Bluegrass Geek

Food recommendations for GenCon

2009-08-09T12:24:00.002-04:00

Some folks asked on forums, so I put together this list of food I recommend near the convention center in Indy.

As far as food goes, I have a couple recommendations:

* Buca de Beppo: A very nice Italian place a couple blocks from the center. Be warned that it's extremely popular so, expect a wait.

* The Circle Center Mall food court has a couple places I like. Currito is a burrito place that makes excellent burritos in a variety of flavors. And Maki of Japan has very good sushi for a mall food court!

* Ah-Barista, a nice little coffee & sandwich shop across from the convention center. We randomly picked it because it was close, and it was a pleasant surprise! I recommend the Portabella & Cheese Panini, especially for the vegetarians out there.

Official GenCon iPhone app is out!

2009-08-08T10:41:00.001-04:00

Grab it from iTunes!

Free D&D stuff at GenCon

2009-08-08T10:27:00.002-04:00

The most recent GenCon email newsletter detailed some of the goodies that Wizards will have available on the con floor.

First up, people who sign up for D&D Insider at the Wizards booth will receive a free D&D backpack. For those of you who really want to let your geek flag fly, I suppose!

They'll be pre-selling Adventurer's Vault 2 and the Dragon Magazine 2009 Annual, 100 copies per day, limit one per person.

Wizards is also heavily promoting their new free version of D&D Online, their Eberron-themed MMO. The game has changed to a free-to-play model, where you instead purchase special items and unlocks with real money, similar to many Japanese MMOs now. The GenCon promotion is that, when you buy any D&D product at the Wizards' booth, you get a free $5 DDO store gift card.

There's certainly going to be some nice incentives for the D&D fan at the con!

WotC Fansite Kit

2009-08-07T20:06:00.002-04:00

Wizards has posted an official fansite kit. I haven't decide if I'll use any of it for this blog, but I'm going to look through the ZIP file.

WotC Catalog 2010

2009-08-06T18:17:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago, I was at a local gaming store and noticed something curious: a Wizards of the Coast Spring/Summer catalog... for 2010! Someone had left it unattended on top of some books that were being prepped for the shelves, and none of the employees were around.

I pulled out my crappy cell phone and managed to snap a couple pics before I heard an employee coming around the corner. Only two of them turned out, and for some reason my phone won't transfer one, so I've just got the one shot of the Table of Contents:

From WotC Catalog 2010

As you can see, lots of planar-related stuff here.

GenCon is next week, and I'll be attending the Wizards' seminars. I'll post any news I get from there on this blog!

Scribblings

2009-05-02T15:27:00.000-04:00

Been a busy week. In addition to my normal three 12-hour shifts, I volunteered to do a fourth on Thursday. We're a touch short-handed right now, and I could use the extra money, so it was worth it. Of course, that afternoon the night shift person decided to call in.

Well, not so much "call in" as "come in to pick up her check and then tell us she's not coming in while she's at her workplace." x.x

Anyway, they couldn't get someone on short notice, so I volunteered to say a few extra hours until someone could come in. Wound up doing a 14 hour shift. On my day off.

Needless to say, I was basically useless on Friday. Lazed about, played some Rock Band 2. Finally got my (single player) band up to earning a jet plane, so I can play gigs outside the USA. Also decided to try drumming a bit... and basically got my ass kicked. Drumming is harder than I expected.

This morning, I've been doing a little writing. I've had a plan since last August to write out my own D&D campaign setting, but my typical lethargy crept in and I kept putting it off. I'm finally getting myself sorted out, and seriously working on this stuff again.

My first project is a new racial write-up. The plan is to create a 4-8 page PDF, which I'll sell online under my Bluegrass Geek label. Following that will be a new class, which is a bigger investment in time & effort, and will require some friends to do some playtesting. The final move will be to write out the campaign setting itself, which will include the new race (and a bonus "bloodline" race) & new class, plus feats, a few Paragon Paths & Epic Destinies, new "gods" and the actual world setting itself.

Depending on how well the race & class PDFs do, I'll either make the campaign setting a simple 32-64 page overview, or a full-sized Campaign Setting book & separate Player's Guide book.

I do plan on commissioning some artwork for these PDFs, but I'm going to have to read up more on creating my own company & the legalities involved (especially the D&D GSL).

"What is it with this guy and eels?"

2009-03-28T21:29:00.001-04:00

So a couple weeks ago I ran the second adventure for our D&D side-group. This was one of the few Dungeon magazine adventures adapted for Living Forgotten Realms play.

I had woven a few plot hooks for this adventure into the last one, so no one was too surprised when I described the scene. Though it is Midsummer, the air in Loudwater carries the chill of harvest time. Woodsmen have reported seeing strange, blue-skinned creatures and even blizzards in the deep woods. If the unnatural weather continues, the crops will die before they can be harvested, leading to famine. Some believe the cold is tied to the warlock Draigdurroch, who disappeared 30 years ago...

Spoilers for Menace of the Icy Spire!

The players were all too eager to go adventuring. In fact, I had to slow them down a bit to make sure they got all the information they needed! The town leader (who made a show of hitting on the tiefling warlord), asked that any magical tomes be brought back to her after the threat was averted. Once they were ready, the party set out for the tower they were told of... and ran right into a blizzard.

Luckily, the players had some good ideas of how to use their skills, so this skill challenge was a breeze for them. The group soon made it to the tower, a gigantic spire encased entirely in ice. The tower's stone itself was carved into the images of demons, completely encircling the building as if it were a funnel of devils ascending into the sky. Clearly, the owner was not putting out a welcome mat.

As the PCs approached the front entrance, one of the statues turned to look at them. Then, so did a few of the froglike, smaller statues lining the walkway to the front door. Needless to say, the tower's guardians were not happy with trespassers. The frog-guardians were little trouble, but the clay guardian that lept from the building proved dangerous: not only did it have some nasty attacks, but it could redirect attacks, tricking the characters into hitting their allies.

A brief rest, and the dwarf fighter hacked away some of the ice in front of the door. The main foyer was equally decorated in a demonic theme, with many evil-looking statues adorning the walls. Some of the statues had glass eyes which, upon inspection, proved to use a series of mirrors to show anyone looking in them the outside of the tower. Not only was the previous owner demented, he was apparently paranoid.

A pair of staircases led upwards, but the players elected to explore the ground level first. The first room off the left of the foyer was a simple office with some bookshelves. Everything inside is also coated in a thin layer of ice, keeping the contents perfectly preserved, if somewhat brittle. The only odd things of note in the room were an exquisite crystal statue of a demon lord and the fireplace, whose flames had frozen into an unusual blue ice.

The next room off the foyer was apparently a servant's quarters. Unfortunately, the servants had been home when the ice struck, their corpses frozen beneath the blankets as they lay on their cots. Another single fireplace, filled with blue frozen fire, sat in the corner.

Behind the foyer staircases was the kitchen. Like in the other rooms, everything was frozen, right down to the... jars of pickled eels? That threw my players for a loop. A small door in the kitchen led to the larder, which was full of freezer-burned stores... including a barrel of pickled eels. This led to my players wondering how many eel-based things they would find in this tower, and a lot of funny commentary. (Note: At some point, I'm going to start making audio recordings of these things.)

Off the right of the foyer was a large dining room. Of note, this room had two of the frozen blue fireplaces, but nothing else that seemed important.

Deciding to be cautious, the players proceeded quietly up the stairs. Our shadar-kai rogue poked his head up to peer into the next room. It appeared to be a large arcane laboratory, and had several icy elemental creatures standing about. With a signal to his comrades, the rogue burst into the room, surprising its occupants. Two of the ice creatures were large brutes with ice-mauls; one was a jagged thing with shards of ice it could throw; and the final one was off to the side, surrounded by a cloud of freezing mist and whirling ice shards.

The rogue made short work of the ice lancer, while the wizard kept the dangerous misty creature locked down in place with various spells until he could blast it to death. By now, however, several smaller ice creatures came scampering up the stairs into the room! While the other players kept fighting, the rogue quickly ran over and did a flip over the stair railing, dropping down to the first floor. Figuring the strange fireplaces were to blame, he ran into the dining hall and quickly disabled the first fireplace in it. By then, one of the maulers had come down the stairs after him, and another small ice creature emerged from the icy flames at the other end of the dining hall.

With some quick moves, the rogue dispatched the new creature and disabled the other fireplace. One swift dodge later, he avoided the mauler and ran across the foyer into the servant's quarters. He managed to disable this gateway-fireplace as well, but the mauler was now blocking the door out.

Luckily, shadar-kai can teleport short distances by making a short jaunt into the Shadowfell. He simple teleported into the nearby office room, leaving the mauler quite confused, and disabled the final fireplace.

By this point, the second floor had been cleared of enemies, and short work was made of the last mauler. Curiously, while all the ice creatures melted away, one of the mauls remained on the ground. This frost maul was claimed by the dwarf fighter, who was quite eager to put it to use. A quick inspection of the second floor made very little impact on their adventure, as most of the material was damaged by the ice. Also... there were no stairs. Instead was a small stepping disc just big enough to hold the party, which magically lifted up in the air and through an opening in the ceiling.

The room they lifted into was simply adorned with a desk & bookcase. In fact, there was no door... but there was a secret door hidden behind a badly damage tapestry. Stepping in, they discover a very luxurious bedroom & library, with a large central desk. Luckily, the wizard spots the magical ward on the desk and quickly disables it. Inside, the party discovers the journal and magical notes of the warlock Draigdurroch. It appears he was researching a new pact to forge with a being of darkness, and had upset the local fey. He scoffed at the fey's threats of retribution, which he had apparently underestimated.

