Voyages of Discovery is on sale!

Check out the awesomeness here.

Also a link to the previously mentioned 20 page preview at that link for those still on the fence (AKA bad people).

Voyages of Discovery Webbook included free with PDF

Just what it says on the tin.

Dear Wizard Magazine

Maxim Magazine is a magazine written by and for frat-boys.

It is not cool.

Wanting to BE Maxim Magazine is a terrible, terrible idea.

Chuck

Burn Notice

My growing love for Burn Notice has once again crossed my mind.

When I started watching this show, it seemed amazingly simply. Throwback with a retro twist.

It was continuity-free TV. One fuzzy bear short of being Starsky and Hutch.

But slowly, they have woven more continuity and character into the show and have completely sucked me in.

This is in direct contrast to shows that slam you with a front-load of continuity right up front, letting you that they demand, DEMAND I say, a huge commitment from you.

In the case of shows like Lost and Warehouse 13, I appreciate this. It lets me watch them once and NEVER AGAIN.

It's a nostalgia thing

And that's ok.

I think a lot of the heat generated over Tweet's comments about Swords and Wizardy (which, as I said earlier, I thought was mostly dumb) is that, at heart, he's saying one of the main appeals of games likw S&W, OSRIC and 4C is nostalgia.

Obviously, this might lead one to assume Tweet believes the inverse as well, that these games are leaning on nostalgia because, well, they're not that good AS GAMES. The game is a vehicle to remind you of your glory days, like the smell in an old musty comic.

The thing is, I think Tweet is right that nostalgia is a draw.

I just don't think that says anything one way or the other about the games' quality.

I draw this conclusion because I can look at which old-school clones attract me and chart my own gaming history.

OSRIC, which is a clone of AD&D and 4C, which is a clone of Marvel FASERIP are both huge draws for me.

Swords and Wizardry, which is a clone of OD&D, holds no interest for me. I was an AD&D kid.

Its like telling me Claremont is writing X-Men, vs. Jim Shooter writing Legion of Superheroes. One got me STOKED and the other was like "oh, that's cool I guess".

So yeah, nostalgia plays a part.

I guess I'm at that old fogey stage of life where I don't really see nostalgia as a bad thing. Some things about my past were awesome and worth reliving.

Work... booze... work... booze...

So right now I am:

1. Proofreading a book for a guy

2. Writing Mecha Omega

3. Developing Arthur Lives! Getting art together and generally shepherding that ever closer to release.

4. Playing Mount and Blade in what I laughingly refer to as me "free" time.

All hail multi-tasking! Long may she reign!

History of Mecha Omega Part 1

4000 BCE (approximate): The first expeditions from the Omega Sector arrive at Earth and begin to investigate the planet as a potential candidate for colonization. Using early population centers as bases of operation, these travelers explore and catalogue Earth’s ecology and make a detailed survey of the planet, perhaps lasting decades.

Over time, the natives grow less and less receptive to the actions of these gods and the terrible beasts that serve them. It is believed that the first heroes rise up during this time, taking psychic control of some Omega Sector devices, called “Star Chariots” and driving the creatures out. Verified Omega Sector bases from this period have been found in the Yangtze Delta, Ganges Valley, Mesopotamia, the Nile Delta, the island of Britain, the Mississippi Valley, Central America and along the west coast of South America.

In the wake of this temporary occupation, Earthlings rapidly gather in larger settlements than before, build large structures to commemorate (and later store) the large devices used by the heroes to repel the invaders, and develop a consuming interest in astronomy, to watch for future incursions. Over the centuries, these events become more legend and less fact and form the basis for the earliest hero tales such as the epic of Gilgamesh.

As soon as the menace had passed however, the heroes lost the ability to summon their great weapons, which seemed to respond to the presence of the Omega Taskmasters who had created them. The people they had saved did not know this however and many of the heroes raised themselves up as king, using threats of divine retribution to build mighty empires for themselves.

A select group of priests knows the truth and preserves it within their sect, even as kings descended from the great heroes of old come to believe the stories of “star chariots” and monsters descending from the heavens to be old wives’ tales. These priests watch the skies obsessively from their temples, waiting for any sign of the beasts’ return.

4000-2100 BCE (approximate): “Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors” era of Chinese pre-history. These eight rulers, wise and long-lived, use the power of the Star Chariot dubbed Emperor Yao to impose peace and stability on China. Their contemporaries called them the August Ones or “supreme beings”. Modern scholars tend to translate their titles as “king” or “sovereign”.

2100-1600 BCE: Breaking the tradition of his eight predecessors, Chinese Emperor Yu does not leave power to the most worthy. Instead he founds a dynasty by passing power on to his son. This leads to corruption and devastation.