This is my first attempt at using a Google+ Live Hangout so it isn’t the best in the world. The audio is a little soft and things didn’t work exactly as intended. I’m calling it a learning experience.
Taking that into consideration I still want to share it with you. In the video I share the book Supercarrier by Christopher Bennett, which I reviewed in Episode 75 of Wargaming Recon. I conclude the video by giving you a sneak peek at Wally Simon’s Secrets of Wargame Design edited by Russ Lockwood of On Military Matters.
Proprietary cases are a great way to give your minis the love that they deserve, but they can overkill tabletop RPGs. Here’s a quick and dirty way to keep them safe, while keeping your budget under $10
This week on Fiat Lux! we’re talking big, bad, evil guys. This video offers 5 tips that add some vim to your villain, some sparkle to your swine, and some charm to your cads!
Text transcription is in the YouTube description. Don’t have a conniption, and consider a subscription.
Playing until 2am can be awesome… unless it’s because you’re still on the first encounter. Here are 5 ways that DMs and players can work together to keep combat moving quickly, making sure you’ve got a good balance of RP and tactics in your games.
Do you have your own way of keeping gameplay moving fast? Let us know in the comments below!
As a DM returning to the table from a long absence I’d have to say it’s both. The journey is its own self-same reward, but there’s a lot to be said for the accolades and loot you find at the end of the road. Striking that balance can be hard, but it’s satisfying when you do.
I’m Graham, an old hat in tabletop but new to Troll in the Corner, and I’m all about finding that balance. As a DM I run a table bi-weekly for The Møtlëy Créw, the baddest bunch of heroes to ever toss dice in the Nentir Vale. I’m a platform-agnostic kinda guy, so I’m just as happy to throw down with 4e, Pathfinder, and any other system wherein you’d care to roll the bones. Combat is important, but RP is rewarded at my table.
I’m a writer by trade; over the past five years I co-created, wrote and edited 25 issues of Cellshop magazine, and released my first novel entitled 1666 (it’s historical fiction centering on the Great Fire of London in that year – available on Amazon!). I’m the head writer for the Canadian television show Get Connected, I blog at technogram.ca along with a few other sites, and I’m thrilled to be penning a column for Troll in the Corner called
Fiat Lux.
Fiat Lux will shed some light on gaming concepts, products, and projects; some that you might be familiar with, and some that are brand new to the scene. I’ll be covering popular systems, minis and mini painting, and boxed RPG games
It’ll be a fun journey and destination all wrapped up in one, so I hope you’ll check it out!
We’ve covered Robopocalypse before. It’s a book I very much enjoyed reading, and when Iwas told about the contest to create a short (30 or 60 second) video for the book, well that was something I had to share. Now we have a winner. You can consider this person to be the first person to create a movie about Robopocalypse – even before Steven Spielberg.
Doubleday Books Announces Winner of Robopocalypse Video Contest
When it came time to create a promotional video for Daniel H. Wilson’s novel Robopocalypse, Doubleday turned to the web. In April the publishers announced a contest soliciting short videos from filmmakers, amateur and professional alike.
The contest organizers received received dozens of submissions from around the country in response to the call for submissions, but in the end top entry came from 21 year-old Stephen Lunsford of Valencia, CA, who was awarded $750 for his winning production.
Lunsford said that he’s been making films and acting since he was eight years-old, starting with a Stephen Spielberg Lego Movie Maker set. While he remains enthusiastic about film, he has since moved on to more sophisticated equipment: he used Final Cut Express for the editing, Adobe After Effects for the special effects and a Canon T2i for to create the action-packed one minute short.
“The definite inspiration for the short was the Alien (1979) trailer; in my opinion it’s the best movie trailer of all time,” said Lunsford. “While I would have liked to have had more shots to add to the film, ultimately my cast/crew was mostly unavailable save for one afternoon and night. We shot the whole thing in about four hours in Toluca Lake/Burbank. My friend Colby Mann thankfully helped with most of the filming”
Lunsford said that the filming wasn’t easy on the actors or crew, with temperatures on location peaking at 93 degrees.
In what apparently originated in my city, John Hunter has developed an incredible role playing game experience he calls The World Peace Game, for his 10 year old gifted students.
The video below will no doubt give the best description of his game, so I won’t try to tell it better than the man himself:
For more information on this fantastic idea check out The World Peace Game’s website at http://theworldpeacegame.com/
I’ve been absent a while from Troll in the Corner and I think this game is partly why. What game could pull someone away from writing for so long you say? Well its a little game I like to call crafty, buildy, scary thingie. In other words Minecraft.
If you’ve never heard of this Indie game Minecraft I’m here to make sure that you don’t blind yourself when you get out from under that rock.
Minecraft is as retro style, survival, horror, exploration and building game. Its pretty much Lego from a first person view, where you can make tools and build immense structures. At night there are hoards of zombies, skeletons, spiders and creepers that spawn and want to kill you.
The one that stands out the most and is a fan favorite is the creeper. They often sneak up on you and do a kamikaze explosion as soon as they are close enough. When they are about to blow up they make a “SssSsSSss” sound that is like a fuse being lit.
One of the addicting qualities of Minecraft is the audible ‘POP’ you hear after picking up or destroying a block. Its akin to the pop you might hear from bubble wrap.
I’ve been playing Minecraft since it was in the Alpha phase and its been a pleasure to watch the game and its fan base grow in a huge way.
Indie game developer Markus Persson (Widely known as ‘Notch’) created the game Minecraft in his spare time. Eventually he was able to quit his job and live off the sales of the steadily growing games fan base. The game became so popular that Notch was able to build a company fully staffed and immediately start work on another game.
Being in the alpha and seeing the game grow while watching Notch tweet his every move, was something I don’t know that I will get a chance to experience again.
Be sure to check out the game at Minecraft.net. The creative version of the game is free to play.
I also did a small adventure spanning around 9 episodes on youtube. Check out the first one below.
