More Photos

Our boy has only been crawling for about three weeks now, but wow... he sure seems to be growing up fast. We have new photos posted here (the first since the beginning of summer). Not to be missed: "When Frogs Attack (And Little Boys Fght Back)". I'm also very fond of the shot of me and Finley at the zoo.

Long Overdo Dragonspire Update

We're having our fourth session of Dragonspire (Dungeons & Dragons version) on Sunday. It's been a while since I last updated the site and it's been weighing on me. So I finally bit the bullet and posted up-to-date session logs and character sheets. It might seem like I'm excessively anal, but I like having up-to-date character information for the players in case anybody leaves their sheet at home. The session summaries help me (and the players) keep the continuity straight.

We had another Risus Dragonspire session last night. That game is going well, but it is so painfully slow to play online. I'll post updates over at the Risus Monkey sometime before the next session.

Nerd Post Backlog

Since I've been too busy for daily posting, I've been accumulating a bunch of cool science/geek-related tidbits that I had been meaning to share. Quickly (because I'm at lunch and need to get back to work), here is what I found:

• Physicists in Japan Plan to Create a New Universe in the Lab. I'm still a little sketchy on how they can prove that they actually did it, but the experiment sounds cool anyway. Also sounds like great gaming fodder.
• Science Reveals Secrets of Invisibility. Now this is wild. But wasn't this what the Philadelphia Experiment was all about? 
• Remote-Controlled Humans. I've been aware of this technology for some time. Back when I worked in the gaming industry, I had hoped to get my hands on a prototype so that we could support it in our flight sim. But this is the first time that I had heard of people using it to control other people by stimulating their sense of direction.
• Powering Up, One Step at a Time. File this under "why didn't I think of that"? Imagine the energy potential of all those walking commuters! 
• Researchers Using Waves to Write on Water. Now that's just plain nifty.
• Private Spaceport Plan up for Air.  More news on the coming space-flight revolution.
• Battery-Fueled Car Will Smoke You. If only had $80K to spare... I would so love to have a Tesla Roadster. And brilliant choice for a name. Hopefully, they aren't using those same batteries that Dell is having so many problems with.

GenCon Update

Well, I'm back. GenCon 2006 compared very favorably to GenCon 2005. It did seem to have a different vibe, though. Perhaps it was because I knew so many ENWorlders going in this time? Perhaps it was because I just knew what to expect? I dunno, but it did seem more relaxed (odd, since I hardly slept).

Unlike last year, I stuck with ENWorld pickup games and only paid for one event: True Dungeon (fun, as always). This years crop of games are described on this thread over at ENWorld. On Thursday morning, I played an antisocial government agent in Buttercup's Damnation Decade. The game was fun, but it did result in a Total Party Kill (TPK). Thursday night was time for Rel's brilliant Sky Galleons of Mars. I played Tex as a hyperactive hick last year, but I believe that I had more fun playing the imperturbable Captain Umbridge this time around. Friday morning's game was Old One's outstanding Blood Alter of Wodan (Grim Tales). As Leudonus, I finally got to play the brick and had a blast wading through Saxon mooks. Saturday's Risus game was cancelled (on account of a very late night TBR excursion), but I was very honored to be a part of PirateCat's all-star game of Mutants & Masterminds: Antiheroes. As "Killswitch", I was supposed to be the smartest man in the world. I fear I didn't do him justice, but I was just happy to bask in the "perfectness" of all the other player characters. I was especially fond of Kisnit's Migraine and the amazing exchange between PirateCat and KidCthulhu as Knockout's clueless parents. Finally, there was Alenda's Halfling Musketeers game. Of all the games, I may have had the most pure fun in this one. As the party swashbuckler in a swashbuckling game, I was able to pull of some really sweet moves. And playing alongside PirateCat really made my con.

