Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design Announces Origin Awards Nominees (Part One)

Last week the Game Manufacturer's Association (GAMA) announced their annual list of Origins Award Nominees. The Origins Awards are the most prestigious award in the Adventure Gaming hobby and the winners are determined by the members of the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts and Design, a committee of GAMA. This year's list contains a wide variety of nominees, covering many genres within the gaming hobby.

Below is the list of nominees followed by my own commentary regarding the individual products:

The first category this year is MINIATURE OR MINIATURES LINE. As one might guess, miniatures can be an important component of the adventure gaming hobby. There are those who prefer to play "merely in the minds of the players," and that works very well for many games. But as someone who has gamed for over 25 years, there are times -- surprising as it may seem to say -- when using miniatures can add a wonderful narrative component to an evening's play. A picture can be worth a thousand words after all.

MINIATURE OR MINIATURES LINE

Having limited talents in the painting of figures, and even less time to develop an talents I do have, my unpainted miniatures purchases have always been limited. Add to that the creation of the D&D Miniatures pre-painted line and my purchase of unpainted miniatures has completely died off. This being the case, I'll leave opinions of which line/individual miniature deserves this year's award up to you the reader. Following each nominee I am providing a representative image provided by the manufacturer of the line/individual miniature. Some of these are particularly nice.

Skarrd Raze #2
by Dark Age Games


George R.R. Martin Masterworks - Premium Miniature Line
by Dark Sword Miniatures, Inc.




Titanius Fury
by Dragonfire Laser Crafts Inc.

Apparently this is a typo at the GAMA site. According to the Dragonfire site, it should be Titania's Fury. If this is indeed the product in question, it gets my vote hands down as a useful and innovative product.



Bronzeback Titan, HORDES: Evolution Miniatures Line
by Privateer Press



Dark Heaven Legends Fantasy Miniatures
by Reaper Miniatures

You really need to click on the link above to get a sense of the entire Dark Heaven line produced by Reaper Miniatures. It is the last of the old school lines of RPG miniatures and is a very good, and very deep, product line. Below is a sample of one of the figures in the line.

Following the MINIATURE or MINIATURES LINE award comes the award for best MINIATURES RULES. It should be noted that this award is central to the adventure gaming hobby. Were it not for H.G. Wells' book Little Wars or for Gary Gygax and Jeff Perrin's CHAINMAIL, the adventure gaming hobby would not exist as it does today.

MINIATURES RULES

Classic Battletech
Published by Catalyst Game Labs
Created by Jordan Weisman
Edited by Michelle Lyons, Diane Piron-Gelman

In an era of click based miniature games and collectible card games, it is heartwarming to see that one of the great miniature games of the past continues to perform strongly and receive the recognition it is due. Classic Battletech is one of the few games that truly deserves to have the word "classic" attached to it. The latest version of the rules updates battlemech construction to ensure more balanced encounters and has been well supported by the fine folks at Catalyst Game Labs.


Saganami Island Tactical Simulator, Second Edition
Published by Ad Astra Games
Created by Ken Burnside and Thomas Pope

While my friends might believe that I own every game actually in print, I don't own a copy of this space combat miniatures simulation. The game is inspired by Baen Books' Honor Harrington military SF fiction series. When it comes to ship to ship space combat games, I tend to stick with SILENT DEATH and BATTLEFLEET GOTHIC or RENEGADE LEGION. When it comes to fun and games, I tend to avoid those that require the use of 3D vector space. I'm chicken. I admit it.


Forces of WARMACHINE: Pirates of the Broken Coast
Published by Privateer Press
Created by Brian Snoddy and Matt Wilson

Pirates, Steam Powered Magical Robots, and a coherent rules set...what's not to love. Privateer Press' WARMACHINE line is a great product line that rivals Rackham for the quality of sculpts. Unlike Rackham's games, one doesn't have to read awkwardly translated French to learn the rules. This is a great addition to a great game. Privateer Press is an exciting gaming company. From their first module for 3rd edition D&D to their card games, they strive for quality.

AT-43
Published by Rackham
Created by Arnaud Cuidet, Jean-Baptiste Lullien, Nicolas Raoult, and Jerome Rigal

Having been a WARHAMMER 40K player for over 15 years, it would have taken something pretty special to get me to pack up my Eldar and Space Marines in favor of another game system. AT-43 is that system. As a Rackham game, it has simply some of the best sculpting I have ever seen in the gaming industry. Rackham miniatures are beautiful, and AT-43's are pre-painted. Add to this a good list of affordable terrain features that can be used in other games as well, and I didn't mind having to read poorly translated French in order to learn how to play this game. This is a fun game with beautiful components and an interesting backstory which, like many games coming out of Europe today, has some salient things to say about modern international politics.

Song of Blades and Heroes
Published by Andrea Sfiligoi
Created by Andrea Sfiligoi

It's quite the honor for a "independent" game to be nominated for an Origin award. I haven't play tested this game, but at $15 with an Origin nomination this game is on my short list of games to buy and try.

MY PICK: AT-43 -- It's a great addition to the French invasion in adventure gaming. If only I could find a copy of Asmodee Games' C.O.P.S. roleplaying game. I'd be a happy man.

There's more to adventure gaming than the games. Many gaming companies publish non-fiction and fiction books in support of their product lines, the hobby, or topics related to the hobby. TSR was the first company to publish media tie-in fiction with their roleplaying game, but many have followed and some companies publish non-media tie-in fiction as well.

PUBLICATION, FICTION

Astounding Hero Tales
Published by Hero Games
Edited by James Lowder

While related to Hero Games' PULP HERO sourcebook in theme, this anthology of pulp fiction is a worthy addition to any pulp fans bookshelf. Edited by James Lowder this anthology includes stories by Hugh B. Cave and Lester Dent in addition to pulp tales written by veterans of the game industry. Cinerati's companion podcast Geekerati had an interview with editor James Lowder last year where discussion of this book came up.



Dragons of the Highlord Skies
Published by Wizards of the Coast
Written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

The line of books that established that rpg media tie-in books could be profitable continues with this bestselling novel. With this book, readers learn what happened "between the lines" of the original trilogy.


Frontier Cthulhu
Published by Chaosium
Edited by William Jones

In BLACK STRANGER, Robert E. Howard spun a yarn simulating what might have happened if Conan had lived among the native Americans. The Picts of that tale were closer to the Sioux than the historic Picts. With the Frontier Cthulhu anthology, Chaosium Games gives us 14 tales of what might have happened as people explored American frontiers.

The Orc King
Published by Wizards of the Coast
Written by R.A. Salvatore

Who says archetypal pulp adventurers are dead? In THE ORC KING, R.A. Salvatore shares with us the continuing saga of one of the most popular characters in fantasy fiction Drizzt Do'Urden. Where Elric was the anti-Conan, Drizzt is in many ways the anti-Elric.


The Time Curse
Published by Margaret Weis Productions
Written by James M. Ward

Last year saw a return of the Endless Quest/Choose Your Own Adventure style books of my childhood and Margaret Weis Productions were at the forefront of that wave. James Ward's THE TIME CURSE is a fun jaunt and a good representation of the genre. And while the book is still available, it is sad to see that the Weis Productions website is downplaying the Paths of Doom line of books.

MY PICK: ASTOUNDING HERO TALES, but you should really pick up THE TIME CURSE as well. It's only $4.50, and it's fun.

Last year was a big year in non-fiction publication for the adventure gaming hobby. Some great books came out last year, and the list of nominees shows that strength.

PUBLICATION, NON-FICTION

40 Years of Gen Con
Published by Atlas Games
Written by Robin D. Laws

Long gone are the days when Gen Con, the largest gaming convention in America, was held in Milwaukee, WI. I attended the con the final year it was held in that fine city and I had a great time. In this volume, edited by Robin D. Laws, several gaming luminaries -- including the now deceased creator of the D&D game Gary Gygax -- share their thoughts on the first 40 years of this conventions history. Given that the company who currently hosts the con is having some legal troubles with Lucas, let's hope that this doesn't become the definitive complete history of the con.

Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the Dungeons & Dragons Game
Published by Wizards of the Coast
Written by Shelly Mazzanoble

This book, by Shelly Mazzanoble, was aimed at informing women about roleplaying games in general and D&D in particular. Shelly succeeds masterfully at this task. And though she has received some minor criticism from some members of the the "He Man Women Hater's Club," she has also managed to write what might be the best introduction to the D&D game published to date...regardless of sex. While it's true that male readers will have to tolerate side comments about Sex in the City and trips to the mall, it is also true that Shelly has captured the essence of what makes this hobby so much fun for me.

Shelly was recently a guest on the Geekerati Podcast.




Grand History of the Realms
Published by Wizards of the Coast
Written by Brian R. James and Ed Greenwood

While the Forgotten Realms isn't the first world setting for a roleplaying game, it is one of the best selling...if not the best selling. This non-fiction -- and rules free -- book is a must have for any long time fan of the Realms, whether in its game of fiction form. This book gives a good overview of the history of the Realms and gives some glimpses at what the future holds in store as well.

Hobby Games: The 100 Best
Published by Green Ronin
Edited by James Lowder

In HOBBY GAMES: THE 100 BEST, James Lowder brings together 100 essays written by the cream of the crop of the gaming industry to write about their favorite hobby game. Over the years there have been too few books about the gaming hobby, but books of this quality fill quite the gap in quantity. Most of the 100 essays in this book are insightful and well written. In fact, I'll bet you that if you buy this book you will buy no fewer than 5 new games based on the stories/recommendations herein. You might even spend a month on Ebay looking for a good copy of an out of print game. Lord knows I did. James Lowder discussed this book in detail during our podcast interview last year.



No Quarter Magazine
Published by Privateer Press
Nathan Letsinger, editor-in-chief
Eric Cagle, editor
Josh Manderville, art director

NO QUARTER seems to have taken this year's slot as "token gaming magazine" in this category after the death of the physical DRAGON magazine this past year. It will be interesting to see if next year's awards include Wolfgang Baur's KOBOLD QUARTERLY or the online editions of the DUNGEON and DRAGON magazines.

MY PICK: It's a tough toss up between Shelly Mazzanoble's book and the James Lowder Collection, but I'm going to have to cast my vote for CONFESSIONS. If you want a copy, let me know and I'll mail you one (only applies to the first few requests).

Tomorrow, I'll cover part two of this list...The actual games.

One Month?! Holy Cow!

It's hard to believe that it has been one month since the last post, but it has. I have no one to blame but myself...well myself and my lovely twin daughters who have been squeezing the lifeblood out of me, in a surprisingly pleasant manner.

I promise that tomorrow this blog will return to its regular scheduled programming, which -- in the upcoming days/weeks -- will include:

1) A series of articles discussing Film Critics and Film Criticism: Did the Internet Kill Critics/Criticism?
2) A series of reviews of books discussing roleplaying games. These reviews will take a keen look at some of the various primers that have been written over the years.
3) Some random nonsense and possibly a film review, or dissection of a review I don't like. A review of a review, how post-modern is that?

Anyway, I promise good things ahead now that I am getting more reasonable amounts of rest.

Video (games) Haven't Killed the Mo-oo-vie Star...or the TV Star, or Table Top Gaming, or...

Today's Gamasutra has an excellent interview with game developer Peter Molyneux which accurately describes the impact the gaming industry has had on other media, particularly film The verdict? You have to read between the lines, because Molyneux is talking more about gaming's success than its effects on other media directly, is that gaming is a large marketplace, but hasn't taken the place of other media when it comes to entertainment.

I'm as fond of anyone when it comes to telling screenwriters and other entertainment creators that gaming has effected the box office and tv ratings, though likely less than internet piracy in my opinion. In fact, I have a "conversation tape" I like to repeat mantra-esque to demonstrate how big gaming has become. "Do you ever wonder why NBC Universal feels like they are in such a position of power when they negotiate? It's because they have the equivalent of a $140 million blockbuster every month with World of Warcraft." Gaming matters, but those who see "doom and gloom" on the horizon for other media are also missing the point. Have a look at some of Peter's comments:

PM: I would say, to a great extent, we in the development community have really let this industry down. Because I wouldn't say there were exponentially more people playing computer games today than there were when Game Developers Conference first started. Fifteen years ago? Twenty years ago? It's been quite a while.

When it seems to me that the number of people that use computer games as entertainment isn't getting exponentially bigger. Although the market is getting bigger, and we're selling eight million units.

But I've been really thinking about, I remember back in the early eighties... when Clive Sinclair in England released the Sinclair Spectrum. And he famously said, "Every home in Britain will have one of these, and people won't watch television anymore, they will play computer games." That was a dream that was put forth in the seventies, when this thing had 1K of RAM -- and for a little while, we all believed that.

Now, there seems to be this big barrier that exists. And I was actually just in the shops, down here -- I'd forgotten to bring a shirt -- and I was talking to the bloke who's selling me a shirt, and he said: "Aw, I don't play computer games. Because I'm not good enough. I can't get my head round this thing. [Molyneux holds up an Xbox 360 controller.] Every time I do it, I hit my head against a wall." Now that's a huge failure. That's our failure. For not being really, truly as big as movies. Because we're not. Because we only sell -- what do we sell? Eight million?

What is amazing about Molyneux's comments isn't that he's correct that gaming is "not really, truly as big as movies." It's that he's wrong. Look at the figure he uses regarding the number of units sold, eight million. Let that number sink in for a minute. He plans on selling eight million copies of FABLE 2, and he doesn't see himself as big as the film industry. Apparently, he doesn't realize that a movie with eight million viewers has approximately an $80 million box office (likely more since I don't really know where I can see a movie for only $10.00). When you add that video games cost four times as much as films, and the fact that most gamers are likely also movie goers, it would be fair to assume that gaming has already had its impact on film going. And what is that result? According to Variety, "All in all, the 2007 box office was up 5% over 2006, while admissions were up 1%. So far this year, the B.O. is running 9% ahead of the same frame in 2007, fueled by the continued success of "Legend" and "Alvin" along with a solid crop of 2008 films, including "Juno," the highest-performing specialty pic in six years."

That's right "admissions were up 1%." Never forget that all the doom and gloom regarding theater attendance during the past few years has been in comparison to a year that had a record high box office.

So with video games having already become as successful as films, eight million units is like $80 million B.O. (except that it's actually $320 million in sales, $160 for the game maker), the number of people watching films in theaters has increased. The same can be seen in the board game industry as well. While individual sales of some board games have decreased, we are in a boom of available games. The largest problem with the board game market is how fragmented it's become, there are too many publishers publishing too many titles. Take a visit to Board Game Geek and look only at the games released in 2007, compare those to 1997. The same even applies to role playing games.

Chirp, Chirp...Waaaah! The Twins Have Arrived.

You may be noticing it's been a little quiet around here lately. Maybe you were overwhelmed by the sound of chirping crickets. Maybe you were wondering if the Cinerati blog had gone the way of the dinosaur.

Fear not noble readers.

While it is true that there has been a disturbance in the Force, it is a positive one. I, Christian Johnson, your humble host here at Cinerati am now the proud father of lovely twin girls. My daughters, Mystery Lindke and History Lindke, were born on March 24th at 10:45 and 10:46 respectively. Mystery was born hale and hearty, but History had a little trouble catching her breath and had to spend a few days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Everything is fine, she was suffering from a common respiratory complication, but it did make for a few hectic days shuffling around and trying to make sure my family was doing alright.

