GaryCon
Borrowed from The Evil DM’s blog (and adapted):
World-Wide GaryCon this weekend!
By now everyone I’m sure has heard of the passing of Gary Gygax. One of the best suggestions so far for a fitting tribute is GaryCon.
Basically GaryCon is about gaming.
This weekend take some time and play a game. Run a game for your kids, play a game with your buddies, teach someone new about gaming-any gaming.
Dungeons and Dragons would be great, but have a game of GURPS if you like, or Candyland, or Monopoly, or even Pokemon!
It doesn’t matter – just sling the dice, deal the cards, move the tokens. Interact, have fun, laugh and remember Gary and all he gave us.
Game On!
Thanks Jeff!
This weekend, I’ll take out the D&D minis and Dungeon Tiles and show my 6 year old son a little more complex version of the ‘Let’s kill the monsters in Miss Storeowner’s cellar’ game we play every so often.
I’ll introduce him to polyhedral dice and Hit Points!
I ‘ll also play some My Little Pony/Barbie make-believe with my 4 year old daughter (she’s got a Superman doll, weee!).
Finally, next week, in my Ptolus game, I’ll make each creature the players fight come from Gary’s books and modules (damn I’m happy that the Mezzoloth and Nycaloths were originally Mezzodaemons and Nycadaemons).
Watchmen Characters Revealed
Today is exactly one year until the movie Watchmen is released, and now they’ve released a group of images of what many of the main characters look like. Head over to the Watchmen site to see all of the glorious full-size shots.
I have to say that I think these are perfect, especially the Comedian (pictured), the Nite Owl, and Rorschach. It’s not just a showcase of how well each actor fits the look of the role, and not even about how good the costumes and props are, but each image is like a poster for the character that showcases a feel and context that I think really just gets it.
I’m very eager to hear more about the production of this movie, and how Snyder will deal with a property in all ways dissimilar to 300. What you can see is that some of the same hands are dealing with this movie, but there are huge thematic differences between the two works that I feel if Watchmen reminds us too much of how 300 felt it won’t work. Not to mention that 300 was good despite the text, while Watchmen thrives on its writing.
I’d love to hear what Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons think of these shots, though Moore might want nothing to do with the whole thing at all and won’t even look at them. I’m curious how a comic very much born out of the 80′s can translate into a movie created very much in the 2000′s. If 300 started a tilt toward a new direction in movies, will the Watchmen movie complete the transition?
(via Ain’t It Cool)
YABM (Yet another Blog Milestone)
This morning I hit 200 RSS subscribers for the 1st time! Yay!
I am getting used to the fact that this Blog thing is for real, I’m still amazed that people follow my ramblings. As always, I thank you all!
I’m keeping with my decision of doing few (or light) posts this week.
I’ll be back next week with Adventure preps (Special E. Gary Gygax tribute!), the Pathfinder preview of #6, a new comic and maybe a Trope post.
I also got a few requests by email and I plan on tackling them soon. Fell free to drop me a line at chattydm(at)chattydm.net if you have your own requests or questions. Heck drop them here in the comments if email is too much trouble!
All in all, I’m still having a blast doing this and I feel that my writing is improving (my editing needs work though)… Hopefully, by November I’ll be up to the task of tackling NaNoWriMo or maybe take on a 4e freelancer project or submit something to D&D Insider.
Oh and finally, PM made this little Ad banner you see in the post. If you have a website with Project Wonderful, drop me a line and I’ll add you to my buddies for future biddings on your site!
D&D XP Interview: Sara Girard & Rob Heinsoo
We sat down first to talk with the Sara Girard the Associate Brand Manager at Wizards, who works a lot on the marketing for 4th Edition. We started by bringing up our experience with our first chance at playing 4th Edition in the Dungeon Delve, and Sara mentioned that she is currently playing a Dragonborn Paladin.
Critical Hits: We noticed that Dragonborn were not presented in the Delve, can you talk about them at all, about their racial abilities?
Sara: I like playing a Dragonborn because there are certain abilities which other races don’t have. Like the breath weapon or when you’re bloodied you get an added bonus to certain things. I like playing them because they have a lot of powers.
CH: So you’re the Associate Brand Manager and Marketing Lead for D&D, how closely has Marketing & Brand been working with the Design Department?
Sara: We meet weekly, we talk about all sorts of things, we meet with the R&D team and make sure that we are all of the same mindset because things change frequently through the process of development. [Read the rest of this article]
DM Chronicles, Session 12: The Great Game! Part 2
Life goes on…
See part 1 here.