Beyond the gaming, I will say that once again, I was inspired by the people I met and saw. On the one hand, I observed every negative stereotype one would associate with gamers. The people made me thankful that I am fit, healthy, successful, and have an exciting life outside gaming. On the other hand, most of the people I interacted with were fantastically cool people who inspired me in so many ways to be a better person.

In the dealer hall, I was happy to come away with only a few purchases (I spent way too much in the previous years). This year's purchase was limited to a onesie for my son, some new dice, and Qin: The Warring States. The later is a fantastic wuxia game set in late Iron Age China, just as it was being unified for the first time. I don't know if I'll ever use the rules (which do look very playable), but I certainly hope to use the setting at some point, even if it is just for one-shots or dimension-hopping games. The book is absolutely loaded with excellent historical information about ancient China (which dovetails nicely with my studies of Chinese). It also doesn't hurt that the book is really, really handsome.

Lastly, I will also say that were were blessed with fantastic weather, which made my two marathon training runs very enjoyable. For some reason, I find Indianapolis to be a really cool city. I've known about the canal walk since my first year, but this year I discovered the trails along the river (one of which skirts the edge of the zoo).

GenCon

I'm heading off to GenCon. I'll post an update shortly after I get back.

Vat Brains

Another genre convention is the idea of a brain in a jar. A related item is the vat brain computer, a computer composed of biological material rather than conventional silicon. This article in Wired described how scientists are actually playing around with primitive versions of these "animats". What is especially cool about this research is that they will help us understand the underlying cortical algorithms, which will be useful in treating brain disorders and building thinking machines.

More Sci-Fi Tech First Seen In Games

Anybody remember GDW's 2300 AD? I had both versions, as well as the space combat board game. While I loved the setting I never actually got to play it. I've never been able to get a science-fiction game off the ground (not counting cyberpunk), probably because I was intimidated by the scale (and too fond of swashbuckling melee combat). But I did love the hard science-fiction setting. Aside from the obligatory faster-than-light breakthrough (which was handled particularly well), most of the tech was based on conservative extrapolations of existing technology. If anything, these extrapolations were too conservative, but that just made the setting feel that much cooler. It was possibly the only RPG setting that came close to capturing that Aliens feel.

Why bring up 2300 AD? Well, I remember that they had this soft body armor that would harden upon impact by kinetic energy weapons. This article in Business Week talks about how it may soon become reality.

Dragonlance Movie?

Here's an odd bit of geek news, courtesy of RPG Blog. Apparantly, there is going to be an animated Dragonlance movie. I'm skeptical, especially considering some of the names in the cast (Keifer Sutherland as Raistlin?), but they do have an official site that looks rather official. We'll see...

But it would be pretty darn cool, if it were done right. And the fact that it is animated means that the curse of the previous Dungeons & Dragons movies can hopefully be averted. I have fond memories of the initial trilogy and I owned most of the original modules. I loved the feel of world and the characters seemed to resonate with me some how. and my current Dragonspire campaign is inspired, in part, by the original trilogy. Alas, I never read the subsequent Raistlin and Caramon series (mostly because they were my two least favorite characters). But perhaps I'll catch up before the movie comes out?

Quantum Leap

Today's tech news brings us a fascinating (and very optimistic) article about the future of computing in Fortune magazine. I can't get enough of this stuff, even though most of the predictions are nothing new. A companion article on Googling the Brain is also at Fortune.

Geek Humor

Inspirational Posters for the Geeks: http://www.cruisegazing.com/RPG_Motivational/.

To quote Homer Simpson: "It's funny because it's true."

The Amazing Screw-On Head

Based on a comic by Mike Mignola, the Amazing Screw-On Head will be appearing soon on the Sci Fi Channel. The pilot will run on July 27th and, theoretically, the show will get picked up if it fares well. You can also watch this "hilarious send-up of Lovecraftian horror and steampunk adventure" at their webite, which I highly recommend. Of course, I'm a sucker for anything that is "hilarious", "Lovecraftian", and "steampunk". It also has Mike Mignola's wonderful aesthetic and some wickedly cool lines (like "he was abducted by two horrible old women and a monkey").

