I Consider Myself a Shatner Devotee, but...

I can't believe I missed this.

The one-and-only William Shatner stars as The Storyteller in this rousing, campy series. Each episode tells a suspenseful story from an exciting time or place, filled with interesting characters, plenty of action, and surprising twists. All 15 episodes are included here, including "A Crack in Time," about a telepathic girl from the year 2098 who finds herself stranded in 20th century America, and "The Pirate," which tells the chilling tale of three vacationing children who stumble onto hidden treasure--and the sinister seafaring ghost that haunts it.

I will own this! I will have this! It shall be mine! That is my New Year's resolution!

After all, if I can enjoy all the Tek War books, and I do, this should be awesome!

Seriously, has anyone seen this? What channel was it on? What is the backstory?

I need information!

Teen Titans: Titans of Tomorrow

Quick note on this one, though it ties into my big review series thingie, and at the end, to boot.

Basically, the Titans and Legion of Super Heroes wind up fighting, among other poeple, 100 dudes with an axe so dang sharp it can cut through time and space. Despite this, no one dies in the fight.

So, was he hitting them with the handle, or what?

DC Comics and Me (Part I, Spoilers)

Well, got some trade paperbacks for Christmas from Julie, as in response to a wistful comment that I'd really pretty much lost track of DC Continuity years back.

Basically, I had what is apparently a fairly classic scenario for giving up on comic collecting... It got too expensive. Though Julie and I loved comics, our good intentions were broken by Our Worlds At War in particular, as it cost far too much money to collect, and by the way had little concrete happen as a result. It's fading in my mind, but it was hard that, after all of the hype and brutal reflections on war, you ended up with not much change. I mean, Lois' dad who was pretty darn new, died. Wee. Also Sarge Steel, acting rather out of character. Oh, and Strange Visitor. All of the stuff about enhancing her powers? Eh, forget it. Sucked.

Oh, and Aquaman, of course. You knew that would stick.

Anyway, that and the fact that in regular continuity Superman was visiting versions of Krypton that has been transformed by consensus reality into happy places and working on mastering his psychic powers while Green Lantern bummed around in his apartment, had oh-so-modern reflections on whether or not to marry his live-in, and explored tolerance issues with his gay sidekick instead of protecting the universe as the last living Green Lantern...

I kinda threw my hands up and gave up. I mean, it wasn't any of those things in particular... Superman getting psionic powers seems inevitable, the Big Monster of the Year crossover (which OWAW was the last one of for quite some time) often didn't change much permanently and I wouldn't've minded GL's expanding social conciousness and dating angst that much (though, maybe, a few less issues basically devoted entirely to them would've been nice) but, all of those things combined with an ever-ballooning price tag... Made me give up.

Oh, so anyway. That's part one. I have to work a bit... more on this tomorrow, I think.

Just in Time for My Birthday...well almost.

Coming soon to DVD...



The Flash! will be released on January 10th, two days late for my birthday. I was a fan of this show when it came out, and while I fully expect to find it doesn't live up to the rose-colored lenses of youth, I will be picking this big daddy up. I always thought the show had a chance, and that it was the fact that you never knew what day of the week the show would be on that killed The Flash! Then again it could have been that the show was so low budget that David Cassidy was in an episode as "The Master." A name that probably irked Dr. Who fans, but was a reference to Mirror Master in the comics.

Oh, and Season 2 of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman will be out on the 17th. This means that we are approaching the dreaded Season 3, to be followed by the underrated Season 4.

Your Local Game Store is Just a Mouse Click Away.

In recent years, the direct to pdf roleplaying game market has exploded. When the industry was in its infancy some of the first products available were pdf copies of classic Dungeons & Dragons modules. In fact, these are a mainstay of some of the current pdf sales portals. Paizo Press (the publishers of Dungeon and Dragon magazines)and Rpgnow offer these classic games at very reasonable prices. Other classic role playing games (like Villains and Vigilantes), by other manufacturers, can be found at drivethruprg.com.

The pdf market is presently dominated by three paradigms. First, most pdf marketplaces offer out of print roleplaying games at very affordable prices. What games are offered varies from site to site, but if you are looking to fill in a collection these portals are a great place to look. Second, is the production and release of currently published rpgs in pdf format. The idea being that some people prefer pdf to print and/or are willing to pay less than the printed version for a copy. Third is the release of pdf only products which allow for small companies to release fairly attractive products at low costs. Anyone who has done any work with printers knows that the "highest cost" item of any product is the printing costs. By entirely eliminating the printing cost from the equation, small publishers can release their products in abundance. A fourth practice (not wide enough to be a trend yet) is the pdf release of products on company sites. Steve Jackson Games, Hero Games, and Pinnacle Games are attempting this practice, though Hero and Pinnacle are taking a different tactic than Steve Jackson. Steve Jackson games offers their own products in addition to other pdf products, while Hero and Pinnacle offer their products at both their own sites and at other "retailers." Steve Jackson products are only available at e23, the Steve Jackson pdf retail store.