Another secret door led to a small room with another lift-disc to the roof of the tower. The roof was flat and unremarkable except for some patches of ice... and a large, blue, glowing sapphire in the center. With a few insightful deductions, the party determined that this gem was the center of the icy curse, but that its power had become unstable. It would appear the unnatural cold drew the attention of icy things from the Elemental Chaos, who had tampered with the magical stone to spread their cold across the land. Being heroes, the characters couldn't let that happen. The dwarf used his maul to smash at the sapphire, putting a small crack in it.

That's when the gem flared brightly and a large, white-furred creature appeared in front of them. With a roar, the beast began attacking. The battle was furious and I would give a better description if I could remember the details anymore. ;) I do recall the wizard using a spell to knock the beast prone and keeping it pinned while the others struck it. At one point, they tried to knock it off the tower, but it didn't budge. Finally, after pounding on it long enough the party defeated the creature. As it gave out a last wail of pain, the sapphire also went dim and shattered. The curse broken, the icy shell around the tower collapsed with a thunderous roar and the clouds departed the skies.

Once the characters returned to Loudwater, they were regaled as heroes. The harvest was saved and the people were eternally grateful. Loudwater's town leaders were eager to go over Draigdurroch's journals and promised a grand celebration in the character's honor, as well as many rewards.

That takes care of Menace of the Icy Spire. Sunday, I'll be running the main group through an adventure in the Dalelands. Our small group will continue their journey in a couple weeks, where they'll venture into the Scepter Tower of Spellgard!

iPhone game quickie

2009-03-27T19:52:00.002-04:00

Just a quick post. I'm trying to sort out exactly what I want to do with this blogspace, as my original plan kinda faltered. Will work on writing up a game report this weekend, before the next game. For now, here's a couple bits of iPhone gaming news:

The Blizzard Authenticator is now a free iPhone app. Instead of buying a physical dongle, you can just get the app for your iPhone/iPod Touch. Once synced to their servers, you can use it offline just as if it were the physical authenticator.

Wolfenstein 3D has been ported to the iPhone. It's available on the store for $4.99 and either uses on-screen controls, or the tilt-sensor.

Kentucky e-voting fraud manipulated voters, not machines

2009-03-22T20:46:00.001-04:00

Six people have been indicted in a Kentucky scandal that involves rigging an election by manipulating vote totals in electronic voting machines. But the folks allegedly behind the scam relied not on high-tech hacking skills, but on old-fashioned southern charm.

read more | digg story

Kicking in the door

2009-03-05T11:05:00.000-05:00

So, this past weekend I ran D&D for a few folks. I haven't DMed before, so this was a new experience for me.

We're all in the RPGA, so we're playing in the Forgotten Realms setting for D&D 4th edition. runs a game with all of us, but he also wants to level up a character before GenCon in August. So, I volunteered to run a "side-group" just for that purpose.

My friends all made up new characters, and we elected to start a campaign based on some pre-published modules: first, the intro adventure in the back of the Forgotten Realms Campiagn Setting book, followed by the Scepter Tower of Spellgard mega-adventure.

"Spoilers ahead for "Barrow of the Ogre King"

Our group consisted of a shadar-kai rogue, a dwarf fighter and a tiefling warlord. We only had three players, but RPGA rules specify a minimum of four… so we fudged it with a communal PC (human wizard).

The PCs begin in Loudwater, a frontier town surrounded by woods and ancient ruins. The midday market is in full swing and our characters are milling around the various shops… when the city wall suddenly erupts in an explosion!

Goblins pour through the breach, attacking townsfolk. Without hesitation, our heroes leap into action. Our dwarven fighter does what fighters do best, wading right in and pounding goblins into the dirt. The warlord was good at forcing the goblins around the terrain and keeping the fighter alive. And the rogue was… well, being roguish. Ducking through doorways, throwing shurkien and backstabbing everything in sight. And the wizard was blowing up minions left and right.

Soon, it became apparent that the goblins were trying to reach the local magic shop for some reason. Between the wizard's grasping shadows spell and the shadar-kai rogue's ability to teleport, that got shut down real fast. The PCs subdued two of the goblins & finished off the rest, then set about saving the injured citizens of Loudwater.

A brief interrogation of the goblin leader ensued, whereby they learned the goblins were trying to retrieve an object stolen from them: a dagger carved from the horn of a large humanoid being called the "Ogre King." These goblins live in the Ogre King's burial mound & worship its body… and their leader claims to have a ritual that will allow him to ressurect the Ogre King.

This doesn't sound like a good thing, so the leader of Loudwater asks the heroes to put a stop to the ritual. And, thus, we have our plot hook! ;)

A brief trip leads everyone to the outside of the barrow. The path leads through a stone dwarven face, carved so that you walk through its open mouth. Beyond this gate is an open courtyard. Some investigation led the PCs to a secret door in one corner of the courtyard, exposing a ladder leading into the earth. One short climb later, and they found a door underground. This door opened to a rubble-covered chamber, its roof supported by very weak rotting timbers. Turns out, the center of the courtyard was trapped, designed to collapse into this pit and drop unsuspecting victims painfully into the barrow.

Just up a short flight of stairs from the rubble-strewn floor were more goblins in a stone-tiled chamber (with a neat "trap" involving a magic teleportation disc… that the PCs avoided like the plague). With surprise on their side, the PCs launched an attack. These goblins were no minions, however. In fact, two of them were extremely tough & equipped with heavy battleaxes! At least two heroes were nearly killed during this battle, but a combination of the warlord's inspiring words and the dwarf's "hammer CPR" kept them going.

Disaster was neatly averted when the dwarf spotted yet another pit trap in this chamber before he would have stepped into it. This pit was a shorter drop than the other, but contained four starving dogs that would've ripped him apart! With that out of the way, they were able to take down the last few goblins and catch a brief rest.

As a DM, this was a tough battle to handle. I screwed up by not sizing down the encounter for the smaller number of PCs, and I did have to fudge at least one roll to prevent a PC from certain doom. I generally didn't pull punches though, including when one of the battleaxe-wielding goblins nearly dropped the warlord to instant death. One of the real things that confounds a DM, though, is when PCs do exactly the opposite of what the adventure suggests.

For the next chamber, the adventure suggested that if the PCs tried to sneak through using Stealth, they could potentially slip past the enemies entirely, or at least get a surprise round. So, of course, they all elect to have the dwarf bash down the door with his hammer. o.o

This was a burial chamber that doubled as a shrine for the goblins. Two goblins were at a small statue making offerings when the door went ka-boom, so they came out swinging. That's also when the dwarf zombies came shambling out of the antechamber. And this is where the dice come in.

See, most of the zombies are minions (one hit kills a minion). The one "real" zombie was pretty tough, but had a special zombie-weakness: a critical hit kills it instantly. (Think "head shot.") Guess what the wizard rolled with his scorching burst spell?

So, that combat went shorter than I expected. They even managed to force one of the goblins to surrender with a good Intimidate skill check, and had him take the dogs from the previous rooms' pit with him when he left. This time, they didn't bash in the door to the next room…

This room was a bit interesting. Another teleportation disc, plus a large open pit with a set of stairs down into it, and several hobgoblins assisting the goblin hexer (a spellcaster). There was one goblin hiding by the doorway that smacked the first PC that stepped in, and the hexer actually had another goblin "stored" inside the teleporation disc that he brought out as reinforcements. Again, though, the heroes were smart and managed to shut down the enemy's most dangerous tricks. They almost managed to knock one of the hobgoblins into the pit, too.

Finally, they descended the stairs into the pit. At the bottom, they find the goblin shaman in front of the Ogre King's sarcophagus. Remember what I said about "not going by the adventure's recommendations" earlier?

The adventure was written with the idea that the PCs would at least try to talk with the goblin, and get some information from him. They could even attempt to negotiate with him. So, what do they do?

The shadar-kai rogue says, "We want to help! Here, I'll give you the horn!" He makes an insanely high Bluff skill roll, walks up and stabs the shaman in the neck… with the ritual horn-dagger! Preventing an anti-climax, the shaman had over 200 HP, so the final battle ensued. Which effectively meant bashing the shaman into a corner and beating him to death, while he tried to blast them with area-effect spells.

In the end, the heroes subdued the shaman and dragged him back to Loudwater. And there was much rejoicing. (< Monty Python > Yaaaaay. < /Monty Python >)

Overall, I think everyone had a good time. We'll have to run one more adventure next time before we can dive into Scepter Tower of Spellgard, and I think this extra adventure will be just as much fun.

The Tragically Unhip

2008-11-04T15:24:00.001-05:00

Say hello to my Rock Band group: The Tragically Unhip!

Weekend Reverie

2008-10-27T18:10:00.001-04:00

I've neglected this blog far too long. Things have been crazy at my day job, but that's no excuse for a writer! *shakefist*

This weekend was a great break, though. I got to participate in the Weekend in the Realms event with some great folks. We got the cooperation of Page 3 to use their store to play in. We did get stuck in the basement and had to leave after a few hours, though. Moved the game to our friends' place and played for hours.

It was a lot of fun, and we got to try some things in-game we hadn't done yet. Overall, it was worth it!