ENNie Award Nominations

As a nominee for last year's ENNie Awards for Slaying Solomon, I feel it is my duty to help spread the word about this year's ballot. The nominees can be reviewed here and you don't need to register to vote here. If you are like me, you may not be terribly familiar with many of this year's nominees. Fortunately, many samples have been provided. Hmm, I think I need to free up some funds for a few of these excellent products.

Dragonspire Update

We had a great session of D20 Dragonspire last Sunday. I've been meaning to write about it, but I had been hoping to update the site content first. I haven't posted a session summary yet, but I have started work on the character pages. More characters will follow as the players give me their updated sheets.

I am quite pleased with how my first Dungeons & Dragons campaign has started. The action has been fast and furious, thanks in large part to my use of character cards for organizing combat stats and initiative order. I've also set in motion (what I hope to be) an epic plot based on the five chromatic dragon types (if you don't know what I'm talking about, then you are not a D&D geek...move along). Originally, my intent was to run this epic plot with the online Risus Dragonspire group, but it is flat-out impossible to cover enough ground in online play (even using Risus). My revised goal is to have the face-to-face group cover the main plot, with the online group creating some important background events.

I'm also having a good time with adventure design. D&D provides a lot of built-in-structure, which is kind of liberating for someone who is used to much more open-ended systems. It's ridiculously easy to scale encounters and balance the awards given to each player character (though the baby dragon that the party has found has complicated that... more on that in future updates).

One final note: I can't recommend Tact-Tiles highly enough. A good grid system seems to be a requirement for D&D. Tact-Tiles are much easier to manage than a conventional Battlemat.

Inflatable Space Hotels?

Hotel mogul Robert Bigelow is looking for ways to expand his business... into space! Check out this article about the launch of a prototype of his inflatable orbital hotel module. His goal is to have a space hotel by 2015. That would make me 45 and not even old enough to claim a seniors discount. How cool is that?

Baby Robots

Today's tech-related item comes from MIT. Specifically, it's a followup to this post about Professor Deb Roy's experiments on raising children. According this article and this NPR story, MIT has a baby robot named Ripley. This robot is learning about it's (limited) world in (apparently) the same manner has a human child would. Listen to the NPR story, it's fascinating. It makes me wonder what kind of AI architecture they are using and if Jeff Hawkins' theories could be put to this kind of test.

D20 Dragonspire

I'm in the process of creating a D20 Dragonspire site to support our new Dungeons & Dragons campaign. The site has actually been up for a while, but I'll (hopefully) be adding last session's summary and character info before tomorrow's session. The online Risus Dragonspire campaign is still chugging along nicely, though we did miss last Thursday's game.

Ooo, More Maps!

A friend pointed me towards another great RPG map resource. Lythia.com contains many top-quality maps for the HârnWorld setting and they could easily be adapted to other fantasy worlds.

Ooo, Maps!

The coolest thing about the Wizards of the Coast D&D site is that they make their art and maps available for download. Thanks to them, I have a whole database of maps that I can use for my games. Check out this example gallery from their Mysteries of Moonsea supplement.

D20 GM Cards

Getting ready for my second session of D20 Dragonspire (site pending the completion of all PCs), I have started making use of a wonderful resource from The Other Game Company . They have kindly made their Blank D20 Cards able to be edited and saved with the free Acrobat reader. This is going to save me a huge amount of time. D&D/D20 really benefits from index cards for player characters and NPCs (for initiative and general reference). I was going to do it all by hand, but TOGC have saved me the trouble. Their well-formatted and printer-friendly  SRD handouts are really handy as well.

Cyberwear Breakthrough

I haven't posted cool tech items for a while, mostly due to my reduced Internet access. But this item on BBC news is cool enough to break my silence. Researchers have found a way to attach bionic limbs directly to bone. This will (someday) allow the cyberwear to be controlled directly by the nervous system,