Electronic availability of gaming products is an exciting possibility, but it requires a certain amount of consumer honesty. While Drivethrurpg.com had at one time attempted to use DRM protections for their merchandise, they found that such protections had a negative impact on sales. This is due to various negative sentiments in parts of the computer literate community regarding DRM specifically and not protection generally. Other sites have not attempted the use of such technology to protect their products. What this means is that theft is a very real possibility. There is nothing to stop a consumer from purchasing a pdf and spreading it for free across the world, nothing that is except the honesty of consumers. Given that "I'm gonna take it for free because x has so much money already" is the excuse many use when file sharing, most of the independant publishers won't suffer, and given that the "big boys" all produce beautiful hardbound products one would think it wouldn't hurt them much either. But Green Ronin, one of the largest d20 rpg publishers, has encountered a couple of problems in the past year with hardcopy order fulfillment. To quote:

I'll state right off the bat that half of 2004 and most of 2005 have sucked ass for Green Ronin. It's been one discouragement after another, most importantly because our fulfillment partners at Osseum harmed our business more than I can even describe to you when they went out of business earlier this year. I can't even begin to get into the details, which are long and complicated and ugly and messy, but the short answer is Osseum went out of business and was damn close to taking Green Ronin with them. Nine months after ceasing to do business with them, we are STILL suffering the effects of their negligence.

In 2004 and early 2005 we released multiple books that we were never paid for. Big books, hard cover books, color books, even a boxed set. Books that sold! Books that people bought and enjoyed, books that received good reviews, made "hot seller" lists in the game industry, books that were recognized for awards. Books for which we didn't see a dollar. I want you all to understand that when you're talking about how Green Ronin should be doing things better or differently.

So when a major player is suffering on the printed end, theft on the digital end could spell disaster for a company. Thankfully, Green Ronin believes in the digital process and has made their products available as pdfs as soon as they are released as books (they even have some direct to pdf material). So the onus is on us as consumers if we want to see this exciting marketplace continue. Want to share a wonderful rpg with your friend, particularly a classic out of print one, feel free to email him or her the pdf but make sure you bought more than one license or that you don't keep the file if you sent it. It's just marketplace courtesy that allows the possibility of our own dreams of becoming famous starving game designers come true.

Here is a list of recommended pdf products with links. The list is by no means comprehensive, rather look at it as a beginning:

1. The Afformentioned Out of Print Dungeons and Dragons Products. I prefer to buy them from RPGnow because I like their "credit" policy.
2. The free, that's right free, second edition AD&D pdfs available from Wizards of the Coast. Personally, I would download these post-haste as they probably won't be available forever.
3. The Basic Action Games BASH! line of games. These are a good example of a developing designer creating online direct rpgs. I think the system still needs development, it feels like a first edition, but that the company is having fun.
4. Truth and Justice from Atomic Sock Monkey Press. Yes, you will notice a lot of superhero roleplaying games.
5. The GURPS 3rd Edition materials on the Steve Jackson Website. I do believe the prices need to come down because these are out of print items. I think $12 to $16 is competitive for new materials, not old, but these are great products and there is some saving over the printed cost.
6. Savage Worlds from Pinnacle Entertainment Group. These are new products from a great company. You can also buy these books at RPGnow.com. High recommedations for Savage Worlds Core Rulebook, Rippers, and Necessary Evil.
   
7. Deadlands also available by Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Player's Guide and Marshal's Handbook are necessities.
8. Mutants and Masterminds by Green Ronin. This is one of my all time favorite superhero RPGs, it has replaced the old Mayfair system as the one I tinker with most.
9. The Hero System Books. Like the GURPS books these are a little pricey, but they are cheaper than the printed versions. The Hero System is one of the most elaborate gaming systems ever devised. It is extremely "crunchy," by which is meant that it is very rules oriented, but the system is internally consistent. Some of these are also available at RPGnow and Drivethrurpg.com.
   