Pimp my ride, WoW style

2008-09-20T17:36:00.000-04:00

Got a couple product reviews awaiting approval on RPG.net. Those might go up Monday; if not, should be on Friday. Either way, they'll also go up on EN World and here as well, this week.

In the meantime, some news from the Warcraft… world. First, the Brewfest festival has begun. You can buy your own invisible Wolpertinger pet, get smashed and race rams. Used to be, you could build up tickets to buy a Swift Brewfest Ram, regardless of your faction. This year, that's been scrapped. Instead, there's a level 70 boss that (sometimes) drops the Ram, or a new Brewfest Kodo. He can also drop a teleporter remote. Or, you could just buy yourself a non-virtual beer stein.

Second, coming in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, Engineers will be able to make motorcycles. They're able to hold the rider and one passenger, and are Bind on Equip, so they can be sold or given away.

Ding!

2008-09-18T20:40:00.000-04:00

Today was a Warcraft day. Not much else to accomplish, but I did get a lot of gaming done. Among them:

Finished Uldaman, finally. And it was a surprisingly cool PUG too.
Hit 275 Engineering
Became Friendly with Ratchet, Gadgetzan and Booty Bay.
Hit level 50
Made a new gun: Thorium Rifle
Started exploring Un'Goro Crater. Awesome place. Got eaten by a dinosaur.

The Magic Smoke

2008-09-16T17:50:00.000-04:00

Well, that was fun. My current laptop, an old 12" aluminum Powerbook G4, has been a workhorse for about 6 years now. I briefly tried replacing it with an Asus eee, but the Xandros linux on the eee was so locked down it wasn't worth my time.

So, of course, right after I return the eee, my Powerbook decides to get revenge on me. The power adapter, which has seen better days, began to smoke near the actual plug at the laptop. A couple of the wires had finally frayed their insulation and shorted, melting the plastic housing them. One quick unplug-and-shutdown later, and I was offline until I could get a new power adapter.

I've now got a new MacAlly power adapter, which is a sight cheaper than the official Apple one and seems to work just as well.

I'll work up a review of the Asus eee shortly, long with several game book reviews that will likely go up on RPG.net.

GenCon: Cosplay

2008-09-06T08:00:00.002-04:00

As the final post in my GenCon report (finally), I thought I'd leave you with a few more pictures. Several folks were dressed up as their favorite characters (aka cosplay), and a few were really just outstanding.

This is a really nicely done Blood Elf from World of Warcraft. There's a lot of detail in this one, and it must've taken quite some time to put together.

The elves were well represented this year. Here, we have an absolutely awesome Drow. The lighting in the hotel was bad, so it's a bit hard to make out, but she did a fantastic job with the makeup and costuming.

A medieval troupe. The lady in the white dress must've had a time with it, because the train was extremely long. Looked great, though.

The best Captain Jack Sparrow of the con. And yes, there were a few.

A monkey and his banana. Be sure to look at the sign on the monkey's chest. And, who is that to the side?

Why, it's Vash the Stampede! Complete with his friend, Kuroneko.

I'm not sure if this counts as cosplay, but this was a fully featured R2-D2 rolling around the con floor.

That does it for GenCon. Hope you enjoyed reading my blogposts! Later this week, I'm going to do reviews of a couple books I picked up at the con, as well as some new computer hardware I recently purchased.

Gencon: Days 3 & 4

2008-09-06T07:23:00.001-04:00

Saturday at GenCon started out early. The "Haunted and Historical" tour kept us up late, so we almost overslept and missed...

The "Killer Breakfast" does not serve breakfast. :) Basically, it's a silly thing that authors Tracy & Laura Hickman put together. Everyone piles into the room and a group of about a dozen people get pulled up onto the stage and given "character sheets." Tracy then gives a scenario and starts asking the people "How did you get here," and "What do you do?"

If people's answers are too boring or just lame, they get "killed" and taken off the stage, to make room for the next person. Of course, the trick is that everyone will get killed by the end of it, so it's no big deal. The people who are the most entertaining "live" the longest onstage. A couple of my favorites:

The Pirate gal actually lasted a couple rounds, if I remember right, because she played it to the hilt. And besides, everything's better with pirates!

As I mentioned before, there is no breakfast served at Killer Breakfast. When Tracy Hickman asked this guy "what do you do?" he got up and pulled out a table, then proceeded to serve Tracy & Laura a light breakfast. He lived a couple more rounds. :)

Yes, this guy dressed up as Yoda, complete with little arms on sticks. And he really stole the show. He also was sitting next to a kid who was doing a Harry Potter-ish thing to play, and they really had fun playing off each other.

I really wish I could've got a better picture of this. Someone dressed up as the "Monster in Darkness" from the comic The Order of the Stick. Did a great job of it, too.

Of course, in the end, the entire audience died. :)

We managed to double-book several events on Saturday, so we didn't get to do everything we had planned. After the Killer Breakfast, we got some real breakfast, and did more shopping in the dealer's room. Then, it was time for "Tracy Hickman's X-Treme Dungeon Mastering!"

This was a seminar where he talked about the various ways to play games, and how to avoid many of the pitfalls gamemasters make when running their games. He had a lot of great insight, including...

... using Joseph Campbell's monomyth to help build your stories.

At the end of the seminar, Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis held a contest. Apparently, a batch of human DNA samples are going to be sent up to the ISS as a kind of "back up" for the human race. They drew out a name and the guy pictured in the middle won.

Again, the seminar kept us from attending a couple other events, so we just spent some time walking around getting pictures and such. I stopped by the miniatures painting area, and they had a bunch of their contest winners out for show.

Then, the big event of the con...

Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of the original Dungeons & Dragons game, died this past year. In tribute, the con had this huge styrofoam d20 die out on the floor. The die was hollow, and people were encouraged to drop some of their spare dice into it.

On Saturday evening, a charity auction was held. All purchases made at the charity auction went to help soldiers who had been badly injured in combat. Several artists and writers donated unique pieces of their work, along with lots of other gaming related items. But the big event of the night was auctioning off the huge foam d20 and all its contents.

The auction started off kinda anemic, without a whole lot of bids going in. It was a bit disappointing, but some of the presenters gave impassioned speeches that seemed to get people more in the giving mood. The die ended up going for $1500.

That brought an end do our Saturday. Sunday, the final day of the con, started out after a good night's sleep. We only had a single event to attend, the "Worst Mistakes in Game Writing" seminar. Several writers talked about the typical mistakes people make when trying to get into game writing, and took questions people had about the subject. It was really informative, and I hope they do it again next year.

After that, it was just a matter of getting home. GenCon was fabulous fun, and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year.

I have one more follow-up post to make. There was a bunch of good cosplay at the con, and I'm going to show off some of the highlights in another post later today.

Nice chrome.

2008-09-02T20:55:00.000-04:00

Google has unveiled their own web browser, Chromium.

The concept was to strip off all the "chrome," aka unnecesary menus and visual effects that most apps have. The second concept was to revolved around the "web app," such as Gmail, Google Docs and other web applications. It will use Google Gears to actually "save" the webapp to your computer so you can run it offline.

So far, it looks really cool, and I hear its quick. It has a few really neat features, such as: each tab is its own process, so if one tab crashes it doesn't take the whole browser down with it; inline search, like Safari; Firefox's spell check; "private browsing" mode; and a thumbnail view of your sites, similar to Opera's "Speed Dial" function. The developers describe the browser as drawing on the best features of today's web browsers, and they hope their open-source code will be used to improve other browsers.

The downside is that it's beta. From what I've read, having each tab really takes up way too much memory; and there's no real bookmark manager in place. Plus, they're still working on MacOS X and Linux versions.

Now is the appropriate time to headbang.

2008-09-02T14:30:00.004-04:00

I've had a few bands that I've loved a long time. Many were because my dad listened to them quite a bit: Pink Floyd, the Doors, Dire Straits, etc. Once I got to college, I got exposed to something new: "alternative" music, which turned me on to bands like Alice In Chains, Tool and others.

One of my favorites from this time period was Nine Inch Nails. The sound was raw, the lyrics were full of emotion, and there was a wonderfully layered effect to the sound. Trent Reznor, the heart of the band, takes advantage of live instruments, synthesizers and his own powerful voice to create music that builds on itself, adding rhythms to each other, often building up the complexity of the song as it goes along. It's really evident in their big hit "Closer" as it approaches the end.

So, when my partner told me he got a notice from Rupp Arena that NIN was coming to Lexington, and were offering special $20 preorder tickets, I snapped them up. The seats weren't the best, but for $20 who was I to argue?

I have never seen so many people wearing black in my life. n.n

The venue didn't sell out, but it was pretty well packed. The folks next to us were cool, and we chatted with them a bit before the show. The opening act was a band out of Ohio called White William. Three college guys, one on guitar, one on a very small drum set and one on synth/vocals.

These guys sucked. I hate to say it, but good lord this sounded like a self-absorbed college band. They used reverb and echo effects for their entire set. The guy on vocals and synth was the worst offender, as there wasn't a single song where he wasn't using both effects on his singing. Plus, they apparently used every damn effects key on the synth. The guitarist kept to the really high notes and was headbanging. My partner commented that "this is not the appropriate time to headbang," because the music really wasn't heavy; rather, I can best describe it as pop-synth-crap. The drummer didn't get to do anything interesting for most of the set. The worst part is, the band didn't seem to have any enthusiasm. When the singer talked to the audience between songs, he was flat and emotionless. I'm guessing he wrote the lyrics to their song because the words were just as flat and trite. Well, what I could hear of them. Did I mention the whole set was badly over-amplified?

