Pretty Insane

I think that this video removes the need to see the movies at all.

Because let's face it: The movies were mostly junk, but watching robots in action is usually a pretty good distractor from the daily grind.

Enchanted Likenesses

Here's a link to another video that I just came across today.  Scary.  Inspirational.

I could easily see this as the basis for an adventure, or at the very least a small set piece in a larger dungeon.

The PCs come across a collections of statues that are quite obviously likenesses of them.  "That's strange," they think.  And the one character who is not as cautious as the others begins to closely examine the one that looks like him or her.  Without thinking, he touches the statue...

Or maybe you turn it upside.  Perhaps the PCs actually desire this outcome.  Maybe, rather than what happened in the video, they gain some ability or boone in exchange for what has happened to them.  Or at least, they thought that they were going to.

Thoughts on the Hobbit (and Time magazine)

I went and saw the Hobbit Saturday afternoon.  I went and saw it with my wife, who's not a gamer by any means, and isn't really a huge fantasy fan.  But I'm lucky--she knew that I wanted to see it and was up for it.

Here's the best part: She LOVED it!  Frankly, I did, too.

I've read a lot of reviews of the movie.  Some positive, many neutral, a lot negative--which I don't really get.  I was going to write a long review myself, explaining why I felt the way I did.  But why should I bother--no one really cares.  THEN I considered linking to EVERY single review that I could find, both in our little corner of the blogosphere, and the wider interwebs--similar to how I used to post Map Roundups (which will return someday).  But again, why bother?

Instead, I'm only going to link to two reviews.  These are the two reviews that I have read thusfar that most closely match my views on the movie.

First, from Ain't It Cool News.

Second, from Original Edition Fantasy.

...

I'm sure that most of you have seen the article in Time magazine from last week about D&D.  The title summarized the article: Will D&D be the next Hobbit?  Pretty good article, fairly insightful, in my opinion.

Here's my thoughts on it:

- WotC and their corporate overlord probably could try to bring D&D more "mainstream" success if they were smart about it.  (Whether this would even be a good thing or not depends on your personal opinion.  I'm just assuming that it would be, because unlike those members of our hobby who enjoy the supposed cachet of being in a very small group of like-minded people, I would have no problem with the entire world becoming D&D fans.)

- I'm going to pretend that the previous D&D movies didn't happen.  Because they were, IMHO, crap.  Besides, the point of a D&D movie shouldn't be to shout, "Look, ma, I'm D&D!  I'm in a movie!!!"  The point should be to tell exciting fantasy stories that employ some of the IP from D&D.  (And don't hate on me, because I used the term IP ("intellectual property")!  The D&D IP is what makes it so cool.)

- What do I mean by the above comment?  This: I don't want to see a movie with "Dungeons and Dragons" in its title.  I want to see a movie with "Baldur's Gate" in its title or "Waterdeep" in its title or, maybe even better, "The Keep on the Borderlands" or "Dwellers of the Forbidden City" in its title.  I want to see a fantasy movie that, to the unlearned, is just another fantasy movie (and let's face it, there's fantasy all over the place right now) that has mind flayers as the big baddies in it.  Or maybe a fantasy movie that takes place in a city where the crime-lord is a beholder.  (Cliched, perhaps.)  Heck, just a movie with a beholder at all would be pretty damn cool.  I know that many of you in the OSR aren't fans of Drizzt, but why not a movie about him in the Forgotten Realms?

So there you go.  I'm curious to know what do you think.

Star Wars Goodness in Buttercup Valley

I know that the past several months have seen very little activity at Carto Cacography.  I also know that what little activity there has been has not been original or, even, cartography related.  Interestingly enough (and NOT surprisingly), this has led to a drop in the number of followers that I have.  Unfortunately, the real world has conspired to drastically limit my free time, and while I usually have the time to read those blogs that interest me, I have not had the time to post my own material.  I wish I could say that that is going to change in the near future...

This is another post wherein I will direct you, inhabitant of the blogosphere, to something that I found and was really excited about.

I am a Star Wars fan.  This link will take you to a bunch of behind-the-scenes photos from Return of the Jedi.  I really dig this stuff, and I hope that you do as well.

Production Diary for "The Hobbit"!!!

This may be more of interest to people interested in movie making, but there are certainly bits of fantasy in this 10+ minute video.  It is a video design-diary by Peter Jackson about teh current state of the movie version of "The Hobbit".

Take a look.

Not D&D --- Harrison Ford

As soon as I watched the first clip from this post, I knew that I had to link to it.  Sorry--not at all D&D or even rpg related, but I am a huge Harrison Ford fan, so this was a no-brainer for me.

Enjoy these interview clips.

Now THAT'S a Vampire

In addition to enjoying rpgs, I'm also a big movie fan.  More than that, I like reading about them.  One of my favorite internet sites is Ain't It Cool News.

I was about to turn off the computer when I came across this little gem.  Ignore all of the commentary if you choose, but take a look at that picture.  SURELY, there is some roleplaying inspiration in that photo!

Darth Schwarzenegger

So this post will have absolutely NOTHING to do with maps, or fantasy, or even rpgs at all.

In my younger days, in addition to being a player of D&D, I was also a Star Wars fanatic and a huge Schwarzenegger fan.  I suppose that I remain all of those things to this day.

Someone created a video of Darth Vader in Episode IV 'voice-overed' by Arnold.  (To those of you who are offended by the 'verbing' of nouns, I apologize.)  I just had to link to it.

Beware: The language in the video is definitely R-rated.  Watch it here.