Hence, no posting. The girls are more beautiful than I ever imagined they could be, especially since everyone says they look like me, and I am overjoyed to have them home. They are so adorable, I don't even mind the lack of sleep...but you can ask me about that again in two months or so.

I have to admit that I am pretty excited about the March 24th birthdate as now I can sing a special birthday song to my little girls every year. I'm sure they'll be sick of it in their teens, but as all SINGIN' IN THE RAIN fans know March 24th is Don's lucky day. These girls will be lucky if everyday doesn't start, "Good Mornin', Good Mornin' We've talked the whole night through. Good Mornin'. Good Mornin' to you."

This seems like an opportune time to make another announcement as well. You may have noticed that the little girls have their mother's last name. As of May 23rd, I will too. Jody and I have talked for years about me taking her name, but it was the arrival of the twins that made us finally pony up the cash to pay for the court costs.

I will be sending emails to friends with pictures of my little minions later this week. Since posting things on "teh interwebs" is not at all private, I won't be posting any pictures to the site. So those of you who want pictures, mention it in the comments section and make sure you include an email address.

Watchmen Costumes Revealed and Other Random Geekery

Over at WatchmenComicMovie.com they have pictures of the cast of THE WATCHMEN movie in costume. The images were posted on the WB site at 11:55 PM last night, that's a easter egg for all you fans out there, and are quickly spreading through the internet.

I wish I were more excited about this production. Zack Snyder is directing, which bodes well. But this is still THE WATCHMEN we are talking about. It's the book that comic snobs use to praise themselves for being fans of an "art form." Here's a sample of dialog with one of these bozos:

ME: "Hey fellow comic fan, what books are you currently reading?"
COMIC SNOB: "Warren Ellis' new book, that new thing by Neil Gaiman, something edgy by Garth Ennis, the latest Grant Morrison, a bunch of indies, and I just picked up the ABSOLUTE WATCHMEN."
ME: "That's cool. How is the new Grant Morrison book, I find him to be hit or miss. ANIMAL MAN was great, but his JUSTICE LEAGUE left me flat -- as did his DOOM PATROL. He just seems to have no feel for straight books, or how to do camp without it being parody."
COMIC SNOB: "WTF?! How dare you question the great Grant Morrison. Next thing you'll be trashing on WATCHMEN, which is indisputably the best piece of writing in the latter 20th century and one of the best works of political philosophy to date."
ME: "I thought it was okay, but I think that Steve Ditko would take issue with the fact that Moore made Mr.A/The Question into an insane person. I still prefer the old Charlton tales that Moore based the Watchmen characters on. As for the political philosophy...you're kidding right? I mean taking a stereotypical 60s doomsday clock vs. the aliens story isn't exactly deep analysis, and his twisting of Objectivism is laughable."
COMIC SNOB: "You obviously don't know what you are talking about. You can keep your Keith Giffen written JUSTICE LEAGUE, I'll read literature."

WATCHMEN is the cool book to like and the sentiments that many of the snobs who like it have result in things like JT LeRoy and other manipulators of the "cool." The comic book literati, and the real literati who like WATCHMEN, are just too much for me. There's some rebellious part of my soul that wants to tell these pretentious boobs, who likely prefer Lichtenstein to Russ Heath, where they can stick their "graphic novel." I'll just open my long box, pull out the 12 issues and read the comic book.

As a comic book, WATCHMEN is great. As a "piece of literature," I'll stick to Chesterton and Faulkner. As a work of "political philosophy," I'll stick to Hegel, Marx, Strauss, Plato, and Rand.

All that said, I really do like WATCHMEN. I even actually believe it is of artistic and literary merit. I think it is genuinely great...though that ending is a little to John W. Campbell formulaic. As long as things like AVENGERS FOREVER, or better yet INVINCIBLE, are being overlooked in favor of something ideologically trapped in the Cold War cynicism of the 80s, I'll keep my own pretentious rejection of pretense.

It's the same reason I like Michael Chabon, but don't like most of his fans. They seem to want to be hip by liking "the best," but they lack the genuine desire for fun of a "real" fan.

I sincerely hope, and think, that WATCHMEN will be a good comic book movie. Peter Cannon -- Thunderbolt's costume, I mean Ozymandias's, looks great, but why is the OWL so thin?

My credo? "Down with Graphic Novels! Up with Comic Books!"

Alea Iacta Est: Ernest Gary Gygax ( July 27, 1938 – March 4, 2008)

For geeks like me, today is a day of great sadness. E Gary Gygax, co-creator with Dave Arneson of the Dungeons and Dragons game, died this morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

As I wrote, it is a sad day for me. After all, this man created a game that provided me with untold hours of entertainment, a game that introduced me to great literature (and horrible drivel), a game that helped me form life long friendships. Because of this man's creation, my life (and many others) were made better and more enjoyable. My prayers go out to Gary's family, especially his wife Gail.

Surfing the internet today and reading people write about Gary has been a very nice experience. It seems that today is the day when no gamers are fighting. The grognards and the noobs are consoling each other for the loss. It's nice, if not a little surprising. As one might guess from reading Matt Forbeck's entry on the topic, Gary Gygax was a bit of a controversial figure within the gaming community. Not because the community wasn't thankful for his contribution, rather because of his disdain for others in the field and his temper at those who continued his legacy. Gary didn't really like others "improving" on his creation. To be fair no one would expect him to, but those of us who have moved on from Gary's truly original creation to later "refinements" have had to endure venomous comments from Gary and his most ardent admirers. To be honest more from the admirers than from Gary, but Gary gave his share as well.

It seems that every gamer worth his or her salt has a Gary Gygax story, and I envy those that do their stories. I have no "when I met Gary story." Instead, I have a when I "almost" met Gary story.

You see...last April I was on a trip for work in eastern Wisconsin -- Racine to be specific, and I decided I wanted to do two things. First, I wanted to watch a baseball game in Wrigley field. I am a huge Cubs fan, and there is no better place to watch baseball. Second, I wanted to tour Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, the birthplace of gaming in America. Trust me. Whether you play modern boardgames, video games, collectible card games, or role playing games, the game you are playing likely has some connection to the gaming movement started in that small Wisconsin town.

So I drove to Lake Geneva and toured all of the locations that once housed the offices of TSR, the company that published D&D. Then finally, I stood in front of Gary's house and took about 10 pictures from across the street. It was relatively early in the evening and I contemplated walking up to the door and knocking, just to tell Gary how much entertainment his game has provided me over the past three decades. I walked up to the cars parked in front of the house (pictured below), but then I thought..."what if it is the wrong house?"


What if I walk up to the door, knock and ask for Gary and it's the wrong house? What if it's the right house? What kind of crazy stalker gamer knocks on a game designer's door uninvited?

So...I walked to the library, took a couple of pictures of the beautiful lake, walked around the small downtown area, and left. I was angry at myself for not emailing/message boarding Gary earlier, or later, and I promised myself that I would do so when I next traveled to the Wisconsin or Chicago area.

That day cannot come now.

God bless you Gary.

My group and I will have a moment of silence this weekend and I think we'll even do a small reading from one of the books you wrote. We all need to push through a little Gygaxian prose every now and then. Maybe I'll open up "Master of the Game," or read the introduction to the Player's Handbook (1st edition) one more time. That introduction made me feel like I was part of something special, even before I rolled my first die.

Gary Gygax has passed

Gary Gygax the creator of Dungeons and Dragons has died at the age of 69. Personally, I am a little sad at this news, it is like part of my childhood slipping away. In a small way the world won't be the same.

4th Edition D&D The Movie: Ching Siu-tung's "The Empress and the Warriors"

My friends and I used to say that SWORDSMAN II starring Jet Li was the perfect movie to watch before our weekly D&D 2nd edition game. If THE EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS (starring the awesome Donnie Yen of HERO and lives up to this preview, it may well become the defining D&D style movie for me.

