After much discussion, a half-dozen character building and playtest sessions, four source books and two blogs, my first-ever superhero campaign is launching tonight.  Titled Infinity Storm, the campaign uses Green Ronin's Mutants & Masterminds d20 superhero system as well as the companies Freedom City campaign setting. It will be run Dark City-style, with action quickly moving from character to character as they explore Freedom City and come into contact with its heroes, villains and citizens.

Gamers with Jobs reports on Shadowrun developer Mitch Gitelman's disappointment with the 7.0 reviews that his game has been getting. He laments that reviewers are being too harsh, have unreal expectations, and don't appreciate the game for being innovative. Having reviewed the game for SCI-FI (and giving it a C+) I figured I'd offer my two cents on this.

I'm sure this seemed like a perfectly good idea at the time. While the naturally animal-loving freak brigade will undoubtedly be out in force over this, this strikes me as one of those things that any of our dads would have done, given similar logistical challenges.

Ok, maybe just my dad. But then again, that's probably why I find the Vacation movies so damn amusing.

The American Medical Association has decided that "video game addiction" isn't a medical condition, though did say the subject needs more study. Hooray for gamers. At least for another five years, when they will announce the results of their studies.

I do a lot of our household laundry, perhaps even the lion's share of the laundry. But my approach to doing laundry hasn't always been the most … enlightened. All of the tips on this list are fairly obvious, and yes, I've made each and every one of these mistakes.

Thingamababy explains the origin of this photo of a babystroller turned Imperial AT-AT, taken at Star Wars Celebration IV, which has become the envy of geek dads everywhere. Thingamababy itself is a pretty cool blog offering "a dad's eye view of baby and toddler stuff", including books, strollers and everything else you need for young kids.

I'm not sure how healthy it is, but Slashfood has a post up about a new energy drink called "Nerd". Could be just the thing for those geek dads trying to stay awake after a long night with a crying baby. Me? I think I'll just stick with my caffeinated duo of Cosmic Cup coffee and Mountain Dew.

The June issue of the Australian flash fiction webzine AntipodeanSF is online with ten new short stories including "Barrett And Quinlan In The Woods" by Melanie Atkinson, "The Elder" by Simon Petrie, "Equal Opportunity" by Shaun A. Saunders, and "The Rape Of Io" by Susan Partridge.

Shocking news everyone: Dads like to play video games with their kids!

This AP story quotes a survey from last year showing that 35% of parents play video games, and that 80% of those game with their kids. Even more shockingly, both dads and moms are gaming. Moms? Gaming? Are you crazy?

I know, I shouldn't be so hard on them -- the mainstream takes a while to catch on to these simple facts. I expect that the percentage of parents (and grandparents) playing games with their kids will only rise with the release of family-friendly gaming systems like the Wii.

This is very cool. Google has awarded a million dollars in grants, and is offering $10 million more, to those supporting and developing plug-in hybrid cars that are not only more fuel efficient, but can plug into the grid and sell power back to it during peak hours. Granted, it's only a few million dollars, but it seems like Google's just getting its feet wet here -- hopefully we'll see more initiatives, and more private funds, from them in the future.