It's telling when the lead singer says, "This is going to be our last song," and the crowd starts cheering. o.o

That said, their last song almost didn't suck. If the lead singer had turned off his damn echo & reverb, used a few less effects, and the outro hadn't been three times too long, it would've been a decent electronica piece.

Following that disappointment, the lights came back up and we sat for about 45 mins while roadies set up equipment for the headlining act. We chatted with folks about the opener, and they all agreed it wasn't good. My partner thinks that NIN must be picking up local acts for their openers, rather than bringing an opener on tour. After the concert, I thought it would've been much more appropriate to track down the guys from Days of the New, as they were a Louisville band originally, had talent, and were at least an alternative band that would've fit the sound of an opener for NIN somewhat.

Finally, we got to the main act. And, damn, Trent Reznor knows how to put on a show! This is billed as the "Lights in the Sky" tour, and the name shows. There was a fantastic amount of lighting effects, and several curtain effects that were just dazzling. For one song, a curtain came down in front of the stage showing TV static. And at certain points during the song, Reznor would step up close to the curtain and the static would clear just around him for a few moments. He'd step back and the static would fill in, he'd come close to the curtain and it'd clear, he'd run across the stage and the static would clear as he moved across, filling in behind him again.

At one point after a song, a block of 64 hollow squares appeared on the screen, stacked in a pair of 16x2 grids. Reznor walked up in front of the curtain screen and a pair of white squares started tracking across the grid. He'd touch one of the hollow squares, which would fill in red and, when the white trackers crossed the red square, a snare hit was played. He started filling in the squares in the right pattern to begin the song "Echoplex" off the album The Slip. Once the main pattern was started the band began playing and he started singing the song. It was a great bit to watch, if kinda hard to explain. (You can download The Slip for free on the official site, linked.)

Edit: Found a YouTube video that shows it off well!

Most of the music was off The Slip, but he also played the band's most popular songs, plus some stuff off Ghosts I-IV. (You can download Ghosts I for free on the official site, linked.)

I really hope they put out a concert DVD of this performance, as some of it needs to be seen to be believed. It was just a fantastic show. The band was really into it, Reznor knew just how to play the crowd, and the crowd was singing along to most of the songs. Overall, it was a fantastic show to attend.

NIN

2008-08-31T21:59:00.000-04:00

Hint

2008-08-31T18:51:00.000-04:00

GenCon Day 2, Part 3

2008-08-30T21:57:00.002-04:00

Day 2 was so busy, it took three posts to cover!

After the "Ways to Play" seminar, we took a bit of a break. We missed the Ennies and a Paizo seminar, instead retiring to our room to check out some of our loot. That will be a separate post, probably next week.

We returned that evening for the D&D Miniatures seminar. As we came in, the folks giving the presentation showed off a few of the upcoming minis they had with them:

Once everyone got settled, they began the presentation. There was talk about the current starter set and available minis boosters. Then, they talked about the next booster set coming out:

Oooh, baby. Yes, that's a mind flayer sketch on the left, and a stirge mini in the upper right! They did say they learned their lesson from the last time they put out a stirge (and it was hard to get), so it'll be a lot easier to get them now.

They talked about last year's championship winner, who got to help design a new figure. It's an elf ranger, with a crow companion on his arm. They did let slip that, yes, the Martial Power sourcebook will have rules for animal companions in it.

Next was Legacy support.

The plan is to pick up posting new stats for the old sets starting in October. They'll publish downloads for the cards once per month, except for months where a new booster set comes out. They'll do this all the way back to Harbinger. They also said they were looking into making sure that old Chainmail minis that had an equivalent DDM figure would be allowed in league play.

The next discussion was what they wanted to do in 2009. Yes, that's another beholder, an aboleth (which they gushed over, saying they didn't think it could be done until they saw the first sculpt), and a rust monster. The rust monster is apparently going to be a critter in MM2.

Yes, they still want to publish a colossal Orcus figure. They're having some issues finding a way to make it economical and affordable to gamers at the same time. They did cite that the Colossal Red Dragon didn't sell as well as they'd hoped due to the price, and some people mentioned they saw them for sale in some of the discount booths at the con for as little as $25, while the Gargantuan Blacks and Blues were going as low as $15. (Apparently those sold out quick, as I didn't find one at that price the next day.)

During the Q&A, someone brought up the lower quality of recent sets, and the Wizard reps agreed. Apparently they had changed companies, and weren't happy with some of the figures they got out of the last few sets. However, they said that this has been worked out, and they were really happy with Demonweb.

There was also a question of playing the minis game online through DDI. This is something the Wizards reps said they wanted to support, but the RPG side was first priority, so this would be further down the line.

After the minis seminar, it was time for one of the more expensive things I had bought tickets for: the "Haunted and Historical" tour of downtown Indianapolis.

The lady in the green cloak was our tour director (I forgot her name by the next morning, unfortunately). She was working in cooperation with an actual "ghost hunter" society that operated in Indiana, and took us to some of the more famous "haunted" sites in town.

Our first stop was the Indianapolis Grand Central Station, the first Grand Central Station in the USA. Supposedly, this is haunted both by a conductor, as well as a "ghost train" of President Lincoln's funeral train. And, yes, that's a full moon in the sky. I was happy with how this picture turned out on my little camera.

This is the bar "The Slippery Noodle." Originally, the building was a storehouse with a hidden tunnel to Grand Central Station, which was used to conduct escaping slaves for the Underground Railroad.

As our guide was telling us about the stories, this guy came out to listen. When she was talking about one of the night managers who heard footsteps when no one else was there, this guy said "That was me!" The manager told us a few of his own experiences, as well as other stories he had heard about the building, which was a great little bit of lucky timing.

This is the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, dedicated to all the service personnel who died in the Civil War. Supposedly this used to be the site of the mayor's mansion, but the mayor never lived there. His wife didn't like hanging her laundry in the middle of the downtown square, so they lived outside of town. Shortly after they moved out, there were rumors of a headless man seen inside the house, which persisted for years. One day, a young man went inside on a dare, and caught a turkey that was walking around inside the house. After that, the headless man was never seen again. ;)

We stopped by what is now a bank building, which used to have a restaurant in the upper floors. I don't remember the story well for that one.

This was the Indianapolis Athletic Club. Supposedly it was not built with fire in mind, so of course a bad fire broke out one night. The firemen couldn't get to the water line inside, people couldn't get out easily. They got some of them out, but one firefighter went back in to save a man trapped inside. The firefighter died of smoke inhalation later. After that, people say they can still hear a fireman banging on doors at night, warning people of a fire that went out years ago.

Finally, we stopped by the local arts theater. One of the owners apparently liked to jog around the upper levels on days where it was too rainy to do his jogging outside. He was unfortunately killed near his home one day while jogging, after being struck by a car. Folks report they can still hear someone running upstairs late at night.

Also, a homeless man apparently fell down an open window into the basement during the depression. He was badly injured and no one could hear him. When they finally found the body, they found bloody scratches on the wall, and the rock he had been using to bang on pipes, which he ultimately used to kill himself with. Apparently people can sometimes still hear banging on the pipes, or see a figure in the basement shadows.

So, that finally brings us to the end of day 2! We were absolutely exhausted after this one, let me tell you.

Days 3 and 4 will be much shorter, so they will likely be combined into one post. Then I'll have a final post, showing off some of the stuff we bought/won at the con, plus a bunch of cosplayers we saw!

Gencon Report: Day 2, part 2

2008-08-30T19:24:00.000-04:00

Work was hell today, and I've picked up the sinus bug that's going around, so I really don't feel well. However, I'm going to get up at least the second part of day 2 here. I'll try to get days 3 & 4, as well as a special wrap-up post, but those may be delayed until next week when I'm off work again. Yes, I have to work through the Labor Day weekend.

After the D&D Seminar's presentation ended, they took questions from the audience for the second half of the event. Unfortunately, I didn't get a recording or notes, so I'm going by rough memory here.

A question was brought up about how well D&D 4e was selling, and the team was obviously enthusiastic. My impression was that they were happy with the sales, not just in marketing-speak mode.

People asked about DDI stuff, some to do with compatibility (the guy asked about Linux, but the Wizards folks mostly focused on the possibility of a Mac port "when it makes sense"); some about the virtual mins (you get a default set of 3D "minis," can buy more random sets of "minis," and there is a set number of times you can "clone" the 3D mini; cloning it onto your game table more times than that results in 2D tokens instead for the rest); getting a group together (yes, there will be a "waiting area" where you can set up Pick-Up Groups); and how the app handles your numbers (it will auto-calculate the results of rolls, which you can drag & drop into place, eg. you roll 2d6+3 for damage against a player, get a result of 13, and can drag that "13" to their HP, which will deduct the damage appropriately).

There were questions about specific rules issues, which I can't remember the details of. Sorry.

Someone brought up the OGL and how useful things like the Hypertext d20 SRD were for DMs. This got a direct answer: the OGL was bad business for Wizards. They still wanted 4e to be open, but not so open that it cost them the way the OGL did for 3e. They realized that there were concerns about the GSL, and they're working with other companies to fix that. Finally, they recommended that anyone who needs an electronic resource for looking up rules either subscribe to DDI for the Rules tool, or purchase the PDF versions of the books and take advantage of its search functions.

