Ken Newquist Out in the mainstream, a lot of people seem to think Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is the only game in town. That’s not surprising, given the huge number of people who use it, but there are alternatives, and after having played with it for the last two weeks, I think Firefox is one of the best. … Read more
Settlers of Catan is one of those games you hear people talk about for years, but somehow never get around to playing. Then when you finally do play it, you wonder why you wasted all that time on sleeping when you could have been playing Settlers. The premise of the game is simple. Two to … Read more
Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian: Historical naval fiction set in the waning years of the 18th century, this novel follows the adventures of Captain Jack Aubrey and his enlightened ship’s surgeon, Doctor Stephen Maturin as they wages war against foes of the British Empire. This book inspired half of last year’s movie Master & … Read more
Wish 93 (Internet Archive) delves into an interesting subject: how do you deal with a campaign that has a long-running and detailed history? Here’s what Ginger asked: “Does joining a game with a lot of background thrill or intimidate you? What do you do to try to learn the background, or to compensate for not … Read more
Recently, Alderac announced they were ending the Shadowforce Archer campaign setting (Internet Archive) for their Spycraft d20 espionage game. Naturally, fans of the setting were shocked and upset by this, but personally, I was happy about the news. When Spycraft first launched, I was excited — here was a game in the spirit of James … Read more
Mortality Radio is a net-based radio station dedicated to the pen-and-paper role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and the d20 universe it spawned. Hosted by Mortality.net, and run by two of its moderators (Adlon and Smaug), the radio show is broadcast via the net every two weeks or so. Its broadcasts are accompanied by online chats … Read more
As a baseball fan and a comic book fan, I’m less than thrilled by the announcement that their going to be putting ads on the bases (except for home base) promoting Spider-Man 2 from June 11-13, 2004. Read about it in this Fox News story (Internet Archive). Major League Baseball apparently thinks that this will bring … Read more
A while back — a year ago, maybe more — I had a character I really enjoyed playing, a chaotic neutral fighter/wizard named Zilanderan who was obsessed with the planes and alternative realities. He was a fun character, but alas doomed — he died fighting the thralls of the Temple of Elemental Evil. After he … Read more
I need more geek t-shirts. I used to get pick up a new shirt or two every year at GenCon, but it’s been three years since I last visited that holy geek mecca, and the shirts happily purchased there are starting to show signs of wear. Their once-fine blacks are fading to a dull, flat … Read more
After messing around with my iPod last night, I figured out that there was a solution to my “overflow” problem. To re-cap, when you have more tracks than will fit on your iPod, iTunes will automatically create a sort of master play list and load that onto your iPod. This is a simple solution to … Read more