Creative Batteries need recharged

Don't you hate it when your creative batteries are running low.

I have been starring at the same doc file since Thursday and maybe added 200 words to the whole thing.

What do you all do to recharge?

GMs Day at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow, Part 2

Here is what I a getting out of my Wishlist thanks to the DriveThruRPG/RPG Now GM's Day sale.

• Elric of Melnibone
• RuneQuest 6th Edition Never got into RQ too deep.  Now is a good time.
• M&M3 Supernatural Handbook been wanting this one for a while.
• The Malefactor Base Class
• The RPG Handbook

and things that are on sale, but not due to GM's Day (I just want them).

• Archetypes of the Jade Oath (PFRPG)
• Fantastic Maps - Iconic Island

I am sure there will be other things I "need" later in the week.

Total value: $73.95, Price on sale: $52.70, that's a $21.25 saving.  Not a bad deal really.
I was going to get these all eventually, might as well get them now.

GMs Day at DriveThruRPG/RPGNow

It's GMs Day all Week at DriveThruRPG and RPGNow.

This is their biggest sale of the year so it's time to get all those items that have been collecting on your Wish List.

The sales start today at 9:00am Central.  I'll post some more when I see what is on sale.

Teratic Tome: Print Verison

I picked up the Teratic Tome on PDF a while back.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2013/02/review-teratic-tome.html

I liked it. So I decided to pick up the hardcover too.

It fits in nicely with all my other 1st edition-ish books.

The author,  Rafael Chandler, did a really good job of capturing the look of the 1st ed books.

Maybe too good of job in fact.  In any case it fits in nice with my books as a Monster Manual 4 or Fiend Folio 2 (if Monsters of Myth is MM 3).

What really swayed me on this is the fact I am running a 1e game with my kids and I could use a couple of these.

If you buy the PDF you get a coupon to get hardcover at $6.66 off.  If you buy the hardcover at full price you get a free PDF.

Pretty nice really.

Red Sonja: She Devil with a Sword: Gail Simone on Red Sonja #1

Reblogged from Red Sonja: She Devil with a Sword: Gail Simone on Red Sonja #1

From: http://robojapan.blogspot.com/2013/03/gail-simone-to-wield-red-sonjas-sword.html
and http://www.wired.com/geekmom/2013/03/red-sonja-gail-simone/
and http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/03/01/red-sonja-gail-simone-dynamite-comics-emerald-city-2013-fiona-staples/

Gail Simone, one of the biggest names in comics right now, is taking up the sword and mail bikini of Red Sonja in a new Red Sonja #1.
In addition cover art will be done by Fiona Staples, Nicola Scott, Colleen Doran, Jenny Frisson, and Stephanie Buscem

Here is Fiona Staples art for Issue #1.

According to Simone:

"It's like this...even most of the best female heroines when I was a kid were pretty polite. What I love about Sonja is that she isn't polite, she says what she means and if you give her any lip about it, hello, sword in the gut. She's smart, she has a heart, she has some compassion. But when it's go time, she's a hellraiser, a mad general, she's a sword edge virtuosa, she's death on wheels. She is the woman you never want to mess with. I can relate, Sonja. No offense to all her guy writers, but THIS Red Sonja is about sex and swords! It's everything you love about Red Sonja, except with more monsters getting stabbed in the eye."

Red Sonia #1 is out in July.

Busy Day and other stuff.

Gotta a lot of stuff to get done before the next half of the spring term starts.  blah.

Also I have a post over at my other blog, The Freedom of Nonbelief about the "Gay marriage" bill in Illinois. Pop over there and give it a read please.
http://freedomofnonbelief.blogspot.com/2013/03/sb-10-and-culture-of-blindness.html

Thanks

The Video Game question

We identify ourselves as Gamers.  To us it has been a mantle we have alternately been burdened by and worn with pride.  Mostly pride, given the group that usually reads my blog.  But we are not the only ones that call themselves Gamers.  There is that other group.   Video games and RPGs have always coexisted in the popular consciousness together.  Yeah..yeah H.G. Wells blah blah Little Wars...that is not what I am talking about.

In the popular consciousness RPGs hit the market maybe 30 seconds before video games did.  The Atari 2600 entered into home market in October of 1977, around the same time as the first printings of AD&D.  Sure OD&D was out before that and there were video games before the 2600 too.  Indeed the 2600 is part of the 2nd Generation of video games, with the 1st gen starting in 1972.

The cost of entry to the home video game hobby is higher than RPGs, the prices are remarkably stable.  For example RPGs have been something of a steady state tech, video games and their hardware are fully in line with Moore's Law; getting cheaper while getting better.  The 2600 retailed for $199.00 in 1977, the Wii retailed at $249.99 30 years later.

Video Gamers and TT Gamers have always seen to eye to eye.  I know for a fact that someone on my reader list has seen someone come into their FLGS to look for a video game only to be mocked out of the store.

The issue I have is that this divide really should not exist   Granted. I have no clue what some Video Gamers are talking about sometimes. I am still only level 2 in Skyrim, never played WoW, Everquest or anything else like that.  I have been playing Lolipop Chainsaw for about 8 months and still am not past "level 2" on it.

So before I go deeper into this I want to ask.  What video games are you all playing?

Did you pick them because they appeal to your TTRPG background? Or because they are opposite of an RPG?  Why that game?