Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Bringing 2014 to a Close

Well we are in the last hours of 2014.

Not a bad year personally.  I didn't post as much as the last couple of years, but my "keyboard" time has been split between this and working on various projects.

My gaming all year really has been devoted to D&D.  Basic/Expert D&D in the first half and then D&D 5.  I got in some AD&D1 and even some AD&D2 this past year as well.  All in all I am not complaining.

I am not sure yet what is going to go on in 2015.  I am certain more D&D 5.  Maybe a dip into AS&SH, AD&D1, and some B/X.  Of course I have Pathfinder and C&C on my list since I still have some witch material to work the kinks out of.

I wanted to wrap up my D&D 3.x "Dragonslayers" game this past year, but didn't get around to it.  Hopefully this year.

Otherwise I hope you all have a great 2015!

Friday, December 26, 2014

Best of / Worst of 2014

We are getting to the end of the year.  Lots of things still going on of course, but everyone is now turning their attention to the end of 2014 and the start of 2015.

So let's get going and in no particular order.

Best of 2014

1. Gen Con 2014.  Gen Con had another record breaking year.  Some of that was fueled by D&D's 40th anniversary but most of it was due to growth every year for the last few years.  Gen Con is still no where near the size of Comic Con, and that is fine by me, but I do like seeing the growth.

2. D&D and D&D5.  Dungeons & Dragons had a banner year this year.  We started out the year with 40th anniversary news and more items on the cultural impact D&D has made in it's 40 years.  This summer D&D 5 was big news in the same way and the good will kept on going.  This was all helped by the fact that D&D 5 was actually a really good game.  Fans young and old could embrace this game as their own.  It could be stated even that 2014 was the year the Edition Wars ended.

3. Small Publishers hit it big.  A number of smaller publishers had huge hits this year.  The evidence can be seen in the best sellers over at DriveThru and winners at the Ennies.  While it may have been D&D's year in the spotlight, smaller companies took the awards.


Worst of 2014

1. Gamer Gate.  Pretty much anything and anyone involved in the entire mess.  Were there some important issues?  Who knows really.  The vitriol thrown around by both sides completely drowned out whatever the message was supposed to be.  This extended too...

2. Consultant Gate.  Some people got paid to consult on D&D and other people didn't like that.  Boo freaking whoo.  Someone is always going to get paid for something. Sometimes people you like will pay people you don't like for something you do like.  That's not unfair. That's life.    Again if there was a message here it was lost on all sides being so nasty to each other that I wanted to divorce myself from the lot of them.

3. War on Cosplay.  No one has come out and said this specifically but there was a lot of anti-cosplay sentiment in 2014.  Old comic book professionals telling cosplayers to get off their lawn, to actual assaults and claims of being "fake" (what ever the fuck THAT is?).   Here is my take.  Cosplayers spend 100s of hours and sometimes 100s of dollars on making a costume. How does that make them fake or not a real fan?


Ugh.

I don't want to end on a sour note, so here is something to ponder.
What are YOU looking forward to the most for 2015?  Let me know here.

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Merry Christmas Everybody!

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Joyus Solstice, Happy Festivus and Happy Hanukkah everyone!

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Whoa. Didn't see that one coming...

I just just over a bout of the stomach flu (on the plus side I lost 11 pounds) only to get hit with a one two punch of a bad cold on top of asthma.  

Needless to say I have not really done a lot, any "free" time has been spent working on the magic items for Strange Brew.

Normally this time of year I start working on my "Best of" and "Worst of" lists.  But I only have a couple things in mind.

So let me turn it over to you all.

What were your "Best of's" for 2014?  What were your "Worst of's"

I will have a post up later this week with mine.  Currently I only have one of each, but that is a enough to talk about.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

Zatannurday: March Movie Covers

The March covers for DC are out now.

Here is the Beetlejuice inspired one for Justice League Dark.
I rather like it.



Makes me wish that we could get some Plastic Man in the comics for some levity every so often.
Aquaman with a shark on his leg was a nice Easter Egg too.


Friday, December 19, 2014

Gamer Christmas 2014

Soon the fat man in the red suit will come to you house, eat your cookies and maybe leave something behind.  I am not talking about your weird uncle, I mean Santa Claus!

So what RPG item are you all hoping to get this year?

I am somewhat at a loss myself.  I really got into the new D&D 5 system this year, so I am just hoping to get some gaming in.  But nothing really on my Christmas list.

I did pick up an early Christmas/late Halloween present for myself, the old WEG d6 DC Universe Game.


My family are all bigger fans of DC than Marvel so this should be fun to try out.  My youngest wants to play an Arrow-like character (not "Green Arrow" but something closer to the Stephen Amell version).  I am going to suggest something like a DC-TVU version of Connor Hawke.
My oldest want to play a Green or Blue Lantern.

This is my first big dip into d6.  I had Ghostbusters and the Xena game, but I am planning on doing a bit more with this.

I am still a HUGE fan of the Green Ronin's DC Adventures game, so I am going to use their Universe book along with it.


Hopefully I will have more to say in the New Year.