Tag Archive | "geek"

Stories with Meaning

Friday, March 12, 2010

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Stories with Meaning

In order to create a believable world, in which characters do more than simply hack and slash, some study and research will always be needed. In fact, to create the most effective game world possible, as much effort could be required as penning a novel. Penning a novel, however, need not be done from scratch – authors do tend to have a “toolbox” of useful story elements handy to make their jobs easier.

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Old-School Gaming with OSRIC (Review – Races and Classes)

Thursday, March 11, 2010

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Old-School Gaming with OSRIC (Review – Races and Classes)

When talking about OSRIC and old-school gaming, I feel like I sometimes feel like I should be summing up the features and end every other paragraph with "and you darn kids need to stay off my lawn!" The rules are weird sometimes, and things are most definitely not balanced, but still... there is something about them.

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Why I’m Glad 4e Exists, Even Though I Don’t Use It

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

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Why I’m Glad 4e Exists, Even Though I Don’t Use It

Since the launch of the new D&D rules, I have seen a lot of talk online (and heard a lot of talk in person) about the Pros and Cons of 4e. Some people are in love with the system and are super-excited for each new book release that WotC has planned. Some would rather eat glass than try and figure out when to use their Daily Powers.

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Becoming Familiar with a New System

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

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Becoming Familiar with a New System

We've all been there. It's Game Night, and you're set to make sure that the Evil Thus-and-such doesn't take over the world. You have your character sheet in hand, dice bag at the ready, and when you arrive, all of your fellow players are pouring over a new gaming book. Your grip goes limp, and Sir Elberforth the Bold gently falls to the floor, his meticulously-statted self becoming just another old record sheet in your binder.

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A bit of geekery – using your USB thumb drive to install multiple OSes

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

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A bit of geekery – using your USB thumb drive to install multiple OSes

I recently had occasion to use GRUB (a boot loader - the thing that tells your computer what the hell it's loading when it starts up) on a 32 GB USB drive. I did this so I could stick it in an inert computer, boot it up and then choose from multiple operating systems to install.

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Dealing With Problem Players

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

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Dealing With Problem Players

There always has to be that one guy. The guy that just isn't quite on the page with everyone else. Maybe he's obsessed with being as evil as possible in an otherwise good group, possibly he's good but just likes to pick fights, or he just disrespects the other player's time by talking out of game too much or being too distracted. These people aren't bad people generally, they just honestly have trouble fitting into the group and cause group disruption either in game or out of game. So how can we help encourage everyone to work together while hurting the fewest possible people?

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Champions Online Review

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

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Champions Online Review

Champions Online gets a lot of things right and a few things wrong. It's not going to be a WoW killer, but it's still a great game in it's own right. It's strengths are an amazing character creation system, exciting combat, some innovative ideas and great graphics. It's weaknesses are problems leveling through certain levels, a slightly cumbersome menu system, and lack of quest variety.

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Creating Intrigue in a Campaign

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

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Creating Intrigue in a Campaign

One of the things I love in a campaign is intrigue. Don't get me wrong, I can still enjoy more straightforward games, but I love it when everyone has their own agendas and when those agendas conflict between people. It can be difficult to create it well though. It is very easy to end up with, instead of intrigue, a frustrating machination of plot or characters so transparent that the party never has to wonder about them. So how do I try to create good intrigue?

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You know you are a gaming geek if . . .

Monday, August 10, 2009

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You know you are a gaming geek if . . .

Yeah, if you're a gaming geek you probably know it but just in case, here's a handy list to check yourself against. If you can nod your head at more than 5 of these things, you can consider yourself a card carrying, died in the wool, cliche spouting gaming geek.

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Netbooks and faster browsing with Firefox

Monday, April 6, 2009

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Netbooks and faster browsing with Firefox

Since I'm still a geek I'll occasional post a few quick tips on being a geek with tools here on TC. This one contains just a few tricks to speed up your browsing. I use them on all of my computers but they're particularly handy on the little 'uns that have Atom processors or the older models with Celerons. Lets face it, I love my Eee but it isn't a powerful machine, nor was it meant to be.

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