Ken Newquist One area where Star Wars: Saga Edition could use some help are its creatures. There are certainly a number of them out there, particularly the iconic ones from the movies, but the system tends to come up a little short with more mundane critters. After my third session of Star Wars, I thought back our … Read more
Updated 12/27/2022 – Way back in 2005, I bought an HP 1020 LaserJet printer. It’s a solid, dependable printer that’s been my family’s printing workhorse for over 17 years. The only problem is that while the printer works great with Windows computers, it’s always been challenging to install on macOS computers. The key problem is that … Read more
I got off to a great start to my summer reading list, but it slowed down significantly after July, when my spring-summer run of work conferences ended (which had given me plenty of time to read on cross-country plane trips), and I had to double-down on my projects to meet start-of-semester deadlines. The other problem? … Read more
Three weeks into our new Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic campaign it became obvious: we needed a blog. Or at least, I needed a blog. Even without leaving the Vargis Tau star system and its binary world of Zebulon we’d still managed to accumulate a dozen-odd NPCs, three or four ships, three adventure … Read more
It’s been a while since I’ve talked about the podcasts I listen to, partly because for much of the late summer and early fall I really wasn’t listening to many of them (save the Order 66 podcast, which I’ve listened to slavishly since realizing my Star wars campaign was really going to happen). That’s changed … Read more
Skill challenges were one of the best things to come out of our D&D 4th Edition playtest. Building on earlier versions that appeared in Spycraft and Unearthed Arcana, skill challenges provided an in-game mechanic for resolving non-combat conflicts and complex tasks. We used it to handle the exploration a lava tube complex leading to a … Read more
Given the dearth of posts around Nuketown last week, I thought I’d borrow a page from Uncle Bear’s Sunday Brunch and give an update on the ol’thermonuclear burg. The day job has settled back down to its normal routine, but as Doc Brown once said “It’s your kids … something has got to be done about your … Read more
In addition to being National Novel Writing Month, November is How Not to Grow a Beard Month, spearheaded by my friends Chris Miller and Kris Johnson (no doubt in a clever attempt to cover up a freak laser cannon malfunction in The Secret Lair. I attempted something last year during my own NaNoWriMo attempt; I … Read more
For the second time in two years, I have a dead Xbox 360. The machine gave me the Red Ring of Death on Sunday after crashing while running DeadSpace. The machine simply froze, and when I powered it down and powered it back again, I was greated with the ominous glowing red rings.
Normally, this would be inconvenient by manageable: Microsoft extended the manufacturer’s warranty on the 360 to three years, and my Xbox is still covered. Unfortunately, this month isn’t anything resembling normal. I’ve got three game reviews looming between late October and late November, and don’t have time to wait for Microsoft to fix my box.
The first thing I tried was stopping by Best Buy; I got the extended warranty for my first Xbox 360, and when it died I was able to walk into their store and get a replacement. Unfortunately, the warranty was from the original date of purchase and wasn’t extended when I got the replacement.
One of the problems I’ve found with action points, bennies, plot points, and other similar mechanics is that unless they’re crucial to the game, players tend to forget about them. And even when they are important, keeping track of them can be a challenge as the light-weight chips or tokens get covered up, buried, or … Read more