what is it about space

I can look at pictures of space forever.

It seems so peaceful up there.

Well, except for supernovas - at 30 a second thats a lot of destruction.

Elder Scrolls

UNtil the announcement of 5e I had no idea wtf this was. In fact, the only think that sparked my interest in the NYTimes article was the mention of Elder Scrolls. Primarily b/c I had no idea what it was. So I did some looking.

Its a game. I still don't really know what it is exactly, but the prom film looks awesome.

Now, from the wiki article, I found this tidbit fascinating, "where the more a skill is leveled, the more it helps to level the character. This shifted the focus away from character creation and more onto character development."

How to move xp to motivate roll play rather than killing. Then again, maybe killing is it.

New Cover for A Lion in the Ropes

Not being satisfied with working on one project at the time, we broke out Lion in the Ropes for its re-release into the C&C March Column. The editing is going surprisingly fast. Peter had finished the cover some time ago, and there was some debate that it might be used for the 5th printing of the PH. But we've decided, much to Peter's enjoyment, to put it back on the cover of the book it was intended for in the first place. I have no idea how he's going to get the logos on here.

Wargames, I have a thought

So, I noticed a thread over on our boards about board games and it got me to thinking. I designed a board game last year. It is a war game board game. It has some cool elements to it like construction of troops, troop feeding, raiding, heroes, random events etc and lots of troops. The game was initially designed as a war for the conquest of Airdhe.

The concept was simple and akin to risk in its broad scope and initial appearance. However, it plays much differently. A player builds troops with resources acquired form each province they own. Thing is, the resources have to be moved to the production centers. This alone made for some interesting strategies in play as the movement of resources without troop escort left them open to raids but spreading troops out too thinly produced a weak army set up. Anyway. once a troops is built, it also has to be fed! So there was a lot of resource movement.

The conquest of terrain was important to get more resources and build deeper defenses. Its also how one wins - the more one owns the more points one has. Terrain grabbing was strategic as resource types are limited by terrain and some really bizarre kingdoms were created. Also, choke points and such were quickly sought after and battled over.

Combat is via a chart like in the olden days of gaming. Rolls are effected by leadership and tactical cards as well. I toyed with terrain effects also.

Ohh another interesting aspect was secret armies. The size of an army need not always be revealed (unless a spy got to it).

Fun game. Steve and I are thinking about producing it.

Hobbit "Misty Mountain" song - 25 minutes A+

Very much looking forward to this movie. This rendition is a just a looping of the tidbit from the trailer.

Adventure time!

So Steve made me sit down and watch a show on the Cartoon Network called Adventure Time. Not being a watcher of much TV (any really since I cancelled the service last year), I was somewhat dubious.

But the show was really cool. One of the cooler aspects being the show lasts 15 minutes or so. But it was waaaay cool. So give a gander at Adventure Time. It can be fodder for some adventures. Also, interestingly, the guy writing it must have played RPGs at some point.

Adventure Time

Oh and check out the website of the maker.

Trolls Tusk

We are working on another issue of the Tusk today, so sign up for all the latest news on the Trolls and to read out pop culture meanderings!

Rune Tiles

These shipped today methinks!

One Person changes the WORLD for EVER

with a random mutation giving them blue eyes.

"Blue eyes have their hue because of a single genetic mutation that occurred fewer than 10,000 years ago in one individual and swept rapidly through the European population, according to a study published in the journal Human Genetics in January.

After studying some 800 individuals from Denmark, Turkey, and Jordan, the researchers pinpointed a single base-pair change in the human genome that showed up in all the blue-eyed people and none of the brown-eyed people. “There was one founder mutation that gave rise to all the people in Europe who have blue eyes,” says report coauthor Jesper Troelsen, a University of Copenhagen molecular biologist. “It was quite surprising.”

From Discover

So sing it for us Mrs. Gayle!

Dark Matter found and mapped

See it, between those bright spots. Dark matter never shined so brightly.