A journey into the things we love: Podcast + blog! Get your geek on or discover your inner geek: games, video games, RPGs, comic books, movies, TV, books, oh so much more!
In 1979, Gary Gygax listed some advice for DMs and Players in the famous The Keep on the Borderlands introductory module for Basic Dungeons & Dragons. How does this advice hold up 40 years later? Special shout out to Creighton Broadhurst of Raging Swan Press.
Highlights: It’s a veritable cavalcade of geeky news goodness! All Your Base 20th anniversary, WandaVision, Chinese CRPGs, The Burning Crusade for WoW Classic, McDonalds Pokemon scalper frenzy, Babylon 5, Red Dwarf, Day of the Dead TV series, Batman: The Animated Series, Godzilla vs Kong, The Snyder Cut, Fan buyout of DC Comics?, Spawn expanded comics universe, Dragonlance, puppet D&D and more! Plus: Shane rants a bit about DC Comics and event based comics in general.
All Your Base Are Belong To Us (Original Video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fvTxv46ano UPDATE: Per a user comment below, the name of the song is actually “Invasion of the Grabber Robots” by the group The Laziest Men On Mars
Shane takes a look at the demo of Space Wreck, an intentionally short hardcore roleplaying game. P.S. Cambots suck.
Game description from Pahris Entertainment SIA: A passenger shuttle is damaged after a pirate attack and you must find replacement parts on a nearby derelict space ship. — Intentionally short hardcore role playing game that borrows as much as possible from the best isometric RPGs (Fallout, Fallout 2, Arcanum).
Shane checks the first part of the demo of Geneforge 1 – Mutagen, a unique, truly open-ended fantasy adventure in a strange, new world. You are one of the Shapers, wizards with the awesome power to create life. Want a tool, a trap, an army? You summon it into existence. You create mighty beasts, and they totally obey you. Usually.
But now? Your creations want to rebel. Will you crush them? Or help them?
Geneforge 1 – Mutagen offers unmatched freedom in how you play. Use magic or your deadly pets to crush your enemies. Or, use trickery, diplomacy, and stealth to win the game without ever attacking a foe. Choose between a host of rival factions or just destroy everything. Defeat the final boss, or switch sides and join him. Fight alone with blades, missiles, or magic, or create your own army of custom-made mutant monsters.
Geneforge is an epic fantasy adventure with over eighty zones to explore and 50+ hours of gameplay. Choose from dozens of skills, abilities, and pets to reach a vast array of different endings. The coming rebellion will scorch your continent. Who will win? It will be up to you.
Geneforge 1 – Mutagen is a total remaster of the 20-year old indie classic.
The Underdark unfolds (barely) as we continue flailing around the Forlorn Cliffs with a terrible sense of direction but make progress working out the main puzzle to continue. Illydia and Hommet level up. We put the beat down on Drow cultists and assassins and various evil beasties.
This a let’s play of the single-player campaign of Sword Coast Legends.
Set in the lush and vibrant world of the Forgotten Realms, Sword Coast Legends offers an all-new way to enjoy the time-tested magic of playing Dungeons & Dragons as a shared storytelling experience. With a deep narrative developed by a team of long-time industry veterans and a partnership with Wizards of the Coast, the single-player campaign of Sword Coast Legends brings the world of Faerûn home like never before.
The strange, fantastic and helpful ziggurat of Orolunga with its elusive guardian naga. Montaging travel with player input. Portent dice. Does paralyzed end concentration? Disengage and movement. A new patron haiku.
This is an ongoing series of Shane’s notes, thoughts, and tips for running the D&D adventure Tomb of Annihilation plus rules clarifications and DM / GM tips in general.
Crossing a river. Firefinger and pterafolk. Shield guardians are heavy. Azaka tigers out! When do turned undead actually turn? Climbing speed. Carrying capacity. Falling damage. Smacking someone as they fall past you.
This is an ongoing series of Shane’s notes, thoughts and tips for running the D&D adventure Tomb of Annihilation, plus D&D rules clarifications and DM / GM tips in general.
Shane Plays Geek Talk Episode #236 – 1/18/2020 Most Anticipated Geek Movies of 2021
Highlights:It’s the fifth annual team-up with Arkansas talk radio legend Dave Elswick for our Most Anticipated Geek Movies of 2021! What made the cut? How did our picks from last year hold up? Dave and Shane’s thoughts on Wonder Woman 1984. Dave’s theory on The Empire Strikes Back. Ed and Elizabeth Warren. Dave thinks Shane looks like Jerry Garcia. Press Play!
Shane Plays Geek Talk Episode #235 – 12/22/2020 The Elusive Shift: How Role-Playing Games Forged Their Identity with Jon Peterson
Highlights: Jon Peterson discusses The Elusive Shift, his newest in-depth book about role-playing game history. The importance of fanzines to the hobby and researching its history. Where did the term “role-playing game” come from? The history of “roll-playing” vs “role-playing”. Letting the dice tell the story vs GM fudging. Some dice history. Platonic solids and the nature of reality. What was Gary Gygax’s design reason for saving throws? The three types of wargamers. A D&D cookbook. Orc bacon. Bonus bad jokes.
I recently came across a copy of Runaway on DVD in excellent condition at my local Goodwill. For the first time in decades, I gave it a rewatch.
Runaway is a science fiction movie from 1984 that was written and directed by Michael Crichton. It features Gene Simmons in a business suit as the villain and Tom Selleck as a near-future LAPD officer who handles “runaways” which are robots that have gone off their programming in some way (see, because, in this near-future so many robots help with jobs and domestic tasks it needs its own police division).
It’s a fun 80s movie with some decent nostalgia value, but what really caught my eye this time around were several examples of futurology related to technology. Given that Runaway released 36 years ago, I’m impressed.
Let’s take a look.
Tablets
Not only did Runaway predict tablets, but it also nailed kids sneaking them under the covers after bedtime to learn about dinosaurs and other cool stuff.
Drones
The police use a machine they call a floater to investigate a dangerous situation by flying it into a house and using its camera. This is a straight-up drone and amazingly well predicted.
Video Doorbells
While investigating a crime, the cops in Runaway decide to check the video messages on the victim’s “door recorder” as part of casual standard procedure.
A lot of movies have predicted autonomous vehicles and Runaway did it with a cheesy mannequin in the driver’s seat, but I’ll still give it credit for doing it before it became almost a standard in sci-fi flicks. I’m not sure if the “robot” was doing the driving or if the car was driving itself.
Bluetooth Earpieces
We’ve had earpieces in sci-fi before, not the least of which being Lt. Uhura’s famous Star Trek prop. Runaway, however, is almost spooky in how well it predicts the sleek design of Bluetooth earpieces decades later.
Digital Photo Editing
While doing the police sketch artist thing, Runaway shows a sort of portable computer where the artist is practicing her craft using digital photo editing. In this case, maybe it was a set of stock hair and facial features she kept swapping in and out until it got close? Anyway, that’s not Gene Simmons with a thin mustache, it’s the space between image sections.
Smart Bullets
Luther, the movie’s villain, has a sweet pistol that fires smart bullets that use a sophisticated heat-seeking system to chase their victim while changing course during flight and even pulling a tight u-turn if needed before striking their target and exploding. I doubt the military has anything this precise, but smart bullets do exist now.
Like what you hear?
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