D6? Free6!

Damn. I have no idea how I missed this earlier. West End Games (of the original Star Wars RPG fame) has put out many of their core books in PDF format for free. I like free. I also liked the old Star Wars RPG much more then the WotC version.

Here's the list of which books are free on RPGNow from WEG:

D6 Adventure
D6 Fantasy
D6 Space
D6 Space Ships
D6 Adventure Locations
D6 Fantasy Creatures
D6 Fantasy Locations

Thats a lot of material right there. I'll need to load them up on my DX and give them a shake.

Signs & Portents - Free Loot!

Say what you will about Mongoose Publishing (and many of you will) but their Signs & Portents Magazine is an excellent piece of work, even if you don't play with their products. The fact that it is free? Utterly amazing.

In this month's issue; (cribbed directly from the RPGNow page)

Signs & Portents
A number of upcoming releases are sneakily unveiled. . .

Games Fest & Halloween at Mongoose Hall
Our on the spot reporter Katrina brings you news of the latest gaming events.

Spycraft
Unleash your inner criminal mastermind.

Earthdawn
Buried Truths, a complete adventure!

Traveller
Two patrons, ready to be slotted into your campaign.

Victory at Sea
Featuring the biggest ship we have EVER put in this game!

Traveller
A Heavy Systems Defence Boat, dedicated to keeping your shipping lanes clear of piracy and those pesky Vargr!

Lone Wolf
The village of Eshnar uncovered. . .

Conan
Cimmerian Moons, a complete adventure for your favourite barbarians.

Traveller/Babylon 5
The end is hoving into view for the massive Legacy of War epic.

Go to RPGNow and pick the latest issue up for free in PDF... then go back and get the previous 73 issues. You won't be sorry. Is it a house organ? Unabashedly. It's also quality and costs nothing. Steal what you can from it. I plan to.

2012 - RPG-able?

I saw 2012 with my 16 y/o son last night. Quick and dirty review: Hollywood blockbuster, amazing special effects, shallow and one trick characters, iffy science, way too long at over 2 1/2 hrs and needs a good editor to cut out some of those amazing special effects. Really. I know you wasted millions of dollars on those 90 seconds of the earth being destroyed, but those 90 seconds need to go... there is still 90 minutes of special effects of the earth being destroyed to fill in the gaps.

Now, as for RPG-ability. Without spoiling too much for those that haven't yet seen the latest special effects thrill ride, all of the real roleplaying source material is in the last 10 minutes of the movie. That is all. But you could work a really fine campaign off those last 10 minutes.

Yep, if you can sneak a peek at the last 10 minutes of this flick you'd have the seeds of a fine game setting ;)

It's Been Ages...

I know I haven't posted in like 10 days. God himself knows how hectic life can get, and boy, did it! ;)

Not all bad, but something had to take a back seat, and this was it. Anyhow...

Torchlight, a nice, little, inexpensive ($18-20) Diablo 2 clone-like game for the PC is addictive. Better then Titan Quest, and much more affordable. It's a decent game priced as shovel-ware. Do yourself a favor and pick it up.

Dragon Age - holy mother of pearl! This game rocks. Currently playing on the Xbox 360 (for the 43" HD experience) but I think the PC version would be even better. Its clocked about 2 days worth of my life (treating a day as an 8 hrs workday). Get it, enjoy it, live it.

iTabletop. Click the link to the right. Go to the forums (join if you arent a member - its free). General Forum - Go to the contest (favorite NPC) and enter. There's a 10 dollar RPGNow gift cert riding on this one. You KNOW you want it :)

DDO - Back to Swinging

So, I'm back in the swing of things in DDO... even to the point of subscribing again. It's just fun.

Now, I just got Dragon Age for the Xbox 360 delivered today and I'm dying to play it, but tonight is DDO nite with a friend or two, and you just can't pass up on gaming with friends.

Yes, I still need to get around to reviewing some PDFs... this wekend just me, the kid, a house in the country and my new macbook... reviews will get done. I promise.

Now, for those that might want $10 bucks to spend on some of those way cool PDFs, I will be running a contest in the iTabletop.com forums. The prize, a $10 RPGNow gift cert. Still waiting on ideas for the contest tho ;) Head over to the forums and help me out!

An Apple a Day...

Okie, so I finally did it. I bought a Mac. Don't kill me, it took alot of thought, but once a new Macbook fell to $799 at Microcenter, I was sold.

The deed was completed on Saturday afternoon. It is very... pretty. In a totallly alright with me sort of way. Seriously, in looks very slim and sleek, very much the complete opposite of me. Cat hairs show up very quickly on the white casing tho.

