Monthly Archives: March 2010

Knights of the Hidden Sun: Room for Heroes

Posted on March 31, 2010 by Chris Challice

While waiting for Knights of the Hidden Sun I thought I’d throw a quick comment on the setting’s “holes” and opportunities.

Roaa is not a kind place. It’s a galaxy on the brink of chaos. Pirates threaten travelers and unguarded worlds. Those…

Posted in Knights of the Hidden Sun | Tagged | Leave a comment

Tommy Westphall and the Big Dark Crossover

Posted on March 30, 2010 by Malcolm

Tommy Westphall was a minor character in the 80s medical drama St. Elsewhere.  Nowadays he’s known for the Tommy Westphall Hypothesis: the idea that most TV series exist in his mind, due to the fact that by the last episode, St.…

Posted in Tabletop RPGs: Art Without Prestige | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Friends Are Even Better Than That

Posted on March 29, 2010 by Malcolm

Over at Jim Henley’s Livejournal I made an offhand comment that many games under the “indie” banner are designed to be played by people who meet at conventions, primarily know each other online or have similar remote, vaguely suspicious relationships.…

Posted in RPG Theory | Tagged , , | 29 Comments

Lessons From the Fall of Purefold

Posted on March 27, 2010 by Malcolm

Purefold was supposed to be everything social media wonks, democratic Web advocates and SF nerds wanted – oh, and it was supposed to make money, too. It’s based on Blade Runner! They hired Cory Doctorow! It was going to use…

Posted in Media-Critty, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Movie Review: Ninja Assassin

Posted on March 27, 2010 by Malcolm

Note: An earlier draft of this review appeared on my Livejournal.

NINJA ARE NO JOKE SON.

Ninja Assassin tells you this right at the beginning. The writers (one of whom is J. Michael Straczynski) know that any movie about…

Posted in Movie and TV Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Dungeon Crawl

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Malcolm

Let’s get the fiction started with something that’s been posted over on my Livejournal . . .

You go to a tavern to meet a wizard, who hires you to enter a dungeon.

“That’s how it’s done,” said Mum. “It’s…

Posted in Single Shot Fiction | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Cleaning, Rearranging and Writing

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Malcolm

Some of you may have noticed that I’m shuffling around categories and tweaking the site. I think there’s been a bit of a heavy emphasis on tabletop RPGs. I love ‘em, but I want to talk about other things, and…

Posted in Electronic Games, Media-Critty, Tabletop RPGs: Art Without Prestige, The Miscellaney, Writing and Writing | 1 Comment

Where Did You Go, Tabletop Joe?

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Malcolm

It’s no big news that tabletop games are at or near the lowest point they can hit. This actually creates the illusion of a recovery because once something bottoms out to long tail activity it’s not going to get much…

Posted in RPG Theory | 15 Comments

Story is So Over

Posted on March 19, 2010 by Malcolm

It’s easy to bring creatives and managers together in a fiction-based media venture by emphasizing “story.” A supposed story focus makes writers feel good because they can take credit for it, and managers feel good because (aside from the fact…

Posted in Electronic Games, Online Games, RPG Theory, Social Media | 10 Comments

Multiple Attack Update

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Malcolm

Hi folks,

I’ve been pretty sick for about a month off and on due to strep. That’s why this blog’s been silent. What’s going on?

Aeternal Legends: It’s available in print and PDF, still. Stew and I are slowly talking…

Posted in Aeternal Legends, Conventions, Electronic Games, Knights of the Hidden Sun, Mage: The Dirty Version, Online Games, The Miscellaney | Leave a comment