Ken Newquist This week’s game sees us returning to our Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition roots after weeks of beating up 4th Edition in our Planetorn playtest campaign. The playtest’s not over, just on hiatus because of real-world player obligations, and this pause is giving us a chance to go back and tie up some loose ends … Read more
After a brief respite in Sigil, where they were attacked by a cunning band of phase gnomes, last Friday’s D&D 4E playtest campaign saw my gaming group venture back out into the wilds of the planescape. This time they traveled to the Dire Forest of Yalzerth, an alternative material plane in the midst of … Read more
When Wizards of the Coast decided to kill the ill-fated (and ill-named) Gleemax project before it got out of alpha, a bunch of role-playing game bloggers stood up and said … who needs Gleemax? You want a gamer community … well we’ve got your community right here! Or words to that effect.
They formed the RPG Bloggers Network, which is aggregating the RPG-centric posts from more than 30 gaming blogs including Critical Hits, Musing of a Chatty DM and Uncle Bear.
And yeah, Nuketown is there too.
One of the things I like best about the site is how it aggregates content — it’s pulls in stories into its home page and incorporates a rating mechanic as it does so. I haven’t found a page that aggregates those ratings into a big list, but I imagine that’s coming.
This week’s weigh-in was 211 lbs., down two pounds from last week, three pounds since I started this two weeks ago. Three pounds in two weeks isn’t bad, but I also realize that this is the beginning, and it’s always easier to lose a few pounds at the start (or at least, it is for … Read more
Wizards of the Coast is killing Gleemax. WotC is refocusing their efforts after the fumbled launch of the D&D Insider initiative (ok, I say “fumbled” you say “catastrophic failure…”), which failed to include the over-promised and much coveted online gaming table and character generators for D&D 4th Edition and the painful Magic Online v3 upgrade … Read more
After long months of intermittent exercise brought on by family craziness, business trips, bouts of novel writing and a dozen other excuses, I’m finally getting back to a consistent exercise regime. I had been getting to the gym and pool intermittently over the spring and summer, but for the most part, I’ve been slacking. And … Read more
The Dark Knight is brilliant. It’s intellectually challenging. It’s psychologically terrifying. And there’s a damn good chance it’ll scare the living daylights out of your 13-year-old. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who saw Batman Begins. The movie hews close to the comic books, which have run to the dark side ever since … Read more
We’re about halfway through our Planetorn play-test campaign, with the fourth session happening today, and perhaps another three or four to go before it runs its course. This milestone has me reflecting on where the campaign’s been, where it’s going, and what I hope to accomplish before it’s all over. Today’s adventure finds our heroes … Read more
TinyMCE and CKEditor (formerly FCKeditor) are two of the most popular open source WYSIWYG editors for web applications. I’m researching which would be the best to implement at the day job on a campus-wide basis; ideally I’d like to pick one editor, and then use it with all of our web apps. Here’s a run … Read more
D&D 4th Edition — particularly the Player’s Handbook — taken a lot of criticism for being 99% crunch, and 1% fluff. It’s also taken hits for the gutting of many of the role-playing aspects from earlier editions, including skills like craft, profession, and perform. All of this is true, but 4E’s saving grace is the … Read more