I'm still playing with it, but so far it seems like a very convenient alternative to my netbook for surfing in bed, or on the sofa, or at the kitchen table.

I'll be loading it with a bunch of gaming PDFs to see how they look.

iTabletop - The New Moderate Moderator

I am honored to be able to state that I am one of 2 volunteer forum moderators at the iTabletop site. I'm very excited about the potential of this new VTT.

Having met the dev team / owners via video conference earlier today I have to say they appear to be on the right track with the Silvertable Project. I'm sure things won't move as fast as I (or they) would like to see, but when does software design ever follow a set timetable? Features breed new features which break old features requiring tweeks... but I am looking forward to the Beta release that is being placed into the hands of Lifetime Members later this month.

My expectations are high, but as it is a beta, I expect many bugs and limitations. I will be testing the crap outa it myself ;)

Kobold Quarterly 11 is in my Mailbox

Actually, I found it in my email last night, and in my snail mail for the hard copy when I got home from work. Haven't had much time to peruse it yet. Maybe I'll read it as I lull myself to sleep tonight.

I have to get to work tomorrow extra early if I want any chance to find parking (movie filming just removed 12+ blocks of parking near my job tomorrow). So, I'll aim to get in by 6 / 615. I'd have so much more time for reading if I would just take the train to work ;)

Barnes and Noble is releasing its own E-Book reader. Specs look very favorable matched up to the Kindle 2, and reads PDFs nativly. I'll wait for some user reviews on this one, but again, the "Nook" looks promising.

Moderate This!

So, it looks like I will be one of two volunteer moderators on the iTabletop website... which is damn cool as I am really excited about the forthcoming Silvertable (iTabletop2.0).

What makes me a good choice for the job? Damned if I know, but I sure as hell plan to do what I can to make the forums a place to post as opposed to a place for ghost posts (my Halloween theme... heh).

Just upgrade today to a 25" monitor... I'll need the extra desktop for the live video feeds from my players :)

About that Splurge...

So anyhow, I escaped to the mountains for the holiday weekend, and lo and behold, what do I do? I log into RPGNow and and other RPG sites and buy more PDFs.

FantasyCraft - Straight 5s at RPGNow in its reviews so I'm not going to even try to review that yet. I'm going to see if I can make heads or tails of it myself. Countdown to iTabletop Beta is 18 days and I need a game system I can DM :)

Mouseguard looks to be extremely well written and alot of fun. Not to sure how happy folks will be to play mice tho.

A Time of War - The BattleTech RPG - Oh boy. This may rock or suck, but at 10 bucks and a future free upgrade I bit the bullet.

The Shotgun Diaries - Zombie horror... may be a good Halloween theme.

Houses of the Blooded - 4 bucks for over 400 pages from the outer of 7 Seas and Legend of the 5 Rings. I mean, 4 lousy bucks man!

I'll DX these in the next few days and see how they all shake out.

Oh, and if you are like me and were too lazy to file taxes back on April 15th and did the automatic 6 month extension... October 15th is the end of the extension... get to it!

Return of the Reviews.. Soonish I Hope

Its been a while since I've reviewed any PDFs, let alone checked DX-ability on anything. It's not that I don't have products to review, I just dont seem to get around to reviewing them. Go figure.

It appears that Necromancer games has put out some new 3.5 PDFs. Always quality stuff from Necro. I might have to make a purchase this weekend.

C&C via FG2 this Saturday nite. Should be a fun time. Hopefully I'll remember what to do ;)

Four EA Sports Wii Activet sessions down. Still working the sweat, tho less pain now. Think the muscles are adjusting :)

Aion - Suprisingly Refreshing MMORPG

Warhammer: Age of Reckoning seems to have imploded. It started huge and has turned to a whimper a year later.

Aion is my current game of choice online. I tried Champions in its closed beta and it... just... didnt do anything for me. So I popped for a Aion preorder and I've been having a blast with it.

Its a rehash of most standard fantasy based MMORPGs but with a nice twist away from standard races and an evolving backstory. I'm hooked so far.

Gotta run. Time to DDO with my son ;)

Live long and prosper

Yesterday I attended the funeral of a 43 year old cop that I worked with for the first 4 years of my career. He died of a blood clot, that led to a stroke, brain damage and finally a heart attack. The whole process took less then 48 hrs to go from apparently healthy to deceased.

What does this have to do with gaming? Gaming is about spending quality time with friends and family, something impossible to do while lying 6 feet under.

See a doc. Get a checkup. Game until you're 100 and decrepid.

