Timewaster's Guide Archive

The reason that furries get ssuch a bad rap is mostly due to the huge amount of furry porn that you can find in any comic book store you walk into.  Personallyy that sort of stuff has never made any sense whatsoever to me (although I kinda liked Omaha at one point, but that one actually had a PLOT to it), and don't even get me started on the people who find erotic stimulation by dressing up like furry animals.  

I WILL say that there is a lot of great furry (or, to use the original term, anthropomorphic) stuff out there done with a lot of class and style.  You need look no further than Usagi Yojimbo, a very cool book about a samurai in ancient Japan, who just happens to be a rabbit.

I'm reading The Little Friend by Donna Trott.  It's about a 12-year-old girl in 1970's Mississippi who wants to take revenge on the guy she thinks killed her brother when she was only a baby.  The writing is good, and each character has his or her own voice, but the plot seems to be meandering.  I actually find myself having more sympathy for the evil redneck criminal family than for the spoiled, abrasive little girl trying to gain her revenge on them.

Let's just let the dude make the movie his own way and not pass any judgements until we see it.  It doesn't have to be a word-for-word, scene-for-scene translation of the books in order to be an awesome movie.  I loved the first film, and I know I will love the second.  I don't care if liberties are taken.  I don't care if Gollum is wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sporting a cell phone, I LIKE Jackson's movies and I thought the first LotR film was very much in the tradition of the books.  To be honest (and feel free too roast me for saying this) JRR Tolkein was a poor writer.  A GREAT storyteller, mind you, but a poor writer.  He worshipped language and it was evident in his writings.  He would never use one word when he could get away with thirty.  He interspersed his stories with mounds of back history and racial information that, while incredible, were speedbumps when it came to narrative flow.  Well, that's just my two copper pennies.

A Farscape anime would be cool, but it would completely ruin what made the show so great in the first place: the visually stunning aliens, ships, battles, and worlds that seemed to be as real as the gal next door.  I would dearly love a movie, but I know that it will take forever to get it to the big screen (Chiana will be old enough for Geritol by then).  

The last I heard, UPN wanted to pick up Farscape, but it seems as if these plans have fallen through.  I was under the impression that Farscape was the #1 show on Sci Fi, but apparantly it means nothing.  

Frel!

The other night I came to the rpg page and found a review of the Lejendary Adventures game written by (if I remember) Kid Kilowatt.  From the review, it seems that KK is under the impression that this is a brand new game, but it isn't.  The game, written by industry creator Gary "I Am The Diceman" Gygax first appeared on shelves in 1999. The first book, Lejendary Rules, was available in two versions: the normal version for $25 and a deluxe version signed by Gygax himself for $35.  The Game Masters codex and the Beasts of Lejend books soon followed, as did half a dozen or so adventures which ranged from "real damned good" to "what, was he on drugs when he wrote this?"  The game, although beloved by the old school gamers who went wild over seeing GG's name on a game book, was a financial disaster.  The books did not sell well due to a combination of no ad campaign and (I hate to admit it) the fact that the books were poorly laid out and contained some of the worst rpg artwork this side of Errol Otus.  The worst problem (in my own opinion) was the absolute lack of a game world.  We were given races, monsters, ships, weapons, and everything but the kitchen orc, but there was no context to use them in.  By mid-2000, the game was long gone.  Lately, though, there seems to have been a resurgeance on interest in Lejendary Adventures due to Gary Gygax going on record as admitting that the original game was flawed and that there would be new products for the game in 2003 that would be more in line with what has become the industry standards.  Sooo, let us wait and see what develops.  I will say that I really enjoy the game, which is simple, easy to pick up, and encourages role-playing over dice rolls.  Creating a character is simple and fun.  It takes only a few minutes and when you are finished you have a character who is really good at one thing, not bad in a couple of others, and has some small proficiency in perhaps one more realm.  The magic system is quite flexible and allows anybody to learn a spell or two to compliment their other skills or abilities, not just mages.  My own character is a high-strung kobold duelist who fancies himself a cavalier (when he isn't out tomb raiding and the like).  Oh, and before I wrap this up, let me tell ya: the first of the new books to come out in 2003 is a complete worldbook!   Joy  )

if a cultist doesn't have correct change when he calls his mum does he have to make a Collect Call of Cthulhu?  Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.

I've seen the LotR Risk set.  It is indeed a good buy.  Just wait until my Uruk captain stomps that giddy grin off of Gandalf's smarmy mug.