When it comes to Sandman, I have to admit I expected a lot more than a gothy, artsy-fartsy book. The stories were simplistic and lame, and the characters are two-dimensional. The Sandman himself is a tired cliché of goth archetypes. Despite all the love the Sandman series gets, I'm not sure I'll really be able to get into it.
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