Ken Newquist

Coach Newquist

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Girls get ready to field the ball during a softball game.

It’s probably the goatee.

Somewhere around the year 1998, an alternative version of myself never started watching the Mets again. Never got hooked on the Subway Series between the Mets and the Yankees in 2000. Never started playing baseball games again on his Xbox 360, never started throwing baseballs on the quad at the college where he works, never went to an IronPigs game, never assistant coached his daughter’s softball team…

Thirty for Thirty

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I have a goal for April: update Nuketown 30 times in 30 days, with at least three updates a week that are blog posts and four that are microcontent. What I’d really like is to do a blog post, review, or column every day of the month, but there’s no way that’s happening. My wife … Read more

Game Day: Lunchtime Numenera

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Inverted pyramid-like stone monoliths float in the ping-blue mists of a mountainous region.

My lunchtime campaign has transitioned from Dragon Age to Numenera. Two of us backed it in the Kickstarter, and the others were sufficiently intrigued to want to playtest the game. As I wrote before, my regular gaming group ran an extensive playtest of Numenera that involved two adventures spread out over several real-world months. With … Read more

Good-bye Grandpa

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My grandfather died on last month, on February 12, 2014. He was 98 years old, and passed away quietly in his sleep. It was surprising, insomuch as the death of someone with nine decades under his belt can be considered surprising. I truly believed he’d live to be a hundred; when I saw him last he looked good — a little tired, but happy.

LEGO and the Death of Imagination

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There’s this meme that’s circulating that claims that themed LEGO sets — Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. — are killing imagination. The argument goes that unlike the generic sets of old (or even better, the big bin of blocks), these sets kill imagination. Advocates of the Good Old Days … Read more

2014: A Year of Transitions

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A red dragon prepares to breath fire.

This month’s RPG Blog Carnival topic is “Transitions”, and it’s particularly appropriate for my group in 2014.

One of our players just took a job out of state and another welcomed his third child into the world. We’ve just started a Savage Worlds playtest, which might lead to our first non-d20 campaign … ever. Dungeons & Drgaons 5th Edition is looming over August, and I expect we’ll at least do a playtest once it’s released.

The Curation Imperative

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A variety of role-playing games (and one Pathfinder goblin) stand on a black bookshelf.

I’ve got a lot of stuff. A few thousand comics. Hundreds of books. Dozens of board games. An equal number (if not more) of role-playing games. Three Macs (two of which only work haphazardly). And the accumulated technological detritus of 42 years of geeky living.