One might ask why SWORDSMAN II is the perfect D&D movie, and not a more "literary" or "important" Wuxia film or a high quality western fantasy film like LORD OF THE RINGS. It's really quite simple. There are a lot of wonderful, and serious, wuxia films that contain great plots, great acting, and stylized action. Classics like LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY or BRIDE WITH WHITE HAIR come to mind, as do more recent films like CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON and HERO as examples of serious wuxia films worth watching many times. There are also quite a few excellent fantasy movies in the western canon, like EXCALIBUR, but they all lack the one element that makes SWORDSMAN II perfect for inspiring D&D play. They lack the element of playfulness.

I don't know if the playfulness of SWORDSMAN II is intentional, or if it is a legacy of Jet Li's winning smile, but the film has this quality in spades. The playfulness isn't present in THE EAST IS RED, SWORDSMAN's sequel which also stars Li, a film that contains a wonderfully tragic narrative. From the opening moments when the protagonist is running on the tops of wheat stalks, using "sword energy" to cleave horses in two, to the final fight against the Eunich sorcerer where a character uses a cannon barrel like a quarterstaff SWORDSMAN II is sublimely excessive. Which is exactly what I want my D&D games to be.

Yes, interactive storytelling is a central part of the role playing experience, but so too is fun and SWORDSMAN II is fun.

To be fair SWORDSMAN II is also whimsical, which isn't the necessary component. All I need is a larger than life narrative that is fun to inspire a great day of game play. If THE EMPRESS AND THE WARRIORS ends up a serious film, like CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER, I will still enjoy it, but that will mean that my search for the next great D&D inspiration -- much needed given that 4th edition D&D is coming soon -- will continue. I like to find a film to define play for each edition of D&D, and I hope this one is it for the new edition.

Hat tip to friend and HK/Bollywood expert David Chute for the preview.

Conan and Jem: Christy Marx on Geekerati

What do CONAN: THE ADVENTURER

and JEM

have in common?

Christy Marx was a Writer and Story Editor on both of these animated series (and a whole host of others. Listen to last week's Geekerati episode as she talks about these shows and her career as a television, animation, comic book, and video game writer. You can also visit her website to find some great advice if you are looking to become a writer in the television, animation, comic book, or video game fields.

A Small Defense of 4th Edition D&D...in Theory

I haven't seen a copy of the 4th Edition rules. I only know what I've read in the various hints on EnWorld and on the Wizards site about what 4th Edition will look like. But there is one thing I know, and it is that I am sick of hearing on various boards that 4th Edition is a game made for children or those of a childish mentality. I am bored with those who write, "this is D&D for 10 year-olds" or "if I was 10 I'd like this version."

Why? I'll give you one guess.

I started playing D&D when I was 10, thanks to the first Red Box Basic set (the red box with Erol Otis art), and haven't turned back from playing the game in each subsequent edition for 25 years.

Has anyone really gone back after years of playing later editions and read the 1st edition rulebooks? I'm talking the AD&D rulebooks here. Go ahead, read the combat section regarding initiative...all of it. How many attacks per round does a Magic User with a dagger get against a Fighter with a two-handed sword? Nope, not one. You'd better check out that chapter in the DMG again.

Worse yet, try reading the white box with the three booklets? Those are almost unplayable. In fact, if I hadn't played so much Warhammer Fantasy Battle over the past few decades, I wouldn't even be able to make heads or tails of this game. At least I wouldn't if I was using the core combat mechanic based on the Chainmail miniatures rulebook. I've read Chainmail several times, and it is only my experience as a WFB player that makes them sensible. Not to mention how confusing the "alternate combat rules" are. These seem to require that I already know how to play D&D. Thankfully, I do. How much damage does a weapon do in the three booklets again? (hint -- less than you think)

In fact, without either ignoring a lot of rules, or making up your own stuff, these games are pretty much are unplayable unless you already know how to play. The books don't teach you how to play, rather they provide the reminders for those who already know how to play. Back in the day people learned to play D&D from people who already knew how to play.

To quote John Eric Holmes in Dragon 52 (you know the guy who wrote the very first blue box Basic set):

When Tactical Studies Rules published the first DUNGEONS & DRAGONS rule sets, the three little books in brown covers, they were intended to guide people who were already playing the game. As a guide to learning the game, they were incomprehensible. There was no description of the use of the combat table. Magic spells were listed, but there was no mention of what we all now know is a vital aspect of the rules: that as the magic user says his spell, the words and gestures for it fade from his memory and he cannot say it again.
When I edited the rules prior to the first edition of the D&D Basic Set, it was to help the thousands (now millions) of people who wanted to play the game and didn’t know how to get started. Gary Gygax acknowledged that some sort of beginner’s book was badly needed, and he encouraged me to go ahead with it.

The fact is that Hasbro, and WotC (as well as TSR back in the day), want new players to play the game. They don't want people to have to "learn" from other people who are already playing. They also want to increase the amount of mechanical balance (maybe to satisfy some of us old timers who like games like Hero that are internally consistent).

There are changes, to be sure, and the game is being aimed at being more accessible, to be sure, but don't you all remember what it was like when you first played the game?

I remember my first D&D gaming experience, in fact I'll never forget.

I was at my friend Sean McPhail's house and his older brothers had been talking about this new fangled game called Dungeons and Dragons that lets you play out adventures like those that you read in fantasy novels or watch in films like THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER and KRULL. From the initial description, I knew that this was the game for me.

So on a blustery Saturday when Sean's older brothers brought over someone who claimed to be an experienced "Dungeon Master." I was thrilled that I would get my first taste of this groundbreaking new game.

I was ten at the time and didn't bat an eye when the "DM" said he didn't need the rulebooks (which I had been perusing for the past few weeks) or any prepared materials to run his dungeon adventure...all he needed was his mind.

He had his "dungeon" memorized you see. I was wide eyed with with anticipation. The first character I played (not my first character), borrowed from the characters Sean had already designed, was a first level Magic-User named, uncreatively enough, Gandalf. Sean, Gandalf, and I were ready for adventure and action. You know, all the stuff I'd read and seen in various fantasy adventures.

That's not what I experienced though. Instead, I was turned into an Axebeak during the first 10 minutes of play after I tried to read a scroll to see if it was magical. The "DM" made me make a Petrification and Polymorph save and I rolled poorly. I missed my saving throw on this "save or get hosed roll." Not that I couldn't have lied, the "DM" had no idea what roll I needed, but that's meaningless. What is meaningful is that my "great and powerful wizard" was now a weird looking bird with no intelligence. I was out of the game and useless.

That's my first memory as a player.

Since that day, I have hated save or die effects. I also don't tend to like "killer dungeons" or things that take individual players out of the "action" for long periods of time. Sure, I've played through brutal Ken St. Andre solo adventures, and those are mean, but those were for distraction when I was alone. Speaking of those, they tend to remind me of my first adventure experience. I wonder if that "DM's" name was Ken.

When it comes to RPGs, I like cinematic action . D&D has always advertised, but rarely delivered (at low levels especially), cinematic action. It is my hope that 4th Edition will finally capture the feel that has been advertised for so long, and I have high hopes. Don't get me wrong, I don't want D&D to become Feng Shui (though I do like that game), I just want it to be more balanced, better able to simulate cinematic action, and I want it to be fun.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith to Release in June

Okay, here's the quick and dirty.

According to a Press release celebrating the June release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith,
"Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock fans will have the opportunity to download and jam to Aerosmith's "Dream On." The song will be available for free from February 16-18 on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®Store for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system."

I'll take the free song, but I think I'll pass on buying the whole disk.

Sure the game promises to "put players in the shoes of Perry (guitar), Whitford (guitar) and Hamilton (bass), as they rock out alongside frontman Tyler and drummer Kramer." It even claims that, "Gamers will experience Aerosmith's GRAMMY® winning career, from their first gig to becoming rock royalty, in a way that no other entertainment vehicle offers."

