Impressions: Baltimore Comic-Con 2008
I’ve been to a fair number of conventions, but this past Sunday was my first time going to a strictly comic convention and I have to say the experience was pretty extraordinary. Several of the other conventions I’ve been to have also been in the Baltimore Convention Center, and as we walked in my first reaction was that Baltimore Comic-Con was a lot lower-key than what I expected but as I’ll discuss shortly this can actually be quite a good thing. I will preface all of this by saying that we did not attend on Saturday, which can be expected to be busier but Sunday is almost always a day that winds down to a quiet end. I was not sure what to expect, and I was definitely not sure what kind of things we’d be covering as press at the event, but in hindsight it’s actually a great event to simply cover as a whole. I realized that we should let people know about the convention itself rather a few small presentations or snippet news announcements.
The convention may not have seemed like much from the outside, but it definitely filled the main exhibit hall to the brim. The hall was split almost exactly half-and-half with artists, publishers, and other people of the trade on one side and vendors / stores on the other. We started by walking through pretty much all of the artist/publisher side and spying a few people we wanted to talk to, some signatures we wanted to pick up, and several comics we wanted to buy (directly from the creators, no less)! [Read the rest of this article]
Critical Hits Podcast #12: Interview with Scott Kurtz of PvP
At Baltimore Comic-Con 2008, we caught up with Scott Kurtz of PvP fame. We talk about the D&D Podcasts, ask him about his D&D character, and get a little advice about starting your own gaming webcomic.
Critical Hits Podcast #12: Interview with Scott Kurtz of PvP (5 minutes long, 3 MB)
Two minor scoops within: they are considering putting together more of the D&D podcasts with him and the Penny Arcade guys, and Scott is considering moving to Seattle.
If you are an aspiring webcomic artist, be sure to grab his new book: How to Make Webcomics.
New Kobold Love post
I posted the last half of Scene one of the Kobold Love project adventure over www.chattystudios.com.
In it you’ll see a fully stated Gnoll Ranger, complete with awesome Stat Bloc look, thanks to Asmor‘s 4e.css packaged with his Monster Maker application.
You’ll also see the attempt by Graham and I to create a D&D 4e Combat Challenege embedded in a combat. It looks good on paper, now I wonder how it will hold up during playtest.
See you tomorrow!
Heroes Season 3 Premiere: Both Awesome and Horrible
The following rant/review contains spoilers. It assumes you have watched the two part season premiere.
I finally got a chance over the weekend to watch the TiVoed season 3 premeire of Heroes. In Season 1, I had found myself watching the first few episodes, giving it a pass for most of the season, then picking it back up near the last quarter of so of Season 1 and really enjoying it. Then Season 2 was abbreviated due to writer’s strike and other issues and ended up not being terribly exciting one way or the other. (The fan theories about it were far more entertaining than what actually ended up happening.)
Season 3 is their chance to show what they can do with a full season that doesn’t have to waste any time on establishing the series. You know who most of the characters are, you know the powers, you know the big players. This is their chance to finally pull off whatever grand plots they want to towards an established audience. Did they pull it off? Well, yes and no. [Read the rest of this article]
Inq. of the Week: Who Reads Comics?
We should have provided an over/under on last week’s poll, I’d be curious to see who would have guessed that 52% of our voting readers are married gamers. Coming in at second is 28% of you who are gamers and single, 16% are gamers and in relationships, with only 5 votes (3%) in the gamer that doesn’t fit into one of the the above categories and 4 votes (2%) who are not gamers at all. Thanks to everyone who shared more details about their relationships (or lack thereof) in the comments!
Yesterday Dave and I spent a few hours at the Baltimore Comic-Con, which was my first time there and Dave’s third Comic-Con, so neither of us are particularly seasoned veterans (we’re more accustomed to gaming conventions). It was a very enjoyable experience and we’ll both be posting a few things about it over the course of the week, so keep an eye out for those if you’re into comics! Naturally, that leads us to this week’s Inquisition where we’d like to find out what kinds of comics our current readers like to read.
Loading ...Feel free to share some of your favorites in the comments!
Keeping up with the Hyperactive & Chatty DM.
If you want to keep up with my numerous projects, without having to jump all over my no less numerous websites, I invite you to subscribe to my most excellent (cough) content on your windows bookmarks or your favorite RSS reader (I like Google Reader myself).
Please follow these awesome links:
Chatty Studios: My new RPG design studio. Featuring all things Kobold Love (New KL post today and another tomorrow)
Musings of the Chatty DM: This here blog about my games, thoughts and RPG Rockstar/Overlord antics.
