Thursday, February 28, 2008

4e news from D&D Experience

No, I'm not at the D&D Experience

/sadpanda

But there is news trickling from it. The best source is EN World. Be sure to check out items in both sidebars. There are pictures of the character sheets showing up, as well as links to other useful info.

Like this, an official 2 page info sheet from the D&D Experience.

More after the jump...


Here's another article, a blogger reporting from the DDXP.

One of the things I noticed right away is that it looks like the stat bonuses have stayed the same as 3.5 (yay!).

Here's a review of 4e game play.

I'll post more thoughts as more info and clearer character sheet images come out over the weekend.

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Sunday, February 24, 2008

R2-D2 beanie cap

Here's one for knitting geeks (or is that geek knitters)... an R2-D2 beanie cap.

No, I don't want one... but think Halloween for a kid.



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Champion Online



When I first read the headline "Champions Online" I thought there was no way it would be referring to the venerable pen-and-paper superhero RPG. But it turns out that Champions Online is indeed Champions. You can check the article out here

Champions Online

Even better... it's being made by Cryptic Studios. That's right, the folks that made City of Heroes and City of Villains.

I'm already wondering if the first expansion will be Dark Champions Online.

In a way, Champions lends itself to conversion pretty well. There are three "pools" to manage in the pen-and-paper RPG: Stun, Body and Endurance. While I wouldn't be surprised if Stun and Body got rolled into one stat, in Champions combat you had to manage your Endurance carefully. I suspect Speed will affect attack/action recharge time.

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Friday, February 22, 2008

Excuse me, my arm is ringing

My friend Marik sent me this story.

Would you want a cell phone implanted in your arm?


Even though the site seems legit, the story smells of "too good to be true". I'll be less skeptical when I see it in more media outlets... right now it looks like someone's clever joke.

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All aboard the Blu-Ray bus

Paramount became the last of the major studios to announce they will be releasing movies in Blu-Ray.


Maybe now I'll be able to get Wrath of Khan in Blu-Ray and watch Shatner and Montalban chew up the scenery in glorious high definition.

KHAAAAAAN!!!

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Vista upgrade kills pesky anti-virus

Another reason to be glad that I don't have Vista... the new update adding Service Pack 1 also disables a bunch anti-virus and firewall software.

So your Vista computer will now be faster... until it is hacked and used as a server for Romanian amputee porn.



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Friday, February 15, 2008

Wal-Mart killed HD DVD. No, really...

Wal-Mart announced that they were going to exclusively back Blu-Ray. Check out the article. They are totally eliminating HD DVD hardware and software, which means that $100 HD DVD you bought there as a bargain will become an upconvert player.


While I'm not surprised by Wal-Mart jumping into the Blu-Ray camp, I am surprised at their plan to entirely eliminate HD DVD. It seems they would have kept it around for a couple of years as a "low cost" option. I guess the margin really has been stomped out of that product.

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Thursday, February 14, 2008

Indiana Jones 4





Yes, I'm looking forward to this one.

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

A new Star Wars movie in the works!

On August 15, Lucasfilm and WB will release an animated Clone Wars movie prior to the animated series starting its run. Check out the story here.


If this is as good as the original animated shorts, it could be awesome.

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Atheist and Christian similarities

What would atheists and Christians have in common?

Check out this list comparing the gods that both sides don't believe in.

No... the list, while extensive, isn't exhaustive. It's supposed to be humor, not a scholarly work. After all, they mis-spelled Goibhniu.



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Wal-Mart killed HD DVD

The format wars are over, whether Toshiba/HD DVD wants to admit it or not. Two big announcements put the nail in HD's coffin. Best Buy announced that they were going to support Blue-Ray as the format of choice for high definition DVDs and Netflix announced they were going to exclusively carry Blue-Ray for high def DVDs.

Stick a fork in HD DVD, it's done. Sure, it will die a lingering, wheezing death, but it's done for.

Now what does this have to do with Wal-Mart? See if you follow my reasoning...


Wal-Mart has been touting very low cost HD players, and when Wal-Mart's involved, you can kiss your margin good-bye. Why buy a Blue-Ray for $400 when you can buy a HD-DVD player for $100.

But from a retailer stand point, do you want to sell a bunch of $100 that you make no money on, or do you back the more expensive format that still has good margin and draws more affluent customers willing to spend the extra money not only on the format but then are more likely to buy other services and accessories?

Of course, all of this is just an educated guess on my part.

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Monday, February 11, 2008

Hobbit may be bagginsed by lawsuit

The Tolkien Estate is suing New Line Cinema for not paying up on their share of the LotR proceeds, and in addition to monetary compensation the suit includes an injunction against making anymore movies based on Tolkien's work, which means the Hobbit would be put on ice.

Check out the article here.




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Friday, February 08, 2008

MavenCon 3




What is MavenCon? A free gaming convention put on by the same folks that put together the GenCon Forums Stink.

Of course, I have an inventory Sunday. :(

But I'll still be there Saturday. And there may be alcohol involved.

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Battlestar Galactica Season 4 date

W00t! The next (and final) season of BSG is on the horizon, with the premiere airing April 4th. See the article here.

One note of concern is that the season is only half finished.


The week before will have two BSG specials, one basically a recap of the last three seasons and the other a fluff piece on BSG's "impact on pop culture."

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If banner ads were forced to be truthful...

Just click here.



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Thursday, February 07, 2008

LOLcats song

They can has song now... check out cat macros.

Thanks to the kin in Strayhold that found this.



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Advice for the GOP

Do not let the Conservative Christians bully you into putting Huckabee on the ticket with McCain. They will tell you that you need to do this to bring them in line, since many consider McCain not "conservative enough".

Before you buy into this, ask yourself: what are they going to do if you don't?

Vote for Hillary?

Can you say empty threat?


Putting Huckabee on your ticket will just alienate the center. Because who do you think is scarier to the moderates... Hillary or the chance the theocrat could end up president if something happens to McCain?

Remember, you don't need to win over the Religious Reich, you need to win over the middle.


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New (and free) Firefly novel

Steven Brust, author of the Jhereg series, has released a new Firefly novel as a free download. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but given my appreciation for Brust's other works, I look forward to it.



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Saturday, February 02, 2008

LIghtsaber vs. Superman

Given events in my Marvel campaign (which reminds me I still need to write a recap for my players) I found this article ironically amusing.

At least the fight would have a cool soundtrack, what with John Williams on both sides.


I'm no expert on Superman canon (maybe Dave T will weigh in), but if lasers can hurt Superman, then a lightsaber should be able to hurt him. But to do serious damage like lop off an arm, it would have to be wielded by someone very strong.

And a kryptonite lightsaber? That's brilliant but cheating. Who would build a kryptonite lightsaber? Well, besides Batman. He's working on one right now.

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