But who wants to spend a couple of weeks pretending to be Aerosmith? Do we get to rock through the stages of addiction?

Thankfully, no. The game will lack that level of verisimilitude. There will be no wireless syringe controller which triggers psychedelic imagery on the screen.

As much as I might mock the thought of buying an entire game devoted to the music of Aerosmith and the bands they have influence, which shouldn't be taken as me saying I don't like the music of the band, I have to admit that when it comes to new technologies Aerosmith is usually one of the first bands to jump on board.

Do you remember the old Aerosmith arcade shooter (Revolution X) where you shot compact disks at the dreaded forces of the PMRC (I mean the NON)? I do.

I was stickin' it to Tipper Gore (I mean Mistress Helga) daily...ewww...not that kind of stickin', I was shooting her lapdogs with cds and rockin' out to the Aerosmith soundtrack.

Mmmm...Mistress Helga.



On a side note, the formal press release has a great quote from Joe Perry about how games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are revitalizing the music industry. He states, "On a larger scale, it's cool for us to be pioneers helping to rebuild the music industry through a format like video games. It's great for rock since the record companies are struggling to make sense of how things are changing. Fans want to get and experience music in new formats--and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands. It's what's happening now, and it's only going to build more momentum in the future. It's a massive change for the music business."

Gore Verbinski on Films and Games

Today's Gamasutra has an article covering some comments that Gore Verbinski made during a speech at the DICE Summit about the film and video game industry. There's a good deal of the type of comment one would expect at any conference dealing with entertainment. You know, the "be original," "hire talented people," and "find your own artistic voice" kinds of comments.

Not that these comments are not true, they are, it's just that they are a little cliché.

What isn't cliché is one of the final comments by Verbinski in the Gamasutra article. Verbinski states:

"This is not a debate between active and passive engagement," he added. "A novel requires active participation by imagination... a film used to do that, but now it just reminds people of that other film. Let's not do the same thing with games. You haven't even scratched the surface of what is possible."

I am absolutely in love with this passage. Lately, I have been doing a good deal of reading regarding game design theory and there are those who are dismissive of other media because they believe non-video game media are non-interactive. I usually find myself with a desire to murder these people and remove their faces to make masks I can where during speeches I give (as them of course) recanting "their" previous position. Not really, but I do find the pretense of these people as annoying as those who deny narrative elements in many modern video games. Sorry, but I believe you have to be intentionally obtuse to think that Fable or Mass Effect aren't narratives.

Verbinski gets it. He sees that novels are an interactive an immersive experience that requires "user participation." Interactivity isn't exclusive to the video game world. He is also asserting, and I'm not entirely in agreement with this part of his argument, that films don't do it as much, anymore, as books or video games. I think that whether watching a film is a passive or active experience depends upon the individual film and how that film balances Boorstin's "three viewing eyes," which he writes about in Making Movies Work: Thinking Like a Filmmaker.

Arguably one could use his three eyes theory of viewing and combine it with whether a film is passive or active to create a kind of film review matrix. Such a matrix might look something like this:

Voyeuristic/Active	Voyeuristic/Passive
Vicarious/Active	Vicarious/Passive
Visceral/Active	Visceral/Passive

In fact, I might try and elaborate on this theory later when I have a copy of the Boorstin book in front of me. Like when I'm at home.

Midweek Miscellany of Geekdom

Following in the footsteps of one of my favorite Medievalist bloggers, I have decided to include a weekly feature which highlights oddities and exciting news I have read about on a given day. Naturally, all such information will be some how related to geekdom in general.

• Though it's a year late for my tastes, last year was Robert Howard's 100th Birthday, Fantasy Flight games will be releasing the Age of Conan boardgame this summer. The game will be designed by Nexus games and will use mechanics similar to those used in their excellent War of the Ring boardgame. They have yet to post pictures of any of the game's components online. Given the track record of Fantasy Flight Games and Nexus, I expect the components will be of very high quality.
  
  
  
  As Thulsa doom might say, "Contemplate this on the tree of woe."



• Gamasutra has an excellent, and long -- 10 pages, article covering the history of the first video game console roleplaying game I ever played. The article, "The History of Dragon Quest," discusses the success of the franchise and also finally explained to me my unnatural enjoyment of Dragonball Z. You see, Dragon Quest had character design art created by Akira Toriyama, the man behind the Dragonball mask. And that jem came on the first page of the article. When it comes to the Dragon Quest series, I have never had so much fun "killing" smiling slimes than the first time I loaded Dragon Warrior into my Nintendo Entertaiment System.
  
  
  
  Isn't he cute? Shh...don't alert him. I need to bash his brains in with my longsword.
  
  Do slimes have brains? What about smiling slimes?



• Media Tie-In Author extraordinaire, Lee Goldberg, informs us that media tie-in authors now include the snooty and artsy fartsy literati. Dave Eggers, of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius fame, is writing the novelization of the upcoming Where the Wild Thing Are film adaptation of Maurice Sendak's classic children's picture book. Thanks Dave. Now I'll have to get into fist fights with people about how the new novelization, of a movie based on a 300 word work, has now elevated the form. Add to this all the fist fights I get into with people explaining that Blankets is a graphic novel, but Watchmen is a "trade paperback collection," I'll be spending so much time brawling, I won't be able to blog anymore.



• Apparently, the basic Risk boardgame is being revamped so as to no longer end marriages and friendships. For years, I have tried to explain to people that the Risk variants, which limit game length and add "objectives" to the victory resolution system aren't as bile causing as the basic Risk game. For years, my friends have continued to play the basic game, only to have long lasting friendships lost in the process. I don't know what it is about Risk that causes this. Games like Diplomacy and Junta are all about betraying your friends, but when the game is over everyone still likes one another. It only takes a couple hours of Risk to create hatreds that last generations.
  
  This image from the article over atGamers with Jobs, shows the "playtest" edition Hasbro is releasing to create buzz.
  
  
  
  You wanna create buzz? How about giving me a copy to promote on Geekerati Radio? I'll even schedule an interview where fans can call in. Sheesh!

A Call for Writers

Despite the fact that I have been pretty lax in my posts the past few weeks, this is not a post soliciting writers for this blog. I have enough co-writers, who don't do enough co-writing, at this time.

What this is is a call for writers who want to write for a new online magazine designed to support the Geekerati webcast radio show my co-hosts and I air each week. Essentially, I am looking for writers who are willing to work for no-pay now, hopefully pay in the future, who will write quality articles about some area of geek culture which will be published in a Monthly online magazine via the Issuu service. Here's what I'm looking for.

1. A reliable illustrator or two: b/w line art is dandy as is someone who can do cover designs.
2. A video game reviewer: we'll need 2 to 3 video games reviewed each month.
3. 2 to 3 book reviewers of various genres: do you want to write about mystery, fantasy, children's lit, comic books?
4. A television reviewer: Shawna...I'm looking at you. We need 2-3 television show reviews a month.
5. Games reviews: We need someone who can write 1 or 2 table top game reviews a month.
6. A film reviewer: (David Chute and LYT, I'm looking at you guys) Are your reviews not published in enough places? Try our magazine
7. A tech writer who knows a thing or two about the gadgets out there.

Any writers/illustrators will be invited to participate in our online radio show on a fairly regular basis.

As I wrote earlier, these positions will be unpaid until we can build an advertiser base, but when/if we do that we will pay a fair rate.

Gaming History and Piracy

Today's Gamasutra has a great article about the Apple II and its role in the history of video game development.

Actually, it's a great article about the early history of Apple with some minor notes about Apple's impact as a game console, even though the article is supposed to be devoted to the Apple II as a gaming platform.