So when I left off in part 1, Nogard had been accosted in his Dragon Temple by Plantagonox, the Juvenile Bronze Dragon errand boy of House Dallimothan (i.e. The Dragon-friendly Noble House of Ptolus).
When ‘Gonox asked Nogard if he know about Xorvindaal, Nogard responded that he did not. The young dragon impatiently brushed this display of ignorance aside, telling Nogard to look the word up.
He gave Nogard a Dagger made from the tooth of a White Dragon and said that House Dallimothan was very concerned about the PC’s quest and very much wanted it to be successful.
‘Gonox then took a very conspirational tone and informed Nogard that Dallimothan’s Pool would be unguarded tonight and that a little dip (with the dagger) could bring some ‘refreshing’ insights about the Demon-slaying sword the prophecy was referring to.
Then he left, telling Nogard to say Hi to ‘Slarty’ for him. [Read the rest of this article]
Thanks Gary… Peace be unto you.
I just read from Dave that E. Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons and Dragons died.
Enworld is down, probably from traffic overload. But the story is creeping up on the net and CNN confirmed it.
I owe my favorite hobby and way of life to this man. I would have wished to thank him in person at Gen Con but this short, poorly written note sent on the electron pathways of the Net will have to do.
I picked up the Dungeon Master Guide when I was 12 (in 1985) with my hard earned savings from being a paperboy. I became a DM at that time and I never looked back.
Adv. D&D opened up a new world of games and possibilities to me. The games may have changed a few times, but the legacy of having fun inventing fantastic stories always remained near and dear to my heart.
It helped a socially inept, somewhat shy boy gain long lasting friends, build self confidence and become the successful and happy man that I am today.
For the rulebooks, the Temple of Elemental Evil, Against the Giants and everything that RPGs brought to my life, thank you Gary and rest in peace!
My condolences to his friends, family and the readers of this site.
I shall uphold your memory by teaching the game to my children and their friends.
Edit: Here’s a few other posts on the subject by fellow bloggers and news sources in solidarity to a great man. I’ll add them as I see more pop up.
Blogs
- Critical Hits’ Dave
- Stupid Ranger’s Vanir, Dante and the Stupid Ranger herself.
- Jeff’s Gameblog tribute, and subsequent proposal
- Greywulf’s Angel tribute
- DNAPhil’s tribute
- Geekdad’s news
- Epic Level Grognard’s tribute
- Evil DM’s tribute
- John Arcadian’s tribute and 3 news stories.
- Ronin’s tribute
- Shamus Young’s tribute
- Bruce Cordell’s tribute
- Bob Younce’s tribute and tribute/News page
- Graham’s tribute
- Dr. Rotwang’s tribute
- Captain Cursor’s tribute
WebComics
- Penny Arcade’s very fitting tribute
- The Order of the Stick’s perfect tribute!
- Duelling Analogs’ Very funny tribute
- Full Frontal Nerdity’s tribute
- Questionable Content’s tribute (and it’s not a gaming comic)
- Fuzzy Knights’ tribute
- Cat’s Grace tribute
- xkcd’s very fitting tribute
Companies
P.S. This is not me trying to catch all tributes, but mostly those of my extended contact, friends or those that caught my eye.
RIP Gary Gygax
I am completely devastated right now. No sooner did I make the post about GM’s day when I spotted the story on ENWorld. Up until the end he was posting on message boards and talking to his fans. He touched the lives of so many, including my own, and I am so sad right now that he’s gone. I was really looking forward to seeing him again at GenCon, and I’m very upset he won’t be with us anymore.
My deepest condolences go out to his family and friends.
His Wikipedia entry has the news, and ENWorld members are posting condolences and remembrances. And the Wizards of the Coast simple tribute is very effective.
Edit: Penny Arcade has a great tribute comic up, Bordering on the Semi-Tasteful. ~Bartoneus
March Fo(u)rth for GM's Day!
Just a reminder that today is the official holiday of celebrating GMs! As usual, various publishers are having sales to celebrate (which tends to mean the GM spends more money, not less) but it seems there are fewer sales this year, possibly due to the pre-4e holding pattern.
Regardless, either today or the next time you see him/her, celebrate your GM!
And if you really want to be nice, you could institute Scott Rouse’s “Times 10″ rule: whenever a 2 is rolled on a d20, you can pay your GM $1 to turn it into a 20.
Hot nerd girl! (Safe for work)
I Found this video on Dane of War‘s blog by way of Jeff the Evil DM‘s blog.
She’s got other stuff that she posted here. I don’t know if she has a blog… I like her style!
Nerd/geek girls are the best for us guy geeks.
I married one and I bless my luck every morning that she’s still here regardless of my crazy projects and cave dwelling.
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