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.

Been a Long Time, so Roll a D6

I've been gone from these parts for a long time now.  I'm hoping to slip back in and start posting soon.

Came across this and had to link to it.  If only so I won't forget about it.

And thanks to joethelawyer for posting it first.

$$ $$ $$

It is a topic that many people love to discuss--sometimes related to their desires to make money in our little hobby.

I recently ran across two short articles by Monte Cook regarding the topic.  (I know that, to some, he is the devil, but I typically find his thoughts to be insightful and interesting.)

Here he writes about the highest paid authors in 2010.

Here he talks about rpg designers and money.

I do have to admit, however, that when he discusses money, I am left with the feeling that his words would be more meaningful if he would inform us of how well he does in his writing.  Obviously, well.  But numbers would be interesting.  I realize that it is personal, and that it is truly none of my business, but it would be informative nonetheless.

I also know that the vast majority of people in this world (that I have ever met) do not like to discuss money issues--at least their own personal money issues.  I suppose it makes people uncomfortable.  Emotions get involved, etc, etc.  I, on the other hand, don't feel that way.

To be fair, as an officer in the US Navy, my pay is fully public knowledge.  With a few pieces of information, such as where I live, how long I've been in the services, etc., any one of you could google some numbers and determine EXACTLY what the Navy pays me.  I guess in a way, that is liberating.

But I would still be interested in knowing what Monte Cook makes in a given year.



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This post is also a little experiment to determine if the title leads to increased traffic over my typical posts.  Apologies if my experiment offends.

Perhaps Worth a Look

So I found myself over at Goodman Games' website, at this page specifically, and they've put up three "design diaries" about their new Dungeon Crawl Classics rpg.  I'm not sure if people have already been talking about it, because I've been pretty scarce around these parts lately, but I found what details they've released to be pretty intriguing.

Here are links to the design diaries:

General thoughts on the game.
Appendix N in 'modern' gaming format.
Magic Use.

I really, really like their ideas for magic use.  I like the fact that they are purposefully making spellcasting more unpredictable.  That is the way it should be.

Are These Design Principles Relevant?

Jeff over at the Bottom Feeder continues to impress me with his observations and wisdom.  In this post, he reviews Minecraft, a computer game that, frankly, I know nothing about.  (Although after reading his review and the comments following, it sounds like a game any D&D player could love.)

But better than just reviewing it (which would be not very helpful, because he makes it clear very early that he likes it), he offers some thoughts on why it has been successful.  The question now becomes, could those aspects of Minecraft that Jeff thinks makes it a good game be applied to pen-and-paper adventure design?

Geomorphs Bonanza!

Go take a look at this if you like geomorphs.

Thanks to Thomas Denmark for showing me the way.

Zombie Fungus - FOR REAL?!

Yes.  This will be the last one, for tonight at least.

The video here is one of the creepiest things I've seen in a long time, especially toward the end when you are confronted with the sight of corpse after corpse while listening to strange children's-music-box music and the voice of that British guy whose name I cannot remember.

And for this, I have to thank joethelawyer.

Perhaps the best part is right at the end when the narrator says, "But these attacks do have a positive effect on the jungle's diversity, since parasites like these stop any one group of animal from getting the upper hand.  The more numerous a species becomes, the more likely it will be attacked by its nemesis, a cordyceps fungus."

Perhaps that species is humanity?!?

Nice.

Gaming Economics

To continue the trend from the previous post, I'd like to thank the Greyhawk Grognard for this little post regarding the costs of rpgs.  In his post, he discusses the cost of 1E core rules in their day and compares them to the cost of 4E core rules today.

Saturn Brilliant

For at least a few more weeks, I'm not going to be able to post regularly or with anything that requires much effort on my part.  What that means is that what little posting there is will probably be things of which I want to save a record.

This video is one such thing.  Absolutely amazing, in my opinion.

Many thanks to Trollsmyth for linking to it.

The D&D Article at Salon

I don't know if people have linked to this yet or not, because I've been away from the blogosphere for almost two weeks now.  (Busy at work in general, and focusing on that BIG project that is due the first week of April.)  It's nice to see D&D once again rearing its head in the mainstream media--especially when it is in a positive light.