When it comes to my early memories of video games, there are two systems that dominated my early gaming -- and thus my long term gaming habits.

I owned an Atari 2600 and played its games obsessively. Many times I played Asteroids on "flip" mode until I rolled over the score, not to mention the many hours devoted to Yar's Revenge. In fact, my modern love of "actioners" like Assassin's Creed can be directly mapped back to Pitfall and my love of "action rpgs" can be mapped back to the excellent Raiders of the Lost Ark licensed game (not everyone agrees with me that RotLA was excellent, but I'm sticking to my guns).

But many of my favorite gaming moments can be traced back to "all nighters" spent mapping the levels of Bard's Tale as my friend Sean fought against hordes of "99 Barbarians, 99 Barbarians, 99 Barbarians, and 99 Barbarians." Ah, those were the days. If memory serves, Sean owned the PC version, but the computer I learned BASIC on at school (and used all those maps made during the all nighters on at lunch while playing Bard's Tale) was an Apple II. In fact, after finishing the Bard's Tale trilogy, I wandered through the many levels of "Wizardry." For five years, and to be honest to the present day, computer gaming was synonymous with computer roleplaying for me. I wasn't much, and still am not much, for fight games and sports games on the PC, those games belong on consoles. But a "boring map game," as my wife likes to call PC RPGs, those are heavenly on the computer. And when it came to these games, during the late 80's -- and for a blink in the early 90s when Apple still had games manufactured for it -- the Apple II was the system. "Platformers" were the purview of the Commodore 64, but that is another story.

I loved RPGs on the Apple II and I always bought mine. Which brings me to the reason I actually decided to post today, sorry that I have been lax of late. Barton and Loquidice (the authors of the Gamasutra piece) briefly mention the "role" that piracy had on early Apple game development and for the most part they are dismissive of the issue. They mention at least one game, only in the text beneath an image, that went under "due to piracy's affect on sales," but they state dismissively that, "In short, the precise impact of piracy is difficult to determine, though it likely had advantages and disadvantages for the longevity of the platform."

Really? Could the fact that when it came to the Apple II, "the inner workings of the hardware was made public," have been one of the reasons Apple moved from the "open" II series to the closed and proprietary Macintosh series. To this day Apple is obsessively proprietary about their hardware and software, whether it is the iPod or the Mac. In fact, the Mac was notorious for having almost no viable gaming software (other than Marathon which eventually became Microsoft's Halo) for most of the 90s.

Maybe those businesses that claim they "went under" due to piracy should be taken at their word. Certainly, it is nice to be able to emulate games Apple (and the original companies) have "abandoned." And certainly piracy expanded the exposure of computer gaming, likely creating the modern obsession with playing video games. Free is a great way to grow a market after all. Piracy might have helped the industry develop, but it also killed some businesses along the way. I know the positive effects of freeware and "hacked games" and how they helped create demand among a less technically savvy, and more willing to pay, population. What I would have liked to see would be a little research into the real numbers.

The article dug deep into the history of Apple, and Woz, but it makes claims about piracy without ever backing up any claims with numbers. Instead, like piracy advocates (and I am not claiming the authors are piracy advocates -- I doubt that to be the case), the authors use vague language rooted in sentiments which doesn't help anyone in any discussion.

What can striking WGA writers learn from video game writers? A lot.

This year's WGA awards are featuring a new award devoted to video game writers. The award, I am sure, was created to increase the ties between television/film writers and writers in the video game industry in order to set the foundation for video game writers eventual migration into the WGA structure. While specific games selected by the nominating committee might leave those of us who actually play video games doubting the sanity of the WGA, the fact that the WGA is reaching out the the video game community proves them to be not only sane but savvy. The quicker the WGA reaches out to the video game industry, the better.

The WGA should have begun looking into a partnership twenty years ago when games like Zak McCracken and Maniac Mansion were already showing the link between film and game (you can watch the introductions to these games below). George Lucas understood that video games can tell stories, and that there was a demand for computer based games. But it is better to be late, as is the case with the WGA and their outreach to the video game industry, than never.

Had the WGA reached out to video game writers/designers earlier, they might have been more prepared when going into negotiations seven years ago. They would have had members who had experience with "alternate revenue streams" and not bought into the studios selling them on the "unpredictability" of the DVD sales market. Luckily, there is time to learn more lessons from writers and designers in video games and to benefit from their outlook when it comes to alternate revenue streams.

In a recent article on Gamasutra, a United Business Media (the people who own PR Newswire and CMP) site devoted to the gaming industry, Tom Buscaglia discusses a recent negotiation he entered into with a game company and how he ensured his clients received a fair share of the revenue the game would produce. One of the first points that Buscaglia made was that their are "some things that publishers excel at and one of them is coming up with new and innovative ways to commercially exploit games." The publishers, like the movie/tv studios, may not know how to make a good game/show/movie (or even how to recognize one), but they certainly know how to make money off of one when it is successful. Buscaglia reminds us as readers that this means that those going into negotiations with publisher (and by extension producers) need to go in with their eyes wide open.

Buscaglia sites a common mistake that people make when entering negotiations with a publisher. What is it? "Often the developer is so focused on getting a publisher to sell their game that all they look at are the royalties from game sales." This is a huge mistake, according to Buscaglia, because, "If all the developer asks for is a portion of the revenue from the sales, what’s all they’ll get, regardless of how much ancillary revenue a game generates. And publishers are getting really good at finding innovative ancillary revenue streams from the games the sell."

That's right. If all you want to do is secure that you receive a percentage of sales, that's all you're going to get, but don't fool yourself into thinking that is all the publisher is going to get. I wish that the WGA understood this in their earlier negotiations with the producers and studios. The "suits" certainly understood this, even as they were dickering a low residual rate for the writers. What about business to business (B2B) revenue created from advertising sold on studio websites when episodes are streaming? Nope. None of that, but the studio is certainly making money that way. The writers were already getting B2B revenue from syndication, why didn't they see that there might be other B2B revenue streams?

What might one of these alternate revenue streams look like? Once again, we can look to the Buscaglia article and the video game industry. "Eventually, through some rather persistent negotiating, we were able get the publisher to agree to pour any in-game advertising and any B2B revenue into the revenue pool." So...they made sure to get a share of business to business revenue, and...what's this? They also got the publisher to pour in a share of "in-game advertising?" When was the last time the writer's asked for a share of "product placement" revenue? It is the film/tv equivalent of in-game advertising after all. If Bruce Willis drinks a Pepsi in a movie, and the funders are benefiting financially from that event, the writer should be getting a share of that revenue as well.

Buscaglia, in representing video game developers, tries to ensure that his clients are a part of any potential future earnings. For example, just "in case the publisher found any other way to exploit the game that was had not covered, [he] also include[s] in the contact a "catch all" provision pouring any and all revenue from any commercial exploitation of the game from anywhere into the royalty pool to be split with the developer."

Certainly, the fact that Buscaglia is representing individual clients (and not a whole union) enables a certain degree of liberty in the negotiating process, but the WGA could certainly learn from the way he looks at a creative property as a revenue source.

