Nuketown

May 2009

Podcast Roundup: Cyberpunk'd, Skill Challenges, PHB2, Dungeon-A-Day

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Sun, 05/31/2009 - 4:30am

Three weeks of rainy days put a major crimp in my podcast-listening schedule in May as I was forcd to drive (rather than walk) to work. It's the difference between a 2 minute commute and a 15 minute one ... as well as no podcasts or three podcasts a week.

With the sun finally shining again and eastern Pennsylvania drying out, I've fired up my iPod and returned to some old favorites. After catching up on the Cato Daily Podcast (which provides me with regular audio injection of libertarian commentary) I turned to the Accidental Survivors.

Building a Campaign Web Site: Blog vs. Wiki

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 4:30am

The proliferation of quick and easy hosting options for blogs and wikis – such as Blogger and the Obsidian Portal -- has led to a proliferation of RPG campaign web sites. But which is best for your campaign? After experimenting with both options for the last few years, I think the answer to that question varies based on the campaign, and how much information you’re trying to share.

The Clone Wars, Season 2 Trailer

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Mon, 05/25/2009 - 4:30am

I have mixed feelings about The Clone Wars animated series. On the one hand, I've found it to be a great source of ideas and inspiration for my Star Wars RPG campaign, but on the other, I hate that Anakin is being made into a bigger hero than Luke. I'm hoping this starts to change in Season 2; we should really start to see the influence of the Dark Side on him (as well as his relationship with Palpatine). If they can use the series to help setup his eventual fall, then it will be far more appealing to me.

Revenge of the Mars Hoax

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Sun, 05/24/2009 - 4:30am

Mars is invading. Or so claims a resurrected hoax that claims that the Red Planet will soon appear as large as the Moon in the night sky. It's a tweaked version of an earlier hoax from 2003, when Mars really was at its closest approach to Earth in thousands of years ... but remained a fuzzy red dot in the night sky. Read Space.com's new debunking or check out Nuketown's original one.

Off the Shelf: New Space Opera, Open Game Table, Space Opera Renaissance

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Sat, 05/23/2009 - 4:30am

The spring hasn't been a great time for fiction reading. After my winter reading spree, I fell into back into my video game reviewing routine, but I did manage to get a few new books in: The New Space Opera, The Open Game Table, and The Space Opera Renaissance.

The New Space Opera

First up is The New Space Opera, one of two space opera anthologies that I got for Christmas. It's a weird duck -- they've cast their net widely, including a bunch of stuff that I'd classify as as belonging to the transhumanism genre rather than space opera. The unifying elements of the book are two fold: faster-than-light travel and intergalactic colonies/empires. Working along that continuum however, and you'll find plenty of transhuman stories in which we've warped ourselves almost beyond recognition.

While I'm not opposed to such stories, they seem out of place in a space opera anthology, even a "new space opera" anthology, particularly if they've muscled out more traditional stories.

V: The Resurrection

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Fri, 05/22/2009 - 4:30am

V was one of my favorite mini-series as a kid, and not just because it was one of the first times I was allowed to stay up late on a school night. The theme of benevolent oppressors struck a cord with my proto-libertarian self, and I loved the battle for Earth that unfolded over the course of several nights.

ABC is resurrecting the series for Fall 2009, and I'm cautiously optimistic. Here's the trailer:

The main lesson of the series -- beware aliens (or politicians) bearing gifts -- is just as relevant now as it was then (even more so now, given the state of the economy and reactions to it). Moreover, it could be a good fall for science fiction and geekdom as V takes its place alongside new seasons of Dollhouse and Chuck.

RPG Review Digest: Monster Manual 2, Arcane Power, Thousand Suns, Cortex, Dark Heresy

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Wed, 05/20/2009 - 7:30am

Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition is seeing a nice publicity bump from its second round of major book releases as PHB 2, Arcane Power, Monster Manual 2, Eberron Campaign Setting and DMG 2 all hit the stands over the next few months.

Right now the focus is on the just-released Monster Manual 2, which a few sites have managed to get advanced copies of. Living Dice and Critical Hits both have reviews, and the sentiment from both blogs is every game master needs more monsters ... and these are these are good monsters. Critical Hits laments that there isn't a monster theme built into Monster Manual 2; while Demogorgon is the big bad who graces the book's cover, there aren't many monsters that fit it thematically.

I tend to agree with Critical HIts; while there are dangers to having a book being too strongly themed (particularly if most people aren't going to buy into that theme) having a handful of Demogorgon-inspired monsters scattered through the book would have been a good thing.

UncleBear.com: 101 RPG Geeks You Should Follow on Twitter

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Tue, 05/19/2009 - 4:30am

Inspired by Wired.com's list of 100 Geeks You Should Be Following On Twitter, Uncle Bear has compiled 101 RPG geeks you should follow on Twitter for Examiner.com. There are plenty of folks you'd expect on Uncle Bear's list ( ChattyDM. Critical Hits, Chris Pramas, Fred Hicks)  as well as plenty you probably didn't know about (for example, I didn't know that Wolfgang Bauer and Paizo Publishing were on Twitter.

You'll also find me listed there with my NukeHavoc account (and many thanks to Uncle Bear for the nod!)

Recruiting a new RPG player in the Lehigh Valley

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Mon, 05/18/2009 - 11:11am

Schedules change. Kids are born. People move. And it all means that my gaming group's finds itself looking for another player or two.

The Blackrazor Guild Gaming Group (as we're informally known) is based in the Lehigh Valley, Pa. and our current campaign is a Star Wars: Saga Edition-powered one set in the Knights of the Old Republic era (campaign web site). We have players ranging in age from 27 to 40, and as you can guess from opening line, a number of us are married with kids.

In addition to Star Wars, we also ran a World of Greyhawk campaign for a dozen years using various iterations of the D&D rules (campaign web site), and plan to return to the setting for a Pathfinder RPG playtest at some point. That said, Star Wars will be our main game for the foreseeable future, as we play through the Mandalorian Wars and Jedi Civil War periods. We don't plan on ever switching to D&D 4E as our full-time campaign.

GameCryer.com: Arcane Power

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Sun, 05/17/2009 - 11:02am

Arcane Power resurrects the illusionist, brings back summoning spells and familiars, and introduces a host of new arcane options for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. Among these new options are new class features offering bards the gift of foresight, sorcerers the chance to wield cosmic magic, warlocks the opportunity to commune with the vestiges of ancient powers, and much more. Read my full review at GameCryer.com.