March 2009
160 posts
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Player's Handbook 2 Review
Player’s Handbook 2 by Wizards RPG Team
My review
rating: 5 of 5 stars A tour-de-force of tabletop game design, WotC’s kickoff to the second round of core books is just fantastic. There are a solid group of races, some new backround options, and a nice pile of new magic items to find in this book. The real joy in this book, though, are the new classes. As much as I love the...
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“None of [our] games are done without a lot of respect to their past, either...”
– Ray Muzyka
My chums over @massively have gotten a nice shiny new design today! Go check it out: http://www.massively.com
It’s possible my main in LotRO has completed every dance quest for the Spring Fest. Please don’t think about how long it took me to do that.
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Austin-area folk: I’m looking for a D&D group to *play* in. I’d love to do some RPGA stuff, willing to fill any role, ping me with an @.
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Into The Fire: Dragon Age Battle Footage →
Full day+ of work to chew through … work. Meanwhile, in the back of my mind, something sinister works on my D&D 4th Edition game.
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Had a very fine time tonight thanks to @ZenofDesign and Sarah, got to see @Lum_ and meet new folks. Plus, sang in public. General win.
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Dragonslaying with D&D Tiny Adventures
Wow! A few months back I worked with some of the WotC folks and the folks at GDC to try getting a session together on D&D Tiny Adventures. The GDC catalog is an absolute monster to work through, so I actually thought it had been cancelled at some point.
I was wrong!
Adam over at T=Machine has notes from the event. I’m so very very pleased they ended up doing this! I really hope they...
I know nerds socialized before Rock Band. Still much easier now.
Watching some last-minute Who, getting ready to head out to a party tonight. Going to meet some new nerds!
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WatchIn one of my absolute favorite TED videos, Lennart Green does some extensive, impressive, amazing close-up card magic.
Beyond Good and Evil *and* Far Cry make up 1/2 of a $10 weekend deal on the Steam service. @valvesoftware, have I mentioned my love of late?
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WatchGameplay footage from Batman: Arkham Asylum.
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WAR Patch 1.2.1 Synopsis →
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Dark/Dark Tanker Guide →
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The Flagship feast of fail →
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Eurogamer Aion Hands On →
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Shamus On OnLive →
If you have an iPhone or iPod touch, like comics, and like sci-fi, check out “Atomic Robo” in the iTunes Apps service! Amazing comic.
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The incredible pizza vending machine →
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WoW's 'Progressive Percentage' Item Drop Mechanic →
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WoW Quests By The Numbers →
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Jeff Kaplan Outlines 9 WoW Quest Problems →
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Finding a unique Hunter pet →
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Gordon Walton's 10 Essential Designer Elements
#1: Clear Communication. Design is communication. Speeds iteration and implementation. #2: A Positive Mental Attitude - curmudgeons can do good work, but no one wants to be around them. #3: Must be a team player. #4: Continuous Learning - Aim to understand the world and translate that to others in a fun way. Game design is synthesis, taking common ideas and presenting them in interesting ways....
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Brent and Darren Live from GDC!
My good buddies Brent and Darren are putting their things down at GDC this week. Check out the first two days of their video coverage:
Brent’s Other Podcast #4 - GDC 2009, Day 1 from Brent on Vimeo.
Brent’s Other Podcast #5 - GDC 2009, Day 2 & 3 from Brent on Vimeo.
This trailer for the Family Guy episode with the TNG cast made me giggle. A lot. http://tinyurl.com/cowxms Can’t wait to see this one.
IGF Mobile iPod Touch and iPhone winners/finalists are on the FRONT PAGE of the iTunes App Store. Awesomesauce! Go @simoncarless!
Got my PHBII! Finally! Plus, the Delve! →
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The Oregon Trail for iPhone [in pictures]
pz:
I LOVED this adaption, definitely worth the $5.99 price tag. I played on medium difficulty and it took over 2 hours to beat.
[For more photos — Check out my Flickr Photostream]
Wow. Big hailstones here in Texas. Hope my car’s okay under the trees at home. Looks apocalyptic out there, can hear sirens.
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How much do guilds matter? →
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OnLive gaming demonstrated live →
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The 20 Graphic Novels You Should Read After... →
RT @turbine: LOTRO welcome Back Weekend March 26-31. Return players play free +25% bonus XP on mob kills for everyone! http://bit.ly/oWr0n
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WatchThe OnLive interface.
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Snowing in Madison →
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Obama Goes to the Dogs →
Just made that Deva Bard I was jonesing for the other day, thanks to the D&D Character creator. Ranged attacks, no melee weapon. Song style!
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Gotham Central
Gotham Central Vol. 1: In the Line of Duty by Greg Rucka
My review
rating: 5 of 5 stars Gotham City from the ground up; catch a few days from the viewpoint of the GCPD, and see what it’s like trying to do your job in the shadow of the bat. Great character work, very noir-ish art style, and some really hard plot development to deal with. View all my reviews.
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Austin Cuisine So Far
The number of restaurants here is intimidating. Like, really really intimidating, especially for someone that already felt very lucky to live in a place as culinarily diverse as Madison. We haven’t really ventured downtown much yet, but where we live (Northish of Austin proper) just about every restaurant I’ve ever heard of is a 10 minute drive (or less) away. Admittedly most of these places are...
Closing Up Shop (for the moment) →
I’ve written at this site for more than three years now, a long time for me in terms of actual projects. Despite a deep sense of pride over the work I did at both Slashdot and Massively, I can…
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The 10 Most Revenuetastic MMOs →