Here is a list of what I think the WGA should be getting:

• Continuing Syndication Revenue: Yes, syndication is dead. And yes, they are already receiving syndication money, but this revenue stream needs to keep trickling.
• DVD Residual: Like syndication, this revenue stream is actually already dead -- it just doesn't know it yet. And writers are already receiving some revenue from DVDs. They need to milk this for as much as they can get, for as long as they can get it. They also need to understand that it isn't going to be around for much longer.
• Internet Download Residuals: These too are actually already dead. That's right, this "wave of the future" way of selling movies is already obsolete. Sure, it will pass through a period of high revenue, but it will die and quickly. Once again, that shouldn't stop the WGA from getting their members a share.
• Revenue Sharing from Online Display: An absolute must. This may, or may not, be a long lasting future source of revenue, but revenue sharing -- rather than a "per view" payment -- is an absolute must.
• Cell Phone Viewing Residuals: What? Cell phones? Yes, and I'm not talking iPhone downloads -- but those too. I'm talking about "on demand" cellular viewing technology, or streaming cellular video technology. People will be using their portable devices to watch tv on the go. In fact, the WGA should be negotiating for all of the TVs of tomorrow.
• Percentage of Product Placement Revenue: This is most likely going to have to be negotiated by individuals, and likely will be limited to "creators," but the writers had better be keeping his revenue in mind. My acquaintance Rob Long likes to talk about how everyone knows that the "King of Queens" works for UPS, and that the studio is watching a revenue go down the drain every episode. The studios, and the show's creators should be fighting to get UPS money if they can do so without losing creative control.
• A percentage of any future revenue source I can't predict: I'm not able to see into the future, but the WGA and writers need to be thinking about any future revenue now. They either need to get a better "percentage" in the long run or demand more money up front.

Maniac Mansion Introduction


Zak McCracken Introduction

PSN and XBLA Retro Gaming Remakes

The game for Playstation Store Network and XBox Live Arcade releasing this year that I am looking most forward to is the remake of Bionic Commando Rearmed. No, not the next gen game that will be coming out shortly, but a graphical and gameplay upgrade of the NES classic. Behold!



I got this game in 1988 when it first game out for NES. I was a kid at the time, but I remember this was one of the most challenging games that I owned for the system. I played the heck out of it, even though I wasn't any good at it. One of my favorite memories in all the time I played my NES was the day we, my brother and our best friend, managed to get past a level that had been puzzling us for a whole year. We finally got to beat the game and save Super Joe. The sense of accomplishment and triumph after hours of playing this incredible game is still fresh to this day. I am certainly looking forward to the new Next-gen Bionic Commando, but it's this remake of the classic that I am looking forward to the most.

Retro games sell.

Nostalgia sells.

Why else do companies constantly roll out 2D platformers for the Nintendo DS, like Contra 4?

The NDS is perfectly capable of rolling out awesome 3D games, like Legend of Zelda
Phantom Hourglass. My favorite NDS game, a game I played a bunch last year, was Final Fantasy III. It's an old game from 1990 originally designed for the NES. One of our favorite PSP games here at Cinerati was last year's Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lions War, a redo of an old PS1 game from 1997.

This type of graphical and gameplay overhaul has already been executed on another awesome 2D side-scroller for XBox Live Arcade. The game was Prince of Persia and here is a cool side by side comparison of how it looked in 1990 on PC and on Sega Genesis in 1993 and how it looks now now on XBLA.



As long as they keep doing these amazing upgrades for the classic quality games and not overdo it with bad retreads of awful games I will keep buying these downloadable and portable gems of old. These games work well for both the handheld systems and for the downloading networks of the Next-gen systems.

Nintendo is also in on the trend, selling old games from their old platforms as emulation software on the Wii, via Virtual Console.

All I want to know is; Where is my Galactic Super Mario Bros., Nintendo?

Cure for the Dragon/Dungeon cancellation blues.

I know a lot of people who were pretty angry with Wizards of the Coast when they ended their licensing agreement with Paizo Publications, thus ending the print publication of both the Dragon and the Dungeon magazines. Okay, I don't actually "know" a lot of people who were angry -- most my friends aren't gamers -- but I do visit the aggrosphere (message boards) from time to time. Trust me, there are some angry people out there.

Dragon had been in publication for over 30 years, with one year long hiatus (which most people seem to have forgotten) as TSR was going under, and Dungeon has been around for about 20 years -- with a similar hiatus, so it's understandable that many might feel a sense of loss now that they are no longer available in print. They are becoming available as ongoing "online" magazines, but the process of migration from one medium to another has been less than rapid and equally less than fluid. As I mentioned earlier, this isn't the first time that Dragon and Dungeon were not available for purchase during their long runs. In the late 90s, before Wizards of the Coast purchased TSR, there was a period of almost a year when no issues of either (in any format) were being produced. Needless to say, current fans of the magazines have a lot to complain about and a moderate wait before the "digital editions" come close to filling the void left by the absence of these wonderful magazines.

But these fans do have one very exciting replacement option available to them. Wolfgang Baur, who has in the past edited both Dungeon and Dragon magazines, has begun publishing his own quarterly magazine devoted to "the world's most famous roleplaying game." The magazine, Kobold Quarterly, began as an extension of Baur's very successful Custom Adventure series of patron sponsored gaming adventures. Initially, Kobold Quarterly was solicited as an "online magazine," but Baur was able to make the magazine a print/pdf publication before the first issue was released. This was partly due to the rapidity with which Baur's patrons, of whom I am one, became subsribers and partly due to the desire in the gaming community for a d20 based gaming magazine. I have been a subscriber since day one, as I wrote I am one of Baur patrons for his custom adventure design experiment (I write this in the interest of full disclosure). I am also repeating my patronage so that he might, just might, become a guest on my weekly podcast.



Having said that, I would like to say that Kobold Quarterly is rapidly heading toward Dragon Magazine quality (it doesn't contain adventures so is not a replacement for Dungeon) with regard to both the quantity and quality of content. The first issue was reminiscent of the old Strategic Review newsletters, the second issue was like an 80s issue of Dragon, and the third (most recent) issue is approaching the high standard that Paizo set in the final days of the Dragon. In the first three issues, Baur has already expanded the content from 30 to 60 pages and the quality of advertisers has increased. The magazine has also gone from almost entirely Baur written to containing articles by leading freelancers in the rpg industry. That's quite an achievement for a one man publishing show. Before you run over to his website and purchase PDF copies of his first three issues (linked here), let me give you a rundown of their content -- with brief quips with my opinion regarding each article, but minimal spoilers.

Issue 1

• Editorial: The issue begins with the obligatory editorial which describes the goal of the magazine and the central philosophy of the publication.
• Ecology of the Derro by Wolfgang Baur: Picking up right where Dragon left off, Baur gives us a glimpse into the psyche of everybody's favorite mentally unstable gnomelike creatures.
• Underdark Encounters by Wolfgang Baur and Mark Gedak: Encounter tables were a staple of the old Dragon, back in the day, and I have always found them useful. Nice companion to the Derro piece.
• Princes of Hell -- Titivillus, the Scribe of Hell by Wolfgang Baur: Demons and Devils have always been a staple of D&D meta-fiction and rules. I have never been a big fan of the proliferation of devils and demons, the core rules have plenty for me, but I know they are fan favorite articles and this one (like most of Baur's other demon/devil stuff) is well written -- even if I find the topic staid.
• 10x10 Toon by Stan!: Comics, like devils, are a staple of the old Dragon and Dungeon magazines and Stan! was one of the stable of cartoonists who have entertained us for years in those publications. This is a welcome addition.
• It's Not (always) About the Gold by Wolfgang Baur: This is a top of the line DM advice article that helps DMs think outside the box when it comes to rewards players can earn in a campaign, it's more than GP and XP.
• Interview with Erik Mona by Wolfgang Baur: This interview is a great conversation between two significant writers in the D&D "universe." I really liked reading this, both for the areas I found I agreed with Mona and Baur about what makes the game so much fun and in the areas where I think Erik Mona is crazy. There's a discussion about "unfair traps" that sent my head spinning as far as how I try to run my own games.
• The Kobold FAQ: Where our esteemed editor answers questions like "Will a paper edition be available?" The answer he gave to that question is now moot, but all the other questions are still salient.
• The Ups & Downs of Tripping by Sigfried Trent: Is a workmanlike article about the use and abuse of tripping in your D&D game. It is sure to get your min/maxers plotting and scheming.
• Bolt and Quiver by Stan!: The return of the strip that ran regularly in Dungeon and Dragon. As funny as it was there.
• The Far Darrig by Scott Gable: Let me just say that 3rd edition D&D had far too few fey, creatures actually defined as fey that is, and this article on malicious red caps is a welcome addition.
• The Free City by Wolfgang Baur: The first of a regular column highlighting the default campaign of the custom adventure project, the Free City of Zobeck and the world that surrounds it.

