Timewaster's Guide Archive

Somehow, even though your games are hideously expensive, even though I have trouble getting anyone interested in your Anime style goodness, even though people think your stuff is strictly tabletop wargames and even though I thought I'd kicked your habit at least twice I keep coming back to you.

Im not like a battered spouse, or an addict, I just really like your settings. No scratch that, I love your settings, or at least Jovian Chronicles and Heavy Gear.

Its more of a rant about my game addicition than anything else, and it wouldnt be an issue if I hadnt sold my old copies of 1st and 2nd edition Heavy Gear at a used bookstore before.

So I guess are there games that you keep coming back to edition after edition even when your chances of playing them are slim?
Theres a dynamic there that I havent seen matched in many games. A combination of stunning art and quality writing turns your world books and intriguing characters into must have buys. At least I get your stuff at a discount now.

Some folks at Planewalker are working on a d20 modern Planescape and as a planescape fan I think its cooler than sliced bread, Pumpernicle bread even, loaded high with pastrami, swiss cheese, crispy lettuce thinly slice onion and spicy mustard. MMMM.

I like the idea of Sigil with all the factions and modern tech (future is a bit like B5 so I'd avoid that) Now the Doomguard really have an Arsenal, the Hardheads cruise the streets in patrol cars, and the Xaositechs... do their thing. In my head I see some of the factions acting like the Mafia and some acting like gangs and even some of them just being loose affiliations of berks or "clubs"

In my Planescape Modern the City of Doors is a combination of the wild streets of New York Hong Kong and London, still grey and grimy, but now filled with Gnoll Pimps, Tiefling Fixers and Bariur teamsters. Heck it has its own Vigilanties.

The Lady of Pain is still around, and still just as scary as ever.

Thinking of some of the planes in a modern way would be cool too. What does Asguard look like? Viking Dwarves in Combat armor with Barrett Light fifties?
Has the Blood War become atomic, Heck yeah it has!
Arcadia looks like a 1950's leave it to beaver episode.
And Mechanus is a cyberpunks dream, its totally the internet of the planes now, welcome to the Mechanus Matrix Mr Anderson!


Some thoughts on the Planes in D20 Modern are also on the Wizards site and they're a cool read

http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?threadid=178643

I've been using this for a while, and I really like it, especially since it has settings that allow folks to collaborate and edit docs via the web.

http://www2.writely.com/info/WritelyOverflowWelcome.htm

I've written several reviews with it as well as other projects and Im pretty satisfied with it. The nice part is that my documents exist on the web, which means that I dont have to fumble with disks, or burning to cd. It does HTML and tags, and you can publish right from wrightly to blogger and livejournal.

Evidently Im not the only person who liked it though, because Google just bought it. So look for google writely soon.

Old users of Writely are just gonna get their stuff transferred over, which is cool and they are holding off new registration untill after the switch.

When it becomes availible I think all of us writing types should evaluate it strenuously. It sounds like a great review opportunity I think.

Yay Wallace and Grommett!

So last night was taken up by the longtime staple of Hackmaster games, renegotiating the Groups charter. Which is a lot like a parlimentary meeting.

A motion was made (by me) to scrap the old charter and remove the player who hadnt made our last 5 sessions from the roster. Since the original charter was effectively his idea, I felt that this was an appropriately chaotic thing to do.

It only took 4 hours of negotiating and whinging to agree to the new contract.
Our new charter is a share system, with the ability to call dibs on items (which cost shares) and a 2 man dibs overide if the players object. I.E. if 2 or more party members object to dibs then the item is not "dibbed"

Items im particularly fond of, the groups 401 k plan (my idea) and the groups incidental equipment fund.

Im willing to get off my butt and do Timelord , a pretty good Dr. Who game that went the way of the Dodo because Virgin Books shouldnt do RPG's.
The rules, and PBM/EM Forum rules are here.
Most likely folks would be companions... but a Timelord or two wouldnt be out of place...

http://www.torsononline.com/hobbies/timelord/operatingsystems.htm

Seriously. Apparently owning a CD doesnt mean you can make a backup copy of it, or port it to other players. Is it just me or is the RIAA just retarded?

http://www.brickmovie.net/home.html

http://www.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/brick/

Neo Noir, set in the American High School. I like the trailer, it has a decidely China Town feel about it.



while taking its cues and its verbal style from the novels of Dashiell Hammett, also honors the rich cinematic tradition of the hard-boiled noir mystery, here wittily and bracingly immersed in fresh territory – a modern-day Southern California neighborhood and high school. There, student Brendan Frye's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) piercing intelligence spares no one. Brendan is not afraid to back up his words with actions, and knows all the angles; yet he prefers to stay an outsider, and does – until the day that his ex-girlfriend, Emily (Emilie de Ravin of "Lost"), reaches out to him unexpectedly and then vanishes. Brendan's feelings for her still run deep; so much so, that he becomes consumed with finding his troubled inamorata.

To find her, Brendan enlists the aid of his only true peer, The Brain (Matt O'Leary), while keeping the assistant vice principal (Richard Roundtree) only occasionally informed of what quickly becomes a dangerous investigation. Brendan's single-minded unearthing of students' secrets thrusts him headlong into the colliding social orbits of rich-girl sophisticate Laura (Nora Zehetner), intimidating Tugger (Noah Fleiss), substance-abusing Dode (Noah Segan), seductive Kara (Meagan Good), jock Brad (Brian White) and – most ominously – non-student The Pin (Lukas Haas). It is only by gaining acceptance into The Pin's closely guarded inner circle of crime and punishment that Brendan will be able to uncover hard truths about himself, Emily and the suspects that he is getting closer to.