10. Cyberpunk v. 3 is naturally available as a pdf. This is a revised version of the industry changing system by R. Talsorian Games. Mike Pondsmith, who created the game, is one of the most creative talents in gaming. He has often been ahead of the curve in his ideas (both the Dream Park and Castle Falkenstein rpgs are truly original), and hasn't always benefited from his innovations. His Cyberpunk rpg, for example, brought Cyberpunk into gaming, but it was Shadowrun which combined cyberpunk and fantasy that garnered a bigger part of the market. Oh, and R. Talsorian created the Dragonball Z rpg, an excellent game that was released two to four years to early.
11. The Army of Darkness rpg by Eden Studios. Bruce Campbell...Zombies...you know you want it.

There are hundreds of other worthy products. So get out there and download some classics, or peruse a new idea.

LA Times Offers Oscar Beat Blog

Sometimes you have to give the Los Angeles Times credit. Sure they want to dismiss the blogosphere as inconsequential. Sure most of the writer's they hire are from the East Coast. Sure there is a dearth of local opinion in the opinion column.

But at least they have their own "blog" section, which includes the "Oscar Beat" blog. Okay, it reads like a regular column. Okay, it is apparently only for the Oscar season. But at least they are trying...right?

Some Social Critics Think Christmas is Becoming Too Commercial

Every year, someone writes about how commercial Christmas is "becoming," as if in the past everyone who celebrated Christmas did so with self-denying piety. If you turn on the television today I am sure you will hear the news, but can you really call something that has been discussed for well more than a century "news?"

After all, one century ago G.K. Chesterton wrote about the "Critics of Christmas." Though I guess women wore more hats back then...

One writer against Christmas went so far as to say that the shopkeepers for their own commercial purposes alone sustain Christmas Day. I am not sure whether he said that the shopkeepers invented Christmas Day. Perhaps he thought that the shopkeepers invented Christianity. It is a quaint picture, the secret conclave between the cheese-monger, the poulterer, and the toy-shop keeper, in order to draw up a theology that shall convert all Europe and sell some of their goods. Opponents of Christianity would believe anything except Christianity. That the shopkeepers make Christmas is about as conceivable as that the confectioners make children. It is about as sane as that milliners manufacture women. — G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, January 13, 1906.

The thought that Christmas will "perish" if stores stop saying Merry Christmas, or the government calls Christmas Trees Holiday Trees, is an absurd thought. But it is also a thought suffering from the same lack of faith in the holiday as the intentions attributed to the "consumerist" or the "liberal left." At it's core is a lack of faith that the holiday can stand on its own, without community support. Those who say "Christmas is becoming to consumerist" are not only forgetting how consumerist it has been for some time, but they are also denying the power of the day's message to stand on its own. They are saying that consumerism is powerful enough to diminish the message that we should be giving to one another and be charitable in our lives. In a way, they are committing the sin of believing that G-d isn't more powerful than consumerism. A rational believer might think that Christmas has become consumerist and laugh, then return to their home to a pious gathering of family and friends.

It appears to me that only those who are weak in their faith and need others to constantly support their beliefs who fear that Christmas is becoming to consumerist or that there is a "War on Christmas." A true believer has no care whether Christmas is public or private, has no care whether the retail industry is successful or fails. A true believer, to be cliche, "lives as if every day were Christmas."

On that note, it appears to me that those who seek to make "the proper celebration" of Christmas a greater part of the society ought, in charitable reflection, consider what this says to other groups in our pluralistic democracy. When I look around and hear someone say, the apparantly anti-Christmas, "Happy Holidays," I know exactly what holidays they are refering to. In fact, I appreciate that they acknowledge that there is more than one holiday occuring during this Winter Season. Rather than finding it to be an exclusive statement, I find it inclusive. I do find "holiday tree" ridiculous, because the tree really is a symbol of Christmas and not another major holiday. To return to the question though, how charitable is it to demand that others celebrate and acknowledge your holy day? Yes, it is charitable if they do. If they (whoever they are) say "Merry Christmas," they are being charitable. If they are Macy's they are being pandering. But if you demand that others proclaim the value of your day, you are being an uncharitable bully. Let us not in our desire to express joy oppress others or demand that they feel the same as we do.

We can leave arguments of what legal separation of Church and State are to the law professors for the moment. Regardless of any individual interpretation of the First Amendment, it is undeniable that our nation was founded on a respect for cultural pluralism, in particular religious pluralism and in the modern day a-religious as well. We can celbrate Christmas without bullying others, or requiring others to recognize our holiday. We can be charitable and acknowledge that there are other holidays as well. We should seek to understand them and take the time to remind our neighbors that we appreciate them. It is more Christian of us if we do. After all, Christmas was not invented by other people, it doesn't require the acknowledgement of others to be special. What it requires is that you remember what it means to desire Peace and Joy for yourself and for others.