After the Q&A was over, we went to lunch at Steak & Shake. The local one had experienced GenCon before and was well prepared. They had separate lines for pick-ups and dine-ins, and a staff that was both efficient and very friendly. If you just want a fast-food meal at GenCon, I recommend hitting this place.

Then, we went to the Fantasy Flight Games PR venue.

These guys were very friendly, and had some great insights into the board games market. Also talked about their relationship with Games Workshop, and their issues getting the Confrontation game to market. They also mentioned they had a new Arkham Horror cardset out at the con, Black Goat of the Woods.

We had some time after that, so we went shopping in the exhibition hall. More on that later, but I did pick up Hunter: the Vigil and its brand new book Witchfinders, while my partner picked up the Arkham Horror expansions Kingsport Horror and the aforementioned BGotW.

Next was the "Villains of Eberron" seminar, by none other than Keith Baker, along with his assistant.

He had a lot of great insights into how to use the various groups in Eberron as antagonists in your game, as well as a few hints at the 4e version of the setting.

We had to cut that seminar short to make it to the next one: "Ways to Play D&D," aka the RPGA seminar. A few of the guys from the Q&A seminar were back to discuss the new Living Forgotten Realms and how it was going to affect ways people play D&D.

One of the main things talked about was the new Wizards Play Night. This is the group that does the "Friday Night Magic" stuff for Magic: the Gathering, and now they're doing something similar for D&D: the Delve Night

Essentially, Delve Night is a monthly adventure broken up into four major encounters (with accompanying roleplaying opportunities). The idea is that you can play once a week for a couple hours, so folks who want some casual D&D can get together regularly to play. They'll also support bi-weekly or monthly play for folks who can't get together as often. It's fully supported by the RPGA, so it counts towards your points and such.

Also, there's going to be a special event October 24-26: Weekend in the Realms. It's an LFR event where you basically find a shop, library, bookstore, etc. that agrees to host you, and play a special D&D adventure all day. It's a mega-adventure broken into three parts, each part taking approximately 3 hours to play. They really want this to be a public event, rather than something you roll at home, so that other people get exposed to LFR and D&D.

You can read more about the Delve Night and Weekend in the Realms on the Wizards site.

We all recieved a little postcard-flyer for the WitR, and also the con-exclusive LFR player option card:

Normally, characters cannot play RPGA events with the new "spellscarred" rules in the upcoming Forgotten Realms Player's Guide. This card is the exception to that rule, so GenCon attendees will have an extra option unique to them. I expect most folks will keep theirs, so I doubt many will show up on eBay or anything.

Then, we were asked what we wanted to see out of Living Forgotten Realms. Adventure styles, rewards, etc. Some of the rewards suggested were: player option cards with unique feats or powers, not found elsewhere in the rules; exclusive battlemaps or Dungeon Tiles, including spell effects; exclusive minis, which may be too expensive to pull off, but they were willing to look into it; a branded d20 die (with an RPGA or LFR symbol for the 20); free DDI time and other "virtual rewards."

That prompted some questions about online play with the DDI. We were assured that yes, you will be able to play RPGA sanctioned adventures using the online game table app. There's still some discussion about how to use player option cards online, and possibly awarding things like alternate virtual minis and such.

... this post is running long! Okay, I'm going to stop here, and post a Part 3 for day 2 for the last two events, which are rather photo heavy: the D&D Minis seminar, and the "Haunted and Historical Downtown Indy" tour!

GenCon report: Day 2, part 1

2008-08-29T11:21:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the lengthy delay. Things have been a bit weird for me this last week, but I should be able to get this GenCon report finished up in short order.

Day 2 began with a brief stop at Starbucks on the way to the D&D 4th Edition Q&A Seminar! Lots and lots of information here, including a ton of pictures, so this seminar gets a whole post to itself.

I'm afraid I lost track of exactly who was giving the seminar, as I didn't have a chance to note their names down. Plus, I had my camera set wrong, so the first few pictures came out too blurry to keep. Once things settled down, they started talking about developing 4e and things that had recently come out & were coming out. The FRCS was mentioned as being on sale at the con (and sold out later that day), and they talked about the upcoming FR Player's Guide...

... and they had a copy to show!

After that, they started into the slide show presentation, discussing things that would be coming out over the next year:

Scepter Tower of the Spellguard is an adventure coming out in September, which will be made to work in a Forgotten Realms campaign or a basic D&D campaign.

October is going to be a busy month for D&D!

Martial Power will be out. No real surprises here, except that there will be more racial feats in this book.

King of the Trollhaunt Warrens, the first adventure in the P-series of Paragon-level adventures. Maybe featuring trolls? ;)

Streets of Shadow Dungeon Tiles, for your city-based adventuring needs. Also has some spell-effect tiles.

November brings us the new Draconomicon! Of course, it has new dragons and dragon-monsters; plus treasure, rituals and other player-goodies.

D&D Starter Set also comes out in November. This will have the usual stuff: pregen characters, adventure, tiles... but will not have plastic minis. Instead, Wizards is using tokens for the PCs and monsters, to cut down on production costs and keep the price down.

Manual of the Planes 4e comes out in December. Note that this is not the final cover art, just a mock-up with some filler art. Not much else to say, here. It's a MotP, you know pretty much what it's going to focus on.

We'll also get P2: Demon Queen's Enclave in December. Again, not the final cover, but expect to deal with a lot of drow in this one.

January 2009 will bring us a book I'm really looking forward to, Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead. Obviously, not the final cover. I always love these undead splatbooks, no matter what system they're for.

February will begin the Dungeon Delve. I'll go into this in more detail in a later post but, basically, this is an RPGA function where a DM can run a single encounter for players. It's designed to be like the "Friday Night Magic" leagues, where people can just drop in once a week and play for a couple hours. If you want, you can save them up to do bi-weekly or monthly games, but it's a great set-up for folks with less time to play.

Also, another set of Dungeon Tiles: Caves of Carnage. Lots of natural underground terrain. They specifically mentioned working on more non-linear features, like an underground stream that winds around on one side, with a natural winding tunnel on the opposite side.

March of 2009 is when we finally get to see the Player's Handbook 2! As the speakers were talking, they let slip that Bards are in, as well as Sorcerers (and that Sorcerers are Arcane, not Primal). They also said that we could tell what some of the new races are by the cover, so I got a closer shot:

Unfortunately, I don't recognize them a bit. The big guy looks giant-ish, while the druid gal looks fey/elvish.

There's a ton more stuff coming in March:

P3: Assault on Nightwyrm Fortress finishes out the P-series of adventures.
Player's Handbook Power Cards and Martial Power Cards: Wizards said they've heard people's requests for power cards. While you can print them out from the DDI Character Creator app, these are going to be nice, heavy cardstock prints of powers from the PHB and Martial Power books.
Feywild miniatures set.

Arcane Power comes out in April 2009, with all sorts of extra stuff for magic-types to play with. This will include the Arcane classes from PHB2! A question came up later about how they'll support the Martial PHB2 classes, since Martial Power comes out before PHB2. There wasn't a solid answer, just that they do plan to offer more things for each class in future products "as it makes sense," ie they're not going to put out an "extra" product or delay another one to add extra features for classes; but, they're not going to leave them hanging either. Most likely, this will become Dragon magazine content, and show up in other products.

Also, E1: Death's Reach becomes the first Epic-tier adventure published this month.

Monster Manual 2 debuts in May 2009, along with PHB2 Power Cards.

June 2009 brings us the next campaign setting, with the publication of the Eberron Campaign Setting book. Note that this is proposed art for the cover, but nothing's final yet.

We'll also see the Arcane Towers Dungeon Tiles, said to feature the first round terrain available in Dungeon Tiles.

Finally, we get E2: Kingdom of the Ghouls. Hopefully we'll find out why Yeenoghu no longer has control of this realm!

The Eberron Player's Guide comes out in July, and the proposed cover art matches up nicely beside the ECS4e cover.

Also out that month, Divine Power for the cleric-y/paladin-ly types; Seekers of the Ashen Crown adventure (which I'm guessing is E3); and an untitled Huge set of D&D Minis.

And that brings us to August 2009. Here we'll see Adventurer's Vault 2, for even more treasure!

The big news this month is the "super adventure" Revenge of the Giants. This is going to be a "boxed set," featuring tokens instead of minis, just like the Starter box.

Finally, we get Arcane Power Cards to go along with the other power card sets published so far.

Note that there was no DMG2 mentioned anywhere in this. I'm guessing that they either don't feel it's necessary, or plan to wait until they have enough new stuff to talk about to publish one.

At the end of the presentation, they talked a bit about their online DDI stuff, and showed off from stills from the gameplay app. No pictures, as there didn't seem to be anything new to that. However, we did get a special treat: we got to watch (after some audio troubles) the upcoming new D&D animation video! Without spoiling too much, folks should enjoy this shot:

The second half of the day will be written up and posted either tonight or tomorrow!

Spider

2008-08-28T20:38:00.001-04:00

Saw this gal on my way to the parking lot after work. All those little bumps on her back are baby spiders! Wish I could've gotten a clearer picture, but my cameraphone just didn't deal with focus at that range.

GenCon: Day 1

2008-08-21T21:31:00.000-04:00

The trip began way too early in the morning. I had to get up at 4:30 am to drive up to Indianapolis. Well, I had to sit in the passenger seat on the way up while Scott drove. ;)

We arrived in Indy and went to the front to register. Surprisingly, the registration process was simple, smooth and straightforward. Unfortunately, most of the gaming events were sold out in advance, and I managed to double-book some of the seminars. Others were just so physically far apart, we couldn't stay for one and make it to the other.