The Life of a Suburban Overlord: My Photo webcomic. I’m into my 3rd week and so far I’m proud of the result.
All subscribers are automatically made members of the super secret Knighthood of Bacon, so get your spot now, places are unlimited!
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Chatty's Question: Losing it, RPG style!
There’s been a ‘nostalgic’ revival of anti-D&D material on several blogs lately (Sorry if I don’t link, I don’t have the time right now).
I saw the movie Mazes and Monsters about 20 years ago and like all 15 year old teenager geeks, I scoffed at the plot and snickered at all the ways the screenplay got RPGs wrong.
However I did take the movie’s core idea seriously.
You see, even at 15, I was well aware of humanity’s propensity to become obsessed with things.
The focus of the obsession is unimportant, be it religion, sex (and jealousy), hatred, guns, video games, RPGs or Heavy Metal music. It’s clear to me that a subset of humanity has a trait that makes them latch sociopathically to something and allow it to occupy too large a place it their subjective realities.
Aside: That’s why I have no respect for the Thomson, Chick and other fearmongers of this world… the activity is not to blame, the mental disease of the ‘fan’ is.
One of the reasons why I learned that lesson so young was because, at 13, I gamed with Fred.
Fred was a shy, somewhat tormented teenager. Slight of build and prone to being abused by bullies, he was however a very bright and creative individual. We became friends rapidly and I started playing AD&D every weekend with him.
To say that Fred took to RPGs is the mother of all understatements. He ate, drank and breathed RPGs. He thrived on the social interaction of the gaming group we created out of the neighborhood nerds and dorks.
I clearly remember, while we were playing one on one through Expedition to the Barrier Peak that Fred was getting over the board with his character (I don’t remember what he was playing, probably a Magic-User). He kept freaking out about finding all those laser guns and grenades, and he was talking about the game whenever we were together at school.
I recall his grades falling, and him asking me to play on every afternoon of the week.
I couldn’t comply, because my mother was actively monitoring the impact of my hobby on my grades as I was allowed to play as long as my grades remained good.
I started to become worried about Fred.
Being armed with almost no social tools at the time (I was a chatty socially inept somewhat arrogant lad…. hey no jokes about things not changing!) I resorted to the only way I thought could address this:
I killed Fred’s character. I don’t recall how, but it was probably a Save or Die or something. Something very sudden and very final.
Fred went into shock. He probably stopped talking to me for some time. But when we talked again, I told him that this was just a game, not worth obsessing especially on something as irrelevant as a character…
I was ready to start a new game with him, along with a group of friends, provided he relaxed a bit about his character and that we did other activities once in a while.
It worked out all right. He became a musician, got girlfriends and probably got laid before I did.
All good.
What about you? Were you exposed to RPG players who crossed the line (or nearly did)? Did you lose it (or nearly did)? How did you react and/or how did you address this?
Have a great weekend!
Kobold Love's Website Updated
I just updated all the Kobold Love posts over Chatty Studios’ website to better together. I also created a Project main page where you can navigate to all other related posts.
You can find the project’s main page here and check on those who manifested interest in tackling the community part of of this project.
I will post part 2 of scene 1 over the weekend. Since I need to play test it next Saturday I will also build a draft version of all scenes during next week and share a few sneak peaks.
I also would like to post an article over there about the challenges of starting a new business and the importance of your entourage in making this a success.
have a great weekend.
I am a Writer…
On the way back from Gen Con, my mind shifted into a seldom before attained creative overdrive (I’m going through another one today it seems). During my flights back I created Chatty Studios, Kobold Love and I wrote a post about being a writer in the RPG industry.
I submitted that text to Bob Younce, a good friend of mine, author of RPGdigest and The Writing Journey, a rising blog about being, obviously enough, a writer.
He was kind enough to post it here.
Those who’ve been following me closely in the last few weeks will see where the plans of my current projects germinated.
Thanks for sharing your tribune Bob, it’s appreciated.
Have a great weekend.
Bedtime Campaign: Nico outsmarts Smaug the Dragon!
This post is part of a series where I explore freeform roleplaying as a bedtime story for my 6 year old son, Nico.
Chatty: So what do you want me to read tonight?
Nico: Can we play the story game again? It’s been a long time and I’m sure your friends on the computer miss them! (Maybe I should call the Screen Actor’s Guild)
Okay, so who are we today?
Same as usual, Super Nico, the Knight!
Okay and where are we?
I don’t know (A spark was needed!)