Issue 2

• Editorial: Baur discusses shared worlds.
• Kobold Letters: We now have a letters column. I don't know about you, but even in the digital world we live in, I still love to read a good letters page. Then I jaunt on over to the message boards.
• Belphegor by Tim and Eileen Connors: The obligatory demon/devil article. Fun, but -- as I wrote earlier -- I am not the target audience. I have devils/demons coming out the eyeballs.
• 10x10 Toon by Stan!: Funny metagaming humor.
• On the Street Where Heroes Live by Ed Greenwood: That's right...issue #2 and already an article by Ed Greenwood. That's a big get, and the article is one that my CSI: Sharn game was dire in need.
• King of All Monsters by the Open Design Inquisitors: This interview with Wayne Reynolds, the artist who really set the tone for the Eberron setting, gives some very good insight into this artist's process and even contains a brief comment regarding Football (the British variety).
• The Assassin by Robert Schwalb: This article is a preview of material published in Green Ronin's d20 Freeport Companion book. The article takes the Assassin out of the realm of the "prestige class" and makes it a base class.
• Bolt and Quiver by Stan!: As much as I like Stan!'s humor, I'd like to see some other cartoonists work featured in the Quarterly. The metagame humor in this strip seemed a little forced. Two strips...same joke told differently.
• Ask the Kobold by Skip Williams: Yep, you read that right. Skip Williams, Wizards' sage and rules guru for 3rd edition, answers rules questions as "the Kobold." The advice in this column regarding miss chances provided a good basis for making some changes to how I used the miss chance in my game.
• Ecology of the Barghest by Nicolas Logue: Nicolas Logue is one of Paizo's most prolific, and one of my favorite, adventure authors. His article on the Barghest was entertaining and informative. The "advanced Barghest" in the article is going to give my PCs a headache.
• From the Outside In, Creating Vibrant Characters by Sigfried Trent: A workmanlike article for players and DMs alike who want to make their characters a little more memorable. In my opinion, more useful for DMs -- who have the burden of creating hordes of NPCs compared to the relatively few characters a player needs to make.
• A Kingdom for my Horse by John E. Ling, Jr.: The paladin is my favorite class in D&D, but it is too often the subject of too much ridiculous controversy. "There should be paladins of all alignments!" "There should be evil paladins!" "Why can't paladins multi-class?" All these questions seem to miss the point of what being a paladin actually entails, or the mythic origins of the character type. Paladins are by nature righteous defenders of the weak and innocent and should exist, in the D&D game, regardless of what particular religions a campaign has. Paladins unswervingly serve good, it's in the archetype. All those other things, Lawful Neutral paladins for example, aren't paladins. They are other concepts by players who want the benefits of paladinhood, but not the drawbacks. Ling's article on the "horseless" paladin is a good one. He offers alternative rules that make sense given the mythic archetype.
• Joining the Noble Classes by Jeff Grubb: Yep...Jeff Grubb. This is a very good article that feeds on the idea of campaign rewards beyond XP and GP.
• The Avatar of Hunger by Wolfgang Baur: Baur provides a glimpse into the background of his second Custom Adventure project "Kingdom of the Ghouls" in the form of a really scary dragon. There's more to it than that, but I don't want to spoil Wolfgang's fun.
• Griffon Towers of the Margreve by Wolfgang Baur: More insight into the default Custom Adventure setting of Zobreck.

Issue 3

Stellar cover, more prestigious advertisers, 60 pages of content. This baby is a beauty. Go subscribe now. This this issue contains the Ecology of the Lich, an article on Baur's special "Star and Shadow Magic," an interview with Ed Greenwood, an excellent article by Keith Baker (creator of Eberron) discussing how to run Hardboiled adventure, and much much more. The issue just came out and I am still absorbing it, but this issue is what I hoped for when I first subscribed.

A Year in Podcasts

As a product of Generation X, I have a deep affection for popular culture. It doesn't matter whether we are talking about movies, television, comic books, roleplaying games, or video games. I love them all. Okay, I don't love every product in each of those groupings, but I do love all those groupings on whole. I have watched a ton of movies and television, played quite a few video games, and own a comic book and game library. In short, I am a pop culture junkie and so are a few of my friends. Last year, I decided to do something with my geekdom. Namely, I decided to get together with some friends/acquaintances who knew a lot about popular culture, often more than me (especially in their areas of exptertise), and put on an online radio show at BlogTalkRadio.com.

On May 14th 2007, these friends of mine and I got together to air our first Geekerati Podcast and have been doing weekly shows since. Some of our shows have been great, and others (like our 15 minute "updates" at Comic Con) were unsuccessful experiments. I still think we can do 15 minute updates at a big event, but we'll need to plan them better than we planned our Comic Con coverage.

In the spirit of beginning the new year, I would like to provide you with a list containing some of last year's episodes for your listening pleasure. Listen in, download, and experience partial enjoyment.


Our first episode, where your resident Geeks at Cinerati/Geekerati discuss and preview Summer 2007's crop.




This week we will be interviewing SF/F author Susan Palwick about her newest novel Shelter and SF/F in general.




Between designing toys and games to editing and writing fiction, Matt Forbeck is a very busy man. He still finds time to chat with the geeks.




Do you ever listen to or watch the bonus features on your DVDs? We do and we want to talk about what we like and don't like about special features. We are visited by film critic David Chute who discusses his commentary on Dragon Dynasty's King Boxer and One Armed Swordsman.




Marc Bernardin discusses the transition from comic book reporter to comic book writer.




Your esteemed panelists will be discussing the books you should be reading, the shows/movies you should be watching, and the games you should be playing with special guest James Lowder.





This week Win Eckert visits the geeks and we discuss our favorite pulp authors and analyze their legacy on modern storytelling.




Jeff Mariotte will be visiting our show for around 15 to 20 minutes to help us kick off a conversation about Vampire movies and television shows, as well as other nasty things that go bump in the night. Jeff Mariotte is a former editor in chief at IDW Comics and the co-author of two published 30 Days of Night media tie-in novels, Rumors of the Undead and Immortal Remains. A third novel, Eternal Unrest is scheduled to be released next July.




The Geeks will discuss the pending WGA strike with television writer/producer Rob Long. Rob has some interesting insights into the future financial models of the industry that are intimately related to the technology that surrounds and binds us.




Join us as as Variety editors David S. Cohen and Peter Debruge discuss their favorite animated films of the year. They will also discuss whether a motion capture film, like Beowulf, qualifies as an animated film.




Television writer/producer Tim Minear begins at minute 00:52(http://timminear.net/) and joins the geeks to discuss the ongoing WGA strike.




Professor Richard Scott Nokes returns to our broadcast to discuss the upcoming Beowulf movie. Joining him is Alexis Fajardo, the creator the Kid Beowulf comic. Kid Beowulf chronicles the adventures of a young Beowulf and alters certain elements of the Beowulf myth. In Alexis tale, Beowulf and Grendel are brothers.




Deborah Chesher, renowned photographer and author of the previous book "StarArt" talks with us about her new book "Everybody I Shot is Dead" which details the lives and deaths of several famous musicians she has fortunate enough to cover -- musicians like John Bonham, John Denver, Waylon Jennings, John Lee Hooker, Rick Nelson, and Frank Zappa among many others.




Tonight we will be discussing our favorite Christmas Holiday films.



That's just a smattering of what we offered in the past year. Look forward to more geekery in 2008. Come join us Monday nights at 7pm Pacific -- live...you can even call in and stuff -- at Geekerati Radio.