After that, lunch was in order. Found a nice little coffee shop across the street from the convention center called Ah Barrista. Really good sandwiches.

Then, the first seminar:White Wolf's Q&A for their new game, Hunter: the Vigil. The crew was great, very entertaining and gave a lot of information on how they designed the game. If you're familiar with the old World of Darkness game Hunter: the Reconing... well, forget it. This is its own beast. This has more in common with Hunters Hunted than HtR: mortals who might have access to esoteric abilities, not mortals called to fight by supernatural beings. You can play a straight up mortals game with this, or you can delve into more mystical groups such as the Lucifuge. I only wish I had snapped some pictures.

Unfortunately, my Secrets of Eberron seminar was in a hotel far enough away we couldn't make it in time. Instead, we hit the exhibit hall and did some shopping.

The main hall. I was surprised how much space they laid out for the vendors.

Fantasy Flight Games had a huge amount of floor space, lots of demos for various games out there.

Demo for the game Tannhauser: Undead Nazis versus cybered-up Allies!

The other side of the FFG booth, lots of Confrontation minis.

White Wolf's booth.

Eve Online booth.

... I don't know. It was there, I took a picture of it.

Boffers! People were whacking each other with these all weekend.

A monkey and his banana.

This is a great idea: rubber molds so you can make your own buildings and terrain for your minis games.

The Wizards of the Coast booth, one of the bigger floor spaces (naturally). They had several demo tables, as well as...

The new Character Generator app. From what I've seen it looks really useful.

Paizo's booth was very purple.

Crocodile Games set up some great tables to show off their minis.

Green Ronin had a booth too.

Just outside the hall, the giant foam d20. It was hollow and people were encouraged to drop some of their own dice into it. The giant d20 and its contents would be auctioned off Saturday, and the money donated to charity.

After browsing around the hall,we did a “play to win” game of Risk 2210. This version of risk uses sci-fi units and a slightly different map to fit the theme. It also has some modified rules, such as command cards and a 5 turn limit. That limit makes it possible to play Risk in a few hours, rather than taking up all day, which is a major plus in my book. It came down to a tie-break at the end, and Scott won the game!

The game ran a bit long, so we missed out on a reading by Michael Stackpole. Still, we had a good time. Afterwards, we checked into our hotel and went out to eat at a fantastic Italian place, Bucca de Beppo. Wonderful food and fantastic service made it worth the price.

Coming up next, day 2, including pictures from the D&D 4e Q&A session!

Whetting your appetite

2008-08-20T11:26:00.000-04:00

Getting the pictures sorted and uploaded took longer than I anticipated, so actual con report will be delayed. In the meantime, check out the photo gallery on Flickr!

A fresh start

2008-08-19T15:32:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the blog for Bluegrass Geek Creations*. This will be my blog for posting updates on my writing, gaming and general nerd-itude. Be sure to also check out my MySpace and LiveJournal accounts, and feel free to follow me on Twitter.

The basic gist is that I'm an aspiring game writer. I'm working on some concepts for Living Forgotten Realms, as well as my own homebrew D&D 4th Edition campaign setting. The latter will eventually make its way onto RPGnow as a series of PDFs while I test out the new races, class and various other goodies. Eventually, I plan to release a full Campaign Setting and Player's Guide. More details will be forthcoming.

* Tentative name for my one-man company. Still looking into if I can/need to make it formal as of yet.

Cheese shop at Lexington.

2008-08-18T15:27:00.001-04:00

GenCon!

2008-08-18T11:54:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the idleness. Was getting ready for, and going to, GenCon! Had a lot of fun, met some cool people, ate good food and spent a bit more money than I had planned. n.n;

I'm visiting with my folks in Lexington right now, and will be home later tonight. Expect an after-con report on Tuesday, along with a ton of pictures!

Gender politik

2008-08-11T21:10:00.000-04:00

Olympic medal winner Heidi Krieger is now Andreas Kreiger. He says that his coaches gave him steroids without his knowledge, so many that it began to change his body and outlook on life. He eventually underwent a full sex change operation and is now married.

Exactly 39 years ago today

2008-07-20T16:17:00.000-04:00

"Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

Hermit

2008-07-18T11:16:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I'm a bit late to the party. I'm just now starting to get into this whole "Web 2.0" thing, with this blog as one of the steps. Lately though, I'm stumbling on a ton of useful sites.

Jott - You can call their service on your cell phone and speak a note or reminder to yourself. It'll translate that into text and keep it on the site for you. They've also got an iPhone app, so you can pull up all your notes and keep track of what you're supposed to be doing.
Evernote - Kinda the visual equivalent of Jott, this one will take your photos and do some OCR to recognize any text in them. Scribble down a note on a napkin, shoot a photo with your cell phone, and this service will keep the note for you. Can also be used to store regular photos, typed text notes, PDFs, and more.
last.fm - A kind of online radio service, you pick out artists you like and builds a personalized "radio station" of the music you like. Also has videos, and can scan your iTunes library to see what you've been playing to help build the station for you.

Rock Band 2 track list

2008-07-15T21:50:00.000-04:00

Rock Band 2's track list has been announced. I think anyone who's a music fan needs to pick this one up.

No, the new Guns 'n Roses track does not excite me in the least.

Talking Heads "Psycho Killer" does, however. :D

Metropolis

2008-07-09T09:26:00.000-04:00

This is a great bit of news for a classic film geek like me. The Germans were one of the first to really take advantage of film when it came out, and produced several great movies. One of them is Fritz Lang's Metropolis. The problem was, American audiences were used to 90 minute films already, and Metropolis was 210 minutes long. It got chopped up and sped up to fit the normal showing time, which made the film disjointed and difficult to follow. Still, it's considered one of the classics of early film. Sadly, the original German print had been lost, and all we had was the edited American version… until now.

The original version of Metropolis has been found! Apparently, a museum in Buenos Aires had recieved a copy of the film in 1992 from a private collection. One of the curators wondered why the showings of this print were taking so long, and sat down with their film expert, where they realized this was the original German print. It's scratched, so it will need careful restoration, but we can finally see the film as it was originally intended.

Family time

2008-07-07T21:41:00.000-04:00

My family moved to Lexington a while back, so I actually get to visit with them now. Not as much as I'd like, but every once in a while I get enough time off to do so. This is one of those times.

The drive from eastern Kentucky is rather nice. The Mountain Parkway is very pretty, lots of woodlands and old buildings. Especially in the current hot, humid weather, it's really nice because all the trees cool down things just enough to drive with the windows down. And there were very few other cars going my way, so it was an easy drive.

In fact, the only stress was when the TomTom, which had been silent for 90 miles, piped up to tell me a turn was coming up. Nearly jumped out of my skin!

Today, I spent time with mom. Went out to lunch and shopping. Dad came home, and this was the project I came to help with. My parents are adding a workshop onto their house. Dad does a lot of woodworking as a hobby, and now they've finally got a house they can put a proper workshop on. It's not finished, but it's together enough he wanted to put a good workbench in.

What he bought was a really nice wooden bench. The trick was, the benchtop weighs 250+ pounds, and he has a bad back. We were trying to figure out the best way to get it into the shop and put it together. Mom came up with a great idea to use a rolling scaffold to hold up one end while we carried the other to get it into position. Worked out fantastic. Dad now has a great, solid workbench and we got to spend some good time as a family on the project.

I only wish I could spend more time with them. But, I have to work on Wednesday, so I'll be off tomorrow afternoon to drive home.

Glad I waited

2008-06-30T12:54:00.000-04:00

Rock Band 2 has been announced. All your previous downloaded content will work with the new game, and new RB2 download content will work with the original game. The old instruments will work with the new game, but there will be new instruments that are supposedly higher in quality. The game is due out in September for Xbox 360.

Headasplodey

2008-06-29T15:52:00.000-04:00

The worst part of Kentucky weather is that it changes so quickly. From sunny, to overcast, to sunny, to pouring rain, to foggy, etc.

Being one to suffer from bad sinus headaches when the pressure changes, this is not amusing to me. Today is no exception. x.x

Xbox Downloads finally fixed

2008-06-27T16:05:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's been a busy week. Need to keep up with this more. Anyway… Microsoft has finally made it possible to transfer game downloads to a new console. If your 360 died, or you upgraded to another unit, you can use this system (once every 12 months) to move your purchases to the new system.

Firefox 3 Download Day

2008-06-16T14:03:00.001-04:00

Firefox 3 is to be released on Tuesday. Check out the link above to see all the new features!

iPhone 2.0

2008-06-09T15:04:00.002-04:00

Apple has unveiled the new iPhone. Available in July, the new phone has 3G data and drops in price: 8 Gb for $199 or 16 Gb for $299.

The new software features can be downloaded to the orginal iPhone for free on the release date, and iPod Touch users can upgrade the software for $9.95.

Random Kentuckiana

2008-06-07T12:33:00.003-04:00

I've neglected this blog for a while, due to health issues. On new medicine now, but it's taking time to get used to it. So, here's some random musings on Kentucky life.

