When Pennsylvania went to full-on “stay at home” to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, my gaming group went fully online. We put our Saltmarsh campaign on hold and launched a new Star Wars campaign using the Saga Edition rules. The campaign is set in 9 ABY (after the Battle of Yavin), which is … Read more
Why smart people believe coronavirus myths talks about a phenomenon I’ve seen too many times to count: Otherwise intelligent people retweeting or re-posting questionable content without thinking it through. Case in point: people stating as fact that individuals are getting reinfected with COVID-19. There are certainly cases where people who have had the disease test … Read more
The Mandalorian Is the Only Smart Soldier in the Star Wars Galaxy – The Angry Staff Officer at Wired.com explains how everyone’s new favorite bounty hunter and his ally, the former Rebel Alliance drop trooper Cara Dune are the first on-screen soldiers in the Star Wars universe to use reasonable, intelligent strategies and tactics. Here’s why writing things … Read more
10 Intriguing Star Wars Details We Learned From The Rise of Skywalker’s Visual Dictionary – There are a lot of interesting tidbits in here, but the strangest one is the decision by Lucasfilm to drop the Before/After Battle of Yavin (BBY/ABY) timeline reckoning in favor of Before/After the Starkiller Incident (BSI/ASI). While I can kind … Read more
The last Ornament-a-Day entry is dedicated to the only geeky ornament left on the family tree: 2012’s Darth Vader Peekbuster. Given that the family tree is where the wrapped family presents go and since this Vader is designed to detect and scold would-be present peekers, it’s entirely appropriate. This battery-powered, Christmas-themed Vader wears his traditional black armor … Read more
Hallmark released two new Star Wars Storyteller ornaments in 2019: The Imperial Star Destroyer and the Y-Wing. Like the other Storyteller ornaments, they feature LED illuminated regions (the cargo bay on the Star Destroyer, the cockpit on the Y-Wing) that slowly rotate through different colors. Powered and connected by Hallmark’s proprietary Keepsake power cord, the two new ships join … Read more
Two of the newest editions to the Geek Tree are Rey and Kylo Ren, as they appeared in Star Wars – Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. The pair, which were sold together in one box, are wielding their personal lightsabers: Kylo has his signature red, surging Sith blade while Rey has the inherited blue blade … Read more
In 2017, I started collecting Hallmark’s “Storyteller” Star Wars ornaments. These ornaments are powered by a proprietary networking and power cable and combine to recreate scenes from Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope. After years of battery-powered ornaments, the “Storyteller” line represents Hallmark’s return to externally-powered ornaments. While I’m not usually a fan of … Read more
Glass Vader, today’s Ornament-a-Day entry, is unique: it’s the only blown glass ornament on the Geek Tree. I’ll freely admit that this wasn’t one of my favorite ornaments when I first got it at one of our family Christmas parties. It’s a black glass ornament with red sparkles near the base, making it difficult to see … Read more
The original topper for the Geek Tree was a glowing blue orb. Although vaguely sci-fi-ish, it wasn’t a great way to top the tree. And then came Santa Yoda. Part of a series of figurines that included a Christmas-themed R2-D2 and C-3PO, Santa Yoda features the 900-year-old Jedi Master in Santa garb. he’s got a full red-and-white … Read more