How Not to Review 'Watchmen'
I just wanted to highlight something I read today in the lunch room at work, our local newspaper the Washington Post had a review of the movie Watchmen on the front page of the Style section today with the title “Blight Watchmen: Graphic Novel’s Edge is Dulled in Adaptation”. Written by Philip Kennicot, it’s an interestingly presented review NOT because it is saying the movie is bad. It’s interesting to me because it feels like the closest thing to comment bait that could exist in periodical print media. The first paragraph of the review reads:
“Watchmen” is a bore. Sad to say, after a wait of more than two decades, the much-anticipated adaptation of the world’s most celebrated graphic novel is long, dull and subject to what might be called the “Lord of the Rings” problem: It sinks under the weight of its reverence for the original.
I don’t believe I’ve ever heard or read anyone else using The Lord of the Rings movies as examples of bad adaptations. [Read the rest of this article]
Yet another PHB2 post (Better get used to it)
I join my voice to those who already have started bragging posting about having received pre-market copies of the Dungeons and Dragons Players Handbook 2 from Wizards of the Coast.
As I was leaving with my family today for some early season Sugar Shacking (it’s not as dirty as it sounds, unless you eat without utensils) the Fed Ex truck stopped by my place and delivered the copy I was so eager to get.
My good friend Ed of Atomic Array fame arranged for a few RPG bloggers to get advanced copies in exchange for a series of cross-blog posts coinciding with the book’s market release on March 17th.
I’ll be reading it over the next few days. However, contrary to my fevered reading of the first tome of that name to learn the rules of the game, I’m going to be much more laid back. Since I will likely not be playing much (I only played a 4e PC once and that was at Gen Con), I’ll breathing in the fluff about Races and classes fishing for campaign ideas.
So far I’ve read the races and the racial paragon paths (Can someone say Winged Dragonborn?). Right now, I have a slight preferences for the Devas (reincarnated astral spirits) and the Goliaths (Big mountain dwelling stonefaced people).
In order not to leave you empty handed, and since some of my readers are not exactly the same as Dave’s over at Critical-Hits, I too will gladly answer question about the contents of the book, provided that you understand that I will not post direct excepts of the book.
Talk to you later, I’m going back into the book so I can answer your questions.
"Player's Handbook 2": I haz it
Myself, along with a number of other excellent bloggers, have received preview copies of PHB2. We are all working together to put together a pretty big event around it starting March 13th, and hopefully a series of other supplementary articles about the release.
In the meantime, however, I am allowed to answer questions. The ground rules are that I won’t post any actual excerpts or solid game content, and I reserve the right to not answer any questions that I don’t think are right to answer (or my answer might be: buy the book!) I’m sure everybody understands that it’s a pretty big deal that I’ve gotten a copy, and so I’m doing my best to repay that favor… and I really do want everybody to go out and buy it.
So, with that all said, fire away…
Remembering Gygax Through Friendship
One year ago, shortly after posting about GM’s Day, I saw the news that shocked and saddened me: Gary Gygax had left us. Being the geeks that we are, we made all kinds of metaphors. (Gone to travel the outer planes is probably my favorite). Tributes began to roll in, not just from us RPG bloggers, but from all sectors who had their lives touched by D&D. Most were respectful, some were not. Some took it as their chance to grind their axe against D&D while people were grieving. Some took it as a chance to make cheap pot-shots about virginity (despite a fair amount of evidence that gamers aren’t as bad as all that). Fortunately, most of us came together, regardless of our feelings on game system or edition of choice. When you’ve got NPR and Stephen Colbert sending their best wishes, you know it is a Big Deal.
But instead of dwelling on that occasion for too long, I hope you’ll indulge me for a moment. I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about my friends. [Read the rest of this article]
A Special day and Family Time
Happy GM day to all.
I know that today marks both the annual day dedicated to Gamemasters all around the planet and it also happens to be the 1st anniversary of Gary Gygax departure.
I owe him a lot and he is in my thoughts.
I’m not online much this week because I decided to spend the most time possible with my wife and kids who are on their annual spring breaks. I need the quality time and I’m enjoying it.
Talk to you all soon.