Well let’s say you’re playing in your room and someone knocks at the door of your Castle.
‘kay.
Your father the Wizard-King answers and calls you down: ‘Nico, someone for you’. What do you do?
(Giggling from mounting excitement) I go downstairs.
A very colorfully clad person, with a guitar and a piece of paper awaits you. He asks if your are Super Nico the hero.
I am!
(Taking an official voice): I am Guzutt, the Bard!
What’s a bard daddy?
It’s someone that signs songs and tells stories.
Okay.
Guzzut: I have been charged by Princess Zix to ask your help to…
Daddy, you know I don’t like stories about princesses! Those are for Rory (5 year old sister)!
So sorry! Wrong message. Guzzut opens his bag, puts the paper back in and takes another one out.
Guzzut: I have been charged by Prince Guk to ask that you go to his castle right now so you can help him against the Evil Dragon Smaug! (The joys of gaming with a 6 year old, all names are original)
Chatty: So do you want to go?
Nico: Yeah!, but how do I get there real fast?
Guzzut: Do you want to share my rocket Carriage? You can drive!
“Yay!”
Chatty: “So you spend the next few minutes flying over forests, swamps and arrive to a castle with a big hole in it.”
What followed was a not so interactive introduction to the Prince who told that Smaug the Dragon had recently punched a hole in the Castle, stolen all the prince’s treasure and his little brother! Nico agreed to help.
Nico: Can I have a few things to help me?
Prince Guk: Sure, just go ask my Wizard on top of the highest Tower.
Nico: (Excitedly) I go there! What can I get?
Chatty: The Wizards gives you a potion that can turn you invisible. How’s that?
Nico: Cool!
Okay, Prince Guk tells you that Smaug lives in a Cave deep under the Mountain of Ice.
I go there!
Okay, the Mountain is really tall and too slipery to climb since it’s made of Ice. You see an entrance at the very top. What do you do?
(Thinking long and hard) I call the Nimbus Cloud to get to the top! (A flying cloud that can fly Nico’s character around)
Good thinking, the cloud comes over from the sky, picks you up and starts to fly up the mountain. But it’s very very cold and the cloud gets smaller and smaller and smaller until you fall off it and hit the mountain and start slipping down! What do you do?
I take out my Sword and I plunge it in the ice really hard!
Awesome! You stop slipping and your sword is stuck into the deep ice…
I use my fire Gem to melt the ice!
Wow! You start heating up the whole mountain, ice melts and a huge lake appears around the shrinking mountain. When your gem runs out of magic fuel, half the mountain is melted! You see that the entrance at the top of the mountain is actually the top floor of a very tall tower with a very long winding stairway climbing up around it.
I climb it and enter.
Once inside, you notice another set of stairs going down into the darkness and you hear a loud Snoring sound and a barely audible ‘Please help me’
That’s the prince’s little brother! I go down to save him!
You climb down until you reach a large chamber filled with gold and gems. A huge dragon sleeps on the treasure, holding a cage in its claws. The young prince is in it, really scared. What do you do?
Hmmm… I can’t fight him without hurting the littlle prince. Oh I know! I take the potion… no half the potion so I can give the other half to the prince.
Oh I see what you’re trying to do!
(Giggles)
Chatty: Okay so you turn invisible and so does the prince, what now?
Nico: (Smiling triumphantly):I make noise!
The dragon wakes up with a start! He looks around and notices the empty cage!
(More giggles)
Smaug: Hey! My prisoner escaped! I need to find him again and put him back in this cage!
Chatty: The dragon flies outside the room, looking for his ‘lost’ prisoner. You both reappear as the potion’s effect fades.
I take all his treasure… Huh, is there a big bag around?
Young Prince: Take this magic bag there, I’ve seen the dragon use it to steal all my brother’s treasure!
Nico: Does that work?
Chatty: Sure, you take all his of his treasure and you escape with the young prince before Smaug comes back! You win once again!
Nico: Yay! Daddy?
Yes?
Why does the dragon sleep on a treasure like that?
Hmmm. Good question. Remember the story about the princess sleeping on 20 mattresses?
The one that felt the pea and couldn’t sleep?
Yup, well maybe big dragons are only comfortable when sleeping on lots of treasures and that’s why he stole Prince Guk’s treasure.
Cool!
Good night Nico.
Good night daddy!
I love doing this!
Up next, I will relate to you a story I did with both Rory and Nico while on a car trip.
Credits: Nicolas Menard (Story), Laura Toivola (Scuplture)