It's 17-year locust time again! It's just weird going outside and hearing this low hum as they make their mating call. One of my co-worker's kids described it sounding "like aliens are invading." If you follow the link, check out the animated image about halfway down that shows them molting from their pupal stage.
Another way you can tell it's summer in Kentucky: it's gone from rainy and 70 degrees F, to sunny, humid and nearly 100 degrees F in less than a week. Gah.
One of the bad things about working in a hospital, as I've mentioned before, is when people don't survive their trip to the hospital. It's especially bad out here in eastern Kentucky, as it can take a long time for first-responders to even get to the scene, much less get the person to the hospital. Many people live in such rural spots that it's often over before the EMS can even reach them.
I need to get out and take some photos of the various signs that stores put out. Often they're very interesting, offering services you don't normally see in other parts of the country. Unfortunately, some of Kentucky's reputation is well-deserved, as there are plenty of misspellings on these signs that are quite funny.

Jitters

2008-06-03T22:06:00.002-04:00

Apparently, I have anxiety disorder. On the way home from a tirp, I started having numbness in my limbs and face, kinda like you feel when your hand goes to sleep. Lasted the entire drive, so we stopped by the ER. The doctor did some tests to make sure there was not obvious neurological disorder, and drew blood to make sure it wasn't a thyroid problem. With those eliminated, he said it was likely anxiety. And, yes, I do sometimes have nervous moments for no real reason. He prescribed some medicine, and we'll see how that works.

Cheapskates

2008-06-01T21:26:00.003-04:00

Blah. AT&T set an absurdly low MMS file size for their prepaid phones. My nice 100k photo got cut to 3k. And my phone doesn't use standard USB, so I'd need a special cable to get it offloaded to my computer.

One

2008-05-31T12:17:00.001-04:00

One dead tree down

Unified

2008-05-27T17:50:00.003-04:00

Wikipedia has activated "unified login" for all of its users. What this means is that you only need one username & password for all the Wikimedia projects (Commons, WikiNews, other language Wikipedias, etc.). If you already have accounts on multiple projects, you can go into your preferences on any project and manage your login. If the password is different on some of those projects, you'll be prompted to put it in before the accounts will merge.

Keep on the Shadowfell, part 1

2008-05-25T04:34:00.002-04:00

I really don't want to be awake at 4 am... but that's what happens when you get a midnight shift at work. :P

Anyway, today we started playing the new Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition adventure, Keep on the Shadowfell. The adventure is designed to show off 4e's new combat systems and player character abilities, as well as some of the new setting fluff for the game.

Overall, I'm impressed. Combat is a lot more fun, compared to the 3.5e Greyhawk campaign we've been playing. There's a lot more maneuvering, a lot less "spend a turn healing and do nothing else" for the druid/cleric, and everyone just has a lot more options. The Paladin was actually very useful, and kept everyone alive through the first half of the night. Later, we added a 5th player who picked up the cleric (which saved our butts later on). Even my wizard was useful the whole time, usually dropping lots of fire on the enemies.

Unfortunately, our dice hated us. Lots of poor rolls all around, but even then we only came close to having characters die on the last big encounter we ran. The game is much more survivable, but still takes a lot of tactical consideration.

As to the role-playing, we didn't get much chance to run that, but what we did was fun. Mostly, we just focused on learning the new rules and just having fun.

If you're trying to decide whether or not to buy 4e, this adventure's a good way to test the waters.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

2008-05-23T15:11:00.003-04:00

Back in the 1970's, Star Trek started to draw in fans again. The series was in syndication, so a new generation was discovering the show while old fans were renewed. In the midst of this the show's creator, Gene Rodenberry, proposed a new series: Star Trek: Phase II. The series would be a new five-year mission, and several sets were even built.

However, the folks at Paramount had a different idea: scrap months of work and instead launch Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Some of the characters and story concepts were revised into the new film. However, the film was rushed out the door. Many of the special effects (SFX) were incomplete, and the editing was choppy. Still, it was the first new Trek anyone had seen in years, and still drew in quite the crowd. It also launched the film franchise, and eventually Star Trek: The Next Generation (which wound up re-using many of Phase II's scripts when the writer's strike hit).

In 2001, a remastered version of the film was put out on DVD. It has a 5.1 soundtrack, lots of modern SFX, and some editing changes to take out the worst of the slow parts. Amazon has it for $6.99, so if you're a Star Trek fan, there's no reason not to pick it up.

Not all of the FX were redone. Some of the external shots still use the old FX, which still have specks of dust and such on the film, which is disappointing. The new FX are extremely impressive though, still keeping with the original film but looking 100% better. Some new shots were added, too, which makes for smoother transitions of some scenes.

Suffice to say, any geek should pick this one up without hesitation.

On the Rain-Slicked Precipice of Darkness

2008-05-22T07:00:00.000-04:00

The new Penny Arcade video game On the Rain-Slicked Precipice of Darkness is available now for PC, Mac and Linux, as well as Xbox Live.

In addition, Ars Technica is running a contest: caption a PA comic they've got, and the winners will receive a custom USB flash drive (featuring PA artwork on the drive itself) with a copy of the game on it. These are only available to reviewers, so they're going to be collectibles for any PA fans out there.

Beer good! Napster bad! FIRE BAD!

2008-05-21T12:11:00.001-04:00

Napster has opened their DRM-free MP3 store. Quick glance, it looks pretty cool. The store has an iTunes-esque interface, but it's all run in your browser with AJAX-y goodness. The selection looks good, too, so this might compete well with Amazon. I've already found a couple songs Amazon didn't have (Monster Magnet FTW!).

Primary function

2008-05-20T14:23:00.002-04:00

Today is Kentucky's primary elections. I've done my part in voting, and you can find your polling place on this site.

New icon

2008-05-19T10:43:00.003-04:00

Got a new user icon here, thanks to Tod at ninjahijinx.com. We've got plenty of raccoons around here, and this little guy seems to know his tools, so it works for me!

Be sure to check out Tod's awesome webcomic rendition of Dracula!

Damn you, nature!

2008-05-18T11:51:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. After coming down with bronchitis, Kentucky decided to do its patented "Springtime = ALLERGIES!" trick. So, now that most of that crap is out of my lungs, it moved into my sinuses.

Still trying to find a good video editor to work on these Hillbilly Days videos I snagged. Unfortunately my laptop didn't come with iMovie and I've been too cheap to buy iLife, so I've been struggling with shareware apps that, frankly, suck.

The Truth is Out There

2008-05-13T13:09:00.002-04:00

New X-Files movie trailer! Looks well-produced, but I'll wait to see how the story turns out. The last few seasons of the show really didn't hold out well.

WoW patch 2.4.2

2008-05-13T10:46:00.004-04:00

Another minor patch for World of Warcraft today. Biggest changes are a new Hunter pet in Outland and that Blacksmithing BoP weapons are no longer Unique (and most are one-handed, now).

The official patch notes page isn't up yet, but it looks like almost everything is the same as the PTR patch notes.

cough hack wheeze

2008-05-12T11:44:00.000-04:00

Great. I have bronchitis. Blargh.

And All That Could Have Been…

2008-05-09T18:17:00.004-04:00

I know I've been going on and on about the new Nine Inch Nails album. It's not just because I really like the music. Trent Reznor has always been a big technology buff, and his recent experiments have shown he's on the ball when it comes to modern social networking. Case in point: Nine Inch Nails Ghosts Film Festival. Since the Ghosts album is released under the Creative Commons license, you can reuse it for non-commercial purposes. Reznor is running a context on YouTube where people can submit their films/videos that include music from Ghosts. There's no actual prize, but the ones that NIN likes best will get highlighted, which is likely to look very good on a resumé.

To go with that, all the tools to remix The Slip album are now available on remix.nin.com. Since it's also under the CC license, you can reuse it too.

Death Knights for everyone!

2008-05-09T13:05:00.001-04:00

Tons of info on the new WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King over here on WorldofWar.net.

Quick Post

2008-05-07T14:54:00.003-04:00

The new NIN album is great. Very melodic, not the hard-driving sound of Year Zero, but more like The Fragile.

I finally got my Warlock on WoW up to level 40. Hello one gold for a mount + riding skill that doesn't take a bag slot. Slow cast time though. Also, can't wait to try out Howl of Terror.

Blizzard digital downloads

2008-05-06T14:20:00.004-04:00

You can now digitally download older Blizzard titles. Once you sign up for their store (if you haven't already), you can plug in your existing serial number to download games you already own; or purchase games you don't yet own and download them right away.

Currently Warcraft 3 and Starcraft (plus their expansions) are available, with Diablo 2 coming soon. I've plugged in my WC3 and D2 codes, and may snag them again if the mood hits. Unfortunately, I seem to have thrown away my Starcraft box, and lost my text file with the relevant serial numbers, so I'll just wait on Starcraft 2 for my zerg fix.

The Slip

2008-05-05T13:29:00.004-04:00

I absolutely adore Nine Inch Nails. The band has been one of my favorites since I first heard them back in the early 90's. Trent Reznor, the creative force behind the group, has done a lot of very interesting projects. Last month, he released a brand-new set of albums online: Ghosts I-IV. The first album is free, and the rest can be purchased in a variety of formats for either online download, or physical CD. The entire set is licensed under the Creative Commons Share-alike, which means you can freely distribute it and re-use it for non-commercial purposes.

Now, he's released a new NIN album online entirely free: The Slip. It's also under the same license, and can be downloaded in many different formats.

Week recap

2008-05-02T12:54:00.003-04:00

Wow, busy week! Things got a little crazy for me, so very few updates. The short-short version is that work has become a very uncomfortable place for me. Our director is really being aggressive, and I don't appreciate it. So, looking for another job.