What the New GSL Means for 4e Players
As rumored and then announced yesterday, the long-promised revision of the Game System License for 4e D&D was released. While it’s certainly important news, I think the actual effects on the average gamer are minimal.
- Since publishers no longer have to choose between the OGL and GSL, more third-party publishers can adopt the license to produce 4e-compatible products. As reported earlier, Clark Peterson of Necromancer Games was used to judge the revisions, and he is planning on releasing 4e products now. Other publishers may follow suit, but it’s probably too soon to tell. (Of course, the interesting test will be if Paizo decides to release 4e products).
- Player’s Handbook 2, Monster Manual 2, and Adventurer’s Vault content is fair game for third party publishers now, which means products such as The Quintessential Avenger Sorcerer are now a possibility. (As others have pointed out, only some things were added from PHB2 and MM2, mostly sticking to classes, races, and monsters that were formerly in D&D).
- Along those lines, since the new System Reference Document includes those books, you can get an early peek at the power names of all the classes, and a list of many of the new monsters.
- However, the clause preventing unaltered material is still there, so third-party publishers still cannot print statblocks in their adventures (at least without making up new monsters or altering existing ones).
- The fan site policy is still absent, but that was never going to be in the GSL.
- Generally, while there’s a little begrudging acceptance that the changes are for the better, few minds seem to have been changed by this new version.
YouTube Tuesday: No, Seriously, It's A Trap Edition
Admiral Ackbar knows a trap when he sees one. If only the Corleone family had hired him.
Inq. of the Week: Watch What you Read?
I think Facebook destroyed our poll last week, with 73% of the voters using it and completely blowing away all of the other options. Second place goes to the more professionally oriented LinkedIn at 23%, and the eye-shattering MySpace tied with None of the Above in third place at 19%. I’m actually very surprised that MySpace did not have more of a showing, and I’m wondering if there is a more universal exodus from the service that has happened or if it’s just a factor of our readership not liking their brains fried out by spam and obscenely decorated webpages.
This Friday is the release date for the Watchmen movie, and for me now is a good time to be thankful that the lawsuit involving the movie rights didn’t result in this date being pushed back! With that in mind I’m sure we’ll be talking about the movie a lot over the next week or two, and one big thing that I’ve heard a lot about is how many people will see this movie without ever reading or even seeing the comic book. It brings up the age old debate about whether or not you should read a book before you see the movie adaptation, or vice versa, so that seems like an all too fitting inquisition for this week!
Loading ...I didn’t read recreationally until I got into college, so there are a lot of movies I never got the chance to read before seeing them. About a year ago I set out to finally read a book before seeing the movie, and so I picked up a copy of A Scanner Darkly by my favorite author, Philip K. Dick, and read through that before we got the movie from Netflix. I think it was a satisfying experience, and I’m very glad that I read the book but I don’t know that there was a supreme difference between reading it first or if I’d read it second. I did find some things were more easily understood from seeing the movie then they were in the book.
I was in love with the movie 300 when I first saw it, but when I picked up the collected comics and read through them I was thoroughly unimpressed with them. They just didn’t stand up to most comics that I really like, the only thing that was really close was the artwork that had so strongly inspired the movie. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I saw the movie Sin City and loved it, then picked up the comics and loved them just as much. In fact, I’m pretty sure I enjoyed the Sin City comics more because I’d seen the movie first.
The biggest problem with reading the book first is that youcan often end up soundling like every single snob in the world, even when the things you say are true, when you find yourself uttering classic lines like “that happened differently in the book” or “the book was better!” When it takes me several weeks or months to read a book, and only two hours to watch a movie, it might be pure psychosis saying the book is better so that I don’t feel like I’ve wasted massive amounts of my life. That or you just get more out of a prolonged experience, who knows?
New Feature: Guide to Gaming DVDs
Our newest feature is up, and it’s a bit different than the previous ones. It’s a Guide to Gaming DVDs, showcasing both those that star gamers as central characters and ones that are officially Dungeons & Dragons (as much as we might try to disown them). It’s an update of my gift guide from years ago, updated both with new information and to trim out some of the DVDs that didn’t quite fit as well (but might make it into a future feature).
As always, feel free to leave feedback or updates here in the comments or by emailing me in the link in my profile below.
