beware the mad hermit in the north lands

Posted on By Wil

Wizards of the Coast says:

It’s true! The folks at Penny Arcade and PvP (along with special guest Wil Wheaton!), took part in a second round of 4th Edition gameplay, recorded for a forthcoming podcast series. These podcasts are scheduled to begin airing mid-February.

That’s sooner than I expected. I didn’t think they’d come out until the end of March. I don’t watch a lot of my own work, because all I can see are the mistakes, but I can’t wait to listen to this podcast series; it will be like looking back at vacation pictures.

collecting random thoughts

Posted on By Wil

My brain has a lot of random thoughts it wants to spit out before it’ll give me access to the creative areas. I keep trying to tell it that I’m the cat, but it insists on occupying my mind with further duties to control my SPACE MADNESS!!!

Prepare to surge to sublight speed:

I’ve been keeping a nasty sinus infection at bay since about the third week of December. Night before last, it found a weak spot in my defenses and sent an Orc carrying a bomb to blow it up while I slept. When I woke up yesterday, I … well, I’ll spare the details, but it was horrible. Luckily for me, I already had an appointment with my sinus doctor, and he gave me some small nuclear bombs to use against the infection, and I’m feeling 100% better today.

When I went to the pharmacy to fill the prescriptions, I learned that making jokes about carrying the plague elicits a similar reaction to making jokes about bombs at the airport. Now you know.

How weird is this: last night, after I’d declared a sick day and decided to stay offline and on the couch to let my body fight the Sinus Orcs, I walked through my office and took a quick glance at Twitter. It was then that I learned, through the Twitter and not e-mail, that my friends are having a baby.

Bad Gods Monster Manual comix are fucking hilarious.

I see via CliqueClack TV that all seventeen episodes of The Prisoner are now online, in their entirety, for your viewing excitement. There are also one-minute recaps of each episode. The Prisoner is my favorite television show of all time, and it’s the show that made it possible for me to truly grok fandom, because I was such a dork for it. I have both volumes of The Original Prisoner Scripts, I’ve had a map of Your Village since I was 15, I think I’m the only geek on the planet who really loved the graphic novel miniseries DC did in the 80s, and I’ve read through GURPS The Prisoner too many times to count. I’m cautiously optimistic that AMC’s remake will stay faithful to the show that I love, and I think it’s awesome that they’re putting the original series online this way in advance of their own show.

The best argument in favor of Panetta to head CIA: “Few things could reflect better on Panetta’s selection than the fact that Feinstein and Rockefeller — two of the most Bush-enabling Senators — are unhappy with it.”

Feinstein is one of the most worthless Democrats in history, and I can’t believe she represents one of the most liberal states in the nation. I hope she retires, but if she doesn’t, I’ll be working for her primary challengers with great vengeance and furious anger.

Edited to add: I was trying to articulate this thought earlier today, but couldn’t make it go. Andrew Sullivan: “The more I think about this, the more it seems to me that the snub of these two was a deliberate signal. Their oversight of Bush’s war crimes was pathetic. Ditto Harman. Obama is telling us he is serious about both improving intelligence and drawing a clear line – for the entire world to see – between the United States and the war criminals who will soon be leaving office, and those who enabled them.”

On the off-chance that one person in the universe doesn’t know this already: Apple’s taking everything in the iTunes Music Store DRM-free. Great jorb, Apple! Now, about iMovie 08 and how much it sucks …

Speaking of music, I’ve been listening to Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s Beethoven Symphonies No 3 Eroica and No 8 from Magnatune most of today, and now you can join me if you like, through the magic of embedding media:


Beethoven Symphonies No 3 Eroica and No 8 by Philharmonia Baroque
Nolan and I watched the World Junior Championship gold medal game a couple days ago. Goddamn do those kids play with passion and ferocity. Yesterday afternoon, I watched the history of the Philadelphia Flyers on NHL Network, and thought the exact same thing about those teams, especially in the mid-70s to mid-80s. Then, last night, Nolan and I watched the Kings skate against the Ducks. I say “skate against” instead of “played hockey with” because neither team looked like they gave a shit about the game. After watching intensely passionate players leave everything on the ice in the gold medal game (and congratulations on 5 in a row, Canada) it was especially underwhelming. The Kings seemed to forget how to forecheck, and they managed three – THREE – shots on goal in the third period. In the post-game interviews, the commentators and players from both teams talked about how the game was some kind of great defensive battle, but I grew up watching Adams Division defensive battles, and this wasn’t one of those games. I mean, hit someone for fuck’s sake! You’re supposed to be rivals, guys. This kills me. It’s like watching the Dodgers and Giants phone it in; we fans expect you guys to hate the other team as much as we do, goddamit.

Nolan kept complaining about how boring it was, and I had to agree with him. I hope the Kings feel humiliated by their pathetic performance so they actually show up to play tomorrow; I’m taking Nolan to the game.

I plan to leave the Sinus Orcs at home, but I’ll bring rain gear to give the people in front of me, just in case. Eewww. Gross.

a powerful magic-user will destroy all cave invaders

Posted on By Wil

I’m not the only person who was wondering how Gabe’s D&D session went. So many people asked him for details, he posted a picture of his setup and talked a little bit about his first time sitting behind the DM screen. His enthusiasm for DMing is just infectious, and he couldn’t have picked a better time to pick up the hobby; the 4E DMG really is that good, and best of all, it’s useful for whatever system you play. If you want to run a game, but have been intimidated by the idea, this book will Dispel Fear and Inspire Confidence like no other. Quoth Mike:

The Dungeon Master Guide is really a great resource. It will give you all kinds of ideas about what you might want to pick up for your game. It even goes into detail about the environment you play in and gives great tips on getting your friends into the spirit. Where the Player’s Handbook is really about rules, the DMG is more about the philosophy of be a Dungeon Master and the mechanics of creating a world for your friends to play in. I was really impressed with it.

I don’t know how much the general public knows about the guys behind the characters in Penny Arcade, but I know them fairly well. I don’t think it would be cool to rip back the curtain too much and spoil their mystique, but they are just good people. I’m really lucky to call them friends.

Speaking of RPGs, Green Ronin has just released a new Mutants and Masterminds book in stores, called Freedom’s Most Wanted. It’s full of supervillains! SUPERVILLAINS! Have you ever played M&M? It’s insanely fun. But don’t take my word for it, you can try it out for free. Get started here.