I bought a new phone. My old one was pretty sad (MIDI ringtones, no java, etc.) so I decided it was time to upgrade. However, I'm not bringing in enough cash to justify an iPhone. This one runs $100 retail, but I got it for $40 refurb from AT&T GoPhone. Yes, I use a prepaid phone. I don't talk enough to justify spending $30+ a month for a cell phone. This way, I pay $25 every 3 months, and I've still got more talk time than I really need. Though I may eat up the balance with Twittering now…

Blogger will now do "future dated" posts. So, you can set a post for some future date/time and it will show up then; or, you can post immediately, then set a future date for the post, and it will permanently sort to the top (or until that date comes).

Google has a cool new app that will turn Google Image searches into a screensaver. Macintosh only.

You can embed a Guitar Hero widget on your page and play online. It has a leaderboard and everything, with three songs to play right now.

Megastar

2008-04-29T12:33:00.000-04:00

Went to see Blue Man Group at Lexington this weekend. Great show. These guys are always entertaining, a great blend of music and vaudeville performance. I've seen them three times so far and, though I prefer the original line-up of performers, the current set are still good in their own right.

The concert originally featured Venus Hum and Tracy Bonham. I strongly suggest picking up their original DVD, or catching it on PBS sometime, as both are stellar performers. Tracy really rocks out performing Baba O'Riley with her violin.

They've since changed out to a few new performers to fill those slots. The nice change is Mike Relm as opening act and providing some video work during the concert. Check out his YouTube page, or this performance to get an idea of what he does:

The Blue Men have always been good about using technology, and actively encourage people to use their cell phones during the concert. They've got an interactive text-message thing going on, and have people hold their cells up as lighters during certain songs. Plus, they encourage you to take pictures and post them on the BMG site (though most venues prevent you from taking "high quality" cameras inside).

So, short version: if you can see them, do it.

Travel

2008-04-27T16:03:00.000-04:00

Out of town to visit with the folks and see a concert. Update later.

DVR-ness

2008-04-23T21:39:00.000-04:00

Well, the replacement DVR came in. Turns out, it's working fine. It's our Sony receiver that's on the blink. It works just fine with the input from our Xbox 360 and PS2. But nothin' from the DVR. Possibly a converter board burned out. For now, we've got audio running to the tuner and video straight to the TV over an S-Video cable.

Lexmark gets the boot

2008-04-22T13:37:00.001-04:00

I've had a love-hate relationship with inkjet printers for years. Coming from dot matrix printers, inkjet was a huge step forward. And no one but a business could afford those huge laser printers, so everyone was happy to see them come out.

Fast forward to 2008, and ink jets kinda suck. About the only thing they're good for now is low to mid-quality digital photo prints, and sucking up your money in ink refills. Cheap lasers easily outshine them for text printing, and color lasers are starting to catch up in quality and price.

So, when Best Buy decided to drop Lexmark injets from its stores, it got attention. Aside from Lexmark, Epson, HP and Canon are the only big names in inkjets. Yes, there are specialty photo printers and dirt-cheap (ie. disposable) printers, but those four are the names anyone who wants a decent printer looks for. Knocking Lexmark out of one of the major chain retailers across the USA is a big blow for them, and ink jet in general.

Of course, this may just be a marketing strategy gone bad. Lexmark announced higher-than-expected earnings for Q1 '08, but notes that part of that is due to intentionally under-selling its lower priced inkjet printers. The idea was to push consumers towards buying the (more profitable) higher-end printers and ink cartridges. Cutting back supply may have influenced Best Buy's decision to cut the brand entirely, which may come back to haunt Lexmark.

It's especially relevant to Kentucky, as Lexmark is based in Lexington. They're a major employer in the city, and something that affects their growth will also affect the local economy.

Well, crap

2008-04-21T13:27:00.000-04:00

Not a good weekend for the Geek! My parents weren't able to make it out for Hillbilly Days, and it rained anyway, so that was shot. Luckily, I got some pictures and video on Friday. Unluckily, I had to offload them to my boyfriend's laptop, which he currently has at work. I'll try to get a hold of them tonight or tomorrow, so I should have some images up here and video up on Youtube by mid-week.

I work registration for the local hospital, and typically get stuck down in the emergency room. And this weekend was bad. The festival drew in a lot of people and we had quite a few minor accidents, and a few major medical problems, piling into the ER over the weekend. Scrambling to get someone into the computer so the doctor can order labs, while trying to get insurance info from others before they leave, while trying to keep up with paperwork, is a nightmare. I've been trying to convince management to computerize more of this paperwork, but they aren't technology-oriented and have been resisting.

To top it all off, our Dish DVR died last night. It still runs and outputs audio, but the video is screwed. I wouldn't mind terribly, except it had the new Doctor Who Christmas special on it (yeah, America is way behind), and I still hadn't watched the new episodes of Battlestar Galactica yet! At least I can watch BSG on Hulu. I'll probably have to hunt around Youtube for the Doctor Who special if it doesn't rerun later this week, when we get the new DVR.

Hillbilly Days

2008-04-17T12:07:00.000-04:00

Today is the start of our annual Hillbilly Days Festival.

Basically, it's an excuse to get out in the sun, eat good food, listen to bluegrass music and see people dressed up in silly outfits. Pike county is part of where the Hatfield-McCoy feud took place, and the Pikeville courthouse where the eventual trial occurred. That feud, and the media sensationalism over it, is part of what gives eastern Kentucky its hillbilly reputation.

After the two families publicly reconciled back in 2003, folks decided to take the publicity and make it a celebration of the lifestyle in this part of the country. Hillbilly Days is the result, and it's a hoot.

I'm gonna try to get some pictures this weekend, so folks can see what it's like.

The Cute has reached critical mass…

2008-04-16T13:51:00.000-04:00

Being a geek, I often run into silly things online. Often, this comes from another site that grew up here in Kentucky: FARK.

Other times, it's just random browsing. In this case, I just happened to run across a video on YouTube that is, perhaps, the most tooth-rottingly cute thing I've ever seen: The Snuggle Song. (Sorry, they've got embedding disabled, so you'll have to click the link to watch.)

After the sugar overload wore off, I went looking up more info. Apparently, it started out as a ringtone in Europe. It caught on and, like the Crazy Frog, spawned full-length songs and the (cheap) music video above. Turns out, you can buy the song on iTunes now, but surprisingly it doesn't include the option to use it as an iPhone ringtone.

I have a feeling we've got another meme on our hands…

Time to blow shit up.

2008-04-15T17:31:00.000-04:00

The second map pack for Halo 3 is out. 800 points, two remakes and one brand new map.

And don't forget that the first map pack is available for free on Xbox Live now!

Burn, baby, burn

2008-04-15T15:50:00.000-04:00

Back on the 11th, there was a fire next door. As I left for work that day, I noticed a lot of smoke near our place. It's not unusual. People burn garbage, and sometimes the hills across the river catch fire, so I didn't think much about it. My boyfriend called me at work about 6 or so to tell me the abandoned flea market beside us was on fire and the fire department was working on it. I got home around midnight, and there were still bits burning lightly. We went out with a bucket and some jugs of water to douse the more active spots, so we didn't worry about it flaring up at night.

This lot has been abandoned since before we moved in. The flea market there failed, and several folks just left their stuff in the stalls/buildings to rot. One of the buildings burned down years ago, but most of it's just rotting away. We don't know how the fire started. Someone apparently saw a red car leave the lot a short time before the fire started. It could've been started by a carelessly tossed cigarette, or by someone destroying something. I see cars in there at night sometimes, and figure some folks use it for selling drugs. Or it could've been some kids just having fun burning crap that got out of control.

Regardless, it burned around the back and side of the lot very badly. The heat was so intense, and it got so close to our place, that the vinyl siding on the side of our building warped. That's too close for comfort.

I took some pictures and uploaded a gallery on Picasa.

Out of the Blue

2008-04-14T16:39:00.001-04:00

Finally decided to start blogging on here, since I've already got the Google account and all. So, I suppose an introduction is in order.

I'm a 30-something geek trying to earn a living out here in Kentucky. Grew up just a bit north, on the southern tip of Ohio. Grew up in the Tri-State area which is made up of Ironton, OH, Ashland, KY and Huntington, WV. It's a fairly rural area in the Ohio River Valley.

I've lived in different parts of the country. Indiana (too damn flat), Alaska (beautiful!), Hawaii (nice weather)… but I keep coming back to Kentucky. Partly it's just my heritage, partly the environment, but a lot if it is just an unexplainable feeling for me. I like the mountains and the hills, the climate (mostly), and the people. It's not as developed as some parts of the country, which I like. I've never been comfortable in big cities, and don't care to go too far into the back woods for more than a vacation. Kentucky has a wonderful blend of rural comfort and urban conveniences you can't find in most parts of the country.

Most of my life has been floating from one place to another. I'm still looking for a career that suits me, which is slightly depressing, but not being tied down to a soul-crushing job has its benefits. Just need to find that job that "clicks"…

Enough rambling for now. This blog will mostly be about my life, and my experiences. Don't expect a solid focused blog like Pharyngula, or anything as fun as Erin O'brien's blog. Mostly, it'll be things I've seen here in Kentucky, past experiences, and random geeky stuff I like.

And in case you haven't noticed from all the earlier links, I like Wikipedia!