That is all. We now return to your regularly scedualed blog.


-- Posted from my iPhone

iTabletop has a Second Programmer - 2.0 Beta Oct 31st

Just over a month before the release of the iTabletop 2.0 Beta. With the help of a second programmer I am very hopeful they will hit their release date.

I was going to drag my gaming group into FG2, but with iTabletop's 2.0 release closing in I'd like to use the live video / voice that is integrated into the software. I know the lads love these types of features, and the all in one gaming package of iTabletop 2.0 should be a very good fit.

On a side note, the C&C FG2 game i was in is on track for am October 10th resurrection, but it looks like we've lost half the group at least. It might be a lost cause, but I'll give it a shot in two weeks.

DDO - The semi-free MMORPG

I know they bill DDO as free these days, but its only really free until 4th level, or unless you get extremely lucky or are willing to grind alot. Still, the old group got together for a session last tuesday and we had a blast. They lightened up the quests / adventures for the newbs and made it a much more enjoyable experience in general. I hope this new model of income generation works for Turbine, as the new life in a stale game has done wonders for DDO gameplay.

Spent a few hours playing with my son today... still wish I could convince hime to roleplay in the traditional sense, but for now this is fun as is ;)

Geek Dating - Scarier then You Thought

If you've been anywhere near the enworld.org website over the last couple of weeks, one of the biggest advertisers has been a geek dating site - http://www.gk2gk.com/

I always thought it would have been cool to have dated a fellow geek / gaming type girl when I was younger. Having looked through the site I am very glad the girls I dated had no idea how big a geek I was. Holy crap but there are some scary sites on that site.

I'm a geek, but I'm also a cop, a father, a boyfriend... gainfully employed for over 20 years. Maybe my sights are set a bit higher at this point in my life, but the only reason to work that site is... eh, if I have to spell it out I'm as bad as those that would.

Troll Barnes and Noble or Borders Books. Go to eHarmony or Match.com. For the love of all that's holy, please, don't geek date via a geek site ;)

The Return of Semi-Regular Gaming

Looks Like D&D Online will be returning to my weekly gaming habits tomorrow with the start of weekly DDO gaming sessions.

Then we get the very irregular C&C game returning to the occasional saturday nite in October. We will see how many of the old group return to the game that's been on hiatus since the end of May.

I also announced to my "crew" of mmorpg'ers / old face to face rpg group my intention to run a game using the yet to be released iTabletop 2 software in November.

Woot! ;)

Old School Sampler PDF Bundle

Yes, I'm lifting this from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. I doubt Jim minds all that much ;)

Brave Halfling Publishing's OSRIC adventure People of the Pit by Alphonso Warden
Expeditious Retreat Press' OSRIC adventure The Lost Keys of Solitude by Joseph Browning and Suzi Yee
Goblinoid Games' Labyrinth Lord adventure Idol of the Orcs by James Boney
LotFP's adventure for oldschool system in particular Death Frost Doom by... Jim

Listen up. Its good, quality gaming at a discounted price. It's hard to go wrong.

Here's the RPGNow link: Old School Sampler PDF Bundle

In Between Games... Gaming Purgatory

Still not participating in a regular FG2 game. The recently canceled C&C game may be resurrected as a once a month campaign, but I'm not sure how much of the old group will make the transition.

Looks like Aion is the new MMORPG of choice for my gaming group. Will probably take the plunge for 2 subs for the kid and I. It not easy being the father of a fellow gamer... and it aint cheap either ;)

I've been reading the latest issue of Fight On! (issue 6 I believe) on my DX and it reads really well, both visually on the DX and in the quality of the articles. They announced a fiction contest which I MIGHT decide to participate in. I am brainstorming in my spare time to come up with a concept. I have until the end of October but need to get myself in gear if I want to have any kind of a shot.

Astak Pocket Pro - In Hand and Testing

My Astak Pocket Pro arrived bright and early at 915 in the morning yesterday. Its a good thing I over slept and adjusted my plans, or I would have missed the delivery.

First things first, you get alot for your $199... E-Reader, case, headphones, wrist strap, USB cord, AC adapter for USB cord, even a screw driver to open the battery compartment if you want to swap batteries.

As for how well it works as a book reader: I've tried different formats and so far so good, although there are some formats where I wish the font size change was more gradual.

PDFs work better then I expected for a 5" screen (I haven't looked at many yet). The PDF reflow isn't as bad as I expected, but it saves itself from messing up charts by not reflowing pages with charts on them. This can mean a page with a chart is displayed in such a small pitch size as to be nearly unreadable. I'll r need to give this a real workout.